Movie Reviews
Rocky Balboa - 3 stars
Overview: Fifteen years have passed, and Rocky's in his 50's. Adrian has died, and his son has graduated from college and entered the work force. There's a new boxing champ, and he's one of those big ego, big bling type guys, and talks really big. ESPN runs a simulated fight between great boxers of old, and great boxers of today, and pit Rocky against the current champ. The champ decides he needs to prove himself, and his promoters convince Rocky to have an exhibition match with him to prove who's who.
Acting: Sly does a good job at playing up the sense of loss at losing his wife, and trying to deal with that anger inside over it. He also does the typical Rocky helps everyone type thing. The guy who plays Paulie does a good job of being an angry old curmudgeon, too.
Action: Sly isn't as fast as he used to be, and the boxing match isn't as spectacular as the first four movies. However, for being 50something, he does a good job and looks good doing it.
Review: This movie is a much better closure to the Rocky series than Rocky V was. If Rocky V never existed, this movie would be even better. However, while this movie wraps up the series in a very satisfactory way, it doesn't really stand on its own as a good movie.
I am Legend - 3 stars
Overview: A man-made virus has gotten out of hand and either killed or zombified the population of the world. Robert Neville is searching for a cure to the malady, and for other survivors. At night he boards hiimself up in his home, and only goes out during the daytime - when the zombies retreat to dark places.
Acting: Will Smith does a great job of portraying a man losing his touch with reality due to being the only human left, obsessed with finding a cure. Smith is the only actor in the movie worth writing a review of because all of the other bits are so minor they don't really count.
Review: Will Smith's acting aside, this movie is... lacking. The man-made virus turning humanity into mindless zombies bit has been done over and over. The intelligent zombies that can only squeal and screech has been done over and over. This movie really brings nothing to the table that makes it stand out, other than Smith's portrayal of a man isolated and alone on the planet, struggling to remain sane.
Rambo - 3 1/2 stars
Overview: John Rambo is working for a zoo/exhibition type place, and catches snakes for them. He owns a boat and one night some missionaries show up asking him to take them to Burma so they can take food and medical supplies to an oppressed minority group there. He says it's too dangerous and tells them to go home. Woman tells him that it's a risk worth taking, and convinces him that even if they die, they die doing something noble. he takes them to Burma. Skip ahead a few weeks and the head preacher shows up saying that all contact has been lost, and he needs Rambo to take a group of mercenaries up there to free them. Rambo gets pissed and decides to join in the ass kicking. Along the way he has to assert his authority on some of the Mercs.
Acting: I think the Mercs get that former military mercenary personality down. Other than that, most of the acting is by Sly, and Rambo comes across as a very jaded former soldier who only cares about himself.
Action: There's a lot of good squad combat maneuvers and blowin-shit-up action. Overall, very good.
Review: For a good action flick, see Rambo.
The Incredible Hulk - 3 1/2 stars
Overview: David Bruce Banner is on the run from the military after the experiment that turned him into the Hulk. He's hiding out in Brazil, working at a bottling plant, and generally being happy and learning how to meditate to keep his heart rate down. He's even managed to find a doctor (Mr. Blue) to help him try to find a cure. Eventually, though, the military finds him, and he goes Hulk on them. He needs to see Betty Ross to get data that he can take to Mr. Blue and try to find a final cure. The army chases him to New York City, where he fights Abomination, who the army creates to try to stop him, and there is massive destruction and lots of super powered fight scenes.
Acting: I was really impressed by the acting in this movie with the exception of Liv Tyler. She just didn't seem too groove with everyone else.
Action: Hulk Smash! There was a lot of awesome combat scenes, both with Ed Norton as David Banner, and especially with The Hulk vs. everything around him.
Special Effects: Pretty damn good. It's hard to be seemless with this much CGI, but they did a really good job with it.
Review: I liked that there were a lot of throwbacks to the TV show. I felt that the TV show was awesome, and really made people able to connect with the Hulk character. I think this is a great spring board for future hulk movies, but it just felt like something was missing. I can't put my finger on it, and it was definitely a good movie, but something didn't click.