Archive for the ‘Movie Reviews’ Category

A Perfect Getaway was written and directed by David Twohy. In this movie he brings us  the story of a newlywed couple on their honeymoon in Hawaii, trying to figure out if any of the couples around them are murderers.

Now I have a fairly strict “no spoiler” policy in my reviews, but there is no way to properly review this film without talking about the fact that there is a “twist” in the story. I won’t say what that twist is but there is one.

Cliff (Steve Zahn) and Cydney (Milla Jovovich) are a newlywed couple – we see a few scenes videotaped from their wedding reception and of their friends wishing them well before they leave for Hawaii. They’re young and full of the promise of a life together. There is enough film and story to fall in love with them and their ideals along with feel as though you are actually experiencing the joy and anticipation with them.

They decide to take a long hike to one of the most remote and beautiful beaches in the islands. On the road to the start of the trail they run into a creepy young couple (Chris Hemsworth and Marley Shelton) who immediately sets your radar off – the guy gets offended that Cliff and Cydney (I hate stupidly spelled common names) hesitated at giving them a ride and they part company. Later on our intrepid couple runs into Nick (Timothy Olyphant) and Gina (Kiele Sanchez), another young but more “adventurous” couple. They decide to team up and continue on the trail together, all the while warey of the other couple they met on the road, suspecting them to be the killers of another young newlywed couple not long ago on a different island.

Of course the question is which couple are the actual murderers, and what happens once they are revealed.

A Perfect Getaway has two very different parts – the lead up to the discovery and what comes after. Up until the reveal, while the film has plenty of moments of tension it’s actually quite funny. Olyphant (from Hitman) steals the show as far as I’m concerned – he was very charming and funny, moreso to movie fans I think because much of the humour between him and Zahn (who plays a budding screenwriter) was sort of winking at the audience. In one scene shortly after Olyphant appears in the film and we don’t know if he might be one of the killers, he mentions to Zahn the introduction of a “red snapper” (actually red herring) into a film to throw off the audience. There are more of these types of little jokes as well as others, and to me they were a pleasant relief from the tension. Some say they were overused, but I chuckled at them.

What wasn’t a surprise was the result of the twist, and frankly I found it quite improbable based on what had come before. I would have preferred a more conventional attempt at making the story “different”.

From the point of the reveal the film shifts gears big time into a non-stop cat and mouse game with plenty of edge of your seat moments, violence and some pretty realistic (but not overly done) gore. So while very different, what came before and after the big reveal was pretty entertaining (although I actually enjoyed the first half of the film more) – but the nature of the twist just seemed false and contrived.

Overall I thought it was pretty good – I particularly enjoyed Olyphant as a character, Zahn is always fun to watch and Kiele Sanchez was gorgeous (the scene in which she first appears is quite… distracting lol).

In conclusion I would say that this movie is well worth a visit to your local Cinema, if nothing more than to kick back and relax over a well constructed thriller!

I rate this Movie… 4/5 Penguins!

Overflowing with high-octane action, sizzling big-budget visual effects, and a respectable storyline that binds it all together, is the best real action adventure movie I have seen in a very long time! Far more entertaining and appropriately rendered than Transformers 2, G.I. Joe delivers from beginning to end, thoroughly holding your attention, despite the absence of twists and the predictability of certain scenes. Still, it is appealing and hugely enjoyable, I really did come out of this movie hyped up.

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra revolves its plot around a team of young agents who form part of an international force of operatives (known as G.I. Joe) who use high-tech equipment to fight global terror. On their latest assignment they battle Cobra, a terrorist organisation headed by an evil Scottish arms dealer named McCullen (Christopher Eccleston).

From the vast Egyptian desert to deep below the polar ice caps, the elite squad pulls on the latest in next-generation spy and military equipment to fight the corrupt arms dealer and the growing threat of his mysterious Cobra organisation to prevent them from plunging the world into destruction and chaos via a unique and deadly explosive metal anialating nano weapon.

A competent cast, led by Channing Tatum (Duke) and Dennis Quaid (General Hawk), breathe wholesome life into a bunch of characters that otherwise could have been one-dimensional and uninteresting. Sienna Miller (Anna) and Marlon Wayans (Ripcord) bring fierce energy to the screen, and obviously for Sienna fans this film delivers – infact I even found myself missing scenes because the screen is too big to concentrate on everything… ;o)

Rounding out the cast are Joseph Gordon-Levitt (as Rex) and Rachel Nichols (as the gorgeous and brainy Shana). Surprisingly, under the direction of Stephen Sommers (Van Helsing) the bulk of the cast mesmerizes, displaying maturity, effortless dexterity, and winning chemistry.

Overall, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is the kind of action movie worth repeating trips to the cinema. It achieves what Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen didn’t — absorbing entertainment with the right balance of gripping action and spirited storytelling. At the same time, it also succeeds with its adrenaline-inducing sequences, commendable performances, fuel packed explosions and superb direction that whips all the elements into an engaging whole.

I would whole heartedly recommend this movie to everyone that loves a bit of action – and thats everyone isn’t it? Lol

I rate this movie… 5/5 Penguins

I was on such a roll lately at the cinema watching one good movie after another that I knew it had to end eventually. After watching Brüno a couple of weeks ago, I thought it would easily be the worst movie of the summer. I didn’t think a movie could be worse. I know where you think I’m going with this, but you’re wrong. No, I don’t think Land of the Lost is worse than Brüno… but it comes a close second.

The plot (if you want to call it that) is easy to follow. Dr. Rick Marshall (Will Ferrell), a paleontologist is disgraced by others scientists who call his theories about space-time vortexes ridiculous. Three years later, Holly Cantrell (Anna Friel), a research assistant from a British university, re-ignites his passion to find other dimensions through time warps. Using a device that finds tachyon particles that somehow allows people to jump between worlds, the two locate a time hole at a little crappy souvenir shop run by a redneck named Will (Danny McBride). Will gives Rick and Holly a little tour into a cave he has set up as a tourist attraction and before you know it, the three are traveling into another dimension we will soon know as Land of the Lost. The place is complete with a T-Rex, mosquitos that can suck you dry of blood, dangerous creatures called Sleestaks, and a primate named Cha-Ka (Jorma Taccone) who befriends them and tries to help them navigate their way back to our own dimension.

Yes I got this far but I couldn’t tell you if they made it as I walked out of the Cinema after only 45 minutes!

For the exception of the characters (but not the names) being changed, the story is practically identical to the series. Instead of having a motherless family of three who we can really care about, we get a crazy scientist, a sexy research assistant, and a jackass of a redneck. I honestly never really cared if they made it out at all… dead or alive.

There are some laughable moments in the film but not enough to say the movie is funny. I did enjoy the “chorizo taco” joke. You see, the Paku word for Sleestak is “Sarisataka” and when Cha-Ka is trying to warn Rick, Will, and Holly about them, the redneck Will mistakes Cha-Ka’s words as “chorizo taco”. I thought it was pretty funny. But that is only one of about three or four instances that actually made me laugh.

I hate to say it because I really enjoyed Ferrell’s comedies in the past, but I honestly think its wearing thin. I felt it was just the same old, same old with him throughout the film. Anna Friel did ok and is… well, lets just say it… pretty hot. Jorma Taccone must have felt pretty damn lucky that the script continuously had him grabbing Friel’s breast. McBride gets a handful once as well, but I wonder if that was just improv on his part. Taccone played Cha-Ka, the primate and was absolutely horrendous. I couldn’t stand the character at all. It was obnoxious. Never funny, and, considering this was a family movie; playing Cha-Ka as a sexual pervert probably wasn’t a good idea. I know… that was the script, not him. Still… I couldn’t stand the little f**ker. Danny McBride, however; did an awesome job as Will the Redneck. When I say I laughed three or four times in the amount of film a actually watched, it was usually his doing.

To say I hated Ferrell’s interpretation of Land of the Lost would be going too far. The movie intrigued me somewhat as I wanted to know what else they would implement into the film from the old TV series.

But its not one I would recommend anyone seeing in the cinema. One has much better use for 7 quid. Trust me on that. Go buy yourself two or three happy meals and let Land of the Lost…. stay LOST.

I rate this Movie… 1/5 Penguins!

Bottom Line: Sacha Baron Cohen might have gone to the well once too often.

We all knew Borat. Borat was a friend of ours. Brüno, you’re no Borat.

I may be unfair in my remark, but everyone is going to compare Sacha Baron Cohen’s ‘Bruno’ to his insanely funny ‘Borat’, and let’s be honest; while pushing the PC envelope in new and imaginative ways as well as the ’18′ rating, especially insofar as the male member is concerned, ‘Brüno’ is only intermittently funny and all too often the “ambushes” of celebrities and

civilians look staged… The movie is even a tad - dare I say it? - Tedious.

Admirers of this British comic’s gifts for caricature and improvisation and nearly everyone who found themselves laughing uncontrollably at Baron Cohen’s unrepentant anti-Semitic Kazakhstani in ‘Borat’ probably will turn out for Baron Cohen and director Larry Charles’ latest mockumentary. So I expect that the box office should be sold out for Universal this time around. It’s unclear though whether Baron Cohen can continue to bring his TV characters into the real world, or something approximating it, without diminishing results: Based on the evidence I have witnessed in ‘Brüno’, such results seem inevitable.

For one thing, where the focus was laser-sharp in ‘Borat’, it’s fuzzy in ‘Brüno’. ‘Brüno’, for those really out of step with modern culture, is Baron Cohen’s gay Austrian fashion expert with his own TV show, “Funkyzeit”. Early in the movie, Bruno makes such a disastrous spectacle of himself at a designer’s show during Milan Fashion Week, that he is schwarz-listed.

He abruptly decides to go to Los Angeles, accompanied by his lovelorn assistant, Lutz (Gustaf Hammarsten), to become a celebrity. One’s heart sinks right there. ‘Borat’ zeroed in on bigotry and Western hypocrisy for its satire. The target of Hollywood and vacuous celebrityhood has so many arrows in its bullseye, there is nothing left to hit.

Perhaps a victim of his own success, Baron Cohen probably is too well known to get away with so many sneak attacks on unsuspecting people no matter how he transforms himself physically. A few times in ‘Brüno’, one senses a real victim. More often, especially with such demi-celebrities as Paula Abdul or LaToya Jackson but even with a determined dominatrix, one senses a more than willing victim.

In a recording session that ends the film, where everyone from Elton John to Snoop Dogg to Sting to Bono shows up, the film drops any pretense that these are not invited guests.

Baron Cohen has better luck outside of LA In the Middle East, Brüno does get chased by angry Hasidic Jews. And in trying to mediate a panel featuring an Israeli and Palestinian leader, his mixing up of Hamas and hummus is genuinely funny.

Brüno’s adopted African baby paraded before a black audience is not funny; it’s em

barrassing. This is one of several instances where an audience might experience both exasperation and tedium with the comic’s relentless act of running a joke into the ground. Brüno’s attempt to go hetero, assisted by two Christian ministers who specialise in such conversions, was just boring and the punch lines were able to be pre-empted word for word.

‘Borat’ was, despite his cheerful bigotry, somehow a lovable character. His questions sprang from the sweet innocence of a third-world bumpkin wallowing in isolated ignorance. With ‘Brüno’, you mostly feel annoyed. A gay Austrian fashionista would be no ignorant character. He would be sophisticated, savvy and certainly aware of prejudices against gays. Would he really prance semi-naked through Middle Eastern holy sites?

The calculations behind Baron Cohen’s ambushes too often are mean-spirited. We sense, as we never did with ‘Borat’, the c

omic behind the character. Especially when his accent keeps changing - from an unconvincing Austrian to his own British and even to a whisper of ‘Borat’ himself.Consequently, the character’s gayness reads false. Baron Cohen needs to spend more time in certain gay bars if he wants to learn how to do “flamboyant” and “fabulous”. I have friends that would probably pull off a more convincing act… It’s a ghost of the real thing.

In conclusion, save your money, I left feeling robbed and angry that the film had been screened, 2 out of the 4 of us that watched it thought it was ok, however; I was not as easily entertained, fixated or challenged comically!

For those still interested… Here is the trailer!

I rate this Movie… 0/5 Penguins!