The Losers

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Movie: The Losers (2010)

Studio : Warner Bros.

Info : Click Here

Runtime : 98 min

Website : the-losers.com

Trailer :

Click here to view the embedded video.

Review:

Based on a comic of the same name, this film is an old-fashioned action movie with tough guys, guns, chicks, and explosions. The plot has the main characters, The Losers, traveling from place to place, working together, carrying out various missions, exchanging witty banter, while trying to find and destroy the ever-so-elusive Max, a ruthless boss who is very well-protected.

Sylvain White (Stomp the Yard) directs this action flick with lots of confidence, zooms, action still shots, and various editing tricks, which, thankfully, weren’t too distracting. The typical action movie plot had occasional fun twists.

The characters and their relationship dynamics truly make this film shine. They have great chemistry. Jeffery Dean Morgan (who played The Comedian in The Watchmen) is charismatic as the decisive, yet flawed leader of the group. Zoe Saldana brings a lot of feminine charm and spunk as Aisha. The banter between the characters brings a lot of humor and life to much of the film.

Jason Patric is particularly great to watch on screen as the bad guy, Max, an evil genius with the best lines, just short from being completely insane. He is often surrounded by women. He kills and gets people killed for small things. Of course, he may not be realistic, but is a great cinematic bad guy.

There are occasional missteps here and there. A fight scene between Clay and Aisha appear to make little sense in regards to plot (but hey, it looks cool). Also, while the stunt work and real-life action scenes look good, whenever there is CG, it looks out of place, and in some cases, took me out of the film. Now, given its comic book origins, I have forgiven a lot worse in other films that were also made from comics.

This film reminded me a bit of the 2003’s Italian Job, in terms of flavor. Overall, this film, padded with humor, action, and fun characters, was made purely to entertain, and the filmmakers have certainly accomplished that mission.

-”D-Art” Kang

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Kung Fu Hustle

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Movie: Kung Fu Hustle (2005)

Studio : Sony Pictures Classics

Info : Click Here

Runtime : 117 min

Website : kungfuhustle.com

Trailer :

Click here to view the embedded video.

Review:

“Kung Fu Hustle” is the brain-child of Stephen Chow, a Chinese film maker who combines both his knowledge of American and East Asian film making. Though probably classified as a comedy, it should be equally a fantasy and martial arts woman.

As with every film, the opening image is the most important one in a film, the second-most being the ending. Instead of going straight into the story and introducing the main characters, the villains are first introduced. They are the third group seen, the first being the city’s police, who are being beaten by the leader of the “Crocodile Gang”, a tough group of gangsters who have the police in their pocket. “The Axe Gang” approaches them in the street and a fight ensues, the Crocodile gang getting the worst end of it.

The protagonist of the story isn’t even introduced until easily 12 minutes into the film. “Pig Sty Alley”, the home of the majority of the film’s action is a poor part of town run by a chauvinist and his loud-mouth, cigarette-smoking wife. These people are destitute but have great courage. The Axe Gang comes to town after Sing (Chow) and his friend attempt to steal money from one of the sty’s occupants. They attempt to call the gang members with a firecracker, which backfires, but in the end, the gang members approach and are promptly beaten back by three of the store owners.

The action sequences are incredible. As someone who prefers a realistic style of violence over movies like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but these sequences are for more than artistic sake, being a vehicle for both plotting and humor at the same time.
A word on the humor: there is a lot of great humor in the movie, from the physical comedy of the hair stylist who wears pants that almost have no point to dancing gangsters, and Loony Tunes inspired moments, coupled with a lot of puns as well as very subtle moments in dialogue and staging of the actors.

This is one martial arts movie that I can watch time and time again, feeling like I have missed details that make it better with each viewing. As with all his films, Chow plays a major role in the film, his comedic talents not just on the script. His performance sticks out among many great characters in the film. This is a film for anyone wanting a laugh or seeing incredibly choreographed action.

-M. Sigurd Hall

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Kick-Ass

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Movie: Kick-Ass (2010)

Studio : MARV Films

Info : Click Here

Runtime : 117 min

Website : kickass-themovie.com

Trailer :

Click here to view the embedded video.

Review:

I tend to make it a rule to avoid remarking on films that I am familiar with on other formats since transitions are always difficult to appreciate in both ways. The more exacting the transition can be, the more you alienate fresh audiences to the experience. Likewise, a film that tries a different approach from that format lowers the expectations of the diehard fans. Even the most praiseworthy attempts to new formats suffer from clipping of the original material to make a better—sometimes even superior–story.

While I am familiar with Millar & Romita’s Kick-Ass as a comic, my main problem is one centered on the concept itself: it fails to offer a convincing reality. Granted, this sounds preposterous since this is a superhero movie, but this was marketed from the getgo as an attempt to make a “superhero” that seemed realistic, with his own myspace persona and everything. By removing that grounded perspective, you lose the one item that perhaps made this film different from most other wide-released superhero movies out there aside from the repeated complaints about a 13 year old ninja and her Adam West-like gunman daddy.

To be fair, the changes are justifiable. Certain elements in the comic wouldn’t make for a sellable movie, and characters are better fleshed out as a result. But the problem is that it brings nothing new as a result. Even the acting comes off as relatively underwhelming outside of the ridiculously outlandish interaction between Nicholas Cage and Chloe Moretz.

It won’t impress fans too much, and for audiences unfamiliar to the comic, it’s nothing new. All the same, considering how the “real superhero” concept has been fairly well-tread with 2006 bringing us Special, 2007 offering us Kabluey, and even 2010 heading out with the hard-to-disappoint Woody Harrelson in Defendor, this is an issue best left on the comic rack. If you’re looking for Superbad meets Spiderman, then give this film a go, but considering what other action fare we can anticipate in the next few months, Kick-Ass may graze your cheeks just long enough until something better comes along.

-Donald Lee

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Tau Ming Chong: The Warlords

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Movie: The Warlords (2007)

Studio : Morgan & Chan Films

Info : Click Here

Runtime : 127 min

Website : warlordsthemovie.com

Trailer :

Click here to view the embedded video.

Review:

Missing the chance to catch this film during New York’s Asian Film Festival, I was pleased to learn about the film’s “wider” release to theaters. While released a few years back, the task of subbing a foreign film into the U.S. combined perhaps with other unknown complications have disallowed American audiences from seeing this film locally until recently.

Although widely unknown by most Americans, the Taiping Rebellion is considered by many to be one of the most violent wars of all-time, matching World War I and some may even argue the second World War as well. I will skip the background of this time, as the movie itself actually centers less on the large scale of its history and more on a point involving three particular men. A fallen general finds solace in a poor village where he meets two bandit leaders. With his guidance, they not only do they become brothers-in-arms, but fight off the rebel insurgence. Between this, there is an affair, politicking, and quite a few gorgeous moments to drink in the scenery.

I should say that even as someone who has never been a historian of this period of time, you can still tell that this film is adulterated from its original content, although if you’re complacent with the accuracy of films like Braveheart and U-571, then you should be content with this film because, despite the nature of the film, the overall execution is brilliant. Wars are epic in scale and given a gritty feel, and while there is a martial arts feel to the film, this film attempts to ground itself a little more, give or take a duel or two.

I can honestly say I enjoyed this film and would watch it again. Granted, I am a fan of this kind of Hong Kong cinema, but even when the gloves are back on and the subterfuge plays, there is a lot to appreciate between the unspoken moments of the film, from jade-toned misty mountain ranges to gracefully filthy villages to unspoken words between vocal expressions. This is definitely a foreign blockbuster I would recommend to any fan of action films willing to do a little reading with some points of underexaggerated drama.

-Donald Lee

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The Bounty Hunter

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Movie: The Bounty Hunter(2010)

Studio : Original Film

Info : Click Here

Runtime : 106 min

Website : bountyhunter-movie.net

Trailer :

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Review:

The whole premise plays out like the classic Seinfeld-ish chain of events. Gerard Butler plays a washed out cop-turned-bounty hunter, and Jennifer Anisten plays an aspiring reporter under parole. What do the two have in common? They were married. What happens when our female protagonist’s parole is missed for a big scoop? Wackiness!

It’s hard for me to not give The Bounty Hunter a little more credit where it’s due. Why? Ideally, I would like to say that the movie producers threw a little money my way and I complied like a bobblehead on a boat, but the honest truth is that despite how cliché this film is, it’s still reasonably watchable. This movie was made with no real contention for a great script, plot, or anything, and the actors know this and you can tell they’re having fun with it as a result. Gerard is practically borderline Jim Carrey at points in his outlandishness to Anisten’s forced straight man compliance, and I have to admit that it genuinely amused me feeling the energy the two gave off with each other. The side characters, while interesting, are fairly forgettable save two roles, one played by Christine Baranski as Aniston’s overly amorous lounge singer mother and Siobhan Fallon as Butler’s crude bail bond contact. Again, both seem to be somewhat exaggerated, and I think that’s what made them so infectiously funny.

This is the sort of film I would call a “compromise” if you want to see something with your amorous other and can’t choose between the chick flick or the action film. They’re both somewhat shlocky genres in general, and while the mishmash between them aren’t totally compatible (it actually stands out more towards the action end, in my opinion), there’s still enough in this film to make it fun to watch for some harmless entertainment.

-Donald Lee

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Brooklyn’s Finest

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Movie: Brooklyn’s Finest (2010)

Studio : Millenium Films

Info : Click Here

Runtime : 132 min

Website : brooklynsfinestthemovie.com

Trailer :

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Review:

I’m currently teaching a class in introductory literature, during which students are required to read one play. This semester, that play will be Oedipus Rex. As I’ve been rereading the play and attempting to tie it into my lessons on Greek tragedy, I couldn’t help but think of Brooklyn’s Finest, which stars three characters who could easily be tragic heroes in a Greek drama.

The first is Tango (Don Cheadle), a narc who’s been undercover for so long that he’s become confused about where his loyalties lie, particularly to Caz (a returning Wesley Snipes), a drug dealer who apparently saved him during a prison riot when he did an undercover stint there. Eddie (Richard Gere) is a burnt-out patrolman with seven days left before retirement. We first see him when he wakes himself up by chugging some whiskey and pointing a revolver into his mouth. Ethan Hawke is Sal, a detective with a wife and family that’s too big to support, with a set of twins on the way. In desperation, he’s taken to robbing drug dealers.

The movie intercuts these three stories, as we’re meant to see the hardships that real New York City cops endure: it’s the antidote to the fake buddy cop picture. We see Tango’s frustration appear to drift into borderline madness as he keeps being promised Detective First Grade by his supervisor (Will Patton) and threatened by a slimy agent (Ellen Barkin) if he doesn’t bust Caz. Eddie’s being asked to mentor rookie cops by taking them into the high-crime Brooklyn streets that have worn him down. His “retirement ceremony” brings some dark humor, all the more because it’s so sad. Sal’s wife (Lili Taylor) has to go to the hospital because of mold on the ceiling, which is threatening the health of her unborn twins. “Can you move to a bigger house?” the doctor asks. If only he knew…

The pacing here is excellent. Antoine Fuqua, the director of Training Day, does a great job at moving back and forth between these three stories, never dwelling on one for too long but allowing us enough time to get to know each character. The only downside was I had a hard time sympathizing with Hawke’s character, who seems to have put himself in his predicament of “too many kids.” My reasons will make me sound inhuman, so I’ll stop there.

The cinematography is fitting to the story as well. We don’t see overhead shots of the Brooklyn Bridge with the Manhattan skyline in the background, like most New York-set movies. Shots are limited to the streets, because this is the world occupied by these cops. The romance of New York is lost by most people who live there, but these guys appear to see it as a crime-ridden hellhole. With the exception of a shot of a subway station and the Brooklyn accents (well-done by both Gere and Hawke), this could really take place in any city.

One of my favorite movies is Requiem for a Dream, based on the Hubert Selby book. I hadn’t seen his name on any of the previews, but I wondered for a bit if the screenplay had been adapted from one of his novels. Brooklyn served as a fitting backdrop for his stories, all of which focused on multiple characters suffering from their own faults, and ultimately, succumbing to the consequences to follow. Michael C. Martin and Brad Caleb Kane, the screenwriters, certainly seem to have been inspired. It’s well-written and well-made. Not as good as Training Day, but worth the trip to the theater.

-Craig Wynne

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Daybreakers

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Movie: Daybreakers(2010)

Studio : Lionsgate

Info : Click Here

Runtime : 98 min

Website : daybreakersmovie.com

Trailer :

Click here to view the embedded video.

Review:

When the Spierig brothers plotted out this film, you can tell from the start that they have a passion for vampires and the culture around them.

The world of Daybreakers is a reflection of our own, cast in a shadow where the dead work at night through a Metropolis-inspired cityscape as they drink their coffee mingled with AB positive. From sun-blocking tinted panels to LCD mirrors, the design of this alternate reality is perhaps the most breathtaking thing about this film.

We step into this world long after humanity was given an ultimatum to live as vampires or die as their cattle. Unfortunately, living this way has led to a decline in the once mighty human population, and humans are becoming rarer as vampires begin to starve. What’s worse, those that starve do not simply “die,” but instead lose their sentience and mutate into mindless bat-human hybrids (think Nosferatu). The fear of starving and the greater fear of mutating is creating havoc within the populace, and the only salvation to be found is in a blood substitute that will keep vampire society alive.

Ethan Hawke plays Edward—did they really have to name him that?—a researcher for a “Big Brother” pharmacy agency that is trying to find a blood substitute while trying to maintain their dwindling supply of humans to feed the country. He is also one of the only humanitarians of this world and brother to a soldier who enjoys life as a vampire. Along the way, Edward encounters a small colony of humans and a potential new way to save vampirekind.

The movie starts off as interesting, but the storyline can not seem to hold up. It wants to be a horror film, but really comes off as more of a thriller with action elements. I don’t mind this, but a lot of cheap scare tactics get thrown in to prove its origin and it gets annoying. Worse still, the luxurious pace of the film fails as it goes from a scenic stroll of this new world into a clumsy gallop past the interesting grotesqueness of this rotting society. It’s a shame considering there’s so much detail that is easy to miss by the later half of the film.

I think this film would have been better as a mini-series. With what the Spierig brothers made, it would have given more time to love being in their vampire-dominated society and made it that much more horrifying to watch it slowly crumble away. As it stands now, it’s only a good idea with a half-baked execution. Don’t get me wrong, it has a lot of cult potential, and at a 20 million dollar budget this is an impressive film, but I don’t see it winning the recognition it has the chance to gain.

-Donald Lee

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Sherlock Holmes

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Movie: Sherlock Holmes(2009)

Studio : Internationale Filmproduktion Blackbird Dritte

Info : Click Here

Runtime : 128 min

Website : Sherlock Holmes

Trailer :

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Review:

Sherlock Holmes is a popular novel turned into a block buster movie. The cast includes some of the hottest and popular stars like Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Rachel McAdams and others. If you liked the novel then you would definitely enjoy the movie as well.

The movie is a thriller in which Sherlock Holmes works to solve detective cases. Serial killer Lord Blackwood and his close assistant Dr. Watson have been caught by Holmes. Sherlock Holmes thinks that he is done with the case but Blackwood returns back again and resumes his killing activity. It becomes the task of Sherlock Holmes to look for the sorcerer Lord Blackwood and hunt him down. The detective has to work hard to open up secrets of killing, cheating and black magic while contending with the head of Scotland Yard as well as the Fiancée of his partner.

The movie is a good one and all the parts seem in place, however even though the director has done a good job in maintaining the viewer’s interest the momentum does not stay the same throughout the movie. The best scenes were those where dialogues were shared between Law and Downey Jr., their interactions were quite witty and quick which seemed to be like that of a married couple.

There is minimal and clear-cut action which is worth watching in the movie. The director has done a good job in not putting too much emphasis on those scenes which are not really important to the story. Everything seems to go in harmony and flows down naturally till the end of the movie.

The make up on Rachel is a little too excessive and unnecessary; she would have looked much better looking a little more natural. The movie has got quite a lot of repetition; once you have crossed the first 30 minutes of the movie you have pretty much seen it all. There seems nothing new happening after the initial minutes, the rest of the movie is just recycling of the first few scenes.

Overall, the movie is entertaining and although it may be a little repetitive you will most certainly enjoy it.

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Avatar

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Movie: Avatar(2009)

Studio : Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Info : Click Here

Runtime : 162 min

Website : Avatar

Trailer :

Click here to view the embedded video.

Review:

Avatar is a great movie with astonishing visual effects. The graphic features of the movie are awesome but the movie is not free from being flawless.

The story is based on Jake Sully who has been transferred to another planet known as Pandora. He is there to replace his brother after his death and if he succeeds to accomplish the mission the government will then restore his legs. Pandora is a place which is occupied by the race known as Na’vi and it is Jake’s task to get used to their way of living and subsequently remove them somewhere else. When this happens the humans would come and rule the planet. The planet of Pandora is a land filled with rich material and this is what Parker Selfridge is after.

Jake has the task to gain access to the Na’vi people while using the identity of an “avatar”. In the process to create his bond between the race and himself he meets Neytiri and falls in love with the attractive alien. At the same time the merciless Colonel tries extreme tricks and techniques with his military unit to drive the race out and calls for a battle with the aliens of Pandora.

The visual effects of the picture are really unbelievable. Avatar is about a new world and when you watch the movie you feel you enter their world for a short period of time. The actors have worked remarkably well and have portrayed their emotions on to the viewers. Zoe Saldanas depicts a great emotional character and for some reason Sam Worthington parades around with many different hairstyles throughout the movie.

The movie is not an original and unique story, it is not much different from what we have been seen in the past. Although the director has done a great job in putting the movie together the story is nothing special.

You can enjoy ‘Avatar’ if you have a great liking for artistic and heavy visual effects. If not then this movie is not made for you and you are better off doing things outside the theater. However if you decide to go for the movie turn off your mind and just keep your eyes open to watch the creativity in the making of Avatar and you will then certainly enjoy it.

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Zombieland

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Movie: Zombieland (2009)

Studio : Pariah Films

Info : Click Here

Runtime : 80 min

Website : Zombieland

Trailer :

Click here to view the embedded video.

Review:

It probably doesn’t help that I came into the theater already expecting it to be good because I’m a big Woody Harrelson fan, but to be frank I enjoyed Zombieland. To a point, at least.

Reese and Wernick’s zombiesploitation film features a classic scenario popularized from decades of undead films, comics, and internet memes: a virus gone bad, flesh-eating humanity, and a list of rules about what to do if you’re one of the living few. The result is a grindhousey romp through the U.S., and it is mostly successful, but there are two major faults that I must point out.

Jesse Eisenberg, who after this year’s Adventureland seems like another candidate for an Apatow film, isn’t strong enough to hold up this film as its leading role. While his pathetic demeanor provides premature laughs, he cannot seem to keep it up through the film beyond a funny run. Luckily, having Woody Harrelson seems to keep the film going along, as his buddy role as a zombie serial killer and Twinkie connoisseur is hilarious, right down to his facial expressions that not only tell you how pissed off he is, but how much he loves those yellow pastries.

The other fault lies in a midsection of the film involving Bill Murray’s mansion. I’m a big Murray fan, but at the same time I felt like the theme of surviving the apocalypse suddenly stopped at that point. In fact, every scene at that point has almost nothing to do with the apocalypse and more to do with teens doing whatever they want, at least until the climax. There’s so much potential you can cook up with a zombie-filled Hollywood, but it never gets considered and is instead replaced with Murray fandom and non-zombie things, and for such a short film it hurts the pace.

But that aside, it’s still relative fun to watch. I’m probably being partial because of Woody, but it’s definitely worth a group watch on DVD just because you can skip over that mansion scene.

-Donald Lee-

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Black Dynamite

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Movie: Black Dynamite (2009)

Studio : Destination Films

Info : Click Here

Runtime : 90 min

Website : Black Dynamite

Trailer :

Click here to view the embedded video.

Review:

Blacksploitation is back, can you dig it? Michael Jai White and the entire blacksploitation genre jumps into action in this movie that parodies everything we loved and loved to hate about these cheaply made movies. The film is littered with visible defects that people have made careers picking at, from people looking at the camera, to awkward silences, misread lines, visible boom mics, and bad editing. Combine this with every cliché you associate with blacksploitation: from Black Panther movements, to martial arts bad guys, to a singing funkadelic narrator, to murdered drug-using brothers, to the white man bringing the black man down and you have everything Black Dynamite is about. It wouldn’t even be fair to say that Black Dynamite doesn’t jump the shark unless you say it does it wielding Colt 45s John Woo style to Wagner’s Flight of the Valkyries as a synchronized team of great whites swim in concentric circles by a steam catapult-powered ramp. It goes above and beyond over-the-top with a vividly cheap budget and I can’t help but love the movie for it.

Although people will likely poke at the genre of the film and the inherent racism and sexism involved with it, I honestly was reminded of the days I watched Kentucky Fried Movie’s A Fist Full of Yen, where a parodied version of Bruce Lee movies and all its conventions accurately portrayed the Brucesploitation (yes, people actually use that term) back in the day. Even better, both movies not only understand their genre, but also were smart enough to never abuse this fact unless it was to throw another parody into it.

So if you have a chance, sit your butt down and remember: doughnuts don’t wear alligator shoes.

-Donald Lee-

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Gamer

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Movie: Gamer (2009)

Studio : Lakeshore Entertainment

Info : Click Here

Runtime : 95 min

Website : gamerthemovie.com

Trailer :

Click here to view the embedded video.

Review:

Do you expect a movie made by the guys behind Crank about a future of people-controlled first-person shooters to be a masterpiece worthy of several Academy Awards? If you do, then you’re probably going to be disappointed. For the majority of you that know better, you’re probably just wondering if you are going to see something violent and crazy and if your protagonist is going to give you something as epic as his time as King Leonitas. If you are those people: you’re probably going to feel mostly satisfied.

Reconstituted plot aside, Gamer does live up to its promise in being over-the-top with copious amounts of bosoms and blood. In a way, this movie manages to make you feel the mood of a First Person Shooter where you are chunking anything meaty (beware: the shaky camera approach gets used extensively during those scenes), while giving you the sensation of a hedonist humanity that seems too jaded with excess to care about their living toys and some eccentric bits that work fairly well.

That said, I can see people griping about the storyline having a fair number of gaps of nonviolent scenes where “Kable” (Gerard Butler) is piecing together his past. Me, I liked it. These scenes usually had a somewhat artistic slant with the camera work and it did its purpose fairly effectively. For those just expecting a pure modern grindhouse, though, it may seem offset with the rest of the film, moreso with its fairly underwhelming ending that I keep reminding myself is not a homage to Blade Runner despite how much of this film’s plot is reconstituted from other recent movies.

In the end, I can not really gripe the film. It is watchable, moreso with friends, but I’d recommend this film for a DVD night.

-Donald Lee

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Inglourious Basterds

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Movie: Inglourious Basterds (2009)

Studio : Universal

Info : Click Here

Runtime : 153 min

Website : inglouriousbasterds-movie.com

Trailer :

Click here to view the embedded video.

Review:

While it will certainly not win any Oscars, Quentin Tarantino’s, Inglorious Bastards, entertains for the full 2 hours and 33 minutes. The film is divided into five chapters, which at first seem mutually exclusive, but begin to tie together towards the middle of the movie.

Though it is a war movie, there are very little gunfights. The classic “Tarantino violence,” mostly comes from the scalpings of dead Germans, body mutilations, and one overly gruesome execution by baseball bat, though none of it is comedic as usual. Tarantino also uses a series of flashbacks in order to fill the audience in on plot holes, which works very effectively and is also very entertaining. Seeing as how the rest of the movie is filled in by scheming, plotting, and a pestering German war hero, it is difficult to understand how the movie went by as quickly as it did.

The reason for this however, is that Tarantino was able to create an intricate plot with many captivating characters. The story is an alternate history of World War II, beginning with a young girl named Shosanna Dreyfus (Melanie Laurent), who witnesses the murder of her family, but narrowly escapes. She flees to Paris, where she forges a new identity as French theatre owner. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Bradd Pitt), creates a group of Jewish American soldiers, known by the enemy as “the Basterds,” who are trained to commit quick and shocking attacks on German soldiers.

When a young German war hero, Fredrick Zoller (Daniel Bruhl)—who has had a film made about him, starring him—falls in love with Shosanna, he moves to have the highly anticipated premier of his film at her theatre. With Hitler and the entire high command set to attend, both Shosanna and Aldo create separate plots for their assassinations.

This film is unlike any World War II movie ever made, however, it does have many flaws. While Bruhl’s character, Zoller, is supposed to be annoying to Shosanna, he did a better job of annoying me. Additionally, Bridget von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger), an actress/double agent, who is supposed to help Raines carry out his mission—but ends up hindering it instead—seems almost completely unnecessary. “Basterds,” is not to be a Tarantino classic, but it is certainly worth seeing, even if it is just to see Pitt speak Italian in a Southern accent.

-Stephen Fox

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G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Movie: G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009)

Studio : Paramount Pictures

Info : Click Here

Runtime : 118min

Website : gijoemovie.com

Trailer :

Click here to view the embedded video.

Review:

And so comes one of the most anticipated movies of the year, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. Having been a fan of the cartoons and the action figures as a kid, I was excited to see this movie. As I watched, that excitement dwindled.

This movie seems to want to do for the cartoons what Phantom Menace did for the Star Wars movies. At the beginning of the film, we see two Special Op soldiers, Duke and Ripcord, being recruited for the G.I. Joe unit led by General Hawk. Their current mission seems to involve the retrieval of four nuclear warheads from the evil Cobras, before they destroy world landmarks, although this plot element unfolded in such a slapdash manner that I had a hard time grasping the logic of why the Joes would even be involved in this mission.

No matter: you don’t watch a movie like this for the story, which seems to be mostly background material so that the makers can create explosions and dogfights for the blockbuster action crowd. That being said, the movie is well-made on a technical level, but the special effects don’t make up for a lack of story. I love an action movie best when well-drawn characters who are fighting for something at stake. For most of the movie, I didn’t care whether the Joes retrieved these warheads because the makers didn’t take the time to make characters we could root for (the cartoons, campy as they were, actually had stories and distinguishing differences between characters).

The movie began to grow on me in the last hour, as some of the backstories involving Storm Shadow, a troubled ninja, and Barroness, Duke’s ex-fiance gone Cobra, engaged my interest. Marlon Wayans also provides some good comic relief as Ripcord as he jive-talks and takes pratfalls in a robotic suit of armor, but these things don’t bring the movie up to the level.

The ending all but tells us that there will be a sequel in the future. If and when it comes out, I’ll probably end up watching it on someone else’s Netflix subscription with a group of friends and a case of beer. If you must see this movie, I recommend that you learn from my mistake and save it for that particular forum.

-Craig Wynne

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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood PrinceRating: Four stars

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Movie: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)

Studio : Warner Brothers Pictures

 Info : Click Here

Runtime : 153min

Website : harrypotter.warnerbros.com/harrypotterandthehalf-bloodprince

Trailer :

Click here to view the embedded video.

Review:

There’s a scene at the beginning of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince where Professor McGonagall (always wonderfully played by Maggie Smith) says to Harry, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger, “Why is it whenever something happens, you three always seem to be in the center of it?”  Ron replies, “I’ve been wondering that myself.”  That’s basically the essence of the entire series, but these three kids (now teenagers) are so charismatic and likable that we accept everything and take the ride with them.
 
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is the sixth installment in this huge franchise, and for those who haven’t read the books, I’ll give a brief plot summary: there’s strong sentiment going around the wizard world as to whether Harry Potter is the “Chosen One,” that is, the person who has been chosen to fight Lord Voldemort and save all of humanity.  Harry’s also found a book in his Potions class that belonged to the Half-Blood Prince, and this book is able to help him create potions.  Meanwhile, more ominous things are happening at Hogwarts, and Lord Voldemort may be working through Harry’s archenemy, Draco Malfoy, in order to wreak havoc.  We also learn more about the Dark Lord’s past, and see how Dumbledore inadvertently groomed him in order to become the force of mass destruction he is today. 
 
All of this stuff is fun and exciting, and we’re seeing a less whimsical and much darker Hogwarts than we have in the previous films.  The film seems to be mostly shot in neutral tones, which works very well given the secrets and histories we’re exposed to in this installment.  It does lag somewhat as we move towards the final sequence, but that’s only for about 15 minutes in a two-and-a-half hour film, and the conclusion left me stunned (even after I knew what was coming from having read the books).
 
Still, my favorite parts of the film had nothing to do with the suspense portion.  Harry, Ron, and Hermione have blossomed into teenagers, and they’re all experiencing true romance for the first time.  There are some well-observed moments here, as Hermione scowls while Ron becomes involved with another girl, and Ron’s sister Ginny grows increasingly infatuated with Harry.  I, along with several others, laughed out loud at some of their behavior, because watching it indeed reminded me of what it was like for me to be in love as a teenager. 

This is a good film.  It’s not my favorite of the series, but the action in this movie is as exciting as it was in the previous entries, and thus far, it’s the most human. 
 

-Craig Wynne

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