Deep Something

“Robin Hood” chronicles the life of an expert archer, previously interested only in self-preservation, from his service in King Richard’s army against the French. Upon Richard’s death, Robin travels to Nottingham, a town suffering from the corruption of a despotic sheriff and crippling taxation, where he falls for the spirited widow Lady Marion, a woman skeptical of the identity and motivations of this crusader from the forest. Robin Hood delivers what it promises. Solid action, good narrative, and the inclusion of a bit of history with action between England and France gives the movie an added meat and almost realistic feel to it. The dialog is a bit ropey at times, and Robin’s “merry men” could have had a bit more screen time, but otherwise i see no major fault with this movie.

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Let me direct. Skip this movie and watch the 1981 Harry Hausen version of the movie. It’s much better. Remakes tend to be very good, or be epic failures, and this was an epic failure. This film tears to shreds the “Perseus vs. Medusa” myth and replaces it with mindless power chord progressions, endless action sequences, and a trivialized view of the Greek gods.

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AVATAR takes us to a spectacular world beyond imagination, where a reluctant hero embarks on an epic adventure, ultimately fighting to save the alien world he has learned to call home. Reborn in his avatar form, Jake can walk again. He is given a mission to infiltrate the Na’vi, who have become a major obstacle to mining the precious ore. But a beautiful Na’vi female, Neytiri, saves Jake’s life, and this changes everything. Jake is taken in by her clan, and learns to become one of them, which involves many tests and adventures. This would normally be a film I’d recommend seeing, but suggest waiting to see it on DVD. However, I have to suggest watching it in the theater on a big screen.

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In early afternoon, four armed men hijack a subway train in Manhattan. They stop on a slight incline, decoupling the first car to let the rest of the train coast back. Their leader is Ryder; he connects by phone with Walter Garber, the dispatcher watching that line. Garber is a supervisor temporarily demoted while being investigated for bribery. Ryder demands $10 million within an hour, or he’ll start shooting hostages. He’ll deal only with Garber. The mayor okays the payoff, the news of the hostage situation sends the stock market tumbling, and it’s unclear what Ryder really wants or if Garber is part of the deal.

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When a priest is murdered in Boston, the MacManus brothers abandon their secluded life in Ireland to look into the case. Don’t let the lack of promotion for “Boondock Saints 2″ fool you. The plot picks up in Ireland where brothers Connor (Sean Patrick Flannery) and Murphy (Norman Reedus) McManus are hiding out after the events of the last movie. A priest shot in Boston, in the same style the brothers are known for, makes them the prime suspects. Writer/ director Troy Duffy is going for the old-school Charles Bronson-style vigilante movie, and achieves something pretty close to that.

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Encouraged by the public’s praise, Catholic brothers Conner and Murphy MacManus bring a bloody brand of vigilante justice against Boston’s Russian mafia and crimelord Yakavetta. It was pretty good, and I’ll give it a 8/10.

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When California girl Susan Murphy is unwittingly clobbered by a meteor full of outer space gunk on her wedding day, she mysteriously grows to 49-feet-11-inches tall. Alerted to the threat of this new monster, the military jumps into action and Susan is captured and secreted away to a covert government compound. There, she is renamed Ginormica and placed in confinement with a ragtag group of other monsters. I would give the movie 7/10. It is an animated movie that you can actually volunteer to take your kids to and enjoy it just as much as they can.

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When two bumbling criminals accidentally receive a package of grade-A cocaine, they think they’ve hit the jackpot. But when they try to cash in on their luck, it triggers a series of events that forever changes the lives of ten people. Smalltime hoods Brody and Guch have seen better days. But when a wacked-out courier accidentally brings them a box containing 10 kilos of high-quality cocaine meant for their next-door neighbors, it sets in motion a chain of events that could cost all of them their lives. Brody and Guch immediately arrange to sell the coke to Brody’s drug dealer cousin and his tightlipped bodyguard. But when the intended recipients of the package, wannabe gangster Jesus and his feisty girlfriend, realize the box hasn’t arrived, they set out on a desperate search to find it before ruthless drug kingpin Bodega Diablo notices it’s missing. But they’re too late. There’s some fun watching how we think delivery services handle our packages. But it was, otherwise, a bit predictable.

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The time is the too-near future. Powered and enabled by the invention known as the Great Machine, the world’s machines have turned on mankind and sparked social unrest, decimating the human population before being largely shut down. But as our world fell to pieces, a mission began to salvage the legacy of civilization; a group of small creations was given the spark of life by a scientist in the final days of humanity, and they continue to exist post-apocalypse. We were both impressed.

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Interpol Agent Louis Salinger and Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Eleanor Whitman are determined to bring to justice one of the world’s most powerful banks. Uncovering myriad and reprehensible illegal activities, Salinger and Whitman follow the money from Berlin to Milan to New York to Istanbul. Finding themselves in a high-stakes chase across the globe, their relentless tenacity puts their own lives at risk as their targets will stop at nothing — even murder — to continue financing terror and war. It was a bit better than I expected, but I’m glad I didn’t spend the full theatre price to see it.

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We watched this movie on DVD last night. Liam Neeson, as “Bryan Mills,” reminded me of Denzel Washington’s role in “Man On Fire.” In that film, Washington played a relentless-and-brutal bodyguard who did what he had to do to get kidnapped Dakota Fanning back to her parents.

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When Robert Langdon discovers evidence of the resurgence of an ancient secret brotherhood known as the Illuminati — the most powerful underground organization in history — he also faces a deadly threat to the existence of the secret organization’s most despised enemy: the Catholic Church. When Langdon learns that the clock is ticking on an unstoppable Illuminati time bomb, he jets to Rome, where he joins forces with Vittoria Vetra, a beautiful and enigmatic Italian scientist. Embarking on a nonstop hunt through sealed crypts, dangerous catacombs, deserted cathedrals and even to the heart of the most secretive vault on earth, Langdon and Vetra will follow a 400-year-old trail of ancient symbols that mark the Vatican’s only hope for survival.

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The fate of the galaxy rests in the hands of bitter rivals. One, James Kirk, is a delinquent, thrill-seeking Iowa farm boy. The other, Spock, was raised in a logic-based society that rejects all emotion. As fiery instinct clashes with calm reason, their unlikely but powerful partnership is the only thing capable of leading their crew through unimaginable danger, boldly going where no one has gone before. I’d recommend the movie.

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For sometime I had felt like, based on the trailer, that it would be a stupid movie. Then I read a few reviews, and it got reviews very different from my expectations. Lay and I were both surprised at how much we liked this movie.

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The concept is an intriguing one…this idea of being able to teleport one’s self to anywhere in the world. What a fun power that would be, and lead character, David, discovers the power during his high school days, and heads off to from an unhappy home to learn to use his power. It’s not terrible, but it certainly goes to low-end of my scale.

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A single, suburban dad tries to make ends meet as a security officer at a New Jersey mall. It’s a job he takes very seriously, though no one else does. When Santa’s helpers at the mall stage a coup, shutting down the megaplex and taking hostages (Paul’s daughter and sweetheart among them), Jersey’s most formidable mall cop will have to become a real cop to save the day.

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Archie Bunker meets Dirty Harry: Walt Kowalski is a widower, grumpy, tough-minded, borderline-hateful, unhappy old man who can’t get along with either his kids or his neighbors, a Korean War veteran whose prize possession is a 1973 Gran Torino he keeps in cherry condition. When his neighbor Tao, a young Hmong teenager, tries to steal his Gran Torino, Kowalski sets out to reform the youth. Drawn against his will into the life of Tao’s family, Kowalski is soon taking steps to protect them form the gangs that foul their neighborhood. It’s worth seeing, just wait until it is out on video.

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A Russian mobster orchestrates a crooked land deal, putting millions of dollars up for grabs and attracting all of London’s criminal underworld. Lay and I watched this movie last night on DVD. I admit I was tired, and didn’t give it my full attention. One of my complaints was that the British accents were so heavy, it was hard to follow, but at least the Director was probably being true to the location.

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Process server Dale Denton has a grudging business relationship with the laconic Saul Silver, deigning to visit only to purchase Saul’s primo product–a rare new strain of pot called Pineapple Express. But when Dale becomes the only witness to a murder by a crooked cop and the city’s most dangerous drug lord, he panics and dumps the Pineapple Express at the scene. When it’s traced back to him, Dale and Saul run for their lives–and they quickly discover that they’re not just suffering from weed-fueled paranoia. If they survive, these two just might become real friends. All aboard the Pineapple Express.

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Lay and I went to see this movie last night. I will provide a review when we are able to actually watch the movie all the way through. For some reason, it was one of the most unruly theaters we’ve ever been in, and we left and got out money back after about 15 minutes. We were not the only ones from that movie at the customer service desk asking for our money back because of the noise and cell phones.

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