Archive for the ‘Action’ Category

Review:     4 Stars     Rated:     PG

Lock and load people.  The Losers hit fast and hard and if your the target, your already dead.
A film adaptation of Vertigo and DC Comics‘ comic book series of the same name. Directed by Sylvain White, the film features an ensemble cast that includes Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Zoe Saldana and Chris Evans. (more here)

Plot: An elite Special Forces unit sent to the Bolivian jungle on a search and destroy mission. But the team—Clay, Jensen, Roque, Pooch and Cougar—soon find that they have become the target of a deadly double cross, instigated from the inside by a powerful enemy known only as Max.

Did It Suck? A very fun action movie that never lets up.  Lots of action and explosions in this film; it’s one of those movies that you can sit back and watch with out any mental strain or yawning waiting for the good part.  The movie moves along from one scene to the next while getting to know the characters without slowing the pace down.  The story line is simple and easy to follow,  it has a touch of comedy thrown in and some good-old bantering between the group of colleges.  Most of the action sequence’s are up close and  in your face, but nothing that impressive, however, it gets the job done because this movie doesn’t just rely on the action. Although there’s not much your going to miss if watch this on a smaller screen, and the movie seems a little low budget, I still feel I got my money’s worth on this ride so I’m going to say … Mostly Worth a Ticket.

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-Dan Kersey

Review:     4 Stars     Rated: 18-A

Look-out bad guys there’s a new hero in town and he’s nothing short of average.  Kick-Ass is a superhero film based on the comic book of the same name by Mark Millar and John Romita, Jr. The film was directed by Matthew Vaughn, who co-produced the film with actor Brad Pitt, and co-wrote the screenplay with Jane Goldman.  More info here

Plot: This is A story of an ordinary teenager, Dave Lizewski, who sets out to become a real-life superhero only to get caught up in a bigger fight and gets in way over his head.  Will our fearless crime fighter be tossed into the cold streets never to be heard from again? Not this time; Kick-Ass is saved by none other than Big Daddy and Hit-Girl who have an agenda of their own…. kill the Bad guy who destroyed their lives.

Did It Suck? So watching the trailers I figured this is going to be some cheese-ball action comedy.  Well after seeing this movie I was extremely shocked at how good this film was.  This is not a kid’s movie by far, in fact, it’s quit the opposite.  It has very harsh language and violent gore.  The dynamics of this film are impressive and key to making this movie work the way it did.  There is not much I didn’t like about this film, however, I could have done with a little less of the foul language from 12 year old  Chloe Moretz (Hit-Girl).  She drops the ‘C’ word among other colourful lines.  Worth a Ticket.

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- Dan Kersey

Review:      3.5 Stars     Rated:     PG

Its not every day you can Impress your long life partner on a date, but, this Date Night is one to remember.

Plot: The Fosters, Steve Carell and Tina Fey, are on another weekly scheduled date night, however, this particular night is going to get a little weird. The Fosters take someone else’s reservations at a dinner club and then become a target in a blackmailing scheme due to a case of mistaking identity.  The Fosters, now on the run and caught in the middle of a scandal, try and find away to get their names clear.

Did It Suck? This is a good simple comedy with some action sequences that keep you entertained throughout the movie. I was not overly impressed with the story however Steve Carell and Tina Fey make this movie worth watching. I did lol (laugh out loud) a good number of times even though the comedy was fairly tame and low-key,  but yet effective.  I’m going to give this movie a, mostly Worth a Ticket vote,  just because the entertainment value was there and I didn’t feel t0o bad paying to see it on the big screen.  However,  you’re not missing anything if you Wait For The DVD.

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- Dan Kersey

Review:     3 Stars   Rated:     PG-13

It’s Round 2 for Zeus, Hades, and of course The Kraken! Join the fight against the gods in Clash of the Titans.

Plot: A Demigod, mortal son of the god Zeus, embarks on a perilous journey to stop Hades, the god of the underworld,  and his minions from spreading evil to Earth.  Perseus, one man destined to fight against the gods.  Director: Louis Leterrier Actors: Sam Worthington (Avatar 2009), Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes and Alexa Davalos.

Did It Suck? Aficionados of the original 1981 movie shouldn’t be too disappointed by this update. The plot is very close to the original, with a few changes, but overall if you know the first movie you’ll be able to follow this one and know what is coming next.  I did find the hops between the different segments of the quest to be quite abrupt in that you’d have a ‘big’ scene, then a short bit of travelling, then the next ‘big’ scene.  This made the movie not quite as fluid as I would have liked.

The fight sequences were good, but way too short, and there were not enough of them.  The movie would definitely have been better if they had drawn it out longer or had paced it out so you got more story from it.  The effects were OK, but nothing special for this day and age; however, I like to think that Ray would have approved.  I quite liked the acting by the major players as they seemed to have more feeling for their characters than is evident in other movies recently viewed by Did It Suck.  Overall this was an enjoyable movie, but not spectacular and not as good as I hoped from the hype.

Final thoughts:  I saw it in 3D but this added nothing at all and I would strongly suggest saving the extra few dollars and sticking to 2D.  This movie is Mostly Worth a Ticket for the fantasy enthusiasts.  But still not worth the 3D price.

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-Andy Hughes

Review     2 Stars     Rated:     R

You can’t afford to die, but can you afford to live?  Ask yourself this before buying an artificial organ, because if you default on the payment the Repo Men will be coming for you.

Plot: Jude Law plays Remy, the best organ repo man in the business.  That is until an accident causes him to be fitted with an artificial heart and he realises it’s not the job for him anymore.  However, their motto of ‘a job is just a job’ comes back to haunt him when he falls behind on his payments and his former friends come looking for him.  If you’ve seen Logan’s Run you will likely recognise similarities in the plot.

Did It Suck? The movie is set in the near future, and while the ‘city’ effects were quite impressive they’ve all been done before, particularly in Blade Runner.  The characters spent a lot of time moving between high-tech offices in the city to run down slums and it just didn’t really mesh well.  The story was easy to follow and there was a good twist at the end (but no spoilers).  Due to the nature of the movie’s subject it is quite dark and foreboding, and much of the humour was the same.  There are some very gory parts but as with many gory movies they become darkly humorous because of it.

I didn’t feel that the acting was anything special, no one stood out, and everyone just seemed to be plodding along with little feeling for their characters.  This, combined with there being nothing else that really stands out in the movie, mean that while I did enjoy it I can only really suggest that you wait for it to come to TV, you certainly won’t miss anything on the big screen and I don’t really think it’s worth renting either, unless you especially want to see people getting cut open.  Final verdict … Don’t Bother.

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-Andy Hughes

Review:     3.5 Stars     Rated 14A

“Hide and go seek” and “Capture the flag” are good themes for this movie except that it’s one sided.  The seekers can’t find the hidden and the flag hunters can’t capture a flag that’s not there.  Green Zone is inspired by a non-fiction book written by  journalist Rajiv Chandrasekaran.  Green Zone stars Matt Damon and is directed by Paul Greengrass, who has worked with Damon on two of the three Bourne series films.

Plot: Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller (Matt Damon) and his team of army inspectors are given missions to find weapons of mass destruction in the Iraqi desert.  Moving around from one site to the next, the men search for deadly chemical agents but find nothing.  Roy Miller is questioning the accuracy and the source of the intelligence he has been receiving.  He is frustrated and is getting no where, his troops are placing themselves in constant danger, so Miller finds himself looking for answers elsewhere leading him to stumble upon a cover-up.

Did It Suck? The movie keeps moving along nicely and never really lets up.  It has some good intense moments and good action sequences.  The acting was ‘in your face’ and fluent, making it a “true to life” type movie.  The shaky cam affect in some sequences was done well and not overly done.  Over all this was a good war film but not the best.  The political side to the story was actually interesting and Damon was quite good playing his role.  For the most part I didn’t feel bad about paying full price to see it on the big screen, however, I’d Wait for the DVD.

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- Dan Kersey

Review:     3.5 Stars     Rated:     R

Good cops, bad cops, undercover cops, rookie cops, and dead cops.  Director Antoine Fuqua shoots his way through the dark side of police work in Brooklyn’s Finest.  Starring: Richard Gere, Don Cheadle, Ethan Hawke, and Wesley Snipes (who, BTW,  is back after a 5 year break).

Plot: Three New York police officers take us into their lives as we see them struggle against the streets of Brooklyn.  Eddie (Gere) has seven days left until he retires; life and 22 years on the job has already killed him.  Tango (Cheadle) is an undercover cop who wants his life back because he’s forgetting who the enemy is.  Sal (Hawke) is a narcotics officer who needs money and is desperate to support his three kids and sick pregnant wife.  He risks his job and life trying to pocket drug money after police raids.

Did It Suck? As expected this was a slow character driven movie.  In saying that, all the actors played their parts incredibly well and this made it easy to connect with each of the different characters.  The story line was a little loose, there wasn’t much of one until the end of  the movie where all three cops end up in the same location.  Not the best cop movie but over all it was a half decent film.  Final verdict …. Not worth spending full price at the theater, Wait For The DVD.

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- Dan Kersey

Review:     3 Stars     Rated:     R

Therapy and medication is not going to help these folks get better.  A remake of the 1973 classic film by George A. Romero finds a way back to infect the big screen again.

Plot: A small farming town’s water supply is contaminated and causes irrational thinking and behavior among the community. We follow Sheriff David Dutton, his wife Judy, and deputy Russell Clank, as they try to escape this plagued town that the military is trying to lock down and contain.  The Crazies stars Timothy Olyphant, Radha Mitchell, and Joe Anderson, and was directed by Breck Eisner.

Did It Suck? You are either going to like this film or view it as a waste of time.  It’s a slow paced movie with a few good jump scenes and a little bit of that horror movie gore thrown in.   It wasn’t too bad for a remake, but, the in between scenes really played out the drama role in the movie and it was a little boring.  I think the main problem, for me, while watching this movie was the lack of intensity needed to keep you on the edge of your seat wondering what’s going to happen next.  I did like the film but the big screen offers very little for this movie, Wait For The DVD.

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- Dan Kersey

Not Yet Reviewed:     4 Stars     Rated:     14A

Here comes the bacon with a side order of ham, pork, and a few knock-knock jokes in this crazy cranked-up comedy cop caper film called Cop Out,  directed by Kevin Patrick Smith

Plot: Nine year NYPD partners get themselves suspended when a set-up goes south.  Jimmy Monroe and Paul Hodges, played by Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan, track down a thief who stole Monroe’s rare baseball card.  This then leads them to a Mexican drug dealer and more trouble.

While I really enjoyed Cop Out it comprises two distinct genres that are seemingly incongruous, but, in this case they work together pretty well.  The story follows the two mismatched cops while they battle a drug cartel and handle a wisecracking thief (Sean William Scott).  The two main characters play off each other very well and while not a pairing you might expect to see it definitely worked.  Watch out for Sean William Scott who did, in my opinion, steal every scene he was in.

The movie had the entire audience in peals of laughter many times, but this was tempered by some pretty brutal scenes; there is no real gore or hard core violence, but you know what is going on without it being shown.  The comedy and the ‘hard’ violence are mostly kept separate, and I think this is what lets them work together, the movie makers didn’t try to make the violence funny.  If they had I don’t think I would have enjoyed it so much.  The comedy does come and go, but there were two scenes where it was hard to breathe from laughing.  I would say that the first 5 minutes alone definitely makes this Worth a Ticket so that you can experience the laughs with others.  Make sure you stay into the first part of the credits!

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-Andy Hughes

Review:    2.5 Stars     Rated:     PG

Unlike a Greek salad;  there’s some good fun in store in Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief .  A mythological adventure awaits in this story of young Percy Jackson, born 1/2 human, and 1/2 god.  This movie is based off a book series by Rick Riordan.

Plot: (Logan Lerman) is not just your average teen going through rough times, he’s got bigger problems.  Born the son of Poseidon Jackson has been blamed for steeling Zeus‘s Bolt.  Zeus wants his toy back and if he doesn’t get it soon its going to be trouble for earth.

This movie was OK,  not that great and not that bad.  A good supporting cast, but not a lot of action in this film.  It was manly driven by the story of three friends venturing off on their quest.  It has a few good laughs and even better special effects.   I’m quite confident  it will be popular with the teens but unfortunately this movie didn’t have enough to warrant money well spent, and book readers will probably be disappointed as well, Wait For The DVD.

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-Dan Kersey

Review:     3.5 Stars     Rated:     14-A

Boom, Pow, Wack, pew-pew-pew, look-out below, Bang-splat.  These are some good words to look for while watching this action packed movie.  Director Pierre_Morel, (Taken, 2008), puts us on a fast moving ride inside the jobs of special agents, there here to save the world by stopping the bad guys.

Plot: Reece (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) has a job with government intelligence but feels he isn’t working to his potential.  Then one day;  Reece’s hard work finally pays off as he gets a new assignment and is partnered up with Charlie Wax (John Travolta).   Wax is much more then Reece anticipated as he struggles to get a grip on Wax’s methods.

This was a fun action packed movie that never let up.  Everything moved along quickly without any need of explanation to why or how.  Wax had all the right moves, all the right tools and knowhow to get the job done in each situation.  Two things I didn’t like;  the bad guys were stupid and real pushovers and  Jonathan Rhys Meyers‘s acting was a bit cheesy in some scenes.  An easy movie to follow with good action sequences finds Did It Suck ranking it,  Mostly Worth A Ticket.

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-Dan Kersey

Review:     3.5 Stars     Rated:     R

Welcome back to the big screen Mel, it’s been a while.  Mel has been drinking his milk and ginger-ale and comes back in this ‘not too shabby‘ film.

Plot: Detective Craven (Mel Gibson) has his only daughter gunned down right in front of him.  Everyone suspects the bullet was meant for him.  Craven doesn’t sit this one out, he’s the guy that has nothing to lose and doesn’t care.  We follow Craven through his hunt where he finds some startling information;  the killer may have intentionally shot his daughter and he was never the intended target.

Mel does an excellent job as this straight-up ‘smart as a whip‘ Cop.  A good medium paced movie, slow in the beginning, but never really dropped off when things started to roll.  I liked the way this film played out, easy to follow, and smart without having to be too technical.  Mel Gibson fans will no doubt be happy as this is a good (in a manner of speaking) come-back movie for him.  The movie could have used a bit more action but still Worth a Ticket.

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- Dan Kersey

Review:     1 Star     Rated:     R

Look out ! God is mad at the world and tired of all the crap we fight over,  He’s sent his Legion of angels to destroy us.

In Legion we follow the efforts of a small group of people, accompanied by an angel, stranded at a desert roadside cafe who are trying to survive the extermination of the human race when God decides he no longer has faith in man.

The opening sequence in which we see Michael, the angel, arrive is good and shows promise, but this is followed by almost 10 minutes of slow sequences.  Unfortunately this fast/slow pairing continues throughout the movie, and really detracts from the experience.  In most of the slow parts the characters are seen talking to each other, and seemingly telling each other moral stories, and I think this is the overall aim of the movie, to try to show us what will happen if we don’t all behave.  This really failed if that is what the movie makers wanted.

To add in the dislike of this movie, the action sequences are fairly dull, as are most of the characters.  The interactions of the two main angels, Michael and Gabriel, (Paul Bettany and Kevin Duand), were above par compared to the rest of the movie but that is not enough to save it.  If you’ve seen the trailer you’ve seen the best parts and should save yourself some money.  I’ll give it 1 star, just for the trailer and good marketing, but unfortunately it isn’t even worth renting, so Don’t Bother.

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-Andy Hughes

Review:     2.5 Stars     Rated:     PG

A cute family movie staring Jackie Chan and Amber Valletta, (who recently starred in Gamer).

Bob Ho (Chan) plays an international spy ready for retirement and settle down with his new found love, Gillian (Valletta).  Everything is going as planed for Bob until a new mission is assigned to him and its his most challenging one yet, looking after Gillian’s kids.

Jackie Chan is one of my favorite action stars and is always fun to watch.  This movie is really geared towards kids and more-so to the 13 and under crowed.  However, in saying that, I still had fun watching Jackie Chan’s Martial arts moves in this low budget bad acting film.  Wait for the DVD, kids will love it.

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- Dan Kersey

Review:     2.5 Stars     Rated:     R

30 years of walking through the sands of an aftermath is going to make your lips a little chapped.  The Book of Eli takes us on an adventure into a desolate post war future.

Eli (Denzel Washington), is carrying a book that holds great value to the post war survivors.  Most of them can’t read but for those who can, they want this book for reasons of their own; to them its worth more than its weight in water.  Eli is on a mission to take this book west to an unknown destination, but he’ll know it when he gets there.  On his little quest he picks up an unwanted tag-along,  Solara (Mila Kunis), who proves to be somewhat useful along the way.

Incredible post apocalyptic scenery and some cool action sequences; and, thats all I can say I liked about this film. Slow and dragged-out and the story had a lot of loose-ends, so needless to say, I was quite disappointed.  Defiantly Wait For the DVD, but its bordering on almost not worth renting.

- Dan Kersey