Johnny English Reborn (2011)

Johnny English Reborn (2011)

7/10

Starring
Rowan Atkinson
Gillian Anderson
Rosamund Pike
Dominic West
Daniel Kaluuya
Richard Schiff


Directed by Oliver Parker

Here is one slapstick comedy I really enjoyed watching.

Johnny English Reborn is a sequel to Johnny English 2003 starring the same lead act Rowan Atkinson (better known as Mr. Bean). This character was born back in the 90’s due to Barclay Card commercials, Atkinson liked the character and Johnny English came out in 2003.

The 2003 movie was made with a budget of 40 million dollars, the movie, although panned by critics racked in 160 million dollars; so most definitely a remake was going to be made for financial purposes of cause.

Why the producers chose to wait 8 years to do it beats me. The movie like his predecessor was received with mixed reviews but went ahead to make it in the box office.

The movie kicks off with us seeing our Spy, English; in a Chinese monastery training to master the art of mind over body. He got recalled when his agency superiors learned of an attempt against the Chinese premier's life.

English was giving the latest in-high tech gadgets to unravel a web of conspiracy that runs throughout the KGB, CIA and even MI-7, English bumbles around chases bad guys and somehow head locks the Queen of England and at the end saves the day.

As we all know, English job is not complete without an assault on the crown.

Why I like this movie is that it is just plain, simple stupidity. We have been plagued and have been forced to be used to the fact that for a comedy to be funny, we have to have curse words, sexual references and others. But here all we have to deal with is plain old rubber face Mr. Bean, using physical acts to keep us entertained.

The producers went all the way in this one, using more James Bond themes and logos, to make this Bond spoof enjoyable.

Are they any kick in the nuts in this movie?

The answer will be yes they are several incidents that required a little kick in the old testicles to get the message across (which slapstick comedy is complete without it).

Screen writing was done by William Davis who was responsible for the wonderful and funny CG movie “How To Train Your Dragon”.

This is a good family movie, I enjoyed the fact I didn’t have to feel defiled after watching a comedy a fact I think Hollywood should work on.

Abduction (2011)

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Abduction (2011)

2/10

Starring
Taylor Lautner
Lily Collins
Alfred Molina
Jason Isaacs
Maria Bello
Sigourney Weaver

Directed by John Singleton

Distributed by Lionsgate

This movie was made with the hope of reaping out cash from the fans of Taylor’s hairless muscular chest, and not for the poor unfortunate soul who just want to see a good movie.

For the female fans of Taylor’s Chest, they won’t have to wait long as series of unfortunate events leads to the shirt flying off in the first 10mins or so, and it occurs at least twice after that I think.

But for the poor unfortunate souls, who just want to see a good movie, read on…

This picture was probably made for “INSOMNIA PATIENTS” because I couldn’t help but yawning all through the 100 minutes. Tied to a chair this movie is a good torture, Directed by “Boyz n the hood”director and screen writer John Singleton, this movie proves he should stay away from main stream pictures.

The first glitch in this movie is the lead actor Taylor Lautner (Twilight Series) his performance was so below the scale I kept wondering if what was happening in the movie had anything to do with him. He probably skipped some acting classes cause acting like a robot in a movie that had you lose two parents in a day isn’t acting at all. His performance here makes you appreciate his role as just a supporting actor in the Twilight series.

Let’s not drop the bomb only on him alone, the screenplay lacked enthusiasm. Think your geography teacher is boring? Wait till you hear the dialogues in this movie.

The plot I believe was also another problem; a man named Martin, (who is said to be Nathan’s father) is a CIA agent who stole a list with the names of corrupt CIA operatives from some Russian guy named Kozlow, now on the run his son is being watched by some hired hands. Nathan (Taylor Lautner) grows up with people he believes are his mum and dad, till he finds his picture on a missing children website.

This is what I don’t get (if you do please leave a comment explaining), am a Russian bad guy, someone stole my list of corrupt CIA officials, and I can’t find him. So I get the picture of his son places it up in a phony missing children website, maintain the site for more than 12 years, hoping that one day somebody will stumble upon it and lead me to the father.

So the lead character so happens to be doing a project on missing kids and stumbles on the picture.

That plot to me sounds like a high school musical…but they pulled it off and made a movie out of it, the movie may lack the usual Bourne Identity charm, but they achieved what they wanted create a movie with Taylor as the lead.

This is a movie I have saved you the pain of watching, no need to bother.

Drive (2011)

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DRIVE (2011)

7/10

Starring
Ryan Gosling
Carey Mulligan
Albert Brooks
Bryan Cranston
Oscar Isaac
Christina Hendricks

Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn

Distributed by Film District





The movie is an adaptation of the 2005 James Sallis novel of the same name, and the screenplay was done by The Four Feathers screen writer Hossein Amini, and the reason Nicolas Winding won best Director in Cannes for this, because of the pace of the movie, much like driving an automobile the movie switches gears till it is moving at such a fast pace it almost knocks you off your sit and make you throw up. Not only does the movie change pace so does the Gosling’s acting, which switches from a quite silent man to an action, violent (gore violence) man.

The movie is about Driver, who acts as a stunt wheel man in movies during the day and doubles as a getaway driver specialist at night.
He works with Shannon (Bryan Cranston), a mechanic who arranges the jobs and equips him with the car for the getaway. When the Driver is hired he gives you a 5 minute window to get the job done, and get out and get into the car.

Now this quiet LA “Driver” develops feelings for his neighbor whose husband was in jail, upon release the husband gets involved with his old crew and the life of his family was threatened. Driver decided to help, by helping the husband do one last job, and we all know what happens in the last gig, it all went haywire and we see a new Driver, who adapts to the pace.

The movie proves a point, suppressed emotions, when let loose can be very dangerous.

Starting slow and a little low paced, Drive can put you in a state that you’ll feel it will never hit home but patience is a virtue. Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, who as stated above won the best director award at this year's Cannes Film Festival for “Drive” he made sure that you respect the art of acting as Ryan Gosling was just exceptional.

The movie show cases talent, at its peak as we get to watch a none talker Driver, Ryan Gosling act a character that never talks unless he needs to, keeps his mouth shut and all through the movie you can count his lines.

Refn and Gosling during filming continued to reduce the lines of Driver, so as to portray the character’s silence perfectly.

What was so good about the characters silence was that it made it difficult to know what he is thinking or feeling. Ryan Gosling plays a kinda opposite character to the one he played in Crazy, Stupid, Love, where he acted as a man talented with words. Here he plays a man who hardly uses words.

Make sure you add this to your most see list and try and get the DVD.

Contagion (2011)

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Contagion

7/10

Starring

Marion Cotillard
Matt Damon
Laurence Fishburne
Jude Law
Gwyneth Paltrow
Kate Winslet


Directed by Steven Soderbergh


Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures

The film has an ensemble cast that includes Marion Cotillard, Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Kate Winslet. Contagion follows the rapid progress of a lethal indirect contact transmission virus (fomite transmission) that kills within days of infection.

Shot in eleven locations including Brazil, Hong Kong, United Kingdom, Atlanta, Chicago etc. The movie follows how a virus is transmitted from country to country, a virus that resides on the surface and can be transmitted from touching anything touched by the infected person. As the fast-moving pandemic grows, the world medical community races to find a cure and control the epidemic as the fear was spreading faster than the virus itself.

As the virus spreads around the world, ordinary people struggle daily with the on-going epidemic. The movie then drops an interesting fact that the average person touches his face 2 – 3 thousand times in a day, a fact that I bet majority of you reading this don’t know and I think I doubt it.

A high-minded movie, that is so well plotted that it keeps you interested till the very end, the movie starts with a cough, then we see a sick Gwyneth Paltrow, who was cheating on her husband Matt Damon, dying the very next day. Making some give a high five to Karma. But infidelity is not what the movie is about, the movie is about death and how to stop it form taking over.

The movie develops into more as we see a worldwide panic, an immune pair, and Doctors trying to grow the virus so as to be able to study it and create a vaccine.

What I enjoyed most is watching the virus spread, we get to watch Gwyneth as she sits in a casino and spread the virus unknowingly by touching things like glass cups, blowing on die, her sit, who she touches, poor unfortunates souls like the bus boy who cleaned up after her and the man who just needed lady luck and asked her to blow on the die, were all infected. We see an Immune pair unable to evacuate the city because of Quarantine…the whole movie is a total chaos. We get to see a man and his daughter live in a chaotic environment quarantined with people living with the virus and yet are immune to the virus.

We get to see the struggles they go through being separated from the world and only getting food through donations and have to live on limited resources.

The movie was praised for its scientific accuracy, as it shows how a virus can move around and how it can be contained. Written by Scott Z. Burns, who was the screen writer for The Bourne Ultimatum another Matt Damon movie and directed by Steven Soderbergh (Ocean Eleven remake with George Clooney, also Twelve and Thirteen) did a fine job, in creating a movie that touches a variety of themes from panic, loss of social order, trust and more.

If you are bargaining for a good movie, Contagion is it.