Big Epic Action, Big Credibility Problems

LONE RANGER

ACTION/ADVENTURE

PLOT: A spectacular remake of the classic TV show.

                This is a popcorn movie!!  Big and loud with amazing special effects.  The movie tells the origin of the Lone Ranger.  Armie Hammer is John Reid/Lone Ranger.  He is very good at being bland.  He is a good actor.  He was in The Social Network and J. Edgar Hoover but this flick doesn’t require acting.   The star is Johnny Depp who plays Tonto, the Native American who plays Ranger sidekick.  Depp does his usual weirdness and he is very good most of the time. 

The villain Butch Cavendish played by William Fichtner is very crazed and the writers add something to make him more evil.  What is wrong with the movie?  It is too long and it is told in flashback by Tonto!!!  It was one of the financial flops of the summer and if you watch it you will know why. PLEASE watch it on video or Movie on Demand!!

PACIFIC RIM

ACTION/SCI-FI/FANTASY

PLOT: Monsters from the sea try to destroy mankind and the government creates mega-machines to stop them.

                The plot is all you need to know about this movie.  It is AMAZING film.  If you don’t like monsters or machines stop reading this right now but if you do this movie is for you!!  I didn’t list the actors in the film because they are not important but you just can’t make a movie with killer giant creatures versus killer robots.  Guillermo del Toro the director loves monster movies and he got it right!! It is big, loud and epic!!  Too bad he didn’t do Godzilla 2014.  See it on the big screen, see it in 3D but above all SEE IT!!!  The summer movie I have been waiting for!!!

WHITE HOUSE DOWN

ACTION/DRAMA/THRILLER

PLOT:  Another movie about terrorist taking the president prisoner.

                This film could be easily called Die Hard in the White House.  Channing Tatum (GI Joe, Magic Mike) is Cale who badly wants to be a Secret Service agent to impress his distant daughter then by incredible events proves he is the perfect for the job.  People will be debating which is the better picture this movie or Olympus Has Fallen.  Both have their strengths and weaknesses.  At least WHD is funnier and has Jamie Foxx as the president.

Retreads, Reloads & Knockoffs

FDR:  AMERICAN BADASS-2012

ACTION/COMEDY

PLOT:  A different spin on Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

                This outrageous, obscene flick came out last year.  I found out about it by accident but I am glad I did!!  FDR is a horny, foul-mouth hero/president.  Story is not important but the crazy comedy is!!  Barry Bostwick is great as FDR but I don’t know why he wanted to star in the low-budget B-movie mess.  Kevin Sorbo (Hercules himself is in and one of the producers!!) as pot-head Abraham Lincoln.  It is a trashy gem for all who are into bad cinema!!!

12 ROUNDS 2: RELOADED

ACTION/DRAMA

PLOT: EMT gets caught in a deadly game.

                Randy Orton is Nick Malloy just an ordinary EMT who saves the wrong guy and he has to play sick games with a hi-tech artist.  It is sequel in name only.  No one in the original movie is in it.  Wrestler Randy Orton is no actor but he reacts like a real person in the insane situations.  It is better than I thought it would be.

ATLANTIC RIM aka Attack From Beneath

SCI-FI/ACTION

PLOT: Giant monsters come from the sea and government makes giant robots to attack them.

               

                This is a rip-off of the summer blockbuster movie Pacific Rim.  The original title is this but they had to change it.  It is a better special effects movie from Asylum who makes films for Syfy.  A Syfy regular David Chokachi (Baywatch), Jackie Moore and rapper Anthony ‘Treach’ Criss and the soldiers who get in the mecha machines to fight off the monsters. Graham Greene from Defiance is funny as a no-nonsense admiral who delivers silly lines with a straight face is.  It is great fun if you don’t take it seriously.