Tag Archive for 'Action'

How to Watch: “X-Men: First Class”

Published on June 6, 2011 in Reviews. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Step 1: Find the mark. X-Men: First Class is first rate. It’s definitely the best in the X-Men franchise, but prequels can be tricky. In the X-Men series, there have been two – Wolverine, which takes a look at how Logan (Hugh Jackman) becomes the knives-for-fingers badass mutant we know and love, and now X-Men: First Class. I thought Wolverine missed the mark a bit, but that is not the case with First Class.

Step 2: Hit the mark. In it, we see how Charles “Professor X” Xavier (James McAvoy) and Erik “Magneto” Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender) meet as young men in the 1960s. Xavier, who comes from a lonely aristocratic upbringing, hones his telepathic and mind control abilities as an Oxford graduate student, specializing in gene mutation. Along the way, he also meets a young girl named Raven (Jennifer Lawrence), a fellow mutant who has the ability to shape shift and will later become the enigmatic Mystique. Erik, on the other hand, is a Holocaust survivor who uses his power to control magnetism to seek revenge on those Nazis who killed his family and experimented on him — especially one Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon), a particularly nasty former Nazi-sympathizer scientist who turns out to be a mutant himself. Xavier, Erik and Raven end up joining a secret sect of the CIA, along with a few other young special recruits, including brilliant scientist Hank McCoy (Nicholas Hoult) who eventually becomes The Beast. Together, these mutants form the First Class of X-Men, guided by the wisdom of Xavier, the brute force of Erik and non-mutant help from CIA Agent Moira MacTaggert (Rose Byrne). They try and stop Shaw and his mutant lackeys from starting a nuclear war under the guise of the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. Did you know that whole thing was perpetuated by mutants? I sure didn’t.

Step 3: Mark your territory. The retro First Class feels almost like a James Bond flick, with Shaw hiding out in his submarine “lair,” surrounded by his minions, including January Jones as yet another ice queen, telepath Emma Frost, who can quite literally turn her female form into a diamond. There’s also a guy (Jason Flemyng) who looks like a demon and can teleport objects through another dimension and another (Alex Gonzalez) who creates whirlwinds. There’s a stripper (Zoe Kravitz, daughter of Lenny Kravitz and Lisa Bonet) with insect wings who shoots fireballs out of her mouth, and a dude named Darwin (Twilight’s Edi Gathegi) whose body can adapt to any adverse environment. For me, that’s the beauty of the X-Men movies; everyone has a different unique ability or superhuman power, which makes it endlessly fascinating to watch. And First Class has some great mutants.

Step 4: Cast X-cellently. The film is also bolstered by the acting talents of McAvoy (Wanted) and Fassbender (Inglourious Basterds). In order for First Class to work, it was essential to find the right actors to portray pivotal characters Professor X and Magneto as younger men because we had to believe they would end up as the powerhouse adversaries Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen. McAvoy and Fassbender handle it beautifully. There’s such tragedy in Erik’s past, and Fassbender nails that intense anger and deep pain which turns into an overall hatred for humans, while McAvoy displays Xavier as rather cavalier at first, only to see him grow stronger as a true educator – and leader. The young Lawrence, who nabbed an Oscar for her performance in Winter’s Bone, more than holds her own as the conflicted Raven, who thinks she wants to be normal. Bacon serves well as the villain – and there are numerous choice cameos from a variety of well-known character actors (and a few surprise ones as well).

Step 5: X marks the spot. Finally, I must tip my hat to director Matthew Vaughn. As a protege of director Guy Ritchie, Vaughn has only helmed four films so far, including the taut British gangster flick Layer Cake and highly enjoyable Kick-Ass — and continues to show considerable skill with First Class. Of course, he did have some help from producer Bryan Singer, who directed the first two X-Men movies and has always fully understood how to bring these comic-book characters to life. So, with Vaughn, they once again capture the story’s innate conflict of a being a mutant, between wanting to be like everyone else and embracing their own unique abilities even if they seem threatening. I so want more X-Men movies, but I’m afraid nothing might be able to top this one.

How to Watch: “Battle: Los Angeles”

Published on March 14, 2011 in Reviews. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Step 1: Battle: Los Angeles is only a mediocre addition to the alien invasion genre.

Step 2: Poor L.A. It’s always getting beaten up either by weather anomalies (Day After Tomorrow), giant meteors (Deep Impact), the Mayan doomsday calendar (2012) – and yes, many alien invasions staking their claim on the City of Angels. Maybe L.A. is always a target in disaster films because, well, this is where films are made, so there’s an affinity. Now count Battle: Los Angeles as one of them.

Step 3: Typical wartime scenario. You know, I was a little disappointed there was never a shot of surfers in the water watching the spaceships drop from the sky into the ocean, like in the poster. Instead, the film starts off introducing a bunch of U.S. Marines who will go on to save the day. There’s SSgt. Michael Nantz (Aaron Eckhart) who has seen some hard combat in his 20 years and is ready to retire. There’s 2nd Lt. William Martinez (Ramon Rodriguez) who is expecting a baby, has just graduated from officer training and is ready to lead a team. There’s also your garden variety of stereotypical soldiers from the innocent newbie who might as well be wearing a red shirt to the bitter corporal who has it in for Nantz to the kick-ass chick soldier, who is, of course, played by Michelle Rodriguez.

Step 4: Here they come. The TV is blaring reports that a cluster of “meteors” are headed to Earth and that people on the coastline should evacuate. Then as they seemingly crash into the ocean, it’s becomes very clear, very quickly these ain’t no meteors but rather an alien force, intent on taking over our planet by using our water to fuel their machines. Nantz, Martinez and the rest of the unit are sent in, behind the enemy lines, to rescue some civilians caught there — and the film is off and running as the Marines encounter the “hostiles” and try to figure out the best way to kill them while making it back to safety.

Step 5: Find the star. Most of the actors are somewhat recognizable but instantly forgettable, except for Eckhart, who has the biggest profile. He growls a lot and says things like, “Don’t you give up on me! We are going to make it!” You know, the typical war mumbo jumbo. Michael Pena and Bridget Moynahan play the civilians, trapped with kids in their care so there’s THAT element to it as well. Seriously, every banal war/disaster trick in the book is at play in Battle: Los Angeles.

Step 6: The real draw is the action, not the actors. Helmed by Jonathan Liebesman, whose only other claim to fame is The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, the camera takes on that documentary, Black Hawk Down quality, shaky as the soldiers run in and out of buildings and houses. There are a few intense and worthy action sequences, I will give you that, particularly one on a demolished freeway ramp. And the aliens are sort of a cross between the ones in Independence Day and Predator, making weird sounds so you know they are coming. But ultimately, Battle: Los Angeles just doesn’t offer anything fresh or inventive in this nearly saturated genre. In fact, it made me want to see District 9 again.

How to Watch: “Unknown”

Published on February 26, 2011 in Reviews. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Step 1: Not Taken. While Unknown isn’t as compact an action thriller as Taken, it still manages to hold your attention.

Step 2: Think The Bourne Identity meets Frantic. The story focuses on Neeson’s Dr. Martin Harris, a scientist who is traveling to Berlin with his lovely wife, Liz (January Jones), to attend an important summit on biotechnology. Once they arrive, a quick succession of events leads to Martin being injured in a car accident. He wakes up four days later from a coma – with no identification on him. He knows who he is, but he can’t seem to prove it to anyone else, including his wife, who she says she doesn’t know him and introduces another man (Aidan Quinn) as her husband, named — wait for it — Dr. Martin Harris. So, in essence, this other guy has taken Martin’s identity, job, wife. 1) WTF? and 2) Is our Martin really crazy? No, he’s not crazy, but something screwy is going on, especially when Martin is suddenly being chased by people intent on killing him. He elicits the help of a beautiful cab driver (Diane Kruger), who saved him in the car accident, and the two try to prove Martin says who he says he is.

Step 3: Find your specialty. Liam Neeson has found a small niche with the tightly packed action thriller. There’s no denying the guy’s a stellar actor, who can elevate any movie he’s in, be it really bad (Satisfaction, anyone?) or meaningful (Schindler’s List). And so in tackling the action genre, Neeson proves he can be pretty freakin’ badass while maintaining a level of integrity. Is it enough to sustain Unknown? I think so, even if things start to seem a little farfetched. Jones plays the same cool blonde she does in the hit show Mad Men, with not much else required of her. It’s really Kruger, of Inglourious Basterds and National Treasure fame, who gets the meatier role as the immigrant cab driver who is reluctantly drawn into Martin’s mess. Another standout is German actor Bruno Ganz, who plays an ex-East Berlin spy just itching to get into the game again when Martin comes to him for help.

Step 4: Yes to car chase, no to story. Director Jaume Collet-Serra (Orphan) also seems to have a handle on the genre, crafting some pretty seat-clutching car chase scenes. I’m a sucker for a good car chase, so if it’s done well, I’m hooked all the way. The film’s problem lies in the script (there’s more than one writer, let’s just say). It’s a great premise that gets more than a little muddle towards the end. Still, the conclusion and reasoning behind the whole thing doesn’t necessarily bother me since the majority of the film is fairly entertaining and engaging. While it may come with baggage, following such a compelling action thriller like Taken, Unknown has its own merits.

How to Watch: “Sanctum”

Published on February 4, 2011 in Reviews. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Step 1: Don’t cave dive. Sanctum pretty much dashes any dreams I may have had of becoming an underwater cave diver. There’s no way in hell I’m going to do THAT now that I know how dangerous it can be.

Step 2: Don’t cave dive during a tropical storm. I’m just kidding, but the film certainly details what treacherousness lies beneath the Earth’s surface – in 3D, no less. Based on real events, the story follows a team of underwater cave explorers who are mapping one of the largest, most beautiful and least accessible cave system ever found – the South Pacific’s Esa-ala Caves. When a tropical cyclone topside create flash floods in the caves, however, it suddenly becomes less about exploring and more about surviving. Lead by the intrepid master diver Frank McGuire (Richard Roxburgh), the team – which includes the expedition’s financier and adrenaline junkie Carl (Ioan Gruffudd), his mountain climbing girlfriend Victoria (Alice Parkinson) and Frank’s resentful 17-year-old son Josh (Rhys Wakefield) – must find an alternative route to safety, going deeper into the underwater labyrinth and entering places never meant for human habitation.

Step 3: Don’t cave dive with novices. Who will make it out? That’s what keeps the film’s momentum going. Sanctum plays a little like a disaster film, in which you get a minor amount of back story to the characters before putting them in harm’s way. So, while the dialogue is pretty predictable and cheesy in parts, it’s also easy to overlook once you are caught up in the action and wondering how someone is going to die – or live – spectacularly. There’s also no major stars to get in the way, but there are a few familiar faces, including Roxburgh, an Australian character actor who has played baddies in Moulin Rouge and Mission: Impossible 2. Gruffudd played Reed Richards, aka Mr. Fantastic, from the Fantastic Four movies, while Parkinson starred in X-Men: Wolverine. Only Wakefield is the newbie, a cute Aussie who carries much of the film’s emotional core. The last scene with his dad might bring a tear to the eye. I say might.

Step 4: DO cave dive if James Cameron is involved. The film’s draw is having executive producer James Cameron stamp of approval on it. While he doesn’t direct (that is handled by first timer Alister Grierson), the master visionary touches are still felt, especially in the 3D shots. In general, I’m still sort of mixed on the whole 3D phenomenon, sometimes impressed by the technology but mostly wondering why I have to wear those uncomfortable glasses for a film that could easily have been 2D. But not when it comes to Cameron’s 3D. I mean, Avatar is pretty incredible to watch, so knowing he is involved in Sanctum definitely piques the interest. You won’t be disappointed. There are moments in which you feel you are in those caves, watering splashing on you, stuck in cramped, small spaces. Oh yeah, if you are claustrophobic at all, you might want to avoid the film. In a nutshell, Sanctum isn’t going to set records but for an action thriller, it does its job fairly well.

How to See “Red”

Published on July 26, 2010 in Movies and Trailers. 0 Comments Tags: .

Check out this trailer to the upcoming actioner Red, about a black-ops agent (Bruce Willis), who has to reassemble his old team in a last ditch effort to survive. Any movie in which Helen Mirren can shoot a gun is MY kind of movie.

How the “Takers” Trailer Takes

Published on June 11, 2010 in Movies and Trailers. 0 Comments Tags: .

Takers looks dangerously to Heat, but maybe not as good. And Zoe Saldana and Idris Elba are beginning to pigeon-hole themselves with this and The Losers. Hmmmm …

How to Watch: “Prince of Persia”

Published on May 30, 2010 in Movies and Reviews. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Step 1: Just go with the flow. Prince of Persia is the sort of popcorn-eating, mindless actioner you’d expect for the summer, made only slightly more appealing by Jake Gyllenhaal’s performance.

Step 2: Don’t play the video game first. As video-gaming adaptations go, Persia’s story isn’t half bad, even if it’s a little convoluted. In a cross between Aladdin and The Time Machine, the story follows Dastan, a desert street urchin whose courage and spunk impresses the king of Persia so much he adopts the boy. And when the boy (Gyllenhaal) grows up, he becomes a worthy prince — feisty, smart, agile and pure of heart. But when Dastan’s falsely accused of poisoning his dear father, he finds himself on the run with Tamina (Gemma Arterton), a princess who had been captured when the Persians overtook her city. She’s only looking to protect the dagger that holds the Sands of Time, a gift from the gods that can reverse time and allow its possessor to rule the world, which Dastan now possesses. So, Dastan discovers the mysteries of the dagger, finds out who really killed dad, partakes into a few action sequences — you know the drill from this point on.

Step 3: Realize Jake has some moves. Let’s just say, Persia isn’t much different from what you’ve seen in the trailer, save for seeing Gyllenhaal’s performance in total. He definitely outshines the material, but doesn’t necessarily dumb it down for the mass pop. The actor keeps his integrity, for the most part, infusing his Dastan with a wry sense of humor, genuine reactions — and a whole lot of Parkouring. I read Gyllenhaal took to the French physical discipline like a duck to water and performed most of the movie’s stunts himself. Arterton, too, did a few stunts herself and can now be tagged as the mythical go-to girl this year with Persia and Clash of the Titans. Ben Kingsley plays the dastardly Uncle Nizam, going over the top, as he’s wont to do in these type roles. One wonders when the superb British actor is going to rid himself of these foolish big-budget shenanigans and settle in on another excellent indie film. The other standout, though, is Alfred Molina, who can go from an indie film, such as An Education, to commercial fluff in a blink of an eye — and be totally engaging in both. In Persia, he plays a wise-ass desert con man whose likes to set up ostrich races. Good stuff.

Step 4: Eat your popcorn. As summer fare goes, Persia fits right in, but surprisingly, the film is directed by Mike Newell, whose best known for the rom-com Four Weddings and a Funeral. I suppose his experience with the fourth Harry Potter, The Goblet of Fire must have turned him on to make-believe and action. At least Newell keeps the narrative and pacing in line. But, as for the tone and theme, you can sum up Persia with two words: Jerry Bruckheimer. The actioner has the producer’s fingerprints all over it. Not too thought-provoking or even substantial, but entertaining nonetheless.

Level of difficulty in watching Prince of Persia: Pretty easy, but you’ll forget it the moment you exit the theater.

How to Interview: “MacGruber” Saves the Day

Published on May 18, 2010 in Interviews and Movies. 0 Comments Tags: , .

By Robert Sims, Special to the MovieKit.com

No matter how many MacGruber blows himself up, he always seems to live to screw up things another day.

But the raciest, sexist dolt who would be MacGyver now faces his greatest challenge: luring audiences away from their TVs to go to the theater to see the first Saturday Night Live-originated film since 2000’s lamentable The Ladies Man. In MacGruber, Will Forte’s special op teams up with trusty sidekick Vicki St. Elmo (Kristen Wiig) and the perpetually flabbergasted Lt. Dixon Piper (Ryan Phillippe) to stop madman Dieter von Cunth (Val Kilmer) from launching a nuclear strike against the United States. Mayhem ensues, mostly as a result of the incompetent MacGruber’s bumbling ways and his willingness to place a piece of celery in a place where the sun don’t shine.

Forte, Wiig, Phillippe and Kilmer joined director Jorma Taccone — an SNL writer responsible for creating such classic digital shorts as “Dick in a Box” and “Lazy Sunday” with his Lonely Island cohorts Andy Samberg and Akiva Schaffer — to discuss MacGruber’s latest mission.

Step 1: Create the perfect MacGyver parody
Will Forte: “MacGruber was Jorma’s idea. He kept coming to pitch it. Every week he would pitch it, for the sketch, and I would say, ‘No, I don’t want it, I don’t think so.’ He did enough weeks in a row where finally to shut him up we said, ‘Let’s write it.’ It was really his idea from the beginning.”

Jorma Taccone: “I’m not very good at pitching. Every Monday we have to get into Lorne’s [Michael, SNL’s creator and executive producer] office, all writers and cast. We get into the room and have to pitch in front of the wildly famous host. It’s really nerve-racking and I’m terrible at it. It was probably one of my worst pitches ever. I think the pitches went something like, ‘You play MacGruber, who defuses bombs only using pieces of shit and pubic hair, so nobody wants to hand you any of the items.’ And I got the worst groan ever.”

Step 2: Think big-screen
Taccone: “Lorne’s always been a real champion of MacGruber. He’s always really like it as a sketch. When the opportunity presented itself for Pepsi to maybe do something with SNL, he came to John [Solomon], Will and I. That propelled it into a little more of a national conscious. Not like SNL is not in the national conscious. But a ton of people watched that [2009] Super Bowl. There are people who don’t know MacGruber except for those Pepsi commercials. We sorta made that on spec. We made it entirely without Pepsi’s revision. We always wanted to make a commercial where he sells out because that’s well within his character. Because we had Richard Dean Anderson, we shot two MacGrubers, six individual little snippets. Because we had Richard Dean Anderson we didn’t know whether we would get the Pepsi commercial on the air. We shot one where MacGyer is MacGruber’s dad, and he’s also a little bit of a bit of shit. That propelled into the idea of it being a film. And then the opportunity came up, that there might be this opportunity—several different studios were interested in the idea—so we wrote a script and were really excited about it.”

Step 3: Make like MacGyver and work wonders with what you have
Tacoone: “The budget on this was $10 million…. It’s still a lot of money, but what we were able to get out of it is pretty awesome.”

“There’s a scene in the movie where they find MacGruber in a monastery. He’s reluctant to join this mission because there’s too much pain in his past. He wakes up from a nightmare and see Dieter von Cunth’s portrait on the wall. He was going to throw a lantern at the picture, burn down the whole monastery and walk away in slow motion like he’s a badass. These poor monks had to put out the fire. That was one of the things we couldn’t do: too much money.”

Step 4: Say goodbye to your dignity
Forte: “In Albuquerque, [Forte’s mother] came to visit. The final day she was get was the day we were doing the celery scene. I had prepared her. She’s been kinda prepared my whole life, but that was like … it wasn’t her so much. I was completely naked and cupping my genitals and placing this piece of celery and looked over and there was my mom standing, watching with no judgment: ‘This is what my son is doing.’ Next to her were her two friends who were not as excited about being there. I apologize.”

Step 5: Never work with props
Forte: “When we first got to Albuquerque and went to the Embassy Suites, as a joke, I guess they knew it was in the script, there was some celery that was in this care package that they had left in there. So we all came in there and were workshopping the placement of the celery. [Jorma] had a little Flip camera. He filmed it. Throughout the next couple weeks people would come up to me and say, ‘I saw the celery thing.’ He would send it to every people.”

Tacoone: “I just showed it.”

Kilmer: “I called Jorma in the middle of that and he said, ‘I can’t talk right now because we’re working on some props.’”

Step 6: Make (courtesy) pillow talk

Wiig: “When you do a sensual love scene with Will Forte, there’s a little barrier between—”

Forte: “This is only a love scene with Will Forte?”

Wiig: “Is it a normal thing? We are talking about the same thing? He put it in between our areas. Did we really use it?”

Forte: “I didn’t want to? You were the one who insisted on it.”

Wiig: “But we didn’t end up using it, but maybe I got fooled somehow.”

Taccone: “We did with it, it just fell out immediately.”

Wiig: “He had a little sack.”

Forte: “It was a pretty big sack. I think basically we just used a towel. This was not a piece of fabric that you wanted to be around after the filming. It was pretty sweaty and hairy.”

Step 7: Think big casting your villain
Kilmer: “It’s really funny. Isn’t it funny? The last time I read a script, a comedy or otherwise, where I called the agent and said I wanted to do it by about page 30 was a comedy not very many people saw called Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. It was just like that. It was just so good. Every single idea I had Jorma would kinda not let me finish the sentence and go, ‘No.’ It’s only because it was so good there was nothing to add. I just got dressed and tried not to laugh. I blew out a take because Will was so funny.”

Step 8: Understand the difference between directing an SNL short and a feature film
Taccone: “The biggest challenege was trying to keep your head when every day before lunch … or an hour or two before wrap you were told, ‘What are you doing to cut? You’re not going to make a day. You’ve got to cut something in the afternoon, you’ve got to cut something tomorrow. There’s no way you’re making your day.’ We would make our day every single day, but it would be really fast. On occasion you would really have to think on your feet and say, That scene is now a walk and talk with a Steadicam. The hardest part was having to think, How can we consolidate? We wouldn’t do it that much, but we would consolidate certain scenes as long as it wasn’t to the detriment of the film. Directing is just being able to organize your time and not freak out.”

Step 9: Don’t even worry how MacGruber’s success or failure impacts other SNL characters heading to a movie theater near you
Forte: “My mom is giving me pressure. She’s thinking about not inviting me to Thanksgiving if this does not do well at the box office.”

Taccone: “There’s always pressure, but the budget being so low is helpful.”

Step 10: Hope for a sequel
Ryan Phillippe: “Especially in a tropical locale. MacGruber in Paradise.”

How to Use a “Machete”

Published on May 8, 2010 in Movies and Trailers. 0 Comments Tags: .

Now this looks like pure vintage Robert Rodriguez. I remember seeing the “fake” trailer for Machete during the Grindhouse double feature and thought, “That would be a badass movie.” I guess others agreed. Check out the all-star cast:

How to Watch: “The Losers”

Published on April 26, 2010 in Movies and Reviews. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Step 1: Don’t be a Loser, Part I. After watching this stylized comic-book action flick and admitting you thoroughly enjoyed yourself, you won’t feel like a Loser at all.

Step 2: Don’t be a Loser, Part II. Based on a comic-book, The Losers revolves around an elite U.S. Special Forces unit – with nicknames like Clay (Jeffery Dean Morgan), Jensen (Chris Evans), Roque (Idris Elba), Pooch (Columbus Short) and Cougar (Óscar Jaenada) – who all have special skills and are, of course, far from being losers. When a mission in Bolivia goes wrong, they find themselves on the short end of the stick and are presumed dead. Which is a good thing, cause when they decide to go after the ruthless dude (Jason Patric), who orchestrated the lethal betrayal against them, they are going need all the cover they can get – which includes the help of a sexy and beautiful operative named Aisha (Zoe Saldana), who may or may not be a femme fatale. So, the guys remain deep undercover while tracking the heavily-guarded dude, hell bent on embroiling the world in a new high-tech global war.

Step 3: Don’t act like a Loser. The boys are great together. They’ve got that camaraderie one needs to make a movie like this work. Morgan (Watchmen) is scruffy and sexy, the real leader; Elba (Obsessed) plays the disgruntled grumbler; Short (This Christmas) is the badass driver/mechanic, who’s also the only family man; Spanish actor Jaenada is the strong, silent and deadly-with-the-sniper-rifle type; and there’s Evans (Fantastic Four), the snarky comic relief egghead who nearly steals the show. It’s going to be good fun seeing him play Captain America. As for the female of the group, Saldana is really making a name for herself as a kick-ass heroine with Star Trek, Avatar and now this. She makes it believable. Patric goes a tad over the top with his bad guy, but it’s nice to see him onscreen again.

Step 4: Don’t direct like a Loser. Stomp the Yard‘s Sylvain White tries his hand at full-blown action, and while he falls into some of the same footsteps of other gritty and campy actioners (Joe Carnahan’s Smokin’ Aces comes to mind), he makes The Losers his own. There’s the right combo of slow-mo kill shots, fast cuts and up close, shaky documentary style camera angles — the key to all action movies these days.

Level of difficulty in watching The Losers: Totally easy. Let’s hope The A-Team is just as good because it looks like it’s basically the same movie.