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Reviews
Space Jam: A New Legacy (2021)
Terrible, terrible, film. Two hours of your life you won't get back.
In short, this makes the first installment, which was no masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination, look like The Godfather.
Everything about this movie is just wrong. It only exists to highlight the greatest hits of Warner Brothers and its subsidiaries.
Don't waste your time and/or money on Space Jam.
Blackhat (2015)
A train wreck. It has more plot holes than swiss cheese.
Spoiler alert!
Without going into the specifics the movie is anything but a thriller set in the world of cyber warfare. Frankly, the cancelled CBS show Intelligence displayed more "hacking" in any given episode than this mess of a movie. It tries to be too many things at once without succeeding at anything.
Even more frustrating absolutely no character is developed well enough to care about them and their motivations or - Spoiler Alert - inevitable death. The protagonists just do things for the sake of it. It is in the script so they have to do it. It is that random.
Perhaps Legendary's computer was hacked too and the responsible entity has stole Michael Mann's brilliant Director's Cut that includes all the missing scenes that would make this release somewhat cohesive. Mann's Miami Vice looks like the Godfather II in comparison.
The Imitation Game set during World War II is more of a cyber thriller, or rather computer thriller, than this mess. And the computers in that movie neither had displays to speak of nor an internet connection. That movie, however, had a great script and brilliant direction unlike this turkey which was directed by Michael Mann who is a supposedly a modern great.
Spoiler alert!
Thor: The Dark World (2013)
An unfocused mess
The first Thor was probably one of Marvel's more trickier movies since it centered heavily around Norse mythology. To make it work in the "real" world was a massive task. Integrating a billionaire playboy who doubles as a tech-powered superhero, or a scientist who turns into a green rage monster was easier to accomplish than the fantastic world of Asgard, Gods & Monsters.
Credit must go to Kenneth Brannagh who found the right balance between the fantastic and "real" (that's a stretch anyways) world. Furthermore, Brannagh focused on the characters instead of bombastic vfx (he still provided tons of beautiful shot visuals though).
His replacement Alan Taylor however goes in the opposite direction and favors stylish visuals over character development. Worse still, the pacing and tone are all over the place.
The Dark World tries to hard to provide the same brand of humor Joss Whedon is known for but fails to deliver the laughs, or they are rather misplaced.
Bottom line: It's a too unfocused movie that suffers from a weak script and a director who tries too many things at the same time.
Furious 6 (2013)
Fast 6, Fast but not quite as Furious as the previous outing
The Fast and Furious franchise is one of the more strange ones – it improved the older it became. Coinciding with the 10 year anniversary of the The Fast and the Furious, Fast 5 marked the highpoint in the hugely popular series. Street racing culture was ditched in favor of a heist plot in Rio de Janeiro. To say it worked would be a massive understatement.
Fast 6 is continuing where its predecessor left off, although with a little twist. As it has already been explained in the trailers, the team surrounding Vin Diesel's Torreto character is asked to help Luke Hobbs (played by the ever charismatic Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson) capturing criminal mastermind Owen Shaw (portrayed by Luke Evans), this time around in London.
The Good
Working in its favor is the wonderful backdrop provided by the London metropolitan area. It offers a lot of variety and distinguishes Fast 6 from the previous entry.
The chemistry between Torreto's crew is as good as it has ever been. Furthermore, The Rock really meshes well with any of the gang.
Tyrese, without going into detail the banter he shares with Ludicrous or the aforementioned Dwayne Johnson is worth the ticket admission alone. It's obvious that his character serves as comedic relief, as has been the case in Fast 5, but he has to have the funniest scenes in any of the major (non-comedy) blockbusters this year.
The action in the FF series was never realistic to begin with, so no surprises here. Still, it shouldn't take away from some impressive set- pieces. Justin Lin knows what he's doing.
The Bad
Fast 6 is too crowded; there are too many characters in the movie. Even the main villain, Owen Shaw, is underdeveloped, as is the Letty sub- plot. It just feels like the producers were gung-ho about reuniting the principle actors from the very first FF movie, at any cost.
Gina Carano, though she can definitely hold her own in the action scenes her acting is wooden at best. If pressed for a comparison – she'd be a bad female imitation of notorious stoneface Keanu Reeves. There's little to no facial expression. Frankly, her character is redundant. She may have pulled a half-decent performance in Haywire, but given the nature of her character (a stoic, hardened, operative) it played right to her strengths (or lack thereof?). At this rate it's hard to see her carrying a movie anytime soon.
Conclusion
Fast 6 is one of the better flicks in the franchise, perhaps the second best, but some way off Fast 5. One can't help but feel that the finished product has been rushed into production. A little fine-tuning (no pun intended) here and there would've served the movie better. The ending in particular is a little underwritten; it's not as glorious or as satisfying as Fast 5.
The Avengers (2012)
Marvel's Avengers: Joss Whedon I'm officially your number 1 Fanboy and a believer
Although Marvel Pictures have always made curious appointments in regards to their feature film directors the results have been mostly solid, if not spectacular thus far. I certainly didn't expect Jon Faverau to deliver one of the best comic-book movies ever – Iron Man. If it wasn't for DC's own Billionaire playboy superhero would've champion Iron Man as the best flick in the genre. Yes I do rate Iron Man that highly. Spider-Man 1 & 2 were good but didn't exactly capture the essence of Peter Parker while Spider-Man 3 was a huge mess, not Mark Steven Johnson mess, but a mess nonetheless. Last year's motion picture debuts of Marvel staples Thor and Captain America were also very good, very faithful to their respective source material. Joe Johnston redeemed himself after a misguided attempt at bringing the Wolfman back to the silver screen, whereas Kenneth Branaghs Shakespeare sensitive's proved a stroke of genius in fitting Thor into Marvel's motion picture universe. To be honest I even enjoyed 2008's The Incredible Hulk after Ang Lee damn near killed the franchise.
Even though Marvel Pictures has proved time and again to make the right decisions when producing a movie on its own, the hiring of Joss Whedon seemed like an odd choice. Of course Joss Whedon is the genius behind TV-cult hits like Buffy, Angel and Firefly but his only foray into directing was 2005's Serenity. Managing all those superstar egos, handling multiple character arcs, dealing with several multimillion dollar franchises and making everyone happy from top brass executive down to the hardcore fanboys – to be honest, I wouldn't have entrusted him with a fraction of the $200-million-plus budget for The Avengers. Thus far only two directors have managed to pull off the impossible and accomodated several superheroes in a single movie – Bryan Singer (X-Men & X2) and Matthew Vaughn (X-Men First Class) while Brett Ratner ruined X-Men 3 with his unfocused direction. At first I thought Joss Whedon would do an even more terrible job than the latter, considering that Ratner had more filmmaking experience than Whedon at the time of filming X3. But nothing could be further from the truth. Joss Whedon is the MASTER, with a captial M.
Let me say it out loud:
JOSS WHEDON IS A COMIC BOOK MOVIE GOD.
Unlike Ratner he actually cares about the characters and their development throughout the movie. You think Tony Stark would just waltz through the movie and roll over every other character? You are wrong. Though Robert Downey Jr. is in top form as he always is when he dons the Iron Man suit, the other characters are far from underdeveloped and don't crumble under the pressure of his larger-than-life persona. If anything it's the Hulk that absolutely steals the show. That said, I think we have found the definitive Bruce Banner, Mark Ruffalo, he absolutely owns the role. He is the Hulk and we finally got the Hulk we deserved. Everybody brings their A-game and every character gets a fair amount of screen time. I can't find any flaw in this movie. Of course the special effects are spectacular but it's the dialogue that won me over. Really. Each character in this movie has at least one or two memorable lines – not just Tony Stark. When you watch the Avengers make sure you listen to the dialogue carefully – I've never heard dialogue this witty in any comic movie, and I've watched my fair share. Joss Whedon you are the freaking man. They said it was impossible to accommodate this many characters in a single movie – they were wrong. From now on everyone will reference this movie whenever multiple larger-than-life figures are thrown into one supersized extravaganza – Yeah I'm slamming the last two Transformers flicks. I guarantee Joss Whedon would've done justice to the franchise. After watching the Avengers everything that bears the name of Joss Whedon is a must-see for me now.
Final verdict: 10 out of 10. This movie is Iron Man on steroids. Go watch that movie!!!
Iron Man 2 (2010)
It feels like Iron Man, It sounds like Iron Man, it looks like Iron Man yet something is missing
I was eager to find out if Iron Man 2 could become as good or even better than the first entry in the franchise like Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight. Unfortunately it is neither as good or better - a slight disappointment.
Without going into detail, the 2nd arc drags on far too long and the character of Rhodey and the Black Widow go from A to Z without any real explanation. On the bright side of things Robert Downey Jr. still delivers the goods.
The pacing is way off and so is the supposedly climax of the film. A huge letdown. Marvel didn't do itself a favor by rushing the sequel so fast. I think another year or so would've done the franchise justice.
In so many ways Iron Man could've been to Marvel what Nolan's Batman is to DC a hit with the critics and fans alike. With this entry they dropped the ball. It's not the worst sequel - it's not FF 2 (that franchise stinks as a whole) but it isn't X2 either.
Jon Favereau is still the man to direct the franchise but Justin Theroux must stay away from it. By any stretch of the imagination he is no Mark Steven Johnson (who completely ruined Ghost Rider) but he just isn't ready or capable to write a screenplay for a Blockbuster of this magnitude.
Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li (2009)
it even rivals the ill-fated Van Damme movie
In a nutshell - the movie is bad. For example: M.Bison is a Blondie and not even a menacing one - i still wonder who has been hired as the casting director of that crappy movie. I'm talking about Transporter 3 bad. Chris Klein is even more annoying than that red haired chick from T3. From the very first scene you see him you either think he is drunk or in the "zone". This movie is not even worth watching on DVD, let alone on basic cable. To give you an idea how awful it is - i rather watch a movie with Paris Hilton.
plot - bad, screenplay - really bad, acting - contender for all Razzie Awards...overall i'd like to give it 0 out of 10 stars. Unless they get John Woo or Tsui Hark behind the camera don't bother producing another Street Fighter movie.
The Dark Knight (2008)
Best Movie of 2008
Regardless of which movie will win the Oscar - The Dark Knight is the best movie of 2008. The movie should get Best Director also but neither will happen because whoever is responsible for the Nominations obviously doesn't like movies based on Comics or Graphic Novels. Much like Scarface this will movie will go down as one of the best yet never acknowledged by the AMPAS. There's no cast as good as this in all of 2008's movies and all the performances were on point. As far as epic goes - this is as good as it gets. About the movie - Everyone should've watched it by now, at least everyone in the US. Heath Ledger IS the Joker - Jack Nicolson's Joker is a Kindergarten kid in comparison to Ledger's version. Whatever award there is for actors - he should get it. They shouldn't even nominate other actors at least not this year - his performance is this good. The rest of the cast is in amazing form also but the real star of the movie is Heath Ledger. Nuff said
Watch this years Academy Awards flop Big Time
Transporter 3 (2008)
A huge disappointed
To say it's a disappointed is an understatement. This movie is just annoying - The most annoying actor is actually the actress - absolutely useless. The plot is sub-par and the action - well nothing new.
The female lead is the most talented-free actress i've seen in a while - and i'm damn sure we had our share this year. She even gives the notorious stone face Keanu Reeves a run for his money. Since when does the Transporter aka Frank Martin a love interest anyway? I mean really fall for a woman - it kinda backfired in this movie. The build up to that particular love scene - must've been the most gayest scene on film in a while. Absolutely rubbish. Freaking annoying. If you watch the movie and try to blank out the character of aforementioned Valentina played by Natalya Rudakova the movie would've been A LOT better.
Don't watch this movie - in the light of the financial crisis it's better to pick your movies more carefully. Luc Besson better come through next time around.
Taken (2008)
A hybrid between Spartan and Bourne which translates to a HUGE Body count.
Where do I start? Short Version: Quantum of Solace ain't got s*** on Taken. REAL TALK.
The extended summary: I've never felt compelled to rate a movie let alone write a review but this movie is first class entertainment. I almost didn't watch the movie because Liam Neeson doing an action pic - I couldn't even think of it. But i gave him the benefit of doubt and he literally kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time.
In retrospective - Liam Neeson was the perfect choice to play Bryan, the no nonsense, overprotective control-freak ex-CIA "preventer". But given what Bryan must've seen and "preveted" it makes perfect sense.
The movie introduces Bryan as a retired CIA Agent who wants to reconcile with his daughter after divorcing her mother. Having seen arguably the Scum of the earth he becomes overprotective of his only daughter who lives with her mom and her new "rich" step-dad. So when his daughter wants to take off for vacation in Paris her father is reluctant to sign the permission. It doesn't take long for her and her best friend to get into trouble in Paris - they'll get kidnapped the very first day in France. As fate wants it Daddy is on the phone when the 2 girls get taken by the Albanian Mob. Bryan having not lost his instincts keeps it composed and tells the Kidnapper via phone - to either let his girl go or be killed when he finds him. The mobster - not knowing what kinda trouble he will be in - tells him "Good luck". Using his old contacts Bryan is informed that he only has a 96hr window to find his daughter or never see her again. So he takes off to Paris - and to make a long story short; releases havoc in Paris and a huge body count while uncovering a Human Trafficking Organisation.
Conclusion - Could be Jason Bournes Father
Iron Man (2008)
3 Words: KICK A** MOVIE
I'm not bothering to write a page long summary of the movie...
IRON MAN kicks a**!!! Whereas recent Marvel movies sucked at best (Blade Trinity, FF: both of em, X-Men: the last stand - Brett Ratner should've never been allowed to direct and Ghost Rider - same goes for Mark Steven Johnson) this one truly delivers the goods even though i have to admit I was unsure about Jon Faverau at first.
Whatever you've seen in the trailer - The film is 10 times better unlike the afore mentioned outings where I almost feel robbed of my money. Robert Downey Jr. is a revelation as Iron Man he gives Christian Bales/Batman a serious run for his money.
That said I'm looking forward to the Invincible Hulk again after Ang Lee made him look like a chubby something in the mental state of an 3year old.
To put it simple Batman ain't got s*** on Iron Man!