[mini] Movie Review – Iron Man (2008)

Wow! This movie blew me away! From viewing the trailers over at Apple.com I was not expecting anything less, but only after watching it on the big screen did Iron Man impress me even further!

‘Iron Man’ is one Marvel Comics superhero I have never followed, but considering this was based on the work of Stan Lee I was expecting a good-quality film on par with Spiderman and the others. There was a good storyline and plot to work with and the characters were absolutely amazing at being believable, especially Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark. His rough, witty and genius character seems second-nature to him.

Now ‘Iron Man’ is mainly an action/adventure futuristic fantasy film, which many may not appreciate from the get-go. The movie definitely makes use of a lot of artificial computer-based effects and, believe it or not, is pretty well done! Aside from the visual eye candy you will find that this movie has elements of light enjoyable comedy and awesome stunts.

What drew me into ‘Iron Man’ was the story of a weapons corporation tycoon who experiences a life-changing event in the Middle East where he learns that the same weapons Stark Industries is manufacturing is being used by terrorists to kill innocent people. Tony’s response to this is to build the Iron Man which he uses to fight injustice and the corrupt company members. I will not go into more details on the synopsis because you should experience the movie for yourself. By the way, do not leave immediately after the closing credits; there is a short teaser clip that suggests the plot of the sequel! Yes, there will be a sequel!

In closing I would give ‘Iron Man’ an 8/10. It is definitely worth being added to my DVD collection. I could not imagine how breath-taking it would look and sound on BluRay.

[mini] Movie Review – [REC]

No, no no! That wasn’t a typo. That is the name of the movie. [REC] is actually a clever title for the movie because it is supposed to mean “recording”, i.e. the status message you see when you are recording video on a camcorder. Well, enough about the title; what about the movie?!

[REC] is completely in Spanish first of all, which may be a little distracting to you if you find it annoying to have to read all subtitles in order to understand what everyone is saying. Anyway, the amount of heart-stopping horror will probably make up for that. Yes, [REC] is one of those recent movies that actually caused me to jump once in a while, although I could feel it coming most of the time (with experience watching other good horror films).

[REC] is different from other horror films. For one, the entire movie is shot from a shaky cameraman’s camera, which is an effect that quite a few recent horrors/thrillers have taken advantage of (remember “Cloverfield”), although movements were not as nauseating as the bad ones. What you will find nauseating is the amount of gore!

Set in Spain, a young and very eager reporter and her cameraman are out on an night assignment to document the response of firemen to an emergency. The slow action of the night quickly accelerates when they are invited to accompany a small brigade attending to an apartment building where tenants gathered in the lobby report hearing dreadful screams and tumbling noises coming from a particular old lady’s apartment. While investigating the disturbance a fireman and police officer are attacked by a blood-thirsty old lady, which causes everyone to flee, but upon trying to get their injured friends out of the building, they discover that authorities have completely sealed off all exits to the building leaving everyone trapped inside. Apparently, this is all in an effort to control some weird “contamination” and it is only through other horrific slayings that it is discovered that what we have here are zombies!

This movie will have you at the edge of your seat! Fear is established through many elements from something as simple to darkness to being trapped in a building where you are being hunted! This is definitely not a film for kids and those who have sleepless nights dreaming about frightening scenes.

[REC] is deserving of 7/10 in my book.

[mini] Movie Review – Bee Movie

What can I say? I like animated movies, especially those that come from Dreamworks and Pixar. Bee Movie is one that I am sure you and your family will enjoy. I found myself constantly laughing even at the silliest things!

I thought that the character voices and animations were done pretty well. It is amazing to see how animators take real-life actions and duplicate them on a virtual character. Facial expressions are just one example. There is a lot of vibrant colours and cartoony objects. I will not go into the plot because that would be spoiling it for you. I do not know why it got such an average rating at the IMDb. You may think different, but I will have to give it a 7.5/10.

My “mini” reviews are usually longer, but I am too tired to write any more. Enjoy the movie!

[mini] Movie Review – Sweeney Todd

Today, I was feeling board and this movie caught my attention. I am no fan of musicals – actually I try to stay away from them as if they are a deadly disease! However, when I saw Johnny Depp as one of the characters, I had to see how this change of role would turn out.

If you have only ever seen Johnny Depp as that drunken, cunning and selfish pirate from ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’, you will find that Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is quite a change for him. Not only is he an angry and psychopathic barber that slashes the throats of customers, but he is a singing one! Honestly, I had my doubts about Depp singing, but it actually turned out not to be half-bad.

If you like plays like these that take on an opera style, then you will probably like this movie. I heard that the original play was very successful and even though this is a film version, it seems to have done the original justice.

This movie falls into the genre of horror. There is indeed a lot of blood, which can get graphic when spilt. Set in gothic London Todd returns to avenge the kidnapping of his daughter after being wrongfully imprisoned. He meets up with Mrs. Lovett who helps him set up a barber shop, the sole purpose of which is for Todd to slash his customers and use their minced flesh in making and selling meat pies. Of course, Todd’s ultimate victim is the corrupt judge that took his wife and daughter in the first place. It so happens that Todd’s young sailer friend has fallen in love with Todd’s now-grown daughter and wants to free her from the tyrannical control of the judge. Things soon get out of control when Todd’s has to kill all those who have either found out his true identity or are a threat to revealing his sinister actions. Let’s just say that his last kill is the one he regrets because it is to one he loves. Surprisingly, a little boy is the one to kill Todd with his own razor after he uncovers the whole sick plot!

This movie was quite good. I could have done without the singing, but I did like when humor was part of the singing. I will have to give it a 7/10. You can read about other viewer opinions over at the IMDb.

[mini] Movie Review – Ratatouille

The first time I heard about this movie was earlier last year when a short teaser trailer was released on Apple Trailers. When I first heard the name “Ratatouille” I was a bit confused; was this a French animated children’s film?

Actually, it turned out to be a great English computer-animated movie that I truly enjoyed! Pixar produced a really good film here.

Anyway, I heard that it did pretty well from reviewers and even managed to get an 8.4/10 rating on the IMDb. After watching it, I can see see why so many people of all ages loved it!

“Ratatouille” turned out to be a great animated movie for the entire family. The plot was quite fresh, the colours were vibrant, the characters’ animations were incredibly done and the characters were believable. The storyline was something I had never thought about before: a rat, Remy, who knows how to cook exquisite French dishes helps to re-establish a 5-star restaurant on the decline. Characters are believable because they have weaknesses which are not hidden, but are able to overcome these weaknesses in the end. I was expecting an “and-they-lived-happily-ever-after” sort of ending, but the way in which it was done, although simple, did not hide reality.

As you can see I chose not to give away any details of the storyline here because when you see the movie for itself you will appreciate it. Watch it with some friends even a group of kids. Everyone will be filled with laughter, excitement and curiosity from start to “fin“.

[mini] Movie Review – Resident Evil Extinction

Movies based on video games have always intrigued me. You may ask why, since the majority of them always fail to deliver, but my interest lies in how film-makers are able to adapt video game content into a good film. To be honest, I have never played Resident Evil and don’t think I ever will. However, some game content does get into the movie, as I have heard, with a bit more focus on a storyline. Resident Evil Extinction is the final installment of the Resident Evil trilogy and, although I am a bit sad that it has come to an end, I believe it has pretty much run out of steam deserves the finale.

Resident Evil Extinction does not pick up directly after the chopper crash of part 2 (Resident Evil Apocalypse), but zooms ahead several months ahead when almost the entire earth has been reduced to wastelands infested with flesh-hungry zombies. The few that have survived have formed a small militia that traverse the dangerous country in search of uninfected survivors. Alice (Milla Jovovich) returns as the main character, but she has grown much stronger and even possesses telekinetic powers as a result of successful T-virus integration into her genome. Using these powers, she is able to rescue this team and even meets up with old friends Carlos (Oded Fehr) and LJ (Mike Epps). Unfortunately, the Umbrella Corporation’s lead scientist, Dr. Isaacs, is at their heels to obtain a possible T-virus cure from Alice’s blood, but has his own motives.

You can probably guess where this all leads. Lots of zombie fighting scenes and blood splattering everywhere! This is definitely not something for kids although there are much more worse things! Ultimately, the team is reduced to just a few children and adults who escape for Alaska while Alice battles the undead and Dr. Isaacs, who has turned himself into a more conscious form of the Nemesis.

I can go on but after reading all of the slamming reviews, you will probably be dissuaded from watching it. Many who have intimately followed the game’s storyline were quite disappointed and I too share in that disappointment even though I have never played the game. In comparison to prequels RE3:E did not seem to possess a lot of energy and excitement. Even I could tell that the this one was a bit low-cost in production, character dialog and development was stiff and weak respectively, and a lot of scenes seem to have been torn from other movies of the same genre. Telekinetic powers looked great, but it made Alice look too invincible. And what was up with those clones?!

This “mini” review is getting a bit too long and I do not like having to recall my disappointment. Watch the movie and you can decide for yourself. I will give it a 5.8/10 at most.

[mini] Movie Review: The Invasion (2007)

This was the other movie I saw on the same day I watched “Rush Hour 3“. To tell you the truth I didn’t know I would see this one until I was standing in line at the ticket booth. Surprisingly, it didn’t spark my excitement when I found out that this was the next one available.

I’ll say it up front and I hope you forgive me. The Invasion probably deserves to be a Sci-Fi feature movie instead of showing on the big screen! I can’t tell you how many times I watched the trailer on TV and was never eager to watch it. I guess that I subconsciously expected it to not be that big of a hit.

From what I’ve read this movie is one of the remakes of the book and old original movie “The Invasion of the Body Snatchers”. The comments made by those who have watched all of the remakes is generally the same: “it’s just okay”. I would agree; ‘The Invasion’ was not fantastic. It had the potential to be a great psychological thriller and horror, but absolutely failed at both! [Yeah, I went there!] I am rarely this critical in my reviews, but I could see some of these things coming (ever seen ‘28 Days Later’) and could have generated even more imaginative ways of scaring the daylights out of my viewers. There is barely any character development, some parts are completely illogical and more suspense could have been injected in the end. Okay, I’ve cooled down now…

‘The Invasion’ was okay for just watching. Yes, there are some moments that you will feel anxious, but those moments don’t seem to carry through. The main characters are always on the run from their genetically-altered and alien-controlled pursuants. If you like movies where your heroes are constantly on the run then this movie will probably be a good one to watch. Other than that, don’t expect much more. It’s a shame because the cast consisted of some really talented actors!

I may be feeling a little generous to give it a 5.0/10. If you feel that it deserved more credit, please share this with me.