By admin, on December 8th, 2010
 Well, tonight I went and saw the movie Faster starring Dwayne Johnson, aka the Rock, Billy Bob Thornton, Carla Gugino, and Maggie Grace.
This is another what I like to call Tuesday Movie. Basically my theater gives a half price discount for tickets on Tuesday, so that’s when I usually like to go and see these B-Rated movies.
The trailers for Faster made me initially think the movie is a simple action movie with a revenge plot, and for the most part it is. But somehow I found it far more entertaining that I had originally thought I would. The flick starts out with Dwayne Johnson playing a character known only as the “Driver”. He is just getting out of a 10 year prison sentence. On his way out, we get a sneak peek at his personality as a Bad-ass during an interview with the warden. We learn later on that he was imprisoned for a bank heist gone horribly wrong. He was, yep you guessed it, the driver in the getaway car. As soon as he gets out of jail, he immediately starts killing off people one by one.
We learn that these people were the ones responsible in part for him being in jail. You see, the bank heist was a setup, and they were all double crossed and killed.. save one, the driver. We also learn that one of the people in the robbery was his brother, and that is why is so hell bent on revenge.
During his killing spree, he is a ruthless killing machine with no remorse or guilt. Little by little, we get to know him a little deeper, as he only wants to kill those directly responsible for his brother’s death, and as such, he lets a few people go that are trying to hunt him down. One of these people is a cop that has been after him from the beginning. The decision to let him go he later will regret, as they have a last show down at the very end of the film.
But there are quite a few twists and turns as the movie progresses, and one surprise at the very ending, that I did not see coming until the last 20 mins of the movie.
There are intermixed a couple of love stories, that seem more out of place and are just injected in to prolong the movie rather than seem a true part of it.
Probably the best part of the movie are the couple of rather amazing car chases where he truly shines and gets his well deserved name.
All in all, I give it 2.5 stars **1/2. Theatrical Release Date: November 24, 2010. Runtime: 98 min
By admin, on August 21st, 2010
 If you have only one choice this weekend, go see this movie. I thoroughly enjoyed it. To me it was a mix somewhere between Commando meets Rambo after leaving the A-Team.
So, Sly does it again. His most recent movies, in my opinion have been getting better and better, and this is no different. Here he plays a mercenary Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone) and his crew of mercenaries (played by Jason Statham, Jet Li, Randy Couture, and Terry Crews) are known as “The Expendables”. They have their own jackets and matching tattoos and everything.
The film opens up with them kicking the azz out of Somali pirates. Lots of gunz blazing and lots and lots of deaths. Isn’t that what makes a good Rambo movie after all? Talking of Rambo, this could actually pass for a Rambo 5 if they had of changed the names. Then they are hired by a super secret shadowy figure/cameo (Bruce Willis) to take down a general (David Zayas) and end the totalitarian reghime in the fictional country of Vilena. However, it turns out that the general is just a puppet of a rogue CIA agent and his henchmen.
This is a great setup for a totally awesome kick-ass action movie. They go in, and do some recon and the body count continues to climb. The special effects are wonderfully done, with a mix of realism and fake blood squirting and limbs being severed. Nothing as gruesome as the 300, but totally done in the good old Rambo style movie making that seems to have become Sly’s forte. I loved it.
There is some banter, comedy, mixed in with some seriousness, drama, and some romance.
In the end, the good guys win, the bad guys loose, and the body count is well over 100. Lots of explosions, shoot outs, knife fights, etc.
My favorite part of the movie is where Terry Crews is showing off his new gun.. a fully automatic shotgun with uranium depleted high explosion shells. They are in a fight for their life, and loosing.. and then the explosions start. The sounds, the shells, the explosions.. just simply WOW.
The other was the 1 minute cameo with Arnold Schwarzenegger and the one liner of Bruce Willis saying “He’s just mad because he thinks he wants to be President.” HA! Wonderful!
This is a must see, and go and see it at the movies. The big screen will only make this movie that much more enjoyable.
My rating.. 3.5 stars.. ***1/2.
By admin, on August 21st, 2010
 Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg play wanna be cop detectives Allen Gambel and Terry Hoitz. They are terribly mismatched police partners. One is a gung ho wanna be shoot’em up bad ass cop, who had the misfortune of wrecking his career by shooting a famous actor. The other is a pimp-gone-cop who is trying to make a change in his life. Basically these two cops are at the lowest rung of the totem pole. They are overshadowed by two super cops played by Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne Johnson. These are the uber hip, super popular, gunz blazing, total bad azz, media loving, darlings of the police force. They are loved by everybody except for Terry.
As the film opens up with a super cop chase scene that was meant to be over the top, I immediately got the impression that I was in for a really stupid movie. However, from there it tones down a bit and it gets a little funnier. I may have even enjoyed it more if the guy sitting behind me wasn’t overly laughing at every single joke, even the really lame ones. But I digress.
The main plot is these two super cops, get killed early on, and there is now a open spot in the force for two more. So our two wanna-be’s try to fill those shoes. Terry wants to go after the biggest cases he can find, Gambel wants to stay on the more mundane cases, like a scaffolding tax evasion charge.
They chase some bad guys, and learn about each other. Terry finds out that Gambel used to be a pimp, and that all of the drop dead gorgeous women in the world just fall for him…which leads to even more really bad jokes. And then there are a few scenes with Terry trying to maintain a relationship with his own gal. I could have done without those scenes all together.
In the end, Terry gets his guns blazing bad guy, and Gambel gets his scaffold tax evasion guy. And they become the new super cops.
Overall, I found the film sporadically funny. There were way too many gags and really lame jokes to want me to even think of telling people to go and see this movie. It definately will only appeal to a very limited crowd, which I am obviously not in.
So, I will give it * 1/2.
Save your money, and go see some of the much better movies that are out now. Like the expendables.. which I really enjoyed.
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