Water for Elephants ( 2011 )

Water for Elephants ( 2011 )

Water for Elephants stars, Reese Witherspoon as Marlena Rosenbluth , the star attraction at the Circus and wife of the owner / ringmaster ; Robert Pattinson as Jacob Jankowski , the lonely poor orphan boy , intelligent and bright , wandering the open road of America ; Christoph Waltz as August Rosenbluth , as the Ringmaster ; but the star and hero of the film is "Tai" as "Rosie, the elephant" who saves the circus .

Set in the Great American Depression of the 1930s , where no one has any money , and worse than that , any booze . Prohibition just stinks , good hard working circus performers need a bit of the good stuff to carry them thru the day .

The story line is a little thin , but takes a long time getting to the end . The acting is good , and the period of the 1930s comes across well , but the hard sell is the chemistry between these people . The hubsand and wife seem to be in a loveless marriage , and in the end the film seems like a loveless movie .

But what is love ?

This is Francis Lawrence third time in the director's chair the first and second being Constantine (2005) with Keanu Reeves , and I Am Legend (2007) with Wil Smith · Water for Elephants (2011) also has the star power of Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattinson .

The question now is does Robert Pattinson have the box office draws of the Twilight Movies , or is it the popularity of the Twilight books ?

Coming back to Francis Lawrence , he has wandered away from a strong action based / special effects in his first two films , to a more character driven films in the story of the People of the Benzini Brother's Travelling Circus .

As many of my friends pointed out in the end , the real stars of the film were the animals , cause that is all they talked about , imagine you have a circus movie , without animals . It just does not work . Everyone you could tell wanted more animals , and more story to the animals . You wanted to know more about the horses , the lions , the dogs , the monkey and of course the ELEPHANT .

By the way all you PETA members , out there walk with your box of tissues , this one is a real tear jerker for you PETA guys and gals .

The movie is nice swing away from the Romantic-Comedy , but hardly fits the mold of a Love Story .

Watch for the old time New York Scenes , with the Empire State building and the Brooklyn Bridge in the background .

Also there is not stinger , after the movie , but if you do stay through the credits , you will notice the cast credits are done in the old time layouts :

"Marlena Rosenbluth..................................................................................Reese Witherspoon"

The list of Stuntmen goes on and on and on , but the stunts are so intergrated into the movie you do not see them , in train jumping and the stampede scenes .

The movie is a classic piece of movie making , and could be used to teach film students "HOW TO MAKE A FILM" , yet the story and the acting does not appeal to the mass audience . I am worried if it should make back it's $40 million budget .

Paul ( 2011 )

Paul ( 2011 )

Two nerd from England go to the United States to attend a Comic Convention , and do a road trip to the famous UFO landmarks . They run into an alien , and help him get home .

The movie is a nerd / geek trip , and I being a geek , had a hard time following some of the stuff . Sure we all know Area 51 , and Roswell , New Mexico , but the "the Black Mailbox" was a little outside my field of knowledge .

For more on the Black Mailbox : 
Info : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_mailbox   
Location : http://wikimapia.org/68004/the-Black-Mailbox
Picture : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Black_Mailbox_Road.jpg

The movie maintains normal storyline , the heroes , the victim , the bad guys and the final showdown . Yet through it all , it becomes a buddy movie , discussion of friendship , girls , marijuana , alcohol , the size of one's own sexually organ ( you know penis ) , Paul quickly becomes one of the boys .

The movie gives nods to , Close Encounters of the Third Kind , Star Trek , Star Wars , Aliens , Back to the future ,and Mac & Me . Many would be lost to normal people , but to the geekworld it is really cool . I found a list of all the inside the jokes at : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1092026/movieconnections

A read through before going to see the film would increase the enjoyable factor by at least three . Nothing mentioned in the movie connections would be a spoiler .

Simon Pegg and Nick Frost

Does the film work ? YES the general public can go and see a buddy movie , an action / chase movie , a comedy movie and a science fiction movie and come out feeling like they got their money's worth .

Then there are those of us who will recognize the music from the Canteen Scene in Star Wars : Episode IV , and lines like "Boring Conversation anyway." and " Get say from her , YOU BITCH ! " . For us the movie works on an entirely different level .

Paul will never fall into the category of a classic , but will appeal to the young and older science fiction fans , and the chicks that they drag along kicking and screaming will get a laugh out of it too.

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Hanna ( 2011 )

Hanna , a 16 year old with 16 years in training , for just one mission , to kill Marissa Wiegler .

Trained by her father Erik Heller ; Marissa Wiegler must die .

Hanna and her father are in isolation near the Artic Circle in Finland . When she is ready , she will go on her mission .

We enter at the correct time , So the chase begins .

Details emerge , who is Hanna ? what is Hanna ? who is Hanna's mother ?

But the action sequences are perfectly European ; No Arnie or Stallone here ; the choerography of the fight sequences brought a sense of fear from this little girl . A Demon Killer .

Saoirse Ronan plays the character  to perfection , the blond , blue eyes set the character as a cool , confined master killer ; until she is faced with the real world of barbie dolls and bimbos . Clearly Saoirse Ronan is a name to be remebered with lots more Box Office draw to come .

Eric Bana and Cate Blanchett , seem stiff in their roles , written as CIA agents , personalities were not required .


The film's background of Finland , Morocco and Berlin , also the film a non-western feel , giving the matter a of James Bond fight the old Eastern Bloc of Communist goverment .

The only thing American about the film is the CIA headquaters and building .

The film works as a master piece of modern cinema . European . There is no action sequence , no show down at the OK corral , and most American audience will be waiting for the big HUAH at the end , the big gun fight . They will be disappointed . Yet if you are a believer in HANNA , going for her Mission ; no doubt her internal struggle between her training and her being a little girl ; HANNA wins in the end .

The film follows a thread , of all the "La Femme Nikita" films and tv series .





    

Sucker Punch ( 2011 )

Sucker Punch ( 2011 )

OMG is short hand used on the Internet by young people , it means Oh My God .

This film has a very simple story , some young ladies try to escape an institution , plain and simple . Yet to vamp up the stakes and to get young audience interested , the girls enter a fantasy world , zombie Nazis , Orcs and a Castle , Killer Robots all make an appearance in the course of the preparations to escape .

Zombie Nazis are a nod to the zombie and world war films . The Orcs in Castle sequence nods to the Lord of the Rings series , and the killer robots , feels like Will Smith's I,Robot film .




Yet each sequence plays out like a Playstation , Wii or XBox game . The film goes beyond typical action shoot them ups ; of the Rambo or Terminator films . The action special effects go so far past the limited of film , I was wondering if the kid in the row in front of me had brought his XBox controller , and was controlling the action on the screen .

The film surely hits a demographic ; teenage boys who like video games and girls . The five lead girls in the script who set out on the escape , scantly dressed in the fantasy dreams sequences with samurai swords and machine guns works , to the seventeen year old hormone raging teenager with his blood pumping . These perfect female fighting zombie-killing and orc-killing , can be the direct extraction from their own Wet Dreams .




The soundtrack however contains a 1970s Jefferson Airplane song and a 1980s Queen remix , which should re-introduce a new generation to some old classics .

The story is so short , fantasy sequences make up the majority of the film . Had we left out the fantasy sequence the run time of the film would have been forty five minutes , and I would have left the cinema with some respect to the writer and director . Natural I left disgusted , that I throw good money behind the price of a cinema ticket .

"Just because we can do something , does not automatically mean we should do something" - Jurassic Park

This quote came to me during the film , the prevailing use of special effects through the film industry and especially this movie , made me wonder ; How long did these girls spend in front of the green screen ? How long did they spend suspend from wires swing around in front of a green screen to get that shot ? Was it all worth it ?




I do not know what the director's or writer's vision was , but the film just feels like it was made by high school or university students with too much of a budget . Characters were never developed , personalities were non-existent , the star of the movie was the special effects . How far could they push the envelope of special effects action sequences , and get the audience to accept it ?

I would advise everyone to give the movie a miss , unless you are the demographic of a video games junkie . And if you are an action movie junkie , go see it in the IMAX format .