Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian Review

From when I heard about this movie I didn’t have hope for it, yes Ben Stiller is an actor I like a lot. But it took a while for the first one to grow on me, and being the sequel it USUALLY isn’t as good as the first I doubted this one would break that almost golden rule. Sadly this is true and there are definitely moments I could do without, but there are some moments I like.

First off I like Ben Stiller and when you give him room to improvise it gets fun, especially when it comes to his wit and timing. OMG the scene with Jonah Hill was funny, Jonah Hill is in the movie a lot less than he and the others involved seem to promote he is. There is a ton of characters in this film, I especially am a fan of Robin Williams as Theodore Roosevelt and there wasn’t much of him but it was fun when it happened. Abe Lincoln was funny in this too. But the biggest highlight of the movie to me is the supporting character Amy Adams as Amelia Earhart, she portrayed a very believable version of Amelia Earhart and the chemistry between her and Stiller worked okay. I was a bit dodgy with the love interest somewhat because she’s a damn figurine, probably not anatomically correct. Damn, there was a lot of special effects in this movie. The Jonas Brothers as the Cupids was also funny, and they poke fun at the love interest as well.

Having said all these good things I will say this, the idea is to at first get the museum “folks” back, but then turns into this think against Hank Azaria’s character as Ahkmenrah’s brother Kah Mun Rah for most of the movie. Why is this a problem? BECAUSE I HATED HANK AZARIA’S PERFORMANCE! Look I love his work on the Simpsons but I don’t know if he was trying to replicate his brother’s accent or purposefully being homophobic in his mannerisms. Whatever it is he was annoying, and his villain cronies like Al Capone, Napoleon etc. didn’t impress me in the least. BOOORING it was to watch them, however there was this one scene where these straggler villains were rejected, that made me laugh for a second but god what an otherwise lame villain lineup. I also have to say while some CGI was good; others seemed to be there just to show off. The Octopus was unnecessary, but the cupids were funny as hell. The balloon animals were unnecessary…geez why bother separating good from bad? There was too much special effects, we’re in a recession and you’re firing 80,000 dollar fireworks every ten minute in this movie.

Overall I will have to watch this movie like I do every other movie several more times when it’s on TV constantly and I’m bored. But I’m sure I’ll stand firm that this sequel failed to be as good as the first one. This movie is forgettable sadly, and it’s mostly because of Hank Azaria’s performance and the fireworks display of special effects.

Overall I give this 2 out of 5

Movie Review: Wolverine

Oh my, where to start? I won't complain about how much the film deviates from the source material. It's a movie and in adapting such material to the big screen somethings need to change. Lucky for me, even without this I still have a countless array of problems with Wolverine. Lets start with the fact that all of a sudden Wolverine has become a neutered house pet. The scenes in which Wolverine is trying to lead a normal life seem the most believable while the ones where he's trying to be animalistic end up feeling the most put on. Hugh Jackman gets by simply by being Hugh Jackman, charisma and all but fails at portraying the character that made him famous. 

When your main character fails to inspire the only hope left is that the supporting cast is interesting enough to hold the film together.  Sadly in the case of Wolverine this is mostly a disappointment. Most of the roles end up being glorified cameos with no one to really care about. Ryan Reynolds who plays Wade Wilson/Deadpool in the film gets a few good lines in towards the front of the film but then vanishes until the films climax. If there is one redeeming thing about Wolverine it is the performance by Liev Schreiber of Victor Creed. He plays the character with all the strength and confidence that sabretooth should have. Liev is believably intimidating in a way that Hugh only wishes he could be.  

Alright enough with the performances this is a summer blockbuster so lets get to the effects shall we. I love myself some good action but it has to be well executed. The film just wreaks of being rushed with some scenes looking right out cartoonish. In particular a scene where Wolverine is checking out his brand spanking new adamantium claws. The scene is meant to be about Logan discovering himself almost like a teenage boy. At least thats that I think was going on but honestly all I could look at was these ridiculous metal claws that took me straight out of the film. 

The problem with the action sequences in this film is that there is no point to them. Wolverine is virtually indestructible and the movie makes sure to repeat this over and over. The antagonist of the film Colonel Stryker even states this and yet they keep throwing more firepower in Logan's direction. We then learn that there is a certain way in which to defeat wolverine. Now here's a thought, how about you use that weapon first instead of sending countless soldiers and mutants to die and causing millions of dollars in damages? 

Overall Wolverine was quite a sad start to the summer movie season. The characters are bland and even a stand out performance by Liev Schreiber isn't enough to keep this film from sinking. Lackluster effects and pointless set pieces just eat away at what once was a thriving franchise. There has already been a sequel announced and a Deadpool spin-off, I hope they can turn the franchise around because I don't think I'll be in line if they continue in this direction.

2 out of 5

Movie Review: Waltz with Bashir

It's been years since i've actually enjoyed sitting through a modern war film and yet "Waltz with Bashir" managed to finally breakthrough to me. Most of which has to do with the film being animated. By being animated I believe it helped to give me a shield from the war. I was able to see the images without being totally thrown of by the reality of them. Keeping everything just a bit surreal made the film watchable and I was able to fully pay attention to the story because of it and wasn't distracted by the imagery. There was some great from the early dreams of the main proganist of him and his fellow warmen rose out of the water naked and innocent seeing the flares lighting up the night sky. 

The journey of the protaganist as he tries to regain his memory of what happened during the war and what role he played in it kept me going. From interview to interview we got just a little bit more of the puzzle and all of them with such different backgrounds. Some critism I have is that I found myself more interested in how these characters were doing post war rather then just talking about how things used to be. They delve into how everyone in the present is doing but only briefly and I think the film could have benefited more by seeing a bit more of how their lives are now. 

The only real major complaint I have is with the ending, It felt forceful, heavy handed, and completely unneseccary. I throughoughly enjoyed the film because of it's animation style helping me to get past what I've found so distasteful in other war movies and going to live action to show real massacre footage seemed redundant. I understood the tragedy that had occured and didn't need to see footage of little girls buried in rubble to understand it. It makes me feel as if the filmmakers didn't have enough belief that the animation was impactful enough, which just makes me feel the filmmaker wasn't unsure if animation was the best way to get the message he wanted across.

4 out of 5

The Last Airbender Trailer

Dev Patel is Zuko

Avatar: The Last Airbender was arguably the best Nickelodeon series they have made in quite a long time since the Golden Age when they were called Nicktoons. It started funny, got serious, and ended epicly. I rewatch episodes more than i drink water, haha. 

So with the announcement of a movie, a 4 part series if it stays popular I was of course interested. Then I found that M. Night Shamalayan was attached to write and direct the series of films. That got me a little nervous with his less than stellar record for like the last three movies he made, but he's basing it off a set storyline by the creators. And he did watch the series according to interviews. 

So I recently found out that a teaser trailer for this movie will be shown before Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Excellent! more bang for my buck :D. But jeez, a trailer for a movie not being released till July 2nd 2010. Kinda early and cruel if you ask me. 

Now to be fair this upcoming movie is not all positive, fans have criticized the use of all white actors for the cast. Thats a whole other subject but needless to say this movie is important, important enough that I write about a teaser trailer in front of Transformers 2. 

Why? Well first of all. 

1. Since I love this series and used to love M. Night Shamalayan, im hoping for good things since he has watched the show himself and I'm seeing this movie unless real trailers says otherwise. So its a chance for him to redeem himself to me and likely to others.

 2. The Trailer will give us an insight to the movie's mood, martial art kung fu action, mythology and having to save the world even though your a care free misfit...sounds familiar. Oh Crap, Dragonball:Evolution. Well its not Twentieth Century Fox produced so it stands a better chance being under...Nickelodeon Movies and Paramount. Ummm...The only one of theirs I happened to like was Charlotte's Web and i'm in the minority of that opinion. So that's another concern. 

3. If the movie doesn't do well why make four movies?

So anyway, if you liked Avatar. Go see Transformers, which i'm sure you already are, and check out the teaser. 

Movie Review: Citizen Kane

It could be easy for a modern viewer to take a film like Citizen Kane for granted and not understand why it was the milestone that it was.  The film is an epic not by budget but by talent. Orson Welles tells the story of the rise and fall of a newspaper tycoon with every technique not in the book. The first important thing to notice about the film is that it was mostly shot in deep focus photography. During the time of Citizen Kane (1941) films were not shot this way. They would traditionally be shot by having the background out of focus and the foreground in focus or vica versus in order for the viewer to know exactly what to look at. In Kane, cinematographer Gregg Toland had everything in motion and used the movement and eye lines of characters to direct the viewers eye to what they should look at. While this was innovative it was also unapprieciated at the time because it meant that the viewer had to be very active while watching the film and a viewer couldn't passivly watch the film.

The film is often remembered for epic moments and events in the film. From his rally to become governor to the opera house and even small moments such as the reporter in the library of Xanadu in the beginning of the film. The one thing that could be missed if someone is unaware is that the film is massive mainly due to special effects and smoke and mirrors. We are given the illusion of scale without ever seeing it. The use of light and composing of the frame greatly help to create this feeling. An example is the opera house in which the audience is always shown from very low or hight angles in order to use less extras then was available. Also when Susan Alexander Kane is show from behind looking out at the stage all see see is patches of light and what completes this illusion of a massive theater is the soundtrack. 

An interesting aspect of the film is how the deep focusing was used to great effect for some scale shots to show how we are supposed to feel about Kane without being told. There are several scenes where Kane is in the foreground and is a powerful man and then as something is taken away from him or changed for the worse he walks into the background and becomes a small figure. While the public's view of Kane may have been a bigger then life character it was obvious that as time wore on his life became quite lonesome. 

The set up for us to see this story unfold is quite interesting in how it doesn't really have anything to do with the story. We hear the word "Rosebud" uttered by Kane and then are send off at first to find out who Rosebud is and if that one word can sum up the life of Kane. Finally by the films end we realize that one word, one headline isn't what can define a man. Many of the films characters aren't even aware of what Rosebud is and have never heard of it. What they do give us is a portrait of a real man with ups and downs.

The selection of actors in the film are also delve into areas that most films at the time didn't. Unlike other big films of the time most of the actors were particuarly unknown and hadn't been in film before. Some of the roles were filled by actors that worked with Orson Welles at the Mercury theater. This had a lot to do with the unheard of deal the Orson Welles had with RKO to have complete control over the film and the final cut. A decision that helped to make Citizen Kane the classic it's been praised as since it's initial release. 

5 out of 5

Hype over upcoming "Gamer" film

Trailer on Youtube

Ive heard about this film, and just recently I saw a trailer for it. At first the idea seems too farfetched and I had quite a few WTF moments. The "simulation" of the people controlling the avatars looked about as cheezy as the simulated gameplay of Xbox in Michael Bay's "The Island". 

But then...it got serious. Death Row Inmates can suffer 30 different times being controlled like an MMO avatar and get their freedom unless the gamer fails on their behalf to win the games they are in. Okay.....Now as much as that is a twisted sarconic setup for these prisoners, it got me interested in the film. VERY INTERESTED. Remember, alot of video game movies...or mostly all of them suck. This one may draw the line, its video game based in story to a degree. So I looked up some info about this movie and discovered it's written/directed by Brian Taylor and Mark Neveldine, The Crank Series guys who also wrote Pathology. Okay, these guys may have a bit of a looseness when it comes to logic from the bit of the first Crank that I watched. But they really are creative and have the unique opportunity of having a video game movie where they can't disappoint a legion of gamerfans except for fans of their stuff. And I doubt their fans will be disappointed.

Alright so we got guys with some credit to being unique and entertaining, although I am not a fan of their work...yet. Lets see, we got Gerard Butler. Good. Milo Ventimiglia. Good. John Leguizamo. Good. Aaron Yoo. I like him for some reason. We got some very dynamic characters here. And the idea that maybe one of these gamers sympathizes with the prisoners and seems to (as the trailer suggests) want to end this ridiculous and cruel bargain got me perked up a bit.

They might REALLY have something here. But oh darn no release until September 4th. Thats okay with me because i'm likely not gonna see it, I am not their biggest fans. But I do have to say the video game stigma shouldn't apply here, but it really pushes on gamers imagination.

 

Xbox Motion Sensing Device

This is just my thoughts but once again there are rumors and alot of reading between the lines of official words from Xbox that they have a Motion Sensing competitor to the Nintendo Wii's device.

Personally I think this is a ridiculous idea, because I personally feel Nintendo is in a class of its own. Thats not a compliment btw considering the excitement is more over the motion devices than it is over many of the games. 

So on that note I have to say it'd be a waste of time to make a motion sensing device, because no matter how cool it is the games unfortunately seem to focus on the motion sensing novelty than actually making a fun game. 

Some have speculated that it will be a peripheral like the Eye Toy cameras used on Playstation, I've played with those and they were pretty terrible. It lasted only 5 minutes for me. Xbox already has a vision camera so I don't see why they'd make another one or could make it work off the existing camera. I actually really hope the motion sensing peripheral is a rumor, nothing more.