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Jun 7, 2010

Mass Movie Reviews – Legion

Last, but not least, on the list is the newly released film Legion, starring Paul Bettany, Adrianne Palicki, Lucas Black and Kevin Durand. (Getting a lot of work lately, isn't Kevin? Great to see a fellow Canuck doing well!)


Jeep (Black) is a young man who's grown up in the middle of nowhere at a dusty diner owned by his dad, played by Dennis Quaid. Charlie (Palicki) has grown up with Jeep and now works as a waitress at the diner while waiting to give birth to her baby. Their lives revolve around the few customers they get, though Jeep's centers even more on Charlie and his long held unspoken love for her. This is all they know...until one day, a very strange and creepy old woman walks into the diner, heralding much worse things to come.

Legion is pretty much your classic christian biblical apocalypse story where the lives of everyone in the world hang in the balance. Deeds and decisions made by a small group holed up in the diner, led and protected by a man known only as Michael who arrived with a small arsenal in his car, are what will decide the fate of all humanity. Simple, classical story, recognizable characters and an easy to follow plot create a fairly enjoyable film. The biggest weakness lies in much of the dialogue, which comes across cheesy and pointless at times. The fight scenes are fantastic, though, and coupled with nearly flawless, highly detailed, CGI. If the same eye for detail had gone over the dialogue before it was filmed, this would be not just a decent film but a really good one.

Most people could probably wait to see this when it comes out on DVD but if you're looking for something different to see at the cinema and, like me, REALLY have no interest in Sex in the City 2 then I would recommend this as an interesting alternative. It's one of those films to just sit back and enjoy with a big box of popcorn and some friends, no thinking required.

Legion

Mass Movie Reviews – Prince of Persia

Okay, the day after the comic book based film, I went and saw the video game based film. Yes, it was a busy week.

While I'm a long time fan of video games in general and can get quite addicted to them from time to time, there are some games that I have never played or that just slipped through the cracks. One of them is the Prince of Persia series of games, so going into the film I knew very little about the franchise and even less about the story. This didn't stop me from getting into the film from the very beginning and definitely didn't stop me from enjoying it. The visuals were amazing and flawless and the story interesting. They kept the story fairly simple because the concentration was obviously on the action and visuals but it was still an interesting story with enjoyable characters and an ending that was somewhat unexpected.

The film centers around Dastan (Jake Gyllenhal), a young man who was adopted into the Persian royal family when he was a poor orphan living on the streets. At the time, the King saw something special in the boy and chose to raise him with his other two sons. What happens because of that decision, the interaction of the brothers and their choices in life are much of the main idea that threads though the story. Along the way, Dastan meets Tamina (Gemma Arterton) who is princess of another country and guardian of a very special treasure.

The way Dastan moves and fights makes it really easy to see that this was based on a game and not reality but it's really fun to watch and pulls you in very quickly. It actually reminded me of the real life sport called Parkour (aka Freerunning). The shots are clean and the CGI quite good with only the occasional 'shaky cam' shot to annoy the hell out of me. Hollywood has become far too enamored of that technique in order to both convey action and movement and hide any flaws in the CGI or the stunts. I keep hoping that film makers will realize that we have steady cams for a reason but so far, no luck.

Again, in all, an over all enjoyable film and definitely worth seeing in the cinemas rather than waiting for it to be out on DVD. The action sequences alone are great on the big screen!



Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Mass Movie Reviews – The Losers

The next film on the list definitely went a different direction.

Simply called The Losers, this is a story based on a series of recent comic books...that were based on a series of OLD comic books! It involves a special ops team, five men of very different and very specialized skills, who have been betrayed by their handler, Max, while in Bolivia on a mission. Clay (Jeffery Dean Morgan) is the leader of the team and the man with the plans, Roque (Idris Elba) his ruthless second in command, Jensen (Chris Evans) is the techie and computer geek, Pooch (Columbus Short) the laid back pilot with a touch for anything that moves and Cougar (Oscar Jaenada) the sniper in a cowboy hat.

They are believed to be dead after the mission blows up in their faces and they go into hiding, but the thought of getting home, and getting revenge, is never far from their minds. They are given the chance at both when a strange woman named Aisha (Zoe Saldana) shows up and says she can, essentially, hand them Max on a silver platter. Of course, things don't go quite according to plan and no one is ever exactly who they seem.

Someone going into this film expecting a serious film is going to be really disappointed. It's comic book fights mixed with comic book humor and cheesy one liners delivered by a series of somewhat kooky characters. But it's a really fun film and completely entertaining if you don't go in with any expectations besides looking for entertainment and some laughs. Yes, you can very easily draw some major similarities between this and the upcoming A-Team remake but it also has a lot of differences and is still a good film to watch. Actually, anyone who is a fan of the A-Team, or humorous action films in general, should really get a kick out of this. Personally, I'm going to add it to my DVD collection.

One word of caution...I hope you like the song 'Don't Stop Believing' by Journey because it's fairly major in the soundtrack and you WILL come out of the cinema with this lovely little earworm firmly lodged in your brain. :)


The Losers

Mass Movie Reviews – Robin Hood

In the last couple weeks, I have had the opportunity to watch quite a few of the new films out in the cinemas so I thought now would be a good time to do a review of each of them in a series of mass postings. I want to be able to put my thoughts down while I can still remember!

There have been four films, so I will start with the oldest and work my way through them. Easier that way.

First film was the new Robin hood film starring Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett. I didn't know a great deal about the film going in because I wanted to keep as open a mind about it as possible. It's always hard when a classic story is remade again because all of the previous versions you have seen or read tend to color the film. The first thing to strike me about it, though, was “Oh, thank goodness...no tights!” Sure, I have a personal bias regarding costume authenticity but I think everyone can agree that the previous incarnations of Robin Hood, and many of its similar themed stories, all had problems regarding accuracy of costume. This one looked good, it looked REAL. A die hard medieval recreationalist or such would be able to tell you the dozens of problems still left in each outfit, but it had a much more true feel to the look of the sets and the clothing on each character.

Which is good since the story itself seemed to be an attempt at accuracy in itself as well. It reminded me a bit of the recent King Arthur film, starring Clive Owen. The story takes place somewhat before the usual story, before Robin has taken his band to Sherwood forest. Robin Longstride (Crowe) is in the Middle East, assisting his king in his current crusade. King Richard is older, worn out but still fighting but also considering a return home. Home to a place filled with unrest, where the people are broke from paying for the crusade and the French are, as always, eyeing off the country for conquest. Robin Longstride, a long bowman, and his men do return to England, where his life becomes entwined with that of the Locksley family. The way they bring the two together, the different real men believed as possible basis for the Robin Hood of legend, is really well done and pulls together a very complete and interesting story.

There are, of course, plenty of sword fights and archery, some romantic moments between Marion (Blanchett) and Robin, behind the scenes plots and the always hated Sheriff of Nottingham. I love that they also managed to mix in some great moments of humor and some of the most recognized members of Robin's band, namely Little John (Kevin Durand), Will Scarlet (Scott Grimes), Allan A'Dayle (Alan Doyle) and Friar Tuck (Mark Addy).

The film closes with his entrance into Sherwood Forest as Robin of the Hood and finishes nicely, while still leaving space should they chose to continue the story with the more classic portion of the tale. In all, it's a film a would definitely recommend to fans of the story or those who just wanted a night out with a great film. It's not perfect and different people are bound to have different issues with the film, but I found it thoroughly enjoyable.

Robin Hood