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Plot:

A mercenary group is offered a job to bring down a south american dictator who is terrorizing his small island nation. The job starts to get complicated, but with a team comprised of some of the greatest action stars of the past and present, the bad guys just don’t stand a chance.

Action:

This is where the movie shines, and boy does it shine. Brightly. Like a thousand suns working together to try and burn a planet to ash. Big explosions. Big gunfights. Plenty of hand to hand combat, that even has a tendency to include a lot of knife fighting. These aren’t the type of balletic fights we are used to in a lot of movies these days. These are gritty physical fights. You can really feel the impacts of fists hitting their target. If you like action, the good old fashioned face pounding type, then you owe it to yourself to see this movie. Heck, you’ll probably see it a few times.

Eye Candy:

Not much in the way of eye candy. The actresses in this movie get very little screen time. Mostly they are there to set up the plot or to be saved in one way or another. There isn’t really much chance for any eye candy to appear at all.

Romance:

Maybe. Depends on your definition. This movie doesn’t waste its time on building romance between characters. There is connections that occur, but they occur suddenly and we never really follow them to any sort of conclusion. The closest we get in this film is Bromance.

Humor:

Of course there is humor. Manly guys don’t go around killing people and saving the day without spouting a one liner or two. Guys also can’t hang out for more than 30 seconds without starting to rip on each other. Every single character in this film is smarmy and cocky and always waiting for the perfect chance to pull of a fun little joke.

Mystical or Scientific Shenanigans:

We have a cool plane equipped with some great weapons and some customized knifes and guns that the guys use to deal the awesome amount of death that they do, but thats about it. Not a whole lot. If you can kill a guy with your bare hands, why use anything else?

Overall:

If you are a guy, or anyone who likes action really, this one is a must see. If you are an old school action fan from the 80′s and are craving a return to the good old days of high testosterone film making, then you absolutely cannot miss this one. If you have to skip the birth of your child, you do it! Real men always waited outside and smoked a celebration cigar anyways. In fact if that child turns out to be a boy, you pick him right up and take him to the next showing. You can never start turning him into a man too early.

Plot:

A young boy, plucked from the streets by a king, becomes a Prince of Persia. Together with his brothers and uncle he sacks a city that holds a mystical secret. When betrayal leads to his fathers death, the Prince must clear his name and find the man who is responsible. Romance and adventure follow his journey, as he proves his true worth and discovers what his destiny truly holds.

Action:

As a big summer film should be, this film is loaded with really great action sequences. Highlighting these sequences is the Princes unique capability to pull off some awesome parkour moves. Running up walls, making impossible jumps, surviving impossible feats. All of these are a regular occurrence when the Prince is around. There is also a decent amount of sword fighting and battle sequences to go with it. All of this is usually paired with buildings collapsing or fires starting or some other type of environmental hazard. Though the action scenes do entail a number of sequences with those dreadfull quick cuts edited together, it also pulls back to take a second and give you your breath. This balances it out decently and helps so you don’t get too lost.

Eye Candy:

Though not enough to offend the other half of their audience, there is still some eye candy in this film. As with most movies set in these kind of times, there are woman dressed with the sole purpose of entertaining men. The leading lady Gemma Aterton is a true beauty and is not afraid to show a little skin. All of which is a good distraction for our hero.

Romance:

The romance in this movie is the kind with two people who bicker and yell at one another the whole while they are falling in love. In truth it is very central to the movie plot with the first lines of the film actually referring to it, but it never gets in the way. It is not slowed down with deep emotion or lengthy discussions and like the action in the film the romance is great fun to watch.

Humor:

The romance is great source for humor in this movie, but we also get jokes throughout as the Prince of Persia is a real wisecracking guy. Who knew? Even Alfred Molina joins in on the fun doing his best Captain Jack Sparrow impersonation. Though it wasn’t the type of movie to leave me in stitches, I found myself smiling an awful lot.

Mystical or Scientific Shenanigans:

The entire story of this movie is based around a very mystical idea. There is a dagger that contains a mystical sand that when released can control time, or more specifically, reverse it for short periods. It is used several times in the film and there are some great special effects whenever it happens. There are also assassins that use seemingly mystical means like attack snakes, or scientific means like devices worn on the wrist that shot metal darts.

Overall:

I can easily recommend this film. Whether you truly love it or not, you will more than likely have fun with your first viewing. For me, this is an easy purchase.  It won’t be among my favorite films, but it will be something I will enjoy again and again.

Plot:

American gunslinger “The Montana Kid” finds himself in a small town in Canada. His gunslinging ways are as alien to them as their gentle and simple life is to him. Stuck in town for a brief time, his outlook on life and the “simple” townsfolk slowly changes. This is a fairly family friendly film, minus the outtakes in the credits which were the only cases I remember of the use of the F word.

Action:

As I just said, I would classify this as a family film, so the action is of course kept to a minimum. No one gets killed (except a poor dog) and there is only one explosion and its landscaping related. There is a few scenes showing off The Montana Kid’s skill with a gun and a small action scene against some bad guys, but its all very tame.

Eye Candy:

None. Sienna Guillory is a very beautiful woman, but as far as true “eye candy” there is none to be found. Like with the action, this is very much a family friendly film.

Romance:

There is a romance at the heart of this film. It  is part of what gets our hero to change his ways. There isn’t much focus on it though, it just sort of happens with no clear motivation besides the fact that we all know it will. The only “romance” I truly witnessed was the main character growing to love the town, the townsfolk and the lives they lead.

Humor:

Although I never really laughed out loud at anything, there is humor laced throughout this film. Nothing vulgar or too over the top, but plenty of humorous moments occur and they occur frequently. I am going to say it once more, though its an adult story, it is a family safe film.

Mystical or Scientific Shenanigans:

This movie is totally free of all things mystical and scientific. There are no magic Indian ways, or crazy new weapons or contraptions that we quite often see in this type of film. It is just a good old classic western.

Overall:

Though I find myself saying, “That was pretty good… for a Canadian film”, I still think it was decently enjoyable. Not all the character growth and change are shown or even explained enough to understand, but it all heads to exactly the place we expect so its easy to forgive and get past. Don’t watch this looking for a new classic or an incredible fun ride, but if your having a lazy Sunday then pop this one in and enjoy.

Plot:

Tekken is based on a video game that I never played, so I am unsure of how faithful the plot actually is. The movie is based in a future devestated by war and run by corporations. The corporation controlling the United States is called Tekken. Every year fighters from the different companies gather for a tournament called Iron Fist and battle for honor and bragging rights. Our hero Jin lives outside the world of the corporations but through a series of incidents becomes “The Peoples Choice” to fight in the tournament and thus begins a story of revenge, greed and higher causes.

Action:

There is plenty of action to be found. We have explosions, gun fights and chase sequences all before the Iron Fist tournament even begins. The effects for the explosions and gun fights are pretty good considering this movie appears to have a smaller budget. The fight scenes themselves are decent, but aside from some great moments I have definitely seen better. The action continues outside the tournament and the event itself gets more violent as the movie goes on. You could definitely make comparisons to fellow video game turned movie Mortal Kombat, but the fights in this movie felt more gritty and real. Although nothing amazing, the action in this film was enough to satisfy.

Eye Candy:

As it is based on a video game the female fighters are all attired in skimpy little outfits that would make most people blush if they saw them in real life. The main “hero” female fighter even has a tendency to wear outfits that show off her midsection and for some reason the top of her ass crack. I guess butt cleavage is very fashionable in the future. Though there are a decent amount of skimpy outfits, there is no actual nudity in the film.

Romance:

Our main hero does find some romance, but its mostly used as excuse for eye candy and to gain friends in the arena than to actually build any sort of relationship. In fact he has two love interests in the movie. One at the beginning living outside the corporations with him and one of the female fighters in the tournament. But its not actually a case of him moving on, as he leaves the tournament and goes right back to lady number one.

Humor:

This movie was pretty lacking in the humor department, unless of course you enjoy laughing at moments of below average movie making.

Mystical or Scientific Shenanigans:

For a game based on a fighting video game I was surprised that there were no mystical attributes to the fighters or their moves. Science did come into play however with it being the future. There was a fighter with cybernetic upgrades and an army of soliders that I believe were all robotic. We also had to typical corporation run future with giant video screens that ran information about the company (or wait, thats not the future at all!).

Overall:

Tekken is a movie that 10 years ago would have made it into the theaters. Back when Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter movies were making this sort of thing popular. Though it  is not as campy as Street Fighter it still falls a little short of being main stream. If you are someone who can handle cheesie low budget action films than give this one a go, I am sure you can find some enjoyment in it like I did. Otherwise you should steer clear and save your time for something else.

I am a big fan of the Avatar TV series and am therefore even more excited to get a live action movie version. The first trailer hinted at what it could be, but this Superbowl spot really shows what kind of action and effects we can expect to see. Is this out tomorrow?… No?… Damn!