This is the third installment of the “Ice Age” animated trilogy from 20th Century Fox Studios.

The plot: After mammoth Manny (Ray Romano) met Ellie (Queen Latifah) in “Ice Age: The Meltdown”, the previous episode, the couple now expects their first baby-mammoth. Manny is anxious to make sure for the arrival of the baby. Saber-tooth tiger Diego (Denis Leary) is tempted to leave the pack, and sloth Sid (John Leguizamo) also decides to form a family, and steals some dinosaur eggs. Sid hides them in the under-ground world he accidentally discovered, but the mother-dinosaur wants her eggs back, and “the herd” has to rescue Sid. While dodging other dinosaurus-predators, “the pack” meats a dinosaur-hunter — one-eyed weasel known as Buck, who becomes their guide.

10-point review:

1. Many laugh-outloud moments, mostly thanks to the new Scrat’s adventures.
2. Some dialogs and jokes were for adults only. For example, Manny’s “I thought you are the one with hormonal dis-balance” was rather off-putting. Milking of the bull joke is so old it’s not funny anymore.
3. The movie has a lot of heart, but the first movie had more. All baby-animals are adorable. Even the scary dinosaurs are not particularly scary and deserve compassion – they are so unlucky to be predators, but with a little understanding they too deserve a place on the planet
4. A whole different world, a tropical paradise - under ice? I think it’s the only way to explain the presence of dinosaurs, because they were extinct a long time before mammoth walked the Earth
5. Kids, even very little ones, I mean 3-4 year-olds, also laughed and followed the movie up until Buck character was introduced.
6. Buck was so weird he felt so out-of-place. It seemed like he was from a completely different movie, and so were a few pop-culture references and jokes, such as parody of “red-wire or blue-wire” time-bomb scenario.
7. Buck (voiced by Simon Pegg) didn’t look like a weasel. He was more like a upright-walking hyena that behaves like a pirate.
8. Nobody ever gets seriously hurt – they bounce back (just like little kids), and nobody gets eaten – even if they are swallowed they are immediately regurgitated.
9. The animation is not exactly state-of-the-art, but it’s good and lively, just like in the previous two movies.
10. Song choice was not that great. The first movie had the best songs.

It’s a very pleasant and entertaining film. Scrat is the best!

Memorable quotes:

Manny: [From Trailer] “After we rescue Sid, I’m going to kill him.”

Sid: [from trailer] “I’m too young to be eaten!”

Crash: Dude, You’re awesome! You’re like the brother I never had!

The cast: Manny - Ray Romano | Ellie - Queen Latifah | Diego - Dennis Leary | Sid - John Leguizamo | Eddie - Josh Peck | Crash - Seann William Scott | Scrat - Chris Wedge | Scratte - Karen Disher | Buck – Simon Pegg

The crew: Director – Carlos Saldanha & Mike Thurmeier | Producers – John C. Donkin, Lori Forte | Original music – John Powell | Art Direction – Mike Knapp | 20th Century Fox Studios | Blue Sky Studios

If you liked this post, buy me a beer

---

Related posts:

• Review of “Rescue Dawn” (2006) PG-13 126min
• AOL Radio compiles a list of Top-10 movie songs
• Movies to see this weekend (Jan 18, 2008)
• Sony unveils PlayStation 3 Slim, drops PS3 prices by $100
• Monsters vs Aliens – 3D (2009) PG 94min

---

Copyright © 2008 Maxim
(Digital Fingerprint:
G-HGReEHdehe93492lsjd_12kjfa (74.125.158.80) )

Michael Bay continued working on the sequel, “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen“, a.k.a. “Transformers 2” in association with Hasbro written by Ehren Kruger, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman.

The plot: After Optimus Prime destroyed the Cube in the previous movie, the Decepticons have no choice to keep their race alive and dominant but to piece it together again. The information about the location of the vital piece of this energy source is in Sam Witwicky’s head, and Decepticons would have to kidnap him to get this information. Surviving Decepticon leader Skorpinox steals Megatron’s dead body from a secret US base and revives him using his own spark. Now Megatron and Starscream are coming back to Earth with force for another epic battle with humans, who forged an alliance with Optimus Prime and his friends. The whole universe is at stake.

The good: Beautiful photography. Fantastic landscapes and space-scapes, and just like in the first movie, CGI robots perfectly integrated into the environment. Obviously, a lot of thought and R&D budget went into figuring out how these robots are going to look and move and interact with surroundings. This episode also has not one, but two hot chicks.

The bad: Yes, I know, “IMAX Experience”. But don’t watch it from the front row. I don’t know how much this movie looked from the back of the theater, but from the 3rd row it looked like there wasn’t much going on in the movie except transformers changing shape and rolling over each other in the dust in a ball of metal parts. It’s like watching someone play an arcade game. The Decepticon that looked like a hot chick and had a very long tongue was quite freaky, and in one of the shots reminded me of “Terminator 3″. The Skorpinox’s spaceship looked like a rip-off from “Aliens”. The Autobots had more toy-like qualities then in the first movie – so much so that it seemed that this episode was targeting an audience of smaller children. So were the dialogs. It was nice to see John Torturro again as the obsessed Agent Simmons (except for episode where he shows off his ass), but the other new character, Leo Spitz (Ramon Rodriguez), was a lousy comical relief. It’s not clear why he had to be dragged along on the adventures of Sam and Mikaela, because he served no purpose whatsoever. What’s with robots humping humans and dogs humping each other? Is that what passes for epic these days? Just admit that this movie has no plot. All you get to see is robots fighting and a lot of stuff falling and breaking with loud bangs. There are no characters to care about. I kinda wish the Decepticons did destroy the solar system.

The summary: Great visuals replace substance, plot and acting.

The cast: Sam Witwicky – Shia LaBeouf | Mikaela Banes – Megan Fox | Major Lennox – Josh Duhamel | USAF Master Sergeant Epps – Tyrese Gibson | Agent Simmons – John Turturro | Leo Spitz – Ramon Rodriguez | Ron Witwicky – Kevin Dunn | Judy Witwicky – Julie White | Alice – Isabel Lucas | General Morshower – Glenn Morshower | Optimus Prime (voice) – Peter Cullen | Jetfire (voice) – Mark Ryan | Mudflap (voice) – Reno Wilson | Ratchet (voice) – Robert Foxworth | Megatron (voice) – Hugo Weaving | Fallen (voice) – Tony Todd | Starscream (voice) – Charles Adler

The crew: Director – Michael Bay | Writers – Ehren Kruger, Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman | Producers – Michael Bay, Steven Spielberg, Ian Bryce, Allegra Clegg, Matthew Cohan, Tom DeSanto, Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Brian Goldner, Mohammed Hassan (Egypt), Don Murphy, Mark Vahradian | Original Music – Steve Jablonsky | Photography/Cinematography – Ben Seresin | DreamWorks SKG | Hasbro | Paramount Pictures | Di Bonaventura Pictures

If you liked this post, buy me a beer

---

Related posts:

• Transformers (2007)
• AOL Radio compiles a list of Top-10 movie songs
• Amazon’s Blu-Ray Disk Sale
• Sony unveils PlayStation 3 Slim, drops PS3 prices by $100
• Hot new Blu-Ray and DVD releases this week (September 2, 2008)

---

Copyright © 2008 Maxim
(Digital Fingerprint:
G-HGReEHdehe93492lsjd_12kjfa (74.125.158.80) )

Talented Anne Fletcher (27 Dresses, Step Up), a choreographer, an actress and a film producer, directed “The Proposal” – a romantic comedy starring Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock.

The plot: Margaret Tate (Sandra Bullock), chief editor or a publishing house, is a monstrous boss. When her visa application is denied ans she is threatened with deportation to Canada, she forces her young assistant Andrew Paxton (Ryan Reynolds) to marry her. But the scheme does not sit well with immigration officer Mr. Gilbertson (Denis O’Hare), who is determined to prove that the couple is committing a fraud. Andrew and Margaret now have to act like a couple to deceive him and Andrew’s family.

The good: I think the best part of the movie is the chemistry between Andrew and Margaret and their body language. Ramone (Oscar Nuñez) was a great character – in the small town of Sitka, Alaska, he is the waiter, a store clerk, a stripper and a priest! Also funny how employees at the publishing house were coping with Margaret’s despotic behavior. This movie should spark an increase in travel to Alaska: the scenery was gorgeous. Nice closing sequence.

The bad: The movie is completely predictable. It’s basically “Meet the parents” with a different setup. I already knew the ending and the story line right after watching the trailer. No surprises there. Also the green-screen CGI where eagle snatched the puppy was ridiculously poor quality. Many jokes were taken too far. The naked collision scene was a dead giveaway and a forced set-up. It’s also hard to believe that Andrew, who knew Margaret for three years and hated her but stayed around because of “high work ethics” despite her being a despotic and inconsiderate, would fall in love to her in three days. Is it true that all it takes is to put a man and a woman in the same room for three days and two nights? The ex-girlfriend character was a wasted potential for extra drama. The relationship between Andrew and his father (Craig T. Nelson) was under-developed.

The summary: I went to the movie with very low expectations and only because I already promised Elena to see it with her and because I felt guilty about convincing her to see “The Hangover” previously. But I was presented with a surprise – this chick flick is actually pretty good. Could be a good date movie.

Memorable quotes:

Office employee [on IM when Margaret walks in]: “The Witch is on the Broom!”

Grandma Annie [upon being introduced to Margaret]:  Do you prefer Margaret or “Satan’s Mistress”?

Random comments:

Surprisingly, the audience was about 70% male. And they laughed outloud and seemed to enjoy it. I don’t know if that’s consistent in all showings, or was it because they were trying to kill time between 8pm show and the opening of the “Transformers” – there was a lot of people in front of the theater on loan chairs.

Sandra Bullock is getting old.

Notice that the grandma was taken to hospital by a sea-plane. General aviation saves lives and really does serve America. Think about that next time your airline flight is delayed and the airline blames general aviation. According to airlines’ own data, 50% of all delays are airline’s own fault. 40% are weather-related delays (and as mid-air breakup of Air France indicates, you don’t mess with weather).

The cast: Margaret Tate - Sandra Bullock | Andrew Paxton - Ryan Reynolds | Grace Paxton - Mary Steenburgen | Joe Paxton - Craig T. Nelson | Grandma Annie – Betty White | Mr. Gilbertson - Denis O’Hare | Gertrude – Malin Akerman | Ramone – Oscar Nuñez | Bob Spaulding – Aasif Mandvi

The crew: Director – Anne Fletcher | Writer – Pete Chiarelli | Producers – Sandra Bullock, Kristin Burr, David Hoberman, Alex Kurtzman, Todd Lieberman, Mary McLaglen, Roberto Orci | Original Music – Aaron Zigman | Cinematography – Oliver Stapleton

If you liked this post, buy me a beer

---

Related posts:

• AOL Radio compiles a list of Top-10 movie songs
• Sony unveils PlayStation 3 Slim, drops PS3 prices by $100
• Hot New DVD and Blu-Ray Releases (Mar 3, 2009)
• Adventureland (2009) R 107min
• 2008 Academy Awards

---

Copyright © 2008 Maxim
(Digital Fingerprint:
G-HGReEHdehe93492lsjd_12kjfa (74.125.158.80) )

Director Todd Phillips continues along the lines of his previous comedies, “The Old School” (2003) and “Road Trip” (2000).

The plot: The movie opens with one of the groom’s friends calling the bride and telling her the Doug is not going to make it. Because they lost him. In Las Vegas. After a crazy bachelor party night, the tree wake up in a trashed hotel room, with Mike Tyson’s tiger in the bathroom and a chicken walking around. They have to retrace their steps to find him on time to return to the wedding.

The good: Few chuckles here and there. I liked Heather Graham who played a hooker with a heart of gold and Zach Galifianakis’ character was entertaining. Rob Riggle (from “The Daily Show”) had a couple of funny moments on the screen. Great set up and opening. Nice twist with the second Doug. I liked that every character has some profound personality problems.

The bad: This comedy is not funny at all. However it is full of gross-out moments, including male nudity, fight scene ala ”Borat”, urination, blow job etc. etc. Where fantasy of script writers ran out, they substituted jokes for gross scenes that were passes for funny. The was no genuine laughter in a relatively full theater, but there was a lot of howling, Ooooos and Aaaas and “I can’t believe he just did that”. Except for Zach Galifianakis who played a colorful (but forgettable) character with a court order prohibiting him from being closer then 2000 feet from any place where children congregate, the characters are not particularly interesting. I asked three of my friends, what was the funniest moment in the movie? “They stole the police car”. Yawn.

The summary: One of the worst slapstick comedies I’ve seen. Not funny and gross. Take “Dude, Where Is My Car” and take away the humor. Is this what’s passing for funny these days?

The cast: Phil Wenneck - Bradley Cooper | Stu Price - Ed Helms | Alan Garner - Zach Galifianakis | Doug Billings - Justin Bartha | Jade - Heather Graham | Tracy Garner - Sasha Barrese | Mr. Chow - Ken Jeong | Mike Tyson - Mike Tyson

The crew: Director – Todd Phillips | Writers – Jon Lucas, Scott Moore

If you liked this post, buy me a beer

---

Related posts:

• AOL Radio compiles a list of Top-10 movie songs
• Movies opening this weekend (Nov 23, 2007)
• Sony unveils PlayStation 3 Slim, drops PS3 prices by $100
• The Proposal (2009) PG-13 107min
• Hot New DVD and Blu-Ray Releases (Mar 3, 2009)

---

Copyright © 2008 Maxim
(Digital Fingerprint:
G-HGReEHdehe93492lsjd_12kjfa (74.125.158.80) )

The plot: Jinx (Nick Stahl – Sleepwalking, Sin City, Terminator 3), a slacker who walks into a branch of  a bank to withdraw $20, and an employee of the branch/babe, Jessica (Erika Christensen – Garden of Eden, Flightplan, The Upside of Anger), accidentally get mixed up in a on-going bank robbery and gets stuck in the vault, which gives him a chip in the game of negotiating with police and the bad guys with guns.

The good:

1. The Jinx character is so silly and clueless, he messes things up for everyone – police and the bad guys. Even though the story and script are pretty low-grade, the situational comedy is quite funny with many LOL moments. Many funny dialogs. Some of them were funny because they were so stupid.
2. The moment I heard it, I was 100% certain – the voice of Nick, the mastermind of the heist, belonged to late David Carradine. He appears on screen for 5 seconds in the end of the movie. But his voice alone is more prominent then all the acting combined in this movie.
3. This movie will appeal to Friday night crowds and everyone who is upset about “miscellaneous fees and surcharges” that banks and cell phone companies nickel-and-dime their customers for billions of dollars.

The bad:

1. Low quality script and story
2. Bad acting
3. Once again, the leader of the bad guys had to be British. But all of British sophistication is not match for blunt American arrogance. Oh well. This stereotype is not worse then any other.

Memorable quotes:

Simon: [to Gunman] Just go pretend to guard the guard!

Officer DeGepse: What’s the situation?
Jason ‘Jinx’ Taylor: I don’t know. We’re fine… unless you count being locked in a vault with armed assholes outside of the door.
Officer DeGepse: Excuse me?
Jason ‘Jinx’ Taylor: No, no… not you people.
Officer DeGepse: Excuse me?
Jason ‘Jinx’ Taylor: Oh god. Tell me you’re not black or something. I didn’t mean to…
Officer DeGepse: Yep. I’m black. You got it.

Officer DeGepse: I need to know if you’re still safe and secure.
Jason ‘Jinx’ Taylor: You can say I’m safe.
Officer DeGepse: Now outline the situation, please.
Jason ‘Jinx’ Taylor: I’m safe because I’m in the safe.
Officer DeGepse: [annoyed] I got the joke, sir.

The credits: Writer/Director – Andrews Jenkins | Jinx - Nick Stahl | Jessica – Erika Christensen | Simon – Gavin Rossdale (Terminator 3, xXx, The Jackal, Constantine) | Officer DeGepse - Terry Crews (Get Smart, Street Kings, Norbit, Click, Starsky & Hutch etc.) | Nick – David Carradine | Gunman – Leo Fitzpatrick | Producers – Randy Delano, Tamara Delano, Kyle Dean Jackson, Rick Lashbrook, Brent Morris, Tim O’Hair, Darby Parker, Arthur M. Sarkissian, Peter Sussman | Original Music – Didier Rachou | Cinematography – Joe Meade

If you liked this post, buy me a beer

---

Related posts:

• Review of “The Bank Job” (2008) R 1h 50min
• The International (2009) R 118min
• Hot New DVD And Blu-Ray Releases This Week (July 15, 2008)
• Review of “The Lookout” (2007) R 99min
• Inside Man (2006) R 129min

---

Copyright © 2008 Maxim
(Digital Fingerprint:
G-HGReEHdehe93492lsjd_12kjfa (74.125.158.80) )

The plot: A New York subway dispatcher Walter Garber (Denzel Washington) is summonned on the radio. He is told by the mastermind of the hijacking (John Travolta) of the Pelham 1 2 3 train to follow his orders: to demand 10,000,000 dollars ransom from the mayor of New York (James Gandolfini) in exchange for lives of the hostages in the train. With the help of NYPD hostage negotiator Camonetti (John Turturro), Garber tries to outwit the hijackers, who, even if they get the cash, should seemigly be unable to escape.

The good: Great acting. Denzel Washington at his best in this dramatic role of a ordinary guy cought in unordinary circumstances. Great chemistry between his and Travolta’s character, and together they elevate this movie from an ordinary flick to a level of an interesting movie. A lot of suspense in the movie, which stems from three motifs usual for the genre – doing someting before time runs out, not knowing what’s awaiting around the corner and having to chose who lives and who dies. James Gandolfini played a colorful mayor. Good music. Great cinematography, perhaps too good for this movie.

The bad: The plot is pretty linear. There were several moments in the movie where I really expected some sort of a twist, but apparently in vane. I expected something like “Inside Man”. Other hijackers are not really characters – they are pawns, soldiers without a face. One of the great moments in the movie was wasted when Ryder (Travolta) forces Garber to publicly admit to taking a bribe – all this build-up in character and chemistry doesn’t go anywhere – the movie simply switches to car crashes and chases. There are also a lot of potential connections hinted at throughout the movie, such as connections to Wall Street, mayor, some prisoners - but they don’t matter much in the end. The ending could not be more linear. **Spoiler** in the original, Ryder was British… No matter. The point about the ending I wanted to make was that original ending was better in that Garber doesn’t have to kill Ryder – he remains without blood on his hands.

The summary: This contemporary remake of 1973 thriller is quite entertaining and will look good in theatres and on DVD.

Memorable quotes:

Garber: Are you a Yankee fan?
Mayor: No… I mean, of course!

Cop to Garber: Stay cool and don’t worry. Just don’t fuck up.

Cast: Walter Garber - Denzel Washington | Ryder - John Travolta | Phil Ramos - Luis Guzmán | Bashkim - Victor Gojcaj | Camonetti – John Turturro | Mayor – James Gandolfini | John Johnson – Michael Rispoli | Delgado – Ramon Rodriguez | Regina – Tonye Patano | Therese (Garber’s Wife) – Aunjanue Ellis

Crew: Director – Tony Scott | Screenplay – Brian Helgeland | Novel – John Godey | Producers – Richard Baratta, Todd Black, Jason Blumenthal, Michael Costigan, Don Ferrarone, Tony Scott, Steve Tisch, Barry H. Waldman, John Wildermuth Jr. | Original Music – Harry Gregson-Williams | Cinematography – Tobias A. Schliessler

If you liked this post, buy me a beer

---

Related posts:

• AOL Radio compiles a list of Top-10 movie songs
• Sony unveils PlayStation 3 Slim, drops PS3 prices by $100
• Sony PlayStation 3 Slim has arrived
• Hot New DVD and Blu-Ray Releases (Mar 3, 2009)
• 2008 Academy Awards

---

Copyright © 2008 Maxim
(Digital Fingerprint:
G-HGReEHdehe93492lsjd_12kjfa (74.125.158.80) )

Disney/Pixar’s “Up” comes out almost 11 m0nths after release of “WALL-E” last summer. It was written and directed by Pete Docter (Toy Story 1&2, Monster, Inc., WALL-E) and Bob Peterson (Finding Nemo), who also gave his voice to the dog, Dug.

1. As always, a Pixar movie is preceded with one or more animated shorts.
2. It looks pretty good in 2D – nicely animated characters and environment, with a lot of attention to rendering small detail. I’m not talking detail like making sure every hair is moving, but a kind of detail that makes characters come alive and add to the story. It looks even better in 3D, but 3D itself does not add much.
3. Story? It’s great! The story about entire person’s life. The opening sequence is the best part of the movie for me. Without saying a word, like a slide-show, it tells a story of a boy who dreamed of heroic travels like his childhood idol, adventurer Charles MMuntzher Plummer). But life takes a course that never let him accomplish his dream of world travel and exploration. Before he knew it, he was old, grumpy and very lonely man. This silent, but very dramatic and emotional story of  a person’s life from childhood to youth and middle age to marriage and even death of a life partner is absolutely brilliant in how it shows that life is full of disappointments and drama, but one can still find happiness and learn to be happy with less. Also, one should never give up his dreams. Many of us saw the trailer, and we saw Carl is old a grumpy man, and there’s a lot of effort and time in the film to develop his character. On the downside downside, Mr. Fredricksen finally gets to South-America, there wasn’t much exploration or much sense of discovery and wonder after his arrival.
4. The main The main chCarl FredricksenCarl (Edward Asner) looks a lot like a cross-breed of David Letterman and Larry King… Other plot holes: in his house he can’t walk without walking stick or go down the stairs, but in South America he proves to be quite an acrobat.
5. I did not like the her hero-turned-protagonist Muntz. He was a crazy version of Joules Verne’s Captain Nemo. Could he really be over 100 years old? Well, I guess he’s got science on his side. There are a lot of similarities between and Mr. Fredricksen though – one is cast away from society, the other cast himself from society, but both are pursuing their dreams. I was disappointed with Muntz’s demise. I wished he could be saved so he can return triumphantly.
6. Though there were quite a few jokes in this movie, it’s a pretty sad movie – so much sadness throughout, from opening sequence to the end. There are also pretty good chases and suspense.
7. At 96 minutes, the movie is not too long for small kids. But it doesn’t look like a movie that kids will want to see over and over, like was the case with Cars, Incredibles, Monsters Inc, Toy Story and Nemo. Not much opportunity for merchandising either, I guess. Who’d want a toy that looks like Larry King? It will be more enjoyable for grown-ups. I wonder if wordless opening sequence will bore the kids from the start. But it was short enough, so kids laughed at the jokes in no time. Many adults will like the story and the old guy, but what will kids like? Can Mr. Fredricksen win their hearts and become their hero? Not necessarily. I think for kids the boy-scout and the animals are more appealing and easier to associate with and understand.
8. This movie has a lot of heart. For that alone it’s Oscar-worthy.
9. Favorite characters: Dog named Dug and rare South-American bird named Kevin.
10. Thoughtful and beautifully animated movie with a lot of heart and inspiration and some jokes and chases, but a lot of sadness too. Not too psyched about it.

If you liked this post, buy me a beer

---

Related posts:

• AOL Radio compiles a list of Top-10 movie songs
• Angels and Demons (2009) mini review
• 2008 Academy Awards
• I Love You, Man (2009) R 105min
• Avatar 3D (2009) PG-13 162min

---

Copyright © 2008 Maxim
(Digital Fingerprint:
G-HGReEHdehe93492lsjd_12kjfa (74.125.158.80) )

A prequel to X-Men (2000), X-Men 2: X-Men United (2003) and X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), directed by Gavin Hood (directed famous award-winning Tsotsi), written by David Benioff  and Skip Woods.

The plot: A brief history of James Logan (Hugh Jackman) begins with his childhood in 1845 in Northern Territory. When his brother Victor kills their father and tells James that they are both mutants. The movie fast-forwards through the life of two brothers over the next two and a half centuries, mostly as soldiers in various wars, where they used their supermen abilities to survive and sharpen their skills. Their skills didn’t come unnoticed – they are recruited into a secret special operations military unit that includes other mutants. Over the decades, James proves to be an American patriot, while Victor begins to enjoy the killing, which ultimately leads to their separation. In the modern days, James Logan lives a peaceful private life with a school teacher. But that life is about to come to an abrupt end: his brother Victor (Liev Schreiber), now calling himself Sabretooth, has killed most of mutants from their unit and then… James’s girlfriend. Vowing to avenge her death, James goes through the Weapon X program. He is now in pursuit of his brother – just what Victor wants.

The good: Several interesting plot twists. Hugh Jackman got so buff for this role after a whole year pumping iron that even his wife said, “Hugh, this is ridiculous”. It’s funny how a guy can be so pumped and at the same time dance and sing at the Oscars… He shows his metal claws a lot and uses his superpowers to make stuff behind him explode and burn.

The best performance, however, belongs to Liev Schreiber – it is his performance and his character that the whole movie hinges on.

Ryan Reynolds as Wade Wilson was well cast.

The plot comes together in the end with a neat transition into the follow-up X-Men movies.

Nice locations – the woods, mountains and a small town were beautiful. Nice opening sequence.

The bad: Choppy story. Over-the-top acting, even for superheroes. It would be better if they toned it down a little. Too little character development for secondary roles, even the X-Men. There’s too much focus on superhero skills, fighting and blowing stuff up, but there’s little humanity in these characters. There are only a few scenes where mutants are portrayed as freaks and rejects of society, and as the result, rather then explaining their behavior through storyline they have to talk about it a remind viewers about their circumstances. Other mutants have almost zero screen time, and as the result they are practically meaningless. The whole brotherhood as relationship between Wolverine and Sabretooth is lost, and instead replaced with Victor saying twice in the movie, “we are brothers and we stick together”. Why did Wolverine leave the love of his life dead in the woods – no proper burial? Why did Wolverine try to stop his elder brother Victor from becoming blood-thirsty thug for centuries, but in Stryker’s team he quits both serving his country and trying to save his brother? Why did Stryker waste so many people trying to stop Wolverine when he knew from the start that only adomanium bullets can harm him? The Weapon X transformation was explained as “unimaginably painful” but it didn’t look like one. No interesting lines or dialogs.

Some sequences are an indication of a genius at work, but the good deed get overshadowed by mostly flashy but pointless mutants-doing-mutant-things action scenes.

** Disclosure ** – I’m not a fan of X-Men movies. I think the original X-Men (2000) were better, but not good enough to convince me to see other two X-Men movies.

The summary: This movie milks a profitable franchise for money. It adds nothing to what we already know about characters from the previous X-Men movies. A chase and action scenes are just filling the time.

The cast: Logan/Wolverine – Hugh Jackman | Victor Creed / Sabretooth - Liev Schreiber | William Stryker - Danny Huston | John Wraith - Will i Am | Kayla Silverfox - Lynn Collins | Chris Bradley / Bolt - Dominic Monaghan | Remy LeBeau / Gambit - Taylor Kitsch | David North / Agent Zero - Daniel Henney | Wade Wilson / Deadpool - Ryan Reynolds | Weapon XI - Scott Adkins | General Munson - Stephen Leeder

The crew: Director – Gavin Hood | Writers – David Benioff, Skip Woods | Producers – Richard Donner, Louis G. Friedman, Hugh Jackman, Stan Lee, John Palermo, Lauren Shuler Donner, Ralph Winter | Music – Harry Gregson-Williams | Cinematography – Donald McAlpine

If you liked this post, buy me a beer

---

Related posts:

• AOL Radio compiles a list of Top-10 movie songs
• Sony unveils PlayStation 3 Slim, drops PS3 prices by $100
• Hot New DVD and Blu-Ray Releases (Mar 3, 2009)
• Adventureland (2009) R 107min
• The Proposal (2009) PG-13 107min

---

Copyright © 2008 Maxim
(Digital Fingerprint:
G-HGReEHdehe93492lsjd_12kjfa (74.125.158.80) )

“State of Play” is a contemporary political thriller based on award-wining BBC TV series with the same title. Directed by Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland, Touching the Void), starring Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams (The Notebook, Married Life, The Family Stone, The Hot Chick), Helen Mirren (The Queen, Raising Helen, Inkheart, Gosford Park), Robin Wright Penn, Jason Bateman (Hancock, Forgetting Sarah Marshall) and Jeff Daniels.

The plot: Congressman Steven Collins (Ben Affleck) is a rising star in his party and he is a member of a committee investigating a private security company responsible for civilian deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan. But when a woman from his staff is brutally murdered, dirty secrets begin to come out, and congressman Collins has nobody else to turn to but his friend from college Cal McAffrey (Russell Crowe) from a financially troubled Washington-based newspaper. While Congressman Collins is managing “damage control” of the news of his affair with the murdered staff member, there are several other seemingly-random murders, and Cal with his new young partner Della Frye (Rachel McAdams) are first on the scene. Cal and Della need to figure out how and why the murders are linked, under pressure from their very tough editor Cameron (Helen Mirren) to publish the story before others do to increase paper’s circulation, while Cal’s motives to find out the truth go way beyond journalistic integrity. All evidence points to a corporate conspiracy and a trained assassin who will stop at nothing.

The good: Great story with two unexpected twists at the end, mostly thanks to contribution of the writers, Tony Gilroy (The Devil’s Advocate, Bourne movies, Proof of Life, Duplicity) and Matthew Carnahan (Lions for Lambs, The Kingdom). Even though the story is an adaptation of British TV series, the plot idea seems fresh in its contemporary setting. Every character is human and worth rooting for. Every character, protagonists and antagonists, are interesting, three-dimensional and flowed. You never quite know how the story is going to go. Lots of suspense – you will be on the edge of the sit. Very good acting – not surprisingly with the cast full of stars. Russell Crowe is great as always. Helen Mirren was outstanding and memorable, and Rachel Adams (from The Notebook) is just ok. Jason Bateman was great – his character is an asshole who is so repulsive he’s actually funny and likable.

Interesting to note that the film shows that journalism suffers from the same hypocrisy as corrupt politicians and the corporations who are corrupting them to get favorable legislation or taxpayers’ money. Every day journalists have to chose between journalist’s duty and financial interests of their employers and their sponsors.

The whole idea of privatizing national security was very interesting and scary, but it wasn’t developed in the plot – there was enough intrigue without it. Much more interesting is how past mistakes of the characters lead to suffering and even deaths of people, and each may not even know about others’ existence.

Enjoyed the newspaper printing sequence during the closing credits.

The bad: I don’t understand what the title of the movie means in relation to the plot.

Ben Affleck is a bad actor. He probably practiced in front of the mirror, but everything he does seems forced and fake. While Russell Crowe’s performance is so good I actually remembered the name of his character, Ben Affleck always remained just Ben Affleck. He also doesn’t look like his character could have been in college at the same time as Russell Crowe’s character.

Helen Mirren’s performance was very good and memorable, but I don’t think she’s a good match for the role; I’d rather see someone like Meryl Streep there. Some camera angles were giving me a vertigo or creating a sense that something bad is going to happen any moment, like in cheap thrillers or horror movies. Music was appropriate for a thriller, but not memorable in any way. Some minor plot holes, such as why nobody saw a woman being pushed in front of the arriving train in a crowded train station, and none of the 50 security cameras catch it, and she happened to stop right where the camera blind spot was.

The summary: A great thought-provoking thriller with fantasic cast and great acting and plot with many twists. Despite a lot of dialog in the movie, it’s gripping and doesn’t feel too long.

The cast: Cal McAffrey - Russell Crowe | Stephen Collins - Ben Affleck | Della Frye - Rachel McAdams | Cameron Lynne - Helen Mirren | Anne Collins - Robin Wright Penn | Dominic Foy - Jason Bateman | Rep. George Fergus – Jeff Daniels | Robert Bingham – Michael Berresse | Det. Donald Bell – Harry Lennix

The crew: Director – Kevin Macdonald | Screenplay – Matthew Michael Carnahan, Tony Gilroy, Billy Ray | Producers - Paul Abbott, Tim Bevan, Liza Chasin, Eric Fellner, Andrew Hauptman, Eric Hayes, Debra Hayward, E. Bennett Walsh | Music – Alex Heffes | Cinematogrpahy – Rodrigo Prieto | Studio Canal | Relativity Media | Universal Pictures

If you liked this post, buy me a beer

---

Related posts:

• AOL Radio compiles a list of Top-10 movie songs
• Sony PlayStation 3 Slim has arrived
• Sony unveils PlayStation 3 Slim, drops PS3 prices by $100
• Hot New DVD and Blu-Ray Releases (Mar 3, 2009)
• Hot New DVD and Blu-Ray releases this week (Feb 10, 2009)

---

Copyright © 2008 Maxim
(Digital Fingerprint:
G-HGReEHdehe93492lsjd_12kjfa (74.125.158.80) )