Brooklyn’s Finest
Brooklyn’s Finest is a hardcore drama detailing the lives of three unconnected policemen of differing positions that eventually end up in the same place. The lives of these men lead them to a place of desperation, depression and anger where death is a welcome escape to the lives they live. Director Antoine Fuqua, the man behind the scenes in Training Day brings us back to this familiar... [Read more]
Shutter Island
After being bombarded by the trailer to Shutter Island for months now I was elated at the chance of watching it and putting the whole thing behind me. Not because I expected it to be bad… hell it has Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio and Sir Ben Kingsley, I just wanted the trailers to finally go away. Shutter Island ended up being nothing like the trailers suggested, it was a journey through... [Read more]
Red Cliff (2008)
Director John Woo’s Red Cliff is a dramatically poetic movie based on Romance of the Three Kingdoms a historical novel written by Luo Guonzhang. If you aren’t familiar with the Three Kingdoms story – it chronicles the ambitions of three men, love and the wonderful Generals that followed their lead. The three men are Liu Bei, Sun Quan, and Cao Cao. While Liu Bei is often depicted... [Read more]
Edge of Darkness
I’ve come to the conclusion that Mel Gibson and violence are never without each other in movies. Now typically when you see the word action as part of a movie genre, you assume that there will be a bit of blood, people getting shot and a lot of fighting. Having followed Mel through his years as Mad Max to his direction of The Passion and We Were Soldiers, I have learnt to expect a harsher... [Read more]
The Lovely Bones
A girl dies by the hands of a serial killer who lives next door to her house. We are shown the aftermath of this tragedy through the ghostly eyes of that little girl herself as she observes life moving on without her in it. Fans of the book by Alice Sebold will absolutely hate this movie and demand the firstborn of Peter Jackson for sacrifice. Going into The Lovely Bones I had no idea what... [Read more]
The Book of Eli
When you go in to see The Book of Eli you probably will do so with an empty slate, unless you have dug up the plot and secrets from an online source or big mouthed friend. The trailers don’t give us much, we just know there is a book and Denzel Washington cutting down bad guys on a barren landscape. The draw for this movie as opposed to my article on A-list actors not filling seats, is... [Read more]
Daybreakers
It always feels good to see writers shoot for a different twist to the over-saturated vampire genre. 2009 while being a positive year for movies in general, was also a bad year for monster movies as the popularity of the Twilight series spawned a ton of badly written scripts in the form of would-be vampire flicks. As a fan myself of the classic novels and the movies that followed –... [Read more]
Blood and Bone
Straight to DVD action movies all have a common theme that the people who rent/purchase them accept over the outsiders that scoff at them. The theme that I am referring to is the “action over everything else” mainstay. Steven Seagal and Jean Claude Van Damme made a mint from these films in the early 90s and a small but dedicated fan-base (myself included) continue to support them.... [Read more]
Brothers (2009)
Brothers is the 2nd War themed movie of 2009 to emphasize the human psyche over guts and glory. Where Mel Gibson’s We Were Soldiers faltered at bringing home the sense of loss and devastation that the wives and mothers endure during wartime, Jim Sheridan nails it by keeping it personal in this film. There are no glorious shootouts, or supermen taking out hundreds with a pistol through... [Read more]
Ninja Assassin
Do you like Ninjas? Do you like kickass choreography, ninja magic and shredded karateka performing the stunts in concert? Then you just might like Ninja Assassin, the latest kickback to the 80s after skinny jeans, embarrassing spandex clothing and forgettable music… okay I kid, I kid. Ninja Assassin reminded me of the old Sho Kosugi movies like Pray for Death, Nine Deaths of a Ninja and... [Read more]
Where the Wild Things Are
With probably one of the most unique and intoxicating soundtracks combined with a bizarre story and excellent voice acting, Where the Wild Things Are will easily become a classic. Though I found Max (Max Records) to be an impossibly spoilt little brat at the beginning, the kid grew on me and when he finally started interacting with his furry, imaginary buddies I began to really like him.... [Read more]
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Like it’s name, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford will be misunderstood as being too long, too historical or too boring. If you ever read a review that uses the word boring to completely discredit a movie without any explanations why, you should probably stop reading. What I saw in this movie, was a masterpiece of excellent acting, stunning visuals and incredible... [Read more]
