Movie #137 - Cradle 2 the Grave

Cradle 2 the Grave
Warner Bros Pictures
2003 - Rated R - 1 hr 41 min
Director: Andrzej Bartkowiak
Starring: Jet Li, DMX, Tom Arnold, Gabrielle Union

All right, this one's not exactly my kind of movie. It isn't bad, it's just not for me.  So watching it again was not an enjoyable experience. I was bored, I'll admit it.

Jet Li is awesome, of course, and DMX, the featured raptor (that's rapper/actor), can actually act enough to pull this off. Of course the best part about this movie is the eight-year-old girl who kicks some serious ass to try to escape from her captors (that's not a clever hybrid, they are actually captors). But this movie doesn't really do much for me.

The gratuitous car chases and action scenes make this all guy from beginning to end. Snore.

Movie #96 - Bring It On

Bring It On
Universal Pictures
2000 - Rated PG-13 - 1 hr 38 min
Director: Peyton Reed
Starring: Kirsten Dunst, Eliza Dushku, Jesse Bradford, Gabrielle Union

Between slaying vampires on Buffy, Eliza Dushku was practicing cheers with Kirsten Dunst.  And as odd as it is to picture Faith in a cheerleading uniform, she makes it work :)

I love this movie and I don't care what anyone says.  I'm not a big fan of all the sequels that have resulted... Bring It On Again...etc.  Haven't seen them, but I'm pretty sure they're crap.  But the original is actually funny and enjoyable to watch.  This movie knows how ridiculous its premise is, and it embraces it.  That's the only reason it works.

Oh, and Kirsten Dunst rocks.

Movie #50 - Bad Boys II

Bad Boys II
Columbia Pictures
2003 - Rated R - 2 hr 27 min
Director: Michael Bay
Starring: Martin Lawrence, Will Smith, Gabrielle Union, Joe Pantoliano

Eight years later, Michael Bay is still blowing sh*t up. And getting better at it, too. Mike and Marcus are still at each others' throats in a way that makes you forget their profession of love to one another at the end of the first movie. Especially since Mike is involved with Marcus's sister. Uh oh...

So we open on a shoot out with the KKK, which features Martin Lawrence "singing" the verse to the song Bad Boys. I remember this scene from the preview. And somehow, even though it's shot using Michael Bay's classic 360-degree circle approach, it's still funny.

Gabrielle Union is really just the eye candy here (sorry, Gabs) and sets up the plot by getting kidnapped. Save the girl, get the bad guy, uncover the money laundering. Standard stuff here, fellas. Still, it's done with such explosive panache from the director and such charming wit from its stars that you can't help but enjoy this one.

And, oh by the way, that's 50 MOVIES DOWN, ONLY 500+ TO GO!