A couple weekend movie reviews

Saw a couple movies this weekend.

First up, Lone Survivor
 
My favorite part: the guns.  The firing guns sound like CANNONS going off, just as they do in real life.
My least favorite: the end.  If you dont know the story, I wont ruin it for you, but I have a feeling Hollywood and Marky Mark got involved here at the very end.
EDIT - I just found this article Slate.com movie inaccuracies (dont read until you have seen the movie though!  Extreme spoilers!).  It seems that from the moment Luttrell is discovered by friendly Afghanis, the movie goes off the rails from realism....about the same time the movie loses a little bit of 'heroic' for me.

This one is extremely brutal.  Steer clear if you are queasy around realistic violence.

I dont really even need to give a review of this one.  Go see it.  5 out of 5 Raptors Claws.  They should show this one in public schools.

Next up, Olympus Has Fallen

This one is such a total piece of unbelievable bullshit thats its not even funny.  Totally impossible, improbable, yada yada yada.  After all, there is no way the American President would be taken hostage like a total pussy, putting others lives on the line for his own.  Oh wait, that part is totally possible :)

That all being said, I loved this one!!!!

So, the story - King Leonidas is tasked with rescuing President Two Face from some North Korean terrorists after the king has let Wynonna Judd's sister fall off a bridge.

Moment after moment of this one brings more totally impossible scenarios to the table.  Once again, like the reboot of Red Dawn, North Korea becomes the antagonist, even though they have no way to get troops on the ground here in the US - at least in Red Dawn, it was the pacific coast and not the east coast!!!!!  The terrorists take the White House (Olympus) and the President and several aids and advisors. 

Gerard Butler (long story short) is a 'disgraced' secret service agent who just happens to be available to take the White House back.  He is awesome in this one - some cool one liners, kicking asses from the East Wing to the West, and a mastery of all weapons!

I have to assume that if you watch this one, you arent going in for the reality.  Im sure this one would have been a great summer flick to watch.

Four out of five Raptors Claws, taking away one claw for the total silliness.

Catching Fire movie review

Caught Catching Fire last weekend

 

This is the sequel to The Hunger Games.

I was actually pleasantly surprised by this one!  I enjoyed the original Hunger Games, and I had heard lots of good things about Catching Fire, but I guess I was expecting a sequel slump.

Ive gotten to the point where I really like Jennifer Lawrence who plays Katniss Everdeen (or, as I have heard 'Hotness Everpeen' - YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!!!!)  I first saw her in Winter's Bone (heheheheh) which I guess was her 'breakout' movie, and I assumed she would have been a flash in the pan.  But, I have since seen her in several more movies - both of these Hunger Games flicks, the XMen, and Silver Linings Playbook.  She really is a great actress!

Lots of other huge names in Catching Fire - Donald Sutherland (who never gets old), Woody Harrelson (who really is a spectacular actor, and if I really think about it, is one of my favorites), Elizabeth Banks, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Stanley Tucci (who plays an AWESOME Caesar Flickerman!) among others.  Another who stands out to me, who isnt an actor is Lenny Kravitz!  He does a great job as 'Cinna', Katniss' stylist.  My wife saw him in concert a few years back, which leads us to call him 'just a cool little black man'.  That dude has just got 'it'.

A couple more actors who deserve mention, but not in a good way - Liam Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson.  If you happened to catch my review of Red Dawn a few weeks back, im on Hutcherson like stink on shit!  Neither of these home boys can act for shit.  And Peeta is a giant pussy.

The scenery, effects, and costumes are dead on.  I read all three books (as most everyone in the world evidently did!) and the scenes are just as you imagine them as you read them.

Finally, one last negative that sort of isnt the movie's 'fault'.  I dont like the way this one ends.  I know its the middle of a trilogy (have you seen that Mockingjay is gonna be TWO movies????) but this one just sort of 'stops'.  It definitely bridges over to the next movie, and I guess if you have read the books you expect that, but I just didnt like something about the way it abruptly changed gears.

Im going to give Catching Fire 4 out of 5 Raptor's Claws - once again, losing a claw for casting Josh Hutcherson!  When will they learn?!?!?!?

Work movie #4, and my last of the holiday work season!

Anchorman 2


Sucked.

I love Will Ferrell in almost all of his SNL skits and Deangelo Vickers in the Office.  I loved Talladega Nights and Elf and Blades of Glory.  But for some reason, neither Anchorman flick did it for me.  I fell asleep before the first Anchorman ended, and this one wasnt great either.  However, it was better than sitting at work :)

There were some funny parts, including a scene where Ron's girlfriend (played by Meagan Good, a black lady) brings him over to her family's house for dinner where all of the typical black/white stereotypes get shattered.  Steve Carrol has few parts, but he really steals the show when he gets a chance.

Also, there are lots of pretty funny cameos which I wont spoil for you if you see it.

You know what?  I was gonna say 'if you liked Anchorman, you will like Anchorman 2', but actually, I dont think that is true.  AM2 is more of the EXACT same thing.  Been there, done that.

I give it 2 out of 5 Raptors Claws!

Work movie #3

Well, my work Christmas 'fuck you' continues!  I just finished watching Stalingrad today at work.



First of all, I have to thank my buddy Corey for hooking me up on this one.  The master of pirated movies, music, and other things Torrent hooked me up with this as a 'Christmas present'.

I was really REALLY looking forward to this one.  However, Corey had warned me that it wasnt quite what either of us were hoping for.

First of all - a caveat:
My review could be totally wrong, because the copy that we had was a terrible translation from Russian and German, first to Polish, and then to English!  Im not really sure what was going on - there were some Russians, and some Germans, and a couple naked chicks, and some battles.  Maybe a singer too.

Without going crazy with a long ass review, the short version is that this movie is loosely based on the events surrounding 'Pavlov's House' during the battle of Stalingrad in WW2.  In 'real life', an understrength platoon of Russian soldiers occupy an apartment building for nearly 2 months against wave after wave of Nazi attackers.

First of all - the good.  The scenery in this one was absolutely outstanding.  The ruins of Stalingrad are portrayed perfectly, and you feel like the world has long ago ended there.  Also, there are lots of accurate weapons and armor, which made me really happy.

Also, two characters stuck out to me (in a good way!) - one, the German captain Kahn tasked with overtaking the apartment building is played by Thomas Kretschmann and the other is the lone civilian in the Russian building, Katia, played by Mariya Smolnikova.

I wont really get into the 'bad' other than I thought a few of the scenes felt contrived to me.  There are a couple of 'love stories' that really seem out of place, and I draw a comparison to the 'prostitute' scene from another Russian war movie '9th Company'.  There is an attempt to show the human spirit, how love overcomes the situation, blah blah blah, but it just didnt really fit to me here.

The story of the defense of Stalingrad is a heroic, yet brutal one.  Not to sound crass, but I was hoping for some more battle scenes.  The few that occur are done relatively well (save the final one which is total BS including an artillery strike that had the Russians been able to do in real life, the defense of Stalingrad would have never have even had the opportunity to happen)

Im glad I watched it, because Ive been following the trailers for nearly a year now, and to be able to get a English translated version only 2 months after it was released in Russian theaters was totally awesome.  However, aside from a couple actors, this one is kind of a bomb in my opinion.  Im going to have to give it 2 out of 5 Raptors Claws!

Tomorrow, my 'fuck you work' continues at the movie theater.  Im going to see Anchorman 2 on my lunch break!  3 hour lunches are ok right????

Christmas Eve Work Movie #2

New 'True Grit'.  Another Matt Damon movie!!!  Who knew?


Im not even gonna bother with a review.  This one is easily 5 out of 5 Raptor's Claws!

Elysium

I just finished watching Elysium at work.  (Fuck having to 'work' on Christmas Eve!)

This was a pretty good sci fi flick.  In the 22nd century, there is an orbiting space station 'Elysium' that is a utopia.  Everyone is rich and healthy and lives long lives.  Earth, however, is a shit hole.

Matt Damon plays 'Max'.  Orphaned as a child, he befriends Frey (Alice Braga - the chick in Predators) and promises to one day take them to Elysium.  As an adult, Max is a reformed felon who is trying to get his life together.  Working in a factory, Max has an accident (200 days without an accident goes to Hell!) and is exposed to a lethal dose of radiation.  He has 5 days to live.  The rest of the movie is spent building Max into a robot and trying to get him to Elysium to get cured.

The first hour of this movie would have gotten 5 out of 5 Raptor's Claws!  The sci fi and special effects are top notch, and the scenes on Earth and Elysium are great.  Earth is a run down POS (as you imagine it will be in a couple hundred years), while Elysium is a perfect society.  I think Matt Damon does a pretty good job in a genre that he isnt really used to.  I also think Alice Braga (although not a bad ass in this movie like she is in Predators) will be setting herself up for more starring roles in the future.

However, the movie takes a bit of a dive.  Jodie Foster (who, I have to admit Ive never really liked much as an actress anyway) sucks donkey as the nasty security twat on Elysium.  Some other guy (other, as in, Jodie Foster is a guy too!!) plays some sort of special forces (?) operative that lives on Earth...wtf, I dont even know how to explain it....but he has a terrible accent (South African?) and is pretty much a douchebag as an actor and a bad guy.  I also feel like the story takes kind of a crappy turn - runs out of gas - and the end of the movie turns into "Real Steel".

I think this is pretty much my review of District 9 too (another Neill Blomkamp film)!

I give it 3 out of 5 Raptor's Claws!  Worth a rental for sure, especially if you like sci fi flicks, but I hope you didnt waste your money in the theater to see it!!

Wolverines!

I watched Red Dawn (2012) last night.


First of all, I should preface this review by saying that Red Dawn (1984) was a really good movie, and one of my personal favorites (maybe top 25 ever for me???).  That one (if you dont know, but who in the Hell hasnt seen the original Red Dawn?????) is about the Soviet Union and Cuba invading the US.  A cast that included Patrick Swayze, Charlie Sheen, C Thomas Howell, Jennifer Grey, Lea Thompson, and Powers Boothe carried a movie that was a scary point in the world's history.  At the time, I was 11, and the Cold War was on the verge of turning into WW3 (and thank God that I didnt realize how close we were to a nuclear war breaking out!!!).

On to the review, RD2012 is very similar in a lot of ways to its predecessor.  North Korea has invaded the US (and possibly Russia and China?????), and a group of mostly high school students band together to fight back against the invaders.  There are great nods to the original, most notably, the "ambush", the deer hunting scene, the 'traitor' storyline, and obviously, 'WOLVERINES!'

Chris 'Papa Kirk' Hemsworth I thought did a good job of reprising Swayze's roll as Jed Eckert, the mid 20 something 'leader' of the group.  Ive liked him ever since his role as James T Kirk's father, and he has done a great job as Thor over several movies.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan shows up at the end to reprise the role of Powers Boothe's 'Tanner'.  Boothe played a downed fighter pilot.  JD Morgan shows up with a couple extra guys as 'marines', looking for the Wolverines.  I like Morgan, but he really isnt in this one much (and he doesnt die a dramatic death like Powers Boothe does!!!!)

But that is where the fun stops.

With the exception of Hemsworth (and even him sometimes too), the acting is just atrocious.  The kid that plays 'Matty', Jed's brother is a whiney little bitch (as opposed to Charlie Sheen's Matty, who was a tough kid, learning to grow up in the middle of a war).  Over the course of the movie, the fact that Matty isnt a team player is jammed down our throats about 10 times, up until when he ends up getting someone killed.  Then, duh, it dawns (see what I did there?) on Matty that maybe he isnt a team player and should do something about it.

The rest of the supporting cast, including Josh Hutcherson (how this kid made it in acting I will never know), Adrianne Palicki, Tom Cruise's son, and some other peeps I have never heard of before, are just terrible.  In the original movie, you really feel for the supporting cast, and it hurts as the war takes its toll on each member.  In this version, I just didnt care, and frankly, they all could have been killed off within the first 10 minutes, and that would have been fine with me.

The storyline is totally unrealistic, and is currently logistically impossible.  The North Koreans dont have any way to get troops to the United States.  Even if the Russians were to help out (which its hinted out throughout the movie), they couldnt do it either!!!!  The man who plays the North Korean (and, hey, his name is 'Cho' - how many damn movies and TV shows where there are Asians have you seen characters named Cho??????) I dont think he says one word throughout the entire movie, and you do not feel any sympathy for him.  Remember the Cuban general in the first one????  You almost felt sorry for the guy, and you are made to feel that he is just doing his duty.  Not so with Mr 'Cho' - live, die, win, lose, who cares?

All of a sudden, about midway through, once JD Morgan shows up, the Wolverines go on a mission to get some briefcase that is some kind of EMP weapon????  I dont know what the Hell that is all about, but the last 30 minutes or so is basically a battle over a brief case.

Finally, for a military movie, they couldnt be bothered to get gear and equipment correct!  Most people reading this far on this blog will be military buffs anyway, and I wont bore you with details, but the one thing that really got my goat was that the producers had the nerve NAY, THE AUDACITY(!) to try to push off a God damned Abrams tank as a North Korean tank!!!!  WTF!!!!  The scene with the tank is done in such a way with smoke and clever techniques to try to hide it, but it just isnt right.  The original Red Dawn, even during the Cold War, somehow managed to come up with some Soviet AFVs, some T72 tanks, and even a Shilka.  I guess the producers knew this was going to be a steaming pile of a movie, and they didnt want to make costs any higher than they needed to be.  Oh yeah, the North Korean army somehow manages to drive around the entire movie in three green hummers...but I wont go into that any deeper!!!!

I wanted to give this one just one Raptor's Claw, but I think im going for two out of four Raptor's Claws, based on Chris Hemsworth's acting, and the nice 'reboot' of several iconic Red Dawn scenes.

From the Halls of Montezuma and a couple movie reviews

I just finished a group of about 20 modern marines in desert MARPAT.  These are 20mm from Elhiem

And, with that, I now have a platoon of Devil Dogs

If I never seen a desert Devil Dog again, it will be too soon!!!!

Unrelated, I watched a couple decent movies yesterday finally.

First up, Battlestar Galactica Blood and Chrome

This is a series of 10 SciFi channel webisodes, and it details a young (just out of the academy) Bill Adama.  Pretty good stuff, and it reminds me of the original (new series) BSG movie.  A couple cheesy, campy parts, but I think that is ok for BSG.

The dude that plays Adama does a really good job I think.  Learn where he gets his callsign 'Husker'!  A really nice space battle scene happens about midway through.  The negative, without giving it away - there are several really obvious plot points (that are supposed to be surprises), mainly because the original BSG 'has been there before'.  Also, several copied (almost EXACTLY) scenes from Star Wars.

 I give it 3 out of 5 Raptors Claws!

Next up is Dredd.


Ive been wanting to see this one for a while now, and just now got around to it.  Admittedly, I was concerned about this one being like Sly Stallone's version (with Rob Schnieder as the sidekick.  Really????)

No worries!  This one is hard core and gritty, and really captures the feel of Mega City 1.  Not for the feint of heart, this one is extremely violent (which I loved!!!), and must have at least a couple hundred kills in it.  Skinning, incineration, and being tossed out of a 200 story building are just a few of the ways to go!

I thought Karl Urban made an awesome Dredd.  I probably would have liked to see a few more snappy one liners, but in a way, I guess Dredd is supposed to be serious.

I give this one 4 out of 5 Raptors Claws....but dont watch if you are the squeamish type!!!

Into Darkness and TIE Fighters

Good weekend that went by WAAAAAAAAAY too fast.

I went and saw ST: Into Darkness this weekend.

Really, really good movie.  I wont post any spoilers here, but Star Trek fan or not, you should check this one out.

I didnt get much little man painting done this weekend.  I was about to start working on some Khurasan zombies, but 'Season 2' of Dreadball came in, so Ive started working on the female team.  But, I did finish some Imperial forces from Studio Bergstrom:

TIE Interceptors

 TIE Fighters

More 10mm AWI

The 2nd South Carolina regiment was known for some of the most famous figures of the American War of Independence, and was instrumental in the defense of Fort Moultrie (noted for the defeat of the British in the first attempt to capture Charleston.  Also, noted for the addition of the Palmetto tree to the SC state flag!)  Ive been wanting to paint these guys for a while now.

I will be entering them in Pendraken's 2013 painting competition, but I need to get some better pictures.

This is George Washington WIP.  I will also be submitting a small diorama for the Pendraken contest...it will consist of Washington, a courier, and some of Washington's Life Guard and a flag.  Only GW is nearly complete

Finally, in unrelated news, my wife and I went to see Zero Dark Thirty this weekend.

Great movie.  Its mostly about 'Maya', the CIA agent who spent years tracking down Osama Bin Laden, while the last 45 minutes or so is the actual raid itself.  Pretty intense film - my wife and I were both nervous during the raid, and we knew how it ended!!!!
10 out of 10 Raptors Claws!

Two movies seen the past couple days

Screw work.  Seriously.  Im sure many of you had to work XMas eve and the day after XMas just like I did.  I think it sucks.  Big time.

So, in my attempt to rage against the machine, I rented two movies and watched them on my ipad at work.  Boss is out this week, so there was not a lot of fear of getting caught.

The first is "The Bourne Legacy"

This one was pretty good.  If you have seen the other Bourne flix, this one is basically the same thing.  Good action movie though, and definitely worth a rental.  Jeremy Renner has turned into my newest man crush, and he is great as 'Aaron Cross' - the 'other' Bourne.  The movie completes with plenty of loose ends for more sequels.  7 out of 10 Raptors Claws.

The next is "The Devil's Double".

This one was spectacular.  Its based on the supposedly true story of Latif Yahia who was 'hired' (read: forced) into being Uday Hussein's body double.  Ive been wanting to see this one ever since I heard about it.

The exploits of Uday began to become clear as the 2nd war in the Persian Gulf was wrapping up in the mid 2000s.  He was a serial rapist and murderer, taking women from their wedding day, snatching young girls (14 or 15) up from school as they were walking home, using them and then murdering them.  He was also a violent psychopath in charge of Iraq's Olympic Committee, and when sports figures did not perform well (or even if they DID perform well) they were beaten, tortured, and killed.  He appeared to kill on a whim.  Obviously, being Saddam Hussein's son, he was wealthy beyond all imagination while his country crumbled around him.

For a long time, it was widely speculated that Uday was being groomed to be the successor to Saddam, until even his own father and brother began to realize that he was a psychopath, and slowly pushed him to the side.  Eventually, the United States, after receiving numerous tips on their location, cornered Uday and Qusay (his brother) in a compound and killed the pair.

Anyway, as mentioned above, the movie itself is about Yahia who is forced into being Uday's double.  Anything ranging from rallying troops to making public speeches to having sex with Uday's numerous women (some forced, some caught up in being Uday's current toy) was fair game.  Latif is a good and moral man, but due to threats against his entire family, is caught up in the life of a sadistic criminal.

Very uplifiting!!!

The truly awesome part of this movie is Dominic Cooper (many productions such as Captain America and Band of Brothers) who plays both the psychopath Hussein and the moral man Yahia.  Many scenes are about Yahia learning the mannerisms of Hussein, his facial expressions, his maniacal laugh, and his fits of rage, and you totally forget that there is only one actor on screen.  I will be on the look out for more Dominic Cooper movies from here on out.

9 out of 10 Raptors Claws!