This is a really fun action movie. I enjoyed the explosions and the gun fights. The movie is full of wit and and interesting characters. One problem with this movie is, athough this is an intense action movie, the beginning of the movie is extremely slow. The main villain is William Cooper (Karl Urban), he really isn’t a bad guy but someone who works for the CIA and is caught between orders and his curiosity of what is really going on. There is a twist at the end but the twist seems weak. The plot overall feels weak. This is a movie most people would go to for the great action, explosions and brief action comedy. Morgan Freeman is in the movie but the previews portrayed him as a bigger character than he really is. His character seemed more like a really long cameo instead of a supporting character. I do have to say this movie is a lot funnier that I thought it would be. This movie struck me as a tamer version of smoking aces but it held it’s own ground as something different.

This was an all star cast. All the acting in the movie was fantastic and is what you would expect from the quality of actors in the movie. When I first saw that Morgan Freeman was in this movie, I thought the story would be more engaging since he is usually in movies that have somewhat interesting stories, but then again he did “Wanted” and “Bruce Almighty”.

Over all this movie was really fun. No one can go into this movie and take it seriously. “Red” is intended to be funny and over the top for the sake of being funny and over the top. Nothing more and nothing less. I really enjoyed how well the explosions were done but if they made a sequel I would like to see a better story and a faster story, but the action felt like the right amount.

The writing and dialog in the film is top notch. The story is engaging but the whole movie is one large flashback. At certain points in the story, the viewers jump into two different conference rooms that each hold lawyers, Zuckerberg and the people suing him. The movie overall is easy to follow but still contains an engaging and twist heavy plot.

The acting in this movie is very well done, especially Jesse Eisenberg, who plays a believable Mark Zuckerberg. He comes across as someone who is always in control and who is smarter than everyone else. Armie Hammer plays both of the Winklevoss twins, the people who hire Mark to make their website. He surprisingly pulls off both of the roles to the extent that I thought they actually cast twins for the role. Andrew Garfield plays Edwardo Saverin who is Marks best friend when he is in college and fronts the money to start Facebook. Justin Timberlake plays Sean Parker who was the inventor of Napster. He plays someone who screwed the system and still wants to screw the system. Timberlake was the surprise of this film. Going into “The Social Network”, great performances were expected but I wasn’t sure if Timberlake would preform to my standards. He pulled off the role and I enjoyed his character.

Overall, this movie is fantastic. The plot is very well written and the cast hold their own. I think this will get an Oscar nomination but I’m not sure if it will win best picture. I should mention that most of the story depicted is not true. A lot the script is exaggerated, taken out of context or just plain made up. This is not the true story of Facebook but instead, a more exciting, Hollywood version of the birth of Facebook.

I am reminded about the storyline from the comics as I watch this film right off the bat by the animation. The artwork in the comics, titled “The Supergirl from Krypton,” was done by the late Michael Turner and the team of artists did a fantastic job adapting it. Turner’s art style consists of beautiful women with eyes expressing a wide range of emotions accompanied with long flowing hair. It was a wonderful attempt that I believe succeed in bringing Michael Turner’s art to life, the perfect example is in Supergirl herself. Another is the elongated ears Turner would always give Batman when drawing him. Overall the animation was excellent when compared to the detailed artwork it came from. I can only wonder how much input Michael Turner would have had if he were still alive.

Now onto the story shall we? It begins with a recap of the first film “Public Enemies”, played out through news radios and callers, recapping how Lex Luthor is on trial for the crimes he committed in the first film. As this continues Batman, who is collecting Kryptonite that keeps falling towards Earth, discovers an empty ship with Kryptonian inscribed on it. Turns out a naked Supergirl, Kara Zor-El, was in it, climbs out and causes some destruction before Batman can subdue her with a piece of Kryptonite. In his cave he runs tests to determine who she is, she awakens and freaks out, suddenly Superman speaks to her in their language. They discover they are cousins. Batman suspects she is a threat, Superman wants to help his cousin fit in and Wonder Woman wants to train her as a proper warrior. Throughout all this, Darkseid wants a new leader for his Female Furies, a group of female warriors.

Kara is trying to find where she fits in. She was older than Superman on Krypton but due to being trapped in an asteroid and a form of suspended animation she remains a teenager as oppose to being older than the adult Superman. By the end, Darkseid is beaten into submission but both Superman and Kara and she has decided to take up the “S” shield.

What I liked about this was Kevin Conroy returned as Batman and Tim Daly as Superman. Both were the actors in “Public Enemies” and both provided the voices in the animated shows of the 1990s. Summer Glau did a wonderful job as Supergirl, bringing the confused teenager to life and Andre Braugher was fantastic as Darkseid. The storyline remained intact and the action was awesome to watch when it came to the fights between Superman, Supergirl and Darkseid.

My favorite part was while on the rescue mission in Apokolips, Superman and Wonder Woman deal with minions while Batman dons armor and confronts Darkseid. Knowing that he cannot take him on physically, Batman threatens to ignite a device he has rigged that will destroy the whole planet of Apokolips if Darkseid does not release Supergirl. Darkseid gives in, knowing that Batman is not bluffing. A fantastic scene in the comics that I was glad was left in the movie.

What I didn’t like was the lack of dialogue for Batman, but viewing it as a whole, this is not his story so while the Batman fan in me was a bit disappointed, I understood. Another thing were the one-liners, some were good but there were some that felt out of place and forced. Nothing that would take away from the film but odd. There was less action then the other entries but again in viewing it as a whole, not that kind of story.

So overall watch this film, rent it buy, borrow it, do what you can. It was a good adaptation from one of my favorite story lines and one that keeps pushing the level of sophistication these films have shown.

The story of “The Town” is extremely engaging. The subplots really bring the story together and add the immersion this movie provides. Even though there are several subplots, the story still makes sense. The subplots add to the main story instead of diverting into different stories. I was very impressed with this story and script, its dialog had depth and so did the characters.




This movie really didn’t have a clear main villain. “The Town” had many villainy characters but you could never pick out a main one. Jon Hamm played the FBI agent, Adam Frawley. He was chasing Ben Affleck’s character and trying to pin the robberies on him. The director seemed to play him as a good guy but he came off as a little evil. Hamm’s character also came across as a cop who wants to hurt the bad guys instead of help the people. I will say that all the parts were well acted and I would guess that a few could get the Oscar nomination.

Overall I really enjoyed this film. The sad parts were sad and there were some comic relief that did not overshadow the tense storyline. If you like movies with a deep story and some well done action, this movie is right up your ally. Everything from the action to the cast to the set design was great work. This is a movie that most people will like.

The story fallows Alice (Milla Jovovich), a genetically enhanced experiment, searching for survivors and fighting Umbrella, the company that made her what she is. Oh yeah and she’s also trying to survive the zombie apocalypse. About thirty minutes into the film, I must have leaned over seven or eight times to explain the story to my friend who was experiencing Resident Evil for the first time. This movie makes no sense if you haven’t seen the previous Resident Evil movies and played the games, and even if you did both, the movie still made little sense. There were several continuity issues like characters or zombies suddenly behind people with no explanation on how they got there. I wouldn’t normally complain about a movie like this having continuity issues but the director tried too hard on the story at points that the plot just fell on its face. Another part of this movie that made me cringe was the dialog. It felt as if the writer began inserting dialog the weekend before the movie began filming. It was mostly one liners that explained parts of the story but never really gave us much insight into the characters.

I’m tempted not to discuss the acting as the characters were all forgettable. Several of the actors I have seen in other projects and liked them before, but the characters in this movie were extremely generic. Several characters were hero types that you knew would survive the movie. Then there were other characters you knew would die during the movie, and the jerk character that would get what they deserved in the end. The really sad part was the villain. I had such high hopes from the trailer for a cool villain but the actor was monotone and trying to be serious, but he failed miserably. The villain’s acting was stilted and his performance made me laugh.

The portions of Resident Evil: Afterlife that I enjoyed were the action scenes. The flips and gun fights look great, and many scenes were in slow motion, but the slowmo worked with the 3D. I was very pleased they used James Cameron’s 3D camera system instead of digital conversion. The movie displayed a nice amount of detail but at several points, the background and foreground items were too much for the detail 3D provided.

The verdict is if you want to see a stylized action movie with zombies then check this flick out in 3D. If the theater doesn’t have the movie in 3D, skip Resident Evil all together. The movie is fun but I’m not sure how fun it would be without the the 3D. When planning for the zombie apocalypse, don’t use Resident Evil: Afterlife as an example.

Machete follows Machete Cortez (Danny Trejo), an immigrant and former Mexican Federale who is commissioned for an assassination plot to earn some money this side of the border. But things take a turn in this action-packed movie filled with corruption, greed, drugs, and lots of blood. Here’s my review of Machete.

My fear going into Machete was that it wouldn’t live up to the hype. As soon as the first scene ended, my fears melted away. The movie has great over-the-top action, as expected, but the one thing I didn’t expect was how funny the movie is. Yes, I know that the over-the-top action can make everyone laugh out loud because of its absurdity, but this movie has many more out of place comedy lines that caught me off guard and made it an even more enjoyable experience.

However, there are a few problems with Machete. The story has a few continuity issues, although let’s face it, no one is seeing this movie for the compelling and riveting story. Also, certain scenes felt like they were cut and a lot of action was taken out; scenes ended with me feeling unsatisfied. My guess is that they had to remove some shots to keep an R rating. My only other problem with Machete was that it did get somewhat ridiculous with oversized weaponry and a few other silly parts but for the most part this is a solid action movie.

Danny Trejo plays a great revenge character who is serious and in control. Jessica Alba’s character is spunky with a hard exterior and a soft side, the kind of character you would expect her to play in this type of movie. Michelle Rodriguez plays a taco truck operator preparing for a revolution. She is a hard-ass that kicks ass but her character also helps as many people as possible. I honestly have no idea what Lindsay Lohan was doing in this movie, but she wasn’t in there too long, so it’s not worth complaining about. Robert De Niro was great playing a Senator running for reelection. This is a character that he doesn’t normally play, and I found myself wondering if it was actually Robert De Niro. Steven Seagal’s appearance in the film feels like a cameo, and he isn’t in the movie as much as I had expected. Seagal plays one of the several villains in the movie and did it well, but his lack of screen time just never made me hate the character as much as the other villains.

Machete delivers on so many levels. If you are looking for an action movie that you don’t need to take seriously or if you’d like to enjoy top notch action with lots of blood and plenty of hot women, this movie is for you.

It’s a challenging undertaking to make a movie adaptation of a comic book, let alone a good one. Sometimes things just don’t translate well from paper to screen. At times, comic adaptations try to take a serious tone to make for a more plausible story, causing it to lose the style and charm the comics have built up. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, based on the graphic novels created by Bryan Lee O’Malley, does not fall prey to such stark standards.

Director Edgar Wright, whose works include Shawn of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, embraces the pop art and manga style aesthetics of the graphic novels to destroy the lines between fantasy and reality and create a video game-esque world of rock music and love. Scott Pilgrim tells the story of 23-year-old slacker bassist Scott (Michael Cera) who falls in love with an American delivery girl, Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), and in order to date her he must defeat her seven evil-exes.

From Scott’s gay room mate Wallace Wells (Kieran Culkin) to his 2 band mates Stephen Stills (Mark Webber) and Kim Pine (Alison Pill) every character in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World are ably depicted. Each character is allowed to develop through the story without being overshadowed by Scott. The characters comment and observe Scott’s life, dishing out tons of jokes in between Scott’s pseudo epic quest for love.

While not everything from the novels could be put into the movie, there is still enough covered to keep all you fanboy/girls happy. Wright does and excellent job building on the world from the novels without completely mimicking it. The movie draws a lot of its charm from Edgar Wright’s great use of the gloomy and dark scenery of Toronto (filming location), where he offsets with the lively and quirky pop art themes pulled from video games.

Scenes such as Ramona delivering a package to Scott with a Zelda theme playing in the background, to all the masterfully choreographed fight scenes are just a few of the winks and nudges the movie makes at its video game loving fan base.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is not only visually stunning but also has one of the most impressive movie soundtracks of the year. This music will be stuck in your head and will have you rushing to buy the soundtrack. For a more in depth look at the soundtrack check out our previous article.

Underneath its video game and hipster chic exterior Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is a film that deals with the complications of youth and letting go of the past. From start to finish Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is a great ride of sight gags, puns to fast cuts and high paced action. It’s the coming of age tale unlike anything you’ve ever seen.

If you haven’t seen it grab some friends and go watch it. I promise you’ll want to see it again right after its over.