Archive for the ‘Review’ Category

The Day the Earth Stood Still

Monday, January 5th, 2009

Welcome to a 2008 movie I’ve missed, and I am glad to have now seen. This movie falls in the category of remakes from the same family as War of the Worlds. A fresh look at a great science fiction story. Keanu Reeves, plays the avatar to an alliance of alien races that think we’re killing this planet (wich we totally are doing). He attemps to communicate to the world a message of salvation hoping they will listen, however he is quickly shown that goverment, army and people in general are just hostile towards what they don’t understand.

the day the earth stood still posterOur 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!

The Spirit Review

Friday, January 2nd, 2009
My City Screams
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.

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Body of Lies

Wednesday, October 8th, 2008

Let me start out by pointing out I had no expectations about this movie. It wasn’t on my radar and were it not for this advance screening I would of missed it al together. Now this review is a great opportunity for you to decide if Ridley Scott’s new movie Body of Lies is the right one for you to see this week-end.

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.

Tropic Thunder

Tuesday, August 19th, 2008

This movie is EPIC! Seriously I’m not one to like comedies… most of the time I’m disappointed, but Tropic Thunder came as a big surprise for me. I had heard some good critics of the movie and the trailer did spike my interest.

Actors sent in the heart of Vietnam have to shoot a big budget film, the director decides to drop them in the jungle to get more realism and hopefully save the movie. However they encounter very real trouble when a young drug lord doesn’t want Americans to interfere. There were even a few fake trailers at the beginning of the movie to set the characters and it was funny from beginning to end. Many lines and subjects presented by this movie may very well offend you and you’ll have a lot of “WTF?!” moments. You’ll be grossed out too. But it’s very clever, the way the story is told is very compelling and you feel the overall experience was a fun ride. Even if The Dark Knight is a must see for this summer, Tropic Thunder would end up on that list too. DON’T WAIT!

Please notice “Black Downey Jr” in the poster, the fact that Robert Downey Jr plays an actor, that plays the role of a black man did not offend me. Also the use of the word “retard” through the entire movie was not meant to be offensive in any way. I’ve heard that some groups were up in arms about that issue. In the movie, they reference an actor playing a “retard” but I wonder if they were upset about the word itself? Because they make fun of farting fat people, drug addicts, closeted gay stars and rich Hollywood producers. Your thoughts?

The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior

Wednesday, August 13th, 2008

It is now clear to me that not all Direct-to-DVD movies are made equal. You have the cream of the crop like Stargate Continuum, heck even The Butterfly Effect 2 shines in contrast to the new Scorpion King movie.

After watching that 90 minutes low budget cheese ball I really felt offended to what they had done to this franchise. Seriously… to be offended to what they did to the Scorpion King means they really jumped the shark. Off the bat, this movie has no connection what so ever to it’s predecessor, aside being possibly in the same universe where Acadians are fearless warriors that look forward to be part of an elite unit called the black scorpion.

I would suggest skipping this film altogether, unless you have a lot of free time on your hands. It’s all about that young warrior that trains in the hopes of one day avenge the death of his father. He battles the Minautor, ventures into the Underworld to bring back the Sword of Damocles, only weapon capable of defeating the current “evil” scorpion king (yes bad guy ends up being the king). He has sidekicks of all types, very forgettable dialogue, weak action sequences… I do consider the benefits of this movie, as it provided an income to the cast and crew… that might be the only upside.

The Dark Knight

Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008

Also known as Batman Begins sequel, Christian Bale returns as the Batman to save Gotham City from criminals and wackos. I considered the first one as a masterpiece and this one takes it a step further. The performances of the Joker and Two-Face are pivotal to the story and overall it’s action packed, plot thick and blood pumping. I jumped of surprise at least three times during the movie and despite it’s long running I wasn’t bored a bit.

This movie has serious potential to be the best flick of the year. We went to a Tuesday showing and the theater was crammed. When you have a comic book inspired property, it’s not just the “hero” that is great, he’s just as cool as the villains you put him up too. The Dark Knight accomplishes so many things and it’s worth your entertainment money. I bet you the piracy rate for this movie will be huge, but at the same time it still got the power to break the top one spot for box office records. Make room in your schedule to miss it, you wouldn’t want someone to spoil any of the fun for you. Some scenes were even filmed in IMAX size so it might be worth it to check it out in an IMAX theater.

Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Wednesday, July 16th, 2008

It feels like the last Hellboy movie was years ago… In fact it has, and I don’t really get why they waited so long to bring a sequel out. It’s obvious the first one was not a break all records box office success, but the story was good, the action and special effects were pretty amazing. Overall I think Hellboy is an under-rated character that everyone should learn to appreciate. Considering he should be the ultimate hero because his destiny is to bring forth the end of the world, yet he was raised by a good man who tough him to do good in the world. Hellboy, is a red horned demon, with an indestructible stone hand. Him and his friends from the Bureau of Paranormal activities act as a kid of MIB organization. I bring up Men In Black because some of the themes are similar, except that Hellboy doesn’t care about secrecy and would rather the entire world know about how he’s saving them everyday.

In this chapter, an Elf prince decides that humans do not deserve to exist because of their flaws and disregard of nature. To do so, he wants to awaken an ancient power known as the Golden Army, indestructible mechanical soldiers that could lay waste to the world with ease. Hellboy, Abe and Liz have to work together to stop this mad man/elf. I was very satisfied overall, the creature design is great and the comic relief was apparent but didn’t reach the cheese factor. It’s a nice little summer movie and I’m looking forward to add it to my collection.

Wanted

Monday, June 30th, 2008

Honestly the best action film this summer so far. I had more fun watching Wanted then I had with The Incredible Hulk or Iron Man. Angelina Jolie, James McAvoy and Morgan Freeman are great actors and played their roles impressively well. The story is presented in a great way, there is some humor here and there and the action is the most graphic so far this summer.

The story starts out when Wesley Gibson is introduced to The Fraternity, a group of assassins that dispose of people that will do bad things (in order to prevent them from doing evil things). This is an over simplification of the plot but you are under the impression that he will have to learn to become as great as an assassin his father was, and to control his extra-ordinary abilities that allows him to curve bullets, increase his reflexes, senses, speed and such. Great things happen during this movie. Be ready to be amazed and surprised by many things story wise. The use of computer generated images is very present but it never truly distracted me from the awesome sequences they portrayed using it. Wanted is in my opinion the best movie of the summer so far. After Hellboy II and The Dark Knight the summer blockbuster season may take a bow.