TheFalcon's Review Blog

Mr. & Mrs. Smith

2009-06-14T16:30:00.001+02:00

Synopsis: John and Jane Smith are a normal married couple who've recently begun having marital problems. Their life have become too routine and they are drifting apart. What each of them have failed to discover however, is that the other is living a secret life as a super spy. Working for competing agencies they travel the globe, perform assassinations and then return home for dinner at seven. But when they are sent to assassinate the same man and discover the secret a new spark is lit... and then blown sky high as the two go head-to-head to eliminate each other.

2007-11-23T19:00:00.000+01:00

Synopsis: Medical student Martha Jones's (Freema Agyeman) life takes a turn into the fantastical when she one day encounters a mysterious man who calls himself The Doctor (David Tennant). He claims to be an alien adventurer, the last of a race called the Time Lords. Intrigued, Martha follows him and suddenly finds herself aboard his ship The Tardis, a spaceship/time machine that for some reason looks like an old police phone box. Together they travel through the universe helping people and battling creatures and robots from the darkest corners of the galaxies.

Warning: This review jumps straight to season 3 so there might be a few minor spoilers for people who haven't seen season 1 and 2. (They are both higly recommended, by the way, and I plan on rewatching and writing reviews of them very soon.)

Review: Doctor Who is the worlds longest running science-fiction series. It's centered around The Doctor who travel through space and time in his Tardis ship with one or more companions. The show started in 1963 and ran through to 1989 before it was cancelled. In 2005 it was relaunched by the BBC under the guidance of series producer Russel T. Davies. Alot of work was put into making the series accessible to a new audience, but at the same time be faithful to everything that has come before. With a much bigger production scale, bigger budget, great actors and not to mention a really great CGI team it didn't take long for the series to be hailed as a huge success.

Doctor Who season 3 tells the story of Martha Jones and how she came to know and travel with The Doctor. She first runs into him when he shows up as a patient at the hospital she works at. His weird behavior catches Marthas interest, but a strange new patient is nothing new for her. Then, suddenly, the entire hospital is transported to the moon(!) and invaded by an alien police force on the hunt for an alien murderer wanted in several galaxies. As the Doctor springs into action to fix the situation, Martha decides to follow and help him as he seems to be the only one not scared to death about what's happening.

In the middle of the chaos that ensues Martha saves the Doctor's life and as a reward he invites her to join him for a few trips in his Tardis. She gladly accepts and together they travel back in time to meet Shakespeare, to the planet New Earth 5 Billion and 53 years into the future and then to New York in the 1930s. All allong the way running into trouble like witches, big alien crablike creatures known as the Macra and the four last remaining Daleks in existence. The Daleks are the arch-enemies of the Time Lords. They are extremely dangerous, without feelings and want nothing more than to take over the universe and annihilate anyone who opposes them.

The Doctor then brings Martha back to her family, but only hours after the famous Dr. Lazarus announces on TV that he has found the source for eternal youth. The Doctor investigates and soon finds a hidden side-effect that causes much trouble. After yet again getting good help from Martha The Doctor decides that she can come on as a permanent companion. Soon after they land on an old spaceship only minutes before it crashes into a sun and cut off from their own ship they have to help the crew to avoid the catastrophe. As the temperature rises and time is about to run out they discover that there is something else aboard the ship, and it does not want to help...

As well as a few others regular episodes this DVD set also contains the special "Runaway Bride" and "Blink" episodes. "Bride" is the 2006 Christmas special and it follows directly from the last events of season 2 so even though it's very good I don't recommend watching that before the first episode of season 3, Smith & Jones. The "Blink" episode is part of the third season, but is a pretty much self-contained story that only have a 5-minute or so appearance of the Doctor and Martha. It's a really brilliant episode which follows a girl called Sally Sparrow, who finds a mysterious message from the Doctor who seem to be stuck in 1969 and it's up to her to recover the Tardis and send it back to him. Time travel is a big part of the episode and it's hard at first to understand all the weird stuff that's happening, but as you go along you discover how it all is connected and in the end everything fits together perfectly.

The stars of the show are of course David Tennant and Freema Agyeman as The Doctor and Martha Jones. It's because of their great acting and chemistry together that this third season has been so successful. Tennant is in his second season as the 10. incarnation of The Doctor and has the role perfected now. To start with he's just so full of energy, enthusiasm and quirkyness that he alone makes the show worth watching. His acting in the more serious moments are also amazing. It's so full of emotion that you can't help but feel with The Doctor, especially one scene in the episode "Gridlock" is just brilliant acting. As he tells Martha that his home planet was destroyed and about the death of all the other Time Lords you can see the sorrow and longing in his eyes aswell as the great sense of pride he's feeling as he looks back and remembers the wonders of his old home. Freema Agyeman also does a great job as the new companion. Martha's much stronger and self-reliant than The Doctor's last companion, Rose (played by Billie Piper in season 1 and 2). She's much more his equal when it comes to the tough situations, but she's also plagued by the fact that she develops a real love for The Doctor that he never really returns. He just sees her as a good friend. Tennant and Agyeman are also joined by great guest stars every episode. From young talents like Carey Mulligan (Sally Sparrow) to some of the big names in the British acting industry like John Simm and Sir Derek Jacobi.

Like the two previous ones this third season is an amazing action-packed and fun adventure through space and time. The only thing I have to complain a bit about is that there's a couple episodes in this season that I felt were abit slow/uninteresting plotwise. But then again that's because I compare them to the extremely high standard set by all the other episodes so even these "lesser" episodes are better than most of what's usually on tv.

A big part of what makes Doctor Who so great is that it's science-fiction for everyone. From young children to grown-ups, it doesn't matter what age group you belong to. If you like fun exciting adventure with dangerous monsters and mysterious aliens/robots (and who doesn't?) you like Doctor Who. No prior knowledge of the 25 or so previous seasons are necessary and since most of the episodes are stand-alone or two-parters you almost don't even notice that there's a plot running in the background through the season. The repeated mention of the name Saxon and a few more hints scattered throughout rewards the longtime fans and also builds towards the grand finale. A major showdown with the Doctor's greatest enemy in the last three episodes.

It's a fantastic finish to another fantastic season of this new and improved Doctor Who.

9 / 10

Die Hard 4.0

2007-10-21T00:50:00.000+02:00

Synopsis: When a group of terrorist led by Thomas Gabriel (Timothy Oliphant) starts to systematically take down the entire computer and technological structure of the United States, it's up to a decidedly "old school" hero, police detective John McClane (Bruce Willis), to take them down, aided by the young hacker Matt Farrell (Justin Long).

Review: Die Hard is for most people the ultimate series of action movies, so this new installment directed by Len Wiseman has a lot to live up to.

The movie starts in New York as McClane gets an seemingly easy assignment, transport small-time hacker Matt Farrell to FBIs Cyber-Division in Washington. They have been hit by a technological attack from an unknown source and are going down the list of known criminal hackers, when one after another die in suspicious ways. Soon Matt and McClane finds themselves chased by professional mercenaries. After handling them in standard McClane style they soon discover that technological-terrorist Thomas Gabriel has been recruiting all the hackers to write codes that he will use to shut down the entire technological structure of the United States, effectively setting the country back into the stone age. As Gabriel gains control of all communication and traffic controls the chase is one for McClane and Farrell to stay one step ahead and find ot where he is hiding.

The movie is as you'd expect full of action and explosions. From good old regular fights and shootouts to big set-pieces involving helicopters, a semi-trailer and a fighter jet, John McClane fights his way towards the main villain. Bruce Willis jumps right back into his most popular role and never misses a beat. Except for the hair this is the same old John McClane fully equiped with improvisational skills and a healthy portion of one-liners. Sadly the great acting stops there. Justin Long playing McClanes unvilling "partner", hacker Matt Farrell clearly lacks acting experience and ends up just being annoying through most of the film. He changes from trying to be cool with bad lines about McClane being old to total hysteria and back again in the blink of an eye without any specific reasons for it (except of course the times he gets shot at). The villain of the movie Thomas Gabriel, played by Timothy Oliphant, also disappoints. It's mostly because the script doesn't really flesh out his character at all or give him moments to shine, but even when he gets the chance to Oliphant never really comes off as threatening. He's almost cowering to McClanes lines about coming to get him from the start. Also, how come Gabriel with total control of all computer systems only finds some personal info on McClane and not one single newsstory referencing his previous terrorist encounters?

That's really the movies main problem. Despite the villains causing a lot of trouble they never seem to be much of a threat to McClane. He's so confident and effective throughout the movie that even when he gets his ass kicked by Gabriels hench"man" Mai played by Maggie Q you never feel he's going to lose. In all the previous movies McClane was the underdog, the little guy fighting back, but in this one he's so experienced and good that the terrorists can barely slow him down, never mind having a chance of stopping him. It almost gets a bit boring after a while.

The producers tries to do something new by putting old school street cop McClane against young and smart techno-terrorists and it's a good idea, but the faulty casting and some script problems brings down the execution of it.

Despite that this is a fun action movie. It's not as good or innovative as the previous ones, but even a mediocre Die Hard like this is much better than the other dissapointing actionmovies Hollywood has been putting out lately.

So if you like action this is a must see movie, just don't expect it to live up to the reputation of the previous Die Hards. It's only a McClane tour de force by Bruce Willis that saves the movie from total mediocrity.

7 / 10

Robin Hood - Season 1

2007-10-18T23:00:00.000+02:00

Synopsis: Robin of Locksley returns from the Crusades to find that while he was gone the Sheriff of Nottingham and his right hand man Guy of Gisborne has established a brutal regime of oppression. He decides he has to help the starving villagers and starts to steal back money from the Sheriff together with a group of outlaws that have sought refuge in the darkness of the Sherwood Forest.

Review: This is a new Robin Hood series started by the BBC in 2006. It's a more "updated" version of the familiar legend of Robin Hood and his men. The focus of the series is more on pure adventure and entertainment than historical accuracy.

The series start as Robin returns from fighting in the Holy Lands with King Richard to find that the Sheriff of Nottingham has enacted a rule of oppression in Notthinghamshire and his right hand man Guy of Gisborne has been running Robins estate in his absence. Robin immediatly stands up to them when he gets back his properties, but is soon forced to abandon it all and become an outlaw.

Together with his friend and fellow crusader Much he joins up with a gang of outlaws who have established themselves in the Sherwood forest. After some convincing and saving some of the men from getting hanged they agree to join him in fighting back against the Sheriff and Gisborne.

Robin also has another problem. The love of his life Marian, daughter of the former Sheriff, wasn't very happy when he abandonded her to go to war and doesn't want anything to do with him now that he's back.

Like I said this is a "modern" version of the old story and so a few things are different. Robin Hood is more focused on the glory than the actual helping he does, atleast at the start of the series and Lady (no, not Maid) Marian is a much stronger character. The Sheriff is probably the most "modern" of the characters with his master villany and constant sarcasm.

In the role of Robin is the relatively young Jonas Armstrong. He portrays a Robin who is as heroic as you'd expect, but he also has a dark side to him and often has problems controlling his ego which causes his behavior to be very arrogant at times. Overall he does a good job with the new take on the character, but it takes a few episodes before he really gets into the role completely. He also has very good chemistry with Lucy Griffiths who plays Lady Marian. Despite her young age (she was 19 in season 1) she does a great job in her role from the get go. As mentioned this is a much stronger Marian and she has to be because she walks a very fine line in the game between Robin Hood and the Sheriff. On the one side she wants to help Robin and the poor in Nottingham, but she also has to try to stay in the Sheriffs good grace so that she can gather information and protect her aging father from any repercussions to her actions. She's also caught up in a love triangle between Robin and Guy of Gisborne, played brilliantly by Richard Armitage. Gisborne is a very dark and damaged character who likes to think of himself as noble and honourable, but deep down knows that it isn't really true. The character is sort of the son of an abusive father,represented by the Sheriff, who he clearly looks up too and wants to impress, but who never seem to do anything other than criticise him. That brings us to the last major part, Keith Allen as the gloriously evil and sarcastic Sheriff of Nottingham. He does a fantastic job portraying the Sheriff in the evil masterminding villain role. He is not a fighter, which is why he his so dependant on Gisborne, but is very smart and a master at lying, tricking and hatching plans that gives him what he wants, power and control.

The rest of the cast consists mainly of the members of Robins gang and though they get some spotligh every now and then they are really bit parts with less room to show off. I really like most of them, the only one that stands out is Robins best friend Much, but sadly not in a good way. I'm not really sure wether it's the actors fault or the writers but the character is really annoying at times. He is, as gets mentioned in the series several times, "a simple man" and seems to be there as the comic relief. The problem is that it doesn't really work. There's a few funny lines were Robin playfully mocks him, but other than that all the "jokes" fall flat.

The producers and writers have done a very good job of making both the story and characters seem new and fresh, but at the same time keep most of what people imagine a Robin Hood series should have. There's fun, adventure, romance and action. Allround it's a very good first season. There were a few problems in the beginning with stiff acting, some unpolished writing and a few directors who seemed to want to make things "cooler" by putting in a lot of quick-cuts, flashes and slow-motion. Thankfully that ended after the second episode and the action got more gritty and realistic. After the first few episodes the actors and writers both seemed to have warmed up enough and got into a great stride that led to a really good season finale.

Overall this is a very good new fresh take on a classic story with great actors and just a wonderfull sense of adventure coupled with a more modern realistic and serious tone.

8 / 10

Foo Fighters - Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace

2007-10-05T02:07:00.000+02:00

Review: I'm a big fan of Foo Fighters, but I didn't discover them before a year or so ago so this is their first new album to me (not counting the live-album Skin & Bones).

I had heard the single "The Pretender" a few times on the radio and really liked it so I was looking forward to the new album, but when I finally got it I was a bit dissapointed. The reason was that I was expecting the album to be like the first single, full hard rock. Instead it's mostly pop-rock and softer songs, but after listening through the album a few times I started to really like most of them.

Foo Fighters last album, In Your Honor, had two discs and with, as the sticker on the cover said, "One loud. One not so loud." This new one has the loud and the not so loud songs mixed together on the same disc and it works surprisingly well.

There's harder rock songs like "The Pretender" and "Erase/Replace", a few pop-rock songs with "Long Road To Ruin" and "Summers End" and some soft ones like "Home" and "Stranger Things Have Happened". All of them are very good and it really shows how good the Foo Fighters are when they excel at both ends of the spectrum like this. There's also "Statues" which sounds like a Paul McCartney song and a few songs that builds from really soft to hard rock in a cool way like "Come Alive" and "Let It Die". I got the UK cd and that also has the bonus track "Once And For All" which is a really good pop-rock song.

My favorite songs are "The Pretender" and "Come Alive", but listening to the album now I really can't say that any of the songs are bad. I guess it all depends on what kind of Foo Fighters songs you like best. This album consist mostly of pop-rock and softer songs building on their other newer albums like In Your Honor and One By One, so those expecting full on rock, like I did, will be a bit dissapointed, but if you like their softer songs too this is an awesome album.

9 / 10

Superman Returns

2007-10-05T02:04:00.000+02:00

Synopsis: Astronomers discover the remains of the Planet Krypton and Superman (Brandon Routh) leaves earth to investigate. 5 years later he returns and finds that the people of Earth has moved on and Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) has started a new family, but that's only the start of Supermans problems. Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey) has gotten out of jail and initiated his new plan to take control of the world.

Review: This is my second viewing of Superman Returns and I felt that this time it was easier to see it as its own movie instead of constantly comparing it to the earlier Christopher Reeve movies.

I'll say right from the start that there are a few things I don't like about this movie, but when you consider all the changes this project has gone through in the last ten years it's really amazing that it ended up as good as it did. Earlier projects include one by JJ Abrams (of Lost fame) which included a war on Krypton involving giant turtle creatures. There's also the infamous Tim Burton version with Superman dying and coming back looking like a mix of Superman and Edward Scissorhands.

Taking that into consideration its obvious that Bryan Singer and his writing team did the right thing when they decided to go back and draw inspiration from the first two Christopher Reeve movies instead of doing another "modern" reinvention of the Superman concept. They of course updated a lot of things to the modern age and incorporated a few things from the newer comics too, but the movie is mainly built on what Richard Donner did with the first Superman movie.

As the synopsis says, Superman returns to earth after a five year absence to find that the world has moved on. Lois Lane has a fiancee and a son and she won a Pulitzer for her article "Why the world doesn't need Superman!". Now Superman has to re-asume his identity as reporter Clark Kent and try to rekindle his relationship with Lois. He also finds that the world isn't as self-reliant as it seemed when Lex Luthor comes back with a brand new plan to build his own continent from technology stolen from Superman's Fortress of Solitude.

Throughout the movie are many very good scenes which really show that Singer and his team really know how all the characters work and who they are, but they could have focused a bit more on the storylines. I felt the movie lacked a flow and it could have been improved by trimming down the running time a bit.

The Lex plot isn't very well worked out either. Its one of the things that should have been updated more. The modern Lex Luthor isn't a guy who has to play nanny to an old lady to get his hands on some money and his main goal shouldn't be the same he had in the first Superman movie, getting some beach property.

There's also a lack of fun and exciting things in the movie. It tries to come of as more realistic, but the darker themes and darker colors just make it seem less fun. A Superman movie should have a lot of awe-inspiring and exciting action and though there is a bit of it with the SpaceShuttle scene in the beginning it's just not enough.

But as I said Singer really knows the characters and that saves the movie for me. Brandon Routh does a very good job as Clark Kent/Superman considering it's his very first movie. He's obviously basing his performance on Christopher Reeves, but since Reeve is considered the perfect Superman it's no surprise. Kate Bosworth's Lois Lane is a bit different from Margot Kidder's. She tries to portray the same type of straight forwardness you'd expect from a top reporter, but she lacks the edge Kidder had. On the other hand she does a good job portraying Lane as a mother and she has good chemistry with Routh in the scenes they have together so overall she does a good job. The last main character is of course Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor and despite my gripes about the Lex storyline I think Spacey is great as Lex. He really was the perfect choice for the role and he does a fantastic job with it. The rest of the cast also does their job well and the ones playing well known characters like Ma Kent, Perry White and Jimmy Olsen really fit with my image of the characters.

The effects in the movie are done really well too. The flying is done smoothly with a mix of cgi and wireworks and with a lot of cool thouches like the sonic booms.

To sum up the movie I have to say it's a successful update of the Superman story. There are some issues with the plot, specifically a bit too many similarities with the first Superman, but it has been updated enough to make it more than just a retelling. The writers really show they have a handle on the characters and hopefully they can make the sequel more fun and exciting...and a bit more original.

7 / 10

Astro City: Confession

2007-09-27T16:10:00.000+02:00

Synopsis: Astro City is famous throughout the world for it's wonders and it's noble superheroes. But the city has a dark side, that only emerges after sundown, filled with shadows and monsters. That's what young Brian Kinney encounter when he moves to Astro City with dreams of becoming a superhero. To realize his dreams he has to learn to understand the citys darkness or get lost in its shadows forever...

Review: Astro City is comic book started by Kurt Busiek, drawn by Brent Anderson and published by DC Comics. It's a book which at first glance seems like just another standard fare Superhero comic. It's got numerous noble heroes and sinister villains which are based on archetypes already established by DC and Marvel decades ago. Archetypes that through the years have gone through countless iterations. So what's so special about this book and why does it keep getting praise from critics and fans alike?

The answer is easy. The book is not about the heroes and the villains of Astro City and their fights as much as it is about the characters that inhabit the city and their stories. Wether they are the citys biggest hero or just a normal guy living down on the street doesn't matter. It's all about their showing their lives and telling their life story.

The heroes and villains are based on the standard archetypes for a reason, because that way the readers are already familiar with them. That makes Busiek able to just jump straight into telling a particular characters story whithout having to spend alot of time establishing and explaining the concepts and dynamics. The book builds on the long and rich history of Superhero comics. It shines a spotlight on a different character for each story and each time it's a new and unexplored view on the superhero genre.

So far there have been several stories published, either as stand-alone issues or as arcs spread out over several issues. My absolute favorite up to now has been the stories collected in the paperback Astro City: Confession.

Confession tells the story about Brian Kinney and his quest to become a hero in Astro City. He starts small as a waiter in a bar where a lot of Superhero hangs around and after a while he gets his big chance. A villain breaks in to take revenge on the heroes, but Brian ends up in the spotlight by defeating him all by himself.

His newfound fame brings with it many jealous and angry "friends", but just as they all get ready to beat him up and leave him in an alley they get scared away by Astro Citys dark and mysterious hero, The Confessor. He wants to help Brian and takes him on as his sidekick, Altar Boy, and together they fight the villains that show up in the dark alleys of Astro City when night begins to fall.

From here the story is spread out into several storylines. We follow Kinney in his training and his continued attempts to discover the background story of the Confessor and the chase for a murderer who has left several mutilated bodies in Shadow Hill. Another ongoing plotline that unfolds is the rising tensions between the regular citizens of Astro City and their self-appointed superpowered protectors. Many of them refuse to go along with the governments idea for Superhero-registration, but more shockingly is the fact that many of them seem to have suddenly changed into villains. What is going on and is there a connection between it all? That's what Brian and the Confessor has to find out.

As you've probably guessed the Confessor is loosely based on DCs popular character Batman and Brian Kinney's Altar Boy role is very similiar to that of Robin. The story also uses elements that are often used in Batman story. The focus is on streetlevel crimes that occur in Astro Citys dark alleys and on detective work and mysteries.

But as I said this books is about the character's stories and the red line in Confession is about self-sacrifice and fighting for what you believe is right. It's also about coming to terms with your self, your heritage and finding your place in life. It's not always easy as Brian Kinney experiences first hand, but you have to keep going. You also have people to help you, represented by the Confessor who becomes somewhat of a substitute father for Brian and passes on all his knowledge and skills to the young new hero.

As the story moves along it encompasses more and more of the world of Astro City that Busiek and Anderson has built up and several of the heroes that have shown up in earlier stories show up in small roles as all the storylines comes together in a fantastic finish where all mysterious are solved, all the secrets revealed and where Brian finds himself with the task of saving the entire world.

The Confession paperback also collects a stand-alone issue which puts a new angle on a storyline that often shows up in comics. The time disruption aspect which most of the time involves a villain changing history by going back in time. The heroes must then go back and re-align the timestream to set everything back to normal. But what if everything didn't get re-aligned? What if by some small coincidence something was changed?

That's the background for the tragic story in which Michael Tenicek suddenly finds himself. A tiny change in history lead to his wife not having been born, but still he dreams about this perfect woman who he knows everything about. He knows her, the smallest details of her life are as clear as day to him. She's real, but he can only find her in his dreams. When the mystical Hanged Man shows up and explains what has happened, Michael has to make a choice. Does he want to live on with the memories of his perfect wife who now no longer exists or does he want the Hanged Man to help him forget it all?

These are both great stories of very different natures and they along with all the other Astro City stories gives the reader a brilliant, fun, new and fresh take on the superhero genre. It's brilliantly written by Busiek and drawn to perfection by Anderson. All around a perfect superhero book with a wonderful feeling of adventure and excitement set in a world filled with really great characters.

10 / 10

The Thomas Crown Affair

2007-09-23T19:18:00.000+02:00

This is a movie that I've watched several times on TV and just finally got around to buy the DVD.

Synopsis: Thrill-seeking billionaire Thomas Crown (Pierce Brosnan) has run out of challenges. In his boredom he decides to steal a priceless painting from one of Manhattans most guarded museums, in broad daylight!. But he wasn't careful enough and soon gets an even greater challenge in insurance agent/bounty hunter Catherine Banning (Rene Russo). She has been hired to retreive the painting and she is just as intelligent and hungry for a challenge as Crown is. This starts a daring game of cat and mouse game that soon turns into a much bigger challenge than any of them was expecting.

Review: The Thomas Crown Affair is a remake of the movie with the same name from 1968 and therefore it's surprising that it's actually good. I'll admit that I haven't seen the original so I can't compare the two movies, but it's much better than 90% of all the other remakes Hollywood has been churning out lately.

The main plot is a cat and mouse game between billionaire art-thief Crown and insurance agent Banning where it's all about being the one in control. Brosnan and Russo are perfect in their roles. They both play characters full of confidence that as the movie goes along become more and more unsure about what the right thing to do is. They also have a great chemistry between them which is really what the entire film hinges on. To shake things up abit you have Denis Leary as the police detective assigned to the case. He's the polar opposite to Crown, just a real and honest guy, who shows Banning the rightous and safe side and makes it harder for her to just break all bonds and run away with Crown. Leary does a really good job in his portrayal of this normal good guy and manages to make what could be a boring cliche some interesting depth.

Apart from the romantic side, the movie is all about the thrill of the chase and it's filmed really well by director John McTiernan. The movie has a certain style that makes everything cool and sophisticated. The lightweight, but catchy music especially enhances this feeling.

To sum it up the movie is a mix of a heist crime movie, a thriller and a romantic comedy and somehow it works perfectly. It's a really fun and exciting film.

9 / 10

Lord of War

2007-09-21T17:42:00.000+02:00

This is a movie that I've been interested in seeing for a while, but until recently I could never get around to seeing it.

Synopsis: The Ukrainian immigrant Yuri Orlov (Nicolas Cage) decides he wants to do more with his life than work in his parents restaurant and sets up an arms dealing business with his brother Vitaly (Jared Leto). He soon becomes one of the biggest in the game, but all the money and success brings new threats to his doorstep in the guise of angry competitors and more importantly Interpol Agent Jack Valentine (Ethan Hawke).

Review: Reading the synopsis you really expect a cliche movie where everything is simplified and it all ends with some shootouts and the bad guy in jail, but that is far from what this movie gives you. It's much more dense and complicated in it's handlings of the political and moral questions connected to arms dealing and smuggling. Cage's character, Orlov, is not an evil man. He just wants to achieve something and feel good about himself. It just so happens that he is very good at selling and smuggling weapons.

The story starts out in the 80's and move forwards to the present day as it examines the history of wars through the eyes of a private gun runner. The main focus on the story is on the Cold War and on the partnership Orlov forms with an African Warlord in Liberia. Throughout there are several horrific images of the dark side the weapons bring. Brutal scenes of children in war and general unjustice stand in great contrast to the success and happiness of Orlov's family life.

Thanks to the money he made he managed to charm the beautiful Ava (Bridget Moynahan) into marrying him and after a while they had a son. He tries to protect her from knowing what he's really doing, but at the same time he doesn't really regret anything he's done. He focuses purely on the fact that he's just the supplier of the weapons, not the one who pulls the trigger.

As the story goes on Yuri sinks deeper and deeper into the darkness his work is surrounded by and as his barriers brake down and the Interpol close in on him he is forced to confront all his inner demons and decide if it's really worth the risk.

Cage does a great job showing the two sides of Orlov's life and how he's affected when everything comes crashing down. Leto and Hawke also does good jobs in their smaller roles as the addict brother, Vitaly and by-the-book agent Jack respectively. Moynahan is great in her scenes as the wife caught between her husband and the police agents chasing him. She suspects her husband is doing something really wrong, but despite that she doesn't want to face the consequences it would bring if he told her. The conflict between her wanting to protect her happy family and doing the right thing, betraying her husband to the police, are really visible in each scene she's in.

Overall this is a great movie that shows how dark and corrupted the world really is. It doesn't shy away from the serious issues, but gives an honest and unfiltered view of a reality most people probably would rather not know about at all.

This is not really what you would expect from a Hollywood film like this and I have to say I was really pleasantly surprised by how the movie managed to show this dark side of reality and at the same time be very interesting and entertaining. It's very much the product of a lot of great actors showing real qualities in their portrayal of characters caught between the light and dark side of life.

8 / 10

X-Men 3: The Last Stand

2007-09-01T21:05:00.000+02:00

I continue working my way down on my list of movies I waited for, but as it neared release all the bad reviews made me decide not to watch it. Today: X-Men 3.

Synopsis: A pharmaceutical company has developed a cure for all mutants giving them the ability to become regular humans again, but not everyone thinks this is a good idea. The mutant community splits and Magneto declares war on all humans and everyone else who'll stand in his way. Only Professor Charles Xavier and his X-Men can stop him, but do all of them really want to? It's time for the final battle and the X-Mens Last Stand.

Review: Brett Ratner takes over for Bryan Singer to give us the third and, so far atleast, final X-Men movie. After several battles it's time for the war and Ratner certainly turns the action up a few notches compared to the previous movies, but is it good enough?

Like I mentioned I had been avoiding this movie for a while because of bad reviews and some spoilers that got leaked onto the net, but I'm glad that it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The movie is seen overall very entertaining and it does have a lot of cool and interesting scenes. The problem is that the story and dialogue especially suffers from the increased focus on action and decreased focus on characters. Sometimes even a great actor like Ian McKellen can't even manage to deliver the really bad and cliche lines with conviction.

The rest of the cast does their job pretty well, but few of them really stands out. Hugh Jackmans Wolverine is great as always and Patrick Stewarts Xavier along with McKellens Magneto helps give the movie some needed depth. Apart from them only Halle Berrys Storm has a big enough role to even make herself noticed. The movie is so full of new and old characters in small roles that it's almost too much at times. Characters that had major roles in the first films are downgraded to what's essentially cameos in this one and it doesn't help that several of them are played by different actors this time around (ie this is the third Kitty Pryde in as many movies). There are way too many smaller plotlines that barely gets a mention before they are thrown away. It would have been much better to really focus on a few characters and storylines instead of trying to cram everything in and hint at as many old comics as possible. Comic fans will certainly appreciate the mentions, but for the majority of the audience it just clutters things up.

This could have been a really good movie if the script had been polished some more and the cast shrunk abit. As it is it just adds itself to the list of the hastily put together and ultimately dissapointing movie sequels that are just thrown out to rake in as much cash as possible on the reputation of much better prequels.

6 / 10

The Legend of Zorro

2007-09-01T01:29:00.000+02:00

Synopsis: After settling down with his wife Elena (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and his young son Joaquin, Don Alejandro De La Vega (Antonio Banderas) has done his best to retire Zorro. But the upcoming election to bring California into the United States forces him out to defend the people from forces who'd rather keep California free and independent.

Review: This is the sequel to the succesful 1998 movie "The Mask of Zorro". It picks up the story 10 years later as California is on the verge of joining the US and as the marriage between Alejandro and Elena hits kind of a snag as she's finally had enough of his inability to retire Zorro for good. They split and she seeks comfort with the newly arrived french Count Armand.

But a mysterious explosion in the desert outside Armands villa makes Zorro suspicous of Armands intentions and decides to find out what his reasons for coming to California actually is.

"The Mask of Zorro" is one of my all-time favorite movies so I was really looking forward to this sequel from the moment I heard about it. They brought back both Zeta-Jones and Banderas aswell as Director Martin Campbell so it seemed this would follow in the same track and be a really great adventure movie. I wasn't able to watch the movie in the theaters when it was released so I had to wait for the DVD, but then I heard so many bad critics that I decided to not watch it and have it destroy my impression of the first one. But today i finally succumbed to my curiousness and put it on.

So was it as bad as I thought? Not really. I was actually pleasently surprised by it, but it was nowhere near the first one. The main problem was that the movie was much more focused towards the younger audience. The stupid joke ratio was much higher than the last movie (especially concerning the horse) and much of the movie focused on Zorro's 10 year old son doing his best to imitate Zorro (done by "parodying" scenes from the first one).

But despite these things "Legends" was a very good action adventure movie. Banderas and Zeta-Jones keeps most of the passion from the original and they both do a great job. The kid was a little annoying, but that was more because of the script than the actor who I think did okay. The villain (Rufus Sewell as Count Armand) was interesting and the plot was also good, although historians would probably cringe in their seets from all the anachronism and factual errors.

I would have preferred a sequel that was a bit darker and aimed for an older audience, but as it is the movie isn't bad it's just miles behind the original who had a much better story, much better villain (Zorro's archenemy Rafael Montero) and also the great Anthony Hopkins.

6 / 10

Shooter

2007-08-31T17:39:00.000+02:00

Synopsis: Bob Lee Swagger (Mark Wahlberg) is one of the worlds best snipers but retires from the military after being left behind enemy lines on a secret mission in Ethiopia. Years later he's recruited to help the government prevent an assasination on the President. But not everybody can be trusted and Swagger soon finds himself framed for murder and on the run from every law enforcement agency in the US. The only thing he can do is find the guilty men and bring them down.

Review: As you can tell from the synopsis this isn't one of those artsy movies were you have to think a lot, this is the stereotypical hollywood action movie with a framed guy on the run having to hunt down the bad guys with the help of a few trusted friends.

But despite the cliches it's actually pretty good. It's treated more realistically than the usual kind of one-man hunt for justice movies and isn't completely over-the-top action with explosions reaching for the sky every 15 minutes. It's one wronged mans carefully planned and executed (pun intended) hunt for the guys who's getting away with breaking the laws and doing what they want.

There's some references to current day problems like the Iraq war and rich countries stealing other countries resources and the like but it's not treated as much more than a standard background story for the bad guys.

Mark Wahlberg plays Swagger and he does it pretty good, although it's a bit of a cliche role mostly consisting of looking tough and shooting things. The bad guys are fronted by Danny Glover as the ex-military Col. Isaac Johnson and he does okay considering that there isn't much for him to do except deliver his lines like he doesn't care about anybody but himself. It's not much of a villain since we don't get to know anything about him and he doesn't really do much in the movie.

All in all it's an okay movie. It's better than the usual cheap standard actions coming out, but it doesn't distinguish itself in any particular way so it will probably soon be forgotten in a bargain bin somewhere.

5 / 10

Ultimate X-Men - The Millar Run

2007-08-31T14:23:00.000+02:00

It's been a while since I used this blog, but today I suddenly got the urge to post something. Right now I'm on my on my third or fourth readthrough of my Ultimate X-Men HC comics and here's my review of the first three HCs, aka "the Mark Millar run".

Short synopsis: The Ultimate X-Men is a comicbook published by Marvel Comics and it's a modern reimagening of the X-men stories. The X-Men are regular youths who one day suddenly discover that, thanks to an activated mutant gene, they have a gained a superpower. They are led by Charles Xavier who helps them handle their newfound abilities and the problems they bring with them.

Review of UXM HC Vol.1-3: Mark Millar started the Ultimate X-Men with a bang. His "widescreen action" writing style was on full effect from the first moment. The X-Men didn't even have time to form before they had the gigantic-robot-"mutant erasers", The Sentinels on their tails. Charles Xavier sends out his first two students Cyclops and Jean Grey to find and bring more gifted mutants into safety at his newly established and hidden away school. The first ones they saved was Ororo Munroe, Peter Rasputin, Hank McCoy and young Bobby Drake, better known to readers by their mutant names Storm, Colossus, Beast and Iceman.

These characters formed the basic of Millars group of X-Men and they soon got joined by another well known mutant, Wolverine, as he was sent by the villainous leader of the Brotherhood of Mutants, Magneto, to kill his old collaborator Charles Xavier and wipe out all of his little X-Men.

As mentioned the story started with big widescreen action as written by Millar and fantastically drawn by the Kubert brothers, Adam and Andy. The story held true to many of the original concepts and themes of the earlier X-men stories. The minority aspect and the regular peoples fear and hatred of the "Homo Superiors" are often displayed in Millars run aswell as the mutants problems to adapt to their new situation and deal with issues such as racism, intolerance,prejudice and coming out. These are issues that every teenager has either faced themselves or seen others have to, which is probably the biggest reason for the X-Mens successes through the years. As the original X-Men have grown into adults and conquered most of these problems this new start gives relatable heroes to a whole new generation.

Despite the similarites, Millar isn't afraid to break from the earlier stories and throw in twists and turns in this updated version (i.e. Wolverine as Magnetos hitman). The increased average age of the comicbook readers has also given him the opportunity to raise the bar considerably when it comes to handling subjects as terrorism, relationships and morality. This means that the Brotherhood are scarier than ever, the X-Mens problems are much harder to handle and the characters are much more complex (i.e. the abusive relationship Magneto has with his two "half-human" children Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch).

This also means great big violent and bloody fight scenes and Millar certainly doesn't hold back on the spectacles.

Summary of the included storyarcs:

Vol.1:
Millars run starts out great with "The Tomorrow People", which focuses on establishing the characters and the world they live in, and "Return to Weapon X" which gives a look into Wolverines past aswell as showing the X-Men the brutality humaniy is capable of.

Vol.2:
The story slows down a bit with "World Tour" and "Hellfire and Brimstone". The first arc shows the rest of the worlds view on mutants as the X-Men chases after Xaviers son who can alter reality with just a thought. It's still very good, but a bit slower paced and so is the next one concerning the secret sponsors of the X-Men and the ever-increasing powers of Jean Grey. Theres also a jarring change in art as some artist with "cartoon-like" drawing styles fills in for parts of the stories.

Vol.3:
Everything gets back on track here as Magneto returns to wreak havok to the entire world in "Ultimate War", were the X-men has to fight the Brotherhood as well as government super-team The Ultimates. His new plan for exterminating all humans continues in "Return of the King" and it's all good, but still doesn't quite reach the heights of the first volumes two arcs as some of the tension has faded and the story turns more towards "regular" super-hero vs. super-villain stuff, losing some of the earlier edge.

Overall Millars run is a great new spin on the X-Men which goes in many unexpected directions and the only thing that really counts against it is the art changes and the story slowing down a bit after the fantastic start. Although as I mentioned earlier the writing style is mainly action oriented so it's not a book that needs a whole lot of thinking and analysing to get through. Just put your brain in "popcorn action movie" mode and enjoy the thrills, twists and explosions.

9 / 10

Dexter - Season 1

2006-12-21T01:00:00.000+01:00

A week ago I started watching the tv-series Dexter. I'd heard great things about it and the plot sounded interesting so I thought that I would check it out. This is my short "review" of the first season.

Short synopsis: Dexter works as a blood expert with the Miami PD forensics, but he's also a serialkiller. At night he goes into the dark and delivers his own brand of justice on those who escape the law.

Review Season 1: Right from the opening sequence I was hooked. The simple music and really creepy filming of Dexter doing some everyday things (shaving, cooking etc.) really put me in the right mood for the show.

As for the show itself I thought it started a bit slow. It was good, but it took until episode 3 for me to get really hooked. The main reason for that I think was that the main characters got more fleshed out and more interesting as the show moved went on. Dexter himself was great from the start, but his sister, Debra, and most of the guys at the police station seemed boring and stereotypic at first. Thankfully, they were all improved, although I still don't like Debra too much. Dexters girlfriend, Rita, also seemed a bit too boring at first, but it only took a short while for her to become almost as interesting a character as Dexter himself.

There was one main storyline going through season 1 and that was the discovery (and later hunt for) the mysterious Ice Truck Killer. After several bodies are found drained of blood and chopped up in several pieces the police put all their forces in to catch him. But the leads are few and there doesn't seem to be a clear motive behind the choice of victims. Dexter is impressed by the killers work, but it isn't before the killer leaves some special clues meant only for him that he really gets interested. That's the start of a friendly cat and mouse hunt that after a while turns more serious than Dexter would have wanted. In addition most of the episodes also deal with Dexters nightly hunt for unpunished criminals and his and single-mom Ritas relationship. There's also many flashbacks to Dexters childhood showing him growing up learning to control his urges and recieving his moral code of only killing those who deserve it from stepfather and police officer Harry Morgan.

The main storyline started a bit slow, but thanks to Dexters other c(h)ases it didn't really matter that much. Towards the end of the season the Ice Truck Killer story went to the forefront and it got really tense and exciting. The twists and turns that came up were great and the show finished it's first season with a fantastic ending.

Dexter is a great show with lots of qualities. It's really scary and creepy one second and has laugh out loud moments the next without problem, but mainly it's a brilliant drama/thriller show. The only problems I had were with some of the characters and the sometimes slow moving main plot.

8 / 10