Tally: THE A-TEAM (2010)

One of my fun favorites of 2010. Just a good time in a theater.

Tally: DESPICABLE ME (2010)

Didn’t quite stack up to HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON for me this year, but still a delightfully fun movie.

Tally: COMMANDO (1985)

First time
watching this and it was full on ’80s ridiculousness. I loved
it!

Tally: TALES FROM THE HOOD (1995)

 

Starting 2011 off right! Well maybe not right, but scrolling Netflix instant I came across this and hadn’t seen it in a while. Still like this movie though.

Tally/Review: The Expendables (2010) 3.5/5

If you could gather up some testosterone in a bag, hook it up to an IV, stick it in your carotid and go after the ultimate adrenaline high, would you? No, you wouldn’t. You would die. Instead the closest you might be able to get is to sit down and watch The Expendables. Sylvester Stallone’s latest effort features him combining his efforts on-screen with some of the greatest action stars of the ‘80s, ‘90s, and 2000s. Almost all of the principle cast in this movie have held their own in great action movies over the years. There are actors here to cover almost all the bases of action sub-genres. The starts of classic cult action movies like I Come in Peace, Fist of Legend, the Crank franchise, and even some newcomers to action who are MMA fighters and wrestlers.

The film follows a group of mercenaries for hire called The Expendables and opens up with them rescuing a group of hostages. Their next job lands them in an island in the Gulf of Mexico where they are commissioned to stop a general that is charge of that entire island. Like most action movies of the genre, the plot is fairly paint by numbers, but that doesn’t mean it’s lacking in great performances.

Stallone plays Barney Ross, the group’s leader. He is what makes this group interesting. While he is their leader, he’s not one for an inspirational speech, and he’s simply the most experienced soldier in the group and therefore, the rest of the flock follows his lead, and he learns just as much from his colleagues and they learn from him. His performance as an action star in this film certainly ranks up with some of his best, and age is most definitely ever a factor that you think about when watching the film, save for a few closeups where his age is written in his eyes and most definitely not anywhere in his body or actions. Jason Statham plays Lee Christmas, Barney’s second in command, confidant, and provides Ross with words of wisdom that carry him throughout the movie. His performance does not disappoint in the least, and is an almost perfect mix of some his greatest characters from other movies. He’s funny at times, absolutely charming, but most important, a fundamentally unfuckwithable badass. The dynamic between all of the group all meshes well to the point where you don’t necessarily need an origin story, you can be wrapped up this story and know all you need to know about this group. And the relationship between the characters of Jet Li and Dolph Lundgren is some of the funniest stuff of the movie.

The rest of the performances here are all great. Eric Roberts plays one of the villains, and in a year in which it’s so easy for villains to turn in incredibly over the top performances to the point where they can almost be perceived as live action cartoon characters, Roberts’ subdued portrayal was refreshing and speaks to probably the greatest aspect of the film, and that is, it’s subtlety.

That’s right, a film like this, with all of its incredible cast of action legends, the in your face marketing campaign, the ultra cheesy Shinedown song “Diamond Eyes (Boom-Lay Boom-Lay Boom) that plays in the trailer, and of course, the blowing up of YouTube, this film quite matter of factly, not over the top. Sure, there are some moments where suspension of disbelief is going to happen, but not as much as in some films of the past few years (Stallone’s character even admits to getting his ass kicked at one point). Those moments are few and far between to a certain extent and you can almost believe that guys like this could exist. This is especially true for Statham’s character, specifically during his scenes where he’s not in the middle of missions, but out and about his daily life.

Now this movie is certainly not without it’s flaws. With a cast this large, there is almost always going to be characters there’s not enough time spent with, and there is absolutely characters that shouldn’t have had a frame wasted on them. This movie could have had a little more substance if more time was spent with the principle members of the group (Stallone, Statham, Li) and their characters were able to develop a little bit more. Randy Coutures presence in the film was a non factor, he didn’t bring very much to the table, and if Stallone felt the need to include an MMA fighter, a more known name from that sport could have been better served, but for the most part, his character wasn’t needed and never felt essential to anything going on in the film. Sadly, this is also true for Mickey Rourke’s character, Tool. There are enough clues to gather where his character comes from and what he means to The Expendables, specifically to Barney Ross, but his scenes where he rambles incoherently and reminisces on his past are completely non-sensical and more resemble the ramblings of a mad man and only to serve to develop his character, trouble is, his character is entirely irrelevant to the plot of the film.

Overall, this film took a big risk and could have gone one of two ways, utter over the top, inconsistent, live action cartoon violent mess, or great epic, the stuff worthy of the legends on the poster, and while it meets somewhere in the middle, the compromise between the two ends up making for an adequate action film. One that, for fans of each of the main stars, stay true to the characters of the past that they’ve played, and ultimately succeed more than it fails.

3.5/5

Lebron James: Who Did He Really Disappoint?

There are pretty much only two reactions you can have to the circus that was ‘The Decision’ two nights ago. You either hate it or you like it. There’s no room in a situation like this for indifference. There’s no room for wavering. If your a sports fan, a true sports fan, you must formulate an opinion. Here’s the reason: Because the game [sports in general] is changing.

Not so much changing, but evolving. In a day in age of sports where athletes are more present in our stream of consciousness than ever, we get to see them for who they really are. They have blogs, they tweet, they have personal websites, in many ways, they are just like us, except for one major difference. In 1996 the film Jerry Maguire was released, and from that movie, many sports fans saw what was plainly in front of them for years, and novice sports fans who simply liked the movie saw what was glaringly obvious to them. The big problem with sports, and athletes in particular, and the problem with them that was evident in the movie can be summed up in 4 words. Show me the money.

If your a sports fan who thinks athletes are only in it for the money, and that they lack loyalty, you have to form an opinion about Lebron’s decision. If your a novice sports fan who is naive enough to believe that athletes should remain loyal to one team their entire careers you have to have an opinion about Lebron’s decision. Now opinions are sacred, and they should not be dismissed but think about who you are, and why you feel what you feel about Lebron’s choice.

You can think Lebron’s decision is selfish, you can think that the way he announced his choice was callous and heartless, but if you feel that way, its your fault. It’s your fault because you inflated Lebrons ego. You followed his career since high school. You put him on the cover of Sports Illustrated at 17 years old. You watched him on draft night, you bought his jersey, and you bought into Lebron as a “brand”. It’s because of this that you feel his choice makes him disloyal. Disloyal to you, disloyal to Cleveland, disloyal to his teammates, and ultimately disingenuous as a human being.

But think before you call him selfish, egotistical, and disloyal. Think back long and hard to his first NBA game, it was in Sacramento versus the Kings on October 29th, 2003. The very first highlight of Lebrons career was during a Cavaliers steal, the ball goes out to James who was streaking down the court, could have made a monster slam dunk and instead, waited for teammate Ricky Davis to get there so that he could make the pass and Davis could get a highlight dunk. Lebron never compared himself to Michael Jordan, he always wanted to emulate Magic Johnson. He is, and always has been a teammate first guy, and you would know this if you followed him in high school.

So if he’s so unselfish, why would he create the “narcissistic” televised special to announce his decision? The answer goes back to you. If you love him, if you hate him, either way you were interested. It was your interest that made Lebron think this was ok, and it was your interest in his decision that allowed you to completely dismiss the fact that he raised $3 million, and got Nike to match that for The Boys and Girls Club of America. It’s a shame that you missed that, because it showcased Lebron for who he is when the moment counts. As big as his ego is, when push came to shove and the spotlight was brightest, and the decision was his and his only to make, he let himself be seen as the truly loyal and selfless guy he is. He chose less money, a smaller spotlight that he is more than willing to share with his friends as teammates.

But what about the Cleveland fans you say? What about the Cleveland fans? Lebron is from Akron, Ohio. Where does he hold his annual basketball camp for kids? Where did he put his business offices? When he received both of his MVP trophies, where did he hold the press conferences? The answer of course, is Akron. Lebron has never forgotten where he came from, and if he hasn’t forgotten that by now, he never will. He still hangs out with his high school buddies, he’s born and raised Akron, Ohio and he will always be loyal to Akron. He owes nothing to the City of Cleveland and the behavior of Cavalier fans and the Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert was completely inexcusable and reeked of bad sportsmanship and only serve to prove the point that Cleveland was never Lebrons to have, but that clearly, Cleveland felt that Lebron was theirs to keep. This is a business and Lebron understands that. When asked how he felt about fans burning his jersey after his decision he showed visible signs of hurt, but just for a second, and went on to answer the question as eloquently as he gave the rest of the interview during the television special.

In an age of sports where athletes can’t seem to stay out of trouble, can’t tweet without getting in trouble, and live the mantra of “show me the money”, Lebron James, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh collectively left almost $50 million on the table so that they could play together. Lebron is anything but disloyal. He showed his loyalty to winning, and to his friends by willing to forgo his ego and the entire spotlight and share it with them so that together, he can achieve the one thing in his life that he has yet to do, win a championship for himself, and not for a city that happens to be close to where he was born.

But one thing remains true: We Are All Witnesses

Tally/Review: Cyrus (2010)

I was a big fan of the Duplass Brothers movie Baghead a few years ago. These guys are simply great storytellers and they do it with characters that aren’t overdone and don’t seem artificial. Baghead was great because it was an original story with some creative elements and really great moments of incredible tension that were easily loosened up with genius timing of moments that bring a lot of levity to any particular moment of tension

The reasons why I didn’t like Baghead are the reasons that I love Cyrus. The biggest problems with Baghead were the limitations of its cast. With a cast like John C. Reilly, Jonah Hill, Marisa Tomei and Catherine Keener, the writing talent of the Duplass brothers can really jump off the screen. The most surprising thing about this movie I’d say was Jonah Hill. As an actor who some could say has gone the way of other actors of his generation and essentially played the same role over and over again, this role provided him with an opportunity to do something different than he’s done before. This year we’ve also seen Hill in a film as a lead in Get Him to the Greek and in my opinion he’s shown that he’s a capable actor, especially considering his roles in both of these films are so different. Cyrus allowed for Hill to do more face acting than he’s ever done and he does little to no physical comedy in this role whereas Get Him to the Greek was a role that almost entirely depended on his ability as a physical comedian. Some of the expressions on Hills face in this movie have a combination of “deer in the headlines” with a thousand-yard stare of intimidation, and these expressions do exactly what they’re supposed to do and give the viewer an uneasy feeling because you never know exactly what it is he’s thinking.

Marisa Tomei, John C. Reilly and Catherine Keener are all great as they should be expected to be. The Duplass brothers have an almost claustrophobic way of hand held shooting and making use of refocusing the lenses that the scenes come off that much more genuine and to my recollection, this all star cast has never really been shot quite this close-up before so the viewer is much more drawn into the story because real emotions are conveyed in the facial reactions of the actors.

After seeing Baghead I was really curious to see what Jay and Mark Duplass could do with a bigger shooting budget and a better cast and this is a truly satisfying follow up to a surprisingly great indie movie two years ago. This still has that Indie movie charm, but the performances in it really are superb and this destined to be one of the funnier comedies to come out this year.

Tally/Review: Mandrill (2009)

Love, love, love, love this movie! Cannot express how much I love this movie! I first saw this at the 2009 Fantastic Fest, and this was my favorite film of the festival that year. It was my introduction to Marko Zaror, and it doesn’t take long for someone to see how seriously Zaror takes on a role. He has his influences, like any actor does, and any recognizable influence is done so in a fashion that showcases how much respect he has for those influences. Influences which range from Bruce Lee to James Bond, even Shaft.

Marko Zaror has a way of commanding the screen in such a unique way that you can’t help but be completely enamored by his every move. While his characters motives may always be clear, his execution of both martial arts maneuvers and gunplay are absolutely phenomenal.

The movie plays as a sort of Chilean James Bond film. Mandrill is out for revenge, seeking out the man who murdered his mother, a crime in which he is witness to. In his journey to find the man responsible, he has emulated his favorite television star in Chile, John Colt. Growing up, Mandrill learned the ways of John Colt by studying his films, as well as learning “The Technique” to picking up women. The scene where his uncle Chone is explaining the technique is truly one of my favorite scenes in the movie.

This is a film that truly deserves to be seen and appreciated. It’s got humor, action, martial arts. The acting isn’t academic in any sense, these are genuine honest performances that are at times paying homage and respect to the types of film that have influenced Mandrill, and this film deserves to have to chance to be the start of a franchise in which we get to see Marko Zaror again and again.

Tally/Review: Undisputed 3 (2010)

Living in Austin affords me amazing opportunities to see things not only that I might have missed in theatres, but things I may have otherwise skipped entirely. I came into Undisputed 3 only with the excitement of seeing Marko Zaror on the big screen again. I was mistaken to not be more excited about this movie than I was.

Marko Zaror is an up and coming action star, and while I think, generationally, he may be a bit late in this genre to become a mega star, he does bring certain things to the table that the action stars of the past could not bring. I will elaborate more on that in my review of Mandrill.

While Zaror is great in this film as the villain, the real star is the protagonist of the film Scott Adkins. This is the first film I’d seen Scott Adkins, and I can tell you that as a fan of fight films, I was very impressed with him as a fighter on-screen. Scotts portrayal of a down and out fighter is all the more impressive upon learning about the timeline of the Undisputed films. In Undisputed 2, Adkins plays Uri Boyka, in that film he was actually the antagonist who sustains a seemingly career ending knee injury. Upon the opening in this film, Boyka is a prisoner struggling with his life as an injured fighter and he is trying to regain his strength. In playing a character who is highly motivated by anger, it is extremely entertaining to see his rise from weakened fighter to an empowered and agile one, capable of some of the most amazing aerial fight maneuvers I’d seen in years.

As a movie, its certainly not anything that can be painted as original. It’s a pretty academic script, and most ever element to the story are telegraphed ahead of time so that you can see the ending before it happens. None of this matters. If you’re seeing this movie, you’re seeing it because you want to see action. You want to see fighting. You see this movie because you’re tired of the overhyped MMA fighting that promises unique fighting skill sets that in the end, almost always turn out to be five rounds of two guys hugging on the ground until one passes out. If that’s your sort of thing, this movie has that also.

The quality in this movie comes from direction. Isaac Florentine was present at my screening of Undisputed 3 so I had the fortunate pleasure of hearing his perspective of this film in particular. His background is in martial arts films and television shows such as The Power Rangers (yeah, Might Morphin Power Rangers). Having a background as a martial artist himself as well having a background in shooting martial arts he is really able to bring out the precision technique that these characters fight with and it definitely shows on-screen in the fights. Fights that have long shots, no short cut aways, lots of slow motion that highlight the impact of the blows that are happening. Not only are the actors in the film practicing martial artists, almost all of them, Adkins and Zaror included have a background in stunt work, so they have no qualms as actors really performing what, in any big budget production with a mega star actor would be considered stunts. That authenticity make this film, and all of it’s flaws, of which there are many, come to life as an unexpectedly entertaining, and just plain good film.

I cannot implore people enough to see this film. It needs your support. You will not be disappointed because if nothing else, the fight scenes in this movie are truly amazing. The more support this movie receives, the likelihood increases of their being a sequel (possibly with more Zaror), as well as more movies with Scott Adkins.

Tally: Nightmare on Elm Street Part 3: Dream Warriors (1987)