Legion

Running Time: 100 minutes.

Media: DVD.

This film, I must admit is a bit of a mind-f[CENSORED]k to a degree... Let me be honest here, we're dealing with an angel, Michael, the archangel, no less, who falls to Earth, cuts his wings off and tries to stop an apocalypse of epic proportions and save the cigarette-smoking mother-to-be of what is to be the savior of mankind.

Paul Bettany comes across as the very serious, and very well-armed archangel Michael; with Kevin Durand (known for his role as Fred J. Dukes, aka Blob from X-Men Origins: Wolverine) as the archangel Gabriel, Michael's "nemesis". Other old-school actors like Dennis Quaid, Charles S. Dutton, Tyrese Gibson, and Kate Walsh join the cast as well as a number of unknowns including some weird-ass old lady who likes to crawl up ceilings, and an ice-cream truck driver who makes the Frankenstein monster seem tame by comparison...

Movie review websites Rotten Tomatoes, Dread Central and BloodyDisgusting.com all gave reviews for this film with ratings between 10-20% and to be perfectly honest, I can see why.. This film is kinda pathetic, it's an apocalypse supernatural thriller film thinly disguised to be a serious apocalypse supernatural thriller. There's supposed deep and meaningful moments that contrast heavily amongst the somewhat bad acting that make the actors on Saved by the Bell seem like Emmy Award-winning actors. Durand, for some reason sounds too poetic and softly spoken in this film... Quaid's performance is wooden, and I'm starting to think he's been losing his touch after Vantage Point came out in 2008.

As this is the first time I've seen this movie, I had had some expectations, but I found this to be a considerable disappointment. I have decided to give this movie one star... Yes, that's right... one star... this is the lowest official rating I have given for a film and to be perfectly honest... I'm starting to think the film Michael, starring John Travolta was a far better film than this... And even for me that's a bit of a stretch... Legion is a hundred minutes of my life that I will never get back...

Safe House (2012)

Running Time: 117 minutes.

Media: Cinematic screening.

A few weeks ago I had the incredible opportunity of watching this movie with my girlfriend in the Gold Class cinemas at Castle Hill's Event Cinema Megaplex. This wasn't my first time in Gold Class, but bearing in mind that my first film I saw at Gold Class was James Cameron's Avatar, which was a whopping 171 minutes, and in 3D I didn't have much time to truly investigate the environment I was to watch this film.

The food was excellent and was served promptly... The shredded pork nachos was to die for... as well as their "Dynamite Squid"... I enjoyed these on chairs that I never knew until recently were capable of reclining! Why didn't I know this in my first trip back in 2009??

Anyhow, I digress... I'll probably put in a post some time later about cinemas and the like, but for the mean time, it's back to the review! Safe House, geez.. I came out of this blown away by the incredible "BAM!" factor that kept repeating itself over and over and over again... Surprisingly, you don't get bored of this, because you keep anticipating when it's gonna happen, and you miss it... and then as soon as your guard lowers, "BAM!" - they hit you again! I think I experienced this in at least five separate moments throughout the film, as I lost count after that. Ryan Reynolds plays his part well as a low-level CIA agent, Matthew Weston, who acts as a "housekeeper", an agent who maintains a safe house in South Africa. Along comes a convoy of agents, who with Denzel Washington, who plays ex-CIA agent (now turned rogue), Tobin Frost, become the target of a group of assassins. Both Frost and Weston escape, part ways, re-unite, ad nauseum; but with multiple action sequences in between...

Suffice it to say, you are NEVER gonna be bored with this one. Denzel, regardless of his character, regardless of which film he stars in, is always is cool and calm... That's just Denzel... Ryan on the other hand, could very well be our next brand of action hero; always thinking on his feet and thorough. I will confess, in the Ryan side of things... this film craps all over Green Lantern. I'm sorry, Ryan... a lot of people crapped on that film a lot... I do like Green Lantern, but Safe House is far better.

I have one teeny, tiny little problem with this film... and it's not my fault, let alone theirs... well, okay, maybe it is their fault, a bit... The film falls flat in one area, and that is with the incorporation of a character called "Ana Moreau", played by actress and singer Nora Arnezeder... I found her character flat and dimensionless, and to be perfectly honest, it seems she was added into the screenplay to pad it a little and to give the character of Weston a little more emotional depth... I personally feel that the movie would have worked just as well without her and that while her being in this film did allow the movie to end on a more peaceful note, the writers did not even do so well in that either. As a result, I can't give Safe House the five-star rating it deserves.

Regardless of this, the film, featuring twists you could never see coming, as well as an incredible panorama of the culture and life of South Africa, where this movie was filmed; Safe House, receives 4½ stars.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Running Time: 127 minutes.

Media: Cinematic screening.

One of the hardest things one can do is take a book and turn it into a film. A number of books have successfully made it because they are part of a series. Other films, based on a singular storyline, however are the ones that tend to be heavily scrutinized and as a result usually end up coming up trumps. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is no exception to this rule.

John Le Carré, who originally wrote this book back in 1974 would be incredibly pleased with the results in my personal opinion. The film takes place back in 1973, around the time Le Carré first published the novel, and the atmosphere and suspense in this film are kept remarkably well. The colors are washed out perfectly, the wardrobe and authenticity of the era are captured with clockwork precision. The only exception I could make was the haircut given to Benedict Cumberbatch who plays Peter Guillam, an associate of the main character, George Smiley, a retired agent with British Intelligence who has been summoned to investigate the possibility of a Russian mole within the current administration at British Intelligence.

This film at just over two hours, seems to be slow at first, as very little is said, particularly by Gary Oldman (who plays Smiley). However, despite the drab surroundings and often quite "loud" silences, the movie takes on a more biotic quality. It... for the lack of a better phrase, breathes.. the movie literally breathes and moves with the characteristic of a living thing... Although you think "Thank God, he's finally speaking..." you begin to wonder whether it's really all that necessary that he does!

This movie has been nominated for several awards at the Academy Awards as well as the BAFTAs... and a few others, taking eight out of the various nominations. I find that an amazing achievement, and I can see why. You are engaged from the get-go, and are taken on a ride as you play through the plots and paragraphs you would normally read in your head and see it unfold on the screen... up until the very end. It's really something incredible to behold.

I'm giving Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy my highest rating of 5 stars and hope that a few other of  Le Carré's other books are fortunate enough to be treated with as much relish to produce similar works of art.

The Man from Earth

Running Time: 89 minutes.
Media: Video file.

This is not my ordinary kind of movie I would normally sink my teeth into... I saw it some five or so years ago around the time it first came out... I have to admit it's not everyone's cup of tea, but it does come across as a fairly intellectual kind of film in places...

Jerome Bixby, who died before this movie was released, started writing the screenplay back in the 60's, but finally finished it off on his death-bed in 1998. I know, a bit gruesome, but hey, that's the way it happened... His son, Emerson Bixby took the screenplay and decided to work on making it into a movie. The results are actually quite surprising.

Bixby (Junior) has taken a not-so-well known cast, inclusive of the title character, played by a relatively unknown David Lee Smith... If you have seen Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood you may have recognized him as the actor who played the young Shep Walker. Other cast include Tony Todd, who has played many very morbid characters in a number of horror based films as well as CIA Director Grahamin the TV series Chuck, John Billingsley, who played the character of Doctor Phlox on Star Trek: Enterprise and William Katt, who's real claim to fame was playing history teacher turned superhero Ralph Hinkley/Hanley (I could never understand why they changed the surname?) in The Greatest American Hero.

The movie pretty much occurs mostly at the home of John Oldman, a university professor, who admits to his friends he is leaving behind that he is a Cro-Magnon who has managed to survive for over 14,000 years. The plot revolves his friends trying to determine Oldman's sanity by throwing questions about his memories and general history and the possibilities of his claim being true.

There is a bit of a twist, and I will say nothing save that some people of a strong religious constitution may take offense to it. I will leave it to those willing to take a chance on the movie. The storyline is well thought and written out... even though at times the quality of the acting sometimes takes a temporary and relatively short down turn before starting back up again... I have given The Man from Earth four stars and I fele I should move on and hurry as I have two more reviews to make!

I know, I know... I've been slack... it's been almost two months since my last review... February and March have been relatively busy for me... so I hope to be back on track with more reviews in the days and weeks to come, inclusive of a mini-marathon of movies some time in April/May!