December 28, 2010

Inception

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1375666/
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmkQ7fw-l0g

Plot:
Corporate espionage. Cobb can invade people’s dreams, so corporations hire him to steal business secrets from rivals’ subconscious. Saito, an energy magnate, wants Cobb to do the reverse: not take information, but plant an idea in a rival’s mind. In return, he’ll fix problems with the US government so Cobb can return to his children. Cobb takes the near-impossible job, planning three layers of dreams within dreams for the mark. It requires a larger team taking a powerful sedative: if something goes awry, the dreamers may not awake. Cobb doesn’t tell his team that his past nurtures feelings powerful enough to bring on this comatose state for all of them. And the children – are they real?

Review:
Admittedly, I am a fan of Christopher Nolans Movies. Especially Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, being a Batman fan in general. I’d seen a few things about Inception but I’d have to admit, the trailer didn’t do much for me or give me a quick understanding of what the movie might be about. Just a bunch of guys in suits flying around rooms and having buildings bend is all I seemed to grasp from it.
I don’t really want to write a review on the movie, because the concept was just that good. But to put it simple, dreams inside dreams inside dreams, so pay attention, because you’ll need to. If you saw the first Matrix movie and just “didn’t get it”, then give up now because it’s is a little more complex. While some people were able to understand it, some weren’t and I’m not quite sure how they didn’t “get it” to begin with.
But I’d recommend this movie to go and see, it was one of the best of 2010 and I don’t want to give it away for you. Stop reading, just go see it. Or hire the dvd, or something. But just stop reading now and see it.

Rating:
5/5

October 19, 2010

Resident Evil: Afterlife (3D)

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1220634/
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dc5iiT0f1s

Plot:
In a world ravaged by a virus infection, turning its victims into the Undead, Alice (Jovovich), continues on her journey to find survivors and lead them to safety. Her deadly battle with the Umbrella Corporation reaches new heights, but Alice gets some unexpected help from an old friend. A new lead that promises a safe haven from the Undead takes them to Los Angeles, but when they arrive the city is overrun by thousands of Undead – and Alice and her comrades are about to step into a deadly trap

Review:
Having seen the trailer for this movie, it looked pretty awesome, and it’s in 3D. What more could you want than Zombie Splattering 3D action? Well maybe 1 hour and 50 minutes of my life back.
What started out as a young woman standing in the street clad in stockings with slow motion 3D rain falling about which had ever male going “oh, this looks good”. Quickly turned to 20 minutes of badly engineered sound leaving me somewhat deaf from the explosions and shit that went on. Including a scene with gunfire into marble walls that was reminiscent of The Matrix.
Why do I want my 1 hour 50 minutes back you ask? Well that’s because this is probably the longest ever Maybelline advert I’ve ever seen. Despite the fact that Milla Jovovich has become somewhat of a sex symbol being in Fifth Element and the Resident Evil movies, some how she manages to keep her make up intact while fighting zombies in a post apocalyptic world, and going under water.
The story was somewhat lacking, to the point where a giant man with a bag on his head and meat tenderiser comes out of nowhere and starts bashing on a door. Only to later be killed by a nickel.
Again we follow Alice who just kills zombies as per usual. The first half an hour I had no clue about, but it could have been that the third movie was amongst the same shit they used this time and had fuck all of a story line.
The same thing seems to be said everywhere “the 3D was great, but were we watching a movie?”.
If you’re up for some mindless violence and a few good looking women on the screen, it might be the go to watch. But don’t pack your brain for the trip, it’s a waste of time.

By the end of it, I think I kept telling the screen to “fuck off” with the countless bullshit that seemed to happen. The only good part was an exploding head in 3D.

Rating:
2.5/5

September 22, 2010

The Wrestler

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1125849/
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61-GFxjTyV0

Plot:
A faded professional wrestler must retire, but finds his quest for a new life outside the ring a dispiriting struggle.

Review:
I never considered Mickey Rourke to be that much of an actor. But then I’d really only seen him in Sin City, which to me wasn’t a great movie. But neither was 300, so flame me! :)
After seeing him in a few other movies like The Expendables, Iron Man 2 and The Wrestler, he started to grow on me. I watched this because I had seen the trailer and it looked interesting, not to mention it looked like a low budget B grade movie that had a solid story line to win some awards.
The Wrestler follows Rourke who plays a retired professional wrestler who is trying to find a way of life away from the wrestling ring. He tries to form a relationship with a stripper played by Marissa Tomei, and also work on getting to know his daughter, of which he never spent much time with during her childhood and into her early 20′s. While trying to work out his life between relationships, he battles a heart problem which forces him to quit wrestling, but doesn’t keep him away from the ring.
This movie really was worth watching and I’d recommend others to grab the dvd and see it. It has a very well written story line.

Rating:
4.5/5

September 18, 2010

The Karate Kid (2010)

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1155076/
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XY8amUImEu0

Plot:
Work causes a single mother to move to China with her young son; in his new home, the boy embraces kung fu, taught to him by a master.

Review:
When some people say remake, normally there’s still some changes to make the movie. Really the only difference between this version of The Karate Kid and the 1984 release staring Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita is black/white, Japan/China, Karate/Kung Fu. The irony being that the 2010 Karate Kid is aimed around China and Kung Fu.
Jaden Smith, son of Jada Pinket-Smith and Hollywood star Will Smith are both Producers of this movie (read: here’s your college education invested in a movie for you son to make you rich). It features several Will Smith one liners which look like they have been passed onto his son to help his career some more, and to be honest, it seems thats all this movie was for. To boost the career of Jaden Smith.

Jackie Chan has always been a favourite of mine to watch, while he does Kung Fu very well, it’s more for a stunt purpose. But it makes it very entertaining to watch, as I’ve said with a co-work of mine. If you want to see real Kung-Fu, look at Jet-Li films and hit him up on youtube from when he was younger and a Kung-Fu champion.

Jackie Chan plays this role very well and fills those shoes of Pat Morita left after his passing, I think Jackie has done well to fill this role and the credit to him becoming another lovable icon of the movie business.

The basics of this movie don’t differ from the 1984 original. Kid from out of town gets his arse kicked by some karate knowing punks, a local old karate master teaches him how to kick, punch and all that while doing it in an odd way (wax on, wax off = pick the jacket up, put the jacket down). Jaden plays this role well, but it’s a bit off putting seeing a 10 year old with a better 6 pack than I do. My only 6 pack comes from Coopers unfortunately.

For those of the new generation who haven’t seen the original Karate Kid movies, watch them first, your parents will watch them too for nostalgia, and you’ll get a better feeling for why this movie was better than you think. Because I grew up with the Karate Kid movies and they were entertaining. Going and seeing this movie with my dad who’s now in his 60′s and myself in my late 20′s made us think of when I was only a kid growing up and going to see the movies together. It’s there for nostalgia and to enjoy, not to be a box office hit.
It was something for Will Smith and his son to do together, and also for fathers and their son’s everywhere to go and watch too.

Rating:
4/5

Predators


IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1424381/
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9u8vZwvP57Y

Plot:
Chosen for their ability to kill without conscience, a group of killers, some trained and some who are not, must endeavour the alien race of predators that have set out to target them as prey. Dropped into the vast jungle of a distant world, these human predators must learn just who, or what, they are up against, and that their ability, knowledge and wits are tested to the limits in the battle of survival of kill or be killed.

Review:
Having been a good fan of the Predator movies (and the Alien(s) movies). I had some high hopes for the new Predator movie. But at first I was skeptical with the use of Aiden Brody, why? well stand him next to Arnold Schwartzenegger from the first Predator movie and you’ll see a significant size difference. He’s been in several movies but generally played a quaint, gentle person. In this one he seems like he has to live up to the Governors reputation. Having big shoes (body, arms, legs… everything) to fill as the lead role. He put on a lot of muscle and bulked up, and seemingly managed to fill a military uniform well.
While he still looked small, they made up for that by covering his past with mystery and as to which kind of soldier and things he did and was in the past. But evenutally is revlealed in the movie.

This movie took on somewhat more of a primative role, it was focused around the home planets of the Predators, who were amidst a battle that had been going on for years. The humans that were on the planet were there simply to be hunted, as though they’d been dropped in a game reserve and they were the animals.

A small but strange role was played by Lawrence Fishbourne, who filled in most of the want to know details of the movie, but turned out to be totally bananas as he’d been living on the game reserve for nearly 10 years and survived. But no human contact in that time sent him off the edge.

In all, the movie was good. But lacking in some gutsy explosions like the first, and some cheesy one liners. “If it bleeds, we can kill it”. The movie trailers made it look very dark and disturbing, but it didn’t quite live up to that expectation. It was definately missing something, but well worth seeing for those Predator/Alien/Alien vs Predator fans.

Rating
3.5/5

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