Saturday, June 30, 2007

Live Free or Die Hard

I just saw the fourth installment of the DIE HARD series yesterday. I loved the first Die Hard movie. I must say that Die Hard 2, and Die Hard with a vengeance aka Die Hard 3, not so much.
They just didn't seem to have that same original "Die Hard" charm. The plots were so-so and the bad guys silly. Of course it's hard to live up to the fantastic performance as Allen Rickman's Hans Gruber.

In Die Hard four, Live Free or Die Hard, America is under attack by cyber terrorist. They are shutting down everything hooked to a PC!! (Oh no! How will I write my in depth movie reviews? or keep up with Paris Hilton??) They shut down the transportation networks, the government offices, the power grid, and the financial districts.

Along comes our favorite witty and sarcastic NYPD Detective, John McClane played by Bruce Willis. He's just doing his everyday job (at 3 a.m.) and once again gets caught up in the bad guy's evil plot. Much to their dismay. Otherwise their insidious plans would have went off without a hitch.

I loved this movie! It was a great return to the Hero Action genre. Bruce was badass as usual (which is how I like my action heroes) and they kept the main bad guy low key, he wasn't silly or over the top. Great action scenes, excellent fight scenes, car chases, lots of guns, explosions, etc. etc. This time John doesn't get in a domestic fight with his ex-wife, it's their daughter, Lucy played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead. She did a great job! Even a little better than McClane's comedic relief sidekick, Justin Long whom I haven't seen since Herbie Fully Loaded. (That was driving me crazy trying to remember where I knew him from). And thankfully no annoying reporter guy (William Atherton).

Die Hard fans (pun intended), should rush madly to the theater, zigging in and out of traffic and check out DH4!!!!!

Friday, June 15, 2007

Fantastic Four: ROTSS


Don't count on the Fantastic Four to save you! Count on the Silver Surfer!! He stole the show! The Fantastic Four was anything but fantastic. All they did was bumble around, talk about having babies, switch powers, and generally fall flat. The human torch was pithy and wity as usual, but that was as good as it got.

A cosmic doom is coming to earth and the Silver Surfer is the harbinger of death as he arrives to punch holes in the planet so this dark space cloud can suck all the energy out of the planet's core.
With with the help of their old friend Dr. Doom, they try and catch the surfer.

This movie felt a lot like the first one. The actor's still feel like they are trying to get a handle on their character's. There wasn't really anything awful, but at the same time nothing...well fantastic. The surfer dood on the other hand was very cool. (pardon the pun).

The cgi effects were well done and film has a lot of eye candy, and the F4 get a fancy new flying car to cruise around in. Bottomline, if you are a marvel fan, a F4 fan, then you'll go see this film and enjoy it. Otherwise, save it for a movie rental.

Friday, June 08, 2007

Ocean's 13

Danny Ocean (George Clooney) is back with his team of conniving criminals in the third Ocean's film. Is three a charm?

This time it's not for the money, it's for revenge. A big shot casino and hotel owner played by Al Pachino, double crosses their good friend Ruben Tishkoff (Elliott Gould) and nearly kills him. So Danny Ocean calls in his friends for a convoluted scheme to get Bank (Pachino). I have to say this film lost the charm that the first one had.

I had a hard time following the plot which seemed to switch from time to time with so many different characters popping in and out, even Andy Garcia is back. There was just way too much going on and I never seemed to care about the character's like I did in the first film.

There is no love interest in this third escapade either. What? No Julia? Oh there's a girl all right. Ellen Barkin. Sorry Ellen you were hot back in the day, but please. Cameron Diaz see your future!

But she never willingly gets involved with any of the crew. At any rate Al Pachino's character isn't the only one that gets ripped off with this movie.

Save your poker chips and check it out on cable!