The 'Terminator' franchise is full of ups and downs, but no matter how you feel about any of them, the fact of the matter is that 'Terminator 2: Judgment Day' is the perfect 'Terminator' movie, and no matter how they try, it will never be lived up to by any further sequel. You can watch this on the big screen today, and thanks to its big budget of practical effects, it still, after damn near 30 years, holds up as one of the greatest action films of all time. Real quick, this is the sequel to the first film, and to me, the pair stand alone. The first film has Sarah Conner (Linda Hamilton) running for her life from a Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) who has been sent back in time to kill her, therefore killing her chances of one day giving birth to the man who would save humanity - John Conner (Edward Furlong, though not in the first film). All the while, she's protected by a soldier named Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn), who was also sent back. The second chapter, here, finds Sarah Conner in an asylum, due to her proclaiming that the world is gonna end by 1997. The film takes place roughly around 1995, due to John being ten years old here (according to a police record), running around and causing trouble. In the same spirit as the first film, a new Terminator gets sent back, known only as the T-1000 (Robert Patrick), this time targeting John, himself. In response, a T-600 is sent back to protect John - the same type of Terminator who was once sent back to hunt down Sarah. Eventually, the T-600, Sarah and John find themselves working as a team against the T-1000; a liquid metal, shape-shifting Terminator, in order to save humanity from an eventual apocalypse. What more could ever be said about 'T2'? It's simply the pinnacle of everything a good action movie should be. Practical explosions, snappy dialogue and one-liners, and most importantly, it develops its characters very well. Sarah, being the perfect example, is a completely changed character here, making her the bad ass we all love her as today. Even the T-600, a machine, begins to develop things like understanding, and compassion, and you totally buy into it, the way its executed. Of course, the real star of this movie is the special effects though. Imagine the fact that this 1991 movie has CG animation that looks better than a lot of the CG you found when it really blew up (late 90's/early 00's). I'm happy to be able to say that I've actually seen this on the big screen twice now, and it holds up incredibly well. It's the perfect balance of action and drama, and Schwarzenegger in his prime is always awesome on the big screen. It stands among history's action genre as a solid gem, and if you're an oldschool action fan who somehow hasn't seen it yet, you simply must fix that. It's a personal favorite, and I just cannot praise it enough as a God among action movies.
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Wherever you might stand as a DC fan on the current DC Universe, most fans would agree that the 'Dark Knight' trilogy was Batman in his prime. These films were well-cast, well-acted, and provided us with countless hours comedy on YouTube. Christian Bale's Batman was cool but, let's just accept at this point, pretty goofy at the same time. His voice speaks for itself (pun intended). But nevertheless, it never stopped these movies from being one of the most solid trilogies out there. 'The Dark Knight', itself, stands as not only one of the best 'Batman' movies, not only one of the best comic book movies, but one of the best movies out there in general. Winner of two Oscars and a Golden Globe, Rotten Tomato critic and audience ratings of an equal 94%, a Metacritic rating of a must-see 82, and it currently stands at #4 between 'The Gadfather: Part II' and '12 Angry Men' on IMDb's Top 250. So its done pretty damn well for itself over the past 10+ years. 'Batman Begins' is essentially a long, drawn out and really well-made origin story, but 'Dark Knight' is where things take off. Lawyer Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) has recently been elected as Gotham's new District Attorney with a plan to take down the city's organized crime syndicate. However, Batman (Christian Bale) kinda interferes with his plans, taking things into his own hands as the vigilante he is. Along comes the real star of the show, The Joker (Heath Ledger); a criminal mastermind with very little empathy, plotting to take the rug out from under Dent with a series of crimes, using money he has stolen from the mob, who he has under his thumb in no time. These crimes are primarily aimed at both Harvey Dent and Batman to see what kind of people they are, as two head figures of the city - a DA with a plant to clean up the mob for the "good of Gotham", and the masked vigilante who has so recently been dubbed a mysterious "hero". The film works great whether or not your a fan of Batman, as it's a story that leans heavily on human attributes and having to make difficult choices. I feel that the feel of the movie is something relatable to anyone. It gives us both sides of the coin that we crave between Batman and the Joker as well, seeing Batman as a "knight" for good and justice and Joker as the essence of chaos and, pretty much just evil. As mentioned before, the real star of this movie really is Heath Ledger's Joker. At the time, Jack Nicholson simply couldn't be touched for that role, at least as far as movie Jokers went. Along comes the guy we've pretty much only seen in teen movies, the late Heath Ledger, fully delivering on his performance and departing us on the highest of notes. This Joker has that perfectly profound dark sense of humor we wanna see, perhaps the prime example being his "pencil trick", which you may very well know even if you're one of the few people who may not have seen this one. At the same time, however, when he wants to get creepy, he really does manage to get creepy, reminding us full well that he's still a psychopath. He's just a really smart, really charismatic one. I think that in the grand scheme of things, this is perhaps the most recent "part 2" that truly outdoes its predecessor, which is already awesome in its own right. This really is a solid trilogy altogether, and if you're somehow a Batman fan who hasn't gone through it yet, you should fix that. I dunno what else to say about it, it's one of the best comic, crime, action, drama, suspense movies in existence. Even if you can't get past some of the more extreme moments, the story is fantastic, and it remains a personal favorite. In the tradition of film franchises where the sequel is widely regarded as being better than the original, it tough to argue the two "James-Cameron-in-his-prime" titles of 'Aliens' and 'Terminator 2' (coming in a couple of weeks to this particular list). Both have similar reasons for this like advancing the story and characters, bringing something new to the table, not repeating itself, and of course each are headed by an absolute badass woman, here being Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), a mother lion type, protecting her cub. A little background on the preceding film, 'Alien' - Taking place in the distant future, a commercial ship, "The Nostromo" and its crew are heading home, but get distress call from a distant moon. Obligated to investigate the crew does so, only to stumble on a nest of creepy face-hugging creatures that hug that face so damn hard an alien will eventually burst from your chest (die hard fans, please take that with a grain of salt). Anyway, spoiler alert, the alien gets big, and brutally kills everyone on board the Nostromo except Ripley, who manages to escape with the crew's cat, Jonesie. 'Aliens' picks up 57 years later, when Ripley is found in stasis by pure chance by her employers at the Weyland-Yutani Corporation. She is debriefed, but it's hard for them to buy her story about the alien creature they stumbled upon, since the moon where that original distress signal came from has since been colonized with no record of anything terrible happening. Of course, once they shut Ripley's story down, they lose contact with the colony. They then ask her to help them investigate, now buying into her story, with her being the only person available with any familiarity of these aliens. Ripley flat out refuses at first, but she eventually accepts once learning that she'd be protected by an awesome group of Marines, and with the promise of destroying the aliens. The whole mission is headed by a guy named Burke (Paul Reiser) who, right from the get-go, comes off as a guy you dunno if you can trust. Upon investigation, they find a girl named Rebecca, but we call her Newt (Carrie Henn). She's the sole survivor of an off-screen alien smorgasbord. Ripley instantly becomes a new mother figure and protector to Newt, which she needs to be, because the film pretty much cranks it to eleven once the Marines discover an alien nest. Much of the rest of the film is Ripley doing her survival thing again, but this time, it's an escort mission for her, trying to get herself and Newt safely off that God-forsaken rock. The main group of these Marines consist of Corporal Hicks (Michael Biehn), Private Hudson (Bill Paxton), Lieutenant Gorman (William Hope), Private Vasquez (Jenette Goldstein), Sergeant Apone (Al Matthews), and their android, Bishop (Lance Henriksen). There are plenty more, but we could be here all day. The film does a great job of letting us get to know and care about this particular group of characters, and that serves very well for how the film unfolds. Of the series, I've always felt this one to be the most revolutionary as well. Released in 1986, horror at the time was completely my taste, but it's hard to deny that 'Aliens' pulled two great tricks from its hat. For one, the survivor girl was incredibly confident, take-charge, and bad ass, while other horror survivor girls did fine, but they were all still very much victims. Ripley just don't play that, don't get on her bad side. The second thing it does is turn horror into action, and let me just say, horror/action is a fantastic sub-genre, giving you the adrenaline you want from both sides. 'Aliens' is the golden standard for it, and not much has been able to follow in its footsteps successfully. 'Aliens' place in movie history is unique, setting the bar for sci-fi action so much so that a lot of alien movies outside of this franchise are often said to be inspired by it, or at least compared to it. Personally, I see a lot of inspiration from this from titles like 'Attack the Block', 'Cloverfield', 'Pitch Black' and 'Starship Troopers'. There are probably a lot more straight-to-video releases I'm missing too. It's an amazing sequel that still totally holds up as on not only one of the best sequels of all time, but one of the best movies of all time. I thought I'd cover another month full of fun action, and I figured I'd go with sequels, or "part 2s" that, according to many, manage to outweigh their predecessors. Combined with a replay through of PS4's 'Spider-Man', I really wanted to revisit 'Spider-Man 2', which many consider the best of the original, or Raimi trilogy. If I'm perfectly honest, I still lean towards the first one, myself. But the idea that this is a sequel that does a better job than the origin story is completely understandable, and I recognize I'm in a minority. I kinda see the two films as equals, but each delivering something making me appreciate them individually. I would say that as far as getting things to feel like a 'Spider-Man' comic book unfolding on the big screen, this one nails it the best. The first one did a better job of making things feel like an epic movie version of 'Spider-Man'. As far as the third one goes, we're gonna pretend that it doesn't exist because it's pretty much the 'Batman & Robin' of the 'Spidey' franchise altogether. Of course, this is all just humble opinion, so one might not view them in the same differing lights that I do. But again, if this one nails the comic book feel the best, shouldn't that be the best reason to appreciate it as still one of the best comic book movies of all time? The story picks up where the first one left off, which can be read about here. Two years have passed, and Peter Parker's (Tobey Maguire) still trying to use his great powers for great responsibility. But it's interfering with his day-to-day life because crime never sleeps. He's falling behind in school, and can't commit to his friends, namely Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst) who just wants him to attend her new play, as she's since become a Broadway actress. Meanwhile, Harry Osbourne (James Franco), now head of Oscorp's genetic and scientific research division, sponsors a project on fusion power, headed by Dr. Otto Octavius (Alfred Molina). During a demonstration using mechanical arms with an artificial intelligence, an accident occurs, breaking the arms' inhibitor chip, which gave Octavius control over them. Now, the arms controlling him, he becomes Doctor Octopus, hellbent on funding another experiment, hoping to show the world that one can create a self-sustaining fusion reaction. Most of this one represents that first example of the superhero trying to balance his two lives. Does he do what's right for him, or does he do what's right for everyone else? At the time, it was a fascinating take on a comic book movie, bringing in some real world problems instead of having it a simple good vs evil story. Yeah, the first film did that too, but so much of that was already familiar. There's even a great scene in here where it's Peter talking to an imaginary Uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson) about the downside of what his superhero life has become. He has no time for the other people in his life that he loves. Even with Mary Jane aside, he still has to take care of Aunt May (Rosemary Harris), and try to be responsible with things like jobs, which we see him struggle with as the film opens. The film is well-balanced, keeping the deeper side of it contrasted with the fun comic book action we came to see. It's slow in parts, but when the action picks up, it's a lot of fun. Perhaps the most memorable fight takes place on a speeding subway train, and it was enough to earn the film an Oscar for its visual effects, against films like 'Prisoner of Azkaban'. As a whole, this is a great follow-up to its predecessor, and to this day has one of my favourite endings - before post-credit stingers were a thing. It's truly sad that the studio had to put their hands so deeply into the third film though, because the ending here still represents a whole lot of promise lost. In this day and age, we have a new, very much appreciated Spider-Man in Tom Holland, who plays the perfect combo of Pete and Spidey, and has pretty much been embodied in the role now. It's fun looking back on Tobey, but it's not the same now. You see someone who was in his late 20s at the time instead of the teenager that Holland eventually made him. Also, the dated melodrama of some of the dialogue here can be a little tough to get around at times. But at the same time, that's just Raimi's Spider-Man, which at the time I DID consider awesome. I guess with so many different incarnations, this has just become kinda dated. Nevertheless, if you find yourself curious about looking back at the 'Spider-Man' of the early '00s, it still totally holds up for what it is. While today's 'Spider-Man' is very much its own thing, these first couple of movies will give the hardcore comic book fans something a little closer to what they might want to see. For my money, the new Spidey has been the best Spidey, but if that's not quite the Spidey you want, this is where you want to look. Before I get into this, the format in which I credit the cast for this film is "voice/guy in suit", as each main character here has one of each, including Tatsu for whatever reason... moving on, however. Going way back to being about 6, I was introduced to these guys through a handful of close friends. For me, it was word of mouth at school. I checked out the cartoon, was instantly hooked, and got quite the haul of Turtle toys over the next few years. It can't be explained, but there was just something about them we all loved. This particular movie is about as close as things get to the original source material. Not the cartoon, I'm talking the old, black and white comic book that made these guys dark, totally badass, and every one of them wore red bandanas, not just Raph. Instead, they were really only distinguishable by their weapons. However by the time this movie came along, the cartoon and the toys were what we were focused on. So the film combined the efforts of the comic book with the cartoon to give us kids everything we deserved. To this day, I still claim this as the end all, be all of 'TMNT' films. Okay, so basic plot - a backstory within the film tells us a brief origin of the characters, and those taking the time to read this probably already know it. Hell, you probably know it from today's material anyway. These guys never really went away or took a break. Basically, lost ooze in sewer = 1 mutant rat named Splinter (Kevin Clash) and 4 mutant turtles named after Renaissance artists, Leonardo (Brian Tochi/David Forman), Michaelangelo (Robbie Rist/Michelan Sisti), Donatello (Corey Feldman/Leif Tilden) and Raphael (Josh Pais). They find themselves up against a gang of ninja thieves known as the Foot Clan, headed by Shredder and his lackey, Tatsu (Michael McConnohie/Toshishiro Obata). These guys are going all around the city of New York, robbing it blind. Their paths cross with news reporter April O'Niel (Judith Hoag) who is doing a story on the whole situation. The turtles get involved when Raph finds her in the subway, having been attacked in an attempt to keep her lips sealed. He takes her back to their lair for recovery, but is unknowingly followed. Shit really hits the fan when their master, Splinter, is soon kidnapped by the Shredder, who holds him captive, trying to get answers from on how the turtles know how to fight like they do. April ends up helping them out, and caught in the middle of it all are one runaway teenager named Danny (Michael Turney), who's caught between helping the turtles and working for the Foot, and Casey Jones (Elias Koteas) who's kind of a random addition to everything, but makes for some decent comedy relief and is a great help in a fight. It might sound crazy, but this is one of those childhood films that I don't only love due to nostalgia, but love because it actually does tell a good story about characters I care about. You can watch this as an adult and see it as a sort of coming of age movie, as the Turtles have to learn to work as a team, have to come into their own to rescue Splinter, and have to take Splinter's teachings seriously in order to do it. While Leo and Don are doing pretty well, we do get that Mike and Raph have a bit of growing to do - Mike with his immaturity and Raph with his temper. I could always find myself empathizing with those two characters the most, especially after the bonfire scene, which I'm not ashamed to admit manages to move me when I see it these days. I mean, while it's a fun movie, one may argue "for kids", it actually does get pretty deep at points. It's not just some action movie where you see these turtles kicking ass and taking names. They take the time to get some messages across subtly, and a big part of it all is how important family is - remembering that family can also mean friends! Anyway, as I mentioned before, the 'Turtles' never really went away or took a break. They simmered down here and there, but have pretty well remained a constant in pop culture. But I can probably say with all sincerity that they were never, ever as big as they were in the late 80's and early 90's. They were everywhere back then! If the cartoon didn't give us enough (which was already an overload), the movie pretty much marked their taking over of the world (at least in my head). So, if you're a fan who hasn't taken a look at this 1990 classic, I strongly urge you to do so. Parts may be a bit dated, but everything that made this movie great is still there, and that includes the master puppetry of Jim Henson's Creature Shop when the man was still alive and kicking! My final movie for Action Month is, in my humble opinion, one of the best all out action movies of the last decade... and NOBODY went to see it! The idea was to bring back something no one was really asking for in 'Judge Dredd'. The original Stallone film had its fans, but for the most part, it was seen as pretty bad. Therefore, when this was coming up, no one seemed to pay much attention to it. However, once it was released on home video (all too quickly), word got around that this was actually a really cool action flick. This one takes place in a dystopian future where the metropolis' police force have been given the authority to act as judge, jury and executioner due to the massive increases in the cities violence and overall crime. Judge Dredd (Karl Urban) has been teamed up with a rookie named Anderson (Olivia Thirlby); a mutant with psychic abilities. Together, they are sent to take down a gang leader and drug lord named "Mama" (Lena Headey). The drug in question is "slo-mo", a narcotic that makes it seem like time slows down to super slow motion, and the effects make everything look sparkly and shiny. It's very often portrayed throughout the film, almost to a fault, unfortunately. But, it's a neat effect when it's all put together. With that said, though, that's pretty much your plot in a nutshell. From there, it acts as another "non-video game movie" (the concept I brought up when talking about 'John Wick' in which a movie feels like it could be based on a video game) It's quite literally an hour and a half of nonstop action, only pausing to fit in the necessary dialogue. And for as quick as it moves, there's actually plenty of character development going on as we go, namely in the character of Anderson. If I was to compare this to anything, I'd probably compare it most closely with something like 'The Raid: Redemption' with hints of 'Die Hard'. It's just one of those movies that brings back the idea of action for the sake of action, but while having a good, simple story going on. It's even complete with one-liners, reminiscent of Schwarzenegger's work... okay, maybe that's a stretch, but still, enjoyably cheesy and bad ass. If you've ever watched 'Judge Dredd' and thought to yourself "hey, this is rated R but feels like PG-13", this is a movie that absolutely lends itself to its R rating. It's brutally violent, often in slow motion, the language is nice and Headey's character can very well be compared to her Cersei Lannister. Mama is a little more quick and to the point though. Either way, I have to hand it to Lena Headey for doing such a good job with her villains. But what about Karl Urban as Judge Dredd? To be frank, it's not like I really know how the character is supposed to be portrayed, but for my money, he does a good job with what he has. It makes me think of Christian Bale's Batman. It's a great series with great storytelling and great characters, but there's still something kinda goofy about the lead character. And that's not necessarily a bad thing in this case, 'cause I think there's a part of this movie that's self-aware. It knows how the last movie did, so it's allowed to be a bit silly here and there. In any case, it's a nice and short, shoot-'em-up good time of a movie. Just bear in mind that the violence can get a little over the top, and to have some patience with the slo-mo scenes. If I have one complaint at all, it's that those went on far too long. But I mean, that's about it. The first three movies reviewed this month represented the early start of the modern superhero genre, but I needed a good spot to review 'Deadpool' before the release of 'Deadpool 2', so here we are, jumping way ahead to 2016. Now, going BACK to 2016, it just took one thing for us geeks to hear before we were foaming at the mouth like wild dogs in anticipation for this movie. And that was that it was a 'Deadpool' movie with an R-rating! All we could do was imagine all the possibilities, and it delivered on all fronts. Fourth-wall breaking aplenty, sure, but also sex, violence, foul language, suggestive moments, y'know, everything that makes Deadpool awesome was pretty much there. We needed that R-rated 'Deadpool' movie (especially after we saw whatever the hell that 'Mortal Kombat' Baraka thing was in 'Origins: Wolverine') and we GOT IT! Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) is a mercenary for hire. After he meets the love of his life, Vanessa (Morena Baccarin), life is looking better than ever. But, life gets in his way in the form of cancer in various vital parts of his body. When the end is near, desperate situations called for desperate measures. He agrees to an offer that will cure his cancer, but is lead into a torturous nightmare instead. However, in the process, Wade gains an incredible fast healing ability, and the ordeal leaves him deformed. After that, vengeance time! So much of this movie is so brilliantly done! They make references to 'Origins Wolverine' and the fact that the whole thing was a mess. The opening credit sequence may be hands down the best opening credit sequence of all time. The dialogue will have you laughing out loud. But what is perhaps the most brilliant aspect of this movie is Colossus! The reason being that, if you pay attention, he's essentially playing the PG-13 rating that has been chasing this property down. I actually didn't think of that the first time seeing it, but it makes total sense. This movie WILL go down in history as one of the most successful comic book adaptations of all time. It already holds the record for highest weekend box office earnings for an R-rated film, and currently stands at #26 on the all-time weekend list, which is NOTHING to sneeze at as an R-rated film. The next one on the list is at #60, and that was 'The Matrix Reloaded'. But more than that, is that the studio ACTUALLY wised up and let the crew do what they wanted with the movie. Considering that AND the fact that it was an R-rated fourth-wall breaking character, the possibilities were endless, and the crew said "This one is for the fans!" and cranked out one of the greatest superhero adaptations of all time. Newcomer Tim Miller directs, along with writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick ('Zombieland'), and they make a hell of a team here. The writers have returned for 'Deadpool 2', but the director has been switched up to David Leitch, who's known for movies like 'Atomic Blonde' and 'John Wick', but as a stunt guy. So I'm expecting more action than comedy for '2', but we'll see in a few more weeks. Hot on the heels of 'X-Men', I think a lot of us can remember seeing the first teaser for an upcoming 'Spider-Man' movie. After 'X-Men', Spidey was probably the next logical step, and this was when the superhero genre was really coming to fruition. Sadly, after this, almost every Marvel film up to 'Iron Man' was pretty mediocre, with the exceptions of a few sequels, which I'll get to another time. Of course, I don't need to get into how Spidey has gone through the motions when it comes to his movies. It's kinda crazy to think that since the release of this, back in 2002, Spidey is already in his third incarnation. But the character has finally seemingly found his footing with Tom Holland in the role. But that's not to say that the older 'Spider-Man' movies should just be ignored, either. In fact, the first two are still among my favorite superhero movies. Being that Tom Holland's Spider-Man skipped over the origin story, which was frankly a great decision on the studios' part, one might be curious as to the most accurate portrayal of his origin in film. Well, 'The Amazing Spider-Man' didn't do a bad job with things, necessarily, but 2002's 'Spider-Man', with Tobey Maguire in the lead, is probably the better option of the two. If for no other reason, he faces the Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe) right away, who is probably considered his arch nemesis. It depends on what you wanna see, but I also consider this to be closer to giving out the comic book vibe than 'Amazing' did. That said, 'Amazing' has accuracies like his web shooters (they just kinda come from his wrists here), and a much, MUCH more likable love interest in Gwen Stacey, who is useful, as opposed to Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst) here, who is pretty much just someone to be saved who screams a lot. Those things aside though, I'd say this is the superior origin film. Now that I'm on my fifth paragraph, maybe I'll get into the actual movie. Well, Peter Parker (Maguire) gets bitten by a radioactive spider on a field trip, gains superpowers, and uses them to stop crime after the important lesson his uncle gives him - "with great power, comes great responsibility". Meanwhile, Norman Osbourn (Dafoe) becomes the Green Goblin after rushing a lab experiment and having it go wrong. It kinda brings out the evil within him, makes him stronger, and has him going up against his authorities. The catch - he's Peter's best friend Harry's (James Franco) father. Unfortunately, due to time and changing Spider-Man up twice, this one has started to feel kinda old. Where watching 'X-Men' meant watching the first title of a series that just wrapped up last year, watching 'Spider-Man' was more like a nice piece of nostalgia. The movie's still a lot of fun, but it's kinda just the old version of something now. It doesn't help that Holland has become my definitive Spider-Man, and is in the driver's seat now. But Maguire is at least still in the passenger seat while Andrew Garfield is stuck in the back seat - he's a great Spidey, but a lousy Parker. So, if you're looking to see what many consider the definitive Spider-Man origin story, I'd say go for this one. 'The Amazing Spider-Man' works pretty well too, but as I said, it all depends on what kind of 'Spider-Man' movie you wanna see. Personally, I enjoy this one more, but it IS perfectly debatable. Watch for yourself, and find out what Spidey works for you. Let's hit that rewind button again, and go back to 2000. Largely, this was an era in which movies were trying to find some footing. This was just coming off that era of disaster movies, and the biggest name in movies was pretty much 'Star Wars Episode I', so... yeah. There were a few gems in between it all, but for the most part, there weren't a lot of great movies during this time. But the superhero era would soon find it's place, following on the heals of R-rated 'Blade', with PG-13-rated and far more popular 'X-Men'. The story here is that mutants are among us, and feared for what they could be capable of. Senator Kelly (Bruce Davidson) tries to pass a "Mutant Registration Act" in congress which would make mutants have to reveal what they can do to the world, taking away their basic freedoms. On one side of the mutant coin is Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart), a mutant on the side of peace who has the ability to enter, read and manipulate people's minds. He runs a school for mutants who don't fully understand their abilities, and can learn how to use them to their advantage. They can also get their basic education here, and feel safe among others who are much like them. On the other side of that coin is Eric Lensherr/Magneto (Ian McKellen), a mutant who sees a war in the making based on his experiences in Nazi concentration camps as a child. He understands hatred toward race all too well, and is willing to go to extremes to put an end to things. The main plot, however, revolves around Rogue (Anna Paquin), who has an ability she fears as it doesn't allow her to touch anyone without seemingly sucking the life out of them. But of course, she's only half of it. The obviously more important half being Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), who has since been in every single 'X-Men' movie (except technically 'Deadpool'). Xavier promises to help him to understand his foggy past if he helps out. Truth be told, I haven't gone back and rewatched the 'X-Men' films in quite some time, so one might wonder how it all holds up. I think the funny part of it is that the uniforms are the black leather 'cause it looked cooler than "yellow spandex" at the time, which is an actual joke quote from the movie in which Cyclops references Wolverine's comic/cartoon costume. But nowadays, that's what we want to see. We wanna see what we see in the comics brought to life in a much more physical sense. While the 'X-Men' films have grown that way to some degree, they still seem to like slapping that leather on them for some reason, save maybe 'First Class' and the end of 'Apocalypse'. Costume accuracy aside, however, this movie hasn't dated itself really at all. The effects hold up pretty well, and the roles are nearly perfect casting, but besides the basics, it's a great idea to bring to the screen. The 'X-Men' are mostly compared as a metaphor for homosexuality, how things are confusing, few understand what it means to be in those shoes, and yeah, some of the more ignorant people may even fear you. But I tend to consider it more about prejudices of all sorts, and that's what makes the 'X-Men' so incredibly relatable. You can understand what these mutants are going though if you've ever experienced any kind of prejudice first hand, really. In this particular day and age where movies about that sort of thing are praised ('The Shape of Water'), this is a pretty solid title to go back and check out again. Back in '97, something terrible happened to the superhero movie, and it's name was 'Batman & Robin'. Still considered one of the worst movies of all time, let alone superhero movies, it pretty much killed any further 'Batman' films, and most studios seemed to think the superhero movie couldn't quite be done to full advantage quite yet. So the question was, what now? The answer was to introduce a hero that people may have been familiar with, but they could easily do their own thing with. On top of that, give it an R-rating, because you can get away with more of a dark take on things that way. The final product was 'Blade', and at the time, it blew us all away. Being that it was released in '98, and R-rated, I didn't manage to catch it in theaters, having just turned 16. This was also back when the theater actually cracked down on underage people who sneaked their way in to R-rating. Nowadays, I'm never surprised to see a group of 5-year-olds wandering in. But upon renting it once it came out, I remember loving it, and wishing I had gotten the chance to see it on the big screen. It was dark, action packed, Blade was a badass, and I even considered the special effects good for the time. That said, they are now so painfully dated, it looks cartoonish, but the rest of what I enjoy about it is certainly still there. The film starts with a very brief backstory in which a woman, freshly bitten by a vampire, gives birth to Blade. 30 years later, Blade is known as the "Day Walker", as somehow when the infection carried over to him as a baby, he managed to absorb all of a vampire's strength with none of the weaknesses. However, the blood thirst was one thing that he managed to inherit, which he staves off, using a consistent injection of special syrum. Blade's villain in this is a young, turned vampire (in other words, not pure-blood) named Deacon Frost (Stephen Dorff) who has big plans for the vampire world, wishing for them to take it over, and essentially wiping out all humans. I like to refer to this as "Magneto Style". Anyway, it's the basic story of the race between hero, who wants to prevent, and villain, who wants to destroy. It's not entirely a new concept. For it's time, 'Blade' was considered something very special, and is often claimed to be the spark of the new superhero movie. For the most part, people seem to give that title to 'X-Men'. Personally, I tend to side with this one a bit more as the "spark", where 'X-Men' more just got the ball rolling. Of course, 'X-Men' also wasn't R-rated, so there were still some limitations with this and a younger audience. Watching it now, there's a lot more one can nitpick about, not the least of which being the laughable CG effects. I'd even say they were actually pretty bad for the time, but that's CG in the late 90s for you - not quite developed to perfection yet. The villain, Deacon Frost also comes across as a little weak. I remembered him being a total badass the first few times I watched this, but nowadays I guess I just see the douchebag shining through a bit more. Other ideas they have here are silly, like the vampires using sunscreen to get around in the sunlight without dying. But I mean, the sun is as strong as it is, so that's just confusing. It's just not quite as great as I remembered it, and by today's standards, there's cheesiness spilling out of it's seriousness. That said, it's still a fun movie, and it marks an R-rated superhero movie that came along, and succeeded, way before 'Deadpool' did it's thing. 'Deadpool' wasn't really a first, it was just resurrecting an idea that studios seemed to forget about - likely because PG and PG-13 offers itself to a wider audience. But isn't it strange that they seemed to have something special here, and never even made a string of R-rated superhero movies? It's not perfect by any means, but it's kind of a gem for it's era. While everyone in the world was seemingly still preoccupied with the battle of 'Frozen' vs 'Tangled', with 'Frozen' kinda crushing it because of one very annoying song, some of us went the other direction by 2014 and absorbed this movie as our escape from those "Princess Wars". This was just a straight up animated family feature about, for lack of a better term, superheroes. The last time it happened was 'The Incredibles', and we were ready to see what else Disney could pull out of their superhero box. Or at least anything but princesses for once in a few years. The interesting thing about this one was that it was an animated Marvel movie, and thus far the first and only Disney/Marvel animated film to exist on a theatrical scale. That said, this movie is NOT canon in the MCU. The creators have expressed that this is a Disney film over being a Marvel film. 'Big Hero 6' tells the story of a 14-year-old prodigy child named Hiro (Ryan Potter), who's a bit of a genius with technology, and upon seeing his brother, Tadashi's (Daniel Henney) school decides he wishes to go there. When it's discovered that someone has stolen the technology that Hiro uses to wow the school's recruiters, Hiro assembles a team of talented teens to get it back. Joining the cast here are the voice talents of T.J. Miller, Jamie Chung, Damon Wayans Jr, Genesis Rodriguez, and Scott Adsit as the real star of this movie, Baymax; a medical assistance robot that Tadashi creates with the desire to help people in need. This is just such a great movie, through and through. Without spoiling anything, I can admit that this is one of those titles that manages to engage my every emotion, and it pulled me in very quickly. The truth of the matter was this was only my second viewing of it. I somehow managed to miss this one in theaters, saw it in the summer of 2015 for the first time, and just watched it recently to see if I liked it more or less. The answer is clearly more. Although it may be more effective the first time around considering all that happens, there's something to be said about revisiting it with your love for these characters, particularly Hiro, Baymax and Tadashi. This is a title well-worth checking out without having to be a Disney or even a Marvel buff. It's good fun for the whole family, and even remains a bit tough, focusing on deeper issues to do with separation, friendship and even revenge. I'll have to see about it's watchability over the years, but there's a very solid chance this MIGHT be my all-time favorite Disney animated film... MIGHT be. Either way, it's pretty damn good. Sometimes one is just in the mood to watch something a little over-the-top and ridiculous. But the question is, do you want it to be a comedy like, or an action movie? I say... Is it too much to ask for both? A few years ago, there was talk about an upcoming 2012 movie reboot of '21 Jump Street'. Collectively, many of us rolled our eyes at yet another concept from the 80s coming back. But to be fair, I had never actually seen the show before. I just knew it was about cops and starred Johnny Depp before he got super famous. Although at that point he'd have at least been known. A little while later, we got to see who would star in this feature; Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum of all combinations of people. It was hard to say if it would work. At this point Jonah Hill was flexing his acting chops with his Oscar nomination for 'Moneyball', and Channing Tatum wasn't quite awesome to the dudes yet, known best for roles in 'Step Up 2' and 'Dear John'. Who knew if this would work? Continuing on, one does his or her research on whether a movie may be good or not based on who is writing and/or directing. In this case, it was being directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, known best at the time for directing 'Clone High'. And the writers? Michael Bacall (story/screenplay) and Jonah Hill (story). At this point I was all set to check it out because Bacall was also responsible for penning the script to an all-time favourite of mine, 'Scott Pilgrim vs The World', which came out a couple of years earlier. So, eventually I decided I kinda had to check out '21 Jump Street', and man, did it deliver. Jonah Hill was always pretty funny, but Tatum genuinely surprised a lot of us with his sense of humor. The pair actually ended up contrasting incredibly well. But the goodness does not stop there. Added to the cast is Ice Cube, who plays Captain Dickson, and is probably the funniest character in the movie. Why? Well, let's just put it this way. '21 Jump Street' did for Ice Cube what 'Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle' did for Neil Patrick Harris; it completely resurrected him. Up until now, Ice Cube was mostly known for family pictures. This was to such an extent there's an outright joke about it in an episode of 'The Boondocks'. But 'Jump Street' brought him back, made him the N.W.A. Ice Cube we always used to love, and gave him the funniest lines throughout the whole movie. So, other than the cast and good writing and direction, there's one more thing about this movie that will probably sell you on it. If I'd have known about it way beforehand, I'd have been all over it from the get-go. The movie is straight up fourth wall-breaking. One doesn't really know that going in, but when Schmidt (Hill) and Jenko (Tatum) are talking to Deputy Chief Hardy (Nick Offerman), they make it very obvious that the movie is totally self-aware. For me, it almost always makes a movie better if it is self-aware. Even if it's still a bad movie, it can make it more forgivable. But '21 Jump Street' was actually all-around good, and easily one of my favorite movies of 2012. But then they were gonna come out with a sequel, which could have gone either way. The good news was that the entire team behind the first one got behind the second one. Amazingly enough, '22 Jump Street' practically parallels the first movie in terms of how funny, action-packed and self-aware it is. The funniest thing about it is that in it's self-awareness, it even practically attacks itself for doing the same thing they did in the first one and that it's actually pretty lame. It pretty much makes fun of itself for even existing. But we are able to eat it up because it's saying "Yeah, I exist, love me or hate me, I don't care". Turns out, most of us loved it just as much, if not more than the first. Going back to the team behind it, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller also directed the pilot episode of 'Brooklyn Nine Nine', 'The LEGO Movie' and are slated to direct the upcoming Han Solo story for the 'Star Wars' universe! After realizing that they've worked on so much of what I've ended up loving, I'm greatly looking forward to how they tackle a 'Star Wars' story! So, in closing, if you're looking for a couple of easy-to-watch goofy action comedies that break the fourth wall and AREN'T 'Deadpool', these two hilarious titles are a great place to start! |
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