Terminator Salvation

Many many years ago there was a television show called Time Tunnel on ABC and it was a huge hit for it's time. That was the 60's. We now have every other movie and television show trying to tell stories with time travel. It's a crutch for creativity and without revealing too much this is one of the reasons why Terminator 4: Salvation is rubbish.

McG, the Director who gave us the Charlies Angels movies, took on more than he could chew. There was no way he was going to top James Cameron's masterpiece T2. One of the reasons why T2 was great for it's time was that you saw things on the screen that you have never seen in any other movie. New special effects, that is what makes a great summer movie. That does not happen during Salvation, in fact the Terminator robots are now tired looking since the Transformers came out. Also the story is weak, maybe this is why Christian Bale lost it during the shoot, he probably knew that the movie was not going to be any better than T3.

Whoopi Goldberg was right. After seeing this movie she said that there is no room for ugly people in the future. Pretty much everyone in the movie is good looking. Sam Worthington and Moon Bloodgood are the only stars that come out of this mess unscathed. They are stars of our future.

Verdict: Plenty of action that goes no where, weak story, and no heart. Bad news: T5 is already in development. Good News: James Cameron is finally coming out with a new movie, Avatar. Let's hope he has not lost his touch.

PASSAGE OF TIME LEAVES OUT NO ONE !!!

Star Trek

We have a winner.
I have never seen one entire episode of Star Trek. Growing up I thought it was the most BORING show on television; I was a Star Wars fan. I also have seen only one Star Trek movie, The Wrath of Khan, which was great for its time but is terribly dated if you watch it now.
JJ Abram’s Star Trek is for everybody. You don’t need to know anything about the series because this tells the story of how it all began and it’s a great summer movie.
It took 10 Star Trek movies to come up with a winner. JJ Abrams is the likely successor to Steven Spielberg’s throne. I became a fan of his from his creative bent on the TV series LOST. He also revitalized the Mission Impossible series with MI3. Now whenever I see the Bad Robot logo before a movie the hair stands on the back of my neck because I know that I am about to see a good movie.
JJ already has his signature move. Whenever chaos is taking place in his movies or television shows he turns down the volume of the characters and action sounds and just shows the characters dealing with the situation with thoughtful, slow, music playing in the background.
Leonard Nimoy does a great job as the old Spock and the audience cheered when he came on screen. Eric Bana was in the movie and I didn’t realize it until the end credits. He did an awesome job and he was key to making the movie work. The casting overall was on point, my only question was why was the Negotiator, William Shatner, not allowed to play? Is he now considered a joke to this generation? YES!! I saw this movie with teenagers and he is no longer known as Captain Kirk he is now the buffoon that does Priceline commercials.

Verdict: The Franchise is alive; it will live long and prosper.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Right when you think Hollywood has made too many superhero/comic book movies out comes an excellent movie. The story, cinematography, and actors are all top notch. Wolverine, Hugh Jackman, seeks revenge against SaberTooth, Liev Schreiber, for the death of his girlfriend. If you are familiar with rising star Ryan Reynolds, you will realize he is perfectly cast as Deadpool. Liev Schreiber has a string of fine performances in movies but the general public will reference his great performance as Sabertooth moving forward. Newcomer Taylor Kitsch does a fine job as Gambit. Spiderman 1 & 2 set the mold for excellent superhero movies and this movie comes pretty close to breaking it.

Verdict: I will be seeing it again. Expect Wolverine 2 and more X-Men Origins.

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past

I saw two movies this weekend and one was excellent (Wolverine) and one was rubbish. Ghosts of Girlfriends Past is rubbish. The story had great promise (A bachelor is haunted by the ghosts of his past girlfriends at his younger brother's wedding) but it’s just a Christmas Carol with Matthew McConaughey trying to act with a shirt on. This was not even close to being as good as his hit comedy How to Lose A Guy in 10 Days. Jennifer Garner and Anne Archer are fine as well as some of the other cast members but they are not given much to work with and the movie ends up tanking. During the movie I kept wondering if Surfer Dude was any better than Ghosts of Girlfriends Past.

Verdict: Watching 60 minutes is more enjoyable than this movie and sometimes 60 minutes is like watching the paint dry. Don’t even waste your time watching it on DVD or cable.