Movie Review: Resident Evil: Retribution

  Unconsciously, we have had five Resident Evil film in the past ten years, 10 years of Alice waking up in a lab of Umbrella Company and escaping then extend the life of this action-horror movie. Ten years ago, that’s 2002, Alice was an employee of Umbrella and now she made retribution. Sometimes, I couldn’t understand that how could Resident Evil fresh the story with just endless zombies and deathless Alice. However, I never miss any one of the “Resident Evil” entries since the first one hit in 2002. 

  The newest film, Resident Evil: Retribution, picks up right where we left off in 2010’s Resident Evil: Afterlife with Alice and her ragtag group of survivors taking their last stand on a ship out in the middle of the ocean.  While being bombarded by 30 hovercrafts, Alice is blown off the boat and left unconscious in the water. She awakens in a suburban home as a homemaker with a husband and a young daughter. The story opened without pressing screen, this dream life last all of 60 seconds before infected humans attack their home, that make a great contrast to the upcoming blood fight. Safe life is so dear!
  Alice escapes again and must escape through different Umbrella testing facilities (Russia, Suburban, and NY) and meet up with another ragtag bunch that’s there to help her escape, similar plot unfolds.
  In “Resident Evil: Retribution,” writer-director Paul W.S. Anderson attempts to fill out a flimsy plot structure by making the characters’ comings and goings overly convoluted. So what else is new? One development involves the Umbrella Corporation’s use of clones to test the effectiveness of its viral weapons in simulated versions of locales like New York, Moscow, Tokyo and that nation of lost souls, Suburbia. Anderson has also introduced a new character, Ada Wong, who joins Alice’s fight against those evil corporate forces while wearing the unlikeliest of superhero outfits, a brocade stripper dress slit thigh-high and worn with vertiginous heels.
  But visually, at least, it all works. Alice and her ragtag assortment of cohorts fend off — in addition to the requisite zombies — a massive creature with a lamprey’s mouth and a slimy, visible brain, and two lumpy behemoths wielding executioner’s pole axes. The movie’s most intriguing sequence comes early on: It’s a flashback — or is it? — Of Alice’s life in suburbia  in the days before the virus hit. She has blonde mom hair, she’s married to a dreamboat husband, and she has a young daughter, Becky, who happens to be deaf. Alice doesn’t remain blonde-mom Alice for long, but even after she’s returned to being black-latex Alice, she retains motherly feelings toward Becky, striving to protect the girl from all that free-floating resident evil.
  For this movie, you needn’t pay so much attention to plot.  It’s just an old style Alice story with new background. Most of us wait this film just want to know how Alice goes on and bit those disgust zombies. I wouldn’t tell my friend that the Retribution is an excellent movie, but I would never miss the next one.

Movie Review：The Possession

  The movie season of this summer has reach the ending, The horror film "The Possession" is set to claim the No. 1 over the last weekend, though the most frightening thing at the box office may be poor overall ticket sales.

  THE POSSESSION is a far more generic title than the film’s original moniker THE DIBBUK BOX, and it’s a transition reflected in the movie itself. What starts out with a fairly distinctive scenario and threat eventually segues into overly familiar territory, though not without occasional chilling pleasures along the way.
  Jeffrey Dean Morgan plays Clyde Brenek, a divorced father of two girls trying to do right by them. At a yard sale, his younger daughter, Em(Natasha Calis) discovers a mysterious old box, one seemingly made not to be opened and covered in Hebrew writing. They buy it, and Em discovers a way to open the box, which releases an evil spirit trapped within. The spirit possesses her, although only Clyde realizes that there’s something wrong with her beyond the normal anxieties brought on my divorce. He begins racing against time to find a way to seal the spirit back in the box before it takes Em’s life to come into the world.
  The only thing that separates this movie from any other exorcism story is its focus on a demon from Jewish folklore, rather than a Christian one. But functionally, that change makes no difference. It just means that the plot substitutes a rabbi for a priest in the exorcism scenes. It’s the same routine of chanting at the evil foe, only in Hebrew instead of Latin. Nothing the spirit, a dybbuk, does to Em feels particularly inspired, either. It makes a lot of moths fly around and sometimes tosses people about, but mainly its goal seems to be to make Clyde look like an abusive father, which is unintentionally funny.

  In fact, family drama is featured just as if not more than supernatural tomfoolery here. Clyde’s struggle to free his daughter coincides with his slow working his way back into the lives of his ex-wife (Kyra Sedgwick) and daughters. If the nature of the dybbuk in any way, shape, or form could conceivably stand in for the familial situation, then this film would have a bit of thematic power in it. But it doesn’t. The possession being a vehicle for Clyde to get back in their graces, rather than relating in some way to their problems, is honestly really weird. After all, if they get back together this way, what’s to stop things from unraveling again due to the same issues that came up in the first place?
  Good horror uses its monsters as symbolic of something real, something that we have honest reason to fear. Otherwise, there’s nothing really scary about them. The only stuff that could rattle anyone in this movie is a parade of threadbare techniques like jump scares, loud chords, and little girls looking creepy. And why do horror movies feel the need to be so loud? There are a few scenes here that could be honestly effective if they didn’t blare out the soundtrack every time it wanted to jolt the audience.
  The Possession has fairly nice performances at the ending of this movie summer. It’ll probably send more than a few people on their first dates into each other’s arms, but that’s about all it’s good for. Absolutely nothing makes it stand out from the field of horror movies, exorcism movies, or any movies.

Movie Review: Hit & Run

   Hit & run did do well at the box office, August a means all kids go back to school and nobody goes to the movies anymore because they spent too much on The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises. Anyway, I’m pretty sure the Hit and Run is worthwhile talking , I’m just going to talk what I really wanted to say.

    For the first 30 minutes or so, nothing was really catching my eye and getting me involved as much as I would have liked. They start off with an ultra-sappy and contrived emotional scene where Shepard is telling his gal-pal to “close her eyes and think about the moment, nothing else”. Then after that, they suddenly go right into a scene with Tom Arnold chasing after his minivan and blowing holes everywhere, while screaming “fuck” at the top of his lungs. And to top that off, it just wasn’t funny no matter how hard they were trying and trust me, they were trying. It seemed like this was going to be one of those flicks that just wanted to be so wacky and funny, but also have an emotional story in the middle to even it all out but it wasn’t working and really got me worried of what I got myself into. Thankfully, it was only for those 30 minutes where I nearly lost my mind.

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    After the first 30 minutes or so, the film all of a sudden kicks its story into high gear and becomes a fun ride that delivers on the cool look, the cool thrills, and the funny laughs that sometimes came out of nowhere. It’s obvious that Dax Shepard (who just so happened to also co-write and direct this, and do his own stunts) loved Smokey and the Bandit as a kid growing up, because that’s the same exact kind of style and feel he gives this movie that automatically makes it a wild ride that doesn’t have to try too hard to charm us. So, if there is any credit going to towards this film and making it fun, it’s Shepard who deserves the most because he was able to somehow get this filmed in only 10 weeks, and used a very low-budget that will probably make a lot of the other big-budget action picks a whole lot more jealous by how polished the action scenes look here.

    As you could probably tell by now, this film was pretty exciting when the action scenes came up and even if there is only about 3 in whole movie, you still get a great feel of energy and adrenaline every time they pop-up. But what really works with this film is that it hits its funny-marks very consistently in the last hour, which surprised me because they seem to be going all-over-the-place with its comedy. Sometimes it was trying to go for the wacky, rom-com aspect, others it was going for edgy and raunchy (that one scene with the naked old people will really shock some people), and other times it was your typical, conversational humor that can either make, or break a film depending on how well they use that aspect of comedy. Well, to say the least, the film’s comedy works and you’ll find a couple of gags that continue to show up every now and then that really catch you by surprise.

   What really makes this film work out in the end is the cast that Shepard was able to assemble, obviously by just calling up a couple of pals for a little favor, which all work to his advantage. As for Sheperd in the lead role, he’s actually very charming and has the everyday likability to him that makes us forget about any dumb-ass role he has chosen in the past decade or so. The guy has a great comedic timing and can be sweet and enduring when he wants to be. If this guy can get his ass in the right rom-com and role, he may be destined for leading man material, which he sort of is here, but I mean on his own when he isn’t the co-writer/director. Tom Arnold plays his federal marshal buddy that just never seems to be able to do anything, without effin’ it up one way or another and the scenes where it’s just him being a goof-ball, sometimes left me in stitches. It’s been awhile since I last saw Tom Arnold in a big-budget, Hollywood movie like this (if you want to call it that) and it’s great to see that he can still deliver on being wacky and funny.

   Perhaps the easiest favor that Shepard had to call up from anyone in this entire cast was in fact, his girlfriend in this movie and in real-life, Kristen Bell. I bet you are all pretty surprised to see that this gorgeous woman has been going out with this weirdo for the past 5 years, and you honestly have to be thinking to yourself, “Why?”. Well, after seeing this movie I have to say, “Ohhh, now I see why!”. It’s pretty obvious that these two have a genuine chemistry and love in real-life, because it spills out so well in this film whenever they are together just being themselves, or discussing what it takes to be in a relationship with another person which may seem really strange since it’s in a movie like this, but still works because these two have an emotional honesty between that feels real, as if you’re almost watching a real-life couple right in front of your eyes. In a way, you are, but this film offers them a lot more challenges in their respective acting departments that anybody has ever seen from either of them. As for Bell herself, she’s lovely as usual and it makes it better that she seems to be having a whole lot of fun playing chase with her boyfriend and pals.

    The one that really shine in this whole cast is probably Bradley Cooper who seems to playing an against-type role as the murderous thug, with really bad dreadlocks that makes him look more like the wrestler Raven from his WWF days, than actually intimidating. We’ve all seen Cooper do the villainous act before, but never quite like this to where the guy seems to really be having a ball just being mean, brutal, and a little weird as well. Cooper always has some great comedic timing with everything he does but I think his best showing of that is his one scene where he admits to why he’s come after Shepard after all of this time.

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Unanswered Questions of Prometheus You Don't Know

   Prometheus give me kinds of strange feeling that much of plot in this film seems make no sense, so I have a try to find out the answers for those wired plot. All of this not just a rundown of all the questions we think still aren't answered, but explanations I searched on the net might answer it. There is not "explanation" of Prometheus, of course-- only Ridley Scott can do that, and they probably never will. I just want to give it my best shot and share my guess to you. Just for funny… 

Question: Why the Engineer drinks the black goo in the beginning of the story?

The opening of the movie is stunning in its visuals, but pretty incomprehensible without any context. It’s hard to tell why exactly the Engineer-- that’s the blue muscle-bound alien creature standing by the waterfall-- has opted to drink the black goo, where is he, or really what’s going on in general, and it’s never explained in the rest of the movie, just simply left for viewer interpretation.

Guessing: The giant ship (which is different from the ring-shaped one we see later in the film, weirdly) has landed on Earth to drop off the Engineer so that he can terraform the planet and make it sustainable for life. We think he drinks the black goo to break down his own structure and spread life on Earth through his own DNA, but that doesn’t really explain his surprise while he’s disintegrating.

Question: Why does David poison Holloway?

David doesn’t have the capacity to be evil - he lacks the ability to feel emotions and simply follows directives. So why would he take the opportunity to poison Holloway with the black goo for seemingly no purpose? By the end of the film there is no explanation given as to why the android would kill one of his co-workers.

Guessing: While the rest of the crew on-board the Prometheus was looking for the origins of life on Earth and our creator, David had a very specific side mission: to find a way for Weyland to live forever. Therefore, it’s possible that David decided to dose Holloway because he wanted to experiment and see if the black goo they found would be the key for Weyland. It’s also possible he saw the black goo as the potential to create alien weapon creatures, which a company like Weyland could exploit-- though he might not have counted on that weapon attacking his crew so soon.

Question: How does Janek know that the moon is full of “weapons of mass destruction” and is just a stopover moon for them to build weapons?

Janek, the pilot of the Prometheus played by Idris Elba, largely stays out of the fray, watching from a safe distance from the comfort of his ship. But as missions members continue to disappear, Janek suits up and explores LV-223 with the surviving crew. He’s tasked with explaining what he thinks they’ve stumbled onto, explaining it as a weapons factory that’s wisely built away from wherever it is the Engineers actually live … in case things happen to go wrong with the weapons.

Guessing: This bit of descriptive dialogue is necessary to solidify the plot, and it’s best that Elba's character delivers it. But it’s more of a theory than concrete fact. From the beginning, he is written as a world-weary ship captain who has kind of “seen it all,” a cagey veteran who’s around for guidance as much as he’s around because he’s good at piloting a craft. Not that he has run into many alien weapons factories (for lack of a better term), but he’s experienced enough to know when a hostile opponent is crafting a weapon for retaliation, and we think that’s what he witnesses on the distant moon of LV-223.

Question: Why does Weyland have to hide that he’s on the ship?

From the moment the crew of the Prometheus wakes up out of hypersleep, we’re aware of just how little this group of roughnecks knows about the assignment. Shaw and Holloway are there to try to contact the Engineers, of course, and Meredith Vickers knows all about their plans, but everyone else on board seems happy to take the paycheck-- which is why we still don’t understand why Peter Weyland would have to hide that he’s on board. When he finally is revealed late in the film, it turns out he’s looking for essentially the same thing as Shaw-- so why couldn’t they have just been working together the entire time?

Guessing: Weyland seems like the kind of guy who likes to keep things close to the vest, letting his android David do his bidding and staying asleep, or doing whatever he’s doing, in his own secret chambers. We could argue all day that the movie would be more interesting if he were part of it from the beginning, but we guess the eccentric trillionaire has his reasons for keeping his distance.

Movie Review: Ice Age: Continental Drift

    You may not care the climate change and it may no conclusive proof of the substantial global warming, but every year there is a story would remind us that the climate change may be true. From its 2002 beginning, Ice Age tell a great funny story with strong, esay to understand story line, The new one “Continental Drift” also did a great Job in this summer.

    When a woolly mammoth cops an attitude and smirks, "It's not like it's the end of the world," there is certain to be trouble ahead. Or in the case of the 3-D animated "Ice Age: Continental Drift,"a whole lotta trouble. A whole lotta shakin's too, especially after Scrat, that acorn-obsessed saber-toothed squirrel (voiced by Chris Wedge), manages to crack the ice, which creates the continents and triggers the breakup of the polar icecaps. So much for global warming.

    The film was co-directed by Steve Martino  and Michael Thurmeier from a screenplay by Michael Berg, who co-wrote the original "Ice Age," and Jason Fuchs, making his feature debut. The fourth edition in this solid, if not overly scintillating franchise is an improvement over No. 3, 2009's "Dawn of the Dinosaurs," which completely lost it when the Ice Age went tropical.

     In "Continental Drift," the filmmakers have gone a little crazy too, but in a good way. Smack dab in the middle of things there's a big Broadway-style number involving pirates. It's a frivolous but fabulous bit that seems one-part homage to Disney's animated musicals, and one-part nod to Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies, yet it works as an excellent diversion and not just because of the music. The real kick, thank you "Game of Thrones," is that Peter Dinklage has come aboard as the fiercest, baddest pirate captain ever, and he sings.

Captain Gutt is a crusty old orangutan with a sinister grin, seriously lethal fingernails ("thems what do the gutting, arrr") and a motley crew — except for the silver saber-toothed babe Shira (Jennifer Lopez). For those wondering why there are suddenly pirates in prehistoric times, well, this is probably the wrong movie for you. The old standbys are back, but thanks to Scrat, things are a disaster. Manny the mammoth (Ray Romano) and his truculent teenager Peaches (Keke Palmer) are at odds over her dating. A hunky Ethan (Drake) is the apple of her eye, something her best friend Louis (Josh Gad), a mole hog, gets mopey over. Sid the sloth's (John Leguizamo) estranged parents have stopped by long enough to drop off Granny (Wanda Sykes sounding like her stand-up self, but G-rated). Macho saber-toothed tiger Diego (Denis Leary) is having a midlife crisis, wondering if being a bachelor is really all it's cracked up to be.

    Before anything can be resolved, everything literally cracks up. Mountains start crumbling, icebergs start breaking apart and within moments Peaches and mom Ellie (Queen Latifah) are left on land, while Manny, Diego, Sid and Granny are clinging to a chunk of iceberg on the high seas. Captain Gutt with his cold heart soon rides out of the mists and the fun begins.

   "Ice Age's" stories are fundamentally all about family and there is no messing with that principle at this point in the game. It's all geared to be easily consumed by little ones, there are morals to the story and the jokes are built on the animation antics rather than double entendres or pop culture cleverness. That means Manny's raison d'etre is simple — get back to Ellie and Peaches because that is what good dads and husbands do, we are told, in case there was some confusion on those responsibilities.

    All in all, the film is a funny one full of emotion and warmth of family. Enjoy such a movie with family in this hot summer, is definitely a nice moment.                            

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