Showing posts with label Action. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Action. Show all posts

April 4, 2014

Non-Stop: Movie Review

Liam Neeson is one of the older Hollywood actors who made a huge comeback in the recent years. People believed the movie era of action flicks with griming alcoholic would be overtaken by a newer generation of Marvel superheroes who are family friendly. The youngest one would be Jason Statham, but with the success of 96Hours Liam is back better than ever. Expect another movie about a fallen hero who regains his honor and a lot of action even though everything happens on a plane.

March 16, 2014

300: Rise of an Empire - Movie Review


Seven years ago was the comic book adaptation 300 released. At its time it was a visual juggernaut that defined the style of the genre and gave Zack Snyder his breakthrough in Hollywood. Half naked Spartans under Leonidas rule fought the god kind Xerxes. Now starts its successor in the cinema, which is the sequel, prequel and also plays at the same time. The needed much story fragments to get together a whole movie as it looks like. Was it a success? Read it here:

March 5, 2014

Movie Reviews: Total Recall, Fright Night, 7 Psychos



Colin Ferrell is one of my most favored actors since his guest appearance on Scrubs. He has a recognized face even though none of his movies were ever a huge success. Somehow he appears all the time with original and interesting projects. He really is an actor who plays different roles. From the loveable guy to the badass villain. Here are some of his newest ones:

January 18, 2014

The Wolf of the Wall Street - Movie Review

Martin Scoresese and Leonardo DiCaprio team up once again. The last time was for Departed, which gained an Oscar for best movie. Leonardo on the other hand missed out another chance for the well deserved statue. Now he gets another chance along with Jonah Hill, who also would deserve it. Many chances, but how high are the chances to win the trophy? Find it out in my review:

January 3, 2014

Movie Ranking 2013

The year is over and with it goes by a great year with many good movies.  I watched around 15 of them and made a ranking of the best 10. See yourself if you have the same opinion or find something interesting to watch next year on blue-ray. 

[Image by Lilithia]

November 28, 2013

Hunger Games: Catching Fire - Movie Review


The Hunger Games was a huge box office hit two years ago. Millions of people watch Katniss Everdeens fight for survival against other children. It was a cruel game for the rich for the simple sake of enjoying themselves. A brutal world as portrayed in other media like “Battle Royal”. The novel adaptation was decent at best, but for the second installment everything is different. Most prominent change was the director from Gary Ross to Francis Lawrence. Who thought this would change everything about the movie… in the best ways!

November 14, 2013

Thor: The Dark World - Movie Review

Some years ago Thor fought against Loki with his Avenger Friends destroying nearly half of New York. Now he is back again to fight a new evil villain with his beloved brother who tries to destroy the whole universe. What could possibly go wrong on the journey of these two gods? A lot of things and that’s why this movie is the best marvel one so far… and of course because Loki plays a major role. Actually its only because of Loki. They should have named the movie “Loki and a bit of Thor” instead.

August 11, 2013

The Lone Ranger - Movie Review

A few years ago a group of people gathered to turn a theme park ride into a movie. The movie turned out to be a huge success and made Johnny Depp into the highest paid actor in history. Now the same team returned and try to achieve the same with a typical western story… and they failed in earning their budget back, resulting in the second biggest flop for Disney in recent years, right after John Carter. Is it justified? No, because at least for me it was one of the better films of this year, ranking somewhere in the top 3. Also it seems that the movies does better outside the USA.

July 17, 2013

Now You Can See Me - Movie Review

The movie begins like Ocean’s Elevens, in which the magicians are picked up depending on their styles. We have a magician, who lost its former glory, only reduced to use his tricks to bang some girls. Also the thief who is broke and a hypnotist who acts like a smart-ass… which is hilarious by the way. The fourth member of the four horsemen is a woman who can escape from everywhere, which exists in the whole movie is reduced to be the love interest of the other members. She has absolutely no purpose. On the other hand we got the three “antagonists”. An FBI Dectictive who dislikes his job and doesn’t believe in magic. An Interpol female agent, which acts always unprofessional and has no other purpose than being his love interest. Yes, the women are only nice looking sidekicks, at best. The last one is Morgan Freeman, an ex-magician who now has a show about uncovering their tricks.

The story is split in three arcs. Every arc covers one of the shows of the four horsemen with all their nice tricks. The smaller one is explained right on the stage and give hindsight what trick they will use in their grand finale, which always resolve around the fact, that they give their audience money from several bad companies. The show and explanations are really nice and nothing unknown for people, who saw a few magic shows and they of their tricks. They make sense and are great captured by the camera. The two detectives on the hand play the role of the unknowing watcher who grasp by everything the magicians do, always just toyed with. 
The grand finals of their show on the other hand are at least possible, but look ridiculous. It's like, alright it would be possible to do in real life, but what would be the chances making it work so perfectly? None, besides some really bad computer effects that doesn’t make sense and wouldn’t be explained. It's like, the trick would never work so let us go forward and ignore the principle of explaining everything. 
At the end of the movie happens a lengthy action sequence which feels forced. It is too long and depends too much about the fact, that they fight against magician with throwing cards and “teleporting”. It's nice but not astonishing. Most of the time we get dialogues that are enlightening by  some good jokes, which are the best thing about the whole movie. The movie would have been boring without Woody Harrelson and Morgan Freeman. Jesse Eisenberg and Mark Ruffalo on the other hand didn’t do well at all. I’d expected more from such great actors.
 
In conclusion: 
The movies had a great idea and manages to go with it till the end with decent explaining. Nothing that happens is jaw dropping and sometimes the movie felt long, besides its 2h run. The cast is great and most of them at least act decent. They the best part of the movie. Besides the unnecessary of female characters and forced love story is the story itself interesting. The ending on the other hand is just bad. You won’t guess it, but that doesn’t mean it is a great one.

July 7, 2013

Author Interview with Julia Hughes

Hi Julie, first of all, could you tell us a bit about yourself.
Hello Patrick, and sure thing! I'm an eldest child and walking my younger brother and sister to school and back, I'd tell them stories – a captive audience! On leaving college, I worked at the BBC, helping write stories for their "Schools' Programmes". That was back in the day, before satellite telly made it over to the UK and 'Auntie Beeb' ruled the air waves! I gave it all up for the good life, and moved down to Cornwall, one of the most beautiful counties in England, and often known as 'God's own country.' I think the greatest compliment I received was 'Julia's more Cornish than the Cornish.' I picked daffodils in winter and made pasties for the holidaymakers in the summer. But all good things come to an end: I upped sticks to be closer to my family, and landed in a little village just outside London, and have been here ever since, scribbling away at my stories. 

June 20, 2013

Man of Steel - Movie Review

Man of Steel is Warners newest attempt to create a successful Superman movie and another DC Comic hit, beside the already ended Batman trilogy. Now they are trying the same formula with the biggest comic franchise. Expect a darker, grittier Clark Kent and an intelligent plot. You could say that the use the exact different approach than marvel, with their plotholes and humorous action movies. Did it work? No, at least not for me. The quality of Man of Steel tore me apart, because it jumps from magnificent to utter boredom within minutes, but let me explain right from the start.

June 5, 2013

Hangover 3 - Movie Review


The Wolfpack is back again to survive another ridiculous hangover, but will this be the last one. Director Todd Phillips said that he won’t direct another one and also the beloved cast members share his opinion. If Warner Bros want to milk the franchise any further, don’t expect it to be the same, which even this last movie isn’t. It feels different than the previous two, both in style and humor. But at least for me it was a worthy ending.

May 15, 2013

Star Trek: Into Darkness - Movie Review

Finally begins the season of summer blockbusters. J. J. Abrams Version of Star Trek was a massive Hit, grossing more than any previous movie in the iteration. an incredible achievement from a man, who never watched Star Trek before getting into the production of the movie. What followed was a fresh look on an old series and lots of lens flares. No one knew at that time that this man would also become the director of the Star Wars movie, being the leading head for the two biggest Sci-Fi Franchises ever. A role that comes with great responsibility, but is he capable for that? Find out in this review about the future of at least one of the two:

February 22, 2013

A Good Day to Die Hard - Movie Review


Like every year we got a ton of action movies. Old genre, with the same old faces and overused shooting formula, resulting in a huge decline in profits from them. Recent flops cover old action heroes like Arnold Schwarzeneggers "The Last Stand" and Sylvester Stallones "Bullet to the Head" (very original movie title by the way...). Is it, because younger people can't relate to these oldsters anymore? Even Jason Statham isn't that young anymore, but then "Expedenbales 2" wouldn't be such a hit if that was the case. Even new action flicks like "Zero Dark Thirty" and "Broken City" under perform by huge margins. BUT what is the reason for the one's precious money making genre falling so low nowadays? Is "Die Hard 5" another one? Get all the answers here:

November 6, 2012

James Bond 007: Skyfall - Movie Review

A lot of  big budget movies get a big budget marketing plan. Avengers had one, but it became mostly popular through mouth to mouth propaganda till it was everywhere. The Lord of the Rings was pretty famous with several TV-Clips and documentation about it. But Skyfall is different. It has such a big marketing budget that it is nearly everywhere. There are so many posters and billboard that you could believe Germans would decorate their houses with them. There is even a title song that made it to the charts. TV shows send non-stop commercial about "How to be like James Bond". Even though it runs in 8 different auditoriums at the same time and that in just 1 movie theater i couldn't get a good place till Monday. Thats ridiculous how many people want to see it and it isn't even in 3D. But with a great hype comes a great responsibility. Can it live up to it? See for yourself.

October 14, 2012

Taken 2 - Movie Review

Taken became a hit later on a box office hit with its dvd sales. The first one was great in regard of the well thought through story and a different reason for his fight. Getting back his innocent daughter from slave traders was a refreshing and different approach then the usually vengeance plot.

The main character was a nearly perfect soldier but sometimes even he made mistakes or got knocked over. Besides his paranoiac thoughts and the resulting interactions with his daughter were just hilarious to watch.

September 16, 2012

Expendables 2 - 5 Rules to improve your story


I guess you ask yourself, how a action movie with a poorly storyline like Expendables 2 could help improve your nearly perfect book story? The story is so old and clichee that no one will ever write a eassay about it. So how could it help yours? Its easy, because it does great what it does and you should do that too! Its isn't such a problem to execute my rules. I listed 5 Points and a Bonus one for you to check. If you follow these simple rules, than you could greatly improve your own story in a way you never expected to improve it.

May 26, 2012

Men in Black 3 - Review


After ten years the dynamic duo Agent J. and K. Returns back to the big screen, this time in 3D.  

(Quick Note: There are some very impressive 3D scenes which don’t feel as forced as in so many other films. MIB3 is one of the films in which the 3D effect is better implemented, but don’t justifies the higher ticket price.)

Again, it's their job to protect the Earth from strangely designed aliens and not just in the present. This time it's up to Agent J (Will Smith) to protect his partner K (Tommy Lee Jones) against the return of his most powerful enemy. The twist this time, Agent J has to travel back in time to change the future. The film doesn’t stiff about explanation or alternate scenarios, but uses it for a fresh setting. It stiffens the film is not too much time on alternate strands, but also uses it for a fresh setting. The bulk of the film plays the sixties, the time when the MIB was established, providing many explanations for its predecessors. It also portrays the racism and old-fashioned technology of that time.

The story is very thin like its predecessors and serves only as a ride on the fast track and action-packed roller coaster. As it is typical for villains, also this time they will be shot and pursued. Despite the beautiful action orgies the jokes are the real highlight of the film. They are more numerous and funnier than before, which is mainly due to the fact that they are not so childish anymore. Just think of the "egg-neck monsters" from the second movie. Also the creatively designed aliens are just as successful as the jokes. Especially the bad guy stands out for the first time and looks terrifying.

The actors all play their roles well. This is the first film with Will Smith in the lead that I like since I Am Legend. He acts the best as a Klutz, much better than is last social dramas. Josh Brolin, who plays the past version of Agent K. knows how to shine. The Positive surprise was Michael Stuhlbarg, as a slightly strange alien. He will probably be seen in more movies from now on. Shortcoming is the unspectacular film music, which languishes in the background and sometimes the partly bad computer effects. The latter will not be noticed by most viewers.

All in all MIB3 is an entertaining popcorn movie. People, who already liked the predecessor, will be thrilled by the new adventures of the men in black.