Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole
Release Date: 2010
Director: Zach Snyder
Genre: Animation
Main Cast: Emily Barclay (as Gylfie) Abbie Cornish (as Otulissa) and Essie Davis (as Marella)
Based On: the first three books of the Guardians of Ga'Hoole series by Kathryn Lasky
IMDB Rating: 7.0
My Rating: 6.2
Length: 97 minutes
Budget/Gross Revenue: $80 million/$140 million
My third recent animation film, normally a rarity in my viewings, Legend was definitely the most childish of those three, as I expected prior. The plot stayed decent throughout with solid voicing as well as good CGI and animation effects, but definitely created mostly for the younger generations. A solid adolescent moral, but not something for the action or drama-needy.
Law Abiding Citizen
My third recent animation film, normally a rarity in my viewings, Legend was definitely the most childish of those three, as I expected prior. The plot stayed decent throughout with solid voicing as well as good CGI and animation effects, but definitely created mostly for the younger generations. A solid adolescent moral, but not something for the action or drama-needy.
Law Abiding Citizen
Release Date: 2009
Director: F. Gary Gray
Genre: Thriller
Main Cast: Jamie Foxx (as Nick Rice) and Gerard Butler (as Clyde Shelton)
IMDB Rating: 7.2
My Rating: 8.3
Length: 108 minutes
Budget/Gross Revenue: $53 million/$126 million
I was incredible impressed with the plotline and acting throughout this intense film. This is easily Gerald Butler's best film, as he plays an excellent vengeful father of his murdered wife and daughter who evolves into a man out to bring the justice system down. However, he gets caught up in his plan, and is eventually called out by a good supporting role in Jamie Foxx. The storyline of the film was stupendous, following Butler's intricate planning and system of explosions and terrorism, however I did not like how it concluded with Butler becoming too wrapped up in his ways to keep himself from being as bad as the system itself. An excellent film overall, which made the cut into my elite films being rated over 8.0.
Legend of Bagger Vance
Release Date: 2000
Director: Robert Redford
Genre: Drama
Main Cast: Will Smith (as Bagger Vance) Matt Damon (as Rannulph Junuh) and Charlize Theron (as Adele Invergordon)
Based On: the 1995 book of the same title by Steven Pressfield
IMDB Rating: 6.5
My Rating: 6.6
Length: 126 minutes
Budget/Gross Revenue: $80 million/$39 million
Even with the 3 big A-listers casted in this film, it's theme and golfing emphasis didn't help the film succeed overall. I have never been a huge fan of golf dramas at all, I feel like they are generally unrealistic and nearly all CGI'd. A solid redemption storyline, however, and decent acting in Smith, Damon, and other golfers. Beyond that, the southern accents tended to get annoying, as well as the film ended up being one of Theron's few sketch performances. A rather average Great Depression-themed golf film.
xXx
Release Date: 2002
Director: Rob Cohen
Genre: Action
Main Cast: Vin Diesel (as Xander Cage) and Samuel L. Jackson (as Augustus Gibbons)
IMDB Rating: 5.6
My Rating: 7.3
Length: 124 minutes
Budget/Gross Revenue: $70 million/$277 million
A pretty good mixture of extreme sports and shoot-'em-up action, Diesel did a good job leading the xXx cast through a plotline that stayed mostly interesting throughout, though it did draw out towards the end. Some pretty sick and innovative snowboarding and base jumping scenes as well as a good emphasis on expensive cars and costly houses kept the budget high and interest level up. Again, not the deepest of plots, but above average for an action movie. One of Diesel's better films, with the 3rd installment of the series soon to follow this fall.
xXx: State of the Union
Release Date: 2005
Director: Lee Tamahori
Genre: Action
Main Cast: Ice Cube (as Darius Stone) Willem Dafoe (as George Deckert) Samuel L. Jackson (as Agent Augustus Gibbons)
IMDB Rating: 4.1
My Rating: 5.2
Length: 101 minutes
Budget/Gross Revenue: $87 million/$71 million
State of the Union was a definite drop-off from its predecessor in the first xXx, mainly due to the lack of Diesel, as well as the additions of atrocious acting of Ice Cube and Xhibit. The storyline was pretty bad as well, as the unlikely story of a Secretary of Defense attempting to commit treason on the President didn't seem interesting or well-thought out. Diesel's reappearance in the series this fall will hopefully allow fans of the first film to forget this disaster.
Edge of Darkness
Release Date: 2010
Director: Martin Campbell
Genre: Drama
Main Cast: Mel Gibson (as Tom Craven) Ray Winstone (as Darius Jedburgh) and Danny Huston (as Jack Bennett)
Based On: the 1985 BBC television series of the same name.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
My Rating: 7.6
Length: 117 minutes
Budget/Gross Revenue: $80 million/$81 million
Though this film brought with it a good attitude and meaning towards the vengeance of Gibson's slain daughter, it seemed to almost place too much emphasis on those feelings of hatred. The plot's intricacy really didn't expand too much throughout the film, but the excellent acting by nearly all involved as well as true realistic action and escape scenes allowed the film to be visualized by the audience with ease. I liked this film for the most part, but would have appreciated the crime script more had it branched out and reached other themes besides the lone ideas of vengeance and corruption.
Into the Wild
Release Date: 2007
Director: Sean Penn
Genre: Drama
Main Cast: Emile Hirsch (as Christopher "Alexander Supertramp" McCandless)
Based On: the 1996 non-fiction book of the same name by Jon Krakauer on Christopher McCandless and his travels across North America.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
My Rating: 7.2
Length: 148 minutes
Budget/Gross Revenue: $15 million/$56 million
This film had almost the exact opposite tendencies as the previous film on this list, as it reached about every topic and theme present in the life of a man in his 20's. The fact that this film was based on a true story made it incredibly interesting to see what adventures would come upon McCandless next throughout his trek. Since a nearly all of them film was narration, it had slight problems with feeling slow and drawn out, but the filming and acting was superb on all accounts. Into the Wild's best traits were its ability to run through an inventive but true storyline, while also hit on the concepts of happiness, contentment, friendship, family issues, survival, and death in less than two and a half hours. I didn't feel like the ending left the viewer with much positive feelings in the finale, but such is life and the concept of the film being based on a true story.
Jarhead
Release Date: 2007
Director: Sam Mendes
Genre: Drama
Main Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal (as LCpl/PFC Anthony Swofford) Peter Sarsgaard (as Cpl Alan Troy and Jamie Foxx (as SSgt Sykes)
IMDB Rating: 7.2
My Rating: 6.1
Length: 123 minutes
Budget/Gross Revenue: $72 million/$97 million
An interesting "war" film in that, like many war-based films I have viewed recently, little-to-no fighting actually takes places, leaving the film to be more of a drama than an action. I didn't mind the storyline overall, with some good acting by the main antagonists Gyllenhaal, Sarsgaard, and Foxx (who I have seen multiple films by recently), but the finale was both disappointingly negative and heavily anti-war themed. Not one of my favorite war films by any means, but a respectable watch of a controversial topic.
As with every week, a handful of good watches as well as a few to avoid, but despite these normalities, you can know which ones to pick out, and which ones to avoid.
-Jarid Holliday
No comments:
Post a Comment