Is there room for old style action heroes in our modern day world? Is there something more than nostalgia going on here? I was a bit skeptical at first — well to be honest I was of two minds about it really. On the one hand the trailers actually looked good. It seemed as if there might be something more to this film than stupidity and face punching. On the other hand, how could a film with two actors that I loathe in general be any good? So I couldn’t quite decide whether I thought the film would be any good. That being the case, I simply had to go and see it so I could make a determination…

Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman) finds himself living every parent’s worst nightmare when his six-year-old daughter goes missing. The only lead? A battered RV that was parked on the street only hours before. Heading the investigation is Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal), who tracks down the RV’s driver (Paul Dano) and takes him into custody. But when lack of evidence compels the suspect’s release, and police fail to turn up any more leads, Dover decides to take things into his own hands.

A Little Q&A

Your child has been abducted. Time is running out. What do you do?

Taken answered the question…

Of this you can be certain: I have no plans to ever, EVER go to space. While I have always been very fascinated by space, I have also always feared it a lot. Well, I mean it didn’t keep me up too much at night because I’m down here on this nice comfortable planet that has a nice comfortable atmosphere for me to live in. That’s the way I like it thank you very much. But I have always thought in the back of my head that, no, I would not like to ever visit space thank you. All those contraptions and air and whatnot to keep you alive? That all looks so flimsy and fragile compared to the vastness…

I love the stories Joss Whedon tells. The man walks on water… he’s perfect, he can do no wrong. Okay, maybe that’s taking it too far, but the fact is he is among the best show runners, filmmakers, and story tellers of our day as far as I’m concerned. That’s why I have been looking forward to his upcoming show Agents of SHIELD since I first heard about it. And having now had the privilege of watching it, I wasn’t disappointed. Of course the hype machine has been in full production mode so it’s hard for a show to live up to that much promotion. But it did.

The pilot episode was, first and…

It is rare that I enjoy a comedy film that is intended as a comedy film. I typically find the humor pretty crass and distasteful, so it’s not a genre that I go see in theaters often. However, The Way Way Back presented itself to me in the form of a free screening a month early, and what critic wouldn’t jump on that opportunity? I did, and it has become probably my favorite film of the year so far - aside from maybe Oblivion.

I Think You’re a Three

The Way Way Back tells the story of Duncan (Liam James), a young teen who is being forced into a vacation with his mother (Toni Collette), her…

Liam Neeson has an impressive resume. Think about it. He trained Batman and Obi-Wan and Darth Vadar. He is both Aslan and Zeus (which makes him a god in at least two mythologies). And he single-handedly annihilated an entire human trafficking ring during a short vacation in Paris.

Having duly weighed this in our minds, we have to ask: Who or what is going to mess with a guy like that?

Wolves. And God.

Of Plane Wrecks & Mythical Beasts

In The Grey, Neeson plays the character of John Ottway, an oil-rig worker who survives – together with several other roughnecks - a brutal plane crash in…

I suppose I should preface this review with two things: 1) I did not watch the first two films in this series due to lack of time and interest; 2) I never had any interest in seeing this film. With those items in mind, here I go.

The Chronicles

Due to my lack of background on the character, I’ll leave it to IMDB to tell you what the film is about:

Left for dead on a sun-scorched planet, Riddick finds himself up against an alien race of predators. Activating an emergency beacon alerts two ships: one carrying a new breed of mercenary, the other captained by a man from Riddick’s past.

This… Read The Review

Everything is being recorded. Someone is always watching. You’re always under surveillance. You are just a pawn. Yada, yada, yada.

That’s what this film attempts to portray to you. That is what this film attempts to sell you on. The only problem is that it has this premise but then doesn’t quite know what to do with it. It’s sort of like a dog that chases a car: I’m sure the dog has no plans for what happens if he ever caught it. And that’s not unlike what’s going on here. They have this premise that they caught — they latched onto it and they have no idea what to do with it.

But let’s not…

I wanted to like this film. I really wanted to like this film… but…

This film had all the makings, the trappings of a good fantasy film. But it uses those good elements it has to very bad effect. It plays a bit too much like a parody of the fantasy genre — ineptly moving from story beat to story beat without ever drawing the audience in or making us feel a real connection to the film.

It’s no wonder that this book series, and now subsequently, this film series is being made. Look at the success of the Harry Potter franchise in both book and film form. And truth be told, there is definitely…