movie: The Expendables

Hellllloooo! Time for Monday movie post.

We watched The Expendables 2 this weekend. I didn’t even know it was out until the husband came walking back from the Red Box with it.

Here’s our IMDB description: “Mr. Church reunites the Expendables for what should be an easy paycheck, but when one of their men is murdered on the job, their quest for revenge puts them deep in enemy territory and up against an unexpected threat.”

It had more guys. Van Damme decided he wanted to jump on the money train. Chuck Norris makes an appearance or two.  That cute boy who played Gale in The Hunger Games in the mix, as well.

There are more than a few jokes that are references to the actors’ various previous movies, which makes the movie fun to watch.

It was pretty much more of the same. If you liked the first one, you’ll probably like the second one. We have plenty of boom, plenty of gun shooting and action sequences. All very nice. The Expendables 2 gets an A. 

a movie and a bookie book

Hello! I would say happy Tuesday but then, is any Tuesday really a happy one?

Last night I dreamed that I was visiting an art museum while wearing grungy pajamas. I guess I should be happy that I wasn’t naked. The other people in the museum did not appreciate my attire.

I didn’t write up a movie post yesterday, so here’s a bit about what we watched. Get Low was the movie starring Robert Duvall and Sissy Spacek and Bill Murray and some other people. It’s about an old man who plans a funeral party while he’s still alive. There’s a mystery surrounding him and that story comes to light a little at a time, as many mysteries do. It’s a somewhat quiet but interesting movie. I liked it.

Guess what else . I have a pretty bookie! The CreateSpace version is now available on Amazon. Here is a pic. HERE is the link to Amazon. Any Facebook likes on the product page are quite appreciated. It has zero at the moment. 

The book looks nice on the shelf next to Destined. I'll be happy when the last book comes out and they can all hang out together. I will say that that fancy font is difficult to read in smaller sizes. If I could redo the cover designs, I would choose a font that's easier to read small.

movie: Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol

My movie post is late! Honestly, I forgot to write it. I worked on some stuff last night and got completely sidetracked.

This weekend’s movie was Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.

Description from IMDB – “The IMF is shut down when it's implicated in the bombing of the Kremlin, causing Ethan Hunt and his new team to go rogue to clear their organization's name.”

It had action. It had kooky Tom Cruise and adorable Simon Pegg (I think I might have a crush on him) and a very, very big explosion. But perhaps, the best part about watching the Mission Impossible movies is seeing the technology they use. There were some really fun gadgets in this installment.

The movie was fun to watch, although maybe a bit long. No new ground was really broken. If you liked the other Mission Impossible movies, you would probably like this one too. Ghost Protocol gets an A-.

movie: Prometheus

I saw Prometheus in Imax 3D this weekend. woo! I saw it by myself, which was kind of interesting because I'm pretty sure I've never done that before.

Anyway. The movie is a about some archaeologists who notice similarities between cave paintings in Scotland (I think) and other works by various ancient cultures on different continents. They all depict a being pointing to stars in a certain arrangement.

The archaeologists believe this image is both a map and an invitation for humankind to visit a planet. Flash forward some years, and they're on an expedition to the planet in search of beings they believe created humans. Hilarity ensues. Ok, not so much hilarity as wonder and some carnage.

There are some great characters in this movie. Great characters and what I thought was top notch acting. Noomi Rapace (Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, US version) plays Elizabeth Shaw, one of the archaeologists. She goes through a lot of crap and somehow manages to hang onto her dream of finding the origin of human life, no matter the consequences.

David the android is the best character, however. He is forever robot calm and has a complex personality. His most appealing trait is how unpredictable he can be. His interactions with the people around him are motivated by anything from aspiration to be human to contempt. He's heroic and heartless at the same time. 

I didn't really dig Charlize Theron's character, Meredith Vickers. It was almost as if the writers created her and then weren't quite sure what to do with her. She has a few significant moments, but other than that...meh.

Of course, the special effects were huge and amazing. Those are the technical terms. Spaceships, storms, scenery. big, big, big. Perfectly executed, I thought. I spotted no weirdness, no halfass cgi.

There was a somewhat significant level of weirdness and different types of alien life, but I did expect to see more alien action.

So, bottom line, Prometheus was good. I would have liked to have seen more nerve grinding action and suspense like what I remember the Sigourney Weaver alien movies as having, but it was still very good. A-

movie: In Time

In Time is set in a dismal future in which the currency is time on or off one's life. A cup of coffee costs like four hours or days or whatever the heck it was. Everyone has these watches with light-up numbers embedded in their arms. When they go to work, some time is added to their lives. They can exchange time, too, by doing this weird handshake thing.

Will (Justin Timberlake) stumbles upon a guy who has over a century on his arm. He says that he’s lived over a century and ends up transferring most of his remaining balance to Will who embarks on a quest to take down the system.

In Time does have some action, gunplay and such. However, I think the story leaned awfully hard on the time as currency premise. As in, that was 90% of the story. After about ten minutes of watching the time-based commerce, I was like Ok! I get it. Please stop hammering the concept into the ground!

The acting was meh. The story was meh. Some of the futuristic stuff was cool.

In Time gets a C-

movie: The Rum Diary

This weekend we watched The Rum Diary, which is based on a Hunter Thompson novel.

Here’s a quickie description from IMDB: “American journalist Paul Kemp takes on a freelance job in Puerto Rico for a local newspaper during the 1950s and struggles to find a balance between island culture and the expatriates who live there.”

This movie is pretty crazy. Kemp loves the drink and other buzzes, and that love tends to get him in big trouble.

There’s so much about this movie I like that I’m just going to save some time and rattle it off on a list.

1.       Hard ass partying in Puerto Rico. It looks gritty and wild. The drunken antics, primarily of Kemp and his two friends are quite entertaining.

2.       There was glamour, too. Amber Heard’s character looks straight-up old Hollywood. Her boyfriend’s house is almost painfully “modern” 60s. The house is very cool and clean.

3.       Complex dialog. There were a few parts, especially at the beginning, that I was sitting here thinking that the dialog between some of the characters was too well written to seem real. However, that makes it no less awesome.

4.       Giovanni Ribisi. I really think he is undervalued as an actor. His character, Moberg, is just so far out there. Disheveled. Often drunk (or messed up in some other creative fashion), but quite ingenious.  

5.       Hunter Thompson brand weirdness.  

My only complaint was that the movie was slow in a few places, most notably at the beginning.

The Rum Diary gets a B+.

movie: The Woman in Black

Sorry for the lateness. I usually post about the movies on Monday. I had stuff to do, like attend the boy’s little league baseball game.

We watched The Woman in Black, which stars Daniel Radcliffe of Harry Potter fame. Seeing him so grown up is just weird. Wasn’t he ten years old like five seconds ago? He’s actually 23, in case you were wondering.

Here’s a quick description of The Woman in Black from IMDB: “A young lawyer travels to a remote village where he discovers the vengeful ghost of a scorned woman is terrorizing the locals.”

It’s probably a tired premise, but that didn’t stop me from totally loving this movie. The Woman in Black is fantastically creepy with interesting characters and a deliciously dreary gothic sort of setting. The ghost was scary. The house in which most of the haunting occurred could possibly be the creepiest house ever.

The Woman in Black was the best horror movie I’ve seen in a while. I’m not going to go into too much detail because I don’t want to insert any spoilers. However, I will say that there was nothing about the movie I didn’t like.

The Woman in Black gets a big fat A.

Also, the movie was based on a 1983 novel by Susan Hill.

movie: Immortals

The movie post is a day late due to the holiday and due to the fact that I totally spaced writing it yesterday.

We watched Immortals. Here’s the description I snagged from IMDB: “Theseus is a mortal man chosen by Zeus to lead the fight against the ruthless King Hyperion, who is on a rampage across Greece to obtain a weapon that can destroy humanity.”

The story is actually a lot more complicated than that. There are conflicts amongst the gods, a girl who can tell the future (oracle) and other stuff. It was actually a bit difficult to keep up with in places. Immortals is one of those movies that you can lose track of if you turn away from the screen for like two seconds. 

The style of filming, music and various images appeared to be inspired by The Cell and/or 300. It was very visually rich, if that makes sense.

One thing I really liked about the Greek gods was the fact that they were young and hot. For example, when I think of Zeus, I usually picture an old man with a white beard or at least a middle aged guy. Think original Clash of the Titans. The gods in Immortals looked more like supermodels, which, when you think about it might actually make more sense. If you’re a god, you can probably control what you look like.

Overall, I liked the movie okay. They tried to cram too much story in, but it wasn’t bad. Immortals gets a B-.

movie: Underworld: Awakening

I know today is a movie post, but I’m including a very short book working update. I finished the rough draft for Pestilence! AAAAA!! I’m super excited. I seriously almost cried like three times while writing the last scene. The current word count is 76571.

On to the movie. This weekend we watched Underworld: Awakening.

Description from IMDB: “When human forces discover the existence of the Vampire and Lycan clans, a war to eradicate both species commences. The vampire warrioress Selene leads the battle against humankind.”

I…did not love this movie. It breaks my heart because I loved the original Underworld movie. Kate Bekinsale is awesome. She has wicked movie fighting skills, and I really dug the whole dark vibe.

This movie has a ton of action. Fight scenes were well choreographed. The CGI sucked in a couple of spots, most noticeably near the beginning of the movie during a couple of werewolf altercations. It looked very dated and lame.

The biggest problem I had was the lack of story. There was a story, yes. However, about 90% of the movie consisted of fight scenes. I would have like to have seen more story and less fighting. That would have improved the movie.

The dark vibe remains. They added a new, pretty man vampire and a scary little girl to the mix. Kate Bekinsale is still awesome. This installment wasn’t great, but it wouldn’t stop me from wanting to see the next one if they make one. Underworld Awakening gets a C-.

not a movie post

I don’t really have a movie post today. The husband ordered the wrong movie on Netflix. He intended to add Faster to the queue and instead added a movie called ‘Drive’, which was probably one of the most boring movies I have ever seen in my entire life. We actually only watched it for about 40 minutes. Then we determined there was no actual plot and turned off the DVD player. We will never get those 40 minutes back.

This past weekend was insanely busy. We had little league baseball games Friday night and Saturday, plus other assorted weekend tasks like shopping and cleaning and then there was Mother’s Day fun. I got to see my Mimaw! Yay! I did not do any writing. I did try to draw something, but I think I was just too tired to focus.

I have two things which are making me sad.

1.       Arbys discontinued jalapeno bites. I am crying! I love jalapeno bites! And bronco berry sauce.

2.       Also, Alcatraz was canceled. I liked that show very much.

And now I will stop complaining.

How about some positivity? I’m almost 70,000 words into the Pestilence rough draft. I will finish the draft by the end of the month! The length will probably land between 75 and 80,000 words. I am going to go eat something which has not been discontinued – pretzels! and work on the book some more.

movie: Columbiana

Oy vey. I am so tired, and it’s only Tuesday! What is up with that? I’m going to have some trouble round about Thursday. My ass will be dragging, for real.

Anyway, movie. I know it’s late, but these things happen.

Columbiana

IMDb: “A young woman, after witnessing her parents' murder as a child in Bogota, grows up to be a stone-cold assassin.”

This movie should have been called – “look how freakishly skinny Zoe Saldana is” because, wow. She is a slim one, and there seems to be a lot of focus on that with her costuming and her gymnastics. And I hope I don't sound like a hater because I really don't mind her thinness. I guess in this case it's almost like fascination, with the director and apparently me. That girl must only eat every other never.

Aside from that strangeness, the movie was meh. Saldana is a decent actress, but the script was pretty predictable. There were few moments that made this movie stand out from other revenge flicks, but not many. The fight and chase scenes were well-choreographed.

Columbiana gets a C.  

rejoicing plus some quickie movie reviews

This is going to be quick because I have not enough stuff to do and too much time. Wait. Strike that. Reverse it.

First, I read today that Fringe is coming back for a 5^th and final season! I am super excited. I’ve been a fan all along, and I’ve had this fear that they would cancel it without a conclusion. That would royally suck. It really is a very good story. It deserves an ending. Thank you, Fox!

Ok, so today I have three movies. I’m doing this superfast style because I have some print book formatting to work on.

Hugo

Description from IMDB: “Set in 1930s Paris, an orphan who lives in the walls of a train station is wrapped up in a mystery involving his late father and an automaton.”

Hugo is a children’s movie directed by Martin Scorcese.  The movie is very beautiful with a significant French influence (takes place in France), but the language is English, so subtitles are not present. It’s very emotional and heartwarming with a heavy emphasis on the first movies ever made.  Hugo gets an A.

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Journey 2: The Mysterious Island

Yup, another kids’ movie. We actually saw this in the movie theater. They have free showings of older movies on some weekends. Woo! Free!

Description from IMDB: “Sean Anderson partners with his mom's husband on a mission to find his grandfather, who is thought to be missing on a mythical island.”

Journey 2 is very exciting. It has great special effects, literary references all over the place, and Dwayne the Rock Johnson popping berries off his pecks. What’s not to like? B+

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Takers

Not a kids’ movie.

Description from IMDB: “A group of bank robbers find their multi-million dollar plan interrupted by a hard-boiled detective.”

It was a typical Paul Walker movie. Action, gun shooting, attractive people, some witty banter, it was decent. If you like the Fast and the Furious movies, you would probably dig this too. I did like Hayden Christensen as AJ. He really hasn’t been in much since Star Wars, has he? I didn’t recognize him at first.

The Takers was entertaining but kind of meh. C+