Blade Runner 2049 spoiler free review

I fell asleep.  In the theater, at 1pm, after a full nights sleep, I fell asleep.  I have watched and enjoyed the original film.  The original film was visually stunning and the first movie representation of cyberpunk that was ever filmed. 

This movie was also very beautiful.  Vast colorful landscapes of ruined cities or a metropolis. 

I woke up, the music was loud and I feel it was meant to be unsettling. So when I fell asleep, I didn't stay asleep long before I was jolted awake.  But I would eventually start to doze again.  Maybe they did that on purpose.  In test screenings people had to have been drifting off and the director just had the sound engineers pump up the volume in certain spots to get people paying attention again.

The story just wasn't captivating.  Every aspect of it has been done before in a more fluid and coherent fashion.  The visuals themselves aren't even groundbreaking, sure it is a beautiful movie but is that any different than Interstellar, Oblivion, After Earth (shudder).  Without a compelling narrative, pretty isn't enough.  I understood Ks motivations, but not the motivations of others that set him on his path.  We are told that new replicants are needed in large numbers and a new way has to be devised to produce them more quickly almost in the same breath as the character orders replicants killed.  The twist was obvious to me, not the reveal, but the twist. 

Overall, this movie makes the ultimate movie sin.  It is boring.  It might be an amazing film, but I am not a film person.  I like movies.  As a movie I enjoyed the Netflix original The Babysitter, that I had just watched prior to going to the theater, much more than Blade Runner.  I realize they are different genres, but one entertained while the other put me to sleep. 

Kids probably won't like it and it has sex scenes and shows bewbs.  scfi violence.  

Ant-Man spoiler free movie review

Behold, in the year of our lord 2015 a hero will emerge that may at first go unnoticed because of his stature.  Word will spread of his deeds and his renown will grow!


Saw Ant-Man this weekend.  Let me tell you, it was great.  I think I enjoyed it more than age of Ultron.  It just hit the right note.  I am not a huge Ant-Man comics fan.  I did read the Scott Lang origin story and an issue where he gets a job working for Tony Stark.  Classic Ant-Man was never really my thing, though.  I worried about Marvel's ability to put up a hero that would be believable in a battle against super-powered opponents.  I saw the movie because I trust Marvel.  They have not abused that trust to this point. 


This movie should have come out on Father's Day weekend as Fatherhood is a huge theme in this movie.  It covers absent fathers, distant fathers, step fathers, father figures, and redemption.  I think it handles the relationships pretty realistically, even in the context of and separated from realism, comic book universe. 


The action was amazing. They really surprised me with how they handled the fight choreography and the use of Ant-Man's powers.  They managed to make the combatants in the fight completely serious and still infuse humor into the fight scenes.  In the climactic fight scene you don't get the Spider-man, I am not really taking this seriously, banter (that is fine for Spidey, it his thing).  The characters are fighting and it feels like a fight,  hate on one side, and a defensive attitude on the other, lightened up by secondary scenes and plays on setting.  This created the perfect tone. 


Go see this movie, heck, take your dad to see this movie, you both will enjoy it immensely.  If you don't have a dad, take someone else's.  My girls took me, and the movie was all the better for it. 

Thor 2 spoiler free review

Took the family to see Thor this weekend and had a blast. My 9 and 12 year old love Thor because he is so pretty and when I made it known that I was going, they made it known that I wasn't going without them.

Script- Just trust them, the bad guys are trying to destroy the world or worlds. The how is very complicated science-magic. So, just go with it and have fun. It is a popcorn movie to be sure. Don't try to understand it. I said, STOP!

Acting- The acting was great, I mean you have serious hard hitting actors in this movie and that wasn't going to be a problem. Natalie Portman has way more chemistry with Thor than she did Vader. I just wondered if she told Thor that she wasn't at the battle of New York because she was having another man's baby at the time. I am sure it will come out in the sequel. Also a remarkable performance was put in by Kat Denning's boobs.

Overall- A fun popcorn movie. It wasn't The Avengers and I think it was better than the first Thor. The character is changing and becoming more heroic. They are writing him with a bit of depth. I would list it as fun for the whole family. Marvel has another winner here. Will DC ever respond.

Oblivian-Movie Review (2013)

Wow, quite surprised by this movie. Wasn't really expecting much. I mean, I heard it was better than After Earth, but that doesn't really ring as an endorsement. Two scientologist step into the box office with post apocolyptic stories and Tom Cruise steps out as the box office winner.

This is a long movie, but it doesn't feel long. I looked at the clock towards the end and was stunned that I had already been sitting there for two hours. It isn't a Michael Bay film, so there isn't something exploding and/or giving you a seizure every five minutes. The amazingly beautiful sets and locations are given plenty of screen time for the viewer get lost in.

The plot, although a retread of some other movies felt fresh and approached differently. This movie requires your attention to watch it and get what is going on. My wife was preoccupied and had millions of questions at the end of the movie that I had to explain.

I thought it was great and if you love scifi movies, you will enjoy it. Someone on IMDB stated that millenials shouldn't watch it because they wont appreciate it and it won't keep their attention. Oddly there was no arguement from anyone in that thread. First time ever for an internet thread. I don't know if I agree, My 12.5 year old was enjoying it until she had to go to bed and she will likely finish it up on her own. But maybe my millenial isn't the typical millenial.

***Here there be spoilers*** So the movie stuck in my mind after watching it. I was still thinking about it the next morning. I came to the conclusion that Victoria's memory wasn't as impaired as Jack's. The way she looks at Jack's wife in the sleeping pod and then totally flirts with him as his navigator/co-pilot shows that there is jealousy. She also seems to recognize her when Jack brings her in. My theory is that she remembered more, but knew that she could never be with Jack any other way. Even in their current states the relationship was very onesided with Jack remaining distant. I thought this was communicated very well. Victoria was willing to live a lie and doom humanity as long as she got to be with Jack. What do you think?

The Wolverine- Spoiler free movie review

Hugh Jackman brought the Wolverine to the screen this weekend with his 5th film playing the character. I guess you could say 6th if you count his cameo in First Class. This take was much better than the last outing, X-Men origins: Wolverine. I know, how could it get worse? The good news is that the trailer is right; this is the Wolverine movie that fans have been waiting for. It isn't as light as Avengers and it isn't as dark as Dark Knight. It falls somewhere in the middle where I think it should. I can say that it was a more entertaining film than Man of Steel. Acting: Jackman was able to make the character seem somewhat fresh. After all these outings, that is fairly remarkable. The Japanese cast were very good as well. I thought the portrayal of viper was a bit over the top, but everything about that character was over the top. It was a contrast to the more human wolverine and not a different mutant every scene. The story borrows heavily from The Ronin storyline from the 80s, this is not a bad thing. It isn't 100% faithful, no where near, but you can tell they were trying and it was closer than anything else the Fox/X-Men franchise has put out. They even had the iconic image from the comics of Logan filled with arrows. The smaller scale fits the Wolverine character as a man that heals well and has claws can't really be expected to save the universe by his lonesome. Thankfully, this one isn't a cameo filled extravaganza where you have to try and figure out how Emma Frost is Silver Fox's little sister that somehow is deaged from the first class movie. It did manage to surprise me in a few spots. The movie was a lot of fun and you should stay for the stinger.

Warlock- Movie Review

Warlock(1989) was on one of the pay channels recently and I sat down and watched it with my wife and kids.  I haven't seen it in years and years.  My wife had never seen it.  I remember absolutely loving it as a kid.  It is still good.  Well, if you liked it back in the day, it is still good.  If you hated way back when, then you probably won't like it any better. 

The premise of this overlooked movie is that a witch from the 17th century escapes through time before he can be tried.  A witch hunter, whose wife the witch killed, is able to follow him through the portal into the 20th century.  Upon arrival in the 20th century the witch proceeds to summon Satan and get orders to put together the Grand Grimiore, or, as it may also be known, Satan's spell book.  This would give the witch the name of God that he could then say backwards, uncreating creation. 

The movie is a lot of fun and spawned a couple of sequels.  It is rated R in the 1980s system, but might be more of a heavy PG-13 in current standards, for blood, violence, and profanity.  My wife, who will always raise objections if any are to be had, didn't say a word.  She gets scared easily and screamed several times.  If you don't watch it for any other reason, do so to learn the signs that a witch is in your house. 

Does anyone else remember this one?

Movie Review Double Feature

First up in this double feature will be the marvelous Milla Jovovich in The newest entry in the Resident Evil universe; Retribution.  This series has always been a guilty pleasure for me, both the video games and the movies.  I have to say that this was the best entry into the franchise since the second movie.  The movie itself is beautiful and the plot felt like a video game.  For those that don't know, the Resident Evil games usually have an overall objective with a lot of mini objectives as you go on your way.  Escaping the simulation center is the main objective with mini missions of fight through NYC, find the child (boss battle against jill), find the rescue team, car chase (boss battle with the licker), rescue the child (second boss battle against licker), and the escape (final boss battle against Jill and Michelle Rodriguez). 

The important thing about this movie is that it is fun and this one was a lot of fun. 

Second on the list but not in the standings is Dredd, the newest cinamatic take on the iconic 2000 AD comic.  Staring Karl Urban as Dredd himself this movie more than makes up for the Stallone and Rob Schneider mess that made a mockery of the hero so many years ago.  This movie felt more than a little like Raid: Redemption.  This one comes highly suggested.  Karl Urban projects the quiet confidence and rage that is Dredd.  Lena Headey is also in this movie as the big bad and she rocks it.  Olivia Thirlby plays a rookie and if she ever reads this she needs to know that she is much better looking with the blonde hair she wore in the film.

Overall this movie was a whole lot of fun and didn't get the acclaim that it deserved in theaters.  I hope it was successful enough that it gets some sequels.  This movie has been Judged!

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012)

I must preface this review with the statement that I have read and enjoyed the book that Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter  was based on.  My Review Here, Steve's review here.

Disappointed.  That is how I feel; disappointed.  I mean.  I told everyone how great the book was and how factual it was.  I think I have said that the book is 90% biography and 10% vampires.  I stick by that for the book. A lot of poeple I said this to, will not read the book, but they will watch the movie.  What will they think of me after that. 

The acting was good.  I saw it mentioned that the guy playine Lincoln looked a lot like Liam Neeson, my wife mentioned it as well.  Alan Tudyk was Stephen Douglas which was a pleasant surprise. 

The plot was similar to that of the book except that it wasn't any good.  They turned this into an action movie.  Actually it was more of a superhero movie with Lincoln having super human strength and agility.  According to the movie, Lincoln only had one child who was murdered by vampires.  In reality, Lincoln had 4 sons, two of which died before Lincoln himself (vampires?).  The other two sons outlived Lincoln, but only one made it to adulthood (vampires?).  The book gets this right. 

The beauty of the book is that it did not try and shoe horn vampires into the story.  It took tragic events in Lincolns life and attributed them to vampires.  It takes those empty periods when Lincoln wasn't making history and attributed those times to vampires.  The movie fails in this respect.  Maybe there wasn't enough time to tell the Lincoln story and the vampire story, but only telling half makes the movie lose its charm. 

Overall- It is an action movie.  It is not as good as the book.  I would say 10 and up due to action violence. 

Cloud Atlas- Book Review

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Very frustrating. Some good concepts and interesting formatting, but, ultimately, not well executed. I an sure it had a theme, but I am not sure that I could be troubled to puzzle it out.

The story- There are like six stories of varying genres so chances are you are going to like one of them.  I really liked the Son-Mi story, but the ending of it was very unsatisfactory to me.  I think my comment on finishing that part was that I wanted to throw the kindle out the window.  The stories are all split in two and the first half of each starts in the past and move forward chronologically.  The most future story is told in its entirety and then the second half of each story is told in reverse chronological order.  Interesting formatting.

Overall- it was a slow book that is very long.  I can't really recommend it, though.  3 stars is me being generous, it is actually about a 2.5 but I really liked the Son Mi story (until the end).  I am not sure why it got all the praise it did and don't look forward to seeing the movie as it reads as a pretty unfilmable movie. 

Did you read it or see the movie?  Let me know what you thought. 
View all my reviews

Prometheus (2012)- Spoiler Free Movie Review

The return of Ridley Scott to the Alien franchise was much looked forward to by fans everywhere.  There are some people that don't believe that a good Alien movie has been made without his name.  I tend to like Cameron's take on the franchise as well, probably more so, but he had the benefit of a larger budget. 

Plot-  We are searching for where we come from and that of course leads us to outer space based on some cave paintings.  This leads us to people waking up on a spaceship and being introduced to each other.  I find that strange.  It happens in a lot of movies about deep space travel.  They wake up and meet each other.  Wouldn't they have met before going aboard the ship?  Does the ship launch with them in cryo already?  A lot of questions about that.  I suppose as a way to introduce the viewers to the players it works and is likely the main reason.  Anywho, the story basically starts upon finding the planet that cave paintings mapped out for them.  I wonder what is really on the planet.  In our house we speculated that the painting were pointing it out as a place not to go. 

Acting-  The acting was good.  I beleived the android was an android.  I believed Charlize Theron was an android (what do mean she wasn't, she was more believable than the guy).  The lead was cute and tough but she was no Sigorney Weaver (cuter but less tough)

Overall-  It was a fun movie but it raised more questions than it answered.  We get to see a pretty neat series of evolutions, that don't really get explained very well.  There is the internet wide turn left meme that pulled a lot of people out of the movie, but looked really cool and really expensive.  It also leaves itself open for sequals.  Not sure how it fits in the AVP timeline, since it would seem to be impossible.  Curious as to how it fits together with Alien.  I thought they were going to tie the two together seemlessly, but it looks like they left a huge gap to put in more stories. 

This one is pretty safe for about 12 and up.  Has language, some adult type situations, and lots of gross violent stuff.  If you are a fan of the Alien films, this is a must watch weather you like it or not.  I would give it 3.5 out of 5 stars, maybe 4 if it works into the inevitable sequal well. 

It's a Wrap: Scare Me Blogfest

Thanks everyone for participating and making the Scare Me! Blogfest a huge success. 

Before I announce my favorites, we did have some late posts and entries some of you might have missed.  Undy a Hundy posted a little later than most others and Permission Granted didn't even sign up until the last minute. 

I was blown away by the stories, reviews, and real life experiences that people submitted.  We even had artwork submitted.  For that I am awarding everyone a blog Award.  If you participated just copy the image below. 

There were some standouts that required additional recognition.  So for these three, they will get a ebook of The Collected Stories of H.P. Lovecraft volume 1. 

 

For Book or Movie Review-  Me!, no just kidding, Economic Disconnect for his in depth look at the horror of The Exorcist. 

For most frightening experience-  The Warrior Muse and her run in with a psycopath as a child. 



Scariest Story acclaims go to-  Shallee McArthur for the Ghostification of Jonas Cray.

Thanks again to everyone that participated.  I hope everyone got lots of comments, page views, and new followers. 

I Saw the Devil-Movie Review

I Saw the Devil is Korean thriller from 2010.  It stars Byung-Hun Lee (Storm Shadow from G.I. Joe) and Min-Sik Choi (Oldboy, Shiri).  It is probably one of Korea's most violent movies.

I watched this with a group of friends as part of a horror movie double feature.  The first movie we watched was Cabin in the Woods and we all loved that one and were wondering how we were going to follow it up.  XBMC (X Box Media Center, great way to organize your media in a visually pleasing manner) had this in the horror genre and had it rated higher than Cabin in the Woods and The Thing from 1982.  While my collection of horror is not the most complete, it has some pretty good movies in it and having this as highest rated was intriging, so we all decided this would be the second movie.  We were not disappointed.

The story is a simple revenge plot.  Kim (Lee) is after the serial killer that killed his wife (Choi).  The story does take some twists and turns along the way.

The acting was excellent.  Korea is very good for comedies as the actors tend to over emote, but there was none of that here.  The acors brought the weight into the performance that it deserved.  We attempted to watch it with English language dubs, but quickly changed our mind.  Watch this one in Korean with subtitles.  The English language dub is horrible. 

Overall, it was a great movie.  Not sure it was horror unless you consider man as the scariest monster their is.  I do.  It is our twisted minds that created all these monsters in the first place.  The only problem seemed to be the ability of the characters to recover from harm.  20 bashes to the skull with a metal pipe is going to kill anyone on Earth.  Maybe he should have worked the body with most of those strikes.  If you liked Silence of the Lambs and Taken, this one should be great for you.  I have heard it compared to Oldboy, but I still haven't seen Oldboy.  I don't think kids are ready for this one.  It was almost a 19+ in Korea. 

Cabin in the Woods-Spoiler Free Movie Review

Wow, just wow.  I came into Cabin in the Woods with just the most basic information; the cabin was a construct being controlled.  This isn't a spoiler as it is revealed from the very start.  The rest of the movie was a surprise to me though.  A great surprise at that.  There were three other people in the room and this movie had us all laughing and groaning in sympathetic pain.  It had us hook line and sinker. 

The story was good and a pretty unique take on your general horror movie fare.  It doesn't seem that original at first (group of kids going on a road trip to a cabin) but quickly becomes very intriguing. 

The cast are amazing.  The people in the "lab" are great.  Thor does a pretty good job.  The red head (Kristen Connelly) was scortching hot.  The stoner guy was the perfect comic relief.  There is even a cameo at the end that was excellent.  Slasher films aren't known for their acting but this one is very good. 

Overall, it was a great movie that everyone in the room enjoyed a great deal.  We were doing a double feature and were really worried that the movie that followed it would be a massive let down in comparison.  I say the movie is probably okay for 13+, but only for horror fans as the film can be satirical to the genre and some jokes can be missed.  If you like horror movies, you should get a pretty good kick out of this one.  I give it 5 out of 5 slashes. 

Have you seen it?  What did you think?

John Carter-Spoiler Free Movie Review

John Carter of Mars was disappointing.  It was...too Disney.  I understand that some changes would be needed in order to make the movie work, but the end result of the movie is almost unrecognizable from the book it was based on.  Some of the changes I liked and some of them I didn't quite care for.  I thought the Red Martians should be more read or at least more different than humans on Earth.  The Tarks and Woolah were entirely too cute to be considered threatening. 

Ashli, who has not yet read Princess of Mars, thought the movie was great.  Maybe I will get her to do an unbiased review.  As I feel that reading the book less than a year before watching the movie, may have ruined things for me. 

If you can't tell from the above picture I am in love with Lynn Collins.  This may be compounded by the fact that I was already in love with Deja Thoris. 

Parasite Eve- Book Review

Hey, do you remember that Parasite Eve videogame from the 90's? Well, it was a sequel to a Novel of the same name by Hideaki Sena.  It was also a movie, released direct to DVD around 2001 here in The States. 

Synopsis-  Toshiaki's wife dies in a car accident and she has an organ donor card for her kidneys.  Her mitochondria is what caused the accident and they are also manipulating her husband, a pharmicology professor who specializes in mitochondria, into taking her liver and creating cell cultures for experiments.  The mitochondria is tired of being enslaved by humanity and wants to become the lead in our symbiotic relationship.  To do this the mitochondria will have to create a hybrid baby.  Good thing one of the kidneys was transplanted into a 14 year old girl with a viable womb. 

Unfortunately the writing in this story is too acedemic.  The author really knows his stuff and tends to over explain every scientific detail.  This really slows down the story and takes all of the tension out of what could be a scary story.  Neal Stephenson also does this, but he usually just limits it to one or two places in the book.  You get a full explanation of all the science or math you could hope for in one chapter and then he lets it go.  I think this is a better approach. 

There are also translation issues.  Japanese people talk a certain way and it is perfectly normal in Japanese and not always literal.  When translated some things need to be changed to make it not sound completely stupid in English.  An example would be a graduation ceremony at the end of the novel, the character's name is called and she responds with "Hai!"  Hai literally  means yes, but in Japan it has a lot more roles, like present, or I agree, or okay, or just as an acnowledgement.  In this instance it is more like the character is saying "I am here to accept my diploma" but it is translated as "Yes!"  Another instance is at the beginning of the novel when a character calls someone.  After the character says who he is, the other character asks if that is really him.  It reads very corny in English, but in Japan it has more to do with respect and could have been translated better by having the character say "to what do I owe the pleasure of this call."  The book is full of little things like this in the dialogue, and that is annoying. 

Over all it was a pretty fun book and a bit educational if not over my head in few places.  I don't think I was ever really scared, but the book did have me hooked to see what happened.  I will not lie, I was kind of rooting for Eve as I thought a fully developed Eve would be a great antagonist and a bit more interesting than what we were given. 

This book would be pretty safe for 9th grade up, it does have some sexual situations, but nothing too graphic.  The violence isn't as bloody as you would expect.  I have a hard time calling this one Horror, but that is what it is classified as. 

Superheroes (2011)-Movie Review

*originally posted at Practical Black Belt

Superheroes (2011) is a documentary about the Real Life Superheroes movement.  It interviews and follows several of these would be crime fighters around.  I had previously written about the concept without seeing the movie.  I didn't think it was a good idea then and I really do not think it is a good idea after seeing the film.  We had comments on the previous article talking about how a lot of these people are just doing out reach or how they take their training seriously and use caution.  I did not get that from the film, but maybe the movie was biased in that direction.
I think the guys in Brooklyn were probably the best trained, but they also took up the most risk.  Master Legend might have been the least trained, but Mr. Xtreme was very poorly trained and looked like he was far more likely to take risks that would put himself in danger.  Master Legend seemed to be more interested in flirting and getting his drink on while promoting his charity.  Though back at his "lair," the liquid courage was kicking in and we got to see his weapons and hear about how he was unafraid to use them.
While I applaud the outreach to the homeless, I still think it is potentially dangerous to be parading around in costumes.  If you break up a fight out of costume, most people will not remember exactly what you look like.  The costume, of course, removes all doubt.   You have successfully painted a spotlight on yourself.  One episode in the documentary shows Dark Guardian confronting a drug dealer in the park.  Thankfully it didn't get violent right then, but you can be sure that word went out about a person in a costume hindering business.  If sales decline, the dealer or his friends/suppliers may take action. 
I will take back my statement in the previous article about all of these people needing to seek mental health treatment.  Some of them seem as normal as you and I.  Several come to mind that could be considered a danger to themselves, though.  These people should not be encouraged.  I will stick by my other original suggestions though.  I will also add one.  If it becomes obvious in your training that you have little or no athletic talent, especially in martial arts, please stick to outreach and charity work.   Oh, one more.  If you you wear a mask, you should get punched while wearing that mask so that you can make alteration and add padding to avoid additional injury caused by the mask itself.
The film does bring up great points about the way we allow violence to be done to others because we are scared or because it is the job of the police.  I agree that this an alarming trend.  To those of you would be crime fighters, I ask this question, "How does having a superhero compell average citizen's to act?"  It doesn't.  I imagine in the DC universe, most people that see a crime assume that Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, or any of the other hundreds/thousands of superheroes will take care of it.  I think it is in human nature to want to pass the buck especially when not passing the buck conflicts with our self preservation impulse.
So, Real Life Superheroes, keep up the good work on outreach programs.  I hope more of you follow Zimmer's example and get EMT training.  Stay out of harms way.  While some of you are deluded there are a good number of you that are just willing to put yourselves in danger to try and help others.  I can respect that.

Real Steel(2011)- Movie Review

Not unlike most parents, I enjoy seeing my kids get excited.  The excitement wasn’t really there when I fired up XBMC and told them we were going to watch Real Steel.  What I got was, “XBMC random recommends Barbie and the Three Musketeers, lets watch that instead.”  Not to be dissuaded, I scrolled past all the Barbie movies and selected Real Steal. 

I am not sure at what point the movie captured the attention of my girls, but it happened fairly early on.  I think it might have been when Charlie refuses to let the girls take a picture of his robot.  From there the girls were watching, and laughing at the appropriate times, but once Atom enters the movie, they were completely sold. 

I don’t know if you have ever been watching a movie with kids so into it that they are jumping around and screaming while watching it.  Actually cheering for the movie.  If you haven’t, it is a pretty amazing thing.  How can you tell them to settle down when they are obviously having so much fun.  One of them looked at me and said, “I bet you are glad that you didn’t take us to the theater for this movie.” 

I think this will be my entire review.  I could compare it to Rocky or tell you about the acting, but I think the simple enthusiasm that it brought out in my kids is review enough.  Sure it is a movie about robot boxing, but it is a movie about robot boxing that two girls aged 7 and 11 fell in love with.  I liked it too.  I think growing up I would have liked it and reacted in much the same way that they did.  For a minute, while watching this movie I felt like a 10 year old again, and for that alone, this movie gets 4 stars.  Highly recommended.

 

Super-Spoiler Free Movie Review

I like Rainn Wilson and I like super hero movies, so this movie looked right up my aisle.  I was not disappointed. 

Story-Frank is a sad sack type of character whose wife/world leaves him for her drug dealing boss.  This spurs Frank into action to become the Crimson Bolt. 

Acting- The acting was done well.  What would you expectect from the all star cast they have lined up in this movie. 

Overall- this movie is a very dark comedy and will not be for everyone.  It is kind of like Kick Ass in concept but the execution of Super is much different.  It is also very different thematically.  While Kick Ass was entertaining (at least hit girl was), Super is trying to do more than just entertain and I think it succeeds wildly.  This one will eventually reach cult status. 

Avengers- Movie Review

If you are the one person in North America that did not see The Avengers this weekend, you are missing out.  It was a nonstop thrill ride with a surprising amount of humor.  The movie only slows down long enough for the viewer to catch their breath and then it picks right back up again. 

 

Avengers shows us that despite what the Dark Knight trilogy may have thought it taught us, a comic book movie does not need to be dark and 100 percent serious to be truly Awesome.  This movie showed us that we can have fun at the movies again. 

 

I did not see it in 3d so cannot comment on that, but the rest of the effects in the movie were excellent.  If you show up for a pre noon showing at AMC you can get tickets for any movie for $6, and that is what I did.  The whole family enjoyed the movie for $24.  Added bonus, my 7yo was wearing her Wonder Woman and Batman buttons that she had received on Free Comic Book Day and the lady behind the counter called her over and gave her a bag of Avengers buttons.  The movie was so good and spotlighted the stars so well, that my girls didn’t even argue about who got which pin, they were happy with any of them. 

 

It is fun for the whole family.  To be honest, had my kids not made a big deal about this movie, I might not have seen this one in theaters.  Well with all the buzz that is coming out this week, I may have.  But, I went to see this movie because my kids, especially my 7yo wanted to see it.  My wife just tagged along with no interest at all.  We all loved it.  My kids have not stopped talking about it since.  They want more.  They want to see the movie again. 

 

Go see this movie.  Be sure to stay for the stinger.  It is so worth it. 

 

 

Cargo (2009) movie Review

Cargo is a surprisingly good Swiss(German Language) Scifi movie.  It is one of those turn the lights down and tv up type movies that is very big on tension. 

 

The story follows Dr. Portmann as she is hired on to a cargo ship making a deep space run.  She is doing this so she can make enough money to buy passage to Rhea.  Rhea is the replacement to Earth as humanity has finally ruined the planet.  Each member of the crew does a shift awake to monitor the ship.  During Dr. Portmann’s shift, strange things start happening.  It was somewhat predictable as I was pretty sure where the story was going. 

 

The performances can’t be faulted.  Everyone sold their performances well enough.  Nothing stand out in either direction.

 

The CG effects were really a crap shoot.  In parts they were absolutely stunning. In other parts it was fairly obvious and pulled me out of the film.  Keep in mind that this is a very effects driven movie that wasn’t made in Hollywood and it is far more impressive. 

 

Overall I was pretty impressed by this CG heavy, foreign, scifi film.  While the story wasn’t earth shattering it was passable and the writing kept the tension pretty high throughout the movie.  I don’t usually comment on the score, but it was pretty amazing.  It added to the tension and sounded excellent.  I think most people will enjoy this movie.  I don’t think it is rated as it is a foreign film, but it seems like it would fall in the PG13 realm. 

 

On a side note.  I watched this movie on my new XBMC setup.  If you “buy” downloadable movies or rip your own collection on to your hard drive, XBMC is a must have program.  It makes browsing your movies a much more enjoyable experience. Not to mention that It seems like I get a better picture from it than I do my DVD player.  But that might be because I have a crappy DVD player.