Kung Fu Panda 2 (June 2011)

Kung Fu Panda 2

Format: Theater

Starring: Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, Jackie Chan, Lucy Liu, Gary Oldman
Director: Jennifer Yuh

I randomly decided to go see Kung Fu Panda 2 at 11 AM at my local Studio Movie Grill for $5 (opting for normal instead of 3D since dang it, it’s an $8 difference due to 3D and morning matinee vs afternoon). I really liked the original Kung Fu Panda, so I had intended to see this one at some point anyway. Was that ever a good idea! Best ticket all summer!

Kung Fu Panda told the story of Po, a panda raised by his avian father, who dreamed of becoming one of the Furious Five. Instead, he was chosen to become the Dragon Warrior and mastered the art of Kung Fu to defeat an evil snow leopard who was intent on learning the ultimate technique from a scroll he had been denied years before. Kung Fu Panda 2 takes place a little while later with Po and the Furious Five acting sort of like peace keepers for the region, dealing with bandits and other nasties threatening peaceful people.

A banished prince returns to his home to reclaim the throne and, using a powerful weapon, intends to destroy kung fu and conquer all of China. It’s up to Po and the Furious Five to stop him!

At first, I expected the movie to be a fun little adventure, but nothing overwhelming. The general plot seems a little cliche, and it is somewhat, but it is handled marvelously. Director Yuh does an amazing job of weaving the story, moving it along at a steady pace, bringing in set backs that don’t feel forced, and interweaving Po’s full origin into the film seamlessly. There’s a stealth sequence that comes out just awesome in both humor and finesse to further the six companions’ journey through the enemy’s city. The excellent fight sequences do a good job of keeping you in the action without too much flying around like many films do. Best of all, the characters are kept unique and interesting, though Po, obviously, gets most of the screen time, Tigress has a powerful, though subtle, role as well. I’m presuming she proved to be a fan favorite in the first film, as well she should be. Few movies portray a female character with the grace and strength that Tigress offers; hat’s off to the writers.

MINOR SPOILER AHEAD:

Her brief “fight” with Po was one of my favorite scenes in which Po tells her someone who is hardcore can’t understand the pain he’s dealing with. Tigress rushes Po with the other four calling for her to stop only to gape as she embraces Po in a hug and tells him “the hardcore do understand, but I can’t watch my friend get killed.” Humor quickly lightens the mood when she turns to leave an Crane asks if she can leave him behind to not watch him be killed and she replies “Stop being a wimp.”

Po goes on to master the need for inner peace and faces off against a full armada of gunships single handedly…by running. For the most part, Po is still the somewhat unskilled master of Kung Fu, but his lack of masterful grace is fun to watch and he gets the job done (he’s a hero after all). The film has not one, not two, but three “final battles” it seems, each one with a set back that feels perfectly natural and is then overcome with satisfying storytelling.

The actors all reprise their role from the first film with the same quality of voice acting. Though Jack Black has done his share of live action, he really seems to shine in voice acting and the role of Po is simply perfect for him.

Kung Fu Panda 2 is a children’s movie made for adults; it has all the heart and spirit with no adult humor that a children’s movie should have, but it has all the emotion and strength any adult can appreciate.  I would, without question, consider seeing it in theaters again before it heads for DVD.

The film ends with a scene I can only describe as a cinematic grin and nod saying “See you in a few for Kung Fu Panda 3” because, oh yes, it seems certain we’re looking at a trilogy. If they keep this momentum going into the third, I’ll be looking forward to Kung Fu Panda surpassing Shrek for long running, successful, movie CGI franchise.

Rating: 5 out of 5 Skadoosh!

Kick-Ass

Kick-Ass (April 2010)
Format: Streaming Netflix
Starring: Aaron Johnson, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Chloe Moretz, Nicholas Cage
Directed By: Matthew Vaughn

I finally got around to watching Kick-Ass quite a while after it was released and after it was released on DVD for that matter.  I went into it with a low expectations due to a friend’s review who didn’t like the movie at all, but I actually rather enjoyed it.  It may not be the best movie, and I haven’t read the comics, but I thought it was a decent film for a Saturday afternoon at home.

The basic premise is simple to break down: an average high school student and comic geek questions why nobody in the world has ever put on a costume and tried to be a super hero.  That pondering builds until he is driven to try it himself and, after a disastrous first attempt (much like Batman), he improves due to an increased pain tolerance from damaged nerves and metal plates on his bones and begins to more successfully fight crime.  Unknown to him, there is a duo (think Batman & Robin with the mentality of The Punisher) putting the hurt on crime with their focus on a specific crime boss.  It all boils over to get him mixed up in the “big leagues” and way over his head, of course.

The acting was good and everyone seemed to play their part believably, though Nicholas Cage’s character, Big Daddy, came off better in the super hero role (with a comical speaking style) and seemed a little odd without the mask as Hit Girl’s(Chloe Moretz) father.  However, this could very well be part of the character’s personality in the comics, which again, I haven’t read.  Kick-Ass (Aaron Johnson) comes across as a believable average kid trying to fulfill the dream we usually live vicariously through comics and runs into the usual Spider-Man style dilemma of super hero-dom or getting the girl.  He opts for the girl, but circumstances pull him in, of course.  Hit Girl was described as a shocking character before I saw the film, but I didn’t find her to be.  Her language was a bit coarse for an 11ish year old kid, but her behavior didn’t give me pause.  Perhaps I’m desensitized to children being trained for war from the notions of Metal Gear Solid and anime such as Gunslinger Girl.

The special effects were kept fairly to a minimum, which worked well for the film to be grounded in realism.  A few explosions and an awesome jetpack made it a strong enough action movie on its own, though.  The costumes were well done and were also kept grounded, maintaining the imagery of “real” superheroes.

All in all, I thought Kick-Ass was pretty good.  If you’re a comic fan, it’s fun that they kept that feel in the movie that these kids are comic fans themselves. Kick-Ass, when looking at his X-rays with the metal plates, comments on looking like Wolverine, for example.  There are plenty of other comic and pop culture references as well (when faced with death, one realizes they’l  It’s been on Amazon around $15 for the DVD/Blu-Ray/Digital combo pack, which is more than a fair price for the movie, but if you just want to catch it once, it’s been available for streaming on Netflix as well.

Overall: 4/5 stars

Iron Man 2

Iron Man 2
Format: Theater
Starring: Robert Downey, Jr., Mickey Rourke, Don Cheadle, Scarlett Johansson, Gwyneth Paltrow
Directed by: Jon Favreau

Plot
For the second Iron Man movie, Tony Star (Robert Downey Jr.) must contend with the US Government wanting his designs for military use, questions regarding his ability to keep America safe on his own, and new foes in the form of rival weapons manufacturer Justin Hammer and Ivan Vanko (The Crimson Dynamo in the comics, but more like Whiplash in the film).  All in all a lot of story is packed into the two hours of film here and there’s plenty to digest, but none of it gets overly complicated and hard to follow. In fact, the writers do a fantastic job in taking us through the story where every scene is worthwhile and nothing seems to be truly wasted.

Ivan Vanko is the son of a Russian physicist who once worked with Stark’s father until he was found guilty of espionage and deported back to Russia.  Over the years, Ivan grew up blaming the Stark family for his own father’s misfortune and thus his as well.  When his father dies, Ivan begins work on his own design of the arc reactor Tony built in the first movie and creates a harness that powers a pair of whips channeling plasma energy.  Ivan makes his way to a racing event where he manages to confront Stark and fights Iron Man for the first time.

On the hero side of things, Tony is dealing with palladium poisoning as a result of the arc reactor core in his chest and has had no luck finding a suitable replacement for the material.  He is essentially dying with no hope in sight.  Of course he gets a visit by fan boy favorite Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury who sets him on the right path based on information Stark’s father had left with Fury in the past.  To boil things down, Tony resolves his dilemma and upgrades the Iron Man suit’s power source in the process.  To complicate matters, though, the military does get one of the suits thanks to Col. Rhodes, Stark’s friend, and we are given the Marvel character of War Machine in the film as well.

In the end there’s a climactic battle and Iron Man and War Machine manage to defeat Whiplash.  If you consider that a spoiler, you haven’t been going to the movies for very long.

Acting
I recently read an article about dating nerdy girls that said something to the following effect: When you’re sitting with her in church and she thanks God for allowing Robert Downey Jr. to survive the 80’s so he could play Iron Man, you say “Amen.”  I have to agree with this assessment.  Downey Jr. was the perfect choice for Tony Stark as the altruistic yet narcissistic hero and he played the role as if it was written for him when the comic was created in the first Iron Man.  He reprises that position in the sequel and does a fantastic job of making Tony seem like a smart ass, but one you can like.  Tony comes across as self-centered, but wanting to care for others with just a little difficulty in finding the right way to show it as a mixed result of his aloof life as a billionaire and as a genius.  Despite seeming occasionally self centered, he does show compassion for others and as such Downey Jr. simply presents Tony Stark the way Marvel has designed most of their characters: Heroic with personal flaws.

Don Cheadle takes over as Lt. Col. James Rhodes and does a fine job as the dutiful military man.  He has decent chemistry with Downey Jr. as a friend yet possible rival as the two don’t see eye to eye on Stark’s handling of matters with the government.  Without too much screen time, he still plays the role well and the character has a strong presence in his scenes, particularly when donning the armor that becomes War Machine.

Mickey Rourke’s career has had some nice success recently and his role as Whiplash will add to that.  He plays his part well, coming across as an intelligent villain who is willing to do what he feels he must.  Rather than being aggressive, he is a calm character that works with what he’s presented towards his own goals.  He convinced me well enough that he was Russian, though he could have been telling the audience we left the oven on for all I know.

Gwyneth Paltrow returns as Pepper Pots and gives a good female presence to the film as she is made CEO of Stark Enterprises.  She does play the damsel in distress role at the very end, but only so far as happening to be standing near a bomb at the wrong time.  Outside of that, she is a strong female character that is so often lacking in films and, ironically, in many comic books even today.  I particularly like her motherly archetype in taking care of Tony and making him face problems he finds boring until he finally gets out of it by giving her more power as CEO.  After that, she runs the company and takes control when all hell breaks loose at the Stark Expo near the climax of the film.

Scarlett Johansson enters the Marvel films as Natasha Romanov, aka Black Widow, working for S.H.I.E.L.D as shadow agent within Stark Enterprises’ legal department.  Her role is rather small in the early parts of the film, mostly as an added assistant alongside Pepper and later to Pepper, but towards the end she shows us what a kick ass female character should be.  Think Trinity from The Matrix…only tougher and more awesome.

Special effects
I don’t normally go into special effects, camera choices, filmography, or anything like that, but with a film like this, I have to touch on them a little bit.  The main thing about the special effects in Iron Man 2 is that they’re believable.  I found myself frequently wondering how much of the movie was CG and how much was actors on a green screen.  The Iron Man suit itself is absolutely wonderful and seeing Tony “suit up” is excellent.  More importantly, it looks like it could really work if we could design such a machine.

More importantly, however, are his gadgets.  There’s nothing terribly new in this film that we didn’t see in the first movie, but revisiting the workshop with its three dimensional drawings manipulated by Tony’s touch on them in mid-air makes one wish for that technology to be here now.  The touch screen computer system accessible from the glass table top in a room is nice and his see through touch screen cell phone make you just a little jealous of Stark’s cool toys.  The film makers made sure to keep the technology believable as to what we could expect to see within the next, say, 10 years?

Overall
Once again, Marvel hits a home run with a big title comic book film.  Let’s hope they can continue to ride this train with equal success in next year’s Thor and the following Captain America in 2012 for a fantastic ride on the Avengers film due out that same year.  If you’re a sci-fi fan, a comic book fan, or just enjoy a good movie, I highly recommend Iron Man 2.

I particularly liked the subtleties included in the film. Rather than outright naming the black and white armor “War Machine” the character is dubbed thus by Stark when he says “You want to be a war machine, take your shot.”  Captain America is referenced by getting a look at an incomplete version of his shield (seen in the first Iron Man as well).  There is a Thor reference hidden amongst the film and Stan Lee appears once again as well.  Tipping the hat to the comics, Tony also informs the arms committee that he won’t join the military, but he’ll consider accepting Secretary of Defense.

5/5 stars

The Guild Season 1 & 2

The Guild
Format: Season 1 via Netflix Streaming and Season 2 via YouTube
Starring: Felicia Day, Jeff Lewis, Sandeep Parikh, Robin Thorsen, Amy Okuda, Vincent Caso
Directed by: Jane Selle Morgan, Greg Benson, Sean Becker

The Guild is a different sort of duck to try and review.  It is a series of Webisodes created by Felicia Day about a group of MMO gamers and their lives, frequently focusing on interacting with one another through webcam and occasionally IRL.  Felicia Day may accept the crown as the newest Queen of Geekdom as she is an avid gamer herself and stars in the series.  All bow down and wish they could find a girlfriend like her now (yes, ladies, you can bow too).

It’s taken a while for me to get around to watching the first two seasons of The Guild and I was first exposed to the phenomenon with their music video Do You Want to Date My Avatar, as many others were.  Each season is made up of a number of episodes totaling around 10 minutes each.  The story is decently written and often pokes at different nuances of MMO gamer life such as guild/loot drama, the ninja’ing of items, getting banned from the game and such.  Felicia Day gives a stellar performance as shy, nerdy “Codex” aka Cyd Sherman (you can debate which is the name and which is aka ^_~) with great facial expressions and giving her lines in a blend of humor and uncertainty during the video logs.  She sort of reminds me of Alyson Hannigan‘s performance of Willow in the Buffy series.  I particularly like the constant incorporation of gaming lingo into the everyday conversations, such as “managed to rez myself” in favor of overcoming a bad experience.

The show itself is available for streaming on Netflix and on YouTube. The fourth season is in production, having been sponsored by Microsoft.

Punisher: War Zone

Punisher: War Zone
Format: Blu Ray DVD
Starring: Ray Stevenson, Dominic West
Directed by: Lexi Alexander

I will preface this review by saying that my expectations for Punisher: War Zone were low to begin with, but I further damaged the film’s chances by watching it the day after seeing Iron Man 2 (review forthcoming).  I am not a big Punisher fan either; that’s not to say I dislike Frank Castle; quite the contrary. I’ve just never followed the comics regularly other than his cross over appearances.  I do think he’s just about the best anti-hero created in a long time, though.

That said, I did like the 2004 Punisher starring Thomas Jane.  I knew this one was going to be different and indeed it is.  There are some things they got right and a number of things I felt they got wrong.  I’ll touch on those points in a bit.

The story of War Zone is fairly straight forward with Castle continuing his crusade against the crime families of New York City.  From an initial attack in their home to a glass recycling plant to a showdown in an abandoned hotel, the story is mostly “bullets fly and people die.”  The starring roles are limited to Castle and Jigsaw, with everyone else being supporting cast members.  That alone suggests a good premise for a Punisher movie, but in all honesty, it isn’t.  The story is weak, the characters are not explored, and those who know the character of Frank Castle would see glaring flaws in the movie from the opening scene.  For these reasons, I just couldn’t get on board with Stevenson and Alexander’s version of the anti-hero, though a glimpse through IMDB reviews suggest fans of the Punisher liked this film.

So what did I think went wrong?  Unlike most of my reviews, I’ll be including spoilers in this one.

The opening scene for Frank is an attack on the Rusotti family and he is quick to kill everyone in the room.  However, the delivery was unconvincing to me. Frank cuts the power to the house and while the family is sitting down for dinner, the room is lit up by a red flare and Castle standing on the dining room table. He jabs the flare into the table (or something on it) and charges down to kill the head of the family, the proceeds to make his way back down the table.  At one point, he hooks himself onto a chandelier and spins around the room unloading bullets on anyone running in.  I was reminded of Willem DaFoe‘s derogatory remarks about this type of showboat killing in the original Boondock Saints (“Television. Television is the explanation for this – you see this in bad television. Little assault guys creeping through the vents, coming in through the ceiling – that James Bond shit never happens in real life! Professionals don’t do that!”).  It just isn’t Castle.  For that matter, appearing on the table doesn’t seem like Castle. It’s sloppy, it’s dangerous, it puts himself in the middle of a room full of enemies, any of which could have a gun.  One thing I really liked about the 2004 Punisher was the realistic approach to his methodology. He’s not just a vigilante with a gun; Castle is a tactician.

After the shoot out, he proceeds to a glass recycling plant. Now, what I did like was having Castle set his broken nose with a pencil in the car before going in. It was just enough of a “yuck” factor that showed the Punisher as a tough guy who’s familiar with pain and can take care of himself in a pinch for things like that.  Unfortunately, he goes inside the plant for more death and mayhem afterward and the first thing he does is kill an undercover FBI agent.  Again, I’m not a Punisher fan from the comics, but I’ve always had the impression that Castle is right up there with Batman on his plans and intel and would have known if the FBI had infiltrated the family and likely would know who it was.  But for the sake of a resemblance of a plot, he kills him by mistake and goes on to leave Billy “the beaut” in a glass recycling machine with it running.  The resulting damage to Billy’s face leaves him disfigured and we have our villain, Jigsaw.

From here, the plot starts to slide into action and bullets.  Castle approaches the FBI agents family to offer restitution with money and is turned away, he considers quitting but Microchip (a sort of sidekick in the comic reduced to “some guy that helps him for unknown reasons”) convinces him to take care of Jigsaw first.  Jigsaw meanwhile frees his brother from an insane asylum and go after the money the FBI agent supposedly had taken from them at his home, putting the wife and daughter in danger. Frank saves them and takes them to a safehouse after the police take Jigsaw and his brother into custody.   Another anti-Castle scene includes them inside the house and an FBI agent whose role isn’t worth detailing begins to arrest one of the mafia family members helping Jigsaw and Castle shoots him in the face with a shotgun.  That would be fine except that he was holding the 10 year old girl in his arm when he pulled the trigger.  Frank is relentless and violent, but he wouldn’t risk scarring a child.  They cut a deal, flip on some Russians, and get immunity which allows them to kidnap Micro, then the wife and daughter, and raise an army to kill Castle.  Around this point, I was beginning to feel the similarity of Jigsaw’s portrayal to Jim Carrey‘s Riddler.  The FBI agent sets Russian crime family against Jigsaw to thin out the army they have against Castle before Frank heads in on his own…without a plan.

The villains are over the top and come across as silly rather than threatening.  Stevenson himself looks the part, but comes across as a bit robotic, just going through the motions of playing Castle rather than taking on the role.  The movie does little to explore why the Punisher continues to wage war against crime after five years, why Detective Soap heads the Punisher task force but secretly helps Castle (and why he seems like such a complete moron), why Microchip believes in Frank and helps him, and does nothing to motivate the audience to care about anyone in the film.

There is a lot of violence for violence’s sake, which fits the source, but at points it’s ill timed and misplaced and does little to strengthen the movie.

There are no real special effects to speak of, which is fine for a movie based on vigilante justice, though I was surprised by a lack of explosions.

Overall, I felt the 2004 film did a better job of pulling the audience in and understanding Frank Castle’s drive for vengeance while making his actions seem very methodical, planned, and executed with precision. Punisher: War Zone does a better job portraying Castle as completely remorseless no matter the level of violence used in killing his enemies, but loses all connection to his personality despite a couple of attempts.  I think there could have been a lot more dialogue for Stevenson in voice over entries of a War Journal that could have given enough insight without detracting from the action.  Overall, I wasn’t impressed with the movie and sadly put it on the list of comic films I won’t own.

2/5 stars.

Avatar (2009)

Avatar (2009)
Format: Theater, 3D
Starring: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang
Directed by: James Cameron

I saw Avatar over its opening weekend, but only now am I getting around to writing its review.  While I am not a die hard James Cameron fan, I will gladly support Avatar, a sci-fi movie, to take its place as the top box office behemoth of all time.  Aside from that personal reason, I did genuinely like the movie.

Before I detail why I liked the movie, let me first say that Avatar is not a groundbreaking new level of storytelling that Hollywood has never seen before.  The story is as cliche as it comes and feels like the result of a fanboy merging together a number of his favorite movies and coming up with this script.  The story, without too many spoilers beyond what you’d find in an attentive view of a trailer, is simply this:

A marine goes to another world, Pandora, where the military is supporting a greedy corporation’s plans to strip mine the native people’s home.  The marine goes in as “one of them” in a home-grown body housing his consciousness and befriends the natives, or rather their princess.  After learning their ways, and falling in love with said princess, he sides with them and rallies their tribes to drive back the humans.

Essentially, it’s Dances with Wolves and The Last Samurai where the lesser armed heroic band, led by a hero in a Surrogate, fights off the evil Shinra Corporation from destroying the planet in hopes of saving the rain forest of FernGully.  I’m following the delusion that James Cameron is one of the 15 million subscribers to World of Warcraft and the draenei and night elves are strongly represented visually and culturally, respectively speaking, by the na’vi.  Okay, I’m joking about that, but I’m not joking when I say that I expect Blizzard and Sam Raimi have taken notes for their future film.

Despite a predictable plot and a few groaning moments (the ore the humans want is named “Unobtainium”) and some cliche moments, Avatar still speaks volumes.  There are people who have reported on the Avatar forums that they have actually dealt with depression after seeing the movie  and dealing with their own lives and world paling in comparison to the beauty of Pandora and the life of the na’avi.  The movie calls to the nature lover in us and stirs a primitive, primal, part of us that longs to be a part of our world rather than just live in it.  At a time where pollution and “going green” are hot topics and society is reeling from a battered economy blamed on corporate greed, Avatar provides a visual presentation of all these conflicts while showing that love can bloom across chasms and ignore color (blue, for example), race, or apparently alien species.  Captain Kirk would be so proud of you, Jake Sully.

Technologically, this is a work of art.  The CG is very believable and realistic, putting even Gollum down a peg (and I LOVED the Lord of the Rings films) and makes me mourn what might have been for the future of TMNT.  The na’avi are alien yet beautiful and the flora and fauna of Pandora are indeed breathtaking to look at.  James Cameron put a lot of money into the new technology and cameras used to make the film and it pays off with the 3D version of the film.  Suffice to say, I was very impressed.  There are no gimmicky scenes of spears or arrows flying at your face in the audience, but rather more subtle use of 3D.  Characters appeared behind or ahead of one another or computer displays seemed raised off the screen just enough to get your attention and it was all quite smoothly presented.

What truly drew me into the world, though, was the na’avi and Zoe Saldana’s character, Neytiri, and particularly their customs.  Most would note their connection to nature and their ancestors’ spirits or how they bond (let’s call it truthfully, their mind meld) with animals of the planet.  For me, however, Neytiri had her claws in me when she was telling Jake Sully to leave and comparing him, and humans, to children.  She tells him to go away, to leave, about three times and each time it was her facial expression and hand motion that grabbed my attention.  This gesture emphasized “leave” so well, I recognized it as being a customary motion equivalent to flipping the bird, yet I’d never seen the gesture before, of course.

Apart from that, there are the na’avi interactions among one another: Neytiri answering to her people for bringing Jake to them, her assignment as his teacher (and her hiss in disgust at the task), or her feral nature and posture when defending his fallen body gave the race depth unspoken and unnecessary of explanation (though I’m sure there are many websites that will offer you a guide to the na’avi language, lifestyle, and customs).  These details are what show me the love put into the monumental project and make an otherwise ordinary film special to me.

Acting
The acting is fine, though few of the cast struck me enough to lay claim to their role to the point that no other actor would do.  Jake and Neytiri are the two most demanding characters for attention, of course, but as they are CG and present an alien exotic beauty to their design, it could be argued that other actors could have done equally well in the roles.  However, to the actors’ credit, and to the animators, it is hard to say where the acting ended and the animating began.  Without investigating, I’m sure there was motion capture included in the animating.

Overall
I would highly recommend Avatar as a must-see movie with something for everyone to enjoy.  Whether you like the beauty of the artists’ graphics in the world of Pandora, the aspect of the new technology used to make the movie (and what this will mean to future movies), the lovers from two worlds brought together, or the straightforward action, there is something in this movie for you.  Just don’t expect a mind-blowing story that will leave you pondering its meanings…though it may give some food for thought on how we’re living on our own Pandora.

Rating
5/5 stars

Ghostbusters (1984)

Ghostbusters (1984)
Format: Blu Ray
Starring: Bill Murray, Dan Akroyd, Harold Ramis, Ernie Hudson, Sigourney Weaver
Directed by: Ivan Reitman

With the Ghostbusters having made a fairly strong return last summer with their adventure in next-gen video game format, I picked up the 25th anniversary Blu Ray for $20 at Best Buy on the day it came out (and I had a $5 coupon).

A friend questioned my decision; uncertain if the movie’s film quality warranted Blu Ray ownership and I will state with resounding certainty that…Yes, it does warrant it and yes it’s worth it.  Some screens still look a bit grainy, noticeable against darker colors in the background, but most are quite clear and some even look good enough to look like a modern film released on Blu Ray.

Special features include a look at the recently restored Ecto1, which I can’t watch just now as it would further make me whine in want to buy the fully refurbished/restored/recreated ones that sometimes appear on ebay that I could not hope to afford.

Still, the film itself remains enjoyable and holds its place as one of the best action comedies, or just comedies, to come out in my lifetime, if not one of the best of all time (a title it has been awarded in some competitions from reputable magazines).

For those of you oblivious to the Ghostbusters phenomenon…shame on you.  The movie is about three college professors: Dr. Ray Stanz (Dan Akroyd), Dr. Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis), and Dr. Peter Venkman (Bill Murray), who lose their jobs after having their first major breakthrough in seeing, registering, and having contact with a ghost.  Afterward, they find a building to rent and set up a ghost extermination business.  Ernie Hudson makes up the fourth member as Winston Zeddemore after business picks up and they need more manpower.  the increased paranormal activity is the result of Gozer, a Sumerian god, preparing to enter the world.  The Ghostbusters get involved through Dana Barrett’s (Sigourney Weaver) calling them to investigate strange occurrences at her apartment.  After she and her neighbor fall prey to Gozer, the Ghostbusters eventually confront the manifestation of the ancient deity atop a Manhattan rooftop in the form of a giant marshmallow man.  Just another day on the job, right?

The movie was scripted by Dan Akroyd and Harold Ramis, both Saturday Night Live alumni.  Humor filters through the entire movie in everything from situations to the different personalities of the characters, to just simply facial expressions.  The characters are diverse and interesting in themselves with the child-like enthusiasm from Akroyd (interviews about the game and a third movie suggest this is genuine emotion from him as he seems to truly love the franchise and is fascinated by the paranormal); deadpan and always serious Egon, whose scientific view and reason is so extreme it’s funny; working man Winston who sums it up best himself with “If there’s a steady paycheck, I’ll believe anything you want me to;” and dead pan sarcastic business (and ladies’) man Venkman.  The supporting cast of Annie Potts as Janine Melnitz and Rick Moranis as Louis Tully are memorable on their own as well, as is everyone’s favorite green glob of ghost, Slimer (so popular, he became a costar in the cartoon series).

With a little coarse language common in the 80s movies, Ghostbusters still earns a PG rating and deserves a chance in any household. If you’re wanting a funny movie that should already be considered a classic, and are overcoming your shame for not seeing it already, then, well, Who ya gonna call?  That’s right, Ghostbusters.

Overall
5/5 stars

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (2009)

The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009)
Format: Theater & again later on DVD
Starring: Denzel Washington, John Travolta, John Turturro, James Gandolfini
Directed by: Tony Scott

I went to see The Taking of Pelham 123 with my dad for Father’s Day last year as both of us were wanting to see it and we often celebrate certain holidays together with an action flick of one kind or another.  We also have a history of approval for just about every movie with Denzel Washington and I rather like John Travolta as a bad guy.  Now, after seeing the movie in the theater, I wrote this review on paper and misplaced it. Between then and Thanksgiving, I saw it again on DVD with a friend.  Having recently found the review, I decided it would be worth posting.  After all, I expect anyone reading this blog has a list of movies they never got around to seeing and wouldn’t mind a DVD recommendation from time to time.

Plot
The movie is overall okay, but not one I’d have encouraged for a theater outing.  The plot is fairly straightforward with Travolta and his crew of three taking a subway train car hostage underground with a demand of 10 million dollars.  This is a little bit refreshing, though, as its been a while since I’ve seen a straightforward hostage and ransom story without a dozen twists behind motive.  It’s usually some elaborate smoke screen to hide a theft, which this one does as well, but not so grandiose.  Of course,t he movie is mostly the discussion and negotiation attempts between Travolta and Washington’s characters, leading to the random payment and a chase to catch the bad guys.  It’s general cops and robbers.

Acting
John Travolta plays a great bad guy who seems just a tad crazy (but then, he is a Scientologist, right?).  His character comes across as intelligent, but on the edge of a metal breakdown after having grown tired with being treated unfairly in his life.  Once his real plan (yes, there’s a second plan layered under the hostage money) are revealed, you realize the guy is written to indeed be rather smart.  His character is not, however, for the faint of ears, as he drops his share of F-bombs and mother F-bombs.  I have no problem with this myself as it is contrasted well by the more mild mannered portrayal of Denzel Washington’s character, who has next to no expletive and comes across well as an “everyman” archetype.  He has his weaknesses and flaws, but he’s a good person and Denzel portrays the moral standing and struggles of the character well.

The supporting cast is fine and Detective Camonetti gives me a feeling of relief that actor John Turturro can play a serious authority role after his role in the Transformers films.  James Gandolfini plays the mayor of New York well, even tossing in a Giuliani reference.

Overall
The movie is nothing particularly special and I did find myself considering how John McClain would have handled the situation, but for a matinee or DVD, it’s not a bad choice.  And if you’re curious about the foul language I mentioned earlier, you may be surprised to say the entire movie seems more family friendly than the first twenty minutes of the Walter Matthau original.  Take that as you will.

Overall
3.5/5 stars

Ninja Assassin

Ninja Assassin, 2009
Format: Theater
Starring: Rain, Naomie Harris, Ben Miles, Sho Kosugi
Directed by: James McTeigue

Plot
Ninja Assassin returns the long forgotten tradition of going over the top with ninja action in Hollywood. Raizo, played by Rain, is a rogue ninja who turned his back on the Black Sand clan who have raised him since he was an orphaned child, training him to be an assassin.  He comes to the rescue of Mika, played by Naomie Harris, when her investigation along with Interpol agent Maslow, played by Ben Miles puts her in the sights of the ninja clan who have remained secret for over 1,000 years.

Essentially, the plot is about revenge with Raizo seeking to destroy the clan after they killed the woman he loved (a fellow ninja who tried to escape to see the world and live life outside the clan).  He is cast out for refusing to kill another woman who failed the clan, hence putting him on their hit list and looking for revenge.

The plot isn’t difficult to follow, it’s fairly simplistic, but when I sit down in a theater to see a movie titled “Ninja Assassin” I’m not looking for in-depth plots with twists that blindside me; I’m looking for crazy martial arts action!  However, I have to say the revenge plot, which seems pretty much a requirement for a ninja movie, is a bit weak as there was little done to emphasize their relationship.  Perhaps it’s better to see the movie as a redemption revenge plot as Raizo seeks redemption for doing nothing to help his love and seeking revenge on the clan for unknowingly taking her from him.  Outside of the ninja plot, there is a bit to be desired from the Interpol side of things, but at least they keep things moving.

Acting
I won’t say the acting is five star Oscar award material, but I had little to complain about. Rain delivers a fine performance as the rogue ninja, bordering on mysterious and friendly and walking that tightrope quite well.

Naomie Harris, on the other hand, puts on a great performance as the scared forensic researcher, or as she clarifies she’s basically a librarian, pulled into the ninja world as an assassination target and Sho Kozuni is great as Ozunu, head of the ninja clan.

Overall
When the movie first started, I was genuinely shocked at the level of gory violence displayed in the initial assassination.  With dismembered limbs and heads sliced in half at the jaw, blood flowed freely.  I went into the movie expecting over-the-top violence of Kill Bill quality, but I was rewarded with even more in the first scene.  I admit, this actually put me off a bit as a ninja assassin strikes me more as the silent warrior in the shadows that strikes and leaves a dead body with almost no evidence of how it happened.  Instead, we got machine gun speed and caliber shuriken and sickle & chain or ninjato attacks that sliced everyone to pieces.

The violence continues in a laundromat battle shortly after that was disappointingly short and suggestive after-the-fact rather than showing us head on violence.  From this point on, it begins to lessen (though there is still plenty of body parts lopped off) and becomes more of the fast paced action packed film I was expecting.  There is a warehouse battle, a battle through the streets amongst cars, and one climactic battle in the ninja clan’s home.  Throughout these events, we see flashbacks to the ninja and their training, which I admit was a bit disappointing for me as they focused so heavily on combat and the punishments of failure with almost no time spent on the ways of secrecy and invisibility.

The thing that struck me as truly exciting while watching Ninja Assassin was the possibility for future movies with fast paced action and hopefully at least a small resurrection of the ninja craze of the 80s and the smaller one from the 90s.  This movie is like watching Ninja Gaiden (if Prince of Persia hits it big, I want a well done Ninja Gaiden movie, please!) on the silver screen and, to me, shows excellent promise for the next live action installment of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles said to be in the works.  If I can get a less gory version of Ninja Assassin including state of the art better-than-Gollum quality CGI turtles, I’ll be happy, even though it won’t be nearly what it should with Nickelodeon now owning rights to them lock, stock, and barrel.

That said, Ninja Assassin is worth seeing if you don’t mind gore and violence. If you do mind it, but not terribly, just cringe in the opening sequence and enjoy the rest of the film for good ninja action that’s totally over-the-top and completely unbelievable.  I’d recommend it as a rental, but as a ninja fan, I just had to get out to see it and I’ll possibly see it again by picking it up on Blu Ray when it comes out.

Rating
3 out of 5 stars

Bolt

Bolt
Format: Netflix Streaming Content (viewed on PS3)
Available on DVD & Blu Ray as well
Starring: John Travolta, Miley Cyrus, Susie Essman, Mark Walton

Plot
Bolt, an American White Shepherd, has lived his entire life believing he is a super powered dog who adventures with his owner, a girl named Penny, to rescue her father from the evil Doctor Callico.  When Bolt escapes his trailer, he is accidentally shipped to New York from Hollywood and begins to find his powers are gone.  Joined by a cat named Mittens and later a hamster named Rhino, Bolt sets out on his own, new adventure to return to the west coast to rescue Penny, who he believes to have been captured by Doctor Callico.  During the journey, he discovers he has no super powers and must overcome the trials before him as a normal dog.

Acting
The voice acting is great, but that’s no real surprise coming from Disney.  John Travolta plays the lead dog, Bolt, with Miley Cyrus as his owner, Penny.  I find it a bit ironic that Miley is given high billing as an actress in this movie where she only really plays a role in the beginning and end.  However, I will give her credit as her trembling voice does pull on the heart strings as she struggles with tears, missing her lost dog alongside her mom.

Susie Essman is a wonderful cat-on-her-own as Mittens while Mark Walton, and I mean it as a compliment, is an excellent hamster.

Overall
I woke up on a Sunday morning overcoming a bout of an allergy attack that had left me sounding like a frog and getting little sleep the last two nights. I felt better, but still tired, so I pulled Bolt from my instant viewing queue on Netflix.  Going into the film, all I knew was that it was about a dog with a cat sidekick and he possibly had some sort of super speed or something of that sort.  Not much knowledge or memory of the previews from 2008 going into this one.

As the movie started, I thought it was going to be Kim Possible with a dog until it was revealed I was watching a TV show set in a movie.  When reality was unveiled and I learned Bolt is a canine version of Truman Burbank, I began to see the possibilities for the story’s direction, particularly when this pampered pooch winds up in New York completely on his own.

The story is strong and it touches a little bit on believing in yourself and accepting yourself for who you are rather than holding yourself in comparison to who you aren’t.  While it doesn’t get too deep or preachy about these lessons, they’re lightly there and a nice addition for a movie aimed at children.  The big pro for me in the humor is that Bolt is completely devoid of adult humor, not even the subtle innuendo I’ve come to expect from CG films ever since Shrek was a success.  I would definitely recommend the movie to parents looking for something for their kids.

With Mittens the cat as his hostage-turned-mentor, Bolt comes to learn how to be a normal dog as they venture back west to reach Penny and return Bolt to a happy life.  There are some conflicts between Mittens and Bolt, even after they are no longer leash-tied to one another, arising from Mittens’ past experience with humans and Bolt’s expectations of “his person’s” love.  Mittens being a declawed cat who did not choose to be an alley cat was a bit predictable from her first scene, but kids likely won’t catch the foreshadowing and it still serves as a bit of a “feel bad for kitty” moment later on.

As they reach halfway of their amazing journey (yes, there’s a reference there), they encounter Rhino, a hamster who is a huge fan of Bolt and eventually proves to be the catalyst for the realization of the canine’s TV roots.

In the end, everything works out and Bolt proves to be a hero, even utilizing one of his TV super powers in a sense, to rescue Penny and settle in to a normal, happy life with a family alongside his new friends.

Rating
5 out of 5 stars

I don’t go into animated movies expecting a life changing or profound experience. I expect a good story, told well and enjoyable for children.  In my opinion, Bolt meets all requirements of a hero in these expectations.