Who You're Not Gonna Call..."Ghost Team"

Ghost Team (2016)

PG-13

Starring Jon Heder, David Krumholtz, Justin Long, Melonie Diaz, Amy Sidaris,

Directed by Oliver Irving

The Story:

Louis (Heder) is tired of his life and wants to do something exciting and new. He decides to try and make a video to be the next Ghost Hunter on tv. He assembles his team, and they head to a spooky farm on the outskirts of town.

One by one, members of the team go missing.  Louis has definitely stumbled onto something. Can he rescue them from the supernatural mystery, or will his foray into adventure be the last thing he ever does?

Oh, I try and spin it, but this just isn't that great of a movie.

Of course, I'd say that about any movie with Jon Heder as the star. Really? That's the best you could do?

But this is a movie with a 12 dollar budget, and you get what you pay for.

Most of the characters are tipped to the annoying side of the scale.

It's one I almost pulled out at the 20 minute mark, but I had mercy as there was potential there for something interesting to happen.

It got mildly better as more of the cast was introduced, but in the end, it's just not that great.

It does make the live action remake of Scooby Doo seem even better now.

: )

Not streaming yet, but it's coming soon to Netflix.

Final Grade: C- ... D+.  Yeah, let's go with D+

"When In Rome" You Might Meet Your True Love

When In Rome (2010)

Rated PG-13

Starring Kristen Bell, Josh Duhamel, Anjelica Huston, Will Arnett, Jon Heder, Dax Shepard, Alexis Dziena, Danny DeVito

Directed by Mark Johnson

The Story:

Beth (Bell) attends the wedding of her sister (Dziena) in Rome.  She takes some coins from The Fountain of Love which causes the men (Arnett, Heder, Shepard, DeVito) who threw those coins into the fountain to fall madly in love with her.  Can she balance her career with the affections of these men as she tries to figure out a way to break the spell, and maybe realize that the one guy not under a spell (Duhamel) could be her Mr. Right?

This is a fun little romantic comedy that is light, breezy and easy to enjoy at any time.

I've seen it a few times, and it's one that even the kids enjoy watching when it's on.

Bell gets to play the leading lady, and has a fun time playing the romantic, harried lead against a host of different leading men.

Arnett, Heder and Shepard bring different levels of zaniness to their roles giving Bell the hardest time trying to brush them off.

DeVito brings a level of humanity and sadness to his part.

At the end of the day though, it's Duhamel who grounds the movie as the potential suitor who gets overlooked too often.

Mr. Right is often there, people are often just too busy with their lives to notice.

Final Grade: B+

Rewatchability/Purchase Factor: I own it, and it gets watched every so often.  Always a fun time.

Setting the Record Straight..."Napoleon Dynamite"

I do love me some tots!

The Story:

Slacker teen Napoleon Dynamite (Jon Heder) lives with his grandma and his older brother.  When grandma must go away, their Uncle Rico comes to watch the house.  As if Napoleon wasn't tormented enough, now he's getting it at home and school.  Enter the mysterious new student, Pedro, whom Napoleon decides to help elect to the Student Body.

This movie is nearing it's 10th Anniversary.

For 10 long years, I've harbored a secret...

One which will forever cast a doubt on my reviewing capabilities from those of you who venture to this location to read these reviews.

That secret?

I hated this movie.

Of course, hated implies past tense, as if something new has happened and I have discovered the error of my reviewing ways.

So just this weekend as I surfed the channels, this movie was starting up, and I thought to myself...

Why not give it a shot?

Maybe I was wrong.

Everyone I know loved/loves this movie, so maybe I just missed something.

Cue the movie, and the opening credits are pretty inventive.

And that remains the only positive thing I have to say about this movie.

Invoking the 20 minute rule, I bailed at about the 12 minute mark (when Napoleon jumps the bike).

There had been zero laughs, and just the annoyance of Heder's Dynamite grating on my nerves.

Heder is one of those actors that doesn't act, he simply plays himself in various stages of slacker persona.

I tolerated it in The Benchwarmers, but other than that, I can't think of many actors of the last generation that are this annoying.  Tobey Maguire may be bland, but at least he has some range.

So yes, I've sat through the movie once before, about a decade ago and just didn't get the whole world going gaga for the film.

10 years later, I made the right choice of clicking it off... it simply doesn't get better.

At least not for this guy.

It's a cult movie, and this is one cult that I just don't like the taste of the Kool-Aid.

Final Grade: F

Rewatchability/Purchase Factor: Not even willing to try again at the 25th Anniversary screening.  I've got better things to see... like just about anything.