Category: Action

Omar

Bill I’s Rating – 4 out of 5

This movie is many things: a romance (Omar and Nadia are teenagers, almost sweetly naive, making eyes and passing secret love notes), a thriller (Omar and his two Palestinian buddies are budding terrorists/freedom fighters – take your pick as one reviewer said – striking back at their Israel occupiers/overseers in the West Bank in an amateurish but lethal way) and ultimately a political statement that portrays the helplessness and brutality felt by these young men. It is fast moving, realistic, well made film that includes some great chase scenes, chaste love scenes and in your face confrontations between friends and between captor/prisoner. Religion and historical disputes are not discussed, only the reality of the sad situation. Well done.

Non-Stop

Bill I’s Rating – 3.5 out of 4

Non-Stop it is, like Phone Booth, Speed or Snakes on a Plane, bad things will and do happen while our hero/anti-hero played superbly by Liam Neeson (in his Taken and The Grey persona of a hard, semi-beaten guy with a special set of skills) has to take over and save the plane-full of passengers. I enjoyed it throughout, although I admit that a recent TV episode of Person of Influence pretty much covered the same ground in half the time with twice the humor. Overall a thrill ride for a Saturday night, can’t beat that.

Lone Survivor

Bill C’s Review – 3.5 out of 5

Lone Survivor is based on the true story of a failed SEAL operation to capture or kill a Taliban leader in Afghanistan in 2005.

This is a very patriotic movie showing incredibly courageous men on a mission where things went wrong.  Probably two-thirds of the movie is devoted to the mission and the battle. This is one of the more realistic war battles filmed—not quite up there with Saving Private Ryan, but pretty good.  Even though the outcome is clear from the beginning, there is tension throughout.  The battle is grittily filmed up and down the tree-lined mountain terrain.

This film has a first-rate cast led by Mark Wahlberg and including  Emile Hirsch, Taylor Kitsch and Ben Foster.  They did spend some time  developing the characters, but could have done a bit more in that area.

If you like realistic war movies, this is a movie you should see.

IMDB

Rotten Tomatoes

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The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Bill C’s Review – 3 out of 5

This review is not intended for those who are really into this series as all of those people have undoubtedly seen this already (probably twice). I had not seen the first movie, but I watched it on Netflix (what dedication!) once the sequel got such good reviews. I even looked up “dystopia” in the dictionary since everything I heard or read talked about the story set in a dystopian society (and they are right—an imaginary place where people lead dehumanized and often fearful lives).

I was glad that I went back and watched the first movie to have a good context for this one. Overall I liked Catching Fire and thought it was better than the first. The movie is almost 2.5 hours long but it did fly by. The characters are interesting and the acting, good, with a surprisingly good cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Donald Sutherland, Stanley Tucci, Elizabeth Banks, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Woody Harrelson, and more. For the most part, the action was good although I found some of it hard to follow. I did have a couple of quibbles about the ending. It reminded me a little of The Empire Strikes Back--I didn’t think it had a real ending. It just sort of found a good point to stop, so the next film would have a good place to start. I have been told this is how the book ends too. I also didn’t like that they had to explain at the end what happened in the battle towards the end (since there’s no way to have figured it out just by watching), and what happened to some of the characters since they didn’t show that in the movie, but wanted you to know for the next movie.

Despite the quibbles with the last 15-20 minutes overall I enjoyed this.

Bill I’s Review – 3.5 out of 5

I was not as diligent as Bill so I have not seen the first movie, thinking this one should be able to stand on its own. I think it does, but also am sure that I would have appreciated it more if I was familiar with the prior episode and the characters. I agree with everything Bill says in his review, including the excellent acting, the movie moving fast, and the abrupt ending, almost like it’s going to a long commercial. Very imaginative scenarios to go with a very depressing futuristic life under a powerful Donald Sutherland as “President”. The way the government thugs march in and torture and kill citizens without a second thought, much less a trial, reminds me of Syria and other hot spots in our current world. How powerless the citizenry must feel, which is the essence of this story. There’s enough humor to keep me from getting miserable watching, and some situations that stretch logic (OK, count how many arrows Katniss starts out with in her quiver, then count the number she ends up shooting, or firing, or whatever you do with arrows.). I’d be interested in reading comments of anyone who’s a fan of this series.

IMDB

Rotten Tomatoes

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Thor The Dark World

Bill I’s Review – 2 out of 5

This sequel fell short of my already low expectations, and I couldn’t wait for the closing credits.  When I find myself squirming in my seat, closing my eyes and not worrying I am missing something then I know it’s not a great movie for me. It started out OK, with the same characters as the first Thor, but then towards the end got more preposterous and boring. The actors are fine (Anthony Hopkins as Odin, Natalie Portman as the brainy beauty scientist, and Tom Hiddleston as Thor’s bad bro Loki), some of the repartee is witty, but oh, the plot. I don’t think I need to give a spoiler alert because I don’t think I understood enough to explain what exactly happens. I can say that someone wants to destroy the universe, and they need to capture the “ether” from Natalie (she has absorbed it somehow, while pining away for her dream beauty Thor who said he’d be right back two years ago, while he had to go back to his world in another galaxy, deal with his father and unruly brother, and save his world), then wait for the precise moment when convergence happens (don’t remember convergence from your high school physics class? Well it’s when all the planets line up in a row and gravity goes nuts causing havoc – my wife says it causes worm holes but I don’t recall them using that terminology), and only at that moment can the ether be deployed to destroy everything. Unless, of course, the brainy beauteous Natalie is wielding her iPad with knobs to zap the bad guys into another dimension. Some minor questions arose in my mind along the way. Such as, when and how did Natalie, or her mentor wacky scientist who runs around in his underwear (or less), figure out how to create this super iPad without even asking Apple? Or why do the good guys on Thor’s world use swords to fight the bad guys even though they have super advanced technology that allows them to travel through worm holes and to fly super fast ships with great ray guns and automated ray canons? And how do the bad guys, who have been exciled in some type of remote prison since the first Thor, come back armed with super AK-47 type ray guns and grenades that suck into thin air anyone within 50 feet? Let this be a warning to all of you, not to snooze so you can figure out these puzzlers. Or not.

Captain Phillips

Bill I’s Review – 4 out of 5

A gripping tale that builds to a high suspense after only about 10-15 minutes, and sustains it till the climactic end. A true story of Somali pirates capturing a cargo ship, it shows the intricate and thorough planning that is done by the well-trained pirates (NOT!) and how both prepared, and ill-equpped the merchant seaman are. They have no arms beyond water hoses, and the pirates have not much more than basic radar, radios, a long ladder, and of course, machine guns. Tom Hanks gives an incredible performance, as do a couple of the pirates. How could these dirt poor Somalies hold the US Navy at bay? You will see with this great movie.

Bill C’s Review – 4 out of 5

This has been out a while but I finally got to see it.  This reminded me a bit of last year’s  Argo – a tension filled films as the government tries to free captive American(s) in another part of the world (although that was a more clandestine, less violent operation).  Just like Ago the tension is maintained despite knowing the outcome.

Tom Hanks is excellent (more on him in my next post) as are the Somali actors.  The Somali performances are more amazing as I believe they had no acting experience.

The film sticks to the boarding and rescue and doesn’t delve into the more controversial aspects of the incident (the ship should have been 600 miles off shore instead of 250.  It also provides a view from the pirates perspective and let’s them be viewed in a somewhat  sympathetic light

This is definitely work seeing.

IMDB

Rotten Tomatoes

Elysium

Bill C’s Review – 2.5 out of 5

I had high expectations for Elysium after watching coming attractions for this movie all summer. It has Matt Damon, who has been great in action movies with the Bourne series, and is directed by Neil Blomkamp who made the highly entertaining District 9. This movie was ok, but did not live up to my expectations.

The 1% have now left earth to live in a utopia orbiting earth with machines that can cure any medical problem, while the downtrodden 99% struggle to live on a polluted, decimated earth. Elysium is protected by ‘Homeland Security’ run by Jodie Foster. I usually like Jodie Foster. While she successfully comes across as evil, she has a really weird accent and overall I didn’t like her performance at all.

Matt Damon’s character has had a tough life and is trying to get his life together. But due to circumstances beyond his control, he needs to join up with the resistance to try to reach Elysium and save the 99%. Damon, as usual is good. I also liked many of the action scenes. The first half was better than the second half, and I didn’t really like the ending.  SPOILER ALERT ON  This also had one of my pet peeves on movies with computers being key parts of the plot: when computer screens have random numbers and characters scrolling on and off the screen faster than any human being can read them, it is not possible for the person who has never been exposed to that program to figure out what the program does, how it does it, and to immediately provide his desired input to the program in seconds to save mankind. SPOILER ALERT OFF

This movie joins my growing list of this summer’s films that have robots! This movie is ok…but if you haven’t seen it, stay home and watch District 9 instead.

IMDB

Rotten Tomatoes

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2 Guns

Bill C’s Review – 3  out of 5

I didn’t have high expectations for this one but I was pleasantly surprised. The plot is ridiculous as is much of the action. This is a buddy-cop movie and what makes it entertaining are the performances. Denzel Washington is good in anything he does and the pairing with Mark Wahlberg works well. Their banter pretty much makes the movie. Bill Paxton is also good as the ove-the-top dirty CIA agent and Paula Patton as Washington’s love interest.

If you don’t like violence (especially against chickens), you might want to avoid this. It’s not the best movie of the summer, but you could do worse.

Bill I’s Review – 3  out of 5

Lot of fun, and yes, nutty unbelievable plot, but the repartee between Markie and Denzel is perfect, and the action never stops. The bad guys (mostly our government agents) are super bad, lots of bullets flying, point blank killing and things blowing up, but it somehow seems fresh, Tarantino-like, including the quips in the midst of the violence. I love watching Paula Patton but she seemed the least believable character. I had heard her real-life husband (Robin Thicke of recent Blurred Lines fame) describe how it was Paula’s idea to do the love scene with Denzel fully topless, and I have to say that was a good call. Perfect summer movie, no thinking needed.

IMDB

Rotten Tomatoes

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Wolverine

Bill I’s Review – 3.5 out of 5

I had almost no expectations that this would capture my attention the way it did. It must be due to Hugh Jackman, as the plot is fairly laughable, especially at the end. But it’s an exciting adventure with believable characters (except maybe the Japanese grandpa), and perfect for a summer night’s entertainment.

Bill C’s Review – 3 out of 5

Bill is right on with this one.  It was a decent action movie with a pretty ridiculous (and predictable) plot.  Jackman carries it with more to do than just his action scenes. I found the other Japanese woman more interesting than the granddaughter of the grandpa and they sort of set it up so she could come back in any sequels which would be good.  If this had been animated I would have recommended Mr. Burns from the Simpsons to play the grandpa.

This also seems like the summer with a lot of robots in movies – this one, Pacific Rim, Iron Man 3. Have I missed any?

I saw this in 3D and I didn’t think it added much.  If you see this stay for the closing credits.

IMDB

Rotten Tomatoes

Pacific Rim

Bill C’s Review – 2.75 out of 5

This is another one of those movies where it doesn’t really matter what  I thought.  If you like movies like the Transformers movies or Japanese B movies from the 50s or 60s like Godzilla or action movies in general  you’ll probably like this.  If you don’t stay home or go see something else.

This is directed by Guillermo Del Toro and the movie is well made.   The special effects and action are high quality but depending on your point of view with these movies will either be great or totally ridiculous.   The same can be said for the plot and dialogue.  Some of the dialogue can also be thought of as superfluous as some of the characters mind melded for the battles.

The movie definitely moves right along (either because you’re totally into it or you’re noticing all the reasons you don’t like it).  If you like this type of movie definitely check it out.

IMDB

Rotten Tomatoes

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