Reviews

Godzilla

Starring: Matthew Broderick, Jean Reno, Maria Pitillo, Kevin Dunn, Hank Azaria, Vicki Lewis, Harry Shearer and Malcolm Denare

Genre: Action/Sci-Fi/Thriller

Rated: PG-13

This is another movie that a lot of people and critics have bashed on but once again I disagree. The movie is about Nick Tatopolous (Matthew Broderick) who mainly studies earthworms until the government reassigns him to an even bigger (and I do mean bigger) assignment than earthworms and that is the footprints of a giant lizard that attacked some Japanese ships. Of course the lizard turns out to be not other than Godzilla which ends up running out and causing havoc in New York. So now it's up to Nick Tatopolous, The Government, Philippe Roache (Jean Reno) and his French organization to stop Godzilla. Now I have never seen any of the original Godzilla movies (the ones that were made from Japan) but from looking at the original Godzilla, this one doesn't have the same characteristics as the original, the original Godzilla breathes fire and is invincible and this one in the movie doesn't breathe fire and is weaker since he gets shot down by missiles when the only thing that can defeat him is another monster. But I most say that I take the design of Godzilla in this movie more serious than the original Godzilla because this Godzilla looks cool and the original Godzilla to me looks funny looking. I didn't like the fact that they made this Godzilla lay eggs because male lizards cannot lay eggs and the whole egg bit was just an excuse for Roland Emmerich to copy off of Jurassic Park instead of staying true to the character. I did think it was funny that this movie spoofed Siskel & Ebert (even though I like Siskel & Ebert) which Roland Emmerich did because they have never gave thumbs up to any of his movies, but Roland didn't even take advantage of this joke and even Gene Siskel mentioned that Roland Emmerich should've taken advantage of putting the critics in this movie. I also thought some of the dialogue in this movie could have been way better but other than that everything else is alright. The movie even had a surviving egg at the end that was going to set it up for a sequel but it never happened due to all the negative reviews. I would've liked to see a sequel to this movie but at least I'm glad that they continued this movie in a cartoon series which was good. Overall just decent popcorn entertainment.

Punisher: War Zone

Starring: Ray Stevenson, Dominic West, Wayne Knight, Doug Hutchinson, Julie Benz, Larry Day and Colin Salmon

Genre: Action/Drama/Crime/Thriller

Rated: R

When I heard about another Punisher movie and they recast The Punisher with Ray Stevenson, I had mixed feelings of whether or not to go see this movie. Because I liked the 2004 Punisher movie, that had Thomas Jane playing the title character and I was disappointed that they recast him with someone who I never even heard of. So anyway this movie isn't a sequel to the 2004 movie, because it has no connection at all to the 2004 one, so it's separate to it, a reboot. Anyway, the movie shows some flashbacks of how Frank Castle (Ray Stevenson) became The Punisher, but the movie takes place six years after he became The Punisher. So The Punisher is now after a gangster named Billy Russoti (Dominic West) after taking down another crime family, but while The Punisher is after him he kills an undercover FBI agent and disfigures Billy making him become Jigsaw. The FBI hires Paul Budiansky (Colin Salmon) to join The Punisher Task Force, which basically is a department in the FBI that's trying to bring in The Punisher of course. Frank Castle decides he wants to retire from being The Punisher until Jigsaw starts recruiting a massive army of mobsters, gangsters and psychotic killers. All the fight scenes are all the same everyone gets blown up and or stabbed to where you just want to feel grossed out, the last one was pretty violent but this one is just pushing the limits. Ray Stevenson does a terrible job as The Punisher and has completely ruined it! Originally this was supposed to be a sequel to the 2004 movie but then Jonathan Hensleigh (the director of the 2004 Punisher) dropped out for some reason and was replaced by Lexi Alexander who kicked Thomas Jane off the project and changed this movie completely! This movie is not worthy at all! The acting is terrible, half the dialogue is weak and it was all just an excuse to have a lot of blood shed and scenes were they blow stuff up! Overall, this movie sucks and I will take The Punisher with Thomas Jane anytime.

W.

Starring: Josh Brolin, James Cromwell, Elizabeth Banks, Thandie Newton, Jeffrey Wright, Richard Dreyfuss, Ioan Gruffudd, Jason Ritter, Jesse Bradford and Rob Corddry

Genre: Biography/Drama

Rated: PG-13

Honestly, I don't know why I'm giving this movie a review but I feel that I might as well do review it anyway. Basically the movie is of course about George Walker Bush's (Josh Brolin) life and career. The only reason I saw this movie is because I thought it would be sort of interesting even though I hate George Bush with the freaking passion and because I wanted to see how Oliver Stone put this movie in prospective. Plus I also heard not only was this movie supposed to be serious but also a dark comedy, but when I watched the movie they took the movie to seriously and didn't see anything funny about it and not even the audience was laughing. The only funny things that are funny about George Bush is when comedians are making fun of him in sketch comedy TV shows. Now the casting for the movie was passable, Josh Brolin did a good job as George Bush and Richard Dreyfuss did an alright Dick Cheney but Robert Duvall I think would have a better Dick Cheney. The main reason why I found this movie boring is because Oliver Stone has this habit with biography movies where he'll start off with a further event, then go back to a past event, then back to a further event, then a past event and well you get the idea. What I'm trying to say is that Oliver Stone didn't put the events in chronological order like every other biography movies. Also felt that Oliver Stone made this movie too soon since Bush was still in office. If Oliver Stone is going to make anymore movies about certain people or certain events he needs to wait for few years to where it's not too soon and putting the events in chronological order! I will say this though, I did like the part where it showed George Bush Sr (James Cromwell) lose to Bill Clinton in one of the past flashback scenes but I say that because Bill Clinton was the last good president and that I vote democrat most of the time. Overall, boring and Oliver Stone really needs to take a break from making movies about certain events (like "World Trade Center") and certain people (like this movie) because he keeps making them soon for their time and if he wants to win an Oscar for movies like this he must wait.

I watched the pilot to this show and I was easily hooked in the first 5 minutes into it. Basically the show takes place of the events of "Terminator 2: Judgement Day" and revolves around Sarah Connor, John Connor (the future leader of the resistance) and Cameron (protector of Sarah and John) when they ended up in the year 2007 and they're fighting off Terminator robots as they fight for the future of the resistance. The plots to this show are good as well as the acting and this show has potential to go far, that is if FOX keeps this show on for while instead of canceling like every other good show. I just like a lot of these futuristic resistance fighter shows.

Batman Begins

Starring: Christian Bale, Katie Holmes, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Gary Oldman, Cillian Murphy and Morgan Freeman

Genre: Action/Adventure/Crime/Thriller

Rated: PG-13

I thought the last Batman movie sucked and after that it was a while until one day I saw a poster for this movie and I wasn't sure if this movie had any connection to any of the Batman movies from the 90's until I found out it was a reboot. Anyway, the movie basically a darker story of how Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) became Batman and brought justice to the corrupted Gotham City and takes down Scarecrow (Cillian Murphy). I like these newer Batman movies better than the 90's movies because these newer movies for these following reasons:

1.) Darker story

2.) Actually follows the comic books (for example, like in the Tim Burton movies, Bruce Wayne's parents were killed by The Joker when in the comic books Bruce Wayne's parents were really killed by some street thug)

3.) These newer Batman movies make the 90's movies look like cartoons

4.) Better cast (Christian Bale is excellent and so is Michael Caine)

Christian Bale has to be the best Batman ever to this day and age! I'll definitely choose this newer Batman movie over any of the 90's movies anytime!

Iron Man

Starring: Robert Downey Jr, Terrence Howard, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges, Paul Bettany, Leslie Bibb and a brief appearance by Samuel L. Jackson

Genre: Action/Adventure/Drama/Sci-Fi/Thriller

Rated: PG-13

Iron Man has definitely matched up to the same amount of success as the "X-Men" and "Spider-Man" franchises. So basically this movie about billionaire playboy Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) who is known for designing weapons under Stark Industries. Tony Stark gets captured in Afghanistan while demonstrating a weapon and builds an iron suit to escape and later builds a new suit to fight crime becoming Iron Man and to stop Obadiah Stone/Iron Monger (Jeff Bridges). Robert Downey Jr does an excellent job as Tony Stark, I can't think of anyone else that would have done a better job for this role. Well at one point Tom Cruise was going to play Tony Stark until he turned it down, what a relief because if he went ahead did the movie it would've sucked which is why I think Robert Downey Jr was a better choice. At the end of the movie, if you may close attention you'll see Samuel L Jackson appear as Nick Fury. I definitely can't wait for Iron Man 2!

Batman & Robin

Starring: George Clooney, Chris O'Donnell, Alicia Silverstone, Uma Thurman, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Gough, Pat Hingle and Elle Macpherson

Genre: Action/Crime/Thriller

Rated: PG-13

OK the first 2 Batman movies were good, the third one with Val Kilmer was OK but this movie is the straw that broke the camel's back. OK so in this movie, Batman (George Clooney) and Robin (Chris O'Donnell) are now going up against Mr. Freeze (Arnold Schwarzenegger) who is trying to turn Gotham City into an iceberg with the help of Poison Ivy (Uma Thurman). After the first battle with Freeze, Batman and Robin's partnership becomes tense to the point where they try to battle out by going their separate ways. This movie includes the debut of Batgirl (Alicia Silverstone), the one thing that they missed up is that in this movie that said that Batgirl is Alfred's niece when in the comic books Batgirl is the daughter of Commissioner James Gordon. I also thought that this movie concentrated more on special effects, bad casting and cheesy one liners instead of focusing more on better writing and a better plot. What they thinking by casting George Clooney as Batman!? Same with Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mr. Freeze when Patrick Stewart or Anthony Hopkins would've been a better choice for the role. I also remember reading that there would've been a sequel to this film called "Batman Triumphant" which was canceled due to the fact that this movie was a box-office failure, if they went a ahead and did a sequel to this movie they would've dug a deeper hole which was why it was best to put 80's - 90's Batman movies to rest.

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift

Starring: Lucas Black, Bow Wow, Zachary Bryan and Brian Tee

Genre: Action/Crime/Drama

Rated: PG-13

I'm a big fan of "The Fast and the Furious" movies but this movie totally ruined it! Now from what I've read is that the next " The Fast and the Furious" movie that comes out in Summer 2009, is supposed to be a prequel to this movie. But why didn't they have this movie be the 4th movie instead of the movie that actually followed up from the events that happened in the first 2 movies? It's ridiculous, you can't just start off a movie franchise and then in the middle of making more movies just put the plot events out of order, it doesn't work that way! So I don't think this movie even counts as a part 3, I will consider the next movie to be part 3 but I consider this movie a pointless and worthless piece of crap! Anyway, the story revolves around an American teenager named Shaun Boswell (Lucas Black) is sent to Tokyo to live with his father in order to avoid jail time in America and discovers street racing and now he has to do street racing in the Tokyo underworld in order to find a way to pay his debt. Like I said, I don't even consider this movie to be a part 3 to the first 2 movies. If they're going to do a sequel they have to do it right and not mix up the order of events! This movie sucks!

The Incredible Hulk

Starring: Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, William Hurt, Tim Blake Nelson and Tim Roth including a special appearance by Robert Downey Jr.

Genre: Action/Sci-Fi/Thriller

Rated PG-13

I hated the 2003 Hulk movie, but I'm glad that this movie turned out better and made up for it and not to mention Edward Norton gets to play the title role and you can't go wrong with Edward Norton. Plus this movie got a chance to start the series over again from the right foot considering this movie is a reboot but yet a loose sequel. So basically, Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) is hiding out in Brazil trying to control his anger and finding a cure to get rid of his inner beast while General Ross (William Hurt) is still trying to capture him and trying to stop Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth) as he goes out of control and becomes Abomination. I liked it how this movie decided to take only a few minutes of the movie to show us how Bruce Banner became The Incredible Hulk unlike that 03 movie that took an hour to explain how Bruce became The Incredible Hulk. I also liked how they put in a lot of chase scenes in this movie like the chase scene in Brazil made it look like "The Bourne Identity". Plus the fight scenes were good too and they made a good choice to choose a villain that's more of The Hulk's size and strength. Edward Norton also did a good job writing this movie too, he never fails to do a good movie, I hope he does another Incredible Hulk movie or at least make an appearance in "The Avengers" movie. Not to also mention that Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) gets to make a special appearance. Overall this movie was totally better and made up for the damage that Ang Lee did.