Lot of fun, lots of action… Yay Ryan Reynolds! Sure he’s only there part of the time, but he’s very funny and sarcastic…basically my kind of guy 😉 Yay Gambit! Sure he’s a pre-pubescent punk, but he’s got a N’awlins accent, throws playing cards and fights with a quarterstaff…what’s not to love? And of course yay Hugh Jackman and Liev Schrieber!! Two great actors who really embody their characters, able to express the animal rage at the core of the savage Sabretooth and the wicked Wolverine.

I saw this film in it’s opening week for three reasons: 1) I was excited by the trailer – James Earl Jones! 2) I wanted Disney to plant a tree with my ticket purchase 3) I wanted to support the brand new DisneyNature label (essentially a production house for Disney’s True Life Adventures) Between the first viewing of the trailer and my viewing of the film, a negative thought was introduced into my head regarding this maiden voyage of DisneyNature (primarily from this MousePlanet review): that the film was simply a poor, disjointed summary of BBC’s Planet Earth miniseries (which was and still is a fantastic promo for the beauty of hi-definition television sets). Obviously this wasn’t enough to make me not see the film, but it definitely clouded my idle thought. I agree the film is slightly disjointed and prone to take liberties with narrative jumps, but the story … Continue reading →

The advertisments all highlight the fact that this is a film from the director of Die Hard 2 (which to me is the more lackluster of the quadrilogy) and the producer of Speed (eh), but it’s basically the plot of Die Hard 3. Not to say this is a bad movie…it’s very exciting and terse and enjoyable. John Cena gives a very enjoyable performance (in my opinion not as good as Dwayne Johnson, but not bad for his second tour of the leading man position…The Rock was a little stiff in The Scorpion King) as Officer Danny Shaw, a beat cop in New Orleans who gets dragged into a sadistic terrorist’s 12 round game where the rules are solve the puzzle or people die.

Can you judge a franchise film without being familiar with it’s predecessors? Can a film stand on it’s own regardless of it’s origins? Who am I to judge…I enjoyed this movie very much, despite (or thanks to) having never seen the original Witch Mountain movies (released in the late 70’s by the Walt Disney Company). Dwayne Johnson is a very capable action comedy hero (don’t go in the pimped out fridge Jack…), and I very much enjoy his acting. Carla Gugina once again gets to have fun in a supporting actress role (from Spy Kids to Watchmen, she just keeps working it on screen…). Anna SophiaRobb (Bridge To Terabithia, Because Of Winn-Dixie) is joined by newcomer Alexander Ludwig as insensitive-but-loveable aliens on a mission.

Things I Missed From The Book Death of Hollis Mason (what, Stephen McHattie is too cool to kill?) Doctor Manhattan’s line on Mars: in a minute you’re going to tell me you’re sleeping with Daniel Lori and Comedian flashback “only once” Despite those missed moments, I didn’t have as many mixed feelings against this movie as I did Harry Potter 3 (which I guess is a good thing…I got pretty upset with Potter 3 more on adaptation issues than anything else). I didn’t mind the changed ending: unless you’re going to make a four hour epic instead of a three hour epic, there’s no way you could actually do the book’s ending…they did what they had to in order to make the movie work and I accept that. What they were able to accomplish with the movie was quite spectacular. Tim over at CAD.com said it best when he calls … Continue reading →