Tag: Action

Guardians of the Galaxy review

Director:
James Gunn
Cast:
Chris Pratt
Zoe Saldana
Dave Bautista
Vin Diesel
Bradley Cooper
Lee Pace
Rated: PG-13

The best character of 2014 might just be a raccoon.

“Guardians of the Galaxy” is Marvel Studios’ latest cinematic venture. However, this time around the audience is introduced to a whole new universe with a different set of characters from what people have come to expect in a Marvel film.

The movie follows Peter Quill (Pratt), or as he likes to call himself, Starlord. Quill is an intergalactic thief who steals an orb from what looks like ancient ruins. This puts him on a wanted list of a few dangerous people, including Gamora (Saldana), who works for the villainous Ronan, and a raccoon named Rocket (Cooper) who is being helped by a walking tree creature titled Groot (Diesel).

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REVIEW: ‘Lucy’

Director:
Luc Besson
Cast:
Scarlett Johansson
Morgan Freeman
Amr Waked
Min-sik Choi
Rated: R

Director Luc Besson’s latest film “Lucy” follows the title character played by Scarlett Johansson. A young woman who is living in Taiwan, Lucy’s life takes a turn for the worst when her boyfriend gets her caught up in the world of drug trafficking.

Lucy soon becomes a drug mule, having a package of drugs placed inside of her. The package soon breaks and the drug enters her system, which results in her brain capacity increasing. Through the rest of the movie Lucy’s brain capacity continues to rise nearer to 100%, and she has to figure out what to do with the knowledge she gains and take revenge on the drug gang.

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Hercules review

Director:
Brett Ratner
Cast:
Dwayne Johnson
Ian McShane
John Hurt
Rufus Sewell
Ingrid Bolso Berdal
Rated: PG-13

Brett Ratner already screwed up a good premise to an X-Men movie, so it shouldn’t come as any surprise he can’t pull off something like “Hercules.”

In this new telling of Greek mythology, the titular hero, played by Dwayne Johnson, is a mercenary, fighting bandits and pirates for gold. It’s alluded to he may be the son of Zeus, however, this movie tries to ground itself in a more realistic setting. Therefor, we get a Hercules that is a bit more human.

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The Purge: Anarchy review

Director:
James DeMonaco
Cast:
Frank Grillo
Carmen Ejogo
Zach Gilford
Zoe Soul
Rated: R

A sequel to last year’s film “The Purge,” “Anarchy” follows a new cast of characters and once again takes place on the night where, in the United States, all crime including murder is deemed legal. In this movie, the story follows a man simply known as Sergeant (Grillo), who seems to be on a quest for nothing but revenge on one person.

However, upon his travels he meets four people in need of help. Sergeant decides to assist them and has to lead them through the city on the most dangerous night in America.

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Dawn of the Planet of the Apes review

Director:
Matt Reeves
Cast:
Andy Serkis
Jason Clarke
Gary Oldman
Keri Russell
Toby Kebbell
Rated: PG-13

“Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” is the sequel to the 2011 reboot film which followed the birth and childhood of the character Ceasar (Serkis), and how he rose to be a revolutionary leader for his simian species. “Dawn” starts off 10 years after the first film ended. Since Caesar and the apes escaped, a virus produced at a lab has spread across the entire world and has wiped out most of the human race. Meanwhile, the apes, led by Caesar, have established their own thriving community where they live in peace.

Tensions rise, though, as a group of humans from a colony in the remains of San Francisco step upon the Ape civilization to find a power source and an accidental death occurs. Just as the situation reaches a near boiling point, though, Caesar is able to communicate with the humans to calm things down and eventually, the humans get to do their work. Old hatreds start to rise up, though, and peace may not be a long term solution.

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Transformers: Age of Extinction review

Director:
Michael Bay
Cast:
Mark Wahlberg
Nicola Peltz
Jack Reynor
Kelsey Grammer
Rated: PG-13

Director Michael Bay just can’t seem to keep these movies under two and a half hours, and it once again becomes a problem for the latest “Transformers.”

The fourth installment, called “Age of Extinction,” follows Cade Yeager, played by Mark Wahlberg. Cade is a struggling, down on his luck inventor who is also an overprotective father to his daughter Tessa, played by Nicola Peltz. Meanwhile, the good natured Autobots, led by Optimus Prime, are being hunted by the government for being too dangerous.

Eventually, Cade, Tessa and Tessa’s boyfriend Shane, played by Jack Reynor, come in contact with Prime and are forced into an adventure in which they are chased by an evil Decepticon bounty hunter and the government.

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How to Train Your Dragon 2 review

Director:
Dean DeBlois
Cast:
Jay Baruchel
Cate Blanchett
Gerard Butler
Craig Ferguson
America Ferrera
Djimon Hounsou
Kit Harington
Rated: PG

Five years later and none of the main characters have developed Scottish accents.

“How to Train Your Dragon 2” returns audiences to the island of Berk, where the viking warrirors there have adapted to life with dragons. There are dragon races, dragon stalls and other features to make everything work perfectly. The village is happy and the main character Hiccup’s (Baruchel) friends are having a good time racing each other. Hiccup on the other hand, though, seems to be less than content at Berk and spends his time searching the world for new places.

The adventure starts when Hiccup, and his now girlfriend Astrid (Ferrera) discover dragon trappers who are working for the villain Drago (Hounsou). Drago is working to build a dragon army and will take out anyone in his way. After the villain’s plot is discovered, Hiccup goes to try and reason with him. His journey is derailed though when he meets a person who has built a dragon sanctuary, a person that he has a connection with.

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Edge of Tomorrow review

Tom Cruise is continuing his recent streak of action and science fiction films with “Edge of Tomorrow,” and it might be one of the best films he has done in years.

Cage is the name of Cruise’s character in “Edge of Tomorrow,” an arrogant Major in the U.S. Army whose main task in the military is public relations and the promotion of new exoskeletal armor suits. The suits Cage is promoting are being utilized by humanity in a five-year war against alien invaders who have conquered much of Europe.

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X-Men: Days of Future Past review

Director:
Bryan Singer
Cast:
Hugh Jackman
James McAvoy
Michael Fassbender
Jennifer Lawrence
Peter Dinklage
Rated: PG-13

So many X-Men characters, so little time, but plenty of time travel.

The seventh film in the “X-Men” franchise and the first to return some of the characters from the original trilogy, “Days of Future Past” starts off in a “Terminator” like atmosphere. The film takes place in the not so distant future with much of the mutant race either dead or in hiding and the human race not doing too well either.

The reason for the devastation is summed up in an opening expository dialogue by Patrick Stewart playing Charles Xavier. It’s explained that some time after the events of “The Wolverine,” robots, titled Sentinals, were unleashed to hunt down mutants with the ability to adapt to any power they are faced with.

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REVIEW: ‘Godzilla’

Director:
Gareth Edwards
Cast: PG-13
Aaron Taylor-Johnson
Ken Watanabe
Bryan Cranston
David Strathairn
Rated: PG-13

Yes this movie needed more Godzilla. Scenes with fins sticking out of the water don’t count.

The second American take on “Godzilla” starts with the character Joe Brody (Cranston), a worker at a nuclear power plant in Japan. On what seems like just another average day, the power plant is devastated by an unknown force, and in the destruction Brody’s wife, who also works at the factory, is killed. This sets off Brody into a truth finding search for answers which ends up leading to a strained relationship with his son Ford (Taylor-Johnson).

Fast forward 15 years into the future and Brody’s quest for the truth leads him, along with Ford, to uncover a powerful creature which pose a massive threat to humanity. Things get more interesting as the military gets involved to stop the creature that has awoken and meanwhile, the King of the Monsters starts to make his presence known.

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