Category: Action

Fast & Furious 6

 Bill C’s Review – 3 out of 5

Fast & Furious 6 is the first of this series that I have seen. Since the film got decent reviews and I had seen an interview with the director of this and 3 of the other movies that included some action clips from earlier films in the series, I decided to check it out.

The movie flew by as the action sequences, while utterly ridiculous, were very entertaining. Some scenes just included people or cars, but to spice things up, they brought in a tank, and then finally an airplane. Some of the human action included the addition of Gina Carano from one of last year’s favorites, Haywire, and a great wrestling move from Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson.

In addition to the action the movie had a lot of humor.  I missed a fair number of jokes that watching the first five movies would have clued me in on, but I felt I got the feel for the characters’ relationships pretty quickly. ‘Ludacris’ had the most one-liners and I enjoyed his performance.

I couldn’t decide if Vin Diesel can’t act or if he just goes with the totally deadpan, non-smiling persona (in which case he is a great actor).

The plot had a lot of holes, but you don’t go to this type of movie for the scintillating plot. The end of the movie sets things up for Fast & Furious 7. It will be interesting to see how they outdo themselves!

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Pain and Gain

Bill I’s Review – 3.5 out of 5

What a fun movie! Three muscle heads decide to get rich quick by robbing rich guys, and just make one dumb decision after another. Mark Wahlberg is amazing, and The Rock (Chris Johnson) almost steals the show with his Jesus-loving criminal character. Set in Miami, this could have been lifted from a Carl Hiasson or Elmore Leanord novel, instead it’s based on actual events, which the film reminds you of half-way through. This is remiscient of Goodfellas but without the organized mob or any well thought out plans. Imbeciles with new found money. Loved it!

Star Trek Into Darkness

Bill C’s Review – 3 out of 5

Star Trek Into Darkness is the second reboot of the original Star Trek series and occurs with the original characters prior to ‘5 year mission’ of the original series.

The movie will appeal to both fans of Star Trek and just generally sci-fi/action movies. For the most part, the special effects are pretty good (although the communicators that were so awesome almost 40 years ago seem sort of bulky by today’s standards and the phasers are also nothing special today). I liked the action sequences for most of the movie, but thought the ones towards the end were a little overboard and could have been done better.

For fans of the series, there is a lot of the familiar interaction and humor among Kirk, Spock, Bones, and Scotty, as well as the usual discussions on logic vs. gut decisions influenced by emotion. It did bother me a little that the last movie sort of wiped the slate clean of the original TV historical record, with characters going back in time and therefore changing history.

Zachary Quinto was spot-on as Spock and Simon Pegg always added some humor in a underutilized role as Scotty. Benedict Cumberbatch was excellent as the villain. They even brought Leonard Nimoy back for a cameo, but that was sort of a cop-out in my view that the young Spock needed help from the old Spock.

Overall this was a good movie, but it didn’t quite live up to my expectations.

Bill I’s Review – 3.5 out of 5

I was captured from the opening scene, with the way they immediately immerse you in the adventure, although I rolled my eyes when Spock was able to function in the middle of an active volcano. The story was good enough, bringing to life current issues that we face such as the legality of hunting and killing US citizens “abroad”, and the rogue government agents who become ruthless killers justified by some larger mission. The actors are terrific, the action scenes exciting (terrific editing by Maryann Brandon!), and the villian(s) relentless and heartless. At the end my eyes rolled again when Spock showed off his hand-to-hand fighting skills (and where did that come from?). Overall, a thrilling fun ride from JJ Abrams.

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Iron Man 3

Bill C’s Review – 3 out of 5

Iron Man 3 has a good combination of humor and action and makes a good, but not great, movie to start the summer movie season.

Robert Downey Jr. has the role of Tony Stark  down pat and does a great job with both the action and the comedy.   Ben Kingsley has the meatiest (and probably most fun) in a supporting role with a strong cast that includes Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Jon Favreau, Guy Pearce and Rebecce Hall.

The action and special effects (including non-action sequences) were good.  Keeping the special effects fresh is a challenge for the third movie in a special effects driven series but they pulled it off.   I saw this in 2D but in retrospect I wished I had gone for a 3D viewing.

The plot was ok but but suffered a little from the James Bond plot device of never having the super villain take the easy solution when he has the opportunity.

Iron Man 3 is better than the second installment in the series but not as good as the first Iron Man.

Bill I’s Review – 3.5 out of 5

Thoroughly entertaining, with Robert Downey Jr. given lots of time out of his suit, and Gwyneth Paltrow playing a bigger part than in the past. The plot was a stretch for me, such as what’s the bad guy’s mission other than to exact revenge on the world for ignoring him when he was a wanna be inventor. And while Iron Man has developed a cool new feature that has his suit assemble itself onto him in pieces, it was hard to believe the pieces could travel 750 miles to do so. That’s some seriously precise guided missile technology. Rebecca Hall is a pleasure to watch as a former “love” interest, seen below:

while Don Cheadle is the buddy you can’t live without. The plot moves fast, and the 2 hours 20 minutes never seems too long.

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Springbreakers

Bill I’s Review – 2.5 out of 5

I try to have no expectations other than to see a good film, so I was continually waiting for the good part to start while watching Springbreakers. It’s centered on 4 college girls who scrap up enough cash to head down to St. Petersburg for their wild week. Some of the girls are wild already, and the supposedly religious, “innocent” one, played by Selena Gomez, looking about 14 years old, goes along with the others, disregarding being warned by others to watch out for these girls. They partake in the MTV version of Spring Break, with alcohol flowing, bikini tops being dropped, and drugs being smoked and snorted. That’s not enough, so they delve into more extensive wildness “fun”, after meeting a captivating rapper/gangsta, and about that time I realized that the good part is not going to come at all, nor will my enjoyment. The girls and their lives are depressing, to live and to watch, and overall I did not find any redeeming characters to root for or learn anything about. James Franco plays the white gangsta, and it’s a tour de force, and the only memorable portrayal I will remember in a few weeks.

The Call

Bill I’s Review – 3.5 out of 5

The Call is a terrific suspenseful thriller starring Hallie Berry as a 911 operator, super-competent, cool under pressure, but wracked with guilt and anxiety when she fails to save a desparate caller, and when she ignores her own advice not to develop an emotional connection with the callers. I won’t give away any of the plot, because the less you know the more you will enjoy it. I was skeptical that this simplistic scenario would hold my interest, but it certainly did, reminiscent of other movies such as Speed, The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3 and Phone Booth, where the protaganist, typicaly an ordinary citizen doing his job, has a limited amount of time to resolve a life threatening situation. Good, time tested formula, well done here. Hallie is excellent in a non-glamourous role

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The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Bill C’s Review – 2.5 out of 5

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is Peter Jackson’s follow-up to the mega-successful Lord of the Rings Trilogy with J. R. R. Tolkien’s first book. To cash in on the success of the trilogy movies (3 books = 3 movies), Jackson is splitting this single book into three movies, with the first installment being well over 2.5 hours long. The movie is well made and the action sequences are good, but the movie could have been much shorter.

Bilbo Baggins takes off with a large assortment of dwarves and Gandalf the wizard on the dwarves’ quest to retake  their former home. With so many dwarves, I didn’t really come to care about their characters, and I felt that if they couldn’t win one of the battles, Gandalf (or someone/thing he summoned) would bail them out when necessary.

There was one sequence with Andy Serkis as Gollum, and for me, this scene was the highlight of the movie. Serkis was great and the scene was also excellent.

An Unexpected Journey did a good job of setting things up for the next two movies, but I was expecting more…in less time.

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Django Unchained

Bill I’s Review – 4 out of 5

This is a unique film: quintessential Tarantino with gushing blood, provocative speeches from compelling characters, tongue in cheek humor, homages to spaghetti westerns, and incredible scenes of in your face violence, combined with a revenge fantasy cum morality tale that delves into life during slavery that you won’t see portrayed in too many places in film today or ever. I cringed during the bloody scenes of the worst type of brutality, and my first instinct is to reject such tastelessness, but then I think am I seeing scenes that would have never happened, or was this the unpleasant reality that no one likes to think about happened right here in the US? The current movie, Lincoln, is focused on passing legislation that banned slavery, but it never shows the reality that slavery entails. Django Unchained shows it in a way I’ve never seen. We all know that families were broken up by auctions, but have we internalized the implications of how awful that was? We’ve heard that slaves were treated like chattel, worse than dogs, but seeing it depicted here is something again that I have rarely seen in popular culture. We’ve read about the Uncle Toms, the “house” n***s, the “field” n***s, the “master” who treats his surrogate father who effectively brought him up like a, well, a slave. But watch Samuel L. Jackson’s ultimate Uncle Tom, wielding power over the plantation, watch Leo Dicaprio as the plantation master toying with his “mandingo” wrestlers as he goads them to fight to the death, watch the brutal treatment of the slaves who try to run away…just unforgettable scenes and portrayals. Christoph Waltz, who was terrific in Inglorius Basterds as the Nazi Colonel, is superb here as the cold hearted, sly bounty hunter. Jamie Foxx is a revelation as the newly freed slave who partners with the bounty hunter to find then free his wife, from whom he was forcible separated. I don’t know if any Tarantino film can be considered a serious treatise of an issue such as slavery,  but if you want to watch an engrossing story which depicts the brutality of our not-too-distant past, check out this film.

Bill C’s Review – 4 out of 5

Whether or not to see this movie should be a relatively easy decision.  If you like Tarantino movies you should go.  If you don’t you should stay away at all costs.

As Bill says it has all of the elements of a Tarantino film.  In some ways the violence exceeds some of his earlier films.  There is the usual violence for Tarantino – the over the top shoot outs, explosions, etc and then there’s the slavery inspired violence which unfortunately may not be over the top.

The dialogue is good although not quite as good as Pulp Fiction or Reservoir Dogs.

The movies is very entertaining and despite it’s over 2.5 hour length the movie flies by.  Tarantino gets great performances from Foxx, Waltz, DiCaprio, Jackson and others.  There are also a ton of people making cameos or in smaller roles – Don Johnson, Jonah Hill, Bruce Dern, Franco Nero (from the original ‘Django’ movie), Russ (West Side Story!) and Amber Tamblyn, Tarantino (I love his final scene) and others.

While at times this took a serious look at slavery and how slaves were treated it was also very funny.  At times it reminded me of Blazing Saddles with it’s use of the ‘n’ word and with a scene with the KKK that could easily have been in that movie

For those seeing this movie in Austin you should see it at an Alamo Drafthouse and get their in time to see the pre-show.  It has some clips from some of the films that Tarantino is paying homage to and is also entertaining.  But I’m sure it would take a lot longer to go through all the movies he refers to and it would be interesting to know all that he refers to

IMDB

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Lincoln

Bill I’s Review – 4 out of 5

Daniel Day-Lewis (or is it Daniel-Day Lewis?) is a tour-de-force in this Oscar-worthy performance confirming with me he’s one our the top actors in films today. He is Lincoln, and while I was prepared for a slow first hour (thanks to Howard Stern’s assessment) I was never bored. Spielberg directed this with incredible attention to period detail that fascinated, from the way Lincoln traveled around Washington (a driver who carried a rifle was his only protection while his neighbors didn’t give him a second glance), to his office (constituents were given 1 on 1 audience to plead their case, no matter how minor), to the internal political wranglings, reminiscent of today’s situation where a newly re-elected president tries to pass major legislation (in 1865 it was the 13th amendment banning slavery) while the opposing party controls the House of Representatives. Tommie Lee Jones is terrific as the fervent single-issue abolitionist, as is Hal Holbrook as the slick power broker who must be catered to. While keeping the story suspenseful (we know the outcome!) and entertaining, we learn how politicking was done, how Abe conducted his business, how his “crazy” wife (excellent Sallie Field) pushed him to be more relentless in winning his political battle, how the House was more like British Parliament is today with people shouting down and insulting each other. Most importantly, you get a glimpse of how brutal the Civil War was, with the hand-to-hand bayonetting and fighting to the death, and what a battlefield looks like afterwards. It’s hard to believe that Americans fought each other like this only 4-5 generations ago. You see how the southern states wanted to negotiate peace as though they were a sovereign nation, while the North treated them like individual rebels from within the one nation. I recommend this for all audiences.

Bill C’s Review 4 out of 5

Bill has not left me much to say. What makes this movie so worthwhile is Day-Lewis’ performance, the realistic view of what the U.S. was like in the mid-1800s, and how our government worked so long ago.

IMDB

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Flight

Bill I’s Review – 3 out of 5

I would rate Denzel higher, as he is the movie, other than the remarkable flight crash (no spoiler!) scene at the outset. I cringed during this ultra-realistic flight crash, and will try to forget it by the time I take my next flight. This movie is more enjoyable than Leaving Las Vegas where it was just painful to watch Nicholas Cage drink himself to death. Flight has a predictable story arc, where Denzel needs to hit rock bottom as an alcoholic (flight pilot!), but he makes it captivating while the focus is on the post-flight investigation (was he drunk!), and his union rep and lawyer try to help him clear the charges. One side note: is anyone else bothered as I am by Denzel’s tooth situation? He’s always working his mouth, and it’s distracting to me, then the big teeth sometimes seem to get in his way when talking. Denzel will probably get an Oscar nomination, because he takes the ultimate sacrifice of any Hollywood actor trying to show he’s a great actor: he lets loose with a flabby body, and loses any six pack abs he may have chiseled (with trainer, cook and whatever supplements are needed) in prior action films. His character here is conveyed by his body, and expressions as much as his dialogue. Let’s see Tom Cruise match that!