Olympus Has Fallen (2013)

Olympus Has Fallen (2013)

6/10

Starring

Gerald Butler

Aaron Eckhart

Dylan McDermott

Morgan Freeman

Directed by Antoine Fuqua

The movie is very, very bogus, but that aside, I actually liked it. The whole "one-man army" thing is something Hollywood sometimes overplays, and no movie has been able to get near the level of Die Hard (1988), with Bruce Willis as the lone hero, or First Blood (1982), with Sylvester Stallone as the lone hero/villain.

I’m not saying Olympus Has Fallen is anywhere as good as those two, but in its own right, it’s an okay film. All you have to do is close your eyes to the height of unrealistic events, and you’ve got a decent movie. The plot itself is centered on a redemption arc, as the lead, Mike Banning (Gerard Butler), is a Secret Service agent who, under his watch, saw the President’s wife die in an accident (it was a car accident, and it wasn’t his fault).

He got reassigned because the President found it hard to cope, as seeing Mike reminded him of his loss. Then, on a fateful day, a man named Kang Yeonsak (Rick Yune), a North Korean terrorist, disguises himself as a South Korean ministerial aide and somehow manages to kidnap the President by launching an attack on the White House, forcing the President to run into his bunker with the South Korean minister and his aides.

Now, Banning is our lone hero in the White House who must save the President’s son and the President himself.

My main problem is this: if it’s that easy to take over the White House, then I’m really sorry for America.

As far as acting goes, Gerard Butler wasn’t the one who impressed me—it was the villain, Rick Yune, who did the job for me in the movie. And, as usual, Morgan Freeman is just as impressive as ever. Although, let me not be too hard on Butler; he was okay.

The movie didn’t do so well in general consensus when you look at its approval ratings from critics. About half of them didn’t feel it, and you can’t blame them. This is a movie you can only like if you hang all your senses at the door and just decide to watch it without being too expectant.

Aaron Eckhart, in my view, is still finding it hard to top the performance he gave us in The Dark Knight. But notwithstanding, if you’re game for some unrealistic events in the name of an action-packed, one-man hero movie… then this is a film you should see. If you’re not… maybe you should skip this one.

The Call (2013)

The Call (2013)

4/10

Starring

Halle Berry

Abigail Breslin

Morris Chestnut

Michael Eklund

Directed by Brad Anderson

At first, The Call seems out of place and doesn’t seem to find a link between what you’re being shown and what you’re supposed to enjoy. Then, “the call” comes in, and the movie starts. This thriller begins to get thrilling, especially when the heroine ends up answering the kidnapper’s call for the second time.

The movie then moves into a chase to save the girl—a chase that’s very thrilling and keeps you on the edge of your seat as you start to wonder how it will all play out. But this whole excitement meets an anticlimax the moment Halle Berry, our protagonist, decides to take matters into her own hands. From here, the movie starts to look stupid and seems like a desperate attempt to make her look more like a true heroine by letting her be the one to take out the bad guy—something the police should have done.

This almost creepy, almost gruesome 2013 movie features Halle Berry as a 911 operator named Jordan, who attends to a 911 call from a girl about to be kidnapped. Jordan, out of panic, calls the girl back after the phone disconnects, making it easier for the kidnapper/killer to find the victim. This is because the killer was unable to find his victim and was about to leave, thinking she had fled out the window, when the call came in, exposing where she was hiding.

Seeing her predicament, Jordan leaves the 911 operator seat to become a trainer. But lightning strikes twice. While coaching, a 911 call about a kidnapping comes in, and the new recruit doesn’t know what to do. So, Jordan takes over, and a chase to find the kidnapper and the kidnapped girl begins.

Brad Anderson started well with this flick but crashed it at the end. After waiting almost half an hour for the movie to start rolling in the punches, I felt horrible when I realized that the last 20–30 minutes were just a waste.

That said, it hasn’t hindered the financial success of this film at the box office. Originally conceptualized as a TV series, this movie is far from perfect, and the last minutes of the film marred the whole buildup.

I won’t be recommending this movie to my friends, and I won’t recommend it to you either. The movie fails to be fun, which is odd based on the idea.

The Croods (2013)

The Croods (2013)

5/10

Starring the voices of

Nicolas Cage

Ryan Reynolds

Emma Stone

Catherine Keener

Directed by Kirk DeMicco and Chris Sanders

The Croods can be said to have come out a little crude. I felt it was too rough around the edges, and the Midas touch of Chris Sanders (which showed up in Lilo & Stitch (2002) and Bolt (2008) before he left Disney and joined DreamWorks to make the masterpiece How to Train Your Dragon (2010), which he’s also involved in for its sequels) is losing its touch after all. That said, the movie is still watchable.

It’s not that The Croods didn’t have the family fun package—because it did—and it also had the family warmth I expected from an animation targeted at a young audience. But the movie was just too primitive. They went overboard with the whole caveman idea, and I actually got tired of the Stone Age—something The Flintstones hasn’t even managed to achieve. The movie has many fast-paced scenes and a lot of action (adventure) to keep you sitting up and not bored, but in the end, it felt weak in the area of emotional sentiment—something Pixar has mastered, which makes their characters memorable. The CGI was okay, but the movie also showed a lack in character development. I didn’t see any reason to like anybody I saw on the screen.

The plot is about change and people’s failure to accept it. The Croods are a caveman family that has managed to survive the harsh conditions they live in, only because they believe that to be curious or to desire change is to desire death.

But things change when another Stone Age man passes by their cave. He’s more advanced than they are and knows how to make fire. Now, The Croods have a problem. This man tells them it’s time to move because where they are is going to be gone soon, as climatic changes are affecting the Earth’s crust. But The Croods don’t want to move—except for one. She happens to have developed feelings for the young genius and propels the family to follow him.

The Croods is the first animated film from DreamWorks Animation to be distributed by 20th Century Fox since the end of their distribution deal with Paramount Pictures in 2012 with Rise of the Guardians.

My take on this movie is that it could have been better, but it isn’t. The Croods is a family movie—nothing more or spectacular. I don’t see this getting an Oscar nomination.

The Matrix (1999)

The Matrix (1999)

7/10

Starring

Keanu Reeves

Laurence Fishburne

Carrie-Anne Moss

Hugo Weaving

Directed by Andy and Larry Wachowski

The Matrix is a movie made to last the test of time and remain relevant whenever the Sci-Fi genre is mentioned. The movie is a classic, known mainly for its use of the visual effect known as "bullet time." It went on to win four Academy Awards for its Visual Effects, Editing, Sound Mixing, and Sound Editing. The story arc leaves you wondering, and its ending opens the door to many possibilities.

The Wachowski brothers took the best of the Sci-Fi genre and an idea that never seems to stop plaguing the minds of many: that one day, computers will take over. The movie is directed by the brothers and produced by Joel Silver.

The story arc is about a post-apocalyptic future where humans are used as fuel to power machines. The human race developed “THE A.I.” program, which in turn waged war against its creators. In the end, the human race lost and is now grown for fuel. Their brains are fed with ideas of a real life, while their minds live in a world called The Matrix.

There, the human race lives their lives as if everything is normal, unaware that the life they live isn’t real.

The twist in this tale is that some figured it out. The last collection of free humans—most of whom were taken out of The Matrix’s control—live in a place called Zion. But there’s a prophecy that a certain man will come and save humanity from the machines. That man has been found by Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) and his crew, which includes Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss). The name of that man is Neo (Keanu Reeves)—or, as Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) calls him, Mr. Anderson.

The 1982 Disney movie Tron was, to me, the main inspiration for The Matrix, as it features lives in the grid—lives within a computer system. The Matrix can also be said to have drawn ideas from other 90s movies like The Truman Show (1998), where Jim Carrey’s life is controlled by an external source, and he’s none the wiser. Additionally, the fight scenes seem to have been influenced by Japanese animation (anime), which the Wachowski brothers took a liking to.

After the huge success of this movie, the Wachowski brothers went on to make two sequels (The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions), both released four years later in 2003. They also expanded the story with comic books, cartoons, and video games.

The Matrix is a good movie—in fact, it’s a great movie, ranking high on any Sci-Fi list. It helped kick off the whole trilogy phase that’s now popular in Hollywood.

Shanghai Knight (2003)

Shanghai Knight (2003)

6/10

Starring

Jackie Chan

Owen Wilson

Donnie Yen

Fann Wong

Directed by David Dobkin

Shanghai Noon (2000) gradually becomes Shanghai Knights, with both actors from the previous movie reprising their roles as Chon Wang (Jackie Chan) and Roy (Owen Wilson). The movie isn’t as good as the first, but it’s surprisingly interesting, funny, and captivating.

This time, the makers went as far as bringing more familiar themes into the plot—things we’re more used to. For example, we have a boy who winds up being Charlie Chaplin, the detective in the film ends up being Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (who goes on to write the Sherlock Holmes mysteries), and according to the movie, the name Sherlock Holmes is made up by Roy.

The movie plot follows our dynamic duo from the first film, only this time their adventure takes them to England. The movie starts with the death of Wang’s (Jackie) father, who was a guard of the royal diamond seal, which gets stolen. While dying, Wang’s father tells his daughter, Chon Lin (Fann Wong), to retrieve the stolen seal and deliver a puzzle box to her brother.

Now, Wang, her brother, has become a sheriff in Nevada. When he gets the message about his father’s death and the stolen seal being taken to England, he searches for Roy to get some money to travel there. Roy, on the other hand, has lost all their gold from the first film to gambling and bad investments. So now, together with Wang’s sister Lin, they have to retrieve the diamond and return it to China.

There are many more homages in this film that I’d like to mention:

1. The villain is also tagged "the finest swordsman in England," which is a tribute to Basil Rathbone, known for his swordsmanship. Rathbone always seemed better than his counterparts in his movies but held back because the hero had to win. Rathbone also played Sherlock Holmes in the 1930s to 1940s series.
2. In the movie, we get to see Jackie Chan pay homage to the Rush Hour movies, where Jackie distracts the guards by using Chinese vases.
3. When knocking on Conan Doyle's door, the clothes that Roy and Wang are wearing are exactly the same as those worn by Holmes and Watson in Conan Doyle's stories.

The movie did fairly well at the box office but was a massive hit in Pakistan, where it was dubbed in Punjabi. Several million copies of the movie’s DVD and VCD sales were great, prompting the producers to also release Shanghai Noon in Punjabi.

This movie is a nice watch—one that you’ll enjoy seeing. I encourage you to give it a try.

Shanghai Noon (2000)

Shanghai Noon (2000)

6/10

 

Starring

Jackie Chan

Owen Wilson

Lucy Liu

Directed by Tom Dey

I absolutely love this movie. Shanghai Noon is one soft comedy that I just found myself loving. The movie pulls off a very nice romantic, soft comedy that you’ll go crazy for. Shanghai Noon has a great pairing—maybe not as iconic as the one in Rush Hour—but Owen Wilson’s style of comedy is one I’ve come to love and appreciate.

Owen Wilson’s style is laid-back, while Jackie Chan’s is a mix of comic martial arts and action scenes. The combination is just unique. The movie can be seen as a form of the buddy-cop genre.

The movie pays homage to some classic Westerns, like High Noon, and Jackie Chan’s character is named Chon Wang, meant to sound like John Wayne. Another thing to love about the movie is its unusual suspense. It has its own way of thrilling you, leaving you, the viewer, to really think:

One of the things I liked—and part of the suspense—is the idea that Owen’s character, Roy, is the worst gunslinger around (this guy can’t shoot straight to save his life). Yet, somehow, he’s managed to survive in the West and even become the leader of an armed robbery gang.

The second thing that got me thinking is also about Roy’s character. He was buried up to his neck in the desert but somehow managed to get out and reach the nearest town before Jackie, who was traveling on foot and horseback. When asked how he did it, Roy claimed to have dug himself out with chopsticks.

The movie’s plot crosses two regions: China and the U.S. In China, Chon Wang (Jackie Chan) is an imperial guard who has his eyes on the princess, Pei-Pei (Lucy Liu). She gets abducted and taken to America.

Wang’s affection for the princess leads him to join the Imperial Guards sent to bring Pei-Pei back. A ransom in gold is also sent by the king to her captors. When they arrive in America, the train they’re on gets robbed by Roy (Owen Wilson) and his crew, and that’s how Wang and Roy meet.

The two later team up in an attempt to rescue the princess from her captors.

The combination of the two was well-received by many critics, leading to huge DVD sales and box office success for the movie.

It will stand as one of Jackie Chan’s comedic genius that is produced in the U.S.

Rush Hour 3 (2007)

Rush Hour 3 (2007)

3/10

Starring

Jackie Chan

Chris Tucker

Directed by Brett Ratner

Why must producers milk a cow dry until a franchise is worth less than a B-movie?
When movie makers decide to over-drag a movie, it makes you wonder why such a plague has been allowed to continue, and no one has even bothered to find a cure. It’s never your place to tell a man what movie he should or shouldn’t make, but we, the fans, can help matters by actually airing our views about it.

My stand is that a movie like Rush Hour, which pulled off an awesome combination of martial arts action and comedy, should have been laid to rest after the release of Rush Hour 2 in 2001. The truth is, movies like Mad Max, Die Hard, and Lethal Weapon dragged on for too long until the last installments (Mad Max 3, Die Hard 5, and Lethal Weapon 4) ended up being mediocre.

Moving forward, the first Rush Hour was a form of classic. It pulled out all the stops and made sure you, the viewer, would be laughing all the way to the bank. The second one was just bull, and watching the errors the actors made during filming was more interesting than the movie itself.

The worst thing about this movie, I can remember, is Zhang Jingchu, who portrays Soo-Yung, Ambassador Solon Han’s daughter. She was the worst thing to be seen on TV, as she doesn’t even have an idea of what it means to be a convincing actor.

Now, the script is where the high jump bar lies, and this movie failed to scale it. An assassination attempt by the Triads on Ambassador Solon Han occurs, and Lee (Jackie Chan) is present at the shooting. He chases the culprit to the street until he finally catches up with him, only to discover it’s a childhood friend.

Chris Tucker was annoying in this flick, and Jackie Chan was just not in form, making both look like they were forced into the roles we’re seeing them in.

I don’t get it… After such a bad performance, you’d think the producers would kill the franchise. But that’s not to be, as talks are circling around that a Rush Hour 4 could happen soon. I guess cash is now the motivation for continuing this franchise because, as of now, I’ve lost any interest I may have had in seeing a new Rush Hour.

My conclusion is this: watch Rush Hour 1 and 2, then stop. This one is nowhere worth viewing.

Rush Hour 2 (2001)

Rush Hour 2 (2001)

5/10

Starring

Jackie Chan

Chris Tucker

Directed by Brett Ratner

Rush Hour 2 is nowhere near as good as Rush Hour 1, but you have to give them an A for effort—they did try to make you love it. Chan and Tucker have a way of keeping you glued to the screen, as their combination is mouthwatering. But after I was done watching this film… I enjoyed seeing the errors more than the movie itself.

It’s not that Rush Hour 2 didn’t have its funny parts—because it did—it’s just that from the get-go, you can tell the makers are trying too hard to make something out of nothing. In the end, they achieved it all: they got us to go see the movie, got us to remember it for some near-death experiences that make you wonder (just like in Rush Hour 1), and somehow managed to create a story, regardless of how weak it looked or sounded. Brett Ratner was called back to direct this film, which was done three years after the first. So, the choice is yours: do you think he did a good job?

The movie plot stars Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker, who respectively reprise their roles as Inspector Lee and Detective Carter. This time, our duo starts their journey in Hong Kong and then finds themselves back on American soil, in Vegas, where they get rolled up with the Secret Service to bring down a counterfeit scam involving the Triads.

The production cost for this movie is much higher than that of Rush Hour 1, mostly due to the success of the previous film. Chris Tucker demanded a $20 million salary to reprise his role, and in the end, the movie was worth his pay at the box office. While Rush Hour 1 cost $33 million and made $244 million, this movie cost $90 million and took home $347 million from the box office. In addition, this movie made massive cash from home video sales.

After the huge success of this movie, the production studio called the duo back for another Rush Hour run, although it took them six years to get the crew back together. The third movie was eventually released in 2007.

As I said, this movie is nowhere near as good as its predecessor. A lot of work and casting went into this one, but the final result didn’t show that it cost three times more than the first. Still, I’ll say it’s a fine movie to see.

Rush Hour (1998)

Rush Hour (1998)

6/10

Starring

Jackie Chan

Chris Tucker

Directed by Brett Ratner

I always find myself laughing hard while watching this film because the scenes, acting, and martial arts are so well-done that I just have to give this movie the respect it deserves as a great buddy-cop movie that everyone should see.

The movie does a brief introduction of all the leads, and then the pace picks up. The speed at which it carries on is so impressive that I never believed it could keep up—but it did. Brett Ratner, the director, was on top of the situation, and the blend of Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan was masterful.

The plot has its holes. Some of the situations these two get out of are eyebrow-raising, not to mention how they manage not to get killed. These are things you must try to overlook while watching because that’s the only way you can truly enjoy this movie.

The movie starts in Hong Kong, where Inspector Lee (Jackie Chan) recovers some priceless historical treasures. After the recovery, the Chinese Consul, Solon Han, moves to America. While there, his daughter is kidnapped by a known Hong Kong crime lord, Juntao. The Chinese Consul asks Inspector Lee to come to America to aid the FBI in the investigation and recovery of his daughter.

Detective James Carter (Chris Tucker) is an LAPD cop who finds it hard to do anything right. As a form of punishment, his captain loans him to the FBI to babysit Lee and keep him out of their way. But selfish Carter wants to solve the crime, and so does Lee. Together, they do all they can to recover the Chinese Consul’s daughter.

Much of what they do seems like they’re moving one step forward and two steps back, but in the end, it all pays off.

Rush Hour 1 was a hit and well-received. The combination of both actors (Chan and Tucker) made the news, as everyone loved the mix, and in the end, it made the movie a box office hit.

Later on, two sequels were made, with Chan and Tucker reprising their roles as Inspector Lee and Detective Carter, respectively. We get to see them take on other crime lords and cause major chaos wherever they go.

Rush Hour is a fine film from the 90s that, even if you watch it now, will still have you laughing hard. The movie came out the same year as Lethal Weapon 4, which also starred martial arts actor Jet Li.

So, for me, as Lethal Weapon stopped, these two picked up where it left off and are keeping the buddy-cop flame burning.

Nothing To Lose (1997)

Nothing To Lose (1997)

6/10

Starring

Martin Lawrence

Tim Robbins

Directed by Steve Oedekerk

No matter what critics may say, Nothing to Lose is one of the funniest movies I’ve seen. I stand by the belief that this movie has been overlooked and hasn’t been given the well-deserved recognition it should get. The pair was so mismatched that it just oozes funny. The dialogue and scenes were well-crafted to pull out the thrill and laughter in you, so much so that by the end of the movie, you can’t help but think back and laugh.

The movie can be said to play on stereotypes of color or race. Martin Lawrence plays Terrence, a typical black man who’s finding it hard to cope and keep up with life, while his co-lead, Tim Robbins, plays Nick, a typical white man with everything in his life going right.

What led to these two meeting was Nick coming home to find people having sex in his bed. He looks and sees only the woman’s back, believing it’s his wife. Devastated, he leaves the house without saying a word to her.

On his way out, he finds his boss’s cufflinks on the table and immediately puts two and two together: his boss is sleeping with his wife.

He leaves home, driving to no place in particular, and ends up in a black neighborhood where Terrence pulls a gun on him, demanding his wallet and car keys. Nick, not in the mood, drives off with Terrence in the car, acting so crazy that Terrence starts begging him, apologizing for trying to rob him.

In the end, both find themselves in the desert and become friends as Nick plans to get back at his boss by robbing him.

The acting, to me, was top-notch, and this is the only time I’ve ever felt Martin Lawrence’s over-the-top acting style was impressive and funny. Tim Robbins (Shawshank Redemption (1994)) also stands out as his character deals with the problem of adultery—a role I felt he did well.

Although I find this movie funny and quite interesting, it didn’t make enough at the box office. However, the movie’s soundtrack was well-received and certified gold. The song "Not Tonight" by Lil' Kim, featuring Left Eye, Da Brat, Angie Martinez, and Missy Elliott, was the most popular and gained major airplay on TV and radio stations.

However you may want to look at it, Nothing to Lose is a good movie—one that many should watch and decide for themselves whether it’s good or not. But for me, it’s a well-constructed and well-crafted comedy that everyone should see.

TMNT (2007)

TMNT (2007)

6/10

Staring the voice of

Nolan North

James Arnold Taylor

Mikey Kelley

Directed by Kevin Munroe

The movie was cool, but the problem is, it took a sci-fi kind of approach, which isn’t new, but it felt a little too shabby. As you start viewing the intro scene of the new enemy—said to have originated 3,000 years ago—your hopes that you’re about to see an awesome turtle movie start to drop… well, mine did.

Actually, the Turtles have a sci-fi side with the introduction of Krang in the TV animation series and comics.

What am I saying? The name of the movie is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles—mutant turtles are already a sci-fi genre. But I was so looking forward to seeing the introduction of Krang, as, to me, it’s about time they got introduced into the series. Instead, we have to face another sci-fi story arc. This new story made the movie feel a bit low from my viewpoint in terms of the plot, as it felt a little too weak to be box office hit material.

In the chronology, this movie is the third installment. It starts when the Turtles have already taken out Shredder, which occurred after the events of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Secret of the Ooze (1991). The movie also features Casey Jones and April as a couple.

The movie plot revolves around a 3,000-year-old warrior king, Yaotl, who became immortal when he sought ultimate power. He achieved this by discovering a portal to a parallel universe, which made him powerful and immortal but turned his generals into stone and released 13 monsters on Earth.

Now, in the present day (2007), Yaotl has collected all the statues of his generals and found a way to bring them back to life, making them stone statues that can move and talk.

Things in the sewers weren’t so rosy either. Leonardo was sent by Splinter for leadership training in South America—a training Leonardo didn’t quite understand. But he returned home, and now he and his turtle brothers face a new challenge. The Foot Clan seems to have been rebuilt, and monsters are on the loose in New York. A man named Max Winters, who is actually Yaotl, is behind it all. But the turtle group has been out of sync for a long time and is finding it hard to work together as a team.

So, they must begin to function as a group again to defeat their new enemy.

After seeing this, I still stand by my belief that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles I (1990) is the best adaptation of these comic heroes, as this movie failed in the eyes of critics and commercially.

Now, don’t get me wrong—as I said at the beginning, this movie is cool and fun to watch, so don’t hesitate to see it.