Superbad

**** Stars

What we have here is the Dazed and Confused for this generation.

It's that good. Between Knocked Up and Superbad, we have what's missing in today's comedies, and his name is Seth Rogan. Based on his own high school experience, Rogan perfectly captures the awkwardness, frustration, and beauty of high school, the days that we all miss dearly. (Example: the only thing they worry about is how to get booze for that night's party or if they can get laid, instead of serious issues involving politics, war, and murder. If only that would last our whole lives...)

Two co-dependent high school guys (played by Jonah Hill and Michael Cera, who's characters names are the two writers of the movie, Seth and Even) want to hook up with girls before they graduate and go off to different colleges, but, after a monumental night just trying to buy alcohol for a school party, overcoming their separation anxiety becomes a greater challenge than getting the girls.

Behind the gut-busting laughter is also the reason why this is a comedy classic, and that is its reality towards the situation it puts itself in. We all went through exactly what these guys have, trying to find booze, where none of this would happen if they would just lower the drinking age to 18 so kids can live out their lives the way they choose to live it.

Rush Hour 3

1/2 Star

I walk out on about one movie a year, Rush Hour 3 is this year's winner.

About 31 minutes into this film, I realized that there was no reason to see the end of this film, because the plot is so obvious and so familiar that it would just be more brain cells lost for me.

Now I'm a fan of Rush Hour and even Rush Hour 2. I found them to be escapist fun. Here, that fun has completely vanished. So I left the theater, knowing I could still get my money's worth with The Bourne Ultimatum playing right next door.

The Bourne Ultimatum

**** Stars

In a summer of threequels that have mostly failed or have just had moderate success, The Bourne Ultimatum makes every movie this summer look like a cartoon that was rejected from PBS. Not only is this the best movie of the summer, but it may be one of the best action films of the decade.

All Jason Bourne (the always terrific Matt Damon) ever wanted to do was to disappear. Instead, he is one of the most hunted men of his time, and he still doesn't know why. Having lost his memory and the one person he loved, he is undeterred by the barrage of bullets and a new generation of highly-trained killers. Bourne has only one objective: to go back to the beginning and find out who he was. Bourne will hunt down his past in order to find a future. He must travel from Moscow, Paris and London to Tangier and New York City as he continues his quest to find the real Jason Bourne--all the while trying to outmaneuver the scores of cops, federal officers and Interpol agents with him in their cross hairs. Who is Jason Bourne and what has he done? Where did this all begin? The ending will literally blow you away.

The Bourne films just keep getting better and better. Coming of his Oscar Nomination for Best Director with United 93, director Paul Greengrass (who also directed the sequel The Bourne Supremacy) doesn't miss a beat.

Last year's Casino Royale upped the ante to the espionage genre, and this film beats it right back. I guarantee this film will have a spot on my top ten list of films this year as one of summer's best films.

The Simpsons Movie

*** Stars

Thank god this movie doesn't suck.

In fact, the Simpsons Movie is one of the best Simpsons episodes in quite some time. But also with that, it's just a long Simpsons episode. But there is certainly nothing wrong with that. Homer is up to his usual tricks and still manages to bring laughter to all of its fans. The first 30 minutes are hilarious in its own screwball, political way. The Plot: the city of Springfield orders a clean up of the polluted Lake Springfield and bans waste dumps there. However, someone forgot to tell Homer Simpson that, and when he dumps a silo of "Pig Crap" in it, he inadvertently dooms Springfield, his family, and himself.

Homer Simpsons must be the only character in the world that can destroy his town from his pig's crap. And with that, it's pure genius.

The films does lose its steam at the end, slowing down the side splitting laughs, but it does show the struggles and misfortunes of a typical American Family who think they all want different things, but can't stand to be away from one another no matter what.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

*** Stars

Harry Potter is getting older. And in this film, you can tell.

It is clear now that no one but Daniel Radcliffe can be Harry Potter. His performance is stronger in every film and here the film knows it. This is a movie for Harry and by Harry.

As his fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry approaches, 15-year-old Harry Potter is like any other young teenager, complete with regular outbursts of rage, a high school crush, and rebelling against the establishment. It's been yet another infuriating and boring summer with the despicable Dursleys, who in the beginning found him on the porch of their house, took him in and treated him like total scum. Harry is feeling especially edgy at the lack of news from the magic world, wondering when the freshly revived evil Lord Voldemort will strike.

When he returns to Hogwarts, Harry sees that things are no longer the same. Hermione Granger (Emma Thomson) and Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) are back along side Harry as all three get older and wiser, but this time Hermoine and Ron seem to be in the background and are only there when Harry needs him.

But it sort of works well that way here. This part of the series, from what I've seen is Harry's transition into something much worse and hateful and the film realizes that it needs to show this part through the eyes of him and not his friends.

I have just started to read the Harry Potter Series, so I don't know what's missing from this film, but as a person who has yet to read the Order of the Phoenix, I still find this Potter flick a success. Although I'm sure some readers must be missing a lot of their favorite moments given that this book is the longest of them all (pushing 800 pages) and the film version is the shortest of them all (2 Hours 18 Minutes).

Live Free or Die Hard

*** Stars

John McClane is back with a bang...

Bruce Willis has brought back to life the role that made him a star. Pushing 60 years old has not stopped him from kicking total ass.

On the July 4th holiday, an attack on the vulnerable United States infrastructure begins to shut down the entire nation. The mysterious figure behind the scheme known as Thomas Gabriel (Timothy Olyphant) has figured out every modern angle to prevent anyone from damaging his plan, convoluted as it is. Still, it does give us a taste of what the world is rapidly becoming...a technological nightmare. Our greatest inventions could very soon become our downfall. A perfectly cast Justin Long plays Matt Farrell, a tech-nerd who buddies up with McClane to help him stop this meltdown.

Willis rocks the screen with his old-school attitude and macho sense of invincibility. Sure McClane looks like Superman at some points, (especially when he outruns an F-18 with an eighteen wheel semi), but the action is non stop and has lots of fun with its stunts. In the words of the television edited version of Die Hard...Yippee Ki Yay Melon Farmer.