Gadgets, Gear, and Drones
Cloud Atlas is several stories interleaved together as consequences of actions and events ripple through time and space. It seems to be a mess but like a symphony, everything somehow fell into place imperfectly perfect. And beautiful. Two thumbs up! :P
Rating: 4/5
The trailer of the latest extension of probably the longest running car movie franchise has been aired on Super Bowl… and online. Another dose of high octane car action and, of course, Gal Gadot!
Got together with Jim, Crissy, and the Fenris boys to watch Zero Dark Thirty last night. Haven’t seen them in a while and I couldn’t recall the names of half of them :P But there we were waiting for everyone to arrive, having dinner, talking about the things we used to talk back then, and of course, watching a movie of common interest.
Make no mistake, Zero Dark Thirty is not an action movie about a SEAL Team assaulting UBL hideout and ending him with extreme prejudice. It is primarily a spy thriller with a sort-of-action segment towards the end. It’s about “Maya”, a female CIA agent, on her single-minded 10-year search for UBL aka the needle in the haystack, her struggles in a male-dominated workplace, brute-force approach (yes, torture), bureaucracy ridden government, unreliable allies, and the culmination of the search with an efficient little raid a little-known city in Pakistan. There’s a lot of social and political commentary somewhere there but I chose to ignore them.
Towards the end, the narrative of the movie sort of weaves in with the narrative of the book No Easy Day. For example, the female CIA operative leading the search and the way the raid unfolds. So having read the book helped me understand and appreciate the events as it unfolded on the big screen. Makes me wonder if Mark Owen/Matt Bissonette is a technical adviser for the movie.
I’m kind of a Kathryn Bigelow fan because of The Hurt Locker and her latest work didn’t hurt. Definitely a good watch whether you’re a spy thriller fan or an mil action fan.
Rating: 4/5
Tired of One Thing? Well here’s something different: Two Things. Over the weekend I watched the 1982 version of The Thing, followed by the 2011 version. That’s not actually accurate, the later movie is actually a prequel. But I started out with the earlier one. It’s on the same vein as Alien but a bit more down-to-Earth, literally. It takes place in a remote Antarctic scientific base where a dog ran into while being chased by what seems to be hunters on a helicopter. Things got a little hairy and the hunters ended up dead and the dog adopted by scientific team. Things got worse from that point when they discover a burned out base, found an alien ship, and the dog turns out to be quite a bit more than a dog. Quite a suspenseful sci-fi thriller.
Rating: 3.5/5
The 2011 version is, as I mentioned, a prequel. Some scientists have discovered an alien ship and a frozen alien somewhere in Antarctica. They took the frozen alien back to their base and, well, things got hairy and worse from that point when they discover the alien isn’t dead and that anyone can turn out to be quite a bit more than what he or she is. In the span of the movie, the mysteries of the first movie was slowly unraveled. But less mysterious doesn’t necessarily mean less suspenseful. Not as original as the umm original but still a suspenseful sci-fi thriller. Plus the effects (and acting) were better.
Rating: 3/5
Went on a movie marathon over the weekend and finished three.
Ted – About a teddy bear who came to life, I originally planned to watch this with Jeanne. But Leslie and Raine warned me that it’s not for kids. So I watched it, without Jeanne. It’s a comedy about a 35 year old with the aforementioned teddy bear that he never outgrew. Yeah, sometimes we never outgow our teddy bears aka our childhood. You know those people, those who always say “Because you/he/she/they…” and never taking cognizance of their own part of events. In this case, it’s always because of teddy bear. Poor teddy. Good thing he can talk and defend himself. There are also fun cameos of Sam Jones (Flash Gordon! Yeah I’m an 80s kid) and Tom Skerritt (Top Gun! Another 80s kid thing) and Ryan Reynolds (finally something not 80s: 2010 Sexiest Man Alive). Rating 2/5
Premium Rush – Shows that you can write an interesting yarn about anything. Who would’ve thought that a movie about bike messengers would actually be interesting? It’s a movie about a bike messenger who got a delivery for something that turns out to be worth a lot of money. Of course, somebody has to be after the money for it to be interesting. That’s the premise and amidst a lot of bike-to-bike and bike-to-car chases turned out to be quiet entertaining. Rating 3/5
Fire with Fire – Nothing notable, just a run-of-the-mill action movie. It’s about a fireman who witnessed the leader of a white supremacist outlaw gang (black gangsters are passe, these days they play semi-good guys) kill a convenience store owner and his son. For Jeremy’s protection, he was put into the witness protection program. Now I’m sure you have noticed how it seems to always becomes more dangerous when someone gets admitted into the program. And, not surprisingly, that’s exactly what happened. Soon hired guns were gunning for the fireman and he figured the best way to get out of the mess is to gun for the gang leader. Fighting fire with fire, yeah. But a Glock 21 helps, too. Fun enough action fix. Rating 2.5/5