Contraband (2012)

Genre : Action/Thriller
Country : USA

Cast :
Mark Wahlberg : Chris Faraday
Kate Beckinsale : Kate Faraday
Ben Foster : Sebastian Abney
Giovanni Ribisi : Tim Briggs

Director :
Baltasar Kormakur

Summary
Chris Faraday once smuggled illegal items or contraband into the country on freighters. He left that life behind, got married has a family and went legit. But when his brother-in-law got involved with Briggs, a drug dealer and when he blew a deal, Briggs demands restitution which he can't deliver. So Chris offers to find a way to pay him but the he threatens Chris' family if he doesn't deliver. So he gets on a freighter destined for Panama and he sets out to bring back some counterfeit currency. Briggs "goes to see" Chris' family. When Chris learns of this he asks his friend Sebastian to take care of them which he does. He tells Chris that it would be better to bring drugs instead of the cash.

My opinion

Wahlberg at his best. Magnificent crime film with smuggling as main theme. Excellent casted actors including Ribisi. A great role and with a nervous demeanor as always. It always looks as if they pumped his veins full with some kind of synthetic drug.

The basic idea is a bit stolen from "Gone in 60 Seconds", namely an ex-criminal who was on the right path, going back to his old habit to help a family ... Bwah ... I can live with that.
The action scenes are top notch and the atmosphere in the film remains exciting.
Great movie for all I care!

My rating 6/10
Links : IMDB

Dragon Eyes (2012)

Genre : Action/Crime
Country : USA

Cast :
Cung Le : Hong
Peter Weller : Mister V
Jean-Claude Van Damme : Tiano

Director :
John Hyams

Summary
St. Jude Square is a neighborhood living in fear and despair. The dueling gangs of local kingpins Dash and Antuan terrorize the streets and the citizens live without a shred of hope... until mysterious stranger Ryan Hong arrives in town. He begins to play one gang against the other using his unparalleled martial arts skills, and by calling on the teachings of his brilliant mentor Tiano  to find the strength to battle back.

My opinion

I had a lot of fun watching this martial art film. Some clever fight scenes and a simple storyline. But ... I assumed that it would be a JCVD movie, but that was like a huge letdown. He had a minimal roll.
 

And that Chung Le guy is a real blabbermouth. The first 40 minutes I'm sure he didn't speak more then 30 words. Amazing......

Conclusion: nice fight scenes - a flash of JCVD and a taciturn asian fellow ...

My rating 4/10
Links : IMDB

Flight (2012)

Genre : Drama
Country : USA

Cast :
Denzel Washington : Whip Whitaker
Kelly Reilly : Nicole
Don Cheadle : Hugh Lang
John Goodman : Harling Mays

Director :
Robert Zemeckis

Summary
Whip Whitaker is a commuter airline pilot. While on a flight from Orlando to Atlanta something goes wrong and the plane starts to fly erratically. With little choice Whip crashes the plane and saves almost all on board. When he wakes up in the hospital, his friend from the airline union introduces him to a lawyer who tells him there's a chance he could face criminal charges because his blood test reveals that he is intoxicated with alcohol and cocaine. He denies being impaired, so while an investigation is underway, he is told to keep his act together. However, letting go of his addiction is not as easy as it seems...

My opinion

A top, excellent, brilliant, beautiful movie about the struggle of a person who fights against his addiction. The plane crash is actually not the main subject in this film. That's only used to attract people to the theater because it looks so spectacular. In a way it's just for satisfying our tendency to have a peek at disasters. And it gave the SE department the opportunity to flex its muscles. If that's the only thing that excites you, you'll be disappointed about the rest of the movie.

But the strength of this film and the admirable performance of Denzel is the realistic portray of the archetype of an alcoholic. For people who have been in such a stage of their life, there are many points that are so characteristic and recognizable. Others will call it a fake alcoholic or acting a bit pathetic about an addiction.

But Denzel shows what such a person has to endure : the shame, the profligate, the awareness of having a problem, feeling helpless and missing the strength to get over it and to resist the urge. There are a few small things that indicate that Denzel has studied it thoroughly. Such as knowing up to the minute how long he's been sober, the guilty and ashamed feeling at an AA meeting and then leaving with such an air as if that's only for suckers to go there and the hand that comes back into the picture to take that bottle.
At the funeral of a colleague he asks another colleague to lie a little about his problem. That shows how low a person can go when being addicted to something.

The fact he's a pilot and he was able to prevent a plane crashing in such a severe way that there would be more victims, is only a way that leads to the unveiling of his alcohol problem for years. He might as well been driving a tricycle against a lamppost to achieve the same result, but the images wouldn't be so spectacular. And trust me, the end is not as moralizing as I read here and there but shows how someone who can make that click in his life also ensures that his life and environment changes dramatically.

My rating 9/10
Links : IMDB

Live Free or Die Hard (2007)

Genre : Action
Country : USA

Cast :
Bruce Willis : John McClane
Justin Long : Matt Farell
Timothy Olyphant : Thomas Gabriel

Director :
Len Wiseman

Summary
When someone hacks into the computers at the FBI's Cyber Crime Division; the Director decides to round up all the hackers who could have done this. When he's told that because it's the 4th of July most of their agents are not around so they might have trouble getting people to get the hackers. So he instructs them to get local PD'S to take care of it. And one of the cops they ask is John McClane who is tasked with bringing a hacker named Farrell to the FBI. But as soon as he gets there someone starts shooting at them. McClane manages to get them out but they're still being pursued. And it's just when McClane arrives in Washington that the whole system breaks down and chaos ensues.

My opinion

As excited as I was about the first three parts, so deeply disappointed I was about this weak part in the Die Hard saga. The first three films were great because of the tension, the clever action scenes and the cool hard McClane with his snappy one-liners and dry cynical humor.

The latter is still in this film, but the action is soooooooo exaggerated, I could sigh at the sight of it alone.

The first comment I had, and I've also read on IMDB, was that they were blocking all streets in DC except those streets where the chase would happen. That chase ended in a tunnel (admittedly irresistible scenes) and when the lights were turned off by the bad-guys, I couldn't help thinking: Euh , I would at least put on my lights. Nobody did ...

But the most irritating part for me was the one where McClane is driving a truck over a bridge and being chased by a fighter jet. This was so grotesque, so superhero-ish. This belonged in The Avengers or another over the top superhero movie ... but not in Die Hard.

Bruce Willis = Die Hard. But it's really easy to cast him and then put on the movie poster "Die Hard: blablablablabla ...". Success guaranteed.

Timothy Olyphant plays the would-be-bad-guy. An expressionless face. He still needs to go a long way until he's as crazy as the 3 bad-asses from the first three parts.

Justin Long acted very convincing as the youthful computer nerd who was almost wetting his pants with all that violence around him.

My rating 5/10
Links : IMDB

Red Tails (2012)

Genre : War
Country : USA

Cast :
Cuba Gooding Jr. : Majoor Emanuelle Stance
Terrence Howard : Kolonel A.J. Bullard
Bryan Cranston : Kolonel William Mortamus

Director :
Anthony Hemingway

Summary
Italy 1944.
As the war takes its toll on Allied forces in Europe, a squadron of black pilots known as the Tuskegee Airmen are finally given the chance to prove themselves in the sky - even as they battle discrimination on the ground. It's a tribute to the unsung heroes who rose above extraordinary challenges and ultimately soared into history.

My opinion

During WWII in Italy, a regiment of black pilots are flying around with outdated P40's to perform meaningless tasks because the white army top management doesn't believe that black people are intellectually enough to perform real actions. It's a bit like in the American Civil War, where they were seen as just cannon fodder. Eventually, they may prove themselves anyway.

Combine that with a love story and you have Red Tails.

It was a very entertaining movie, lots of action, some impressive dogfights (in my eyes anyway). I wasn't bored for a second watching this one. It wasn't a state of the art movie , but not as you read a lot, a total flop.

The strange thing is that on IMDB you can read totally different opinions from people who actually will know what they are talking about I guess. For example
1. As a retired USAF Fighter Pilot, having flown 100 missions as an F-105 Wild Weasel over the hottest areas of North Vietnam, and recipient of the Silver Star, the Distinguished Flying Cross, and ten Air Medals, I found the movie to be excellent.
2. I am a pilot in the Air Force.This is by far the absolute worst movie I have ever seen.
3. I'm a former US Air Force F-4 Phantom Weapons Systems Officer (backseater).You know this movie is crap when you start with a supposed fighter squadron commander who doesn't know the difference between a SQUAD (thirteen infantrymen) and a SQUADRON (48 fighter pilots).

Probably it isn't all technically accurate but it surely was thrilling entertainment.

My rating 7/10
Links : IMDB

Haywire (2011)

Genre : Action/Thriller
Country : USA

Cast :
Gina Carano : Mallory Kane
Ewan McGregor : Kenneth
Michael Fassbender : Paul
Antonio Banderas : Rodrigo

Director :
Steven Soderbergh

Summary
Freelance covert operative Mallory Kane is hired out by her handler to various global entities to perform jobs which governments can't authorize and heads of state would rather not know about. After a mission to rescue a hostage in Barcelona, Mallory is quickly dispatched on another mission to Dublin. When the operation goes awry and Mallory finds she has been double crossed, she needs to use all of her skills, tricks and abilities to escape an international manhunt, make it back to the United States, protect her family, and exact revenge on those that have betrayed her.

My opinion

The female Jason Bourne ... Gina Carano is one hot looking girl , yummie. That's one reason why she has been casted for "The Fast and the Furious 6".
Many flashbacks in this film. I am not a big fan of that.

Most fight scenes look fine.
And Michael Douglas has a limited role in it, which doesn't bring this movie to a higher level.
Nice to watch it for once. I won't bother to have a look at it once again !

My rating 4/10
Links : IMDB

The Double (2011)

Summary
Story kicks off with the mysterious murder of a senator bearing the marks of a Soviet assassin, who was long thought to be dead. To hunt down the killer, a retired CIA operative, who spent his career going toe-to-toe with his Soviet nemesis, is teamed with a young FBI agent.

Genre : Action/Crime
Country : USA

Cast :
Richard Gere : Paul Shepherdson
Topher Grace : Ben Geary
Stephen Moyer : Brutus

Director :
Michael Brandt

My opinion

Ouch, what a setback.

I thought a film with Richard Gere as a retired secret agent might well be interesting. The first half hour it was. When I saw Topher Grace, I didn't recognize him immediately. And then it hit me. He used to play in "That '70s Show". At that time he already looked sluggish and dull. In this movie it also seemed as if he would fall asleep any time. This part totally didn't suit him. 

The plot being revealed so early is something new. But then it all crumbles down and at the end you get a totally unexpected twist. The only thing is, it's totally unbelievable. The heroic fight at the end between Richard Gere and Tamer Hassan was kind of entertaining, but when suddenly Gere crawls along Grace and almost immediately passes away, I was like, "Yep, come on". What a silly theater.
 

A spy / thriller with a great start, a surprisingly early disclosure and then a downward flight to an anticlimax. One positive thing : it was fun to see Martin Sheen playing again.

My rating 4/10
Links : IMDB

The Collapsed (2011)

Summary
In the wake of the end of the world, a family of four desperately tries to survive against insurmountable odds. Their goal: escaping the city and traveling to the rural community they once called home, Dover's Bend. The constant threat of a violent death forcing them to stay as far away from civilization as possible, they take to the forest, soon to discover the danger posed by other survivors may be the least of their worries. 

Genre : Horror/SF
Country : Canada

Cast :
John Fantasia : Scott Weaver
Steve Vieira : Aaron Weaver
Anna Ross : Rebecca Weaver

Director :
Justin McConell

My opinion
 
I had a sleepless night, so I thought, lets watch a movie my wife certainly doesn't want to see ... It would have been better if I stayed in bed. There's a beginning and an end, and that's it. Just one absurd moment in the movie I want to share : four members of a family are on the run for "I don't know what" because "I don't know what" has happened to the world. Anxiously they are running and stumbling through the woods. And then the daughter needs ... 10 minutes privacy TO SHAVE HER LEGS ... Go figure !

That was the straw that broke the camel's back. A worthless shitty movie of the year!
 

My rating 0/10
Links : IMDB

Beneath the Darkness (2011)

Genre : Horror/Thriller
Country : USA

Cast :
Dennis Quaid : Ely
Tony Oller : Travis
Aimee Teegarden : Abby

Director :
Martin Guigui

Summary
In Smithville, Texas, the teenagers Brian, Abby, Travis and Danny are classmates of the Smithville High School and best friends. One day, they are reading Macbeth for a class and they decide to investigate the rumors that the house of the mortician Ely Vaughn is haunted by ghosts. They see shadows in the upper window and they break in the house to see what is happening and they see a corpse lying on the bed; however, they are surprised by Ely that kills Danny, pushing him to fall off the staircase. Nobody believes in the teenagers since Ely is a respectable citizen, but Travis and Abby decide to prove that the undertaker is a psychopath.

My opinion

Aweful  B-movie. Even Quaid couldn't bring this crap movie to a higher level. Forget this silly affair!

My rating 1/10
Links : IMDB

A Dangerous Method (2011)

Genre : Drama
Country : UK/Germany/Switzerland

Cast :
Michael Fassbender : Carl Jung
Viggo Mortensen : Sigmund Freud
Keira Knightley : Sabina Spielrein

Director :
David Cronenberg

Summary
Suffering from hysteria, Sabina Spielrein is hospitalized under the care of Dr. Carl Jung who has begun using Dr. Sigmund Freud's talking cure with some of his patients. Spielrain's psychological problems are deeply rooted in her childhood and violent father. She is highly intelligent however and hopes to be a doctor, eventually becoming a psychiatrist in her own right. The married Jung and Spielrein eventually become lovers. Jung and Freud develop an almost father-son relationship with Freud seeing the young Jung as his likely successor as the standard-bearer of his beliefs. A deep rift develops between them when Jung diverges from Freud's belief that while psychoanalysis can reveal the cause of psychological problems it cannot cure the patient.

My opinion

Having an opinion about a psychological film is difficult. The movie concentrates on the origins of psychoanalysis, the techniques and the ideas about that. The result is indeed a boring movie, filled with lots of dialogue. The emotional relationship between Knightley and Fassbender though is interesting. 

Personally, I like that kind of a "psychiatrist-helps-patien-with-a-problem' film, but rather a chemical co-equal like Damon and Williams in" Good Will Hunting". "A dangerous mind" isn't a movie you can watch after a tiring day at work that ended with headache. It's not mitigating material such as an aspirin.

 My rating 4/10
Links : IMDB

Prometheus (2012)

Genre : SF
Country : USA

Cast :
Michael Fassbender : David
Noomi Rapace : Elizabeth Shaw
Charlize Theron : Meredith Vickers

Director :
Ridley Scott

Summary
This film is set in 2093 and takes place in the same universe as the 'Alien' movies. A group of explorers, including some archaeologists, are on an "undisclosed" mission. They arrive at a planet millions of miles away from Earth. The team spot what they believe to be signs of civilization. They go to investigate and find more than just signs, they find conclusive evidence. But some of them have an ulterior motive for being there, including the Weyland Corporation. They believe that this is where the human race actually came from. Things soon turn from excitement to survival once inside their discovery.

My opinion 

"Whatever that probe is picking up, it's a life form."

I am a huge fan of the Alien saga myself. "Alien", the legendary cult film, I've seen originally in the cinema. Personally, I always thought "Aliens" was the best, most exciting and most pronounced Alien-part. But like I said, it's personal. I don't know how many times I've watched it on VHS, but I know it almost by heart. The next two parts actually passed me as a volatile item. Judging by the score on IMDB it's not that absurd. Part 1 and 2 get a 8.5 score, while the next two parts have to be satisfied with only a 6.4 and a 6.2 score.
 

First lets talk about the prequel blabbering. I'm not a supporter of the prequel stuff. It has been repeatedly shown that mostly it doesn't reach the level of the original part, and in my eyes it's just meditating on the commercial success of the original film. In other words it's just a way to exploit the followers and fans a little bit. But lets not generalize this. There are nuances. Personally, I think the "Star Wars" prequels are pure crap, "The Hobbit" isn't such a bad attempt and Prometheus is, in my eyes, not even really a prequel. Well it interfaces with "Alien" but it's SF so it may as well be other creatures. Not? "Mother" from "Alien" supposed to be a kind of supercomputer but actually it looked more like an old-fashioned ASCII mainframe, and the IT in Prometheus looks like state of the art. Kind of strange for a prequel.

And then I read the whole discussion with all these questions about how to explain everything, why it happened and how did they end up there. What's with the jockey, and who was now first and is this the origin of mankind. .. and blablabla ... It's SF and remains fiction. Fiction causes everyone having other type of questions where a zillion others have an own interpretation about, what results in again a bunch of other hypotheses. How the hell could they find exactly this place ? A chance of 1 in a million opportunities like I read in someones opinion. Who knows, they might have built a nano-bio ultramodern complex supercomputer on Earth, which could calculate this with superhuman precision. SF right ?  But when a movie comes out which is a bit too linear and too obvious where no questions are asked about, general opinion will say this isn't great either. 

Well, I have finally seen it ! With a bit of delay but that's because my digital list of movies I still need to see, is that long. I don't have the inclination to watch it in 3D, even if it adds value and looks more fantastic. I wear glasses and then I find it damn hard to start messing around with some plastic trinket to get it pinned on the rest of my too short nose. Ultimately, I am more busy dealing with the damn glasses than with the film.

And then finally about the movie: beautiful, majestic and like a great SF should be, with breathtaking moments in terms of the scenery, atmosphere and effects. Who knows, it really looks like this in the universe on an unknown planet. I'm glad Sigourney Weaver wasn't starring in this film, because I think she wouldn't fit in here and then the entire prequel discussion would collapse as a house of cards. For me this was just a good SF with some exciting moments. There aren't so many SF movies like this anymore. The fact that some characters look rather stupid and sometimes react in a very strange way, didn't bother me that much for once.

I'm going to make a harsh statement, but for once a sequel is more then welcome, so I can move around again in the universe in a virtual way.

My rating 7/10
Links : IMDB , Moviemeter