Haywire Review

Haywire stars Gina Carano as Mallory Kane, a highly trained, freelance operative, taking on various assignments around the world, through her handler Kenneth (Ewan McGregor). On what is to supposed to be a simple stand-in assignment, she is double crossed by her agency, and made a fugitive.

One look at Gina Carano's profile on IMDB will show you that she is a new comer, with nothing notable under her belt. The inexperience shows through in her acting; she can use work, but she isn't horrible. With a history in competitive TV shows like "Ring Girls," "Inside MMA," and "American Gladiators," just to name a few, she is able to pull off the action scenes effortlessly.

(Other stars include Channing Tatum, Michael Douglas, Antonio Banderas, and Michael Fassbender.)

Most of the story takes place in the form of flash backs and recounts by the characters that lived them, without any real verbal narration until the story is returned to the present for just a split second before diving back into the past. Often these flashback scenes are played out without much dialogue, rather with more running, fighting, shooting, and characters motioning to others and speaking without audio. This overview style of storytelling does not take away from the story, though, because the movie speaks, when it absolutely needs to, so that helps to cut out unneeded dialogue.

One of my fellow moviegoers told me that this movie looked low budget. In truth it is evident that this film operates on a less than average Hollywood blockbuster budget, though I think it tends to add to the movie in a few ways. One example is how that lack of a upper echelon production value seeps its way into the fight scenesl. This is more an example of how I think it helps the movie. The uncultivated hand-to-hand battles ultimately lead to a style that is unique to this one film, not something a viewer may feel was repeated from another.

In the end, Haywire will not be for everyone, but I genuinely like this movie. It is not groundbreaking and probably will not be remembered in just another year, but as for entertainment, it is good.

Feedback is encouraged.

—Thomas

Contraband Review

Contraband stars Mark Wahlberg as Chris Farraday, a former smuggler turned family man and, full-time business owner, installing home security systems. During a few scenes of scattered "back in my day" talk, we are given a sense that he was some sort of black market legend.

Unfortunately for Farraday (Wahlberg), he has a brother-in-law, the brother of his wife Kate (Kate Beckinsale), who does not heed the words of the wise to stay out of that smuggling life. After a deal gone wrong, the kid ends up in the hospital, with a death threat that leads back to the Farradays, furthermore leading the man of the house back into the life of a smuggler, for one last run, as a favor to his wife to save her baby brother.

It is a good movie—solid story, good acting & actors, not very much to complain about, unless it is just not your type of film. If there is one complaint I have, it is that Chris Farraday, this black market legend, seems to border the line of not really knowing what he is doing, when just about every plan he has seems to fall apart before he even gets halfway through, or maybe it is just rust. Another "well, why did he do that?" moment comes when (SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER) he decides to take his brother-in-law on the smuggling run, the same kid who got him into this nifty little situation. Anyway, those are just my complaints.

Other movie attractions come in the form of Ben Foster (3:10 to Yuma), who plays Sebastian Abney, a brother/uncle  like family friend, looking after Chris's family while he is gone on his run.

All in all, this is a film that I would recommend to any moviegoer, looking for an entertaining watch.

Horizons

I have comprised a list of movies that I believe will be good in the forthcoming weekends of this year. Some may wonder how I have come to place each movie on this list but not others. The answer: personal taste, trailers, cast, producers & directors, franchise history.

Examples...

PERSONAL TASTE:  Personal taste comes in with the particular genres I like, like action. Some trailers have the ability to grab one's attention like no other, like the first Iron Man, or the 300. 

CASTING: I like to look at casting on a very few actors, who seem to stay in quality movies. Leonardo DiCaprio has seemed to become one of those actors, with recent films like Blood Diamond, The Departed, Shutter Island, and Inception. Russell Crow and Denzel Washington are two other actors I tend to keep an eye out for.

FRANCHISE HISTORY: I take the history of a franchise into account with a movie like the upcoming Batman: The Dark Knight Rises. Batman Begins was good, The Dark Knight was better, hopefully The Dark Knight Rises triumphs over all.

PRODUCERS & DIRECTORS: Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Ridley Scott, Peter Jackson, Christopher Nolan—enough said. One look at the history of each of their work, and one will feel no obligation to give a reason to see their movies, be they director or producer of said project.

The list goes as follows...

January 13th
•Contraband (Mark Wahlberg) 
January 20th
•Haywire (Gina Carano, Ewan McGregor)
•Coriolanus (Ralph Fiennes, Gerard Butler)
•Red Tails
January 27
•The Grey (Liam Neeson)
February 3rd
•Chronicle
February 10th
•Safe House (Denzel Washington, Ryan Reynolds)
February 17th
•This Means War (Reese Witherspoon, Tom Hardy, Chris Pine)
•The Secret World of Arrietty 
March 9th
•John Carter
March 30th
•Wrath of the Titans (Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson)
April 13th
•Bullet to the Head (Sylvester Stallone)
May 4th
•The Avengers
May 25th
•Men in Black III
June 1st
•Snow White and the Huntsman (Kristen Stewart, Chris Hemsworth)
June 8th
•Prometheus
June 15th
•Jack The Giant Killer
June 22nd
•Brave
July 3rd
•The Amazing Spider-Man (Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone)
July 20th
•Batman: The Dark Knight Rises (Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway)
August 3rd
•The Bourne Legacy (Jeremy Renner)
August 17th
•The Expendables 2 (Sylvestor Stallone, Jason Statham, Chuck Norris, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger)
November 9th
•James Bond: Skyfall (Daniel Craig) 
December 14th
•The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
December 21st
•World War Z (Brad Pitt)
December 25th
•Django Unchained (Jamie Foxx, Leonardo DiCaprio)

I will surely update this list as more trailers premier and other release dates are announced, so stay tuned, moviegoers. Comments are welcome and encouraged.
—Thomas

Expectations

Hello,


This is my first of hopefully a never ending series of movie blog reviews. This blog is not a review of any one movie in particular but rather an explanation of what I tend to look for in a movie; what makes a film good.


First and foremost I am a "guy." I like to see explosions, car chases, shoot outs, sword duels, bare knuckle brawls, over the top stunts, etc., etc. When I take my seat in a theater, I am not there to learn a life lesson—though if that should happen, it is icing on a cake—or to be taught like I was sentenced to a sensitivity class. Films that become my favorites make me nudge the person next to me in a "Did you see that?!" moment, or laugh out loud from time to time. I, like the everyday person, go there to be entertained.


Now just because I enjoy the frantic chaos of an epic battle scene does not mean I throw a good script to the wind, either. In my opinion the most annoying element of a story is when, upon subsequent views, it begins to become apparent there are plot holes, events that cannot possibly matchup, or incomplete branches of the story that the writer must have found too difficult to tie together, so instead tries to sweep underneath the rug in hopes that the viewer will not notice. Such a thing as this often tends to unravel the entire experience, making what could have been a classic become unbearable, instead.


There is a saying that goes something like, "there is no more originality left in the world." With movies like Inception just released in 2010, I highly disagree. A very few movies still manage to stretch the capacity of the imagination, leaving one to say, "I've never seen that before." In this way, concepts, too, are just as  important to me as a  well put together storyline and maybe even more from time to time. Even a well written script can tend to become hampered by a feeling of deja vu. 


This first blog is just my heads up as to what to expect from me. Hopefully I gain some regular readers. And feedback is more than welcome, it is encouraged.