Tag Archives: Three-Stars

Twilight (DVD)

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Before I begin with my review I just wanted to mention that I’ve never read any of the Twilight books, so I am unable to judge the fidelity of this film from its origins. As some of my regular readers already know, I am a huge fan of any story featuring vampires, but opted to skip this in theaters because it seemed more like a chick flick than an actual vampire feature.

To start, I’m calling Twilight your average teen romance. I felt that Twilight set the tone for its upcoming features, and after watching the first of five films (assuming they release one per book), I’m actually looking forward to its sequel. This franchise has the opportunity to put out some excellent films in the future, and it ultimately rests in the hands of director Catherine Hardwicke the producers (thanks NDO for the update) to make everything come together.

The sticking point for me was definitely the forbidden love relationship between Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) and Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson). There are few films that cast members with chemistry as good at these two, and I think that their pairing was an excellent choice. Pattinson definitely is THE draw for the films female fanbase and is without a doubt the biggest part of this films success. I do acknowledge that Stewart is as important in her own right, but lets be real here, without Pattinson, its hard to imagine this film performing as well as it did at the box office.

Back to the story, I really liked how they portrayed the vampires as much more than just blood lusty monsters. The Cullen family portrayed as “Vegetarians” was an interesting take on vampire lore, and vampires living in daylight (and glittering in the sun) rather than being restricted to the nightlife was a nice twist. I’m curious to know if there are any actual weaknesses for these immortal beings, because it really seems like they have nothing to fear but being murdered by their own kind.

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Punisher: Warzone (DVD)

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Back before Tim Burton’s Batman, superhero flicks were viewed as “B” movies at best. They were often filled with cheesy dialogue, over the top action, and cliched caricatures for characters. With modern comic movies, particularly the recent Watchmen, The Dark Knight, and Spiderman series, movie going comic fans have come to expect so much more. Comic films have come to be viewed as an artistic medium that can easily rival their source material.  With the release of Punisher: Warzone, Marvel seeks to capitalize on the success of the previous Punisher film (and hopefully erase people’s memories of the even older Dolph “I must break you” Lundgren version).

In the previous Punisher film, the origin of the Punisher, aka Frank Castle, was the main focus of the film.  In this new film, the Punisher is already established and his slightly different origin is told via flashback sequences while the majority of the movie focuses on his current war on crime. While raiding a mob facility, he inadvertently kills an undercover FBI agent who he mistakes for one of the bad guys. He also goes about murdering everything that moves within a mile radius and extremely disfigures one Billy the Beaut, who goes on to become the arch villain known as Jigsaw due to his patchy reconstruction of a face.  The rest of the movie follows the Punisher as he attempts to stop Jigsaw as he seeks out the widow of the undercover FBI agent, whom he believes knows the location of a briefcase full of money entrusted to her late husband. That’s pretty much the plot of the film.

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Miracle at St. Anna (DVD)

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miracle_at_st_anna_xlgIt’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of Clint Eastwood’s work. Having said that, it took me completely by surprise when Spike Lee publicly criticized Eastwood’s World War II films Letters from Iwo Jima and Flags of our Fathers for the exclusion of any African American soldiers. In response to his accusations against Eastwood comes Lee’s latest and most ambitious film to date, Miracle at St. Anna.

Spike Lee’s intentions were admirable and commendable, however I felt that he wandered a bit off track in regards to his film’s original intentions. From my understanding, Lee’s objective was to honor and recognize the African American soldiers (Buffalo Soldiers) who fought brilliantly and bravely in World War II, but instead he added what I felt was an overly opinionated issue of race which dampened the overall quality of the film. Although I felt that the issue of race was essential to the film’s overall success, it just seemed too blatant for my taste. There were definitely moments of absolute genius in this feature, but there were also an equal amount of counterproductive moments as well.

Overall, I have to say that this film is still worth watching. The message Lee is attempting to get across is quite powerful when you get past all the negatives, and the actors in the film hold their own quite well. If you have three hours to spare and are a fan of war dramas, I’m sure you’ll appreciate the message behind this movie.