Posts Tagged ‘good vs. evil’

Short Take: See things blow up a la ‘Transformers’, and Liam Neeson get a paycheck

Director: Peter Berg

Screenwriters: Erich and Jon Hoeber

Cast: Taylor Kitsch, Liam Neeson, Brooklyn Decker, Rihanna, Alexander Skarsgård

Length: 2h 11m

Synopsis: Alex Hopper (Kitsch) is a thick-headed, stubborn, undisciplined underachiever. Natural, then, that his brother Stone (Skarsgård) forces him to enlist in the U.S. Navy with him. While procured Alex has fallen for and wooed a fetching blonde named Samantha (Decker), who just happens to be the daughter of his superior, Admiral Shane (Neeson). Meanwhile, the U.S. government has secretly sent a signal to a distant planet that closely resembles our own. Only shortly after being sent its receivers send their own signal back in the form of spacecrafts which land in the waters near Hawaii during a Naval training exercise that the Hopper brothers are part of. Alarm spreads. The aliens close off the immediate area near Hawaii with a dome forcefield, and the battle begins. The aliens on the outside of this area try to usurp the same equipment used to reach them in order to contact home, which cannot be allowed to happen for fear of calling on more aliens. Will our heroes save the day and defeat the cosmic invaders?

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Short Take: Visually impressive, with enough story to keep you interested

Director: Tarsem Singh

Screenwriter: Charley and Vlas Parlapanides

Cast: Henry Cavill, Mickey Rourke, Freida Pinto, Luke Evans, John Hurt, Stephen Dorff

Length: 1h 50m

Synopsis: A brave peasant named Theseus (Cavill) is chosen by Zeus (Evans), the ruler of all, to lead humanity against the evil King Hyperion (Rourke), whose unyielding desire is to smite the Olympians and rule all of creation with fear and turpitude. With his vast and ruthless army, Hyperion searches mercilessly for a mystical weapon known as the Epirus Bow, which he aims to use to unleash the imprisoned Titans in order to kill the Gods and command all power in the heavens. Aided by a clairvoyant priestess named Phaedra (Pinto) and an accompanying band of renegades, Theseus must find the bow before Hyperion and defeat him without any interference from the Gods, despite their partiality. An epic adventure ensues that will decide the fortunes of not just mankind’s mortality, but also its ties to divinity.

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Short Take: Entertaining but sorely underdeveloped - It could have been considerably better

Director: Jimmy Hayward (Horton Hears a Who!)

Screenwriter: Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor (Gamer, Crank: High Voltage)

Cast: Josh Brolin (Milk, No Country for Old Men), Megan Fox (Jennifer’s Body, Transformers), John Malkovich (Burn After Reading, Changeling), Michael Fassbender (Inglourious Basterds, Fish Tank, 300)

Length: 1 hour 23 minutes

Synopsis: The film begins with former Confederate soldier Jonah Hex (Brolin) forced to watch his wife and son burn to death at the hands of former friend Quentin Turnbull (Malkovich).  Left for dead, Hex is found and revived by a group of Crow Indians, but he’s a changed man.  Not only does he literally bear a brand of Turnbull’s betrayal on his face, but his travels between death and life left him with some unique abilities.  Hex can seemingly survive any number of bullet wounds and revive the dead for short periods of time with a single touch.  Hex devotes his life to taking revenge on Turnbull and when the U.S. government asks for his help in stopping Turnbull from using a powerful weapon against innocent citizens during the nation’s centennial celebration, he must find him before time runs out. Read the rest of this entry »

Short Take: A film of conviction and faith whose statements about religion are rife with controversy

Directors: Albert and Allen Hughes (From Hell, Dead Presidents)

Screenwriter: Gary Whitta (Debut)

Cast: Denzel Washington (Training Day), Gary Oldman (The Dark Knight), Mila Kunis (Extract)

Length: 1h 58m

Synopsis: In post-apocalyptic America, decades after a natural disaster involving the sun and a subsequent war destroyed almost all life on earth, a man treks west in search of a civilization that will put what he has to good use in order to save mankind. What he has there is only one of anymore, and that is a copy of the King James Holy Bible. On his way west he finds a town that’s run by a very dangerous man who seeks to find his own copy of the bible and use it to control the minds of the ignorant and desperate. When the two men meet it ignites a struggle between good and evil that could alter the face of human civilization forever. Read the rest of this entry »