Red Dawn is a remake of the 80’s classic (?) and I think it mostly does what it sets out to do, blow stuff up and keep things moving forward at an entertaining pace.
Review: Jonah Hex
06/18/2010 by Leave a Comment
The latest, and possibly most under the radar, comic book film this summer is the adaptation of Jonah Hex and the results are a mixed bag as the films focus seems to be in a lot of wrong places.
Hex is a Confederate soldier of some rank but when he turns on his regiment and shoots his best friend dead the Confederate General Turnbull, and father to Hex’s best friend, hunts Hex down, murders his family, and leaves him for dead with a brand on the face to remind him of who did this to him. We are then given a quick rundown of the next few beats in Hex’s life, Turnbull apparently dies, and Hex is left as a supernatural bounty hunter who can briefly resurrect the dead with his touch. As he reeks havoc on the outlaws he hunts, a bounty is in turn put on Hex and the hunter is also the hunted. As Hex tries to earn his keep and stay alive Turnbull turns up alive and constructing a secret military weapon and the president recruits Hex to hunt down his nemesis and save the country.
Review: The Losers
04/23/2010 by Leave a Comment
The Losers is a fun, funny, throwback action film that never lets up and features great work by the solid ensemble cast that is obviously having a blast and brings us in on all the fun.
The Losers is a band of CIA operatives that get hung out to dry on a black op gone wrong. They get the name of their turncoat, Max, and fake their deaths waiting for a chance to enact revenge for trying to kill them. The group is waylaid by a rouge vigilante with a vendetta of her own on Max and she gives the Losers a bank roll and way back into the U.S. From here the film takes a globe trotting approach as the Losers try and track down Max and foil his evil plan.
Review: Taking Woodstock
08/28/2009 by Leave a Comment
Ang Lee’s latest is his lesser effort as of late as he starts off on the right foot but slowly dissolves into a bit of a mess with no narrative to speak of for the second half.
Elliot Teichberg is a want a be artist living in New York City, only to see most of his income be thrown into his families inn that resides in upstate NY. Scrapping to get by, his mother is a stingy Jewish woman that is a bit crazy on top of that while his father just quietly sits by and lets things happen. Forced to move back home, Elliot begins to find new ways to spruce up his families inn to attract new business while splitting time as being the local chairman on the commerce committee of White Lake. Elliot who keeps one ear to the arts and music scene learns about a music festival that can’t find a home has been looking for a place to call home in the surrounding Catskills communities and Elliot invites them up to his inn as a potential site for the festival. Michael Lang is the face of Woodstock Ventures and when he arrives to White Lake he and Elliot find the perfect spot for their festival and begin to put in motion a final attempt to get their “little” music festival off the ground. [Read more...]
Review: Watchmen
03/04/2009 by Leave a Comment
The most acclaimed graphic novel of all time translates into an epic and fascinating film that is engaging, precise, and does great justice to its origins but might be a bit to inaccessible to Watchmen virgins.
‘The Comedian is dead’ and his death puts this film into motion. Rorschach, a shape shifting masked vigilante, use to troll the same circles as The Comedian, though when investigating the Comedian’s apartment where his final fight was fought, Rorschach discovers the Comedian was known to the world as Edward Blake and that him and the other masked avengers he used to work with might be getting picked off one by one. Rorschach decides to visit his former “colleagues” starting with The Nite Owl II, Dan Dreiberg, an ex-crime fighter who reflects on the glory days and wishes he could get back to busting criminals skulls instead of adhering to the Keane Act which outlaws Masked Vigilantism in the U.S. Rorschach then moves on too Dr. Manhattan and Silk Spectre II (know to the public as Laurie Jupiter). Manhattan is the only super powered being in this alternative universe where Nixon is still President [Read more...]
