Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon Review

June 29, 2011 By 4 Comments

I will get right to the point you’re all thinking about: how did they make a Transformers movie without Megan Fox? Well, they made a pretty damn awesome one and Megan Fox leaving is probably the best thing that ever happened to the movie!

Her replacement, far, far superior to her (and with no mutant fingers), Rosie Huntigton even has a British accent *melts* she tells Shia LeBoeuf “I’ll give you a job later” so, guys (and lesbians) dismayed at Mega Fox’s disappearance, feast your eyes on this divine being

Now, as for the movie itself, it’s the best Transformers so far. It’s as if the Transformers series has grown up. The first two were somewhat cheesy and childish faerie-tales with a plot right out of a Disney flick (minus the subliminal messages). This one has really matured, with everything from the dialogue, the sexiness and of course the computer-generated-imagery getting better.

What I’m trying to say is that it’s not a clear good-guy bad-guy plot, but full of deception, betrayal and twists that make the human race so delightful. You also a few milliseconds of gore (like a skull) for all you reality-junkies.

The CGI is godly and the 3D is worth it. The storyline is superb, resurrecting the series sorta like (dare I say it!?) the Dark Knight. The characters are still awesome if not more so. There is also some comedy, with Hangover’s favorite Asia returning as Wang as well as the old Sector 7 leader being hilarious! Apart from that, there’s the Earth that needs saving and stuff. And also, loads of new cars and robots!

SPOILER ALERT

The Autobots have become close allies with the USA and they’re sort of like keepers of the peace. They monitor the US allies and try to avert any conflict with humans, to stay vigilant of the Decepticons. And for all you 14 March guys, they kick the hell out of Iranians. And for all you capitalists, they also decimate silly communists!

Then, the truth about the 60s space race between the USA and USSR is revealed and it turns out the guys were searching for a wrecked UFO, “The Ark”, which was carrying Sentinel Prime, Optimus Prime’s predecessor, and some weapon that could help the Autobots win the war.

Soon enough, an insane twist allows the Decpticons to summon hundreds of reinforcements after “deporting” the Autobots. A bunch of other twists see the Autobots come back to the rescue, and Optimus finally gets his freak on and rips Megatron’s head and spine off!

That’s as much as I’m gonna spoil it for you. OH! And for all you girls who like “Dr Shepherd” or McDumbass or whatever… You’re gonna UTTERLY despise him after this.

IMDB Rating: 7.3/10

My Rating: 10/10

Filed Under: Movie Reviews Tagged With:

Kung Fu Panda 2 Review

June 20, 2011 By 1 Comment

I know you’re all waiting for my thoughts on the character that is practically me in digitally animated form (yes, including the Kung Fu skills). I watched it in Qatar with Rudy, and my thoughts are WOW. I must say, I was skeptical about a sequel, as we always are. But, to me, this sequel was as good if not better than the first.

The laughs are still there and I choked on my Coke on several occasions, especially towards the end! What’s new and adds a lot to the movie is the emotional aspects of the story, when Po starts to ponder about his past after he had the amazing revelation that a goose cannot father a panda…

The heartwarming scenes and the laugh-out-loud ones are both strong enough to jerk some tears, which makes it truly twice the awesomeness.

Something in the plot struck me as very familiar.  Master Shen, the bad guy, gets a prophecy that a “black and white” warrior will kill him and as a result, massacres all the pandas in the kingdom. He is then of course banished by his firework-creating parents. I don’t know about you, but a dude called Herod did the exact same thing about 2011 years ago…

I had to share that with you to see if anyone else thought so too =P

Oh, and it’s very obvious there’s a Kung Fu Panda 3, so stick till the very end ;) Maybe we’ll see some romance blossom between Po and Tigress?

IMDB Rating: 7.9/10
My Rating: 9/10 

Filed Under: Movie Reviews Tagged With:

Hangover 2 Review

May 26, 2011 By 4 Comments

I must say, I was very impressed with this sequel. I know all your friends who watched it say the first one was better, but that’s the case with all sequels, after all, they’re SO cool that they saw the first one and know it’s much better based on their extensive experience in the movie industry.

Hangover 2 was awesome, and even though the general scheme was exactly the same, the modifications, twists and story line in general were fabulous.

Stu is getting married, and Doug and Phil are invited. But, the “wolfpack” wouldn’t be complete without Alan, and Stu is forced to invite him too. The wedding is in Thailand, and they wake up completely wasted in none other than ladyboy-infested, hot, humid and electricity-similar-to-lebanon Bangkok.

I won’t say too much, but monkey cocaine dealers, ladyboys, Buddhist monks, a tattoo parlor and Chow are just the tip of the iceberg. All this is to find the 16-year-old brother of Stu’s wife-to-be, Teddy.

There are a LOT of hilarious scenes and you definitely won’t get bored. What’s unpleasant is a couple of gory scenes, which I didn’t mind, but the squeamish should beware!

All in all, it’s a hilarious movie and you definitely should watch it. The overall backbone made the movie somewhat predictable, and the wow-factor the first one had was no longer there, after, we’ve already seen it. But, what’s nice was integrating it into a completely different city with equally hilarious, unlikely and insane situations. Perhaps, many more sequels are yet to come?

AND, stick to the credits, that’s where the ROFL pictures are, and think to yourself “Thanks Gino” when you do =P

IMDB Rating: 7.1/10

My Rating: 8/10

Filed Under: Movie Reviews Tagged With:

Thor Movie Review

May 20, 2011 By 7 Comments

I love ancient mythology, it’s a whole lot more fun than our modern, uncool and boring religions. So, a movie about the Norse gods was a movie I wasn’t going to miss!

Odin, Loki and Thor are characters I used to play back in my gaming addiction phases (which has only been halted because I use a Macbook =P) and I will confess my favorite character was Loki, who in the movie, you will grow to utterly despise.

Thor is a stereotypical immature and arrogant warrior king-to-be, and his ascension to the throne is crashed by a Frost Giant incursion into the heavily fortified world of Asgard. Subsequently, Thor seeks revenge, in defiance of his father, Odin.

Thor manages to reignite the war between Asgard and Jotunheim, and subsequently is cursed by Odin, and sent to Earth, powerless. There, he meets Nathalie Portman, and of course falls in love.

However, a twist of events in Asgard sees Loki ascend to the throne via manipulative routes. The challenge now, is getting Thor back to Asgard to stop the war.

In my opinion, this was a light-hearted movie, with spectacular visuals of what the realms would look like. Asgard is especially spectacular. The movie also has serious star weight, with Nathalie Portman and Anthony Hopkins among others.

It was a great movie, but I doubt it got burned into my memory forever. It was amusing to see Lokie, Odin and Thor come to life on screen and at times, hilarious, such as when Thor walks into a pet store and announces “I need a horse” (it is funnier when you watch it =P).

So, DON’T watch it in 3D, get it on DVD later on…

IMDB Rating: 7.5/10

My Rating: 7/10

Filed Under: Movie Reviews Tagged With:

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides Review

May 13, 2011 By 7 Comments

The good news? Penelope Cruz is in this sequel. The fantastic news? Orlando Bloom isn’t *dances merrily*. The sad news? Keira Knightley was nowhere to be found. Fortunately though, the mermaids’ hotness more than made up for it! But, as for the movie itself, I’d say it’s one of my favorites from the 4-installment series.

Jack Sparrow, Gibbs and Barbosa are back, with the introduction of a new pirate lord: the terrifying Blackbeard. Cruz plays Blackbeard’s long-lost daughter, and one of Sparrow’s best and realest romances. Soon enough, all three pirate heads, along with the men of the French and Spanish monarchs, are in pursuit of the Fountain of Youth and the many relics needed to utilize the fountain’s power.

Sparrow is as funny as ever, and the movie is as controversial as the rest, with a young, innocent priest falling in love with a beautiful mermaid. Which brings us to this movie’s supernatural beings: the unreasonably beautiful mermaids versus the nauseating zombie-ish creatures in previous PoCs….

The movie was a bit long though, but never boring. It has plenty of twists, lots of pirate double-crossing, monarch-dissing and the beloved absurdly supernatural happenings from several different mythologies and eras we all love.

IMDB Rating: 8.3/10
My Rating:  8.10

To win two tickets to see Pirates of the Caribbean 4, just mention which sequel was your favorite so far! First two commenters win 2 tix each =)

Filed Under: Movie Reviews Tagged With:

Fast 5 Review

May 9, 2011 By 8 Comments

I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVED this movie! It’s such a breath of fresh air considering most of the garbage we’re seeing on the silver screen nowadays. A stellar cast, cosmic storyline, immaculate scenery and death-defying stunts are just the subtitle of this monumental sequel.

Just take a look at the cast before I go on

All of the guys are back, and even though I’m confused about how Han came back from the dead, I’m still very happy to see them all reunited, with some new faces of course. Oh, and add to the above Dwayne Johnson (The Rock). And yes, Vin Diesel and The Rock do get a fight scene of epic proportions.

The movie is 130 minutes long, which is pretty long, but every single second is awesome. If you combine Ocean’s Eleven with the Italian Job and make them have babies with James Bond and Rambo, their favorite child would undoubtedly be Fast 5.

The storyline is brilliant, making up for the absence of a storyline in Tokyo Drift. The twists in the plot are more than satisfactory, and the action and CGI will be enough to please anyone (despite a few poorly done CGI scenes…).

After Dom is convicted and sentenced to life in prison, Mia and O’Connor set him free and they all escape to Rio de Janeiro. There, to help make ends meet, they take up a “job”. Soon enough, it goes horribly wrong and they’ve got Rio’s most notorious criminal, as well as the FBI’s finest, hunting them down.  That’s when Dom reassembles the team, to pull off one big final heist that will guarantee all of them their freedom. But, of course, something goes horribly wrong again and I’m not gonna spoil the movie any further!

It was a movie I truly, really enjoyed, and I strongly recommend you see it. And for those of you wondering, of course the cars are awesome, with Chargers, Challengers, WRX stis, GTRs and GT3Ses being the equivalent of mediocre company cars compared to the rest of the cars featured, which I’ll also not spoil for all you petrol-heads.

Explosions, crazy-driving, lots of shooting, make for probably the best installment in the Fast and Furious franchise… Already looking forward to Fast and Furious 6!

Bonus:You will remember me on two occasions in this movie, the first, is when Vince (Dom’s brother) tells Dom his son’s name. The second, is when Reyes (the bad guy) says the name of his driver. =P

IMDB Rating: 7.8/10
My Rating: 9.5/10 

Filed Under: Movie Reviews Tagged With: ,

Scream 4 Review

May 6, 2011 By 7 Comments

I had butterflies going into the movie, I hate it when a sequel devaluates a movie franchise I am especially fond of. I am an enormous horror-buff, as you might already know from my extreme bias towards horror flicks, and Scream definitely sits up there with the Saw franchise for me, though in a different category altogether.

Saw is quite gory, and incredibly intense on the psychological level, forcing you to imagine yourself in the shoes of the victims time and again, with “what would I do” and “I hope I never have to make that choice.” The Scream series though, is a blend of horror, and strangely, comedy. It’s not lots of laughs, nor phobia-inducing either, it’s some weird amalgamation of genres that I must confess, is one I truly love.

Now, getting to the movie itself, personally, I truly believe it redeemed the Scream 3 flop. The embarrassment took a long 11 years to overcome, but this new sequel certainly did not disappoint. It did fail in one thing though, and that is being genuinely scary. There are plenty of twists and toe-curling moments, but without the loud bangs and violin scratches, I doubt you’d faint in surprise. But then again, only the first Scream was truly a slasher-psycho-horror movie, the rest were more of an extremely elaborate mystery scenario that beautifully unfolded as the movie and franchise went on.

So, even though it’s not a numbingly-scary “The Omen” remake, it’s definitely restored the unique Scream comedy-horror feel to it. You could take your scaredy-cat girlfriend to it, and leave with a scratch and bite-free arm (given of course the bites and scratches would’ve been fear-induced =P).

What’s nice is the old gang return, but there are also plenty of new characters. If you ask me, it’s preparing for Scream 5, 6, 7, 8? Don’t worry though, the movie does come to a real conclusion, it’s not that horrid open-ended, unsolved mystery thing. And, yes, you do get to know the identity of “ghostface” and it’s quite a twist…

All in all, Scream 4 has resuscitated the Scream franchise, and marvelously so. Any horror-buff, or Scary Movie fan who has never actually watched the real Scream movies, will enjoy watching this movie. However, to truly appreciate it, I recommend you watch the sad excuse for a movie: Scream 3, after of course watching the legendarily successful, pop-culture icon movies, Scream 1 & 2.

IMDB Rating: 7.2/10

My Rating: 8/10

Oh, and by the way, I have four tickets to give away for this movie =) So, just comment below, and mention the name of the famous Scream actress which later became a star on one of history’s most successful sitcoms. The first two commenters get two tickets each!

The tickets are courtesy of the guys at Italia Films, so thanks guys!

Filed Under: Movie Reviews Tagged With:

Rio Movie Review

April 26, 2011 By 8 Comments

Loved it! I love animated movies, and never miss a movie like this one. The story is very heart-warming, the imagery is breathtaking and the characters are hilarious.

It might not be a WALL-E or Toy Story, but it’s definitely an UP or Kung Fu Panda. I hope that made sense to you too =P

Blu is a rare bird who gets smuggled out of Brazil and ends up in frosty Minnesota. He lives with bookworm called Linda, and they become each others’ only companion for over 15 years… Until Blu becomes the last male of his species, and needs to maintain the population with his female counterpart in Rio.

In Rio, the flightless Blu ends up in smugglers hands again, and he goes on a wild adventure in Carnaval-time Rio, as Linda tries to find her feathered friend.

Kids loved it (trust me) and Geroge Lopez, Will-i-am and Tracey Morgan make a fantastic job of keeping you giggling.

Unfortunately, it’s in 3D, so those dorky, slimy glasses at cinemacity are the biggest turn-off for this movie =\ Oh, and its for 15,000 LBP now, and with 15 minutes of stupid TV ads.

It also has its very own Angry Birds version, which I LOVED on my iPad

IMDB Rating: 7.5/10

My Rating: 8/10 

Filed Under: Movie Reviews Tagged With: ,

Source Code Movie Review

April 8, 2011 By 4 Comments

If you love the surreal world of quantum physics, like the phantom behavior of photons and stuff, and you’re into alternate universes and the nature of human consciousness, yup, this is the movie for you.

Jake Gyllenhaal is a decorated US Army helicopter pilot who wakes up to find himself in an unfamiliar location, after supposedly being killed by an explosion on a train. He is surprised to find out he ends up back on that same train, reliving the same events. After dying again, he finds out he is part of a project that allows one individual to take up the identity of another, from the past, for a period of 8 minutes.

Jake’s mission is to find out who the bomber is, and avert a second, more deadly bomb that could kill millions. He relives the “8-minutes” on the train,over and over again, piecing together clues from each time.

The movie is filled with plenty of satisfying twists and lots of heart-pumping suspense. Its mind-bogglingess is similar to Inception’s, mixed with the allure of The Bourne Series.

What I loved about the movie is that it touched upon two very exciting and very new areas of research: quantum physics and neuroscience. Apart from enjoying the acting, effects and storyline, you will definitely be wondering what it would be like to live in a world where such capabilities exist, or to put it more accurately, when will be acquiring these capabilities…

Spoiler: Russel Peters is on that train =P

IMDB Rating: 8/10
My Rating: 9/10

Filed Under: Movie Reviews Tagged With:

Beirut أ Love You (أي لوف يو نوت) by Guest Blogger Ellen Francis

March 31, 2011 By 9 Comments

Whenever I hear the words “Arabic” and “TV series” in the same sentence, the first thing that comes to mind is Maria Mercedes. For some reason, I always picture an overly-exaggerated drama in which Maria either cheats on her husband, suffers a tragic brain trauma, or both. The sad truth is that Lebanese cinema and TV have been tainted with cliché war movies, badly translated Mexican series and cheesy Turkish shows (no offence to any Mohannad fans).

This is why I couldn’t help but smile when I heard that LBC has started broadcasting a new Lebanese-made series. ”Beirut I Love You ” revolves around the lives of 5 young people, their personalities, their relationships, and how it all intertwines with their bond to Beirut.  The show is written and directed by aspiring moviemakers, Cyril Aris and Mounia Akl, who founded the amateur film crew “An Orange Dog Productions” in 2009.

This recent label rose to pop-culture fame earning many international awards with two no-budget videos you can, scratch that, you HAVE TO watch on YouTube. The first, Beirut I Love You (I Love You Not) which inspired the creation of the series, depicts life in Beirut by telling the love story of Tarek and Yasmine. The second is a 3-chapter short film called Cheers to Those Who Stay that can only be described as freaking brilliant.

Another smile-inducing aspect of the TV/web series is the fact that it’s promoting all types of local talent, especially rising bands such as Mashrou’ Leila and White Trees by using their music as soundtrack.

For once, this is something that doesn’t center on the declining political situation, about which saying “been there, done that” would be a giant understatement. It’s a welcome change, and especially after the success of Shankaboot, it just might restore faith in the future of Lebanese Cinema. So, either tune into LBC every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at 7:50 pm or watch the 4-minute episodes uploaded every Monday on their website www.beirutiloveu.com.

Whether it’s the eternal charm of the places we love like Hamra and Gemmayze, or the colorful characters of people like Abou Ali the Corniche coffee vendor, there’s something gripping in there that everyone will be able to relate to.

 

Filed Under: Artsy Fartsy, Guest Bloggers, Leb, Movie Reviews Tagged With: , ,

Drive Angry Review

March 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment

If you’re a The Punisher fan, this movie is for you. The good-old brutal and relentless revenge-seeking killing spree is revisited in Drive Angry, with Nicolas Cage in the lead role, as Milton, a murdered criminal who escapes Hell to avenge his daughter’s horrific killing.

The absolutely gorgeous Amber Heard finds herself caught up in the middle and ultimately helping Milton get his revenge.

But, apart from facing the Satanic cult that killed his daughter and son-in-law, he has to deal with Satan’s “accountant” who wants to get Cage’s character back into hell ASAP.

The bad guys die horrible, gory deaths, some in ways that I found quite original (And funny. Sick, I know)

The fantasy-prone storyline was kind of a turnoff, it would’ve been cooler if Hell and Satan were not involved, and that Cage was just a plain old mortal bad-ass. My Lebanese readers will understand “Fashet Khile2″, and that applies to the movie perfectly.

IMDB Rating: 6.3/10
My Rating: 7/10

After all, cool guys don't look at explosions (Will Farell and The Lonely Island)

 

Filed Under: Movie Reviews Tagged With: , ,

Unknown Movie Review

March 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

This movie begs for being bashed by people who believe they know about movies. For some reason, in recent years, special effects, action sequences and good-old spy/assassin/hero movies are a big no-no. A movie should be a bouquet of hormones, words and cheap props for it to be celebrated. So, thank whatever you believe in for people like me who still enjoy a good movie, one not boringly-realistic and mediocre, and with a real budget.

Liam Neeson’s character wakes up from a coma, only to discover he does not really exist. Not even his own wife recognizes him, and all his papers, photos and acquaintances seem to think someone else is Martin Harris.

Naturally, he goes on a mission to find out who he really is, and several cool and unexpected twists later, he ends up foiling a plot to assassinate a Saudi Prince, or so it seems…

This is indeed a cross between the Bourne Identity and Taken, but unlike Bourne, you don’t need several years and 3 movies to get what’s going on. I can’t really say anything else, cause I’d be spoling the movie, but I definitely recommend you go see it with a bunch of friends.

IMDB Rating: 6.5/10
My Rating:  8/10

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Movie Reviews Tagged With: ,
« Older Posts
Newer Posts »