Four Brothers

Three stars out of four. This is a good revenge movie, almost as good as "Man on Fire", but not quite. Still, go see it, if you can stomach violence and blood. That stuff isn't excessive though, in my opinion. Brian dragged me out to see it one night before he left, but I'm glad he did...well, I'm out of thoughts, tired, so...but do go see it, it's worth the money AND the price of concessions.

Four Brothers

City of Lost Children

Three and a half stars out of four. A very strange movie. Tad bit confusing too, something I'll have to watch again to understand it all. Also, this movie is in French, but with the miracle of DVD's you can change it to English. Very enjoyable though. Basic synopsis: An old man steals the dreams of children that are kidnapped by this strange religious group that can only see with a mechanical eye, and hear with mechanical ears. There's also these two Siamese twins, and they employ orphans to steal stuff. All through this, the focus is on one of the orphans, Miette, and her friend One, the circus strong man, as they look for his little brother, Denree, who was kidnapped.
Final comments, it would be a great family film if it weren't for that one scene with the topless women running out of the bar. But hey, it's France. As my friend's French mom says, you never know when the French are going to take their clothes off.

City of Lost Children

Man on Fire

Four stars out of four. Denzel Washington is so awesome! He makes this movie. The plot is almost stock, being a movie about revenge, but with Denzel Washington playing the part, and some creative executions and dialogue, this becomes a classic. Basic synopsis: Washington plays an ex-CIA agent in Mexico, who is hired to bodyguard the young daughter of a rich Mexican in the automobile industry. The girl is kidnapped, and Creasy (Washington's character) is seriously wounded. When he recovers, he learns that the ransom delivery had been botched, and the girl dead. He then sets out for the ultimate revenge.

Man on Fire

Stealth

Two and a half stars out of four. Another excellent action movie for the summer. Although the premise of a robot going rogue seems rather dull and overused, it actually works really well. The flight scenes and explosions are awesome. There's not much of an examination of the characters, no "human story" you might say...this is strictly about the planes and technology, and let's not forget the explosions.

Stealth

The Chronicles of Riddick

Three stars out of four. I've never seen "Pitch Black" though. Regardless, it's not really necessary in viewing this movie. Vin Diesel's definitely the new Arnold. Aside from the technology exhibited in this movie, it's not really a science-fiction movie. The technology is more of a setting than a plot. The same story could be set in Europe, WWII era, and not change much. This is definitely hardcore action. I have seen both the theatrical version and the "director's cut" version. The theatrical version is superior, as is the norm. While the director's cut does explain a couple of things that would have been nice to know, other scenes tend to weaken the integrity of the plot by causing the viewer to wonder about a few details....it's really only one loose end, in my mind. Two scenes about that female mercenary that make me want to know a bit more. One, is she infatuated with Riddick? What exactly was she trying to do when they were transporting him to Crematoria? And Riddick intentionally left her alive during his escape....and she was the only one left alive. So what happened to her? It is definitely understandable why they would cut out these scenes. So watch the theatrical version. It's awesome....and the ending leaves me expecting a third movie...

The Chronicles of Riddick

Star Wars, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

Three and a half stars out of four. As a Star Wars fan, you can expect me to be a bit biased, but I will try to be fair. The action in this movie was excellent, hitting hard from the very beginning. The dialogue, particularly Anakin's and Padme's, is a bit...awkward, unnatural. They have no chemistry for one, and it's apparent that romance movies aren't George Lucas's forte. That minor detail is definitely forgiveable, though, because this movie isn't about romance. This movie is about the temptation, struggle, and fall of Anakin Skywalker. And he does it extremely well. Too well, in fact, as I heard that Lucas had to edit out certain scenes because Hayden Christiansen, the actor that plays Skywalker, looked too evil. I'm thinking, there's no such thing, and that's the point anyways, isn't it? Ewan McGregor has always done a very respectable job as Obi-wan Kenobi in the previous two films, but this time, he's more than respectable, he's great. Just as Anakin is almost delightfully evil, Obi-wan is extremely, well...good, what else can I say? And he disturbingly resembles Sir Alec Guinness from the original trilogy...and they didn't even have to use any make-up, can you believe it? As for the rest of the cast, Ian McDiarmid, the actor who played Emperor Palpatine, has always been, and always will be, one of my favorite movie villains, and he does an Oscar-deserving job of it. Samuel L. Jackson's character, Mace Windu, comes to an end, but is awesomely cool before he dies. Natalie Portman...we can just ignore her, she was the only mediocre part of this film. And Yoda, my favorite...he fights the most awesome fight in all of the Star Wars films....well, he tied with Anakin's and Obi-wan's fight, that was going on at the same time...but it was still totally cool, and you gain a new respect for just how powerful that little green dude is.
And I don't even need to say anything about special effects, as ILM has delivered enough to let the movie speak for itself. It's enough to give WETA Workshop a run for its money.
The music....it's John Williams, need I say more? He's one of the greatest composers in history, ranking right up there with all of the old classical guys, and Gershwin, Mancini, Weber, and Wagner.
In closing, this movie was definitely worthy of the legacy that the original trilogy began. George Lucas found the magic again, and he really lets us have it.

Star Wars, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

White Noise

One and a half stars out of four. Yes, this movie made me jump in places, a decently scary and strange film. Scarier still, EVP is an actual occurrence, though the source of it is a matter of opinion. There are is a video that does a segment on EVP on http://ebaumsworld.com. It's in the Flash Animations section, and the video is about ghosts. This movie did have a very disappointing ending though. What is it about horror films and their endings? What happened to the screenplay writers when they were children? Did they suffer from mild psychosis due to the fact that someone would always change the channel just before the show was over? The ending for "White Noise" was terrible because, once again, too many questions are unanswered, not even addressed. Who were those three ghosts? What happened to the woman at the very end, when it just blacked out? Did she die? If so, how? These are just a few of the questions that needed to be answered directly, or at least hinted at so that we automatically fill in the rest.

White Noise