Movie Review - Ratchet and Crank

Ratchet and Clank

Starring: James Arnold Taylor, David Kaye, Jim Ward, Rosario Dawson, Paul Giamatti, John Goodman, Dean Redman, Armin Shimerman, Sylvester Stallone, Alessandro Juliani and more.

Directed by: Kevin Munroe and Jericca Cleland Written by: T.J. Fixman, Kevin Munroe, and Gerry Swallow Cinematography by: Anthony Di Ninno Music by: Evan Wise

Premise: Ratchet has admired the Galactic Rangers since he was little. So when a chance pops up to try and join during a recruitment campaign in his backwater world, he's eager to go. His carefree past, however, proves a giant stumbling block. At least until he makes the unexpected acquaintance of a small defective robot he calls Clank. Suddenly, Ratchet finds himself dumped in the path of one of the biggest threats to the Galaxy and another chance at his dream. (Rated PG)

Review:

1.Voice Acting - Total Thumbs Up: Loads of great voice talents for this one. Loved Paul Giamatti as Chairman Drek - so ruthless and so dense. Heh heh. Armin Shimerman brought some nice lunacy into evil Dr. Nefarious. Sylvester Stallone was too fun as Victor Von Ion. Rosario Dawson did great as Elaris - just a touch of manic in there for flavor. Jim Ward, James Arnold Taylor, and David Kaye meshed quite nicely together as our three principal characters!

2. Artwork/Animation - Total Thumbs Up: We saw the film in 3D - CGI always converts quite nicely to the medium. They had some cool 3D moments and used it to good effect. The space shots were lovely! The 3D also made for some fast moves down a narrow canyon. 

The animation was quite detailed and came across very well. Ratchet's fur looked fluffy and soft while Captain Qwark looked as superficial as his personality. :P Elaris' horns/hair were very reminiscent of Galaxy Quest. :)

Some lovely color palettes used to good effect especially for subtext. Blues and Greens were for good, reds and oranges for bad. This placed Ratchet somewhat in the middle before joining the Rangers, which was rather apt with his tendency to get into trouble. 

3. Plot/Story - Thumbs Up: The Ratchet and Clank film is based on a PlayStation game from 2003 (and has had several sequel games). As such, the film is filled with tons of lovely snark. They even do a countdown at the beginning to the evil speech. :P 

Several themes are used/explored in the film - belonging, responsibility, big dreams, that friendship runs both ways, as well as the fickleness of fame and addiction to it. Best of all, the little biases that can cause so much harm to others. 

The plot is pretty straight forward with a few small surprises and lots of subtext and snark. They even make fun of the Wilhelm scream. lol. Chairman Drek was both brilliant and dense - and his minions are social media fools! lol. Dr. Nefarious is so insane he actually made mad science work! (Loved the Sheep-i-nator!)

A couple of items are a little far fetched (rust takes time guys!), but it is enough fun it's easily overlooked. 

Once the film shows the voice actors names at the end, there's a bit more (and more snark) then one last bit after all the credits. Well worth it. Heh heh.

Conclusion: Ratchet and Clank is a fun ride full of snark and cute little moments. The lovely animation made the cool gadgets, guns, spaceships and space look awesome.

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

Movie Review - Escape Plan

Escape Plan

Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jim Caviezel, Faran Tahir, Amy Ryan, Sam Neill, Vincent D'Onofrio, Vinnie Jones, Matt Gerald, 50 Cent, Caitriona Balfe, and more.

Directed by: Mikael Håfström Screenplay by: Miles Chapman and Jason Keller (Arnell Jesko) Story by: Miles Chapman Cinematography by: Brendan Galvin Music by: Alex Heffes

Premise: Hired to break out of a new maximum security facility by the government, Ray Breslin soon finds out that matters aren't as they should be. And that someone has paid to have him kept there permanently. As his staff fruitlessly try to figure out what's happened to him, Breslin must find a way out on his own. (Rated R)

Review:

1) Acting - Total Thumbs Up: Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger together in a film, both with top billing - an action movie fan's dream come true. Stallone's closeups didn't do him any favors, the rheumy eye shots unflatteringly giving away his age, but Schwarzenegger looked great with the gray in his hair and the lovely sculpted beard. Watching the two trade quips and the occasional blow was most entertaining. Arnold had several great lines, and looked like he was really enjoying being part of the film.

Jim Caviezel was creepily delightful as Warden Hobbes. Faran Tahir was very convincing as both an enemy and later as a respected comrade in arms.

2) Special Effects - Total Thumbs Up: "Escape Plan" doesn't have a lot of obvious special effects, but the few that made an appearance were good. The shaft leak and the consequences of same were very well executed. The look and feel of the hidden prison for the most part worked rather well. It very much had the look and feel of a place taken straight out of first person shooter game.

3) Plot/Story - Thumbs Up: In general, the plot was quite entertaining. The clever tactics by Breslin and the inventiveness of some of the sequences were very nice. The prison set up looked great, though in reality it wasn't actually practical. For a hidden prison, with no real ties to any government or morals, the display of following rules like the exercise yard seemed odd. The dehumanizing of the guards by having them wear masks, however, was a brilliant touch.

The biggest problem with the plot was the unconvincing (and therefore unsatisfying) reason for why Ray was betrayed in the film. Otherwise the movie moved at a good pace, had several great moments, and even a surprise or two.

Of some slight amusement is the fact that Jim Caviezel is the warden of this prison. The actor once played Edmond Dantes in "The Count of Monte Cristo" - a man who escaped from an escape proof prison.

4) Locations/Cinematography - Total Thumbs Up: The fact we see Ray break out of a normal prison at the beginning, made for a great visual contrast for when we're shown Hobbes' super facility. The sweeping shots once Ray is able to gleam a clue as to the prison's location did much to truly portray the utter isolation and impossibility of gaining his freedom from Hobbes masterpiece.

Conclusion: "Escape Plan" is a fun action film. It's totally worth going to see it just for the Stallone and Schwarzenegger team up. Keep your suspension of disbelief on the high side and you'll have a fun time.

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

Movie Review - The Expendables 2

The Expendables 2

Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lungdren, Chuck Norris, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Bruce Willis, Nan Yu, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Terry Crews, Randy Couture, Liam Hemsworth, Scott Adkins, Charisma Carpenter, and more...

Directed by: Simon West Screenplay by: Richard Wenk and Sylvester Stallone Story by: Ken Kaufman, David Agosto, and Richard Wenk Based on the characters by: David Callaham Cinematography by: Shelly Johnson Original Music by: Brian Tyler

Premise: When a supposedly easy mission turns bad and takes the life of one of their own, the Expendables won't rest until they've gotten revenge.

Review:

1) Acting - Thumbs Up: There wasn't much for most of the actors to act to, but what there was was well done. Stallone did a great  job. Van Damme was an awesomely nasty bad guy. It was definitely fun watching them all prancing about with guns blazing.

2) Special Effects - Total Thumbs Up: Great explosions! Tons of weapons fire during different parts of the film and they actually would run out of bullets, trying for a feeling of authenticity. It even had daring airplane lift offs and landings. Plenty of special effects entertainment for all.

3) Plot/Story - Neutral: The beginning of the film with the extraction/rescue plan was probably the best part of the whole movie. It truly showed the extent  of Expendables' skills. Then the story unfortunately turned into an unimaginative romp with too many winks to the audience with regards to in-jokes and other slipped in bits. Some were quite funny, but others fell flat. While seeing Chuck Norris was great, he got thrown in as a "Deus Ex Machina" at least once in the film. Some of  the others were also treated this way.

I was pretty miffed at the convenient way they got Jet Li's character to leave after the intro mission was over to make room for the character of Maggie. Though his 'fry pan' martial arts was totally enjoyable, it wasn't enough to make up for the big gap caused in the group with the departure of his character. It was almost as if the writers were afraid of having two characters doing martial arts. Which is silly as there can never be enough martial arts in an action film.

The jokes, like I said, were plentiful. Some were subtle, others were not. "Total Recall", "Die Hard", and even those online jokes about Chuck Norris made an appearance. I believe even the tattoo Van Damme wore as part if his 'bad guy' persona was an in-joke to one of his films.

4) Stunts - Total Thumbs Up: Great stunts. Kudos to the stuntmen standing in for our favorite older action heroes, especially during the final battle sequence. The only sequence with any issues was during the forced plane landing. The area of danger with Magggie was done in super shaky cam. Rather than add to the danger, it made the sequence incredibly difficult to see, making it lose any impact on the viewer of the possible loss of the new teammate.

5) Locations/Cinematography - Thumbs Up: Lots of foreign locations and interesting places were in the film. I especially enjoyed the cool structure of the mountain mines in Russia.

Conclusion: "Expendables 2" delivers on a ton of action, explosions, and gun play, but the plot left a lot to be desired. I didn't personally feel it came close to the original in overall satisfaction. But it definitely was awesome seeing all those big action stars on the big screen again.

Rating: 3 out of 5 (Hubby's Rating: Worth Seeing for Matinee)