Saw this at the Showplace ICON Theater at West End in St. Louis Park, MN just last Saturday afternoon.
We did not get the VIP Reserved Seating as the film wasn't being shown in a theater with that option. Still, even the regular seats are quite comfy.
I had mixed feelings about this movie. Chris Pine is an up-and-coming actor, and he wasn't too terribly bad in this but I was constantly reminded of him in the Star Trek reboot movie. He doesn't seem to have a whole lot of depth in his acting, but that's the kind of thing that develops with time and experience.
Tom Hardy was almost forgettable in this, he didn't seem to have as much screen time, or even the best lines in the film.
You may hate me/us for this, but Reese Witherspoon was a poor choice as the love interest for this film as well. She's not overly attractive, not a very good actress, and I couldn't see myself or anyone I know fighting for her affection. That said, her acting style seemed to fit the type of character she was playing.
Overall, the movie is a bit slow, and feels repetitive as you progress through the film. There are some genuinely funny bits in the film that got me laughing out loud, but overall it was a forgettable film. Maryanne had a similar reaction when we discussed it after the movie. There was potential for it to be much better than it was, honest. It just never got there.
To be honest, I had to go look up the show times at the theater website to remember the name of the movie. That should be a pretty good hint right there about how 'good' this movie was.
I'd Wait for this to come out as a rental, or a $1 theater somewhere before you see it unless you really like one or more of the actors in the film. It's just not worth full price in my opinion.
Showing posts with label movie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label movie. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 07, 2012
Monday, December 26, 2011
MI4: Ghost Protocol
Her perspective: A
Ethan Hunt is back, but this time, the entire IMF is disavowed due to an attack on the Kremlin that is being blamed on Ethan and his team. Now that we're done with what you could have seen in the previews...
Very action-packed and I was so drawn in that I was gasping, laughing out loud and even couldn't stop myself from making a comment in the theater (don't worry, I kept it to 1-2 words and spoke softly). The plot kept moving at a good clip - there was only one slow spot that I noticed. I am going to buy this as soon as possible. I haven't liked a movie this much since X Men: 1st Class and I think I actually liked this one better. Definitely more action and more fast paced. I can't blame 1st Class, though, it's the type of movie that requires a more thoughtful plot.
I'm not going to give anything away, so no spoilers. Suffice to say: GO SEE THIS MOVIE AND BUY IT ON DVD! :)
See my review on the theater also. It didn't fare NEARLY as well...
Ethan Hunt is back, but this time, the entire IMF is disavowed due to an attack on the Kremlin that is being blamed on Ethan and his team. Now that we're done with what you could have seen in the previews...
Very action-packed and I was so drawn in that I was gasping, laughing out loud and even couldn't stop myself from making a comment in the theater (don't worry, I kept it to 1-2 words and spoke softly). The plot kept moving at a good clip - there was only one slow spot that I noticed. I am going to buy this as soon as possible. I haven't liked a movie this much since X Men: 1st Class and I think I actually liked this one better. Definitely more action and more fast paced. I can't blame 1st Class, though, it's the type of movie that requires a more thoughtful plot.
I'm not going to give anything away, so no spoilers. Suffice to say: GO SEE THIS MOVIE AND BUY IT ON DVD! :)
See my review on the theater also. It didn't fare NEARLY as well...
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Ehh.
That's about all I can say on this one.
Definitely more action, but the overall entertainment value is still a bit low. Lots of good chuckles throughout the movie, and couple minor plot twists caught my attention, but overall I see it as another failure to live up to expectations. I very much wanted to like and enjoy this movie as I like the Transformers franchise and all, but this again just felt like an average-effort film like the first one was.
The long and the short:
The Autobots get pissed off when they discover that they're USA friends haven't been sharing everything they know, namely that an Autobot ship was discovered crashed on the moon, and that's why we went to the moon... Not to beat the Russians, but to beat the Russians to the crashed alien ship.
Turns out that ship carried one of the Autobots greatest inventors/scientists (familiar voice on this guy too for you Star Trek fans out there) who was transporting a weapon, the greatest and best hope that Autobots had of winning the war.
Turns out to be not true. This weapon was being handed over to the Decepticons. Apparently a deal was struck, and the idea was that this so-called weapon (it's not) would be used to enslave all the humans on Earth, and put them to work at rebuilding Cybertron.
Well now that Autobots have to destroy the devices instead of try to recover them in order to save humanity again (which they do).
New characters are introduced on both sides of the fence, only for us to see some of them get killed off later on.
No real change to the underlying plot (good vs. evil on the giant-robot-scale), and in my mind at least they failed to actually move the overall story along. The first hour was more than boring but not by much, and they spent way, WAY too much time on the Sam kid again. I'm here to see giant alien robots do crap, not some whiny college grad complain about not being able to get a good job.
I'd almost rate this as not worth seeing, but I already hear rumors of a fourth movie, and I'll bet (at least I hope) that the fourth will build on the third and actually produce a story worth seeing.
I was not overjoyed with this movie, and my friends weren't all that impressed either as I recall. I'd advise waiting on a rental with this one. Really. Seriously. Unless you have kids that wanna see it, then of course you're at the whim of your kids.
That's about all I can say on this one.
Definitely more action, but the overall entertainment value is still a bit low. Lots of good chuckles throughout the movie, and couple minor plot twists caught my attention, but overall I see it as another failure to live up to expectations. I very much wanted to like and enjoy this movie as I like the Transformers franchise and all, but this again just felt like an average-effort film like the first one was.
The long and the short:
The Autobots get pissed off when they discover that they're USA friends haven't been sharing everything they know, namely that an Autobot ship was discovered crashed on the moon, and that's why we went to the moon... Not to beat the Russians, but to beat the Russians to the crashed alien ship.
Turns out that ship carried one of the Autobots greatest inventors/scientists (familiar voice on this guy too for you Star Trek fans out there) who was transporting a weapon, the greatest and best hope that Autobots had of winning the war.
Turns out to be not true. This weapon was being handed over to the Decepticons. Apparently a deal was struck, and the idea was that this so-called weapon (it's not) would be used to enslave all the humans on Earth, and put them to work at rebuilding Cybertron.
Well now that Autobots have to destroy the devices instead of try to recover them in order to save humanity again (which they do).
New characters are introduced on both sides of the fence, only for us to see some of them get killed off later on.
No real change to the underlying plot (good vs. evil on the giant-robot-scale), and in my mind at least they failed to actually move the overall story along. The first hour was more than boring but not by much, and they spent way, WAY too much time on the Sam kid again. I'm here to see giant alien robots do crap, not some whiny college grad complain about not being able to get a good job.
I'd almost rate this as not worth seeing, but I already hear rumors of a fourth movie, and I'll bet (at least I hope) that the fourth will build on the third and actually produce a story worth seeing.
I was not overjoyed with this movie, and my friends weren't all that impressed either as I recall. I'd advise waiting on a rental with this one. Really. Seriously. Unless you have kids that wanna see it, then of course you're at the whim of your kids.
Captain America: The First Avenger
OK, this wasn't bad, but it was very SLOOOWWW for most of the movie. If you don't know any of the history of Captain America (I know some) then the first hour of the movie is for you. Pay attention; people show up and things happen for a reason, and you'll see them again later in the film.
There were a couple funny spots that got a few chuckles from the crowd, sections of it though were almost annoying. The long montages detracted from the film for me, but they do get the point across that time is passing and things are happening and stuff. I did also note a few discrepancies within the film itself. There are times when Cap's shield deflects stuff and he doesn't even look like he felt it, and then later he's deflecting the same kind of big stuff and getting tossed around by it. Kinda seems to be a contradiction in there.
We do see how Steve Rogers ended up getting into the Army, and how he was selected for the Super Soldier program (and they spend a lot of time making all that happen). And then they spend a lot of time (and another long montage) about how Cap isn't happy with his assigned role as spokesman and entertainer. Then you actually get some action, and see something of what he can do. Then you get to see him go after the Red Skull (bad guy). Then go after him again (in another long montage), and then have a not-quite-epic-and-somewhat-boring boss battle at almost the end, where Cap than makes the ultimate sacrifice.
Make sure you stay through ALL the credits. You'll also need to see this so that the Avengers movie that comes out next year will make some sense (along with Thor, the Incredible Hulk, and perhaps both Iron Man movies).
There were a couple funny spots that got a few chuckles from the crowd, sections of it though were almost annoying. The long montages detracted from the film for me, but they do get the point across that time is passing and things are happening and stuff. I did also note a few discrepancies within the film itself. There are times when Cap's shield deflects stuff and he doesn't even look like he felt it, and then later he's deflecting the same kind of big stuff and getting tossed around by it. Kinda seems to be a contradiction in there.
We do see how Steve Rogers ended up getting into the Army, and how he was selected for the Super Soldier program (and they spend a lot of time making all that happen). And then they spend a lot of time (and another long montage) about how Cap isn't happy with his assigned role as spokesman and entertainer. Then you actually get some action, and see something of what he can do. Then you get to see him go after the Red Skull (bad guy). Then go after him again (in another long montage), and then have a not-quite-epic-and-somewhat-boring boss battle at almost the end, where Cap than makes the ultimate sacrifice.
Make sure you stay through ALL the credits. You'll also need to see this so that the Avengers movie that comes out next year will make some sense (along with Thor, the Incredible Hulk, and perhaps both Iron Man movies).
Sunday, June 06, 2010
Iron Man 2
B+
We saw this recently with some friends at the Kerasotes (now AMC) Showplace ICON theater in Saint Louis Park. We had the VIP seating in the balcony (nice comfy chairs, tables, lottsa space and leg room). These seats are a bit more expensive than the regular admission seating and require reservations/pre-purchase, but they're worth it for the big-deal and/or long movies you really want to see in a theater.
Anyway, you've read the review we did for Iron Man last year. I have to say that IM2 suffers from some of the same problems. Bits of the movie are just plain too long and quite boring, some sections could probably have been left out as they lend not much to the movie over all, and my FAVORITE thing to pick on... scenes in the TV commercials and theater trailers were not in the actual movie (I really hate when studios do that).
Still, generic plot stuff: The son of a Russian scientist that Stark's father worked with years ago on the Arc Reactor (remember the first movie) either bought, stole or somehow acquired plans to the chest power source Tony uses to keep himself alive and power his armor. This guy (who for those familiar with the Marvel Universe is called Whiplash) builds his electric whip weapons and goes after Tony in Monaco at a car race. He fails cause Stark has a portable briefcase sized version of the armor and was able to beat Whiplash, who is arrested.
One of the sub-plots running through the movie is that Tony is slowly being poisoned by the very device keeping him alive, and he's been working on a new design without success. He takes some kind of drink he made up to stave off the effects of the heavy metal poisoning, but is still losing the fight.
Anyway, Whiplash gets out of jail and is hired on by one of Starks competitors who wants not only the power source, but armor suits of his own to sell to the military. Oh, somewhere in between the initial fight and these new suits being developed (remember how I said parts of it were too long?) Rhode's takes the Mark II suit (the silverish one) and hands it over to the Air Force, who in turn hand it off to this guy Hammer that's working with Whiplash now. They mod the heck out of the suit adding weapons and such and call it War Machine, which Rhodes still pilots.
Meanwhile, Stark continues thinking he's dead soon, and starts giving away his company (to Pepper) and tossing out compute files and papers and such, getting drunk and throwing parties.
He eventually discovers that the new element he needs to make a new power source that won't poison him was thought up by his father 20 or more years ago and left hidden in plain sight for Tony to find years later (which he does). Tony ends up creating this new element based on Dad's design and builds a new chest piece that miraculously not only gives him renewed strength gut heals him of the heavy metal poisoning as well, all with-in a few seconds.
Just in time, as Whiplash is taking over all these drones he built for Hammer, including the War Machine suit, and going after Iron Man again.
Big fight ensues, where whiplash dies, the drones are destroyed, Rhodes recovers and helps in the fight, and everyone that needs to live does so.
See? Pretty easy to sum up this movie. Provided I left out a couple people, and a bunch of junk that doesn't really matter to the story.
A good movie if you can get through the boring bits (and there are more than a couple) but worth seeing in the theater regardless if your a fan.
Oh, they find Thor's hammer in the desert of Nevada at the end of the movie (for the upcoming Avengers movie next year).
We did enjoy the movie, and we actually intend to see it again here soon, partly because we did enjoy it, partly because I started day-dreaming in parts of the movie and missed some bits (remember, boring bits). Still pretty good movie with quite a few funny bits thrown in.
We saw this recently with some friends at the Kerasotes (now AMC) Showplace ICON theater in Saint Louis Park. We had the VIP seating in the balcony (nice comfy chairs, tables, lottsa space and leg room). These seats are a bit more expensive than the regular admission seating and require reservations/pre-purchase, but they're worth it for the big-deal and/or long movies you really want to see in a theater.
Anyway, you've read the review we did for Iron Man last year. I have to say that IM2 suffers from some of the same problems. Bits of the movie are just plain too long and quite boring, some sections could probably have been left out as they lend not much to the movie over all, and my FAVORITE thing to pick on... scenes in the TV commercials and theater trailers were not in the actual movie (I really hate when studios do that).
Still, generic plot stuff: The son of a Russian scientist that Stark's father worked with years ago on the Arc Reactor (remember the first movie) either bought, stole or somehow acquired plans to the chest power source Tony uses to keep himself alive and power his armor. This guy (who for those familiar with the Marvel Universe is called Whiplash) builds his electric whip weapons and goes after Tony in Monaco at a car race. He fails cause Stark has a portable briefcase sized version of the armor and was able to beat Whiplash, who is arrested.
One of the sub-plots running through the movie is that Tony is slowly being poisoned by the very device keeping him alive, and he's been working on a new design without success. He takes some kind of drink he made up to stave off the effects of the heavy metal poisoning, but is still losing the fight.
Anyway, Whiplash gets out of jail and is hired on by one of Starks competitors who wants not only the power source, but armor suits of his own to sell to the military. Oh, somewhere in between the initial fight and these new suits being developed (remember how I said parts of it were too long?) Rhode's takes the Mark II suit (the silverish one) and hands it over to the Air Force, who in turn hand it off to this guy Hammer that's working with Whiplash now. They mod the heck out of the suit adding weapons and such and call it War Machine, which Rhodes still pilots.
Meanwhile, Stark continues thinking he's dead soon, and starts giving away his company (to Pepper) and tossing out compute files and papers and such, getting drunk and throwing parties.
He eventually discovers that the new element he needs to make a new power source that won't poison him was thought up by his father 20 or more years ago and left hidden in plain sight for Tony to find years later (which he does). Tony ends up creating this new element based on Dad's design and builds a new chest piece that miraculously not only gives him renewed strength gut heals him of the heavy metal poisoning as well, all with-in a few seconds.
Just in time, as Whiplash is taking over all these drones he built for Hammer, including the War Machine suit, and going after Iron Man again.
Big fight ensues, where whiplash dies, the drones are destroyed, Rhodes recovers and helps in the fight, and everyone that needs to live does so.
See? Pretty easy to sum up this movie. Provided I left out a couple people, and a bunch of junk that doesn't really matter to the story.
A good movie if you can get through the boring bits (and there are more than a couple) but worth seeing in the theater regardless if your a fan.
Oh, they find Thor's hammer in the desert of Nevada at the end of the movie (for the upcoming Avengers movie next year).
We did enjoy the movie, and we actually intend to see it again here soon, partly because we did enjoy it, partly because I started day-dreaming in parts of the movie and missed some bits (remember, boring bits). Still pretty good movie with quite a few funny bits thrown in.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Ok.
We've seen it. Friends said it was actually bad and not to bother.
Not that I mind that they changed the origin story for this character quite a bit (though in small ways) and introduce characters now that he never met until later in his life (and had him meet them now), and changed the appearance of some characters from the first three movies (though this is technically a prequel), it still was pretty good.
It dragged in spots, some portions of the movie should've ended up on the editing room floor in my opinion, but all-in-all I'll probably buy this on Blu-ray when it comes out.
Remember Sabertooth for the earlier movies? He looks a lot different now, and exhibits powers we hadn't previously seen in him. We get to see Gambit in a bit of action, and he does well. We also get to see a young Cyclops burn through a school.
It was odd don't get me wrong, and it felt like the movie jumped around a bit as I lost track of things at one point (and there is quite a bit to keep track of) and the 45 minutes or so spent on Wolverine's childhood-to-manhood was a bit much (and kinda boring). Still the last half-hour or so makes up for a good chunk of the mistakes (ok, they're mistakes to me).
I'd see it on eh big screen if you get a chance, just try for a matinee show if you can. Not a must own or must see, but well worth $5 bucks on a weekend if you have the time (and your a fan of the series).
We've seen it. Friends said it was actually bad and not to bother.
Not that I mind that they changed the origin story for this character quite a bit (though in small ways) and introduce characters now that he never met until later in his life (and had him meet them now), and changed the appearance of some characters from the first three movies (though this is technically a prequel), it still was pretty good.
It dragged in spots, some portions of the movie should've ended up on the editing room floor in my opinion, but all-in-all I'll probably buy this on Blu-ray when it comes out.
Remember Sabertooth for the earlier movies? He looks a lot different now, and exhibits powers we hadn't previously seen in him. We get to see Gambit in a bit of action, and he does well. We also get to see a young Cyclops burn through a school.
It was odd don't get me wrong, and it felt like the movie jumped around a bit as I lost track of things at one point (and there is quite a bit to keep track of) and the 45 minutes or so spent on Wolverine's childhood-to-manhood was a bit much (and kinda boring). Still the last half-hour or so makes up for a good chunk of the mistakes (ok, they're mistakes to me).
I'd see it on eh big screen if you get a chance, just try for a matinee show if you can. Not a must own or must see, but well worth $5 bucks on a weekend if you have the time (and your a fan of the series).
Angels & Demons
Ok.
We've seen it.
For a Prequel story, they worked awful hard at making it a sequel (seemed that way to me). BUT the main character, Langdon, doesn't do the same kinds of things he did in the first movie, doesn't even act quite the same way. You remember in the Code when he was thinking through a problem they did a nice special effect to show us what/how he was thinking? You won't see that here.
The story is good, though the plot twist was obvious and expected (I nailed it not an hour into the movie, and when I say nailed I mean dead on).
Still, it was interesting none-the-less, though I'm sure I'll think twice before I purchase it on DVD/Blu-ray when it comes out. It just wasn't that memorable. In fact, we created our own double-feature and saw another movie after this one (see next review) and after that movie I had to ask what we saw first because I simply couldn't remember. That's how forgettable Angels & Demons is. It was bad, it just wasn't all that great either.
We've seen it.
For a Prequel story, they worked awful hard at making it a sequel (seemed that way to me). BUT the main character, Langdon, doesn't do the same kinds of things he did in the first movie, doesn't even act quite the same way. You remember in the Code when he was thinking through a problem they did a nice special effect to show us what/how he was thinking? You won't see that here.
The story is good, though the plot twist was obvious and expected (I nailed it not an hour into the movie, and when I say nailed I mean dead on).
Still, it was interesting none-the-less, though I'm sure I'll think twice before I purchase it on DVD/Blu-ray when it comes out. It just wasn't that memorable. In fact, we created our own double-feature and saw another movie after this one (see next review) and after that movie I had to ask what we saw first because I simply couldn't remember. That's how forgettable Angels & Demons is. It was bad, it just wasn't all that great either.
Monday, June 18, 2007
Fantastic Four, Rise of the Silver Surfer - June 16, 2007
Her perspective: Must See
Synopsis: The Silver Surfer comes to earth to prepare it for destruction. As the Silver Surfer races around the globe wreaking havoc, Reed, Sue, Johnny and Ben must unravel the mystery of the Silver Surfer and confront the surprising return of their mortal enemy, Doctor Doom, before all hope is lost... all while Reed and Sue are trying to get married.
Review: In the true style of the Marvel films, this movie is fast-paced, with plenty of action and suspense, which is the mark of good writing and directing. There are several spots that are hilarious, mixed with a few serious spots. They could have done more with Johnny switching powers, and they never explained how he kept his flame power when he took on the other three powers. Not having read the comics, I thought I might not be up to speed on the characters, but they did a good job of making the movies "stand alone" so you don't need to have read the comics. I was wishing that they had explained the science a little more behind separating the Silver Surfer from the board as well as separating Dr. Doom from the board. I also think that the final fight could have lasted longer and been a bit more involved.
Over all, though, if you just want to sit back and watch a Marvel film, it's a good one and I enjoyed it.
Synopsis: The Silver Surfer comes to earth to prepare it for destruction. As the Silver Surfer races around the globe wreaking havoc, Reed, Sue, Johnny and Ben must unravel the mystery of the Silver Surfer and confront the surprising return of their mortal enemy, Doctor Doom, before all hope is lost... all while Reed and Sue are trying to get married.
Review: In the true style of the Marvel films, this movie is fast-paced, with plenty of action and suspense, which is the mark of good writing and directing. There are several spots that are hilarious, mixed with a few serious spots. They could have done more with Johnny switching powers, and they never explained how he kept his flame power when he took on the other three powers. Not having read the comics, I thought I might not be up to speed on the characters, but they did a good job of making the movies "stand alone" so you don't need to have read the comics. I was wishing that they had explained the science a little more behind separating the Silver Surfer from the board as well as separating Dr. Doom from the board. I also think that the final fight could have lasted longer and been a bit more involved.
Over all, though, if you just want to sit back and watch a Marvel film, it's a good one and I enjoyed it.
Friday, June 15, 2007
Shooter: Mark Wahlberg, Danny Glover
Her perspective: Must See, Must Own
Synopsis: Mark Wahlberg stars as a gunnery Sergeant sniper (Bob Lee Swagger) who saw his buddy killed in Ethiopia and subsequently retired to a solitary lifestyle in the mountains. He is sought out by Colonel Johnson, played by Danny Glover, to help him plan an assassination on the President, with the intention of stopping it. Bob agrees reluctantly, and the Colonel sets him up to take the fall for the assassination. However, the President was not shot, but a dignitary from Ethiopia. Bob continues to run throughout the film, using his skills: they train you how to stay alive after they train you how to kill. He goes to his buddy's widow to help him and eventually enlists the help of disgraced FBI agent, Nick Memphis (Michael Pena).
Review: Great Writing! There is quite a lot of humor and excellent one-liners. The plot is a bit complicated, yet easy to follow. Very good story line; a bit of a twist on a plot I've seen before. It moved along quickly right from the beginning and kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. There was just enough action, not too much, not too little; nothing gratuitous.
Synopsis: Mark Wahlberg stars as a gunnery Sergeant sniper (Bob Lee Swagger) who saw his buddy killed in Ethiopia and subsequently retired to a solitary lifestyle in the mountains. He is sought out by Colonel Johnson, played by Danny Glover, to help him plan an assassination on the President, with the intention of stopping it. Bob agrees reluctantly, and the Colonel sets him up to take the fall for the assassination. However, the President was not shot, but a dignitary from Ethiopia. Bob continues to run throughout the film, using his skills: they train you how to stay alive after they train you how to kill. He goes to his buddy's widow to help him and eventually enlists the help of disgraced FBI agent, Nick Memphis (Michael Pena).
Review: Great Writing! There is quite a lot of humor and excellent one-liners. The plot is a bit complicated, yet easy to follow. Very good story line; a bit of a twist on a plot I've seen before. It moved along quickly right from the beginning and kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. There was just enough action, not too much, not too little; nothing gratuitous.
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