Action, 95 Minutes, 2013
[This is the second selection in my irregular, “My Wife and Kids are Visiting Relatives and I’m Home Watching Movies” film festival.]
Tag: Action
Movie Review: Pacific Rim
Sci-fi, 132 Minutes, 2013
This movie is completely without depth or gravitas of any kind. Every character is a cliché-ridden cardboard cutout. Every scene is parody of exchanges you’ve seen a 1,000 times before. Visual effects are used in place of emotional connection and innovation.
This movie was amazingly, astonishingly, awesome!
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Movie Review: Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters
“Hansel & Gretel: With Hunters” on IMDB
Adventure, 114 Minutes, 2013
This is directly in line with other high-firepower, low-respect updates of old-world classics like 2004’s “Van Helsing” [IMDB] or 2005’s “The Brother’s Grimm” [IMDB]. The formula gets tweaked but is basically the same: a hot guy and a hotter gal take on monsters with completely unrealistic steampunk firepower.
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Movie Review: Man of Steel
Adventure, 143 Minutes, 2013
This is the first truly new take on Superman in film since Richard Donner’s [IMDB] 1978 classic “Superman” [IMDB]. Bryan Singer’s [IMDB] 2006 “Superman Returns” [IMDB] essentially completed Donner’s Superman films (rightly ignoring the execrable, non-Donner, third and fourth films). While this excellent film is often misunderstood it must be considered an extension of Donner’s vision rather than a true reboot of DC’s flagship character.
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Movie Review: Taken 2
Thriller, 92 Minutes, 2012
The original “Taken” [IMDB] was something of an oddity among action movies. In a genre split between biceps and explosions or massive conspiracies and lone-wolf operatives it was a simpler, smaller more intimate movie. Yes, Liam Neeson’s [IMDB] Bryan Mills commanded resources and skills out of scope for most but the story was universal: somebody took his daughter and he was going to get her back. I enjoyed it immensely.
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Movie Review: Lockout
Sci-fi/Action, 95 Minutes, 2012
To simplify things right off the bat: this is “Escape from New York” [IMDB] in space. Instead of an abandoned metropolis we’ve got a giant space prison. Instead of Snake Plissken we get Snow. Instead of Donald Pleasence [IMDB] as the president we get Maggie Grace [IMDB] as the president’s daughter (so that we can insert romantic tension).
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Movie Review: Cloud Atlas
Drama/Sci-fi, 172 Minutes, 2012
I had been attracted to this by the trailers but lost track of it until I noticed it available on Amazon Instant Video. I couldn’t honestly remember what about it attracted me. I knew that Tom Hanks [IMDB] seems to pick scripts well and that I’d never been completely disappointed by the Wachowski’s. We ended up watching it, my lovely bride and I, without bothering to get any more information on it.
We loved it. Both of us. We didn’t understand shit. Neither of us.
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Movie Review: Death Race 3: Inferno
“Death Race 3: Inferno” on IMDB
Action, 105 Minutes, 2012
The Death Race movies are really odd ducks. The original “Death Race 2000” [IMDB], released in 1975 by legendary producer Roger Corman [IMDB], showed us the dystopian future of the year 2000. An annual trans-continental race (which actually started in 1980) where points are scored for pedestrian deaths and the brutality of kills is the national sport. The star of the sport is “Frankenstein”, a disfigured racer who has never been beaten.
[There will be spoilers for the previous movies ahead.]
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Movie Review: Skyfall
Action, 143 Minutes, 2012
This is Daniel Craig’s [IMDB] third outing as a grittier, rougher-edged version of Ian Fleming’s tuxedoed MI6 agent with a license to kill. Bond (like other persistently popular characters such as Batman or Superman) has successfully maintained relevance across several generations. The character does this by merging modern sensibilities with dependable, iconic traits. This film marks the fiftieth anniversary of Bond in film.
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Movie Review: Drive
Crime/Drama, 100 Minutes, 2011
I bounced around with this one a little. Was it just a lower-budget “The Transporter” [IMDB] or did it have something new to say? Word of mouth indicated greatness but the marketing material said “shallow and disposable”. Where, oh where, does the truth lie?
