Category Archives: Action Movie Reviews
Elysium (2013)
Elysium (2013)
The Definition of Elysium is a place or condition of ideal happiness. The sci-fi film takes place in the year 2154. The earth is way overpopulated and very rundown. The poor people live on earth while the rich live on an enormous space station. The space station is a world in itself and it is rightfully named Elysium. Elysium is a man-made utopia. Life on Elysium is basically perfect. The air is better quality, and they have machines that cure most diseases and injuries. The poor people on earth desperately want to live on Elysium and the rich want to keep everyone else out. The Elysium government kills or captures intruders on site.
Max (Matt Damon) has wanted to go to Elysium his whole life. After a tragic turn of events, Max gets sick and has only a short amount of time left to live. With nothing left to lose, he decides to do everything in his power to get to Elysium and get healed or die trying.
The movie is written and directed by Neill Blomkamp and the rest of the noteworthy cast includes Jodie Foster, Sharlto Copley, Alice Braga, Diego Luna, William Fichtner, Wagner Moura, Josh Blacker, Jose Pablo Cantillo, and Faran Tahir.
I hoped for more from this film. The special effects and futuristic technology in the film were outstanding, but the movie’s premise was a little shaky. The story was very predictable and I felt that not enough of it was spent on Elysium.
The film was more about trying to get to Elysium than actually taking place on Elysium and that was a little disappointing.
Foster was probably as chilling as she has ever been. She played her part almost too well.
Damon was as good as he usually is.
Copley was a fun weirdo.
Movies that are set way in the future normally show either amazing advancement in technology or the earth on the verge of destruction. This film showed both.
Overall, Elysium is an exciting, action thrill-ride complete with cool ideas and some quality acting, but a flawed story riddled with predictability. It’s a popcorn film. Sit back, relax, and you’ll probably still have a good time.
I rate this movie a 7.5 on a scale of 1-10.
Buy, rent, or run? Rent.
A Good Day to Die Hard (2013)
A Good Day to Die Hard (2013)
I had not heard any good things about this film prior to watching it. However, I started watching the movie without any high expectations. I heard people say that it was the fakest movie in the whole series. I heard people say that it was the worst Die Hard yet. My question that I have for those people is what did you expect? This is the fifth Die Hard movie. It’s the fifth one! To put that into perspective, the original Die Hard (1988) was 25 years ago. I was 2 years old when that came out and Ronald Reagan was the President. It was 2 years until they made the second film. The next film was 5 years later, then 12, and now 6 years after that. Willis has played the same character for 25 years and you wonder why A Good Day to Die Hard was not as good as the others?
In this fifth installment of the Die Hard Series, John McClane (Willis) travels to Russia to confront his troubled son Jack, (Jai Courtney) whom he doesn’t know is an undercover CIA agent on a mission. John unknowingly ruins Jack’s mission and the two are forced to work together to try to repair the damage done.
The film was directed by John Moore, and the rest of the noteworthy cast includes Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Yuliya Snigir, Rasha Bukvic, Cole Hauser, and Amaury Nolasco.
Over the last 25 years, Die Hard movies have become an American tradition. They are filled with action so far-out, intense, and convenient that it’s unbelievable. However, the beautiful destruction, explosions, slow-motion debris dodging, and endless one-liners from Willis is enough to keep us entertained.
A Good Day to Die Hard follows in the footsteps of its ancestors, sort of. The action is just as incredible, but far more convenient and therefore way less realistic. The destruction is pretty, but not as glorious. There are still explosions and tons of debris and Willis still has the best one-liners.
Besides Willis, the film lacks credible big name stars. It felt like the movie was made just to make another Die Hard film. Everyone just kind of went through the motions and parts of the movie felt like a satire of itself. The McClane family kept referring to how they do this stuff all of the time. The film made fun of itself and all that succeeded in doing was to help bring the movie down a notch.
With the addition of Courtney, the film is a father and son shoot-em-up adventure that is still worth the rental, if only to carry on the Die Hard tradition. It’s good for a few chuckles. Besides self-destruction, the movie still has some entertaining gun fights and plenty of stuff blows up.
I rate this movie a 6 on scale of 1-10.
Buy, rent, or run? Rent.
If you liked A Good Day to Die Hard, then you will probably enjoy:
2 Guns (2013)
2 Guns (2013)
Director Baltasar Kormakur pulled out the big guns for his new Action/Comedy 2 Guns. With a cast that includes Denzel Washington, Mark Wahlberg, Bill Paxton, James Marsden, and Paula Patton, how could you go wrong? This is the question that I asked myself. My answer was that you most likely can’t go wrong. I was very excited to see this film, so I caught one of the first showings.
The film is about an undercover DEA agent (Washington) and an undercover Special Forces officer (Wahlberg) that team up to get close to a drug cartel. The catch: each man is unaware that the other is a cop.
The rest of the noteworthy cast includes Edward James Olmos, Fred Ward, Robert John Duke, and Patrick Fischler.
2 Guns is a high caliber adventure that is fully loaded with twists and turns, plenty of action, an amazing cast of edgy characters, lots of laughs, and a whole lot of fun.
Denzel Washington is one actor that has never really disappointed me. He has always acted his heart out in every role that I have seen him in. He is certainly one of the greats. He is one of the most consistently solid actors of our time. His role in 2 Guns is evidence that he has no intention of changing his ways or slowing down. His character is suave and in control. He lets his presence be known on screen. If he were a Jedi, the force would be strong with this one.
Mark Wahlberg’s acting ability has noticeably improved over the years. It was never bad by any means, but he has definitely found his niche. He has always taken a no-nonsense approach to his acting. This has given his movies more intensity and energy. Over time, he has learned to develop a different personality to each of the characters that he plays. He has become very versatile. In 2 Guns, he somehow managed to be funny and a badass.
The witty banter exchanged between Washington and Wahlberg was hilarious. That, mixed with each man’s physical ability for violence made the movie very entertaining. Their characters played off of each other wonderfully.
Besides Haywire (2011), I have not seen Paxton in anything great for a while. This is his best film movie Frailty (2001). He played a good tough-guy in this film.
There was never a dull moment in this movie. If you are looking for a lot of action, some good laughs, great acting, and an overall awesome film experience, look no further than 2 Guns. This movie has everything. It’s the best Action/Comedy film so far this year, and will probably be the best of the year.
I rate this movie a 9 on a scale of 1-10.
Buy, rent, or run? Buy.
If you enjoyed 2 Guns, then you will most likely enjoy:
Vehicle 19 (2013)
Vehicle 19 (2013)
I had no expectations before watching this movie. Paul Walker has made some surprising films in the past, so I thought that I would give Vehicle 19 a chance. Which movies has Walker surprised me in before? Good question. The answer is Running Scared (2006), The Lazarus Project (2008), and Eight Below (2006).
Vehicle 19 follows Michael Woods (Paul Walker), an American who travels to a foreign country. He is in for a bumpy ride when a mix-up with the rental car company lands him in a vehicle with a cell phone, a pistol, and a bound and gagged woman in the back seat.
The movie was written and directed by Mukunda Michael Dewil. There are no other noteworthy cast members.
Paul Walker is the lead in this boring waste of time, foreign, low budget one man show filled with cheap car chases, laughable special effects, a dull storyline, and uninteresting dialogue.
The soundtrack was painfully annoying and did not help the film’s cause.
For a movie classified as an action/thriller, it was deathly slow at times.
The plot was basically the equivalent to the punch line of a bad joke. It was not entertaining, it lacked a point, and I quickly wanted to change the subject. Often when the main character encountered a problem in the movie, the solution was all way too convenient.
The acting was bad. The writing was worse, but the filmmaking as a whole was just a disgrace. Luckily the movie’s runtime was only 85 minutes. However, that was an 85 minutes that I will not get back.
Do yourself a favor and steer clear of this train wreck that somehow became a movie. It is not worth your time or money.
I rate this movie a 1 on a scale of 1-10.
Buy, rent, or run? RUN!
Kick-Ass (2010)
Kick-Ass (2010)
I delayed seeing Kick-Ass for 3 years. Honestly, at the time that it came out, it appeared like it would be jam-packed with gratuitous amounts of stupidity. I was fed up with superhero movies being the trend and given the fact that Nicolas Cage was a part of it made me worried. Cage is one of my favorite actors, but at the time that he made Kick-Ass he was taking any and every movie role offered to him. He was having money problems and he needed to get out of debt. During that time, he systematically dismantled his image and his career by force-feeding the world 11 movies over the course of 3 years. I thought the title was pretty lame and I was very skeptical to say the least.
The movie is about a nerdy high school kid (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) who one day decides that he wants to be a superhero. He dresses up like a superhero and therefore thinks that he is one. Fighting crime proves to be much more difficult than he anticipates and he gets in way over his head.
The film is directed by Matthey Vaughn and the rest of the noteworthy cast includes Nicolas Cage, Mark Strong, Chloe Grace Moretz, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Michael Rispoli, Clark Duke, and Jason Flemyng.
After writing off Kick-Ass three years ago, I never really thought twice about it until I learned of the upcoming sequel a couple of months ago, Kick-Ass 2 (2013). I heard from a few different people that Kick-Ass was actually pretty awesome. I decided to give it a chance.
The movie was actually pretty bad-ass. The soundtrack set the tone quite nicely with a couple of different songs by The Prodigy. Later it transitioned to Elvis Presley and even Ennio Morricone.
Nicolas Cage was better than I expected he would be. The film was during his low point, but his character turned out to be moderately entertaining.
Mark Strong was a superb hard-ass. He played his part perfectly.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson was alright, but it was the young Chloe Grace Moretz that stole the show. She sure kicked some ass.
I was shocked at how much I enjoyed this movie. It was far better than I originally anticipated. There is a bit of language, blood, raunchiness, and violence, but overall it was mildly funny and supremely amusing. It was a well-acted and clever, kick-ass journey into an almost believable world where superheroes exist.
I rate this movie an 8 on a scale of 1-10.
Buy, rent, or run? Buy.
The Call (2013)
The Call (2013)
Before watching this film, I had assumed that it was rated PG-13. After watching the movie, I’m a little surprised that it was actually rated R. If it had been tweaked ever so slightly, I think that it probably could have gotten the PG-13 rating. I’m a little surprised that they would not have wanted to attract more of the teenage audience to this movie. It seems like so many other films these days go for that lighter rating to try to get the teeny boppers into the seats. Quite honestly, after learning of the rating right before the movie started, it actually made me raise my expectations of the quality of the film because of the genre.
The Call is a thriller about a 911 operator (Halle Berry) that makes a careless mistake while on an emergency phone call that causes the situation to end badly. Consumed by guilt and anxiety, she struggles to hold it together in order to perform her job. Time passes and one day the operator takes a call from a girl that has been kidnapped (Abigail Breslin). Determined not to make the same mistake again, the operator does everything in her power to try to help the girl on the other end of the line. She soon realizes that there is a link between the 2 emergency calls.
The film is directed by Brad Anderson and the rest of the noteworthy cast includes Morris Chestnut, Michael Eklund, Michael Imperioli, Justina Machado, and Jose Zuniga.
I held off from seeing this movie in theatres because I wasn’t sure if it would be worth my time. I can usually give or take Berry. Breslin is a talented young actress, but the movie looked a little B-rated. What sparked my interest however, was Anderson’s involvement. He has shown us that he is capable of excellence with his film The Machinist (2004). With that being said, even though The Call looked questionable, I knew that it would at least be well-made.
The film did not allow for much character development. It was not the type of movie that required quality acting. Anderson makes up for this with quality filmmaking. The events that occur in the film were made intense enough to keep my attention throughout. The soundtrack helps to make the movie seem more fast-paced than it really is. Because the film is kept at a relatively fast pace for its entirety, it helps you to forgive and forget the aspects of the movie that are lacking. Bravo to the director for knowing what was necessary to make this B-rated film watch-able.
The film is a little predictable, but it will still suck you in.
I rate this movie a 7 on a scale of 1-10.
Buy, rent, or run? Rent.
R.I.P.D. (2013)
R.I.P.D. (2013)
To me, this film appeared like it would have a lot of similarities to Men in Black (1997). Instead of a police force that protects the earth from aliens, R.I.P.D. has a police force that protects the earth from the dead. The dead people in R.I.P.D. wear human body suits and hide out among the living, sort of like the aliens in MIB. Interestingly enough, the dead people in R.I.P.D. and the aliens in MIB are monsters that appear very much alike. The futuristic guns in each film look like they are all part of the same family. Each movie has old grumpy veterans of the force that are tasked with training the new recruit. Hollywood continues to recycle the same ideas. They twist them around a bit and feed them back to us again on the silver screen.
R.I.P.D. is a buddy-cop comedy with a twist. Instead of simply just trying to protect and serve, Roy (Jeff Bridges) and Nick (Ryan Reynolds) are deceased cops who try to protect the living from the dead as part of the Rest in Peace Department. After 15 years on the force, Boston cop Nick is tragically murdered in the line of duty. Instead of going to heaven, he gets stopped along the way and recruited to become a member of the R.I.P.D. He gets paired with Roy, an R.I.P.D. veteran. Roy shows Nick the ropes, but Nick is only interested in investigating his own murder.
The film is directed by Robert Schwentke and the rest of the noteworthy cast includes Kevin Bacon, Mary-Louise Parker, Stephanie Szostak, Marisa Miller, James Hong, Devin Ratray, and Robert Knepper.
Even with the thought of basically already seeing this movie 3 times before, I expected it to be funnier than it actually was. Reynolds humor is usually pretty sarcastically witty. Pairing him with Bridges in a cowboy-like character, I thought that I might die laughing. This was not the case however. There was a touch of cleverness that caused a little bit of deserved laughter, but the comedy was mostly just not there.
All of the actors were likable, but the film was desperately lacking originality. The story was highly predictable and very convenient. I felt like there was not enough of a back story to the Rest in Peace Department itself and why the dead were trying to invade the earth. It was hardly explained why the department existed and why the dead were able to come back to earth. There were just tons of holes in the storyline that were completely overlooked by the characters. Apparently the viewers were also supposed to overlook these flaws and just go with it. I did that, but it made the film less enjoyable.
Overall, you can expect a few laughs and a bit of entertainment. It’s also pretty funny and sad to see what Buzz (Devin Ratray) from Home Alone (1990) has become.
I rate this movie a 6.5 on a scale of 1-10.
Buy, rent, or run? Rent.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)
X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)
With the release of The Wolverine (2013) this weekend, I thought that it was about time that I watched X-Men Origins: Wolverine. I have seen all of the other X-Men movies and I used to watch the cartoon as a kid, so I’m not sure why I waited so long to watch this movie.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine tells the story of Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) as a child and his earlier life prior to the other X-Men films. Wolverine and his brother Victor Creed (Liev Schreiber), both mutants, are forced to leave home together at a young age. They fight through a number of wars together until they are recruited by Colonel Stryker (Danny Huston) to become part of an elite unit made up of all mutants. Eventually Wolverine disagrees with what the unit stands for and decides to leave. He moves away, falls in love with a woman, and leads a simple life. Time passes and Wolverine’s life gets turned upside down when his old unit wants him back.
The film was directed by Gavin Hood and the rest of the noteworthy cast includes Ryan Reynolds, Kevin Durand, Will.i.am, Taylor Kitsch, Daniel Henney, and Dominic Monaghan.
After watching this film, I am sort of kicking myself for not watching it sooner. It does an excellent job of showing where Wolverine came from and why he is the way that he is in the other films. After the movie, I gained a greater respect for Jackman and his Wolverine character.
This is my favorite X-Men movie so far. What I especially liked about the film is that it concentrated on the life of one of the X-Men instead of overflowing the movie with tons of mutant characters with too many stories to go around. This made it possible for greater character development and helped to create a more meaningful story. Of course, there are a number of X-Men characters in the film, but they didn’t try to tell the story of each one of them.
Gambit/Remy LeBeau was one of my favorite X-Men characters when I was a kid, and it was fun to finally see his character in a live action film.
Jackman and Schreiber both brought a level of fierce intensity to their characters that were very exciting to watch. This, in conjunction with the solid supporting performance by Huston and the film’s awesome special effects helped to make X-Men Origins: Wolverine the sharpest X-Men movie in the box.
I rate this movie an 8.5 on a scale of 1-10.
Buy, rent, or run? Buy.
Click on the link below to see a picture and read about the time when my wife and I and some friends got into a fight with Wolverine and Iron Man.
We Got Into a Fight with Wolverine and Iron Man
Note: Jackman and Schreiber were both in Kate & Leopold (2001) together.
If you enjoyed X-Men Origins: Wolverine, then you will probably like The Wolverine (2013).
Red 2 (2013)
Red 2 (2013)
After how awesome Red (2010) was, I thought for sure that Red 2 could never live up to its predecessor.
Frank Moses (Bruce Willis) is a retired CIA agent who cannot seem to stay retired from mayhem. In this sequel to Red (2010), Moses bands together with a group of friends who also happen to be misfit murderers, in order to try to track down a missing nuke.
The film was directed by Dean Parisot and the rest of the noteworthy cast includes John Malkovich, Mary-Louise Parker, Helen Mirren, Anthony Hopkins, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Byung-hun Lee, Neal McDonough, David Thewlis, Tim Pigott Smith, and Brian Cox.
In Red (2010) Malkovich completely stole the show. He was quirky and hilarious. He was the reason why the movie was so funny and probably the biggest contributor to its success. I assumed that I was in for a disappointment when I walked into Red 2. How could they possibly top the original? I think that I was not alone with this question because Red 2 did not do as well in theatres as it should have over the weekend.
Rarely does a sequel ever top the original and rarely is a sequel ever as good as the original. Well folks, I am here to tell you that Red 2 is almost as good as the original, if not as good. The acting was excellent, the action was thrilling, and the movie was hysterical.
I’m not sure how they pulled it off, but John Malkovich was just as funny in Red 2 as he was in Red. He might have even been funnier.
Zeta-Jones, Hopkins, and McDonough were all nice additions to the already spectacular cast.
The chemistry between Willis and Parker was priceless. There is a lot more humor between the duo now that their characters are an established couple.
The film was fast-paced and everything flowed nicely. It was all quick and to the point with never a dull moment. It might just be the action/comedy of the year.
If you thought that Red was great, do yourself a favor and go out and see Red 2. As sequels go, this one does not disappoint.
I rate this movie a 9 on a scale of 1-10.
Buy, rent, or run? Buy.
If you liked Red 2, then you will probably enjoy:
White House Down (2013)
White House Down (2013)
I expected White House Down to be basically the same movie as Olympus Has Fallen (2013). Besides the actors, almost everything about each film looked very similar. It is very weird to me that two movies that are so much alike would be released the same year and so close to one another. For some reason I got it in my mind that White House Down was going to be the ugly cousin of Olympus Has Fallen.
White House Down follows a former military man (Channing Tatum) who brings his daughter with him to the White House where he managed to get a job interview to try to become a Secret Service Agent. He brings his daughter along with him to the White House because she is a huge fan of the President (Jamie Foxx). While there, they decide to take a tour. During the tour the White House is attacked and the man does what he can to protect his daughter and the President.
The film was directed by Roland Emmerich and the rest of the noteworthy cast includes Maggie Gyllenhaal, James Woods, Jason Clarke, Richard Jenkins, Joey King, Nicolas Wright, Jimmi Simpson, Michael Murphy, Rachelle Lefevre, Lance Reddick, Matt Craven, and Kevin Rankin.
This movie surprised me. It exceeded my expectations. I liked it a little bit better than Olympus Has Fallen. It was not quite as predictable as Olympus Has Fallen and I felt that the actors did a better job. Also, it seemed like White House Down had fewer flaws than Olympus Has Fallen.
The film was intense and exciting. The attack on the White House was eerily realistic. There was a lot of good action. As with most action movies, some of the action was a bit unbelievable at times. But, for the most part, this didn’t take away from the film.
Tatum was likable as he usually is. Foxx was better than I thought he would be as the President. When the two teamed up together, they were both pretty entertaining and even funny at times.
The rest of the actors played their parts well. Besides Tatum and Foxx, Woods and Jenkins stood out above the rest.
Overall, White House Down is a fun ride worth taking.
I rate this movie an 8 on a scale of 1-10.
Buy, rent, or run? Buy.
If you liked White House Down (2013), then you will probably enjoy the following movies:
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