Tag Archives: Dennis Quaid

Pandorum (DVD)

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To say that I was hyped to watch Pandorum is a bit of an understatement. The premise set up in the trailers, although a bit familiar, also seemed eerily original at the same time. I never got the chance to check it out on the big screen, but when I saw it on the video store shelf I snatched it up immediately. I figured even if the movie wasn’t very original, it had this ultra creepy vibe to it that would at least prove entertaining.

The movie’s title “Pandorum” is the word used to describe the condition when a human develop extreme paranoia and dementia from prolonged deep space travel. In other words, when someone is in space so long that they lose their mind. In the future, Earth’s resources have all but dried up due to overpopulation. A large ship called the Elysium is created to be a futuristic Noah’s Ark, ushering tens of thousands of humans and select species into space with the hopes of finding a new home. As the voyage is extensively long and involves light speed travel, there are 6 different crews all taking different rotations between manning the ship and being preserved in cryo sleep.

When Crewman Bower (Ben Foster) is awakened via timed release, he finds that the ship is empty with the exception of fellow crewmember Lt Cooper (Dennis Quaid).The entire ship is badly damaged and most of the systems are offline. It is up to Bower and Cooper to discover what happened to the passengers and the rest of the crews. Along the way they discover that the ship is inhabited by ravenous blood thirsty mutant creatures. The two must find a way to survive these predators as well as battling the symptoms of pandorum, while finding a way to save the ship.

The film has quite a few revealing plot twists along the way, with some being more believable than others. For the most part, the story is fairly good and remained entertaining throughout. I didn’t particularly like the ending, whcih seemed like a last minute addition to the story, but overall the plot is pretty good.

The acting is fairly good overall. I really like Ben Foster’s work. He is an excellent at portraying these unconventional, oddball characters as his work as Russell Crowe’s right hand man Charlie Prince in ’3:10 to Yuma’ and his turn as the mysterious Stranger in ’30 Days of Night’ clearly demonstrate. In this film I feel he is a bit miscast. While I like Foster, he doesn’t really have the charm or authoritative screen presence to succesfully carry the movie, at least not in this role. Dennis Quaid does an excellent job as Lt. Cooper. It seems like just another Dennis Quaid portrayal until about midpoint in the film when another character is introduced that exposes some of Cooper’s darkest secrets.

Overall the movie was good, but it had the potential to be incredible. I had a ton of hope for this film and while it didn’t exactly dissapoint me, it didn’t really impress me in the way that I was expecting. The movie is definitely worth a rental, but when watching it one can’t help but feel that the movie could have been so much more than what it is.

GI Joe : The Rise of Cobra (Theaters)

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Since they first announced they were going to make a live action GI Joe film, I had mixed feelings. The announcement came hot on the heels of the massive success of the first Transformers film, with GI Joe being the obvious candidate for the next Hasbro franchise with cash cow potential. I loved the cartoons, the comic book, and even the toys but it always seemed a bit second rate to me compared to the Transformers franchise. After watching the movie, I feel that the film also feels a bit second rate in comparison.

The plot is fairly straight forward. An arms dealer, Destro (he actually had a name in the film but it doesn’t matter- he is Destro just without the metal head) has developed warheads that release nano mites capable of devouring anything in their path until they are deactivated. When it comes time for the warheads to be delivered, the delivery is hijacked. We soon find out that the warheads were hijacked by Destro’s organization and that he  plans to use them in his quest for world domination. It is up to an elite military unit, GI Joe, to find the warheads and stop Destro….and that’s pretty much it. There is a minor twist involved, but most people will see it coming from a mile away.

If this is your first exposure to the GI Joe universe, you will be confused as all hell. There is little to no introduction given on any of the characters and everything that happens just sort of happens without rhyme or reason. This is actually not too bad as you definitely have to suspend all disbelief for this film and come in ready to watch things explode and not think about it all too much. The movie is action packed and the settings are all pretty cool, ranging from an arctic snow base to an underwater fortress. Some of the underwater CGI is a bit too obvious and has too much of a cartoonish vibe to it.  I know this is a movie based on a cartoon, but the other settings all had a sense of realism to them, so the underwater sequences seem to stand out a bit more and seems inconsistent with the feel of the rest of the film.

As far as the casting goes, I didn’t really have any complaints. There wasn’t really much background or development given to any of them so it didn’t matter too much who played who. The one character that bothered me a little bit was Channing Tatum’s Duke. I remember Duke to be really clean cut and all American. Tatum’s Duke possesses enough of Duke’s physical characteristics, but I felt his portrayal was a bit too street for me.  His line delivery reminded me of John Cena on WWE.  Tatum doesn’t do a bad job, but his swagger just seems a bit out of place in his role.

Perhaps the coolest characters in the flick were the two ninjas. Byung hun-lee is excellent as super model / ninja StormShadow. I’m not sure if he was a super model in the movie, but when he wasn’t in his full ninja gear he definitely gave off a Zoolander type vibe. Ray Park is  equally cool as Snake eyes, the other half of the ninja rivalry. The only problem I had with Snake Eyes was with his costume design.  Snake Eyes is mute, yet for some reason they decided to add lips to his costume.That’s right- a cool ass ninja in all black with lips like Jay-Z.  Why they did this- I have no idea, but it really distracted me everytime he showed up.

If you go into this movie expecting some cool action sequences and special effects, you won’t be dissappointed.  However, if you go in expecting anything more you’re going to find the movie falls a bit short. I’m interested to see what my son thinks of the movie, since I’m sure most 9 year olds will think it is one of the coolest movies ever made. I can’t lie- I did enjoy the film, but there were just too many moments when it became way too campy for me. 

I realize that the source material isn’t exactly the deepest, but did they really have to try to awkwardly incorporate EVERY single catch phrase from the original cartoons? The movie reminded me a bit of the Fantastic four movies of recent years. Both franchises have the potential for greatness, but the actual flicks just seem to be missing that certain element that would make them excellent. The bottom line is that if you just want to be mindlessly entertained and enjoy a little bit of nostalgia at the same time, GI Joe is your movie.

Vantage Point (DVD)

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As the title of this film clearly points out, Vantage Point attempts to use various “Points of View” to unravel the mystery of an assassination attempt on the President of the United States at a summit in Spain. Although it starts out quite impressively, the film relies so heavily on its fast pace and heart stopping action that its storyline loses much of its credibility as it progresses.

This however was not necessarily a bad thing for action/suspense type film. I will easily admit that I enjoyed this film at face value. It moved at such a terrific pace that although the film recycled itself five or six times, It didn’t feel monotonous at all. The explosions, car chases, and ever changing points of view kept me on my toes throughout, and I definitely found myself trying to piece together the puzzle as the film moved forward.

The cast of Vantage Point were all uniformly good with the services of Dennis Quaid, Forest Whitaker, and Sigourney Weaver. Although I can’t recall any outstanding performances from Quaid, he definitely played the role of secret service agent Thomas Barnes very well. He’s one of those actors who seem to lack the qualities of a megastar, yet always manages to put on a solid performance.

Forest Whitaker on the other hand is always worth watching and his role as tourist Howard Lewis is no different. I wasn’t too sure if his role was absolutely necessary, but with movie presence he commands, he easily made his character stand out of the crowd. As for Weaver, I felt that she could have done much more. She was definitely under utilized and it truly seems to be at the twilight of her career.

Overall, Vantage Point was entertaining and will definitely keep busy for the ninety of so minutes it runs. Just don’t expect anything spectacular. Besides its pace, stunts, and explosions, the film is otherwise pretty hollow. Vantage Point becomes much more of a mindless action thriller rather than a narrative by the ending credits. If your looking for a short fast paced action thriller, this might work for you. If you need a excellent story and believable script, you’re probably better off with “The Secret Life of Bees”.