The story unfolds and feeds you the life of these characters “post-facto”, alcoholic father, divorced family, loss, and failures. The protagonists are played by Joel Edgerton and Tom Hardy, the latest who’s fame grew after his role in Inception and his upcoming portrayal of Bane in the next Christopher Nolan adaptation of Batman, The Dark Knight Rises. Tom Hardy is one of these actors that goes all the way in order to get the role, he goes through actual physical transformation and he plays it real though in Warrior.

The movie is mature and is somewhat inspiring. Possible spoiler, but the drive of the film is that the two fighters that end up in the finale are brothers. Both fighting for their honor and the prize money. You feel that they both deserve to win, but you’re shown that family ties a so strong that they can overcome almost anything. There is an entire sub-plot with one of the brothers who was in the military, whereas the other was a physics school teacher. The broken family and the past of their father, played by Nick Nolte, is a great portrayal of how bad things can get before they can get better.

I’ll give Warrior a few thumbs up, it’s a definite “Must Watch” in my book, it goes past the silliness and grounds itself in reality in a satisfying way. Watching the trailer might give you the missing incentive to get out there and watch the movie this weekend.

Rottentomatoes: 87% | Metacritic: 74/100

In order to enjoy their UltraAVX screening you must add 3$ to your regular admission price, once you step inside you immediately notice the area was built recently. The seats are a bit more spaced, they’re leathered and can be reclined a bit. The screen is definitely larger and the digital picture quality is really satisfying. The promos say we’re enjoying 7.1 surround sound and I can tell you that for Super 8, it was worth it.

Also consider the fact that the tickets you buy include reserved seating. The best scenario is if you purchase your tickets online and get to reserve a row for you friends and not having to worry you’ll get the worse seats (even if you run late into the previews).

I feel like all the rooms should be this great in a movie theater. But the premium price starts to take it’s toll if it’s a 3D movie, because they add an other 3$ for these showings. For now I’ll enjoy this kind of screening on a Tuesday evening where prices are reduced.

The movie is a fun ride and I highly recommend it. Fans of prior movies will recognize to nods and famous quotes from the series and there are legitimate “oh snap” moments. In my book this is the last of the summer feeling movies of the season, grab it in theater while you still can.

IMDB: 8/10 | Rottentomatoes: 82% | Metacritic: 68/100

Visually outstanding along with the usual gratuitous eye-candy in the form or girls and cars. This film also brings back most of the original cast while integrating some characters for subsequent movies. The movie is silly and there is nothing wrong with it. It’s action packed and is a great outset for the summer.

This film screams of geek themes, steam-powered zombies, samurai, dragons, orcs and androids. Along it’s punchy soundtrack this movie hits actions beats  from the start. It doesn’t linger on plot details, but you have to be able to fill in the blanks and enjoy the ride. You are taken through the imagination of these girls, that have to overcome a series of obstacles in order to achieve freedom, but instead of being presented with their literal challenge the movie turns it into an epic battle. The trailer below illustrates best what you can expect through most of the film.

Please take note that the conclusion is stunning and even on my best days I could not of predicted. One thing to always keep and mind is that you have all the tools you need. Always. Now get out there and do something!

The Last Airbender movie was none of that. At times I felt the characters were dangled by strings, instead of actual bending (using their abilities to manipulate: fire, water, air or earth), they were actually doing a bunch of yoga poses. If you’re looking of a bad cinematographic adaptation this movie is all you need. The current Tomatometer keeps it below 10%. I yawned, I turned left and right not believe how everything felt stitched together and rushed. It was an accurate re-telling of the events of the first season, but I no way did I feel attached to ANYONE, and understood how any of the characters had any emotions towards each other. The special effects might of been cool, I’ve my theater had the options to see it in 2D, how the movie was originally developed. I curse, figuratively, studios that spin a movie in 3D just to jump on the bandwagon, if it’s not made for 3D don’t bother showing it in 3D.

I’m getting ahead of myself, my point is that you should avoid this movie for as long as possible. You may allow yourself to catch of glimpse of it if it ever airs of TV. The value of the production seriously felt like a direct to TV movie.

Somewhat after seeing the feature film I found myself craving to learn more about the property. I found myself reading the graphic novel, watching interviews and documentaries on the making of this movie and the book that inspired it (iFanboy 111 & 112). I’ve even tried my hand at the demo if The End is Nigh, a Watchmen brawler. All that to say, that the movie can give you so much content to think about. Not just plot wise or the themes of humanity. The film itself, by the way it’s made, tries to provoke. I clearly remember telling myself halfway through the movie: “I don’t think I’m really going to like this movie”.

But somehow by the end, everything made sense. The awkward music, the shots, the convoluted dialogue, the nudity. Everything came full circle, that may very well be attributed to the fact that I had not read the graphic novel prior to seeing the movie. I did not know the conclusion, I did not know who lived and died, who the villain really was. Discovering those characters was by definition a “geekgasm“; the character of Rorschach and Dr. Manhattan alone, were more developed than Spider-Man was in three movies. The opening sequence provides, on it’s own, an amazing amount of back story into the Watchmen universe. I’m not a history buff, and I clearly missed on several references, but the existence of these masked heroes altered the timeline as we know it.

America dominates in Vietnam, thanks to their super-powered hero.

The movie was rated R, meaning people under 17 have to be accompanied by a consenting adult, we’re clearly departing from comic book properties targeted at kids. The movie is DARK, DEPRESSING, VIOLENT, CRUDE and GRITTY. By doing so, it feels grounded in reality, the same way Battlestar Galactica feels. It’s like Science fiction, with less fiction. The movie sticks the original material like a gum under your shoes, dialogue and shots are reproduced with great fidelity. We have Zack Snyder to thank for this feat, the work he did for 300 surely helped some fans understand he could pull it off.

In my book, I consider this movie to be a triumph, what it represents as a medium, art form, entertainment media. It does justice, in my opinion, to a graphic novel that was considered “un-filmable”, this property was put in the spotlight, sales of the book sky rocketed in anticipation of the movie. But I consider myself happy to have experience the film first. Things are constantly thrown at you stimulating your brain, when it comes to reading content, everyone has his pace, can take the time to discover the subtleties of each frame. You experience a movie as a whole, not knowing and discovering can be a blessing. What I learned about Rorschach was truly disturbing and came right at me. No famous Hollywood actors where used in this picture, many I’ve seen before, but they out performed any of my expectations. This movie goes right beside V for Vendetta in terms of meaningful movies.

Feel free to share love or hate in the comments.

Fast & Furious – Official Trailer (Higher Quality)

Our first interaction with him is a bullet to the chest. Aside from character development and that annoying kid that I loved to hate, the movie shows off how cool aliens can be, unclear of what technology they might be using. Indicating how out of reach they are, and how miserable we truly are in the grand scheme of things. Sadly, the movie fails at having the message come across to the general public. As shown in this poster, what I’ve liked the best about the movie was how bad ass the giant “robot” was. The Day the Earth Stood Still is a clever reference to how the movie ends, but you should go read 13 WTF Moments From ‘The Day The Earth Stood Still’ Remake that demonstrates many confusing and geeksome moments of the movie. [Spoilers] It’s clear that Jaden Smith doesn’t want to be a cute little kid as seen in The Pursuit of Happiness, I would of smacked him multiple times during the movie. I even dared to say that if he were to die during the movie Klattu should NOT revive him. If he wants to save the Earth he should start by getting rid of that one first. I digress, I love kids in general!

My City Screams

I have no idea why people have been bashing at The Spirit. I’ve found it to be very entertaining. It’s true that the visual style it’s been granted would scream Sin City 2. The story was pretty good, that hero of the city that seems to recover from any wounds. Unlike Wolverine from the X-Men he can get a beating and doesn’t heal on the spot. The character actually ends up on the operation table quite often. But what was the brink of death is now only a matter of getting a new outfit that was worn out during the latest fight. Samuel L. Jackson plays the role of the demented villain called The Octopus who seeks immortality. There is an underlying love story between the main character and a female thief that turns out to be his high-school sweetheart.

Themes of this movie turn out to be quite interesting, where Frank Miller visits Greek mythology, genetic manipulation, life after death and what it is to be a total heartthrob to the ladies. It’s a bit on the short side, and it’s not like you’ll be blown away by the actions sequences, but you’ll have a fun time. Because there are parts that are simply hilarious.

However, if you’re not in the “graphic novel” scene, you might wait on Watchmen to get your mind blown away.

The movie stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Russel Crowe, it’s an action-spy-drama. So from the very first scene my mind started wandering off as to why in God’s name are they making a movie about the War on Terror[ists] and how Hollywood keeps dishing out movies related to various threats around the world. When will the Russians come back as top dawgs bad guys? Never mind the personal thoughts, this movie has some serious  story behind it, and if you’re not paying attention you will miss out on a lot of the intrigue. It’s called Body of Lies for many reasons, there are many lies and betrayals that turn out to be quite surprising and keep you on high alert. There is a cute love interest in the movie and even some light comic relief that helps the audience get away from the heavy subject of the movie: What are we doing in the Middle East? Our hero has been living there and knows how to work cases, he puts his trust into people and doesn’t like when bureaucrats screw up a good plan. Overall the movie depicts what I would believe to be a very credible situation and how the government is/might be dealing with it.

It’s not for the faint of heart and the final act is heart wrenching (Braveheart level). Really not a popcorn flick, can’t sit down to relax and follow the ride, it’s bumpy, tricky and very tasteful (see Eagle Eye if you need action packed stuff). I would recommend you seeing this movie to spur up some discussions among friends, the ending is as open as the reality on which it is based. I really appreciate where DiCaprio is going with his career (The Departed, Blood Diamonds) because I can finally put away his performance in Titanic and forget all about it.