Django Unchained (2012)

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Genre : Western/Action
Country : USA

Cast :
Jamie Foxx : Django
Christoph Waltz : Dr. King Schultz
Leonardo DiCaprio : Calvin Candie

Director :
Quitin Tarantino

Summary
Former dentist, Dr. King Schultz, buys the freedom of a slave, Django, and trains him with the intent to make him his deputy bounty hunter. Instead, he is led to the site of Django's wife who is under the hands of Calvin Candie, a ruthless plantation owner.

My opinion

"How do you like the bounty hunting business?
Kill white people and get paid for it? What's not to like?"

Is there actually a genre Tarantino can't take to a higher level? As a true Tarantino fan I knew, even though I'm not a western fan, this film would be enjoyable again. Indeed, it's a superb movie. Non of the 160 minutes were boring or monotonous. Every single aspect was spot on. The music, the actors (main and supporting roles), the interpretation, the action, the dialogues, the excessive bloodshed,  humor ......

 
The beginning already throws you back into the past and equals the famous spaghetti westerns from the past. A bit of Morricone and a small cameo for Clint Eastwood would make it complete. Foxx as Django is sublime. A slave without a future who turns into a sadistic cold-blooded bounty hunter who has no problem to put a white person in place. Waltz is sublime as the German dentist Dr. King Schultz. An eloquent gentleman who lives from payements he get for turning in outlaws, alive or (mostly) dead. And then there's Di Caprio ... In my opinion this is the most successful performance in this movie and one of his best performances up to now.

Something that's certainly necessary in a Tarantino movie is humor. And there was enough humor in "Django Unchained". The KKK scene was so hilarious, I had to watch it a few times. The moment Django could choose what clothes to wear and you see him riding in a bright blue almost medieval suit with white fringes, I got tears in my eyes from laughing.

And secondly, of course there must be hard violence, a lot of blood shedding and cursing in a Tarantino flick. And there was enough of this also. When somebody got shot, it was accompanied by gushing blood and flesh flying around. The final part is an accumulation of these attributes.

This Tarantino movie is a worthy successor to "Reservoir Dogs", "Pulp Fiction" and "From Dusk till Dawn". Hopefully there'll be someday a real Tarantino SF.

My rating 9/10
Links : IMDB

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