Archive for the ‘Movie Reviews’ Category
Movie Review: X-men Origins: Wolverine
July 10th, 2009 | 
Author: In the years that follow, adult brothers James (Hugh Jackman) and Victor (Liev Schreiber) are seen fighting together in the American Civil War, World War I, World War II, and eventually the Vietnam War. Their regenerative powers keep them from being killed in the battlefield. James is forced to act as a check on Victor’s increasing rage and ferocity. In Vietnam, Victor kills a superior officer after being stopped from raping a girl, and James and Victor are sentenced to death by firing squad, though their unique regenerative abilities keep them alive.
Major William Stryker (Danny Huston) approaches the two mutants and offers them membership in Team X, his elite group of mutants. The team consists of mutants Fred Dukes (Kevin Durand), who’s super-strong and invulnerable; John Wraith (Will i Am), who can teleport; Chris Bradley (Dominic Monaghan), a.k.a. Bolt, who can control electricity; expert marksman Agent Zero (Daniel Henney); and mercenary Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds), an amazing swordsman who never stops talking. The brothers join the group and are sent to the team’s first mission: Invade the headquarters of a diamond trafficking operation in Lagos, Nigeria, to retrieve a meteorite. Afterwards, Stryker and the team brutally interrogate people from a nearby village to learn where the meteorite was found. James is disgusted by the murders committed by his teammates and abandons the group.
Six years afterward, James — now going by his last name, Logan — is a lumberjack living with his girlfriend Kayla Silverfox (Lynn Collins). Meanwhile, Victor hunts down and murders Bradley, who works at a circus; Victor mentions that Wade is already dead. Stryker locates Logan and claims that someone is killing members of the now-disbanded team. Stryker asks Logan for help, but is refused. Shortly after, Silverfox is murdered by Victor. Wolverine hunts down his half-brother, but is easily defeated. Stryker once again asks Logan for help, and Logan agrees. Stryker has Logan’s skeletal system reinforced with adamantium, a virtually indestructible metal retrieved from the meteorite found by Team X. Before the procedure, Logan asks for his new dog tags to say “Wolverine,” a reference to a story that Kayla told him. After the procedure, Stryker orders Wolverine’s memory to be erased, but Wolverine overhears this and flees. Stryker orders Agent Zero to hunt him down and take his head off.
An elderly couple, Travis (Max Cullen) and Heather Hudson (Julia Blake), see Wolverine — who escaped in the buff — enter their barn. They’re wary but welcoming, giving him food and clothing, including a leather jacket of their son’s — and their son’s motorcycle. The next morning, both are shot dead by Zero. Wolverine takes out several HMMWVs, a helicopter and Zero himself, then goes to Las Vegas. Wolverine locates former associates John Wraith and Fred Dukes (who is now massively obese from a guilt-driven eating disorder), seeking to learn the location of Stryker’s new laboratory. Wolverine learns the disbanded team had been capturing young mutants for Stryker. One of them, Remy LeBeau (Taylor Kitsch), also known as Gambit, escaped the island laboratory and knows its location. Dukes tells Logan that his brother Victor is actually working for Stryker, capturing and killing mutants for him. Meanwhile, Stryker captures a teenaged Scott Summers (Tim Pocock) with Victor’s aid.
Wolverine and Wraith locate Gambit in a New Orleans bar. Wolverine talks to Gambit while Wraith keeps watch outside, but Gambit suspects Wolverine was sent to recapture him and, using his ability to charge objects with kinetic energy, throws several playing cards at Wolverine that send him flying through a wall. Outside, Wolverine sees Victor has killed Wraith and taken a sample of his blood. Wolverine fights Victor, only to be interrupted by Gambit. Victor escapes, and after a brief struggle, Gambit agrees to take Wolverine to the mutant prison/laboratory on Three Mile Island. Once there, Wolverine confronts Stryker and learns Silverfox is still alive; Victor faked her death with hydrochlorothiazide. She was keeping track of the mutant to free her sister, Emma Frost (Tahyna Tozzi), who is also in the prison. Wolverine is devastated by this betrayal.
With no more quarrel with Stryker, Wolverine departs. Victor, angered that Stryker let Wolverine go, demands the adamantium procedure. Stryker, however, tells him that he won’t survive the procedure and in an act of rage, Victor tries to kill Silverfox. Wolverine hears Silverfox’s screams and attacks Victor. Finally having the chance to kill Victor, Wolverine chooses not to give in to his animal instincts and instead knocks him out. Silverfox shows Wolverine to the holding cells, and he frees the mutants there; among them are Emma Frost and Scott Summers.
Panicking, Stryker prematurely activates his newest creation, Weapon XI (Scott Adkins and Ryan Reynolds), a bald, pale-skinned and deformed Wade Wilson, lacking a mouth and with patterns on his skin marking his adamantium bone structure. As the rescue party approaches an exit, it is blocked by Weapon XI, who is under Stryker’s control. Wolverine tells them to find a new exit as two blades extend from Weapon XI’s arms. The blades are similar to Wolverine’s claws, but more like katana swords, Wilson’s weapon of choice. Wolverine realizes that this monstrosity is actually Wade Wilson. “Looks like Stryker finally found a way to shut you up,” he quips.
Weapon XI, also called Deadpool, is a mutant Frankenstein’s monster, with the abilities of several of the killed and captured mutants: Scott’s optic blasts, Wraith’s teleportation, and Wolverine’s healing ability. During the escape, Silverfox is mortally wounded. The other mutants escape through the facility’s tunnels, guided by Scott who is unable to tell them how he knows the way out. Emerging from the tunnel, the party encounters a helicopter. Emerging from the helicopter is a familiar figure: Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart), who has guided them to safety and offers them a home at his school.
Meanwhile, the fight between Wolverine and Weapon XI moves to the top of one of the nuclear power plant’s cooling towers. Weapon XI overpowers and prepares to decapitate Wolverine, but Victor returns to aid his brother. Wolverine and Victor, now working together, are able to decapitate Weapon XI, sending its head, still firing optic blasts, down into the cooling tower. Wolverine coldly informs Victor that despite his help, their relationship is over. Victor reminds him that as brothers, they can never be finished, and jumps off the the cooling tower. The damage from the optic blasts causes the cooling tower to collapse, but Wolverine is saved by Gambit.
Wolverine asks Gambit to ensure the prisoners are safe, while he returns to find Silverfox, who stayed behind because she was wounded. As he carries her to safety, Stryker shoots him in the back with an adamantium bullet. Wolverine tries to kill him but is shot in the head, knocking him unconscious.
Silverfox uses her powers of persuasion to order Stryker to walk away until his feet bleed, then dies from her injuries. Gambit returns to assure Wolverine that the mutants are safe, but due to amnesia caused by the brain damage the adamantium bullets inflicted, Wolverine does not remember anything (this was Stryker’s intention, knowing that even the adamantium bullets could not kill Logan). Gambit tries to get Wolverine to come with him, but he declines. Gambit wishes Wolverine good luck before departing, and Wolverine flees the scene as the ambulances and police arrive.
The film has several additional scenes during and after the credits. The first of these scenes plays a few seconds into the credits, and depicts William Stryker walking down a road. Due to Silverfox’s order, the toes of his shoes are torn and bloody from walking for so long. A military vehicle drives up behind him and he is apprehended by military police for questioning about the death of General Munson. (Stryker murdered the general earlier in the film in order to protect his vendetta against mutants.)
Depending on which theater the movie was shown in, one of two possible endings then appears following the credits. In the first ending, Weapon XI’s hand reaches out from the rubble of the nuclear complex to touch his severed head. The second alternate ending shows Logan drinking at a bar in Japan. The bartender asks if he is drinking to forget; Logan replies that he’s drinking to remember.
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Movie Review: Angels and Demons
The Roman Catholic Church mourns the death of Pope Pius XVI in Rome. Vatican City prepares for the College of Cardinals’ papal conclave, which will select the next Pope. Until that time, Camerlengo Patrick McKenna, a papal court official and former helicopter pilot, assumes temporary control of the Vatican. Reporters, nuns, priests, and other faithful members of the Church crowd into Saint Peter’s Square, waiting for the white smoke from the conclave, signalling a successful vote. But the Illuminati, a 400-year old, underground secret society, kidnap the four most likely candidates before the conclave enters seclusion. The Illuminati threaten to kill one every hour, beginning at 8:00 pm, and then destroy the Vatican in a burst of light at midnight. A stolen security camera shows the missing antimatter vial, which will catastrophically explode when the vial’s battery dies and the magnetic containment field fails.
The Vatican summons symbologist Robert Langdon from Harvard University and Vittoria Vetra from CERN to help them solve the Illuminati’s threat, save the four preferiti, and replace the vial’s batteries. Langdon listens to the Illuminati message and deduces that the four cardinals will die at the four altars of the “Path of Illumination.” However, no one knows where these altars are located. Vetra demands that Commander Richter, the commandant of the Swiss Guard, to bring Father Silvano’s diaries from Switzerland, hoping that they contain the name of the person with whom Silvano discussed the antimatter experiment. Langdon also demands access to the Vatican Secret Archives (something he has requested for 10 years) to see the original copy of Galileo Galilei’s banned book, which may contain the locations of the four “altars of science.” Using the clues from this book, Langdon, Vetra, Inspector General Ernesto Olivetti, and Lieutenant Valenti of the Vatican Gendarmerie Corps race to the first church, only to find the first cardinal, Cardinal Ebner, dead, suffocated with dirt, eaten by rats and branded with the word “Earth.” They verify the second altar’s location and arrive, only to witness the death of the second cardinal, Cardinal Lamassa, his lungs lacerated and his body branded with the word “Air.” While Vetra studies Silvano’s diaries, Langdon and the Vatican officers locate the third church and try to save the third cardinal, Cardinal Gudiera, from burning to death, but the assassin appears and kills everyone but Langdon. The cardinal succumbs to the flames, his body branded with the word “Fire.”
After escaping, Langdon convinces two Carabinieri officers to race with him to the last church of the “Water” altar, but the assassin murders them and drops the fourth cardinal, Cardinal Baggia, into the Fountain of the Four Rivers. However, Langdon saves the cardinal, who tells him the location of the Illuminati’s lair: Castel Sant’Angelo. When Langdon and Vetra arrive, they are confronted by the assassin, who spares their lives since they are not armed and he has not been paid to kill them. He reveals that his contractors were from the Catholic Church. The assassin escapes and finds a vehicle containing his payment, but is killed by a car bomb upon igniting the engine. Langdon and Vetra discover that the final victim of the plot will be Camerlengo McKenna. After arriving at the Vatican via a secret passage, they and some Swiss Guards enter the Camerlengo’s office and find him in the floor branded with the Vatican’s symbol on his chest and Commander Richter near him with a gun. The Guards promptly kill Richter to save the camerlengo. During the confusion, the dying commander gives Langdon a key to his office. Then the camerlengo, Langdon, Vetra, and the Swiss Guards discover the location of the stolen antimatter vial. By the time they find it, the battery is about to expire, the deadly explosion just minutes away. The camerlengo seizes the vial and uses a helicopter meant for escape from the Vatican to fly above the church. He then activates the autopilot and escapes with a parachute. After several seconds, the bomb explodes and the camerlengo lands, now considered a hero by the crowd and even as the best candidate to be the new Pope by the College of Cardinals. Meanwhile, Langdon and Vetra use Richter’s key to watch a security video showing that the mastermind behind the murders of the original Pope and the preferiti and the antimatter robbery, in fact, is the camerlengo and not the Illuminati. While Richter tries to arrest McKenna, the priest brands himself with a seal that resembles Saint Peter’s upside-down crucifixion and accuses the commander being a member of the Illuminati. Langdon shows the video to the College. After the camerlengo realizes his plot has been uncovered, he immolates himself with oil from one of the 99 holy lamps inside St. Peter’s Basilica.
The Vatican announces that the camerlengo died due to internal wounds suffered during his landing, while the public demands he be canonized. The College designate the Cardinal Baggia as the new Pope (who chooses to take on the name Luke), and Cardinal Strauss as the new camerlengo. The new camerlengo thanks Robert Langdon for saving the Vatican and the new Pope, and as a mark of his gratitude loans Galileo’s “Diagramma Veritas” to Langdon for his reference. The film ends with the new Pope walking out on the balcony to the cheering crowd in St. Peter’s Square.
Movie Review: Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (the beginning)
Lucian grows up, and appears to be stronger and more focused than others of his kind; this is evident when Viktor tests him by making him fight vampires. Viktor decides to make more of Lucians kind (the new lycans that have human form). Viktor uses Lucian to make more like him by starving him and letting him feed on human slaves. The ones that survived became the new lycans, a new slave race to serve the vampires. The vampires think they have control of the lycans, but this may not be the case for long.
Note: there are two types of were-wolves in this film, ones that are permanently in wolf form and wild, and ones that can transform when its a full moon and are in service to the vampires. I will refer to the former as wolves, and the latter as lycans.
Cut to the present, a horseman is riding through the woods at night, pursued by something. At the castle, Viktor is discussing politics and finances with his advisors, Coloman (David Ashton) and Orsova (Elizabeth Hawthorne). The wolves have been attacking the human slaves, which Viktor replies with some variation of I dont give a crap, however, human slaves are their principle source of food and income (the human nobility pay Viktor for protection against the wolves), so they have to take action and hunt down the creatures.
Back with the rider in the woods, wolves are pursuing the rider through a dark canyon but he is able to fight them off but there are an increasingly larger number of them. The situation looks grim but as the rider approaches the castle, the other vampires are prepared. They arm huge crossbows and mow down the lycans. One of the wolves lunges at the rider but is killed mid-air by a crossbow bolt from Lucian (who is still serving the vampires).
The rider removes his helmet, and it turns out to be Sonja. Who is less than grateful to Lucian for saving her life, and just bosses him around. Viktor on the other hand, believes in giving credit where it is due. Viktor asks if Lucian minds killing his own kind, who replies that they are just animals and not his own kind. Lucian stares at Sonja, and Viktor reminds Lucian that is a servant, and should keep his eyes on the ground.
Sonja and Viktor argue because he wants her to stay in the castle and leave the wolves to the death-dealers but Sonja is a great fighter and very stubborn. Sonja is Viktors daughter, and a council member, and Viktor does not want her to come to harm, and is grooming Sonja to become an elder; but she is endangering her position on the council by being a renegade and disobeying Viktor and missing council meetings.
Outside, Lucian is burning the corpse of a dead lycan (most likely worked to death). The other lycans are being whipped, beaten, and forced to work for the vampires. One vampire guard gets a little too enthusiastic with the whip and Lucian tells him to stop. The vampire takes this badly, calls Lucian a dog, and leaves angrily Lucian is Viktors favourite servant and holds some power in the work yard. The other lycans seem to respect him.
In the council chambers, Viktor is speaking with the other Coloman and Orsova regarding how to handle the situation with the wolves. Viktor doesnt think of it as such a big deal but Coloman note that the wolves are killing humans, which is destroying their main food source. Although they dont seem to be killing off too many humans, the fact that the vampires of this region are losing their crop, makes them look weak to the human nobles, who give the vampires people (for food) and money/gold for protection. Coloman suggests letting the lycans patrol outside during the day (since vampires cant do so). Viktor is very much against this suggestion as it would be granting the lycans more freedom, and increase risk of losing control. Coloman suggests making a privileged class of lycans, with better accommodations, rations, and status, led by a lycan that they can trust Lucian; this way, they will have one of the lycans controlling the others, and have the ability to control the wolves during the day. Viktor is still against the idea, but without Sonja there to support him, he has no choice but to take the suggestion under advisement. The human nobles will arrive the next day and Viktor will have to make his decision soon.
Outside, the work shift is over, and the lycans are herded back into their cages. Lucian sneaks off, and gets into the sewers. He takes these passages and gets into the castle, and right into Sonjas room. It turns out that they have been lovers the whole time, and Sonja acts cruel to Lucian in public to prevent suspicion. They kiss rather passionately. After some lovemaking Lucian asks if Sonja would go with him if he leaves (escapes). Sonja doesnt think its possible as he would be hunted down by Viktor and his army. Lucian reveals a crude key that he has made to remove the collar on his neck. All lycans in servitude have a collar with spikes pointing inward to prevent them from transforming, if they do, they die from impaling themselves on the spikes. If Lucian can get out of the collar, he would be able to fight the Vampires and escape. Sonja does not want Lucian to risk his life, but he believes that his kind should be equals, not slaves as both lycans and vampires are descendants of the Corvinus bloodline, brothers that took different paths to immortality.
Sonja and Lucian leave her chamber, but are spotted by Tannis, one of Viktors lieutenants, sent to watch over Sonja. He realizes that Sonja and Lucian are having an affair, but does not tell Viktor.
The human nobles arrive and Sonja goes out to escort them in. Lucian is worried and does not want her to go. Tannis has orders from Viktor for Sonja to not leave the castle walls, but she just ignores him. As Sonja leaves, Tannis sees Lucian, and subtly lets Lucian know that he knows their secret.
Sonja and more vampire guards arrive to escort the human nobles and their slaves, and they hear howling in the distance. Lucian hears the howling and knows that there are more wolves than Sonja and her men can handle. Lucian tries to warn the others, but no one listens to him, so he runs out to save Sonja, disobeying orders and knocking out some guards along the way.
Cut back to Sonja, wolves are pouring in from every direction. The vampires are holding them off, but there are too many. One of the human slaves appears to fight wolf and actually survives its Raze (Kevin Grevioux) from the first film, but as a human. Sonja is injured, but Lucian arrives in time and defends her. Lucian uses his key to open his collar and transform. The transformed Lucian gives off a deafening roar that drives off the wolves. Raze sees this and appears impressed. Viktor and his men arrive and Lucian changes back to human form. It is forbidden for a slave lycan to transform and Lucian is beaten and arrested, even though he saved Sonjas life. Sonja tries to plead with Viktor, but gets nowhere.
Back at the castle, Viktor feels betrayed. Lucian is sentenced to a severe lashing by the same guard that he had angered earlier. The whip is tipped with huge hooks and tears up Lucians back. Sonja hears Lucians screams of pain and is devastated.
After his punishment, Lucian is dragged back into his cage, next to a prison cell with the human slaves. Raze is in the cage next to Lucian, and gives him water to drink.
Viktor is suspicious of Sonja for pleading to Viktor to release Lucian, but she claims that she was just showing gratitude for saving his life.
Lucian and Raze talk, and Raze notes that he saw what happened in the forest- that the wolves appeared to obey Lucian when he transformed. Lucian begins talk of escape and freedom and the human slaves, although afraid, are intrigued. Just then, Sonja appears and Lucian and tells her that he has to leave. There is no one else that the two can trusts, except maybe for Tannis, since he knows their secret but did not tell, it means that he wants something. Lucian asks Sonja to speak to Tannis and figure out what he wants.
Viktor meets with the nobles who are expected to pay tribute for protection from the wolves. This years tribute is low, and Viktor expects more due to increased attacks from the wolves. One of the nobles is fed up and proclaims that Viktor and his army are losing ground, and can barely keep the wolves from their own door. Viktor kills the nobleman and sustains control through fear.
Down in the dungeons, Viktor watches as the vampires make the lycans fight one another for sport. Lucian cant take any more of this and rallys the lycans for rebellion.
In Sonjas room, she has a flashback of Viktor giving her a medallion, the same one featured in the first two films. Sonja hears someone in her room and attacks him, its Tannis. Sonja asks why Tannis did not reveal the truth to Viktor. Tannis explains that Viktor isnt good with taking bad news, and that it is not yet the time for him to use this information to his advantage. Tannis wants a council seat, and there are only 12 seats and vampires dont die, which means that he cannot get onto the council unless someone relinquishes their position. Sonja agrees to give Tannis her seat on the council for his help.
Sonja goes to Lucian and tells him that Viktor plans to execute him the next evening, and that he has to leave at dawn if he is to survive. They agree to meet in the forest in three days. As Tannis walks by, he tosses a collar key to Lucian.
The human slaves are brought out and are purposely bitten by a transformed lycan to change them into lycans so they can serve as slaves and guards for the vampires. Lucian talks to the newly transformed lycans (including Raze) and talks them into joining him in escaping/revolting.
As the guard (the one who whipped Lucian) comes in to check on the slaves, Lucian removes his collar, transforms, and shreds him. The slaves break free, subdue their guards, and make a break for it. The guards notice this pretty quickly and turn their crossbows on the lycans. Many of the lycans are killed before getting very far, and many others are separated by a barrage of arrows. Lucian has no choice but to escape with the few slaves that got free, but vows to return for the others. Lucian continues to charge outward, running into two vampires and throwing them and him out a window and out into the open. As they fall from the top of the castle, the guards turn to dust (its daytime), and Lucian lands safely on the ground. The few other lycans follow Lucian and make their escape. Click Here
Viktor is rather angry and notices that the collars were unlocked. He had given Tannis the key that Lucian had made, and believes that Tannis has betrayed him, but he claims that he had locked the key in the armory and asks Viktor to check to prove his innocence.
Outside, Lucian and the four other lycans have made it to the surrounding forests, but instead of fleeing, Lucian plans to return to the castle to save his brethren. They have no weapons and are few in number, so Lucian asks Raze to lead him back to the noblemans estate so they are get the supplies and soldiers they need.
At the castle armoury, Tannis finds the key that he had put away. Viktor believes that Lucian must have made another one and Tannis gets off the hook.
Cut back to Lucian and the other lycans. Lucian has freed the human slaves that belonged to the nobleman (the one that was killed by Viktor). Lucian asks them to volunteer to help them, and if they choose to, be granted immortality through becoming a lycan. The freed slaves agree and they prepare for battle making weapons and arming themselves. Lucian sends Raze to other estates to recruit more soldiers.
Viktor is back at the castle, pacing about and steps over a loose metal grate, the same one Lucian used to sneak out and meet with Sonja.
Back to Lucian, he heads into the woods and meets/recruit the wolves. The wolves do not attack Lucian and seem to listen to him.
Viktor follows the pathway into Sonjas room, and questions her about Lucians escape. Viktor does not believe her and drinks her blood to see her memories. Viktor goes into a complete freak-out as he realizes that his daughter has betrayed him. Sonja is imprisoned in her chambers and Viktor storms out.
At the lycan camp, Sonja is supposed to meet Lucian, but her absence worries him. Lucian insists on waiting for her, but the others do not want to wait; the longer they wait, the more likely they will be found.
At the castle, the council have found out that Lucian is rallying the slaves and making more lycans, and the council pressures Viktor to do something about Lucian. Viktor knows that Lucian will return for Sonja, and prepares for the inevitable attack. Viktor sends one of Sonjas friends to tell Lucian that Sonja will be executed soon. Lucian knows it is a trap and heads back to the castle alone, giving Raze command of the troops (lycans and wolves).
During the night, Lucian sneaks into the castle, dispatching the guards one by one. He reaches Sonja and they attempt to escape together. Lucian and Sonja run through the sewers but encounter heavy resistance. Up top, Viktor and his men pour oil into the sewers and set the tunnels on fire. Lucian and Sonja jump through a small hole in the ceiling and battle the vampires. Lucian is outnumbered and getting pummelled but Sonja is doing a good job fighting them off (partly because they want her alive). Viktor comes in and fights Sonja, and she has no choice but to defeat her father. Sonja pleas for Viktor to release Lucian for the sake of her child (shes pregnant with Lucians child). Viktor grabs Sonjas dagger and subdues her. Viktor sees the child as an abomination and believes he has no choice but to punish her as well. Lucian regrets escaping but Sonja tells him that it is not his fault, and that the choices are her to make.
Sonja and Lucian are dragged out for a trial. Sonja is convicted of treason by the council, and even Viktor declares Sonja as guilty, even though it visibly pains him to do so. Lucian pleads with Viktor to release Sonja, but its no use. Sonja and Lucian are brought into a chamber where Sonja is strung up on a pillar and forced to watch as Lucian is chained and whipped severely. The whipping ends and all the vampires leave. It will be dawn soon and Sonja will be executed by sunlight. The ceiling opens and Lucian tries to break free to save her, but cannot. Sonja says goodbye and is instantly fried by sunlight. Viktor is grieving rather heavily as well.
At sunset, Lucian is still chained to the floors of the sunlight execution room. Viktor comes in to see the remains of his daughter but does not notice the full moon.
Lucian is furious at Viktor and forces himself to transform even though he has a collar on. Lucian breaks free, grabs Sonjas medallion and tries to escape. Lucian is severely injured from his collar and is being pummelled with arrows, but is able to let off a vicious roar, signalling his men, before weakening and returning to human form.
Viktor gets his knife and is prepared to kill Lucian but notices that something is approaching a hoard of lycans and wolves charging towards the castle. The vampires man their crossbows and fire but there are just too many of them. The wolves climb up the walls easily and quickly overruns the vampires. Raze finds Lucian and helps him. Lucian tells Raze to free the others. Raze frees the other lycan prisoners and give them the keys to their collars. The lycans transform and fight their way out.
Viktor gets Tannis to retrieve the other elders (hibernating in their coffins) and then heads out to face the lycans. Viktor proves to be a very powerful warrior and takes down many lycans. Lucian spots Viktor and heads right for him.
Down in the sewers, Tannis has the elders in a boat and row them to safety.
Lucian catches up with Viktor and they fight. Both of them fall into a pit, hanging from chains. Lucian is able weaken Viktor with sunlight (broke a hole through the wall) and ties him up in the chains. Viktor says he should have killed Lucian long ago, but is interrupted by a sword through his mouth. Lucian, thinking that he has killed Viktor, tosses his chained body into the water.
Outside, Raze claims that its finished, but Lucian says it has just begun. This is the beginning of the second vampire-lycan war.
On a ship off the coast, Viktor has been recovered by Tannis, and is put into his coffin to sleep/recover while the next elder reigns over the vampires.
The film ends with the first minute of the first film, with Kravens (Shane Brolly) speech to Selene (Kate Beckinsale) revealing that Viktor had killed her family, and that he kept her alive because she reminded him of his daughter.
Movies Pending Review
Angels and Demons 4.6 out of 5 (Tom Hanks did have a better haircut)
Underworld: Beginning – 0 out of 5 (this movie really sucks)
The Taking of Pelham 123 – 4.3 out of 5 (more graphic than the original)
Terminator: Salvation 4.3 out of 5 (the wrong hero was saved)
Star Trek – 4.8 out of 5 (a good prequel)
Movie Review: Gran Torina
Life torn Walt Kowalski (Clint Eastwood) is a Korean War veteran who lives in an urban Detroit neighborhood among Hmong immigrants. Kowalski’s once peaceful neighborhood is now a victim of gang violence. Upon his wife’s death, Kowalski slowly and reluctantly comes to know his neighbors as more than racial stereotypes. Eventually he comes to realize that he has more in common with them than his own spoiled family, who see him as an old racist useful only in what he can do for them. As the gang violence escalates and threatens to consume the lives of his newfound friends and neighbors, Kowalski decides he must take matters into his own hands in order to protect them.
A wonderful movie of embracing cultural diversity by both Kowalski and his Vietnamese neighbors. Eastwood brings a bit of geriatric Dirty Harry to the screen. Seems the older he gets the better actor and director he becomes. This movie is not for the cultural hypersensitive as our characters evolve, but in the end it makes a strong social statement. Great movie.
Rating: 4.5 our ot 5
Movie Review: The Curious Case of Benjamin Buttons
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” is a 1921 short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, first published in Colliers Magazine, and subsequently anthologized in his book Tales of the Jazz Age (occasionally published as The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Other Jazz Age Stories).[1]. Developed for years by the late Hollywood mogul Ray Stark, the rights and story development were purchased from the Ray Stark Estate and adapted for a 2008 film of the same name directed by David Fincher.
In the book, the story begins with the birth of the protagonist, Benjamin in 1860. Benjamin is born with the physical appearance of a seventy-year-old man, and when his father first visits him mere hours after his birth he is already able to speak. To avoid embarrassment, Benjamin’s father forces him to shave his beard and dye his hair in order to look younger. He also forces Benjamin to play with the other neighborhood boys, and buys him toys and orders him throughout the day to play with them. Benjamin obediently plays with them, but only to please his father as Benjamin has more joy in smoking his father’s cigars, reading encyclopedias, and talking to his grandfather. He is even sent to kindergarten at the age of five, but is quickly withdrawn from the class after repeated instances of falling asleep during kid-oriented activities.
As the story progresses it soon becomes apparent to the Button family that Benjamin is aging backwards which astounds them beyond belief. At the age of eighteen he enrolls in Yale University. However, having run out of hair-dye on the day that he is supposed to register for classes, the officials at Yale send him away believing that he is a fifty-year-old lunatic.
Several years later, while attending a party with his father (who now looks to be the same age as Benjamin), Benjamin meets the young Hildegarde Moncrief, the daughter of a respected Civil War general. Hildegarde tells Benjamin that she would rather be with an older man because they treat women better. He dances with her, and they quickly fall in love and marry. Benjamin soon takes over his father’s hardware business, and he proves to be highly adept at the job, while growing fabulously rich.
As Benjamin “grows younger,” he begins to feel healthier and happier, as Fitzgerald says, “the blood flowed with new vigour through his veins.” However, his wife ceases to attract him as she ages, and he soon decides to fight in the Spanish-American War. He serves with great distinction and receives a medal for a wound he received at the Battle of San Juan Hill. When he returns home his relationship with his wife deteriorates further, and he becomes more detached from her. He often leaves the house and goes to lavish parties and dances, while his wife is more settled in her ways.
In 1910 Benjamin turns over control of his company to his son, Roscoe, and enrolls at Harvard, with the appearance of a 20-year-old. His first year at Harvard is a great success, and he dominates on the football field. However, by the time Benjamin reaches his senior year he is a frail sixteen-year-old too weak to play football and barely able to cope with the academic load.
Benjamin returns home, and as the years progress he goes from being a moody teenager to being a young boy and is reluctantly cared for by his son. Eventually, he looks to be the same age as his own grandson, and even attends kindergarten with him. As his body grows younger, Button slowly begins to lose his memory of his earlier life. The toys and games that he spurned as a newborn begin to interest him. As he reaches the end of his life he becomes a baby, and his nurse Nana takes him for walks and teaches him to say words. His memory deteriorates to the point where he can’t remember anything except the immediate present, and eventually, all goes dark.
In the movie, which opens on the day that Hurricane Katrina hits New Orleans, elderly Daisy Williams nee Fuller is on her deathbed in a New Orleans hospital. At her side is her adult daughter, Caroline. Daisy asks Caroline to read to her aloud the diary of Daisy’s lifelong friend, Benjamin Button. Benjamin’s diary recounts his entire extraordinary life, the primary unusual aspect of which was his aging backwards, being born an old man who was diagnosed with several aged diseases at birth and thus given little chance of survival, but who does survive and gets younger with time. Abandoned by his biological father, Thomas Button, after Benjamin’s biological mother died in childbirth, Benjamin was raised by Queenie, a black woman and caregiver at a seniors’ home. Daisy’s grandmother was a resident at that home, which is where she first met Benjamin. Although separated through the years, Daisy and Benjamin remain in contact throughout their lives, reconnecting in their forties when in age they finally match up. Some of the revelations in Benjamin’s diary are difficult for Caroline to read, especially as it relates to the time past this reconnection between Benjamin and Daisy, when Daisy gets older and Benjamin grows younger into his childhood years.
Although there is some deviation from the story, I personally like the way it is told in the movie because it is based in New Orleans and having lived there for so long before the storm, it was quite nostalgic to see some familiar sights. Recognizing buildings, areas of town and even some of the houses was a delight. The movie was almost 3 hrs long but not boring. Well put together. It was a good medium for Brad Pitt and showed some real versatility in his acting ability. The movie gives the view the whole gamut of the range of emotions. A must see.
Rating: 4.8 our of 5
Movie Review: Slumdog Millionaire
Slumdog Millionaire is a 2008 drama film directed by Danny Boyle and written by Simon Beaufoy. It is based on the book Q and A written by Indian author and diplomat Vikas Swarup.
Jamal Malik, a former street child from Mumbai, is being interrogated by the police. He is a contestant on Kaun Banega Crorepati, the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, and has made it to the final question but has been accused of cheating.
The explanation of how he knew the answers leads us through the history of his short but full life, including scenes of obtaining the autograph of a famous Bollywood star (Amitabh Bachchan); the death of his mother during an anti-Muslim riot in the slums; and how he and his brother Salim befriended an orphaned girl, Latika. Jamal refers to Salim and himself as Athos and Porthos, and Latika as the third Musketeer, whose name they do not know, not having read far enough in the book.
Living on the trash heaps, they are discovered by Maman, a gangster who runs an orphanage and then uses the children to beg and bring in money. Salim is groomed to become a part of Maman’s operation, and is tasked to bring Jamal so he can be blinded to improve his income potential as a blind singer. Salim rebels against Maman to protect his brother, and the three children try to escape, but only Salim and Jamal are successful. Latika is re-captured by Maman’s organization and raised as a culturally talented prostitute whose virginity will fetch a high price.
The brothers eke out a living, traveling on top of trains, selling goods, pretending to be tour guides at the Taj Mahal, and pickpocketing. Jamal eventually insists that they return to Mumbai since he wishes to locate Latika. When he finds her working as a dancer in a brothel, the brothers attempt to rescue her, but Maman intrudes, and in the resulting conflict Salim draws a gun and kills Maman. Salim then uses the fact that he killed Maman to obtain a job with Javed, a rival crime lord. Salim claims Latika as his own, and when Jamal protests, Salim threatens to kill him and Latika intervenes, accepting her fate with Salim.
Years later, Jamal is working as an assistant in a call center, serving tea to the employees. When he is asked to cover for a co-worker for a couple of minutes, he searches the database for Salim and Latika. He gets in touch with Salim, who has become a high-ranking lieutenant in Javed’s organization. Salim invites Jamal to live with him and, after following Salim to Javed’s house, he sees Latika living there. He talks his way in as the new dishwasher and tries to convince Latika to leave. She rebukes his advances, but he promises to be at the train station every day at 5 p.m. One day Latika attempts to rendezvous with him, but is recaptured by Javed’s men and Salim. One slashes her cheek with a knife, scarring her.
Jamal again loses contact with Latika when Javed moves to another home. In another attempt to find Latika, Jamal tries out for the game show because he knows that she will be watching. He makes it to the final question, despite the hostile attitude of the host who feeds Jamal an incorrect answer during a break. At the end of the episode’s taping, Jamal has one question left to win 20 million rupees and is taken into police custody, where he is tortured as the police attempt to learn how Jamal, a simple slumdog, could know the answers to so many questions. After Jamal tells his whole story, explaining how his life experiences coincidentally enabled him to know the answer to each question, the police inspector calls his explanation “bizarrely plausible” and allows Jamal to return to the show for the final question. At Javed’s safehouse, Latika watches the news coverage of Jamal’s miraculous run on the show. Salim gives Latika the keys to his car and his phone and urges her to run away. When Jamal uses his Phone-A-Friend lifeline to call Salim, Latika answers his phone and they reconnect. She does not know the answer to the final question either, but believing that “it is written”, Jamal guesses the correct answer (Aramis) to the question of the one Musketeer whose name they never learned, and wins the grand prize. Simultaneously, Salim is discovered to have helped Latika escape and allows himself to be killed in a bathtub full of money after shooting and killing Javed. Later that night, Jamal and Latika meet at the train station, and finally share a kiss.
B grade cinematography to an interesting plot and editing.
Rating: 4 our of 5