Reviews

More than just pretty faces, Charlie's Angels features the talents of Annie Ilonzeh as Kate (a former corrupt Miami police officer), Rachael Taylor as Abigail (rich girl turned naughty thief), Nadine Velazquez as Gloria (a disgraced Marine Corps Lt.) and Minka Kelly as Eve (a street racer). Ramon Rodriguez plays the computer hacking Bosley and Robert Wagner plays Charlie, or more honestly "the voice of Charlie" providing the Angels with missions, guidance and kudos for a job well done.

We all know the formula and the background being that this is the 3rd foray into this remake but I honestly feel that this time they've struck gold.

This was an excellent pilot from beginning to end. While the acting was spotty – through Ilonzeh's obvious nervousness and Taylor's seeming to "try too hard", it eventually evens out and the chemistry is better than expected. Though Minka Kelly still felt like an outcast towards the end of the episode, it leaves you wanting to see the girls do more and if I am not the only one feeling this way, we are sure to see some more.

While the story of Conan The Barbarian in this Marcus Nispel version cannot hold a candle to the John Milius original, it doesn't mean that on its own it isn't a good movie.

The problem with rehashing anything is the inevitable and misleading comparisons that are done whenever critique is asked.

My only thoughts were the same as when I watched the original: Why aren't his eyes icy blue, his eyes should be icy blue?! Why's his hair not jet black?! You know... the silly, miniature details that the nerds whine about.

Ron Perlman as Conan's father was an amazing portrayal, besides Momoa he was probably the best part of this movie. The villains unfortunately came off as more comical than imposing which will rub many moviegoers wrongly especially after having a bad guy like James Earl Jones' Thulsa Doom headline the 1984 Conan.

A major downside is the pacing was so quick and ridiculous – the movie came off like a highlight reel where Momoa's Conan shows you how to kick butt, coddle wenches and exact revenge.

Could it be better? Yes a million times over, yes and with our palate being used to such goodies in Sword and Sorcery such as The Lord of The Rings trilogy, I am afraid that the majority of critics will dump on this movie like nobody's business.

Still, there is something there and when you see Momoa dance with the blade, you will forget the bland backdrop of a story, the cartoon character of a villain and the unimpressive damsel in distress who plays his side (Rachel Nichols).

I do not know what is worse about this new Clash of Titans, the laziness in them not studying Greek mythology, or the laziness in keeping things relevant to the time period or mythos. Actually I know exactly what it is, it's the absolute waste of Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes, whose talents and characters was the only shining light in a dark movie of shallow characters, shoddy CGI and light speed pacing.

It seems that people have forgotten the Greek mythology whose influence has made many a movie and tale as lovable as the original Clash of The Titans. Call me a nerd for being a tad too much into this but my annoyance started when the movie begins with a conveniently hacked up and incorrect story version of the Gods' win over the Titans to rule earth. I do understand the abstract nature of this movie and the reality that this particular Perseus (Sam Worthington) was not the one of the ancient poems. But something about the matter-of-fact nature of the narration rubbed me the wrong way.

The armor and clothing is dark or black, there are no colors. The people or relevant armor that rang true of ancient Greece is not here. What we get instead is the X-Men treatment, black on everything and a mixture of armor and architecture of cultures that come about hundreds of years after the time of the Gods. Maybe Zeus wished in some steel from medieval Europe and haircuts from the modern day Armed Forces? He is all-powerful after-all, let's say he did, just so I can shut up about it.

Aww screw it, I can't ignore these things! Seeing Zeus (Liam Neeson) walk away from his throne in a type of mock plate mail armor, reminded me of his role as Gawain in Excalibur. Why was he dressed like a medieval knight in a movie about ancient Greece I wondered? This is not to say that the other Gods were much better off either, Apollo in golden standard was also in a form of scale mail and so was Poseidon (Danny Huston) who is replaced in relevance with the new owner of the Kraken, Hades (Ralph Fiennes). How does this make sense that an obvious water creature is owned by the king of the Underworld? Who cares right!?

Perseus, again in ancient Greece sporting a buzz cut reminiscent of a Marine or a Roman Legionnaire was only second in lack of relevance to him actually being played by Sam Worthington. Sorry folks, Jake Sully did not show up to play this time. Gone is the likable kid from the original who grows in front of our eyes from a boy gifted by the gods to champion them, into a man who is bold and clever enough to take on the gorgon Medusa and topple the champion of Poseidon. No we get a Perseus who is simply not in the right time period, mindset or character to either be believable or formidable. When Io (Gemma Arterton) basically takes his hand and teaches him how to kill Medusa (Natalia Vodionova) it summed his character up very well. This is not the brave Perseus of the original, not by a long shot.

Ralph Fiennes as the bent and ultra dark Hades was a great character, his low, gritty voice and dramatic entrances made him extremely scary. The satyr-like Calibos (Jason Fleming) who chased Perseus and made his life hell in the original is reinvented in this as a jilted lover, whose body has been turned into some sort of demon, albeit not a satyr. Io is the replacement for the lovely goddess Athena, whose wit and metallic owl of the original were mainstays in our memory of its charm. Io is beautiful but she is no Athena, and thanks to the pacing which made this 2 hour movie seem like 30 minutes, you get no true feeling of familiarity with her or the other beauty in the movie, the princess Andromeda (Alexa Davalos).

I really wanted Clash of The Titans to be great, and based on the high votes I see on the web, it's apparent that super fast pacing and lack of character development is positive right now. Maybe I am too old school and like to learn the personalities, histories etc. of my heroes but what can I say? For me the inaccuracies, pacing and shallow nature of this 2010 Clash of The Titans makes for a bad movie – which by the way is another to take full advantage of the 3D fad going on since Avatar. This makes me wonder about Sam Worthington and his range, or lack thereof, and why Liam Neeson thought that it was a good movie to be a part of. The trailers had me salivating, especially at the Kraken, yet upon seeing it at the end, I was already done with the movie.

Of all the characters and wasted talent, I must say that chief soldier Draco (Mads Mikkelsen) was my favorite. His portrayal of a grizzled, old wartime soldier was well done. Despite the pacing issues, we got enough of his character and history to go from hating him to respecting, then finally liking him.

If you own the original Clash of The Titans and you bemoan the campy, cheesy humor or the extremely dated special effects. You will find yourself forgetting its faults in lieu of its character; because for all the 3D effects, expensive CGI and acting talent, this 2010 version lacks character and I am sorry but no amount of 3D debris flying in my face can make that a good movie for me.

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The Princess and The Frog is a beautifully drawn, well animated slice of the standard Disney pie with a Louisiana spin. Although I found all of the characters to be very lovable, I thought that Disney's "playing it safe" (you know exactly what I mean) due to a bunch of jackasses who blindly let a trailer mislead them, ultimately hurt the movie where it could have been a lot more dynamic.

From the wee age of a little girl, Tiana (Anika Toni Rose) and her father James (Terrence Howard) had always dreamed of owning their own restaurant. Her mastery of cooking from her mother, combined with her respect for hard-work from her father, has made her into a very level headed young woman. Still the hardships of being born poor made the only shining light seem that concept of a jumping restaurant of happy patrons and good cuisine. On the other side of town, Tiana's best friend Charlotte (Jennifer Cody) is very much the princess, with her father 'Big Daddy' La Bouff (John Goodman) buying her anything her little heart desired except for a prince to whisk her off her feet.

Although birds of a different feather, Charlotte and Tiana are very much friends and when word comes to town that a prince was to be within their very midst, Charlotte makes it her mission to woo him and Tiana continues to save her tips in order to buy her restaurant. When the evil Dr. Facilier comes into the mix of these people's lives, things get complicated as Tiana and Prince Naveen are turned into frogs, and the popular fairytale of the frog Prince takes a turn for the worst.

The Princess and the Frog offers up a tremendous amount of positives where many people will be digging for negatives. Tiana isn't the standard damsel in distress, nor is she the rubber-necking, sassy stereotype. I loved this character in terms of her being the epitome of the modern woman – ambitious to a fault, hardworking and all the while maintaining an air of femininity and vulnerability at the same time. In contrast the price, Naveen (Bruno Campos) is a playboy, not the brightest bulb in the set and comes off a bit childish like Tiana's buddy Charlotte. Kind of a jab at the trust-fund babies in the audience I would assume. At the heart of it all there is the ever present moral that if you follow your wishes they will come true, no matter how bizarre and unreal. If I had a daughter I would want her to watch and own this movie, based on Tiana alone. Her dynamic is a strong one and modern day princesses could really learn a thing or two from a two job hustling entrepreneur in training.

Then as you know it IS Disney, so the villain's song has to be the highlight of the movie. The deep, menacing voice of Keith David wasn't as scary as I expected it to be, but his song of "having friends on the other side" was my favorite of the many songs included. And Ray (Jim Cummings) the Cajun firefly ran a close second, still. The music sets the mood quite well and the only drawback to all of this, was that the central romance story seemed to take a backseat to everything else going on. Dare I say Tiana and Naveen's love seemed a bit (gasp) rushed? In the span of a traumatic experience, a playboy like Naveen starts to make eyes at the cute little waitress. I did not see love, I saw lust, admiration and need but not the "I want to marry you" love, that did not work out so well for me. If this were real life, Naveen would have got the panties from Tiana and not much else.

If the central romance was orchestrated a tad better, it would have been more believable but it seemed as if Tiana and Naveen got together for the hell of it, rather than growing to really have feelings for one another. With the large talent pool brought together for this movie - Terrence Howard, Oprah Winfrey and Keith David, The Princess and The Frog will do good, and the art being absolutely beautiful, may sober the speculating mob a tad.

Staying relatively light and cute for the early parts of the story, I will warn that it does get dark near the end, if you are the type of parent to shield your child from death and loss in these things. It was a treat to watch, and Disney hasn't skipped a beat, outside of ugly stereotypes of movies past. You should see The Princess and The Frog and you should bring your daughter with you, for the more Princess Tiana's we have in the world, the better for all of us.

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Although it felt immensely parallel to Mark Neveldine's Gamer, Surrogates explores the scarier side of avatar life when people opt for living through robots instead of their own bodies. With the charisma and macho swagger that Bruce Willis brings to the screen and the talents of Ving Rhames, James Cromwell and Boris Kodjoe, what really ended up disappointing me was the unimpressive graphics of the Surrogates themselves. Someone should have asked Milla Jovovich who did her makeup in Resident Evil Extinction because she looked more the part of a porcelain robot than the effect they tried on this movie, it was distracting and strange.

Plot: When a couple of Surrogate (robots created to replicate human beings) users are killed through their hosts, detectives Greer (Bruce Willis) and Peters (Radha Mitchell) set out to find the source behind the killings. What they find is that a new weapon has been introduced that kills the host and user behind the avatar. A threat that could potentially disrupt the 99% drop in world-wide fatalities that the surrogates originally brought. Greer has grown to dislike the daily routine of living through a Surrogate and before long ditches his avatar in lieu of walking around the city as a human (something that is unheard of). With his own eyes and wits about him, Greer is able to uncover the source of the weapon and the people behind it. With his only grip on human life being his Surrogate addicted wife, he must find a way to stop the weapon which could mean danger for her and everyone in the world that is plugged in.

While I can appreciate the sci-fi element to Surrogates, it offers nothing new in terms of plot, storyline and conclusion. It is the fear of a virtual world in the future exaggerated with the visuals of nasty, sweaty, pock ridden humans stuck to their bed-like structures. A world of pasty people plugged into a machine that gives them the control of a beautiful and flawless version of themselves. You have the stereotypical fat nerd in the guise of a hot, blond sexpot, the sex heavy Club scenes and the city filled with people who aren't really people. Think Blade Runner, Matrix and I-Robot and you know the particular shot of what I speak. Yet Greer's city did not feel like a city at all, it felt like a large set with fancy CGI painted all over it to make it look "futuristic". I couldn't shake the world in a glass bowl feeling as the streets seem to lead to nowhere and the shots of the external camps looked even worse. The warm and fuzzy feelings of the future that I received when I watched older movies like Minority Report, I-Robot and the 5th Element is missing in this one. There just wasn't enough authenticity in Greer's surroundings and it made it seem so staged.

This story seemed to be better suited for a comic book or graphic novel. The big screen does not seem like the right medium for Surrogates because the humanoid CGI look is a long way from being mastered. Still, if you can stomach the visuals to follow Greer in his quest for an answer, you may find a bland and unoriginal police story that ends up being solved a bit too easily. I would suggest that you wait this one out for an evening rental with the family since the violence is minimal (the Surrogates bleed green), there are no real sexual situations and the length is relatively short. I cannot recommend the box office version of this movie.

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What's cool about Gamer is that it holds elements that are true to the Sims, MMORPG, Second Life experience. Every FPS player, MMO dabbler and anonymous degenerate can feel at home in the world of Ken Castle (Michael C. Hall). We are given the ultra-futuristic computer experience where the 3rd dimension pushes into the 4th and polygons are replaced by real, living, breathing human beings. Imagine playing Call of Duty 4 knowing that your player is a real person who will actually die if you walk into enemy fire. Imagine playing Playstation Home and controlling a hot avatar that can easily get some "strange" in the corner of the movie theater. What Gamer does is it shows us our anonymous, internet world if we were to go as far as to control reality.

Kable (Gerard Butler) is a convicted felon and the only death row inmate to have survived over 28 matches in the real FPS game "Slayers". The game, set up by multi-billionaire genius Ken Castle, allows a player to take the reigns of an inmate turned soldier in a battle royale for their freedom. If an inmate wins 30 matches they can walk free, the only problem is that most inmates don't make it to 10. Castle whose success came in the form of a realistic version of Second Life where people volunteer to be controlled by players in a party atmosphere. The outline of the movie is to follow Kable as he tries and make it to that 30th game.

Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor brought us a different form of action in Crank and the even crazier Crank: High Voltage, if you aren't a fan of those, chances are you will absolutely hate this. For me, this type of movie is the Mad Max of our time period, Death Race on an acid trip and with the fan-service to gamers it may be a cult classic waiting to happen. There are many cameos in the movie, not limited to John Leguizamo, Terry Crews (yes he dances in this one too, sigh), Zoe Bell and Milo Ventimiglia as the awesome Rick Rape. Kyra Sedgwick plays a convincing cougar-type and Amber Valletta is sexy.

If I was to gripe about anything it would be the similarities with Death Race and the way the story wrapped up. It felt as if they wrote the final scenes while filming and didn't give any thought to the huge gaping plothole and questions it left in my mind. Don't I hate it when they do that! The music was on point ranging from explicitly sexy rave tunes to classy Sammy Davis Jr. and the cinematography was much like Crank, though I felt the Space-Aged monochromatic look in the prison shots was a bit much.

This would be a good rental or a gift for an MMO player or an FPS fanboi but for average movie guy, stay far away. Still it's good to see King Leonidas back in the action again, as he was in RocknRolla. I look forward to the next installment.

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Beyond war movie and beyond another critically acclaimed movie, The Hurt Locker is the living definition of thriller. Rare is it that I find a movie that has me breathing unevenly whilst gripping my seat wondering what could happen next. The direction is simple but brilliant in it's own right, the acting is compelling and the reality of the so-called "War on Terror" is very real. Director Kathryn Bigelow gets it when it comes to keeping the audience centered on the important things and I look forward to seeing more of her work in the future. Before writing the plot summary I must warn you that this movie is better enjoyed by going into it blindly. The less you know of what you will experience the more immersed you will be in the story. I will attempt to avoid spoilers and any real breakdown of what occurs within this wonderful movie but if you want to truly enjoy The Hurt Locker I urge you to skip my next paragraph within this review.

Plot/Summary: The Hurt Locker is a situation set within the Middle East where American soldiers are forced to find and disarm bombs within the inner city. Sergeant JT Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) and Specialist Owen Eldridge (Brian Geraghty) have a little over a month before the next rotation frees them from their duty. Although the two men eagerly count down the days to escaping the dry and thankless desert, their comrade and leader in Staff Sergeant William James (Jeremy Renner) sees things differently. Battle-hardened, with a hard-on for disarming bombs, James seems to laugh at death and his recklessness alienates him from his peers. However after a few outings the three comrades reach a level of understanding and James emerges as a leader that is much more than a cowboy looking for death.

The most stand-out acting in this movie has to be that of the complicated Staff Sergeant William James (Jeremy Renner). Not only is he believable but he forces you into his world of chaos, confusion, honor and love. Between he and Anthony Mackie's Sanborn you are made to feel sympathetic and remorseful to the plight that they are in. Although the movie seemed short, within seconds you are concerned for every single character. The bomb situations are limited but within every single one of them you are holding your breath in anticipation and fright. The cinematography did not look or feel staged and the eery music brings you right into the hopelessness of the jobs these men had to do. Written by Mark Boal, the script felt real, it felt as if it was "a day in the life of…", with pacing that was relevant and not contrived. There were no forced romances, friendships or atrocities to pull at your heart strings, the events are so seamless that it feels as if there was an invisible "other" with a camcorder shooting the lives of real men.

Sure you may need to look elsewhere if you are wanting another movie of "guts or glory", Rambo-like, one man against the world warfare. But if you want something that feels real, looks real and warrants intelligent thought, you will want to see the Hurt Locker. An absolutely amazing movie.

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With credit to the creators of this live action edition of Blood: The Last Vampire, they really didn't have much to work with to begin with and before I pick apart the movie I feel obligated to preface with this. As an owner of the original Anime and a fan of the Blood series in itself, I was looking forward to a nice tie-in with the saga of Saya the Femme Vampire Slayer. What I got in this movie was a nice collection of katana action, low-budget CGI and poor acting. This isn't to say that BTLV is a bad movie, just one that I would only recommend to fans of the series itself.

What the movie tries to do with the aforementioned anime, is take that exact same story and expand it a bit to give us some history on Saya. We are shown her human father, vampire mother and even a childhood love interest. Our Saya is given emotion (she even cries a bit) and worst than that, she is given a sidekick in Alice McKee (Allison Miller). Though I found Saya (Gianna Jun) to be a very good casting choice, which coupled with the choppy but interesting action scenes, made her seem similar to the anime Saya, I found Alice to be absolutely unbearable. The character Alice is the American element to the movie, being a rebellious teenager stealing daddy's car, talking back and doing all the annoying things that teenagers in movies tend to do.

The jerky camera angles, made some of the early fighting scenes very confusing. However it does get better as the movie progresses and some of the battles are quite interesting once the camera settles down. The acting was not bad as a whole aside from Alice whose crying and screaming were so fake I found myself shaking my head every time she had a burst of "emotion". The direction was good enough and we get a back story as it progresses unlike the original anime. Still when it ended I was a bit confused about Saya even with the history given and it made me wonder why they didn't stick with more of the elements from the anime series.

If it were only up to actress Gianna Jun and her portrayal of the killer Vampire Saya, I would rank this with high points but the weight of the bad acting by the supporting cast, the already silly story, awful CGI and the unnecessary military portion of the movie drug it down way below that. Although I would watch it again, this would probably be due to my being a fan of the character moreso than a movie watcher.

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With Billie Holiday singing her heart out and the subtle details of cracked nail polish and $3 dresses, Public Enemies brings you into the era of the Great Depression without boring you with back stories and explanations.

It is an honest bio-pic with little factual variations outside of John Dillinger's romantic ambitions. It is an entertaining backseat ride into the life of a country boy turned bank robber in a time where America hated money-makers and banks. A time when people were starving and in need of a gun-toting, charismatic mid-western boy to stir things up a bit, one bank robbery at a time.

A Cast of Winning Players Director Michael Mann is known best for Heat, Collateral and Miami Vice. His attention to detail is known and it is said that he went above the call of duty in his research for this movie. Obviously he deemed it important to depict a true version of the Dillinger story with a bit of Hollywood sprinkled in to keep our attention. Johnny Depp is solid as the charismatic bank robber, adopting his mannerisms, speech and swagger and even the trademark smirk that is seen on all of Dillinger's photos. Christian Bale is perfect as Melvin Purvis, looking similar to the "G man" and confidently playing the role convincingly.

Digital Camera and No true sense of good and Bad The camera threw me off a bit switching from an old sepia toned look to a digital one during fights. At times it made you feel as if you were an observant on the street while other times it felt just like a movie. I wasn't sure why this was but I concluded that Mann wanted us to be there with Dillinger most of the time and at other times we are to observe from a distance. There was no great love felt for any of the dark heroes, the charismatic Dillinger was likable but I never felt concern for his well-being. The FBI agent in Purvis (Christian Bale) was the typical white knight archetype and was given little personality outside of this so I felt nothing for him either. The romance between Dillinger and Billie Frechette (Marion Cotillard) was interesting but felt clichéd (gangsters always have THAT chick in these movies) and just like real life that political blowhard J.Edgar Hoover (Billy Crudup) is the only real "bad guy" in the entire film.

Final Thoughts It felt like a different time period and the choreography of the gunfights were done well enough to keep me interested. With as colorful a crew as the boys who ran with John Dillinger, it would have been hard to direct a movie like this while keeping everyone relative. Men like Alvin Karpis (Giovanni Ribisi), Pretty Boy Floyd (Channing Tatum) and Baby Face Nelson (Stephen Graham) are given screen time, as well as Capone's number one do-boy Frank Nitti (Bill Camp). Still there was so much shown that you tend to lose your familiarity with Dillinger's quest for whatever it is he wanted and the hopelessness of his situation settles in after awhile. It is a good movie with no real emotional weight, just a "this is what happened" gloss to the entire thing with a sprinkling of charisma to top it off. If anything, you will go researching Dillinger and gang after the movie has piqued your interest.

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Where Da Vinci code introduced us to Dr. Robert Langdon and his knack for solving puzzles, Angels and Demons ups the ante by providing a huge puzzle with an 8 hour limit.

With a cast of award winning actors, Ron Howard does a good job of directing a story that was easy to follow and even easier to accept. The Da Vinci code threw so many angles at you in such a short time that a quick bathroom break would leave you a bit confused on return. I didn't feel this was with Angels and Demons, the plot was straight-forward and the action kept the interest level peaked throughout.

Cardinal Strauss (Armin Mueller-Stahl) was easily my favorite character in the movie. His portrayal of the elitist, yet misunderstood rank of the Catholic Church was very good and combined with the victim of his treatment Camerlengo Patrick McKenna (Ewan McGregor), you will find yourself choosing sides immediately upon introduction. There isn't a great amount of Tom Hanks time as the film focuses more on story than character development and this did well with me being that I had more than enough introduction from the first movie.

Unfortunately I found Ayelet Zurer's character Vittoria Vetra to be an unnecessary femme assistant in the quest since her lines were a bit limited and seemed much like an afterthought. She does play a key role in the beginning of things but she soon fades into the background of being Langdon's "familiar" more-so than a necessary partner.

The plot is as such, one of the organizations that the Catholic Church wronged in the past (there have been quite a few) has sought revenge in a most artistic manner. Some men of the church are kidnapped and are set to be executed at specific times until an ultimate end to the church itself will happen. Dr. Robert Landon is brought in to help decipher the clues and teams up with the beautiful Vittoria Vetra, a scientist who witnessed a colleague die at the hands of the church's enemy.

Music staying relevant and the cinematography beautiful, I could chime on about this menial things but what makes Angels and Demons absolutely work is it's conclusion. It was by far one of the most amazingly surprising endings I have seen in a movie and I was impressed at how off-guard I was when it hit me. Like anyone else I appreciate a great wrap-up and this movie wraps it up quite tight and drops a pretty bow on it. Needless to say I left the theater pleased at the movie in it's entirety.

If you are religious and unsure if this movie will offend your Catholic principles. I can say that where The DaVinci code painted Catholicism as a shady cover-up group of sadists, Angels and Demons paints them with a much lighter brush. The church is shown as being a collective of good men who are made to suffer for the sins of evil and misguided men who wore their colors and even a few who have infiltrated their modern ranks.

There's one thing that has always struck a good note with me about Hugh Jackman in movies… the man seems to actually care about his performance. He seems to do his homework, assumes his role and bring across a genuine performance whenever he is working. It is this type of actor that can make a mediocre movie great. When Hugh is happy, you want to laugh with him, when he is ticked you feel the intensity. It is this type of acting that made the Wolverine such a likable character in this film.

Bang-up special effects, blades slicing through inanimate and animate objects and enough fire and ice to make you feel as if you had just experienced Ragnarok. X-Men Origins: Wolverine spares no expense at blowing sh-t up. Shot from the angle of a gnat on the hairy back of Logan the Wolverine, we get to see why he is one ticked off dude and also why his bones are metal. Along with that, this movie shows a glimpse of how the Mutant School that Professor Xavier ran in the first three X-Men movies started.

My favorite scenes from a cinematography standpoint depicts Wolverine and Sabretooth in all of our popular wars, Civil War, WWI, WWII, and Vietnam. These were shot beautifully and the look of it all felt genuine. My first paragraph may mislead you into believing that Jackman was the only top performer but you will be hard pressed to fine a Sabretooth more perfect than Liev Schreiber. Intense fighting scenes, very human emotions and supernatural powers are only sobered by the dull landscape that is the home of Wolverine during the movie. There were times I wished the big man would travel around the city a bit more just to liven up the background, it made me feel as if I was watching Legends of The Fall (great movie) with mutants in it. Fans will love the slick talking Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool sans red/black getup and also Taylor Kisch's Gambit who did some very Gambit things the brief time he was on camera.

Of Course any more headliner mutants and this film would have fallen into the cluster f— that was the first three X-Men (X2 was awesome though) so it was kept at a minimum and all the portrayals were equally well done. Upon leaving the theater I listened to the comments of the comic book die-hards; What I got was that aside from the writers taking a few liberties with the characters well to be honest Deadpool (I liked him) they seemed genuinely pleased with the movie. For me that is enough to validate X-Men Origins: Wolverine, I mean it was solid, so check it out and make sure you sit through the credits. Oh ya and go see it on the big screen, even if you are one of the pirates who ganked the unfinished screener prior.

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If the main goal of Star Trek was to win over general audiences then I think they succeeded. With likable characters, top-notch special effects and a solid story, this nerd's epic hit the box office with the sonic boom from a roaring thruster. Zachary Quinto's Spock and Chris Pine's James T. Kirk are not only convincing but are near perfect in their matching to the original series. The characters are instantly recognizable by looks and accents and Eric Bana's Nero Romulan will drive fear into you and your planet.

No doubt like all Sci-Fi remakes of our age, the die-hards will find something to diss on in the movie (I think these winners are called Trekkers). I mean it does miss the mark on delivering the stiff, robotic fighting and the flashing bulbs from the original series but for average Joe, this could easily be one of the best Space-Aged movies ever. Though the use of lens flare was a bit on the "a little too much" scale, the feel of the Enterprise's bridge and the relationships among the crew came off as genuine and well acted. My only regret in seeing it was not experiencing it in full IMAX glory.

The scenes that struck the best chord with me was aboard the Enterprise itself, though the Space and explosions were pretty, the bridge had a feeling of advanced technology and I liked the look of the Romulans. Simon Pegg's Scotty and Karl Urban's McCoy will no doubt be fan favorites and Zoe Saldana's Uhura will have the young men in the audience drooling. The full cast really grips you throughout the entire movie and it was enough to make me forget that Tyler Perry was in the movie.

So J.J. Abrams has pulled it off, he has taken the most nerdiest of obsessive nerd shows and made it absolutely watchable to the regular person. Although the speedy plot will not win any awards, the character interaction, menacing bad guys and the authentic casting makes it a must-see.

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The Wrestler is the type of film that makes movies the special part of life that they are. The ability of an actor, script, music and cinematography to pull at our emotional strings and force us to feel remorse or happiness for a fictional character is amazing. It is amazing but unfortunately a rarity in the hundreds of movies pumped out every year, but once in awhile you stumble on a gem, and that gem renews your faith not only in the industry but in the art of story telling.

It is the clichéd tale of the mighty warrior falling from glory. The gladiator who has grown old and tired, too damaged to please the adoring crowd and too alien to the normality of life to do anything else. It is the story we are shown quite often but rarely do we get the reality of such a situation. It makes you wonder why boxers way past their primes come back to the ring and NFL players who are past effectiveness refusing to retire. It is something foreign to the everyday man who has not endured the bumps and bruises of a life of pain in entertainment to please the adoring crowd. The Wrestler is such a tale, allowing us for a few moments to see the candid truths of a professional wrestler in the twilight years of his career.

Having known some wrestlers in my time period, I already knew this tale. Well documented by scenes in documentaries such as Beyond The Mat, I know that an older wrestler is normally broke, heavily reliant on drugs and damn near suicidal. With the exception of Hulk Hogan and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, you will be hard pressed to find retired wrestlers who are living comfortably through the fruits of their labor. The Wrestler allows us to be a fly on the wall in the life of one of the unlucky old-timers.

Randy "The Ram" Robinson (Mickey Rourke) is a professional wrestler with a long career of success behind him. With the old aches and age finally dragging him down, Randy is unable to keep up with life outside the ring and spends nights sleeping in his van. His hopes of returning to stardom leads him to doing small independent shows for little to no money until he is hit with a severe health issue. In a vain attempt to retire and live normal life, Randy pursues a relationship with Cassidy/Pam (Marisa Tomei) a dancer at the Strip Club he frequents and his estranged daughter Stephanie (Evan Rachel Wood). Unfortunately regular life and Randy do not mix well and he is forced to fall back on the only people who have always been there for him… the crowd.

The Wrestler in essence is a tragedy, being that it is so absolutely real it feels more documentary than motion picture. Mickey Rourke is perfect and so believable that had he not been a famous actor it would be hard pressed for you to convince me that "The Ram" wasn't a real person. Not only is Marisa Tomei absolutely beautiful in this film but she brings a real humanity to Cassidy that ran parallels to some of the working girls I know in life. The movie was powerfully realistic and relevant and I think it will bring some much needed attention to the entertainment/sport of pro wrestling. To top it off the score is so melancholy and appropriate that it plays with your emotions as much as the action on screen.

This is not a rental folks, this is a purchase and treasured film for your collection. I am very glad to have seen it and with the low budget used to film it… shows that a tough story and an actor that can pull it off is all that is needed for cinema gold.

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Chocolate went from a Asian gangster version of Westside Story to Ong Bak with a female lead in less than 30 minutes. What this means is that if you are a fan of the knee to the back of the neck, roundhouse to the throat, stunt action of Tony Jaa then this movie should be in your collection.

With laughably bad acting and a script that makes you turn an eyebrow up, you will probably wonder why this movie got such a decent score from me at first glance. But when it comes to Zen throwing down against the bad guys, you will quickly forget the acting and script and tout this movie as a masterpiece in stunt and action sequences.

Zen (Jeeja Yanin) is a girl born autistic to Masashi (Hiroshi Abe) and Zin (Ammara Siripong). The rivalry between her mother's family and her father's gang has left her mother sick and maimed to the point where she is unable to collect the many debts owed to her around town. Due to Zen's social disability and her mother's sickness, Mangmoom (Taphon Phopwandee) is forced to help raise her and soon realizes that Zen has a special reflex talent that makes her quicker than the average human being.

When Zin's illness bypasses the family's finances, Zen and Mangmoom are forced to hustle money on the streets in order to get her some help. This becomes futile as Zin's illness gets worse and soont he duo are forced to collect the debt from the men who owe it to their mother… the only problem is they aren't willing to part with it easily. This leads to Zen unleashing her talent of martial arts to take back mom's money and eventually settling old rivalries.

This movie was hard to take initially even with the beautiful poetry that described Masashi's love for imperfection. Had they stuck with this poetic theme throughout I would probably consider this film a nice package but to be honest with you the action is really the only reason to watch Chocolate. The name has nothing to do with the plot, the plot is haphazard at best with confusing transsexual bad guys and direction that went all over the place.

The one positive thing that Chocolate does have however is real stunts performed by Jeeja Yanin and the brave men who she kicked and punched into oblivion. Very much like Ong Bak or Tom yum goong, you will forget the bad plot as soon as the action starts and will find yourself rewinding quite a bit as you wonder "did she really just do that?"

This is a film for action buffs and martial arts enthusiasts but the serious film homer should stay far away. Just be warned that the initial 30 minutes would do better to be forwarded for maximum enjoyability.

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Not sure what I just saw, but the original formula of Crank was hardcore to the point of ridiculous, this one is just absurd. Not only does Chev Chelios (Jason Statham) survive a 14,000 ft drop to earth but he lives through a harsh backroom surgery to seek revenge on the bodypart smugglers who took his heart. The one drawback to his revenge is that he now has an artificial heart which needs electricity to keep pumping. So where Crank demanded adrenaline to keep Chev going Crank: High Voltage demands electricity.

Part Grand Theft Auto (yes the video game) and part Godzilla. I would say that this has to be the craziest collaboration to get greenlit for the big screen. Crank: High Voltage spares nothing when it comes to racial slurs, sexual situations and raw animality. The sex scene in the original not only pales in comparison to this one but will seem like a kids movie compared to the scene in this one… Whew it was pretty hardcore.

The soundtrack kicked ass, the action was non stop and shot in a way that it seemed as if you were on some sort of chemical the entire time. I heard that the movie was shot with standard issue video cameras in order to access scenes where an expensive movie camera wouldn't dare… This would explain the dumbed down quality but with explosions rampant, people flying through windshields and falling from buildings, I am not surprised.

Crank: High Voltage will no doubt tick some people off and disappoint others but to fans of the original, you will leave wondering what they could possibly come up with next for a third installation. It is a crazy, crazy movie.