Hitman

Edge of your seat action: Check
Explosions: Check
International locations: Check
Hot cars: Check
One hot babe : Check.

A movie based on a video game really should not stand a chance. Wow is that wrong though. That is not to say that the movie is not juvenile, and lame from a scholarly perspective but the film did manage to combine a character like Jason Bourne with Da Vinci Code type mystery. Add in the brand new Audi S5, a S4 Cabriolet, 5 Q7s, and a really hot Ukrainian supermodel and how could it be too painful to watch. This one was surely one those pure and simple pleasures.

It give it three Stars.
***
really not one for kids, due to the fact that the action and the supermodel are a little too hot for PG-13 crowds.

Mind the Gap

Home made movies or as they prefer to call themselves Sundance type movies are not always fun to watch. In fact Mind the Gap has some serious audio issues for the last 15 minutes of the DVD which almost made me turn it off.

Mind the Gap is a great movie despite its technical short comings. It follows the lives of 5 people and as the Dad in the film says about his son "If they can not have small dreams come true, how will they every believe they can achieve the big ones." This movie is a surprise gem. It gives a reason for hope to anyone no matter the circumstance.

Rated 8.0

Million Dollar Baby

This movie is less about euthanasia than I thought which is a good thing. The fact that a person accustom to fighting the odds her whole life would want to die after being crippled seems strange even though they did a decent job explaining why she wanted out. I just don't buy it.

It just seems to me that someone that is as determined as Hillary Swank's character never quits. Did Christopher Reeve quit? Did he stop acting? If anything the Superman's and Steven Hawkins of this world stop wanting to live when they die. On top of all of that why would Clint's character euthanize someone after all the supposed mistakes he made in his personal life? Would this character really not see that this would be the worst thing he has ever done? Would a father end the life of his daughter because she was no longer valuable? Does a father tell a child it is ok to quit or give up. He may want to or even wish that he could take the burden but a good father never gives up on his children. I realize that Hillary Swank was not blood related but Clint certainly became a surrogate father to this lost soul. In fact she was his redeeming act of kindness yet he discarded her life when he had the chance to do the right thing. The ending of this film killed any joy it brought. We don't need a typical happy Hollywood ending where Hillary Swank is repaired and reborn as the best female fighter in the world, but it would have been nice to see Clint become the hero and stay by her side until her natural end.

From a cinematic perspective the gritty Hit Pit gym and filth of the environment gives the story great visual interest and adds to the feel of the story's authenticity of an intercity gym. The fact that Clint's character apparently has enough money to retire but decides to miserly use electricity is a distracting irritation that did not add to the story. This movie is not an art film but the producers must have needed the extreme drama of half lit faces talking in the shadows. Who really sits in complete darkness in a building with the exception of the little bit of light coming in through window while at a gym working out? They are not relaxing or watching a movie, they're throwing punches. This movie was not deep enough to merit any of this goofy over the top lighting.

I enjoyed the movie and am glad that I saw it, to see what everyone has been talking about, but I would give this film a 5 out of 10 for telling a story that hope is a fairy tail.

Rated 5

Crash

This is a truly great movie. Like in life, good people are usually not always doing good and bad people are not always bad. Real life is a series of decisions made without knowing all the details of how things will turn out. Crash explores the whole gamut of bad people doing kind things and good people being mean. As we age we all have decision to make. Many of those decision would never have been made if we hadn't made other small decisions. Big decisions are built on smaller ones which are built on smaller still. Sometimes doing the right thing turns bad.

decisions are what make this life. Crash celebrates decisions in a raw form. It gives a perspective we rarely see. This movie is certainly one of the best this year.

Rated 9.5

Downfall

This movie certainly requires a lot of the viewer. It is a German docu-drama about Hitler's last days. It does have subtitles but to really understand how well this movie was made you really need to be able to understand German. If you can get beyond this movie being in a foreign language and it being about a historic tragedy it is a must see.

It is quite possibly the best told story of Hitler's last days. In the few documentaries in which I have heard Hitler speaking the actor who played Hitler seemed so like him I watched thinking this is really what he was like. His Austrian German sounded like Hitler's, his mannerism were like Hitler's, as were the Parkinson symptoms, and his fits of rage. He nailed every aspect of the furher's life. When the film was made they included some brief conversation with Hitler's actual secretary too. I do not know but I imagine they got many of there facts about who did what from her. There is no way to get any closer to what his last days must have been like than this movie does.

Unfortunately Downfall does not show the whole story. It only covers the last days of Hitler's life. It does not teach us how to avoid repeating this terror. For that you will need to see "A warning to all nations". In fact I would recommend seeing a warning to all nations first to set the stage.

L4yer Cake

This is a modern version of The Condemnation of Faust. Layer Cake not only Layers the typical guns, cars, women, and thugs all around the main character who has sold his sole to the devil but also tries to delve into the Layers of what life is about. This film has beautiful English charm and is full of twists, mystery, betrayal, and ends as it should.

The moral of any Faustain story is you reap what you sew.

Suspect 0

This movie will not have you believing in remote viewing even after watching the directors special feature on the DVD. The basic premise is that the FBI trained some Extra Sensory gifted people to remote view events 1000s of miles away. A special few were assigned to view child abductors. They tend to see vague silhouetted images surrounding a crime. They may see a tree in a field, a swing set, an attic space, etc. The movie really dramatizes the whole thing with sepia toned images, and haunting music. Ben Kingsley's character tormented by the images loses control of himself and tries to kill every abductor he sees.

The disturbing part of the film is to see a map of the U.S. full of push pins locating these sick people. Are there really that many messed up people?

Ty and Cortis

Do you really want these two reviewing movies? Well too bad if you have come to this web site. These two clowns are the experts in this crazy corner of cyberspace.

I am the cowboy btw.

Guess who

Yes another Ashton film. This film was a great surprise that I wrote a whole thing on yesturday but managed somehow not to save it.

a lot like Love

a lot like Love was a fun little movie, worth seeing but not anything super special. Ashton Kutcher was fun to watch and Amanda Pete looks better than ever. It was light and fun but not earth moving.

In a weeks time

Over the course of a week I generally see six to eight movies. I should say six to eight DVDs in a weeks time. Everyone I know thinks that I have seen everything which is far from true, but I do tend to see a lot. I hope to tell you about the ones worth seeing or at least the parts that are worth seeing. I think that most movies have at least one 5 to 10 minute piece of dialog that makes it worth seeing. Hopefully I can share a few of those with you.