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Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
  • IMDb: link

mission-impossible-ghost-protocol-poster

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol begins with a jailbreak and ends with a chase through the streets of Mumbai. In between we get a chase through a sandstorm, an attempt to climb he largest building the world, the looming threat of nuclear war, gadgets and gizmos, a prison escape, and a hell of a lot of fun. The latest entry into the Mission: Impossible franchise is not only great summer popcorn movie fare (in December, no less!), it has the feel of the original television show as well.

Our story begins when Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is broken out of Russian prison by the IMF and given a new team (Paula Patton, Simon Pegg). Together, if they chose to accept it, they are assigned to break into the Kremlin to find information about a Russian terrorist known only as Cobalt (Michael Nyqvist) who plans to start a nuclear war between the United States and Russia.

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Maybe Roland Emmerich should stick to disaster movies

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Anonymous
  • IMDB: link

anonymous-posterDid William Shakespeare write the plays and collected works attributed to him, or is someone else responsible? In an age where conspiracy theories are more popular than reality-TV shows director Roland Emmerich and writer John Orloff not only ask but offer an answer that question.

Anonymous follows the train of thought that Elizabethan aristocrat, Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (Rhys Ifans), is the real author to Shakespeare’s works. Shakespeare (Rafe Spall) himself? Well, if you buy into this version, he was an uneducated dullard and bumbling actor with barely enough brains to take credit for another’s work.

Emmerich and Orloff aren’t the first to raise the question of Shakespeare’s authorship, but the case they make here involving vast conspiracies, secrets of the royal family, and a super-secret plan of succession to the throne of England come off more like bad soap opera than tragic drama. Their attempt to devalue Shakespeare further by portraying him as a angry buffoon doesn’t help their argument.

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Maybe Roland Emmerich should stick to disaster movies Read More »

Captain America: The First Avenger

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Captain America: The First Avenger
  • IMDB: link

Captain America: The First AvengerDespite being around for 70 years, Marvel’s second most iconic hero (behind only Spider-Man) has had trouble finding his way to the big screen. Aside from his appearances in various cartoons over the years Captain America‘s career boils down to an old WWII serial, the perhaps best-forgotten 1970’s made-for-TV movies starring Reb Brown, and the 1990 live-action film which ended up going straight to video.

Attempting to rectify this oversight Marvel Studios and director Joe Johnston bring Captain America to the big screen with Captain America: The First Avenger which tells the basic story of Steve Rogers’ origin with a few interesting changes.

We meet Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), a plucky young patriotic American who wants to enlist to fight Nazis alongside his best pal Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), as he’s turned down yet again for service due to medical reasons. Just looking at the scrawny young man you’d have a hard time believing he would eventually become the world’s greatest soldier.

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Captain America

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Captain America
  • IMDB: link

“To the rest of the world he’s Codename: Captain America. He may not be Superman, but he’ll be a living symbol of what this country stands for.”

Captain America posterCaptain America: The First Avenger is set to hit theaters this Friday but it isn’t the first attempt by Marvel Comics to translate their iconic hero to the big screen. While DC was churning out Batman and Superman flicks at will in the 80’s and early 90’s, Marvel was lagging behind. For the Captain America’s 50th Anniversary Marvel Comics put together a feature film centered around the hero.

Financing issues (which the production ran into after it had moved overseas for shooting in Europe) and the addition of stunt sequences, further re-shoots, and editing bogged the film down. Captain America went unreleased for two years. Although it did see the inside of theaters internationally, in the country of his origin poor Captain America was limited to a unheralded straight-to-video release.

The film begins neither in America nor in Germany, but in Mussolini’s Italy. A young boy is brutally ripped from his family and taken to a secret government laboratory where a reluctant scientist, Dr. Vaselli (Carla Cassola), will attempt to create the world’s first Super Soldier.

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Transformers 3 brought to you by Michael Bay and Lenovo

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Transformers: Dark of the Moon
  • IMDB: link

transformers-dark-of-the-moon-posterIt’s official, Michael Bay can now be legitimately named the serial rapist of my childhood. Three Transformers movies and the man still doesn’t know what the hell a robot is (let alone a Transformer). Short version: Despite showing a momentary early glimmer of promise of not totally sucking, the film wastes what little it had going for it by making a series of mistakes and beating you down with a level of stupidity it’s hard to believe was done on purpose. For the first, but certainly not the last, time in this review, let me just say: Fuck you Michael Bay.

What works? The special effects are well done. The 3D isn’t Avatar level but is still impressive. Everything else? Hold on to your seats boys and girls this is going to get messy. Spoilers be damned, I’ve got a hellova lot to talk about. You’ve been warned!

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Transformers 3 brought to you by Michael Bay and Lenovo Read More »