The Rock, 1996

The Rock, 1996
Director: Michael Bay
Cast: Nicholas Cage, Sean Connery, Ed Harris


Stage: Home TV selection, late night with nothing smarter to do



The Rock in short: Stanley Goodspeed, who lives in Washington D.C., is a biochemist who works for the FBI. Soon after his fiancée Carla Pestalozzi announces that she is pregnant, Stanley gets a call from FBI director James Womack. Womack tells Stanley that San Francisco's Alcatraz Island has been taken hostage, along with 81 tourists, by marine General Francis Xavier Hummel who, for years, has been protesting the government's refusal to pay benefits to families of war veterans who died during covert military operations. The death of his wife Barbara Hummel on March 9, 1995 drove General Hummel over the edge, and now he's holding hostages in order to get his point across. Stanley is needed because General Hummel has stolen some VX gas warheads and has announced that he will launch them onto San Francisco unless his demands are met. Stanley knows how to disarm the bombs, but Stanley needs someone who knows Alcatraz well enough to get him inside..


Preps: Hm. I have seen this at the movies in that year. I was a fan of action movies and this was just the one to fit the description. However, it never left me with a desire to visit this place. Which means I didn't have it in a good memory.



Reality: Well, this is a clear evidence that sometimes even a good cast cannot make a good movie. Not without a good and solid script and in these days of mass production of such movies, without a differentiation from same genre.
There were some standards set for this type of movie from 1988 with Die Hard. It was a lot harder to make a remarkable piece ever since that standard. Not speaking merely of Willis, but of the complete story, setting, trace it left behind. To be exact, in my mind almost none movies that came even a decade later, couldn't live up to the expectations Die Hard has set. Part one and two. Not the later versions, which were a mere dust to what first and second part represented.
Now, The Rock has a story of once good people that got pissed off by actions of their own government. Should veterans get paid or not? A debate for another place or time. Is really so great if you can say you were a part of war and killed dozens, now you need a pension? Whose fault is it anyway you were sent to the battlefield? And who is to pay? Somehow the movie resists average taste with the unique placement. To be quite honest, a lot of people globally want to see the famous cage. And a lot of movie directors must have dreamt of doing a piece there. Anyhow, now we have it, but it leaves me cold. Connery and Cage are the stars, yet I only feel their egos running around and fame from other movies I saw them in. None of that famous energy pours in my veins. I don't know, what is missing. But there is some spirit lacking that could bring up the potential of this piece high above average.
Ed Harris is the rage, Connery and Cage the voice of public, government and themselves at the same time. Fortunately enough we have an emotional distraction, because the viewer subconsciously wants Cage at least alive, because he has a pregnant girlfriend. Now, the time to speak about morality of this fact is somewhere else. Should FBI bomb stalkers, agents with high risk, high mountain climbers, people that have a job or a hobby with a life risk, have a girlfriend even? This makes them vulnerable (and in my personal opinion, a bit egoistic). True, that you cannot choose your missions or visions in life. We are what we are. But we can at least have a bit of an influence on the people around us and maybe the fact if we form a family or not.
As said, not really the essence of this movie. But it slipped my mind while watching. As claimed before, only average action, average scenario and setting. And cast. So gracious, yet so dissappointing.


My personal rating: 5,0 (watchable, if you really are a fan of Cage or Connery, or if you don't have anything smarter to do).



The Rock on IMDB

Panic room, 2002

Panic room, 2002
Director: David Fincher
Cast: Jodie Foster, Kristen Stewart, Forest Whitaker




Stage: Home TV, late Saturday selection


Panic room in short: Recently divorced Meg Altman and her daughter Sarah have bought a new home in New York. On their tour around the mansion, they come across the panic room. A room so secure, that no one can get in. When three burglars break in, Meg makes a move to the panic room. But all her troubles don't stop there. The criminals know where she is, and what they require the most in the house is in that very room.



Preps: Hm. I have seen this piece at the movies in 2002, I liked it. Now I see it has Kristen Stewart, known for vampire saga Twilight as a beautiful Bella. Here I need to see her as a child.


Reality: Wow, beautiful Bella once really was a child. Here as Jodie Foster's diabetic daughter, she gains my confidence in her act. She was developing at that time, but least I see she has been working hard from the beginning (same thing as Drew Barrymore, for instance, starting off with ET.

Now, the Panic room is a perfect shelter for people that don't get excited in closed spaces. Ironically enough, Jodie Foster plays someone that really doesn't like closed rooms, nor supervision through cameras. An unusual story, where some leftovers are hidden after the last owner and aren't taken away quick enough. This is why the burglars come to claim the property, not knowing the house has been sold in the mean time and even more, has now new owners, actually living in the house. The threesome is amusing, showing underappreciation towards burglars. Maybe Finches' own fears or attempt to teach us about how things should be in this world. I doubt that most burglars come as a)fathers that want to give their son the best they can; b)really stupid coleric individuals that don't think two cm below their dicks or c) that they meet at the scene of the job with an armed really weird individual.

In any sense, the movie has a temper and energy, it will keep you high all the time and you will feel the need to ask yourself about the reality these characters are showing. Is it really impossible to get into the safe room? The only way to make the viewer believe is if you make an expert part of the burglar team, namely one that builds such cages. Even if the goal is to prevent burglars from getting into one of those.
Also, some tweeks, I don't buy. You just don't get your hand caught by steel doors and it is still there. It should be cut off. Maybe the choice of director to avoid 18+ rating. And some others.. barefeet people running on the glass not getting hurt is one of them. Hitting a man so hard and him still being conscious, another.. And a lot more. Still, a good showoff of what it might happen somewhere if..

The ending is a bit romantic and could be done a bit differently to get the tention to the peak, not to release it. I claim it to be a fairly good choice of a Sat night movie. It will make you think what would you do if you were in their shoes.


My personal grade: 6,0 (solid proof of concept for a Saturday night. Will get your blood running a bit faster. And you will rehearse the SOS code again :)


Panic room on IMDB

The Thing, 2011

The Thing, 2011
Director: Matthijs van Heijningen Jr.
Cast:Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Joel Edgerton, Ulrich Thomsen



The Thing in short: At an Antarctica research site, the discovery of an alien craft leads to a confrontation between graduate student Kate Lloyd and scientist Dr. Sander Halvorson. While Dr. Halvorson keeps to his research, Kate partners with Sam Carter, a helicopter pilot, to pursue the alien life form.


Stage: home theatre, Christmas eve.



Preps: None in perticular. But I have heard roomers about this piece and I want to test them.


Reality: Well, it's a shitty movie, to be very direct in my first sentence. Where do the directors that want to shoot a movie about aliens come up with these weird ideas? Ok, you find a lifeform in northern pole. After 10000 years caught in the ice it is still alive. Right. Ok, I swallow this somehow. How about being able to replicate in some kind of grose form of people so we can watch really yukky scenes that don't make any perticular sense or aren't something you want or need to see at any point in your life.

Disgusting movie, showing a fight for survival of some scientists that came to the pole to experience some live scientific things, instead they get caught in a trap and killed. Bla Bla Bla. We have seen it all. The only difference is, that the woman, serving as a paleontologist or something combined with biological/surgeon scientific treasure, is very persistent and doesn't get killed in the first scene. Apart from that, not a movie worth your attention or time. The music sucks, the scenes are unimaginative, the plot is stupid and the actors are very average or even below that level .. The least I say about this, the better. Don't watch it. A definite waste of time. I am more than unhappy having chosen this piece for my christmas evening.



My personal rate: 0 (bljak. No extra comment needed).


Thing on IMDB

An Officer and a Gentleman, 1982

An Officer and a Gentleman, 1982
Director: Taylor Hackford
Cast: Richard Gere, Debra Winger, David Keith





Stage. Home theatre


An Officer in short: Zack Mayo is a young man who has signed up for Navy Aviation Officer Candidate School. He is a Navy brat who has a bad attitude problem. GySgt Foley is there to train and evaluate him and will clearly find Zack wanting. Zack meets Paula, a girl who has little beyond family and must decide what it is he wants to do with his life.


Preps: wow, a long time no see classic, again in front of my eyes. This is why my mother adored Gere for such a long time. It was a definite win win for him and something to talk about in the eighties. No such movies today, unfortunately.


Reality: I am almost certain this movie served as a stage for two streams - one in Police Academy tone and the other in all Seagull marine movies. Name all the iterations you want, I am quite convinced that this piece started it all.

Yes, put in 80'ies. And combines all the pure things that we later on saw in many iterations. Mayo (Richard Gere) is sooooooo young in this piece you cannot believe your eyes. The wardrobe is like in those videos you can check out on VH1. Amazingly enough, the dialogues aren't really slick or fine tuned. The cast is not really brilliant. However, it's a classic you cannot afford to miss if you want to know the history of the movies. The hardcore training, the pain you see young officer is going through, the subtile meaning of a relationship and the way they couldn't afford to miss time at that point.

Making a relationship with an officer in that time was a code name for prostitution, as these things never were steady, never lasted and often ended in tears and forgotten kids those men left behind. Now you cannot imagine living in a world like this. However, there were benefits, because these young people weren't so burdened with everything that is happening around, like now young people need to think about. Like making your own way in a way that matters. And being surrounded by mass media, mass distribution of the news. In this movie, you see a niche, a hidden place from the rest of the world. Without internet, without your family, a friend around the globe being available on a click. Somewhere you go and get a training and focus on nothing else. Just this. And women, of course.

In present time nothing like this is possible. Unfortunately they don't hold academies on the islands miles away from civilization. The decisions, what to do with a perticular woman you like, are not that obvious as it seems in this piece. The decision to stay with someone is not based merely on liking, loving, but also on other factors, on which sometimes a person cannot make an influence or impact upon. Sometimes in present tense, everything is crashed by other factors. In the time, where this movie is filmed, all seemed to be pretty straightforward and obvious. The movie obviously also held ground for later huge success of Top Gun and many other wonderful pieces. But this one is the Father of them all in my perspective. And Gere made a tremendous impact on audience, and also grounds for his later popularity.

My personal rating: 8,0 (mmmmm, amazing piece. A must see for each filmophil)

An officer and gentleman on IMDB

Hanna, 2011

Hanna, 2011
Director: Joe Wright
Cast: Cate Blanchett, Saoirse Ronan, Eric Bana



Stage: Home @laptop


Hanna in short: Hanna (Ronan) is a teenage girl. Uniquely, she has the strength, the stamina, and the smarts of a soldier; these come from being raised by her father (Bana), an ex-CIA man, in the wilds of Finland. Living a life unlike any other teenager, her upbringing and training have been one and the same, all geared to making her the perfect assassin. The turning point in her adolescence is a sharp one; sent into the world by her father on a mission, Hanna journeys stealthily across Europe while eluding agents dispatched after her by a ruthless intelligence operative with secrets of her own (Ms. Blanchett). As she nears her ultimate target, Hanna faces startling revelations about her existence and unexpected questions about her humanity.


Preps: None in perticular. One again from the movie selection I have, still running in the theatres, and I am curious.


Reality: A dissappointment. The only remarkable thing I see in the movie is the powers (or let us say, skills) the girl posesses. And are of course, trained. Living in a cocoon and being trained by her father, at first you could get the glimpse of the Carey's Truman show. Up to some extent, she is aware of the world as a big danger and doesn't have any real life experience, apart from the frozen and life taking ones. And being trained as a professional, kind of a Charlie Angel in her youth.

After she's released in the real life, the chase begins. Chasing the past, chasing the probable future, you are lead into the world where all the agents in the globe know your whereabouts, I am often reflected with Angelina Jolie in this sense, because usually this is her type of the movies - endless action with some sex drive (in this case the sexual point is missing, obviously because of the youth of the young girl). Through the movie, I have the feeling that I have seen this somewhere before. Like a puzzle of different pieces, put together by this director. So I am not impressed at all, yet alone I am bored to death as the movie reaches its end. I cannot recommend it, because it lacks passion, it lacks true and believable story. The only thing that I would wish someday to be a Xena like this young lady is - to have skills like this because I sense they would be worth struggling for. Not to be used in this deadly sense, of course, but still.


My personal rate: 4,0 (good battle scenes, bad execution in the chase - which is 80% of the movie).


Hanna on IMDB

Firewall, 2006

Firewall, 2006
Director:Richard Loncraine
Cast: Harrison Ford, Virginia Madsen, Paul Bettany


Stage: Home TV Selection after a long day


Firewall in short: With his family held for ransom, the head security executive for a global bank is commanded to loot his own business for millions in order to ensure his wife and children's safety. He then faces the demanding task of thwarting the kidnapper's grand scheme, which makes him look guilty of embezzlement.


Preps: I have seen this piece several times and I am aware it's a fairy good action.


Reality: The movie exposes a big problem one can face when someone kidnaps his/her personality, family, life, and how easily everything gets turned upside down. A lot of presumptions in the movie are fairly childish and make think that the director underestimated the intelligence of the spectator. Nevertheless, a solid action and a thinkthrough, how much the data on the internet is worth, who is your persona and what to do, if you have your identity stolen.

Ford here shows no difference to his other similar action movies ( The Fugitive, Patriot Games, etc). As the main protagonist, once he's in the role of the main defender of the country, other time in the role of defender of the family and he will do anything to protect them. Similar as Willis in his sagas Die Hard or copies of this one. Ford's role is unrivaled, first acts, then thinks, first feels, then acts. With a fair judgement, this is the unique role he feels at home the most.

The piece is nothing really special. Predictable, thrilling at times, and fun to see on a lovely evening. You won't get your veins filtered, but as said, a solid piece.


My personal rate: 5,5 (a good repeat to see, nothing really special, but also a fairly safe choice to go along with on a rainy day)

Firewall on IMDB

Limitless, 2011

Limitless, 2011
Director: Neil Burger
Cast:Bradley Cooper, Anna Friel, Abbie Cornish, Robert De Niro



Stage: Home theatre, late at night

Limitless in short:An action-thriller about a writer who takes an experimental drug that allows him to use 100 percent of his mind. As one man evolves into the perfect version of himself, forces more corrupt than he can imagine mark him for assassination. Out-of-work writer Eddie Morra's (Cooper) rejection by girlfriend Lindy (Abbie Cornish) confirms his belief that he has zero future. That all vanishes the day an old friend introduces Eddie to NZT, a designer pharmaceutical that makes him laser focused and more confident than any man alive. Now on an NZT-fueled odyssey, everything Eddie's read, heard or seen is instantly organized and available to him. As the former nobody rises to the top of the financial world, he draws the attention of business mogul Carl Van Loon (De Niro), who sees this enhanced version of Eddie as the tool to make billions. But brutal side effects jeopardize his meteoric ascent. With a dwindling stash and hit men who will eliminate him to get the NZT...

Preps: Well, a notorious piece a while ago at the movies, but haven't had the chance to check it out. All I know is some kind of viagra, that is taken, but one for the brain :)

Reality: Wow, it begins with an added value. I definitely want to see loser becoming a victory man, Making my dream come true and answer what people yearn for centuries - how to stimulate your brain in order to make more out of all the data coming in every day.. There is supposed to be 5000-7000 various pieces of information stimulating your brains every day. You don't believe it? Of course you don't - because 99% of this you cannot remember. However, with this plastic miracle, you can.

Same as in the matrix, the main protagonist is put under a spell, after taking the drug. Obviously you cannot live without it and no, you cannot go back. What's the benefit? You get to remember everything you ever learned about, you get to maintain and upgrade existing knowledge within seconds.. you get to stimulate girls and make them laugh in an instant (obviously intelligence makes miracles).. etc. You get everything. Now, how about a downfall?
Like every drug, you cannot maintain the level without physical consequences.. therefore, you are screwed, when you run out of them. On the other hand, Cooper gets lucky and has a whole stack of these babies. One per day,.. and he's superman/Einstein/everything he ever wanted to be. Is his soul the same? This seems to be the main question, as he enters another time zone when taking the drug. And another timeframe in his mind. What kind of the person do you then meet, what are that person's feelings, ideas.. what is he when he isn't a god - good philosophical dilemmas hapenning, as we seek towards the end of this. Can he really finish in one year and make a huge amount of money in that time, to make him and his girlfriend rich and happy / least this is what he believes..
The run towards the end of the movie is too long and I get bored in the mean time. De Niro makes a good entrance and a good exit. But where is he in the mean time? Stage not that impressive, music is good enhancement of various scenes. And Cooper's act is quite good. Nevertheless, I think that in its third part, the piece loses its edge and its breath.


My personal rate: 5,5 (a superb idea, but poorly executed. I wish the director would re think the way he made his stage and his workflow..)


Limitless on IMDB

Transporter 2

Transporter 2, 2005
Director: Louis Letterier
Cast: Jason Statham, Amber Valetta, Kate Nauta



Transporter in short: Frank Martin is the best in the business. The ex-Special Forces operative hires himself out as a mercenary "transporter" who moves goods--human or otherwise. Very simple, he delivers, no questions asked. Frank has relocated from the French Mediterranean to Miami, Florida, where as a favor to a friend, Frank is driving for the wealthy Billings family. There's very little that can surprise The Transporter, but young Jack Billings has done just that; Frank has unexpectedly bonded with Jack, age 6, who he drives to and from school. But when Jack is kidnapped, Frank must use his battle-tested combat skills to retrieve the boy and thwart the kidnappers' master plan to release a virus that will kill anyone with whom it comes in contact.
Stage: Home TV selection of a casual Friday


Preps: None in perticular. Don't even remember the first part. But I am a fan of Statham.



Reality: Is as clear as any well done action movie. It has all that recent movies from Jolie for instance, have. The action, the lady with the guns and shooting all around, the fuss around a chase or two (making an hour long chase and a superfiction of this chase as a multiplier of what we all used to dream of (driving this, getting chased, chasing someone, escaping).. the movie has all the entities of a good action movie and a good result to follow.
The plot is easy to follow and the story is well handled. Like we are used from others, like MI, or Matrix, or some cop drama movies. However, it is not really special in any other department but music. The music reminds me of the daring pieces in the Matrix, really strong and supportive to the action scenes. They will make an impression on you too, regarding the energy, the velocity and the impact they need to keep to keep the pace with the tempo the viewer desires.
But.. nothing more in this movie. We can all stand an hour and a half of watching a decent action. This is a decent action, nothing more. And nothing less.





My personal rating: 5,0 (decent action, but nothing really remarkable)


Transporter 2 on IMDB