06.29.08
Posted in Main, Movie Reviews at 9:24 am by lee1990
HULK SMASH! is a good general description for this fast-paced vision of the story of the comic book Jekyl and Hyde story The Incredible Hulk.
A quick review for those readers who have been on another planet and may not be familiar with the story line, here is a primer. Unassuming scientist Bruce Banner was experimenting with gamma radiation one day, and accidentally received an overdose. As a result, when Banner becomes enraged, he turns into a nearly indestructible, amazingly strong, 10 foot, green-skinned giant called the Hulk. He searches for a cure endlessly so that he can resume a normal life with his lady love, Dr. Betty Ross. Unfortunately, Dr. Ross’ father, US Army General Thunderbolt Ross, is obsessed alternately with the capture or destruction of the Hulk, depending on which version of the story is being told.
The movie assumes all this back story is more or less know to the audience, and concentrates instead on being a fast paced fugitive movie as Dr. Banner again and again is pursued by his nemesis, only to be saved at the last instant by transforming into his meaner, greener self.
The battle scenes are spectacular, and far more frequent that Ang Lees far more cerebral Hulk, which this movie pretends never existed. All throughout, the Hulk also manages to keep a semblance of basic humanity, which makes the audience able to root for what would otherwise be a simple monster. It also helps that, true to form with the comic/cartoons made of the Hulk over the years, this incarnation of the Hulk is able to speak in his usual two-word sentences by the end of the movie.
This movie set up both a sequel and a crossover during the course of the film. At the very end, Tony Stark from Iron Man (played by the same actor no less) shows up and speaks of a special project with General Ross. There is also a brief glimpse of the birth of Hulk’s true arch-nemesis, the gamma mutated genius know only as The Leader. This points to me that there may be an unprecedented cross-over/sequel coming combining both Ironman and Hulk into a single movie.
A entertaining evening, if a bit on the long side.
8 out of 10.
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Posted in Main, Movie Reviews at 9:05 am by lee1990
Funny. Period.
The actor who plays agent Maxwell Smart in this screen adaptation of the 1960’s James Bond television spoof Get Smart is a bumbler worthy of inheriting the late, great Peter Seller’s title as the world’s dumbest and most lucky law enforcement agent.
For those not familiar with the original television series, Get Smart revolves around the conflict between a government agency called Control, and a terrorist organization called Chaos. In the movie version, Max Smart is not even an agent to start. He is an analyst made into a field agent out of necessity after an attack wipes out most of Control.
Duayne Johnson (formerly the pro-wrestler The Rock) also starts as a star agent who plays a pivotal role as the movie unfolds.
The updated plot line follows Controls efforts to stop Chaos from unleashing a nuclear attack, in an up-to-date plot line. The movie also pays homage to one James Bond icon, with a villain who is extremely reminiscent of the legendary James Bond thug Jaws (from Moonraker and other Bond films.
I actually laughed out loud on more than one occasion, a very rare thing for me, so this movie is well worth the admission if laughs are what you seek.
7 out of 10.
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Posted in Main, Movie Reviews at 8:54 am by lee1990
M. Night, we barely knew ye. This one may very well bury his career and shows that he has been fully contaminated by the leftist taint in Hollyweird.
The most disappointing thing about this cinematic fiasco is that it could have been so good if all the eco-preaching garbage had been left out. The movie is structured very similarly to Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece, The Birds, in that it is about a normally benign part of nature that suddenly turns hostile to mankind. In this case, the plant life of New England suddenly begins to emit a toxin that reverses the normal human instinct to self-preserve into an instinctual drive to self-destruct, resulting in suicides by whatever means are most immediately available (one poor shmuck runs himself over with an industrial sized lawnmower in the most graphic scene in the movie.) Our eco-heroes discover that of course this is our fault, most likely due to the large number of nuclear plants in New England.
When I discovered I had been duped into watching eco-trash instead of a supernatural thriller, I almost considered demanding a refund. This movie could have been as good a scare movie as The Birds, but M. Night was so concerned with his insipid eco-preaching that he forgot that what made The Birds so frightening was that the homicidal behavior of the seagulls that attacked the town was never explained; it was simply an unexplainable and uncontrollable force of nature.
I have never said this about any film, but do not go see this movie, do not buy this movie, do not rent this movie. If Hollywood is to learn that we do not want this preachy, hysterical eco-trash foisted off on us again and again, we must punish them for making it by giving them flop after flop until they learn.
A perfect 10 on the dud meter.
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06.10.08
Posted in Main, Movie Reviews at 6:08 pm by lee1990
Art Bell would LOVE this movie.
Things for Indiana Jones take a turn away from the purely mystical to the more sci-fi in this worthy entry in the Indiana Jones “quadilogy.” To give a clue, the movie starts in Area 51 in 1956 as Russian KGB agents eject Indiana from the trunk of a car (he always seems to start the movie being roughed up in some way).
The agents are led by a female psychic who demands of Indy that he locate an item that he helped to retrieve from the Nevada desert shortly after the end of WW2 (sound familiar?).
After much daring do, Indiana manages one of his death (not to mention probability) defying escapes, only to find that he has escaped into a mock-up town on an atomic bomb test sight. How he gets out of that one is so improbable as to be silly, but I won’t give too much away.
The movie also takes a swipe at the Red Scare that was gripping the country throughout most of the 1950’s, as Indiana is sweated by FBI agents after being rescued for “helping” the KGB. He is also fired from his teaching job due to his suspected “sympathizing”.
Indiana is considering his options when a young man approaches telling him that his mentor, one of Indiana’s oldest friends, has been kidnapped and the boy has the key to what he wants.
It seems that the boy’s mentor was taken because of an artifact he had found in South America near the so-called Nazca lines. The artifact as it turns out is an odd elongated crystal skull.
All parties (KGB and the Indiana bunch) actually share the same goal; return the skull back where it came from - a legendary city of gold. It is said that whoever returns the skull will be granted the use of its immense psychic power. Tying in to this is a statement the evil KGB woman makes about how she will use the skull’s power to influence the youth of the West to “transform you into us”. (Turns out they didn’t need that, just cooperative teachers and Barack Obama. )
The ending is pure Art Bell Coast to Coast AM stuff, but spectacularly done. The villains perish in the usual and appropriately terrible way.
A fun ride keeping with the Indiana Jones tradition.
8 out of 10.
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Posted in Main, Movie Reviews at 5:50 pm by lee1990
The main character in this movie, Anthony Stark, received a belated but much needed coming of age. Mr. Stark is a super genius weapons developer who is so busy womanizing and partying he has barely noticed as his chief nemesis (played to villainous perfection by a barely recognizable Jeff Bridges) slowly takes over his company.
As Mr. Stark is in Afghanistan testing his latest weapon, a cluster-bomb missile called the Jericho, his convoy is ambushed and he is critically wounded and captured. His captors demand that he build a Jericho for them, but he instead manages to build a powerful battle suit out of junk (call it IronMan Mark 1). Using this powersuit to escape, Mr. Stark has an epiphany and announces that his company will cease all weapons manufacturing.
Mr. Stark returns home and fascinated by his accomplishment in the desert, begins to fashion an advanced version of his powered-armor suit. There are a few comical moments integrated into this, especially as IronMan first attempts to take to the sky.
Eventually his nemesis finds the wreckage of the original armor suit, and an all out fight for control over Iron Man’s power ensues.
The movie has one brief cover-the-kids-eyes moment of sexuality, but all in all would make a good evening’s entertainment. The plot is not overly complicated nor overly simple, and as expected, the visuals and battle scenes are spectacular.
6 out of 10.
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