Colombiana: Commando with Brains and a Heart

Late review, but I’ve been kind a busy. Here is a movie with fast, relentless action and no time to breathe coming to DVD and Blu-Ray this week. Colombiana relates the quest of a determined woman, named Cataleya, looking to avenge her parents’ murder.

Colombiana's Zoe Saldana kicks some serious butt without breaking a sweat.

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Characters with True Grit

“Grit, noun, \’grit\ firmness of mind or spirit : unyielding courage in the face of hardship or danger” (Merriam-Webster online dictionary).

True Grit tells the story of a very courageous 14-year-old girl (Hailee Steinfeld) out in harm’s way, looking to bring justice to the memory of her dear father. She hires renown Marshall Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) and they venture into Native American territory, to see to their mission.

Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges), even with just one eye, is good with a gun or a rifle. Stay away from the muzzle!

The western genre is alive and well indeed. For the fans, read our reviews of Appaloosa, Unforgiven and Pale Rider.    Read more »

Quick Review: The Green Hornet

One can usually make pretty good impressions of a movie by watching the trailer. A movie with substance is easy to promote. At least technically. Some trailers failed even when the movie was good, but we digress here. The Green Hornet‘s trailer (watch it after this article) sucks!

Kato (Jay Chou) and the unlikely Green Hornet (Seth Rogen)

When you fail to show the most appealing parts of a movie in 2 minutes, it means you either cannot identify them or there are none in the first place.    Read more »

Quick Review: Red

Red, the movie takes a lot of liberties from the comic. It’s an entirely different story simply based on the same premise: an unhappily retired CIA operative has been marked for elimination.

Bruce Willis teaches how to properly exit a moving vehicle. Probably the movie's signature set piece. A la Wanted.

Paul Moses, in the comic, Frank in the movie (Bruce Willis), is the main character of a short story about a former agent tormented by a past he is trying to forget. But in the movie, we get a group of targeted retirees trying to stay alive. They mention their past a some point or another, but beside Marvin (John Malkovich), the typical paranoid maniac, there are no nightmares. Maybe a few happy/sad memories.    Read more »

Characters That Feel Real: Unforgiven

One key to great drama is characters that can carry a story, characters with depth, complexity and a touch of contradiction. Unforgiven is an timeless classic, a tapestry woven with some of the best characters you have ever seen in a single story. They unwrap in layers, and the more layers you unwrap, the deeper those people get, the more real they feel.

The visit that sends William Munny (Clint Eastwood) on a manhunt for some much needed cash

Clint Eastwood plays William Munny, a reformed gunslinger trying to make it in his poor farm, a single father with two children. A reckless young would-be assassin makes him an offer one day and gets him to think about picking a gun again. Only, he is not so young, not so good any more.    Read more »

Character Agendas: Ronin

Ronin is a round up of balanced, tough characters for a simple heist. They’re all good at what they do. They are facing seasoned villains; so their job is not going to be easy. Worse, by the midpoint, everything goes south when one of them reveals his real motives and switch sides.

Ronin's Sam (Robert DeNiro) leads a band of mercenaries working to retrieve a silver case from another team

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It is All about Balance: Appaloosa

The western genre is certainly not dead. 2008′s excellent Appaloosa is a testament to that fact. Another notable movie is the Coen Brother’s 2010 True Grit, which we reviewed here. Appaloosa is a carefully crafted piece which all fans of the genre will appreciate for what it is: an instant classic, in the tradition of High Noon, Rio Bravo, Once Upon a Time in the West, etc.

Two against four. Both heroes face a runaway criminal and his hired guns (ground level); these last two are good.

This is the story of two gentlemen (nicely played by Ed Harry and Viggo Mortensen) who work as marshals of the United States. They have been called to rescue a small town succumbing to chaos and injustice, under the stronghold of a ruthless Rancher named Bragg (Jeremy Irons).    Read more »

Gallery: Terminator Salvation

Now set in the near future, John Connor helps the resistance fight Skynet to protect what is left of the rapidly decreasing human population. The machines have a new weapon: a mole. His objective: track and report John Conner’s father, Kyle Reese. As Connor puts it, “Kill Kyle Reese, reset the future. No John Connor.”

Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington): Skynet's Mole.

Browse the gallery:    Read more »

Unstoppable Hero: Man on Fire

How do you give a protagonist a reason to be a juggernaut that can steamroll all enemies without fail and still give him a flawed human side? You start him up as a suicidal, drunk, out-of-shape ex-mercenary repent and looking for salvation, up against an entire corrupt organization merchandising perversion and death. In Man on Fire, John Creasy, played by Oscar winner Denzel Washington, comes to Mexico to visit his old friend Rayburn (Christopher Walken) and stays to try a new life as a bodyguard for an adorable Lupita Ramos (Dakota Fanning).

Big fish Victor Fuentes (Jesús Ochoa) provides information to Creasy (Denzel Washington) before his punishment.

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Invincible Hero: Pale Rider

With Pale Rider, screenwriters Michael Butler and Dennis Shryack, and director Clint Eastwood attempt a tough trick: create a character that seemingly has no flaws, that no one can beat in a fair fight, has no weakness and no equal. A truly invincible protagonist focused on a single mission, carelessly flicking the dust from a fight off his sleeve, like it was nothing. They still managed to keep a constant sense of danger throughout the story.

Clint Eastwood, the Preacher showing off his skills with a gun for the first time

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