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.