Movie Review: Transformers

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Featuring: Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, Jon Voight, John Turturro

Genre: action, sci fi

Plot: aliens looking like huge robots hidden under vehicle appearance come to fight with each others on Earth

Acting: LaBeouf wasn’t so bad, Turturo was annoying as always

Drama: when your car is not a Porshe that sure is a drama

Action: the robots fight a lot

Funny: again the robots are… sort of

Visuals: good CGI

Soundtrack: errr… I’m sure there was one

Comments: It would have helped if I had watched the cartoons first to know which robot is which. The little meowing bad guy was funny. And I would have liked to have the yellow car. Not much else to say… you can imagine why. It’s a kid movie.

Rating: 3/5

Movie Review: Evan Almighty

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Featuring: Steve Carell, Morgan Freeman, Lauren Graham, John Goodman

Genre: comedy

Plot: God asks a congressman, of all people, to build a huge ark to save a couple of hundreds of people who wouldn’t have been there in the first place if it hadn’t been for that ark

Acting: Morgan Freeman was good as ever

Drama: a fashion dilemma?

Action: ark ride

Funny: the animals were and a few of Carell’s reactions

Visuals: the ark the flood and the ride

Soundtrack: oldies but not bad just cheesy

Comments: I’m one of the few people who found The 40 Years Virgin to be a waste of my time and I also don’t like Jim Carrey at all so I had no hopes to like this movie. The only reason I saw it was because of Morgan Freeman, which by the way gets way too little screen time. Like with most sequels this one goes bigger too, unfortunately the plot doesn’t exactly hold in many places. Can you actually imagine all the windows being open in Washington for the birds to fly in when all the offices there are actually running on air conditioning? And if I was the wife I would have had him committed long before that. Really, we need a more modern God who keeps up with the advances of our society or we’re all doomed.

Rating: 3/5

Movie Review: Live Free or Die Hard

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Featuring: Bruce Willis, Timothy Olyphant, Justin Long, Maggie Q

Genre: action, thriller

Plot: greedy terrorists attacks the whole country this time

Acting: not totally convincing, Willis keeps his pensive-amused grin and while it’s amusing to see it it doesn’t always fit the situation

Drama: US seemingly under attack, McClane’s daughter gets abducted… you choose

Action: quite a lot though somehow not as much as in the previous movies… is Willis getting a tad old?

Funny: the dialog is in places… the hacker is just annoying… and the daughter can kick ass, yeah!

Visuals: some of the stunts are impressive

Soundtrack: didn’t notice it

Comments: The longest a character lives the writers just seem to run out of ideas. So first there was a tower building, then an airport followed by a city and now it’s the whole country. Wanna bet the world is next if there ever is a fifth one? McClane hasn’t changed much except for the lack of hair and slightly bigger look, he’s still like a dog with a bone when confronted with a tough situation. We realize he hadn’t made up with his wife, of course since after 12 years Bonnie Bedelia couldn’t possibly look like she’s 20 again, he doesn’t get along well with his daughter, who he obviously taught her defense classes at some point, and he’s apparently surpassed by the today’s world. While pairing him with someone worked more or less in the third movie, pairing him with a weaker one, the hacker doesn’t have much of a back bone and he’s just a whiny kid who would like to be someone but is not ready for it yet, doesn’t exactly work and I pity the kid if the daughter really makes up her mind to ever hook up with him. There are a couple of déjà vu scenes like Willis on top of a plane or Maggie Q’s version of the Terminator bitch who just won’t die. The poor thing gets killed again like she did in X-Men 2, and since I mentioned that I can’t help but wonder what would have happened if the hacker was someone like Stanley aka Hugh Jackman in Swordfish. Would that have kicked ass or what? One in all it’s not really a bad movie, but the first sequel was my favorite of all and compared to that there’s too much tech and less action in it. Along with Terminator Die Hard is probably one of the few series whose first sequel is better than the original. Haven’t decided yet if I’m hoping for a fifth one. Probably not.

Rating: 3/5

Movie Review: Ratatouille

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Featuring: Patton Oswalt, Ian Holm, Lou Romano, Brian Dennehy, Peter Sohn, Peter O'Toole, Brad Garrett, Janeane Garofalo

Genre: animation, comedy

Plot: a rat develops kitchen skills

Acting: from the animation point of view it’s very well done and believable; the voices aren’t bad either

Drama: it’s a rat’s life

Action: that part is fun too

Funny: plenty of it

Visuals: I liked the camera moves and the characters and settings are well done

Soundtrack: quite nice

Comments: It’s been a while since I truly liked an animated movie or any other movie for that matter. Kids will love it but it should amuse adults quite a lot too. I’m insisting on the fun part but also on the visuals and although I’d rather not eat in a restaurant ran by rats they were cute too.

Rating: 4/5

Movie Review: Ocean’s Thirteen

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Featuring: Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Matt Damon, Elliott Gould, Al Pacino, Andy Garcia, Don Cheadle, Ellen Barkin

Genre: comedy, action

Plot: with some twists and apparently elaborated in places but it doesn’t really compare to the other two

Acting: the triplet is doing well as expected, Pacino disappointed a little but he didn’t have much to work with and maybe another actor would have fitted the part better. Would have liked to see more of Garcia, Barkin’s part was a disgrace, a very weak and unnecessary female character.

Drama: it evolves around money

Action: less than in the other too

Funny: it was the same trademark humor they used us to

Visuals: an architectural mutation

Soundtrack: appropriate

Comments: While it was fun for sure, it was not nearly as entertaining as the previous two movies. It lacks a strong female part and love interest. I liked it better when the boys kept their operation on a smaller scale and there was much more in stake.

Rating: 3/5

Movie Review: California Dreamin’ (Nesfarsit)

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Featuring: Armand Assante, Jamie Elman, Razvan Vasilescu, Maria Dinulescu, Alexandru Margineanu

Genre: drama

Plot: simple but oh so actual

Acting: Armand Assante was good as usual, Razvan Vasilescu was briliant, Maria Dinulescu wasn’t bad, it still shows that she’s used to star in soap operas though

Drama: the whole Romanian system

Action: street fight scene

Funny: tragically so

Visuals: it bothered me the fact that it was shot with a mobile camera, it’s tiring for the eyes I think and it doesn’t improve the quality of the movie

Soundtrack: nothing special

Award: Un certain regard at Cannes in 2007

Comments: For an unfinished movie it's not bad at all. It’s definitely a Romanian movie, it seems this is all they’re able to produce these days. They get awards and prizes for them because people outside are shocked to see such a reality but the thing is we live in it and this is the saddest part of all.

Rating: 3/5

Movie Review: Pirates of the Caribbean - At World’s End

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Featuring: Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, Jack Davenport, Bill Nighy, Jonathan Pryce, Stellan Skarsgård

Genre: adventure

Plot: quest to get Jack Sparrow and Will’s dad back

Acting: As always Johnny Deep stole the show. The movie is not so much character based but more action based so they worked with what they had

Drama: plenty but all is well when it ends well… sort of

Action: lots of fighting between pirates

Funny: it’s definitely funny, Jack is priceless, but it doesn’t have as many gags as the second movie, which is a good thing

Visuals: nothing to complain about, great pleasure for the eye

Soundtrack: it’s Hans Zimmer so of course it’s spot on

Comments: I would say this movie is better than the second one though that was entertaining too. The first one is still my favorite and I consider it to be better as a whole. It’s normal since it’s more character based, but once they have solid characters defined they can only focus on the action and then you can’t help feeling that something is lacking. It’s either that or change the characters so much that they’re not the ones you fell in love with in the first place. That’s the sad part about sequels and why they’re never as good as the originals. But even if the relationship between Will and Elisabeth is not working now that they have they’re own agenda, we do get our unexpected bitter sweet happy ending which leaves us with a tinny little hope for more. As a side observation it’s funny how Elizabeth has a different hair color in each movie and the way Will proposes to her. Happy many returns!

Rating: 4/5

Movie Review: Shrek The Third

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Featuring: green ogre, cat, donkey and spoiled brat aka Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, Antonio Banderas, Julie Andrews, John Cleese, Rupert Everett, Justin Timberlake

Genre: animation, comedy

Plot: Shrek goes look for another heir to the throne to replace him while fighting fatherhood thoughts.

Acting: Murphy and Banderas kinda steal the show

Drama: the way they included Princesses from other stories… I hate it when they mix up stories

Action: Prince Charming is taking over the world

Funny: Shrek and Fiona taking care of the babies

Visuals: humans still look ugly, everything else looks much better

Soundtrack: the first one was better

Comments: For some reason I enjoyed it less than the other two. I hope there won’t be fourth one.

Rating: 3/5

Hugh Jackman in Sunset Boulevard

I've been looking for this for a while now since Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard has become one of my favorite musicals.

Hugh Jackman singing Sunset Boulevard:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELEtTFK-_DQ

Documentary about the production of the musical in Australia:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44HiPwv3kCA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvPbDRv-59E

He looked so young!

Movie Review: Grindhouse

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Featuring: Freddy Rodríguez, Rose McGowan, Kurt Russell, Naveen Andrews, Jeff Fahey,
Bruce Willis, Quentin Tarantino

Genre: horror, road movie

Plot: two cheap movies played head to head with commercials in between

Acting: err… did I say it’s a horror movie? Who needs acting? I felt kinda bad for Kurt Russell, what did he do so wrong his life to deserve to be put in such movie?

Drama: too much of a cliché not to find at least a dozen

Action: shootings, explosions, zombie killings, car crashes, etc.

Funny: hmm, not exactly… such a deadbrainer I almost felt ashamed when I chuckled a couple of times

Visuals: not much… but Rose McGowan looked hot as a brunette with or without the missing leg

Soundtrack: don’t remember

Comments: A worse version of From Dusk Till Dawn followed by an even worse version of Pulp Fiction. Of course those who are only after plenty of gore will be happy with it. I’ll never understand why people like Quentin Tarantino.

Rating: 2/5