Colomiana

I am a fan of movies by Luc Besson, who wrote this movie and has had great success with the Transporter franchise & Taken. Zoe Saldana from Avatar, who plays Colombiana, comes across like a female Jason Bourne. The story however is different. As a young girl Colombia witnesses her parents' murder in Bogota. She then grows up to be a stone-cold assassin. It is very much a guy’s movie with great action scenes and a story where you will have to suspend your belief. Amandla Stenberg, who plays Colomiana as a young girl is impressive and Lennie James, who plays the cop trying to capture Colomiana is just as intense as he was in Russell Crowe’s The Next Three Days.
In the beginning of the movie Zoe comes off like Catwoman. She’ dressed in a skintight suit and crawls across buildings to her target. It made me wonder how she would be vs. Anne Hathaway who is already cast in the next Dark Knight.
Look for a great toothbrush fight scene in the tail end of the movie.

Verdict:
I got my money’s worth.

Conan the Barbarian

If you rent the Arnold Schwarzenegger versions of Conan they are very hard to watch. The movies are dated and watching Arnold with all of his recent, sleazy baggage is hard to do. With the onslaught of Gladiator shows with CGI effects it is time for a fresh reboot of the franchise.
Newcomer Jason Momoa, who starred in HBO’s excellent Game of Thrones series, takes on the title role. His acting is not captivating but women will be mesmerized by his looks. Stephen Lang plays the bad guy to lesser effect than he did in Avatar. For one he has too much makeup on and looks too old to be a worthy advisory. The one bright spot is Rose McGowan as Marique who is able to make sand come to life. No need for me to tell you the plot, just know that it’s a revenge flick. The movie should have premiered on Starz or HBO as a series. There is nothing here that is not already shown to greater effect on these cable channels. Anyone who paid to see this in 3 D, such as myself, was truly ripped off.

Verdict:
This is the time of year when the studios release movies that were not going to do well during the peak of summer. This is one of them.

Final Destination 5

The first question for this latest version is:
1) Is this going to be more of the same?
2) Are the critics right that Final Destination 5 is the best?
Well I thought the last version was going to be the final one and it should have.
In FD5 survivors of a suspension-bridge collapse learn there's no way you can cheat Death. Duh! The franchise once again brings in young, good looking, unknown actors who will be disfigured and killed in creative ways. Tony Todd, who was Candyman and also in the first Final Destination, is brought back to give this latest version some kind of finality, I hope.
Courtney B. Vance, from Law & Order, also stars as a cop who has his head up his ass and can’t figure out why these people are dying. There is a montage of all the deaths from the prior four movies during the end credits, so if you get off on that then stick around.

Verdict:
Best thing about this movie is the end.

The Help

This movie slowly was rolled out during the final blitz of summer movie. It was not on my radar of movies to watch because I was not in the mood for another Driving Ms. Daisy. I assumed wrong and after watching The Help I feel that everyone should see this movie.
Let’s start with the (2) women who should receive Oscar nominations. Octavia Spencer who has been in many movies in supporting roles but she gives a superstar performance as Minnie Jackson, one of the maids in the movie. Emma Stone who plays Skeeter, is the best young actresses in Hollywood today.
The movie is from a bestselling book about a look at what happens when a southern town's unspoken code of rules and behavior is shattered by three courageous women who strike up an unlikely friendship.
The movie takes place during the Civil Rights Era and covers the death of Medgar Evers and President Kennedy.
Another breakthrough performance comes from Bryce Dallas Howard, Ron Howard’s daughter. This is her best performance to date and I hope she is not typecast for playing someone you love to hate (as she does so well in The Help) in future movies. The great Cicely Tyson, who has been forgotten by Hollywood, has a key role as Skeeter’s maid. Tyson should receive a Lifetime Achievement Award for having to play Ms. Jane Pittman over and over again.
This movie should have Oscar nominations for screenplay and direction as well but it may have come out too early and could be overshadowed by movies that come out in September through November. I hope not.
Regardless of that this is a must see and at over 2 hours long you will be thoroughly entertained.

Verdict:
Perfect casting and breakthrough performances.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

The trailer for this movie looked intriguing; CGI and motion special effects would probably give this franchise a fresh reboot. I was wrong. This is an origin story set in present day San Francisco, where man's own experiments with genetic engineering lead to the development of intelligence in apes and the onset of a war for supremacy.
James Franco walks through his role scientist Will Rodman (I still don’t know why he was nominated for 127 Minutes). All of the other performances are mailed in except for the lead ape Caeser (whose emotions were brought to life brilliantly by Andy Serkis). The chemistry between Freda Pinto and Franco is forced and her character is not fully developed so you really don’t care if she ends up with Franco.
The original Planet of the Apes series had humans wearing ape suits yet it had many surprises and it freaked me out. For a summer movie I expected more. There is no adrenaline rush and the apes are not scary, in fact I laughed at scenes where I should have been frightened. There are no surprises due to zero depth in storytelling.
Of all the movies that can possibly be re-booted......why reboot another movie that's already been re-booted? Especially after the horrible reboot with Marky Mark Wahlberg, why did they decide to revisit the Apes again??

Verdict:
I am one of the few critics that didn’t care much for this movie. The first Planet of The Apes movie is still the best. Even the 2nd one was better than this. For those of you who have seen it and contributed to the big box office debut, would you pay to see it again?

Cowboys & Aliens

There was great anticipation for this movie yet not much was known about how the whole premise was going to be pulled off with great results. It was not.
The story is about a spaceship that arrives in Arizona, 1873, to take over the Earth, starting with the Wild West region. A posse of cowboys and natives are all that stand in their way.

Daniel Craig, the lead cowboy, reminds you of Steve McQueen and he does a solid job. In fact I think he should give up the James Bond franchise and stick to revitalizing the Western. He makes a great Cowboy.
Olivia Wilde is perfectly cast for this movie however she is getting overexposed; every other movie has Oliva Wilde starring in it.
This is a movie that takes a while to get started and maybe it’s because of the various writers that are involved with this project. The one cool thing about C vs. A is that it is not a prequel, sequel, or reunion. It’s an original movie which is rare these days.

Verdict:
Just ok.

Crazy, Stupid, Love

Steve Carell is one of those actors who as soon as you see him on screen you start smiling. Add Ryan Gosling as a lounge lizard, and Emma Stone as a love interest and you have a very good summer movie.
The story is about how a father's life (Carell) unravels while he deals with a marital crisis and tries to manage his relationship with his children.
Emma Stone once again shines and makes you realize that there is no need for Lindsey Lohan to sober up. Long live Emma Stone.
Writer Dan Fogelman has developed the best romantic comedy in the last decade. The story is smart, one you can relate to, and makes for a great Friday night date movie.
Finally Ryan Gosling finally is able to display his incredible skills in a role worthy of his talents.

Verdict:
This film delivers.
Sleeper hit of the late summer.