Godzilla (2014)

It's back .. and in 2014 "Godzilla" has "friends". Why between quotes ? Explained below :) ...

The previous "Godzilla", Roland Emmerich's '98 "masterpiece", had only one positive aspect I guess = "Come with Me" - Puff Daddy feat. Jimmy Page. Well, at least according to some opinions (mostly Puff Daddy fans) .. although, the same tune was a blasphemy, according to other opinios (mostly Led Zeppelin fans), .. so in the end probably there wasn't any positive aspect about that movie. Therefore, I didn't add "Godzilla" v.2014 to the list of movies to catch in cinema, considering that a disaster remake can't be far from mediocre. There was a minor error in my reasoning, "Godzilla" v.2014 is not a remake (like "Godzilla" v.1998 probably wasn't a remake either). This doesn't mean that we have a complex subject worthy of a Nobel literature award, reason for this long intro actually = to avoid spoiling the whole movie in five lines ;) Still, to give the promised explanations ... In this new version, Godzilla is not the only over dimensioned roaring creature. And the quotes for "friends" means that the Miss Dinosaur competition gets pretty rough between contestants. For details on their challenges, like the opinion on the safety of Earths disadvantaged species (=the humans) check out the movie ;)

The acting is flat = the star is really Godzilla. The effects are ok. The sound is good. Besides these, the above variation from the classic standard disaster (=something really big bad and terrible is happening, and we have to save the day) gives some freshness. And still, for a giant monsters story .. there's still work to do to get to the "Pacific Rim" level.

Rating: 3 out of 5

John Wick (2014)

"Wick" .. "John Wick" .. I think that's the missing cliche left out of the huge pile of them that we have in this movie. A movie that's too long to lose more time checking its duration on IMDb. So let's finish this fast ...

It rains. John Wick, badly beaten, crawls near a wall. Flaaaaashback - well, we actually figure that's a flashback way later. What matters is that it rains. Again. John Wick is burying his wife. Rains harder. A dark mysteriously silhouette shows up under an umbrella. The suspense kills us. For 2 seconds. That's how much time we need to find out that the mysteriously guy has the same job as John Wick (contract killer, if you've seen the trailer should be quite clear), and what he wants is just to present his condolences. John Wick leaves for home. The postman rings. Puppy delivery. A remembrance gift from his former dying wife. Tears (yeah, I know, I have a horrible cold heart). Sleep. John Wick leaves to do some car rounds and to fill the tank. Bad karma. At exactly the same the gas station are three bad guys who want the car (they're Russians .. obviously). John Wick doesn't sell. Not good. The Russians really want the car. And they come for it. But they don't find the path directly to the garage. So they first pass through the living room and beat the hell out of John Wick. They also kill his dog. Big mistake: they don't kill John Wick (unbelievable how many bad guys do this mistake in this movie, it really would've shorten its length). Well, we find out that one of the Russians is the gang leader's son. We also find out that John Wick worked for that gang. And we also find out that John Wick gets very upset if you kill his dog and steal his car ...

We find a lot of other stuff throughout the movie. Like .. the bad Russians never attack simultaneously (except the start beating) in groups bigger than 2 (doesn't matter if they are 14 at one place). Like .. the professional assassins are called by phone to be executed and willingly show up. Like .. the final showdown must happen during a thunderstorm followed by heavy rain. We also find out that the IMDb are sometimes really hard to explain. I also found out that I was unfair with "The Equalizer" = John Wick could get some lessons from daddy Denzel. And we also find out that probably we shouldn't give much credit to a couple former stunt men directing their first movie, based on a script written by a B movies author (and not even many of those). Not much credit, and probably not much time either. So...

Rating: 2 out of 5 (barely)

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)

I'm gonna continue the last entry "trend" of sequels that I thought will waste my time, and eventually didn't :), with the 2nd part of the rebooted Spiderman franchise. ( Besides that, is Halloween anyway so I needed something with a mask ;) ).

I've seen when this was released plenty opinions on being the worst Spiderman movie to date. Also, there are plenty opinions saying that the tandem Alex Kurtzman/Roberto Orci is a real plague among the Hollywood screenwriters = after "destroying" Star Trek now the started doing it with other franchises, as the current one. I can agree with their scripts "quality" for "Transformers" without any doubt, but leaving that aside, things are far from being so bad. Yes, the script is superficial, has holes, there are 12 minute YouTube videos mocking smth like 100 scenes in the movie, it's in a word "Hollywoodish" with a big H, but ... it has a story, it's catchy, the jokes are becoming more natural + it has that something that you want from a two hours+ movie when all you need is to let your brain "fly away". I know, I'm repeating myself :) I said that before, but honestly I'm glad that I see movies giving me the opportunity to do it.

I didn't watch it in 3D, and I think it's one of the few cases when I regret it. The effects are superb even in 2D. But what's top notch in this movie is the sound & music area. Hans Zimmer's score boosted again my hopes after "Lone Ranger" that the guy is not yet left without ideas. Thing that happens at some point for most of the composers. Besides that we also have the sound editing & mixing. If this movie doesn't get an Oscar nod for this next year it means that my ears start failing ( or that the year is not over yet and something better will show up :) ).

I've skipped the story. I'll keep it spoiler free this time. And not necessarily because the story is simple. Some actually say that this movie has too many secondary threads, and too many villains. It's perfect, it doesn't get boring. And most important, it's fun ;) despite not ending the romance in a very happy note (well .. I couldn't keep it :P)

The Expendables 3 (2014)

I wasn't expecting much from "The Expendables 3". The reviews were average. And despite having a pleasant surprise for the 2nd part, I couldn't erase the junk that episode 1 was from my memory. But it didn't take long to see that the 3rd part is different ...

Not long = just the beginning of the movie when a new "expendable" (re-)joins the team. And I don't care what people say, but Wesley Snipes (because he's the one) has very underrated acting skills. He proves it here again, as well as he did in a couple other movies (well, especially were he didn't play the tough guy type = e.g., "Liberty Stands Still"). Actually, I think I can say that this movie is carried on by him, Antonio Banderas (I'll leave the details as suprise) and Mel Gibson as main villain. The subject is too simple to unravel, but anyway, as in the 2nd part - this movie is not about the subject. It's for the acting, funny punch-lines, and some old-school action feeling.

All in all is not as good as "Expendables 2". We don't have the Chuck Norris epic scene. We don't have Bruce Willis, but we have a Harrison Ford mocking his absence (Google search "Bruce Willis" and "Expendables 3" and you'll get it) and also piloting a chopper in a dogfight. And like I said, better acting. To conclude, still fun ;)

Rating: 3 out of 5

Contraband (2012)

I've been postponing since one month the entry for "Contraband", so I told myself better write it on a hurry than not at all. Because I would regret skipping this ...

The movie is somewhere between thriller and action, featuring an apparently overused subject. Chris Farraday (Mark Wahlberg) is a guy with a wife and kids, earning an honest living from his small camera surveillance enterprise. Well ... that's after he retired from successful career in contraband on cargo boats. On which he obviously has to return after his wife's younger brother tries his own skills in smuggling, but not that successfully. And like this we get to the classic story: do just one more bad thing to save the dumb guy who screwed up. However, unlike "the classic story", where after the "one more bad thing" everything goes bad and still somehow also everything turns out ok in the end, here ... the "one more bad thing" generates another "one more bad thing", after which you discover "some more bad things", and accidentally yet another "one more bad thing" happens. And these things keep going like this :) At such a rate, that you start losing hope that you'll get a happy end. But, let's not spoil the ending ;)

The movie is actually a remake of an Icelandic production. Even so, the screenwriter is the same guy who wrote "Prisoners". And this was the first reason to see this movie. I can say it was a good call. The second reason, well ... Kate Beckinsale :) Besides these two aspects, I don't know if there's anything to note. On the other hand, I also don't have anything on the minus side. In the end it's just one of the cases where the story + the way it unrolls is what steals the show, completely ( even with Kate there :) ).

Rating: 4 out of 5