REVIEW: Harry Potter & the Deathly Hollows Part 2

Harry Potter & the Deathly Hollows Part 2, directed by David Yates, starring Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, and a whole mess of other English people.

I really wanted to go see this movie this weekend, because like most people in the English-speaking and otherwise world, I've read the books and seen all the movies.  I'm not as big a fan as some (a friend of mine has a Harry-inspired lightning bolt tattoo on her wrist...NERD), but I enjoy the story.  However, I always found the idea of the Deathly Hollows in the books as very confusing, and seemed to be a MacGuffin that JK Rowling threw into the last book for no apparent reason.

While the movie had some tear-jerking moments, I think the awkward epilogue totally ruined the movie for me.  It was so bad, I was left feeling empty.  And the more I thought about it, the more I realized that the WHOLE movie had this same sort of empty emotional impact.  There were deaths of major characters that the movie just glossed over, the final realization of Hermione & Ron's relationship didn't have the same emotional impact, and by the end of the movie I was thinking "Ok, what happens next?"

But there is no next...unless Rowling wants to make a few more BILLION dollars and write another series of wizard books.  And having grown up with these characters (and actors), I feel like I was cheated from my emotional conclusion. 

Somebody grew up HOT!

REVIEW: The Invention of Lying

A friend of mine wanted to go to a movie last night, and before I could throw out It Might Get Loud, she suggested we see The Invention of Lying. I really wanted to see this, especially after seeing Ricky Gervais on the Emmys. I heard that this movie wasn't just "laugh out loud" funny, but also had a pretty important message.

I'm a fan of Gervais' humor, being a big Office fan, though I find his humor a little hard to watch sometimes. I think I got through two episodes of Extras before I had to turn it off because I was so uncomfortable.

I went in expecting a comedy, but what I didn't expect was the message behind the comedy. This film has some serious issues that it deals with, including religion and self-worth. Mark Bellison, Gervais' character, is heart-breaking to watch sometimes, and I'll admit it...I got teary-eyed at parts.

It's a cute movie, with a good message, and I would suggest it to people who are looking to go see a good date movie. As for a comedy, it's smart enough for a Gervais comedy, but it doesn't have as much of uncomfortable humor. And the part that I loved was all the famous actors making cameos. I don't want to spoil it, but there are a couple of Academy award nominees and winners in this movie.

REVIEW: The Spirit - THIS MOVIE BLOWS

I think I know why The Spirit's city screams.

Because this movie sucks like a Reno prostitute. It makes Max Payne seem like the Godfather. I'm glad I didn't pay $10 to see this in the theater, and was only tricked out of $5 to see it On Demand. Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 14% and says this about the film. "Though its visuals are unique, The Spirit's plot is almost incomprehensible, the dialogue is ludicrously mannered, and the characters are unmemorable."

I couldn't have said it better myself. I'd go on about how much this movie sucks, but then I'd be wasting even more of my life on this travesty, and I need to take a shower.

Someone needs to tell Frank Miller that Robert Rodriguez was doing him a solid by giving him co-directing credit on Sin City. So far, Miller's track record in the film business has not been great. You're a comic book writer / artist, Frank. And a damn fine one. But please stop making films.

However, there was one five minute part that I didn't mind. And that's when Paz Vega showed up on screen.

This is going to replace my Princess Leia Gold Bikini fantasy

I don't know much about this fiery Spanish beauty, but I'm hoping to see her in A LOT more stuff. Or less stuff, heh heh (<- dirty old man laugh)

REVIEW: Terminator Salvation

Went and saw Terminator Salvation the other day with a friend. My opinion?

It wasn't bad.

That's not saying that it's on the level of T2, which I think is one of the best movies to come out of the 1990s. But it's not as bad as Terminator 3.

My friend who I went and saw it with summed it up perfectly....For a Terminator movie, it's not bad.

The one thing that I didn't like was the fact that the movie seemed to focus more on Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington's character) than on John Connor, who has been the focus of the last three terminator movies and the recently canceled The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

I did like the little homages to the other movies that are sprinkled in the film. But Christian Bale must have one American accent, and that's the only one he uses, because it seemed like Batman was saying all his lines in this movie.

Again, I'm not saying this was a bad movie, but it's one that I probably won't see again till it comes out on DVD or On Demand. Or if someone else pays me to go see it.

REVIEW: Max Payne - SPOILER ALERT!!!

Here's my review on Max Payne, the video game adaption movie that came out last year, with Mark Wahlberg & Mila Kunis.

It's total crap. Don't go see it.

Seriously, I have no idea what the movie was about. I had no idea what was going on. And it was totally predictable. I think I knew that ***SPOILER ALERT*** Beau Bridges was the bad guy as soon as he showed up on screen.

Not a lot of thought went into this movie. And to think, people got PAID to write this crap.

The only thing I liked about this movie was that it seemed to be a colorized version of Sin City. And that got old after awhile.

REVIEW: Star Trek

I'll be the first to admit that I've never been much of a Star Trek fan, aligning myself more with the Star Wars side of the sci-fi universe. We all know how THAT turned out...

I like my science fiction to be more gritty and real than the happy-go-lucky world that Star Trek seemed to offer. I thought it was naive to think that we'd have a United Federation of Planets, and that spaceships were clean, could teleport you, or could whip up some food for you on the fly.

I watched a couple of episodes of The Next Generation, I've seen a few of the movies, but I just was never really into the whole Star Trek phenomenon. And when I heard that the great J.J. Abrams was going to be doing a reboot of the Star Trek franchise, my first thought was...WHY?

The cast for the movie was announced, and it made me go WTF? Sylar as Spock? Who the hell is Chris Pine? And don't get me wrong, John Cho is great in everything he does, but as Sulu? This guy was in Harold & Kumar! (On another note, the other guy from H&K is now working for President Obama) But the list of actors kept growing...Karl Urban, Eric Bana, and Simon Pegg? I'd see any movie with those guys in it, even a Star Trek movie.

Then I started to hear more things about the movie, and I saw the first footage, and the geek boy in me stood up and said, GO SEE THIS MOVIE. It didn't help that friends that saw it kept telling me it was awesome. It also didn't help that it made so much money over the weekend, and I hadn't heard a negative review about it yet.

I've been disappointed with the recent movies I've seen lately. You can read my review of Wolverine on this blog, and Punisher War Zone left me sick for the future of comic book movies. I was hesitant about seeing this movie, but the hype got me. I had to see it.

When the opportunity arose that I could go see, I jumped at the chance. I sat down, excited and scared, and finally watched the movie.

One world...WOW! I guess you could call me a Star Trek fan. This movie had action, sex, humor, and sci-fi, but not in any sort of sterile, utopian way that the original series' did. This was a Star Trek that was dangerous, gritty, and realistic, but also fun. It was like watching the original Star Wars all over again, but with much better CGI and story.

And acting. This was a good cast, and I liked the way each actor came at their role. I think Karl Urban was channeling DeForest Kelley, because he had Dr. "Bones" McCoy down pat. And I liked the way Pine didn't try and imitate William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk, such an iconic performance. This is a different Kirk from the original series, and Pine makes the role his own.

The only thing I worried about was the Trekkies, those die-hard fans who wear the outfits and go to the conventions and who are more die-hard in their convictions than Al Qaeda. These people had real power, as evidence by the fact that Star Trek shows keep getting put on television, even though no one cares about them....except Trekkies. I could hear the same babble of discontent that first heralded the start of the new Battlestar Galactica.

But I think this movie will even placate them. I won't spoil it for you, but they tie the original series and all the movies and TV series that follow it in with this new movie series. And I think it works really, really well. It was an incredibly smart move on their part, and I'm going to admit it...I'm impressed. Knowing as little as I do about the Star Trek universe, they've opened up a whole new doorway into another world, and I for one can't wait to see what's next.

REVIEW: JCVD

I heard about this movie a few months ago, when I was going to see something else at the Angelika, and it totally intrigued me. I grew up watching Jean-Claude Van Damme movies throughout my childhood...Cyborg, Blood Sport, and Universal Soldier. Hard Target is still one of my guilty pleasures.

For an actor like that to totally parody himself in a movie takes a lot of balls, and this film doesn't pull any punches. The story follows the down-on-his-luck action stars troubles...no money, losing custody of his daughter, losing film roles to Steven Seagal. He walks into a post office to wire money to his lawyer, and finds himself in the middle of a robbery.

This film takes a look not only at JCVD as a person, but as an actor and an international movie star who can't seem to catch a break. The most heart-wrenching part is a six minute monologue that he does, facing the camera, talking about his problems, and this is perhaps the Muscles from Brussels best acting...ever. He's not an action star in this movie, but an actor, and it's refreshing to see that he CAN actually act.

If you liked this past year's Cinderalla story movie The Wrestler, you'll love this movie, because instead of focusing on the wrestling world, it looks at Hollywood, and how it can grind up people like meat. Even if you don't like JCVD, I think you should check this movie out.

If I gave out stars, I'd give it 4. But since I don't, I'm just going to say it's pretty fucking good.

REVIEW: X-Men Origins : Wolverine SOME SPOILERS!!!

It's with heavy heart that I am writing this post...

...I didn't think X-Men Origins: Wolverine was very good.

I know, as you can tell by my other two posts, I'm a big comic book fan. And Wolverine is one of my favorite heroes. I always felt a connection with him because I was stocky and hairy and had a bad attitude most of the time. And I'm part Canadian.

And when the X-Men movies came out a few years ago, I was pleasantly surprised by Hugh Jackman's portrayl of the character. Sure, X-Men 3 wasn't very good, but that wasn't his fault...that was all Brett Ratner, the hack. And to his credit, Jackman does another fantastic job with the hero. I know that as an actor, he really gets what the character is about, and I couldn't think of anyone else in this role besides him.

That being said...the movie itself wasn't very good. I went in with HUGE expectations, and I was definitely let down. Not so much in the first part of the movie, which really established the character well, but with the end part.

Why does Hollywood deem it necessary to stray from the source material and try and make it better? These characters (Wolverine, Sabretooth, Deadpool, Agent Zero, Silver Fox, Gambit) have been around for decades and haven't lost their popularity. Why would they need changing now?

I thought the casting was great, and I think Liev Shreiber did as good a job with Victor Creed / Sabretooth as Hugh Jackman did with Wolverine. I was really looking forward to seeing Ryan Reynolds as the smart-aleck non-stop joking Deadpool. However, his scenes were too short, and Deadpool was totally wasted, as a character, by the end of the film.

And as much as I like Taylor Kitsch on Friday Night Lights, he ended up doing a Kevin Costner and losing his New Orleans accent in about two scenes. While I've never been that big of a Gambit fan, I thought his character in the movie had potential, but was eventually made ridiculous.

And that's my biggest problem with this movie. I was looking forward to a story centered around one major character who, let's face it, is a total bad-ass. Instead, we got another dumb group hero movie. It makes me worried about The Avengers. And the ending was a cheap way to tie this movie into the previous X-Men movies.

I don't understand why Marvel films can't take a cue from the recent DC films that have come out, namely The Dark Knight. One of my favorite quotes that Christopher Nolan said was that the caliber of actors he had in the movie, they could have done Shakespeare. I'm not saying Wolverine is Shakespeare (though how cool would Macbeth be if he had razor sharp claws?), but at least take the characters seriously, and put them in a realistic setting.

I've been disappointed lately with the last two comic book movies I've seen (Punisher War Zone was GD awful), but I've got hope. Here's hoping that the next batch of Marvel movies fare better.