Lincoln

broderic on November 21, 2012

I believe Lincoln was misnamed. The movie is based on Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book, Team of Rivals; The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. As you can see, it wasn’t 100% about Abe Lincoln, but about the team he built to pass The Thirteenth Amendment. So when I walked into the theatre I was expecting a Lincoln biopic. What I got was a thriller, where Lincoln schemed and plotted and politicalled his way to abolishing slavery.

It’s a good piece of American history to watch in this election season. It reminds you that Republicans once had a soul. That we as a nation was so divided that it came to guns and cannons to solve our differences. It reminds you that politics is about being uncompromising in your beliefs, but compromising in your actions; bend don’t break for your beliefs is politics is politics.

We also get to hear two of Lincoln’s greatest speeches: the Gettysburg Address and the Second Inaugural. Those words adorn the Lincoln Memorial. You could love him for those words, a Republican. One of the greatest presidents, but one of the most dangerous.

We live in interesting times. Times that come back again. We don’t learn history. We repeat it.

3 of 5 stars.

Skyfall

broderic on November 16, 2012

Bond, Jason Bond. Or is it, Bond, Bruce Bond?

During the latest Bond adventure, Skyfall, you may think you’re in another installment of Jason Bourne: Die Another Day. Then later on you may think that James Bond is Batman. He’s an orphan with a big, big mansion. And a cave underneath! I’m Batman!

I’m not a big Bond fan. I’ve seen them all, because that’s what you have to watch on occasion. But I don’t try to figure it all out. Except, this latest installment was pretty good. Dark like The Dark Knight.

It is the prettiest looking Bond you’ll see, too. Give credit to Roger Deakins for his cinematography. The scene in the skyscraper in Macau was phenomenal.

And we get the Aston Martin to boot.

4 of 5 stars.

“We’ll face it all together at Skyfall.”

Wreck It Ralph

broderic on November 4, 2012

I think I should change my movie going approach. I believe I’m gonna have to be like the Seed and not listen to any reviews. I read a review over at The AV Club that mentioned The Incredibles in their review for Wreck It Ralph. I believed that going into the theatre I was going to be treated to as awesome an animated film as The Incredibles. Not really. Good but not great. Perhaps from reading the review and having The Incredibles in mind, my expectations for the film was too high. If I hadn’t read that review, I would not have been disappointed by a decent film.

Wreck It Ralph is about Wreck It Ralph, the villain of a Donkey Kong, Jr. ripoff called, Fix It Felix, Jr. He hates being the villain, because he gets no respect. He decides that being a bad guy is not for him and he wants to be a good guy. To accomplish that he believes that he must win a medal, and the only place to get it is in some other game than Fix It Felix, Jr. So Ralph goes and gets a medal, but also experiences other games especially a Mario Kart ripoff called Sugar Rush. Ralph must earn the respect to be worthy of a medal. He must learn that sometimes being bad is good.

There was plenty to like about Wreck It Ralph. For one thing, a lot of the playful homages to video games were subtle something that a Dreamworks animated film would beat over the audiences heads. You’ll laugh at the 8bit Niceland characters moving like 8bit animated sprites. You’ll want to play that level of Mario Kart that is Sugar Rush. You’ll also like to think that Vanellope Schweetz is Ellie from Up!. And if you stay to through the credits, you’ll hear Jpop in pure unadulterated form: AKB48 singing the theme to the Sugar Rush game. C’mon, Jpop!

Definitely one of the better animated films, but still no The Incredibles.

3 of 5 stars.

The Paperman short, now that’s another story.

Argo

broderic on October 17, 2012

When did Ben Affleck become a decent director? He competently directed Gone, Baby, Gone and The Town. Now with Argo he’s directed a nice 70’s period piece of the Iranian Hostage Crisis.

Argo is about the incredibly incredulous story of how the US got six US Iranian Embassy workers out of Iran during the Hostage Crisis in 1979. Ben Affleck as a CIA agent who specializes in extraditing US people from harrowing situations. He comes up with the craziest way to get these hostages out: a Canadian Star Wars ripoff movie, Argo. He’s going to go into Iran, scout out locations using the hostages as his “crew,” and walk right out of there. Just like Ocean’s 11.

Not a bad flick. It had me on the edge of my seat in the final third of the movie as I waited with bated breath on the escapees being busted. Except I knew that they escaped. It would’ve been known better as part of the Iranian Hostage Crisis. Sort of like the crash and burn helicopter rescue. They made it and it receded from my memory until this move brought it back in glorious 70’s moustaches.

One final note, the CIA agent, Tony Mendez, is the father of Toby Mendez, the sculptor of the statues at Camden Yards.

4 of 5 stars.

Looper

broderic on October 3, 2012

Looper, with or without the Quint voice, is a perfectly serviceable time travel movie. There’s holes in the loop if you think about it, but like every other time travel movie, there is always that problem. If you had to send one actor back to the past, Bruce Willis is your man. If you had to have one actor be a young Bruce Willis, it would’ve been better with a CGI young Bruce Willis rather than the prosthetic laden Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

3 of 5 stars

“What kind of cruel charity charges orphans $500 to eat dinner?”

broderic on September 10, 2012

The Words

The Words reminded me of Atonement. It’s a story told by a writer writing at a keyboard. Yet, it’s about three writers. The first one we see is the main character, followed by the actual author of the main character’s novel, followed by the author of the book from which the main character is from. It’s 3 stories, but it could be one.

The Words is about a writer who finds a manuscript and gets it published under his own name. Then the writer of the manuscript shows up. It is all told through the point of view of the author writing the story of the writer and the actual writer.

It is like Inception, a story within a story within a story. Who’s story it is is left up to you the audience.

I thought it was the main writer who was writing about himself. But then the movie ended and I had to write this lame review up. Anyhow, it’s not so good of a movie as it tries to make it’s appeal through the interplay of stories, but falls short. Especially, in the end.

2 of 5 stars.

The Expendables 2

broderic on August 21, 2012

I never saw the first one, because I believe that with a movie like The Expendables 2 you don’t need the first to know what’ll happen with the second. Of course, with big bangs and explosions, that’s all you really need to know about The Expendables 2.

The plot was also expendable. It had something to do with stolen Russian radioactive material. These terrorists need to be stopped. They will be stopped by Stallone and company. Van Damme was the baddy. There was a cameo by Chuck Norris. Schwarzenegger and Willis reprise their roles from the first one (at least that’s what I got from watching the first movie’s trailer on YouTube).

I turned off my mind and watched the pretty explosions. Although, there was a lot of CGI blood spurts and bad CGI head asplosions. It was all so funny. So very, very funny.

2 of 5 stars.

The Bourne Legacy

broderic on August 15, 2012

You never knew that there were so many secret super soldier programs in the US military industrial complex until you see The Bourne Legacy. Every branch of the service has their own not to mention the 3 letter agencies. Jason Bourne was just a tip of the iceberg; there’s plenty more where he came from. Just go down the block. You’ll find another.

The Bourne Legacy is all about Jason Bourne, and what he means to all the super soldier programs that have not been revealed. It takes place alongside the final two films of the previous trilogy as the secret of Treadstone/Black Briar is revealed. It means that Jeremy Renner’s super soldier program is compromised, and it’s showrunners, Ed Norton and Stacy Keach, have to shut it down before it, too, is brought before a Senate committee. They’ll shut it down by killing everything associated with it, as if you didn’t know. Never work on a secret super soldier program or be a secret super soldier, because they’ll terminate your contract with extreme prejudice.

Renner, in my opinion, is the perfect next Bourne. Every time I see him, I expect something drastic to happen, something bad. He’s always on edge. You know something bad was coming. Something like a heat seeking missile! Boom! There goes the super soldiers!

And they also had to eliminate the other workers, too. What a job. So Rachel Weisz had to run like Lola; and her story arc was similar. Is there a chance that she’ll make it through the next Bourne movie alive? Repeat. At least we know that they’ll have a decent life in the PI.

3 of 5 stars.

The Dark Knight Rises

broderic on July 31, 2012

You know how much I hated the previous installment of Christopher Nolan’s Batman series, so it should come as a surprise that I found The Dark Knight Rises more palatable. Maybe I’m getting use to Nolan?

The main difference between the two Dark Knight films is that this one is actually as comic booky as could be. There’s a guy with a mask that talks funny, and it ain’t Darth Vader. There’s all kinds of comic book action: Batman gets his back broken! Then there’s all kinds of comic book plots like the back stabbing (literally!) twist in the end. Of course, I never read any Batman books so it all came as a surprise to me.

In the end though, it was decent but The Avengers kicks its ass.

3 of 5 stars.

The Intrigues of Haruhi Suzumiya

broderic on July 30, 2012

This past weekend was the big anime convention in Baltimore, Otakon. One of their guests was the infamous Aya Hirano. She’s the voice actress for Haruhi Suzumiya. While there is no word about a third season of Haruhi, we still got the light novels. The latest light novel, The Intrigues of Haruhi Suzumiya.

Now the light novels in this series have followed a pattern after the first installment. There are two books of short stories followed by one book with a feature length story. The last feature length book, The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, was the best so far. It featured Yuki in moe mode. The Intrigues comes a close second, and it featured Mikuru Asahina the moe maid of the SOS Brigade. While she could never beat out Yuki, Mikuru is so moe that you just got to love her like Kyon does.

The Intrigues follows Kyon as he finally goes back to save himself as he had done in Disappearance. Then he comes back to meet a version of Mikuru from eight days in the future sent back to the past by his future self. The bulk of the book involves adventures with eight day future Mikuru. Why did Kyon send her back from the future? And how does any of this have to do with the older, future, curvier Mikuru? Read the book as it was a great read.

This book added depth to the Haruhi universe. It expands the cast with the addition of an opposing faction against each of the SOS Brigade members. There’s a faction of time travelers who oppose Mikuru’s group. There’s a faction of ESPers that oppose Itsuki’s Agency. There’s another sentient alien being — Yuki watch out! It plays as a set up for the latter novels and makes the setting greater.

I sped through this book on my trip to Germany. I finished it up early in the week and I regret not having reread it again immediately. I even read it after having a few litres of beer!

After reading this installment of Haruhi, I wish to see another season of the anime. It would be awesome to get the rest of the short stories filled out, then we can get another Haruhi movie from this book. Please, please, please Kyo-ani, more Haruhi anime.