Premise: A prequel to Smokin' Aces; multiple groups of killers are out to collect on a contract.
Stars: Tom Berenger * Vinnie Jones * Tommy Flanagan
Story: Multiple bands of assassins, including the Tremor family, a beautiful solo assassin who poisons her victims, the master of disguise Lazlo Soot (from the previous film), and an assassin that specializes in knives known as The Surgeon all convene on a target protected by multiple FBI agents.
Review: The film is almost a direct rebuild of the first film. However, where the first film had a little originality, this film has none. A couple of interesting ideas (using actual human cannonballs, for example) are simply weighed down by the stereotypical character molds inherited from the first film as well as character roles previously played. Vinnie Jones plays a sophisticated killer specializing in tools of death. Sound familiar?
Avoid. Watch the first film and pretend this one doesn't exist.
Overall: Bad
Other Sites: Wikipedia * IMDb * AllMovie
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Iron Man 2 (2010)
Premise: Shellhead is back.
Stars: Robert Downey Jr * Don Cheadle * Mickey Rourke * Gwyneth Paltrow * Scarlett Johansson * Sam Rockwell
Story: Tony Stark has announced he's Iron Man. The son of his father's Russian rival (Mickey Rourke), embittered at Stark's success, makes an attempt on Tony's life. Failing, he teams up with Stark's business rival (Sam Rockwell) to go after him again. Don Cheadle makes an appearance as Stark's best friend and Gwyneth Paltrow reprises her role as Stark's potential love interest/business partner/secretary. Scarlet Johannson and Samuel L Jackson appear as the Black Widow and Nick Fury, both working for SHIELD.
Review: Honestly, on first viewing I really liked the film. It's hard not to love Robert Downey, Jr. and his performance of Tony Stark. The action pieces were timed well and the eye candy - Johansson, the suits, the cars, Paltrow, occasional violence - was liberally sprinkled throughout. Rockwell, another immensely likable character actor, nearly steals the show from RDJ when they're together, and easily plays off the patient menace of Mickey Rourke. And Samuel L Jackson doesn't chew the scenery as normal, so the more cerebral approach keeps him from playing his normally hammy self.
The only performance that I felt was weak was Don Cheadle's as Lt. Col (simply Colonel early in the film) James "Rhodey" Rhodes. Cheadle's a great actor (Hotel Rwanda, for example), but he brings a stiffness to Rhodey in the film, one that wasn't there in the first film. Granted, there is a new tension between the two due to the machinations of the government to acquire the technology, so maybe this can explain the stiffness.
So the performances are pretty spot-on. The special effects crew also do a great job.
The problem this time, tho, is the writing. There are elements of the plot that make little sense. The "buddy fight" between Stark and Rhodey is completely not believable. The exposition in the film implies that Stark somehow knew Rhodey would go get the armor and attempt to "knock some sense" into him. The "accidental" blast where the two suits' repulsor beams hit each other, creating a shockwave of course is used later.
How did Vanko know that Stark would just walk out onto the race track and take his driver's spot? Vanko appeared in pit crew gear at the same time while Stark is getting in the car - yet doesn't appear hurried or scrambling to get into the clothes to infiltrate what was an unexpected set of events.
Vanko builds another set of constrictor whips on a suit of armor. If Vanko knew the suit specifications and language of the War Machine armor to lock it up, why not create a backdoor in case his original plan is hacked? To say, lock up the suit when he personally gets involved? Or turn it into a time bomb to explode? Any number of possible plot points arise from the notion that Vanko could at any time deal with Cheadle's suit. Or, for that matter, given that the suits worked the same, why not retro-engineer a code to take over Stark's suit?
When Vanko removes his helmet during the fight with Iron Man and War Machine, why didn't one of them simply shoot Vanko in the head? Why bother with the repulsor shockwave?
The blood poisoning. So it starts slowly and then takes a big giant leap when Stark does nothing noteworthy or any strenuous activity. It took a larger leap in a shorter amount of time (going to Monaco) than it did during all the flying and fighting of the previous movie put together. Shouldn't that be reversed?
The blueprints for a new element. Seriously? A map of an EPCOT Center ripoff (the Stark Expo) is somehow a new element design that just happens to resolve the blood poisoning? Howard Stark is supposedly dead a decade or so, the film is from the seventies (given Stark's age and the film technology) and somehow Stark Sr. foresaw the need for a new element that would save Tony's life? If it's just a new element that can't be synthesized yet, why not leave some notes in a safe for Tony? It's just a little far-fetched.
I liked it. It's fun, it's not very complicated and it doesn't really engage the brain beyond a few questions here and there. I call it an empty calorie movie, or a run of the mill popcorn flick. But it's not the equal of its predecessor.
Overall: Mediocre
Other Sites: Wikipedia * IMDb * AllMovie * Rotten Tomatoes
Stars: Robert Downey Jr * Don Cheadle * Mickey Rourke * Gwyneth Paltrow * Scarlett Johansson * Sam Rockwell
Story: Tony Stark has announced he's Iron Man. The son of his father's Russian rival (Mickey Rourke), embittered at Stark's success, makes an attempt on Tony's life. Failing, he teams up with Stark's business rival (Sam Rockwell) to go after him again. Don Cheadle makes an appearance as Stark's best friend and Gwyneth Paltrow reprises her role as Stark's potential love interest/business partner/secretary. Scarlet Johannson and Samuel L Jackson appear as the Black Widow and Nick Fury, both working for SHIELD.
Review: Honestly, on first viewing I really liked the film. It's hard not to love Robert Downey, Jr. and his performance of Tony Stark. The action pieces were timed well and the eye candy - Johansson, the suits, the cars, Paltrow, occasional violence - was liberally sprinkled throughout. Rockwell, another immensely likable character actor, nearly steals the show from RDJ when they're together, and easily plays off the patient menace of Mickey Rourke. And Samuel L Jackson doesn't chew the scenery as normal, so the more cerebral approach keeps him from playing his normally hammy self.
The only performance that I felt was weak was Don Cheadle's as Lt. Col (simply Colonel early in the film) James "Rhodey" Rhodes. Cheadle's a great actor (Hotel Rwanda, for example), but he brings a stiffness to Rhodey in the film, one that wasn't there in the first film. Granted, there is a new tension between the two due to the machinations of the government to acquire the technology, so maybe this can explain the stiffness.
So the performances are pretty spot-on. The special effects crew also do a great job.
The problem this time, tho, is the writing. There are elements of the plot that make little sense. The "buddy fight" between Stark and Rhodey is completely not believable. The exposition in the film implies that Stark somehow knew Rhodey would go get the armor and attempt to "knock some sense" into him. The "accidental" blast where the two suits' repulsor beams hit each other, creating a shockwave of course is used later.
How did Vanko know that Stark would just walk out onto the race track and take his driver's spot? Vanko appeared in pit crew gear at the same time while Stark is getting in the car - yet doesn't appear hurried or scrambling to get into the clothes to infiltrate what was an unexpected set of events.
Vanko builds another set of constrictor whips on a suit of armor. If Vanko knew the suit specifications and language of the War Machine armor to lock it up, why not create a backdoor in case his original plan is hacked? To say, lock up the suit when he personally gets involved? Or turn it into a time bomb to explode? Any number of possible plot points arise from the notion that Vanko could at any time deal with Cheadle's suit. Or, for that matter, given that the suits worked the same, why not retro-engineer a code to take over Stark's suit?
When Vanko removes his helmet during the fight with Iron Man and War Machine, why didn't one of them simply shoot Vanko in the head? Why bother with the repulsor shockwave?
The blood poisoning. So it starts slowly and then takes a big giant leap when Stark does nothing noteworthy or any strenuous activity. It took a larger leap in a shorter amount of time (going to Monaco) than it did during all the flying and fighting of the previous movie put together. Shouldn't that be reversed?
The blueprints for a new element. Seriously? A map of an EPCOT Center ripoff (the Stark Expo) is somehow a new element design that just happens to resolve the blood poisoning? Howard Stark is supposedly dead a decade or so, the film is from the seventies (given Stark's age and the film technology) and somehow Stark Sr. foresaw the need for a new element that would save Tony's life? If it's just a new element that can't be synthesized yet, why not leave some notes in a safe for Tony? It's just a little far-fetched.
I liked it. It's fun, it's not very complicated and it doesn't really engage the brain beyond a few questions here and there. I call it an empty calorie movie, or a run of the mill popcorn flick. But it's not the equal of its predecessor.
Overall: Mediocre
Other Sites: Wikipedia * IMDb * AllMovie * Rotten Tomatoes
Monday, July 20, 2009
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)
Premise: Harry and Company are back.
Stars: Daniel Radcliffe * Rupert Grint * Emma Watson * Michael Gambon * Alan Rickman * Jim Broadbent
Story: Harry Potter is back, along with Ron, Hermione, Neville, Luna, Dumbledore and the rest. This time Voldemort is a background player, with the direct threats personified by Draco Malfoy, Bellatrix Lestrange, and Severus Snape. A new professor comes to Hogwarts, Professor Slughorn, who holds a key to defeating Voldemort. Harry also develops a relationship with Ginny Weasley, Ron's younger sister, while Ron and Hermione go through the pains of teen love. In the end, Malfoy represents a threat not to Harry, but to Dumbledore himself.
Review: I'm not going to go into how the changes from the book drastically change the feel and tone of the movie. While a couple of important plotlines and pivotal moments remain, a number are changed or outright removed. Instead I'll focus on the weaknesses of the film.
Draco has been established as a whiny ne'er-do-well who is no serious menace to Potter, instead he relies on his thuggish companions and his connections to more powerful menaces to try and ruin Potter's life. In this movie, he is pretty much the same but is being used to represent the main in-story threat, aside from vague menace from a silent voiceless character who appears vaguely wolfish (Fenrir Greyback is the name and it is seen briefly on a newspaper) and Bellatrix Lestrange who appears a couple of times to try and embody Voldemort's threat at the beginning and end of the film. So the movie lacks a primary credible threat, as Potter has demonstrated multiple times before that he can defeat Malfoy through his wits.
The teen love that dominates the majority of the film is focused on Ron and Hermione. While the performance of Lavendar Brown is refreshing at first, it quickly becomes grating - as it does for Ron in the storyline. Hermione's love affair with Cormac McLaggen plays mainly as her avoidance of a boor who is simultaneously Ron's rival in Quidditch. Luna and Harry have a date, but Harry's eyes are kept on Ginny Weasley. The problem with both romances is that both female characters are played as lovestruck fools - and in Ginny's case mostly a cipher with no established character of her own. Hermione spends most of the movie in an amped up performance of her scenes in earlier films - crying and miserable.
Slughorn (Broadbent), however, is a refreshing change and is a scene stealer when he appears. In his dealings with Dumbledore and Harry, he provides a refreshing change from the teen angst that goes on elsewhere.
Dumbledore (Gambon) is no longer the pre-eminent, wise and seemingly invincible wizard he was in the earlier movies. From his first appearance, Dumbledore appears worn down and constantly weakening - which could be understood if one knew the context from the book, but which is not explained in the movie.
There are pivotal scenes retained from the book, but as a result of the editing presented in condensing a thick text, the film doesn't really captivate the audience, aside from the initial Pottermania euphoria which accompanies every film. As a result, this film feels more like a filler episode in a series, where characters are slightly fleshed out, but it only serves to whet the appetite for a follow-up film - in this case the two adaptations of the follow-up novel.
Overall: Mediocre
Other Sites: Wikipedia * IMDb * AllMovie * Rotten Tomatoes
Stars: Daniel Radcliffe * Rupert Grint * Emma Watson * Michael Gambon * Alan Rickman * Jim Broadbent
Story: Harry Potter is back, along with Ron, Hermione, Neville, Luna, Dumbledore and the rest. This time Voldemort is a background player, with the direct threats personified by Draco Malfoy, Bellatrix Lestrange, and Severus Snape. A new professor comes to Hogwarts, Professor Slughorn, who holds a key to defeating Voldemort. Harry also develops a relationship with Ginny Weasley, Ron's younger sister, while Ron and Hermione go through the pains of teen love. In the end, Malfoy represents a threat not to Harry, but to Dumbledore himself.
Review: I'm not going to go into how the changes from the book drastically change the feel and tone of the movie. While a couple of important plotlines and pivotal moments remain, a number are changed or outright removed. Instead I'll focus on the weaknesses of the film.
Draco has been established as a whiny ne'er-do-well who is no serious menace to Potter, instead he relies on his thuggish companions and his connections to more powerful menaces to try and ruin Potter's life. In this movie, he is pretty much the same but is being used to represent the main in-story threat, aside from vague menace from a silent voiceless character who appears vaguely wolfish (Fenrir Greyback is the name and it is seen briefly on a newspaper) and Bellatrix Lestrange who appears a couple of times to try and embody Voldemort's threat at the beginning and end of the film. So the movie lacks a primary credible threat, as Potter has demonstrated multiple times before that he can defeat Malfoy through his wits.
The teen love that dominates the majority of the film is focused on Ron and Hermione. While the performance of Lavendar Brown is refreshing at first, it quickly becomes grating - as it does for Ron in the storyline. Hermione's love affair with Cormac McLaggen plays mainly as her avoidance of a boor who is simultaneously Ron's rival in Quidditch. Luna and Harry have a date, but Harry's eyes are kept on Ginny Weasley. The problem with both romances is that both female characters are played as lovestruck fools - and in Ginny's case mostly a cipher with no established character of her own. Hermione spends most of the movie in an amped up performance of her scenes in earlier films - crying and miserable.
Slughorn (Broadbent), however, is a refreshing change and is a scene stealer when he appears. In his dealings with Dumbledore and Harry, he provides a refreshing change from the teen angst that goes on elsewhere.
Dumbledore (Gambon) is no longer the pre-eminent, wise and seemingly invincible wizard he was in the earlier movies. From his first appearance, Dumbledore appears worn down and constantly weakening - which could be understood if one knew the context from the book, but which is not explained in the movie.
There are pivotal scenes retained from the book, but as a result of the editing presented in condensing a thick text, the film doesn't really captivate the audience, aside from the initial Pottermania euphoria which accompanies every film. As a result, this film feels more like a filler episode in a series, where characters are slightly fleshed out, but it only serves to whet the appetite for a follow-up film - in this case the two adaptations of the follow-up novel.
Overall: Mediocre
Other Sites: Wikipedia * IMDb * AllMovie * Rotten Tomatoes
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009)
Premise: Autobots vs Decepticons again, with Sam Witwicky along for the ride.
Stars: Shia LeBouef * Megan Fox * Josh Duhamel * Tyrese Gibson
Story: A couple of years after the first movie, the Autobots and a multi-national team of soldiers have been hunting down Decepticon cells across Earth. Sam Witwicky has gone through school and is about to go to college. Unfortunately, a sliver of the AllSpark remained in Sam's jacket and imprints its language on Sam's mind. The Decepticons resurrect Megatron, contact their progenitor - the Fallen - and set out to recover that knowledge from Sam. Along the way, the Autobots have a falling out with a bureaucrat over apparent suspicions of loyalty once fighting breaks out.
Review: Honestly, this movie will keep your seat vibrating with noise, explosions, small thrills, and some gratuitous skin. But it will simultaneously kill brain cells. There should be a Surgeon General's warning on this film for anyone watching this film sober.
There are enough plot holes to drive a planet through. There are enough offensive stereotypes to generously offend every member of the audience - all ages and all races. This film is a literal 'screw you' to every fan of the original series, even while it throws in everything under the sun.
For a start:
There's the Decepticon Pretender which is a Species ripoff. There are giant steel testes. I say again, giant steel testes. Decepticons which previously were impervious to all but sabot rounds are now killed by random small arms fire. Autobot commandos - including Optimus 'the idealist' - hunt down Decepticons who have not harmed anyone - when it is later shown that Decepticons can choose to be Autobots if allowed to. A small Decepticon acts like a hormonal pooch. Two Autobots talk in hip-hop slang and have gold teeth. Transformer 'heaven' acts as a deux ex machina to save the day. A transformer with a beard and cane. A transformer that has been around for 10,000 years and is a SR-71 blackbird. Sam & Co. walk through the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC and ending up in an airplane graveyard - all of which are in the American Southwest. A key Decepticon from the first movie is brought in momentarily, only to be immediately be killed. Time is literally wasted on stoner humor of the wrong variety - did we need to see Mrs. Witwicky get high?
And lastly, a very unnecessary thong which illustrated Mr. Bay showing his ass to the audience.
I don't think everything is wrong with this film and I can point out a few good things. Robots fight. There are attractive people in the film. The lighting is masterful as always in a Bay film. Robots fight.
Overall: Bad
Other Sites: Wikipedia * IMDb * AllMovie * Rotten Tomatoes
Stars: Shia LeBouef * Megan Fox * Josh Duhamel * Tyrese Gibson
Story: A couple of years after the first movie, the Autobots and a multi-national team of soldiers have been hunting down Decepticon cells across Earth. Sam Witwicky has gone through school and is about to go to college. Unfortunately, a sliver of the AllSpark remained in Sam's jacket and imprints its language on Sam's mind. The Decepticons resurrect Megatron, contact their progenitor - the Fallen - and set out to recover that knowledge from Sam. Along the way, the Autobots have a falling out with a bureaucrat over apparent suspicions of loyalty once fighting breaks out.
Review: Honestly, this movie will keep your seat vibrating with noise, explosions, small thrills, and some gratuitous skin. But it will simultaneously kill brain cells. There should be a Surgeon General's warning on this film for anyone watching this film sober.
There are enough plot holes to drive a planet through. There are enough offensive stereotypes to generously offend every member of the audience - all ages and all races. This film is a literal 'screw you' to every fan of the original series, even while it throws in everything under the sun.
For a start:
There's the Decepticon Pretender which is a Species ripoff. There are giant steel testes. I say again, giant steel testes. Decepticons which previously were impervious to all but sabot rounds are now killed by random small arms fire. Autobot commandos - including Optimus 'the idealist' - hunt down Decepticons who have not harmed anyone - when it is later shown that Decepticons can choose to be Autobots if allowed to. A small Decepticon acts like a hormonal pooch. Two Autobots talk in hip-hop slang and have gold teeth. Transformer 'heaven' acts as a deux ex machina to save the day. A transformer with a beard and cane. A transformer that has been around for 10,000 years and is a SR-71 blackbird. Sam & Co. walk through the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC and ending up in an airplane graveyard - all of which are in the American Southwest. A key Decepticon from the first movie is brought in momentarily, only to be immediately be killed. Time is literally wasted on stoner humor of the wrong variety - did we need to see Mrs. Witwicky get high?
And lastly, a very unnecessary thong which illustrated Mr. Bay showing his ass to the audience.
I don't think everything is wrong with this film and I can point out a few good things. Robots fight. There are attractive people in the film. The lighting is masterful as always in a Bay film. Robots fight.
Overall: Bad
Other Sites: Wikipedia * IMDb * AllMovie * Rotten Tomatoes
Land of the Lost (2009)
Premise: A comedic sendup of the 1970s children's show.
Stars: Will Ferrell * Danny R McBride * Anna Friel
Story: Professor Rick Marshall (Ferrell) has become a laughingstock in the scientific community following his publication of a work where he puts forth the idea that artificially created wormholes will solve the world's energy crisis. Disgraced, he is visited by a graduate student, Holly (Friel) who believes in him and has become an outcast herself. She convinces him to test his idea at a local road sideshow, where Will (McBride) shows visitors his 'Devil's Cave' which is little more than runoff and waste.
Marshall's tachyon emitter (the device that is intended to create wormholes) actually triggers a wormhole, sending the three to the Land of the Lost, a kind of pocket alternate universe where the 'detritus of our universe' ends up - some aliens, a run-down motel, some primitive cave men, dinosaurs, and more.
The rest of the movie follows the trio's adventure as they attempt to recover the tachyon emitter, prevent the alien Sleestak from taking over Earth, and survive attacks by an intelligent tyrannosaur.
Review: The movie is a pastiche of typical Ferrell humour: stupid toilet humour, flabby belly jokes, getting stoned/drunk, whining loudly, and supposedly comical pratfalls. Ferrell follows his tried-and-true formula, of going for the easy laughs. His partners this time around, a smart-but-naive Friel and Danny R McBride (again playing his standard shtick) are respectively his foil/love interest and smartass sidekick.
Between boorish whiny Ferrell and boorish obnoxious McBride, it's clear where this movie was aiming. Unlike its brethren - the send-ups of The Brady Bunch and Starsky & Hutch - this movie doesn't aim for the brain, but for the belly. And for a while, it hits its mark.
Unfortunately, it just keeps going for the belly laugh over and over. Which gets old. Some jokes are simply unfunny. The plot with the Sleestak and the tachyon emitter is interesting, but is simply lifted from most films - bad guy wants the device, manipulates the protagonists to get it, protagonists save the day.
Friel is literally a waste in this movie, as the presence of an always-horny and perverted cave man - probably the funniest character in the movie - steals the show. Just not enough of it.
Overall: Bad
Other Sites: Wikipedia * IMDb * AllMovie * Rotten Tomatoes
Stars: Will Ferrell * Danny R McBride * Anna Friel
Story: Professor Rick Marshall (Ferrell) has become a laughingstock in the scientific community following his publication of a work where he puts forth the idea that artificially created wormholes will solve the world's energy crisis. Disgraced, he is visited by a graduate student, Holly (Friel) who believes in him and has become an outcast herself. She convinces him to test his idea at a local road sideshow, where Will (McBride) shows visitors his 'Devil's Cave' which is little more than runoff and waste.
Marshall's tachyon emitter (the device that is intended to create wormholes) actually triggers a wormhole, sending the three to the Land of the Lost, a kind of pocket alternate universe where the 'detritus of our universe' ends up - some aliens, a run-down motel, some primitive cave men, dinosaurs, and more.
The rest of the movie follows the trio's adventure as they attempt to recover the tachyon emitter, prevent the alien Sleestak from taking over Earth, and survive attacks by an intelligent tyrannosaur.
Review: The movie is a pastiche of typical Ferrell humour: stupid toilet humour, flabby belly jokes, getting stoned/drunk, whining loudly, and supposedly comical pratfalls. Ferrell follows his tried-and-true formula, of going for the easy laughs. His partners this time around, a smart-but-naive Friel and Danny R McBride (again playing his standard shtick) are respectively his foil/love interest and smartass sidekick.
Between boorish whiny Ferrell and boorish obnoxious McBride, it's clear where this movie was aiming. Unlike its brethren - the send-ups of The Brady Bunch and Starsky & Hutch - this movie doesn't aim for the brain, but for the belly. And for a while, it hits its mark.
Unfortunately, it just keeps going for the belly laugh over and over. Which gets old. Some jokes are simply unfunny. The plot with the Sleestak and the tachyon emitter is interesting, but is simply lifted from most films - bad guy wants the device, manipulates the protagonists to get it, protagonists save the day.
Friel is literally a waste in this movie, as the presence of an always-horny and perverted cave man - probably the funniest character in the movie - steals the show. Just not enough of it.
Overall: Bad
Other Sites: Wikipedia * IMDb * AllMovie * Rotten Tomatoes
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Terminator Salvation (2009)
Premise: After Judgment Day, John Connor leads the human resistance fights Skynet and its army of terminators.
Stars: Christian Bale * Sam Worthington * Moon Bloodgod * Anton Yelchin
Story: After Judgment Day, John Connor (Bale) leads an army of human resistance fighters against the machines of Skynet. On one of his raids on a Skynet base, the human fighters discover experiments being done upon humans in order to create better infiltration units (the terminators of the previous movies). After Connor escapes, a lone survivor from the site stumbles out into the world.
Marcus (Worthington), the survivor, wanders until he ends up in devastated Los Angeles, where he is nearly attacked by a terminator. Saved from certain death by young Kyle Reese (Yelchin) and his companion, Marcus ends up traveling with the duo in an attempt to reach other survivors.
Meanwhile, Connor faces opposition to his plan to save humans being experimented on by Skynet from the leaders of the resistance, and works on rigging a signal designed to stop the terminators so that his team can stage a rescue.
Marcus and Connor cross paths after Reese is captured by the terminators and taken to the Skynet base. The stage is set for a showdown as it is revealed that Marcus is one of the prototypes for the cyborg terminators. However, the two reluctantly team up to save young Reese and to find out who made Marcus into a cyborg.
Review: Christian Bale has not expanded his repertoire. Capable of gritty and serious (Reign of Fire, Batman Begins) and borderline psycho (The Machinist, American Psycho) it appears that acting human has escaped Bale - although the writing doesn't leave much for him to expand in this direction. Bale's Connor is a grizzled, borderline psychotic action hero but has none of the humanizing qualities one looks for in a story such as this.
Instead, Marcus (Worthington) fulfills the role of the wandering mysterious hero - both human and different. He recalls Jean Claude Van Damme in the Cyborg movie - and bears more than a passing resemblance to the old action star. The bonding with both Kyle Reese and Blair Williams (Bloodgod) make the cyborg seem much more human than even Connor.
This dueling characterization - the machine as the hero, the hero as the machine - may seem to reflect an aim of the writers to make the movie more of a debate about the nature of heroism, but it fails. There is no bonding to the character of John Connor by the audience, and the forced ending kills much enthusiasm for the scant storytelling.
With the lack of solid characterization on the part of the humans, the storytelling heavily relies upon the effects departments - sound and CGI. The world looks more like the setting of a video game - one can honestly pick out what levels the adventure takes place on - and the sound and violence is loud and explosive. Of course the audience is really looking for the terminators, the endoskeletons, what Skynet looks like, etc. And for the most part, the terminators are men in suits - clearly visible in a few scenes - or model robots - motorcycles, planes, and even snakes.
There are obvious shots that are throwbacks to the three earlier movies - the diesel tow truck here, the motorcycle there, even Guns & Roses 'You Could Be Mine' is heard, along with a surprise appearance near the end. It's like the writers had a checklist and went down the line, marking off the requisite effect.
Instead of this, it would have been more appealing to make a movie where the John Connor storyline is in the background, and focus on Marcus Wright. He's really the only character you begin to care about in this movie, and a well-written story centered on him would've easily been a more welcome entry in this franchise. As it stands, there is very little humanizing about the movie, and the obviously forced ending removes any appreciation for characterization. Including departures from the established Terminator storyline, the film feels like a further notch on the downward spiral since Terminator 2, the obvious high mark in this effects-driven franchise.
Overall: Bad
Other Sites: IMDb * Wikipedia * AllMovie * Rotten Tomatoes
Stars: Christian Bale * Sam Worthington * Moon Bloodgod * Anton Yelchin
Story: After Judgment Day, John Connor (Bale) leads an army of human resistance fighters against the machines of Skynet. On one of his raids on a Skynet base, the human fighters discover experiments being done upon humans in order to create better infiltration units (the terminators of the previous movies). After Connor escapes, a lone survivor from the site stumbles out into the world.
Marcus (Worthington), the survivor, wanders until he ends up in devastated Los Angeles, where he is nearly attacked by a terminator. Saved from certain death by young Kyle Reese (Yelchin) and his companion, Marcus ends up traveling with the duo in an attempt to reach other survivors.
Meanwhile, Connor faces opposition to his plan to save humans being experimented on by Skynet from the leaders of the resistance, and works on rigging a signal designed to stop the terminators so that his team can stage a rescue.
Marcus and Connor cross paths after Reese is captured by the terminators and taken to the Skynet base. The stage is set for a showdown as it is revealed that Marcus is one of the prototypes for the cyborg terminators. However, the two reluctantly team up to save young Reese and to find out who made Marcus into a cyborg.
Review: Christian Bale has not expanded his repertoire. Capable of gritty and serious (Reign of Fire, Batman Begins) and borderline psycho (The Machinist, American Psycho) it appears that acting human has escaped Bale - although the writing doesn't leave much for him to expand in this direction. Bale's Connor is a grizzled, borderline psychotic action hero but has none of the humanizing qualities one looks for in a story such as this.
Instead, Marcus (Worthington) fulfills the role of the wandering mysterious hero - both human and different. He recalls Jean Claude Van Damme in the Cyborg movie - and bears more than a passing resemblance to the old action star. The bonding with both Kyle Reese and Blair Williams (Bloodgod) make the cyborg seem much more human than even Connor.
This dueling characterization - the machine as the hero, the hero as the machine - may seem to reflect an aim of the writers to make the movie more of a debate about the nature of heroism, but it fails. There is no bonding to the character of John Connor by the audience, and the forced ending kills much enthusiasm for the scant storytelling.
With the lack of solid characterization on the part of the humans, the storytelling heavily relies upon the effects departments - sound and CGI. The world looks more like the setting of a video game - one can honestly pick out what levels the adventure takes place on - and the sound and violence is loud and explosive. Of course the audience is really looking for the terminators, the endoskeletons, what Skynet looks like, etc. And for the most part, the terminators are men in suits - clearly visible in a few scenes - or model robots - motorcycles, planes, and even snakes.
There are obvious shots that are throwbacks to the three earlier movies - the diesel tow truck here, the motorcycle there, even Guns & Roses 'You Could Be Mine' is heard, along with a surprise appearance near the end. It's like the writers had a checklist and went down the line, marking off the requisite effect.
Instead of this, it would have been more appealing to make a movie where the John Connor storyline is in the background, and focus on Marcus Wright. He's really the only character you begin to care about in this movie, and a well-written story centered on him would've easily been a more welcome entry in this franchise. As it stands, there is very little humanizing about the movie, and the obviously forced ending removes any appreciation for characterization. Including departures from the established Terminator storyline, the film feels like a further notch on the downward spiral since Terminator 2, the obvious high mark in this effects-driven franchise.
Overall: Bad
Other Sites: IMDb * Wikipedia * AllMovie * Rotten Tomatoes
UP (2009)
Premise: An elderly man undertakes an adventure he's put off for decades but finds more than he bargained for when a neighborhood kid accidentally is brought along.
Stars: Ed Asner (voice) * Jordan Nagai (voice) * Christopher Plummer (voice)
Story: Carl Frederickson (Asner) is an elderly man whose life has been filled with love of his wife Ellie. After her passing, he lives alone, a shut-in, while the city moves in and surrounds the plot of land where the two had built their lives. Facing a forced move to a retirement home, he decides to undertake an adventure that both he and his wife had wanted to pursue as children, but had to put off as reality took most of their meager earnings.
Attaching thousands of helium balloons to his home, Carl detaches his home and life from the old plot of ground, but quickly discovers an unwelcome guest - Russell (Nagai), a Wilderness Explorer scout that was attempting to help the elderly man has accidentally stowed away on his porch. Unable to get rid of the boy, Carl faces his trip to South America with the passenger and experiences some - at first - unwelcome adventures as they approach his target.
Russell encounters a strange bird that he names Kevin and unwittingly involves Carl in the life's hunt of Charles Muntz (Plummer), setting the man against his childhood hero.
Review: The movie is absolutely superb. As with most Pixar films (A Bug's Life, Finding Nemo), the animation is excellent and does not distract. That aside, the story is moving, inviting, and endearing.
Without seeming to, Pixar has created their first truly human character, in Carl Frederickson, a triumph of writing, visual storytelling, and the gravelly voice of Ed Asner. Asner does an excellent job as Carl, an elderly man who has recently lost his beloved wife. The quiet, subdued music that accompanies the story of Carl & Ellie's life together is near-perfect as ten minutes unfolds and the trials, triumphs, and tragedies of their lives together unwinds on film. It literally left me in tears. As Carl faces life alone in his small house, the sprawl of the city takes over the once suburban landscape, leaving the man nothing but his dreams of the past. One can clearly see the years and care on the man's face, an achievement for Pixar animation.
Russell, voiced by newcomer Nagai, is a young boy whose happiness is built upon his scouting and the visits by his father at the awards ceremony. His earnestness and honesty are welcome even as they initially do nothing more than irritate the old man. His positive outlook masks an attempt to move past the disappointment in his family life, and the slow reveal of his inner character visibly moves Carl out of his shell.
The bond that grows between the two is possibly one of the finest storytelling moments in Pixar's movies. Previous films focused on established families (The Incredibles, Finding Nemo), blossoming romance (Cars, Wall-E), situational comedy (A Bug's Life) or buddy movies (Toy Story & Toy Story 2). This is the first film by Pixar where a family relationship is created on-screen, and between two dreamers - an old man setting off on what seems to be the end of his life's journey and a young boy trying to hold on to his fragile links to his father.
Their adventure together - it is unclear if the journey takes only a few days or more - brings Carl back to life, as it were, and through his experience, we share in the joy, the pain and heartache and the realization of a dream.
P.S. The opening animated short Partly Cloudy is also quite entertaining and serves as a nice appetizer for the film.
Overall: Good.
Other Sites: IMDb * AllMovie * Wikipedia * Rotten Tomatoes
Stars: Ed Asner (voice) * Jordan Nagai (voice) * Christopher Plummer (voice)
Story: Carl Frederickson (Asner) is an elderly man whose life has been filled with love of his wife Ellie. After her passing, he lives alone, a shut-in, while the city moves in and surrounds the plot of land where the two had built their lives. Facing a forced move to a retirement home, he decides to undertake an adventure that both he and his wife had wanted to pursue as children, but had to put off as reality took most of their meager earnings.
Attaching thousands of helium balloons to his home, Carl detaches his home and life from the old plot of ground, but quickly discovers an unwelcome guest - Russell (Nagai), a Wilderness Explorer scout that was attempting to help the elderly man has accidentally stowed away on his porch. Unable to get rid of the boy, Carl faces his trip to South America with the passenger and experiences some - at first - unwelcome adventures as they approach his target.
Russell encounters a strange bird that he names Kevin and unwittingly involves Carl in the life's hunt of Charles Muntz (Plummer), setting the man against his childhood hero.
Review: The movie is absolutely superb. As with most Pixar films (A Bug's Life, Finding Nemo), the animation is excellent and does not distract. That aside, the story is moving, inviting, and endearing.
Without seeming to, Pixar has created their first truly human character, in Carl Frederickson, a triumph of writing, visual storytelling, and the gravelly voice of Ed Asner. Asner does an excellent job as Carl, an elderly man who has recently lost his beloved wife. The quiet, subdued music that accompanies the story of Carl & Ellie's life together is near-perfect as ten minutes unfolds and the trials, triumphs, and tragedies of their lives together unwinds on film. It literally left me in tears. As Carl faces life alone in his small house, the sprawl of the city takes over the once suburban landscape, leaving the man nothing but his dreams of the past. One can clearly see the years and care on the man's face, an achievement for Pixar animation.
Russell, voiced by newcomer Nagai, is a young boy whose happiness is built upon his scouting and the visits by his father at the awards ceremony. His earnestness and honesty are welcome even as they initially do nothing more than irritate the old man. His positive outlook masks an attempt to move past the disappointment in his family life, and the slow reveal of his inner character visibly moves Carl out of his shell.
The bond that grows between the two is possibly one of the finest storytelling moments in Pixar's movies. Previous films focused on established families (The Incredibles, Finding Nemo), blossoming romance (Cars, Wall-E), situational comedy (A Bug's Life) or buddy movies (Toy Story & Toy Story 2). This is the first film by Pixar where a family relationship is created on-screen, and between two dreamers - an old man setting off on what seems to be the end of his life's journey and a young boy trying to hold on to his fragile links to his father.
Their adventure together - it is unclear if the journey takes only a few days or more - brings Carl back to life, as it were, and through his experience, we share in the joy, the pain and heartache and the realization of a dream.
P.S. The opening animated short Partly Cloudy is also quite entertaining and serves as a nice appetizer for the film.
Overall: Good.
Other Sites: IMDb * AllMovie * Wikipedia * Rotten Tomatoes
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