2010’s Clash of the Titans may not be the best film by far, but for a blockbuster with quite the action and visual effects filled center, it is a movie I honestly don’t get sick of watching when I just want to get lost in something. With this base and quite the exciting trailer, Wrath of the Titans was looking like a sequel that could far surpass the previous film in more than just sand and mixed mythology. It could truly be great! [Read more...]
Film Review: Wrath of the Titans
03/29/2012 by Leave a Comment
Film Review: Man On A Ledge
01/26/2012 by Leave a Comment
Not just any movie gets one of the stars to do a commentary track over its trailer, so Man On A Ledge must clearly be something special. Right? [Read more...]
Film Review: Man on a Ledge
01/26/2012 by 1 Comment
Man on a Ledge is an adequate at best thriller that has an impressive cast, but is seemingly too guided by the studio hand to excel in any area of the filmmaking process. [Read more...]
For Your Renting Pleasure
09/19/2011 by Leave a Comment
And I am back with “For Your Renting Pleasure,” a supposed-to-be-weekly post that made it maybe 2 weeks tops before fizzling out. My bad. For those of you who don’t remember this is basically a compilation post of movies I watched that week of the non-new-release variety, whether they be rentals, watched through the Netflix instant queue, or what have you. This week we’ve got Last Night (2010), Wind Chill (2007), and The Good Guy (2009). [Read more...]
Film Review: The Debt
08/31/2011 by Leave a Comment
When I see films like this I start to think about how The Bourne Identity and its sequels have ruined the espionage genre for many people, sometimes me included. Why I say this is because it created this want for people to Bourne out on everyone they come across, fighting for survival and being totally BA. [Read more...]
Now Playing Review – Clash of the Titans
04/03/2010 by Leave a Comment
Clash of the Titans starts with a narration explaining how the stories of the Greek gods have been written in the stars for all to see. Well, as pretty as those twinkling night-lights are they don’t really do justice to the action sequences of the myths, which is where this film steps in.
Like with most Greek stories, in Clash of the Titans the people bring about their own troubles thanks to their tragic flaw of hubris. They have grown too proud for their own good, believing that they are now better than the gods that created them. Unfortunately for them these gods have their own excess of pride to contend with, and they really don’t like lower beings spitting in their faces. Seeing the destruction of a statue of Zeus by the soldiers of Argos, Hades vengefully wipes them out, as well as a ship below that just so happens to belong the Perseus’ family, killing all but him. [Read more...]
Review: Clash of the Titans
04/02/2010 by Leave a Comment
Clash of the Titans is a an unoriginal, pretty dumb, sword and sandals epic that looks great, has solid action and effects, with some superb art design/production values and the result is an entertaining and fun flick that I enjoyed even when I was chuckling at the cheesiness.
Perseus is the son of Zeus, his mother was human, and he was raised by an adoptive human family that found him in the watery grave of his mother. Raised as a fisherman and a strict follower of the Gods, Perseus’ family is wiped out by Hades when they are in the wrong place and the wrong time as Hades wipes out a group of Argos soldiers and takes out Perseus’ family boat for good measure. Dragged to Argos as a possible accomplice in the encounter, Perseus, is taken to a party where the Queen of Argos claims her daughter, Andromeda, is more beautiful then any Goddess and the King declares this the time of men which pisses off Zeus who sends a once exiled Hades to mess with Man. Hades tells the city that they will fall to the Kraken if they do not sacrifice Andromeda by the soon coming eclipse and this in turn sets out Perseus and the last remaining Argos soldiers to try and find out how they can destroy the titan they call Kraken.
Should Avatar Win the Oscar for Best Picture?
02/26/2010 by 2 Comments
Will we see a CGI acceptance speech?
Avatar is currently the odds on favorite to win the Oscar for Best Picture. Almost everyone enjoyed this film, but does it deserve to win Best Picture?
My expectations for Avatar were hindered from the beginning. Avatar’s various previews accurately depict its recycled plot and clichéd theme of the noble savage. I immediately dubbed the film ‘Dances with Wolves meets Fern Gully meets Aliens.’ I wasn’t even aware that Sigourney Weaver was in the film! Despite my hesitations, I was flat-out entertained when I eventually saw the film. The enthralling nature of the film can best be explained by Cameron’s storytelling abilities combined with the new technologies at his disposal. The facial motion capture far exceeded my expectations and Cameron’s new brand of 3D filming enhanced the experience. Sam Worthington’s acting is solid, but he and everyone else are overshadowed by the performance of Zoe Saldana. Zoe’s performance as Neytiri sells the film. Avatar is 162 minutes long but given its positive qualities the film never drags and seems much shorter.
Rental Review: Terminator Salvation
01/05/2010 by Leave a Comment
The Terminator series has come a long way with Terminator Salvation in terms of graphics, but the story fails to meet the standards set up by the prior films.
In the year 2018, the machines still have the upper hand following their all out nuclear strike many years before on Judgment Day. Though forced to live in hiding thanks to their decimated numbers, the human resistance has yet to give up the fight against the machines. Taking place following the three previous films of the franchise, Terminator Salvation follows John Connor, who has yet to fulfill his destiny of leading the humans against the machines. However, before he can become this man he has to retain the timeline that has been set by finding Kyle Reese, the man who will eventually go back and time and father Connor; the same man the machines are trying to find and kill, thus killing Connor as well. [Read more...]
Now Playing Review: Avatar
12/29/2009 by 1 Comment
I will admit it, I was one of those people who was more than skeptical about how much I was going to like this film after first seeing the trailer a while back. I just didn’t think I was going to relate to the plight of some blue, anorexic looking humanoids. And frankly, I was a little concerned about some roundabout cross-species love. But you know what they say about books and their covers.
James Cameron’s Avatar has been a long time coming, but the end product clearly shows that this time was used wisely. During this time, Cameron constructed a story of two conflicting species, the Na’vi who inhabit the planet Pandora, and the humans encroaching on their home in the hopes of harvesting a valuable mineral from beneath the tree they inhabit. Though the humans have tried negotiating with the Na’vi to gain control of the land, it is clear that patience is growing thin with trying to appease this “lesser” species and the military forces brought to the planet are more than willing to take a less subtle approach in order to complete the objective. With one last attempt at keeping consciences clean, Jake Sully, a paraplegic soldier, and many members of the science team are given avatars made to look and move like the Na’vi in the hopes of helping to bring the negotiations to an end.
[Read more...]
Review: Avatar
12/18/2009 by Leave a Comment
James Cameron’s Avatar is finally here and not only does it deliver the visuals effects we were promised, which are quite possibly the best ever put on film, but the story is engaging and entertaining, if familiar, with a third act that must be seen to believe.
In Avatar, James Cameron has literally created an entire world in Pandora that feels like we barely even break the surface of what Cameron has in his imagination for this expansive and deep universe. What is Pandora and why should we care about it? Pandora is a planet that earthlings have discovered contains an element that is valuable in its resource abilities back on Earth. The problem is Pandora is populated by a number of dangerous indigenous creatures and a humanoid race of people known to humans as the Na’vi. The project has been on going for years as the humans try to co-exist and mine for minerals while the Na’vi resist the encroaching on their land. Enter Jake Sully, a paralyzed marine who is recruited to replace his twin brother who was part of a program that trained humans to control a Na’vi avatar to help research the moon and work towards a peaceful resolution with the Na’vi to mine the minerals of Pandora. Unfortunately when Jake arrives tensions are at an all time high and the two species are on the brink of war and Jake’s path unknowingly will intertwine with the fate of the Na’vi. [Read more...]
Review: Terminator Salvation
05/20/2009 by Leave a Comment
McG’s entry into the Terminator franchise is an action packed spectacle with paper thin characters and story, so depending on your tastes you might get a lot or nothing out of the picture.
The film opens in 2003 with a guilt filled inmate donating his body to the Cyberdyne company in telling him that he is to be used for experiments on extending humanity and maybe even giving him a second chance at life. Flash forward to 2018, and John Connor is leading an assault on the Skynet research facility in which they are to gather intel that the resistance leaders feel could end up ending the war. Upon finding their goal, Connor and his men also find a group of human prisoners and info on some experiments that are leading to an eventual human looking terminator hybrid, the T-800. When Connor reports to back to the top side to check on his evacuation squad, he discovers they have all been murdered or captured by a human transport ship built by the machines to harvest humans. After heading off after the ship, an explosion rocks Connor and his helicopter back to the ground and he is forced to evacuate the scene, the only surviving member of his team. [Read more...]
