Green Lantern Review

Review By Drew Sandoval

"Green Lantern" feels like an exercise.  It seems to have all the right pieces; an interesting cast, a big-entertainment director, and a character who has endured 70 years of comic book storytelling.  Even with everything going for it, the film is a constant let down, as if everyone who made this movie just did their day's work and went home.  No one tries to push the envelope, and really deliver something entertaining. 

I've got a feeling most people have a general idea what the movie is about from the trailer, and if not, don't worry because the story is just a hodgepodge of the plots of better movies.  Ryan Reynolds plays Hal Jordan, a hot shot jet pilot with family issues (he watched his hot shot pilot father die on the runway, and now Hal can't quite seem to overcome that fear of death).  A dying space alien, part of an intergalactic peacekeeping force (The "Green Lanterns"), crash lands on Earth and chooses our hero to replace him on the police force.  With the membership comes a magical ring that allows Hal to create anything he can see in his mind.  It isn't as exciting as it sounds.

Ryan Reynolds is fairly slack in this role.  I was actually looking forward to Reynolds as an out-and-out superhero (he was cool in Blade 3), but he feels subdued here.  The qualities I most respond to are his sarcasm, meanness, and his mischievous, almost depraved, sex appeal.  I thought he was great in "Waiting" and some of his other lowball comedies.  Here he tries to be All-American hero, and playing it straight isn't one of his strengths.  He is doing Ryan Reynolds-lite.

The rest of the cast is similarly apathetic.  Blake Lively and Tim Robbins aren't given much to do.  Voice work by Geoffrey Rush and Michael Clarke Duncan is subpar.  Peter Sarsgard, as a side villain whose brain expands and forces his skull into the shape of a deformed watermelon, is almost embarrassing to watch.  Mark Strong, as a strict and stern commander of Ryan Reynolds new Green Lantern team, helps bring gravity to the situation, but it doesn't really help.

Also of note are the curiously uninvolving action scenes.  The director, Martin Campbell, has deliver some of the best action cinema of the last twenty years, with GoldenEye, Mark of Zorro, and Casino Royale.  The primary difference between those near-classic films and this one, is this film has a necessary reliance on CGI.  I don't particularly think CGI is Campbell's strong suit.  For the few moments when we are watching actual physical effects (a car getting flipped down a city street, or a top-secret lab being ripped apart), the film starts to perk up, but then we return to the flying and Green Lantern creations, and the film gets slows for unimpressive visuals and simple action setups.

On top of everything else, the writing itself isn't really up to snuff.  I can see how this property could be something impressive and epic, it seems to be rich with concepts of fear and willpower, a hinted-at backstory of betrayals and victories, and a heroes journey as he overcomes the demons inside him.  However the writing doesn't sufficiently develop any of this, and instead seems content to shoot us from cliched scene to cliched scene.

Anyways, this film is a big disappointment.  It feels as if everyone in it's making was coasting on autopilot, not quite finding the effort to make this film something really special and entertaining.

Check out Green Lantern preview after the jump

The Hangover - Part 2 (Halarious But Lazy....)

This is a quick review so I'll get right to the point. This movie was exactly like the first one. There was no effort in trying to evolve the plot. Everything that happens in this movie has an exact counter part in it predecessor. Still the movie was hilarious. Specially the part with the shemales...LOL! I'm still having nightmares. What did you think of The Hangover 2, let me know in the comment box below!

Side note: Quick reviews will be given to films that don't give me anything to talk about.


Check out hangover 2 preview after the jump...

Fast Five - Pro's & Con's

Before I begin this one let me first put out there that I have not been a fan of this franchise. That being said I went in there with an open mind. Plus I'm a big fan of Dwayne Johnson. Warning if you have not seen it this article may contain spoilers.

PROs - The action in this movie is loads of fun! Specially the sequence towards the end where there is a massive chase scene as two cars are pulling a safe through Rio. The fight scenes are also well done although the fight between Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) and Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) was brutal I did not like the outcome. (See Cons For Details). Another great element in this movie is the location. RIO... Alway visually stunning when captured on film.

CONs  - My first pet peeve with this movie is one I had with most of the franchise, which is lack of character. With the exception of a few people every character is basically the same person. So instead of having an interesting array of personalities you end up with Vin Diesel and his clones. Everyone's character is basically the coolest person to ever grace us with their presence. Everyone is slick, sly, and never do anything uncool. To me when a character is constantly acting "to cool for school" they basically become a douche bag.
My second pet peeve was the fact that there really wasn't anything new or special about this movie. True it's a sequel so you expect to see repeated themes but what I'm talking about goes beyond that. The story seemed like a bootleg "Oceans Eleven". The fight between two action stars seem like a capitalization on what Stallone did with the Expendables. Worst of all the chase scene through the Favelas was a complete rip off from "The Incredible Hulk". Even to the point where shots looked almost the same.

Finally, and this might be a dumb issue, the fight between the two big guys I mentioned earlier. Even with my disbelief of what can and can't happen in reality turned off, the outcome of this fight was plain silly. To think that a guy who plays with cars and lifts a lot of weights would ever win in hand to hand combat against a special opp officer the size of Dwayne Johnson is crazy! And this is a comparison totally within the universe of the movie not real life.

All in all Fast five was a lot of fun... but nothing special.But don't take my word for it. Check out Fast Five for yourself and tell me what you think.

Check out Fast Five Preview and fight stas between Hobbs and Toretto after the jump...

Bridesmaids - Two for one... would have preferred one.

Bridesmaids is a film about a young lady who is down on her luck and is asked to be the maid of honor at her best friend's wedding. Trouble ensues when a new friend of the bride begins competing for the brides attention.

Although this movie is extremely funny it is lacking in the blending of story elements to make it a cohesive piece. Basically I felt that I was watching two different movies at the same time. One being the story of Annie, played by Kristen Wiig, being able to move forward with her professional and romantic life after having had a bad experience with both. The other is her trying to compete for her best friend's attention while attempting to plan all the events leading up to the wedding. Frankly I would have preferred that the movie focused only on the latter.

All the sections of the film that were about her dealing with her self-pity and her love life were extremely boring. This is not because they were done in a bad way but when paired up with the hilarious scenes of wedding planning they seemed slow and dreary.

Special note goes to Melissa McCarthy who pretty much steals the movie with her portrayal of an unapologetic, blunt, sometimes gross but always funny lady. This is quite a remarkable feet considering she was up against Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph (two SNL heavyweight) who's characters seemed tamed in comparison.

All in all the movie is okay. Had it focused more on the comedy and less on the drama I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more.

But like I always say check it out for yourself and form your own opinion then tell me what you think.

Check out Bridesmaids preview after the jump...

Pirates 4 Review - Jack is Back!!

Welcome back Jack Sparrow! The fourth installment in the franchise has Jack unwillingly and willingly searching for the fountain of youth along with a few new and old faces. Of course Jack has his own ambition trying to regain his beloved Black Pearl.

Like it predecessors, this movie is visually stunning. Each frame of film could be picked out and looked at as if it were a masterful illustration.

The cast in this film does a fantastic job. Special note to Ian McShane and his portrayal of Blackbeard. This character easily trumps Davy Jones in his level of wickedness and lack of care for other lives. Indeed he plays the role as a true heartless pirate through and though. Once again Geoffrey Rush does a magnificent job of playing Captain Barbosa. Always my favorite character in the franchise for his ability to breath new life into the cliche pirate character.

The story itself is pretty good, full of ins and outs, mutinies, double crossing, and a little bit of romance for good measure. Also worth pointing out is a very creepy moments in which our heroes and villains are attempting to procure a mermaids tear. Easily the most eerie sequence in the entire franchise.
All in all this movie was great. I would even dare to say better than the last two. My only negative feeling towards it was the lack of some of my favorite characters from the previous films. You may remember them as the skinny pirate with the wooden eye and his stocky friend or Pintel & Ragetti. Other than that this movie was a quite a treat. But don't take my word for it check it out for yourself and tell me what you think.

Check out "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" After the jump:

Thor Review -The Good, The Bad, and The Hilarious

I actually saw this movie about two weeks ago and couldn't make up my mind as to whether I liked it or not. I came out of the theater a bit bewildered. There were a lot of things about the movie which I thought were great. But there were a couple of things that made it a bit... stupid (even for the low level of intelligence a summer movie needs to reach to seem believable).

THE GOOD - The visual effects needless to say were quite impressive and pleasing to the eye. Specially the big robot thing that Thor has a western style standoff with.
The way the thing moved and behaved really made its destructive behavior very believable. The characters and acting were very enjoyable. In fact what really carried the movie for me was the balance between humor and seriousness in Thor's character. As he is one of the most powerful characters in the Marvel Universe and Virtually Un-destructible it would have been easy for the character to become one dimensional. But with a good balance of humor and a loss of power the character becomes quite dynamic and likeable.

THE BAD - The story itself was a bit weak. I don't know how closely this storyline follows any of the comic Thor stories but regardless it seemed quite infantile. It actually just seemed like a reboot of  Masters Of The Universe (1987)... injected with a massive amount of steroids.


THE HILARIOUS - Something that made me laugh internally, while watching the movie, was due to my own personal life experiences. This was that rainbow bridge the characters would use to travel from galaxy to galaxy. Every time they were on it I half expected Super Mario to drive by in a Go-Kart and chuck a red turtle shell at Thor's head. See picture below to see what I mean.

All in all it wasn't a terrible movie. In retrospect, after thinking about it, if they were to release a sequel I would definitely go see it. So I guess after all Thor was good. But don't let me be the judge check out Thor for yourself and tell me what you think.

THOR PREVIEW AFTER THE JUMP...