The Informant!

 

Directed by Steven Soderberg and starring Matt Damon, The Informant! is loosely based off a true story from the early 90s about Marc Whitacre, an executive working for one of the worlds largest agri-business, ADM, and his escapades with turning informant  for the FBI. As Whitacre gets more and more entrenched in the idea of being a true ’secret agent’, he becomes snarled the web of lies he’s weaved. 

I found The Informant! really funny at times, and at other times I found it both clever and slow. I have to admit, I started dozing off a bit 3/4 of the way through because I figured out ‘the hook’ to the story less than halfway in and found myself waiting for the movie to just ‘get there.’ I didn’t read anything about Whitacre’s story or any reviews before going in… 

The Informant! is worth seeing if you liked the quirkiness of  ’Arrested Development‘,  Michael Clayton or enjoy fun and interesting dialog and have the patience to sit through it without a lot of action. Great supporting cast including Scott Bakula, Joel McHale [stand up comedian, and host of E!'s 'The Soup' and the new show, 'Community'], and Melanie Lynskey as Whitacre’s wife, Ginger. 

3 out of 5

Add’l Info: Released: Sep 18, 2009 • Runtime: 108 minutes • Rated R for language • Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures via allmoviephoto.com

Programming Note: 10.13.09

It’s been a while since I’ve done a review, but I’m back. Family and personal health issues meant I had a lot less time for the fun stuff like movie reviews.  =)  In order to catch up [I have a LOT of movies to add to this blog from the past several months], I’m going to keep future reviews short and sweet, with just enough info to help you decide if you think you’ll enjoy it or not. If you find I’m not giving enough and would prefer more, just let me know. 

Cheers!
Helena

Review: Terminator Salvation

Sorry for being so absent lately. I’m backed up on writing reviews… life’s been nuts. I figured I’d start with the one we saw this weekend – Terminator Salvation…

Terminator Salvation is the story of a group of resistance fighters, led by John Connor [Bale] after Judgement Day – the day the machines nuked the planet in their quest to annihilate the human race, their struggles to stay alive and to foil a diabolical plot to create a new and improved Terminator prototype… 

To say I was looking forward to this one would be an understatement. Christian Bale and killer robots together = happy me. I’m a fan of the franchise [though T3 wasn't that great, but was still fun as a fan with all the winks and campy nods to the first two movies], and I LOVE the show Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, which has supposedly just been cancelled [but I can't give up hope!]… don’t get me started on that… 

The Good: The visual effects and action sequences were amazing. It was great fun seeing the original Terminator ‘endo-skeleton’ robots in all their menacing, deadly glory looking as life-like as you can get. A far cry from the original stop-motion of the original. There were some really suspenseful sequences that did have me on the edge of my seat. And great performances by Christian Bale as John Connor, Sam Worthington as Markus Wright and Anton Yelchin as Kyle Reese. And a cameo appearance by an old favorite was fun, too. 

The Bad: The story was mediocre and convoluted, the editing was choppy… it felt like something was missing. We found out after that they cut 40 minutes out, so maybe the ‘director’s cut’ will be better. There were some characters in the story that were unnecessary and actually brought down the quality of the whole film. There were subplots that weren’t explored enough to matter, so in the end they were a waste of screen time. The PG rating took away from it to in that it could have been a lot more dark and scary than it turned out to be. 

The Ugly: There were no big twists. They gave almost everything away in the previews. And the ending was over done – they ended up wasting another opportunity for a sequel [if they even make enough money on it to justify another one...]. And – this is something I almost never talk about – but the music didn’t match the movie. Danny Elfman, who is known for composing the soundtracks for Tim Burton and various animated shows and features just wasn’t the right choice to do this score. Rather than keeping it minimal, industrial and creepy, it was big orchestra, distracting and just didn’t jive. The characters while in their separate storylines should have been given their own themes to at least try to pull the movie more together. They could have just taken any instrumental Nine Inch Nails songs and sprinkled them throughout the movie and it would have turned out way better… 

So.. for the robots and effects, Christian Bale and Sam Worthington I give Terminator Salvation…

3 out of 5

Add’l Info: Released: May 21, 2009 • Runtime: 130 minutes • Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action, and language • Photo credit: courtesy of Warner Bros, Inc., via allmoviephoto.com

Programming Note…

I’m in Florida taking care of my mother who had a stroke a few weeks ago… so I haven’t seen any movies in a while – hence the lack of posting. I’m coming back next week and will get caught up with previews and start reviewing again now that the summer blockbuster season is fast approaching! Sorry for the lack of new posts, but finding time to do it while I’m here just isn’t possible. I will be back, though!

Thanks,
Helena

New Trailers & Weekend Box Office for 3.6.09

This weekend while seeing Watchmen, we got to see some newer trailers for a few summer blockbusters. All of them got me WAY more excited for these flicks than their initial teasers did, worth checking out:

Terminator: Salvation: New Trailer
Angels & Demons: New Trailer
Star Trek: New Trailer

There were also some new trailers for movies I hadn’t heard of yet:

Public Enemies, a 1920s Gangster movie starring Christian Bale, Johnny Depp and Marion Cotillard: Official Site
Observe & Report, another ‘mall-cop’ movie starring Seth Rogan, Anna Faris and Ray Liotta: Official Site
The Last House on the Left, a Wes Craven horror remake: Official Site

==========================

And here’s the USA Weekend Box-Office Summary for week of 6 March 2009, courtesy of IMDb.com:

 

Rank		Title	Weekend	Gross
1		Watchmen (2009)	$55.7M	$55.7M
2		Madea Goes to Jail (2009)	$8.8M	$76.5M
3		Taken (2008/I)	$7.45M	$118M
4		Slumdog Millionaire (2008)	$6.92M	$125M
5		Paul Blart: Mall Cop (2009)	$4.2M	$134M
6		He’s Just Not That Into You (2009)	$4.02M	$84.6M
7		Coraline (2009)	$3.31M	$65.7M
8		Confessions of a Shopaholic (2009)	$3.12M	$38.4M
9		Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience (2009)	$2.79M	$16.8M
10		Fired Up! (2009)	$2.6M	$13.4M

Review: Watchmen

“Justice is coming to all of us. No matter what we do.”

We saw Watchmen last night and it was every bit as good as we’d hoped. I started reading the graphic novel, but didn’t get that far, so I can’t give much of a comparison [I'll update when I do get through it if anyone cares...]. For what I did read, the movie followed it pretty closely. Now I’m excited to read the rest to see what they left out and how they actually ended it in the book since I read they went with an alternate ending to cut the runtime down. It’s rumoured that the special edition DVD will be closer to 4 hours long. 

Watchmen is about an alternate 1985 where Nixon is still President, it’s the height of the Cold War, and costumed super-heroes are a thing of the past. When one of them, The Comedian [Jeffrey Dean Morgan] is murdered, fellow costumed vigilante, Rorschach [Jackie Earle Haley], is set on finding out why – and whether the rest of their retired fraternity has anything to worry about. It’s Rorschach’s investigation that leads to a much larger plan. Good or bad, you decide. 

What I loved about this movie were the characters, as well as the parallels to what we’re going through right now with the economy and things heating up with Iran and possibly our old foe, Russia. The darkness of the story actually felt close to home, and my husband and I walked out in deep thought. We both enjoyed it, but it prompted a lot of discussion about what’s going on with us now, both as a nation and globally. 

My favorite character by far was Rorschack, played perfectly by Jackie Earle Haley, with his ever-changing, ink-blot ‘face’, his uncompromising way of life and his brutal efficiency. It took some getting used to Dr. Manhattan [played by Billy Crudup... Warning - he does walk around nude most of the movie so if you're squeemish about radioactive blue full-frontal male nudity, you might think twice about seeing it... I got used to it fairly quickly... kind of like taking life-drawing class. You giggle for a sec and then get down to business and forget you're looking at a nude person... I didn't feel like it took away from anything... it made sense in the context of the movie. I don't get what the problem is with nudity in this country anyway... but that's another discussion].  ;) 

Watchmen is a great story with plenty of stylized visuals, ala Zack Snyder, the man who directed 300, and plenty of fight scenes, action and effects. The characters were well played with a great ensemble cast, and so was the period – the early to mid 80s – between hair, makeup and costumes [superhero and otherwise...]. Everything was over the top back then, and this WAS a graphic novel, and it felt it – in a good way. It’s LONG… so go prepared if you’re seeing it in the theater, clocking in at almost 3 hours. It kept my attention the whole time so it didn’t feel Lord of the Rings III long or anything. lol

4 out of 5

Add’l Info: Released: Mar 6, 2009 • Runtime: 163 mins • Rated R for strong graphic violence, sexuality, nudity and language • Photo credit: © Warner Bros. Pictures via allmoviephotos.com

Review: Taken

“He’ll Find You. And He’ll Kill You.”

Taken was exactly what I wanted it to be: a fast-paced action/drama with a satisfying ending. This movie has a bit of a Ronin feel to it – probably due to the seriousness of it and the European city backdrop. Liam Neesen was terrific – convincing, despite his age and you go the sense that he would do whatever it took to get his daughter back. His character, Bryan Mills’ family life leaves much to be desired – divorced from his wife [Famke Janssen] who’s remarried to a seemingly perfect rich guy [Xander Berkele] whom is daughter now calls ‘dad’, but he’s making an attempt to have a relationship with his daughter after being absent most of her life – due to ‘the job’. His daughter goes to France with a friend and gets… you guessed it… TAKEN. The cat and mouse game begins. 

What I loved about this movie was how much I felt for Neesen’s character. What I didn’t love was his daughter’s character played my Maggie Grace. I think being a LOST fan, I just feel like she’s older than the part called for [17 year old girl], so she was a little over the top on the naivité, but she’s a small enough part that it wasn’t a deal breaker. She did a good job, I just think it was a miscast. That aside, all the other supporting cast did a great job. I’m actually looking forward to seeing this one again on DVD. Directed by Pierre Morel and written by Luc Besson, whom I’m a big fan of… 

For the action and the revenge – because who doesn’t love a good revenge story? 

4 out o 5. 

Add’l Info: Released: Jan 30, 2009 • Runtime: 93 minutes • Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence, disturbing thematic material, sexual content, some drug references and language • Photo credit: Stephanie Branchu. © 2009 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved via allmoviephoto.net

Review: Underworld: Rise of the Lycans

Underworld: Rise of the Lycans is an origins story of Lucian and the Lycans – Werewolves that can control ‘the change’ and aren’t cursed to live out their lives solely in werewolf form. Instead, they are cursed to serve their vampire masters as daytime guards and workers. The original Underworld is up there for me for favorite vampire movie, so I was pretty excited to see this one. I have to say, it was good, but not great. Everyone did a fine job – especially Michael Sheen as Lucian, Rhona Mitra as Sonya and Bill Nighy as Viktor. This movie was definitley more story-driven than the other movies in the franchise… I felt like I had already seen it to some extent between the flashbacks in the first Underworld, and the trailer. I suppose I was expecting a little more, but I honestly don’t know what they could have done differently.

Because it takes place almost 1,000 years ago, it’s a pretty dark movie in that there’s no electricity to light the characters up. There were times when it was tough to see what was going on… There also weren’t the more exciting weapons like guns, and no cars for great car chases… just swords and arrows – which are great, but when the film is so dark, it loses some of the drama in the fight scenes. I do enjoy all the battle armor and fighting on horseback, and wish they had more of that. I guess I just expected it to be a bit more ‘epic’… I also felt like the visual effects were really good in some scenes and a little distracting in others. The one thing they got right were the crazy light blue contact lenses for the vampire eyes. They were hypnotic. lol… [exhibit 'A', photo above...lol].

I did enjoy seeing the origin of other regular characters in the franchise. This is a classic case of me probably liking this movie more each time I watch it, after knowing what to expect. I went in expecting a little too much. In the end, this was a pretty decent movie – a sort of typical ‘Romeo & Juliet’ type romance… with monsters… and Underworld fans will like it, but it isn’t realy on par with the original. And what’s funny is, I can’t figure out if this is a better movie to see first out of the Underworld series, or if seeing Underworld first really is the way to go… if you have an opinion for those who haven’t seen it, let me know! You can read my review for the first Underworld HERE.

3 out of 5.

One thing to note – they ended it hinting at another movie to detail the origins of other characters, which I think would be pretty cool… we shall see.

Add’l Info: Released: Jan 23, 2009 • Runtime: 92 minutes • Rated R for bloody violence and some sexuality • Photo credit: © Screen Gems Entertainment, via allmoviephoto.net.

Review: Twilight

“When you can live forever what do you live for?”

I’m late in getting to this review – partly because I wasn’t excited to see it in the first place. We saw Twilight while on vacation a few weeks ago, when there wasn’t anything else worthwhile to see. We were pleasantly surprised that it was pretty entertaining, but teenage vampires really don’t do it for me. I prefer adult vampires who can have great vampire sex and not just LONG for it. lol… that being said, Rob Pattinson did a great job displaying the yearning and intensity that any male vampire seems to feel when they fall for a human woman [or in this case, kid] and needs to protect her, not only from himself, but from his friends… and enemies. 

When we saw this, it was in a tiny theater in the back of a 14-theater megaplex, and it was my husband and I, 2 dozen teenage girls and a strange row of teenage boys down front. Every time Rob Pattinson had a closeup and said one of his intensley conflicted romantic lines, inevitably, one or two of the girls around us would pine, “he’s sooo coool!” or “he’s sooo awwwwesommmmeee!” Needless to say, we felt really REALLY old. lol… 

This was decent entertainment and because I’m a big vampire fan I enjoyed it, but I also had a HUGE beef with the movie [and I suppose the book series, that I have NOT read]… there are certain rules that must be followed to qualify a person as a vampire and this series breaks 2 of them, that in my opinion aren’t breakable. So I did leave somewhat annoyed. But also infatuated with Rob Pattinson and his magical hair, making me feel kind of pervy because he’s so much younger than I am [how did that happen???] lol… 

Anyway… sorry, this review is terrible, I know… back to business: The visuals were decent, the story and action wasn’t bad, the acting for the most part was pretty good. The lead girl Kristen Stewart who played ‘Bella Swan’ was a better fit than I initially expected, but her acting style got old pretty fast for me – like she went to the ‘party of five’ school of acting with the confused stuttering while looking hurt thing. Pattinson, who played Edward Cullen did a great job and he’s probably the only reason I’d see the sequel, if and when it comes out. [seems like a done deal, though...].

As an adult fan of vampire flicks I’d say Twilight is just a 2 1/2 out of 5.

Worth a rent if you love vampires – especially if you read ‘paranormal romance’ novels… If you don’t fall into either category, or if you’re older than 18, I’d say skip it. 

Add’l Info: Release Date: Nov 21, 2008 • Runtime: 122 minutes • Rated PG-13 for some violence and a scene of sensuality • Photo credit: © Summit Entertainment, via movieweb.com

Preview: X-Men Origins: Wolverine

We saw the trailer for this one back in December… X-Men Origins: Wolverine is as the title states – a look into the origin of our beloved hairy mutant with the killer claws. From the trailer, it looks to deliver everything we expect out of a comic book based origins/action flick: drama, pain, metamorphosis, revenge and a new reason for being, along with kickass action and effects, no doubt. lol… 

Due out May 1st, it looks to kick off the summer blockbuster season with a bang! Can’t wait to see it. Starring along with Hugh Jackman are a bevy of great actors like Liev Schreiber as Sabertooth, Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool, Dominic Monaghan as Beak, Lynn Collins as Silver Fox, Taylor Kitsch as Gambit and Kevin Durand as The Blob, just to name a few… Directed by Gavin Hood who won critical acclaim for directing Rendition…

Check out the trailer here if you haven’t already seen it: Marvel.com

If you don’t blink you’ll see a young Storm, and I’ve read there’s a young Cyclops as well, although I didn’t see him [or didn't recognize him] in the trailer… 

Add’l Info: Release Date: May 1, 2009 • Runtime & Rating: TBD • Photo Credit: Still taken from official movie trailer ™ and © Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved,