Posts Tagged ‘Russia’
Resident Evil Retribution: Review
Directed once again by Paul W.S Anderson and starring Milla Jovovich, this movie picks up exactly where Afterlife left off. Alice ends up being captured by the Umbrella Corporation and taken to a secret facility where they intend to do further tests on her. Albert Wesker, who no longer is affiliated with Umbrella after the resurgence of The Red Queen, sends in a special operative named Ada Wong to help Alice escape. Its discovered that the facility that she is being held is underwater in the Antarctic and a special group of soldiers (also sent by Wesker) are being sent in to guide them back to the surface. Their only opportunity to survive is to make their way back to the surface and escape the underwater tomb.
I’ve been a fan of most of the Resident Evil films but this one just didn’t make the cut. The start of this movie showed what happened after the previous film ended……but in reverse and in slow motion. Then they showed the whole sequence again in regular speed. This seemed to be nothing more than a time killer and a waste of 10 minutes of the movie. After that Alice proceeded to retell the whole story of the outbreak from the very beginning again. I think after four movies (and seeing the same thing in each one) we as an audience know how everything began and I felt like this was a waste of another 10 minutes. All it felt like was a recycled film. They pulled everything from the previous movies (and stuff from the games) and pulled them together to make this one. Sounds harsh but it’s entirely true. They’ve taken this franchise and turned it into something different. Sure they include characters from the game to make you feel like it’s Resident Evil but it’s definitely not Resident Evil anymore. I LOVE zombie movies and I was really disappointed that the zombies were really not even the focus. They showed up here and there but were quickly defeated and pushed aside. I think the ultimate bad move was the inclusion of military zombies that drove vehicles, shot guns and rode motorcycles. In my opinion they were trying to capitalize on the whole Call of Duty Zombies craze. Every fight scene was in slow motion and had too much wire work. I mean how many times can you see Alice do a triple back flip then kick a zombie in the head and still say “I totally believe that could happen”. The dialogue was horribly written and extremely cheesy. It just made everyone seem so robotic. Anderson just needs to stop making these movies, wait a few years and let the studio reboot it or something. It’s gone too far. It was entertaining in moments but those moments weren’t enough to make this a hit for me. I say watch it if you must but I would call this a “wait for Redbox or Cable” kind of movie. It’s a shame too.
The Darkest Hour: Review
Emile Hirsch stars in this sci-fi/action movie about a pair of friends that take a business trip to Moscow Russia. When the deal goes sour the decide to go out on the town to drown their sorrows. As the evening progresses and they leave an establishment, they see glowing alien creatures coming from the sky that soon turn invisible. As the surrounding citizens get closer to inspect the creatures they find out quickly that they didn’t come in peace. Now all that matters is their survival and to find how to stop them.
I enjoyed this flick quite a bit. I think mainly because I’m a big fan of sci-fi movies. This isn’t the best sci-fi movie I’ve seen but it was still pretty interesting. The fact that the threat is invisible added a certain amount of suspense to it as well. The aliens themselves were unique also. They weren’t seen at all for the most part but when they were revealed their look was a cross between the aliens from Independance Day and a some sort of glowing ball of energy (sorry, that’s the best I could come up with….lol). At times it did kind of feel like a big budget SyFy Original movie but I think the thing that did keep it afloat was Emile Hirsch. His acting ability really did help make this movie enjoyable as well and I thought he did really good in an action environment. Too bad there wasn’t a sweet Eddie Vedder sountrack to go along with it (I kid, I kid). This movie had a very ambitious ending and left it open to a sequel but I think thats asking for a little too much. Either way, if you dig alien invasion movies then it won’t hurt to “Redbox” it and give this a view.
Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol: Review
This is fourth installment of the Mission Impossible series directed by Brad Bird and starring Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt. Hunt’s IMF (Impossible Missions Force) team is recruited to retrieve files from the Kremlin in Moscow that contain information about someone named “Cobalt”. In the midst of their mission their position is given away by someone that has broadcasted the teams’ radio frequency to personnel within the Kremlin. As Hunt and his team quickly escape, a bomb is detonated that completely destroys the building and implicates the US in the attack. Russia sees it as an “act of war” and in doing that causes the President of the United States to implement “Ghost Protocol” which is a black ops contingency plan that disavows all knowledge of the IMF and makes them take the blame. It’s now up to them to find a way to clear their names and figure out what Cobalt has to do with all of this.
I was a big fan of the very first film. The second and third ones didn’t really do it for me so I always held the first one to be my favorite. MIGP I feel really brought it back to what the series started with, lots of action and lots of twists and turns. This one was super enjoyable from start to finish and had everything you wanted in a spy movie. The action scenes are intense with my favorite being the building climb in Dubai. You can’t have a Mission Impossible movie without cool gadgets (just like a 007 flick) and it definitely had its share of them including a really kick ass projector (you must see it to realize what I mean). Tom Cruise makes being a secret agent seem like a walk in the park. So much so that it starts to make you wonder about the man (I’m kidding………….or am I?). He has to be some sort of genetically engineered being or something because this guy does all or most of his own stunts. I mean it gives great credibility to the movie but damn that’s crazy. Jeremy Renner really shined in this movie and was neck and neck with Cruise the whole way as far as “action star appeal”. There were rumors circulating at one point that Renner would be Cruise’s successor in this franchise but those reports were quickly shot down and after seeing MIGP I could see why one would think that. Simon Pegg can really do no wrong in my book. He was great as the Intel guy of the group and of course provided some of the comic relief as well. This man can go from low-budget comedies to big-budget action flicks without even missing a step whatsoever. The stunning Paula Patton was the female ass kicker of the group and did exactly that. She did that left and right throughout the movie and looked great doing it. I’m hoping that when/if the decide to do an MI5 that they keep this team together and keep somewhat of the same formula that they have. Like they say: If it aint broke, don’t try and fix it. You gotta see it!
