Talking about classic and current sci-fi, fantasy, action/adventure and horror films and shows. Superheroes galore. Also discussing comic books. Star Trek, Buffy, James Bond, X-Men, Star Wars, Lord Of The Rings, Spider-Man, Indiana Jones, Firefly, True Blood, Supernatural and lots more. Just a little hero worship.
2008 brought the crowd cheering funtastic comic movie Iron Man to the big screen and audiences ate it up. Robert Downey, Jr. was perfectly cast as the titular character Iron Man and his alter ego, the brash inventor and savvy businessman Tony Stark. Loaded with cool special effects, lots of humor and RDJ's best role in years, Iron Man was awesome. In this clip, he arrives in a small town that is being overrun by militia who are using his company's weapons. He has had enough and decides to intervene.
OK, while this very cool comic book movie is all about a high school student named Dave Lizewski who becomes a super hero called Kick-Ass, the real star of the movie is the lethal and young Hit Girl (played by Chloe Grace Moretz). Trained by her dad, Big Daddy (the always weird but fun Nicolas Cage), she dispenses brutal justice on all bad guys with gut wrenching efficiency. This girl is no joke. She is like a mini Punisher! Check out this scene where she takes on the bad guys on their own turf, rocking to the tune of Joan Jett's Bad Reputation!
It was perfect casting when Hugh Jackman landed the role of everyone's favorite mutant from Canada... Wolverine. From his opening scene in the first X-Men movie (2000) you know he was the guy. And when he popped his claws with the trademark SNIKT! sound, as an X-Men fan, I was in fanboy heaven. I can remember that scene and how the audience reacted. Everyone was cheering and clapping and saying "Oh yes! That's it! That's Wolverine!". Perfection!
It took over 20 years to bring a proper Dark Knight to the big screen to erase memories of the campy 60's TV series. While the series was fun and had it moments, we wanted a more serious take on Batman. And director Tim Burton delivered the goods. Now when he cast Michael "Mr. Mom" Keaton as Bruce Wayne/Batman, everyone was like..huh? But guess what Keaton did a pretty good job. Batman was a huge blockbuster hit during the summer of 1989 and while there are plenty of moments to choose from as the one to be called pivotal: the intro of Jack Nicholson as the disfigured Joker; Batman rolling down the streets of Gotham in the batmobile and others. But I will go with the very opening scene where two low life criminals are divvying up their recent score on a rooftop building when Batman makes his very cool appearance and then name checks himself.
I'M BATMAN! The bad guy had to have an accident in his pants right then and there.
Hugh Jackman toplines this crowd-pleasing drama set in the near future as Charlie Kenton, a struggling boxing promoter of robots. You see in the future robots replaced human as fighters because the audiences were craving more and more. And the human body can only take so much punishment. Well Charlie struggles with trying to win as he is way over his head in debt to everyone. And the people he owe money too don't take rainchecks or IOU's. Add to the mix is Max, Charlie's young son who he hasn't seen since his birth, and is now an orphan, due to his recent passing of his mom.
Father and son sharing a happy moment
So Charlie takes temporary custody of Max (wonderfully played by Dakot Goyo) for a few months until the mom's sister gets back from traveling around the world. During this time, Charlie and Max pulls an ancient robot out of the scrap yard and rebuild to start fighting. The robot is called Atom, and is a relic of the robot fighters. Compared to all the hi-tech new robots fighting now, Charlie doesn't think he will last long. But this little robot, being trained by Max and then Charlie (who was an actual boxer back in his younger days) begins winning fights and grabs the attention of the country and the media. And before you can say Rocky Balboa, the trio ends up getting a title shot match against Zeus, the most feared and undefeated robot in history.
Atom going the distance
I loved this movie. It may be predictable at times but it still feels so fresh and exciting. The fight scenes are awesome and the robots themselves are very realistic. Hugh Jackman delivers a solid performance. And Evangeline Lilly is effective as his long time girlfriend and robot whiz Bailey. But it's Dakota Goyo who steals the movie as Max. Being the one character audiences can get behind. He is just real and into his character, you just smile every time he is on screen.
My new film crush, Evangeline Lilly as Bailey
One of the more surprising films of 2011 and a must see. Another surprise factor is the music score by Danny Elfman. Yep, I said Danny Elfman, the maestro of usually offbeat and dark films, does a really stirring score to this pretty cool movie. As I said in my header, Real Steel is for real. B+
We all know Jason Bourne is a bad ass when it comes to fighting. Just messing bad guys up. But another handy skill Jason has is his wicked driving ability. Check out this awesome chase scene from the second Bourne film where Jason tears up the streets of Moscow in hot pursuit by Karl Urban.
After a rough last week at work which saw layoffs of some of my friends and now a bigger workload for me now, I feel the need for some speed. I will post daily scenes of some of the best car chases in film. Similar to what I did last summer when I posted about an action movie a day. Let's start with this nifty chase sequence from 2008's Quantum of Solace, the second Bond film to feature Daniel Craig. There might still be some naysayers about Craig being Bond..for the record I like him, and this is one of the best car chases ever. Bond film or action film period. Bond is being pursued some bad guys in Siena, Italy through a tunnel and on the side of a mountainside. High octane stuff.
Leave it to Germany to produce one of the best vampire films in recent memory called We Are The Night. A trio of all female vampires live like rock stars in Berlin. Led by the eldest, Louise (a striking and impressive Nina Hoss) who is looking for her soul-mate. One who she will immediately know by the eyes of said soul-mate. The other two vampires are Charlotte (Jennifer Ulrich) a 1920's silent film star who was turned by Louise and who loves to read books and Nora (Anna Fischer) a woman who acts very child like. Check out their opening scene as they are flying back from a Paris shopping spree and kill everyone on board..passengers, stewardesses and even the pilots. So as the jet flies out of control, the women bail from high above the city in one of the wildest pre-credit sequences on film ever.
Louise seducing Lena
Next day, a young thief named Lena (Karoline Herfurth, looking very much like an even grungier Noomi Rapace from The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) steals from a Russian pimp and is chased by the police all over the city. Where she meets the good looking detective Tom (Max Riemelt) who then have a cat and mouse relationship the rest of the movie. That night Lena ventures to a secret night club where the trio of vampires are partying and Louise is immediately smitten.
The girls living it up
After a little dancing Louise bites Lena and so begins their courtship. Lena doesn't understand at first and the other two women convince Louise that the newbie has to learn the hard way and accept what she is. So they drop her off at some very bad men's warehouse to be tortured until her need for survival kicks in. And kick in it does as Lena has a very brutal fight scene with one of the bad men. The other girls show up to finish off the others. Especially cool is Charlotte walking on the ceiling upside down with a shotgun.
Nora after a little snack
After this little adventure the girls take Lena back to their place to bathe and clean up. And that's where one of the coolest transformation of a human to vampire takes place. As she emerges from her tub with longer hair and much sexier. And then the fun begins. These girls know how to live. Staying at the swankiest places, each driving their own personal sports car like ferraris and BMW's. Dancing at clubs and for kicks, walking on ceilings like Spider-Man. But don't be fooled by these sexy looking women, they can get downright brutal and nasty when it comes to killing. Some very graphic scenes are plentiful in this film.
Nora and Charlotte have a little taste
But Lena still does not want to kill, which becomes a problem for the group. On a nightly swim at a very nice observatory, they encounter two security guard which they dispatch. Nora kills one quickly and bloody while Charlotte rips a single page from the book she is reading and slices the other guard's throat cleanly. Name of the book..For Whom The Bell Tolls. Lena hauls ass out of their after that and soon the police track them down thanks to their hot "stolen" rides. Which leads to an exciting shoot-out with the SWAT team and Charlotte.
Detective Tom looking out of his league
After this melee, in which Nora is critically wounded, the other girls prepare to leave Berlin. But in one of the film's more touching scenes, Charlotte goes to see her child, who is now 90 years old in a nursing home. Her child was very young when Charlotte was turned and she has always had regret.
Nora being herself
The girls will have one more encounter with the police which will lead to a final and wicked fight scene between Louise and Lena, in which only one of them will survive. I loved this movie. A great vampire film that stays true to the myth while putting it's own spin on it. I like how Louise states that there used to be male vampires but they were stupid and arrogant. And the ones that were not killed by humans, the female vampires killed the rest. Leaving only their gender as the only vampires in the world.
Lena starting to feel the urge
I thought all four women were excellent. Each making their character very different from one another. Louise being torned between finding her true love and her constant need to control the others. Charlotte being the calm and sensible one, but also filled with regret. Nora full of sass and spunk and kind of wild. And of course Lena, who goes from troubled young girl to a girl thrust into a different new world.
That crazy Nora
The film makes great use of Berlin as the setting and is backed by some rocking music. It never bogs down and tells it's story at a nice crisp pace. If you want to see a great vampire film, then you have to see We Are The Night. B+
The girls just hanging out
Notes:
Three of the actresses: Ulrich, Fischer and Herfurth all were born in Berlin. Hoss was born in Stuttgart.
The licence number of Nora's car is FU-CK 1.
The word "vampire" is not said once in the entire film.
A most welcome return for Kate Beckinsale as vampire warrior Selene in the 4th Underworld movie. Kate played the part of Selene in the first two movies but bowed out of the third, as it was a prequel. Well she's back now and judging by the previews, hasn't lost a step when it comes to taking out lycans (werewolves). The movie opens this Friday and I'm stoked to see it as Underworld is one of my favorite movie series.
Even better than the first one. Selene and Michael return to battle the last remaining elder vampire Marcus who is searching for his imprisoned brother William, who happens to be a werewolf. It may get a little complicated before things are explained but it's one hell of a ride. Plus Kate Beckinsale in tight black leather kicking ass will get your blood pumping. A solid sequel.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tanis: "You don't scare me , Selene". Selene: "Well, we'll have to work on that".
In honor of Sir Sean Connery's birthday today, I am watching some of his films. Started with Goldfinger, his best outing as James Bond and now continuing with the 1987 film The Untouchables, which is one of the best movies ever made. Federal agent Elliot Ness (a young and eager Kevin Costner) is tasked to bring in crime boss Al Capone (an awesome Robert DeNiro) in 1920's Chicago. Joining Ness's task force are Andy Garcia, Charles Martin Smith and Sean Connery as tough Irish cop Jimmy Malone. Connery is terrific as the wily veteran and he deservedly won an Oscar as Best Supporting Actor. Costner is no slouch himself as the naive Ness, who gains experience from Malone. Of course DeNiro is just a powerhouse as Capone. The Untouchables is an exciting film with several thrilling scenes including the famous shoot-out at the train station. Also features a magnificent music score by the legendary Ennio Morricone. One of the surprise films of 1987 and one of my all time favorites. A
You see this is why there should be more women driven action pictures. Women can make credible action heroes just like men, if not better. Geena Davis is awesome as Samantha Cain, a women suffering from amnesia, who is living the quiet life with her young daughter and dating a nice guy. Samantha has hired low rent private eye Mitch Hennessey to solve the mystery of her past. When a man shows up at Samantha's house to kill her, her reflexes takes over and she kills him. It seems Samantha was a former CIA assassin named Charlie Baltimore who was left for dead. Well the bad guys want to finish the job this time and soon Charlie and Mitch are on the run, taking down bad guys left and right. This movie kicks ass and Geena Davis rocks it as the super assassin Charlie. If you thought Uma Thurman was one lethal lady in Kill Bill, you need to check out Charlie. Deadly with her hands and even deadlier with a gun. She mows down the bad guys with lethal efficiency. Samuel Jackson holds his own as the wise cracking detective Mitch, who gets in on the action later on in the movie. They end up making quite the team. I brought up Uma, because Kill Bill seemed to borrow a little of the plot from this film. A wronged lady comes back to exact revenge and to save her little girl. And this film delivers all the action you could want and then some. Loaded with devious bad guys, snappy one liners, awesome gun battles and fight scenes, Long Kiss is a must see. And also has a very cool music score that brings more energy to the already fantastic action scenes. Good selection of songs too. Geena shows she can hang with the big boys Mel, Arnie, Bruce and Sly quite easily. From the writer Shane Black of Lethal Weapon and The Last Boy Scout. B+
Mitch Henessey: What I'm saying is, back when we first met, you were all like "Oh phooey, I burned the darn muffins." Now, you go into a bar, ten minutes later, sailors come runnin' out. What up with that?
A movie most appropriate for the July 4th weekend is 1994's Blown Away which centers on a mad Irish bomber named Ryan Gaerity (Tommy Lee Jones) who escapes prison and comes to America to wreak havoc on the city of Boston and in particularly a cop named Jimmy Dove (Jeff Bridges). It seems years ago that Jimmy and Ryan were partners but once Ryan started killing innocent civilians with his bombs, Jimmy had enough and fled Ireland to come to America, leaving Jimmy to rot in prison. Tommy Lee Jones plays the unhinged bomber to the tee and crafts some wicked bombs that Jimmy must use all his considerable knowledge to diffuse. And let me tell you something, Ryan definitely puts Jimmy through his paces. Damn! Jimmy looks exhausted pretty much the whole movie. Blown Away came out a few weeks after Speed and was seen as a carbon copy. And while Speed is the better and more enjoyable film, Blown Away does deliver all the bang you could want in an action movie. Co-starring Forest Whitaker, Suzy Amis and Lloyd Bridges (Jeff's real life dad). Check out the explosive trailer below.
Just saw Alice in Wonderland with my wife and we enjoyed it. A review is forthcoming. But the really good news is I saw the full trailer for TRON:LEGACY in all it's IMAX 3D glory. It was one of the best trailers I have ever seen. The visuals, the booming music, all cut into one sleek looking trailer. But it doesn't come out until December 17th, so it's gonna be a long wait. I posted the trailer from You Tube on here.
Probably one of the best fight scenes ever did on film. Classic back and forth fight between Roddy Piper and Keith David, and in which both guys hold their own with one another. Great stuff.
BOOTH GIRLS follows bright-eyed Emily during her first day of work as a booth girl at Comic Con, dressed as a comic book super hero whom she has admired since she was five. She soon finds out that it's not as fun and innocent as she expected as throughout the day Emily is faced with crazed fans, leering weirdos, power-mad staff, and a cast of colorful spokes models, all with their own unique take on working the convention floor as they portray other icons of science fiction and comic books.
Among her challenges: a Warrior Princess model who plays for keeps, a Slave Leia super fan, and a convention organizer gone mad with power.
This looks so much like Old Man Logan, a comic Marvel did last year about Wolverine in a future world torn apart. Denzel looks bad ass in this too. And Gary Oldman is the villain. Sweet! Can't wait to see it.
