Iron Man 2 [2010]

Iron Man 2 [2010]

Who you will see:

• Black Widow
• Nick Fury
• Ivan Vanko
• War Machine
  

Scarlett Johansson stars as Black Widow who appears as an assistant to Potts after being promoted to C.E.O. of Stark Industries. She was placed there by Nick Fury to keep an eye out for Tony.

Stark is slowly being poisoned by the arc reactor in his chest and is slowly dying. Nick Fury reveals that Tony's father is actually one of the founders of S.H.I.E.L.D. and was working on the arc reactor, which wasn't completely finished although Tony thought it was. The new reactor provides a much more cleaner power source and solved Tony's problem of the poisoning.

Ivan Vanko is the son of Anton Vanko, the original Crimson Dynamo in the comics. His character's armor is a cross between Crimson Dynamo and Blacklash, and other sources indicate him as Whiplash in the film although Whiplash/Blacklash is supposed to be Mark Scarlotti.

Don Cheadle is Rhodes this time who was portrayed by Terrence Howard in the previous film. He took one of Stark's armors due to Iron Man's neglect to his duties (Stark thought he is gonna die at that time from the palladium poisoning of his mini arc reactor). The armor he took is then weaponized to what will become the War Machine.

Post credits shows a location to a remote impact crater in New Mexico, with the camera zooming on Thor's hammer.

Wanted [2008]

I watched this film mainly because of being a fan of the Dozor (Watch) series which were directed by Timur... I wanted to see Timur's new movie. It also casts one of the primary characters in the Dozor films, Konstantin as a Russian fraternity member (The Exterminator). Info on Sergei Lukyanenko's ongoing tetralogy novels on film: Nochnoy Dozor (Night Watch, 2004) and Dnevnoy Dozor (Day Watch, 2006), both directed by Timur which I'm still planning to review. I am also waiting for Sumerechny Dozor (Twilight Watch) and Posledniy Dozor (Final Watch). Wanted also has the "articulated action sequences" of the Dozor films.

Wanted [2008|Action]
Director: Timur Bekmambetov
Cast: James McAvoy, Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman, Konstantin Khabensky... (more)

This film was based on Mark Millar's comic book mini-series of the same title (J.G. Jones was the artist). It tells the story of an ordinary accountant who is recruited by a group of assassins known as the Fraternity. The film added a new element to the story by including the looms of fate to determine the Fraternity's assassination targets.

The film starts with Wesley Gibson (McAvoy) narrating about his pathetic life, then the scenes shift to Mr. X being assassinated by Cross, a rogue Fraternity member who has been killing the assassins one by one. At a later part, Fox (Jolie) appears on Wesley's side to protect him from Cross, because Wesley was Cross' next target after killing his father Mr. X (plot related).
Wesley is then recruited to the Fraternity (same old stuff about "your dad was a member now its your turn") with his primary task: to kill Cross.

The film ends with Wesley taking back control of his own life and putting a bullet on another assassin; with the bullet travelling from his sniper rifle - to his untrustworthy best friend's drink - to his glutton-bitch-boss' donut - to his target.

Final note: bullets don't fly straight!

The Ruins [2008]

The Ruins [2008|Horror|Thriller]
Based on Scott Smith's novel "The Ruins"
Directed by: Carter Smith

A group of American and Greek tourists explore an uncharted Mayan ruin in Mexico. Mathias' brother had just met a beautiful archaeologist who has been exploring the ruins. He has not come back since spending the night at the archaeologists' camp there. Mathias met with the Americans and invited them over to the ruins to find his brother. Once there, they find a group of armed Mayans who try to drive them away at first, but then won't let them leave once they got into the ruin's vegetation.

The Mayans were actually placing the tourists in a quarantine, for the vegetation was actually a sentient creature-plant. The plant is capable of mimicking sounds and even the voices of people around to lure it's victims. It is somewhat like a parasite that enters human bodies, either as an unwilling host or to populate and spread.

The ending in the book tells how the last survivor commits suicide to warn others of the danger, but the plant drags the body so no one will find it. In the movie, the survivor escapes on a jeep and the camera focuses on the face to reveal the worm-like movement of the parasitic-plant under the skin.

In Bruges [2008]

In Bruges [2008|Dark Comedy|Crime|Drama]
Directed By: Martin McDonagh
Primary Characters: Ray (Colin Farrell), Ken (Brendan Gleeson), Harry Waters (Ralph Fiennes)

After accidentally killing a child on his last hit, hitman Ray and his partner Ken is sent to Bruges, Belgium by their boss Harry Waters to lay low for a while. While Ken thinks that the place is great, Ray feels otherwise and has been tormented by guilt as well. After agreeing with Ray to go sightseeing at night, the two left their hotel room and came across a movie shoot with a midget actor (they prefer to be called dwarfs). Here, Ray finds Chloe, which becomes his love interest.

As the story unfolds we then find out that the reason Harry sent the duo to Bruges is because he wants Ray to experience the magic and beauty of the place before taking him out, Harry has a principle that child-killers do not deserve to live and that if he had accidentally done it then he would swallow his own bullet and die. Without knowing Harry's intentions, Ray wanted to kill himself on the park but was stopped by Ken, who was supposed to kill him. Ken asks Ray to get on the train and disappear instead.

Upon learning this, Harry went to Bruges himself to deal with Ken. On the train, Ray was placed under arrest and was sent back to Bruges for a minor incident that happened earlier. At this part of the film we will see the chasing and the shooting. All three gets a bullet, two will die and one is brought by the ambulance in the end and wishes to live.

Movies <-this-> Week (Jun 08 4th Quarter)

Hard Boiled [1992] - A John Woo film starring Chow Yun-Fat as a no-nonsense detective.
Cleaner [2007] - Samuel L. Jackson stars as an ex-detective turned crime scene cleaner who "cleans" some evidence by accident and got himself into trouble.
Kung-Fu Panda [2008] - A martial arts animated film with voices of Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Jacky Chan, Ian McShane, Seth Rogen, Lucy Liu, David Cross, and many others.
Semi-Pro [2008] - Starring Will Ferrel as Jackie Moon, a one-hit singer who bought a basketball team to be the playing coach.. with ambitions to take his team to the big league, the NBA.
Street Kings [2008] - Keanu Reeves and Forest Whitaker in another cop drama.
The Incredible Hulk [2008] - Edward Norton stars as the marvel character Dr. Bruce Banner in the Hulk's latest installment. You can see Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) in the last part of the film, a preview for the next Hulk movie where the classic Marvel battle with the Hulk and Iron Man might be taken into consideration.
Be Kind Rewind [2008] - With Jack Black and Mos Def in this comedy about making "sweded movies".
Vantage Point [2008] - Dennis Quaid, Matthew Fox and Forest Whitaker in this action-drama about assassinations and conspiracies in the U.S. goverment taking place in another country. The story is told in different perspectives about the assassination attempt for the US president visiting Salamanca, Spain.

The Forbidden Kingdom [2008]

The Forbidden Kingdom (April 2008)

With Jet Li as the Monkey King and the Silent Monk. Long ago, the monkey king was tricked by the Jade Emperor's General, the Jade Warlord portrayed by Collin Chou. The Jade Warlord turned the Monkey King into stone, but before that, the Monkey King banished his staff to the mountains in the hope that someone will find it to free him from his imprisonment.

It also stars Jackie Chan as the drunken immortal Lu Yan and the Old Hop; Michael Angarano as Jason Tripitikas, the kung-fu fanatic destined to free the Monkey King; Yifei Liu as Golden Sparrow, orphaned by the Jade Warlord and vows revenge; and Li Bing Bing as the mercenary Ni Chang who was promised the Immortality Potion if she can bring the Monkey King's staff to the Jade Warlord.

Movies <-this-> Week (May 08 4th Quarter)

1. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull [2008]
2. The Chronicles Of Narnia Prince Caspian [2008]
   
3. Iron Man [2008]
4. Nancy Drew [2007]
5. In The Name Of The King [2007]
   
6. Ocean's 13 [2007]
   

Movies <-this-> Week (May 08 2nd Quarter)

1. You, Me and Dupree
2. Snakes On A Plane
3. Tomb Raider 1
4. Tomb Raider 2

--- -- - -- ---
Will probably watch more later after some renders..

Movies <-this-> Week (Apr 08 3rd Quarter)

This week is crime movies week.. what I downloaded and watched for this week:

• The Bank Job (2008)
• Mad Money (2008)
• Flawless (2007)

Whoever said that crime does not pay is definitely not a criminal!

Movies <-this-> Week (Mar 08 4th Quarter)

Finally got my hands on Cloverfield and 10,000 BC.
Watched the 1998 film Godzilla again, after watching Cloverfield.. Godzilla is way much better and had to watch it again because I missed it.

Summary:

1. Cloverfield
2. 10,000 BC