Returned 45 results for 'Category: Hollywood Movie Reviews'
Mutant Series Goes Back in Flashback with X-Men: First Class
Tuesday, December 13th, 2011
Movie: X-Men: First Class
Year: 2011
Genre: Sci-Fi/Action/Drama
Director: Matthew Vaughn
Stars: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Jennifer Lawrence
Snapshot of Story:
This helping of the popular X-Men movie series goes back in time to 1962 when mutants were brought together by the United State government to thwart an evil dictator from starting world war III.
Movie Reviews and Ratings X-Men: First Class
Storyline:
The movie follows the early lives of Charles Xavier played by James McAvoy and Erik Lehnsherr played by Michael Fassbender. They are well known in current the present time as Professor Xavier and Magento respectively.
The movie does well to portray a very natural progression of the plight of the mutants from the early years to the mutants of today from the previous X-Men movie showings. In particular, the portrayal of Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr was very interesting and entertaining to watch as we watch the youthful young men blossom into the mature adults we know today. The shaping of their characters are especially intriguing since the two deviate away from being close friends to becoming rival enemies.
There is much action in the movie to keep everyone engaged but what is more appealing is the way that the movie comes together as complete and very satisfying and you actually look forward to the next sequel. The acting of the entire cast and the direction were exceptional for a movie of this type and the engaging storyline disengages itself from many movies that purely focus on hap-hazard action.
Kevin Bacon who plays the evil dictator Sebastian Shaw does a fine job of a sadistic human whose only enjoyment is power and greed. The end of the movie is very good to watch where we see the mutants work together to bring down the tyrant and see the special might of Magento who is able to levitate huge metal structures. In the ensuing battle Xavier is crippled which puts him in the confinements of the wheelchair for the remainder of his life.
Final Thoughts:
The movie has much fluidity and thought provoking scenes to keep even the most hardened movie-goers happy. The balance of action, story-telling, fine acting by the entire crew and of course the super direction of Matthew Vaughn will surely keep this movie franchise going on for many years to come.
Rating:
8/10
Michael Fassbender and Zoe Kravits spotted together, Dating?
Tags: James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, Movie reviews and ratings of X Men: First Class, Mutant Series Goes Back in Flashback with X-Men: First Class
Zoe Saldana in Crime Drama in Colombiana
Tuesday, December 13th, 2011
Movie: Colombiana
Year: 2011
Genre: Action/Drama/Thriller
Director: Olivier Megaton
Stars: Zoe Saldana, Michael Vartan and Callum Blue
Snapshot of Story:
A young girl witnesses the murder of her family in Bogota by the drug criminals and escapes to the US only to grow up to be a cold-blooded assassin.
Movie Reviews and Ratings of Colombiana
Storyline:
Cataleya is played by Zoe Saldana who becomes the sole survivor after witnessing the brutal murder of her family and enters US through a custody program but escapes to live with her uncle in New York. She is so shocked by the deaths and vows to take revenge on the people responsible for her family’s deaths. Her uncle Marco played by Jordi Molla is not impressed by the initial reaction of the girl’s and takes her to a nearby school where he randomly shoots close to a crowd but avoids hitting any civilians. The idea was to inject into Cataleya that shooting and killing is an art form with skills that need to be acquired through schooling.
Fast forward many years and we see Cataleya become the perfect killing machine as she takes on crime syndicate jobs provided by Marco. In between jobs, Cataleya has an affair with a man who is an artist and seeks solace and comfort through his company. The tension between the couple arises as Cataleya is unable to express her own true lifestyle and speaks very little of her past.
In one of the jobs, we see Cataleya plan a job where she cleverly infiltrates a cell in one of the police offices to eliminate a crime pundit. However, Cataleya has a bigger mission outside of this where she tries to hunt down her past killers who murdered her family. The investigator at the killing scene is at odds at how the killing took place and tries to piece together the evidence he has on tape.
Cataleya eventually comes face to face with the gang she has been trying to seek and in an explosive, fast paced scene towards the end of the movie, she finally fulfills her wish.
Final Thoughts:
The movie was a disappointing watch from start to finish, it almost felt that the director was very new to the subject of making crime thrillers. The actual scenes portrayed seemed to have little credibility with the audience such as the random shooting of Marco to teach Cataleya a lesson. Most of the scenes appeared to be contrived and does not convey an engaging plot for which this movie stood for and hence lacked any flow or consistency. This disconnect of the whole movie, though with some good action scenes does leave a good impression with the movie-goers. Even the relationship between Cataleya and her lover leaves the viewer’s wanting more.
Rating:
5.5/10
Tags: Callum Blue, Michael Vartan, Movie review of Colombiana, Zoe Saldana, Zoe Saldana in Crime Drama in Colombiana
Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz in Action/Adventure - Knight and Day
Friday, December 9th, 2011
Movie: Knight & Day
Year: 2010
Genre: Action/Adventure
Director: James Mangold
Stars:Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz and Peter Sarsgaard
Snapshot of Story:
A unsuspecting woman becomes entangled with a secret agent who is being hunted by crooked undercover agents.
Movie Reviews and Ratings on Knight and Day
Storyline:
Cameron Diaz plays June Havens who accidentally bumps into the wrong person at the airport and thus propelling her into a deep undercover action/thriller that is sure to bring plenty of smiles to the audience. The man she bumps into is Roy Miller played by Tom Cruise who is wanted by the secret agents for harboring highly classified information.
Although the story is not that original, the movie is nevertheless a fun watch with the two main characters immersed in high speed chases and thrilling near death action scenes. Their first encounter with each other leads them boarding a Jumbo 747 where the entire crew is destabilized by Roy Miller leaving June Havens dazed and unable to comprehend the events happening around her.
The acting performances of the two prime characters are as expected of star quality and are exactly what makes this movie very entertaining to watch. Cameron Diaz with her almost child-like innocence and personality works well with Tom Cruise’s fast and furious lifestyle. The director has done well to blend these two characters into their respective roles with highly amusing and often comical events. In one scene June is having coffee with an old boy-friend when Miller comes into the scene and whisks away June with supreme confidence and speed. This only highlighted his quick-witted thinking that came about through years of training as a secret agent. If one saw Tom Cruise’s old movie ‘Collateral Damage’, one can see a completely different persona to the character in this movie.
There are times when the movie becomes hardly believable in some of the action scenes, but the movie was made purely to entertain and something which it does well. June Havens gradually picks up the lingo of undercover secret agent talk and is able to shoot a gun, hoodwink the agents and get out of sticky situations, quite a feat in such a short space of time. In another scene, we find that the agent Roy overlooks the locked ‘grid-system’ in a remote island where their whereabouts was revealed by a simple call to June’s cell-phone. A pretty bad omission in my mind for someone who is skilled in the art of war and communications technology.
Final Thoughts:
Knight and Day is a fun movie to watch with two of the most renowned actors in Hollywood bringing their magic to the big screen. It has the plot of a ‘James Bond’ movie but the thrilling action and chases coupled with the polarized characters of the two main stars makes it quite an enjoyable movie to watch.
Rating:
7/10
Tags: Cameron Diaz, James Mangold, Movie review of Knight and Day, Tom Cruise, Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz in Action/Adventure - Knight and Day
Bruce Lee’s Martial Art Fever on Box Office - Enter the Dragon
Tuesday, December 6th, 2011
Movie: Enter the Dragon
Year: 1973
Genre: Martial Arts/Action/Drama
Director: Robert Clouse
Stars: Bruce Lee, John Saxon and Jim Kelly
Snapshot of Story:
An undercover agent joins a martial arts tournament held by a crime lord who is thought to be producing opium for distribution to a worldwide market.
Movie Reviews and Ratings - Enter the Dragon
Storyline:
An undercover agent Lee played by Bruce Lee joins the notorious tournament held by Hans who is thought to be producing illegal opium drugs in an island just off Vietnam. In addition to Lee another two central characters Roper (John Saxon) and Williams (Jim Kelly) also join this tournament.
As they are whisked off to the island in boat and then helicopter one could see the many men of Hans in white suits practicing their karate. They are offered humble abodes for their stay and all the entertainment and pleasure they could dream off. When the host presents Williams with a bevy of beauties to choose from, he simply picks out an handful with a sly remark ‘Please don’t mind if I have left anyone out, but I am very tired today’.
On the first day of the tournament we see some comical events where Roper and Williams wage bets for some of the duels they are about to encounter. In one of the duels Williams takes a longer time than usual to finalize a deal with pundit and takes some beating before he is able to bring his opponent down. It clearly shows the supreme confidence and ability of the part of Williams and Roper in their fighting skills.
The star of the show as expected was Bruce Lee and his fighting was truly exemplary. In one scene he goes underground in the middle of the night and a guard is alerted. From heron some of best fighting scenes to have ever graced the screen is shown in full glory. Bruce Lee in his true form as one of the greatest on-screen martial artist of his time shows his stupendous skills in overpowering the many guardsmen.
In another memorable scene, when Lee encounters Oharra in one of the duels we see a flashback of how his sister had died in the hands of Oharra. The philosophy of Karate and Kung-Fu teaches one to be disciplined and to be free of vices and grudges and nowhere was this true as in this case. Lee overpowers Oharra in the sparring part of the fight with his lightning swift action and brings Oharra to the ground. When Lee turns away Oharra picks up two bottles from the crowd and breaks them ready to take on Lee again. This gives Lee the opportunity he was looking for and his entire rage and sadness from the death of his sister is focused in this one scene when he jumps up and breaks Oharra’s neck.
In the final scene Lee battles with Hans in the mirrored room where most people would go on to associate these scenes with this movie.
Final Thoughts:
Prior to ‘Enter the Dragon’ Bruce Lee made a number of movies in Hong Kong that brought him cult status and now with this Hollywood version brought Bruce Lee to world-wide fame. It was sad to see Bruce Lee die at an early stage in his life but he left a legacy that will be timeless and his style of fighting will continue on for many years to come.
Rating:
7.5/10
Tags: Bruce Lee, Bruce Lee's Martial Art Fever on Box Office - Enter the Dragon, Jim Kelly, John Saxon, Martial Art movies, Review of Enter the Dragon
Movie Reviews and ratings of Sci-Fi - Predator
Sunday, December 4th, 2011
Movie: Predator
Year: 1987
Genre: Sci-Fi/Action
Director: John McTiernan
Stars: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers and Kevin Peter Hall
Snapshot of Story:
Predator is a fast action packed sci-fi that finds a group of commandos battling with a superior alien in the heart of a South American jungle.
Movie Reviews and Rating
Storyline:
Top hit movies of today leave a lasting impression with viewers long after they have watched the movie. This would apply to Predator where it is not so much the subject that is appealing but the fact that the director manages to create an overall atmosphere that keeps viewers engaged in the showing. The same applies to great entertainers such as Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley where they have superb inner talent to keep the audience engaged.
The commandos led by Dutch (Arnold Schwarzenegger) are immediately dropped off by a helicopter in the heart of an unknown South American jungle and assigned to a mission that is not all that clear. There is no waiting about for the action to start and they soon find themselves battling with an unknown enemy who seemed to know their every move.
In one scene Dillon (Carl Weathers) finds himself in an opening in the jungle and rapidly fires his machine gun which is torn away along with his arm by the enemy’s blasts. The director does an excellent job of using the jungle to show off the enormous firepower of the commandos to give an heightened sense of realism.
The rest of the cast in the movie were well chosen with each offering a different perspective on the enemy and in particular when one of them started meditating as to assume an evil force that is hunting them. This was an excellent touch to the movie as it slowly brought the commandos to the realization that the enemy was not of this planet.
In true ‘Arnie’ style, the commando Dutch has to battle with the alien single-handedly after the demise of all his comrades. Using his wits and great improvisation Dutch is able to finally defeat the alien.
In one scene Dutch realizes some of the limitations of the alien when he finds himself in a mudslide and covered in mud where the alien is unable to detect him.
Final Thoughts:
The movie Predator was another barometer of its time in creating an atmosphere that fixated the audience and kept the pace right through to the end. One has to ask questions as to the motivation of the thrill of hunting and killing on the part of the alien. In most cases when we refer to aliens, we see them as invaders or as friends but the twist here is that we have aliens that are neither and their only objective is to hunt and kill. This movie spawned off many other offshoots using this primary theme including Predator 2 (1990), Alien vs Predator (2004) and more.
Ratings:
8/10
Tags: movie reviews and ratings, Movie Reviews and ratings of Sci-Fi - Predator, review of Predator
