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Archive for the ‘Movie Reviews’ Category

I found it quite interesting that while the movie theaters displayed the promo poster, I had never seen a trailer for the movie and really never considered it until it was released.

The City of Ember is a 2003 apocalyptic book by Jeanne DuPrau. It revolves around the underground city of Ember, the one known surviving settlement and “the only light in the dark world” that’s slowly dying as supplies run low and the electrical system starts to fail.

Ember is a self-contained, self-maintained city. All food and supplies come from giant storerooms under the city and a handful of greenhouses. All the books in the library, apart from the city history “The Book of Ember” and the schoolbooks “The Book of Letters” and “The Book of Numbers”, have been hand written by residents over the years of Ember. All the light in the city comes from lamps and floodlights; when these are extinguished, the city is completely dark, no stars, sun, or moon. The electricity in the city comes from an ancient hydro-electric generator in the underground Pipeworks; keeping the aging generator operational is a constant task. Beyond the borders of Ember are the dark Unknown Regions, which are unexplorable because none of the Emberites can produce a mobile source of light. Ember was constructed many years ago by the Builders, but nothing is known about them other than the facts that they built the city and provided its supplies.

The movie begins 200 years later than the book, which begins immediately after the construction of the city. Two of the Builders discuss what will happen when supplies run low and conditions become bleak, and decide to leave instructions for escape in a special sealed box, which will open automatically after 200 years, when it will be safe to leave the city. The box is entrusted to the Mayor of Ember, who passes it down to the following Mayor when he leaves office. While the Mayors do not know what the box contains, they keep it safe over the years and do not tell anyone about it. However, the box is lost and forgotten when the seventh Mayor unsuccessfully tries to open it and then dies before he can pass it on to his successor.

The movie begins shortly after the box has counted down to zero. It is Assignment Day at the Ember school. On this day, the 12 year olds finish their education and enter the workforce. They are assigned jobs at random by drawing pieces of paper from a bag held by the mayor. One student, Lina Mayfleet, draws the job of Pipe-works Laborer; which will require her to work underground in the huge Pipeworks that power Ember and deliver its water, repairing lights and pipes as needed. Another student, Doon Harrow, becomes a Messenger. The Messengers are Ember’s communication team, who run around the city relaying personal messages between citizens.

Both Lina and Doon dislike their chosen jobs, and therefore exchange them. Doon wishes to become an electrician because he is seriously concerned with the state of the city and the generator. Blackouts and power outages are becoming common in Ember. In addition, supplies are dwindling, buildings are crumbling and the city seems to be breaking down piece by piece. On the job in the Pipeworks, Doon explores the tunnels and tries to discover a way to save Ember. He even sneaks into the room containing the giant Generator, but realizes at once that he has no idea how it works, much less how to repair it.

Lina is thrilled to have the job of Messenger because it allows her to run and explore every corner of Ember while she delivers her messages. She works hard, puzzling over secret messages passed to the Mayor from a strange man named Looper. She also copes with her grandmother’s ever failing health, and cares for her little sister, Poppy.

Poppy discovers an ancient piece of paper in a box in the Mayfleet apartment. By the time Lina manages to pry it out of the toddler’s hands, the paper has been chewed and torn to pieces, and the writing has been obscured in many places. Lina hangs on to the scraps, and becomes convinced they hold a special message. She shows the paper to certain friends and neighbors, including her old classmate Lizzie Bisco, but nobody has any clues as to its significance.

Lina’s grandmother cannot explain the paper either, but incoherently rambles on about finding “something that was lost”. Her health continues to fail, and she dies. One of the Mayfleet family’s neighbors, a kindly woman named Mrs. Murdo, offers to take Lina and Poppy in. Lina accepts this offer.

Eventually, Doon and Lina piece the paper together and a friend tells Lina that the message contains “Instructions for Egress”–instructions to leave Ember. They descend into the Pipeworks and discover that the instructions are indeed valid, and that the underground river holds the key to escape from the city. They also discover that a man named Looper is stealing the disappearing resources of Ember from the storerooms and giving them to the Mayor in a secret room in the Pipeworks. They report the Mayor’s theft to City Hall, confident that he will be arrested.

However, the Mayor sets his guards upon the pair, and orders their arrest for “spreading vicious rumors.” Before they can tell the residents of Ember about the Instructions for Egress, they are forced to flee the city. Lina manages to take her little sister Poppy, and, with Doon, goes down into the Pipeworks and flees Ember by boat on the underground river.

The river eventually leads to a great rock slope.  After a long and arduous climb, Lina, Doon and Poppy emerge from the rocks into a new world, where they discover sunlight, moonlight, stars and nature.

Doon and Lina explore a nearby cave. Looking down from a high cliff in the cave, they are amazed to see Ember below them–and realize that they have been living underground all along. In a last-ditch effort to save their city’s citizens, the three write a note with the Instructions for Egress, wrap it in Doon’s shirt, and hurl it down into Ember. In the book is found by Lina’s guardian, Mrs. Murdo who takes care of her. In the move, it is found by Doon’s father.

Since the movie is only about 1 hour and 40 minutes it does not have the epic detail of the book. However, the occasional comments made by the narrator as the story progesses, does a pretty good job of filling in the total plot line. The movie is watchable, has interesting cinematography, and a couple of strange monster rat-like creatures and big moths. The movie is rated PG and I enjoyed it at least at Senior Citizen admission charge.

Rating: 3 out of 5

While this movie got mixed reviews, I personally cosidered it one of Spike Lee’s best movies. Miracle at St. Anna follows four black soldiers of the all-black 92nd Infantry Division who get trapped near a small Tuscan village on the Gothic Line during the Italian Campaign of World War II after one of them risks his life to save an Italian boy.

The story is inspired by the August 1944 Sant’Anna di Stazzema massacre perpetrated by the Waffen-SS in retaliation to Italian partisan activity. There is also a reference to a sculpted head from Ponte Santa Trinita in Florence that acts as a plot device.

Even at 2 hours and forty minutes the movie keeps a good pace. There is ample graphic violence. The acting is superb as is the cinamatography. I would hope that this would get strong consideration at the least best supporting actor and so far a potential contender for best movie. While I would say that Robert Downey, Jr. should get best actor for either Tropic Thunder or maybe Iron Man, currently the only other contender for best movie so far this season has been The Dark Knight.

This movie probably won’t apppeal to every one, however, it is definitely one not to be ignored. Spike Lee will probably be best remember for his docudrama, When the Levees Broke, this is a movie not to be missed. It will not leave you feeling good, but it will certainly give you pause and make you think.

Rating: 4.7 out of 5

One would think that with two fantastic actors, you could actually get to seem them act and have a decent plot line. The whole crux of the movie rests on the quasi-surprise ending which probably kept most of the people in the audience from asking for their money back. Even the anticipated gratuitous violence was weak. A potentially good, but stereotypical “vigilante cop” plotline, but how many of these have we seen before. Tired plot and apparently two tired academy award winning actors. Don’t waste your money.

Rating:  1 out of 5.

A typical Coen Brothers production with an excellent cast. Watchable, funny, and quirky. I just wish they would produce movies with better cinematography. It looks like more like a home movie or “B” movie cinematography. I know they fluourish with that medium, but when they really have a good cast and decent plot line, make it look a little slicker.

Rating: 3.8 out of 5

An “Americanized” and in English takeoff on the Thai movie Bangkok Dangerous (1999). I guess the Pang Brothers thought that having Nicholas Cage star would make them money. I am sure it will bring some to the theater but this movie is a waste of time. Cage is getting old and showing it and the hairstyle in this movie doesn’t help either. The film trys to be “artsy” rather than gratuitously violent. Not enough body parts flying around. Also, the cinametography sucks and it might as well be in black and white.

Rating: 1 out of 5

Comic Book fodder starring Vin Diesel. If you are a Diesel fan it is watchable, otherwise save your money.

Rating: 1/2 out of 5

Exc ellent terrorist drama/thriller. Don Cheadle does an excellent job.

Rating: 4.3 out of 5

This will be a good movie for Jason Stratham fans. Really a remake of Death Race 2000. Watchagle as matinee fodder.

Rating: 2.5out of 5

It’s been nearly a year since volatile detective Ben Carson was suspended from the NYPD for fatally shooting another undercover officer, an accident that not only cost him his job, but fueled the alcoholism and anger that has alienated his wife and kids and left him crashing on his sister’s couch in Queens. Desperate to pull his life together, Carson takes a job as a night watchman at the burned-out ruins of the Mayflower department store, which was destroyed by a massive fire that devoured numerous innocent lives. As Carson patrols the eerie, charred remains of the store, he begins to notice something sinister about the ornate mirrors that adorn the Mayflower walls. Reflected in the gigantic shimmering glass are horrific images that stun Carson. Beyond projecting gruesome images of the past, the mirrors appear to be manipulating reality as well. When Carson sees his own reflection being tortured, he suffers the physical effects of his fractured visions. His sympathetic but skeptical sister Angela dismisses these bizarre “nightmares”€ as a consequence of his stress and guilt over the accidental shooting, but Carson’s estranged wife Amy, a no-nonsense NYPD medical 2 examiner, is less forgiving. Her husband’s increasingly erratic behavior frightens her, pushing his family farther away–and, she fears, it’s putting their children in danger. As Carson investigates the mysterious disappearance of a Mayflower security guard and its possible connection to his ghastly visions, he realizes that a malevolent, otherworldly force is using reflections as a gateway to terrorize him and his family. Carson must somehow uncover the truth behind the mirrors–and convince Amy to help him battle the greatest evil he has ever faced.

While this movie started out as the formularic “ghost in the machine” type movie where some malevolent spirit was caught in the movie and in order to stop it you have to figure out why someone was killed and perhaps bring someone to justice. As the movie progressed you knew it was too, too predictable and then it took a change. At least it kept you guessing a bit toward the end and the ending of the movie is also atypical, leaving it definitely open for Mirrors 2.

Rating: 3 out of 5 Jalapenos

Wanted is a six-issue creator-owned comic book miniseries, written by Mark Millar with art by J. G. Jones. It was published by Top Cow in 2003 and 2004 as part of Millarworld.^[1] It features an amoral protagonist who discovers he is the heir to a career as a super-villainous assassin in a world where such villains have secretly taken control of the planet.

The premise of Wanted is that all the world’s super-villains decided to band together in 1986 and use their vast collective powers — including mad science, magic and mind control — to eliminate all the world’s superheroes and rewrite reality in their own dark image. Prior to this the world was a brighter, more hopeful place. Superheroes are remembered as fiction (as they are in the real world), and behind the scenes a cabal of the leading super-villains runs the entire world. 25-year-old Wes was the most disaffected, cube-dwelling drone the planet had ever known. His boss chewed him out hourly, his girlfriend ignored him routinely and his life plodded on interminably. Everyone was certain this disengaged slacker would amount to nothing. There was little else for Wes to do but wile away the days and die in his slow, clock-punching rut. Until he met a woman named Fox. After his estranged father is murdered, the deadly sexy Fox recruits Wes into the Fraternity, a secret society that trains Wes to avenge his dad’s death by unlocking his dormant powers. As she teaches him how to develop lightning-quick reflexes and phenomenal agility, Wes discovers this team lives by an ancient, unbreakable code: carry out the death orders given by fate itself. With wickedly brilliant tutors–including the Fraternity’s enigmatic leader, Sloan–Wes grows to enjoy all the strength he ever wanted. But, slowly, he begins to realize there is more to his dangerous associates than meets the eye. And as he wavers between newfound heroism and vengeance, Wes will come to learn what no one could ever teach him: he alone controls his destiny.

This is a pretty decent action movie with some good special effects. Another opportunity for Angelina Jolie to have her body tattooed and to be macho like Lara Croft. Probably the worst of the movie is James McAvoy, who has at least “buffed” up to play the part like Toby McGuire for Spiderman. As far as his acting, this may be the best yet, although he has only a bit better acting skills than Hayden Christensen. He does well in the wimp aspect, but as the “hero” he is much lacking. He needs to get a haircut that doesn’t make his head look flat and if I had that much space between all my teeth, I would have them all crowned or pulled and replaced with dentures. Every time he opened his mouth it looked like a picket fence.

Anyway, it was still an ok movie, plenty of action and plenty of blood, gore and guts. A couple of plot twists also keeps you on your toes. I hope there is a sequel, at least to the movie – get a replacement for McAvoy.

25-year-old Wes was the most disaffected, cube-dwelling drone the planet had ever known. His boss chewed him out hourly, his girlfriend ignored him routinely and his life plodded on interminably. Everyone was certain this disengaged slacker would amount to nothing. There was little else for Wes to do but wile away the days and die in his slow, clock-punching rut. Until he met a woman named Fox. After his estranged father is murdered, the deadly sexy Fox recruits Wes into the Fraternity, a secret society that trains Wes to avenge his dad’s death by unlocking his dormant powers. As she teaches him how to develop lightning-quick reflexes and phenomenal agility, Wes discovers this team lives by an ancient, unbreakable code: carry out the death orders given by fate itself. With wickedly brilliant tutors–including the Fraternity’s enigmatic leader, Sloan–Wes grows to enjoy all the strength he ever wanted. But, slowly, he begins to realize there is more to his dangerous associates than meets the eye. And as he wavers between newfound heroism and vengeance, Wes will come to learn what no one could ever teach him: he alone controls his destiny.

Rating: 4.2 out of 5 Jalapenos