Archive for Action

A report was let out a few days ago that World Events Productions may sell the rights to Voltron in order for a live action movie to be made. The question is: does anyone care? Well, if you are a child of the early 80s that grew up with the metal toys and remember crashing them at your younger sister in hopes that Voltron would save the day, then yes, you would care. However, they want to turn it into a live-action movie, which may be a little different than expected.

Transformers has done pretty well as a live-action adaptation of a toy line, GI Joe on the other hand looks too far fetched an idea. Since Hollywood is looking back to old 80s cartoons, or I should say Japanese Manga from the late 70s, why not the Thundercats? Or better yet M.A.S.K., the Inhumaniods, Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors, Jem, Centurions, Tranzor Z? All of these would be pretty sweet live-action movies.

There are a few things in the world that Hollywood does not need to glorify on the big screen, and old cartoons is one of them. You can pull only so much together to make a story for 30 minutes seem interesting, how about 90? Instead of destroying the legacy of some of these shows, maybe they should release them all on DVD so many of us can watch them and experience a little piece of childhood again. It is a shame that most of those toys haven’t been made in a few decades. The Centurions completely would dominate anything kids play with today. And the original Voltron lions? Those things were built to last, not the cheap plastic stuff you have today. Heck, the Smurfs are getting a movie, who cares about those guys?

I  think that the new Star Trek movie was awesome! It had many excellent aspects and was like the older ones.  Personally, I would give it nine point five out of ten stars.

The movie begins when the U.S.S. Kelvin is sent to investigate a lightning storm in space. Out of the storm emerges the Romulan mining ship, Narada, which attacks the U.S.S. Kelvin, killing much of the crew, including the captain. Thus, George Kirk is put in command.  His pregnant wife is evacuated along with most of the crew.  In the lifeboat, she gives birth to James Kirk, and then the elder Kirk crashes his ship into the Romulan ship.

Next, you see James Kirk as a young, reckless teen. He has stolen his stepfather’s car and is racing along a road at high speeds when a cop attempts to pull him over.  Kirk speeds on, but loses the car off a cliff, so he is arrested.

Next you see him at a bar full of Starfleet sailors.  Kirk gets in a fight with some and afterward is talking to Captain Pike who bets him to join Starfleet. The next day, he arrives on base and becomes a cadet and befriends Leonard McCoy. Later, at the end of training, he is sent in front of a tribunal because he cheated on a test.  Suddenly, command reports that a fleet ship is damaged, and all the cadets are sent to ships.  Kirk is grounded, though, so he can’t come, but McCoy smuggles him in as a patient under his care.

Kirk recognizes the similarities between the Vulcan incident and the encounter that destroyed the Kelvin and warns Pike that the fleet is heading into a trap. The Enterprise arrives late to find the fleet destroyed and the Narada drilling into Vulcan’s core.  Pike is ordered to surrender and come to the Narada, but on the way Pike drops Kirk, Hikaru Sulu, and Engineer Olson into a orbital ski dive to attack the drill. Olson dies, but Sulu and Kirk destroy the drill and allow Spock to save some of the Vulcans.

As they sail away, Pike is captured, so Spock is Captain.  Then Kirk and Spock argue, so Spock maroons him for mutany. . .

I will not share anymore details, so I do not devulge the entire movie’s contents, but I will say it was great!

In no short amount of time the latest Terminator movie, Terminator: Salvation, will be in theaters, and crowds will be wowed by special effects, but who cares? After T2, has anyone really cared about the Terminator story? T2 was completely, and still is, ahead of its time, and after Arnie lowered himself into that pit of molten metal did anyone want to know the further back story of the whole thing?

T3 wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t great. The Terminator stories seem to have a place in a generation that was fascinated with future stories and robots. In the present tense there doesn’t seem to be a real call for these types of movies, excluding Transformers. The story seems old and doesn’t have the same impact it once had on society.

Maybe the folks at the Terminator franchise are looking for the same revival that Star Wars had, so they can capitalize on some big money and get people excited about robot killers again. Without Schwarzenegger, though, this movie won’t feel the same as the previous three. True, Christian Bale is taking time from screaming at people to be in this movie, but he belongs to Batman not John Connors. There already have been too many John Connors, so why not add Christian Bale to the list of famed actors to play the same part in another movie? Isn’t that what he did in Batman…

Oh well, this movie will storm into theaters pretty soon, and fans will have their way with it: explosions galore and possibly some story? We only can hope. If nothing else, you always can watch T2 again and marvel at Richard Patrick’s T-1000.

If there’s one film that I look forward to watching, it’s Transformers 2 : Revenge of the Fallen. Why am I looking forward to watching it? Simple, you can judge a movie by its teaser trailers and posters, and I judge this movie as “very good”.

When I saw the first trailer of Revenge of the Fallen two months ago, I was impressed. The makers of this flick are living up to their promise of bringing us a better sequel, and it’s how a sequel should be–better than the first.  It’s evident in the trailer that Revenge of the Fallen will be a visual feast.

Like most everyone, I saw Transformers in 2007 and loved it. I bought its DVD and watched it again and again with my family. We loved the amazing visual effects and could not get enough. When we heard that a sequel was in the making, we were very excited and pounced on the first trailer when it was released. Yesterday we saw the second trailer, which was released the other day. The second trailer shows that Revenge of the Fallen, like Transformers in  2007,  would not be all action because it also is laced with humor. The visual effects are evidently more superior than what impressed us in 2007. The two years that passed have surely brought a lot of improvements in the field of visual effects in films, and the makers of Transformers are making sure that we get the best out of what technology has to offer.

As to the storyline on which this movie is built, well, it has the typical structure we can expect with this genre: after final battle a bigger battle comes because the enemy is not that beaten. The bigger battle happens after Starscream assumes command of the Decepticons and Megatron’s dead body is stolen from the US Military and revived by Skorpinox.  Starscream and his Megatron get back at the autobots and the human race.

An action film can no longer seem to exist without the following ingredients: an elevator shaft (probably, but not definitely, the site of a death), a rooftop (most frequently involves shooting and running), a helicopter (which, by definition, must have a character on the outside of it at one point), and of course, large explosions. These are the bread and butter of a modern action film. 12 Rounds by no means falls short in any of these categories. If you are looking to see a solid action movie, 12 Rounds is the one to see. However, do not delve for something deeper than the face value of this film. It is what it is, an action film. No more, no less.

The basic plot is actually fairly simple. When Detective Danny Fisher foils criminal Miles Jackson’s multi-million-dollar heist, Jackson’s girlfriend is killed in the process. A year later, when Jackson escapes from prison, he wants revenge and kidnaps Fisher’s girlfriend. An eye for an eye. Jackson (Aidan Gillen) forces Fisher to “play” 12 rounds of a game he has created for Fisher, if Fisher wants his girlfriend back. Each round presents a near-impossible task for Fisher to accomplish. Certainly, this guarantees the viewers some intense action scenes with fast cars and far falls. Actor John Cena (character Danny Fisher), formerly a wrestling star, plays his part well, mainly because the film does not ask much from him. He is a solid figure, taking in stride the pain and puzzles thrown relentlessly at him. I am impressed.

It is important to note that while the film is rated PG-13, it is quite a few notches below many other films with the same rating. The sole reason it is given such a rating is for scenes of intense action, but unlike most films, the actual blood and gore is very minimal.

If you are looking for an action film that meets all the standard expectations, I highly encourage 12 Rounds. As long as you are not looking for this film to do anything more than to entertain and temporarily satisfy your cravings for action, bon appetite and happy viewing!

Quentin Tarantino is back with a new movie for the summer, Inglorious Basterds, a WW II film as only he can imagine. The cast includes many newcomers to Tarantino’s usual bunch; actually you won’t find many of his usual bunch in this movie at all. Well, except for Samuel L. Jackson, since he has been in all but two of Tarantino’s movies, he will grace the reels of this movie as a narrator.

The cast for this particular film includes: Brad Pitt, Eli Roth, BJ Novak (Ryan from The Office), Mike Myers (Yes Austin Powers is in this movie), Cloris Leachman, and Julie Dreyfus (from Kill Bill Vol. 1). Brad Pitt should be interesting in this movie since this would have been better suited for him during his Fight Club, Snatch period where he was acting tough and not playing a pretty boy.

The movie centers on a group of Jewish-American soldiers with Pitt as their lieutenant. These eight men are dropped in to Nazi-occupied France and instructed to use force and brutality simply to kill Germans. Pitt wants to give the Nazi’s a little bit of their own medicine and instructs the men to scalp the Germans as well.

After watching any of Tarantino’s movies you know there probably will be points of awkward humor mixed in with areas of severe violence and drama where you beg for more. It is good to see Quentin back in the driver seat again after he has produced so many movies in the last few years. Nothing against all the martial arts flicks he brought over to this country, but it was about time he directed his own movie. Inglorious Basterds hits theaters August 21.

In 1987, Street Fighter hit the arcades, and teenagers all over America were mesmerized by Ryu’s wicked awesome moves. Then in 1991, Street Fighter II dropped to consoles and changed how kids played fighting games. Before you’d be stuck with just one player, but now you had the chance to be anyone you wanted and fight in your own campaign.

These games ruled much of the video game world for a better part of the 90s with many spin-off games and plenty of imitators. The last official game, Street Fighter 3, was released in 1999, and that was the end of that.

Until recently, when for some reason, there was an idea to release Street Fighter 4 around the same time as the movie Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li. Doesn’t anyone remember the original movie that was made in 1994? If there is anyone to feel pity for, it would have to be Raul Julia. That movie was proof enough that anything adapted from a video game would be a disaster.

Second of all, why would you pick Chun-Li? Why not Blanka the blue guy from Brazil? There has to be a better story for why he looks like Beast from the X-Men instead of Chun-Li. It just seems like Hollywood will never learn that adapting a video game into a movie never really works.

Third, why did anyone wait this long? If this movie had been made 7-8 years ago, then it may have been more culturally relevant. Most teens now don’t even play this series of games anymore, and half of them that do don’t appreciate how awesome ST2 was. No matter, this movie is coming out, and there is nothing you or M. Bison can do about it. Maybe Jean Claude Van Damme will make a cameo.

Well before Team America: World Police had people singing their catchy theme song about keeping terrorists at bay and saving the world for America, there was another elite fighting force trying to stop a terrorist organization. That force was known as: G.I. Joe. With those slick action figures, laser guns and helpful PSAs, G.I. Joe was making the world a better place one corny punchline at a time.

Nothing says ‘Hollywood boredom’ better than a live-action remake of a bunch of childhood toys and cartoons, which is why G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra is soon to be out sometime this year. You probably caught the advertisement during the Super Bowl and said to yourself, no really? After all these years of talking, someone finally sat down to make this a real thing.

Directing this action-filled adventure is Stephen Sommers, known for the first two Mummy movies, his live-action remake of the Jungle Book and Van Helsing. The cast doesn’t look too bad either: Dennis Quaid, Channing Tatum, Sienna Miller, Marlon Wayans, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Jonathan Pryce. With any luck this movie will fare better than last movie based off of toys- anyone remember Bratz? Thought so.

Shouldn’t this movie have been made a decade ago? Who even cares about G.I. Joe anymore? Compared to the Transformers, G.I. Joe may have fallen out of touch with many people over the last few decades. At least it isn’t like making a Voltron movie, many youngsters still understand a good G.I. Joe reference, but how many of them know the defender of the universe? Not too many, that is for sure.

Keep checking YouTube for more teaser trailers of G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra, and look for your Sergeant Slaughter shades, no word on the official release date of this movie.

Hugh Jackman will always be remembered as one character: Wolverine. Harrison Ford, think Indiana Jones. Sean Connery, think James Bond. No matter what Hugh, you’ll always be Weapon X.

This spring the furry fighter gets his own movie to explain his roots, which seems like a good idea, give the people what they want. Not only do we see Wolverine, but Sabertooth, played by Liev Schreiber, is tagging along, too.

The other cool part: Gambit, played by Taylor Kitsch, makes his big screen debut. Yes, Wolverine is pretty cool, but nobody beats the ragin’ Cajun attitude Gambit has. Plus, he throws cards that explode, has a staff and a slick bandana, a triple threat of awesome.

This movie does appear to be exciting, but after the debacle that was X3, an X-Men spin off has a lot to live up to. Speaking of spin-off movies, even Magneto will get his own movie in time. Really? Magneto? A movie about Cyclops sounds more exciting than a movie about Magneto. For that matter: why not Professor Xavier? Was he born bald and never grew hair, or did acid burn his head giving him amazing mental abilities? These are questions that seriously need to be answered.

Until those storylines get picked up, you’ll have to wait until May for X-Men Origins: Wolverine to hit theaters. Luckily Watchmen comes out in March to hold you over.

Now pay attention, moviegoer, this could save your life. Quantum of Solace, the latest James Bond installment, has everything you’re looking for in a movie. There are plenty of action, stuff blowing up, a few attractive women to watch, a crazy villain and a bizarre story to follow. Yes, it has all of that, but it is missing one simple thing: Q.

The Q-Branch of MI6 is probably the most ubiquitous, factious government section ever imagined. This is the department that has supplied James colorful toys, such as exploding pens, miniature GPS systems, aquatic cars, personal helicopters and just about anything a spy could need.

The best part of Q-Branch was how juvenile all these toys sounded. These were things 13 year-old nerds thought of in their parents’ basements. To see your nerdy dreams come to life on the screen was proof that nerds are everywhere.

Daniel Craig is the best choice to pick up the Bond franchise; it just feels like James has grown out of his toys. It seems like a level of maturity has been added to these movies that wasn’t in place before. James isn’t completely motivated by seductive curves and flashy gadgets. Nope, he’s on a mission and won’t stop until he finds his man.

Well, there was On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, which felt mature since we all thought James would take the plunge. However, it didn’t last very long, thankfully, and then we had Roger Moore. With any luck, for the next Bond movie John Cleese can reprise his role as Q and bring back the missing link.