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Finally, a light at the end of the tunnel that has been this very much mediocre summer of cinema. Well, actually, this movie came out in May...

Finally, a light at the beginning of the tunnel that has been this very much mediocre summer of cinema.

That doesn't really work.

Man, thank God for this light that was at the beginning of the dark tunnel that has been this very much mediocre summer of cinema. That'll work.

I'm not even gonna list 'em, but let's face it. Movies this summer have not been up to their regular summer blockbuster excellence. Transformers, Terminator and even G.I. Joe couldn't make themselves worth the money for the ticket. Need I mention that only one of those three weren't sequels? Yeesh.

It's never a surprise these days when a younder audience's flick makes huge bank, because let's face it, kids have time on their hands and don't have to worry about paying for the ticket, so there's none of the skepticism so common amongst the more mature beings that we refer to ourselves as being. I wish I was my age but still a kid at the same time. Life would be sweet. You could sleep in, play XBox for hours, hit the playground with a reliable juice box in hand (probably apple flavouring), and end the day with a viewing of Up, the new Pixar flick.

By now, if you're reading this, you've seen this movie, so I don't have to waste your time with an explanation, and if you haven't seen it you must be dead and reading this, and in that case, you should visit your local church for a quick exorcism. This article is going everywhere, I apologize.

This is great flick, and gets two thumbs UP from me, and 6/6 bottles.

Harry Potter & the Half-Good Film

You know you're desperate to see a movie when you pay to see a Harry Potter flick in theatres. I'll be honest, I don't hate the flicks, I just don't like being one of three adults in the theatre either. But with Public Enemies delayed release to theatres in Hong Kong, I didn't really have any other choice, so HP6 is what I peeped.

Although to say I actually saw anything would be kind of a lie. NOTHING happens in this movie. It is so damn uneventful that it blew me away. I could have told the story of this two and a half our movie in 15 minutes... easily. I really don't feel like that's being arrogant, but so much of what happens in this movie is unimportant. The Potions book thing belonging to the "Half-Blood Prince," I don't get why it was in there, other than the fact that it caused Harry to perform a crazy violent act on that very Nazi-esque looking enemy of his, thus revealing a possible dark side to our hero. But seriously, the story really had nothing to do with the book, so what was the point? Not to mention all these teenaged hormones getting thrown around left, right and center, causing girls to cry and boys to be emo and lame.

Speaking of which, I can't think of more awkward flirty moments in a movie than the ones that were in these ones; like Hermione always panicking in front of Ron (Ya I know their names, leave me alone) when she has toothpaste or beer on her lips... actually come to think of it they played that joke out a lot. Or the whole Ginny feeding Harry? That like... embodies awkwardness. And then she ties his shoes! Tie your own shoes Harry! I thought you were The Chosen One! Can't even tie your shoes? So much for saving the world...

But you know, at the same time, this wasn't a terrible movie. It had some excellent qualities. For one thing, I think it was the funniest of all the HP movies I've seen. The liquid luck scenes in particular where Harry is constantly giving Jim Broadbent(who is always brilliant)'s character a hard time are especially funny. And the closing scenes with the mourning of Dumbledore was pretty moving, but don't tell anyone I said that.

The cinematography of the flick was really cool too, done by one Bruce Delbonnel, who actually just rocked his first Harry Potter film, and rocked it indeed. I thought it looked great.

Broadbent and Michael Gambon were the acting prominents of the movie in my opinion. I hate saying whether or not the kids were good or bad because who actually knows? They were like 10 when they started these, and how often do you get a 10 year old who blows your mind on-screen? Not often, so I guess they're consistent. Who knows? Maybe one day they'll do something really exceptional, win an Oscar, and HP will be nothing but a magical memory for all of them. Probably not. Daniel Radcliffe, the one and only Harry Potter himself, was hilarious on Extras though.

Fans of the books probably hate this movie. Fans of the movies probably love this movie, or hate it. It kinda goes both ways. Like a pendulum. But because I don't re-watch or re-read the Harry Potter adventures often or ever, it's hard for me to keep up. This movie makes the mistake of thinking that everyone who sees it will remember exactly what happened in the last one. I didn't, couldn't. Maybe it's my mistake, but in my books it still loses some points for that.

I give Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince 3.5/6, so I guess I'm just gonna let it keep swingin'.

P.S. - Apparently this movie just broke like every box-office record ever. The fans have spoken. What side did they choose?

Judgment Day for the Terminators

Because Terminator Salvation was such a letdown and because it was followed by Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, an even worse and harsher and bigger letdown/piece of shit, I felt the need to review something good. However, I am currently living in Hong Kong, where movies are released up to months later than they are in Canada, and so Transformers 2 is still the hot movie in theatres. Boo-urns. And so I busted out my Terminator trilogy, watched them, and will now review them, because they kick ass.

Yes, even the third one! Screw you!

But then again, what can honestly be said about these movies? They're landmarks, trademarks and filled with skidmarks, the on-road kind, not the in-underwear so often discovered in 12 year old boys laundry hampers. These flicks set the scale for robot/sci-fi, using both symbolism and thriller aspects in order to breakaway from the straight out action style of so many futuristic movies you see nowadays. See Terminator Salvation for the most recent example of this.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, who would one day become Governor of California and subsequently run it financially into the sewer, stars as the T-800, and damn, he never fails to be awesome. There's just something about hanging out with a humanoidic robot that basically won't die and kicks so much ass that seems cool to me. John Connor was the luckiest 12 year old in the world. Well, and also the most unfortunate I guess, but still.
Of course, in the first one, the T-800 is the bad guy and John Connor isn't alive, but The Terminator really broke the genre when it was released. There's something about that James Cameron touch I guess. Schwarzengger's villain became as equally feared among my generation growing up as Darth Vader, Jack Nicholson's Joker, and Jaws. Personally, I think it was because it was a movie about the future that took place today. Well, like 25 years ago now, but you get the idea.
Then came T2: Judgment Day. You know, I've seriously never met anyone who didn't like this movie. Easily in the top action films of all time. It is so innovative, so exhilarating, and so incredibly filmed. The acting on all ends is great, my personal favorite being the psychologist who later cameos in T3. But most importantly I think, is the way that this movie took its predecessor's villain, made him a hero like so many movies had done before it, but actually made it believable. I truly bought and continue to buy that the T-800 was now sent back in time by John Connor in order to protect John Connor from the T-1000, an even more dangerous Terminator. I loved how the dude who played the T-1000 is like a pansy compared to Arnie, and yet the whole movie you can buy that Arnie's ass is totally getting whooped. The R-rated violence is appropriate and works because of the depth of the film. With such serious content matter as the end of the world, a little gratuitous violence is simply expected. Judgment Day is the action film that got everything right.
T3: Rise of the Machines, in no way as good as the first two, is still a pretty great film. What it lacks is this: use of the amazing score that the first two and even Salvation incorporated, the opening title sequence that again, even Salvation incorporated, and a villain worth being afraid of. Terminatrix? Come on, that's stupid, and so was she. But let me offer this; the action in this movie is terrific, equalling the other two in my opinion. When the huge semi goes full-speed, face first into the pavement? Amazing. Two helicopter crashes into the same building? So awesome. So yes, the third one, like Return of the Jedi, Spider-Man 3, and Back to the Future 3, did not live up to the quality of the first two, and in fact, many would argue that the second installment of each of these series is the best. I would agree except for Back to the Future, first one all the way. So give Rise of the Machines a break, it's simply just not that bad.

The Terminator Series is and will continue to be an important trilogy in the movie making world because frankly, there's never going to be another series like it or as good as it in its genre. Many have tried and will continue to try to copy it, but they'll fail. Terminator did what all time travel movies want to do: actually make sense. When they try to change the future, they actually do. And when something destined to happen changes, it still happens. This is what movies about time travel are meant to be like, because it actually makes sense to the viewer. This series also works because they change the future and travel through time by barely showing you the future or the changes made in the past. Because of this, Terminator remains a believable albeit ridiculous idea.

Hasta La Vista Baby

Fallen Indeed

I'm bummed right out...

Do you ever just get that ridiculous, insane, can't help but wanna scream excitement about a movie about to be released? Me too! I get that excitement too! Seriously I d-... oh, you don't actually get it? Well I do.

And I had that excitement for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Not because I LOVED the first one or anything, in fact, besides the great action I thought the first Transformers was kinda weak. But Revenge looked great! It looked like it was going to be non-stop action, and like a ton of new awesome characters were gonna be introduced... man, I couldn't help but get that ridiculous, insance, can't help but wanna scream excitement over this flick.

Holy Shit did that ever fade fast!

I seriously, don't know where to begin other than at the beginning, in which the first 15 minutes of this flick introduce a plethora of new characters who are subsequently NEVER used again! Arcee, from the cartoon showed up, and she has like two lines! And there are three of her! Three! And then Sideswipe, probably the coolest character I'd seen yet, had ONE action scene! In the first 15 minutes! He gets one line, one action scene, and one glance, and then he's gone!

!

But of course, what better new characters to keep around then the annoying, comic but not funny relief that were the Autobot Twins, the Mexican coward of a roommate who gets tazered twice, and the hot college chick who is actually a Decepticon who tries to kill Shia LaBeouf with her tongue! Garbagio.

There was great action, really great action, but so much in this movie made no sense at all. For instance, when the Decepticons would fly in from space and land literally right next to someone, the person wouldn't even notice, and they didn't always make craters like the rest of them did. That makes no sense at all. One even lands on a frigate, and doesn't even dent the boat. There were all of these new characters like I mentioned who would suddenly just disappear, and sometimes there would be characters in massive action sequences and then they would just suddenly disappear too! No explanation, just not in the movie anymore! This happens with the Stupid Twins, the retarded roommate, and the Constructicon, who by the way, should have been awesome, but dies after getting shot once!

All your favorites from the first movie aren't used nearly as much as the posters and ad campaigns make it seem, and even Bumblebee was cut from a lot of this flick! Bumblebee? He's like the cornerstone of Transformers next to Optimus Prime!
Speaking of Optimus, did I mention his anti-climactic final battle where he defeats all three of the main villains, i.e. The Fallen, Megatron and Starscream in like 2 minutes and barely even gets hurt! So stupid, they built these three up so much and then brought them down so easily and quickly! GAH!

To top it all off, it ends with this thing of Cybertronic ghosts appearing to save both Shia's life and Optimus' life, and it comes out of the blue, is so stupid... like seriously, what were they thinking? They actually had a lot of really awesome story opportunities, but then they wouldn't pursue them and instead would focus on something really important like whether or not Sam should say I love you to his girlfriend, which it takes literally dying to do. Waste of time, just like the rest of this movie.

Literally the only thing worth watching was the CGI and the action that went along with it, and I still shiver when Optimus talks, but then they don't even give him a proper closing speech like he deserves! Instead he gets two sentences! You can't end a Transformers movie like that!

It finishes, as you can probably now assume, with no explanation of anything. The first movie closed itself off pretty nicely, this movie, no explanation of anyt event whatsoever. It just ends. And remember those funny little clips in between the credits? Those are back, but they're stupid as anything I've ever seen in cinema. What a terrible movie.

I give this movie 1.5/6, earning its 1.5 only for the action and CGI. Thanks you SO much Michael Bay, for ruining yet another potential-worthy flick.

A Fanboy's Dream

Ok, Wow! I cannot tell you how long I've been eagerly awaiting the release of this movie, which is a polite a way of saying I cannot tell you how long I've been crying like a baby waiting for the release of this movie throwing little girl tantrums everytime it said it was coming and then didn't. But, drumroll please... are you drumming?... are you using your hands or did you go find some pens or chopsticks or something?... who cares, cuz Fanboys is here!

This movie does what every boy or girl or man or woman or hermaphrodite who loved Star Wars always wanted to do; make a comedy about Star Wars about people who love Star Wars while lovingly making fun of Star Wars.

Star Wars.

Fanboys was not only hysterical, it paid an incredible homage to Star Wars and the rest of geekdom, taking only real hits at things that deserve it, like: Michael Bay, Trekkies, and Jar-Jar Binks.

The Wars references were amazing and plentiful, the jokes timely and hilarious, and the film was well made. Hilarious acting with a ton of awesome cameos including Princess Leia and Lando Calrissian themselves, this movie was a dream come true for the little Han Solo living inside of me. It even finishes off with a really touching ending that breaks your heart yet doesn't break with the feel of the movie.

I seriously cannot say enough about this flick, so I'm going to keep this short and say "see it." If you appreciate Star Wars or your just a movie geek or you just like movies, or you just want to sit down and look at a lighted screen, make it a Fanboys lighted screen.

Fanboys gets 6/6 from me. Here's what The Brew's view.

"So that's what death tastes like": a review of Terminator Salvation

Scepticism was abounding when I first heard that they were making a sequel to James Cameron’s Terminator series, especially when I learned that Schwarzenegger wasn’t returning. mean, it really just seemed pointless to make one of these flicks without him. And McG as director? The music video/O.C. guy? Come on... But then I saw the trailer, and my mind was totally flipped.



Batman as John Connor?! It looked amazing am I wrong? Plus a kick-ass title like Terminator Salvation... shoot, this movie had guaranteed gold oozing out of it like hot magma poured over a T-800 model. But like 300, Spider-Man 3 and Watchmen before it, too much hype can leave a dude disappointed.

Let’s start at the beginning: this movie is obvious. They literally give you the twist in the first 5 minutes of the movie! Now I’m no professional filmmaker, but come on... there had to be a better way to introduce that Sam Worthington’s character was going to be a Terminator, did they really have to give it away right off the bat? And its predictability doesn’t end there folks, no, they also have to go for the whole John Connor (i.e. J.C. i.e. Jesus Christ) sacrificing himself deal with cross motifs saturating the entire film. Don’t get me wrong, I love religious symbolism but don’t shove it in my face. Basically, the flick has weak story telling, with a side of robot love story that makes for good action but boring ideas.

But speaking of the action, it’s amazing. High intensity and unstoppable machinery has made for good movie watching since the 80’s when Kyle Reese first traveled back in time to protect Sarah Connor in the first Terminator, and need we even mention T2? Only one of the greatest action movies ever made to this day?... The action in this movie matched its predecessors in my opinion.

The acting was great with the exception of Sam Worthington who apparently had no idea what accent his character was supposed to have. But Christian Bale, Bryce Dallas Howard and Helena Bonham Carter knocked it out of the park, and Anton Yelchin (the dude from Star Trek) was awesome. This guy could have Shia LaBeouf’s career without the drunkenness and car accidents no problem if he keeps making the right film choices. Bonham Carter did an especially good job near the end when Skynet disguises itself as her character, it was a chilling scene.

Despite the fact that all of the Terminator’s in this movie looked great (especially Worthington’s Terminator look and the motorcycle-bots), there were way too many scenes where the CGI looked like they’d just run out of time to make it look as good as today’s standards allow. And remember how I said that the Governator didn’t show up for Episode 4? Not so! Only once you see him you really wish he didn’t make an appearance because he’s completely CGI’d, and even though they try to make him look like the T1’s T-800 model, you just know the whole time that he isn’t actually there because he looks like a video game character. I was thanking God when they melted his skin off, but then begging God to make it stop when the really fake looking magma poured all over Arnie’s metallic skeleton because it looked terrible too. I’m sorry McG, but I saw Star Trek and Transformers and there’s no excuse for CGI that looks like it was made 5 years ago. With the way a lot of this movie looked, the rest of it should have been equal if not better, and it let me down.

Danny Elfman did the great score with returning Terminator theme, and Shane Hurlbut , a crappy movie regular, actually did some amazing camera work, with a helicopter scene near the beginning of the film that certainly deserves a second look as it Connor running into a helicopter, taking off, flying, getting shot down, crashing and escaping. Really cool.

So essentially, this movie is in the middle, with really friggin’ strong qualities and really friggin’ weak qualities. It moved too quickly, both in its story pace (the flick’s shorter than 2 hours and could have used more development) and in production so that I, as the viewer, might actually have believed that Arnold lived up to his promise when he said, “I’ll be back.” At least John Connor said it.

Terminator Salvation finishes with 2.5/6 from me. Here's what The Weekly Re-Brew had to say.

Angels & Demons - 4/6

After seeing Ron Howard's take on The Da Vinci Code, I can't say that I was too pumped to hear that he was also directing the sequel. Frankly I don't think I can name a single Howard flick other than Far and Away that I actually love. But as a movie buff, I had to see it... and frankly, I wasn't too disappointed.

Basically, Tom Hanks returns as Robert Langdon, the man who discovered that Christ actually did sleep with Mary Magdalene and produce an heir to the throne of God, so the Catholic church isn't too stoked on him. But, when there's a terrorist threat against the entirety of the Vatican by what they assume is the secret organization known as the Illuminati, the men in red call on ol' Langdon to save the day.

For conspiracy nuts or anyone interested in religious history, this movie is for you. However it starts with this long drawn out process of a scientific experiment involving something called anti-matter which apparently some scientists believe is what caused the creation of the world. They call it the God Particle. If you're confused don't worry, I still am. This, plus the next 15 minutes or so of the movie were way too drawn out and confusing and I took points off the film for that.

The acting performances around the board were great. I love Tom Hanks, Stellan Skarsgard can do no wrong, and Ewan McGregor is Obi-Wan Kenobi! Obi actually has this incredible scene where he pleads with the Catholic cardinals to bend the rules and shows how science AND the church have wronged each other. The force was strong with him in this flick.

The pace of the movie was strange for a thriller as it was a race against time but with the way they edited in the music (a great score by Hans Zimmer), it seemed to jump from really intense to really slow to really stupid. Points off for that as well, although it definitely earned its musical points.

The cinematography was decent, although I think Salvatore Totino had a pretty easy time since it takes place almost entirely in Rome, and is it even possible to make Rome look ugly? Totino has chops though, maybe it's just time for him to break away from Ron Howard and try working with a new director that isn't Brett Ratner (Totino shot Changing Lanes, the Affleck/L. Jackson masterpiece).

All in all, it's an alright movie. It's not great by any means, but it's entertaining and if you love conspiracies and religion like I do, you'll probably like it.

As I used to do with The Weekly Re-Brew, I'm going to rate the movies I watch with beer bottles. I give Angels & Demons 4 out of 6 bottles, docked for its random music placements, its choppy editing and the fact that the first half hour of this movie is as boring as all get out.

Here's what The Brew had to say about the flick here.