Mr. Nolan,

From the bottom of my heart, thank you.

Thank you for Inception.

From this day forward, I will be there opening weekend, to support your work.

Much Love,
TeamCTF.com

I just got back from taking my 2 kids to see the A-Team movie. My 11 year old son was the main reason for our movie outing as he was “dying” to see the A-Team. I thought it was quite odd, since he refuses to sit down and watch any of the old episodes with me.

At the theater, situated between my son and 13 year old daughter, I was preparing myself for another long and boring movie – kinda like the remake of Clash of the Titans (yeah, that movie sucked all around). Little did I know that aside from me waxing nostalgia for a TV show that I really didn’t care too much about but still found myself watching back in the 80′s, is that my biggest surprise was this action movie totally harkens back to the days of Die Hard.

I know it’s still early in the summer movie marathon and Inception is about 4 weeks aways but I will go out on a limb here and proclaim that the A-Team movie will be one of the action movie gems of this summer and probably for years to come.

I won’t go on and on about how over exaggerated the whole concept was, what I will share with you is that you have probably (or definitely) seen this movie before a couple of dozen times. The biggest difference with the A-Team (aside from the great casting) is that it goes where most other films have frequently tread and, lucky for us, it doesn’t stop there because it keeps pushing on and goes so much further. It’s violent without the blood. There’s lots of explosions (a very high BSU quotient!) and know one really dies, at least you don’t see a lot of dead bodies. This movie even goes “3D” with tongue firmly planted in cheek.

Will this movie change your life? No, probably not but it will allow you to forget about it for about 2 hours and change. So far, it’s the best popcorn movie of the 2010 Summer season. I hope it does well enough to warrant a sequel or two because I really enjoyed the characters and their crazy plans. Actually, I love it MORE when a good movie comes together and goes beyond your expectations and that’s what the A-Team does very well.

[starratingmulti id=1 tpl=27 element_stars='crystal' average_stars='crystal' average_size='30']

So, what did you think?

If you’re not living under a rock or in a cave in the wilds of Pakistan, then you’ve heard that Watchmen opened on Friday. Find out why only idiots would miss it.

Watchmen opens with a brilliant visual montage set to Bob Dylan’s Times They Are A Changing that sets the stage in an alternate 1985 in which the superheroes who walk among us have been outlawed, and tricky Dick Nixon is elected to a 4th term after America wins the Vietnam war. Now – if you think that one sentence was too complex for your simpleton’s brain to grasp, you’re going to want to skip the Watchmen. This isn’t a film that you should sit through and half-pay attention to while you’re texting. Unlike just about every other movie based on a “comic” (and we’ll use the term loosely here), the Watchmen demands your full attention. It’s not just a visual feast – it’s also the most darkly intense film I’ve seen in a very long time, and it’s not for the kiddies.

The mood of the film is dark as we follow Rorschach, the only active costumed hero, as he tries to solve the murder of another masked hero – the Comedian – who is tossed through the window of his high-rise apartment after a brutal fight with an unknown assailant. As the story unfolds, you meet other former masks – now retired from crime fighting – many of whom are living lives both anonymous and bland. The characters are complex, and appear completely realized. Rather than flat, comic book heroes, we find Watchmen populated with exceptional people that have histories, who have made mistakes, and who have regrets and their own self-interests in mind.

Visually, Watchmen is a stunning piece of filmmaking. There is beauty – a rough, gritty, broken-tooth sort of beauty in nearly every frame set in New York. The digital effects aren’t overpowering and add a layer of otherworldliness to the character of Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup) – who is something that is no longer human and someone whose is losing touch with ties to the rest of us and our mundane existence

One of the things that separates Watchmen from other films based on graphic novels, is this one is based on what is arguably the best of the best in the genre. Fans of the novel will be satisfied – although die-hard fanboys will spot the places where the film veers off the course set by the original novel. As a film, Watchmen stands far and away above nearly every other “comic book” adaptation. Even so – you can’t really compare Watchmen to most other films, other than to say that it deals with some of the same themes that other films touch on: life vs. death, good vs. evil, etc., but Watchmen does this in a way that would never work in another “comic” film. Here, there are no solid lines between heros and villains, because the heros don’t just have a requisite “fatal flaw” – they have very real flaws that everyone has.

Of course, not everyone likes complexity. Idiots, for example, tend to like their fiction in a nice, neat package where you can spot the good guys and the bad guys using the color of their hats. If you fit in that category, go re-rent a copy of Electra or Daredevil. If you’re smart, please do yourself a favor and go see the Watchmen on the biggest screen you can. You’ll thank me later.

MPAA RATING: R for strong graphic violence, sexuality, nudity and language

Starring Jackie Earle Haley, Patrick Wilson, Matthew Goode, Billy Crudup, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Malin Akerman, Carla Gugino, Stephen McHattie, and Matt Frewer

WRITTEN BY: Alan Moore (graphic novel)
Dave Gibbons (graphic novel illustrator)
Alex Tse
David Hayter
DIRECTED BY: Zack Snyder
RELEASE DATE: Theatrical: March 6, 2009
RUNNING TIME: 163 minutes, Color
ORIGIN: UK | USA
- Warner Brothers

Space, the final frontier. You’ve heard that before, and you’ve seen countless Star Trek shows and movies come and go. This May, however, the franchise gets a fresh new start. How excited are you?

I can tell you, we’re pretty excited. We’ve grown up with Star Trek – it’s like part of the family. With J.J. Abrams at the helm, the new Star Trek film may well be the blockbuster that all of its predecessors aspired to, but never quite attained. The production values from the trailer look slick and – dare I say – futuristic. The action also appears to be there, with enough conflict, tension, and explosive space combat to make any Trek fanboy spill his Romulan Ale.

There are several trailers available on Apple.com, all of them in HD as well.

Also, check out the official Star Trek movie site as well as the discussion forums.

This May, it will be cool to say, “Live long, and prosper” once again.

OK – maybe not, but the movie should be a hoot!

Max Payne was really cool, if you’re into hot babes, tattoos, and you like your shoot-em-ups on the tepid side. I watched the unrated version, and I wonder what all the fuss was about.This was not a particularly well liked film by many reviewers. It got only 18% on RottenTomatoes.com, and comments like this were common:

No high-octane, fast-paced shoot ’em up this, Max Payne may well be the most tedious trip to a cinema you make all year. Truly, the minutes pass like hours. It’s akin to one of those straight-to-DVD titles you only ever find in petrol stations. (RottenTomatoes.com)

My take on this was that, since I enjoyed the Max Payne game series, I would give it the benefit of the doubt. Even so, I found this film adaptation to be slow moving, and I’m not sure that Wahlberg injected enough grit into the title role. The film ended up being a pretty standard man on a mission flick – and a predictable one at that. Without giving away too much, I can say that as soon as the mystery antagonist appeared on screen, we knew where the film was heading.

On the plus side, there are some hot babes and neat tattoos, and some of the gunfight scenes were pretty good. But there was too little of all of these to overcome the general sense of malaise that I found myself in by 1 hour mark.