Based on the second book of the Divergent trilogy written by Veronica Roth, with Ansel Elgort, Ray Stevenson, Zoe Kravitz, Miles Teller, Maggie Q, and Mekhi Phifer returning from Divergent, the movie takes place a few days after the first movie. Jai Courtney and his soldiers search through the wreckage of Abnegation for an unknown box that has the symbols of all the factions. Winslet says that the box contains information from the city's founders with the means to end the Divergence problem which has grown beyond all control, but only a Divergent can open the box - so Winslet orders all Divergents to be hunted down and captured. An angry Woodley, who is the key to the box, goes after Winslet - who believes that Divergents will destroy their society.
I was not familiar with the Divergent series, but I did not have to see the first movie in order to follow what was happening in Insurgent. It is good that most of the cast resumed their roles from the original movie to maintain continuity, with Insurgent being Kate Winslet's first sequel - although the movie Insurgent is different than the novel Insurgent. The movie had the feeling to me of The Maze Runner, especially towards the end, with both movies as post-apocalyptic movies.
This is the first film in the Divergent series to be released in 3-D.
The final book in the Divergent trilogy - Allegiant, will be made into two films, with Shailene Woodley, Theo James, and Naomi Watts reprising their roles.
Click below to watch another movie trailer of Insurgenton YouTube.
Rated PG-13 for violence, sexual situations. Running time: 119 Minutes.
In Freestyle Releasing's Left Behind,Nicholas Cage is an airline pilot - who is one of the few people left behind after millions of people disappear all over the world.
In this Christian film Directed by Vic Armstrong, and based on the Left Behindbook series written by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, is based on the "end times"described in the Bible and that the people who believed in Christ have been Raptured and taken up to Heaven. While they never used the word "Rapture" in the movie, the characters in the movie - especially Cage - did discuss that this must have been the circumstances of what had happened to the missing people as there was a religious connection to all of them.
While the event was not graphic, I thought it was very suspenseful for me when the event happened, and I got the chills at it's suddenness. I was also crying as all the people left behind, especially the mothers, were worried about their loved ones. This was especially heartbreaking to me with the events happening in the middle of a shopping mall.
With the loss of millions of people all over the world, the world goes into chaos for various reasons. While the First Responders did their best during the end of the world to restore order, it is a shame that the First Responders were not also called during the Rapture. Of course, if they were, the world would have been even more chaotic. Events like this is what CERT (Community Emergency Response Teams) was created for - to support First Responders. I know my CERT team would be out there doing what they can to help, but I would feel just as sad for them if they were not called up to the Rapture. The theme for both the movie and for CERT is, are you ready?
It is amazing how Christians help run and stabilize the world in their jobs. Christians in control of vehicles like cars and planes suddenly disappearing in flight can cause a lot of damage. It makes me sad that while children disappeared, their mothers/parents did not. There is a definite loss in the second half of the movie without the children in the world. It seems a shame that a lot of apparently good people were left behind to suffer the end time, despite their love for their families. While most of these good people are still in shock, a few of them, like news journalist Chad Michael Murray pull together to calm people down and get through this event.
I felt that the Christian message was pushed over the top from the beginning and that many of the lead "Christians" in the movie were not likable. Even Cage's wife Lea Thompson was pushing it when she was talking with her daughter Cassi Thomson who is home from college for an unsuspecting Cage's birthday. If I had written the movie, I would have had the lead Christian characters act as normal people interacting with the other characters and slowly revealing their beliefs during their relationships. As to the film itself, Left Behind felt more like a Hollywood disaster film to me - especially with Cage's runaway airliner, and Armstrong who is known mostly as a Stunt Coordinator rather than a Director - rather than an end time movie.
Although the Left Behind authors LaHaye and Jenkins liked the movie - most of the reviewers, including some of the Christian reviewers, that I have read did not like the movie. I think the movie would have taken a different tone if Ashley Tisdale was able to work out her schedule to be able to play Cage's daughter.
It is curious that I saw this movie near the season of the end times at the end of the liturgical year.
Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time: 110 Minutes.
In Twentieth Century Fox's The Maze Runner, amnesiacDylan O'Brien finds himself transported into a mysterious Glade with a group of boys - which is surrounded by a giant maze.
In a cross between The Hunger Games and The Lord of the Flies, the apocalyptic movie The Maze Runner is based on the book The Maze Runner by James Dashner (who had a cameo in the film). Told from the point of view of O'Brien, we follow the amnesiac O'Brien as he tries to figure out what is going on, who put them there, and how to escape The Glade that the boy Gladers have struggled to make into a low technology camp by running the dangerous maze.
What I liked about the movie is that the audience learned what was going on in the movie at the same time that O'Brien learned what was going on. You did not have to read the book to know what was going on. In fact I had never even heard of the young adult bookseries The Maze Runner until the movie came out. As a result, the movie The Maze Runner is the first of the movie series that will be made out of The Maze Runner books. While not mentioned in the movie, I also liked the fact that the characters names were named after historical figures and scientists as those are some of the themes of the movie.
While the cast was made up of a group of talented young British stars, similar in age to The Hunger Games, such as Aml Ameen, Ki Hong Lee, Blake Cooper, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, and Kaya Scodelario, the only actor that I had actually heard of was Will Poulter, as O'Brien's rival who got upset that everything has changed ever since O'Brien arrived in The Glade. It was bad enough that O'Brien is not following the rules, but that the Gladers are dying as a result of O'Brien not following the rules.
While the movie is good on the action and suspense, and the acting by the stars - the movie did make me cry - there were a couple of things that did not make sense, like the fact that it takes incredible resources and technology to even build the huge miles long maze.
Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time: 113 minutes.
In Walt Disney Pictures Oz the Great and Powerful, James Franco is Oz, a con artist carnival magician who gets caught up in a twister - and winds up in the Land of Oz.
Based on the works of L. Frank Baum and directed by Sam Raimi with music from Danny Elfman, this is a prequel to The Wizard of Oz from 1939 as elements from The Wizard of Oz is explained in Oz the Great and Powerful. Like The Wizard of Oz, at the beginning of the movie Oz the Great and Powerful, the movie starts out in black and white when it is set in Kansas - and turns into color when Franco/Oz arrives at the land of Oz. The aspect ratio of the movie also changes to the wider widescreen format and goes from monaural sound to surround sound when the movie is in the Land of Oz. And just like the original The Wizard of Oz, several characters from the black and white Kansas play characters in the land of Oz, such as Michelle Williams, Zach Braff, and Joey King.
After an unsuccessful magic show in a traveling circus, Franco/Oz gets caught in a twister while riding in a hot air balloon. When he arrives in the Land of Oz, Franco/Oz gets mistaken to be the Wizard that was described in prophecy. Franco/Oz soon gets recruited to save the Land of Oz from the wicked witch who had killed the king of Oz.
I liked the fact that the opening credits were created more like practical credits in line with the time of the movie instead of CGI credits and that practical sets were mostly used in the film. Elfman's music gives the movie a classic Hollywood movie feel to the movie. The song Almost Home from Mariah Carey is used during the end credits of the movie and is the only contemporary song in the movie. This is not a musical with characters breaking into song like in the original Wizard of Oz or as Disney musical animated fairy tale films tend to do.
While it has been years since I have read Baum's Oz series, and I have never seen the theater musical play Wicked, this felt like a true prequel to the movie The Wizard of Oz as we got to know much more of the characters from the original The Wizard of Oz movie. The story is such a tragedy, but the movie does set up the events to The Wizard of Oz movie that is set 20 years later.
I felt that Franco/Oz's relationships with the women in the beginning of the movie were a little too long to get to the story - but when Franco/Oz first arrives in the Land of Oz, it feels like riding in an attractionat Disneyland, which is quite appropriate as the movie was produced by Walt Disney Pictures. Disney had been trying to produce a film based on the Baum's Oz books since the late 1930's. Producer Joe Roth was happy to finally have a fairy tale with a male protagonist, such as the male protagonist in the origin story of Oz the Great and Powerful. Franco/Oz's desire to be a great man, obviously leads to him becoming Oz the Great and Powerful. Franco received magical training with magician Lance Burton in preparation for the role of a magician in this film. Franco and Braff reminded me of Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane. In fact, I could see Broderick and Lane doing their roles.
The twister was much more intense and violent than the twister in The Wizard of Oz. It was more like the movie Twisterthan the sanitized fantasy version that was shown in The Wizard of Oz. In fact there were several times that I expected Franco/Oz to be seriously injured during the various episodes of the movie.
I saw the movie in regular 2-D, but the movie was obviously designed as a 3-D movie. The movie does have some scary scenes that Raimi had to edit down to get a PG rating, which is Raimi's first PG film. For those of us who were scared as children from the original The Wizard of Oz, Oz the Great and Powerful is a scarier movie for children - especially the flying baboons. I am sure the movie is even scarier in 3-D.
Based on the novel by Isaac Marion, this is a different kind of zombie film with a "dead boy meets girl" plot, which is actually a loose retelling of Romeo and Juliet. I like that Palmer's best friend Analeigh Tipton is a nurse, similar to Juliet's having a nurse, as well as having an "R" and Juliet balcony scene in the movie. Warm Bodies is also told from the zombies point of view with Hoult's voice overs, which I do not think I have seen before. Usually it is zombies just walking around eating people, and there is some of that in the movie - including Palmer's boyfriend Dave Franco. I don't think I have ever seen zombies starting to be cured before and regaining their humanity. These elements make the movie different from what someone may expect from a regular zombie movie. What is curious from a movie making aspect, is that the zombie actors chose not to blink on screen, until they started to become more human.
I think my favorite scene in the movie, aside from Hoult's first meeting with his best friend Rob Corddry as "M", was the Pretty Woman scene with Roy Orbison. Music was a very important part of Hoult being a zombie, and probably added the most humanity to me aside from Hoult's relationship with Palmer. Having Hoult's home being at an airport was an interesting location for zombies that I never considered before.
John Malkovich was great as the para-military Colonel of the surviving humans defending their enclave amongst the zombie outbreak, almost despotic in his zeal of protecting his people and with killing zombies. I liked his video about zombies. The Bony zombies - zombies that are all muscle and bones - were appropriately scary and were definitely the horror part of the movie. I just wish the Bonys were more graphic as well as the child zombies.
I would not be surprised if Warm Bodies becomes a cult classic.
Rated PG-13 for violence and language. Running time: 98 Minutes. Pancho All people smile in the same language.
In FilmDistrict's Parker, Jason Statham is a highly principled thief who wants revenge against the gang who reneged on his share of the booty and tried to kill him.
Based on the novel Flashfire written by Richard Stark, pseudonym of writer Donald E. Westlake, and Produced and Directed by Taylor Hackford, the movie is similar to the movie Payback and which was also a Parker movie/book written by Stark. That is why the two movies are similar as other reviewers have pointed out, although Parker is a different type of film for Hackford since Hackford does not want to get stuck in any type of genre.
After pulling off a heist at a country fair, Statham is betrayed by Michael Chiklis when Chiklis wants to use the money from the heist to fund an even bigger heist. When Statham refuses to go along with the next heist and wants his share of the money, Chiklis has his gang try to kill him. When gang member Michah Hauptman leaves Statham for dead, Statham recovers and plans on getting revenge against Chiklis and his gang.
While Jennifer Lopez was the female lead in the movie and the one promoted for the movie, Emma Booth was Statham's love interest in the movie - especially since Booth's character is a semi-regular in the Parker novels. With Booth as Statham's love interest, Statham certainly did not encourage any relationship with Lopez. As a result, since Booth was the love interest, Statham and Lopez had no real chemistry despite Lopez's efforts. I had mixed feelings about Lopez's character in the movie as she was both a street-smart realtor and a ditsy divorcee at the same time, who seemed desperate to have a relationship after her divorce to take her away from this life. Patti LuPone as Lopez's mother, and their dog, had larger roles than I thought they would.
Michael Chiklis was was appropriately scummy as the leader of the gang doing the heist, although the gang itself were not strong enough characters to really appreciate their individual talents. Nick Nolte as Booth's father was not a strong enough character either to be the central godfather-like character connecting Statham, Booth, and Chiklis in their business - especially since Nolte had such a minor role in the film. I almost pitied Nolte as he has gotten quite old instead of mature, and was rather rundown looking in the movie.
Palm Beach, Florida was a beautiful location for the site of the next heist as Statham checks out hotels, mansions, and beach houses with Lopez and did make me curious as to what kind of heist would be the target at such a rich location.
I liked that Statham's character was highly principled, who conducts himself with a certain moral code, so I could relate to this anti-hero character as he does become the hero after the first act of the movie. As a former diver for the British Olympic Diving Team, Statham performed all of his stunts in the film - including jumping out of a moving car.
I saw the movie at a matinee so there was hardly anybody in the theater, but the audience reacted to the action so I can imagine a larger young evening audience would have reacted just as positively to the movie and had as much fun. For a novel character that has been around for 45 years as of 2013, I thought this was a fun movie.
Rated R for violence, language, nudity. Running time: 118.
Based on the book One Shot written by Lee Child, of which the character Jack Reacher is the protagonist, Cruise works with Sikora's defense attorney Rosamund Pike to get Sikora off - despite the fact that Cruise wants to bury Sikora, since Sikora has had a history of going off as a sniper. The title One Shot refers to the sniper motto - One Shot, One Kill.
I thought that this was a slightly above average crime drama movie, although Cruise was not as funny as I thought he would be in this movie. I kept thinking Cruise would be more like his character in A Few Good Men. Cruise is also much smaller than the big series character of Jack Reacher described in the book One Shot. Being a character who fell off the grid added to Cruise's mystique which helped his character of Jack Reacher since Cruise himself was not that funny.
The car chase scene in the movie unfortunately was pretty average, although Cruise did all of the stunt driving. The only good thing about the car chase was the end of the chase. Robert Duvall was great as the former U.S. Marine that assists Cruise. Duvall's character was the funny character that I had expected Cruise to be. Having District Attorney Richard Jenkins being Pike's father adds to the character dynamics of the film, with them being on opposite sides of the legal system concerning Sikora, as the film was actually fairly predictable otherwise. It is curious that Cruise never went into the military law of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, but just dealt outside of the civilian law. I think what I liked best about this movie is that you get to know who the victims of the shooting were and not having the people becoming just bodies.
Sadly, the premier of Jack Reacher in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - where the movie was filmed - was cancelled due to the mass shooting of the Newtown, Connecticut school shootingthe day before the scheduled premier. What was even scarier to me was that there were shots fired a couple of days later at my local mall, and not from somewhere across the country.
Rated PG-13 for violence, language, and sexual situations.
Produced and Directed by Steven Spielberg, and based on the book Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin, the film covers the final four months of Lincoln's life in 1865. This was a tour de force for Daniel Day-Lewis. For an Englishman, Day-Lewis had quite a presence as the American President Lincoln. I loved it when Lincoln/Day-Lewis started telling his stories. One of my favorite scenes was where Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, Bruce McGill, complains that Lincoln/Day-Lewis is going to tell another one of his stories again and walks out as Day-Lewis tells his story. Sally Field's performance as Lincoln's wife Mary Todd Lincoln did not make me feel that she was the emotionally difficult woman that history had made her out to be, but just as a concerned wife and mother - especially when her oldest son Robert Todd Lincoln, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, wants to go enlist into the Army. She is just concerned about her family.
While there were two issues during Lincoln's Presidency, the main story in the movie was the campaign for the necessary Democraticvotes in Congress for the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution for the abolition of slavery in America as a prelude to ending the Civil War. It is curious that Lincoln/Day-Lewis offered Federal jobs in his second term to the various Democratic congressmen in exchange for voting for the Amendment. There were heated debates on both sides in Congress, and even debates within his own cabinet, while Lincoln's people try to secure the votes necessary to pass the Amendment. There was even the joke about eventually giving women the right to vote, to the horror of everyone. During the vote for the Amendment, the names were changed on those in the United States House of Representatives who voted No on the Amendment to spare the family descendants of these representatives. There were several statements to the effect that the world is watching them, but you saw no actual scenes of the outside world. The scenes were totally focused on the American events. It is curious that I have always thought that it was the Democrats that supported the Amendment instead of the Republicans.
There was a battle scene at the beginning of the movie which to me was the most graphic Civil War battle scene I have ever seen, due to the fact that the fighting was basically hand to hand instead of people shooting at each other across a field. Half of the soldiers fighting in the scene were black. This battle scene was basically the only battle scene in the movie, despite what the trailer may imply - as the rest of the movie was about the politics of the 13th Amendment and the little known peace agreement between the Unionand the Confederacy. This scene makes me incredibly sad as I realize that these are Americans fighting Americans.
The theme of the movie was Euclid'stheory - which Lincoln/Day-Lewis spoke of - which is basically "Things which equal the same thing also equal one another." That was the basis of abolishing slavery. That was like a light bulb for me when Day-Lewis spoke of this. To think of the black people as unequal in the eyes of God was very prejudiced. Although the slaves in the movie acted and were treated more like servants rather than slaves doing drudge work, especially when there were black people for Lincoln/Day-Lewis and Sally Field. Although the pictures of black children of which their son Tad Lincoln, Gulliver McGrath, had with prices on their pictures brought home the idea of slavery. Tommy Lee Jones was great as Republican AbolitionistThaddeus Stevens. There was a scene at the end of the movie that made me understand Thaddeus Stevens/Jones better.
This was a long movie, especially with the long speeches at the beginning of the movie. I know that at least one couple left at the end of the voting for the 13th Amendment - and there was still the rest of the story of Lincoln to be told. The long speeches in the beginning made it difficult for me to concentrate as there was too much information being thrown at me and I was ready to fall asleep, but visually the movie was great under Spielberg's direction. There was a stylistic dream sequence in the beginning of the movie of a style that I have not really seen before. Lincoln's famous Gettysburg Addressin the beginning of the movie was too Hollywoodfor me for it to be believable, but it was a nice idea. With all the historical research that was involved, as the end credits indicated of all the museums and archives that were listed, it makes you wonder how much has been done for Hollywood's sake and how much in depth history has been left out.
I saw the movie at a Black Friday matinee in it's second week. I just realized, it seemed rather appropriate to see it on that day. The theater was full with a more mature audience than the young people who normally go to the movies. At the end of the movie, everyone applauded - and where normally people immediately leave after a movie, there were several people staying behind and just talking about the movie while the end credits rolled. It felt more like a social event. When the movie was over, there was a line outside the door.
Rated PG-13 for violence and language. Running time: 150 Minutes.
In Lionsgate The Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen, Jennifer Lawrence,is reluctantly sent from her impoverished District of a future devastated apocalyptic America, as a Tribute to the wealthy capitol city. In what is now the new country of Panem, Lawrence becomes a participant in a deadly reality TV elimination Game show - where the winner is the last person still alive.
Based on the book The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins,the movie is a cross between the short story The Lotteryby author Shirley Jackson, as well as Arnold Schwarzenegger'sThe Running Man, and the TV show Survivor.With TV host Stanley Tuccihosting the Games, the Games was more of a media extravaganza for the masses instead of a gladiator arena for the Tributes - especially with Lawrence being billed as "The Girl on Fire." The celebrity aspect of the show is in sharp contrast to the deadly killing spree in the second half of the movie as the Tributes target each other in this survival of the fittest conflict. While Lawrence's coal minor District Tributeswere chosen by lottery, other Tributes in other Districts were training all their lives for the Games. The sycophants of the show do not seem to realize or care that the Games are in reality a punishment check for the rebellious war that happened to the country seventy-five years ago. They just want a good show to be entertained by, which is sad. The "Bread and Circuses" aspect of the Game comes from the latter days of the Roman Empire, where the government would keep the masses satisfied by providing violent and deadly entertainments for the people to watch. And having the nation being forced to watch the Game is rather Big Brotherish. When Lawrence volunteers herself in exchange for her sister Willow Shields when Shields gets chosen to be a Tribute to the Games, it was a heart-rending moment to witness Lawrence's sacrifice. This sacrifice is the beginning of Lawrence's journey through The Hunger Games. It also lead to Lawrence becoming a big sister to Tribute Amandla Stenbergduring the Game.
Considering that this is a post-apocalyptic era amongst the ruins of North America, there seems to be a lot of technology in this era in contrast to the lack of food that the people have. Lawrence is forced to hunt animals for food - and has become very good with the bow and arrow as a result. Lawrence's use of the bow and arrow during the Game drove home the fact to me that the Game and the Tributes really are in the wilderness. It is implied that the rebellious war only occurred in America, so it is possible that the rest of the world was unaffected by the war and could contribute to the technology - but there is no reference to the rest of the world. Still, that is a lot of advanced technology involved that is able to manipulate an entire wilderness area that is being controlled by virtual computers. And the lack of food is more implied in the film rather than being graphic about it. I was expecting graphic hunger, so the implied hunger makes trivial the status of the real life homeless who are hungry. As a result, I am still not sure in the movie if people in society are really starving or if it is just a few people. Having producer Wes Bentley manipulate the games to force some killings, I thought was very unfair to the Tributes and is a form of violation of the amendment to the Communications Act of 1934 preventing anyone from fixing quiz shows. However, Bentley was being manipulated by the President, Donald Sutherland,to keep the people from having too much hope in Lawrence as the Games are a punishment and check against the various Districts to prevent future rebellions.
While former Hunger Games winner Woody Harrelson was a drunken, jaded mentor to Tribute Lawrence and to fellow Tribute Josh Hutcherson, it was nice to see Harrelson grow to be a true mentor and trainer to Lawrence and Hutcherson - especially to Lawrence.
While I generally liked the movie, this is also a long movie though. I felt it was taking too long to actually get to the Game once Lawrence and Hutcherson were chosen to be Tributes - and the Game was what I wanted to see when I went to see the movie in the first place. The Game was actually dramatically exciting with the Game set in the wilderness and the Tributes hunting each other, but the movie had spent quite of bit of time on the celebrity aspect, and training, of the Game before they actually got into the Game. Because of the Tributes killing each other off, you never get to know most of them as they get killed off too soon. I just barely remember a couple of their faces before they were killed off. Having a boy and a girl from each District being chosen as Tributes is rather sad, especially for Lawrence and Hutcherson, knowing that they would eventually have to kill each other in the end - which would prevent any type of friendship and alliance normally. The scene in the movie that got to me the most was the genetically enhanced wasps. I was imagining if I was thrown into that situation - suddenly attacked by wasps. Arghhh!
At the end of the movie, the people behind me were talking about the books. Since the book is part of a trilogy, Lionsgate said that the rest of the The Hunger GamesThe Hunger Games. From the opening box office, I expect they would be working on the next movie Catching Fireright now.
Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time: 142 Minutes.
A combination of Black Beauty and Saving Private Ryan - the film is more about the horse Joey, than it is about the war as the film follows Joey and the various horse tending people Joey encounters on his various adventures. Due to the fortunes of war, Joey goes back and forth between both sides of the war. As a result of which, I cared about the various characters Joey encounters during the war - no matter which side you are on. Having the Germans speaking English throughout the movie was a little disconcerting to me and made it difficult for me to tell which side of the war Joey was on - as under battle conditions, everyone looks almost alike. I would have preferred to have read subtitles when the Germans were speaking, but from a commercial point of view it made sense as most of the audience would not like to read subtitles throughout half of the movie. Since the movie was mostly filmed in England, there were no American soldiers integrated into the British units throughout the war.
The uses of horse-ridden calvary was initially a surprise for me as I generally think of WWI as the beginning of mechanised warfare which was used by Great Briton and France with tanks. However WWI was a combination of using both 20th century technology and 19th century tactics. Thus, a calvary charge with swords - while a sound tactic in the 19th century, and effective with thousand pound horses bearing down on lightly armed men - is hopefully outclassed against a defensive line of machine guns. The use of horses hauling artillery was much more relatable to me as the German Army was ahead in the war in fielding heavy artillery.
The trench warfare of No Man's Land, while scary with the machine guns, is not as intense as the first ten minutes of Saving Private Ryan - probably because there is a distance in No Man's Land between the audience and the British troops as they go over-the-top of the protective trenches into the heavily machine gunned barbed-wire battlefield, as compared to the up close and personal battle scenes in Saving Private Ryan. One reason for why the distancing might be, may be due to the post-traumatic stress reaction war veterans had to watching the first ten minutes of Saving Private Ryan. Certainly, you saw no real graphic consequences of the battle - even with the use of poison gas in the trenches. Although with gas masks, chemical warfare was of limited use in the war anyway despite the stigma of the use of poison gas during the war.
The horses were definitely the stars in this movie as you definitely got acting and emotion out of these beautiful horses, even if they are animals. The horses, especially Joey, care for each other and they make for nice tear-jerker characters for the film.
At the end of the film, the audience applauded. A rare thing indeed, which makes me think War Horse will be a contender for an Oscar.
Rated PG-13 for violence and language. Running Time: 146 Minutes.
With Butterfield being from a family of clock-makers, Butterfield steals intricatemechanism parts from Kingsley in order to fix the automaton Butterfield and his dadJude Lawdiscovered in a museum. Convinced the automaton contains a secret message from his late father Law, Butterfield is determined to fix the writing/drawing automaton to discover the message his father might have put in it. When Kingsley catches Butterfield stealing a mechanical mouse from him, Kingsley takes Butterfield's father's notebook from him. Determined to get the notebook back, Butterfield convinces Kingsley's goddaughterChloë Grace Moretz -who loves a secret and is looking to have an adventure - to get Law's notebook back for him. Butterfield then realizes that Moretz's necklace key is the key that unlocks Butterfield's automaton.
This film was also shot in 3D and should be seen in 3D. As it was shot in 3D, the 3D effects are much more believable and impressive than a 2D film converted to 3D. There was a closeup of Kingsley at the end of the movie that I noticed that, instead of being a flat closeup shot with a telephoto lens usually done with a 2D film, the closeup was a 3D closeup of Kingsley's face. I normally do not notice closeups in 3D as they are usually flat. It makes me wish I paid more attention to the closeups in the rest of the movie to see if they were also in 3D. This is what a 3D film should look like, especially when shot by a filmmaker like Scorsese. Considering that this is Scorsese's first 3D film, the film is amazing. The various clockworks mechanisms shown throughout the film are especially graphic in 3D.
In Twentieth Century Fox's Rise of the Planet of the Apes, James Francodevelops a new experimental retrovirus for a corporation to cure brain damage like Alzheimer's Disease - with a by-product of increasing intelligence. Testing on apes begets Ceasar, Andy Serkis, the leader of the Apes.
A combination of Charlyand Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, this is an intelligent story of the beginning of how the apes became the dominant species in the Planet of the Apes series. Not surprising since the novels Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keysand Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle, of which Charly and Conquest of the Planet of the Apesare based on and suggested by, are classic literary books. What makes the movie work is Franco's love and devotion to his father John Lithgow - who is suffering from a degenerative brain disease. Although they do not specifically mention that Lithgow has Alzheimer's, just that he has a disease. This is one reason that Franco pushes for the development of the serum. Despite his obsession, Franco does soon realize that the serum is still experimental and that there could be side-effects.
The computer graphics of the apes were very good. The chimpanzee Ceasar was very cute when he was younger, especially when he was home, but very serious as an intelligent adult played by Andy Serkis. This is shown when the older Ceasar is first shown in the San Francisco Redwoods. The beastial nature of all the apes - most of which, if not all, are performance-capture artists - in the animal shelter compound can get to you if you are not used to that much raw emotion.
Tom Feltonof Harry Potter fame was quite good as a sadistic animal controller assistant.
A classic line from the series is priceless.
Stick around when the end credits begin as there is a scene and graphics which leads to the development of the entire Planet of the Apes series. Wait for the graphics to be complete. The lost of a manned Mars space mission also hints at the series, as well as other homages to the series.
Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time: 105 minutes.
Set during the Roman Empire, Focus Features The Eagle, has a Roman Legion of 5000 infantry men disappear. 20 years later, the Legion commander's son Channing Tatum tries to find out what has happened to his father who had commanded the missing legion in order to regain his honor and retrieve their golden emblem - an Eagle.
This film is about honor as Channing Tatum tries to regain his family's honor - especially when his men consider Tatum to be a bad omen; Tatum's slave Jamie Bell'shonor of staying with Tatum when Tatum saved Bell's life; and also of the Eagle's honor - which represents Rome. The senator friend of Tatum's uncle, Donald Sutherland,as well as the senator's sondid not seem to have any honor as they refuse to support Tatum's one man expedition to investigate rumors of the location of the Eagle. The film also becomes a road/buddy film when Tatum and Bell leave home and set off past the "known world" and explore the land out north past the Wall Barrier to search for the Eagle. When the tables turn, and Bell becomes the master and Tatum becomes the slave, makes you think about the whole idea of slavery that we do not experience today and what it really means to be free - that slavery is more than just a matter of servitude.
I did not know that the Roman Empire had reached as far as the British Isles. That part was very interesting to me as the British Isles gave a different landscape for the film than a traditional European location for the Roman Empire. While The Eagle is more of a drama than an action film - there are battle sequences in the move, which unfortunately are not as epic as I would have preferred. The battle scenes also just end - instead of finishing the battle, which left me feeling a little unsatisfied as to the resolution of the battles. However, the violence of the movie is not that graphic despite the brutality of the times. The final fate of what happened to the missing legion is rather sad and made me consider what could go up against 5,000 trained heavily armed legionnaire soldiers.
Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time: 114 minutes.
Warner Bros. Pictures Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 has Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter on a quest to destroy Lord Voldemort's, Ralph Fiennes, horcruxes - items which contain pieces of Lord Voldemort's evil soul. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Magic has declared Harry as Undesirable No. 1 - so Harry and his friends Emma Watson and Rupert Grint are pursued by both the Ministry and Lord Voldemort's Death Eaters.
The movie is based on the first half of the book Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The movie changes the format of the other Harry Potter movies in that the movie does not take place at Hogwarts, the magical school for wizards as it normally does, but takes place on the road as Harry, Ron, and Hermione leave home and run from the Death Eaters - as well as Harry, Ron, and Hermione searching for a way to destroy the horcruxes. The movie follows very closely to the book, which is not surprising as author J.K. Rowlingis one of the producers. Although, there are parts of the movie that may be confusing to people unless you have read the books or have seen the other movies. For example, house elves like Creature and Dobby are suddenly thrown into the story. Creature and Dobby this time look less like computer animation figures but more like real characters, which shows how far computer animation technology has improved. The film also has an animated sequence, telling the tale of the Deathly Hallows. The animation is an animated version of shadow puppetry which is very interesting as you rarely see this kind of animation style, which is a form of stenciling, in a movie.
This is a dark movie, both in theme and is also visually dark. The movie reminds me of a vampire movie. You know the movie is going to be dark when the Warner Bros. logo disintegrates as the picture begins. The movie has some intense action scenes, but when Harry, Ron, and Hermione are in the camping scenes in the middle of the movie - the movie slows down. After the camping scenes - the movie picks up again and you feel the intensity and the danger for the characters. For those who have not read the book, several characters and icons in Harry Potter's world die - or are destroyed. There are several scenes which are very sad and I started to tear up - and I already knew what would happen from reading the books, and I still teared up. The film's climax is more of an anti-climax as it leads into the next film, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, which will premiere next summer -where the real climax will be portrayed. I personally can not wait to see the war at Hogwarts in the next movie.
Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time: 146 minutes.
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