Movie Review - The Fate of the Furious

The Fate of the Furious

Starring: Vin Diesel, Jason Statham, Dwayne Johnson, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Ludacris, Charlize Theron, Kurt Russell, Nathalie Emmanuel, Luke Evans, Elsa Pataky, Kristofer Hivju, Scott Eastwood, Helen Mirren, and more.

Directed by: F. Gary Gray Written by: Chris Morgan Based on characters created by: Gary Scott Thompson Cinematography by: Stephen F. Windon Music by: Brian Tyler

Premise: During his honeymoon in Cuba, Dom gets trapped by a mysterious woman. She's picked him specifically. And she's made sure to get something which will force him to choose to do things her way. First on her to-do list, get Dom to betray his family - that which he holds most dear. As the group tries to figure out why Dom has gone rogue, they get rounded up by Nobody. They want them to help find Dom but to also aid in putting a stop to Cipher's plans. (Rated PG-13)

Review:

1) Acting - Total Thumbs Up: Charlize Theron as Cipher was multi-layered and fun (in an evil, despicable way that is :P). Very much enjoyed watching her taunt Dom and act like she has all the answers; even as we see her struggling to understand how he can feel the things he feels. And looking a little jealous. Like I said - fun! Jason Stratham and Dwayne Johnson as Deckard and Hobbs look to have the most fun in the film. The in-joke/subliminal advertising for Moana was rather cute. Vin Diesel and Michelle Rodriguez speak volumes with glances. There's lots of witty banter and fun. Good job all!

2) Special Effects - Total Thumbs Up: As we've come to expect from the F&F series, there's a ton of special effects of all kinds. We've got engines catching on fire, crashes galore, subs, tanks, planes, explosions, and more! 

They did some cool stuff with the sub and the iced over lake. And the torpedoes? Sweet!

The "rain" in Manhattan was fabulous! The whole Manhattan section was divine. The fight on the plane was also super. Bullet holes galore. Add in Stratham and the "package," and you're in for a whole lot of fun! (So unexpected and yet so awesome! lol. My most favorite part of the film.)

3) Plot/Story - Thumbs Up: Science and physics always take a back seat in these movies. This time is no exception. EMP doesn't mean the same to these guys as it does to everyone else. lol. And though they cut away from the scene, there's still no way for that sub to get in the water! They do make it all look good, though! 

Even though it may hide their hands and faces, you do not go out onto the icefields in Russia without appropriate gear! Oh, you touched that bar with your bare hand outside in sub freezing temps? You just left a layer of skin stuck there. :P Sometimes I do wish they'd try a little harder to cover the easier things. 

Definite kudos on the little hints dropped here and there as to how Dom might not be quite as subdued as Cipher thinks he is. They do a replay to show the audience what they missed and a little more. So you won't miss anything, even if you do. :P I did like how they wove in a lot of people and history from the other films back into the plot. 

No real surprises in the plot, but still fun. Just watching all the insane destruction is half the entertainment. Add in some lovely fights, and voila! 

4) Stunts - Total Thumbs Up: There are a ton of gags! Between the fire, the ice, the bullets, the car and people chases, the hand-to-hand and the close weapons combat, the department was kept incredibly busy. Add in a little CGI, and the bar got raised a ton!

I have to mention that the fight at the prison was all levels of fun. A chase within a breakout, within a free for all. Nice! 

5) Locations/Cinematography - Total Thumbs Up: Lots of interesting sites in the film. Iceland, Cuba, Ohio, Georgia, New York, Germany, even a glacier! And the way they incorporate the names into the landscape is a nice trick. Some lovely spanning views of all the exotic places. 

Conclusion: The Fate of the Furious is fast and crazy and full of more cars and stunts than ever. It's enough to fill any action junkie's want list. :) Leave the laws of physics at the door, and strap in for a wild ride. 

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 (Hubby's Rating: Worth Full Price of Admission)

Movie Review - Moana

Moana

Starring: Auli'i Cravalho, Dwayne Johnson, Rachel House, Temuera Morrison, Jemaine Clement, Nicole Scherzinger, Alan Tudyk, Oscar Kightley, Troy Polamalu, Puanani Cravalho, and Louise Bush.

Directed by: Ron Clements, Don Hall, John Musker, and Chris Williams Screenplay by: Jared Bush Story by: Ron Clements, John Musker, Chris Williams, Don Hall, Pamela Ribon, Aaron Kandell, and Jordan Kandell Music by: Opetaia Foa'i, Mark Mancina, and Lin-Manuel Miranda

Premise: Moana has always been fascinated by the ocean and what might lay beyond the protective reef around her home. As the chieftain's daughter and heir, however, she tries to put those desires aside and learn how to become a good leader. But when pestilence and lack of fish begin to plague her island home, Moana realizes she must go and find the demigod Maui and get him to make things right again. (Rated PG)

Review:

1) Voice Acting - Total Thumbs Up: Auli'i Cravalho as Moana was a treat. Her boundless energy comes across in every line. Dwayne Johnson is a hoot as Maui. The two worked well together, and you could feel the bonds growing between the characters. Alan Tudyk as Heihei was a surprise, but what fun! (Especially as it isn't a speaking part.) Rachel House and Jemaine Clement added some additional angles to the scope of the film as well. (Clement's final line after the credits is awesome! :P)

2) Artwork/Animation - Total Thumbs Up: Walt Disney Animation Studios outdid themselves with Moana. The film is gorgeous! Fantastic textures, colors, and they do awesome things with the water. The section where Moana is at the beach as a baby was sublime. It will make you feel like you're actually in Hawaii. 

A ton of attention to detail on all things. They use the 3D to full advantage, even making facial crinkles and wrinkles. Moana and Maui's hair would make anyone jealous! 

Heihei fits the "too stupid to die" type character category. They have so much fun with him! Maui's tattoos are awesome. His mini tattoo version of himself is great. Like a living conscience. When Maui shapeshifts, stay on the lookout for the fishhook and how it's incorporated into each of his forms. Nice little detail. :)

The island goddess and the lava monster were excellent. The cooling lava and resulting igneous rock turned out fantastic. The monster zone and the Kakamoji peoples and boats were fascinating.

3) Plot/Story - Thumbs Up: While the film has the look and feel of Hawaii, after doing some quick research, it doesn't appear that the tale told has anything to do with the legends of the chain of islands. Despite that, it does hold a lot of the trappings of stories dealing with humans and gods. It also definitely has a Hawaiian feel to it.

A lot of themes run through the film. Responsibility, dreams, finding who you are, and more.  

The film uses some anachronistic terms/dialogue. But though out of place, some of it is quite humorous. Several in-jokes are tucked away here and there. For example, Maui moving his mini tattoo from one side of his chest to another by muscle movement. A move we've seen Dwayne Johnson do in other films. :P (There's a big in-joke at the end of the credits, too! Relates back to the Little Mermaid. :))

Conclusion: Moana is a gorgeous film. Would recommend seeing it in 3D for the spanning views alone. Lots of fun moments and has plenty to keep the kids and adults well entertained. 

Rating: 3.75 out of 5 (Hubby's Rating: Worth Full Price of Admission)

Movie Review - San Andreas

(Yay! Back to seeing movies again! Woot!)

San Andreas

Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Carla Gugino, Alexandra Daddario, Ioan Gruffudd, Archie Panjabi, Paul Giamatti, Hugo Johnstone-Burt, Art Parkinson, Will Yun Lee, and more.

Directed by: Brad Peyton Screenplay by: Carlton Cuse Story by: Andre Fabrizio and Jeremy Passmore Cinematography by: Steve Yedlin Music by: Andrew Lockington

Premise: Though Ray is a hero to many as a veteran rescue chopper pilot, it still hasn't prevented him from slowly losing all he loves most. But when a series of small earthquakes in Nevada end up heralding a much more violent upheavals coming to hit California, Ray unexpectedly gets a second chance to make things right again. (Rated PG-13)

Review:

1) Acting - Total Thumbs Up: Dwayne Johnson has always been able to pull the heart strings or say any number of cliches or silly things with a straight face. Both are great skills to have in disaster movies, so he was a good pick. Carla Gugino as Emma was also a great choice. Alexandra Daddario, Hugo Johnstone-Burt, and Art Parkinson were adorable and worked quite well together. Paul Giamatti and Ioan Gruffudd always do great work and their performances during this film are no exception.

2) Special Effects - Total Thumbs Up: Special effects are one of the main ingredients for a great disaster movie. "San Andreas" had them in spades. Several of the earthquakes scenes were just amazing! Watching the waves of force ripple through the land will give you chills. The giant crack after one of the earthquakes was jaw dropping. A great bit to bring home just how vast the reach of this thing was.

What really sold the film, however, were the special effects that were up close and personal. A multitude of gags happen right beside you, making them immediate, devastating, and shocking. The way they were handled made the moments more poignant than usual, which only added to the realistic feel of the disaster and the immersion of the audience into the story.

There are a multitude of iconic moments. And they run the whole gambit - falling buildings, out of control fires, tsunamis, death by cruiseship, death by buildings, possibly even death by a kitchen sink. The special effects people also had some great fun with helicopters and planes!

3) Plot/Story - Thumbs Up: Disaster films tend to be formulaic by nature. "San Andreas" is no exception. But I will say it came across a little more creative and believable than some. The people they gave to cheer for were likable, and also ratcheted up the anticipation as they gave us others to get excited about in just how they'd get their 'just desserts'.

A few spots might ring a little false, but they were in the minority. Best thing to do, is to strap in and go along for the ride. :)

4) Stunts - Total Thumbs Up: Though some of the stunts involved CGI, many did not. Between all the shaking and the rolling, the stunt people were kept quite busy. Great job guys!

5) Locations/Cinematography - Total Thumbs Up: Some lovely sweeps of LA and San Francisco tantalize the audience before disaster strikes. An easy way to make the destruction have more impact. The disasters were filmed from all angles - from the air, from the ground, from the water - immersing the audience completely in the story being told.

Conclusion: If you're a fan of disaster films, this one is definitely worth putting on the list to watch. The visuals are great! All the right components are there, and the personal drama, and even a budding romance, worked well within the film.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 (Hubby's Rating: Worth Full Price to See Again)

Movie Review - G.I. Joe: Retaliation

G.I.Joe Retaliation

Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Jonathan Pryce, Adrianne Palicki, Byung-hun Lee, Ray Stevenson, Ray Park, Channing Tatum, Elodie Yung, DJ Cotrona, Walton Goggins, Luke Bracey, Arnold Vosloo,  Bruce Willis, and more.

Directed by: Jon M Chu Written by: Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick Cinematography by: Stephen F Windon Original Music by: Henry Jackman

Premise: After finishing a huge op to recover nukes from Pakistan after its President is assassinated, the Joe's get ambushed and almost wiped out when sneak attacked in the desert. Roadblock, Lady Jaye, and Flint let the world think they died with the rest of their friends as they seek to find out what happened. Soon, they realize Cobra is involved. And they're going to make them pay. (Rated PG-13)

Review:

1) Acting - Total Thumbs Up: Channing Tatum and Dwayne Johnson show great rapport with each other as Duke and Roadblock - wish they'd kept on with that. Adrianne Palicki manages to look both tough and sexy as Lady Jaye. Ray Park once more brings his considerable skills in playing Snake Eyes (And while this suit was better than the one used in 2009, the look is sadly not quite there yet.) and imparting moods or opinions with body language. Jonathan Pryce got the double fun of playing the President and his own evil replacement. Walton Goggins dazzled as Warden Nigel James, being both saucy and fan boyish about his important prisoners.

2) Special Effects - Total Thumbs Up: With the Joes and Cobra one expects toys, explosions, fire fights, and general chaos. We get plenty of that! I especially loved Firefly and his little bugs as well as his multi-rocket bomb motorcycle.

The Tibetan like monastery in the mountains looked awesome. The fights with masked ninjas and the rope hopping along the sheer cliffs, as Snake Eyes and Jinx try to make their escape, were totally fun.

3) Story - Neutral: Sadly, a lot of the enjoyment of the film was sucked away by the pockets of ignored reality in the plot. My husband, who is totally a fan of explosions and gunfights, was so brought down by the lack of explanations on how certain things were achieved (Like replacing a large portion of the secret service without anyone being the wiser) that it really dropped his final rating. Explanations that would have taken only a moment to impart could have corrected this, but without them the plot seemed heavily contrived just to make certain events occur. (Don't get him or me started on the destruct button on Cobra Commander's briefcase for the satellites. That made no sense whatsoever - he had the world in his grip.)

Protocols at the holding facility were rather poor and not followed. If they'd capped the open container back instead of shooting it, problem solved. It was amazing at the number of thick doors not used in several different places to keep the people out, but rather were left open with guards moving outside, leaving them pretty much accessible, when they wouldn't have been otherwise.

Another sad point was the lack of prominence by certain characters. If they were used in the first film, they almost had no place or were not even present for the second. We saw more of Storm Shadow than Snake Eyes. And Cobra Commander pretty much just walked in and out of places without doing much. Even the plan being activated during the film didn't come from him. It was in full swing when he got there.

So despite the great work from all the other departments, the bad plot pretty much sunk the whole ship.

4) Stunts - Total Thumbs Up: Tons and tons of great fight scenes. They did get a little too close when filming them on them on occasion and shook them a bit more than necessary, but overall were quite good. I especially enjoyed the fist and gun fight between Roadblock and Firefly towards the end. The ninjas on ropes combat was quite entertaining as well. And watching the Joes in action in the two sections at the beginning was quite satisfying.

5) Locations/Cinematography - Total Thumbs Up: Great shots of places like Tokyo, Washington DC, the monastery in the mountains, and more. The interiors of these same places matched the exteriors therefore keeping the symmetry of the locations, which worked well.

6) Costuming/Makeup - Total Thumbs Up: The Joes sweated, got hurt, got dirty, and Lady Jaye never looked like she'd just walked out of a Salon except on the mission where she was supposed to, so kudos for that.

Conclusion: Fun action scenes, cool fights, and fun weaponry! But these are sadly spoiled by the contrived and thin plot. If you go in knowing the story itself needs help and ignore most of it, you're liable to better enjoy all the good stuff that's definitely there.

Rating: 3.25 out of 5 (Hubby's Rating: Better For Matinee)

P.S. You can get all the GI Joe Collectibles you might ever want at the G.I. Joe Collectionary.

Movie Review - Journey 2: The Mysterious Island

Journey 2: The Mysterious Island

Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Michael Caine, Josh Hutcherson, Luis Guzman, Vanessa Hudgens, and more.

Directed by: Brad Peyton Written by: Richard Outten, Brian & Mark Gunn Screenplay by: Brian & Mark Gunn Based on the Novel by: Jules Verne Original Music by: Andrew Lockington

Premise: Trying to bond with his step-son, Hank goes with Sean in an attempt to find Sean's Grandfather after Sean receives a cryptic coded message. A message stating that Jules Verne's Mysterious Island is real.  (Rated PG)

Review: "How about an adventure?" a repeated theme with stunning visual results, just lacking in good writing. Sad to say as I'd really been looking forward to the film.

We lost Frasier and gained Johnson. Not a bad deal as both are more than capable. Even gave the writers fodder for internal conflict. If only they'd not been so heavy handed about it.

Gorgeous visuals. The storms out at sea and then the vistas on the island were magnificent. One promised breathtaking view definitely was that. The flaura and the fauna were all well done and pretty darn cool. The underwater scenes totally rocked.

But for every place the visuals or the acting sang, the story telling pretty much crashed. Which is a pity. Heavy handed, with awkward conflict, the only parts that somewhat worked were the comedic bits. Luis Guzman added a lot to the film to make it tolerable, and of course the Rock's dating tip number three was a hoot. (No, guys, that does NOT work! lol)

The story ran hot and fast, so fast, you couldn't appreciate much of the island. And there were discrepancies or conveniences that just couldn't be explained or made no sense. Sorry, but an old man alone for two years on the island could not do what Alexander did, even if it was cool.

Ten to thirteen year olds won't see those flaws, so they should have a blast. For us old timers, seeing the city and the Nautilus will be half the treat, even if the sub is kind of small.

So for a family film, it will do. Give wonder for the kids, hormones for the teenagers (boys and girls), and cool visuals for the adults.

Rating: 3 out of 5 (Hubby's Rating: Better For Matinee)

Movie Review - Fast Five

Fast Five

Staring: Paul Walker, Vin Diesel, Jordana Brewster, Dwayne Johnson, Tyrese Gibson, Ludacris, Matt Schulze, Sung Kang, Gal Gadot, Elsa Pataky, and more...

Directed by: Justin Lin Writing Credits: Chris Morgan Based on Characters by: Gary Scott Thompson Original Music by: Brian Tyler

Premise: After a grand escape by Dominic Toretto, engineered by Brian O'Conner and Dominic's sister Mia, the team meets again in Rio, where an old friend hooks them up with an 'easy' job when they're strapped for cash. Things go south due to info that wasn't shared, and now Dominic, Brian, and Mia are on the most wanted list of not only the US Government, who's sending a special team to find them, but Rio's biggest crime boss.

Review: Five Fast is the fifth installment of The Fast and The Furious franchise that started back in 2001. If you haven't seen the others you won't be lost, all the major info needed supplied in bits and pieces for the most part. However, if you have seen them, this turns into a major reunion party and more. (In the credits they show the way the characters looked then to now - sort of wished they'd done it at the start as it would have helped place one or two of them! :P)

You can't look at the physics of things too closely, or you'll spoil the fun. A little suspension of disbelief will go a long way and boost your enjoyment. That being said, they pull off all sorts of amazing stunts. They took all the stops out and wrecked more cars, in more closeups than ever before. If you're seeing it in IMAX, it makes it that much more. Some of the flipping cars and flying pieces of concrete and metal feel like they're coming right at you with no 3D.

Loads of chases, gun play, wrecks, and mass destruction with a towed safe. I also enjoyed the added flavor of people speaking in Portuguese down in Rio and the Spanish and English wordplay between two of the guys. (Decent subtitles are supplied for all.)

The acting is good, which means they sell it well. Some expected turns actually don't happen, and some unexpected left turns do, which was great. Loads of action action action. Tons of lovely cars and in one section loads of babes for the guys to drool over - as if they needed more than the two, make that three hot female costars.

It was a blast watching Vin Diesel and the Rock go at it. A train wreck waiting to happen. And it does. And then some.

Great location shots, too -- Rio, Puerto Rico, Arizona. I love it when they actually try to use location shots for foreign places (though they did mix some Puerto Rico into Rio - it has a spacial look :P) so you can get a feel for the difference in housing and even customs if you look hard enough.

So if you're on the hunt for an action film with decent plot, colorful characters, amazing stunts and good acting - this one's for you!

Also, make sure to sit through part of the credits, especially if you've seen the other films. There's a little extra something there just for you! :)

Rating: 4 out of 5 (Hubby's Rating: Worth full price of admission (IMAX))