Newsflash!!! LEATHERHEADS never reaches full potential!

LEATHERHEADS marks the third directorial offering of Mr. George Clooney. The first being the spastic "CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND" followed by the outstanding "GOODNIGHT AND GOOD LUCK". If CONFESSIONS was the weird brother and GOODNIGHT was the good looking brother, LEATHERHEADS would be the brother who thinks he's funnier than he really is but we appreciate him anyway.

The movie plays like a football team just falling short of the winning touchdown. It's a strong heartfelt effort peppered with snappy wordplay and quick wit that never truly finds it's footing.

George Clooney stars as Dodge Connelly, an aging pro footballer trying to save his beloved league from financial demise. Clooney channels the ghostly legends of comics past like Chaplin, the Three Stooges, and Groucho Marx to bring his wildly oddball character to life.

John Krasinski (prankster Jim from THE OFFICE) plays the young famous future of football, Carter Rutherford. Dodge Connelly rides Carter's fame in elevating pro football in 1925 out of the farm fields of Duluth into massive stadiums. Krasinski handles the old school humour and golden heart his character portrays excellently.

The sub-plot revolves around Lexie Littleton (Renee Zellwegger), a smart-mouthed sharp-as-a-whip reporter of the Chicago Tribune, sent to uncover Carter's questionable past that led to his fame. Namely, Carter's agent's (played by the cunningly evil Jonathan Pryce) story about how Carter convinced a platoon of German soldiers during WWI with a few short words. (POST-SCRIPT: The flashback about what those words were is pure comedy gold!)

LEATHERHEADS will pratfall against your funny bone in parts while others will be an ol' stick-in-the-mud. Anyone familiar with 1920's style comedy will find this flick somewhat cliche but it's still a fun movie with some pacing problems. A worthwhile offering for the beginning of the Spring/Summer Ranking Season.

7.2 Bar-room Brawls out of 10

RANK IT UP!!!

RANKING SEASON IS NOW OPEN! (Please remember to wear orange in the woods so you can be seen. We don't want any accidents out there.)

Adam's SUMMER MOVIE RANKATRON 2008! (This is the list of movies I'm DEFINITELY going to catch this summer...and I've got another list of "try-my-besters" which I'll add later)

The "List" can be found along the sexy right side of this site. Just click on the movie if you want to learn more and see the latest promo.

Also, for those of you uninitiated in how I rank movies, I've created a short primer for you to peruse by clicking on this link .

Hope you enjoy the stay! Surprises will abound this summer. So whaddaya say we all go catch a flick or two...

Horton Hears a Review

Dr. Seuss has been a childhood staple long before Dora the Explorer, long before the Wiggles, long before Sesame Street and about as long as Disney. Whether we've read the books or not, most of us have heard of Dr. Seuss's wondrous stories of the Who's weaved around rhythm and rhyme.

HORTON HEARS A WHO is the third Seuss book re-imagined as a movie(the entertaining HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS, and the mediocre CAT IN THE HAT are the other two) but the first to employ the brilliant CGI animation of Blue Sky Studios (brought us ICE AGE). The animation is beautiful and vibrant bringing Horton's world to life in details unlike anything we've seen before (they also use different animation styles such as a hilarious nod to Japanimation). None of this gets in the way to the surprisingly fulfilling tale.

The movie centres around Horton, a free-spirited quirky elephant (voiced by the goofy mimicry of Jim Carrey), who one day hears a voice coming from a tiny speck that he captures on a clover. The voice is of the distraught Mayor of Who-ville (Steve Carrell) in need of guidance. Together they must convince their respective society's the existence of the other (i.e. Horton must try to prove that there are tiny people living on that speck or they'll get destroyed; the Mayor must prove that there's a giant invisible elephant lording over them in the sky determining their fate).

The religious overtones are difficult to avoid but not a distraction. Dr. Seuss stories are, as I'm discovering from rereading them, parables and lessons for everyday life taken, at times, right from the Bible. Horton's lesson is "a person's a person no matter how small" with a sub-lesson of "God is watching over all of us and he just very well be a giant invisible elephant in the sky!"

Every character in this flick is important and the producers spared no expense in bringing in talented actors for those voices. Take a look at this list (Carol Burnett as the close-minded Kangaroo, Seth Rogen as Horton's best rat friend, Will Arnett as Vlad the vampirous vulture, Amy Poehler as the Mayor's wife, Jonah Hill from SUPERBAD, Jaime Presley, Jesse McCartney...the list goes on and on).

Bottom line, HORTON HEARS A WHO is a great fun movie for children and peppered enough with adult references for a few chuckles for the rest (though it could've used more pepper from my point of view). Still it's an entertaining ride and a great escape on this Easter weekend.

7.5 specks out of 10.

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!!!!