Sunday, June 27, 2010

A - Team

I don't remember being a big watcher of the TV show A-Team. I know many people were, but the show was in my very busy years when I did not watch much TV. (Not like now). The other night, not knowing quite what to do with myself I decided to go see A-Team. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I like most 'guy type' movies, so I was not surprised, what surprised me was the humor and the great story line. Although an old, and proven, done wrong story, I felt it worked here.
Not knowing about the originals, I was happy to learn how they all came together as the A Team and the caption as the opening credits begin 8 years and 80 missions later (or was it 800 missions) no matter - it made sense that these guys (one them totally nuts) had been on a lot of missions together. How big Mister T was scared of heights, how Hannibal, always with his cigar not far away was truly the leader and of course Bradley Cooper to wow the ladies.
It flowed well (meaning good editing) and I enjoyed it from beginning to end. A movie worth seeing if you like action, things being blown up and some deceit never mind the sexual tension between Bradley Cooper and Jessica Biel (who was good too).
I look forward to the next movie
4 stars out of 5

Norma

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Killers

Saturday night came and I was restless. Looking at the four movies available at my local theatre I chose Killers. Luckily I knew inspite of the title that it was Ashton Kutcher and Katherine Heigel in a romantic comedy. By the amount of people in the audience, others did not. What a stupid title - whoever picked it should have been shot. With a different title the movie might have had more success. The title does not portray the movie at all - anyway I went.
I truly did not have any expectations of this movie, I just wanted out of the house where there as nothing on TV (which seems like every night these days.) I was pleasantly surprised.
I was surprised because I laughed often and I was hugely (is that a word) thrilled to see Magnum - Tom Selleck - he will always be Magnum to me, playing Katherine's Dad. He always bring such strength to the screen these days. Like a lot of men when they hit their 40's they seem to grow bigger all over -- well he is over 40 - but still looks, big, strong and Magnum.
Again the movie seems filled with craziness, but both Ashton and Katherine pull it off - somehow she does the dumb but beautiful, but not too dumb roles wonderfully well and Ashton always surprising pulls off his roles.
Yeah, hate to say it, I enjoyed this movie. I go to the movies for several reasons, one to be entertained, which this movie did. Two to enjoy the views, this one has wonderful views of Nice, France and then uptown subdivision and a construction site and office, but I sure enjoyed the views of France's coastline. Third I like to learn something from the movie, a moral, a mental or emotional connection. I did not in this movie, but I laughed and that is worth something when you are feeling tired and a bit out of sorts. Yeah I enjoyed it. Therefore it is worth 31/2 out of 5.

Prince of Persia

I thought when I saw Robin Hood that it would be hard to beat. But Prince of Persia does just that. I enjoyed this movie on every level. My friend who I saw it with and I both agreed - It was great!!! What did I like - everything!
First of all I find that movies depend upon the editing of a movie. I think Editors are not rated high enough. I have seen movies which were really good destroyed by bad editing. The editing in this was wonderful. Scene followed scene in quick succession and you got to follow the story line easily. The director, playwright, whoever took their time setting up the story you got to understand who this Prince was. you got to understand the underlying tensions existing and then when the story finally kicks into high gear you get the full picture. It is exciting, it is colorful (the colors were wonderful) it is well acted, well directed, well everything and I cannot believe anyone would not enjoy this movie. The beautiful scenes of the desert, the colors were magnificent, never mind the body on Jake rippling away. I also loved the jumping (which reminded me of 007 0 Daniel Craig in Casino Royale at the beginning of the movie, jumping over buildings etc. Also some of the scenes reminded me of Indiana Jones movies. I did not care, because it was fun. This movie is worth seeing, once, twice, maybe every three times. Therefore it gets 5 out of 5 stars.

Karate Kid

Sometimes one goes to the movies just to be entertained. I thought going to see the movie Karate Kid I would be doing that. Entertaining myself for a few hours rather than watching TV or reading. Well it was more than that. It was entertaining, but the message of the bully can be overcome through discipline, hardwork and dedication and never giving up truly is relative today with all the bullying that goes on in schools and some communities. Plus its a life lesson for us who want to achieve things in life.
I especially enjoyed young Jayden Smith who definitely shows the skills of his father Will and mother Jada - he was delightful. But the scene stealer is Jackie Chan. Some of the shots of him walking along as the older, defeated man, shuffling along with stiff joints etc, your heart goes out to him and when his story comes out you understand and then you watch the transformation of him as well as his young student of Kung Fu Drey. I thought he did wonderfully well in the part and was well picked as the older maintenance man.
The scenery of when they visited the monastery climbing steps which go forever and seeing the monks of the temple in their different practices I found fascinating, especially the lady with the cobra and how the lesson that the cobra was following her dance, not the other way around. Also seeing the Great Wall of China in the movie was inspiring, but is the one part which had my brain doing a double take.
I think editing is such an important part of a movie. How a movie is edited can make or break it. Well they made a mistake here. When they went to the monastery it was explained why and you saw them on the train on the way there and back but all of a sudden the Great Wall of China appears with Drey doing his Kung Fu practices and then a shot of him back in the backyard doing his exercises and then back again to the Great Wall. "What"? I thought. There was no explanation of the great wall, there was no reason for it, except for us to see it (mistake) it took you away from the continuity of the movie, especially throwing a scene in between the other scenes of practice. Other than that momentarily craziness on part of the editors, the movie was cute. It was fun, sad and I found myself clapping at the fight scenes, which were very well done .... yes it was worth the couple of hours to go see.
3 1/2 out of 5.

Hurt Locker

Hurt Locker came out right when I as extremely busy getting ready to go to New Zealand. So I missed it at my local theatre. Therefore, when I saw the DVD available I snatched it up ready to watch the movie which took best picture. I was not disappointed. What a movie, the understanding of the characters feelings and what they go through in war I thought was really well done. The sensitivity of the subject matter - war - was displayed so well, you just got caught up in the 'horror' (the streets littered with debris never mind the bombs plus a young man being made into a human bomb). Then the interrelationships of the characters showed the many different types of personality are involved in war and ho they deal with the risks and the uncertainty of whether you life or die. You felt for the main character when he went home and felt overwhelmed just by choosing a box of cereal from the many displayed. This scene really brings home the post traumatic stress which most returning soldiers experience. Then the final scene when he is back for another year of going about his job of defusing bombs. Definitely a winner and one of the war movies to have in your collection.