Doomsday Review

Doomsday
Dir. Neil Marshall
Starring Rhona Mitra, Bob Hoskins, Malcolm McDowell
Rated R(strong bloody violence, language, and some sexuality/nudity)
Score: ****

Do you like campy 70/80s action films like The Warriors, Escape from New York, the Mad Max series, and the original Terminator? Do you like the films of George Romero and John Carpenter? If you answered yes to both of these, then for the love of God watch Doomsday.

Doomsday is from director Neil Marshall, who brought us one of the most truly terrifying movies of the past few years in The Descent. I can't necessarily say this film is a step forward for him, but I'm sure it was really fun to make.

We follow Eden(Rhona Mitra), who as a young girl was rescued from Scotland after the deadly Reaper virus broke out. 30 years later, and now a police officer, she and her group of renegade cops must infiltrate the walled-off country to find the mysterious Kane(Malcolm McDowell), who supposedly has a cure, after the virus breaks out in England. Little does she know that inside the country is a civilization of cannibalistic punks waiting to claim some prey.

The movie plays out like 28 Days Later for the first 30 minutes, then turns Mad Max for about 30 more minutes, then turns midievel for a bit after the group finds Kane's fortress. This film should not be taken seriously at all. It has an irreverent charm about, and often goes completely over the top with its blood and gore content.

Not that I have a problem with that. In fact, I applaud it. This is exactly the kind of sci-fi/action/horror hybrid I expected it to be. We don't need a unique plot, just a serviceable one. We don't need supreme depth of characters or high-quality acting. In fact, all this movie needs is exactly what it has- blood, gore, explosions, car chases, hilariously over-the-top villains, and a kick-ass heroine who spits out constant one-liners.

This film is high on entertainment but low on logic. In fact, a 12-year-old could probably spot three or more plot holes. And it has a bunch of cliches(such as the evil goverment leader with no motivation whatsoever other than "power").

However, that is expected in a film like this. It's obviously referencial to all the movies I've listed, and it definitely has a John Carpenter feel about it. Marshall is the horror director of this generation. He's one ofr the few directors out there that can save horror from the torture porn/Japanese remake stage we're currently in. Horror is still alive, thank God! And I thank Marshall for this film. It's one great ride.

Into the Wild review

Into the Wild
Directed by Sean Penn
Starring Emile Hirsh, Hal Holbrook, Marsha Gay Harden, and William Hurt
Rated R (contains language, adult situations, substance use, and some nudity/sexuality)
Score: **1/2

I'm so disappointed. I was looking forward to this movie so much, just like I was
looking forward to Lust Caution.

But it had to go and be mediocre and disappoint me, also like Lust Caution.

The film follows Chris McCandless, aka Alexander Supertramp, a 21-year-old college grad who is fed up with the status quo and leaves everything to be a drifter. His ultimate goal is to make it to Alaska, where he plans to live off the land for a while.

This film is based off a book, which is based on a true story. Actually, it's a very close retelling of the story. From what I understand, this is a very faithful adaptation.

Here's the central problem- Chris is the most immature, naive, pig-headed, anal, smart-assed, and downright baby-ish character I've ever seen. It may have been the filmmaker's intentions, but what this does is draw us out of the experience. You can't have a good movie if you don't sympathize with the characters.

I was expecting this movie to have a great mesage about discovering yourself in the world. Unfortunately, I got a really selfish brat who thinks destroying all of his life and leaving his family is a splendid idea. The whole film up until the last 30 minutes or so paints him as this justified hero because, well, his parents faught a lot and "nobody understands him." Bullshit. Anybody with a brain knows that's ridiculous.

There isn't a message in the film up until the aformentioned last 30 minutes. It just wanders like Chris does. Then, we get to the actual meat, which is actually quite good. I'm not in the business of spoilers, but I'll say that I thought for a movie with such a stupid central character, it wrapped up nicely.

The cinematography is fantastic, and Hal Holbrook is amazing in his supporting role. In fact, all the supporting roles were better than Emile Hirsch's role as Chris. But that's because he had to play a prick.

All in all, you're supposed to "understand" Chris, but not necessarily agree with him. I did niether. It ruined the movie for me. It's obviously a well made movie, and a lot of people seem to enjoy it. I probably won't ever see it again.

Justice League: The New Frontier review

Last year it was announced that there would be a series of direct-to-DVD animated films for DC comics characters, all produced by Bruce Timm. The first was the rather undewhelming Superman Doomsday. The second is Justice League: The New Frontier, which is based off of the popular Silver Age-inspired graphic novel series DC: The New Frontier. The film features the voice talents of Kyle Machlaclin, Kyra Sedgewick, Lucy Lawless, and Jemery Sisto among others.

This film centers around superheroes during the cold war. The Korean War had just ended, McCarthyism is alive and strong, and superheroes are being increasingly looked down upon as the government inteferes with everyday lives. Along with this, an evil alien presence threatens to destroy all of humanity. It serves as an excellent backdrop for a film.

The film focuses around Martian Manhunter and Green Lantern most of the time, as they are the "new guys" being introduced. Wonder Woman, Superman, Batman, Flash, and King Faraday also have pretty decent roles in the film.

To appreciate this film, you have to be a comic book fan. That is pretty much a given. There is a lot going on in this film, and it takes an attentive eye to catch it all, but there is a lot of fanservice here if you know what I mean.

The animation is pretty much the same as we all remember from the previous Timm animations, but here the characters are redesigned to fit the '50s feel. In short, it's a joy to behold.

With the plot and the animation so great, I was a little disappointed at how the plot unfolds. The film is 72 minutes long, and we don't see Green Lantern in costume until about 64 minutes in. That is inexcusable. I know they were setting it up, but setup is for films that have sequels, and this movie won't have one. The filmmakers were walking a fine line between explaning too much and explaning too little. We don't see much of the characters' inner selves as plot development is stressed much mire than character development, and that's a shame. They could have added 20 minutes to this movie easily and it wouldn't have made it overlong.

The action is lacking, and just like Superman Doomsday, the first hour of development feels like it went to waste when a series of deus ex machinas force all the heroes into one big mutual earth-saving party. It's a bit cliche. But really, the message of the film is so wonderfully stated that even half-assed excecution doesn't totally destroy it.

A few characters are pretty much pointless. Ray Palmer appears in non-Atom form to give us a deus ex machina("hey, I have this shrinking gizmo that I magically have to help us all!"); Aquaman shows up at the end for another deus ex machina; and Robin, Green Arrow, and the Blackhawks are just...there. We even get references to other heroes that don't even play a part in the film. It's almost an endless list of heroes they were trying to cram into a short 70 minutes. But thankfully the film sits back and focuses the story on the main characters.

Overall, it has a strong plot, a strong message, and some totally awesome characters with some strong action in the latter moments. Plot excecution problems, lack of action through the first hour, and inaccessibility to many people force me not to give this a great rating, but I highly recommend it for comic geeks like myself who want to feel like a kid.

82/100

2008 Summer Preview

Ah, the summer movie season. Last year we had the year of the "threequel" with Rush Hour, Bourne, Pirates, Shrek, and Spider-Man all getting big adaptations. This year is less glamorous, but looks to be just as big. Here's a rundown of the big movies and how much I think they'll make.

Iron Man(May 2)- 225 million
Speed Racer(May 9)- 75 million
Prince Caspian(May 16)- 280 million
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull(May 23)- 330 million
Sex and the City(May 30)- 180 million
You Don't Mess With the Zohan(June 6) - 115 million
Kung Fu Panda(June 6)- 190 million
The Incredible Hulk(June 13)- 150 million
The Happening(June 13)- 60 million
Get Smart(June 20)- 175 million
The Love Guru(June 20)- 70 million
Wall-E(June 27)- 250 million
Wanted(June 27)- 210 million
Hancock(July 4)- 300 million
Hellboy II(July 11)- 140 million
The Dark Night(July 18)- 350 million

I thikn Hancock will be the surprise this summer. It's the only movie July 4th weekend, and it has Will Smith. That guarantees you 200 million right there. Obviously Wall-E, Dark Night, Iron Man, Indiana Jones, and Narnia will all be huge. I think The Love Guru, The Happening, and Speed Racer will all flop. X Files 2, Mummy 3, Bond 22, and Harry Potter 6 all have later summer or fall release dates, but they'll all be pretty big, especially Bond and Potter.

Semi-Pro review

Semi-Pro

It's Will Ferrell. It's a sports movie spoof.

I can't say much of anything about this movie other than it is Will Ferrell's worst movie of this kind. Compared to Talladega Nights or Anchorman, this movie sucks. It's comedic timing is off and it's much more cruel and unusual than the previous films of this ilk.

There are a few good laughs, though. The two announcers are absolutely hilarious. There's a particular scene that absolutely made me laugh my guts out. About half of the jokes work, and when they do they work extremely well.

Unfortunately, during the last 30 minutes of this 90 minute movie, it turns from a comedy to a full-blown underdog sports movie. I really hate uneven movies. It would have been better if it had consistently sucked, because then I'd be sure it wasn't worth the ticket stub. But now I'm not sure if it was worth it.

It's a throw-away film. It just doesn't work all too often. It could have been hilarious, but it just suffices as mildly amusing most of the time with three or so really good segments.

On the plus side, though, it had one of the best lines ever put to screen: "If you see a possum running around, try and kill it. It's not a pet."

It's better than Lust Caution at least.

66/100

Lust, Caution Review

Ang Lee has quickly become one of the most acclaimed directors in the world. With Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and Brokeback Mountain, he garnered many awards including the Best Director award at the 78th Academy Awards.

His newest film, Lust, Caution, is set in 1940s Hong Kong during the Japanese occupation of World War II. A young girl(Tang Wei) and her classmates decide to set up their own private resistance and begin to train her to seduce a top Japanese recruiter named Yee in order to lure him into the public so he can be killed.

That sounds like a great plot, right?

Well, too bad it wad COMPLETELY STOLEN. Here is a plot synopsis of Paul Verhoeven's Black Book, a movie I listed in my Top 10 Movies You May Have Missed:

After her family is murdered in a Nazi raid, a young Jewish woman joins the Dutch resistance, disguises herself, trains herself to seduce a top Gestapo official in order to find out the reason behind her family's excecution.

I really have a problem with this. Both movies feature the main character falling in love with the official. Both movies also have them paired up with a member in the resistence for whom they also share feelings. Both movies feature copius nudity. Both movies have tragic deaths and shocking revelations.

The difference is that Lust Caution is boring as a snail, while Black Book is lush, vibrant, and actually sexy. Lust Caution is needlessly loooooooong. The character's relationships are shallow and unfeeling. The sex scenes do nothing that porn wouldn't, so the "romance" is completely unbelievable. I didn't understand the motivations behind Wei's charcter other than she wants to "fit in". We don't have a reason as to why she fell in love(or lust) with Mr. Yee.

But I think it has to do with the fact that this movie is about the dangers of lust, while Black Book is more of a revenge driven film.

Both movies have great acting and great cinematography, but Black Book has everything regarding the characters and the fluidity of the plot that Lust Caution never achieves. It is so much more sensual and sexy, something Verhoeven has always been able to do. Lee's films are just too self-insistent for their own good.

If you see Lust, Caution, see Black Book first please. Maybe you'll like the more impersonal, dramatic touch that Lee's film has opposed to the gritty and slightly cheesy feel that Verhoeven employs.

62/100