A Rushed Sequel

In 2009, in my opinion, one of the greatest action movies of the modern age was released.  Starring Liam Neeson, Taken, caught the world by storm in a very short amount of time.  I actually saw it twice in the theatre and currently own the 2 disc special edition on blu-ray.  Taken  is one of my all time favorite movies, so naturally like any movie fan, I wanted a sequel.  There wasn't much a set up for a second one, but I just wanted to see Liam Neeson kick ass like that in another film.  In 2011, the sequel was announced on IMDB and it was being dubber Untitled Taken Sequel.  If I remember correctly, I said "YES" very loudly when I said that and my mom gave me a weird look.  I didn't care.  The sequel that I had been waiting for was finally being made...I hoped.  I know how sequels work.  Sometimes they're made and sometimes they just die in pre-production.  This sequel; however, seemed to be right on course.  When Dark Knight Rises was released, I had hoped that the trailer would be released during the previews.  Up until then, there had been no movie posters, no trailers, no advertising at all.  Just the announcement with an October 11th release date.  It never showed during the previews, so naturally I started to realize that this movie wasn't going to be as big as I thought it was going to be.  Finally, in August of 2012, the first trailer was released on IMDB.  A whole two minutes and twenty seconds of pure Liam Neeson awesomeness.  My anticipation rebuilt and I knew that I couldn't be more ready.  The disappointment; unfortunately, hit me like a train when I finally saw it.
First thing is first.  The opening credits to the movie.  They are some of the best that I have seen to date.  The music flows perfectly with the editorial cuts to different things and the way the text is presented to show actors and what not fit perfectly.  The opening scene of the movie set a very dark tone to the movie right off the bat.  For the first 10 minutes of the movie, the viewer watched the bodies of all the men that Liam Neeson killed in the first Taken.  They were put into coffins, put on a plane to Albania (The first movie says the men are from Albania), and taken off the plane for transport to a traditional grave yard for burial.  Before the bodies could be loaded, men show up in black SUVs to take the bodies away.  Beautiful shots of Albania and the middle east were the main aspect of the scene.  The cameras were following the trucks as they were shooting establishing shots.  A gorgeous scene.  So far, the movie was great.  The movie cuts to a scene of a burial of these body as a man speaks to the people watching the bodies being buried.  He is speaking of revenge against Neeson for what he's done and vows that he will pay for his crimes.  The scene ends.  So, the opening scenes of the movie were fantastic.  Great music, great flow, good acting, and amazing camera shots.  The rest of the move; however, felt so empty.
I'm guessing that it has not been very long since the end of the first movie.  Definitely not the three years time span that it took to make the film.  If I had to guess, it's been close to 6 months.  Maybe.  Neeson is shown washing a car, so we establish that he has found a normal life back in the states, away from his old job working as a torturer.  He heads to Lenore's house to pick up his daughter for a driving lesson.  Kim has failed her driving test 3 times now and is going for 4th try in a couple weeks.  She can never get the parallel parking right.  To me, this was a huge foreshadow for the rest of the movie.  I wasn't wrong.  Kim turns into a professional NASCAR driver about 3/4 of the way through.  It didn't make much sense to me, but I just sort of rolled with it.
I'm not going to tell anymore of the story, because there wasn't much of one.  A story of vengeance.  That's about it.  There was do depth or detail done to the story, and that was a big factor for me.  I also thought that the movie itself went by to quickly.  Lenore and Neeson are kidnapped so Kim has to go rescue them.  She turns into this super human with similar sleuthing skills as Liam Neeson.  I didn't really buy it, but again, I just rolled with it.  This definitely Kim's movie.  Going from saving her father and mother to the director showing her body off.  There were so many shots of her in her bikini.  It was  pleasant to look at, but I just feel like it didn't fit in the style of movie that the original had made so famous.  Pure action to exploit that people will go to great lengths to get back their loved ones.  Taken 2 started doing it, but they never quite got there.
Overall, the acting was solid.  There were a couple corny lines but it was mostly done well.  The two things that really turned me off were the story and a couple action scenes.  A few of the kills were very questionable and also a couple of the action scenes.  For example, at one point, Liam is in a car chase and all of the bad guys wind up surrounding him from all sides.  They crash into the car and the people get out to go fetch him.  Upon further investigation, Liam is not in the car.  He's walking down an alley about 30 feet away.  I called shenanigans.  There was not a single point in the car chase where Neeson could have gotten away that fast.  Also, Kim's scene where she is driving the car is complete shenanigans too.  ONLY because earlier in the movie she was established as a terrible driver. Hence failing a test 3 times.  One last thing, the story went WAY to fast.  Everything happened over a span of a day.  I wouldn't normally be upset about this, but so much happened during the movie that it seems almost impossible for it to happen.
To someone who hasn't seen the first one, it was a decent flick.  To someone like me, who loves the first and had high expectations, this was mediocre.  At best.  I want to like it so much, but I just can't.  As much as I wanted to see the sequel, I feel like it either shouldn't have been made or it should have had a different story.  Well; maybe not different, but definitely a more in depth.  The ending was straight forward. The story was straight forward.  Last thing, the last song that plays in the last scene is very inappropriate for the particular situation that is happening.  As much as I hate to say it, Taken 2 was a Hollywood sellout.  Mediocre.  6.5/10

Endless time Loop

After seeing Looper on opening weekend, I couldn't believe that it didn't get more advertising than it did.  Positively one of the best if not the best sci-fi movie that I've seen since Star Trek in 2009.  Joseph-Gordan Levitt plays a "looper" in the past for a future mob.  Time travel is invented and it quickly becomes illegal due to the fact that it becomes to powerful of an asset.  The mob secretly still has it and uses it to send "hits" back in time to be killed.  Levitt plays the assassin that kills the hit.  The mob sends the person back in the past due the fact that it is utterly impossible to hide a body in the past.  There are cameras everywhere that sees everything and hears everything.   As soon as the hit appears in the past, the looper kills him with a blunderbuss shotgun and the looper collects his pay in silver bars.  If the mob wants to kill the looper and not have them working for the mob anymore for any reason, they "close the loop" by sending the looper's older self back into the past and the looper unknowingly kills himself in the future.  This is what happens to Joseph-Gordan Levitt.  His older self, played by Bruce Willis, actually lives during the assassination and knocks his older self out to escape.  The movie is packed with action and adventure, and the story is absolutely awesome.  Half of the run-time is Bruce Willis's movie showing the 30 years after Levitt kills his loop the 2nd time around.  Yes..I said 2nd time.  After the 1st time and Bruce Willis gets away, he goes back to his apartment to get all of his silver and get out of town, because well...you see...not killing one of your hits is punishable by death.  With that being said, Levitt is in very big trouble.  This concept of what happens to you when you don't kill your hit is shown during the beginning scenes of the movie when Levitt's friend doesn't kill his.  I won't give it away but let's just say that it involves razors and dismemberment.  Anyway...Levitt's character goes back to his apartment only to find 2 men there ready to kill him.  He attempts to get away but winds up falling on top of a car and killing himself.  As soon as he hits the car, the scene cuts back to him standing there with his blunderbuss waiting for the loop to get there.  This time he doesn't miss.  Reason being...Bruce Willis's head is covered this time so Levitt doesn't hesitate.  Now, when your loop is closed, you are giving a golden pay day.  The translation is quite literal in meaning that you get gold bars instead of silver.  The mob fires you and you have 30 years to live your life as you please.  That's exactly what Levitt does.  He lives his life.  He goes to China and eventually gets married.  I wont give anymore away but I can tell you that involves a mother and small child.  Amazing story and flow.

CG and special effects are stunning.  Nothing seems corny and the futuristic scene seems a lot more realistic than "Jetson" style.  The producers went all out in making this movie non-computer animated looking.  Weapons of the future seem very plausible for being so many years in the future.  Music was very well scored and done.  As I said before, story and plot are amazing.  I'm expecting an Oscar nomination for best adapted screenplay.

The one thing that I really liked was the make up that was used to make Bruce Willis and Joseph Levitt resemble eachother.  There were some points in the movie when I wasn't sure that it was Levitt that I was looking at.  It was really cool to look at.  Another close runner up though was the ending.  I'm not saying anything but it was an awesome ending.

Overall the movie was exceptional.  I didn't know what to expect going in to the film but I was happy when I left the theater.  Score of 8.7/10.  B+

Psycho in the basement in the house at the end of the road

First off, I only saw this movie for one thing and one thing only.  Jennifer Lawrence.  As did most other guys who saw this movie.  After The Hunger Games and being the cover story of Rolling Stone magazine, Jennifer LAUNCHED into stardom.  Her first movie after Hunger Games? House at the End of the Street.  When I first saw advertising for this flick, my expectations immediately became extremely low.  Being the person that I am...I don't really enjoy scary movies.  Not because they are too scary for me, but just for the shear fact that they never seem to have any sort of solid story or flow to them..  With that being said, I generally tend to steer clear of new age horror.  House of the End of Street was no different to me.  Unfortunately; however, I was asked to go, and being the nice guy that I am..I didn't say no.  So after forking out 10.25 for this movie, I expect to get my money's worth.  One can only wish right?  That's how I felt with this.  Jennifer should've known better than to pick to do this movie.

The general plot line of House was a mother and daughter move into a rural house that sits inside a national park.  The house is extremely cheap due to the fact that  several years earlier,  there was a double murder involving a mentally disturbed girl.  The mother and daughter go to a cookout as part of a "welcome to the neighboorhood" party, and they learn gossip of the house at the end of the street where the murders took place.  They say that the house is abandoned, but of course, knowing horror movies, it isn't.  It turns out the son of the family is living at the house.  I won't give any more away...but this movie is a ride of twists and turns.  As the movie progresses, the viewer starts to realize that the mother plays a larger role then one might expect.

Overall this movie was mediocre at best.  Acting was sub=par with the exception of the son of the murdered family.  He does exceptionally well.  No special effects.  Actually...the place where this movie shines is the lighting.  It is wonderful throughout the movie.  Not just natural lighting either.  Soundtrack was typical.  The end of the movie did have a good twist to it of all things, but it didn't really effect my overall enjoyment.  A lot more boring than suspenseful.   It failed to make me jump once.  Overall grade of an F.  4.5/10

Hardy is Lawless

Fresh off of Dark Knight Rises, Tom Hardy has released another awesome movie that proves once again that he is the most bad ass actor at the time that can play any role.  Also fresh off Dark Knight Rises, Gary Oldman takes on the role of mob boss Floyd Banner and proves as well that he can play any role.

The story of Lawless follows the famous Bondurant brothers of the 1930's; moonshine bootleggers out of Franklin County, Virginia during the prohibition era.  At first Jack Bondurant (Shia LaBeouf), Forrest Bondurant (Tom Hardy), and Howard Bondurant (Jason Clarke) produce and distribute the White Lightning around their own state of Virginia and the business is booming.  Cops don't mess with them as long as they get a jar and people always anticipate them coming.  They distributed to white and black folk.  It didn't matter what skin tone they were, just as long as they got their money.  As I said, their business was booming.  This of course ended when the detective from up north by the name of Charlie Rakes (Guy Pearce) comes in and tries to tell the Bondurant brothers that they have to start giving profits to up state authorities.  Forrest Bondurant, the muscle and spokesman for the family, kindly denies the offer by basically telling rakes to fuck himself.  Obviously Rakes doesn't like this and tells Forrest to tread lightly.  For the next 70 minutes of the 2 hour movie, a war breaks out between Rakes and the Bondurant family.  I'm not going to say because that would give away the entire movie.  I will say this though; for those of you with a weak stomach, I recommend steering away from this movie.  Or at go in knowing it's going to get graphic.  The blood and gore effects are tremendously accurate, which makes it a bit nauseating at times.

The story of Lawless  is solid.  Considering that it's based off a true story, I would hope that it follows pretty well.  I, unfortunately, do not know much about the Bondurant story, so I'm not going to say whether the history is accurate.

As far as acting goes, the characters could not have been cast any better.  Gary Oldman knows about being an evil mob dealer from movies like Book of Eli, so his role is perfect.  Guy Pearce playing rakes was also a top notch performance.  Honestly; however, the two the really stole the show were Shia and Hardy.  I have never been a huge fan of LaBeouf's acting but his role in Lawless was absolutely incredible.  His sarcastic and childish attitude fits perfectly as the youngest brother.  Hardy's performance was Forrest was just as well acted as Labeouf's "Jack".  Being the older brother that sticks up for the younger brothers and also being the muscle of the group, the brother has to be an all around hard ass, and well...Tom Hardy fits the description.  Bane shows that potential obviously.  Anyway....Hardy's grittiness in Lawless can not be played any better by anyone else.

I really enjoyed watching this film.  The music/soundtrack is fantastic and the plot flowed like a river.  Editing and Cinematography is well done.  Lighting is done with precision to emphasize parts of the movie such as the church scene and most of the night scenes in the bar.  The gore of the movie was kind of a set back for me but it doesn't effect my overall liking of the movie.  It was just a bit....excessive for me at points.  Maybe not to other viewers but it was for me, but again....it doesn't effect my grade for it.  I really enjoyed it overall.  a solid 7.5/10

Rise. (SPOILER)

Christopher Nolan is the most innovative and creative mind of the past 10 years when it comes to movies, and the Dark Knight trilogy has been his holy grail, and the also the world's holy grail of Batman movies.  The Dark Knight Rises was not a disappointment; in fact I think it was the best movie that I have ever seen.

When I first heard about the "Untitled Batman Sequel" being announced in 2009, I immediately became excited.  I started imagining what the great mind of Chris Nolan could come up with the finish off the trilogy.  Considering that the death of Heath Ledger was a lot more recent, I figured that a tribute or several references would be made about the Joker in the new movie.  This, of course, was not the case, and for good reason.  In an interview with Christ Nolan right before the release of the movie, he stated that, "No Joker references were made purely because I don't want people to think about the Joker during the movie.  I want them to purely focus on Bane and the current movie."  In my opinion, this was definitely a good move.  Tom Hardy gave a career making performance as the notorious villain Bane.  In terms of comparing Heath Ledger's Joker to Tom Hardy's Bane in terms of quality of performance, Hardy played his version of Bane just as well at Ledger's Joker.  I would ever dare to say that it was a damn near perfect performance.  There is not an actor out there that could've made a better performance.

The story of Dark Knight Rises is a rough telling of the Knightfall graphic novel.  The reason it's a rough story telling is because in Knightfall, the Joker plays a major part, so obviously that could happen in Dark Knight.  The terrorist leader, Bane, comes to Gotham City to "liberate" the madness of a legacy that the former Harvey Dent left.  Batman (Bruce Wayne), being wrongfully accused of killing Harvey Dent, has been run out of town and he has no plans of returning to the black suit.  Only when Wayne saw the madness that Bane was causing and with a little help from Lucious Fox and his fabulous inventions did he decide to suit up once again, and with a little help this time.  Anne Hathaway plays a fabulous Catwoman, who for most of the movie, is only worried about getting herself a new life on a clean slate.  She is so caught up with this that she is willing to betray the only ally that she has made.  Batman.  She hands him over to Bane on a silver platter, and Bane quite literally breaks Batman.  Catwoman quickly realizes her mistake.  Now that Bane has defeated Wayne, he has freedom to take over Gotham in anyway that he pleases, and he chooses terrorism to do it.  The famous words of Joker in The Dark Knight, "Let's induce a little anarchy" plays a major part in Bane's run on terror.  By pouring cement that has been laced with explosives, he blows up the entire outside ring of the sewer tunnel system.  This is the same system that the police officers at the same were traveling through in order to catch Bane.  Bane was at a the Gotham football stadium showing off his new toy.  Bruce has created a fusion reactor that is safely sustaining clean energy to all of Gotham.  Unfortunately, with the forced help of Fox and a couple board members, bane is able to remove to core and create an atom bomb that is set to go off in 5 months.  This brings the movie up the the very end of the rising action into the climax. Even though this is a review, I'm not going to give away the last 40 minutes of the movie.  It is just too good for words with one of the best twists I've seen to date.

All around, The Dark Knight Rises is the best movie that I have ever seen.  I will watch it over and over again once the Blu-Ray is released and I will more than likely see it a few more times in theaters.  It is just that good.  One of things that I loved about Rises more than the Dark Knight was that the ending was 1000 times better than the Dark Knight ending.  It left me wanting so much more, and yet, I don't want anything else.  It reminded me so much of the ending of Toy Story 3.  As much as I want another movie to be made, I just know that it wouldn't be the same.  It was a perfect ending to a perfect series, and I'm going to leave it at that.

Editing was top notch, the movie was extremely easy to follow.  Cinematography was amazing.  I have never seen better special effects other than the Lord of the Rings series.  The Bat really looked like the machine was flying in the air.  There was no hint of that corny CGI look that some movies have.  Acting was some of the best that I have ever seen.  Tom Hardy sells his character unlike any other, Christian Bale's re-prise as Batman was top notch as usual, and Anne Hathaway's Catwoman could not have been any better.  Hans Zimmer is a master of composing in the modern age and he does not disappoint with the Dark Knight Rises. Every camera shot goes along with the music perfectly.  The very last scene of the movie does this the best.  My overall score for The Dark Knight Rises is plain and simply a 10/10.  It could not have been any better and the ending could have been any more fitting.  Bane was the perfect villain to finish off an awesome series.    I can't wait to see it again.  A+

The White Preacher (Machine Gun Preacher)

I first found out about Machine Gun Preacher in an add during the Immortals previews, I immediately told myself that I was going to see it.  Starring Gerard Butler, he plays Sam Childers, who is a former drug dealing convict on the verge of collapse.  The movie starts out with Sam being released from prison for an unknown charge.  His girlfriend Lynn picks him up and they head to a homecoming party.  Lynn has started working a real job at Freemont market instead of stripping.  She says that she found god but Sam doesn't like this.  He leaves and goes to a bar that has all his former biker friends.  The next 30 minutes of the movie shows the fall of Sam Childers as he shoots heroin and damn near overdoses.  After what seems like a routine house robbery to pick up some dope, they pick up a hitchhiker who winds up trying to stab Donnie, Sam's best friend.  Sam eventually gets ahold of the situation but instead of throwing the hitchhiker out, he stabs him about 50 times and throws him out of the car.  Once this happens, Sam's change begins to happen and god soons turn Sam into a tour de force that changes the lives of thousands.
I'm not sure if this movie was made because of the Kony uprising or vice versa, but Kony is the antagonist of this movie.  His rebel army fights Sam constantly throughout the movie and traffics small children to military camps where they are trained to fight for the rebellion.  This movie feels like a glorified propaganda poster about raising awareness against Joseph Kony.
Production was about average.  Not too many special effects throughout the entire movie.  RPG explosions were real and not CGI which was a plus for me.  No unrealistic explosions.  The editing was fantastic.  It was easy to follow the movie and the transitions were smooth with no confusion.  The writing was also very good.  The acting was top notch and I truly believe that this has become Gerard Butler's best movie under 300.  Official runtime was 2 hours and 9 minutes.  The movie didn't drag.  It always had my attention, and considering that I started the movie after midnight, that says something.  The movie was incredibly enjoyable and definitely one that I would recommend for anyone who enjoys a good action/drama movie.

Overall grade of B+ or 8.5/10

Back In Black (MIB3)

Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones have become icons as Agent J and K of the Men in Black series.  They took the theaters by storm in 1997 with the instant classic release, and it is still one of my favorite movies today.  The sequel, unfortunately, has been deemed one of the worst sequels in the film industry as far as reviews go, but as far as money goes it did just as well as the first.  Being a Will Smith fan, I was eagerly awaiting his next movie whether it was a new alien movie or something along the lines of Seven Pounds, so when the first MIB3 trailer rolled out a few months ago, I was instantly ready.  I finally went and saw it, and I must say that I left the theater happy and satisfied.  The film begins with J (Smith) and K (Jones), making a routine check on alien activity.  The first thing I noticed was that the special effects have not changed at all from the original two.  Very well done with very few noticeable CGI effects.  I also noticed the much needed overhaul of the equipment and cars.  The Ford Taurus SHO's were a great upgrade to the old Lincoln.
The story is solid.  One of the worst aliens of all history escaped the moon prison seeking revenge on K, who 40 years before, blew off his arm in Cape Canaveral, Florida.  Boris the Animal (monster) goes back in time and kills K at the Cape incident, instead of the correct timeline occurring.  Once the happens, J must go back in time to help K defeat Boris.
The acting is some of the best I've ever seen.  Josh Brolin gives the performance of his career.  You'd think that this movie would be difficult to do this, but I really thought that I was watching a younger Tommy Lee Jones.  It was one of the best acting performances that I've ever witnessed.
The movie overall was a solid film.  Being that it took 10 years to release, I expected maybe a little bit more but I was definitely satisfied.  The ending; however, was incredible.  It wraps the story and the series up quite nicely in a lovely bow.  Some may not like it because it's too generic and non-creative but it was just one of those in my opinion that fit perfectly.  I'm not one to give endings away so I expect you to see it.  Overall grade of 7.8/10.  I recommend.

Act of Valor (Spoiler Alert)

Whether you are a movie buff, a fan of the military, pro-American, or anything really, there are just some movies that look interesting to mostly everyone as a whole.  Act of Valor is one of those movies.  Ever since the trailer came out shortly after the killing of Osama in 2011, I've been wanting to see this movie.  Now a little over a year later I finally got to view it, and I must say, I am rather disappointed with the movie.  Now before you go judging me about being non-American because I didn't like a glorified recruitment video, here me out.  I liked the fact that they tried to incorporate actual Navy Seals as actors, but unfortunately, the acting falls short of believable.  The Seals who played as the Seals always had that tone to them like they were trying to hard to act.  It wasn't terrible by any means, but it just didn't have that feel to it at some points during the movie.  As far as special effects and production goes, there is none like Act of Valor.  The fact that most of the stuff that was used as props were actual military equipment was incredible.  The submarine, for example, was one of the coolest scenes of the entire movie.  The submerged submarine with the camera looking down into the water was awesome.  Editing wasn't too bad.  There were a couple times when I wasn't sure which Seal time was being featured in the particular scene, but once the "actors" started talking it didn't take long to figure it out.  The story was sub-par and simple but extremely believable, which is brilliant in my eyes, and I think that's what makes this movie so realistic .  Ceramic balls filled with explosive gel that can get through any metal detector is something that is very scary to think about.  Whether or not it's been tried I do not know, but when the weapon's manufacture stated that, "You could take a tour of the White House without anyone knowing" sent chills down my spine, because he was right.  A plastic bomb could walk right through America's doorway without knowing.  Run-time was about 1 hour 40 minutes.  I do believe that the movie could have hit the 2 hour mark no problem without it losing its edge.  Perhaps a couple more scenes that dealt with the background characters?  Or a few more minutes of fighting? I don't know.  Overall it was a decent film that deserves it's respects because of the military aspect, but I probably won't be watching it again.  In terms of a movie aspect, it falls short of something that could have been a great military flick, but as far as the actual military is concerned, the movie captures it perfectly.  Overall score of 6.8/10

Safe House Review (SPOILER ALERT)

When it comes to Denzel Washington, I will basically watch any of his movies.  I have seen everything from Training Day to Unstoppable, so seeing Safe House was an easy pick at Blockbuster.  When the movie first began and Washington's character Tobin Frost was seen running from an unknown enemy, The Bourne Series immediately popped into my head.  It had relatively the same feel to it, which was a good thing, so this movie was already off to a good start.  From initially seeing the trailers, I had expected to see a movie with Denzel's typical grittiness that he always has in his movies, and it did not disappoint.  He had his typical bad ass role in most of his movies, and Ryan Reynolds did not disappoint either.  I wouldn't say the movie was fantastic but it rather entertaining.  The one thing that I found to be most disappointing was that the ending came to be very predictable.  From the first time the camera had eyes on the CIA, a gut feeling said they were behind the whole thing, and sure enough, the CIA was the reason that Tobin Frost had "betrayed" his country.  The editing and production were done well and acting was A- to a B+.  Overall my final grade for the movie would be about a 7/10.  Entertaining movie, but very predictable.