Movie Review-The Avengers (2012)

Director: Joss Whedon
Casting: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson 
Rating: 8.5/10


Review: 


I love superheros and I have been waiting to see this movie for 4 years, ever since Samuel L Jackson's Nick Fury turned up at the end of Iron Man in 2008 and uttered those words "I'm here to talk about the Avengers initiative". And after 5 films I can honestly say that my incredibly high expectations were not let down, they were exceeded.

The Avengers is an incredible movie, not just a great superhero movie but a really good film. Marvel has made a big gamble with this picture and it has paid off. The movie starts off with an introduction to each of our heroes and their antagonist: Loki. It's all pretty usual stuff from here. But once the heroes come together, the movie becomes something more. There are a lot of big egos flying around and each one is more used to being the center of attention, especially Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark. It's in these heated rows and witty banter that The Avengers becomes something that I really wasn't expecting: it's really funny. All these characters are so different and come from such different backgrounds that there is a lot of fun to be had by bouncing them off each other. The fish out of water gags at Captain America's and Thor's expense are great ("Easy there Point Break") with Tony getting to roll off line after line of witty insults. And in the film's climax, Hulk gets most of the laughs as he smashes everything around him. The Hulk could easily have been the film's main weakness, Marvel had already tried bringing him to the screen twice with little success (Ang Lee's 2003 version being one of the worst superhero movies ever) but he ends up being one of the film's biggest strengths. Mark Ruffalo makes a great Bruce Banner but he actually gets to play both Banner and the Hulk through motion capture (the first time ever that an actor has played both Banner and his massive alter-ego) and it works great. There was a huge cheer and applause when Captain America tell him: "Hulk, SMASH!" and he proceeded to do so.

A few of the new characters and ones that were limited to cameos in previous films get their chance to shine here. Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow gets to do more kicking and is given a love interest in Jeremy Renner's unbelievably bad-ass Hawkeye. Samuel L Jackson finally gets to spend more than 5 minutes on screen after showing up in 4 Marvel movies prior to this one in part of his massive 9 picture deal with Marvel. 

The plot is tight and clever and the screenplay brilliantly written with some cracking dialogue. Joss Whedon's directorial style translates perfectly into the blockbuster mould. The perfectly cast actors are all 100% comfortable in their roles and have great fun both bouncing off each other and uniting to fight as a team. The action sequences are breathtaking and the whole movie is terrific fun. In terms of where it stands in the pantheon of great comic book movies is strictly down to personal preference. 

The Avengers is a truly magnificent film and it will be interesting to see where the Marvel movies go next as they have all been leading up to this film, hopefully there will be many more Avengers adventures in the future.


My rating: 9/10

Movie Review-Forrest Gump (1994)

Director: Robert Zemeckis

Casting: Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise 

Rating: 9/10

Review: 

"Forrest Gump" is a movie with a perfect blend of Drama, Comedy, Romance, and a little bit of Action. It's got a lot of scenes and lines that will make you laugh, and a lot of scenes and lines that will make you cry. It has the right amount of the romance story between Forrest and Jenny, and it also has a great action war scene.

The acting in "Forrest Gump" is amazing, especially the performance by Tom Hanks (Oscar/Golden Globe winning) as the title character. Hanks does a great job as Forrest, with his great story telling, innocence and his comedy, and also the way he is not smart and doesn't understand most things. Hanks also does a great job convincing the audience that he is from Alabama with his great southren accent. Gary Sinise (Oscar/ Golden Globe nominated) does a great job as Forrest's friend who he first met in war, Lt. Dan Taylor. Sinise does a great job with capturing the braveness, and also the uncaring part of Taylor. But he also does a great job with the good side of Taylor, when towards the end you see that he is a great guy who appreciates Forrest. Robin Wright puts on a good performance (Golden Globe nominated) as the main female character, and Forrest's love interest Jenny. Jenny is a drug addict hippy who doesn't care about herself through most of the movie, then realizes that she loves Forrest, and that she needs him in his life.

The writing for the movie was amazing. I have never read the book "Forrest Gump," but I'm sure the adaption of the book is nearly perfect. "Forrest Gump" is a very well written movie, the whole screenplay is just brilliant. Forrest Gump is not a smart person, but he lives an amazing life and meets many amazing people along the way.

Robert Zemeckis does a brilliant job directing this movie (though QT should have won the Oscar for directing in 94). Like I said, I have not read the book, but I'm sure that Zemckis did an amazing job capturing the brilliance of the book and adding his own original to the movie.

All in all, "Forrest Gump" is an amazing movie with an amazing plot, and amazing acting, directing, and genre blend. Although I do not believe that "Forrest Gump" is the best movie of all-time, it is my favorite movie of all time, and it was very impressive that it out won Pulp Fiction and Shawshank Redemption at the Oscars. 

My Rating: 10/10

Movie Review-The Hurt Locker (2008)

Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Casting: Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geragthy
Rating: 7.5/10


Review: 
Despite all the acclamation poured into The Hurt Locker, I started watching it with pretty much skepticism, because I think the Irak war has already been examined in cinema from all the possible angles, not to mention that the protests against it feel increasingly tiring and irrelevant (even though they are right).However, The Hurt Locker ended up being a fascinating experience because of its innovative subject, lack of dull ideology, excellent performances and specially, because of Kathryn Bigelow's intense direction.

One of the things I most liked in The Hurt Locker is that it does not pretend to instruct us about the failed reasons of the incursion in Irak, or repeating oil conspiracies or complaining about the lies about the weapons of mass destruction.It is simply focused on the experience from three soldiers specialized in disabling bombs, and it leaves us to interpret the situations from our points of view.And it also shows us brilliant scenes of action.

During the first seconds of The Hurt Locker, screenwriter Mark Boal establishes the message from the film: "War is a drug".And during the rest of the film, he shows us the effects of that addiction, making a realistic portrait of the dehumanization provoked by the uncertainty of combat, the impersonal management of the soldiers in the army and the psychological afflictions provoked by the horrible life conditions during war.But all those messages are set in the background from the movie, assimilating themselves to the spectator's point of view.On that way, the main attractions are the incredibly tense missions from the soldiers and the brilliant performances from the cast who interprets them.Jeremy Renner brings a very detailed development, which lets us see his character as a likable and competent man, but who is truly devastated in his soul.Anthony Mackie and Brian Geraghty are also excellent, since they completely become on their characters.By the way, the marketing from The Hurt Locker emphasizes the presence in the cast from Ralph Fiennes, Guy Pearce and Evangeline Lilly, but their roles are so short that they could be considered as cameos.I understand that strategy, because the main actors from this film are relatively unknown actors, and in order to raise the profile from this movie, they hired famous names; however that could disappoint the spectators who expect to see Fiennes or Pearce as the centre of attention, when reality is very different.But really...the performances from Renner, Mackie and Geraghty are so powerful that I barely noticed the stars on their fleeting appearances.

The only complain I have against this film is that it has a few irrelevant moments.But that does not avoid me from giving a very enthusiastic recommendation to this excellent movie, which is absolutely worthy of the acclamation it is receiving.


Rating: 7/10

Movie Review-The Usual Suspects (1995)

Title: The Usual Suspects
Director: Bryan Singer
Casting: Kevin Spacey, Gabriel Byrne and Chazz Palminteri
General Rating: 8.7/10

Review:

I think The Usual Suspects is one of the best mystery thrillers in the world. It contains one of the greatest endings ever seen in any film. When I first saw this film, I understood 85% of the film. I had to watch it again, to recap on what happened earlier. After the second time i watched it, I realized this is a Superb movie with a fabulous twist. I have now seen this film about 20 times and seems to get better every time i watch it. Kevin Spacey delivers the greatest performance in his career. Gabriel is great, Benecio delivers a great performance with humour. Stephen is quite good in his best film. Pollak was impressive, Chazz Palminteri is a Superb underrated actor. Chazz looks ultimately smart and supposingly is a intelligent investigator. But Spacey turns out to be 10 steps ahead. Superb, brilliant and any other great ways to describe this film.

Kint, physically disabled and emotionally disturbed, is himself a desperate, down-on-his luck, petty criminal whose chief talent seems to be getting mixed up with and attaching himself to more talented criminals. His latest 'friend' - Keating (Byrne) is a brilliant but depressive thief who is trying to straighten his life out for a woman lawyer he has fallen for. But along with the other 'usual suspects' - expert safe crackers, con men and sociopaths (possibly the best performance of Stephen Baldwin's career thus far) all - Keating is swept up into agreeing to do 'one final job'. In a fine piece of character interpetation, Byrne plays denial to the hilt telling himself that this job, if successful, could end his life in crime permanently. 


These expert thieves, con men and killers meet in a bogus police line-up one night and from that point on, they are bound together under the control of Soze until they either succeed or fail in the crime he has laid before them.


Soze has been betrayed, whether directly or indirectly, by each of these men, and he leaves them all no choice. Accept the crime plan or die. They accept, knowing that their odds of success are, to say the least, very limited.


The entire feeling of this film shifts radically from the action of the main plot (described in Kint's narrative) and the narrative itself (Kint's interrogation). While this may look simply like a clever piece of film work, it is actually a very brilliant plot device, as both story lines are finally united in the stunning and brilliant finish.


While I am not usually a ready fan of mysteries, and even less interested in thrillers, this film was pure entertainment from start to finish.


Director Singer has established himself as a pioneer in ensemble cast direction, and this film alone (his third) should have awarded him that title.


The performances are, without exception, flawless. While flawlessness or some approximation of it is something I generally expect from people like Spacey, Byrne, and Del Toro, many of the folks in this film very much surprised me. I now watch out for folks like Kevin Pollak, for example. Without detracting from the performers whatsoever, some credit for the stunning quality of the performances must go to the director, editor, script and cinematography team. This film makes them all look positively great.


I was bitterly disappointed by the fact that this film did not take many Academy Awards in its release year. While I realize that the academy's choices do not always reflect quality or achievement, I prefer to maintain at least a superficial guise of hopefulness. The fact that Usual Suspects did not win for editing was the biggest shock. I can not think of a better piece of editing. 

My rating: 10/10

Movie Review- Man on a Ledge

Movie Review- Man on a Ledge

Man on a Ledge (2012)

Director: Asger Leth

Casting: Sam Worthington, Elizabeth Banks, Jamie Bell

General Rating: ★★★(3/5)

Review: As you'd expect, "Man on a Ledge" is a Swiss-cheese plotted heist and "prove his innocence" movie but taken as just that, it's quite an enjoyable movie. I suppose after having seen enough of these kinds of movies, I shouldn't expect perfection in how every plot thread is tied up since very few movies manage it. However, what the movie does excellently is setup the plot and build up the situation perfectly. Just starting as a literal man on a ledge, we see subtle layers added until we get this full on crescendo of diamond heists, negotiators, cops, convicts, bad guys, good guys all happening on in a single block in New York. So, given that you're willing to suppress your tingling plot-hole sense, it can be an enjoyable movie.

The cast is quite good and the acting and tension is par for the course. The leads Sam Worthington and Elizabeth Banks do a great job. Seeing Worthington as an ex-NY cop, ex-convict and Banks as a negotiator/psychologist with a past is surprising on paper but they manage to pull it off very well. However, Jamie Bell is one of the heist-team but his opposite who plays Angie make for some cringe-worthy comedy, like some Sofia Vergara slapstick in the middle of a tense situation. Ed Harris looks emaciated but equally sinister as the villain and there are a host other minor NY characters.

I can hear the Hollywood pitch for the movie in my head, "it's like The Negotiator combined with The Italian Job but happens in NY and instead of a hostage situation we have a jumper." And, essentially it's just that – a movie that heavily recalls other movies from the past except perhaps for the man on ledge. On a side note, it seems that every NY movie nowadays has a reference to the OWS movement and what a typical OWS protester might look like.

The movie is at its best when it clamors for our hero who desperate and is fighting all odds to clear his name as he shouts from his ledge, "I am innocent and this is my retrial." The movie is at its worst when it's ungainly roping in all the plot threads it cast out but can't seem to put it together. Overall, it's a good enough movie for people who like these kinds of movies. If you've caught yourself bitterly berating the many plot holes in heist movies, maybe this isn't for you.

My Rating: ★★★★(4/5)

Movie Review- The Hunger Games (2012)

Movie Review- The Hunger Games (2012)

The Hunger Games (2012)

Director: Gary Ross

Casting: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth

General Rating: ★★★★(4/5)

Review: I was excited to see this film based on all the hype from my friends. I haven't read the books, but thought the story was interesting based on the one-line explanations I got from others. I went into this film expecting to see something similar to the Twilight films (teen obsession over book turned film), but better. What I got was much, much worse.
First off, I want to say that I thought the acting was great. The actors did a great job of portraying their characters. What WASN'T so great was the lack of character development. The death scenes, even those meant to be emotional, didn't affect me at all. I am one who isn't afraid to cry like a baby at a movie, and I often do. But while the others around me were sobbing, I was just ready for the scene to be over with.

Another reason I strongly disliked this film, has to do with my title. It seems like 95% of the shots in this movie were closeup on the characters faces. These are fine, to an extent, but you begin to wonder after a while if the actors aren't all just bodiless floating heads. The fight scenes were quickly cut together, which could work, if you weren't zoomed in so much that you have no idea what was going on.

For a film with a supposed 100,000,000 dollar budget, this came across as a low-budget independent adaption of the book. They could have done so much more to improve the visual aspect of the film as well as make the characters more likable.

Overall, I would give these film 4 stars, mainly due to the great acting and costume design. Everything else was horrible.

My rating : 3/5

Movie Review- Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol (2012)

Mission Impossible 4 (2012)

Director: Brad Bird

Genre   : Action

Cast    : Tom Cruise, Paula Patton, Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, Anil Kapoor

General Rating: ★★★★★ (5/5)

Review:       

Coming from a guy that hasn't seen any of the previous MIs, "Ghost Protocol" was nothing short of an awesome movie. From start to finish, it offers heart-pounding action and jaw-dropping special effects that will leave you in awe. 

One thing that bothers me about these kinds of movies is the way that you can never give the actor any credit for being so badass; there is usually (with exception of a few actors) a stuntman who creates what people watch action movies for: the action. I really appreciated this movie because Cruise actually IS that badass. Most of his stunts are actually done himself. Being able to both watch him fight, jump, and free-fall AND see his face at the same time was somewhat special. I really enjoy the little things. 

The rest of the actors did an admirable job as well. Pegg assumed his usually goofy character, and as tiring as he was, it was funny. Renner was definitely a great asset to the cast; he also knows his action. As long as you can tolerate a minimal amount of cheesy dialogue (most of which is provided by Pegg) you will enjoy it. 

Another recommendation would be to see this one in IMAX if you get the chance. The sound effects in this one are fantastic, and can only be appreciated to the fullest in such an environment. Plus, they will most likely show the prologue for "The Dark Knight Rises". Not to take anything away from "Ghost Protocol," but that prologue was the highlight of my night. 

In a nutshell, Tom Cruise delivered, and it was much better than expected. If you're an action-lover, you won't want to miss this one.

My Rating: ★★★★★ (5/5)