Movies

Underworld: Evolution, the sequel to Underworld, is about Vampires, Lychans (special werewolves) and a whole lot of action, blood, sex, blood, action, blood. Don’t get me wrong, I liked the movie, it just wasn’t good.

The movie has some cool fight scenes, graphical effects, and of course, Kate Beckinsale, who could make anything worth watching. As for the movie, it was kind of predictable, had shotty dialogue, and has been done before…I didn’t see Underworld, so I can’t say it was the same, but I’ll go with Van Helsing (which Kate was also in, where Kate also played a character sworn against some evil power). One note about the dialogue: everytime there was some important question asked, there was a long pause, staring and a cut scene. The scene that was cut to was only like 30 seconds long, and then back for the answer. If you like action, blood and a sex scene with Kate Beckinsale, this is the movie for you. If you are looking for some completely original, life changing movie, i would suggest Eternal Sunshine or A Clockwork Orange. I know there are better ones, but I haven’t seen them or are forgetting them at the moment.

On a final thought, I would like to know why every time a movie is made taking place in an early, we will say post Revolutionary War, era, the people have British accents. Kate actually does have one, but i doubt they entire cast did. But every movie like that: Lord of the Rings, King Arthur (I guess that’s ok…), Alexander, Kingdom of Heaven to name a few. Kingdom of Heaven took place in Rome and Jerusalem (i believe). Just something I thought I might mention. Later!

I wrote the same review over at Newsvine:

My view of Hostel going into the movie was very different that what the actual film was. I thought it would be more ‘Saw like’, partially because I saw my first preview during my viewing of Saw II. But, the story actually focuses on 3 college aged guys who are back-packing through Europe and end up in a town east of Amsterdam. They went there looking for girls and a good time. Well they found the girls. Now I don’t want to give too much away here, but one by one they find their way into this place that is used to torture and kill people. People pay to do this.

A couple of the things I liked about the film are the transformation of characters throughout the movie, based on their decisions, and the more we find out about them. Also, anyone we met or anything we saw was tied in one way or another. There were no real pointless parts of the movie. You can tell that some though was put into the movie as well. What was seemingly pointless banter at times ended up playing a big roll in the plot.

However, I don’t think the movie lived up to the hype of being this gore fest that gives people panic attacks. Over all, the film did make me squirm, scared me at parts, and left me for the most part, satisfied. I give it a 3.5/5. Later!

Another Peter Jackson film. Another 3 hour marathon. I haven’t seen the first one. Therefore, I cannot draw comparisons. However, I thought it was good. Not amazing. Not LotR status. Then again, not much is. But this movie definitely had its great points, and its ehh points. *Warning: there are some spoilers, but if you know the story of King Kong, you already know what happens.*

First of all, Naomi Watts- beautiful and a great performance. And beautiful. But anyway, at first, I tried to rationalize the film. Some parts were really ridiculous. But, you shouldn’t try to rationalize a movie about a giant gorilla. Look at the big (excuse the pun) picture. The message of the film. That’s what made the movie great. I mean, Kong was a lonely guy, looking for a companion which he found in Watt’s Anne Darrow. So the beast had feelings. He wasn’t just a blood thirsty monster. You felt bad for him when he got hurt and then captured trying to protect Darrow. And at the end of his movie, his final goodbye on top of the building was touching. He started to feel like a friend in that pet sort of relationship.

But getting to these points were very long and drawn out. Everything seemed to be in slow motion. That’s because a lot of it was. It was unnecessary. Also, the finding of skull island took way too long. The whole ship getting tossed around was really drawn out. And there were some ridiculous parts, with giant bugs, dinosaurs and whatnot.

Jack Black was very good, to my surprise. This was his first major non-comedic roll, and he was a bit of an antagonist. He took them to skull island, he put them in danger, he captured kong, which led to kong’s death. He did a really good job of making us hate him in the movie. Over all the movie could have been shorter, but it was good- it had some good action (watch Kong fight off 3 T-Rexes) not too much of a love story (but just enough) and a companionship that really played to the crowd. Later!

See Saw II. You will not be disappointed.

—Hello, Michael. I want to play a game. So far, in what mostly could be called your life, you have made a living watching others. Society would call you an informant. A rat. A snitch. I call you unworthy of the body you possess. Of the life you’ve been given. Now we will see if you are willing to look inward, rather than outward, to give up the one thing you rely on in order to go on living…

5/5- The film is absolutely phenomenal. Another great work by Tim Burton. The cinematography, scenery, acting, and especially musical numbers were all pluses for the film. Depp’s Willy Wonka was great and the type of odd that I think it was more meant to be. Having not read the book [yet], it’s tough for me to draw a comparison to it, but it was a well done movie over all- this film showed more about Wonka than the first one, and while it had the sad undertone of him having a bad relationship with his father, it did not ruin the comedic moments. Depp did a great job in brightening up the lighter moments and diving deep into the darker moments that were his past. Freddie Highmore was great as Charlie, really bringing out the good character and highlighting the ‘moral of the story’ moments. The scenery gave that odd sense that Burton has in all of his films, but it still gave off the happier feeling of the Wonka Factory. The funny parts are well placed and well delivered. I laughed the whole time, but at the same time felt for the characters. Over all the film was well done and is worth seeing…and seeing again. Later.

3/5- It had its ups and downs. Another comic book movie, the fantastic 4 is about 5 people who go up into space to track a DNA cloud, the get caught in it, it alters their DNA to kind of fit their he 4 personality. The four good ones- Reed, Sue, Johnny and Ben- the one bad- Victor Von Doom. One day, disaster strikes on a bridge, the 4 are there to help out, they get their name….The group argues as stress mounts- ben hates the fact that he is a (the) thing, johnny loves his powers and he attention, Reed and Sue are just into each other. Von Doom becomes evil after he looses everything- his company, his money, ‘his’ girl. Some things were well done- for instance- the 4 really worked well together- there was good chemistry there which made for a better movie. It is no Batman Begins by far, but it is fairly close to the Spiderman movies- similar qualities- and this movie has some pretty cool special effects. The plot was there, there was reasoning behind it, the characters grew and changed throughout the movie- Ben the most. From start to finish, they realized what Johnny already thought- their powers were a gift, not a curse. The final fight scene could have been better, though it did show how well the 4 worked together, and the real power Sue has. If you are into comic books, i tihnk you will enjoy the movie. Later