The MacGuffin

Despite some confusion surrounding the name of this film, it is not about a certain adult film star’s younger lesser talented brother. It’s about Sherlock Holmes, the world greatest detective and his sidekick, Dr. Watson. They solve a variety of crimes thanks to the amazing gift of combining minute pieces of information/evidence together into a story. This film iteration of the literary series stars Robert Downey Jr. playing Holmes and Jude Law playing Watson.

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas takes place during World War II in Germany. A young boy comes home from school to find his family is planning for a dinner party and discussing moving to the countryside since their dad got a promotion. The young boy, Bruno, isn’t pleased about the move since he loves the house they’re in and all his friends. The family’s new home is a bid drab and gloomy and not at all warm and inviting like their last home – more of a walled compound than a home. It’s also in the middle of freakin nowhere in the countryside.

Some people hate Will Farrell, and some people wish they could hate Will Farrell, but can’t. I’m in the latter group. Step Brothers is about two single parents that get combined (thankfully, Mary Steenburgen is the smokin’ hot mom, so SCORE for me) and two adult children living at home are now forced to live with each other.

This Italian film opens with a bunch of guys getting tanned and manicured together. Two guys pull guns and start blasting the other guys, spraying blood all over the salon. There are multiple local crime bosses, the Camorra, who take a fee on what people make. They get money from drug dealers, prostitutes, old people, whoever. That’s how things operate in this area, I guess.

This is a Polish film that starts with a guy who appears to be a butcher, a mailman, a pooper scooper, and a bartender – I think this is the comedy part (Oh, those crazy Pollacks!!!). The real plot is actually about a British couple spending time in Prague and worrying over whether he turned off the iron in their room before they left. A statue falls from a building while they are walking and crushes the wife – seriously, DESTROYS her.

A nursing home nurse is being considered for a job promotion due to the crap (literally) she deals with every day at work. Her boss tricks her into coming into work on her day off and the nurse isn’t happy about it. This film is about the rough day this nurse is about to have. This film is supposedly based on a true story about a woman in Texas to which this happened – I’m not sure I’m buying it based on this film.

Ninja Assassin is a modern day ninja movie that takes place in Berlin of all places. Aside from the unusual setting, the movie explains why after thousands of years, people who look into what ninjas are doing end up dead. The film is made by the same people that did the Matrix, and it seemed pretty clear in the effects throughout this film. In fact, I described this movie to my friend as a combination of the Matrix, Ghost, and the 1980’s television series “The Master”. (Which is also appropriate since Sho Kosugi is one of the main characters in the film and was in the 1980’s television series.)

I wasn’t sure what to expect with this film, originally titled “The Boat That Rocked”. I saw the previews for it and some clips with interviews with the actors and a huge part of me wanted to see it. And then there were parts with ridiculous clothing and dancing and singing on a ship – which 1000% turned me off. Thankfully, the singing and dancing were reserved for very specific and (almost) appropriate parts of the film.

In Murder Party, a random guy is walking down the street on Halloween night and steps on an invitation to a Murder Party. He has just rented some videos to watch that evening, and since he has nothing else to do, decides to go to the party. He dresses up as a cardboard knight and heads out. He shows up at this warehouse where these costumed people are waiting to kidnap him, torture him, and kill him.

In this movie, two brothers in England scrape together some money to buy a sail boat. The one brother (Colin Farrell) gets his money from gambling and the other brother (Ewan McGregor) is slightly more responsible and has been setting aside money for a business venture with some friends from the US. Colin gets in too deep into the gambling and after a couple of wins, ends up getting in the red for 90K. Ewan tries to help him out by borrowing money from their dad’s restaurant – which isn’t doing well in the first place.