1575 - Payback

To me Mel Gibson will always be at his best when he's showing off his wonderfully dry sense of humor, and it's in spades here.  I've been reading and researching a lot of Richard Stark lately, mostly the work containing his character Parker (you'll be seeing a review of his first book The Hunter soon).  Here the adaptation is pretty close (or so far as I've gotten anyway) and it's for the better - that book is a force of nature.  There is a scene early on involving a double-cross that plays extremely false to me.  It's actually an invention of the film, not the book, and it just doesn't make a lick of sense why it plays out as it does - that aside this is a great ride of a film.  It's fun, and it puts it's main character through a lot of hell, in a really great way.  Any budding writers would do well to check this film out for how it punishes it's main character and makes you root for them all the more. 
If you've never seen this film and you dig crime flicks and don't have a hate on for Mr. Mel then absolutely give it a shot.  Highly recommended!
Payback  Payback - The Director's Cut (Special Collector's Edition)

1570 - Grown Ups

This is the kind of movie that you just know was made just so a group of friends had an excuse to hang out and get paid for it, and if that sounds cynical - it is.  Let me say this - I have absolutely no problem with people taking shots at race, religion, parenting, and life choices - have at it - nothing should be above making a joke about it.  But some of the stuff in here is about as obvious as it can get - to the point where it feels like the equivalent of painting-by-numbers. 
With a film is this title you're hoping for these guys to learn something, to grow, but it has nothing to do with that - with anything really.  In fact, the plot is about as loose as it can get and everything feels like it's there just to give them all an excuse to be there. 
Let's just be clear - this isn't a horrible film - I'm sure that there's an audience for it.  But given the mass of talent they've got in the men and women in this film, this thing should have been a side-splitting-gut-busting laugh fest, instead it's just kind of lame and sad due to the lack of it.
Grown Ups  Grown Ups [Blu-ray]