Blog #13: Movies Reviews: The Eagle, I Am Number Four, Unknown, Drive Angry 3D, The Adjustment Bureau, Battle: Los Angeles, Sucker Punch, Source Code

First off, I want to make one thing clear.  I don’t want to talk about the Red Sox.  Period.

I’m way behind on movie reviews.  Some that I‘m going to review will be available on DVD soon, that’s how far behind I am.  I’m not planning on any spoilers, but if there is anything, I’ll warn you.

The Eagle – I really liked The Eagle.  The fight scenes were great and the acting was good.  I wasn’t expecting a lot from a movie starring Channing Tatum, so it doesn’t say much that it exceeded my expectations, but I recommend it.

I am Number Four – I don’t know if I like this movie yet.    My only actual complaint is that if they do sequels, or even better continue the story in a TV series, then it’s great.  If not, it leaves me with the same feeling I got at the end of District 9 and Eragon.  “That’s IT?”  Don’t get me wrong, it was enjoyable, and Alex Pettyfer (Kyle from Beastly) and Dianna Agron (Quinn from Glee) had great chemistry on screen, but I just can’t believe they ended it the way they did.

Unknown – Liam Neeson surprised me in Taken.  I’d never seen him as an “action movie” star, but he continues to prove he can do it in Unknown.  While I did see the twist coming before it was revealed, I only figured it out shortly before they revealed it, so it wasn’t terribly obvious.

Drive Angry 3D – Nicholas Cage escapes from Hell to rescue his infant granddaughter and avenge his daughter’s murder by a psychopathic cult leader.  With a set up like that, it could not possibly be bad, and it wasn’t.  See it, see it, see it.

The Adjustment Bureau – I wasn’t expecting a romantic drama, but that’s exactly what this is.  It has a great cast led by Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, and John Slattery.  It is a movie that asks the question, is our future in our own hands, or is it all predetermined, and it does so without the heavy religious overtones that kind of story often has.

Battle: Los Angeles – I loved this movie the first time I saw it when it was called Independence Day.  I also loved it this time.  It is essentially the same story as Independence Day with a few twists, and far more action often giving it the feel of a modern day war movie rather than a sci-fi alien invasion flick, especially with it’s military, rather than sci-fi, conclusion.  I have no real complaints about it, but they could have done a little better job altering the story from Independence Day.

Sucker Punch – The “pros” are this: well acted, amazing battle scenes, great dragon and other creature CGI, a great soundtrack, great story situations, etc., etc.  The only “con”: after seeing it, I still don’t know what it was about.  Take that for what you will.

Source Code – Awesome!  I wasn’t really sure what to expect out of this.  Jake Gyllenhaal and Michelle Monaghan are a great on-screen couple and should do more movies together.  I was expecting a great sci-fi action thriller and got it, but I wasn’t expecting it to be such a great romance either.  While some of the twists weren’t unexpected, it didn’t take away from the story at all.  I highly recommend you see this.

That’s it for the movies.  Hopefully I’ll be able to do more timely and in depth reviews from now on.

With the season over and it’s cancellation likely, it’s probably too late to save ABC’s Detroit 1-8-7.  However, when this eventually reaches DVD, I highly recommend you pick it up.  This is, in my opinion, the best cop show since NYPD Blue.  I don’t know why it hasn’t caught on, it should have.  Michael Imperioli as Detective Louis Fitch was amazing.  Perhaps the cops on this show fall too much into the TV cop stereotypes to have caught people’s interests, but they should have.  The rest of the cast was great, thought relatively unknown.  (The only other main cast member I’d ever heard of is James McDaniel, best know for his role on NYPD Blue.)  If the show is canceled, it’s a real shame.  I must give the writers credit.  All the major story lines were rapped up, so at least we aren’t left with cliffhangers.  That happens so often to shows canceled in their first season or two like Flash Forward, The Sarah Conner Chronicles and Once and Again.

Lastly, here’s the Transformers Artifact of the Week:

This is a Botcon 2007 Bublebee Hotel Key.  There were four different hotels for the 2007 Transformers convention held in Providence Rhode Island.  Each hotel had a key with a different character, either Bumblebee (pictured above), Optimus Prime, Megatron, or Starscream.  Please see my web site, TFMuseum.com for the others.

Thanks for reading!