The King's Speech

The King’s Speech

                The King’s Speech is the 2010 biopic about the life of King George VI, played very well by Collin Firth.  This movie chronicles his rise to the throne, and the stammer that threatened to keep him from being successful.  Before he became the king his was the king’s second oldest son also known as the Duke of York who had struggled with a stammer since the age of five.   A stammer in the early 1900’s already carried a stigma with it, and when you add that to being a member of the royal family that stigma is doubled.  The Duke’s wife Elizabeth (Helena Bohnam Carter) had sought out the help of lots of different therapist with no results to show.  This brings them to the unorthodox methods of actor turned speech therapist Lionel Logue(Geoffrey Rush).  The movie shows the treatment of the king as well as the friendship that buds between the two men.  The movie culminates with the Duke becoming King, and addresses the British people as they enter World War 2. 

                The Movie was good with a very solid story and strong acting by the big three of the movie.  Collin Firth was excellent as the king and his stammer was very good and he did a great job of showing his frustration with the stammer that he has lived with for so long.  Collin Firth also grabbed the Best leading actor Oscar for this role based the difficulty of the role and his great overall performance.       Geoffrey Rush was very good as the speech teacher and I enjoyed watching the teaching sessions where it was just him and Collin Firth.  The back and forth between the two of them were some of the best parts of the movie.  Finally Helena Bohnam Carter as the queen was a big surprise.  She always seems the play kooky characters who dress and act incredibly bizarre, but in The King’s Speech that is not the case.  She plays the queen who acts and dresses in a very proper way.  She also does a great job showing her love and support for her husband as he struggles with the stammer and becoming the king. 

                The movie was an all around good movie, and I can see why it won the best picture Oscar this year.  I have seen several of this years contenders and I am not sure that the King’s Speech is the best it was a very good movie and it was probably a pretty tough choice between it and the Social Network.   

I give the King’s Speech 4 out of 5 paw prints.

My next review will be over the 2010 chick flick Love and Other Drugs.

And as always, “You don’t have to go home, but you have to get the hell out of here.

Resident Evil Afterlife

Resident Evil Afterlife

                This is the fourth movie in the Resident Evil franchise.  This movie starts with Alice, played by Milla Jovavich, taking down the Umbrella corp., headquarters in Japan.  She then decides to take off after her friends, who went to the supposed safety of Arcadia in Alaska.  While there she does not find the safe haven but she does find Claire(Ali Larter) with a strange device attached to her chest and a bad case of memory loss going on.  The two of them load up in Alice’s plane and head up the coast where they run into a group of survivors holding up in a Los Angles jail.  This is where they find out that Arcadia is not a place but a ship.  The rest of the movie is spent escaping the zombie horde and trying to get to the ship. 

The Story and acting are pretty much what you would expect from this kind of movie.  It was not very good acting wise, but I did not think it was all that bad either, that is with one exception.  Shawn Roberts plays Albert Wesker the main bad guy and he was just terrible I think he was either trying to do or not trying to do an accent and failing miserably either way.  The movie also came out during all the 3D hype and they tried very hard to make it look cool.  Since I watched it on a regular tv I did not get the full 3D effect.  It might have looked really good in 3D and you could tell they were trying really hard but it ended up looking kind of silly that everything had to be coming at you.

Overall I did enjoy the movie but I have also seen all of the other movies in the series including the less popular animated feature Resident Evil Degeneration.  The action sequences were pretty good and I do tend to enjoy movies in the zombie genre. 

I give Resident Evil: Afterlife 3 out of 5 Paw Prints.

My next review will the 2010 Best picture winner The King’s Speech.

And as always “You don’t have to go home, but you have to get the hell out of here!”      

Predators

Predators

                Predators, is the fifth movie in the predator franchise.  It begins with Royce, played by Adrien Brody, in a free fall to a jungle below.  His parachute opens and he meets up with six other strangers who are all for the most part armed to the teeth.  The group comes together and as they are talking they all realize that their jobs require them to be armed and it most cases it requires them to be killers.  Once they figure out who they all are that’s when the fun begins by first finding out they are on another planet and it is some kind of hunting reserve.  They also realize that they are not the only things on the planet being hunted when they come across cages attached to parachutes as well.   The hunters of course are the predators and they have a few new tricks up their sleeve this time, my favorite being the alien hunting dog they use.  The movie follows our group along as they are being hunted and picked off one by one. 

                This movie had so many problems that I am just not sure where to start.  The first problem is Adrien Brody in an action role. I have seriously had enough of him after seeing two of his last movies(Splice and Predators) he is just bad and not what I would consider an action hero.  The second problem was the music that played throughout sounded more suited for a spooky episode of Looney Tunes than a sci-fi action film.  The final problem was that the “surprise” twist that happens at the end of movie was not so much of a surprise and by that point you just did not really care.  All I can say is one of these things is not like the other one of these things just doesn’t belong.

                Overall I just had a hard time enjoying this movie the only parts I did enjoy were Laurence Fishburne’s part and the alien hunting dogs.  I just keep seeing predator movies hoping that one these times they will get it right and give these great characters a movie that does them justice.

I only recommend this movie if you really like the predator movies, or if you are in for a good not thinking movie.

I give Predators 2 out of 5 paw prints, and that is probably being generous

My next review will be over the fourth Resident Evil film Resident Evil: Afterlife

And as always “You don’t have to go home, but you have to get the hell out of here.”

   

Green Zone

Green Zone

                Green zone is the 2010 Matt Damon film about the search for wmds in Iraq during the most recent Iraq war.  The movie follows chief warrant officer Miller (Damon) as he and his team follow tips from an Iraqi source on the whereabouts of weapons of mass destruction.  Chief Miller keeps getting frustrated by tips that turn up nothing when a chance meeting with an Iraqi citizen put him on the trail of a high ranking Iraqi general.  The pursuit of the general also causes Miller to question the reasons for the war and whether there really are any weapons.  I thought this movie was good.  It definitely had a stance on the war and whether we should have been there or not, but I did not feel like it was trying to portray itself of as the truth or fact.  The story was interesting and the acting was good.  Matt Damon does a good job making his character believable and likeable.  Greg Kinnear also appears in the movie as Clark Poundstone the pentagon official who is the arch nemesis to Chief Miller during the whole movie.  Kinnear does a good job of making his character very unlikeable and he really seems like the politician who has his own agenda.  The action in the movie was decent although for a war movie I was hoping for more.  In the end this movie felt more like a political thriller then a war/action movie.

Overall this movie was good, not great.  If you like war movies or political thriller this movie would be right up your alley.  This movie would also be good if you like Matt Damon who is good as always in the lead role.

I give Green Zone 3 out of 5 paw prints.

I am not sure what my next review will be but it will be up in the next week

As always” You don’t have to go home but, you have to get the hell out of here”

Kung Fu Panda 2

Kung Fu Panda 2

                Kung fu panda 2 is the story of Po, who is voiced by Jack Black, and the Furious five as they race to save China and Kung fu from the evil peacock Shen(Gary Oldman).  Shen has harnessed the power of gun powder and is using it to try to destroy kung fu and conquer China.  This of course does not sit well with the dragon warrior and his friends who are off to stop him before his plan can come to pass.  The movie also has a nice sub story that tells you about Po’s past and the role Shen plays in it.  The voice acting is really good in the movie with a lot of big names contributing such as Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, Jackie Chan, Lucy Liu, David Cross, and Seth Rogan all reprising their roles from the first movie.  The animation as really good and I especially enjoyed how the movie would switch from the computer animation for most of the movie to the cruder hand drawn animation for the flashbacks.  It added a depth to the look and feel of the movie that helped set it apart from other recent animated films.  I also liked the fact that the first movie was mentioned but you did not have to see it to understand what was going on in this movie.  I liked this movie just as much as the first one but my wife said she liked this movie more which is a good thing because the end of the movie set up another one so I am sure we will be seeing Kung Fu Panda 3 in the years to come. 

                This movie was a great family movie especially for families with little boys even though girls would like it too.  This was the first movie that we have ever taken our kids to in the theater and they loved it especially my almost four year old.  There was a good mix of action and comedy in the movie and it flowed along at very good pace, with the final run time with previews it lasted about an hour and a half. 

I recommend this movie for anyone who has young boys or if you are just looking for a fun movie. 

I give Kung Fu Panda 2, 4 out of 5 paw prints.

My Next review will be over the 2010 Matt Damon Iraq war movie Green Zone.

As always “You don’t have to go home, but you have to get the hell out of here!”