The Number 23, Ghost Rider, The Messengers, Catch & Release

THE NUMBER 23. Truth be told, ever since director Joel Schumacher ruined the Batman movie franchise with Batman and Robin (thank goodness for Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale), I'd grown a bit biased towards Schumacher's films -- that when he comes out with a new movie, I'd always think to myself "jeez, is he ruing this movie too?" -- but, notwithstanding, I'll still go and see it. Like this one. I honestly don't know if it's true, but one of the things that this flick is trying to show is that there's an obsession with the number 23 (the Titanic sank on 4/15/1912-add up the dates and you get 23; Shakespear was born and died on April 23 -- the list goes on...) -- and the subject matter is supposed to send chills down your spine. Unfortunately, it doesn't work for me. I know that as he gets older, Jim Carrey will probably try to stay away from doing the physical comedies that he's known for, and try (even) more serious roles -- but this doesn't work for me -- the parts where Carrey is trying to be serious about something becomes unintentionally funny (i.e. : there was a scene where Carrey and family are in a pick-up truck and they come across this supposedly "supernatural" dog on the road, and there's a "let's-play-chicken" face-off between both parties, and it was uncomfortably funny - and it shouldn't have been, funny that is -- the movie audience who were also watching the same time I was were giggling and laughing when they shouldn't have, so methinks that was a bad sign). Ho-hum.

GHOST RIDER. Nicolas Cage has been itching to play a superhero for as long as I can remember (I'm still thanking my stars and garters that the Tim-Burton-Nicolas-Cage pairing for the planned Superman movie fell apart - as we all know, the movie eventually got made, with Bryan Singer at the helm, and Brandon Routh donning the red cape and blue tights -- I mean, can you honestly imagine Cage as the Man of Steel?) -- and now he finally gets his chance as Johnny Blaze, a motorcycle stuntman who accidentally makes a deal with Mephistopheles(Peter Fonda) and sells his soul to save his father from cancer. In exchange, Blaze becomes the Ghost Rider, to do battle with Blackheart, Mephistopheles' son who's out to turn the world into (his) Hell. I'm a comic book geek or fanboy (or at least I used to be, since I haven't bought a comic book in - how long has it been? - I think, over five years), and the Johnny Blaze portrayed by Cage in this big-screen adaptation of the Marvel comic book-based character is nothing like the way he is (or at least the way I remember him to be) in the comic -- Nicolas Cage's accent is erratic, has a funny-looking hair piece, and has given Blaze a couple of quirks : listens to The Carpenters to relax, and downs jellybeans from a martini glass. Sheesh. In my opinion, Cage is miscast (kind of reminds me of Ben Affleck being miscast as Daredevil in the big-screen treatment of the Marvel comic character back in 2003). Peter Fonda looks bored. Eva Mendes (Cage's love interest in the movie) is just pure eye candy. And Wes Bentley (as Blackheart) is a boring, Tobey Maguire look-alike bad guy. Blech.

THE MESSENGERS. The Pang Brothers, directors of Jian Gui(The Eye), makes their Hollywood film debut with The Messengers, a story about an ominous darkness that invades a seemingly serene sunflower farm in North Dakota, and the Solomon family (Dylan McDermott, Penelope Ann Miller and Kristen Stewart) are smack-dab in the middle of it all. I heard from my friends who've seen it that it was boring, so I opted not to watch it. But to my surprise, it was already over a week and it was still showing in cinemas, so I thought what the heck, might as well see it. It's actually not as bad as I thought it would be. The skittering stop-motion ghosts are fine, but somehow didn't offer the scares I thought and hoped it would. Maybe it's because I've seen a lot of these types of on-screen ghosts, that it didn't offer anything new for me. It's a stylish horror flick, and probably will do nicely for those who love J(apanese)-horror movies but hate the subtitles, but it doesn't really offer a lot in the scares department. And what is up with John Corbett -- I thought he said he was retiring from making movies?

CATCH AND RELEASE. What can I say? I love Jennifer Garner--I haven't seen a Garner movie that I haven't liked (yes, including the half-baked Daredevil spin-off Elektra - hehe). Yet. I like this one,too. Here, Garner is Gray Wheeler, who, after the sudden death of her fiance, finds comfort in the company of his friends : light-hearted comic Sam (Kevin Smith), the very-responsible Dennis (Sam Jaeger), and childhood buddy Fritz (Timothy Olyphant), an irresponsible playboy that she'd always pegged as the least reliable person in the world. In the course of the movie, Gray gets to discover new sides to the men that she thought she knew, including her late fiance. It's a good light fluff piece, albeit predictable. But it's a Jennifer Garner movie -- so that made it better for me by leaps and bounds. I liked the soundtrack as well.

'Nuff said.