Friday, March 21, 2008

Doomsday (Thumb Up)

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Tonight, we saw Neil Marshall’s “Doomsday” (with Rhona Mitra, Bob Hoskins, Alexander (“Dr. Bashir”) Siddig, and Malcolm McDowell).

There seems to be a lot of movies these days that fall into the category of “really dumb, but I had a great time watching them with my brain checked at the door.” This was another excellent example. Dumb, but fun.

Basically, a nasty virus wiped out all of Scotland in 2008, so they quarantined the entire country. Now, 30 years later, the same plague has popped up in London. An elite team of commandos is sent to Glasgow, where there are believed to be survivors, and, presumably, a cure. The leader is a hot, ass-kicking chick named Sinclair. Will they be able to survive, find the cure, and bring it back to London in time to avert disaster? Well, that’s the question of the hour, isn’t it?

Lots of action ensues, with plenty of blood, head loppings, explosions, car chases, etc. Portions of this movie will remind you of “28 Days Later” and “Road Warrior” and even “Escape From New York” (right down to the one-eyed hero and the bumming of cigarettes).

Lots of fun little touches, too, that you might easily miss if you aren’t paying attention. One character, for example, is dispatched early on, by being decapitated. Later, the same character seems to crop back up, sitting in the passenger seat of a car during a chase scene. I thought, “Whoa, continuity error! That chick is already dead!” But not to worry; the car stops short, and her head goes rolling off! She was just along for the ride, as a corpse. Groovy, baby!

Another cute little touch: just to show how hair-trigger the defenses are at the big wall cordoning off Scotland, a cute little bunny rabbit is BLOWN AWAY by an automated rifle. Just in time for Easter! Yay!!

If you demand logic and reasonable motives and actions, you’ll hate this movie. But if you find joy in gratuitous violence and humorous dismemberments, like I do, you’ll love it. Have fun!…….Jake

P.S. - and it’s always good to see two Star Trek alums in one flick!

Posted by Chicago Jake at 05:31:00 | Permalink | Comments (2)

The Bank Job (Thumb Up)

Thursday, March 13, 2008

We saw Roger Donaldson’s “The Bank Job” tonight (Jason Statham, Saffron Burrows, etc.) which I thought was excellent. Good action, good plot, good twists and confusions, fun characters, plenty of nudity, and just the right touch of humor to keep it light and fun. I heartily recommend it to fans of action and gangster movies.

Basically, a scandal is looming, with a radical Black Panther type blackmailing the British government with illicit pictures of a Royal doing something naughty. They enlist a band of bumbling small-time thugs to rob the bank where the photos are being kept. Mistakes are made, and all sorts of hijinx ensue. It’s fun!

On a side note, I suspect that there was some sort of dialect coach helping all the British actors to speak in ways that American audiences would have no trouble understanding them. This is often a problem in Guy Ritchie movies and others of that ilk; but in this one, they all enunciated clearly enough that this Yank had no problems understanding them. Surprisingly, Statham, so great at booting head in the “Transporter” movies and in “Crank”, does very little ass-kicking, but still does a good job of holding the story together……..Jake

Posted by Chicago Jake at 05:26:43 | Permalink | Comments (2)

Vantage Point (Thumb Up)

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Tonight, we saw Pete Travis’s “Vantage Point” (starring Dennis Quaid, Forest Whitaker, Sigourney Weaver, and others). I liked it a lot.

You know the old saying about the blind men and the elephant? Each one perceives something different, depending on what they happen to be touching. That is the basis of this movie. A terrorist plot comes off in Spain, and all of the observers have a different take on it, based on where they were standing, what they saw, and what they were expecting. The movie tells us the story, but not before it takes us on several different rides so that we can see all possible perspectives.

I enjoyed it a lot, although many reviewers seemed to hate it.  Their loss.

It does get pretty hectic at the end, with a huge car chase, gun fight, and all that. But so do plenty of movies, and this one hangs together better than most. And it also has one of my all-time favorite classic movie lines in it, always uttered by a driver or a passenger during a car chase: “We’ve got company!”

But then again, I liked “Jumper” and nobody else did, so caveat emptor.


Posted by Chicago Jake at 05:15:50 | Permalink | Comments (2)