Tag: action

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The Other Guys

Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell are partner detectives trying to become city heroes when two of their city’s finest dies on duty. This comedy duo pits Ferrell, a silly and awkward cop, against Wahlberg, a serious and high strung cop that is tired of being cooped up at his desk, to solve a case of corruption and fraud only to be fall short because of mishaps and mistakes.

This cop comedy film is funny all around but the plot of the movie isn’t as entertaining as the interaction of Ferrell and Wahlberg.

Rating: ★★★★★★★½☆☆

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Inception

DiCaprio plays Dom Cobb who is an “extractor”, one who enters a person’s dream to find hidden information and secrets. This time Cobb gets contracted for a job far different than what he normally does, called inception. Instead of finding information Cobb must plant an idea in the mind of a man who will be inheriting a corporation from his father. Where the idea would manifest itself to have the son believe that dissolving the corporation is what his father always wanted.

Inception is an intricate and complex film about espionage of the mind. The premise has been done a few times in the past but Inception nails it spot on twisting and bending the mind of its viewers. As a viewer you’ll have to pay close attention to every facet of the movie and using some of your imagination to understand complex concepts of dreams and how the mind works.

Rating: ★★★★★★★★★½

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Predators

Take it how you will. Some will call it a reboot or it could be considered a sequel. The film takes place 23 years after the first movie as one of the characters recall stories of events that happen back in 1987 when Arnie took on the original Predator.  The film starts off with the each of the characters unconscience and mysteriously parachuted into an unknown area, but they soon find out that they’re no longer on Earth, but on a planet where they being hunted. It’s kind of like Avatar, but in reverse, ok, maybe not.

The movie takes some of its queues from the original movie. From musical score to some of the action scenes. But unlike the original, the group being hunted are not a special ops team, but a select group of Earths best (or worst) soldiers and criminals. They must find a way to survive and and escape the planet. Many will quickly compare the movie to the original which is unfair, but this movie does hold its own.

Adrian Brody plays a convincing bad-ass mercenary and Oleg Taktarov is surprisingly warming even though he plays a Russian Spetsnas commando, but Topher Grace and his 70’s Show typecast role takes away the seriousness of the film. (Seriously, he basically plays Eric Foreman in all his movies) In the end it’s a decent action movie that tried live up to its predecessor (I’m not talking about Predator 2).

Rating: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

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Knight and Day

Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz join up again, this time in a Romantic-Action movie. Cruise plays charming, funny, and well trained Jason Borne-style spy/assassin/Federal Agent who is being chased down by the government agency he works for and an international Black Arms dealer. Diaz is the unsuspecting girls that  gets caught up in the mix and is forced to tag along with Cruise in order to stay alive.

Cruise and Diaz are fun to watch and their chemistry plays out well on screen. Though a little over the top in some scenes this is a fun summer action flick you would expect from a Tom Cruise movie, but I must say that Knight and Day is not as polished as his previous films.

Rating: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

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Kick-Ass

Kick-Ass is a fun and action packed movie. Surprisingly it is a very dark film. Dave Lizewski is a high school geek  that decides to take matters into his own hands after getting tired of being bullied and seeing others suffering the same fate. With a colorful wetsuit and some batons, he sets out to fight crime as a Super Hero named Kick-Ass, but his little idea becomes more than he bargained for.

Kick-Ass is Superbad and Spiderman put together. It’s rarely that you find a good comedic action movie that you can really enjoy and Kick-Ass is one of those movies. The title of the movie refers to the main character of the film. Ironically it’s Hit Girl that really made the movie.

Rating: ★★★★★★★★½☆

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Repo Men

Forrest Witaker and Jude Law work for the Union, a company that specializes in poviding artificial organs. Witaker and Law are repo men who retrieves those organs from those who fail to make their monthly payments.  In a freak accident Law ends up becoming a client for the company he works for by having an artifical heart implanted. Law no longer is able to perform his Repo job and becomes one of the victims he hunted in the past.

Repo Men’s premise sounds great, but the execution of the story was done poorly. The movie dragged on longer than is should, and the lack of character devolopement didn’t help it either. But there were some moments of action and fun, but it was done too sparringly to keep it interesting.

Rating: ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆

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Legion

Legion is a modern tale of Mary and Joseph and the apocalypse. The Archangel, played by, Paul Bettany, defies God’s command to destroy humans. Instead he goes and sides with the humans to save a pregnant mother whose child will redeem mankind.

This action/horror movie has more plot holes than a block of Swiss cheese. The first half of the movie is enjoyable but as the story progressed it became too over the top. It felt like they switched writers halfway through the movie script.  This movie is better off as a rental.

Rating: ★★★★★½☆☆☆☆

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The Book of Eli

Denzel Washington is a stoic machete wielding bad ass that is traveling across a post apocalyptic United States carrying the last Bible. Carnagie, played by Gary Oldman, hunts down Eli for the book hoping it would give him religious and political power. Book of Eli provides a lot of action and its doesn’t go overboard with any of it’s religious tone. Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman in any movie is worth watching and this movie is worth watching.

Rating: ★★★★★★★½☆☆

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Avatar

avatar

Avatar is James Cameron’s first movie since Titanic. There has been a ton of buzz surrounding this movie. Most notably the movie could be the most expensive movie ever made with production costing over $500 million. Given Cameron’s track record many if not all his movies have been big blockbuster hits, and with Avatar it will recoup it’s money and go on to make huge profits.

I went to see this movie through word of mouth from friends and online reviews. I wasn’t really sold on the movie trailer which I saw during the summer. It look more like a cartoon than a real life action movie. I saw the XD 3D version at Cinemark theaters. The leather plush seats and and large digital screen wasn’t too shabby. To my amazement the movie was better than I had expected given the already positive reviews I had heard from my friends. I didn’t care too much for the 3D aspect of it. It didn’t add much value to the movie at all. I could have watched the non 3D version and I would have been fine with it.

The plot isn’t so original, but the story is good and moves along at a good pace. The movie is almost 3 hours long, but it feels much shorter. The special effects and CGI animation are amazing. Cameron somehow manage to seamlessly pull you in to the movie and make you forget about the computer generated environments. If you’re one of those people who wants to wait for the DVD release I suggest you check it out in the theaters to get the full cinema effect.

Rating: ★★★★★★★★☆☆

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Cloverfield

cloverfield

With its viral marketing in full force and several teaser trailers hitting the theaters since Summer Cloverfield is a must-see movie of the new year. The movie starts off with a message stating the following video as top-secret. The video follows a group of individuals during an attack on Manhattan by a mysterious giant monster. The film is shot in the style of a home-made camcorder, similar to the Blair-witch Project. If you’re easily susceptible to motion sickness then you might want to avoid this movie. The constant moving and shaking of the camera caused my eyes to get tired at times.

Cloverfield is moreso the name of the classified military project or incident of the attack on Manhattan than the name of anything particular. The movie builds up steadily, but gets nowhere with no actual climax. The story ends abruptly leaving you unsatisfied. I’m sure there is going to be a sequel or prequel seeing how this movie ended. Overall, Cloverfield is an interesting ‘monster’ movie. Actually, its more of a movie about humanity with a giant creature running around the city.

Rating: ★★★★★★½☆☆☆