ACT OF VALOR

Relativity Media

Rated R

Running Time 111 Minutes



Click below to watch the trailer of Act of Valor.



In Relativity Media's Act of Valor, a Navy Seal team goes on a personnel recovery mission to recover an abducted CIA agent Roselyn Sanchez. The SEALs then search around the world for the terrorists responsible for Sanchez's kidnapping before the terrorists bring their terrorism back home to our country America.

Using active duty U.S. Navy SEALs as the Seal team makes the tactics and action of the SEALs incredibly real. We get to see the weapons and equipment the SEALs currently use on combat deployment, as well as seeing the SEALSs support equipment and their support personnel. The use of the Special Operations Craft-Riverine warboats with active duty Special Warfare Combatant-craft Crewmen, or SWCC, was my favorite part of the movie - especially the way the warboats came charging in for the hot extraction of the SEALs. The film took two years to make as the producers had to work around the SEALs deployments. Watching the SEALs in action made me appreciate the SEALs more for all of the sacrifices the SEALs go through for protecting our country - especially when you consider the SEALs motto is "The only easy day was yesterday."

With the movie having assistance from U.S. Navy personnel and the Naval Special Warfare Command, I can appreciate that this movie is an authentic action film as the SEALs, while in the process of making the film, would not do anything in the movie that was not real and authentic - like the infiltration scenes of their objective areas. I am glad they had water operations that the SEALs were able to do in the movie, since they are Navy SEALs. A lot of the SEALs action scenes were first person shooter scenes where you see through the eyes of the SEAL as they look for targets, especially during night vision scenes. It was great seeing the uploaded camera feed from the UAV for the SEALs to use for intelligence. In other movies, this kind of information appears to come from satellite reconnaissance imagery. This kind of information coming from UAV's is much more believable. The graphics of the locations around the world was a nice idea. Then the graphics would then zoom into the location of the scene - but would sometimes zoom in the opposite direction than what you would expect, which was disorientating.

Having the computer graphics of the team members records makes for a cool introductions, but outside of the team leaders, you do not get to know the team as people - and even then, it was hard for me to tell the leaders apart, since they both looked and sounded alike and had no characterization, except for the fact that one was going to be a father. His story and family life was the basis for the framing story in their civilian lives, as their spouses and children sacrifice so much to support them. The SEALs acting, when they were acting instead of being SEALS, was not that great - but then they are SEALs and not actors. Alex Veadov was more relatable to me as the bad guy than with the SEALs acting as characters. What does come across in the film with the SEALs are the SEALs brotherhood for each other - that they would die for each other. The fictional story is pretty much like it came out of today's breaking news headlines - especially since the story is basically an amalgamation of several SEAL operations.

As a Filipino, I was both proud and saddened that the Philippines and Filipinos were involved in some of the action in the movie. Unfortunately, such things can happen in places like the Philippines in the real world.

At the end of the movie, the audience applauded. The film also listed at the end of the movie the members of the SEALs who gave their lives since 9/11. Sadly, as of 2012, there were a lot of names listed of SEALs who gave their lives. There were much more names on the list than I would have thought would be listed. Considering how good the SEALs were when depicted in the intense action scenes in the movie on what they do, it makes you realize how many intense operations the elite Seal teams have been deployed on over the years to accrue that many causalities. No wonder the Seals have such an intense brotherhood amongst themselves. Over the end credits were pictures of Americana and the real-life heroes who protect our freedom.

"To them and those like them. Damn few."

Rated R for graphic war violence. Running Time: 111 Minutes.

Click below to watch the documentary of Act of Valor.



Pancho
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Pancho's Movie Reviews

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance

Columbia Pictures

Rated PG-13

Running time: 95 Minutes



Click below to watch the Ghost Rider: Sprit of Vengeance trailer.



In Columbia Pictures Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, former stunt motorcyclist - now Ghost Rider - Nicolas Cage must rescue a boy Fergus Riordan from Satan Ciarán Hinds who wants to turn Riordan into Hinds new human body.

After his sanctuary has been invaded by Johnny Whitworth, mysterious vigilante Idris Elba informs a reluctant Cage that Cage can be free of the Rider - but Cage must first protect young Riordan. It turns out Riordan's mother Violante Placido made the same deal with the Devil Hinds that Cage did, and now Hinds wants Placido's son Riordan as payment and now Hinds has Whitworth searching for them.

I think this movie is better than the original Ghost Rider. The movie is darker, has more action, and has more of a graphic novel look with it's graphic art, as well as having black and white film noir looking scenes. In this film, Cage wanted to get far away from home after the events of the first movie and to prevent his alter ego Ghost Rider - who becomes embodied in hellfire - from hurting anyone with his ultimate capital punishment. Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance is also set in Europe this time instead of America and deals more with religion, so it appears to have more of an historical context since Europe is much older than America. The graphic art is used for Cage's narrative back stories about what has happened before, while the black and white film noir scenes were used for the intimate action scenes. The computer graphics of a flaming skull was much more believable as a skull being on fire - and the Rider's motorcycle, and anything else he rides, looks like it was charred by fire. I like the fact that Cage became a father-figure for Riordan. Too bad Anthony Head had such a small role. Aside from being a good actor, for us fanboys to see, Head would have had a stronger role being cast as the monk at the secondary sanctuary - instead of being the monk in the first sanctuary.

Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time: 95 minutes.

Pancho
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This Means War

20th Century Fox

Rated PG-13

Running time: 98 Minutes



Click below to watch the This Means War trailer.



In 20th Century Fox's This Means War, top CIA agents Chris Pine and Tom Hardy are best friends - until they compete for the same woman, consumer products tester Reese Witherspoon.

This film has much more action than is typical for a romantic comedy. It helps with the action that best friends, American Pine and British Hardy, are both trained CIA agents - with the resources of the CIA to spy on each other, such as bugging devices and UAV's. Hardy and Pine are also after a bad guy Til Schweiger. The movie was directed by McG, who is known for his action films. The romantic comedy aspect of the film may expand McG's repertoire. I liked that Pine and Hardy actually used the resources of the CIA to spy on each other's dates with Witherspoon - on the pretense of doing a surveillance operation to find bad guy Schweiger. I think I liked Hardy the best between the two stars as Hardy used his CIA training in a paintball game. While there were no James Bond cars, there were car chases.

Naturally Witherspoon is confused as to which of her two dates she should really go for. As a result, Witherspoon gets advice about them from her raunchy best friend Chelsea Handler - who put lonely Witherspoon's profile up on a dating website. Witherspoon only even considers the entire idea of dating after she repeatedly runs across her former boyfriend - along with his fiancee. The romantic comedy aspect of the movie is typical for a romantic comedy, but the action brings the movie up to a new level and actually makes the relationships funnier as tough guys Pine and Hardy try to show their sensitive sides - as well as trying to integrate themselves into Reese's business of a consumer product specialist.

Angela Bassett makes a cameo appearance as Pine's and Hardy's superior in the CIA. Bassett is starting to be typecast as a character who is a superior in secret organizations. Now if only Bassett were given a role where she actually gets to kick butt as a result of being in such typecasting, I would be happy with that instead of just wasting Bassett's talents in such cameos.

Rated PG-13 for violence, sexual situations, language. Running time: 98 Minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

STAR WARS - EPISODE I - THE PHANTOM MENACE - 3D

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

Rated PG

Running time: 136 Minutes


Click below to watch the Star Wars - Episode I - The Phantom Menace - 3D trailer.



Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation's Star Wars - Episode I - The Phantom Menace - 3D, is a re-release of the classic movie of the Star Wars saga in 3-D. This is the first of the Star Wars films that will be released in 3-D theatrically. This is significant considering that this year 2012 is the 35th Anniversary of the original Star Wars. Given a collectible keepsake of the Star Wars - Episode I -The Phantom Menace - 3D real D 3D glasses to use for the screening - when you purchase a tickit to the movie, while supplies last - is a wonderful marketing strategy for the movie, and adds to the experience when you see the movie with the fans. As the films were meant to be seen in the big theaters, instead of on a tiny TV screen, I definitely wanted to see the movie again in the theater and get the full experience. The people behind me were singing the Star Wars theme song when the opening music started. Most people have seen the movie when it first came out, but there were families who brought their kids to see the movie, and the kids seemed to enjoy the movie.

Originally George Lucas shot the movie in 2D and converted the film to 3D for this edition. While there was more 3D than is usual for a conversion, it was disappointing that there was nothing coming out at you. I only recall 1 or 2 incidences like that, and those incidences were during the pod racing scene. I don't know if that is due to the nature of the technology or if they did not want that happening for the movie. Most of the 3D effects deal with depth going back into the picture - even during interior scenes, which is rare. As a result of nothing coming out at you, the traditional opening ship fly-by was not as impressive as I wanted it to be. I wanted the ship flying over my head, instead of flying into the screen. The best 3D sequence was the pod racing sequence, a sequence which is similar to NASCAR auto racing. This is not surprising as the pod racing sequence was the most popular sequence during the film's initial release back in 1999, so naturally they would focus all of their 3D resources on this sequence.

Since I did not have a movie review blog when the movie first came out, I will review the movie now. The movie itself I have always liked as the best of the movie prequels, despite the fact that a lot of people hated it. Overall, the film has basically a good story and there were a lot of good things about it. The Trade Federation has blockaded the peaceful world of Naboo. Two Jedi Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor are sent to negotiate with the leaders - but the Federation leaders betray them. The two Jedi escape the Trade Federation and head to the planet Naboo to warn Queen Amidala, Natalie Portman, but the Trade Federatoin droids have already invaded Naboo and the Queen is not safe there. Neeson and McGregor escape Naboo with Portman. Eventually, they land on Tatooine for battle damage repairs, where they become friends with a young boy - Anakin Skywalker, Jake Lloyd. Jedi Master Qui-Gon is curious about young Anakin - and feels the Force strong in Anakin. So Qui-Gon wants to take Anakin with them to the Jedi Council. The group must now find a way of getting back to the galactic capital of Coruscant and to solve this trade dispute, but someone else sinisterly waits in the shadows.

Granted there was a lot of story detail in the film that many people, including myself, were very critical with. Jar-Jar Ahmed Best was not as annoying to me as he was when I first saw the movie in 1999, but he was still annoying. I could relate to a clueless character like Jar-Jar being suddenly thrown into this situation, but Jar-Jar does not have good table manners. The fact that Jar-Jar eventually becomes a competant ambassador in Star Wars: The Clone Wars shows the growth of the character. The various alien races representing different races like Blacks and Asians could be controversial, but it never bothered me both then and now. The scientific explanation of the Force takes away from the mystical hokey religion aspect of the Force that we grew up with, at least the aspect of the Force my generation grew up with, making the film more of a science fiction film than a science fantasy. This was kind of a disappointment for me, as I liked the mystical energy field aspect of the Force.

Jake Lloyd as the young slave Anakin has the innocent face that was needed for the role, especially when Lloyd leaves both his mother Pernilla August and his home, but Lloyd was not that great of a child actor. Actually, Lloyd's lack of acting works in conjunction to the later films with Hayden Christensen as Anakin - whose acting also was not that great in the films, so in a sense there was a sort of continuity of bad acting in the movies for the character. Actually, I think Lloyd was better as a pilot than as an actor. This allowed him to do things instead of act. Lloyd's relationship with high school aged Natalie Portman as Padme Amidala was cute as Padme is the quintesential unreachable girl. Ewan McGregor was very young in his portrayal as padawan apprentice learner Obi-Wan Kenobi, while Liam Neeson as Jedi Master Qui Gon reminds me of the older Obi-Wan portrayed by Alec Guinness. It was hard for me to imagine young Obi-Wan Ewan McGregor would turn into older Obi-Wan Alec Guinness. McGregor did not seem to fail enough to show the potential growth into Guinness. 

I liked the political aspect of the Galactic Senate, although the impeachment of Supreme Chancellor Finis Valorum Terence Stamp was almost trivialized - as there is very little of Stamp in the movie, which is a waste of his talent. However, the political aspect of the Jedi Council has always bothered me - especially with Mace Windu Samuel L. Jackson and Yoda Frank Oz being part of the Jedi Council determining the fate of Lloyd, even though they were correct about the eventual future of Lloyd as Anakin, I felt uncomfortable about how they treated the child Lloyd. They were more critical of the child instead of being supportive for the child Lloyd as most teachers would be.

The iconic devilish character of Darth Maul Ray Park had more dialog than I remembered him having, although officially he only had three lines. The lack of dialog does detract from the menacing aspect of his character, although Park does kick Jedi butt - which the fans behind me appreciated. Too bad Park's voice was dubbed by Peter Serafinowicz, as I think Park could become more than just an incredible martial artist that plays such iconic martial artist movie roles. The foreshadowing of Senator Palpatine Ian McDiarmid for the rest of the series is truely foreboding. The introduction of R2-D2 and a naked C-3PO was wonderful to see.

The end credits added additional 3-D credits, with additional music to cover the length of the D credits once the music for Duel of the Fates is over. The credits at the end of the movie still end with the sound of Darth Vader's respirator.

There is also a short 3-D computer animated cartoon from Blue Sky Studios of the character Scrat, from the Ice Age films. Scrat's Continental Crack-Up: Part 2 at the beginning of the movie is a typical adventure for the character Scrat to undergo, which also includes the voices from the Ice Age movies.

Rated PG for violence. Running Time: 136 Minutes.

Click below to watch the Scrat's Continental Crack-Up: Part 2 short



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RED TAILS

Twentieth-Century Fox

Rated PG-13

Running Time: 125 Minutes



Click below to see the trailer of Red Tails.



Inspired by True Events, in Twentieth-Century Fox's Red Tails, a squadron of Negro fighter pilots must fight bigotry - as well as the Germans during World War II.

Executive Produced by George Lucas, and based on the book Red Tails: An Oral History of the Tuskegee Airmen  by John B. Holway,  Red Tails is set on their Eurpoean home air base in Italy as the pariah squadron of the 332nd Fighter Group of the Tuskegee Airmen from the Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama, must fight to get respect for being the first African American military aviators. They wanted to fight for freedom, just like all the other Americans. The Tuskegee Airmen also have to fight the boredom of being based one hundred miles from the front lines. Breaking ground by fighting bigotry at both the highest levels of the Pentagon - with the belief that African Americans can not have the relevant combat skills to go to war, especially when news about the Tuskegee Airmen's lack of performance gets leaked out  - and from their fellow military officers on the ground. These airmen go from attacking targets like trucks on the ground - "traffic" - to eventually fighting for their lives as they engage in air combat with Germany's most advanced fighter plane, the Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter.

When General Gerald McRaney asks if Colonel Terrence Howard's men can protect McRaney's bombers from being shot out of the sky, Howard tells McRaney if he can get his men new planes, instead of the broken down Curtiss P-40 Warhawk planes they have now, they can protect McRaney's bombers. When the Tuskegee Airmen get the new P-51 Mustangs, Howard has the planes tails painted red - thus the Tuskegee Airmen become the Red Tails. The Red Tails soon become the bombers best friends. While the B-17 Bomber - otherwise known as "The Flying Fortress" which is a heavily armed plane which flew in wedges of 18 and 36 planes, and with half the crew as gunners with a firepower of a dozen or more high rate 50 caliber machine guns - the bombers were still an easy target for the enemy fighters as the bombers have to fly a specific flight plan to reach a ground target. As a result of being such easy targets, many bombers were lost - until the bombers had fighter escorts like the Red Tails, who were very successful in practically all of their missions as the Red Tails triumphed over adversity.

The film seemed to be uneven. I was expecting the formation of the Tuskegee Airman program. Instead they are already in place, but are being used for routine boring patrols. The stories on the ground seemed to be more like a soap opera, but not as bad as that. There was more focus on David Oyelowo's relationship with Italian girl Daniela Ruah than with most of the other characters. The movie is similar to the TV show Black Sheep Squadron, which was of a similar misfit squadron with an impressive war record. The ariel footage from Black Sheep Squadron seemed more real to me as I believe - but can not recall since it has been years since I saw the TV show - that the footage from Black Sheep Squadron came from 16mm gun camera footage. With all the CGI visual effects, the planes during the dogfights in Red Tails did not seem as believable to me. Gun camera footage from Oyelowo's plane in his various combat engagements is what is shown as projected from the 16mm film projector in the Red Tails mission briefings. When a pilot is captured later in the film and brought to a German Stalag, that aspect of the movie became more like the TV show Hogan's Heroes.

Half the background music was too modern - too synthesized - when compared to the period of the movie, at least what I noticed during the end credits. And when the Red Tails went out on their first real mission, the music was not as inspiring as I would have wanted as martial music is supposed to be. Having the Red Tails fight the new late entry to the war, the German Messerschmitt 262 jet fighters, was interesting as I usually think of the Korean War as having the first combat use of jet fighters. I was expecting film star Cuba Gooding Jr. to be more prominent in the movie, especially as he was in command of the airbase while Howard was off at the Pentagon - but once Howard returned to the base, all of the leadership went back to Howard and Gooding Jr. became a background character behind Howard. While there were some German subtitles, especially when German fighter pilot Pretty Boy Lars van Riesen is on screen, I would have liked to have seen Italian subtitles in the movie as well since they were in Italy - especially when Oyelowo is courting Ruah.

As a historical film, it is nice that the movie Red Tails came out in time for Black History Month.

Rated PG-13 for violence and sexual situations. Running Time: 125 Minutes

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JOYFUL NOISE

Warner Bros. Pictures

Rated PG-13

Running Time: 118 Minutes



Click below to watch the Joyful Noise trailer.



In Warner Bros. Pictures Joyful Noise, Queen Latifah is made church choir director over Dolly Parton after Parton's husband, choir director Kris Kristofferson, passes away during a church choir competition.

A combination of Sister Act 2 and Footloose, this film is very uneven. While the music is great, most of the songs are popular secular songs used during church services - which felt very awkward for me. Very few of the songs the various church choirs sings actually mention Jesus or the Lord - and, of course, the songs are supposed to give greater glory to God. The film also is more about the relationship between Latifah's daughter Keke Palmer and Parton's troubled grandson Jeremy Jordan, who arrives at Parton's home after being kicked out of his mother's house. Despite the roughness of Jordan's background, Jordan is drawn to Palmer and joins the choir and is also a good influence and teacher to Latifah's son Dexter Darden who appears to have a form of autism. Darden liked one-hit wonders, especially Walk Away Renee by The Left Banke. I have always loved Walk Away Renee ever since I heard Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes do a cover song of this. The best scene in the film, the one that got to me, was when Darden was questioning why Latifah loves God so much - when Darden is really ticked off with God for making Darden the way he is. The scene was so heart-wrenching to me, and it really made me feel for Darden.

As a tenor singing in my church choir, I could not believe that there is hardly any rehearsal done in the music. There is choreography rehearsal, but no vocal rehearsals - which is where most of the work of a choir is, especially if you are singing harmonies. For such a small town/congregation, there seemed to be a large out of proportion amount of music ministers. It looked like there were more people in the music ministry than there was in the congregation. Are there that many musically talented people in a small town? In my church, out of 3,000 registered families, only .01% of the people are music ministers. Also, you only get to know half of the choir in the movie. The other choir members are just background singers and instrument players, and you do not know the instrument players at all. There was a relationship that was developing between two choir members Francis Jue and Angela Grovey which would have been a nice contrast to the dysfunctional relationships in the rest of the movie, but Jue's and Grovey's relationship ended up as a cheap joke. Although Kris Kristofferson has a song, Kristofferson has an extremely brief cameo in the movie - which was much less than I expected for the movie when I found out Kristofferson was involved in the movie.

The story itself is like a soap opera, with the focus of the movie on the rivalry between Parton and Latifa as well as the romance between Palmer and Jordan. There is no interaction with the parishioners of the church, just interaction with these members of the choir. Even Pastor Courtney B. Vance was more interested in the "business" of the church, instead of tending to his flock of people - and given the smallness of the town, you should have seen Vance more with the people as the church is the center of the community. Vance tending to the people is especially important with the town struggling with the economy and the closing of the local businesses. It is because of the economy that Latifa's husband Jesse L. Martin went back to the military for a paycheck to send back to his family, although nurse Latifa does not see it that way. All she cares about is that he left her. The theme of the movie was more like ME! ME! ME! instead of glorifying God.

Considering that Parton just lost her husband, you never got any grieving from her - and what happened to her family? Her sons were at the service and you never saw them again - and you never saw her daughter. No grieving or support for Parton after that. A couple of scenes after the service of grieving would have made Parton a little more believable. I have no idea whose child Jordan is as Parton's grandchild. That is how little Parton's family had an impact on me. I'm sad to say, just after seeing the movie - I found out my cousin had passed away, so Parton's lack of grieving and lack of support from her family had really upset me.

Rated PG-13 for language and sexual situations. Running time: 118 Minutes.

Pancho
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SHERLOCK HOLMES - A GAME OF SHADOWS

Warner Bros. Pictures

Rated PG-13

Running time: 129 Minutes




Click below to watch the Sherlock Holmes - A Game of Shadows trailer.



In Warner Bros. Pictures Sherlock Holmes - A Game of Shadows, which is based on the stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - the world's greatest detective Sherlock Holmes, Robert Downey Jr., plays a deadly game of chess against a new arch nemesis by the name of Professor James Moriarty, Jared Harris, just before World War I.

In this sequel to Sherlock Holmes, Downey brings his reluctant partner Dr. Watson, Jude Law, back into Holmes adventurous investigations - this time against Harris. Law is reluctant to get involved with Downey again because Law is getting married to Kelly Reilly. Although she does not get much screen time, charming Reilly appears to be a worthy wife to Law - especially in Downey's investigative world. The cameos by Rachel McAdams adds a sense of continuity to the first Sherlock Holmes movie.

A series of deadly events around the world has Downey somehow conclude that mastermind Harris is at the center of these events. Downey's investigations of Harris lead Downey and Law all across Europe with Harris one step ahead of them. Gypsy Noomi Rapace is the sister of a man who is integral to Harris's plans and joins Downey and Law in their pursuit of her brother and Harris amongst the rich and powerful.

I liked that fact that they had Sherlock Holmes smarter brother Mycroft Holmes, Stephen Fry, in the film. Although he was not portrayed as exceptionally smarter than Sherlock, Fry was more of an influential government official. Too bad that Fry did not have much more screen time, just slightly more than Reilly. The relationships between all the characters was very good, and you felt that Harris was an intellectual equal to Downey as an opponent. And both Downey's and Law's observations and deductive reasoning of forensic scenes were incredible. Law makes a very good partner for Downey. Downey's disguises were very good, especially his urban camouflage. I am not sure if the urban camouflage was special effects or really good camouflage as I could not tell where he was until he revealed himself. Director Guy Ritchie's slow-motion montages of various action scenes adds a sense of drama to otherwise typical action scenes. The credits were portrayed as if you were reading a book, as well as having the camera panning over excerpts of Doyle's books as Law writes about Downey's exploits. The film itself is full of excerpts of Doyle's books and leaves itself open to a sequel.

Rated PG-13 for violence, sexual situations, and drug use. Running time: 129 Minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

Pancho's Movie Reviews