All For One and Four for Fall

REEL STEEL
ACTION/SCI-FI/DRAMA

Nothing like robot action!!! It is a boxing movie, but instead of people it is robots. So if you like the Transformers or are a big kid at heart you will love it. It has all the clichés you see in a sports movie and a father who doesn’t know his kid. The best part and stars of the movie are the 8-foot robots attacking each other!!! Hugh Jackman is in it, but the people are not really interesting (at least) to me. Action hounds, you will love this. I am surprised this didn’t come out in the summer!!!

JOHNNY ENGLISH: REBORN
ACTION/COMEDY

Rowan Atkinson is back as secret agent, but funny Johnny English. He has to save the Chinese prime minster from getting killed. This time around it is more spy stuff than silly. There are great moments but it really plays like a thriller. Everyone is good including Gillian Anderson (Scully, X Files), Dominic West (Punisher War Zone). But the show stealer is Pik Sen Lim as Killer Cleaner!! She is elderly and deadly!!! It is good if you like Atkinson but if not, wait for video.

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 3
SUPERNATURAL THRILLER

The third installment of this film like all the others---using a hand-held camera to tell a frightening story of Katie and her sister Kristie being haunted by an entity. A lot doesn’t happen in the movie but it has jolts of scares when it does. You don’t need to see the first two movies, but it would help. This one made more money than the last, so I guess there will be another. Get ready!!!

THE THREE MUSKETEERS-2011
ACTION/ADVENTURE

Hollywood seems to make this story written by Aleixandre Dumas over and over again, and this time it has lots of special effects. You know the plot, but it’s got that Pirates of the Caribbean films feel going on. The villains are great and Mila Jovovich (Resident Evil) is devious as double agent swordsman Milady DeWinter. Orlando Bloom is very odd but good as the bad Duke of Buckingham, and Mads Mikkelsen (Casino Royale---the bad guy with the bad eye) shines as Rochefort. Once again he’s got an eye problem!!! Christopher Waltz (Inglorious Bastards, Green Hornet) is great as Cardinal Richelieu. If you like this story with the updated twist you will enjoy it, otherwise please wait for video.

From Summer Madness to Fall Sadness

KILLER ELITE
ACTION/THRILLER

This movie is based on a true story about Danny (Jason Statham, Transporter) who saves his kidnapped mentor Hunter (Robert De Niro) by a sheik who wants vengeance for his sons’ death. It gets more complicated and that is what makes it good!!! The film goes to different countries and you feel you are in a spy movie as well. Before seeming the movies I was wondering why the great actor De Niro was doing in it after watching it I know why. Action hounds will love this for there are great many action sequences. I don’t think it did well in the theaters for it is not the straight forward kick-ass movies Jason Statham fans are used to. It will do MUCH better on video!!!

CONTAGION
SCI-FI/THRILLER

The film is a grim story of how a disease can cause paranoia, violence and panic!! It is not a popcorn movie; it is meticulous, scary, realistic and frightening. Gwyneth Paltrow, Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne and Jude Law are excellent in the movie but like I said-–it is a good movie, just not a very happy one. It made money the first weekend, then took a dive, and if you’re brave enough to see the movie you’ll see why. What is so scary about it-–it could happen at any time.

ABDUCTION
ACTION/THRILLER

First, to truly enjoy this film you have to believe Taylor Lautner star of The Twilight movies as an action hero!!! If you can’t get past that you won’t enjoy it. Direction is by John Singleton, of Boys in the Hood, and is about how Taylor’s great life is lie, as he finds out the truth about his real parents. You have seen it all before but it is nice Lautner is trying to branch out before Twilight ends. The movie is action packed compared to the two Twilight films combined!!! It made more money than his co-stars of the Twilight films but not much. Girls watched the movies more than guys so I guess men don’t see the heartthrob as a badass.

DRIVE
CRIME DRAMA

The trailer you see for this film is misleading!!! It is not an action movie!!! It has action in it, but it is far from what you expect. It is not a car chase movie either. What it really is part independent film, part film noir, part crime drama. The acting is great, especially from Ryan Gosling, and even comic Albert Brooks is very good as a gangster!!! The story is simple---a stuntman also does part-time work as a driver. Nicolas Winding Refn directing is as strange as his name. This film is not for everybody, so for many, video is the only way.