The Forbidden Kingdom stars action legends Jackie Chan (who plays Lu Yan) and Jet Li (tplaying the Monkey King and The Silent Monk) along with Michael Angarano, Yifei Liu (played Sparrow) and Collin Chou playing the Jade Warlord.
Well the main plot of The Forbidden Kingdom starts off with the Monkey King (Jet Li) causing mischief against the Jade Warlord, andThe Jade warlord challenges the Monkey King to a duel. During the duel the Jade Warlord (Collin Chou) turns the Monkey King into stone just after the Monkey King casts his staff away.
Switch to sort of present day and we see Jason (played by Michael Angarano). He get out of bed and goes to a store in China town to buy some kung fu movies (this is were we see Jackie Chan playing the shop owner). Afterwards he gets chased after by as group of bullies and Jason is ends up inside The Forbidden Kingdom. Here he first meets Lu Yan (Jackie Chan) and they start a journey to help return the staff to his rightful owner. On the way they meet Sparrow (Yifei Liu) and the Silent Monk (played by Jet Li).
As being a big Jackie Chan Fan some could thing that this is a no brain of which way I might swing, but I much say that I did enjoy it but there are some issues I had with the movie. Although overall did I enjoyed The Forbidden Kingdom very much. Throughout the movie I was smiling from ear to ear in amazement.
First the good. Over and over, film after film Woo-ping Yuen always delivers when It comes to the choreography. Jackie Chan and Jet Li both are excellent during there selection of fight scenes with the best of course being when the two fought each other. I thought a lot of the scenes were really funny from when both Chan and Li were teaching Jason some kung fu, and even the "rain"scene put halfway into the movie. I also like Jet Li's version of the Monkey King I thought he was hilarious at some of the scenes, and really entertaining to watch.
As for what I disliked about the movie was a couple things. First I thought the direction could have been done a little better. Also in the beginning the actors that were picking on the main character couldn't act worth a damn, and I thought that the kid Michael Angarano was iffy, nothing that great. Shadowed by the real stars of the show Jet Li and Jackie Chan. Another think I must note is that I thought that the romance scenes really didn't need to be there. I don't understand why there always has to be at least some of a romance plot in movie that it obviously bogs down the rest of the story.
The Forbidden Kingdom was a wonderful movie I enjoyed very much. To see Jet Li and Jackie Chan attack each other with different style was very exciting, and could be one of funniest and entertaining fight scene for awhile. I would Strongly Recommend The Forbidden Kingdom.
Friday, April 18, 2008
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
DVD: Sunshine
Sunshine stars Cliff Curtis, Cillian Murphy, Michelle Yeoh, Hiroyuki Sanada, Rose Byrne, Benedict Wong, Chris Evans, Troy Garity with the voice of Chipo Chung. Sunshine is directed by Danny Boyle and written by Alex Garland.
Eight men and women are on a spaceship known as the Icarus II, to reignite the sun which is dying. On the way towards the sun the long period of time of the group being stuck together is taking there toll. As they reach Mercury they get a S.O.S call from the first Icarus.
The first thing that I was exited for was the cast, the cast who includes some great actors like Cillian Murphy (The Wind that Shakes the Barley), Michelle Yeoh(Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), Hiroyuki Sanada (from Rush Hour 3 and The Last Samurai) and others. Its cool to see Cillian Murphy to be back together with Danny Boyle, They worked together back in 2002 on 28 Days Later.
One thing I was reminded of was obviously Stanley Kubrick's great masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey. In respects, the most one thing that I was reminded of was the computer of the spaceship Icarus II which is much like HAL in 2001. Also I know for sure I found at least one similar, if not exactly the same shots.
I really liked this movie, but the only thing that bugged me was at the point when Icarus II docked with Icarus I, and when Robert Capa (Cillian Murphy) and Mace (Chris Evans) get back on board their ship. From here the movie turns into becoming a very entertaining Sci-fi movie and switching into a Horror movie with Capt. Pinbacker showing up. At this point I was sort of taken away from the whole thing, but I still thought that It was still entertaining for the most part.
Overall I enjoyed Sunshine while towards the end of the movie it started to end downhill. There was more good in the movie then there was bad in my opinion. I Recommend Sunshine.
DVD
The DVD of Sunshine is packed with two Commentaries from the Director Danny Boyle and the other from a Professor from the University of Manchester named Dr. Brian Cox. Other features are deleted scenes with commentary by Danny Boyle. Along with a Trailer and two Short Films.
Everything on this DVD is a pretty well packed with features. Both Commentaries go with the movie very well, equally they both have some great insight in the movie. The two short films are too much like the movie I thought was entertaining. The DVD of Sunshine is a Recommended Buy.
Eight men and women are on a spaceship known as the Icarus II, to reignite the sun which is dying. On the way towards the sun the long period of time of the group being stuck together is taking there toll. As they reach Mercury they get a S.O.S call from the first Icarus.
The first thing that I was exited for was the cast, the cast who includes some great actors like Cillian Murphy (The Wind that Shakes the Barley), Michelle Yeoh(Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), Hiroyuki Sanada (from Rush Hour 3 and The Last Samurai) and others. Its cool to see Cillian Murphy to be back together with Danny Boyle, They worked together back in 2002 on 28 Days Later.
One thing I was reminded of was obviously Stanley Kubrick's great masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey. In respects, the most one thing that I was reminded of was the computer of the spaceship Icarus II which is much like HAL in 2001. Also I know for sure I found at least one similar, if not exactly the same shots.
I really liked this movie, but the only thing that bugged me was at the point when Icarus II docked with Icarus I, and when Robert Capa (Cillian Murphy) and Mace (Chris Evans) get back on board their ship. From here the movie turns into becoming a very entertaining Sci-fi movie and switching into a Horror movie with Capt. Pinbacker showing up. At this point I was sort of taken away from the whole thing, but I still thought that It was still entertaining for the most part.
Overall I enjoyed Sunshine while towards the end of the movie it started to end downhill. There was more good in the movie then there was bad in my opinion. I Recommend Sunshine.
DVD
The DVD of Sunshine is packed with two Commentaries from the Director Danny Boyle and the other from a Professor from the University of Manchester named Dr. Brian Cox. Other features are deleted scenes with commentary by Danny Boyle. Along with a Trailer and two Short Films.
Everything on this DVD is a pretty well packed with features. Both Commentaries go with the movie very well, equally they both have some great insight in the movie. The two short films are too much like the movie I thought was entertaining. The DVD of Sunshine is a Recommended Buy.
DVD: Dragon Wars (D-Wars)
Dragon Wars, or D-Wars, stars Jason Behr, Amanda Brooks, Robert Forster, Aimee Garcia and is Written and Directed by Hyung-rae Shim.
D-Wars (or Dragon Wars) is based on a Korean folklore, about dragons. We follow a journalist Ethan (Jason Behr) who is somehow connected to the folklore story. We find out that he is the reincarnation of a apprentice of a master from back in the 1500s in Korea, and is job is to protect a 20 year old woman (known as Yeouijoo) who has a dragon mark on her shoulder from the Evil Imoogi, (that the Dragon) Buraki.
The day when the Evil Buraki rises again is drawing near as Sarah (played by Amanda Brooks) is about to turn 20. Ethan along with his camera man Bruce (Craig Robinson) finds Sarah just in time to save her from the giant serpent. All three time to run from this evil force all alwhile their is a war between the Dragon's followers against the army.
When I first saw the trailer for Dragon Wars, I must admit that I was a little of bit interested (at least it wasn't another sequel or anything of that matter). The movie is something that gave a fresh experience from seems like a year with very few original concepts out there. But from an entertaining point this is were the movie sort of goes down in a downward spiral.
Dragon Wars is not that well good in the casting spots of the movie, the actors Jason Behr and Amanda Brooks (who at first thought was Alison Lohman from the movie Matchstick Men, but then Alison Lohman can actually act. So that got crossed out). The movie also has Craig Robinson who I like in The Office (US version) hes really funny in that show. But the two leads Behr and Brooks I thought did a horrendous job of actimg in Dragon Wars.
I hate how trailer promotes that this was an action movie, but to then watch the movie and find out it had only good action in the last parts of the movie and they took that footage for the trailer. I remembered as I was watching the beginning where its placed in Korea and the Evil army is attacking, they have these lizard monsters with cannons on their backs, I thought this was just an extension of the Star Wars Episode I, Gungan vs Trade Federation battle.
Overall I wasn't impressed with Dragon Wars. I saw it and with about a couple minutes I'll most likely forget all about this movie. Dragon Wars (D-Wars) is a Skip.
DVD
Dragon Wars DVD has as features: "5,000 years in the Making: Featurette; DRAGON WARS Animatics: From Storyboard to Screen; Conceptual Art Gallery.
The DVD features are very short the only reasonable feature I though was watchable was the "Making of" feature, it has the Director Hyung-rae Shim talk to a crowd of fans in Korea about his journey of making this film. It runs for about 18 minutes long. The other features has sort of a spilt screen between the story board pictures and the actual movie footage. Overall I thought the DVD portion was very week, not even Commentary by Hyung-rae Shim. This DVD much like the movie is a Skip.
D-Wars (or Dragon Wars) is based on a Korean folklore, about dragons. We follow a journalist Ethan (Jason Behr) who is somehow connected to the folklore story. We find out that he is the reincarnation of a apprentice of a master from back in the 1500s in Korea, and is job is to protect a 20 year old woman (known as Yeouijoo) who has a dragon mark on her shoulder from the Evil Imoogi, (that the Dragon) Buraki.
The day when the Evil Buraki rises again is drawing near as Sarah (played by Amanda Brooks) is about to turn 20. Ethan along with his camera man Bruce (Craig Robinson) finds Sarah just in time to save her from the giant serpent. All three time to run from this evil force all alwhile their is a war between the Dragon's followers against the army.
When I first saw the trailer for Dragon Wars, I must admit that I was a little of bit interested (at least it wasn't another sequel or anything of that matter). The movie is something that gave a fresh experience from seems like a year with very few original concepts out there. But from an entertaining point this is were the movie sort of goes down in a downward spiral.
Dragon Wars is not that well good in the casting spots of the movie, the actors Jason Behr and Amanda Brooks (who at first thought was Alison Lohman from the movie Matchstick Men, but then Alison Lohman can actually act. So that got crossed out). The movie also has Craig Robinson who I like in The Office (US version) hes really funny in that show. But the two leads Behr and Brooks I thought did a horrendous job of actimg in Dragon Wars.
I hate how trailer promotes that this was an action movie, but to then watch the movie and find out it had only good action in the last parts of the movie and they took that footage for the trailer. I remembered as I was watching the beginning where its placed in Korea and the Evil army is attacking, they have these lizard monsters with cannons on their backs, I thought this was just an extension of the Star Wars Episode I, Gungan vs Trade Federation battle.
Overall I wasn't impressed with Dragon Wars. I saw it and with about a couple minutes I'll most likely forget all about this movie. Dragon Wars (D-Wars) is a Skip.
DVD
Dragon Wars DVD has as features: "5,000 years in the Making: Featurette; DRAGON WARS Animatics: From Storyboard to Screen; Conceptual Art Gallery.
The DVD features are very short the only reasonable feature I though was watchable was the "Making of" feature, it has the Director Hyung-rae Shim talk to a crowd of fans in Korea about his journey of making this film. It runs for about 18 minutes long. The other features has sort of a spilt screen between the story board pictures and the actual movie footage. Overall I thought the DVD portion was very week, not even Commentary by Hyung-rae Shim. This DVD much like the movie is a Skip.
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
DVD: Resident Evil: Extinction
Resident Evil: Extinction stars Milla Jovovich, Oded Fehr, Ali Larter, Iain Glen and is directed by Russell Mulcahy and written by Paul W.S. Anderson (who wrote the first two).
Resident Evil: Extinction is the third movie in this trilogy based on the popular video game by Capcom. The first movie they tried to contain/experiment with the Virus, the second the virus broke out and they tried to escape the Apocalypse. Now this this newest addition to the Resident Evil series they are to avoid Extinction.
Extinction has everyone that is actually living always on the run. The world is now a complete wasteland, food and gas are scarce. From the beginning we learn that The Umbrella Corp. has a working underground facility working on a cure stop the T-virus, they are using clones of Alice to find the cure. The doctor in charged Dr. Isaac's (Iain Glen) has been working with dozens of clones of Alice trying to make the Zombies less violent.
Alice (Milla Jovovich) is staking the land by herself, so that the Umbrella Corp. can't follow her, when she reaches a abandoned gas station she finds a journal saying that their is a place were its virus free but its in Alaska. Later Alice joins up with some of her old friends Carlos Olivera (Oded Fehr) and L.J. (Mike Epps) and meets with Claire Redfield (Ali Larter) who has set up this party of unaffected human to travel safely from spot to spot. Alice tells them of the place up in Alaska. They decide to take the chance and go, but first they must restock up with supplies. The closest place to do that is Las Vegas.
Waiting for them is some of the Umbrella Corp. Scientist including Dr. Isaac's as they set a trap to capture Alice who they thought before had died. So what starts is for Alice to finish the battle between herself and the Umbrella Corp. once and for all.
Again we see another Resident Evil movie. While I thought that since Apocalypse was getting a little bit better than the first one, maybe Extinction would follow that trend and be better than the second movie. While some parts, most the action seem to be fun and exciting I thought that the movie as a whole was a down grade from what we saw from Apocalypse.
One thing that they changed with the third movies was the type of zombies. Towards the end they used a newer breed of zombies that Dr. Isaac's had made by giving them some of Alice's blood, thinking it was a cure. This make the zombies more quicker and able to think. Which makes anything better from the zombies from the first and second films.
One main issue I had with this movie was with, what the hell happened to the character Jill Valentine and Angie, they gave us nothing. Not even a small notice to what had happened with the characters. I was really pissed off. Another thing was what the hell was up with all the force power Alice was using. The whole movie was turning into a movie with Alice and she can bend time and move crap with her mind, give me a break.
Most likely, this Resident Evil series will continue, maybe not with Milla Jovovich but I think they will continue this. Throughout Extinction I was rolling my eyes at how stupid things were getting as this series is continuing. Extinction is a Skip.
DVD
Resident Evil: Extinction DVD's special features include the following; Deleted Scenes; Sneak Peek at "Resident Evil: Degeneration" - The first Resident Evil CGI feature film!; Filmmakers' Commentary with Director Russell Mulcahy, Writer/Producer Pual W. S. Anderson and Producer Jeremy Bolt; Making-Of Featurettes: -Alice Vision Pre-production; The Big Bang: Shooting Resident Evil: Extinction; Bigger, Faster Stronger: The Undead Evolve; Vegas Visual Effects: Miniatures.-
I thought that the DVD is a really decent set of features on the Resident Evil: Extinction DVD. The one thing I was really excited about after I finished watching it was the Sneak Peak of the first feature film of a CGI Resident Evil movie called Degeneration, in my opinion I think this for me could bring the series back to what I think it should be at, I swear that guy is Leon from Resident Evil 4, I can't wait. Everything else for me was just so-so, not bad but then again not that good either. I would say Resident Evil: Extinction is at least a Rent.
Resident Evil: Extinction is the third movie in this trilogy based on the popular video game by Capcom. The first movie they tried to contain/experiment with the Virus, the second the virus broke out and they tried to escape the Apocalypse. Now this this newest addition to the Resident Evil series they are to avoid Extinction.
Extinction has everyone that is actually living always on the run. The world is now a complete wasteland, food and gas are scarce. From the beginning we learn that The Umbrella Corp. has a working underground facility working on a cure stop the T-virus, they are using clones of Alice to find the cure. The doctor in charged Dr. Isaac's (Iain Glen) has been working with dozens of clones of Alice trying to make the Zombies less violent.
Alice (Milla Jovovich) is staking the land by herself, so that the Umbrella Corp. can't follow her, when she reaches a abandoned gas station she finds a journal saying that their is a place were its virus free but its in Alaska. Later Alice joins up with some of her old friends Carlos Olivera (Oded Fehr) and L.J. (Mike Epps) and meets with Claire Redfield (Ali Larter) who has set up this party of unaffected human to travel safely from spot to spot. Alice tells them of the place up in Alaska. They decide to take the chance and go, but first they must restock up with supplies. The closest place to do that is Las Vegas.
Waiting for them is some of the Umbrella Corp. Scientist including Dr. Isaac's as they set a trap to capture Alice who they thought before had died. So what starts is for Alice to finish the battle between herself and the Umbrella Corp. once and for all.
Again we see another Resident Evil movie. While I thought that since Apocalypse was getting a little bit better than the first one, maybe Extinction would follow that trend and be better than the second movie. While some parts, most the action seem to be fun and exciting I thought that the movie as a whole was a down grade from what we saw from Apocalypse.
One thing that they changed with the third movies was the type of zombies. Towards the end they used a newer breed of zombies that Dr. Isaac's had made by giving them some of Alice's blood, thinking it was a cure. This make the zombies more quicker and able to think. Which makes anything better from the zombies from the first and second films.
One main issue I had with this movie was with, what the hell happened to the character Jill Valentine and Angie, they gave us nothing. Not even a small notice to what had happened with the characters. I was really pissed off. Another thing was what the hell was up with all the force power Alice was using. The whole movie was turning into a movie with Alice and she can bend time and move crap with her mind, give me a break.
Most likely, this Resident Evil series will continue, maybe not with Milla Jovovich but I think they will continue this. Throughout Extinction I was rolling my eyes at how stupid things were getting as this series is continuing. Extinction is a Skip.
DVD
Resident Evil: Extinction DVD's special features include the following; Deleted Scenes; Sneak Peek at "Resident Evil: Degeneration" - The first Resident Evil CGI feature film!; Filmmakers' Commentary with Director Russell Mulcahy, Writer/Producer Pual W. S. Anderson and Producer Jeremy Bolt; Making-Of Featurettes: -Alice Vision Pre-production; The Big Bang: Shooting Resident Evil: Extinction; Bigger, Faster Stronger: The Undead Evolve; Vegas Visual Effects: Miniatures.-
I thought that the DVD is a really decent set of features on the Resident Evil: Extinction DVD. The one thing I was really excited about after I finished watching it was the Sneak Peak of the first feature film of a CGI Resident Evil movie called Degeneration, in my opinion I think this for me could bring the series back to what I think it should be at, I swear that guy is Leon from Resident Evil 4, I can't wait. Everything else for me was just so-so, not bad but then again not that good either. I would say Resident Evil: Extinction is at least a Rent.
Monday, January 07, 2008
DVD: Resident Evil (Resurrected Edition)
Resident Evil
Resident Evil stars Milla Jovovich, Michelle Rodriguez, Eric Mabius and James Purefoy and is written and directed by Paul W.S. Anderson.
Resident Evil is based on the popular video game of the same named. A virus known as the T-Virus is unleashed in an underground research facility, The Hive (property of the Umbrella corporation), which is localed right under Raccoon City. When the T-Virus is unleashed the underground's security mainframe, Red Queen puts the place on lock down. So a group of commandos and soldiers travel down to clear up what has happened down in the Hive. The only way to the Hive is through a house which is guarded by Alice (Milla Jovovich), but she was effected by some nerve gas that is part of the defense of the Hive, that makes her forget who she is for a short period. Alice along with another person who was at the house Matt Addison (Eric Mabius) travel down to the Hive. While traveling down to the Hive through the train they find Spencer Parks (James Purefoy) who was with Alice on protecting the house, and he too was effected by the defense gas.
As they get to the Hive they make there way to the Red Queen and shut her down. When they do that it unlocks all the doors and turns off all security measures. Without knowing the group who now only consists of Alice, Spencer Parks, Matt Addison, Chad Kaplan (Martin Crewes) and Rain Ocampo (played by Michelle Rodriguez) has let out the people who have been infected with the T-Virus, turning them into Zombies.
Let me start off say I have always enjoyed all of the Resident Evil video games, Capcom really does a great job on making scary moments and throughout the games your constantly tensed. The movie on the other hand, I though it could have been better, It was not scary, the acting was so-so, the graphic was in my opinion OK, nothing great though.
Maybe it was the writing but I thought the whole thing was laughably bad, the actors seemed to me that they put no thought of emotion, they seemed bored and just said what was written without feeling. Really dull. I guess you would have to say that the story too was for me not that exciting, nothing really grabbed me and did not let go.
One beef I have with these monster movie is that Zombie at some extend are crapping "bad guys" in movies. One thing that I really hate about the Zombie cliche is that they aways walks slowly and the victim running ALWAYS trips and looks back and eventually gets killed. Now one who gave them a good change was the movie 28 Days Later and its sequel 28 Weeks Later, the Zombies in this movies where running, they were smarter. Those were much more exciting.
Overall Resident Evil is a very forgetful movie you could watch it once and then maybe days later it would be forgotten. I would have to say that Resident Evil is a Skip.
Resident Evil: Apocalypse
The sequel to the first Resident Evil, Resident Evil: Apocalypse stars Milla Jovovich, Sienna Guillory, Oded Fehr and Thomas Kretschmann and is written by Paul W.S. Anderson and directed by Alexander Witt.
The sequel to the 2002 Resident Evil movie based on the Capcom zombie game starts off right where the first let off. The T-Virus has come up to the surface and is starting to spread through Raccoon City.While the Umbrella Corp. has been evacuating the city, one of the first priorities was a scientist Dr. Ashford (Jared Harris) who created the T-Virus. He says we would not go without his child Angie (Sophie Vavasseur) but as she is on her way out of the city her car gets in an accident. As The Umbrella Corp. is getting all civilians out of the city, the Virus makes its way to the gate so they decide to shut off to everyone there.
One of the people left in Raccoon City is Jill Valentine (Sienna Guillory) along with her friend Peyton Wells (Razaaq Adoti) and a news reporter Terri Morales (Sandrine Holt). They stick together and shack up in a church, where they are attacked by three monsters and are saved by Alice (Milla Jovovich). Alice help these three survive. Dr. Ashford learn about his daughter and finds out that she when to go and hide at her junior school. So he contacts the four Alice, Terri, Jill and a bitten Peyton and has them rescue his daughter for a trip out of the city before the Umbrella Corp. explodes a bomb in the heart of Raccoon City. He also gets a ex Umbrella soldier Carlos Oliveira (Oded Fehr) to help the others.
The man who is in charged of the evacuation and is some how connected to Alice's past, Major Cain (played by Thomas Kretschmann) he unleashes the Umbrella Corporation experiment from the Nemesis program (Which they mentioned towards the end of the first movie). The experiment is named Nemesis, a destruction force that can destroy anything in his way. Cain wants to try to match Nemesis against Alice.
As positive I must say I like Resident Evil: Apocalypse must better than the first. I though it was doing much better, story-wise but still disappointed with the overall movie. Most of the same issues I had with the first movie are still present here.
The newest cast members Sienna Guillory who plays Jill Valentine which is the character from the video game original Resident Evil and Oded Fehr playing Carlos Oliveira who is from the Resident Evil 3: Nemesis game. They were a pretty good addition to the movie, I do like Oded Fehr from the Mummy movies I thought hes a really good actor.
While it seems to me it seems that with this sequel the series is turning to a more action rather than horror type of movie. I really liked this one better because it uses more from the video game. But overall I would say this sequel is a Skip.
DVD
The DVD of this Resurrected Edition has both the first and the second of the Resident Evil movies from the series. Aside from the two movie the features include The Evolution of resident Evil: Bridge to Extinction, Exclusive Sneak Peek Scene from Resident Evil: Extinction, Diary of an Apocalypse, Zombie Dog POV Test, Undead boot camp, Stuntman Set Tour, Memory Retention Training Quiz, Evil Archives: 5 Photo Galleries.
The DVD here is really simple, If you don't have or seen the first two, this is the DVD to get. But if you do have it then there is not much here for you except a 5 minutes bridge to the third feature film. The Resurrected Edition of Resident Evil is a Rent.
Resident Evil stars Milla Jovovich, Michelle Rodriguez, Eric Mabius and James Purefoy and is written and directed by Paul W.S. Anderson.
Resident Evil is based on the popular video game of the same named. A virus known as the T-Virus is unleashed in an underground research facility, The Hive (property of the Umbrella corporation), which is localed right under Raccoon City. When the T-Virus is unleashed the underground's security mainframe, Red Queen puts the place on lock down. So a group of commandos and soldiers travel down to clear up what has happened down in the Hive. The only way to the Hive is through a house which is guarded by Alice (Milla Jovovich), but she was effected by some nerve gas that is part of the defense of the Hive, that makes her forget who she is for a short period. Alice along with another person who was at the house Matt Addison (Eric Mabius) travel down to the Hive. While traveling down to the Hive through the train they find Spencer Parks (James Purefoy) who was with Alice on protecting the house, and he too was effected by the defense gas.
As they get to the Hive they make there way to the Red Queen and shut her down. When they do that it unlocks all the doors and turns off all security measures. Without knowing the group who now only consists of Alice, Spencer Parks, Matt Addison, Chad Kaplan (Martin Crewes) and Rain Ocampo (played by Michelle Rodriguez) has let out the people who have been infected with the T-Virus, turning them into Zombies.
Let me start off say I have always enjoyed all of the Resident Evil video games, Capcom really does a great job on making scary moments and throughout the games your constantly tensed. The movie on the other hand, I though it could have been better, It was not scary, the acting was so-so, the graphic was in my opinion OK, nothing great though.
Maybe it was the writing but I thought the whole thing was laughably bad, the actors seemed to me that they put no thought of emotion, they seemed bored and just said what was written without feeling. Really dull. I guess you would have to say that the story too was for me not that exciting, nothing really grabbed me and did not let go.
One beef I have with these monster movie is that Zombie at some extend are crapping "bad guys" in movies. One thing that I really hate about the Zombie cliche is that they aways walks slowly and the victim running ALWAYS trips and looks back and eventually gets killed. Now one who gave them a good change was the movie 28 Days Later and its sequel 28 Weeks Later, the Zombies in this movies where running, they were smarter. Those were much more exciting.
Overall Resident Evil is a very forgetful movie you could watch it once and then maybe days later it would be forgotten. I would have to say that Resident Evil is a Skip.
Resident Evil: Apocalypse
The sequel to the first Resident Evil, Resident Evil: Apocalypse stars Milla Jovovich, Sienna Guillory, Oded Fehr and Thomas Kretschmann and is written by Paul W.S. Anderson and directed by Alexander Witt.
The sequel to the 2002 Resident Evil movie based on the Capcom zombie game starts off right where the first let off. The T-Virus has come up to the surface and is starting to spread through Raccoon City.While the Umbrella Corp. has been evacuating the city, one of the first priorities was a scientist Dr. Ashford (Jared Harris) who created the T-Virus. He says we would not go without his child Angie (Sophie Vavasseur) but as she is on her way out of the city her car gets in an accident. As The Umbrella Corp. is getting all civilians out of the city, the Virus makes its way to the gate so they decide to shut off to everyone there.
One of the people left in Raccoon City is Jill Valentine (Sienna Guillory) along with her friend Peyton Wells (Razaaq Adoti) and a news reporter Terri Morales (Sandrine Holt). They stick together and shack up in a church, where they are attacked by three monsters and are saved by Alice (Milla Jovovich). Alice help these three survive. Dr. Ashford learn about his daughter and finds out that she when to go and hide at her junior school. So he contacts the four Alice, Terri, Jill and a bitten Peyton and has them rescue his daughter for a trip out of the city before the Umbrella Corp. explodes a bomb in the heart of Raccoon City. He also gets a ex Umbrella soldier Carlos Oliveira (Oded Fehr) to help the others.
The man who is in charged of the evacuation and is some how connected to Alice's past, Major Cain (played by Thomas Kretschmann) he unleashes the Umbrella Corporation experiment from the Nemesis program (Which they mentioned towards the end of the first movie). The experiment is named Nemesis, a destruction force that can destroy anything in his way. Cain wants to try to match Nemesis against Alice.
As positive I must say I like Resident Evil: Apocalypse must better than the first. I though it was doing much better, story-wise but still disappointed with the overall movie. Most of the same issues I had with the first movie are still present here.
The newest cast members Sienna Guillory who plays Jill Valentine which is the character from the video game original Resident Evil and Oded Fehr playing Carlos Oliveira who is from the Resident Evil 3: Nemesis game. They were a pretty good addition to the movie, I do like Oded Fehr from the Mummy movies I thought hes a really good actor.
While it seems to me it seems that with this sequel the series is turning to a more action rather than horror type of movie. I really liked this one better because it uses more from the video game. But overall I would say this sequel is a Skip.
DVD
The DVD of this Resurrected Edition has both the first and the second of the Resident Evil movies from the series. Aside from the two movie the features include The Evolution of resident Evil: Bridge to Extinction, Exclusive Sneak Peek Scene from Resident Evil: Extinction, Diary of an Apocalypse, Zombie Dog POV Test, Undead boot camp, Stuntman Set Tour, Memory Retention Training Quiz, Evil Archives: 5 Photo Galleries.
The DVD here is really simple, If you don't have or seen the first two, this is the DVD to get. But if you do have it then there is not much here for you except a 5 minutes bridge to the third feature film. The Resurrected Edition of Resident Evil is a Rent.
DVD: Speak
Speak stars Kristen Stewart, Elizabeth Perkins, D.B. Sweeney and Steve Zahn and is Directed by Jessica Sharzer.
Speak is about a young girl Melinda Sordino (played by Kristen Stewart). She is starting high school as a freshman, only problem is that almost every one in school hates her except for a new girl who has just arrived to town a couple of days before, Heather (played by Allison Siko) who befriends her while on the first day of school riding on the bus. Throughout the first day of school has she just tries to make it through the day, she is constantly being called a "squealer" by everyone she walks passed, because of one night where her and her friends are at a party and then she called the cops. During the school year the two people that help her out get through this year they are another student David Petrakis (Michael Angarano), who she has as a lab partner, and her art teacher Mr. Freeman (played by Steve Zahn). She constantly recalls the traumatic night of the party (the one where she called the cops), because on that night she was raped by Andy Evans (Eric Lively), another student at her school.
Speak would be a movie that I would not mostly come across but I came across this movie just looking around and I thought this actually might check into. I was surprised because I actually enjoyed this movie I thought it good. I really like the cast of the movie Elizabeth Perkins who I like in the Showtime series Weeds, Steve Zahn I liked his performance in That Thing You Do! and I've seen some movies with Kristen Stewart in them like Panic Room and Cold Creek Manor, Zathura and The Messengers. In Speak I thought everyone does a good job throughout. especially Kristen Stewart.
I have not read the novel (which is of the same named) and was written by Laurie Halse Anderson in 1999, but I read that the author was their on set and she was very pleased with what was going on. So that must be a good thing right.
Overall, I thought Speak was a really engaging movie which I thought was really good. I think this really shows Kristen Stewart as a good actress and does a great job at acting, I bet she will get a lot more roles after this. I Recommend Speak.
DVD
The DVD of Speak has as features, Commentary by both the Director Jessica Sharzer and Author Laurie Halse Anderson, Behind-The-Scenes, Penguin Books "Study Guide" and Cast Filmographies.
I thought that the DVD good. The Commentary I though was OK. The behind the scenes featurettes was decent and a good watch. The filmographies were and are in my mine opinion are NOT special features, this along with interactive menus are poor excuses of special features. My overall thought of the DVD would be a so-so, but I thought the movie alone was good, so I would recommend this DVD as a Buy because of how good the movie was.
Speak is about a young girl Melinda Sordino (played by Kristen Stewart). She is starting high school as a freshman, only problem is that almost every one in school hates her except for a new girl who has just arrived to town a couple of days before, Heather (played by Allison Siko) who befriends her while on the first day of school riding on the bus. Throughout the first day of school has she just tries to make it through the day, she is constantly being called a "squealer" by everyone she walks passed, because of one night where her and her friends are at a party and then she called the cops. During the school year the two people that help her out get through this year they are another student David Petrakis (Michael Angarano), who she has as a lab partner, and her art teacher Mr. Freeman (played by Steve Zahn). She constantly recalls the traumatic night of the party (the one where she called the cops), because on that night she was raped by Andy Evans (Eric Lively), another student at her school.
Speak would be a movie that I would not mostly come across but I came across this movie just looking around and I thought this actually might check into. I was surprised because I actually enjoyed this movie I thought it good. I really like the cast of the movie Elizabeth Perkins who I like in the Showtime series Weeds, Steve Zahn I liked his performance in That Thing You Do! and I've seen some movies with Kristen Stewart in them like Panic Room and Cold Creek Manor, Zathura and The Messengers. In Speak I thought everyone does a good job throughout. especially Kristen Stewart.
I have not read the novel (which is of the same named) and was written by Laurie Halse Anderson in 1999, but I read that the author was their on set and she was very pleased with what was going on. So that must be a good thing right.
Overall, I thought Speak was a really engaging movie which I thought was really good. I think this really shows Kristen Stewart as a good actress and does a great job at acting, I bet she will get a lot more roles after this. I Recommend Speak.
DVD
The DVD of Speak has as features, Commentary by both the Director Jessica Sharzer and Author Laurie Halse Anderson, Behind-The-Scenes, Penguin Books "Study Guide" and Cast Filmographies.
I thought that the DVD good. The Commentary I though was OK. The behind the scenes featurettes was decent and a good watch. The filmographies were and are in my mine opinion are NOT special features, this along with interactive menus are poor excuses of special features. My overall thought of the DVD would be a so-so, but I thought the movie alone was good, so I would recommend this DVD as a Buy because of how good the movie was.
Friday, January 04, 2008
MOVIE: Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Elizabeth: The Golden Age is the sequel to the 1998 award nomiated Elizabeth. The movie stars Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, Jordi Mollà and Clive Owen and is directed by Shekhar Kapur.
Its the 16th-century and Elizabeth (played by Cate Blanchett) is still the Queen of England. England is mostly a Catholic country. King Phillip II of Spain (played by Jordi Mollà) is the largest power in the world and he shifts his eyes at England. He begins to build and invincible armada to sent to England in the name of God, and restore England who Catholicism.
Elizabeth have dedicated her life to her country and she must let nothing get in the way. While one day Sir Walter Raleigh (played by Clive Owen) comes into her court to giver her a gift of gold, gold that he stole from Spanish ships. Queen Elizabeth accepts the gift making the Spanish Ambassador outraged and he stomps of out the room. Elizabeth becomes intrigued with this Sir Walter Raleigh and later tells Lady-in-waiting, Bess (played by Abbie Cornish) to talk to Raleigh.
While this is going on Sir Francis Walsingham (played by the great Geoffrey Rush) discovers a plot to assassinate Elizabeth, when the plan does go into action it does not go to plan and Elizabeth was not harmed. Walsingham discovers that the one who issued the assassination was no other than Elizabeth cousin Mary Stuart (Samantha Morton), Queen of the Scots, so that she can take the throne. Elizabeth reluctant, but by the request of her advisers sends out her execution.
King Phillip of Spain uses this to call all armies under the banner of God to attack Elizabeth, because she killed God's anointed Queen (referring to Mary Stuart). So now Elizabeth must prepare her country, they way she defends is fighting them at sea. Queen Elizabeth all awhile tries to fight off feeling towards Walter Raleigh so that she can be dedicated to her country. Up till she reaches the shores where they would defend, she gives her men and aspiring speech, on the day before the armada arrives.
I absolutely loved the first Elizabeth and I wanted that movie to win the seven nominations so bad I thought it was that good. When I went to go see The Golden Age I was really excited, and by the time I exited the theater I was happy with the out come of Elizabeth: The Golden Age.
The acting I felt was on par with the first one, Cate Blanchett is true a wonderful actress. There was two scenes in particular which honestly gave me chills; the first one would have to be when the Spanish Ambassador tells Eilzabeth that their fleet will sweep away her pride and she responds my yelling forcefully, "I too can command the winds sir, I too have a hurricane in my that who strip Spain bare if you dare try." Another scene would be when Sir Francis Walsingham tell Elizabeth that he failed her the plan from phillip allowing him to have a just-cause to attack England. Then comes this over the head shot much like in the beginning of the first movie and we just see Elizabeth feel so depressed.
The costume this time around I thought were a little bit over the top. The costumes of Elizabeth in the first one I thought was perfect, but in this one it seedmed what she was wearing a little bit much. Everyone else were fine for me just Elizabeth. As much like the first film the sets where amazing.
I really Elizabeth: The Golden Age, while its not quite better than the first its still good and entertaining. I Strongly Recommend Elizabeth: The Golden Age.
Its the 16th-century and Elizabeth (played by Cate Blanchett) is still the Queen of England. England is mostly a Catholic country. King Phillip II of Spain (played by Jordi Mollà) is the largest power in the world and he shifts his eyes at England. He begins to build and invincible armada to sent to England in the name of God, and restore England who Catholicism.
Elizabeth have dedicated her life to her country and she must let nothing get in the way. While one day Sir Walter Raleigh (played by Clive Owen) comes into her court to giver her a gift of gold, gold that he stole from Spanish ships. Queen Elizabeth accepts the gift making the Spanish Ambassador outraged and he stomps of out the room. Elizabeth becomes intrigued with this Sir Walter Raleigh and later tells Lady-in-waiting, Bess (played by Abbie Cornish) to talk to Raleigh.
While this is going on Sir Francis Walsingham (played by the great Geoffrey Rush) discovers a plot to assassinate Elizabeth, when the plan does go into action it does not go to plan and Elizabeth was not harmed. Walsingham discovers that the one who issued the assassination was no other than Elizabeth cousin Mary Stuart (Samantha Morton), Queen of the Scots, so that she can take the throne. Elizabeth reluctant, but by the request of her advisers sends out her execution.
King Phillip of Spain uses this to call all armies under the banner of God to attack Elizabeth, because she killed God's anointed Queen (referring to Mary Stuart). So now Elizabeth must prepare her country, they way she defends is fighting them at sea. Queen Elizabeth all awhile tries to fight off feeling towards Walter Raleigh so that she can be dedicated to her country. Up till she reaches the shores where they would defend, she gives her men and aspiring speech, on the day before the armada arrives.
I absolutely loved the first Elizabeth and I wanted that movie to win the seven nominations so bad I thought it was that good. When I went to go see The Golden Age I was really excited, and by the time I exited the theater I was happy with the out come of Elizabeth: The Golden Age.
The acting I felt was on par with the first one, Cate Blanchett is true a wonderful actress. There was two scenes in particular which honestly gave me chills; the first one would have to be when the Spanish Ambassador tells Eilzabeth that their fleet will sweep away her pride and she responds my yelling forcefully, "I too can command the winds sir, I too have a hurricane in my that who strip Spain bare if you dare try." Another scene would be when Sir Francis Walsingham tell Elizabeth that he failed her the plan from phillip allowing him to have a just-cause to attack England. Then comes this over the head shot much like in the beginning of the first movie and we just see Elizabeth feel so depressed.
The costume this time around I thought were a little bit over the top. The costumes of Elizabeth in the first one I thought was perfect, but in this one it seedmed what she was wearing a little bit much. Everyone else were fine for me just Elizabeth. As much like the first film the sets where amazing.
I really Elizabeth: The Golden Age, while its not quite better than the first its still good and entertaining. I Strongly Recommend Elizabeth: The Golden Age.
DVD: War
War stars Jet Li and Jason Statham and is directed by Philip G. Atwell.
During a mission two FBI agents Jack Crawford (Jason Statham) and his partner Tom Lone (played by Terry Chen) are attacked by Rouge (Jet Li), an assassin/hit man. Rouge eventually escapes from the two, which later leads to Rouge getting revenge and killing Tom Lone and his wife and child. Three years later, while Rouge has been off the grid he appears again this time he has killed some Yakuza's, the gang he was working for before. Jack Crawford and his team break up the San Fransisco polices investigation and puts his priorities on finding the man who killed his partner, Rogue. We find out that Rouge, who now has the name Victor Shaw has switched sides and joined the Triad boss Chang (John Lone). Victor Shaw skillfully kills of Chang's most loyal man Wu Ti's ( Mark Cheng) brother Joey Ti (played by Johnson Phan) and make it look like the Yakuzas did it. As Jack Crawford puts it best, "Lets get ready for a war." A war is now enviable between the Triads and the Yakuzas. Wu Ti and some of his men are first to strike and attack some Yakuzas at a tea restaurant. As the story unfolds we learn why Victor Shaw is making this war happen and is attacking on both sides of the war, all awhile Jack Crawford get closer and closer to take down Victor Shaw.
From the start of War I was really interested with the movie. I've always thought that this was a great casting one side of it you have Jet Li from some great martial arts movies like Once Upon A Time In China, and the most recent Fearless and Warlords and on the other side Jason Statham who has some great fight scenes in his other movies like the Transporter and the Transporter 2. I was really looking forward to be seeing the two of them fight like crazy throughout this movie. Yet I found myself quite disappointed with that because the two of them actually fought only one time and that was nearing the end of the movie and only for a brief time.
Aside from those two from fighting you have the plot. For me the plot I felt was sort of predictable, much like any other revenge movie that involves one of the main character that's a cop, or in this case an FBI special agent. Its basically the bad guy kills the good guys partner so the good guy wants to get revenge throughout the movie. Even at the end I thought was very predictable.
The action through War, even though its mostly put in towards the end was good. I would have liked to see more martial arts scenes from Jet Li. The action choreographer was Cory Yuen who has choreographed a lot of Jet Li's movie as well has done the action direction for Jason Statham's movie both The Transporter and The Transporter 2. He has done many more too. With War I was not disappointed, he did a great job and the action was very entertaining.
War, while I'm not recommending it does have its moments. Maybe my expectations were to high, because I was wanting awesome fight scenes between the two lead actors Jason Statham and Jet Li. Overall I would say that War is a Skip.
DVD
The DVD of War has two different Commentaries, one by the Director Phillip G. Atwell and the other by the Writers Lee Anthony Smith and Gregory Bradley along with a featurette on the Scoring of War (the music) and Deleted/Extended Scenes, Gag Reel and a Trivia Track and lastly "The Action Of War' - 9 Behind-The-Scenes Vignettes.
The only thing on this DVD that is remotely interesting would be "The Action of War" Featurettes which clocks in around 70 plus minutes long and it talks about certain scenes through the film from the action, editing and scoring. The Gag Reel too was funny, but overall I would have to say that the movie is a Rent.
During a mission two FBI agents Jack Crawford (Jason Statham) and his partner Tom Lone (played by Terry Chen) are attacked by Rouge (Jet Li), an assassin/hit man. Rouge eventually escapes from the two, which later leads to Rouge getting revenge and killing Tom Lone and his wife and child. Three years later, while Rouge has been off the grid he appears again this time he has killed some Yakuza's, the gang he was working for before. Jack Crawford and his team break up the San Fransisco polices investigation and puts his priorities on finding the man who killed his partner, Rogue. We find out that Rouge, who now has the name Victor Shaw has switched sides and joined the Triad boss Chang (John Lone). Victor Shaw skillfully kills of Chang's most loyal man Wu Ti's ( Mark Cheng) brother Joey Ti (played by Johnson Phan) and make it look like the Yakuzas did it. As Jack Crawford puts it best, "Lets get ready for a war." A war is now enviable between the Triads and the Yakuzas. Wu Ti and some of his men are first to strike and attack some Yakuzas at a tea restaurant. As the story unfolds we learn why Victor Shaw is making this war happen and is attacking on both sides of the war, all awhile Jack Crawford get closer and closer to take down Victor Shaw.
From the start of War I was really interested with the movie. I've always thought that this was a great casting one side of it you have Jet Li from some great martial arts movies like Once Upon A Time In China, and the most recent Fearless and Warlords and on the other side Jason Statham who has some great fight scenes in his other movies like the Transporter and the Transporter 2. I was really looking forward to be seeing the two of them fight like crazy throughout this movie. Yet I found myself quite disappointed with that because the two of them actually fought only one time and that was nearing the end of the movie and only for a brief time.
Aside from those two from fighting you have the plot. For me the plot I felt was sort of predictable, much like any other revenge movie that involves one of the main character that's a cop, or in this case an FBI special agent. Its basically the bad guy kills the good guys partner so the good guy wants to get revenge throughout the movie. Even at the end I thought was very predictable.
The action through War, even though its mostly put in towards the end was good. I would have liked to see more martial arts scenes from Jet Li. The action choreographer was Cory Yuen who has choreographed a lot of Jet Li's movie as well has done the action direction for Jason Statham's movie both The Transporter and The Transporter 2. He has done many more too. With War I was not disappointed, he did a great job and the action was very entertaining.
War, while I'm not recommending it does have its moments. Maybe my expectations were to high, because I was wanting awesome fight scenes between the two lead actors Jason Statham and Jet Li. Overall I would say that War is a Skip.
DVD
The DVD of War has two different Commentaries, one by the Director Phillip G. Atwell and the other by the Writers Lee Anthony Smith and Gregory Bradley along with a featurette on the Scoring of War (the music) and Deleted/Extended Scenes, Gag Reel and a Trivia Track and lastly "The Action Of War' - 9 Behind-The-Scenes Vignettes.
The only thing on this DVD that is remotely interesting would be "The Action of War" Featurettes which clocks in around 70 plus minutes long and it talks about certain scenes through the film from the action, editing and scoring. The Gag Reel too was funny, but overall I would have to say that the movie is a Rent.
Thursday, January 03, 2008
DVD: Superbad (2 Disc Unrated)
Superbad stars Michael Cera and Jonah Hill and is directed by Greg Mottola and written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg.
Seth (Joanh hill) and Evan (played by Michael Cera) are about to finish their years in high school. Before leaving to college, Evan is going to a school called Dartmouth and Seth must separate from him and go to a local college, both of them want to get laid (much like every other teen high school movie). There are girls who both are attracted to, Evan is attracted to Becca (played by Martha MacIsaac) and Seth thinks that a girl named Jules (played by Emma Stone) wants to get with him. During a class, their buddy Fogell (played by Christopher Mintz-Plasse) comes in to tell them about how he just hit on a girl in the hall and also that he is getting his fake ID sometime today. Just after class Jules tells Seth that's she's having a party and if he wants to come, he accepts tells her that he's getting an ID today too. She asks Seth if he then can get them beer for the party. While both Seth and Evan are waiting for Fogell to come with an ID so that he can get the beer. They find out that he did get an ID but when he showed them the ID says that he is McLovin. Fogell goes to get them beer and gets punched and taken in by two cops, Officer Slater (played by Bill Hader) and Officer Michael's (played by one of the writers Seth Rogen). So Evan and Seth go on a journey to get themselves some beer and get in the good graces of the two girls at the party so they can get laid.
I am a huge fan of the television show of Arrested Development, and am glad too see two people from that show contribute to this movie, Greg Mottola who has directed a couple of episodes of the show and Michael Cera who plays the character George-Michael Bluth. So knowing that I was very happy to go and see this movie, while I too like Jonah Hill and Seth Rogan fron Knocked Up.
Starting off Superbad, for about the first thirty minutes of the movie the language could turn off a lot of people because they character talk very dirty, with profanity and sexual references. During this section of the movie I would admit I laughed more here than I did with the rest of the movie. After this section of the movie, for me I thought its were it sort of went below my expectations. I wasn't finding a lot of the scenes funny and the two cops for me felt that they were out of place.
I didn't find Superbad as funny as most people are giving it credit for, I think its overrated. I thought that the first quarter of the movie was greatly written and enjoyed it only after that was I getting restless waiting till the end of the movie. While I enjoyed the beginning it was hard for me to recommend this movie, but I'm just barley Recommending Superbad.
DVD
The DVD of the 2-Disc Unrated version of Superbad comes fully packed with tons of special features. The features are Deleted Scenes, Gag Reel, Line-O-Rama, Cop Car Confessions - Ride Along with Clark County's Finest, The Making Of Superbad, Original Table Read 2002 - Seth Rogen Reads the parts of "Seth", Commentary with the Filmmakers and Cast!, A Sneak of Pineapple Express. That's what's on all addition of the Superbad DVDs. Exclusive to the 2-Disc is Cast Audition Footage, Press Junket Meltdown, The Music of Superbad, Everyone Hates Michael Cera - The Unfortunate True Story and On-set Diaries.
The DVD feature are along worth of a purchase. The guys who put this DVD together really did an amazing job. Some of the features are in my opinion funnier than some parts of the movie. This is truly something and DVD fan can sink their teeth into and get full enjoyment out of this DVD. I would recommend this DVD of Superbad as a Buy.
Seth (Joanh hill) and Evan (played by Michael Cera) are about to finish their years in high school. Before leaving to college, Evan is going to a school called Dartmouth and Seth must separate from him and go to a local college, both of them want to get laid (much like every other teen high school movie). There are girls who both are attracted to, Evan is attracted to Becca (played by Martha MacIsaac) and Seth thinks that a girl named Jules (played by Emma Stone) wants to get with him. During a class, their buddy Fogell (played by Christopher Mintz-Plasse) comes in to tell them about how he just hit on a girl in the hall and also that he is getting his fake ID sometime today. Just after class Jules tells Seth that's she's having a party and if he wants to come, he accepts tells her that he's getting an ID today too. She asks Seth if he then can get them beer for the party. While both Seth and Evan are waiting for Fogell to come with an ID so that he can get the beer. They find out that he did get an ID but when he showed them the ID says that he is McLovin. Fogell goes to get them beer and gets punched and taken in by two cops, Officer Slater (played by Bill Hader) and Officer Michael's (played by one of the writers Seth Rogen). So Evan and Seth go on a journey to get themselves some beer and get in the good graces of the two girls at the party so they can get laid.
I am a huge fan of the television show of Arrested Development, and am glad too see two people from that show contribute to this movie, Greg Mottola who has directed a couple of episodes of the show and Michael Cera who plays the character George-Michael Bluth. So knowing that I was very happy to go and see this movie, while I too like Jonah Hill and Seth Rogan fron Knocked Up.
Starting off Superbad, for about the first thirty minutes of the movie the language could turn off a lot of people because they character talk very dirty, with profanity and sexual references. During this section of the movie I would admit I laughed more here than I did with the rest of the movie. After this section of the movie, for me I thought its were it sort of went below my expectations. I wasn't finding a lot of the scenes funny and the two cops for me felt that they were out of place.
I didn't find Superbad as funny as most people are giving it credit for, I think its overrated. I thought that the first quarter of the movie was greatly written and enjoyed it only after that was I getting restless waiting till the end of the movie. While I enjoyed the beginning it was hard for me to recommend this movie, but I'm just barley Recommending Superbad.
DVD
The DVD of the 2-Disc Unrated version of Superbad comes fully packed with tons of special features. The features are Deleted Scenes, Gag Reel, Line-O-Rama, Cop Car Confessions - Ride Along with Clark County's Finest, The Making Of Superbad, Original Table Read 2002 - Seth Rogen Reads the parts of "Seth", Commentary with the Filmmakers and Cast!, A Sneak of Pineapple Express. That's what's on all addition of the Superbad DVDs. Exclusive to the 2-Disc is Cast Audition Footage, Press Junket Meltdown, The Music of Superbad, Everyone Hates Michael Cera - The Unfortunate True Story and On-set Diaries.
The DVD feature are along worth of a purchase. The guys who put this DVD together really did an amazing job. Some of the features are in my opinion funnier than some parts of the movie. This is truly something and DVD fan can sink their teeth into and get full enjoyment out of this DVD. I would recommend this DVD of Superbad as a Buy.
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
DVD: Shoot 'Em Up
Shoot 'Em Up stars Clive Owen, Paul Giamatti and Monica Bellucci and is written and directed by Michael Davis.
Clive Owen plays a man named Smith who at the start of the movie is waiting at a bus stop. Then along comes with pregnant woman, who looks likes she's in trouble, Smith just shrugs her off. Then seconds later a car comes crash into another parked car just a little way down the street. Coming out of the car a guy comes stumbling out yelling down at the woman as she turns down a alleyway. As the man walks after her he pulls out a gun, getting ready to kill her. Smith too gets up and follows. What follows is a thrill ride of guns blazing and mindless fun. The woman has her baby and after the gun battle with a LOT of people. Smith takes the kid to keep its safe of the men trying to kill him. The person who is trying to kill him is a hit man, Hertz (played by Paul Giamatti). Smith gets away from him and tries to get help with the newborn baby from a prostitute named Donna Quintano (played by Monica Bellucci), at first she denies helping but Hertz finds out he came to her and she eventually helps Smith. The two of them go to a hideout of Smiths, Hertz through a series of clues finds out where they are at and sends fifty men and goes to ambush him to kill the two and get the kid. While Smith tries to find out why someone would want to kill the these kids, it all leads to an action pack of violence to this already fun thrill ride.
Shoot 'Em Up is, forgive the pun, a very fun and entertaining shoot 'em up movie. On a movie like this I would have never thought that actors Clive Owen and Paul Giamatti would ever do something like this. Now after I see the movie I could not think of anyone else who could do better than what those two do in this movie. Pual Giamatti was great in his character Hertz, they way he plays him so relaxed and laid back was somewhat refreshing, because most shoot 'em up movies mostly stick to the same cliche type of villain.
Another good aspect of this was that it does not take itself that seriously and has some great comedic moment in the movie. Like when Hertz talk to his wife over his phone while he is working. Clive Owen character Smith has some great remarks throughout the movie, and his character has a short temper for small things that bug people like chewing their gum loud or people sporting a ponytail even to people who do not use their blinker when driving. To all those he use force to stop them.
The movie is pretty just much mindless fun, don't look to much into the reality of the movie, like by say that would never happen in real like. Just sit back and enjoy the over the top gun battles. For me the movie seemed to be a mix between Bugs Bunny and John Woo's shoot 'em up movie Hardboiled. Throughout the movie Hertz and Smith have sort of a Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd quality, Hertz wants (and tries) to kill Smith, and Smith is always eating carrots is another thought of that. The way it resembles Hardboiled is from the guns blazing gun fights, much like any gun fight with Chow Yun Fat character and we rarely see Smith reloading.
If you want a mindless fun, awesome gun fights, and funny and quirky dialogue and not try to evaluate every part of the movie then you'll love this movie. Much like myself. This is a very fun and action-packed movie with a great look to the movie. I Highly Recommend Shoot 'Em Up.
DVD
The DVD Shoot 'Em Up is much liked its feature film, action packed with features. It contains a Feature Commentary with the Writer/Director Michael Davis, Deleted Scenes, "Ballet of Bullets: Making of Shoot 'Em Up", Writer/Director Michael Davis' original animatics, and some trailers and previews.
Everything within the DVD is good. The making of featurette is pretty good, in its full length its around 52 minutes long and is entertaining throughout. The deleted scenes are decent they too also have commentary by the writer/director. Even the animatic in which the writer/director showed to sell this movie was really good. Overall this is a very good DVD which sits along with a very entertaining movie. This is Highly Recommended as a Buy.
Clive Owen plays a man named Smith who at the start of the movie is waiting at a bus stop. Then along comes with pregnant woman, who looks likes she's in trouble, Smith just shrugs her off. Then seconds later a car comes crash into another parked car just a little way down the street. Coming out of the car a guy comes stumbling out yelling down at the woman as she turns down a alleyway. As the man walks after her he pulls out a gun, getting ready to kill her. Smith too gets up and follows. What follows is a thrill ride of guns blazing and mindless fun. The woman has her baby and after the gun battle with a LOT of people. Smith takes the kid to keep its safe of the men trying to kill him. The person who is trying to kill him is a hit man, Hertz (played by Paul Giamatti). Smith gets away from him and tries to get help with the newborn baby from a prostitute named Donna Quintano (played by Monica Bellucci), at first she denies helping but Hertz finds out he came to her and she eventually helps Smith. The two of them go to a hideout of Smiths, Hertz through a series of clues finds out where they are at and sends fifty men and goes to ambush him to kill the two and get the kid. While Smith tries to find out why someone would want to kill the these kids, it all leads to an action pack of violence to this already fun thrill ride.
Shoot 'Em Up is, forgive the pun, a very fun and entertaining shoot 'em up movie. On a movie like this I would have never thought that actors Clive Owen and Paul Giamatti would ever do something like this. Now after I see the movie I could not think of anyone else who could do better than what those two do in this movie. Pual Giamatti was great in his character Hertz, they way he plays him so relaxed and laid back was somewhat refreshing, because most shoot 'em up movies mostly stick to the same cliche type of villain.
Another good aspect of this was that it does not take itself that seriously and has some great comedic moment in the movie. Like when Hertz talk to his wife over his phone while he is working. Clive Owen character Smith has some great remarks throughout the movie, and his character has a short temper for small things that bug people like chewing their gum loud or people sporting a ponytail even to people who do not use their blinker when driving. To all those he use force to stop them.
The movie is pretty just much mindless fun, don't look to much into the reality of the movie, like by say that would never happen in real like. Just sit back and enjoy the over the top gun battles. For me the movie seemed to be a mix between Bugs Bunny and John Woo's shoot 'em up movie Hardboiled. Throughout the movie Hertz and Smith have sort of a Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd quality, Hertz wants (and tries) to kill Smith, and Smith is always eating carrots is another thought of that. The way it resembles Hardboiled is from the guns blazing gun fights, much like any gun fight with Chow Yun Fat character and we rarely see Smith reloading.
If you want a mindless fun, awesome gun fights, and funny and quirky dialogue and not try to evaluate every part of the movie then you'll love this movie. Much like myself. This is a very fun and action-packed movie with a great look to the movie. I Highly Recommend Shoot 'Em Up.
DVD
The DVD Shoot 'Em Up is much liked its feature film, action packed with features. It contains a Feature Commentary with the Writer/Director Michael Davis, Deleted Scenes, "Ballet of Bullets: Making of Shoot 'Em Up", Writer/Director Michael Davis' original animatics, and some trailers and previews.
Everything within the DVD is good. The making of featurette is pretty good, in its full length its around 52 minutes long and is entertaining throughout. The deleted scenes are decent they too also have commentary by the writer/director. Even the animatic in which the writer/director showed to sell this movie was really good. Overall this is a very good DVD which sits along with a very entertaining movie. This is Highly Recommended as a Buy.
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
DVD: Broken English
Broken English is a story about a woman named Nora Wilder (played by Parker Posey). She is living in Manhattan and trying to find love. When thing she can't find the love she is looking for she, she can't stand it, so her friend Audrey (played by Drea de Matteo) tells her to stop looking for marriage in the first man she meets and just go out and have a good time. So trying out her friends advice. She goes to a co-workers party and there she meets Julien (played by Melvil Poupaud), who is in Manhattan to find his ex-girl, who is in Manhattan shooting a movie and he tried to win her back but failed. At first Nora tries just shrugs him off and then eventually after talking till most of the night she begin to like him. After a couple of days of hitting it off and spending more and more time together Julien tells Nora that he is heading back to him home in France. So now Nora Wilder is back at step one.Let me start off by say that Parker Posey is one of my favorite actresses that's still working today. She great she very funny in the hilarious movies like A Mighty Wind, Best In Show and For Your Consideration. Then she is also good at those dramatic roles like this movie Broken English.
I personally didn't care for the movie that much but I did like Parker Posey's performance in this movie. I thought she was really good in this. I just thought it was to slow in the beginning and nothing was interesting about the plot. Only in till Nora meets Julien is when the movie picks up the slack and gets to becoming a decent movie.
Overall I'm not recommending this movie I did like the performance by Parker Posey, its just that the first half of the movie left me bored and when it did start to get good I wasn't caring anymore. I would say that Broken English is a Skip.
DVD
The DVD of Broken English is presented in 1.78:1 Widescreen with 5.1 and 2.0 English Dolby Digital. With Spanish subtitles, the features on this DVD are:
- Making of Broken English: Fragments of a Longer Story...
- Deleted Scenes.
- Higher Definition: Broken English Episode.
The Making of Featurette is an OK extra its about 15 minutes long and just shows us throughout the days on the sets of Broken English, if you liked the film you like this. The other feature, The Higher Definition is Robert Wilonsky sitting down with some of the cast giving them an interview. The Deleted scenes round off the disc, about 16 minutes long. The extras are good to the extend that you liked the film, seeing I like the second half. I enjoyed some of the features, This DVD of Broken English at least a Rent.
DVD: It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: Seasons 1 & 2 (TV)
Always Sunny in Philadelphia has always been one of my favorite show on television right now. Always Sunny to me feels like a Arrested Development type of show with great characters and dialogue.There's not that many show that will use anything thing offensive to anyone, but Always Sunny In Philadelphia does and takes it to the extreme. But Everything is done in the funniest way and that's what makes this shows so great. The characters Charlie, Mac and brother and sister Dennis and Dee fill up the season one cast has they work at the Pub they own and just live their lives in Philadelphia. At the beginning of the second season Danny DeVito comes into the show and plays Dennis and Dee's father.
Let me start off by talking about the first season of Always Sunny In Philadelphia. Its hilarious, from the first episode I was hooked and never turned back. Overall out of the first season I must say my favorite episode would have to have been between two, the first one being "Charlie Wants an Abortion" or "The Gang gets Racist" (the second is the pilot) both have very big laughs and extremely well written.
At the start of the second season Danny DeVito's character comes in, this was because FX wanted to get more viewers so they wanted a big name. First I was skeptical about bring him into an already hilarious show I thought he might ruin a good thing. After a couple of episode I must say he held his own and got me laughing a couple of times. The second season to me is by far the better of the two. Out of the second season my favorite episode would have to be out of a few, "Charlie gets Crippled" and "One-Hundred Dollar Baby" and finally "Charlie Goes America All Over Everyone's Asses." Each one of the episodes has its very funny moments, like my favorite line from 100 dollar, "Let me eat your babies, bitch." I laughed so hard I almost cried.
With Always Sunny In Philadelphia on the air I will always be a happy camper. Its by far one of my favorite of television shows out there that are still going and I can not wait for more episode from the gang. I Strong Recommend watching Always Sunny In Philadelphia.
DVD
The Always Sunny In Philadelphia DVD is presented in Full Frame 1.33:1 with English Dolby Surround. Along with English, Spanish and French subtitles. The features are included:
- Scenes from the Original Pilot.
- Audio Commentary by Cast and Crew on Selected Episodes.
- Sunny Side Up Making Of Featurette.
- The Gangs F*#!s Up Outtakes.
- Fox Movie Channel Presents Making A Scene: It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia.
- Kaitlin Audition Featurette.
The whole DVD of Always Sunny In Philadelphia is good, the commentary is funny along with the outtakes. The Making of featurette is a nice little edition. The real thing on the DVD is the episodes, the whole show is great. Easily this is I am Strongly Recommending this DVD as a Buy.
DVD: Eastern Promises
Once again David Cronenberg and Viggo Mortensen and team up again. (there last movie together was A History Of Violence)Viggo Mortensen plays Nikolai a driver for Kirill (played by Vincent Cassel) who is apart of the Russian mob/family organization. When I young girl by the name of Tatiana dies after he has given birth to a girl. Anna (played by Naomi Watts) finds her diary, in it is a card to a Russian Restaurant. She goes to the Russian restaurant to get help with the translation, and meets the owner named Semyon (Armin Mueller-Stahl), who is the father of Kirill. He tells him about the diary at then and there he becomes very interested in the diary. During the course of the movie Anna tries to fix the wrongs and try to find the family of the baby. This baby though could bring down this organization.
Eastern Promises starts off very intense and and it doesn't let go the story is very intense. Might I add if your squeamish at the sight of blood than be prepared because there is some parts that are dark.
With that said and out of the way I must say that this has to be one of Viggo Mortensen best performance to date. The accent he uses is spot on it brings his character to life.
There was one issue I had was the movie and it was that I thought that at times I thought the movie would get very slow, and maybe sometimes during that some people would get bored. I admit at one time I was getting there but I held it out and at the end of the movie I like it. I would Recommend Eastern Promises.
DVD
The DVD I must admit does have that much to grab on too. The DVD has about two features the clock in around less than 20 minutes.
With the DVD so bare its hard for me to recommend this, but good thing the movie was good. Overall Eastern Promise DVD is a Rent.
DVD: Rush Hour 3
Yet once again the duo of Inspector Lee and James Carter are back, this time both of them are fish out of war. They are now in France.During a conference of a World Criminal Council, there is a attempt assassination on Ambassador Han (Tzi Ma, from Rush Hour)life, and it fails. Lee (Jackie Chan) who is now working as Han's bodyguard chases after the assassin, clues lead both James Carter (Chris Tucker) and Lee to France. When the both of them arrive they get a warm welcome from a Detective named Revi (played by Roman Polanski), they befriend a local taxi cab driver and help a dancer, who maybe be connected with the gang who tried to assassinate Ambassador Han. Much like the other two Rush Hours (the first a Museum, the second a Casino) everything leads to a fight scene on top of the Eiffel Tower.
With the return of our favorite buddy cop duo Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan return to their characters Detective James Carter and Inspect er Lee in over 6 years. I was very, very excited to hear that Rush Hour was going to be back on the big screen once more, because I loved this series and am always looking to see Jackie Chan do his stunts.
As much as I hate to say this but this has to be one of the weaker points of the series. It was rarely funny (It has its times when it is funny), but overall this is the weakest out of the trilogy. The jokes throughout the movie didn't seem fresh to me and some tried to be funny but in the end it really wasn't. One great addition would have to be the cab driver named George (Yvan Attal) he has some of the funny parts, even when there's very few of them.
The real thing that saved Rush Hour 3 was the action that was in throughout the movie. One thing I had a problem with was towards the end of the movie, you could tell when they used a green screen at times which seemed too fake.
If it does happen and they decide to make a fourth Rush Hour (at least get this bad taste out of ending like this) lets have a story that it more focus with Chris Tucker's character. All three Rush Hour have been about Lee's troubles, maybe its time for us to follow James Carter to make it fresh again.
Take away the comedy there is still a decent and enjoyable action movie. While I have it Rush Hour 2 for me was the best then it goes, the first Rush Hour and with the newest installment lead the bottom of my favorites of the series. I would overall have say I barely, but this I would have recommend.
DVD
The DVD of Rush Hour 3 is a Two-Disc set presented in 2.35:1 widescreen with 5.1 Dolby Digital and 6.1 DTS sound. Along with English and Spanish Subtitles. The features include:
- Feature Commentary by Bret Ratner.
- Theatrical Trailer.
- Outtake Reel.
- Deleted Scenes Including Commentary by Director Bret Ratner.
- Makin of Rush Hour 3.
- Le Rush Hour Trols Production Diary.
The features on this DVD is very good in my opinion. The Outtake reels that are on most of every Jackie Chan movie are always very funny. The Deleted scenes were good, I really liked the extended elevator scene and we get to see Roselyn Sanchez character again. The making of Rush Hour 3 is about 1 hour and 30 plus minutes long and I would say it was decent. and a very short Easter Egg of one of the fight scenes look if it was apart of Star Wars. Overall I really liked this DVD. I would say its a Buy.
DVD: Rush Hour 2
Rush Hour is back with Rush Hour 2. Our favorite duo of Inspector Lee and James Carter are back, this time they are hitting the streets of Hong Kong.While James Carter (Chris Tucker) is on vacation in Lee's (Jackie Chan) home town of Hong Kong, Lee is still on duty as a cop and will not just relax and show Carter a good time. When they go to a local night club, Carter thinking Lees going to relax and not work they get in a fight with the local Triads. Lee soon finds out that Ricky Tan (John Lone) they person who was the old partner of Lee's father is working for the Triads, so Lee investigates. During the investigation mixes them up with the Secret Service where the two meet Isabella Molina (Roselyn Sanchez) who has them help them find out about some fake money, which might lead to Ricky Tan. The investigation takes the two to Las Vegas to a opening of a Casino call the Red Dragon where the Carter and James have a final showdown.
While myself really liking the first Rush Hour I couldn't wait for the second edition of the Rush Hour series. I must say I was not disappointed, Rush Hour 2 bring Chris Tucker to Hong Kong and have Jackie Chan's character show him around like the opposite of the first one. For me Rush Hour 2 had a much better story than it predecessor. The jokes throughout the second one is much more funnier, with every second I was laughing non-stop.
Much like every Jackie Chan movie that he's a part of has amazing fight scenes and Rush Hour 2 is no exception. All fight are top notch. One of the new characters in Rush Hour 2 is Ziyi Zhang who plays one of the villains in the movie he has a very cool fight scene with Chris Tucker which is also very funny.
Sometimes a sequel to a movie can not always equal up to the original, but with Rush Hour 2 it exceeds expectations making it funnier, more action-packed and a better story overall. Rush Hour 2 to a very good movie and I'm Strongly Recommending this movie.
DVD
The Rush Hour 2 DVD is a Two-Disc newly Digitally Remastered picture. Its presented in 2.35:1 widescreen with English 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound. The features on this DVD are:
- Ann Exclusive Sneak Peek at Rush Hour 3 (Part 2) - "The French Connection" Includes Behind-The-Scenes Footage and Interviews with the Cast.
- Jackie Chan's Hong Kong Introduction.
- Culture Clash: West Meets East.
- Language Barrier.
- Attaining International Stardom.
- Kung Fu Choreography.
- Bret Ratner Student Film Lady Luck.
- Fact Track.
- Deleted Scenes.
- Making Magic Out of Mire: A Look At Bret Ratner.
- Evolution of a Scene: Analysis of Selected Scenes.
- Fashion of Rush Hour 2.
- Commentary With Director Bret Ratner and Writer Jeff Nathanson.
- Visual Effects Demonstration.
Well what can I say about this DVD. Its action-packed with special features. With the movie being so good these features are too good and entertaining. There are a could features that can be skipped over but I thought everything was decent. I would Strongly Recommend the Rush Hour 2 DVD as a Buy.
DVD: Rush Hour
Rush Hour stars Jackie Chan as Inspector Lee, and Chris Tucker as James Carter in this hilarious buddy cop story.When Consul Han's (Tzi Ma) daughter is kidnapped in America on her way to school the FBI comes into investigate, but Consul Han wants his own man work on the case with the FBI, Hong Kong Chief Inspector Lee (Jackie Chan). The FBI hates this idea and has the local police to keep Lee out of their way L.A.P.D. cop James Carter (Chris Tucker). So James Carter takes Lee sight seeing around LA, only to lose him and eventually meet up in Han house where the FBI is not that pleased with Lee appearing. So secretly both Carter and Lee help and try to bring the girl kidnappers to justice in this wonderful, action-packed, hilarious thrill ride.
Rush Hour is a East meets West in cultures. With Jackie Chan's amazing stunts and Chris Tucker's fast talking jokes how can this not be good. And boy this is good this has to be on of my favorite buddy cop movies out. Jackie Chan's acrobatics are top notch and are really well done. Along with some great laugh out loud moments from Chris Tucker.
The story of Rush Hour is pretty basic, a daughter of a wealthy man gets kidnapped and the bad guys want a ransom. Everything here his pretty straight forward not that much twist and turn throughout this one, but the really shining moments are the chemistry between Tucker and Chan.
Rush Hour is a very sharpe, funny and entertain movie which anyone will like. If you like action or comedy then this one is for you. I Strongly Recommend Rush Hour, I loved this movie.
DVD
This DVD is a two disc newly digital remastered version of Rush Hour. Its presented in 2.35:1 widescreen with English 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound. Along with English Subtitles. The Features include:
- An Exclusive Sneak Peek at Rush Hour 3 (Part 1) - "Rush Hour: 1, 2, 3" Includes behind the scenes footage and interviews with the cast.
- Deleted Scenes.
- Music Video "How Deep Is Your Love."
- Original Featurette "A Piece Of The Action" - Behind The Scenes of Rush Hour.
- Short Film " Whatever Happened to Mason Reese?"
- Audio Commentary by Director Bret Ratner.
With this new Two-Disc Set of Rush Hour its a pretty well packed with features. The Exclusive Sneak Peek doesn't hurt either. Along with the movie its a fun DVD. I Strong Recommend Rush Hour Two-Disc DVD is a Buy.
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