Do It or Screw It, August 25th-27th

It's August, and I'm starting to feel it.

Also known as, REMEMBER THE MIRACLE OF THE ROOKIE COACH'S GLORY. Disney has put together yet another inspirational sports movie, based on a true story of course. Mark Wahlberg stars as Vince Papale, a bartender who in 1976 tried out for the Philadelphia Eagles, and made it, despite having only played one year of high school football. Along for the ride is Greg Kinnear as the Eagles' coach Dick Vermeil and Elizabeth Banks as the love interest. I'm not really pissed at the movie for being as conventional and unoriginal as it is, because I know that that mindset would do me no good considering there will undoubtedly be more movies like this. I'm pissed at the marketing. This movie has been advertised on every show on every channel on TV, as well as on pretty much every site I go to online. It's not even the overmarketing that's getting to me. I like that stuff. It's what gets me hyped for a lot of movies. It's that the marketing is just so bad, so monotonous, and so repetitive. It's the same commercial for the same bland-looking movie with the same music and the same scenes shown, over and over and over and over again. Maybe I'll watch it on DVD, but not now. I think I'd get pissed just walking into a theater showing it.

Final Judgment: SCREW IT.

This one's got me puzzled. It's called IDLEWILD, and its a musical written directly for the screen by Outkast. It has them starring as two musicians trying to run a club in the dangerous part of town in the Prohibition era. I can't decide if its about booze, music, women, crime, or...something else. I can't help but thinking that it looks good though. There's no doubt about it visually; just see how great it looks in the trailer. It has a ton of energy from the looks of things, and it looks original enough. I'd say its worth your ninety minutes.

Final Judgment: DO IT.

First off, I want to say I have a lot of fond memories of the book. It wasn't just a great title, but a great read for a fourth grader. Maybe that's where HOW TO EAT FRIED WORMS, the movie, has lost me. It looks like its geared directly to fourth graders with no intention of even trying to please anyone outside of that age bracket. It's about a new kid at school named Billy who stands up to the local bully. This escalates into a heat double-dog-dare, as the bully bets Billy he can't eat ten worms in one day. As much as it pained me to see for the first time, the trailer flat out sucks. It just...sucks. Too bad.

Final Judgment: SCREW IT.

The advertising for BEERFEST has been awesome. It's got a voiceover saying, and I quote: "From the geniuses that brought you DUKES OF HAZZARD and SUPER TROOPERS". That right there is enough to get me to see whatever movie they're pitching. This is stupid, raunchy trash humor, just like DUKES and TROOPERS. I know it, audiences know it, and the guys who made it know it. And what is a stupid movie without a stupid premise? It's about two brothers who go to Germany to spread the ashes of their grandfather and end up stumbling over a secret tournament called the Beerfest, considered throughout the world to be the Olympics of drinking. How great is that? Its rated R for pervasive crude and sexual content, language, nudity and substance abuse, and I bet you'll see plenty of it.

Final Judgment: DO IT.