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Friday, December 13, 2013

DELIVERY MAN


Touchstone Pictures

Rated PG-13

Running time: 105 Minutes



Click below to watch the Delivery Man movie trailer.
 

In Touchstone Pictures Delivery Man, Vince Vaughn is a slacker working at his Father's butcher's shop delivering meat - when Vaughn discovers that his sperm donations have produced 533 children.

In this comedy remake of Writer/Director Ken Scott's French/Canadian film Starbuck, Vaughn owes $80,000 to some thugs and his girlfriend Police woman Cobie Smulders is pregnant with his baby. When lawyer Damian Young informs Vaughn that Vaughn's fertility clinic made a mistake and used his sperm multiple times, Vaughn suddenly finds himself the father of 533 children - adult, grown up children who have joined together in a class action lawsuit in order to force the clinic to reveal who their real father is. With the reluctant help of Vaughn's friend and lawyer Chris Pratt, Vaughn goes through the profiles of his children and finally finds his true purpose - deciding to be a guardian angel to his grown up children.

This was a cute film, and not as nasty about sperm donation that I thought the film would be. I liked the fact that Vaughn eventually decided to become involved in the lives of his children. Some of the children of course are a little suspicious of Vaughn, but to see the children's lives change for the better as a result of Vaughn's encouragement was a tear-jerker for me. Having Vaughn observing what their jobs and lives are like was very touching for me. What I did not like was the fact that there were several concepts and ideas that were brought up in the movie that were not followed up to their conclusions. And Vaughn's relationship with one child was both illogical plot wise considering the lawsuit and was not followed through to the end, although Vaughn's relationship with this child was a tear-jerker of a relationship.

Among the media coverage, cameos with Jay Leno and Bill Maher appear as themselves as they discuss who this mysterious father is as they appear on their talk shows in the movie.

Rated PG-13 for language. Running time: 105 Minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.


Pancho's Movie Reviews




THOR - THE DARK WORLD


Marvel Entertainment

Rated PG-13

Running time: 112 Minutes



Click below to watch the Thor - The Dark World movie trailer.



In Marvel Entertainment's Thor - The Dark World, the Dark Elves led by Christopher Eccleston invades Asgard and Earth. Thor/Chris Hemsworth must then recruit his criminal brother Loki/Tom Hiddleston to stop him.

After an ancient battle between Odin/Anthony Hopkins father Bor/Tony Curran, and the Dark Elves led by Eccleston - Eccleston and a handful of Dark Elves escape into suspended animation.

In modern-day London, astrophysicist Doctor Natalie Portman discovers a place where objects disobey the laws of physics and disappear into thin air. Portman winds up being teleported to another world. When Thor/Hemsworth learns of her disappearance, he goes in search of Portman as the Asgards learn of the Convergence, the rare alignment of the Nine Realms with portals linking them all. Eccleston and the Dark Elves awaken from suspended animation and return to threaten Asgard and Earth through the Convergence portals. In desperate revenge Eccleston and the Dark Elves, Thor/Hemsworth seeks an alliance with his imprisoned traitorous brother Loki/Hiddleston.

I had mixed feelings about this movie. Actually, I had opposite feelings about this movie than for the first Thor movie. I liked the Earth scenes better than the Asgard scenes. The Earth scenes dealt with more interesting scenes, like scenes in London instead of scenes in the middle of nowhere in America, and the scenes that dealt with the warping of the laws of physics. The Asgard scenes were too human for me, more human street level, instead of using more godlike fantastical situations.

I liked the eventual meeting with Thor/Hemsworth and Natalie Portman, as well as the meeting with Portman and Loki/Hiddleston. Portman of course has issues with both Thor/Hemsworth and Loki/Hiddleston after what happened in The Avengers. Thor/Hemsworth also has to deal with the issues he has with both Portman and Loki/Hiddleston. I also liked the uneasy alliance between Thor/Hemsworth and Loki/Hiddleston. You are never sure when Loki/Hiddleston will betray Thor/Hemsworth. Their relationship was possible the most interesting one in the entire movie. Portman's relationship with Thor's/Hemsworth's parents Odin/Anthony Hopkins and Frigga/Rene Russo. While Odin/Hopkins did not think Portman worthy, Frigga/Russo had a motherly affection for Portman. Frigga/Russo also kicks ass if you mess with her, which I loved.

For Stan Lee fans, I think it is appropriate he is a patient in a mental ward. Chris Evans uncredited cameo was great.

As a by-product, the events of Thor - The Dark World will affect the events in TV's Marvel's Agents of SHIELD.

During the end credits - there is not one, but two scenes that are shown. Most people left after the first scene was shown. The first scene was more concerned with The Collector story - with an uncredited Benicio Del Toro as The Collector - which leads to Guardians of the Galaxy, so the people leaving after learning the story was okay. The next scene was a love story scene with Porter and Thor/Hemsworth.

Rated PG-13 for violence, nudity. Running time: 112 Minutes.

Pancho 
All people smile in the same language.

Pancho's Movie Reviews


 

Friday, December 6, 2013

ENDER'S GAME


Summit Entertainment

Rated PG-13

Running time: 114 minutes



Click below to watch an Ender's Game movie trailer.



In Summit Entertainment's Ender's Game - Earth had been attacked by aliens, so now Earth is readying soldiers to fight them. These soldiers are children - especially the chosen leader Ender Wiggin/Asa Butterfield.

Directed by Gavin Hood - who plays the giant in the mind game - and Co-Written by Hood, the movie is based on Orson Scott Card's book Ender's Game, and is Produced by Card who also wrote the screenplay in order to preserve the vision of his book. This live-action movie of Ender's Game is a study in the near future of how desperate the human race would be if we were trying to prepare ourselves for another invasion. The use of training children from the start with war games instead of normal play with educational kid games is rather sad. Too bad several themes from the book never really got a chance to be developed in the movie as they were concentrating on Ender's/Butterfield's story.

Actually, despite what the trailers may imply, this is Ender's/Butterfield's story. You see Ender/Butterfield going from student to being recruited to Battle School as Mankind's last hope of a military leader against the aliens. You also see the jealousy of the other students for Ender's/Butterfield's brilliance, and I felt for his isolation and his manipulation by Harrison Ford. In a sense, this is the ultimate bully movie as Ender/Butterfield fights back.

While initially I did not think Ben Kingsley's facial tattoos were unnecessary and detracted too much for me from appreciating Kingsley's performance in the movie, the tattoos were explained in the movie as part of his Maori background and I accepted them.

The movie is actually very close to the book. While not everything could not be put in and explored, at least all the major themes were mentioned. The children were more young teenagers from high school instead of the elementary school children from the book however. This is probably due to the fact that you can not do this kind of graphic material with very young children, as well as having the marketing factor of having teen aged stars being in the movie. The videos of the aerial battle with the alien Fomecs used contemporary military fighters, so the alien invasion could have taken place today - and the battles in space were believable too. I like the fact that the U.S. Marines have Ender's Game as recommended reading for lessons in leadership.

Having read the book in college, I have always wondered how they were going to do the zero gravity effects of Battle School - if this would be an animated film or a live action film. As a live-action film, the zero G Battle School scenes in Earth orbit were very believable - especially as the young actors were trained in wire-work by Cirque du Soleil. The performances by the Academy Award Nominee stars Hailee Steinfeld, Viola Davis, Abigail Breslin, Harrison Ford, and Academy Award Winner Ben Kingsley make you get into the characters. I think this is the best military science fiction movie I have seen. As for Ender Wiggin/Asa Butterfield - this is no game.

Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time: 114 Minutes.

Click below to watch another movie trailer of Ender's Game.



Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

 Pancho's Movie Reviews