Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Battleship

I'm all about action and adventure, bad acting is something that bothers me. I was very interested when I heard that they were making Battleship into a movie. First off I was very confused because how were they going to do and would they be able to pull it off. I am happy to say yes they did pull it off. The movie brings fantastic special effects and beautiful settings into a modern art or war type story. The film takes it's young stars and pulls them into situations where they will either grow and survive or be selfish and parish. The film stars Taylor Kitsch as our young and rebellious Lt. Alex Hoper who can not figure out what to do with his life. His borhter Commander Stone Haopper is played by the charming and loyal Alexander Skarsgard. Liam Neeson stars as the brave and strong Admiral Shane and his daughter and Alex's girlfriend is Sam, played by the lovely Brooklyn Decker.We also have Rihanna in her acting debut as Petty Officer Cora Raikes.


The film starts with the Hopper brothers trying to find purpose and meaning. Stone uses the Navy to find his place and Alex tries to gain the heart of Sam. We also see the the government is sending out a radio signal to outer space to a planet that has a similar environment to ours. A few years later we see the Hopper boys are at the anual Navy training games with ships from all over the world. That same day ships fall from the sky and Hawii is locked into a shield and is invaded from an enemy out of this world.

I was shocked that the movie made a big effort to show the dark and forgotten sides of war. Sam works at a military rehabillitation center and we see all these amazing men and woman who have lost parts of their body for their country. As an audience we feel the pain of a fallen soldier and the fear of what to do now that they are not one. There is also a poitn in the movie of remembering those that have fought before us. At one point the modern Navy must as the help of former Navy vets in order to fight back for their planet. It shows this respect of your elders, past, and those that have given so much for our freedoms. I was not expecting such a heartfelt and obvisous message from the filmmaker.

The special effects are fantastic and so believible. I honestly thought that there were real spaceships flying around at sea. You are not sure what is real and what is not. Even the Aliens themselves seem so real that you are not sure what is CGI and what is real. I was very impressed with the action and the way it was tied into the batteship game. I was on the edge of my seating waiting for the next attack or the next moment I would jump out of my seat. Bravo for action.

There were only two things that I didn't like in this movie....product placement was TERRIBLE. Everywhere you looked there was a Coke Zero sign or someone was drinking it. There were a few others that actually made me roll my eyes because it was not even suttle! I also thought that the acting by the main cast was great but the smaller roles the acting was comical! I mean seriously funny and I coulf not believe they could not get a better actor in there! I found myself laughing at the smaller roles because you could tell they were reading a script. Rihanna did an ok job in the movie. Most of her lines were simple and her yelling. She did an ok job at that....she should probably stick to singing. She was not terrible but you could tell it was out of her comfort zone.

Over all it was an entertaining movie that will keep you guessing. Looking for something fun and you have already seen Avengers....go check this one out. you have been warned about the terrible acting but other than that the action was pretty sweet!

The Count Of Monte Cristo

You all know how much I like to throw in a random movie that challenges my few readers to go out and experience something new and awesome! Well the movie of the week is The Count of Monte Cristo the 2002 version. The film is based on the classic story by Alexandre Dumas Pere and has had many interpretations over the years. This is my favorite because of the combination of cast, setting, and script. I also love this film because it shows that a story can be a few hundred years old and still hold value in today's world.


The movie stars Jim Caviezel as Edmond Dantes a second mate of a small ship. His fiance is Dagmara Dominczyk as Mercedes and she is lovely and enchanting. Their best friend is Guy Pearce as Fernand Mondego, the son of a count. The film begins with Edmond being accussed of a crime he is not commit. He was sent away to prison by J.F. Villefort, played by James Frain. We learn that he is sent away because has information on Villfort's family and wants no one to know about it. While in prison for 4 years Edmond one day meets a man who pops up out of the floor. He is Abbe Faria or Priest, played by the talented and dearly departed Richard Harris. Priest tells Edmond that he will teach him everything he knows if he will assist him in digging out of prison. Edmond agrees and a friendship is born out of pure chance.

Priest tells Edmond that he knows the location of a massive treasure and he gives Edmond a map. I won't tell you how but Edmond ends up out and able to find this treasure with the help of his new friend Jacopo played by Luis Guzman. Edmond makes it his life's goal to destroy all of those that have made him suffer all of these years. He makes himself The Count of Monte Cristo and slowly starts to ruin the lives of all those that betrayed him.

The movie is beautiful with amazing scenes and settings. Even in the dark and gloomy prison the colors are vivid orange and brown. Once in Paris the colors turn much warmer than the beach and sea colors we are so use to. As the Count, he covers himself with Red and blue as where Edmond wore browns and grays. Even Jacopo dresses in vivid lively colors. Fernand tends to stay with the simple white and black but do not let that fool you, he is anything but simple. Mercedes is so beautiful is does not matter what color she is in. When she is with Edmond she wear simple blues and yellow....simple clothes for a simple happy life. When she is with Fernand she wears deeper red and purples but she is in pain and torn from the life she knew.

The actors in this film are so real and human. They are flawed as much as the rest of us. Richard Harris plays a memorable and deeply torn man. He is ashamed of his past and tries to dedicate his life to God and retribution. Jim as Edmond shows some much growth from the innocent second mate, to the lonely prisoner, to the bitter trouble man filled with revenge. By the end of the film you do not even remember the old Edmond because The Count has changed him so much. Guy Pearce is the man you love to hate. He is charming but sneaky and you are sure if you can believe anything he says. Plus Guy plays the odd man out so well. I really enjoyed Dagmara because she was in so much pain and suffering but still managed to be strong and stand up for what she believed in. She is a modern woman trapped in a traditional world.

If you need a great movie to watch...go get this one! One of my all time favorites!

Action: Yes

Adventure: Some

Romance: Sort of



Over All: A

SAFE

It's hardly a shocker when you hear of another action movie starring...you guessed it Jason Statham. Now don't get me wrong, he is very good at what he does. He is a great piece of eye candy and he is amazing at his skill. The movie Safe was no different...there is action, a bit of drama, some one liners, and blood. The movie starts of with Statham winning a fight and some Russians that lost money on him ruin his life. They tell him he will never be able to have contact with people again or they will kill them...and they do. So Statham wanders the street of New York as a homeless man. During this time we see a little girl wonder name Mei who can remember any number or code you tell her. She is taken by the Chinese drug lords and forced to memorize all of their numbers....no paper trails. She is sent to New York to keep an eye on ChinaTown and their holdings.


Well the Russian try to steal the girl because of a code she has in her head and the Chinese want her back. Well then we find out that the NYPD dirty cops want in on the money too so all these groups are after this one little girl. As she is trying to run and hide from them, Jason Statham sees her and saves her. He then makes it is mission/purpose to save this girl and keep her safe...hint hint from the title. So he tears apart New York and we learn all about his secret past.

The movie is not bad....it has alot of one liners that are funny. The action is awesome and very intense. Statham is beautiful and memorizing to watch.....I now understand why men drool over hot women because I was swooning over him! The story is not the best thing I have ever seen but far from the worse. It lacked depth but it was entertaining and engaging.

The little girl Mei was adorable and spunky as the girl who didn't know who to trust. It is very hard to remember who any of the other characters are, they kind of all blend into one. Most of them are killed off right away so it really doesn't matter.

If you are in the mood for action and mindless entertainment, this is your film. It is the typical guy muscle man movie but it's Statham and he's awesome. I would not buy it, you don't have to see it in theater, but rent it if you are looking for entertainment!

Action: yes

Adventure: Yeah

Drama: eh?



Over All: C+

Friday, May 4, 2012

The Avengers

FINALLY!!!! I have been waiting years and years to see The Avengers! I am a big comic book movie fan and this was like the icing on the cake! We have 5 amazing individual movies coming together to form one huge mega movie. Those five movies would be Captain America, Ironman, Ironman2, The Incredible Huld, and Thor, all of which were fantastic stand alone films. Marvel put all of these characters into the same universe and showed us how it would work. A film like this has never been done! It was one of those films where it would either work and be brilliant or fail and suck. Now the line has been drawn and some critics have not liked the movie...well I loved it!


The film starts off with Director Fury, Hawkeye, Agent Maria Hill, Agent Coulson, and Dr. Eric Selvig (Played by Samuel L Jackson, Jeremy Renner, Cobie Smulder, Clark Gregg, and Stellan Skargard) working with the energy source they found during World War II. Now those of you that know your films know this was an endless energy source discovered by The Red Skull and it was brought to Earth from Asgaurd (Loki and Thor's home planet). This is interrupted by a doorway opening and Loki appearing. Loki has come to Earth to take over and crown himself king. Now there is alot that happens but I'm not going to tell you....no spoilers from me!

So The Avengers must come together for the good of mankind! We must bring together some very large egos and see what will happen. We have Tony Stark/Iron Man, Steve Rogers/Captain America, Bruce Banner/Hulk, Natasha Romanoff/BlackWidow, and Thor (Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, and Chris Hemsworth) coming together. They are all very strong personalities so the trouble is can they stop their petty bickering and keep it together long enough to save the world!!??


The special effects in this movie are AMAZING. I could not tell what was real and what was not. They all made sense within this larger than life film. When there was action there was a ton of action. You are on the edge of your seat waiting for something else to go wrong or for someone else to show up! The other world moments were so fantastic and The Hulk looked so real, I thought he was real. It did not look CGI at all!

All of the actors were fantastic in this film. Chis Evans was the fantastic down to Earth one that is just trying to keep the peace. Robery Downey Jr is FANTASTIC with his one liners and his chemistry with our dear Pepper Potts, played by Gwyenth Paltrow. He also has the energy to push the other Avengers beyond what they want to do. Thor is still torn between what he should do and what is right. He loves his brother and you believe he is so torn between fighting his brother and trying to save him. You can tell he still loves Loki and it is his brother no matter what he does. Tom Hiddleston as Loki is always raw pain and talent. He is filled with so much rage and bitterness but he is still really likable. Jeremy Renner makes me swoon when I see Hawkeye....perfect down to his bow welding kick butt self. I found myself wanting to know more about his back story and his connection with the bas A$$ Black Window. She was very enjoyable this film because we saw she had heart and was not just a SHIELD agent. Mark as The Hulk was the best portrayal I have EVER seen of that character. I believed in his confused state and that inner rage just fighting to break out. I wanted more of The Hulk, which shocked me because I'm not a big Hulk fan...but this movie made me one! All the SHIELD agents were great, fighting soldiers for a planet they loved and heroes they prayed for.

I really enjoyed the film and it connected all of the other films together. I hope they make another group Avenger movie but until then we have Iron Man 3, Thor 2 and Captain America 2 coming out! Fingers crossed for another group party film! If the numbers are what they say they are.....I bet there will be an Avengers 2!!


Action: Yes
Adventure: Yes
Humor: Stark....hello yes!



Over all: A!!!

The Raven

Quoth the raven....nevermore. A fantastic and chilling line from Edgar Allan Poe's timeless haunting classic The Raven. Edgar Allan Poe was a poet who was not afraid to show his dark outlook on life. He would write the horrors that the people dreamt of and the fears we all have inside us. The film The Raven starring John Cusack as Edgar Allan Poe puts a modern spin on this classic writers life. Now my readers should remember this is a work of fiction with some true facts about Poe's life mixed in. The Raven takes place during the later years of Poe's life after he ha written most of his famous works. The film starts with a down in his luck Edgar Allan Poe wandering the streets of Baltimore alone and drunk. Hardly anyone knows who he is and no one will publish him because he is not writing stories but reviews of other people's work.

One night a murder is committed in Baltimore and Detective Fields, played by Luke Evans, is called on the case. This murder seems familiar and creates a sense of Duja Vu with Fields. He realises that it is a gruesome killing right out of one of the stories of Edgar Allan Poe. Fields calls on Edgar for his unholy knowledge in the tale and in turn the case. More murders start to turn up and the city of Baltimore is in chaos as the killer uses Poe as inspiration.


The film is by far Bloody, disturbing and gruesome. At one point I even had to look away because the blood was so intense...but still well done. I never pictured Poe's stories as clean and fluffy but this movies brings their true darkness to form. The costuming of this film is beautiful and haunting. The masks in the ball scene are amazing and I seriously want to now have a masked ball around Halloween. The coats in this movie fly about like capes and like the wings of a raven.


The colors of the movie are so drastic from one another. The film itself is very dark tones, lots of blacks and greys. Even scene during the day have a heavy fog that suffocate the characters. The character of Emily, played by the stunning Alice Eve, wears alot of lite blue and white. Poe and Fields wear black coats with white shirts, very dark with their dark features. I think the reason the death scenes are also to effective is the use of the color red. It stands out so much and is disturbing in this world of blue and black. The vivid red of blood splattered across the screen intensifies the feeling of terror and dread.


The acting in this film was very real and disturbed, I mean that in the best possible way. Cusack is disturbing, witty, and emotional as the torn and lost Poe. He is a man that life has treated so cruelly and he managed to continue on. He is finally allowing himself to love again and all hell breaks loose. Cusack goes from angry drunk to lost lover at the spill of a drop of blood. I enjoyed his performance very much and I feel like he will not get the recognition he deserves.


Luke Evans is stunning and charming as the lovely Detective Fields. He is trying so hard to prove himself but has the passion of a normal man. I wish he would have been on screen more, his acting is so real that you forget he is acting. You think that Luke Evans IS Detective Fields! I am very excited to see how far his career will go because the man just drips with pure raw talent.


I really enjoyed the film but I was a very big fan of the ending....not the end....I thought it ended rather well but the build up to the end was disappointing. I think part of that was my own personal desire for the film not to end. The film is action packed and if you are a Poe fan you will be very entertained. The movie slides in little hints about the short stories written by Poe and if you know his stories you will not be disappointed. You will also never read The Pit and The Pendulum the same way again!




Action: yes
Adventre: A little
Puzzles....YES

Over all: B+