Movie Review – Battleship

May 18, 2012 Leave a comment

I remember playing Battleship with my dad not too long ago.  I remember the elegance of the strategy needed to sink the opponents ships.  It is the basis for trial and error, learning from your mistakes and changing your tactics to accommodate a diverse battlefield.  The movie Battleship, is nothing like the game it is supposedly based on.  The antithesis of the big summer blockbuster motif, the film itself absconds with the plot, the acting, and other things that make sense to an audience to give us the most formulaic, base shot of dope to satiate our soft tissue brain and keep our eyes engaged.  To say the least, Battleship sunk itself in its cinematic outing.

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Movie Review – Marvel’s The Avengers

May 4, 2012 Leave a comment

The Avengers is the culmination of years of work, numerous movies, lots of merchandise and advertising and ultimately, the collaboration of many actors to put aside their love of screen time to assemble together for a movie that is the grandest summer movie spectacle.  I have stated in past posts and review about the Marvel movies that were sacrificed at the altar for the greater good of getting us to The Avengers and it wasn’t wasted.  Thor was a weak movie with characterization just being there in order to fill the Thor role. Captain America was a solid movie from the origin aspect to the pathos that makes up the Captain.  Iron Man and it’s sequel was the catalyst for The Avengers, laying ground work in the first and then shoehorned all the elements into the second film, weakening it sadly.  Then there was The Incredible Hulk, a film that was left unscathed, but still tied in nicely to the idea of The Avengers.  So with all these films being used to set us up for largest superhero ensemble film of the summer, does it really come together?


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Movie Review – Safe

May 3, 2012 2 Comments

I am honestly beginning to think there is a new genre of action films that is purely defined as Statham.  His movies are in a world of their own, where he is best driver in the world, one of the most difficult men to kill in his film and is an unmatched fighter.  His films follow a particular structure of death and destruction that only pander to the base needs that film goers want when they see a Statham movie.  I want him to either a) drive cars in the most actiony way possible, b) shot lots of guns at people, c) make quips and lots of them, and finally d) beat up everyone who gets in his way.  The latest film, Safe, for a lack of a better word, is pretty much a safe film that delivers us what we come to expect with Jason Statham films.  It’s not rocket science, but damned if the science isn’t fun to watch.

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Movie Review – Building Babel

April 21, 2012 Leave a comment

Park51, a name that does not ring a lot of bells in the American psyche.  But what if I were to say “9/11 Mosque”?  Does that conjure up images of New Yorkers and Americans rallying together to stop the construction of an Islamic center just blocks from the site of the Twin Towers?  Polarizing and a view into the window of religious dialogue and tolerance, Building Babel is an appropriate title to a film that shows the monumental task of courting controversy and believing in what you do.

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Movie Review – The Island President

April 21, 2012 Leave a comment

Global climate change is a particularly touchy subject, a hot bed of political grandstanding and a dog fight for people looking to hold nations accountable for their wreck-less polluting.  Some people will deny that global climate change is real and is a small problem compared to the other issues in the world.  But when you hear about a nation of the coast of India, that sits only a few meters above sea level, slowly sinking into the ocean, you have to wonder why.  The Maldives is an island nation, one where the real effect of global climate change is having the largest impact and that is the slow sinking of the majestic island nation.  A small country, one that doesn’t have so much political clout, has to face the stark reality of fixing the climate problem or face being erased from the map entirely.

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Movie Review – The Cabin in the Woods

April 20, 2012 4 Comments

It is the main staple of horror films, the seemingly innocuous setting of a secluded cabin nestled amongst the twisted trunks of trees that reach out with their spindly branches to menace you and your group of friends that all match a certain character type.  The dilapidated cabin, worn down by the elements and years offers an eerie setting for which the unknown and it’s effects are amplified, also the cabin in the woods is the titular, iconic image for horror fans.

The Cabin in the Woods takes the notion of horror films, tropes, scares and all the things that go bump into the night and creates one of the most meta horror films to come along in a, well, full moon maybe.  Given the old adage of imitation is the highest form of flattery, The Cabin in the Woods brings together everything you love about horror movies and gives it the viking funeral pyre treatment.  I will say that this is one of my favorite horror movies to date for what it manages to achieve, a full on meta axe to the faces of all things horror.

This review will be heavy on the spoilers, so take my advice and see the movie then come back to read the review.  You won’t find a funner, bloodier movie than The Cabin in the Woods.

Spoilers GO!

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Movie Review – The Raid: Redemption

April 20, 2012 2 Comments

Now pick your jaw off the floor and get ready for this review.  We as a film audience have been spoiled and lied to time and time again.  Action movies are about as common as the air we breathe so we almost become numb to the sort of whiz bang effect that these types of movies can have on us.  You can go to any rental store or even check out Netflix and realize that the action genre is over bloated with bad action movies.  Stuff with too much shaky cam or crappy fight scenes or hell, not enough action to sate the lust that we have for bone crunching punches and unlimited ammo usage.  I am not knocking all action films, just the bad ones that we pass for entertainment.  There is one thing that amazes me though and that is the international film market for action movies.

Hong Kong hit the scenes with the John Woo classics that look like American films pumped up on the juice and it showed.  It set the standard for duel wielding guns with an almost ballet like style to the gun fights.  Then for those kung fu enthusiasts, look no further to Thailand that reinvigorate the fight genre with Ong Bak and making Tony Jaa a household name.  But for the ultimate in cinematic satisfaction, we look to Welsh director Gareth Evans and his Indonesian film, The Raid: Redemption.

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Movie Review – Lockout

April 15, 2012 2 Comments

As a science fiction fan, I can forgive a lot about movies and their love/hate relationship with physics and how space itself works.  I mean gravity exists in every facet of sci-fi films from small ships to space stations.  There is no need to explain why it works, it just does and we move along.  Don’t even get me started about explosions and sound in space cause that is a whole other issue.  When a movie decides to give us the finger and just do whatever it wants with space itself, the results are beautiful.  “Oxygen-fed weapons”, artificial gravity generators, space skydiving, and the absurdity of a space prison are just some of the things that Lockout manages to incorporate in the genre mash-up that reminds me of Escape from New York, but in space.  It’s this bit of absurdity that I come to appreciate, even in the midst of a title card that reads “An original idea by Luc Besson”.

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Movie Review – Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope

April 6, 2012 2 Comments

This is it, this is the pinnacle of nerdom and geekery.  San Diego Comic-Con is the be all, end all of your hopes and dreams wrapped up into one location.  It doesn’t matter if you are a card geek, toy geek, comic book nerd, pop culture junkie, cosplayer, artist, film fan, table top geek, video game aficionado, or just a big geek in general, there is a place for you to call home.  The documentary by Morgan Spurlock is a loving tribute to all things Comic-Con and for me, one of the funnest documentaries I saw at the True False Fest.  I made it my mission to get front row seating (check), partake in the spectacle of this film (check) and meet Morgan Spurlock (double check), but ultimately Comic-Con Episode IV is truly the nerds right of passage and solidifies that yes, Geeks will inherit the Earth.

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Movie Review – Bully

March 31, 2012 2 Comments

I was a victim of bullying.  Shocking I know that a nerd like myself was the target for bullying with my glasses, portly disposition and general intelligence level above those that I attended school with.  It stings being bullied and teased in school for no other reason than to be the target of some ridicule so others can feel good about themselves.  I take comfort in the fact that my life has turned out immensely better than theirs, with a career (currently in between jobs) and not currently siring several children and working for slightly above minimum wage.  Take that fuckers!

Anyways, now that I have openly vented about my past, bullying is still some morbid national past time that happens even decades after I exited the education system.  We see it in the news about teens killing themselves from incessant bullying and the backlash of violence from those that just can’t take it anymore.  Everyone knows why but they can never seem to get to the heart of the issue.  Young kids deciding that the teasing and bullying becomes almost too much for them and end of taking their lives or those around them.  It’s a tragedy that has to be addressed and it hopefully a documentary like Bully will bring to light the issues of bullying in schools in the most direct way possible.

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