3:10 to Yuma

Alright, alright, so I am a little behind. Things have been crazy this month and well, well anyway I am back on track and ready to spit some knowledge about this Fall's flicks. And what a way to kick off the fall than with a good ole fashion Western chaulk full of six shooters, stage coaches, a gang of mean cusses, and indians (i know the correct term is native americans, but I am working on a theme, anyway) hard to ask for much more than that. 3:10 to Yuma is the story of a wounded Revolutionary War veteran who establishes a small ranch in Arizona only to have it threatened by a wealthy land owner who wants him off his land so that he can clear it for the rail road. Christian Bale plays the role of Dan Evans, the small rancher trying to support his family. Just as things seems beyond saving Bale is given the opportunity to save his land and home by escorting one of the west's most notorius theieves, Ben Wade played by Russell Crowe, to a train station where he will board the 3:10 train headed to Yuma where Wade will be imprisoned and eventually executed. During thier journey to the train station Wade and Evans learn that there is more to the other than can be seen on the outside and eventually come to respect and appreciate one another.

Given the story and strength of the cast it is hard to imagine that this wouldn't be a great movie and other than a rather peculiar ending, which didn't hurt the movie it was just weird, this was a great movie. Christian Bale can pull of the pensive, introspective character as well as anyone in teh business and for a change Russell Crowe did not cry in one of his movies, not that there is anything wrong with that. In addition to a great cast, the movie was very well done. The director, James Mangold, did a great job making the film look like it was shot entirely on location and included some great enviornments.

I don't really consider myself a western type of guy. I am definately a bigger fan of the modern western more than the John Wayne of even early Clint Eastwood films, but this was really a solid flick, from begining to end it did not drag and fall off in the middle, but maintained momentum through the entire movie. I definately recommend it to anyone old enough to get in. This is a good time.

GRADE - B+

The Simpsons Movie

Well it was a decade in the making, or something like that, but this summer we finally got The Simpsons Movie and I have to say it was pretty good. Now ten/twelve years pretty good would have been totally unacceptable for the great television of all time, but since the show has been on a ten to twelve year skid pretty good is actually really good for this franchise.

Since I went into this movie not expecting a whole heck of a lot, when got a bunch of great one liners, "more than two shakes is playing with yourself" and hand full of memorable scence, full frontal Bart nudity may never leave my head, I was pleasantly surprised. Regarding the story, the writes pretty much stuck to form, we got really selfish Homer doing everything possible to make a bad situation worse, we got trouble making Bart getting into trouble, Marge and Lisa in the virtually meaningless C story line and then everything coming together and working itself out in the end. I mean the show has been on for 80 consecutive seasons for a reason so I have no problem with them sticking to the formula.

I appreciate the resistance of randomingly struting out non-stop celebrity cameos. Tom Hanks was perfect in that spot and Albert Brooks might as well be on the cast, so that was one land mine they avoided. Having said that the only real knock I have on the movie is the same critism I have had of the show the last several years, they are running out of really fresh, innovative jokes. It is expected after almost twenty years, having said that I can't give the movie credit for what the show was like at its best.

All in all a funny movie that probably ended up being about as good as it could be given everything else. I definatey keeper.

GRADE - B

The Bourne Ultimatum

It has taken me way too long to write this review and for that I apologize, I have had and continue to have a lot of tables. At any rate since this review will pretty much write itself I wanted to get to it. The Bourne Ultimatum, was the third in a trilogy about Jason Bourne, a blakc bag CIA operative who had lost his memory and has been slowly regaining it and trying to piece back his life from before a near fatal accident he had while doing a job. This movie in my opinion salvaged the summer of 2007. After the huge dissapointments of Spiderman 3 and Shreck the Third, it was nice to have a trilogy finally deliver.

In Bourne Ultimatum, the film maker, producers, cast and crew were able to incoroporate all the elements that worked in the first two movies in a such a way as to avoid being redunant and at the same time add a couple of new wrinkles to keep the audience focused on what was happening on screen. The movie featured creative action sequences and fight scenes, in this movie he used a phone book, as opposed to a magazine or pen; slick editing, some of the scenes from Bourne Supremacy, were inserted directly into this movie; the movie even had a plot twist at the end pertaining to his origin. The did not leave anything out, they did not leave any issues unresolved, in fact everyone got the just deserts and our star, well lets just say he is no worse for the wear.

Thank you Universal Studios, Matt Damon and all the rest for making a near perfect trilogy. The Bourne Series is up there with the original Star Wars (Episodes 4-6), Lord of the Rings, and The Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

GRADE - A

Greatest Summer Action Movies

We got a lot of big "block-buster" type summer action movies this year. While there was only one, The Bourne Ultimatum, that really stood out it got me thinking about how much I love the action movie genre and how great the summer is, becuase there is usually a collection of really good action movies. With this thought in mind I did what any reasonable person that maintains a blog and has a serious problem with watching movies would do; I made a list. Below are the 25 greatest action movies from the last twenty years.

By way of explanation, in order for a movies to be qualified as a summer action movie it has to have been released some time during the summer which is defined as May, June, July and August. It has to be classified as an action movie (loosely defined) and it has to have made a lasting impact. For some of the movies below it is a bit too early to tell, but in my best estimation I believe they have made an impact that will last. Without further ado, The 25 Greatest Summer of the last twenty years -

1. Terminator 2 (July 1991)
2. Independence Day (July 1996)
3. Batman (June 1989)
4. Jurassic Park (June 1993)
5. Die Hard (July 1988)
6. Gladiator (May 2000)
7. Braveheart (May 1995)
8. Saving Private Ryan (July 1998)
9. The Matrix Reloaded (May 2003)
10. Spiderman (May 2002)
11. X2 (May 2003)
12. X-Men (July 2000)
13. Spider Man 2 (June 2004)
14. Mission Impossible (May 1996)
15. The Bourne Identity (June 2002)
16. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (July 2006)
17. Face/Off (June 1997)
18. Men In Black (July 1997)
19. Batman Begins (June 2005)
20. Blade (August 1998)
21. The Bourne Supremacy (July 2004)
22. Lethal Weapon 4 (July 1998)
23. The Bourne Ultimatum (August 2007)
24. Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (June 2001)
25. I, Robot (July 2004)

Transformers

Aight so kill me, its been almost a month since my last blog, I know you have missed me, but I can't tell you enought how much I really don't enjoy writing, if there were some way I could dictate my blogs that would be soooooo much better, but I decided after almost three weeks to get off my duff and get this thing done.


So what summer would be complete without a big shinny, blowing everything in sight-up, Michael Bay movie. The one thing I will say about the guys is that he likes to film the way he likes to film and he gets finding scripts that call for his specific brand of carnage, and Transformers was no exception. For me there were two big hurdles that Bay had to overcome in order to make this work and if done correctly could really make this movie something special. First the transformation had to be legit, he couldn't just give us one or two transformations and then start cutting corners, by pulling the camera away or making the transforming happen when it is dark. If this movie was going to work the tranformations had to be visible, clear and there had to be a bunch of them. To his credit Bay did it. When they Transformers transformed the auidence could see it happening quite clearly. Not only that but the transformations happened different ways. Some transformed standing still, others will moving, other transformed to get into action. There was great variety in the transformations and they all worked. With that all that was left was the second big hurdle; an interesting storyline.

The problemw with adaption movies; comic books to film, or video games, or cartoons, whatever you are adapting to film usually do not have a very compelling origin story or the origin story is part of a larger story that is about more than simply the origin. Comics, video games, cartoons, tv show, all have the luxury of having their stories told over a longer period of time. In a film you get two hours tops before you start to loose people. The writer and director has to find a way to take a series worth of storyline and cram it into 2 hours or find a storyline from the original program, book, whatever that can work in a movie. This is why so few apation movies work. Transformers fell short in that department, there was no story. The Transformers are member of a self desctructive master race of advanced life forms. The survivors have been scouring the globe looking for this cube that if possessed by the wrong one could usher in a new eara of desctruction. And surprise, surprise the cube landed on earth. The Decepticons wanted to possess the cube for themselves, the Autobots want to retrieve the cube and destroy it. Both land on earth in search of the cube and the explosions don't stop till the end.

At the end of the day this movie was not made to win any awards, but you have to do a little better in the story department. Outside of Shia LeBeof and Anthony Anderson no one was really stand out, but to be honest it is hard to stand 0ut with these guys around. Tyreese and Josh Duhamel (Las Vegas) were fine as tough guy marine cammandos, but nothing to get excited about. Honestly and I can't believe I am going to say this, but Tyreese is capable of more than this. Be that has it may the movie delivered everywhere else, so go see it. As far as summer movies go you get more summery than Michael Bay blowing stuff up.


GRADE - B

The First Twenty of 2007

We are nearing the end of the summer blockbuster months and I have to say what a dissapointing summer. There is still the chance that the Bourne Ultimatum can keep the summer from falling completely on its face. Given that I figured to keep the consistancy going I put together my first list before the summer, now that we are reaching the end of the summer what better time to do my second list, even though the summer has been absolutely weak. Here's hoping this fall is strong as last fall.

1. 300 (A)
2. Black Snake Moan (A)
3. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (A-)
4. Breach (A-)
5. Reign Over Me (B+)
6. Live Free or Die Hard (B+)
7. Zodiac (B+)
8. Mr. Brooks (B+)
9. The Grindhouse (B+)
10. Ocean’s Thirteen (B)
11. Hot Fuzz (B)
12. DOA: Dead or Alive (C+)
13. Daddy’s Little Girls (C+)
14. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (C)
15. Spiderman 3 (C)
16. Smokin’ Aces (C)
17. The Condemned (C)
18. Ghost Rider (D)
19. Shrek the Third (D)
20. Pathfinder (F)

Live Free or Die Hard

John McClaine is clearly my favorite movie character of all time, hands down, close the polls voting is over, no question about it. I was not sure if I could get behind 50 year old Bruce Willis dusting off his Johnny Mac persona, but I should have known better than to doubt the man. So depending on your definition of what a Die Hard movie should or should not be will determine your level of enjoyment of Live Free or Die Hard. For me the formula is simple, wise cracking John McCaline thrusted into a virtual impossible situatio where he has to use his acute detective skills and survial instincts to overcome insurmountable odds and save the day. In that regard this movie fit the bill. Bruce cracked his jokes, got his head busted in, killed like 500 bad guys and saved the day. Now I will grant you this time around being that it was the fourth movie things got a little out of control, alright well a lot out of control. I mean you would think that someone would draw the line at Bruce surfing on an F-18 Fighter Jet.

Crazy wild stunts aside this was a really good time at the multiplex. The story was a little far fetched; crazy super computer genius, Timothy Olyphant, warns the US government of our vulnerability to cyber terrorism and when the government does not respond he proves his point by crashing all financial and ulity systems in an attempt to steal billions of dollars. Yeah I know, but whatever we got a little Kevin Smith and a lot of Justin Long. A word of Justin if I may. We knew from Dodgeball that the boy had skills and this movie just serves to strengthen the case. He has a unique style of comedy that comes across as a combination of sarcasm and physical comedy. When he delivers his lines he will often trail off and lower his voice right at the punchline. It is difficult to describe, but works for him and is hilarious.

With Justin taggin along however ridiculous the plot got between Bruce, Justin and the action I never got too annoyed. I have to say once again the Die Hard delivered. None of them come anywhere near to the greatness of the first one, but hey you can only make the greatest movie of all time once.

GRADE - B+