SUCKER PUNCH
3 out of 5 stars

“you have all the weapons you need. NOW...FIGHT!!!” – the wise man

gotta give zack snyder points for creativity and originality on this one! highly stylized in his usual graphic novel wash with an intricate multi-layered plot... ;) (but not as well written as inception, mindyou)

if you can’t really figure out what’s going on from the trailer... (it’s OK b/c i didn’t either) this movie is about a pretty young blond girl nicknamed baby doll (emily browning), whose mother dies suddenly and her stepfather tries to molest her and her sister as “revenge” for not being included in her will. she tries to defend herself with a gun, but accidentally shoots her sister. this is where it gets a little confusing... instead of the police putting her in jail, her stepfather takes her to the lennox house of the mentally insane, where she’s slated to receive a lobotomy. but before the lobotomy takes place, baby doll retreats into a fantastical world where the asylum is a nightclub/brothel run by ruthless blue (oscar issac- prince john from robin hood: ridley scott version) and the dance teacher, madame gorski. (carla gugino from watchmen with a thick russian accent and stilletos!) baby doll soon becomes friends with sweet pea (abbie cornish), rocket (jena malone), blondie (vanessa hudgens, WHY?), and amber. (jamie chung) the fab five decide to make a daring escape out of lennox house, but they’ll need five items: 1) map; 2) fire; 3) knife; 4) key; 5) ? they’ll also need to obtain these items before the “high roller” comes for baby doll. (LOL, john hamm is randomly in this...)

i think the thing that bothered me most about this movie is how baby doll’s dance fantasies don’t mesh at all with the ongoing plot. one minute she’s fighting nazi zombies, the other...trying to defuse a bomb headed for a city. very very strange/confusing... i thought this would have been a stronger movie if they just stuck with the fantasy world of the brothel and then the reality of lennox house. too much was going on, and it’s not like it was done well or made sense like nolan did for inception... the chicas do a great job in their respective roles, and kudos to carla gugino and oscar issac for great acting! not to mention...AWESOME SOUNDTRACK!!! this movie feels like a string of well-produced music videos. even down to the lack of a plot that makes sense! :P