Avatar

Once in a blue moon, there comes a movie that changes something about the movie going experience. Something that puts people into seats and reminds us why the theater is still a great time for friends and family. James Cameron knows it's an up-hill battle when it comes to getting the general pubic into a theater. There needs to be a reason for them to come even though it may be much easier to download it offline, or simply just wait for the movie to become available on DVD. Mr. Cameron found a way. Utilizing the 3D aspect that has only been limited in its use, the movie becomes a unique trip through an entire world filled with plants and life unlike anything you could imagine.
One thing I noticed throughout. It never feels forced. The characters can be a bit cliched, no doubt. But they never have a moment that made them unwatchable. Jake Sully, played by new comer Sam Worthington, is the marine that has a lot of courage, and a little bit of brains to boot. My favorite scene involves anytime he is with Sigourney Weaver's character. The natives of the planet called Pandora bring to mind the natives of our planet. Their culture is almost a mirror or our own, in how our connection to nature once was and may never be again. The visual effects really compliment the story more than over shadowing it. James Cameron succeeded in changing movies... again. I truly hope everyone gets a chance to see this, but make no mistake. Avatar needs to been seen in IMAX 3D.

A-

Zombieland

I caught a screening of Zombieland today. I wrote not too long ago about my anticipation of this film. It did NOT disappoint. Woody Harrelson makes this movie. The zombies are the background to the story about a boy trying to survive and build trust between the few survivors he has found on the road. The boy (called Columbus due to his wanting to get to Columbus, Ohio) has a set of rules he strictly follows to escape any zombie situation he may find himself in. He's a typical WOW kid that has no family and misses humans if only for the fact they did'nt try to eat him when they were around. Along the way he meets a man calling himself Tallahassee (same reason as Colombus). They trust each other long enough to meet two sisters that are sly and un-trusting. The older sister strikes Colombus as someone he could be with. The movies pulls you in through the characters and the setting. Tallahassee is dangerous, funny and a wild man that anybody would love to have by their side in a post-apocolyptic scenereo. The third act has a great action sequence in an amusement park that had me wanting more by the end. I won't spoil the Bill Murray scene, but let's just say it's pretty brilliant. Loved loved LOVED this movie, and so did my wife :). Best movie of the year so far! (sorry Quentin. maybe in Kill Bill 3 you can bring in a zombie David Carradine... too soon?)

A+

Inglorious Basterds

I am a huge Quinten Tarintino fan. All his films (yes, including Jackie Brown) make it worth going out and spending your hard earned money for two hours of bliss. Tarintino gets what the audience wants to see, but he doesn't over do it. He isn't subtle, but nor is he over the top (till the end that is.) with the violence. Its a remarkable feat that every director strives to achieve but none can seem to harness. Mr. Tarintino is a master craftsman. Without going to much into spoiler territory, let me just say Brad Pitt and Christoph Waltz shine throughout. Not to say anyone else in the film was bad. Far from it. In fact, I almost would say that they are upstaged by two other actors: Michael Fassbender (The British Lt.) and Mélanie Laurent. There performances are a testament to cinema and what acting should be like in every film. Now, back to how the story was. No matter if school was boring for you or if history wasn't your subject, everybody has heard about Adolf Hitler. And like me, many people have always imagined going back in time to just take the evil man out. Well, this film gets rid of the time travel motif and settles on changing things to how the war SHOULD have ended: by putting together a small team of American Jewish soldiers and other various men and women to go to the heart of Nazis territory and take as many out as they can. But something happens unexpectedly. A window of opportunity opens up and the Basterds (as they are named) decide to go after the big cheese himself. The movie takes certain liberties. No, it is not historically accurate. Honestly, it doesn't matter. The way things end make you realize that Inglorious Basterds is about fulfilling a wish many have had. And they do it with bad french accents!

A+

District 9

Going into see this film, I had few to hardly no expectations about what it would be. I had heard from critics and from friends that it was considered one of the best Sci-Fi movies of the 21st Century or that it did not disappoint. True, it was a great film. A joy to watch right up till the end. But I couldn't help but feel a slight sadness at the fact that the alien race was not explored to their full potential. Not that the movie was bad in any way, but I guess I just wanted a little....more? Either way, I would recommend this to anyone that loves either Alien movies, Sci-Fi Action movies, or SFX gurus. The Mecha suit alone makes this a feast to the eyes. The animation done with the aliens was nothing less than extrodinary. This film needs to be seen atleast once. The message it sends is that of tolerence as a species. Are we really that bad as humans? The answer is scary. This movie is Great! Best film of the year though? Probably not. But who needs perfection anyway.

B-

G.I. Joe

This movie was NOT an award winning cinema tour de force. It was NOT the exact G.I. Joe movie I had dreamed about as a child. NOR was it the perfect cast I had in mind. BUT, surprise! It was F-U-N: FUN! I felt like a kid again. It brought me back to when I had my collection of Joes and Cobra going crazy in the middle of my room. Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow sword fighting to the bitter end! Duke and Cobra Commander firing from across the room with guns of all sort. This was the movie that needed to be the way it was. Toys fighting each other.

The Goods: Snake Eyes (Ray Park, aka. Darth Maul), Storm Shadow, Cobra Commander ( Perfect up till the end. Hated the helmet he puts on. They need the blue cloth for the sequel!) , Destro, Baroness, Scarlett, Zartan, the fights, the weapons, the accelerator suits (I want one!) and The Pit!

The Okay: Ripcord, Col. Hawk, and Heavy Duty. Not bad performers, but not superb.

The Bad: Duke, played by Channing Tatum, is just out of place in this thing.Some of the SFX needed work as well. The Cheesy dialogue kills some of the better parts. ("Mission is a go!" I swear I heard that line at least five times!)

All together, it was a solid action packed ride for kids and adults that grew up playing with the action figures! It was everything Transformers 1 and 2 should have been! Bring on the sequel (and Thundercats!)

C+

Orphan Review

I was extremely skeptical of seeing this for many reasons.
Quite frankly, horror movies today are not scary. For the most part, it is hard to find anything worth paying to see in a theater (I refuse to see "Sorority Row" for obvious reasons). As an audience member, there are a couple of things I expect when paying to see horror.
1: Originality
2: Good Acting
3: REAL scares
I cant even remember the last film I saw in the theater that carried all three. At least Orphan had two. The scares are nothing new. BUT, it is creepy as can be. I actually enjoyed it, and it is hard to impress me with scary movies. The one thing that got under my skin more than the creepy Russian orphan (wait for the twist ending. Very creepy) was the sheer frustration some of the characters make you feel. I nearly threw something at the screen just to relive some kind of anger building up. Then again, that may be what the film was going for.

B-

Green Lantern First Flight

I have been an avid green lantern fan since i was a small kid, and having him (Hal Jordan; the best) come to the big screen was always something I craved. For now, I have the next best thing with Green Lanter: First Flight. The story deviates greatly from the original story, but at its heart it IS green lantern at his best.

A

Public Enemies

I think the best comparison for this movie would be Heat, in the fact that Michael Mann has succeeded in creating a compelling movie about a Bank Robbing squad. Johnny Depp is perfect as John Dillinger; the mastermind to a gang of bank robbing hoods that are good at their job. Christian Bale is the hired law enforcer Melvin Purvis, brought in by Billy Crudup's J. Edgar Hoover, to take down Dillinger and his gang. I really enjoyed the Bank Robberies the most, even though they were pretty short. The other great thing going for this movie is Depp and Bale. They really bring their A-game for Mann. If you like old-school cop/gangster drama, you'll dig this. The only problem was the love story. It seemed to drag down the film a bit, although I did enjoy the beautiful Marion Cotillard as Dillinger's Girl; Billie Frechette. All around, a solid crime movie from a master director.

B-

The Hangover

This movie felt like something my friends and I would cook up and write together (which we are looking in to doing). I should have guessed that they were moving in the direction of putting the main characters through living hell. The jokes are funny and executed superbly. My favorite scenes involved the bearded character; Alan, and Mike Tyson's tiger. By the end, you don't want to leave these characters. They may not have set it up for a sequel, but I wouldn't mind coming back for another helping. Maybe it can take place in another country next time. Best comedy of the year so far! A

BTW, I got through half of Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen. Ill try to get over the boredom and finish it soon, but it seriously is pretty bad so far.

Year One, and No Transformers 2.... maybe...

I went in expecting too much of Year One. Actually... scratch that. I was expecting ANYTHING from Year One. I wanted something along the lines of History of the World, or a Monty Python-ish movie. Instead I got something... bad. Zed (Jack Black) and Oh ( Michael Cera) are two neanderthals who are banned from their clan for eating the forbidden tree of knowledge. They go on a quest, and meet up with various characters from the bible. That's the story in a nut shell, but not much else happens. They set out to save the girls they love, but for some reason that felt flat. Actually, a lot of things felt flat in this. Not everything is terrible though: There are some funny scenes in this movie, believe it or not. The problem is that they are too far and between. Hopefully, the next big Michael Cera movie ( Scott Pilgrem vs. the World{no doubts about this one.}) and Jack Black movie ( Gulliver's Travels... lots of doubts...) will be better. I know for a fact they can be funnier than this. D

Okay, I've been reading a bunch of different reviews that say basically Transformers 2 is the worst movie of the year. If ANY of the things I read are indeed in the movie, I do not believe I will pay to see this travesty. Free? Maybe. But no money is coming out of my pocket. I already got burned with Spidey 3. What stuck out the most amongst the reviews I read was the two Auto-bots named Mudflap and Skids. Now, I don't know whose idea it was to make these characters, but seriously.... they should be hammered for this. The characters have big ears, buck gold teeth, a black southern slang saying things like "gonna pop a cap in ya," and they tell the characters in the story "They don't read." How could ANYBODY approve these characters? Didn't they seem a bit too un-PC for kids during production?? And from what I hear, there is a lot more wrong with this film. I liked the first one, which was flawed in many ways as well, but at least the story was there. This one is explosions without any regard to advancing the story and pretty girls that can't act. No thanks Mr. Bay.

UP and Drag Me To Hell

I have always loved Pixar movies. Growing up with cartoons was a big stepping stone in my direction towards animating and drawing. This past weekend had the best films of the summer so far. First up is.... UP. The latest and greatest from Pixar. I have never been disappointed by their films, and this is no exception. The Animation makes the characters human and the voice work fits each character to a "T". A special shout out to the dog; Doug. I WILL own a dog like that one day. Grade: A

Next is the horror film Drag Me To Hell. A new film from Spiderman director Sam Raimi, who has a nack at blending horror and comedy in a way nobody else can. At first I was skeptical to go see this film, but luckily Sam does not dissapoint. The movie is creepy and fun; perfect for the summer. The only complaint I had was the kids in the audience were talking for a majority of the film. Nothing to do with the movie though. Grade: A-

Welcome To My Blog!

Just started blogging for the first time here, and I'm really excited to share some of the interesting things in my life. I plan to post movie reviews, Animation projects, upcoming entertainment ins and outs, and just plain randomness. I hope you will enjoy reading these as much as I will enjoy writing them. Feel free to leave comments!
By the way, the picture to the left is not me, but Zachary Quinto from Heroes (and recently the awesome Star Trek). Just love the pic.