District 13 – Blu-ray movie review

The secret to success, it has been argued, is to display an ambidextrous plot that can be understood as both a simple narrative structure and a complex narrative structure. In this way District 13 fulfils its purpose. There is a story for those who are unable to grasp or understand complex narratives yet it also allows the 'thinking man' a topic of debate.

In 2010, the dangerous districts in the periphery of Paris are surrounded by walls, and the dwellers do not have school, hospital and even police in the area, which are ruled by drug lords. In the 13th District, Leito (David Belle) is a honest man that lives in a clean building and does not permit drug dealers nearby his neighborhood. When he destroys one million Euros in heroin of Taha Bemamud (Larbi Naceri), the criminal abducts Leito's sister Lola (Dany Veríssimo) and the corrupt police arrests Leito. Six months later, the tough and honest Capt. Damien Tomaso (Cyril Raffaelli) is assigned to find and deactivate a stolen bomb that might destroy the 13th District and the two million dwellers. Together with Leito, they have to face the gang of Taha and disclose a despicable secret behind the robbery of the bomb.

The movie is thinly plotted—who cares—but the characters, except for woman-in-distress Lola (Dany Verissimo), are vibrant, quirky, and fascinating. There are so many surprises in this movie, so many jaw-droppingly beautiful action moments, that you will quickly fall for this movie. It's enough to make many Americans forget they hate the French. At least for an hour and a half.

IF you like Chun Yow Fat kind of stuff and the over the top martial arts gun-fu style.. this has a lot of that style of scene -but with a mildly futuristic low budget sci fi plot as a backdrop- in a neighborhood full of armed gangstas.

I would have liked a whole lot more bloody gory finishing moves and a whole lot more rampant sexuality. There's just a few too many muscled men and only one girl in this movie.. it was almost like a prison flick in some parts.

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The Polar Express – Blu-ray movie review

There are many delightful moments in THE POLAR EXPRESS, not the least of which is the entire look of the film--appealing in a way that great illustrations of children's books always are to young and old. Tom Hanks and the others enter into the spirit of the whole thing with gusto--and all the performances are right on target.

The characters were well-fleshed-out and very easy to "know". The animation was amazingly detailed and very life-like. The musical numbers and side pieces (especially on the train roof) brought some very effective morality and life lessons to the superb computer animation, giving it that "touch" of humanity.

I had reservations about the use of CGI animation since I felt it really only worked for stories about cute animals but having seen the film, the CGI was the best way to capture the spirit of the film. It really wouldn't have worked as well in live action, the sense of other-worldly magic would have been lost. And as it was, the artwork was beautiful, especially the snowy mountainous scenery that the train passes through.

Tom Hanks, who's worked with Zemeckis in the past, gets to play six different characters. The boy (but voiced by someone else), the conductor, a ghostly hobo who lives on top of the train, Father Christmas, a Scrooge puppet, and the boy's Dad.

I don't think it was really that necessary for Hanks to play so many parts. In fact of the six, I only liked two. The conductor, where Hanks seems the most comfortable, and the hobo where Hanks adopts a gruffer voice.

The conductor is a likable character who is so insistent the train reaches it's destination. The only bad scene for this character was a really awful music number involving break dancing espresso waiters. It's a scene not helped by Hanks' dreadful singing voice. The hobo is an interesting character because he's such a mystery. He helps to restore the boy's faith in the spirit of Christmas. He also reminds me of the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland, vanishing into thin air, but leaving certain body parts behind.

I found the characters to be believable, with depth, and sometimes they seemed to be real people. Sometimes the facial expressions of Hero Boy were not as good as the others, but that's the only thing I saw wrong (and this was a very minor issue). The moral of this story was worthwhile and the movie was worth every minute put into it. And the North Pole as shown here....what a glorious place! I feel like a child again and I wish I could ride the Polar Express one Christmas Eve.

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Iron Man – Blu-ray movie review

The first big blockbuster of 2008, "Iron Man" is flat-out fun. One of the biggest surprises for many people is that this fun does not come from the action scenes (they're fine, by the way). What really amazes in "Iron Man" is a tour de force from Robert Downey Jr. (they could've named it Downey Junior- The Movie) and a solid script, that efficiently introduces us to the Iron Man history and proves to be a fascinating entry in a possible new franchise.

In a nutshell, Downey is Tony Stark through and through. His affinity for the character shines, and no doubt it bore some parallels between his own personal, and Stark's life in the narrative future when he hits the bottle. He was allowed to become a Two-Face of sorts, on one hand being and later acting out his flamboyance self whose mission in life was the continuation of his father's legacy of Stark Industries, a weapons conglomerate, versus his personal mission in ridding his own weapons from the hands of the bad guys, now updated to be freedom fighters in the Middle East. The dialogue contained within each scene of Stark's, except perhaps during captivity, is full of one-liners done in double quick time, you probably would think it boiled down to a whole host of natural ad-libbing.

But while Starks spends significant amount of time in his unsecured basement building his masterpiece, his human interaction come in the form of faithful secretary Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) who actually, for the first time I admit, looked really good on screen as Stark's most trusted aide, bringing about some serious spark of sexual tension and chemistry between the two characters of opposite sex, more so than any other comic book movie I have seen. And good friend from the air force Jim Rhodes (Terrence Howard) complete the circle of trust who knows of Stark's secret identity, and you'd be keeping your fingers crossed at the toss of a teaser of a certain War Machine appearance should the sequel be out.

Favreau seems to have had an idea to get an origin story out while not boring us with long drawn out backstory. His ability to give us dual information at once is nicely orchestrated, showing Tony Stark in his basement creating while the TV in the background explains what is happening in the outside world of the Middle East and inside his own company. We as an audience are allowed to put the pieces together amidst the witty banter of Stark and the wonderful special effects. By the end of the film it is quite amazing how much information you will realize you now know, all culminating in a decent final battle, but more importantly a segue into the inevitable sequel. We are allowed entrance into the character evolution of Stark as he goes from war profiteer to man of action and cause, all while seeing the technology improve and advance before our eyes. Much like Batman, we have a hero here that needs help in fighting crime. He has no superhuman abilities besides his brain and being able to see his thoughts go from paper to reality is a feat of magic. Every stage is shown, every failure and success. It's quite the ride in and of itself, but when you add onto it the threat of global war and destruction, it can only get better.

Iron Man is immediately striking for its smart and creative balance of action and humor, with a little drama thrown in for good effect. Outside of some minor plot issues, a few all too convenient moments in the script, and a score that was a little obvious (especially when compared to the use of other non-original music in the film), "Iron Man" is a load of fun and finally, FINALLY, a really good Marvel comics film.

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Wyatt Earp – blu-ray movie review

This is one of the best, and underrated, westerns ever made. It was a very intense, interesting character study of a famous lawman, showing flaws and all. In fact, this is the only version, I believe, that really shows the sadistic side of Wyatt Earp, and what made him a bitter man. To be fair, it also shows his good traits.

Unlike other adaptations of the same subject (namely, Kurt Russell's Earp in 'Tombstone'), this film deals with the famous gunfight as merely a step in Earp's life. Rather, the film focuses on the man behind the legend. To do this, it looks at Earp's life in two stages: his life before, and after, a major transition.

Hollywood's version of history is considerably at variance with the facts, and life on the frontier in the 19th century would appear to have been more dull and monotonous than exciting and colorful… Certainly, life in Tombstone, Arizona, in its time of greatest prosperity as a mining town must have been anything but healthy, with its vast number of rough working men relieving their boredom with drinking and brawling, and occasionally shooting each other…

In Kasdan's epic Western, Earp is the upright defender of the law, and Doc, a dissolute gambler… Nevertheless, the men are compassionate and respectful, and both have a kind of dignity… Holliday is much more credible as the black sheep of an aristocratic Virginia family and a jaded idealist… Dennis Quaid allowed himself to lose 30 pounds of his weight only to accurately portray the gun-notorious Doc Holliday, now, alas devoted to the bottle and in the latter stages of tuberculosis…

The cast is pretty good and also pretty deep. Costner may not be seen as a star anymore but that doesn't mean he can't act and can't hold the attention. He is a reasonable Wyatt but he suffers from being too deliberate and too shut off at times. I understand he needed to do it for the character but it contributes to the film feeling slow. The other brothers are played well by Madsen, Ashby and Andrews. Maybe it is because of Costner's drab Wyatt, but Quaid really lightens things up as Doc Holliday. His colourful character stands out easily against the old west types. The support cast is deep and includes faces such as Hackman, Fahey, Harmon, Pullman, Sizemore, Rossellini, Williams and O'Hara.

Despite its occasional longueurs, in its latter stages (which deal with the post-Gunfight spiral of revenge between the Earp and Clanton gangs, with Wyatt's happy second marriage to the beautiful Josie and with his final promotion to legendary status) the film achieves a similar epic grandeur to that of "Dances with Wolves", aided by those familiar features of the large-scale Western, sweeping photography of the scenery and a stirring musical score. One of the better modern Westerns

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Firefly – Blu-ray movie review

Series creator Joss Whedon took a somewhat familiar concept (science fiction as the new "wild west frontier") and freshened it up with a lively, chemistry-rich cast of characters, a richly detailed, plausible and interesting social setting, a dash of excitement, classic science fiction "find the better part of humanity" ideals, a goal to avoid or make light of most of the tired and worn-out genre cliches and a fantastic production team. The resulting product? An excellent piece of original artful entertainment that was a breath of fresh air in the stagnating science fiction scene on television (or anywhere else).

Fox did an incredible disservice to this show by showing the episodes out of order. They still made sense on a very low level, i.e., there weren't a lot of plot points that were part of the continuing arc that ended up being out of order in the order they were aired, but this show is so much better if you see it in the order intended. In the aired episodes, characters would sometimes do things that either seemed out of character or really weird, or sometimes even just boring, that make so much more sense on the Blu-ray, even though there's a grand total of one scene (and only about 3 lines of that scene) that's different between the DVD and the aired version.

It is truly a sat feat that Firefly ended so quickly. For a cast of mostly unknowns, the acting was superb, and they all portrayed their characters to the tee. Each character had their own complex story, personality, and no one was a carbon copy of another character. The ship was beautiful, the special effects were beautiful, the plots were skillfully crafted, the twists fresh and exciting, it was really an exciting adventure to watch every episode.

The characters could only be as strong as the words that were handed to them. Listening to the words that pass through Mal's mouth, the charm of Wash, or even the inconsistent ramblings of River, you could only wonder where Whedon could have gone with all of them. In each of these characters, Whedon had written secrets. While, sadly, we may never know what they all were, that is what made you itch for more episodes. You not only wanted to see the creative "western" adventures that Whedon was sending his crew, but you also wanted to learn more about these band of renegades. They were good, but possibly darkness reigned inside of them. The character most guilty of this (outside of River) was Shepard Book. I loved this character. Whedon drew him with so much passion and conviction, yet with every episode you learned more about this man than imaginable. He is an excellent example of what this series was like. He represented the smart words of Whedon, the humanity of his character, and the secrets that each of these shared. He was a "priest", yet he knew more about the Alliance than anyone aboard that ship. If anyone were to ask me to describe the series in two words, I would simply say, "Shepard Book".

Once again Whedon has proved his writing guineas there's Action, intrigue, comedy and Romance combined with excellent special effects and great stories. I'd recommend Firefly to anyone and everyone its one of the best Sci-fi shows to come out in a while.

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Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire – Blu-ray movie review

"Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" is, by now, the best Harry Potter movie in the series. It isn't much of a surprise, since the movies achieve a higher level of excellence as they pass by. The first one was good, the second was great, and the third one was thrilling. The fourth installment in the franchise improves some disappointing factors that affected the third movie (confusing ending; shallow performances), and is a winner from the start.

The movie starts off with Harry being shaken awake by Hermione in The Burrow. This itself gives us a glimpse into Mike Newell's thought process. Mike Newell and writer Steve Kloves seem to be Harry/Hermione advocators to a small extent. It's not so much as the fact that they show Harry and Hermione to be better friends than Ron and Hermione, which isn't really true to the books, it more the fact that they've made Hermione tag along or take care of Harry in several scenes.

The adult actors are sparingly but well used. Alan Rickman only has two main scenes (He probably did about one day of filming) but it's just enough. Maggie Smith is equally funny and Micheal Gambon is used more than in the previous film. He thankfully has one fatherly scene in this film, which was lacking in PoA. Brendan Gleeson is hilariously over-the-top as "Mad-Eye", a vicious old dark wizard catcher assigned to be the new Dark Arts teacher.

The humor has grown more adult, which fits the growing audience better. Sexuality and Excellent Writing replace most of the repetition gags and silly physical humor of Columbus and Cuaron. This fits J.K. Rowling's style much better actually. It's all very funny and very British, as it should be. As for the teen problems? Getting a date for the dance, and learning to dance. Dealing with rejection and hormones. We've all been there. It's all very real and well done. These kids feel like real people, not mythical elves or gods.

Most impressive of all is Ralph Fiennes who is genuinely terrifying as the evil Lord Voldemort. Fiennes is ably assisted in his wickedness by a suitably conniving Timothy Spall and also the most fearsome set of nostrils to grace the silver screen since Hannibal Lector flexed his snout at Agent Starling in The Silence of the Lambs.

It is pretty stirring stuff – visually extraordinary in places – and nicely paced. Potterfiles will love it and detractors may just find their criticisms stuck in their throats. However, my disdain for adults who proudly devour the novels on public transport without any sense of shame remains absolute.

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Blow – Blu-ray movie review

Since not every film can be a great masterpiece, it only stands to reason that there are some which, as good as they are, will never be mentioned in the same breath as The Godfather. Blow happens to be one of those films. In today's market, where films are literally churned out with more attention paid to marketability than merit, it is no surprise that films of almost every subject are saturating the market. Even films about, or based upon, historical crime figures are a dime a dozen these days. The plus to this is that the ones that do come out have to do something special in order to be considered good.

The movie is about a small time American teen who moves to California for a more interesting life. He gets involved in the drugs trade, and before long is the biggest distributor of 'pot' in California. To cut a long story short- he becomes involved in the cocaine trade, becomes the most important smuggler of cocaine into America in the 1970's and is second only to Pablo Escobar- who he works for.

He ends up getting married, having a child and then gets betrayed by his friends and fellow smugglers in the Medellin Cartel. He leaves the business, a millionaire, and starts what he thinks will be a happy life. The police arrest him and most of his smuggler friends and accomplices when he has a birthday bash, and he loses everything. His wife leaves him and takes his child and he goes to prison for a few years.

Johnny Depp is adequate as George Jung though I`m still unconvinced if he`s a star down to his looks rather than an abundance of talent . I`ve noticed many critics are annoyed at the casting of Penelope Cruz but I found her giving a good performance and can`t help thinking a lot of comments are made by women who are jealous of her beauty , oh and Ms Cruz gets naughty with a whip in this movie which is reason enough to watch in my book , and Ted Demme does bring a very snazzy style to BLOW like numerous scenes that start in slow mo and finish at normal speed and vice versa

This movie really caught my heart at the end. "Once a druggie always a druggie" rings true somewhat in this movie in a sad way. We are left at the end feeling sorry for a fugitive criminal who wanted to turn his life around. Instead of trying to go clean, he attempts a final run with good intentions for his daughter only to let down her and his father.

With excellent acting my Johney Depp, and brilliantly directed by Ted Demme, Blow is a excellent crime/drama documentary of a piece of American history that should not be missed.

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The Last Waltz – Blu-ray movie review

In the words of Robbie Robertson, "The Last Waltz" began as a concert and turned into a celebration. There is no word that can be used to describe "The Last Waltz" better than 'celebration'. This is a celebration of The Band, and of music, specifically American music, which The Band loved and played so many styles of.

The idea of the Band in my opinion was for them to be a band with five equal members. Mr. Marty Scorsese obviously didn't think so. He must have been under the impression that the Band was a star vehicle for Robbie Robertson, like history has written, and not the group of equal musicians that slowly waltzed out of Big Pink.

Like Levon Helm said in his book the band was based on the heart and soul of Richard Manuel, the genius of Garth Hudson, the songwriting of robbie robertson, the hopping rythm of Rick Danko's bass, all pulled together by the tight rythms of Levon and Richard. On top of all that the three best vocalists in rock music, none of which are robbie robertson.

Helm is a storyteller, from a family of storytellers. The two, Helm and Hudson, together have crafted a novel and lasting entry in the art of cinematic music: stories whose rhythms in telling are different enough that they establish a sort of aural camera. The other members of the band are talented enough, but act primarily as transferral agents from other innovators and traditions rather than innovating themselves.

Dylan was the primary experimenter in our age of language, mostly in sounds rather than cadence, until he met The Band while recuperating from a near-death experience. When he tied in with them, magic happened: stories, cadence, poetry, merged, all cinematically rooted -- and it transformed us all. Every one of us of a certain age passed through the portal of this music, following the progress through underground copies of the basement tapes and nearly unreadable late generation xeroxes of stolen galleys of "Tarantula."

Discovering The Last Waltz was a bittersweet experience for me though. No sooner do I fall in love with Rick Danko's performance and songs in The Last Waltz that I learn he died in 1999 - and that Richard Manuel committed suicide in 1986. Watching Danko perform Stage Fright from so long ago, and knowing I could never see him do it live, gave me that same empty feeling I got when John Lennon was killed. I saw the Beatles in '64 and '65 and though it was always a distant, remote possibility that they would ever get together again, December 1980 stole away all hope.

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Flags of Our Fathers – Blu-ray movie review

As directed masterfully by Clint Eastwood, "Flags of Our Fathers" plays both as a war film and a sensitive human drama. It begs comparison with Orson Welles' screen masterpiece "Citizen Kane" in the film's scope and its structure.

Based on the true (and relatively unknown) story of six regular soldiers that raised the flag atop the isle of Iwo Jima and whose picture of the effort became synonymous with an impending victory of the war, Flags of our Fathers will be one of the most talked about films of 2006.

Flags of our Fathers follows the lives of three surviving members who raised the flag in 1945 atop Mount Suribachi and how the government used these three individuals and the media in an effort to spark interest in selling war bonds to the American public.

The story is mainly about three characters: the honest and sensitive John ''Doc'' Bradley (Ryan Phillipe), who believes taking full credit for the battle because of one picture is wrong, the brave soldier Rene Gagnon (Jesse Bradford), who is willing to prove he is a hero, even though he tries not to get in a real battle, and the naive, but strong Ira Hayes (Adam Beach, in a role that may probably gather him a Supporting Actor nod). The whole film is entirely narrated by John Bradley (at this time, in old age, played by Len Cariou). As the film tells us, these are the only ones in the picture that manage to come out of war alive.

The film revolves around this picture, and also about how these three men live after the war. Ira is target of racism, Bradley is haunted by memories of war and his friends who past away (in special Iggy, played by Jamie Bell, whom Bradley was fond of before his death), and Gagnon celebrates all the media attention.

The acting is admirable all around: Ryan Phillipe creates a honourable figure persevering throughout war time while his friends fall away. Jesse Bradford copes best after the war but fame is short-lived. And Adam Beach is a man tormented by the effect of war; a man who has lost his personal identity. He struggles with the concept of "we are what we do".

Eastwood's direction is outstanding. He has managed to create a film that makes no judgments, preserves the integrity of these people yet examines their life in war. The screenplay by previous collaborator Haggis, is insightful, thought-provoking and poignant. He takes no simple sides on the good and bad of war but meditates on what it means to the individual. How does a country sustain itself during war. Can a war be entirely truthful?

Flags of Our Fathers is a must watch, and I'm already eagerly anticipating the companion movie, with viewpoints from the Japanese, fighting the same war, in Letters From Iwo Jima, and it should be equally powerful.

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Invincible – blu-ray movie review

Somewhat loosely based on a true story, INVINCIBLE is your standard root-for-the-underdog sports movie, nothing more, nothing less. Mark Wahlberg is Vince Papale, a beefy touch football player/bartender who struts his stuff at an open tryout for the Philadelphia Eagles. Overcoming tremendous odds, Papale cracks the roster after earning the faith of rookie coach Dick Vermeil (Greg Kinnear).

Both Mark Wahlberg and Greg Kinnear are such naturals in delivering their characters. When in fact, from the production notes, Wahlberg went through actual football training/coaching, being there with the team for every play and practice, gaining insight into his portrayal of a real living person. Both met their inspired 'hero'. For Kinnear, he received confirmation when Vermeil's son indicated that he got his father's mannerism/cadence spot on. The operative word here is 'genuine,' caring and intensely so. They worked hard preparing and learning to correctly portray the two NFL notables.

Vince Papale is played well by Mark Wahlberg, giving a quiet performance of a deeply injured man who manages to finally succeed at something - being chosen by the failing Philadelphia Eagles football team when a new coach Dick Vermeil (Greg Kinnear) tries a desperate attempt to enliven the team by holding open tryouts. Vince's friends convince him to make the effort, the bar owners relative Janet (Elizabeth Banks) adds her encouragement as does Vince's father (Kevin Conway). Of course the obvious happens or the film wouldn't have been made! Vince becomes an Eagle and soars, not only for himself but also for his father, his friends and his new girl.

I'm not sure if this one will hold up with some of the other underdog true sports stories on film like "Rudy" or "Hoosiers", but it's a decent enough feel good story to catch at least one time. I'm sure if you were there in the mid 1970's and a rabid Philadelphia Eagles fan, you'll have a greater appreciation for the story. For someone who manages to catch just the Super Bowl once a year, this was a good tune up.

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