Colombiana: Commando with Brains and a Heart

December 19th, 2011 | By Rono | 238 views | No Comments »

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.

A Million Laughs on DVD: Megamind

March 24th, 2011 | By Rono | 559 views | 3 Comments »

What if, in the eternal battle between hero and villain, the villain one day decides he is tired of being the bad one? This is the premise of the 3D animated Megamind. It’s a refreshing satire of the superhero genre, a little like Pixar‘s The Incredibles, told from the side of evil.

Megamind (Will Ferrell) and Minion (David Cross), the funny faces of the underdogs the day they finally win. They failed so many times in the past, they never exected to succeed. It feels weird.

Not quite as good, yet extremely funny in its own silly way. But it’s not just a superhero comedy, they managed to squeeze in a pretty convincing love story in the middle. Read more »

Tags: 3d, animation, ben stiller, brad pitt, characters, comedy, family movie, jonah hill, marlon brando, metro man, movie review, movies, pixar, protagonist, review, roxanne ritchi, scene, sci-fi, science fiction, spoilers, superhero, tina fey, trailer, villain, will ferrell

Share |

2011 Academy Awards: The Oscar Winners

February 27th, 2011 | By Rono | 1,163 views | 8 Comments »

Academy Award Winner Transcribed live, as the show unfolds, we bring you here all the 2011 Oscar winners of the 83rd Academy Awards. This is a complete list that includes the runners up in each category. The hyperlinks point to movies we have reviewed on Absolute Fiction. This post can be compared to the Academy Award nomination in which we had made our predictions for the winners among the nominees. This year, it’s a very close race. Almost anyone could drive home with a statue.

The 83rd Annual Academy Awards red carpet

And the winners are… Read more »

Tags: academy awards, celebrities, family movie, masterpiece, movie review, movies, nomination, nominees, predictions, red carpet, review, spoilers, stars, winners

Share |

Worlds Reimagined: Alice in Wonderland

February 27th, 2011 | By Rono | 205 views | 3 Comments »

“When in doubt, remain silent.”. Trapped in a world of stuck-up and obedient sheep, an opinionated young woman needs an escape. Thank God for rabbit in blue coats. Alice (Mia Wasikowska) falls and crashes into Underland, it’s as if she had come home. The fantastic world or Underland suits Alice’s temperament.

Alice in Wonderland: now a warrior donning armor and sword, marching to kill the Red Queen's evil Jabberwocky

This is a review of Alice in Wonderland, the movie in itself, not the Lewis Carroll books, although we see mostly his work on the screen. We are not talking adaptation, we are talking imagination. Read more »

Tags: academy awards, action, alice in wonderland, characters, classic, drama, family movie, fantasy, helena bonham carter, johnny depp, mia wasikowska, movie review, protagonist, review, spoilers, third act, trailer

Share |

Building Up Every Day Heroes: Unstoppable

February 5th, 2011 | By Rono | 1,245 views | 1 Comment »

Here is a very difficult art: building a climactic third act that includes danger and suspense, and allows the possibility for some meaningful heroics. The movie Unstoppable prepares the story for a full hour, gradually, before the two main characters unleash their courage and go for it.

Runaway murderous train on a rampage. Denzel Washington and Chris Pine have their work cut out for them.

Frank Barnes (Denzel Washington) and Will Colson (Chris Pine) must risk their lives to stop a train half a mile long carrying toxic and flammable chemicals, heading toward populated area at 75 MPH, with nobody on board. Read more »

Tags: academy awards, action, characters, chris pine, denzel washington, drama, frank barnes, movie review, oscars, railroad, review, scene, spoilers, third act, train, unstoppable, vehicles, will colson

Share |

Too Many Surprise Twists: The Tourist

February 4th, 2011 | By Rono | 603 views | No Comments »

This time, it is about a surprise twist that does not quite work as expected. The Tourist features Johnny Depp playing Frank Tupelo, a character who gets picked up by Elise Clifton-Ward (Angelina Jolie) to throw off a pack of law enforcement agent, following her in Paris, France. They are hunting her husband. Since they do not know his face, he instructs her to pick a random man with the same body type as him.

During a train ride, Elise Clifton-Ward (Angelina Jolie) picks Frank Tupelo (Johnny Depp) to "play" her wanted husband's decoy, thrusting poor Frank in a world of hurt

The problems are twofold. First the main reversal is not the only surprise twist in the film. Second, the main twist shows that the filmmakers were deceiving the audience with smoke and mirrors. Read more »

Tags: action, angelina jolie, characters, drama, johnny depp, movie review, protagonist, review, scene, spoilers, the tourist, trailer

Share |

Building Tension: The Deathly Hallows, Part 1

January 31st, 2011 | By Rono | 162 views | 2 Comments »

Wow! The Harry Potter series of films has gotten funnier with time. You go into Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 with high expectations, knowing the movies that came before and what they should be doing given it is the end of the series. The result is a fun and scary ride that does not disappoint. They actually succeed in making you smile in some of the toughest moments.

Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson) running for their lives in the busy streets of London. Keep up the pace, kids. The worse is yet to come.

Basically, Hermione (Emma Watson), Ron (Rupert Grint) and Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) have to stick together more than ever to find and destroy the Dark Lord’s horcruxes (items into which he saved portions of his soul as a way to live forever.) When the second act starts, they are already in deep doo-doo. Read more »

Tags: academy awards, action, characters, daniel radcliffe, deathly hallows, drama, emma watson, family movie, fantasy, harry potter, magic, masterpiece, movie review, oscars, protagonist, ralph fiennes, review, rupert grint, spoilers, trailer

Share |

Characters That Feel Real: Unforgiven

January 21st, 2011 | By Rono | 332 views | 1 Comment »

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 »

Tags: action, characters, classic, clint eastwood, drama, gene hackman, gunfight, masterpiece, morgan freeman, movie review, protagonist, review, spoilers, unforgiven_tag, villain

Share |

Character Agendas: Ronin

January 20th, 2011 | By Rono | 127 views | No Comments »

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

Upgraded: Robin Hood

January 15th, 2011 | By Rono | 414 views | 1 Comment »

Not your mere family comedy anymore! The story of Robin Hood has been upgraded. This well executed drama is sprinkled with characters and agendas that we can relate to. Ridley Scott and the writing team created a new classic with this prequel. It is not the story we are used to, but the “birth of a legend”.