Thursday, December 20, 2012

Cabin Fever/ The A-Team/ The Expendables

This is from www.badcb.blogspot.ca
 
Dec. 8: These are the movie reviews published at the Golden Vanguard website.


Cabin Fever movie review

By Tracy Au

The movie is written by Randy Pearlstein and Eli Roth.  Roth also directed it and it his first film.  His name may sound familiar, because he is also an actor in the movie Inglourious Basterds. 

The movie started off with a creepy beginning.  It then focuses on five college friends Paul, Karen, Bert, Marcy, and Jeff (Rider Strong, Jordan Ladd, James Debello, Cerina Vincent, and Joey Kern) who rent a cabin in the woods.  It’s a common theme in stories of a cabin being isolated from the world and no technology to communicate.

There is fear as they encounter a man who can either infect them with this disease, or kill them.  It leads to the car being wrecked and the man dying.  The friends experience difficulty in getting help as they can’t find anyone to help them.  Or when they do, they realize they can’t ask this person for help.

Overall, this is a mediocre movie.  The characters aren’t really likable.  It’s not really scary.  There were some moments I jumped.  The theme of a disease infecting one and then others had the potential to terrify you, but it wasn’t pulled off. 

The best part of the movie was the dark humor that was thrown in it.  It was the community locals like the store owner, the deputy, and the farmer woman that made the movie enjoyable.

The A-Team

By Tracy Au

There are multiple explosions, shoot outs, car chases, and fist fights that occur in this action movie called The A-Team.  However, it’s creative and imaginative as they show some things that you don’t see very often in movies like helicopter chase scenes or flying a tank.

The movie is based on the old TV show from the 80s of the same name.  The A-Team is Iraq war veterans that consist of the leader Hannibal (Liam Neeson), the womanizing funny guy Face (Bradley Cooper), tough guy B.A. (Quinton Jackson), and mentally insane guy Murdock (Sharlto Copley). 

Lt. Sosa (Jessica Biel) who also is an ex-flame of Face hires the team to find the plates that are used to print $100 bills.  It has an unpredictable story to go with all the action.  The mission goes sideways and they are framed for murder, and promptly court martial.

CIA agent Lynch (Patrick Wilson) still needs to get the plates.  Black Forces agent Pike (Brian Bloom) complicates matters for the team.

This isn’t just an action movie, but a comedy too where you laugh out loud.  They scheme together to pull off their plans to get the bad guys like Lynch and Pike.  It has good plot twists and a big payoff. 

There is a wild and climatic ending.  You know a movie is good when it’s over, you think: “Is there going to be a sequel to this?”

According to this article, no:


Go watch it.

The Expendables

By Tracy Au

The Expendables are a team of mercenaries played by actors from every action movie ever made.  Or at least it seems like it when you got Barney (Sylvester Stallone), Lee (Jason Statham), Yin (Jet Li), Gunnar (Dolph Lundgren), Hale (Terry Crews), and Tool (Mickey Rourke).  Even Arnold Schwarzenegger makes an appearance.   

CIA operative Mr. Church (Bruce Willis) hires the Expendables to take down a rogue CIA agent Munroe (Eric Roberts) and the Latin dictator General Garza (David Zayas).

Barney and Lee go to see their contact Sandra (Giselle Itie) in the South American country Vilena Island.  Sandra informs them that ever since General Garza took over, the country became a terrible place to live in. (By the way, that’s a fictional place so no real country would be offended by it and hurt box office sales.) 

It is very violent with shooting, fist fighting, and stabbings.  It is very intense with suspense and tension as the mission becomes more personal for Barney.  He has to do more than take down Munroe and Garza, but also help Sandra.

There are light and fun moments between the guys, and even during a stand off with guns.

If you like action movies, the cast, fun and excitement, then you will enjoy this movie.

Charisma Carpenter: On a side note that's not mentioned in the review, is that Buffy and Angel actor Charisma Carpenter is in this movie.  She played Cordelia on the TV shows.  In the movie, she did some good acting.  She was only in 2 scenes, but I would say the first scene that she was in, showed some dramatic acting.

I think it could be used for her acting reel.  She played Jason Statham's girlfriend.


Dec. 11 The Golden Vanguard: I have added them as my friend on Facebook, and they confirmed me.  They even introduced me as one of their new writers for movie reviews and got their other friends to send me a warm welcome.  I thanked them for it.  They are so nice.

Dec. 13 Writer in residence: I put this on Omar Mouallem's Facebook page:

Me: Hey Omar, I just got a email from Linked In saying you're the new Writer in Residence at the Edmonton Public Library. I was like: "Oh my god, I have sent my writing to those people before and now it's one of my classmates." Congratulations.

Omar "likes" my post and said: "So I'll be seeing you there, then?

lol.

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