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-