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Archive for the ‘Movie Reviews’ Category

The Mortal Instruments is a series of six young adult fantasy novels written by Cassandra Clare, of which five have been published so far. City of Bones is the first book of the series. When her mother disappears, Clary Fray learns that she descends from a line of warriors who protect our world from demons. She joins forces with others like her and heads into a dangerous alternate New York called Downworld. This is the first one out of the box for this series and hopefully the box office reception was adequate for its continuation. Certainly if the puerile Twilight series made it all the way to the end; hopefully this one will as well. I would say the series is written for the the adolescent rather than young adult. Although a children’s fantasy, Harry Potter appealed to all ages who still believe in fantasy. No deep theological message here, but a decent bit of entertainment. I am not sure that we will ever see another J.R.R. Tolkien, although George R. R. Martin comes close with Game of Thrones. Tolkein does have a hero in the end, our dear Frodo. I am not sure that that such will exist in Game of Thrones because just when you think you have identified a character who will triumph over evil, they get killed. Anyway, back to City of Bones. The movie was entertaining albeit somewhat predictable. I found it interesting that they picked up two actors who have both played British kings: Jamie Campbell Bower as King Arthur in the Starz Camelot series. He also starred in the Twilight sagas as well. Unfortunately, Camelot ran only for one season despite the numerous award nominations it garnered. Johnathan Rhys-Meyers who played King Henry VIII in the Showtime series that ran for 4 seasons – a pretty short time to go through 8 wives.

City of Bones is a good little movie that does not try to make any real social statement – just entertainment. I am looking forward to the next one of the series.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.

I am a big fan of Matt Damon. He is certainly a talented actor. I had high hopes for this movie except for the fact it was directed by the same person that did District Nine. While District Nine garnered great accolades and was in some respects and interesting and startling movie, it prime objective was not entertainment but to support the social responsibility opinion of the director. I had higher hopes for Elysium. From a Sci-Fi drama standpoint, it was a decent movie; however, it had the same social responsibility theme that was just to pervasive to make the movie enjoyable. The only real difference, at least thematically, was that District Nine focused ethnic socialism and Elysium focused on race socialism. Personally, I go to a movie to be entertained, not to endure an hour of promoting socialism and class warfare.

Rating: 1 out of 5 stars

In the 1930s, an elderly Tonto tells a young boy the tale of John Reid, the Lone Ranger. An idealistic lawyer, he rides with his brother and fellow Texas Rangers in pursuit of the notorious Butch Cavendish. Ambushed by the outlaw and left for dead, John Reid is rescued by the renegade Comanche, Tonto, at the insistence of a mysterious white horse and offers to help him to bring Cavendish to justice. Becoming a reluctant masked rider with a seemingly incomprehensible partner, Reid pursues the criminal against all obstacles. However, John and Tonto learn that Cavendish is only part of a far greater injustice and the pair must fight it in an adventure that would make them a legend.

This is an “origins” movie. It depicts the circumstances that led to the Texas Ranger becoming the Lone Ranger and how he got hooked up with his partner Tonto. This is a bit distant from our memory of the beginnings of the Lone Ranger. Armie Hammer is a bit more of a comedic than all serious. The movie is reminiscent of the Pirates of the Carribean genre.

It’s a fun movie. It moves quickly so you don’t realize that it is almost 2.5 hours in length. Not a boring minute. Johnny Depp is such a great actor. The part of this Tonto was made for him. Artie Hammer is a great compliment to Depp’s character.

Don’t miss this one on the big screen.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

When the White House (Secret Service Code: “Olympus”) is captured by a terrorist mastermind and the President is kidnapped, disgraced former Presidential guard Mike Banning finds himself trapped within the building. As our national security team scrambles to respond, they are forced to rely on Banning’s inside knowledge to help retake the White House, save the President and avert an even bigger disaster.

This is almost identical to White House Down. In this movie, the President is more presidential and acts more like a leader. Otherwise, it is the sam basic principle. I can’t understand why two similar movies were released at the same time.

Nonetheless it is definitely watchable.

Rating: 3.7 out of 5

United Nations employee Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt) traverses the world in a race against time to stop the Zombie pandemic that is toppling armies and governments, and threatening to destroy humanity itself.

Z is for Zombie. The punch line is to find a way to stop the spread of the virus and not get ravaged by the fastest moving zombies in movie history.

Actually a very interesting and watchable movie. Reminds me a bit of Outbreak in terms of identifying the source and the way to survive in the Zombie nation. By the way, these are the fastest moving zombies I have ever seen.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Although I personally cannot stand Channing Tatum as a real actor, he was ok in this movie. However, this movie would have been even better with Mark Wahlberg or Matt Damon in the leading role. Denzel Washington would have made a much better President than Jamie Foxx.

Capitol Policeman John Cale (Tatum) has just been denied his dream job with the Secret Service of protecting President James Sawyer (Foxx). Not wanting to let down his little girl with the news, he takes her on a tour of the White House, when the complex is overtaken by a heavily armed paramilitary group. Now, with the nation’s government falling into chaos and time running out, it’s up to Cale to save the president, his daughter, and the country.

The  movie clocks in at over two hours and is action packed. If you are interested in reading a lengthy synopsis, check it out at IMDB.com.

Rating: 4.3 out of 5

This is a slightly new take on Superman. Same underlying plot of Krypton about to explode, baby sent in pod to Earth, boy found by farm couple, grows up, develops super powers, tries to keep them hidden, prison escapee from Krypton comes to get him, battle ensues, town destroyed in the battle between the two, Superman wins.

Henry Cavill is probably the best looking Superman we’ve ever seen. He certainly bulked up from his role in The Tudors. My guess is that the studio thought his good looks would make this movie a box office hit. Well, it did draw a good box office, but the moving is extremely slow and boring. The movie could have been shortened by 45 minutes (leaving an hour and 45 minutes run time) and been much better. The first half was much better than the last half. The battle between Zod and Superman near the end lasted way too long, destroyed too many buildings, and was obviously cheap CGI.

Do not bother to see this on the big screen or in 3D. Wait til it come to video and stream it from Netflix.

Rating: 1 out of 5

P.S. If you want to read a synopsis as long and as boring as the movie, check it out at IMDB.com.

This 2 hr plus movie should be cut to an hour and a half. Plot line is pretty weak with minor unpredictability. What a waste of time. Unless you are extremely bored or your air conditioner is on the fritz, wait until this comes to network TV as it is bound to quickly. Don’t pay more than matinee price.

In the year 2077, Jack Harper (Tom Cruise), is a drone technician, living in a Tower 49, high above the clouds, with his assigned partner, Victoria/Vica (Andrea Riseborough). They are the last people left on Earth after it was destroyed by aliens known as the ‘Scavs’, who wanted Earth’s resources. The Scavs destroyed Earth’s moon, which caused a series of natural disasters and global devastation, then they invaded. This led to a war in which the humans were forced to use nuclear weapons. In the end, the humans won the war, but had lost the Earth. The entire remaining human population moved to Titan, one of the moons of Saturn, with a select number inhabiting a large spaceship in orbit around the Earth called the Tet. Giant machines are drawing up seawater to process as energy for the humans’ new home.

Jack’s job is to journey to the surface during the day to repair the drones. These are spherical, flying robots designed to detect and terminate remaining Scavs on Earth. Vica’s job is to stay inside the Tower to keep an eye on him, as his co-ordinator and to correspond with and get their mission objectives from Sally (Melissa Leo), the mission commander on the Tet.

Jack repairs the drones in the gridded area in what looks like the remains of New York/Manhattan. He repairs a No. 166 drone one day in the Superbowl Stadium, and reminds Vica that he would’ve loved to have watched the last game in 2017. He encounters a dog, and is able to send it away before Drone 166 fully recovers and kills it. He then goes on to find another lost drone, inside the New York Public Library, but it is revealed to be a fake, and is actually a trap set up by the Scavs. Luckily, the drone from earlier, 166, saves Jack from the encounter. The drones have incredible fire-power and maneuverability. Jack finds a book, and decides to take it home. He remembers a verse inside it about Horatius.

Jack returns to the Tower for the night again and has dinner with Vica. She is excited that they are only two weeks away from completing their posting and will soon be on their way to join the rest of humanity on Titan. Jack, however, is unsure, as he doesn’t want to leave yet. He has been getting flashbacks and dreams of a time before ‘the war’ though he knows these can’t be real as he was given an obligatory memory wipe before starting his mission as ‘the mop-up crew’. Jack gifts Vica some flowers he has been tending to, but she discards them by dropping them from the Tower as it goes against regulations and they could contain “thousands of toxins”. They later go for a swim, and during a kiss, Jack has another flashback of a woman. In the morning the two awake to a mushroom cloud explosion in the distance, one of the water processing machines has exploded.

The next day, Jack goes back to work and is instructed to investigate a signal being beaconed from the Empire State building. They discover that the signal is coded co-ordinates so, believing it to be the work of the Scavs, he cuts the wire. He then tells Vica that he’ll perform a perimeter check around the border where the ‘radiation zone’ meets the safe area, but really he is visiting his secret house by a lake, in a lush green valley hidden away from view. He falls asleep on the grass and awakes to see objects being parachuted down from the sky. They crash land right on the co-ordinates from the transmission. He flies to investigate and finds that they are humans in delta-sleep pods. Drones arrive, and Jack witnesses the extermination of the people in the delta-sleep pods. He is able to save one last pod before the drone destroys it and he discovers that it is the woman from his flashbacks. He takes her back up to the Tower, where Vica manages to wake her from the deep sleep. We find out her name is Julia (Olga Kurylenko) and Vica is not happy at having her stay with them.

At sunrise Julia encourages Jack to go with her to collect the black box from her crashed spaceship; she needs to know what happened. He takes her, without Vica knowing. After they retrieve it, Jack realizes they are surrounded by Scavs and he sends the aircraft back on autopilot before he is knocked unconscious by a Scav and is transported to their lair.

Jack awakens to find himself captured and tied to a chair, and the Scavs reveal themselves to be human, not the alien species that had invaded the Earth. The real aliens are the ones inside the Tet, and the drones are actually programmed to kill any remaining humans except for Jack, as the technician. The leader of the Scav/Human resistance, Beech (Morgan Freeman) asks Jack for his help. They have a Drone they have successfully stolen along with ten power cells from other drones they have brought down, they have also scavenged a weapons-grade plutonium power core from the wreck of the ship Julia on. This has effectively turned this particular drone into a nuclear bomb that they hope to reprogramme to kill the real alien species aboard the Tet. As a skilled Drone engineer they hope to make Jack reprogramme the drone. He refuses as he still believes there to be humans on board the Tet. Beech releases them and tells Jack that he will find answers in the forbidden ‘radiation zone’ and see if it would change his mind.

The two ride Jack’s motorbike until it runs out of fuel, then hike to the Empire State building, where Jack manages to send a message for Vica to let her know he’s fine. Vica sends the aircraft to pick them up. On the balcony viewing area, Julia reminds Jack of who she really is. They were both from the spacecraft Odyssey, and she is his real wife, before he had his memory erased. He remembers, and they share an embrace just as the aircraft arrives and Vica sees the two of them. Jack and Julia go back to the Tower, where an upset and jealous Vica sends a message to Sally claiming that she and Jack are no longer an “effective team”. This leads a drone to awaken from the lower floor of the Tower and vapourizes her, but before it kills Jack too, Julia shoots it with the aircraft gun.

They fly away and are soon being chased by three other Drones. In an attempt to destroy them, they fly into a lightning storm, and into a canyon. Jack manages to destroy two but the third, #166, rams them and they crash into a sandy desert in the radiation zone. Jack realises that he is not boiling alive as he was led to believe would happen if he ventured into the radiation zone. He also hears the familiar distress beep of a broken drone just over the next sand dune. Upon investigating, Jack witnesses another technician in an identical aircraft land to fix the drone, despite him being told there were no others.

Jack confronts the technician only to find it is a clone known as Jack Harper 52. They get into a fight and in the brawl, Julia is shot in the abdomen. Jack uses 52’s plane to go to 52’s Tower to collect a med-kit for Julia, and there he sees another Vica. He is stunned by the elaborate unraveling of everything he knew to be true but manages to trick this Vica into believing he is her Jack.

After saving Julia, they take refuge in the lake-house, and re-connect. Jack decides to help the human resistance and returns to help them to reprogramme the Drone. However, during this time, Sally has sent another three drones after Jack by tracing his DNA traces. The drones arrive and attack all of the humans, leaving few survivors. Beech is also mortally wounded, and the reprogrammed drone is no longer functional. The fuel cells remain intact though, and they decide the only way that they can still transport the fuel-cell bomb into the Tet is by hiding them in a delta-sleep pod with Julia and taking her to the Tet on the pretence of surrendering.

Jack flies to the Tet, with the delta-sleep pod in the back. On the way, he listens to the black box that they had recovered from the Odyssey, and Jack listens to himself as the pilot of the Odyssey as it approaches the Tet as first contact in 2017, the day after the Superbowl. Vica is the co-pilot and Julia is one of the members of the crew. They were told to check out the Tet by the real Sally, a NASA cap com. The Odyssey began to accelerate uncontrollably towards the Tet and in order to save the crew and Julia, Jack released the back shuttle with delta-sleep pods, leaving only him and Vica heading towards the Tet.

Jack 49, now at the Tet, is allowed entry and sees millions of clones of himself and Vica growing in pods. Sally is also only a large floating triangular stone with a red laser eye in the centre, the alien technology. He opens the delta-sleep box and inside is not Julia, but the wounded Beech. Together, they detonate the fuel cells and the Tet is destroyed. Meanwhile, Julia wakes up by the lake house, and sees the Tet being blown up in the sky, she weeps.

Three years later, Julia has given birth to a daughter, and is living in the lake-house. She and the daughter then see members of the human resistance. A figure then walks out of the crowd, and it appears to be a Jack clone. The movie ends before we know more about this Jack clone or what his relationship is or will become with Julia.

Rating 1.5 out of 5.

This is now the 6th movie in the F&F franchise. Seems this will go on like Jason, NIghtmare on Elm Street, Halloween,and Alien. These seem to get better and better. This was a great addition to the series and the ending, although a bit sad, definitely showed us that F&F 7 is on the way. This was also the second of the series with Dwayne Johnson and the end not showed us that F&F 7 will add Jason Straitham.

Since Dom (Diesel) and Brian’s (Walker) Rio heist toppled a kingpin’s empire and left their crew with $100 million, our heroes have scattered across the globe. But their inability to return home and living forever on the lam have left their lives incomplete. Meanwhile, Hobbs (Johnson) has been tracking an organization of lethally skilled mercenary drivers across 12 countries, whose mastermind (Evans) is aided by a ruthless second-in-command revealed to be the love Dom thought was dead, Letty (Rodriguez). The only way to stop the criminal outfit is to outmatch them at street level, so Hobbs asks Dom to assemble his elite team in London. Payment? Full pardons for all of them so they can return home and make their families whole again.

We unfortunately lose Han’s girlfriend in this episode and in the credits trailer (don’t forget to stay for it) it looks like we will lose Han in F&F 7. However, it is a movie and we did get Letty back. With Letty back with Dom, it appears that Elena that we added in Rio (F&F 5) is going back to being a police officer. Any bets on her winding up working with Hobbs (The Rock)?

Lots of races, car chases, wrecks, explosions, and some new weaponry.

If you liked any of the F&F (with the exception of Tokyo Drift) you will definitely love this one!!

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

The USS Enterprise is sent to observe Planet Nibiru, but finds a volcano on the verge of erupting and wiping out its primitive inhabitants. In the process of launching a dangerous mission to halt the eruption, first officer Spock’s life is jeopardized, forcing Kirk to break the “Prime Directive” and reveal the Enterprise to the planet’s civilisation to rescue him. As a consequence, a number of indigenous people begin to worship the ship as it leaves. After being called back to Earth, Kirk is relieved of command, and Admiral Pike reassumes command of the Enterprise. Shortly afterward, Starfleet agent John Harrison bombs a secret “Section 31” installation in London. An emergency meeting of high ranking officers is called at Starfleet headquarters, which Kirk attends as Pike’s first officer. The meeting is attacked by a gunship piloted by Harrison. Kirk takes the gunship down, but Harrison escapes and Pike dies.

After Pike’s funeral, Admiral Marcus (Weller) authorizes Kirk to hunt down Harrison, who has fled to the Klingon homeworld of Qo’noS. Since Qo’noS lies deep in Klingon territory and Starfleet is on the brink of war with the Klingon Empire, the Enterprise is supplied with 72 long-range prototype photon torpedoes, and is ordered to fire them all at Harrison’s location once he is found. Believing the torpedoes could be dangerous to the ship, chief engineer Montgomery Scott refuses to take them aboard and tenders his resignation when ordered to accept them. The Admiral’s daughter, scientist Carol Marcus also joins the crew, under a false identity, and Pavel Chekov is promoted to Chief Engineer.

After arriving at the Klingon homeworld, the Enterprise’s warp core malfunctions, leaving the ship stranded in space. With repairs underway, Kirk, Spock and Uhura use a previously commandeered trader ship to enter Qo’noS. However, they are detected by Klingon patrol ships and are forced to land. Despite Uhura’s attempts to negotiate, the Klingons prepare to kill the trio, when a mysterious figure attacks the Klingons. After wiping them out, John Harrison confronts the landing party, but surrenders after learning the precise number of torpedoes aimed at him.

Back on the Enterprise, Harrison reveals his real identity: Khan, a genetically augmented superhuman, who has been in cryo sleep for 300 years after waging an unsuccessful war on Earth to eradicate all those inferior to himself and his superhuman comrades. He suggests Kirk should take a closer look at the 72 prototype torpedoes and tells him a set of spatial coordinates. Kirk orders McCoy to take apart one of the torpedoes, and contacts Scotty back on Earth to examine the co-ordinates. The torpedoes are found to each contain a genetically-engineered human in cryo sleep – the remaining members of Khan’s crew from the Botany Bay. Khan explains that Admiral Marcus awakened Khan to force him to use his superior intellect and savagery to develop advanced weapons to start a war with the Klingons, keeping his crew as hostages. Kirk realizes that the Enterprise warp core has been sabotaged on Marcus orders, making the covert operation to kill Khan a one-way ticket. At the same time Scott arrives at the coordinates which have been revealed by Khan, and finds a secret Starfleet shipyard, which he infiltrates. Back on the Enterprise the defective warp core is brought back online, but Chekov discourages from using it yet. Shortly after, another ship arrives: an unregistered Federation battleship, the USS Vengeance – a massive vessel built for combat which dwarfs the Enterprise. Admiral Marcus reveals himself as the commander of the vessel, demanding Kirk hand over Khan. Kirk refuses, and the Enterprise warps away to Earth, to return Khan to stand trial for his crimes.

With Marcus in pursuit, the Enterprise is attacked by the Vengeance in Earth’s orbit. Outgunned, the Enterprise is severely damaged. Ultimately Kirk agrees to hand over Khan and the 72 bodies in cryo sleep in exchange for the lives of his crew. Marcus refuses and beams his daughter aboard to prevent her being used against him. As the Vengeance is about to destroy the Enterprise, it suffers a ship-wide power outage, caused by Scott who had boarded the ship earlier at the secret shipyard. As the Enterprise weapons are too damaged to continue the fight, and knowing that Khan was the designer of Marcus’ ship, Kirk allies himself with Khan and boards the enemy ship. They reunite with Scott and take the bridge. Meanwhile, Spock contacts Spock Prime to learn of Khan’s history and how to defeat him. Khan betrays Kirk and takes control of the ship, killing Admiral Marcus in the process. Khan negotiates with Spock for Kirk’s life, and beams aboard the 72 torpedoes onto the Vengeance. Khan beams Kirk and the rest of the boarding party back to the Enterprise in order to destroy it. Spock reveals that the torpedoes beamed to the Vengeance were armed, while the cryo pods still remain on the Enterprise. The torpedoes detonate, rendering the Vengeance non-functional, and sending Khan into a furious rage, believing his crew have been killed. Both ships start descending towards the Earth’s surface. The crew of the Enterprise manage to halt their ship’s descent, as Kirk sacrifices his life to re-align the warp core, dying from radiation poisoning. The enemy ship crashes into downtown San Francisco. Having survived the crash, Khan tries to escape in the chaos, but is pursued by Spock. Meanwhile, Doctor Leonard McCoy discovers that Khan’s blood may reanimate the dead Kirk. At the last possible moment, Uhura prevents Spock from killing Khan, and he is taken captive.

Kirk reacts positively to the treatment and is revived and put back on active duty. Khan is sealed into his cryo pod and stored away with the rest of his crew. As the film ends, the Enterprise is re-christened and departs for a 5-year mission of exploration.

This was a very good movie. The new franchise with a young crew is very exciting and fresh.

Rating: 4.7 out of 5