Die Hard...died!

Bruce Willis returns as John McClane in a story that is so non-existent that the title should have been a "A Confusing Day to Die Hard.  What was incredible, is it took two writers, Skip Woods and Roderick Thorp to come up with this story.  A Good Day to Die Hard starts off with John McClane finding out that his son is in trouble in Russia.  He decides that a "New York City" policeman can just waltz into Moscow saying several times throughout the movie that he was on vacation and save his son not knowing what is going on.  How he knows his son is where he is when he gets to Moscow in the beginning of the movie is still a mystery.  He gets mixed up in a terrorist conspiracy between two men and the CIA.  The car chase is the longest and most dizzying scene I have ever seen.  I don't know what director John Moore was thinking.  The plot was all over the place and predictable.  The dialogue between Jai Courtney's character (Jack McClane) and John McClane was pathetic than laughable.  Between the "I'm on vacation", "Yippee Ki-Yah" and Jack constantly yelling "John" instead of dad, it was really getting tiresome.  This latest edition of Die Hard was unbelievably bad.  Sorry Bruce, I really like you but not in this one.

A different kind of Princess

Before I begin my review, I would like to remark that the dedication to Steve Jobs at the end of the movie was respectful and well deserved.




Brave, an animated movie by Disney and Pixar set in what I perceive is late 19th to perhaps early 20th century Scotland, about Princess Merida, daughter to Queen Elinor and King Fergus whose fate has been chosen by her parents and who decides to choose her own fate.  In order for her to change her fate, Princess Merida feels she has no other  recourse but to rely on the help of an old witch that turns out to be her undoing and finds herself running out of time to right many wrongs when she takes this course of action.  Brave is depicted  as a children's movie and on some levels it is.  The playfulness of Merida's brothers are wonderful and enjoyable to see. The camaraderie between the King and the other clan leaders are endearing and at times playful along with elements in the forest that are pure Disney will definitely entertain the children.  The vibrant red curly hair of Merida and her brothers and the beautiful cinematography are unforgettable.   However, some elements that were more understandably for an older child were the underlining "coming of age", "mothers and daughters" and "trust and respect" issues.  The Scottish accent was very heavy and I'm sure if children were not thrown by it, many adults might have been.  I watch a lot of foreign films and the BBC, so I was not put off by it, but we are talking about a bigger and younger audience.  Overall this was not a bad film,  I loved it and would recommend seeing it.  I'm just blowing caution to the wind to parents with very young children who believe the story is one thing and it turns out to be something very different.  Otherwise, sit back and enjoy a very well made movie.

A betrayal and a lot of dead bodies

The Mechanic starring Jason Statham and Donald Sutherland is an action packed drama that has a predictable ending.  A "Mechanic" is a "hit man".  He is called when he is needed to clean up someone else's mess.  Trouble starts when his assignment is to exterminate his mentor and friend.  When he finds out who is behind this and then tries to make amends with his mentor's son, his house of cards starts to tumble down around him. These is not much more to tell with this story.  There is a lot of shooting and dead people all over the city and problems start to get solved.  The movie is fast paced and entertaining. If that is what you are looking for and no more, then this would be a nice movie to rent.

Green Nonsense

O.k., I heard many negative comments about the Green Lantern.  I was still curious to see for myself if what was said was true.  Well, it was.  The story starts by trying to explain the origin of Green Lantern.  Apparently there is 3,600 of them of different species and planetsand are supposed to be smarter than humans.  One of their own seeks revenge because as intelligent beings they are not above wanting control and power over something that cannot be controlled.  Fear!  The Green Lantern are supposed to be fearless but the ring picks a human who is filled with nothing but fear.  This ring comes in the form of a wounded Green Lantern who tried to fight this beast and lost.  This horrible monster is on the way to the Green Lantern world but gets turned around to attack all humans on Earth instead.  Hal, now ( the "Earth" Green Lantern) has to figure out who he really is and how he is supposed to help save his planet.  The story fails because the writing fails.  Superheroes are supposed to be protected of their identity with the mask but Hal is recognized by several people, Green Lantern suit and all.  Green Lanterns are supposed to work collectively and so on and the only thing I saw them do collectively was raise their rings to the sky.  The CGI was fine and costumes nice.  People in the theatre started walking out and when the movie was over, there were more questions than answers.  One being, who are the Green Lanterns?  I'm sure there will be a sequel and hopefully a more cohesive storyline will come a second go round.

Sucker Punch - Punchless...

The movie Sucker Punch is a fantasy based cgi movie that takes a young girl (baby doll's) life which is tragic and pitiful and is supposed to remove her from her unfortunate circumstances and give her a chance at happiness.  The story gets lost when she goes into this fantasy world kicking butt with her new found friends.  Things start to become complicated when she realizes that this journey is not only about her. The graphics in this movie was terrific, but the story fell short in what it was trying to accomplish.  Too bad the writers or the director didn't work as hard on the direction and the story or give the talented actors  much to work with as they did putting in the time to get the graphics right.

Source Code - a surprising good story

This reviewer went to see Source Code thinking it would be another movie about a heroic unknown citizen saving a train.  Boy...was I wrong.  It was like Inception and Quatum Leap with a twist.  It was a very engaging and thought provoking movie.  Jake Gyllenhaal has impressed me with his talent and he is a joy to watch in this movie.  The story is about a man who has 8 minutes to change a devastating disaster from happening.  Throughout the course of the movie, his motivations change and thereby comes the interesting twist to the movie.  Source Code is highly recommended to see.