I added it to our Netflix queue and when we got it, we watched it. In the end, I thought the movie was quite entertaining with a number of comical parts. The chemistry between Bullock and Reynolds comes off as believable and they look as if they would make a great couple.

Click here to view the embedded video.

© Cinematicpassions.Wordpress.com

The story is about a cold and emotionless executive editor-in-chief, Margaret Tate (Bullock), at book publishing Colden Books who is successful at what she does but fails ineptly at human interaction. Her assistant, Andrew (Reynolds), is doing his best to keep up with her and cater to her demanding whims in hopes getting his manuscript published. Things take a turn in his favor when Tate is called into her bosses’ office informing her she will be deported back to Canada immediately because of an expired Visa. Andrew interrupts the meeting to tell Tate she has a client holding on the phone for her, Tate takes advantage of the situation and shocks everyone by telling everyone that Andrew have been having a secret relationship and are now engagement to be married.

Some of the best scenes are when Reynolds explains to his family how he proposed to Bullock and what ensues is a hilarious ad-lib dialogue from the both of them. There is also the in-famous shower scene, which is quite hilarious. Throughout the movie, there are many laugh-out-loud moments. Also by the end of the movie, be sure to watch the little added bonus that runs with the credits.

I am a big fan of Ryan Reynolds. He has a certain sarcasm and humor that he brings successfully to each of his roles such as National Lampoon’s Van Wilder, Blade: Trinity, and so on that really made his character a stand out. I’ve also liked Sandra Bullock, although haven’t seen her in anything for awhile. But I definitely think the best part of the movie is the chemistry between Bullock and Reynolds.

Verdict: DEFINITE rent.

In case you’ve been living in a cave and haven’t heard about Avatar, here’s the official movie trailer:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Avatar follows the story of a paraplegic former Marine Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) who agrees to sign on with RDA Corporation taking his deceased scientist brother’s place as an avatar pilot because Sully shares the same genome necessary to use the highly expensive Avatars. He arrives on Pandora after a long trip from Earth to join other former Marines commanded by Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) all hired to provide private security for the mining operation on Pandora led by Parker Selfridge (Giovanni Ribisi). RDA Corp. is looking to mine a “valuable mineral called unobatium, worth $20 million per kilogram back on Earth” ((http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar_%282009_film%29)). Also working for RDA Corp. is Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) who heads the Avatar program and involved in understanding and learning about the Na’vi, indigenous cat-like people of Pandora who are untrusting of humans after several mishaps. Neytiri (Zoë Saldana), a Na’vi warrior rescues Sully from a near-death experience and is later tasked with teaching him the ways of the Na’vi. From there, the two-and-half hour-long movie is a non-stop action/adventure/love story movie that touches on many topics from corporate greed to love and acceptance.

While I certainly agree this movie was amazing, I’m not sure if I would consider it among the best movies I’ve seen. Here are a few reasons why:

Original Storyline

The story goes that James Cameron began developing the concept and wrote an 80-page script of Avatar back in 1994 ((http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20007998,00.html)) but didn’t start making the movie until 2006 because the existing technology wasn’t available to satisfy Cameron’s vision ((http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar_%282009_film%29)).

In Avatar, the indigenous people of the planet, the Na’vi are spiritually connected with the land. They seek not to disturb the balance of nature, taking and using only what they need and leaving the rest undisturbed. Humans (through the RDA Corporation), however, have come from a far distance to seek out a valuable mineral, a majority of which happens to be situated under a huge tree, called the Hometree which is home to the Omaticaya clan. The humans have two choices to obtain the valuable mineral unobatium: through force or negotiation. Through force they would wipe out the Omaticaya clan or through negotiation they would relocate the clan. Either choice would mean that RDA Corp would bull-doze the entire forest to get access to the unobatium that is beneath. Now if this storyline doesn’t sound familiar, I would recommend you read the history of North America, it’s founding, and the Native Americans. The Na’vi’s language and culture seem very similar to Native Americans from their dress, weapons, beliefs, and etc ((http://www.scifisquad.com/2009/12/18/avatar-and-the-culture-of-the-navi/)).

That’s not to say a good or great movie can’t be inspired from an existing story, but watching Avatar felt like watching the history of North America told through sci-fi allegory.

Visual Orgasm

The computer-generated imagery is nothing short of amazing. Watching it in 3D, there were moments where you feel like you can reach out and grab hold of something. While it was hard to tell at some parts what was real and what was CGI, there was so much you could suffer from sensory overload and other scenes where it felt too CGI such as riding on the Ikran. Brings me to my next point.

Better Video Game Than Movie

© gamesblog.ugo.com - Screen shot from Avatar The Game

This might sound like harsh criticism, but this movie feels like a big advertising for a video game. If I hadn’t known better, I would have figured the video game inspired the movie rather than the other way around.

Good vs Evil

Throughout the movie the characters seem too one-dimensionally defined as “good” or “evil” which leads to predictable plots ((http://www.yesnomeh.com/2009/12/avatar-good-vs-evil-aliens-vs-humans.html))  ((http://www.twotalkingmonkeys.com/news/avatar-review-good-bad-and-indifferent-how-about-you-spoiler-alert/)). In my opinion, it would have been more interesting if certain characters, such as Colonel Quaritch, had a less definable evil personality to them. It’s no surprise when we are first introduced to the Colonel that he would be one of the movie’s antagonist. I don’t want to give away too much of the movie, but this much is apparent: Na’vi = good, can do no wrong and RDA = bad, can do no right. Boring.

Conclusion

There’s no question that Andrea and I enjoyed Avatar. It was a very, very good movie and shows the possibilities with film technology and we certainly look forward to the sequels.

Anyone have any thoughts? Agree or disagree?

You can watch the offical movie trailer here:

Click here to view the embedded video.

The story is about a couple: Micah (Micah Sloat), a day trader, and his girlfriend Katie (Katie Featherston), a student, who live together in Micah’s house in San Diego, CA. They have a fairly normal life with the exception of Katie being haunted by a ghost. Micah, skeptical, buys a video camera to see if he can record any paranormal activity. The entire movie is presented from the perspective of the video camera that Micah purchases, much like the The Blair Witch Project but without the nauseating shakiness. At some point, Katie contacts Dr. Fredrichs, a self-professed physic, to help them when is unable to deal with the haunting any further and just wants to end it once and for all. He meets with the couple and offers advice along the lines that they should make no attempt to communicate or anger the entity and running away would not help Katie either as the entity would just follow her. Micah dismisses Dr. Fredrichs and his advice as quackery and begins to antagonize the entity who is haunting Katie which leads to some very shocking and disturbing consequences.

While generally not easily scared, by the end of the movie, let’s just say I made sure all the doors to our house was locked extra secure. The movie starts out slow which is designed to let us, the viewers, get to know Micah and Katie and their normal life with the small exception of their unwelcomed guest. It took us a bit of patience to watch through the character development, but once things start taking off, it’s hard to stop watching and waiting in eager anticipation of what comes next. As you watch Paranormal Activity, there is no doubt of it’s low budget compared to what you are normally accustomed to seeing, but that effect lends itself very much to the believability of this movie. After a while, you start getting a sense that you are actually watching a real life couple as they experience their worst nightmares. I found the movie very impressing in the story written by director Oren Peli, the chemistry between Micah and Katie as an everyday couple, and the simplicity of the story being told through a home video camera. The movie has grossed $150 million to the paltry $15,000 it cost to make the film proving that good old fashioned story telling trumps fancy, expensive Hollywood special effects any day.

© About.com/Paramount

The movie was first released on October 14, 2007 at the Screamfest Film Festival and eventually to wide audiences on October 16, 2009 with a total run time of 86 minutes.

Verdict: DEFINITE rent.

Originally when I had heard that a new Underworld movie was going being released, I was excited for two reasons: Kate Beckinsale and the first two movies were good. Then I was a bit crushed to find that the lead would not be Beckinsale but rather Rhona Mitra (who I know mostly from The Practice and Boston Legal as Alan Shore’s love interest) will be the new lead. Before we discuss why Beckinsale didn’t reprise the role, let’s get the general premise of the third installment of the Underworld trilogy.

Underworld: Rise of the Lycans is a prequel explaining the back-story of the Vampire/Werewolves long war. It centers on Viktor (Bill Nighly), one of the three Vampires Elders, his daughter Sonja (Rhona Mitra), and Lucian (Michael Sheen) who is the first werewolf able to shift back to human form. During this time period, Viktor is leader of the vampire coven, and as explained in Underworld, a single Vampire Elder leads the coven for a 100-year period at a time. He offers protection to the human lords in the surrounding areas from roving wild werewolves and paid a handsome tithe. The distinction between werewolves and Lycans are that werewolves are not able to take human form. Lucian, the first Lycan, born of a first-generation werewolf in human form, is spared by Viktor and becomes his personal slave, head blacksmith, and essentially the father to other Lycans whom Viktor enslaves to be castle guards for the vampires. Sonja, Viktor’s daughter, is a strong opinionated warrior and council member who refuses to listen to her father’s orders and takes charge of leading missions against werewolves. On one particular mission, he saves her from three ferocious werewolves as she is returning to the vampire coven that sparks off the story. I can’t really say more without giving away the plot.

So why isn’t Beckinsale the lead in Underworld: Rise of the Lycans. Well I didn’t connect the dots until near the end as I kept thinking the entire time that Mitra was playing Beckinsale’s character Selene who appears in the first two Underworld movies. It is important to note that Sonya is Viktor’s actual blood daughter whereas Selene is “adopted” by Viktor.

I found the movie entertaining as it does a good job of explaining and connecting the Underworld movies. Throughout the movie, you’ll recognize familiar faces from the other Underworld movies such Viktor, Lucian, and a few other ones that I’ll leave for you to catch. I found Mitra entertaining as Sonja, but I don’t think she has the same pizazz as Kate Beckinsale as Mitra seems a bit flat in portraying Sonja. The standout actor is definitely Michael Sheen as Lucian with a close second of Bill Nighly as Viktor. The special effects were neat throughout the movie such as the Lycan transformation, but nothing to write home about. If you have never seen any of the Underworld movies, you could feasibly watch Underworld: Rise of the Lycans and then watch the other Underworld movie. You can read more in-depth information from Wikipedia here and also this Wikipedia article, but be warned that both articles contains total spoilers. There are also internet rumors of an Underworld 4 with a possible 2011 release date.

The movie runs for 92 minutes and was released on January 23, 2009.

Verdict: Rent.

Recommend Vendors

© Image from TimeOutSydney.com.au

The general premise of the movie is retired-CIA clandestine agent, Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) has recently retired and moved closer to his daughter, Kim (Maggie Grace), and ex-wife (Lenore, played by Famke Jannsen) who lives with her new wealthy husband (Stuart, played by Xander Berkley) to try an reconcile and make up for the lost time with his daughter when he was busy serving his county. His daughter and ex-wife meet with him for lunch one-day where his daughter Kim is seeking his permission, because she is a minor, for a trip to Paris with her friend and her friend’s cousins. He eventually grudgingly agrees, but in a twist, learns that she is in-fact not just going to Paris but all over Europe. Mills being extremely paranoid from his years as a clandestine agent is about to call it off, but his ex-wife manages to convince him to let her go never-the-less. She goes, but ends up getting kidnapped and starts off a whirlwind rescue mission by Mills in which he only has 96-hours to rescue her.

I think what makes this movie so good and entertaining are two elements: Liam Neesom and the lack of heavy special effects.

Liam Neeson is a great actor who takes Mills and makes him feel like an everyday person despite being a secret agent. Mills is far from rich, he has his flaws, and has no depth to where he would go to save his child from danger. He’s the super-dad without being the Hollywood super-dad where he jumps building-to-building, get shot at but never wounded, or captured. Mills kicks major ass in this movie, fueled by the unstoppable raison d’être to rescue his daughter before she’s lost forever. He doesn’t have an army, special forces, fancy James Bond technology, or even “inside” help for that matter. It’s just one man against many, risking his life to save his daughter.

I love special effects as much as any other guy but only if the special effects compliments the scene or the movie and not used to overshadow a crappy storyline. Take the case of the last few Bond movies prior to Casino Royale. Invisible cars, cars that drive themselves, a wrist-band grappling hook, the list goes on. On the other hand, in Taken, Mills has to rely on “..a very particular set of skills..” to rescue his daughter. There were some scenes where I thought, oh no, here comes those Hollywood special effects, but rather Pierre Morel (the director) resist the urge and goes the other way, effectively.

Parts of the movie require the willing suspension of disbelief such as the numerous coincidences that just seem to work out a bit too perfectly. I don’t want to list them as that would ruin the interest of the movie, but never-the-less, we found it quite a good watch. Here’s a site with some interesting reads about Taken, be-careful as it may contain spoilers.

Verdict: Definite Rent.

Recommended Vendors

But my sister got it and Andrea and I didn’t have any other movie choices to choose from, so what the hell, it can’t be that bad right?The premise of the Yes Man seems quite stupid and unimaginative: a guy who says yes to everything. Well turns out time after time I haven’t yet learned not to judge a book by it’s cover; turns out Yes Man is actually funny and fun. I don’t think any other actor but Jim Carey could play the title character who works as a loan processor at who has a boss (Rhys Darby) who could best be described as Austin Powers, both in look, speech, and quirkiness.

The story goes as such, Carl Allen (Jim Carey) is a reclusive divorcee who works as a loan processor at a bank and avoids any kind of social life and neglects his friends until his best friend, Peter (Bradley Cooper) manages to drag Carl to a bar, where Peter announces he and his girlfriend are engaged. There he runs into his ex-wife, Stephanie (Molly Sims) who is there with her boyfriend and having a great time. This further depresses Carl and makes him more reclusive until one day, while taking a break in front of his bank, he runs into an old friend Nick (John Michael Higgins) who tells Carl about his life has changed because of this seminar he attended. Carl brushes this off and think no more about it. Eventually things continue to get worse for Carl and he decides to see what this Yes! seminar is all about and meets motivation Yes! guru Terrence Bundley (Terence Stamp) who convinces Carl that he should stop being a “No Man” and become a Yes! Man. From there the movie continues to take interesting twists that include happy ending with an elderly woman, speaking Korean, Iranian mail-order bride, Harry Potter, singing, and so much more that had Andrea and I laughing at times unexpectedly. I don’t want to give away any more as it’s a worthwhile movie to see.

I had forgotten how good Jim Carey really is. There is a certain everyday guy quality to Jim Carey that makes him come off as genuinely funny and not Seinfeld scripted funny. There are lots of nuances about his acting that are improvised in the movie that makes him fun to watch.

So if you’re looking for a lighthearted comedy/love-story movie to watch with the misses on the couch, I certainly recommend renting Yes Man as you’ll be in for a laugh riot treat with a nice love story.

Image courtesy of CTV.ca.

So when I heard about a new possible Trek movie, I was excited. I was really excited when J.J. Abrams was revealed to be the director of the new reboot, having been a fan of his work since Alias and I definitely thought he could make this reboot successful. Then when I saw actual real trailers, I was sold. So Andrea was dragged accompanied me to watch the new Trek movie. How was it? Well when a movie grosses $79.2 million during opening weekend during a recession (movie tickets here are $10.50 for 1 adult)  for a sci-fi flick of a series that has been dying a slow death, I think it’s safe to say that the new Star Trek movie is going to do well; quite well. To see how it compares to previous Trek movies, check out E! Online.

© SciFiWire.com

A lot of die hard Trek fans were worried about the direction that Abrams would take with the new movie, but after having seen it, I am very impressed with his vision and direction of the series. For the most part, it holds up to Trek canon and Trek fans would have to agree it’s a refreshing look but also familiar feel which is good to draw in newcomers who may have heard about Star Trek but never watched it and also appease the fans.

I think the cast choices were great. Chris Pine definitely embodies Captain James T. Kirk and so does Heroes star Zachary Quinto as Spock, as well as the rest of the cast. Also I think the designers did a great job with the uniforms and the U.S.S. Enterprise. One of the biggest difficulties in doing a prequel, especially a sci-fi one, is that everyone wants to take advantage of the cool CG graphics that were unavailable when the original movie was made. Obviously for a prequel, the technology that exists can’t be better or sleekier looking or it throws off the believability. Take the case of Star Wars I, II, and III and the sleek ships they had. Sure it look cool, but it looked much cooler and more advanced than the original which makes you wonder what happened: did they go backwards in technology in the story? Fortunately they didn’t do anything radical with the Enterprise. It has the same saucer, body, and nacelle design that we are all familar with. Even the computers on-board have touch dials and knobs like the Original Series. I especially liked the part where they “polarize the viewer”. A simple, but cool effect that fits the timeline and series. Another thing I really liked was when the ships entered warp. With all the previous Star Trek movies and TV series prior, there was a disconnected feeling when the ship entered warp. In the new Star Trek movie, even as the audience, you feel what warp must feel like. A small, but touching addition.

So go out and watch it. It’s definitely worth it. Star Trek is rated PG-13 and runs for 127 minutes.

1. The movie length was just about right

The Dark Knight felt too long and drawn out, despite only a 12 minute difference in time length (Batman Begins was 140 minutes and The Dark Knight was 152 minutes). The story was more complex with the Dark Knight and Christopher Nolan felt he had to give us more to satiate what we got with Batman Begins.

2. There was a lot more classic lines and comical relief moments

The Dark Knight had an emotionally darker Batman, but to some degree, it became too serious. Christian Bale (as Batman/Bruce Wayne) had a lot more comical relief moments and classical lines in Batman Begins than in The Dark Knight where most of the time he always seemed to be pissed.

Who can forget some of these lines from Batman Begins?

[after taking a ride in The Tumbler]
Lucius Fox: So, what do you think?
Bruce Wayne: Does it come in black?

Bruce Wayne: [about the prototype Batsuit] Tear resistant?
Lucius Fox: This sucker will stop a knife.
Bruce Wayne: Bulletproof?
Lucius Fox: Anything but a straight shot.
Bruce Wayne: Why didn’t they put it into production?
Lucius Fox: Bean counters didn’t think a soldier’s life was worth 300 grand. So what’s your interest in it, Mr. Wayne?
Bruce Wayne: I wanna borrow it. For, uh, spelunking.
Lucius Fox: Spelunking?
Bruce Wayne: Yeah, you know, cave diving.
Lucius Fox: You expecting to run into much gunfire in these caves?

Lucius Fox: Well, what is it today? More spelunking?
Bruce Wayne: No. Today it’s BASE-jumping.
Lucius Fox: BASE-jumping. That like parachuting?

[concerning the memory cloth]
Bruce Wayne: Too expensive for the Army?
Lucius Fox: I don’t think they tried to market it to the billionaire, spelunking, BASE-jumping crowd.

Quotes courtesy of The Internet Movie Database. Although I will note that one of my most favorite parts of The Dark Knight is when the Joker shows the mob bosses his “disappearing” pencil trick. That part was wicked.

3. Batman Got Beat By The Joker

The star of the movie is usually the main character, the protagonist, in this case, Batman. We generally don’t go see a movie to enjoy the supporting actor or actress. That’s not to say that the supporting actor or actress shouldn’t put up an excellent performance, but the lead actor or actress should perform as good or better. In Batman Begins, it was clear that Christian Bale was the star. In The Dark Knight, Heath Ledger stole the show with his excellent performance as the Joker.

Image courtesy of Rotheblog.com.

4. Two-Face Looks Too Fake

With Batman Begins, Scarecrow and Ra’s al Ghul play convincing villains that I can exist. At least the Joker is believable, but I think a better job could have been done on Two-Face’s “look”. I doubt a person could survive for very long with half their face completely exposed, especially an eyeball with no eyelids. How does the eye stay moist and proect against foreign objects like dust? Can you imagine how much difficult it would be to sleep with one eye open all the time?

5. Initial Shock Value

Batman Begins was a complete reboot of the Batman series. No one quite knew the details of what Christian Nolan and David S. Goyer would imagine in the new story except that Batman would be darker. Once people saw the new Batman, that was it, this was the new Batman. Unfortunately like a majority of sequels, the bar is set much higher for The Dark Knight and while it was definitely good, it wasn’t better than Batman Begins.

Heath Ledger as the Joker. Image from http://popculturewilleatitself.com.

The first time I heard of Heath Ledger was in the Mel Gibson movie: The Patriot playing Benjamin Martin’s (Mel Gibson) son, Gabriel Martin. The second time I heard of Heath Ledger was when he played the lead William Thatcher in A Knight’s Tale. Ledger was good, but I was never too into his style. I never saw Brokeback Mountain, so I can’t say how good his performance was, but according to reports, it was the movie that made critics take him seriously.

So when I heard he had been cast as the new Joker, I didn’t know how good of a casting choice that was. But apparently a lot of people started talking. Sample videos online looked very, very promising and definitely changed my mind. When the first peek picture of the new Joker was released, I knew they made the perfect choice for the Joker.

Then we saw The Dark Knight. All the reports of an Oscar worthy performance was definitely not over-exaggerated. When you watch him, you truly believe that if a Joker really existed, this would be the very incarnation of your nightmare. Ledger was definitely the stand out star in The Dark Knight, overshadowing both Christian Bale (Bruce Wayne/Batman) and Aaron Eckhart (Harvey “Two Face” Dent). It is a shame that Ledger won’t be back for the next Batman movie; but he gave the performance of his life.

I definitely enjoyed Jack Nicholson as the Joker in Batman, but I find Ledger’s Joker very refreshing. Eckhart’s performance as Two Face was also true to the character, much better than Tommy Lee Jones’ Two Face.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Dark Knight. DC Comics has definitely been upping the ante since the highly successful release of Batman Begins and Superman Returns. My biggest gripe is that the movie was perhaps a bit too long, maybe 45 minutes too long. Andrea felt the same, the movie was too long. I definitely understand that The Dark Knight has many elements that needed to be thoroughly developed to fully experience the richness of the Batman franchise, but some parts could have been shortened. I don’t want to give any examples as to not spoil the movie.

One of the most enjoyable parts was watching Batman be the true Batman, the flawed hero whose moral and ethical compass changes to suit the needs unlike the infallible Superman. Go watch The Dark Knight. It’s definitely worth it.

So Andrea and I rented Rocky Balboa, the latest and perhaps last installment of the Rocky franchise, and we watched it. At about 102 minutes, the movie can’t possibly be boring.

The basic premise of the movie is that Rocky Balboa has long retired from boxing. His wife, Adrian, passed away from cancer a few years back and Rocky and his son (Robert Jr., played by Heroes star Milo Ventimiglia) have a rocky (no pun intended) relationship. Rocky has a little fine Italian restaurant (Adrian’s) that isn’t doing all that great, but is making it by. Life seems relatively comfortable for Rocky; he visits Adrian’s grave regularly and still wears his wedding ring. The latest craze in the boxing world is Mason “The Line” Dixon (Antonio Tarver); although winning, he is not a crowd favorite at all because of his quick knockouts. A computer simulation by ESPN to hypothetically determine whether Rocky could defeat Dixon showed Rocky knocking out Dixon.

I won’t go much further in detail, but the movie is definitely worth watching. The buildup is gradual at first, but once things are start getting going, it’s difficult to wait for the upcoming boxing match between Rocky and Dixon. I definitely like how they do the boxing match.

Go rent it and watch it.