Batman: The Dark Knight

Posted on by Donald in Movie Reviews Leave a comment

The Dark Knight is a non-stop action packed film worthy of being named one of the greatest of all time. Without a doubt what made “The Dark Knight” was Heath Ledger as The Joker. Without Heath the movie wouldn’t have been as great as it was. His acting was so good you don’t see him in the film, he wasn’t Heath Ledge, he was The Joker!

The Joker

As the film opens, Gotham still needs Batman (played again with intensity and vulnerability by Christian Bale), though its champion’s influence hasn’t been entirely positive. Organized crime has practically gone corporate in response, and a group of clumsy Batman wannabes have done little to stop it. Then there’s the Joker, a mysterious new criminal who wants to foil the forces of law and order for reasons he keeps to himself.

JokerbatmanWhat the Joker lacks in transparent motives he makes up for with enthusiasm. Playing a self-described “engine of chaos,” the late Heath Ledger treats the iconic comic-book villain as a man who sees life as a dark joke, but takes care to tailor his punchlines for maximum impact. It’s an unnervingly thorough performance, from the character’s serpentine habit of licking his lips to the hitch Ledger throws into his stride that makes him like a wounded, angry animal. It’s nightmare stuff with real-world roots, both in the randomness of his destructive acts of terror, and the imperfect systems designed to stand in his way.

Basing his schemes on the corruptibility of cops and criminals, Ledger’s Joker homes in on the few who appear beyond his reach, particularly Batman and district attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), a fearless enforcer of the law poised to make real changes to the city. Matters are complicated by the fact that Eckhart now shares a bed with Bale’s lifelong love Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal, subbing in for Katie Holmes). But to the film’s credit, Nolan isn’t afraid to keep matters complicated. The script, which he co-wrote with his brother Jonathan, has the unapologetic density of a good crime novel, with major and minor characters alike getting their due. Bale and Gyllenhaal have only a few scenes together, but they establish a tangible chemistry, and Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, and Morgan Freeman make significant contributions as Bale’s confidantes and consciences.

Nolan lets the film’s spectacular action scenes seem like the natural consequences of the conflicts between characters, conflicts that build until Gotham becomes less a setting than a stage for an operatic conflict between tortured good and contented chaos. As strong as The Dark Knight’s setpieces are—and they’re all pulsing showstoppers of a kind not seen in Batman Begins—the real tension comes from Nolan’s willingness to let that battle’s ultimate outcome remain in doubt even as the credits roll. The film’s capes and cowls suggest one genre, but it’s a metropolis-sized tragedy at heart.

Joker

A+ / One of the best movies of all time!


Wanted: Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman & James McAvoy! High-Five!

Posted on by Donald in Movie Reviews 1 Comment

The Weekend Movie Review: “Wanted” by Timur Bekmambetov

headshotI don’t get the movie title but if I were to sum up the movie in a few words, it would be “BOOM HEADSHOT!”. Seriously though if you’re looking for a movie with a lot of action, some comedy and of course sexy Angelina Jolie then “Wanted” is for you!

From the get go you get sucked in with it’s dark comedy, a pathetic life of Wesley Gibson who’s best friend is doing his girl friend, his office manager is a total bitch, his lack of cash and then there are his panic attacks.

While getting a refill of his panic attack meds, he gets a visit from the sly and sexy ‘Fox’, “Angelina Jolie”.

Angelina Jolie

She let’s him know that his father who he hasn’t seen since he was a week old recently died and the person that killed him was behind him.

That’s when all hell breaks loose and the deception begins.

I don’t want to give away the movie, but be ready for some twist, super human abilities, lots of head shots and more of Angelina Jolie. And I want to emphasis Jolie. For some reason I liked her even more in this movie then any other movie I’ve seen her in. I don’t know what it is, but I liked it.

Okay, so a great movie I enjoyed a lot, I give it a 8.9 out of 10!

Lots of action, great story, excellent ending, a solid movie! Check it out!


300 Spartans Against A Million Persians! 300 Movie Review!

Posted on by Donald in Movie Reviews 1 Comment

300_spartans2.jpgA war between several thousand Greek Spartans lead by their King Leonidas against three hundred thousand to a million Persians lead by Xerxes! A historic battle between good and evil, an Alamo of our time! The movie 300 captures this heroic story of valor and sacrifice in a way comparable to the great movies such as Gladiator, The Patriot, and The Last of the Mohicans. Where in sight of overwhelming odds and certain death 300 Spartan soldiers must hold their ground or die trying.

“Spartans! Tonight we dine in Hell!” – King Leonidas

300_climb2Leonidas as every Spartan at birth would be inspected for defects, weakness and poor health. Those Spartan children that failed the inspection would be exposed to the elements and left to die. Spartans figured if a child had any defects at birth, they were not up to par to the elite warriors of Sparta, and would probably die from the harsh training that one must go through to become a warrior. Leonidas of course passed the first test.

At age 7 Leonidas was torn away from his family to start his training to become a Spartan Warrior! At 18 he was giving a do or die test to prove his prowess! He was faced against a wolf four times his size with an unquenchable apatite for killing. Leonidas knowing he wouldn’t be able to face off directly against the beast lures the wolf into a narrow rock passing to trap and kill it. When he returns to Sparta he is to become King, General, and leader of Spartans finest!

Leonidas, ten years after becoming one of two kings of Sparta was asked to help defend Thermopylae from the massive Persian invasion force. At this time of the year for Spartans their law forbids any fighting. Leonidas confronts an oracle on what he should do. It’s either Sparta will be lost to the Persians or Leonidas must sacrifice his life in war to overwhelming odds of the Persian army. Leonidas chooses death and glory!

070307_300movie_hmed_1phlarge.jpgThree hundred of Spartans finest and several thousand Greek soldiers go to Thermopylae to hold against a million Persians bent on destroying Athens for their support years earlier against Persian’s army by sending soldiers to assist in the Ionian Greek cities revolt; a move that has come back to haunt the Athens.

For two days Leonidas holds the Persian’s army from passing through the cliffs of Thermopylae and kills tens of thousands of soldiers with little loses on his side. The elite Persian ‘Immortals‘ are no match for the shields, armor and elite trained soldiers of Sparta. After losing a good chunk of his army, Xerxes is lead by a Greek spy around a narrow pass behind Leonidas to flank the Spartains. But before that can happen, a scout reports Xerxes’s advance, which gives Leonidas enough time to see all but 300 of his army retreat. Three hundred Spartans stay for a last stand!

300movie.JPGSpartans are trained to never surrender and to never give up! The fighting in 300 is the best I’ve seen in a movie… ever. This is by far the best action movie I have ever seen, and I’ve seen them all. Imagine in the movie Gladiator when Russell Crowe faced off against 10 fighters at once, and mowed them down like nothing. Now replay that over and over again, but with 300 elite Spartans!

The swords play, action, special effects, gore, slow motion, drama, and valor were all there in 300! My perfect movie! The acting from Gerard Butler as Leonidas couldn’t have been better. This guy has set of lungs on him!

Madness?! THIS IS SPARTA! – King Leonidas

flicks_review2-1_44.jpgIn the end, only two survive the relentless attacks of the Persians. Aristodemus because of an eye injury and Pantites; Pantites was sent by Leonidas to attempt to raise support in Thessaly but returned to Thermopylae only after the battle’s conclusion. Pantites hanged himself in disgrace after being shunned as a “trembler”. That part wasn’t in the movie. Aristodemus however was to later fight with suicidal recklessness at the Battle of Plataea in 479 B.C. This time the sides were one Greek soldier for every three Persian.

Greeks won! Sparta won!
300 is a great movie, beyond anything I expected it to be, and I expected a lot.

A++


Blood Diamond Movie Review – A Must Watch

Posted on by Donald in Movie Reviews 1 Comment

If you’re a history buff, love action and adventure then you’re going to love Blood Diamond!

Blood Diamond is a story of the South African struggle for control of the region. There are the local rebels, government troops and everyone else. Precious diamonds which are recovered and sold at any cost to foreign companies, fuel the on going war. The diamonds are so rare that most people mining them never see one.

The story begins when a local fisherman’s village is under attack by rebels looking for workers for their diamond mines. The rebels are mostly children who have been brain washed and drugged into thinking their family hates them and has abandoned them. Rebels kill or mutilate most of the villagers and take others for the diamond mines.

The fisherman, Solomon, manages to help his family escape the rebels but is caught his self and spared to work in the diamond mines.

The South African civil war and chaos started when ‘white’ leaders left the place to have Africans govern their self. It didn’t work out so well.

blood diamondWhile in the diamond mines, Solomon finds a rare diamond worth millions. He is just able to hide it before government troops sacked the place and either killed or put most of the rebels in jail.

While in jail, Solomon is called out for having found the rare diamond by a rebel leader. Danny Archer a South African mercenary and diamond smuggler finds out about the rare diamond and seeks out Solomon to find the diamond.

With the help of Mandy Bowen an American Journalist, the two men embark on a trek through rebel territory to recover the rare pink diamond. A journey that could save Solomon’s family and transform Archer’s life.

Overall I loved every moment of this movie. It’s historically accurate to the truth of blood diamonds and the millions effected for the few to gain a buck. Companies who buy blood diamonds are the same as the murders their self. With each diamond rebel’s sale, they’re able to buy more weapons to kill more people each day. To this day there are over 200,000 child rebels in South Africa.

I urge everyone to watch Blood Diamonds to gain some knowledge of the situation behind this black market trade. I for one will only buy conflict free diamonds if any.


Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest Half Ass Movie Review

Posted on by Donald in Movie Reviews 1 Comment

pirates2_b.jpgThe first Pirates of the Caribbean is great! We had action, drama, comedy, adventure and an ending! This time around, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest is only part one of two with no ending?! What we have is a movie that is 30 minutes too long with too much going in circles and not knowing when to stop. There was actually a point in the movie where I could point out and say, Ok this becoming ridiculously too long.

 

pirates.jpgThe movie opens with Will Turner and the sexy Elizabeth Swann about to get married. When they are cut short with arrest warrants and are sentenced to death for helping, Captain Jack Sparrow.

 

I’m trying to think of the rest of the movie, but I’m having trouble guess that shows how much this movie stank. I mean, ok Will goes out to meet Jack Sparrow who’s on an island avoiding some sea monster’ acting as a God for some random tribe on this island.

 

Of course this tribe aims to eat Jack and his crew, and Will find his self in the middle of all this.

 

They eventually escape the island and head out back to sea where they meet Davy Jones – captain of the ghost ship the Flying Dutchman.

 

Actually Will meets Davy Jones first out on some wreckage where he finds his father is part of Davy�s crew!

 

La La La

 

Jack is watching this happen from ehh 1000 feet away and Davy notices and somehow transports his self to Jack’s boat to claim Jack’s life.

 

_11331373320.jpgDavy tells Jack his time is up, and his blood debt is due. Something like that, but Jack some how buys him 3 days to come up with 100 souls to replace his own etc etc.

 

I grow tired of this review..

 

Jack finds Davys heart hmmm I forgot.. this movie doesn’t have an ending son of a bitch!

 

styPIRATESforlifestyle.jpgOverall I give this movie a C+ because it’s funny, very deep, and decent action and drama.

 

I just wish it would end like a regular movie

 

I have a headache arg.


X-Men 3 Review

Posted on by Donald in Movie Reviews 2 Comments

Wow! I’ve always liked X-Men but X-Men 3 was awesome!

Before I saw the movie, I read some reviews on it, like most reviewers, its either you loved it or hated it, there wasn’t very many in between. Ok so I’m like everyone else, I’m one sided on this, I Love X-Men 3! I’ve seen a lot of movies in my days, actually probably thousands (I worked at blockbuster for a few years) and this one is within my top movie list.

The things I think every great movie needs is a mix of all genres, we need drama, action, adventure, horror and comedy! X-Men had it all! From the beginning of the movie we saw the birth of Jean Grey AKA Phoenix, and the destruction of a fellow X-Men member.

Warning * I’m giving away the movie here; don’t read further if you don’t want me to ruin the movie for you!

x32X-Men DIE! What the hell is going on? I didn’t know they die in this movie… Jean kills Cyclops! She apparently turned into Phoenix, the evil part of her, and with her rage killed Cyclops AND Professor Charles Xavier … wtf… no one told me !

You can’t just kill Charles Xavier, your hero without a hint of warning…! This is the horror part.

When watching Jean turn into Phoenix, it’s amazing, remember Return of the King, the Elvish witch? This is what Phoenix reminded me of. When Jean turns into Phoenix, her eye’s turn black, her face becomes dark, you can see the veins in her cheeks, her hair blows in the wind, day turns into night, everything surrounding her is trapped in her grip, suspended in air, she can shred anything or anyone at will, like confetti! This is how the Professor and Cyclops die. This is freaking Awesome!

The movie seems to follow Jean, even though it’s about a cure, the cure for the ‘mutant problem’, and this seems to piss off the wrong people.

Magneto hears about this cure and forms an army of angry Mutants; they include Pyro, the Juggernaut, Callisto, Multiple Man, and some other ‘ponds’ as Magneto calls them AKA human shield. Mystique was turned back into a human as Magneto tried to rescue her. A rouge guard shot her with the cure. She actually saved Magneto’s life as the shot was meant for him.

x33The cure is a fellow mutant. This mutant has the power to turn another mutant back into a human. The bad guys ‘humans’ find out about this and extract the cure to create new weapons against mutants. Magneto’s army sets forth to crush the cure and all that gets in their way. The cure is at Alcatraz prison, this is where the big battle happens.

Xavier is dead, Cyclops is dead, Magneto’s army grows and the elvish witch queen is on the loose what else can go wrong? Emm I think that was about it well let’s begin.

The big fight between good and evil starts with Magneto’s show of power, moving the Brooklyn Bridge to easily access the Alcatraz prison, once done, his army moves in, we’ll actually just his mutant ‘human’ shield first, they are obliterated with cure shots. Magneto is powerless to stop this as the guns are made of plastic. Luckily one of his minions has shock wave power to break the guns, phase one complete!

x31They’re in the door and lurching forward when THE X-MEN ARRIVE!! A team of six: wolverine of course, Storm, Beast, Iceman, Colossus and Kitty Pryde. The X-Men form a line of defense protecting the cure, for some unknown reason; at least I didn’t get that point. They begin to fight Magneto�s army; by the way, Beast kicks their ass here, jumping around like an angry ape, twisting necks and breaking bones, damn! Storm is like a butterfly, and falls to easy; though she comes back we know this is the director giving her some help. Iceman and Pyro face off. Iceman seems to gain a mutant level and really turn into a man of ice; he kicks Pyro’s ass. Kitty and ‘THE JUGGERNAUT’ faces off, which becomes a game of brains verse brawn. This is where we hear the famous, I’m the Juggernaut Bitch! which was more then likely taken from the widely seen I’m the Juggernaut Bitch video; Which has flooded the Internet.

Anyways Magneto gets what’s coming to him, Wolverine, Beast and Storm come up with a plan to stick Magneto with the cure, and they succeed. Magneto loses all his power and runs away. The only mutant left that opposes the X-Men is Jean, AKA the witch queen and the only X-Men that can stop her is Wolverine. The Face off!

phonexJean turns into Phoenix, all hell breaks loose. She starts shredding mutants, humans, everyone in her way. She tries to shred Wolverine but his power keeps him whole. The rest of the X-Men take off, and it’s just wolverine and Phoenix. Wolverine inches closer and closer to Phoenix, it seemed like a hurricane was going on. He calls out to her, as his skin flakes away and repair it’s self; his jacket is shredded, half his chest is gone at some point, but then he repairs him self. Within feet, he calls out to her. She asks if he wants to die for them, and Wolverine replies, ‘no for you Jean, for you’, then he stabs her with his claws. She dies.

Storm takes over the school. Rouge cures her self for Bobby AKA Iceman. Wolverine drives off into the sunset in his motorcycle. Magneto resides in a park, playing chess. He attempts to move a piece with his power, it moves, barley!

X-MEN 4 BABY!!! Can’t wait! If you haven’t seen this movie yet, X-Men 3, go check it out, I’ve explained the story as I remember, I just saw it a couple hours ago. It was well worth the money.

Be sure to stay after the credits, there’s some extra movie! I haven’t seen it my self, but I’m told it’s well worth the wait! I can’t wait, probably going to see it again, tomorrow or the next day. I urge you to do the same, or just wait for me to post it up. I’ll try to get a clip of it.

4.8 out of 5.0

We’ll I saw the movie for the second time and waited until after the credits! I saw it! Charles Xavier is back! You hear his voice from another person’s body, in a hospital. He’s alive and there is plenty of room for X-Men 4! Do it! Do it! Yes!