Posts Tagged ‘Jonathan Pryce’

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

Friday, August 28th, 2009

Review

It’s becoming more and more difficult to review action movies with all the amazing effects thrown into the mix. At surface value G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is movie magic. You will be dumbstruck by some beautiful explosions and amazing machines, as we’re coming to expect from our action movies. But, unfortunately, the movie doesn’t get any deeper than that.

The premise is taken from the very popular action figure of the American Hero, G.I. Joe. An idea which is noticeably popular in Hollywood thanks to the success of movies like Transformers. The storyline revolves around some high tech weapons which were created by people who had every intention of stealing them to cause mayhem.

Sound familiar? That’s probably because we’ve seen it before. Most of the plots twists and turns are tried and tested. In fact, you may be forgiven for thinking you’re watching a rerun. The guy looses the girl, she fights against him on the bad side, and it’s all about who has the biggest guns and who can be more deceptive. I found myself predicting the next move of each character and like a prophet of God; I was spot on every time.

It’s not that the movie’s bad. No, in fact the effects and non stop action keep you watching. You’ll find yourself saying, “man, that’s cool,” countless times but that’s as far as it goes. If you want to watch a dizzying 2 hour effects spectacle, than this movie is for you. Everybody else, stay clear.

4/10

Bedtime Stories

Thursday, January 29th, 2009

Review

It’s really something to see Adam Sandler, king of rude and slapstick comedy, doing a children’s movie, but that doesn’t mean it’s any good. Bedtime Stories follows a young man whose father sells off his small hotel to a developer, thereby avoiding bankruptcy. The father asks the developer to let his son run the hotel but the developer hasn’t followed through on his promise after many years. Now the man’s son (Adam Sandler) is working as a general repairman at the hotel waiting for his big break. After being asked by his divorced sister to baby sit Sandler begins telling the kids bedtime stories, some parts of which come true the next day. He must learn how it works to get his way.

The story is boring, slow and only gives a few sympathetic laughs mostly brought on by Bugsy, the giant hamster. Just because it’s a kids movie doesn’t mean it has an excuse to be dull and boring. In fact, it should be the opposite. Although young kids will enjoy it, this movie is below even tween interest and will probably leave fidgety audiences with little to remember.

The bedtimes Stories are well done, despite Adam Sandler being more annoying than entertaining. They will take you from Rome to Space with decent CG effects and interesting sets.

What is really strange is that there is no real explanation of how this coming to life of the stories came to be or why it’s happening. It’s just happily accepted that these kids hold some power over real life through the stories.

All in all this seems more like a sad attempt to rob a young audience’s parents of their hard earned cash. However thanks to the lack of new kids movies out this month the movie will probably not fall on its face, although with school just beginning there’s no extreme need to see a movie this weekend.

Red Alert 3

Monday, September 8th, 2008

Red Alert 3The Command and Conquer series is back with their third instalment of the Red Alert series. The series started out in World War II were Einstein had changed history causing the Soviets to be the major force bent on world domination. The series then moved to psychic warfare. Yuri, the new Soviet Premier’s right hand man, controls the new Premier’s mind and gets him to attack the USA. At the end, the allies defeated the Soviets again, but Yuri was still a fugitive. An expansion was launched for Red Alert 2 where Yuri re-emerges with a large army. The Allies go back in time to ensure he doesn’t win. The new release, due in November 2008, is born from time machine troubles again.

From EA: “The Soviet leaders meet to devise one final plan or surrender. It is now that their top scientist reveals to them his secret experimental time machine. They immediately use it to go back in time and remove the one man from history who is most responsible for the Allies’ technological superiority: Albert Einstein. This plan goes without a hitch, and when they return to their original timeline, the Allies are indeed weakened and at the mercy of the Soviet military. But before they can truly celebrate, they learn that their actions have unintended consequences. They have spawned a new threat and global superpower: the Empire of the Rising Sun. With the Allies weakened, Imperial Japan was left to expand unchecked over the decades. And now they are invading the Soviet Union!”

The cast for the live action scenes is amazing: Gemma Atkinson (the UK’s Hollyoaks), Tim Curry (Rocky Horror Picture Show, The Hunt for Red October), Andrew Divoff (LOST), Kelly Hu (X2, The Scorpion King), Jenny McCarthy (Scream 3, former Playboy Playmate of the Year),Ivana Milicevic (Casino Royale), Jonathan Pryce (Pirates of the Caribbean), J.K. Simmons (Spider-Man, Juno), Autumn Reeser (The OC), Peter Stormare(Prison Break, Armageddon), George Takei (Star Trek, Heroes), and two of the most recognizable names in competitive mixed martial arts Randy “The Natural” Couture (former UFC Heavyweight champion) and Gina “Conviction” Carano (Undefeated Elite XC fighter, American Gladiators).

“This is by far the most exciting cast we have in over 13 years of shooting live-action movies for Command & Conquer,” said Chris Corry, executive producer at EALA. “The caliber of the performances we received, both individually and collectively, have really raised the storytelling bar for the franchise. We are really excited that we will be delivering such a high quality production that is on par with movies and television shows.” “I wasn’t sure what to expect when I came in to work on a video game,” said Jenny McCarthy from the set of Command & Conquer Red Alert 3 while playing Tanya, Allied commando and the most beloved heroine in the history of the Command & Conquer universe. “What I realized is Red Alert 3 is not just a video game, it’s absolutely an interactive movie. This is where the people at home get to move the story forward, and where seeing the plot thicken is a reward for a job well done. And that’s really cool.”