The Last Couple Of Flicks

Chewie — Thu, 06 May 2010 20:12:44 +0000

It’s been a while since I’ve done any movie reviews. Hell it’s been a while since I’ve done any posting at all, but that’s another story. Since my last review, I’ve seen a couple of movies and I figured I’d put them in one nice little post. Enjoy!

The King Of Kong – A Fistful Of Quarters
I actually saw this a while ago and just never got around to writing a post about it (damn real life getting in the way). This is a 2007 documentary that tells the story of two men (Steve Wiebe and Billy Mitchell) attempting to break the world record for Donkey Kong. That’s right… Donkey Kong. The story portrays Wiebe as the “good guy” going after the “bad guy” Mitchell’s record. I’ve played quite a few video games in my days and watching this was absolutely awesome. If you’ve ever played Donkey Kong and remember how damn difficult that game can be you owe it to yourself to check this one out. Regardless of if you think gaming is a legitimate activity you can’t deny how much work goes in to being a great DK player. Check this one out. You won’t be disappointed.

Live Free Or Die Hard
This is a great little action movie. Unfortunately it’s not really a Die Hard movie. Sure it’s got John McLane in it, but that’s about where the comparisons to the original trilogy end. I guess I feel the same way about this one as I did with the remade Friday the 13th – it was a good horror movie, just not a Friday movie. This time around, McClane is dealing with a group of virtual terrorists who have managed to “take down the grid” so to speak. Conceptually this is actually pretty damn cool, especially if you’re a techno geek like me. As with the other Die Hard flicks you really need to suspend disbelief when you start watching this (McClane takes out a helicopter with a truck… don’t ask) but once you get past that stuff it’s really quit enjoyable. Bruce Willis gives a fine performance as do Justin Long (the Mac guy from the Mac/PC commercials) and Timothy Olyphant (of Deadwood and Hitman fame). The cast is rounded out nicely with some folks that you may or may not have heard of complete with a small part by one of my favs Kevin Smith. Go into this understanding what it is (a popcorn movie) and what it really isn’t (a Die Hard movie) and you’ll have a good time.

Avatar
Going into this flick I figured any movie that had made a BILLION dollars and was like 10 years in the making had to be good. Unfortunately I was wrong. Let me start out by saying that this movie looked absolutely AMAZING. I was lucky enough to see it in IMAX 3D and I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that 10 years from now when we look back and what 3D technology has become, we’re going to point to this movie as the one that started it all. I’ve got to give James Cameron huge props at having a vision and seeing it to fruition. As for his story telling ability it left quite a bit to be desired. The best way I can describe this is Dances With Wolves meets The Matrix. If that seems like a weird mix of plots, it’s cause it is. I actually fell asleep during the first 30 minutes or so and didn’t miss a damn thing story line wise. If you can still catch this one in a theater in 3D then I’d recommend you do so simply so you can see the beauty that’s on screen, but if you’ve missed it and your only opportunity is on DVD then it’s a definite pass.

Hot Tub Time Machine
Had a chance to see this when Pip was in town. Being a child of the 80′s I was interested to see how they’d handle that decade and I’m happy to say that they nailed it (at least in my memory). This certainly isn’t a “good” movie by any stretch of the imagination, but I have to tell you that I chuckled the whole way through. The cast that I thought would be suspect works really well together. John Cusak in probably my favorite roll since Gross Pointe Blank plays the lead, Craig Robinson (of The Office fame), Clark Duke (Kick Ass) and Rob Corddry in a show stealing performance as Lou round out the cast nicely. In addition, there are some great 80′s cameos (William Zabka… if you’re a kid of the 80′s and you don’t know that name shame on you), Chevy Chase and Crispin Glover. All of this PLUS, if you’re a Cleveland Browns fan and “The Drive” still bothers you… well, I’ll just say you need to check it out.

Kick Ass
I’ll get the pun out of the way… Kick Ass kicks ass!!! Being a comic geek I’m always somewhat worried when these things come to the big screen (though there have been some damn good comic movies in the last couple of years. I was not familiar with this story going into it and boy was I blown away. This is an edgy and dark story about a normal guy that decides to be a superhero. No special powers, no utility belt… just a desire to do something that other people won’t. He learns along the way that he’s not the only person who’s had this idea and meets up with Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage) and his daughter Hit-Girl (Chloe Grace Moretz). While this is a comic book film, it’s in the same style as the darker comic flicks we’ve been given lately – Dark Knight, Sin City, etc. This is a very violent movie and definitely not for kids but as an adult DAMN was it a good time!

Gaming System To Big Screen – “Hitman”

Chewie — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 03:25:21 +0000

When this movie (directed by Xavier Gens) was announced I was so pumped. For those of you that don’t know, Hitman is based on a video game franchise. If you’re a fan of the game series then you’ll probably like the film (though many things have changed from the games to the movie). That said, you certainly don’t need to have experience with the game to watch the movie.

The main character is Agent 47 played by Timothy Olyphant (Live Free Or Die Hard, Deadwood, Scream 2). They don’t go into a ton of back story about how he becomes who he is but suffice to say he’s a bad ass contract killer out on to make a killing (pun intended). After his apparent successful mission we learn that he’s been set up and the rest of the film shows how he goes about taking care of the rest of the contract. I have to give HUGE props to Timothy Olyphant on his portrayal of 47. He walked the walk (quite literally) and talked the talk of 47. When I originally saw who was cast in this roll I wasn’t sure how it would work… he pulled it off beautifully.

Throughout the film, Agent 47 is being pursued by Interpol agent Mike Whittier (played by Dougray Scott who you may know from a stint on Desperate Housewives). Scott delivers some great one liners and pulls off his roll very admirably. He gets the shaft at the end of the movie in a big way but it makes for a great twist ending.

47′s love interest Nika Boronina (Olga Kurylenko probably best known as the Bond girl from Quantum Of Solace) is smoking hot, but really out of place in the Hitman world. One thing that we learn when playing through the games is that this man has very few ties to the “real” world. He’s a killer that is very good at what he does because he has no ties. To think that he would have any kind of attachment to a whore no less is kind of a stretch.

This movie was pretty universally lambasted by reviewers. I thought it was actually a pretty good flick when taken for what it was – a neat little action movie. It’s just over 90 minutes in length so it’s not too long and not too short. It’s got a very straight forward plot once you get into it and if you don’t mind the lack of back story it moves along nicely. Big fans of the video game series might not like the fact that the story line doesn’t follow the game but even as a big fan myself I was able to get past this.

The one scene that really had me scratching my head was when 47 goes up against a couple of other agents. They’re at a virtual standoff where they’re all pointing their guns at one another and 47 says something to the effect of “Let’s die with honor” or some such nonsense. Immediately, all 4 of them drop their guns and produce katana-like swords from behind their backs and proceed to slice and dice one another. It’s a GREAT action sequence in the film but we were given absolutely no reason to have it play out the way it did. Weird.

If you’re looking for a good Friday night action movie this is worth the rental. I picked up the “unrated” version used for $9 and I feel that I definitely got my money’s worth. You won’t get a real deep plot but you’ll get plenty of action, quite a bit of violence and some gratuitous T & A. Not only that but if you’re a gamer this is probably the best video game to movie adaptation to date (not that that’s saying much). Enjoy!

The 411 From 406 » deadwood

The Last Couple Of Flicks

Gaming System To Big Screen – “Hitman”