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CINEMARK ANNOUNCES EXCLUSIVE OFFER FOR PARAMOUNT PICTURES AND INDIAN PAINTBRUSH’S ‘ LABOR DAY ’ JUST IN TIME FOR VALENTINE’S DAY WEEKEND Cinemark Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: CNK), one of the world's leading motion picture exhibitors, announces a special ticket offer exclusively at participating Cinemark locations across the U.S. Just in time for Valentine’s Day weekend , Cinemark is offering a free admission to see Paramount Pictures and Indian Paintbrush’s LABOR DAY with the purchase of a LABOR DAY ticket. This offer is valid only from Friday, February 14 through Monday, February 17, 2014 with the presentation of a special online coupon. “Cinemark is offering this special value to encourage our guests to celebrate their Valentine’s Day weekend at the theatre,” says James Meredith, VP, Head of Marketing and Communications for Cinemark. “LABOR DAY has a phenomenal cast and is full of romance and suspense. It’s a perfect movie for a Valentine’s date night.” Beginning Friday th

Someone Marry Barry Review By: MattInRC We can do a lot better than the predictable raunch-com Someone Marry Barry , whose NR rating never matches its potential. Someone Marry Barry is the kind of raunch-com which Hollywood happily produces in spades each year; but unlike This is 40, Knocked Up, or 21 and Over , this one isn't quite ready for prime time. Too short and yet feeling way too long, it sports pleasing pieces that ultimately don't fit its lesser ones. The socially-inappropriate Barry ( Tyler Labine ) can neither seem to keep his mouth shut nor his pants on, which forces his long-time friends Desmond ( Damon Wayans Jr. ), Rafe ( Hayes MacArthur ) and Kurt ( Thomas Middleditch ) to seek a woman who won't yak at the site or smell of him. They encourage Barry to speed date and even pitch in for a mail-order bride, until a chance meeting with Mel ( Lucy Punch ) during a botched dinner date brings the foul-mouthed duo together. Instead of landing someone

January Box Office By: MattInRC Lone Survivor leads the best January in four years. Last year around this time, we lamented about Hollywood's disappointing January, a fact which took three months to correct - not so in 2014. Led by a gripping war flick and an animated musical, January's box office took in $894 million, up 8% from 2013 and 18.6% from 2011. Lone Survivor finished just under $100 million, while Frozen took in $89.8 million. The biggest difference can be seen when comparing the top 5 this year from last, which lately has been dominated by December leftovers. In 2014, two of the top three films are new releases: Lone Survivor and the buddy-cop comedy Ride Along , which took in $84.6 million. As a matter of comparison, 2013 sported only one new release in its top 5 (Mama), while 2012 had two ( Contraband and The Devil Inside ). In 2014, Oscar contenders American Hustle and The Wolf of Wall Street rounded out the top 5. Although the animated c

The Monuments Men Review By: MattInRC There are two ways to view the ensemble historical drama The Monuments Men : the first is through the unfiltered eyes of the average moviegoer, interested in the genre and impressed by its stellar cast. The other way is to take a more realistic view of its rise from Oscar-sure-to-be to its odd February banishment. Regardless of how you look at it, the film utterly disappoints, playing fast and loose with its history and wasting every one of its emotional assets along the way. Based on Author Robert M. Edsel's account, the movie follows a group of American artists and designers as they struggle to preserve the world's greatest works of art while the final months of World War II draw to an end. The Nazis have been hording art and sculptures in the hopes of showcasing all of them in a Fuhrer Museum; but as the war turns against them, the Nazis decide to hide the precious works in mines across a battered Europe. Cue the conc

Lucky Bastard Review By: MattInRC It goes without saying that we at SJF sometimes review films not meant for theatrical release. Sometimes referred to as 'Direct-to-DVD,' many of these feature poor scripts, worse acting, and a sense that film students were given free reign by someone who didn't know any better. Lucky Bastard is one of these, a tasteless and scattershot film utterly without value or even the sense to know it's dead on arrival. Slapped with an NC-17 rating for extreme nudity and imagined scenes of rape, the story follows a team of porno producers and actresses as they run into a fan who just won't take 'no' for an answer after a contest goes bad. It's a 'found footage' affair, complete with jittery pans and dizzying tennis-style back and forth as our actors pound each other before the bad guy arrives to have sex with the company's top dog. When he's mocked for prematurely shooting his wad, the young kid has

The LEGO Movie Review By: MattInRC Is The LEGO Movie worthy enough for us to put down our bricks to see it? Read on to find out! As an original (and former) LEGO collector, my youth was filled endlessly assembling red, blue, and gray bricks into space ships, vehicles, and structures while Han Solo and Darth Vader looked on, hoping for a piece of that action. But I was among the few who saw the Danish creations as more than the 'suggestions' featured on the box. For me, it wasn't about skyscrapers or Star Destroyers, but the merging of sets into new and terrific forms. The new LEGO is all about pre-established environments that require minimal knowledge and zero imagination to build; such realities might be new norm, but luckily the premise of the company's first film The Lego Movie boldly addresses this in hilarious fashion. Its arrival to theaters this week will have you in stitches while conjuring the real reason why we love those plastic parts so m

Labor Day Review By: MattInRC The passion-laced Labor Day reminds us that a rusty door with new paint is still a rusty door. Director/Writer/Producer Jason Reitman is one of those unknown Hollywood guys whose body of work speaks louder than Reitman himself. Projects like Juno made Ellen Page an independent darling, while Up in the Air star Vera Farminga brought her the exposure needed to score the very good The Conjuring . Then there's Labor Day , an ill-conceived chick flick whose parts are stronger than its whole, and whose sweet center hides serious issues with its premise. See if this makes sense: 1987 teenager Henry ( Gatlin Griffith ) and his divorcee/depressed mother Adele ( Kate Winslet ) are forced to aid/abet the escaped convict/murderer Frank ( Josh Brolin ), who happens to be kind of a nice guy. He ties mom up just so she can say he did when the police interview her, but quickly begins to bond with her and Henry, feeding homemade chili to Adele while sh

That Awkward Moment Review By: MattInRC Here's why That Awkward Moment is a better Netflix candidate than a stand-in-line must see. For 21st Century men, our very nature seems to either be under fire these days or is being fastidiously duplicated by the opposite sex. Who can blame them: loose and wild women who see men as trophies to be collected is probably fair for the course, thanks to our continued efforts to remain mustangs ourselves, roaming the land for new mares. The comedy That Awkward Moment wants desperately to lead that discussion, but instead it leaves us as unsatisfied as a one-night stand generally can be. Successful book cover designers Jason ( Zac Efron ) and Daniel ( Miles Teller ) enjoy the sexuality of New York City, building an impressive 'roster' of women they can 'visit' once a week without having any real connection. Their friend Mikey ( Michael B. Jordan ) isn't so lucky: his marriage is about to end, forcing him to bunk with

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit Review By: MattInRC TWITTER: The heart-pounding #JackRyanMovie Shadow Recruit is a smart, wild, and entertaining ride. Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit has all the trappings of a great franchise in the making. Among our many movie fetishes, we here at SJF are big fans of intelligent spy movies that incorporate a sensible amount of action - from Tom Clancy's The Hunt for Red October to Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy we love espionage in almost any form, including the stylish Skyfall and what should have been last year's Oscar winner in Zero Dark Thirty . In each of these classics, the characters who protect us are as important as the mission itself, making their drama an essential part of the story. Thankfully, the newest candidate - Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit - impresses us for all of these reasons. As this is an origin story, we see the college-bound Jack Ryan ( Chris Pine ) studying in England just as the 9/11 attacks occur. As a result

RIDE ALONG Movie Review By: MattInRC Thankfully, Ride Along takes us out of the Month of Meh in hilarious fashion. As we've lamented before, films in January are usually forgettable tripe thrown together to literally get Hollywood past the doldrums of the Oscar season. The results are usually just as bad - from The Legend of Hercules to The Nut Job and The Marked Ones . Thankfully, our first REAL movie of 2014 arrives with the hilarious buddy-cop Ride Along , reminding us that Januaries are not so bad. High school security employee Ben Barber ( Kevin Hart ) wants desperately to join the Atlanta Police Department, hoping to take his online Xbox handle as BlackHammer to the streets. He also hopes to win the hand of his girlfriend Angela ( Tika Sumpter ), whose brother James Payton ( Ice Cube ) already serves on the force. However, James doesn't have a great opinion of Ben, whom he thinks is not ready for either the police or his sister. Payton decides to

RUNNER, RUNNER Blu-ray Review By: MattInRC Here'e why the Ben Affleck thriller Runner, Runner should just keep running. In Runner Runner, Princeton grad student Richie ( Justin Timberlake ) has turned a profitable online gambling career into a disaster, losing his life savings during an online swindle. He flies to Costa Rica filled with data from his tech pals at the university to find the site's owner Ivan Block ( Ben Affleck ), who not only refunds his money, but offers him a job. Soon, Richie is living the high life, analyzing gambling data and wooing clients. But Block's business is a dangerous one, filled with payoffs to a creepy gambling and murder; Richie soon learns that he's part of an elaborate sting operation by the FBI, led by Pain and Gain's Anthony Mackie, who will break any rule to nab Block. As Richie learns that Block plans to pin him for the company's missing profits, he must decide if Block's assistant ( Gemma Arterton ) is dirt

THE NUT JOB Review By: MattInRC TWITTER: The Month of Meh continues with the forgettable @TheNutJobMovie. The Month of Meh - also known as January - has typically been the Hollywood equivalent of The Island of Forgotten Toys: cast-off creatures too freakish for the Oscar season and not worthy enough for even Summer consideration. And while there have been exceptions - last year's Gangster Squad , and 2012' Contraband - January's releases are confined to live in the wasteland of digital media before being summarily dismissed to obscurity. The well-meaning but utterly forgettable animated flick The Nut Job is just such a film, mildly funny in parts but missing any semblance of a soul or sense of itself. Precocious squirrel Surly (voiced by Will Arnett ) doesn't get along with his fellow animals in the fictitious 1959 Liberty Park. After accidentally destroying their food supply, Surly is banished to the streets by the self-proclaimed leader Raccoon (voice

The Family  Blu-ray Review By: MattInRC The Family is good mobster fun, so long as you don't take it too seriously. Mob movies are a favorite of American moviegoers. For some reason, we root for people which we normally despise as dark and dangerous folk, as greed or the law catches up with them. Comedic mob films somehow allow us to find a happier middle ground, putting a nicer dress on what is usually a dreary affair. The Family is just that sort of movie, a rip-roaringly hilarious film about a mob family under Witness Protection whose penchant for violence makes them more dangerous than the people who are hunting them. The Manzoni family have been on the run ever since second-generation Giovanni ( Robert De Niro ) snitched, enjoying life in Witness Protection by smashing and blowing up their way through Europe. If it's not Giovanni, it's his wife Maggie ( Michelle Pfeiffer ) or their two children ( Dianna Agron and John D'Leo ) who are caught in some sort of ul

The Legend Of Hercules Review By: April Faith Spice Here you go... While I did throw the ladies a bone... And I quite enjoyed looking up pictures of Kellan. I cannot in good faith for my fellow movie goers give this film a shining review. And that makes me sad! lol "The Legend of Hercules 3D" can't be saved by Washboard Ab's. The Legend of Hercules stars Kellan Lutz , pretty much only known for his role of Emmet Cullen in the Twlight Franchise. I was an admitted "Twi-Hard" and Emmet was my favorite character in the book so when Kellan was cast as him. I was pretty excited because... well look at him. I mean have you seen him? Through the years I have had several opportunities to meet Kellan and he really is just a fantastic guy. So amazing to his fan's and contrary to popular belief and what has been said about the guy... he is very very smart! He went to College to major in Chemical Engineering. The thing that just makes me so sad is that I

The Legend Of Hercules Review By: MattInRC The Legend of Hercules wants desperately to be your friend. Here's why you can do better. As we lamented in 2013, Hollywood has a nasty habit of allowing films of the same topic to be released in the same year. Last year, it was Olympus Has Fallen and White House Down , but the trend goes back to the 90's when Wyatt Earp and Tombstone competed for our movie dollars. Such decisions are the center of economic folly: although some manage to crawl above the muck, most of these joined-at-birth projects are shunned by audiences and instantly forgotten, condemned to live in the squander of the Blu-ray bargain bin, along with Armageddon/Deep Impact and others. In the Hercules Origin Story genre, we wouldn't be surprised if the inept The Legend of Hercules would be rejected by even those perennial bargain basement dwellers. The divinely-inspired Hercules ( Kellan Lutz ) grows up without knowledge of his lineage, e