The Cabin in the Woods

The Cabin in the Woods (2012)

Directed by Drew Goddard

Written by Joss Whedon & Drew Goddard

Stars: Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison, Fran Kranz, Jesse Williams, Richard Jenkins, Bradley Whitford, Brian White, Amy Acker and Sigourney Weaver

This movie came out earlier this year and I never knew it. People were saying that it was a good movie. I have said earlier this year in Avengers review that Joss Whedon was God. Well, I might need to change religions.

Just like any other horror movie you have to have the classic troupes; you have the slut Jules (Hutchison), the meathead Curt (Hemsworth), the brain Holden (Williams), the pothead Marty (Kranz) and the virgin Dana (Connolly). They have to go to an isolated place, which happens to be a cabin that Curt's cousin bought. It happens to be in the middle of woods. What makes this movie different, big brother. That's right. The young people actions are being watched by Sitterson (Jenkins), Hadley (Whitford), Truman (White) and Lin (Acker) from their control room.

Even though, I said that the I don't see a lot of horror movie, but I have seen enough to know when a movie is trying to be different. Throughout the movie, I kept thinking is this movie trying to be like Hostel. No, maybe The Truman Show? Edtv? Battle Royale? That is what running through my mind when I see this flick. I'm trying to get into it, but I feel like it was going to be have an unsatisfying ending. To me, I think it has.

There is also a mystery aspect to the film that I knew what it was when the first kill happened. Something is really bothering me with the motivations of the kids going to cabin. Those people who have seen the movie wouldn't Curt question his cousin about how they come to acquire the cabin.

I feel very mixed with this movie. There were some smart things the character did to not be the typical horror movie clichés, but it becomes stilted with the ludicrous premise. I expected some much out of this film.

My Rating

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012)

Directed by Timur Bekmambetov

Screenplay by Seth Grahame-Smith

Based on the novel by Seth Grahame-Smith

Stars: Benjamin Walker, Dominic Cooper, Rufus Sewell, Anthony Mackie, Marton Csokas, Jimmi Simpson and Mary Elizabeth Winstead

This is one of the rare times that I would read the book before seeing the obvious butchered, er -- altered adaptation of said book. I reviewed the book on the other site. The book was enjoyable because it took a boring biography and jazzed it up. Hearing the awful word about this movie, I stayed away. Seeing the movie now, my prediction did not make this movie better.

Everyone knows about the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln (Walker) or do you? Well, obviously not or there wouldn't be a movie about it, except for that Steven Spielberg movie.All of his life, Abe has been the victim of vampires. They took his mother and he wants to avenge her death. He meets strange fellow named Henry Sturges (Cooper) that takes him as his protégé to slay vampires. There is one vampire that is taking advantage of the turmoil of the country and wants to keep it that way, Adam (Sewell).

 Going into this flick, I knew that the storyline was going to be changed from page to screen. I get it. The same person adapted his own book to the big screen. It seems the director wanted to make the movie bigger than it should have been. Knowing the book gives you more ways to trash the adaptation of it. Characters were jettisoned and plot points were scraped. Fine. Where the idea come up of Lincoln having a black friend named Will Johnson (Mackie)? Really? Putting a generic "villain" in the movie is all right, but the movie should have focused on the slavery issue than a 5000-year-old vampire named Adam.

The biggest problem with the movie that Grahame-Smith tried to make an action flick out of a silly fantasy historical drama. The movie was a hodgepodge of biopic, romantic comedy, brainless action flick and Twilight. Making the vampires scary was a good choices, but they were utilized correctly. You had the vampires out in the daytime and they are supposed to wear sunglasses to protect their eyes to the sun. But, the vampires take their glasses off where sunlight floods in through window or through it doesn't kill them. What?

It seemed the "action" sequences were laughably bad. Why would you have a chase sequence happening during an obvious CGI horse sequence. It looked muddled and ridiculous. This film's failure at the box office should give us any indication that the Pride and Prejudice and Zombies movie will not see the light of day. Let it stay dead and buried. Pun intended.

My Rating

Fright Night

Fright Night (2011)

Directed by Craig Gillespie

Story by Tom Holland

Screenplay by Marti Noxon

Based on the film, "Fright Night" by Tom Holland

Stars: Anton Yelchin, Colin Farrell, David Tennant, Imogen Poots, Toni Collette, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Dave Franco and Reid Ewing

Pretty much everybody knows that horror films are not my forte. When Halloween rolls around, I want to see something different the million slasher films, torture porn or ghost films with freaky children in it. The original Fright Night was one of a handful of films that I saw when I was a kid, including Once Bitten and Creepshow 2. The remake would not on my radar or anybody else's when it was released. The movie is not great, but it's watchable.

Picture it, Las Vegas 2011. Charley (Yelchin) is gangly boy that has the perfect life with douchebag friends,  Mark and Ben (Franco, Ewing) and his hot girlfriend, Amy (Poots). Strange things has been happening with classmates disappearing. Charley's estranged friend, Ed (Mintz-Plasse) tries to tell him that Charley's new next door neighbor, Jerry (Farrell). Ed disappears and Charley takes the torch to see if Ed was correct.

The movie tries to be very now, but it a couple of years the pop culture references would be out of date. I understand that people want to have these youth centric films with characters that supposedly would speak very hipster and with it. It doesn't work here.It seemed like the movie was supposed to be in 3D because the CG blood is flying weirdly at the screen.

Even though I remember bits and pieces of the original movie, it was nice to see Chris Sarandon make a cameo in the movie. I know they have to make dramatic changes with the original story to make it work today. It's understandable, but silly. Would Charley really seek out a David Blaine wannabe named Peter Vincent (Tennant) for vampire advice?

I had some problems with the movie from a logical and physical standpoint. Why would Jerry would exert all this energy on Charley that lives next door? I did not get the layout concept of Jerry's house. I cannot talk too much to spoil that plot point for those that have not seen it.

I enjoyed Anton Yelchin in the film. He is not the likeliest of heroes, but looked like a badass. David Tennant was hilarious in the movie. Colin Farrell was a big problem for me. I did not believe that he was this bloodthirsty 400-year-old vampire. He would be a lot smarter with his tactics towards Charley. His intentions and actions seemed dumb.

My Rating

50/50

50/50 (2011)

Directed by Jonathan Levine

Written by Will Reiser

Stars: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick, Bryce Dallas Howard, Matt Frewer, Philip Baker Hall, Andrew Airlie, Serge Houde and Anjelica Huston

I was very bored and I wanted to see a movie that is not the typical Hollywood fare. Scrolling through the On Demand choices, I settled on 50/50. I have heard of the movie when it was called "I'm with Cancer", It was based on Seth Rogen's friend, the screenwriter Will Reiser's story about how he had cancer and recovered from it. The movie is a heartfelt look at how cancer can affect everyone around you.

Complaining of chronic back pains, Adam (Gordon-Levitt) has a routine physical to see what is going on with him. His doctor, Dr.Ross (Airlie) tells him blunt that he has a rare form of spinal cancer. Adam is in a daze, as he should be. The difficult part is that he has to tell all of the people in his life. His best friend, Kyle (Rogen) tries to get Adam's spirits up as he gone through the cancer treatments.

Let me get this out of the way. In the first couple of scenes, I thought it was going to be a grown up Superbad or something. Seth Rogen's character got under my skin. It feels in every movie, Rogen has to play the foul mouthed, pot smoking jerkoff. It's getting tired. In what universe where these two friends, except that work at an NPR knockoff radio station. Kyle was basically using Adam's condition to get chicks. I found that appalling. Bryce Dallas Howard's character (Adam's girlfriend, Rachael) was transparent. I knew what her true intentions were before Adam got his diagnosis. Anna Kendrick plays a doctor-in-training that is assigned to counsel Adam in his time of crisis. I wish that there wasn't something between them.

I enjoyed the subplot of Adam's mother Diane (Huston) caring for her husband Richard (Houde) that has Alzheimer's. Also, there was bonding Adam was following cancer patients, Alan (Hall) and Mitch (Frewer) when getting chemo that I loved. I thought that JoGo was very good in the lead performance here. I cannot imagine seeing James McAvoy in this movie at all.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie, but the Kyle character brought the film down. There was also some scenes that would seem out of character for a person going through chemo would actually do.

My Rating

The Grey

The Grey (2012)

Directed by Joe Carnahan

Screenplay by Joe Carnahan & Ian Mackenzie Jeffers

Based on the short story, "Ghost Walkers" by Ian Mackenzie Jeffers

Stars: Liam Neeson, Dallas Roberts, Dermot Mulroney, Frank Grillo, Joe Anderson, Nonso Anozie, James Badge Dale and Ben Bray

I have never heard of this movie until I heard the praise of it on the Film Junk podcast. Another podcast mentioned a scene in The Bourne Legacy took something out of this movie. The comparison is stretching it a little bit. Seeing the movie, I was underwhelmed by it.

A group of oil men are out in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness. They depart in a plane that crash lands and only seven survivors came out of the charred wreckage. Ottway (Neeson) is a sharpshooter that keeps the wolves from attacking anyone on the oil rig. He leads the other survivors out of the crash site to find semblance of civilization. It comes to the survivors attention that they were in the middle of wolf territory. They need find some to get out of the area before being wolf food.

I understand that a movie would have themes of life and death, spirituality and all that junk. It was repeated endlessly in this movie. The wolves represent the cruel savagery of life and those flashbacks the men make represents the sweet release of death. We get it. I know what was going to happen thirty minutes into the movie.

There was no surprise here. It was duh moment at the end. I liked Neeson here as the distant Ottway. Dallas Roberts played Hendrick. I thought that he was good. The one person that got on my damn nerves was Diaz, played by Frank Grillo. I am faulting his performance. The character of Diaz is annoying. I was praying for him to get his comeuppance sooner rather than later.

The movie overall was fine. Nothing to write home about.

My Rating

Jodaeiye Nader az Simin

A Separation (2011)

Written and directed by Asghar Farhadi

Currently #100 of the Top 250 Films of All Time on IMDb (as of this posting)

Stars:  Peyman Moaadi, Leila Hatami, Shahab Hosseini, Sareh Bayat, Sarina Farhadi, Ali-Asghar Shahbazi, Shirin Yazdanbakhsh, Kimia Hosseini and Merila Zarei

I heard nothing but great things about this movie. Sometimes when a movie gets overly hyped, I tend to have hesitation about the movie when I watch it. It was on top ten lists across the board. The movie won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film at last year's Oscars. I enjoyed the movie, but I don't think it's a masterpiece.

Nader and Simin (Moaddi, Hatami) are the separating couple. Simin wants to move to another country to more opportunities for their daughter, Termeh (Farhadi), but Nader doesn't want that. Simin leaves the house to stay with her mother for the time being. Nader has to take care of his ailing father (Shahbazi) that has Alzheimer's. Nader needs a caregiver to help out with his father while he goes to work. He enlists the help of Razieh (Bayat) who is pregnant with her second child had to take her daughter, Somayeh (Hosseini) with her. The arrangement falls through as the tensions rise in the household that comes to a head.

Maybe this is my Westernized mind at work, but I was very confused at some moments of the film. I am not familiar with the culture of Iran or anything Muslim. I couldn't understand why the Razieh couldn't clean the father. I didn't understand the reason why Nader and Simin were separating. It seems frivolous to me. Those were my main complaints about the movie.

When the movie got going, I thought it was very poignant look at how a family dissolves when unforeseen circumstances come into their lives. I can't really say anything else about the movie. I don't want to spoil it for those that have not seen it yet.

My Rating

Seven Psychopaths

Seven Psychopaths (2012)

Written and directed by Martin McDonagh

Stars: Colin Farrell, Sam Rockwell, Christopher Walken, Woody Harrelson, Tom Waits, Zeljko Ivanek, Kevin Corrigan, Abbie Cornish and Olga Kurylenko

I cannot say enough that I loved Martin McDonagh's feature film debut, In Bruges. It was on my top ten list of 2008. It was eagerly anticipating his follow up. The trailer gave an impression that the movie was going to be a slapstick gangster comedy. It's not like that at all. I don't know if I like it or not.

Life imitating art of sorts. Colin Farrell plays a struggling screenwriter named Marty who having writer's block. What screenwriter doesn't? The only thing that he has is the title, 'Seven Psychopaths'. He tries to pull anything to make the creative juices flowing.

His best friend, Billy (Rockwell) relays tales that he has heard over the years about possible inspirations for characters in his screenplay. You should know that Billy is a "professional" dognapper/actor that is employed by the zen boss, Hans (Walen) to collect the reward for their victims. Things get complicated when Billy takes the cherished shih tzu of crime boss, Charlie Costello (Harrelson). Marty and company have to deal with a notorious coming after them and Billy trying to cast other psychopaths in a nonexistent movie.

My expectations were that it was going to be an over the top gangster comedy. Sneaky, sneaky trailer. The movie hearkens to themes of In Bruges about life and death, questioning of religion, the existence of God or heaven and hell. I think that message was better conveyed in this movie than In Bruges.

I would say that the movie is self aware that it is one of those typical gangster movies with over the top violence and the nonexistent presence of the women. Very meta.

The beginning of the movie did not start off on a good feet, because you have people in the movie that were killed off in two seconds flat that had me scratching my head. It chaotic the beginning, but when Tom Waits came in as Zachariah Rigby I was strapped in. The male cast was great in their roles. Colin Farrell was better in In Bruges in my opinion. Walken was deep and hilarious. Harrelson was great as usual. Rockwell is playing a dicey character that could be polarizing for some people.

My Rating

Argo

Argo (2012)

Directed by Ben Affleck

Screenplay by Chris Terrio

Based on the article, "Escape from Tehran" by Joshuah Bearman

Stars: Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, John Goodman, Alan Arkin, Victor Garber, Scoot McNairy, Kerry Bishé, Tate Donovan, Clea DuVall, Christopher Denham, Rory Cochrane, Kyle Chandler, Chris Messina, Zeljko Ivanek and Richard Kind

Seeing a trailer for this movie, I was not looking forward to it. I was lukewarm with The Town and Gone Baby Gone was unwatchable. After I was disappointed with numerous movies that were supposed to be great, I was hearing a lot of buzz with the film. Having an 86 Metacritic drives me to the theater and I'm glad I did.

Taking place during Iranian Revolution in 1979, the U.S. Embassy was taken over by angry protesters. Just as the protesters burst in six people: Bob Anders, Lee Schatz, Mark and Cora Lijek, Joe and Kathy Stafford (Donovan, Cochrane, Denham, DuVall, McNairy, Bishé) escape the back way. The six seek refuge at the Canadian Ambassador Ken Taylor's (Garber) house.

CIA Director Jack O'Donnell (Cranston) asks Tony Mendez (Affleck) to find a way to extract the six from public execution. Tony comes up with the bad idea of having the six be part of a fake Canadian movie production team scouting locations for a film called "Argo." Tony employs the talents of Oscar winning make-up artist John Chambers (Goodman) and washed up producer Lester Siegel (Arkin) to make the fake movie into a sorta reality.

Even though the movie is based on true events, I was on the edge of my seat. I was happy with the juxtaposition of the compelling heart stopping moments with the comedy relief of Goodman and Siegel. Affleck has grown as director. He made the creative direction of shooting the movie on film and making the movie grainy. It was a very nice touch on his part.

People would probably nitpick certain aspects of the movie that was changed. They need to know that the movie has to take dramatic licenses to make it cinematic.

My Rating

The Master

The Master (2012)

Written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson

Stars: Joaquin Phoenix, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, Laura Dern, Ambyr Childers, Jesse Plemons, Rami Malek, Kevin J. O'Connor and Madisen Beaty

I have a sketchy track record with PT Anderson movies. I generally liked his movies. There are some that I out right hate like Magnolia. The Master has divided audiences since it was released last month. It divided my audiences when I saw it. The movie needs to marinate after you see it to make your judgment.

Freddie Quell (Phoenix) is an alcoholic former Navy seaman that is struggling to adjust to civilian life after WWII. He bounces from job to job until he stowaway on a boat that belongs to Lancaster Dodd (Hoffman). The Dodd family is celebrating the marriage of the daughter, Elizabeth (Childers) and Clark (Malek). Freddie is being introduced to the world of The Master as Dodd calls himself. He is an author of the Cause that is a form of hypnosis that inducing past live regressions. The Master wants to spread his message and make Freddie his guinea pig.

I saw the film yesterday and at first I loved most of the movie, but felt dissatisfied with the ending. It was very abrupt. I was left hanging. Now, I feel that the acting was far superior that the movie as a whole. I thoroughly enjoyed PSH's performance as the charismatic Dodd who tries to tame the unpredictable, hotheaded Freddie who acts like a bratty ten year old.

After Phoenix's "hiatus" from acting, I was concerned about what he will do here. I was mixed with him. He was brilliant in certain moments, but sometimes he would be going off the rails and lose me. I was looking at him and his choices. I asked myself, is he a hunchback? Does he have Bell's palsy? I could barely understand what he was saying a good portion of the time.

This movie is described as the Scientology movie. I don't believe that it is. I deals with the genesis of a religion. People thought that Christianity was a cult. The same can be said of Mormonism, Kabblah, etc. As I said in my Religulous review, I am not a big fan of organized religion. The Master's way of entering your mind can be on the lines of brainwashing. The people are free to believe what they will.

There were only five people in the theater I was in. A pair of older ladies left after Dodd's wife, Peggy (Adams) jerked Dodd off in the bathroom. The bangled lady left when Dodd was spreading his message about the evolution of The Cause. The Asian guy left two minutes before the movie ended. I could tell that this movie is not everyones cup of tea. I found myself bored with the movie. I expected a little more with it. I was slightly disappointed with the film overall.

My Rating

Looper

Looper (2012)

Written and directed by Rian Johnson

Stars: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt, Pierce Gagnon, Jeff Daniels, Paul Dano, Noah Segan, Piper Perabo and Garret Dillahunt

Today is a bittersweet day for me, this is the end of the blog-a-thon and it is my 32nd birthday. It's weird. The blog-a-thon overall has been a good experience. I crossed off a couple of movies that I should have seen. I wanted to end this blog-a-thon by watching the latest film from Rian Johnson, Looper. The movie asks some interesting questions, but it feels like a cheap shot.

In 2034, the whole is different place even thought it looks same as 2012. Time travel has been banned so underground crime families used the technology from 2074 to send victims back to the past to be wiped out of existence by Loopers. Joe (Gordon-Levitt) is one of the best Loopers out there until his best friend, Seth (Dano) tells him that the latest victim was supposed to be him from the future. He tells Joe that a person called The Rainmaker are killing all of the Loopers from the future. It was not until Joe comes face to face with himself from future (Willis) that they need to stop The Rainmaker in the present.

I was eagerly anticipating this movie, because the trailers looked so cool. I was following this movie when Rian Johnson did an episode of the /Filmcast about preparing to write this movie. He sought inspirations from another time traveling movie, Primer. I got that vibe from this movie. I enjoyed the movie overall, but I thought the themes were thrown by the wayside at the end of the film.

I understand that Johnson wanted to have a movie that ask the question to the viewer, "If you could go back a change something from the past to affect the future, would you?" I get that. People ask themselves that question since time began. It feels that Johnson made the message overly complicated when it didn't need to be.

There are some questions that I have with the movie that I hope the ten of you reading this will help with. Why were the Loopers paid in silver bricks? What was up with those eye drops? I didn't understand the telekinesis angle. Somebody help me here.

My Rating

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)

Directed by Tomas Alfredson

Screenplay by Bridget O'Connor & Peter Straughan

Based on the novel by John le Carré

Stars: Gary Oldman, John Hurt, Toby Jones, Colin Firth, David Dencik, Ciarán Hinds, Benedict Cumberbatch, Simon McBurney, Tom Hardy, Konstantin Khabenskiy and Mark Strong

I was eagerly anticipating seeing Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy because of the director,  Tomas Alfredson. He made the fantastic Let the Right One In  and I wanted to see his first English language film. Another incentive to see Gary Oldman finally get some notice for his acting when he received a Best Actor nomination. The film also received nominations for Best Original Score and Best Adapted Screenplay. I thought I would rave about the film, but I do not.

During the time of the Cold War, MI-6 is rocked when one of their agents, Jim Prideaux (Strong) is killed on a mission in Budapest. Control (Hurt) gets the top brass of the agency together to see who is the mole selling secrets to the Russians. Control assigns the task to sniff out the traitor to George Smiley (Oldman), who is retired.

The story seems simple enough that it doesn't need the over the top plot twist that could be seen a mile away. It didn't know that the movie was a whodunit. It made the reveal anti-climatic. I did not see the original Tinker Tailor Solider Spy miniseries. You don't need to see the British series or read the book to see who the mold was. I knew the mole halfway through the movie.

I wanted to love this film, but I felt completely bored. I was confused with the flashbacks to a Christmas party, a subplot of a missing woman that went nowhere, etc. Hearing a bunch of British accents can be difficult for Americans to decipher. I expected more out of the film when it got a 85 Metacritic score. A lot more.

My Rating

Waiting for 'Superman'

Waiting for 'Superman' (2010)

Directed by Davis Guggenheim

Written by Davis Guggenheim & Billy Kimball

Stars: Geoffrey Canada, Bill Strickland, Johnathan Alter, Michelle Rhee and Randi Weingarten

Now that the blog-a-thon is almost coming to a close, I wanted to see something different than the dramas and comedies I have seen. I wanted to a documentary. From the team that bring the world  and thinking Al Gore made that movie himself, An Inconvenient Truth. Guggenheim brings us the hot button topic of education or lack thereof in this country.

This talking head documentary the lives of five young people ranging from first to eighth grade as their families to find the best schools for them. Anthony is Washington, DC youth that has been held back because he doesn't like school. Daisy is girl from LA that dreams to be a veterinarian when she grows up. Francisco wants to be a reporter. He has trouble with his teacher who thinks he should be left back. Bianca is going to private school where her mom has been behind on the payments.

The main focus of the film is that the school system is broken. Politicians and school reformers have been trying to solve the problem with failing of our school children since the 1970s. The documentarian shows that it doesn't matter that much about where you live makes you fail, it's the teachers as a whole. They are building the foundation for the next generation and the bad apples are poisoning everyone else.

Geoffrey Canada is a person that is known for having a plan to dramatically change the way school is thought. A DC superintendent Michelle Rhee wants to change the way teachers are being complacent with the teacher's union president, Randi Weingarten. What can be done? It seems that it would not get solved anytime soon.

The film got attention that it wasn't nominated for Best Documentary Feature Oscar. It did get the next best thing. It got an Omie Award. A nice consolation prize. I am reminded about my times in school where I had to take remedial classes, because I was not great with math. I'm still not good with it. Did I have great education? No. I think I got an average one. Educators don't want you to exceed. You are just another body.

The impression I had the film was that I thought it was a thought provoking film, but what is the viewer supposed to do. If the government can't do anything or reformers or parents or students, then what? The movie is Food, Inc. We know that there is a pink elephant in the room, but nobody is addressing it.

My Rating

Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes (2009)

Directed by Guy Ritchie

Story by Lionel Wigram and Michael Robert Johnson

Screenplay by Michael Robert Johnson and Anthony Peckham and Simon Kinberg

Based on the characters created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Stars: Robert Downey Jr, Jude Law, Rachel McAdams, Mark Strong, Eddie Marsan, Robert Maillet, Kelly Reilly, William Houston, Hans Matheson, James Fox and William Hope

It was a struggle trying to find a movie to be covered today. I have seen almost every single movie that was released that year. I thought I would see a movie that I didn't completely see. Sherlock Holmes was the choice. I know that RDJ was a Golden Globe for this "comedy". It was nominated for two Academy Awards. I like the movie, but I think Sherlock Holmes condescends to the viewer.

Sherlock Holmes (Downey Jr) is quite different than that what we have seen before. He is more a brawler with a brain than anything else. Him and his long-suffering assistant, Dr. Watson (Law) solved a case by arresting Lord Blackwood (Strong). Blackwood is subsequently hanged. Holmes is depressed that is was the last case as Watson is moving on with his fiancé Mary (Reilly). It is not until rumors of Lord Blackwood rising from the dead would trigger of Holmes and Watson's greatest cases to date.

Guy Ritchie is known for action oriented movies. It comes to know surprise that he would make Sherlock Holmes a 19th century badass. I guess, the image of the stereotypical Holmes with that hat, the large pipe, injecting himself with morphine and taking a bump of cocaine is ingrained in my mind. I'm not saying that I hated RDJ's portrayal, but I have a bias. I will say that this Sherlock Holmes' powers of deduction makes him more of a condescending jerk than being a brilliant detective. It's like the movie punishes you for not paying attention to every minute detail that happened in the movie.

That being said. I enjoyed the acting in the film Mark Strong was very good as the adversary. Does he not make a great bad guy? I liked Rachel McAdams as Irene Adler, the woman that outsmarted Holmes a couple of times in the past. Everybody else was fine.

My Rating

Che: Guerrilla

Che: Part Two (2008)

Directed by Steven Soderbergh

Screenplay by Peter Buchman and Benjamin A. van der Veen

Based on "Bolivian Diary" by Ernesto 'Che' Guevara

Stars: Benicio Del Toro, Demián Bichir, Franka Potente, Rodrigo Santoro, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Julia Ormond, Lou Diamond Phillips, Joaquim de Almeida and Matt Damon

I always have this dilemma when a movie is split in half if I would like one part or the another. The same thing happened with Kill Bill: Vol. 1 and Vol. 2. I loved the first movie and hated the second. I believe history is repeating itself with Che.

The whole plot of this movie is about Che Guevara (Del Toro) resigning from his position with Fidel Castro (Bichir). He is disguising himself as Uruguayan representative of the Organization of American States named Ramon traveling to Bolivia. It tells the story of the days in Bolivian mountainside where Che tried and failed attempt to overthrow the government.

As I stated before, I liked the first film better than this one. I tried my damnedest to hold on to see it through the end, but I couldn't. I was not invested in the movie. It was a bunch of talking that I don't really care about. It's history.

I think its ballsy for Steven Soderburgh to tackle such a controversial figure and have the movie primarily in Spanish. It felt like I don't know more about Che the person that I did before I watched the movie. The part was a fail.

My Rating

Che: The Argentine

Che: Part One (2008)

Directed by Steven Soderbergh

Screenplay by Peter Buchman

Based on the memoir, "Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War" by Ernesto 'Che' Guevara

Stars: Benicio Del Toro, Demián Bichir, Rodrigo Santoro, Julia Ormond, Oscar Isaac, Ramon Fernandez, Yul Vazquez, Jsu Garcia, Victor Rasuk and Édgar Ramírez

I had a tough time deciding whether I was going to review Steven Soderbergh's epic biopic, Che with one or two reviews. When I got through watching Part One, I thought it would be better to make it two. Even thought I don't know that much about Che Guevara, this movie is not The Motorcycles Diaries.

This half of the movie deals with the time that Ernesto (Del Toro) joins the rebel army with Fidel Castro (Bichir) to overthrow the current regime. Fidel and Ernesto embarks on a journeys the forests of the Cuban countryside to kill the opposition. Being a doctor, Ernesto has not gotten in on any of the action like Fidel and his comrades have. It chronicles the precise moment that Ernesto became Che.

Che Guevara is a polarizing figure for people. Some think that he is a revolutionary, others think that he is a murderer. I cannot make a determination on either side of the issue. I am here to talk about the movie. The movie is a mixed bag. I know that the movie is about Che. It felt like the movie focused more on Fidel. Che barely said anything in the movie. This is only the first two hours of the whole. I felt that the middle of this movie was really taxing on me. I became restless and wanted to turn the movie off, but the end picked up and held my attention again.

My Rating