30 Days of Nights

I was surfing one of my favorite sites for movies when I came across a review that caught my attention. I didn’t bother to read the whole review but just bits and pieces. The things that got stuck to my head were vampires and a month of darkness. There has been a lapse in vampire movies that come to the silver screen, 30 Days of Nights came out just in time and making people jump in their seats (I know I did). 30 Days of Nights follows through a story of a small town in Alaska where people are about to migrate (like birds) away from the dark month of the year. Once a year this town is in total darkness when the sun sinks below the horizon. Now being in darkness is cool but what if you are surrounded by blood thirsty vampires?
Based on a comic with the same name this story takes place in an Alaskan town which is in darkness for thirty days. The people of the village think that vampires are only a myth but they are faced with reality when the vampires start draining their victims. They are met with a wife and husband team who with others occupants of the town try to survive the month of horror. The final sequence shows the husband and the head of the vampires in a dual with a rather unusual ending. The idea that I liked in this movie was the FX that seemed so real that its hard to distinguish between make-ups and FX making the movie more enjoyable.
The cast of this movie is headed by Josh Hartnett (Lucky Number Slevin & Sin City) and Melissa George (Alias TV Series). Josh has been around in Hollywood doing some roles that you might overlook. His best roles according to me are in the above two mentioned movie titles. Melissa George on the other hand is an actress who has been in and out the silver screen. She has a lot of movie in her credit (I just found out) all of which are quite familiar titles. All the cast were pretty good in their roles with Josh showing a very different side of his acting. Personally I would rate this movie 7/10.

Next

Imagine being able to see your future for only two minutes, being able to change things to your liking. Next is a story about a small time magician named Cris Johnson (Nicolas Cage), with a stage name of Frank Cadillac, living his life in Las Vegas with this gift. He is able to see two minutes into his future and make changes as he likes. Also he was able to see a girl through out his premonitions who walks into a café. He knows the café and the exact time she will show up makeing it easier to find Liz (Jessica Biel).
Simultaneously there is a nuclear device that was stolen and FBI agent Callie Ferris (Julianne Moore) needs Cadillac’s help to track down the people who stole it. With the gift of premonition, Cadillac tries to help out Ferris hunt down the terrorists and put an end to their scheme. In this process Liz gets taken hostage by the terrorists, strapped to a bomb which makes Cadillac more involved then before. After Cadillac had met Liz his gift of two minutes changed, making him able to see for a longer period.
Personally I think this is the second time I have seen Nicolas Cage carry a movie on his shoulders (Ghost Rider being the first even though people hate the movie). Cage has over the years, though the cinema history, made changes to his acting style that has made millions of viewers pleased with him. Biel on the hand with her tight tush graces the scene by being in just a towel, wet while coming out of the shower. Julianne Moore looks as beautiful as ever. Her character and acting style is being repeated in most of the movies recently (Forgotten, Children of Men) each showing an aggressive agent or a mother at work. Rest of the cast were picked to fill out just the remaining character so that there is a story to continue.
This movie is based on a short story written by Philip K. Dick, the science fiction writer that has many stories to his credit. Some of his novels that have been visualized into motion picture are Minority Report, Blade Runner and Pay Check just to name a few. His stories were unique, which made movie producers run after acquiring the rights to the movie. I wonder what that guy must have been thinking when he write all these stories?

PS: A second part to the movie is being planned to end the story.

Mr. Brooks.

Kevin Costner being a versatile actor as we know him to be makes his new movie look like a child’s play for other actors. Mr. Brooks is about an individual who is a prominent businessman but also has split personality. Now this scenario really gave me a tingle when I read the synopsis behind a DVD cover. I never imagined Costner as a psycho or a being a cold blooded murderer. There was something in the movie that really made him fit into that character. Costner plays Mr. Brooks,a business man who suppresses his split personality for two years until it entices him to do something he vowed not to. His gleefully sadistic alter ego is played by William Hurt, he entices Brooks to do the killing after two years.
After killing Brooks had a habit of getting rid of evidence by burning and cleaning the house of any evidence of his presence. He sets the bodies of his victims in a way that portrays the symbol of love. Also he makes a thumb print using one of the victims thumb on a visible area which got him the name the thumb print killer. Chasing the thumbprint killer is Portland detective Tracy Atwood played by Demi Moore. Atwood is in a personal crisis in this movie, fighting the case of a divorce settlement, one of her captured convicts has escaped and is looking for her and then there is a killer on the loose in Portland.
This movie revolves around three characters; the third is an eye witness that captures the double homicide of the thumb print killer after his two year break. He is a photographer that resides in the opposite building of Brooks’ victims. Atwood knows that the photographer has witnessed the crime but he denies it, but he takes the photos of Brook’s killings to him to do a bargain. The actors are superb in the movie, its almost like the actors were kept in mind when the script of this movie was written. Personall I would rate this movie an 8 out of 10. This movie reminded me of the ’Silence of the Lambs’ series, a serial killer and a cop bent on catching him, but ‘Mr. Brooks’ is no where near the excellence of ‘Silence of the Lambs’.

Rouge: Assassin/War

I remember watching the trailer for this movie on Apples site and the next thing I know a friend told me that a movie with Jet Li and Jason Statham is in theatres and its called Rouge: Assassin. I thought what the hell why did Lions Gate release one movie with two titles? I had been waiting for sometime now for these two to team up again after “The One”. Rouge: Assassin starts with two cops who are very good a friend, one of them is assassinated and the other wants vengeance for his partner’s death. As you might have guess (from the trailers) that Statham is the cop who wants vengeance. Li on the other hand is the assassin (duh!) who eliminates the people he is hired to kill in any way he chooses.
Li was given a role similar to the one in “Lethal Weapon 4” less talk, more fight kind of character. His fight sequence in the end (battling the Asians) was very exciting (one of them gets hit by a vehicles tyre rim). Statham on the other hand was given a role identical to his character in “The One”, a cop chasing his partner’s killer. This did seem boring because the same scenario was being repeated with the same actors. The twist they tried to incorporate in the script was that the cop doesn’t see the assassin until half way though the movie. Also they integrated the feud between the Yakuza and the Triads into the script to maybe life the storyline or fill in the running time of the movie. (Trust me there wouldn’t have been a story without it). The rest of the characters were ok because I knew only two of them and one of their names.
This movie has it all the fights, chase sequence, Triads fighting Yakuza, and the cop and killer scenario. The story has a twist in the end which makes the movie pathetic. Even though we get to see little of Statham and Li fighting the crap out of themselves. There was something that lacked in the movie; I just can not put my finger to it, maybe it was the storyline that sucked towards the end. Rouge: Assassin is just a once watch or you can skip it and if you liked “The One” you can watch that again.

The Bourne Legacy

A man found in the stormy sea riddled with bullets, pulled in to the fishing boat and nursed to health but is suffering from amnesia. His first of clues was in his hip, a Zurich bank account number, in form of a miniature torch. Upon his arrival to Zurich’s bank the manager informs Langley. He finds a number of passports and a gun in the safe box, first passport he found was of Jason Bourne and the bank manager seems to know him as Jason Bourne. Now a man without any memory, with deadly fighting skills and knowledge of the capacity of load his body can take would definitely want to know who he is.
Bringing the character of Jason Bourne to life from Robert Ludlum’s Novel ‘The Bourne Identity’, Doug Liman did an excellent job with making the series without CGI. I remember seeing the preview of ‘The Bourne Identity’ back in 2002 and thought this movie seems to be good. A friend of mine had read the original work and was a fan of the character Bourne himself. After the movie what we talked about was only the movie, the moves and the way the director made the movie without CGI. Later we found out that Robert Ludlum had written another two books, making it a three part series, to finish of the story of the movie.

Then ‘The Bourne Supremacy’ hit the theaters and it gave the series a reason to watch where Bourne is bent on finding his past and hitting hard at what ever was in his path stopping him. The story picks up immediately where the first part left off. Marie and Bourne in India still running away from who ever that is trying to kill Bourne. The first sequence in the movie shows a robbery and killing where one of the killers leave a thumb print that traces back to Bourne, which initiates the hunt for him again. While in India Marie is shot in the head from the rear by one of the Assets (Assassins). Bourne watches her die when their vehicle goes off the road into a river. Burning all her memories (Photos), Bourne goes on a rampage looking for the killer and finally avenging Marie’s death in the end in Russia.
‘The Bourne Supremacy’ follows the same path as its predecessor with out CGI and with the same hard hitting action. The star cast remained the same but this time there was an introduction of a new character named Pamela Landy, task force chief of CIA in Langley. She believes that Bourne is not of the character her fellow CIA officials want her to believe. She is the one that tells him that his real name is Jason Bourne and he was born on 4-15-71. Bourne is constantly watching her from rooftops and in the end he tells her “have some rest mem, you look tired”.

‘The Bourne Ultimatum’ the third and final (hope not) in the series sums up the story. It again picks up immediately after ‘The Bourne Supremacy’ (in the tunnels off Russia, Bourne ramming the Asset, in a van, into a beam). Bourne escapes (in a ghostly manner) from the Russian police and heads to a nearby pharmacy to nurse his left shoulder. This movie introduces another character named Noah Vosen who is bent on killing Bourne. Pamela Landy is still helping Bourne in any way possible to have him come in discuss the matter. The movie was shot in the best of locations making the movie bigger and better then its predecessors (watch for the mall scene). Bourne escapes from a number of attempts at his life. There is a similar tunnel scene that its predecessor had involving another asset this time.
All three of the movies were excellently made, the cast was superb in the roles they were given. All three have proven to be a hit in the cinema history and now movie makers say that Matt Damon is a bankable actor, you give him a movie and you are sure to get your money’s worth. The factor to note in this series is that the three movies were made by two directors, Doug Liman (‘The Bourne Identity’) and Paul Greengrass making the second and the final one. The feel to the movie wasn’t altered in any way even though there was a different person behind the wheel of the other two movies. I would review these movies 9/10.


Ps: Wikipedia has articles about another two Jason Bourne novels, written by Eric Van Lustbader titled ‘The Bourne Legacy’ and ‘The Bourne Betrayal’. According to the article in Wikipedia, ‘The Bourne Legacy’ wasn’t received the way it was expected. The last novel ‘The Bourne Betrayal’ was to be released a few weeks before the premiere of the third installment in 2007.

Ghost Rider

The daredevil bike rider has finally made it to the screen, a guy who sold his soul to Mephistopheles (character created by Stan Lee and Sal Buscema for the Marvel World). Johnny Blaze sold his soul in order to allow his father, dieing from heart disease, to live longer. In typical devilish fashion, Mephistopheles takes his father’s life before he could perform a stunt at a dirt bike jumping show.
Waiting for a chance to payback Mephistopheles, Johnny pursues his stunt career with a vengeance, making jumps that were never thought possible (all were CGI, of course). His lost love walks back into his life just when the devil comes back to claim Johnny as his “rider”.
Johnny wreaks havoc through out the city trying to find the location of Blackheart (Son of the Devil) to return the contract of San Vaganza. Not returning the contract of San Vaganza would mean hell on earth. Upon the contracts receivable Blackheart possess all the souls that the previous rider had collected, making them his and now Blaze has to stop him at any cost.

I feel the drawback of the movie was the skull of “Ghost Rider”. They made the skull smaller compared to Cage’s head. It can be seen clearly when both the ghost riders (Blaze and Carter Slade) take the ride in the final scene before Blaze changes. The head just did not match the physique that Cage has/had. The other rider didn’t look bad, I guess due to the horse and the hat he was wearing. Then there was the beauty Eva Mendez, who had an electrifying appearance, and with the tight attire she wore, made everyone’s blood boil.

The plot line in the movie was “ok” given that the movie had to introduce the characters slowly. The director did a good job with this movie though. My favorite scene in the movie was where Blaze changes for the first time, the burning of the head and the fingers. I had always thought how they will show the change in the movie. Unlike in some of the movies they show the shadow of a character changing shape and that’s it.

I remember reading for the first time that Hollywood was attempting a “Ghost Rider movie”. My thoughts were, as I had said before, how they were going to effect/depict the change, which turned out pretty good. Then my thoughts jumped to the plot line, what the plot would be like and then the actors were gonna be. If I were to rate this movie I would give it a 6/10.

I Robot

“I, Robot” is a science-fiction flick starring Will Smith as Detective Del Spooner. Spooner is a homicide detective who is called by a hologram of Dr Alfred Lanning (James Cronwell) upon his death. Lanning and Spooner had a bond between them mentioned later in the movie where by a scene showing Spooner’s entire left arm was repaired by US Robotics.
Lanning knew that Spooner had a prejudice against Robots. Even though Lanning’s death looked like a suicide, Spooner thought otherwise. He found one of the robots hidden in Lanning’s lab. Due to the robot running away, even after numerous shutdown orders, Spooner is bent on catching him. Throughout the movie Spooner is attacked by multiple fleets of robots trying to kill him.
Later on Lenny (the NS-5 taken as a suspect) reveals his father (Lanning) had embedded a second memory module, allowing it (Lenny) to dream, thereby making him very different from all the other NS-5’s. Lenny’s metal structure was also different, made of a denser alloy that made it more powerful then the rest of its kind.
US Robotics has successfully marketed and retailed robots where the trend is now a robot to every 5 homes. “VIKI”, an AI “boss computer”, is the mind of US Robotics, controlling or monitoring all robots. “VIKI” “goes homicidal” (phrase borrowed from Resident Evil movie), gives the robots new data downloads and arranges the attacks on Spooner.
VIKI was the first creation of Lanning’s which made way for the future robotics. Now because of being different Sunny thinks he was made for a reason and that is to bring order to the robotic world and destroy V.I.K.I (Virtual Interactive Kinetic Intelligence).

This movie was made by Alex Proyas the guy who gave you “Dark City” and “The Crow”. I remember once reading a review (not long ago) that said that Alex did not do a good job with “I, Robot”. The reason he gave was that he was waiting for a gothic kind of dark movie just the way Proyas is used to making. Personally I feel that Proyas and Smith did a fantastic job with “I, Robot”. The movie was well paced with giving each character enough screen time making it worthwhile for the movie to be watched. All in all I would rate the movie 8/10.

*Found out last week that Proyas will be heading a new movie which has a working title of “Dracula Year Zero”.*

Transformers

The movie that revived the franchise and hit the cinema’s with a bang. Like all movies it was more of an introduction for all the characters from Optimus Prime to all the autobots. The movie starts with a brief background of Cybertron (the world of Autobots) being destroyed and Megatron coming to earth to attain the Allspark (the originator of transformers species). The first sequence shows one of the Decepticons (blackout) attacking a US military base in Qatar to find the location of his master, Megatron but fails. The opening sequence was so amazing that I had literally held my breath in a few sequences trying to capture the moment at hand. There are multiple attempts to identify the location of Megatron which they succeed towards the end of the feature. Bumble Bee is assigned to look for the great-great-grandson of Witwicky who found Megatron frozen in Artic. Meanwhile in present time the autobots assemble on earth taking up shapes of motor vehicles getting ready to defend Allspark at any cost.

The special effects used in the movie were breath taking. From my point of view I feel that almost 90% of the movie was CGI based. All the actors were new apart from the person that provided the voice for Optimus Prime. Michael Bay had auditioned all the surviving voices (of transformers) but chose only Peter Cullen. The reason he gave was that their voice would show ageing for the rest of them. I remember the first day I read about Hollywood making a movie on Transformers and I was all excited to see those autobots on the big silver screen changing shapes into motor vehicles, planes and metallic animals. Then came the day when they released the first images for Optimus Prime and Megatron. Not being a fan of Megatron I went for the look of Optimus.
The acting in the movie was very well done by all the cast members, of course when you are with the master of movies “Steven Spielberg” then people try and give their hundred percent. Shia LaBeouf played his part in a very realistic way thanks to the motion capture points and some of the props (if you can call that) which made him look at Optimus in the eye instead of his lips while talking (lol). Now Megan Fox is a very sexy thing. I remember first watching her in Mean Girls. She has some good movies on her credits list but she has outdone herself this time. All the rest of the cast in the movie were quite well done except for the FBI guy (John Turturro). I never liked his acting it irritates me. I have already blabbed about the special effects so I will not go there again. All in all the entire movie was fantastic personally I would rate it 9/10.

Side note: Please keep your mouth shut if you have seen the movie. I know a guy who got pissed at Alilti (radio announcer in FM96, Fiji) for spilling the beans on the movie revealing the story plot details and a number of action sequences. Now people like these should keep their mouths shut and not spoil the movie before the fans go out and see them.

The Pledge, the Turn and the Prestige :Performing rules for any magician.

“The Prestige” is a movie based on the novel written by British writer Christopher Priest in 1995. The movie is about two magicians driven by the desire to become “number one”.
This cinematic piece features Christian Bale as Alfred Borden, and Hugh Jackman as Robert Angier, “magicians” who are gunning to beat the other through their performance.

The movie opens with Borden descending to the bottom beneath a stage, on which Angier is performing, and he sees Angier trapped in a glass (Houdini) box, He tries to break the glass walls to free him but fails due to the thickness of the glass.
Due to his inability to free Angier, Borden is accused of killing him and is taken into custody by the police, accused of murder. The movie goes into “flash backs”, showing Angier and Borden both being “ringers” (assistants) to another “magician”.
After the death of Angier’s wife caused by Borden, both the friends split up and go separate ways to pursue their own careers in magic. Both the magicians come up with items/performances, that distinguish them from each other. For example, Borden created the “Transported Man”, an item performed with a double, namely Borden’s twin brother.
On the other hand, Angier is given a new teleportation device made by the rival of Thomas Edison, Nikola Telsa. Through Telsa’s machine, anything that is placed in the machine is duplicated and teleported. So Angier uses this as his new “Transported Man” giving the item a new look and feel, using electricity to make him disappear.
Borden is so frustrated after watching 100 shows of Angier, and still not knowing how it is done, that he decides to go beneath the stage and have a look at the secret himself. Seeing Angier trapped in a glass box he tries to free him but is accused of murder when he fails.
The rest of the story is Borden in his cell being visited by a lawyer that wants him to reveal the secret of his “Transported Man”. Borden is hanged in the end and Cutter accompanies Angier to the storage place for the duplicates of Angier. Cutter was an illusionist engineer for Angier and also the magician Angier worked for as a “ringer”. Cutter is disgusted to see all the copies of Angier in the glass boxes and leaves him alone in the storage room.
Borden is seen entering the storage facility, then shoots Angier, and reveals that he and his assistant were twins, changing places as they saw fit. Angier’s face can be seen regretting the day he chose to go after the real “Transported Man”. The camera zooms outward showing the whole storage place full of copies of the deranged Angier.

This movie reunited Nolan, Bale and Michael Caine after their success with “Batman Begins”. Bale is at his best, fitting in to roles as if those roles were created with him in mind. Caine’s character, I guess, is more of a repetition of Alfred from “Batman Begins”. Hugh Jackman on the other hand plays his character to perfection. In this movie it shows his character’s darker side and Jackman was excellent in it. Imagine, from a hero to a villain in just a few movies (X-men and The Prestige). Nolan does a great job again casting his favorite actors in roles that make them more of an icon.
The movie is a must watch with less emphasis on special effects and more on makeup and movie magic according to wikipedia. If I were to rate the movie I would have given it a 9/10

Live Free or Die Hard

John MaClane, you should know him well, is up to his old tricks again but this time he is against something he doesn’t like and that is technology. A band of hackers get access to the cities main controls and create a “fire sale’. Fire sale as described in the movie is taking down one system down at a time everything that is controlled my computer, incase of the movie everything. The movie started out well with action in the first sequence where Bruce Willis and Justine Long meet. His apartment was a shit hole after MaClane left with him.

Bruce Willis is very good at the role of John MaClane, I guess the reason would be that he is the first and only actor to play that role. His dialogue delivery and character acting was the same as his other three prequels. All in all I don’t have much to say about Willis in the role of MaClane.

Justine Long was pathetic in his role the reason being that all the movies I have seen of his is all the same. I guess he needs to break out of the image of a high school kid and try acting as it should be, not be a computer nerd or something like Clark Kent (minus Superman). Maggie Q is a very sexy and a graceful actress. The first movie I saw of hers was Naked Weapon 1 and it was good. *devil smile* In Die Hard 4 it is evident that this lady is made for movies that require a sexy hacker, or a killer (Naked Weapon 1). All the rest of the actors played the role properly. The special effect and the editing of the movie was done pretty well apart from the super fighter jet dual in the end which looked like toys, (especially the jet).

Willis’ choices of roles have led him through disasters and some very successful movies. I remember watching Die Hard 1-3 and thinking who the hell would sit down and think of these kind of plot lines but there is always people who are more of thinkers then us. The running time of the movie was roughly about 2 hrs 15 and it didn’t seem ever that the movie was too long or boring. The action sequence was well paced giving the audience the moneys worth. If I had to rate the movie it would have been 7/10.

Reply to Viper: And yes Viper Willis did say "Yipekay aye motherfucker" i guess it wouldnt be a Die Hard movie without Willis saying it, would it?

Fantastic Four

Flame On …

Its quite odd how some of the stories are set with many different characters. Four of those characters to make it to the big screen are simply names as Fantastic Four. This team consists of three males and a female.
Reed Richards: the leader of the four aka Mr Fantastic. He is able to streach his body to any length.
Sue Storm: the Mrs of Mr Fantastic or commonly known as the Invisible Woman. She is able to turn herself invisible, tangible objects and creating force fields as gigantic as she wants.
Johnny Storm: commonly known as the Human Torch and brother of Sue Storm. He is able to heat himself to the temperature of a supernova.
Ben Grimm: The Thing. The strongest stony looking things alive on earth.

That’s Fantastic Four. They were created by Stan Lee in November 1961 but Hollywood re-created them in 2005 giving them flash and blood second time. Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Michael Chiklis and Chris Evans star as the flesh and blood fantastic four with Von Doom played by Julian McMahon. The original story had been changed for the film version. Or it can be said that it was a story of an alternate earth with Fantastic Four. The original story did not have Von Doom with Reeds in the the spaceship but his own experiment that went wrong which left him scared.

The first installment as always was more of an introduction. The movie was well received by audience in all the parts it was released. The actors were all welcomed by Stan Lee him self. Actually Stan Lee was more impresses with the casting of Sue storm saying that there couldn’t have been a better choice for Sue. (oh yeah I remember the curves in those tights). Personally my thoughts also Jessica Alba was the best choice for Sue Storm. As for the other cast I feel that all were a good choice even when Ioan went for the casting for The Thing.

The special effects for the movie was mind blowing specially when Chris Evens (Johnny Storm Human/Torch) changes. The things was the closest they could go to making The Thing look like comic books otherwise they would have to resort to CGI like they did for Hulk (boy did they fuck it up).

Trivia: Human Torch when pursued by the heat seeking missile his lit up form was flipped. If you watch closely you will see that the number four on his chest is like a mirror image.


Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer

All the characters have reprised their roles this time around unlike some other movies. Personally I think that actors should reprise their roles the reason being that it give a sense of continuity to the whole franchise. Two new characters have been introduced in this movie, The Silver Surfer and Galactus. Special effect in the sequel was again at its best they not only made Human Touch but they did the Silver Surfer in the best of way. Like Chris Evens said when he saw Silver Surfer coming through the building (oh that’s cool). Victor Von Doom had a piece in this sequel also showing his deceitful side.

The movie had a good blend of humor with Chris Evens changing and looking like the thing and turning invisible. I never was a FF fan before watching the movie but I was a fan of the individual characters like the Human Touch and the Invisible Woman. The movie did quite good actually much better then the first installment. I guess the reason being that the effects were done at a more larger scale then its predecessor. All the actors played their part rather perfectly guess it was because they had been together in the previous movie. The story this time focused more on Silver Surfer trying to destroy earth and how the FF try and stop this by making the silver surfer fight on their side.

Before the movie was completed the company had decided to make a spin off of Silver surfer. The guy and his surf board all by themselves, nice. In my opinion they should be doing more of these movies. Budget is a constraint I know, but they can find financers that can come up with that sort of money to finance a franchise. Now lets just wait and see if the Silver Surfer takes flight, does the script bites the dust and not see the light of day or simply be made into a B rated movie. Stay tuned.