Saturday, November 29, 2008

Transporter 3 (moderate Thumb Up)

Friday, November 28, 2008

We saw Olivier Megaton’s “Transporter 3” (with Jason Statham, newcomer Natalya Rudakova, and Jeroen Krabbé).  While it was fun and well done, I was still a bit disappointed.

I’ve been a big fan of the first two Transporter movies, because they combined fast chase scenes, lots of explosions, and furious fist fighting (staples of many action flicks) with humor, creativity, and amazingly creative fighting styles.  Basically, they were Jackie Chan movies without Jackie Chan.  Unfortunately, this one seemed to forget about the humor and creativity, and just gave us the chases, explosions, and fisticuffs.  Oh, and it added in a romantic sub-plot to make up for the missing creativity, I guess.

Frank (Statham), the Transporter, is coerced into transporting a kidnap victim across Europe against his will, while her father (Krabbé) is being coerced by the kidnappers.  Frank has no idea what is going on, only that neither he nor the girl can leave the car by more than a few yard without being blown up by their radio-controlled wrist bands.  He finds that his famous three “rules,” delineated in the first movie, must be compromised, one by one, if he hopes to survive.

Basically, I’d sum up this review with a “rent it.”  And don’t come out of the movie shaking your head at how “unrealistic” it is.  That’s part of the deal going in!……..Jake

P.S. - Just for the record, Frank’s three rules:

Rule One: Never change the deal.
Rule Two: No names.
Rule Three: never look in the package.

Posted by Chicago Jake at 16:52:51 | Permalink | Comments (2)

Monday, November 17, 2008

Quantum of Solace (Qualified Thumb Up)

Saturday, November 15, 2008

We saw Marc Forster’s “Quantum of Solace” (Daniel Craig, Olga Kurylenko, Judi Dench, Giancarlo Giannini, and Jeffrey Wright).  Although I had a good time watching this movie, it is difficult to whole-heartedly recommend it.  It had many great elements, but lousy integration. I sensed that there was an interesting plot in there somewhere, but the filmmakers totally failed to tell the story in a coherent or understandable way.

I enjoyed it in a moment-to-moment sense; good violence, good characters, great scenery, etc. Craig makes a great hero, or maybe an anti-hero is the better term. And there was none of that silliness that marred so many of the Bond films of the Moore and Brosnan eras. But there was no “bigger picture” to pull it all together and give you a sense of accomplishment at the end.

In this movie’s defense (or is that “defence”?), I’ll say one thing: it doesn’t try to be an old-school Bond re-tread. Many reviewers have panned this movie, and their major complaint seems to be, “It isn’t Goldfinger.” Well, duh! There’s no reason a Bond movie has to have a megalomaniac villain, a superhuman henchman, dozens of gee-wizz implausible gadgets, a high-tech control room, and a massive army-vs-army climax! I applaud them for taking a pared-down approach to the story. I just wish they had told the story with more capability.

As a long-time Bond fan, I was hoping for so much more…….Jake

Posted by Chicago Jake at 07:33:43 | Permalink | Comments (2)