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Lockout (2012)
Not terrible but definitely beneath Guy Pearce's abilities
Guy Pearce evidenced by his performances in movies like LA Confidential, Memento and others is arguably one of the most talented actors in movies today and he's basically just cashing a paycheck in a by the numbers action vehicle. I guess the reason he did this movie was while a talented actor he's not a huge box office draw and hoped an action movie would help broaden his name value to be able to get even better roles down the line but it doesn't seem like this has accomplished that goal. This seems like it was a retooling of what would've been the third part of the John Carpenter's Escape from ... series. That type of movie works with a character as iconic as Snake Plissken but this screenplay leaves Pearce nothing to work with here.
Rush (2013)
Best racing movie of all time?
Ron Howard's Rush is by far the best auto racing movie I have ever seen. It really captures the feeling of what it feels like to be in the world of an auto racer. The previous auto racing movies like Days of Thunder, Talladega Nights and Driven just don't capture the feel of what it's really like to be a professional auto driver. Part of it is probably since it's based on a true story and not a fictional story with overally sappy or comedic moments that are totally unbelievable in comparison. The race scenes are very intense and totally captures your imagination.
I like Chris Hemsworth in the Thor role but he was way more to sink into as an actor in this role. Daniel Bruhl is great also as the other lead character, both should get serious Academy Award consideration.
Snitch (2013)
Top quality movie
Snitch might be the best overall acting performance to date for Dwayne Johnson. I think that Dwayne is great in his Fast & Furious and G.I. Joe type of roles but this is probably his most realistic performance of his career to date. He has to play a father who's trying to get his son out of prison after his son made a huge boneheaded decision. And while his son did make a bad decision he got punished way more then he deserved to be punished.
The casting of this movie was flawless with every actor perfect for their respective roles. Dwayne as the father as said above. Jon Bernthal from The Walking Dead as the guy working at Johnson's trucking business who helps introduce the father to his former drug contacts. Susan Sarandon as the US Attorney, Barry Pepper as the DEA Agent, Michael K. Williams as the mid level drug dealer, Melina Kanakeredes as the mother and Benjamin Bratt as the drug kingpin are all fantastic in each of their roles.
This Means War (2012)
If you have to watch a RomCom this is the movie a guy will like
Let's be honest, when a guy wants to watch a movie the last thing he'll suggest watching is a romantic comedy. Usually you're forced to watch them because your girlfriend/wife is forcing you to. But if you're ever in that situation I would definitely choose This Means War over any of those crappy movies that Katherine Heigl puts out on a regular basis. The movie is about 2 secret agents trying to court the same girl. There is a lot of action in the movie and definitely a lot of stunts taking place.
Plus one of the leads of the movie is Tom Hardy who's one of the most prolific actors of the last several years as far putting out quality work. With Bronson, The Dark Knight Rises, Warrior and other stuff he's definitely one of the most interesting actors working today. Chris Pine and Reese Witherspoon are pretty decent also in the other 2 lead roles.
Wild Wild West (1999)
Movie made for all of the wrong reasons.
I know that when you make big budget summer blockbuster type of movies the idea is to make the biggest movie with the most butts in seats as possible. But when you care so little about the storytelling and leave almost nothing from the original TV show then what's the point of even making the movie? Even if this movie was a success at the box office in comparison to how much it cost to make(which it wasn't), it doesn't change the fact that it's a movie that you'll forget 10 minutes after seeing it.
Barry Sonnenfeld with this movie shows that he's not a real director, but more of less just the glorified cinematographer we all know that he is. He's good at being the guy behind the camera and getting all the close ups and all the nice shots type of stuff. But he has no place in working with actors, overseeing changes to the script, dealing with studio pressure who want you to change your movie in ways that make no sense but hey if we add this random new character with little importance to the story we might sell a few more toys!
Furious 6 (2013)
This is how fun movies should be
The Fast and Furious movies are never going to be Oscar darlings but when you pay your money at the movie theater to see them you know what you're going to get and they deliver it for you. Not only are the F&F movies fun and great popcorn entertainment they don't insult your intelligence like the Transformers or Battleship type blockbusters do.
Vin Diesel and Paul Walker have great chemistry together as the leads for the series. Great to see one of the original 4 characters of Michelle Rodriguez back in the fold. Her lack of presence was missing in Fast Five. Don't get me wrong Fast Five was a great movie even without her but the Brian, Dom, Mia and Letty characters make it feel like a true F&F movie. Without one of the 4 main characters it takes away from the F&F feel of the movie. That's probably why Tokyo Drift was the weakest of all the F&F movies.
Golden Boy (2013)
Canceled prematurely
This show could've been a really good and long running show if it was given a chance. 13 episodes is all we get though. Network TV has really gone in the crapper lately where when they finally put together a good show they give up on the show shortly after debuting it. It's like why do they even bother putting shows on TV if they have no faith in them? And they cancel the show shortly after adding Michael Madsen as a recurring character, which sucks since he's one of my favorite actors and they suddenly cancel the show right after introducing him.
The show has a fantastic so the success of the show was not because a lack of quality performances on screen. It was from a lack of promotion by the network.
WWF in Your House: D-Generation-X (1997)
First post Montreal screwjob PPV for WWF
This was a very historical time in pro wrestling, it was just before this PPV that Bret Hart had the very public loss of his title at the Survivor Series PPV. Which basically WWF used to cultivate the Mr. McMahon character into one of the greatest heel characters in pro wrestling history.
As far as the PPV card itself. It had the newly crowned WWF Champion Shawn Michaels defending his title against Ken Shamrock. The first ever PPV matchup between Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock, this time for the Intercontinental Title. Jeff Jarrett seemed a little out of place facing The Undertaker. Jarrett was never up to main event calibre in his WWF time and I'm not sure why he got the opportunity here. I'm guessing WWF was short on mid level to main event level talent at the time with Bret gone and taking British Bulldog with him and Owen Hart temporarily on leave before coming back. Surprisingly Triple H had a 12 minute match with Sgt. Slaughter who going into the PPV you'd have expected a quick squash match, considering Slaughter being long retired and HHH one of the younger stars of the company.
Overall it was a decent PPV but by no means a great PPV. The most memorable match was the first Austin/Rock PPV match considering they'd eventually go onto going against each other 3 times at WM. Shawn Michaels vs. Ken Shamrock was a very short run of a feud since this was the only time Shamrock ever got a PPV main event slot.
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000)
Good show but slightly unrealistic
The mothership of the CSI franchise is the only of the CSI shows that are watchable, Miami and NY are just terrible in comparison. But with that said the main CSI is kind of unrealistic in the involvement the Crime Scene Unit does in solving crimes. The way the show makes it out to be it's the CSI team that solves the cases with the assistance of an occasional detective when it's really the other way around. It's the detectives who solve the cases with the assistance of the CSI's, not the other way around. You don't see real CSI's interrogating suspects or questioning witnesses. The CSI's jobs is to find finger prints, DNA and all of the science part of the investigation. CSI's don't go on raids and they definitely don't carry weapons.
42 (2013)
Well done movie about important subject matter
42 is a great baseball movie and a great movie in general as how it relates to the civil rights movement of the mid 1900's. Before Rosa Parks refused to take a seat in the back of a bus there was Jackie Robinson. Jackie when he integrated baseball wasn't only integrating that sport but also taking the first step in ending of the Jim Crow laws which unfairly mistreated a whole race of people for no good reason.
Amazing performance by Harrison Ford as Branch Rickey, Ford totally immerses himself in the role and you don't see Harrison Ford the guy known for being Han Solo, Indiana Jones or Jack Ryan but you see Branch Rickey. It was a very inspired casting choice going with Ford who wouldn't have been an obvious choice for the role.
Chadwick Boseman definitely stepped up to the plate in his first leading role. Prior to this movie the only time I had seen Boseman in a movie was his one scene at the end of The Express playing Floyd Little.
All of the game action and actors playing the ballplayers of that time were really authentic in their appearance.
A Good Day to Die Hard (2013)
This is a strictly paint by the numbers edition of Die Hard
As far as Die Hard movies go this is by far the weakest of all the installments. Live Free or Die Hard while it didn't really feel like a Die Hard movie that much as the original 3, still was a fairly decent movie. But Die Hard 5 aka A Good Day to Die Hard it seems like Bruce Willis is just doing it to cash a pay check. And in the last movie when they introduced the Lucy McClane character they actually made it some decent amount of character development in her small amount of screen time. In this movie Jai Courtney does a down right terrible job as being the heir to the McClane kick butt business. It definitely doesn't help matters that this movie is only 1 hour and 40 minutes long while all previous installments were at least 2 full hours long. And the bad guys were as 2 dimensional of characters as you could get. In the previous movies you always had great bad guys to give McClane trouble, in this movie you have a cartoon character who easily gets dispatched before the guy who you thought was a good guy ends up as the real bad guy. This is like the producers said to themselves, "What's the least amount of effort can we put into making a Die Hard movie and it still earning a profit?". Well I think we found our answer to that question.
21 Jump Street (2012)
Not quite as bad as I thought it would be
Considering that I'm only giving this movie a 5 rating when it went above my expectations of it just shows how little faith I had going into this movie. I guess it's better to be a entertainingly mediocre movie like this then to be a boring movie that's not as memorable. While there might be more middle of the pack movies that have slightly better acting then this a lot of them aren't as memorable.
Channing Tatum is still someone who's still very much learning the craft of acting and Jonah Hill while slightly better then Tatum won't get confused for Daniel Day-Lewis any time soon. But light hearted comedies like this really play to their strengths. But Ice Cube as the Captain shows he hasn't evolved as an actor at all even though he's been acting since Boyz N the Hood, which was 20 years ago.
Gangster Squad (2013)
Potential for a great movie, ends up being a decent movie
Gangster Squad had a lot going for it with a fantastic cast of actors in the prime of their careers and great period setting for a film. LA Confidential's was only a year or two after the time line of this movie, it could've been a good followup noir style of film itself. But the direction and screenplay for the movie were only average.
Sean Penn was good in the Mickey Cohen role but a tad bit over the top in his portrayal of him, I prefer Harvey Keitel as Cohen in Bugsy. Josh Brolin is pretty good as the lead. Ryan Gosling is on a roll lately and is very strong in the #2 role. Overall a very good cast with a lot of great actors filling out the cast. Just wish they had a bit more to work with as far as material goes.
Super Bowl XLVII (2013)
The Lights Out game
The Baltimore Ravens were winning 28-6 right after a 108 year kickoff return to start the 2nd half of the 47th Super Bowl. But shortly after the lights suddenly go out in the Louisiana Superdome for 34 minutes. Totally changing the momentum of the game. The 49ers come charging back with 17 unanswered points. The game was definitely a nail biter to the point where the Ravens purposely gave up a safety to run out a few more seconds off the clock so when the 49ers received the eventual kick it would be a situation where they had to return the kick to win the game, no chance to run an offensive play at all. Great and innovative coaching decisions at crucial moments of the game by both Harbaugh brothers, each head coaching the opposing side of the game. One of the most dramatic super bowl games I've ever seen, for sure.
Death Proof (2007)
For QT's weakest film, still not half bad
Even though this might be the weakest movie, that's actually kind of a compliment towards Quentin. When your worst movie that you've done is still a good and solid movie that shows just how great your better movies are.
This isn't a very long movie since it's only half of what was the Grindhouse double teaming of Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez but it's an entertaining movie for the time that it gives you. It's then split in half thematically with the first half taking place in Texas where Stuntman Mike and Jungle Julia and her friends all hanging out in a bar then they all leave the bar where Mike then runs them all down in his "Death Proof" car.
The other half of the movie takes place in Tennessee where a couple of women on their day off from working on a movie decide to go test driving a Dodge Challenger muscle car and one of the girls played by Zoe Bell who's a real stunt woman go a little too far by playing a game where Zoe rides on the hood of the car while the car is going really fast. Which you have to cast a real stunt person to do a stunt like this since a regular actor couldn't do this stunt and because of the way they film this you can't just simply film it with a stunt double and use the normal actor in closeups without it getting lame. Really well done stunt.
Groundhog Day (1993)
Not just a comedy but a study of man nature
The movie is a very funny movie but it also studies what would a person do if they had to keep on living the same day over and over again, the only catch is they're the only one that knows that this is going on and you remember everything that happens every day. No matter what you do or how you do it you're not accountable for your actions, since when you wake up after going to bed it's going to be a whole new day. Since everything is exactly the same in the surroundings around you can just rob a bank without anyone being the wiser or something along those lines.
This is the type of comedy that's tailor made for Bill Murray where he can be a smart aleck but also being charismatic at the same time. In the movie Murray redeems himself and makes you get behind his rehabilitation into a better person who's no longer jaded by the world around him.
Desperado (1995)
Really fun movie
Desperado is just another great movie in Robert Rodriguez's career as a filmmaker. You can kind of view it as his first movie where he had a decent budget to work with for a change over the bare bones production of El Mariachi and Roadracers(was just a made for TV movie).
Antonio Banderas takes over the role of El Mariachi, this is the sequel to the EM movie. El Mariachi is almost the same thing as Clint Eastwood's character being known as The Man With No Name in Leone's Dollars Trilogy.
Salma Hayek puts her name on the map with her scintillating performance. Then you have another of the Rodriguez Regulars with Danny Trejo showing up for a few scenes.
Spies Like Us (1985)
One of the best comedies of the '80's
Out of all the comedies produced in the 1980's, it's still one of those movies that make me laugh at all the same jokes even though I have seen this movie endless amounts of times. And no matter how many times I see it, it still is as funny as the last time I've seen.
It's all the early SNL actors who went into movies during this time contributes to the golden age of comedic movies. Chevy Chase was on top of his game in the '80's, so was Dan Aykroyd. There's just something about movies like this movie, Stripes, Caddyshack, Trading Places and so on that just stand the test of time so well. I would much rather be in an era of comedic films like this then the garbage that came out in the early 2000's with all the dumb Farrelly Brothers and American Pie films. How many times can you say a different variation on a dick or fart joke before you realize that's all that those hacks have in their repertoire.
Apollo 13 (1995)
Tremendous film
Ron Howard creates a great movie about the most successful failure that NASA has ever had. It's a failure in that they didn't accomplish their original objective. But the mission was a success in that it returned all the astronauts and the shuttle in one piece. If they had died in outer space with the shuttle just floating out there in space it probably would've killed the space program for at least the next 10 years.
The filmmaking here was done expertly by Howard and his team. With the success of this movie then Howard, Tom Hanks and Brian Grazer all were able to make the great mini series From the Earth to the Moon which showed you the beginning of NASA to the end of the Apollo series of flights.
The movie lists a who's who as far as its cast goes with Hanks, Bill Paxton, Gary Sinise, Kevin Bacon and many, many more.
The Mob Doctor (2012)
Very mediocre show
The Mob Doctor is a show I was looking forward to over the summer but it died out quickly with me once it premiered. I really didn't care what happened to any of the characters.
Jordana Spiro I like in certain roles like her in My Boys but it just doesn't really ring true as her playing a medical resident being forced to do back alley medical procedures on some mafioso's.
In the pilot episode they had Michael Rapaport as a mob guy who isn't believable as an Italian character in any way at all.
It's a show that might work better as a made for TV movie then an actual TV show itself.
The Patriot (2000)
The best Emmerich/Devin movie
This movie is really rare for a movie that's a collaboration between Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin, the movie has a lot of depth to it. It's not just your random mindless summer popcorn film.
The story is about the Revolutionary War with Mel Gibson leading a regiment of militia into battle. Together he pieces together a group of local citizens and make them into a fighting squad trained in all kinds of guerrilla warfare.
It's nice to see a Revolutionary War for a change when it seems like the Civil War and World War 2 gets way more movies for their stories. Let alone the fact for a Revolutionary War movie it's a nice change of pace to take place in the south when most movies for that war take place around Massachusetts or Pennsylvania.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
Elijah Wood and Sean Astin have a great dynamic
It's easy to say that LOTR: The Return of the King has the most interaction of Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee of all the LOTR movies. A result of that is you get to really see the great chemistry exhibited by these two actors working together.
This is the best of all the LOTR movies in my opinion, the way all the stories tie together just works to perfection. Finally you can see Aragorn taking his rightful place as the new king. When Frodo finally gets to Mordor and throws the ring into the pits of it is an extremely well done scene.
This is probably the longest single movie not counting the Godfather movies I've ever seen but it entertains from start to finish.
The Following (2013)
Only seen 2 episodes so far, but...
Like I said this show is only 2 episodes so far but it's been the most intriguing and interesting new network TV show in quite sometime. This show has the same quality and intelligence of one of those shows that currently airs on FX, AMC or HBO. It's not your run of the mill boring CSI, Criminal Minds, NCIS rehash where they have 3 shows in the franchise where all the shows are the exact same show just set in a different city.
Kevin Bacon is a good choice to play the lead role of former FBI agent Ryan Hardy who's called back into action when the followers of the man he put away start killing in his name. Annie Parisse formerly of Law & Order joins the show as one of the agents in charge of the case.
Bridge of Dragons (1999)
The definitive direct-to-video movie
This is the type of movie that you can only find in the bargain bin at your local Wal-Mart or K-Mart type of store. The production values of this movie are pretty amateurish and it's the type of movie where you have a feeling it didn't take much more then a week to film the entirety of it all.
The movie stars Dolph Lundgren and Valerie Chow in the leads. Lundgren is best used as an actor when his characters isn't expected to be the protagonist and speaks a bunch. His best roles have been Rocky IV, Universal Soldier and The Expendables movies.
The movie has a lot of fighting and death scenes, none of which ring true at all. Just not the job done here by what you would call prime time filmmakers.
A Thousand Words (2012)
Just a bad movie
What happened to Eddie Murphy? He was such a fabulous comedian/actor in the 1980's with stuff like 48 Hrs., the first 2 Beverly Hills Cop movies, Saturday Night Live, his comedy specials and stuff like Coming to America. But since then he's gone and done absolutely terrible garbage like this movie. Needs to get his edge back and stop doing all these safe family films.
I guess that it could be worse, it's not quite as bad as Norbit or anything like that but nevertheless doesn't change the fact that Murphy is pretty much on pace to set a Razzie record for most nominations ever.
The one redeeming value in this movie was being able to see the ever so beautiful Kerry Washington dressed or actually not that dressed for that one scene in this movie.