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Reagen Sulewski: I think there was way too much quirk in this film for the average action fan. Add Travolta's shaved head with the woefully inappropriate title and the incoherent mess of those commercials and you've got a recipe for disaster. Comparing it to Taken doesn't really fit since that film was an ultra-serious revenge flick, while this was an over-the-top buddy comedy. The problem being that most of America either didn't care about or didn't know either part of the team.

Max Braden: I agree with Reagen's take, though I would have been okay with the buddy quirk of it, coming from Luc Besson. I would have seen it this weekend were it not for snowed out theaters and the Super Bowl. It looked better to me than Travolta's raving skinhead in The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3, but I can see a tone that is just missing the mark on either Lethal Weapon/Bad Boys action and Ben Stiller/Owen Wilson comedy.

Guys like Doritos, Bud Light, muscle cars, walking around in their underwear and ogling Danica Patrick. Right?

Kim Hollis: What were your favorite Super Bowl commercials this year? Did any of the movie trailers make a positive impression?

Josh Spiegel: There was the Google ad, and there was the Betty White/Abe Vigoda ad. And then, there was everything else, which was a giant mess. I don't know what the companies were thinking with their ads. Among the movie trailers - well, there weren't really any startling movie trailers, being honest. I've heard here and there that there was a Toy Story 3 ad, but I must have missed it. The only trailer that sparked any interest was Shutter Island, but then, I was already going to see that movie.





Tim Briody: I remember laughing at only a handful of ads this year, but can't recall any of them right now. The only one that jumps out was Google's ad, which got its point across and told a neat story (like anyone needs to be told what Google is, of course). The trailers were all a collective meh.

Jim Van Nest: The best ad of the night wasn't even an actually ad. It was a promo. The Letterman-Oprah-Leno was easily the funniest of the night for me. Followed by Punxsutawney Polamalu...this one got the biggest laugh of the night at our party. Betty White was good. Google was decent. The Clydesdale and the cow was nice. But Letterman/Leno was the highlight for me. Trailers...I'm so geeked up for The Last Airbender, I can't even tell you. Liked it a lot. Everything else was either meh or tried too hard.

Max Braden: Trash-talking, football-playing Betty White is head to head with the two gay guys slapping each other over Megan Fox in the bathtub for me. What were their products? I think a candy bar and a phone, but I can't be sure. I think Google's was the most brilliant of the night because it flipped Bing's message on its head. With that simple ad I now firmly associate "annoying overkill" with Bing and not Google.

Pete Kilmer: Betty White/Abe Vigoda for the win. Runner ups are the Google ad (best story in a commerical in years), and the Megan Fox ad. The Letterman promo stole the night for me, that was a total "holy &%$!" moment for me as I really followed the late night wars. I was really pleased with the Avatar: The Last Airbender trailer, I have such high expectations for that since the cartoon was just stellar. And I'm really looking forward to see what Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe can do together with Robin Hood.

Kim Hollis: I thought it was a pretty sad set of messages that were mostly painting guys as big dummies, which makes me kind of sad. And the Google ad was nifty, but really, who were they targeting with that? People who don't know how to use their search engine? Because at this point, I don't think they're going to be gaining themselves any market share. (It was a nice commercial, but still.) I'm all about Shutter Island at this point, and I think The Crazies has a commercial that's doing a nice job of building interest.

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