Category: Action

The Amazing Spider-Man

Bill C’s Review – 3.5 out of 5

While there was no real need to reboot the Spiderman franchise so quickly, this is a good, but not great retelling of the origin of Spiderman. The story is not exactly the same as the n the Tobey McGuire 2002 version and focuses more on the mystery over the disappearance of Peter Parker’s parents and his coming to realize the responsibility to use his powers for good. It’s fun to see him learn how to control his powers. For some reason in this version, Peter Parker is a high school genius and invents his string power instead of it being a natural byproduct of his gaining other powers. I didn’t think his super villain was the greatest but he got the job done.

Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker/Spiderman and Emma Stone as his girlfriend, Gwen Stacy, were good. Spidey has had different girlfriends over the years, so no use in retreading the same girlfriend character (Mary Jane Watson) from the earlier movies.  Since Garfield/Stone are an item off-screen, the couple had good chemistry on screen as well.

The special effects were good. I didn’t see this in 3D but could see how they could use this to good effect with him swinging back and forth all over the place.

This movie isn’t a must-see, but if you like the genre it is worth watching.

Note 1: Stay through the closing credits.

Note 2: The picture below has nothing to do with the movie. These people had their wedding reception at the Alamo Drafthouse and they were posing for pictures by the Moonrise Kingdom setup while I was getting ready to go into Spiderman.  I asked our waitress if they actually watched a movie as part of the reception. They did: The Princess Bride!

IMDB

Rotten Tomatoes

 

Ted

Bill I’s Review – 3 out of 5

Very funny as well as fun, although not as many hilarious moments as I had hoped for. The memorable fight scene between Ted (aka the teddy bear) and his childhood buddy Mark Wahlberg is uniquely done, kept me laughing and incredulous. Kind of made me wonder towards the end of the film when Ted is unable to defend himself against a couple of minor goons, where did his fighting instincts go. Mila Kunis is wonderful as always, although in a thankless role of not even straight man/woman, but the exasperated girlfriend who’s too often the odd man/person out in this buddy film. It’s a romantic comedy at heart, however, which follows the hollywood script of boy meets girl, etc. To make this a great movie, they should have employed some of Sasha Baron Cohen’s go for broke sensibility, or at least borrowed his best writers.

Bill C’s Review – 2.5 out of 5

I can think of a lot of words to describe this movie: rude, crude, funny, politically incorrect, and nostalgic. Ted has a lot of very funny moments but, as Bill says, not as many hilarious moments as I expected. And of course it’s stupid. Not just because it’s a movie for adults (this is not for kids) about a living teddy bear, but because of things like Bill points out with Ted’s ability to protect himself. They also couldn’t keep the weather straight. In one scene Ted is getting soaked in a rain storm. In the next scene just fifteen minutes later, they’re at an outdoor concert and the weather is beautiful. In a later scene there’s a thunder storm and another fifteen minutes later, Mila Kunis is gazing in a Boston sky that has not seen so many stars since the invention of the light bulb!

I was surprised by all the cameos in this movie: Norah Jones (she must really have wanted publicity for her new album), Tom Skerritt, Ryan Reynolds,  Johnny Carson (in a very funny Forrest Gump-like appearance) and Sam J Jones of Flash Gordon fame. There are a lot of funny references to old movies, TV shows and commercials and I loved the pictures of Ted and John in movie scenes in the opening credits.

As far as performances go, I thought Ted was awesome. He can sing, dance, fight (sometimes), showed great range and did his own stunts!  Mila was wasted.  I learned that Mark Wahlberg can talk very fast and that Sam Jones still can’t act.

This movie would be best seen at a theater like the Alamo Drafthouse, with a bucket of beer to let you focus on the funny moments and forget the stupid ones. Unfortunately I saw this at a regular theater. Otherwise I might have rated this a little higher.

IMDB

Rotten Tomatoes

Ted

Snow White and the Huntsman

Bill I’s Review – 4 out of 5

I saw this as an allegory about how much our culture values youth and beauty, to the extent that people will do anything to stop time’s damages. For example, how does Jane Fonda look better now at age 74 than she did 25 years ago? Is she sucking the life force out of young girls like Ravenna the evil Queen does in this movie? Actually, this film is very well done, with excellent acting (Charlize Theron gets an Oscar nomination for sure), cool storyline and wonderful special effects. Check out Ravenna’s special finger-fitted fork.  For me, this beats all of the Lord of the Rings movies. This ain’t no Disney fairy tale, so don’t bring the little kids!

 

Headhunters

Bill C’s Review – 3.5 out of 5

I really enjoyed this Norewegian thriller.  Roger (Aksel Hennie) is one of the leading corporate headhunters.  Due to his exorbitant lifestyle he needs to moonlight as an art thief.  When he decides to rip off one of his clients after discovering he owns a major piece of art the real action begins. His client, Clas Greve is played by Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (who plays Jamie Lancaster in Game of Thrones).  Both give good performances, as does Synnøve Macody Lund  who plays Roger’s wife.

This is a taut thriller with a lot of plot twists that will keep you fully engaged right to the end. In retrospect a couple of the plot twists and action were a little bit questionable or over the top and make for a good post movie discussion.

The subtitles seemed pretty quick at the beginning and I was having trouble keeping up but either they slowed them down or I started reading more quickly!

It might be hard to find this film near you (I saw it at the Violet Crown in Austin).  Butt if you get a chance to see it it is worthwhile.

IMDB

Rotten Tomatoes

Men in Black III

Bill I’s Rating – 3 out of 5

Same formula as before, proven with Will Smith and Tommie Lee Jones, enhanced by what I believe is an Oscar-worthy performance by Josh Brolin, as a Jones’ younger incarnation. Perfect imitation, fun to watch, as is the movie as a whole, with a cool villain, Boris the Animal (Jemaine Clement) nasty with an internal mind-blowing arsenal of which he makes liberal use. I didn’t recognize Nicole Scherzinger as the villain’s girlfriend early on (he’s not a sentimental type). This met my expectations for fun, action fluff, and surpassed them with the touching ending.

Bill C’s Rating – 3 out of 5

I was hoping Bill I. would repeat his ‘laugh stats’ from his review of ‘The Dictator’ and expand them to include ‘power laughs’ like they have for boxing matches!  As an action/sci-fi/comedy sequel it’s tough to do a great job in all aspects so while this isn’t great in any area this is good enough to be an amiable third movie in the series.  Josh Brolin’s performance was excellent and the hilight of the film.  As Bill points out they successfully add another element with the touching finish and it’s worth checking this movie out.

IMDB 

Rotten Tomatoes

Tommy Lee Jones in Men in Black 3

The Avengers

Bill C’s Review – 4 out of 5

It’s summer!  It’s only Cinco de Mayo but with the release of the first blockbuster it must be summer! (And it is in the mid-90s in Austin already.) The Avengers is a good start to the summer blockbuster season.

The Avengers brings together many of the characters in recent Marvel comic book-based movies: Thor, Captain America, Iron Man, The Hulk, and a couple of additional ones. All of these superheroes come together under the direction of Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) to save the world from Thor’s brother and his army. I didn’t see the Thor movie so I didn’t know the whole backstory…but is that important? Of course not! I won’t wreck the ending for everyone but suffice it to say that, based on the number of sold out showings this weekend, there will be a sequel!

Joss Whedon did a great job of directing this excellent cast:  Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlet Johansson, Jackson and others. There is good character development for a superhero movie and lots of action as well as light moments and humor. I thought this was the rare movie where the 3D was worthwhile. If you like this genre, you should definitely see The Avengers.

One of the key themes of the movie is teamwork. I would recommend that Carmelo Anthony see this movie before the Knicks lose game 4 vs. Miami on Sunday. Carmelo could definitely learn a valuable lesson here, but unfortunately he probably does not read this blog. Luckily, the San Antonio Spurs do not need to see this movie.

Bill I’s Review – 3.5 out of 5

Unlike Bill C., I did not see the 3D version, so maybe that’s why I rated it a little lower. I enjoyed it, agreeing with Bill’s points above. I’ll touch on a few additional points. First, the villain, Thor’s brother Loki, played by Tom Hiddleston, was perfect, really bad person, scary motivation (Hitler-like), and off balance enough that we can relate to real-life bad guys home grown on Earth. The only reason you would want to see the Thor movie (really bad) to understand this film is the throwaway reference to Natalie Portman’s character.

One review I read resonated with me here: this is best as a comedy with lots of one-liners delivered masterfully, by superb veteran actors. Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey Jr., ScarJo, Sam Jackson and Jeremy Renner. The script is preposterous, but the action and characters kept me interested. My major disappointment is the over-reliance on the destruction of NY City, although the superheroes thoughtfully tried to limit the damage to Grand Central Station and a 3 block radius. Notice the lack of a US President calling the shots, instead it’s The Council, who reminded me of when President Gerald Ford was paraphrased by the NY Daily News back in the day as saying “Drop Dead New York”.

Some side notes: I was pleased to see Cobie Smulders in the movies for the first time, since I love her on TV’s How I Met Your Mother. Too bad she has such a minor role, looking good while taking orders from Sam and doing some shooting. Scarlett Johansson shows promise as a female James Bond in a future movie. Gwyneth Paltrow, almost forgotten by the movie’s end since she’s mainly in the begining, is naturally beautiful as Stark’s (aka Iron Man) assistant/lover/homemaker, and for some reason walks around barefoot. In response to Bill’s sports analogy above, I would liken the following athletes to the Avengers: Ron Artest aka Metta World Peace as The Hulk, Derek Jeter as Iron Man (credit radio sports talk host Robin Lunberg), Pat Tillman (NFL safety turned military volunteer and victim) as Captain America, Jerry Reese (NY Giant GM) as Nick Fury (again from Lunberg), and Mariano Rivera as marksmen Hawkeye.

IMDB

Rotten Tomatoes

21 Jump Street

Bill I’s Review – 3 out of 5

This is a fun, witty movie, in large part due to the excellent acting, from the leads, Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill (I never tire of watching him, check out Cyrus which most people have probabaly not seen), to the bit players like the Chemistry teacher who’s tongue tied in the presence of pretty boy Channing in her classroom. I might have laughed more if I hadn’t already seen some of the best parts in previews about ten times. So the 11th time is almost a yawner, but there are plenty of gems, such as the non-explosive car chase scenes, and the genuine chemistry between the guys, including genuine chemistry experiments by real (cool) nerds. Yes, the tables have turned in today’s high school where dumb bullying jocks no longer rule; true cool is now defined by eco-awareness and respect for studious, gay students. I guess some of today’s real-life students (see Rutgers’ recent bullying conviction) didn’t get the memo.

Oh, look for a surprise non-credited showing at the end of someone you will recognize, as well as the most blatant teaser for 21 Jump Street II coming next. Bring it on!

Bill C’s Review – 4 out of 5 (originally posted during SXSW) –  Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum star in this comedy.    The movie-makers take the title and premise but little else from the old TV show that helped launch Johnny Depp’s career.   This movie has lots of hilarious/farcical moments and no potential source of laughs is off limits.  Hill and Tatum  make a great comedic duo and it’s fun to see their high school persona’s flip as they return.  This has a great cast including Rob Riggle, Ice Cube (very good) and others.    There was a great Q+A after movie. Jonah Hill was hilarious and it seemed like all involved had a great time making this movie and it shows on the screen. This opens next week and except for those who don’t like rude/crude is highly recommended. This is the type of movie that is best when seen in a crowded theater so I recommend seeing this early in it’s release.

IMDB – 21 Jump Street

Rotten Tomatoes – 21 Jump Street

Safe House

Bill I’s Review – 3.5 out of 5
Reminiscent (or just a copy) of the Bourne movies, this has all the key elements: government agents who are either rogue or legitimate (you won’t know till the end), a tightly wound middle-aged female 2nd in charge (here played by Vera Famiglia), in conflict with world weary older dude (Brendan Gleeson), GQ-looking agent on the run (Ryan Reynolds) with a cute foreign lover (Nora Arnezeder), bad guys everywhere with bullets flying, brutal fight scenes both in close quarters and in and out of third world buildings and roof tops, exotic and run-down locales, I could go on and on, including the same cinematographer (Oliver Wood). But this film has Denzel, who steals every scene he’s in, often by just sitting handcuffed or standing observing. He doesn’t need much dialogue to convey his character. This is fast paced, quick cutting action, that kept me riveted throughout. Don’t worry too much about the plot, like I said, there’s bad guys after good guys, or vice versa, you find out at the end. Which by the way, decides to copy the latest Mission Impossible instead of Bourne. I don’t think that gives away anything. Enjoy the fun and mothers, don’t let your boys grow up to be secret agents!

Bill C’s Review – 3 out of 5

I know it’s boring when we agree, but I think Bill’s review is right on! Starting with the strength of Denzel’s performance, the reminiscence to the Bourne movies (although not as good) and all the way to the similarity to the Mission Impossible ending.

While I liked most of the action scenes, I did find the quick cutting made a couple of them tough to follow and just hoped the right people were winning (I thought that in the Bourne movies too!).

In addition to the fine performance by Washington, I thought Ryan Reynolds was very good too.

As Bill I. said, the CIA bad guy was pretty arbitrarily chosen and the plot should not be focused on.  If you are an action fan, this movie is ok although not great.

IMDB – Safe House

RottenTomatoes – Safe House

The Grey

Bill I’s Review – 3.5 Stars

This reminded me of 27 Hours combined with The Blob, with Liam Neeson and his group of fellow Biig Oil workers marooned post airline crash and nasty wolves snapping up any slow or wounded stragglers. Where was Captain Sully? Katie (my daughter) thought the wolves were not realistic, but that did not bother me; they were scary and when they attacked it was effective. Tension was kept throughout, balanced with some hazy sentimental flashbacks. Liam plays a character similar to the one he played in Taken: a veteran dude, knows-it-all, wastes no time in taking action, and is above all a survivor. My one quibble: watch for the scene where the group stands on a cliff, and hears a river way down below. Then when they make it all the way to this noisy river it’s as calm as a small pond. Later, Liam extricates hiimself from raging rapids, and you see the stream is now about 10 feet in width and again back to calm. Where did all the water go? Anyway, this is entertaining and yes, there’s a quick scene at the end of the credits.

Bill C’s Review – 3 out of 5

Poor Liam Neeson! His life is going from bad to  worse. The love of his life is gone, he’s in a plane crash and then when he survives that, he and the other survivors have to deal with these really ticked off wolves that  are out for blood while trying not to freeze to death, starve or just get stuck in very deep snow.

Liam plays the alpha male of the human pack trying to lead them to safety (while dealing with his personal demons) and hoping to get his shot at the alpha male of the wolves. Liam deserves credit for being an action hero with movies like this and Taken while in his late 50s.

The tension between the wolves and survivors (and between the survivors) is good.   This isn’t really my type of movie so it’s easy for me to poke holes in some of the situations, etc. but if you are into this sort of movie then you’ll probably enjoy it more than I did.

IMDB – The Grey

Rotten Tomatoes – The Grey

Liam Neeson stars in the survival thriller, “The Grey.”

Haywire

Bill C’s Review – 3 Stars

Haywire is an entertaining action B-movie starring former female martial arts competitor Gina Carano. There are several good fight sequences and a couple of good chase scenes. Gina isn’t the greatest actress but she is excellent in all of the action sequences.   The supporting cast is surprisingly strong with Michael Douglas, Antonio Banderas, Michael Fassbender, Channing Tatum and Ewan McGregor. The plot is convoluted and has plenty of holes but the action sequences with Gina make this movie worth seeing.

Haywire on IMDB

Haywire on Rotten Tomatoes

Bill I’s Review – 4 Stars

At the risk of alienating readers by using some sophisticated film review language, Haywire is freakin’ AWESOME. I loved it, had a smile on my face the whole movie. Let me start with the main character, a female Michael Bourne-like character (or alternatively, a Jennifer Garner Alias-like character, only much more ruthless) played by hard-body Gina Carano. When Ewan MacGregor has to warn somebody about to meet you with “You shouldn’t think of her as being a woman. That would be a mistake”. Or when Antonio Banderas simply says when you pop up in his house “Oh shit”. The action is non-stop, and as directed by Steven Soderbergh, strikingly original. When was the last chase scene you saw that wasn’t a cliche you’ve seen 1,000 times, including every night on the TV cop shows? Well, look for the literal chase scene, Gina chases the bad guy on foot through the streets and back alleys of Barcelona. It’s an incredible piece of filming. I won’t spoil the opening scene, but suffice it to say I thought back to the diner scene in Pulp Fiction. The tension is so naturally built up, sometimes by just a glance, or the cool music, then erupts in fight scenes that are more realistic than most of what passes in today’s films. What a great supporting cast, as Bill C says above. Banderas was unrecognizable to me with his beard until the end. I don’t like to see movies more than once, since I love not knowing what’s going to happen – that’s why I will close my eyes and stuff my ears sometimes when the incessant coming attractions are shown – but this is one movie I would enjoy seeing again soon. I expect Carano will be back, maybe as a female Terminator. Here she is in case you never heard of her, same as me: