TERMINATOR GENISYS

Paramount Pictures

Rated PG-13

Running time: 126 Minutes
















Click below to watch a movie trailer of Terminator Genisys on YouTube.
 

Paramount Pictures Terminator Genisys, has an apocryphal future war in 2029 against computer artificial intelligence Skynet and it's robot Terminators bent on destroying the human race. Human Resistance soldier Jai Courtney is sent back in time by Human Resistance leader Jason Clarke to save and protect Clarke's mother, Emilia Clarke, from the robot Terminators Brett Azar and Byung-hun Lee that have been sent to kill Emilia Clarke in the past - before the war and before Jason Clarke is born.

The fifth installment in the Terminator series - and the first film in a proposed new Terminator trilogy - the first half of Terminator Genisys is basically a combination of The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day. The first half of the movie was to me the best and my favorite part of the movie, as the movie explored the various consequences of multiple timelines while time traveling. Courtney was very confused in that the situations were not what he expected to happen when he traveled back in time - as the timeline has been altered. The opposite situation as opposed to a strong kick-ass Emilia Clarke, who knew what was going on - which is opposite of what the original Terminator movie was. The second half of the movie goes off onto it's own story in order to stop Judgement Day from happening - with a Terminator still after them. I was not crazy about the direction of the second half of the story, even if the movie did have tributes to the TV series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles trying to stop Judgement Day from happening, but I did like the action of the second half of the movie and loved the relationship of the characters. Terminator Creator James Cameron says that he considers Terminator Genisys to be the official third film of the Terminator franchise.

The filmmakers studied the Back to the Future films about how time travel works. This was important as you can get lost with how convoluted the various timelines can become.

Fan favorite Matt Smith (credited as Matthew Smith) was pretty much wasted as a fan favorite as he had very little screen time, although he was an important character. Dayo Okeniyi and Courtney B. Vance's characters were hardly used and those characters are major characters in the series.

There is a very logical explanation of Terminator Arnold Schwarzenegger's mature age in the movie, as he reprises his role, as the filmmakers did not use makeup or CGI to make Arnold younger. Arnold was just as bad-ass as always in this movie and he was fun for me to watch. Many actors in the series were considered to have the actors reprise their original roles, but for various reasons they did not do so. I also do not like Schwarzenegger's credit that was listed in the movie as that is not what his name was. All the questions in the movie were answered except for one, unless I missed the answer which was not obvious. That one question was answered in another movie and I was expecting it to be reiterated in this movie.

There is a mid credits scene at the end of the movie. The first Terminator movie with a mid credits scene. It is also the first film in the series to be shot digitally and the first in the series to be shot with an anamorphic lens.

Click below to watch another movie trailer of Terminator Genisys on YouTube.



Rated PG-13 for violence, language, nudity. Running time: 126 Minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

Like us on Facebook: Pancho's Movie Reviews

THE LAST STAND

Lionsgate

Rated R

Running time: 107 Minutes



Click below to watch The Last Stand trailer.



In Lionsgate The Last Stand, Sheriff Arnold Swarzenegger must stop a FBI fugitive Eduardo Noriega from crossing the border through his small town.

In Arnold's first lead role since Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Arnold is a small town sheriff looking forward to a nice quiet weekend after most of the town has gone out of town for the local high school's football game - when escaped drug lord Noriega heads toward his town in order to cross the border.

This is a good ol' boy version of Jack Reacher and Seven Samurai, but not as intelligent. Although, the characters were quite relatable, even the small town bit townspeople It is too bad that Harry Dean Stanton did not have more to do. He would have been a great town character. It is kind of nice that the movie played up the fact that as a character, Arnold has been out of action for a while and played up his being old. International drug lord Noriega was a character more interested in power than being an intelligent bad guy, and his henchman Peter Stormare is even worse and more over the top as a character. With Noriega driving a modified Chevrolet Corvette C6 ZR1 as his escape car racing towards Arnold's small town and the Mexican border, the movie had a Mad Max type of feeling as well.

Forrest Whitaker is basically wasted in this movie as his character really was not very dramatic or kick ass as Noriega escapes from FBI custody in Las Vegas. It was also disappointing that Whitaker does not interact with Arnold and Arnold's people, except by phone - and that generally being about the legal jurisdiction between the two of them on their manhunt for Noriega. Johnny Knoxville and Luis Guzman were basically the film's eccentric comic relief.

Having the town shootout done with assault rifles instead of your typical six-shooter wild Western shootout was quite fun.

Rated R for graphic violence and language. Running time: 107 Minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

 Pancho's Movie Reviews

The Expendables 2

Lionsgate

Rated R

Running time: 103 Minutes



Click below to watch The Expendables 2 trailer.



In Lionsgate's The Expendables 2, Sylvester Stallone and his team of mercenary Expendables are sent on a secret mission by CIA operative Bruce Willis to recover the contents of a safe - which holds the key to an abandoned Cold War Soviet Union mine of five tons of weapons grade plutonium.

This is a fun action-packed sequel to the 2010 first movie of The Expendables. The Expendables 2 includes an ensemble of 1980's action stars as well as current action stars which makes for an incredible cast. The Expendables 2 is directed by Simon West and co-written by Stallone and by Richard Wenk, with whom I used to work with. I did not know Richard wrote the movie until I saw the credits on IMDB. However, when watching the movie, I can recognize jokes that are obviously Richard's.

This group of action stars - both old and new - which includes names like Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Chuck Norris, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Terry Crews, and Randy Couture look to be having fun on this movie, including newcomers Liam Hemsworth as the next generation Expendable, and Yu Nan (or Nan Yu, I have seen two different postings of her name. Yu Nan is posted on the official website) as a Chinese agent sent by Willis to join their team. It was great that Lundgren's history of chemical engineering was written into his character, making Lundgren perhaps the smartest character of the Expendables. I liked the fact that they played up on Norris's urban legend facts in the movie, as well as playing up Schwarzenegger's character as Stallone's action rival. Charisma Carpenter of Buffy the Vampire Slayer reprises her role as Statham's girlfriend.

Jean-Claude Van Damme was great as the villain. Van Damme is even credited in the movie as Vilain. The final face off battle between Stallone and Van Damme is a great hand to hand battle, worthy to see between the two action stars. Although since they were both basically wearing the same clothes, it was hard to tell the two of them apart when they were battling in silhouette despite their different tattoos and logos. Director West captures the essences of all the other 1980's action films that made these action stars famous.

While I would have liked Van Damme as an Expendable - someone has to be the villain and be strong enough to stand up to the Expendables and Van Damme fits the bill, especially with Van Damme's fighting style. Scott Adkins was sufficiently sadistic as Van Damme's henchman as he executes the various village slave workers. It is a shame that Jet Li left the film early, so you could not really appreciate his character -  although Nan took over the token Asian character aspect of the movie and she does hold her own as an action star, and Statham's knife fighting abilities made up for the missing Li's hand to hand fighting scenes as well as Statham being Stallone's best friend. Liam Hemsworth is not as well known as an action star as his older brother Chris Hemsworth, but Liam made a nice addition as the Expendable's young sniper. I liked that Terry Crews was the cook of the movie, but I do not remember much of Randy Couture, even though he was supposed to be the glue that holds the dysfunctional Expendables together. Watching all the 80's action stars firing off the big guns was a lot of fun. The shootout at the airport reminded me of a video game my nephew was playing with recently.

Having a village full of mothers such as Amanda Ooms defending their children from the Expendables and Van Damme's men was both comedic and heartbreaking and added some humanity to the story. There is a great bit with a Smart Car which is especially funny to me as we have a fleet of Smart Cars at work for promotional appearances for our company and to see a Smart Car being used in the movie was great.

Rated R for graphic violence. Running time: 103 Minutes.

Click below to watch a Top Five list of Action films to prepare you for The Expendables 2 movie.



Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

Pancho's Movie Reviews