Power Blue

Jessica Biel plays Scarlet but her actual name is Rose Johnny is this Babel and Traffic like movie. I guess every direct wants to choose a variety of characters, choose the worst moments of their lives and surround a movie around their individual crisises. And then link them in the end to form the entire tale. I am sure these types of stories have been written for centuries. Tom Clancy novels usually start this way, in various locations around the world and then weave themselves together. Even the imperial show 24 begins this way.

Eddie Redmayne is Qwerty Doolittle who is as dorky as his name. He is the mortician who falls for the super hot but deranged Scarlet.

Biel performs well, but this role has been written before so many times. A typical outrageous looking stripper, who is not that bright and whose life is running out of control. She had a child too early in her life and this is what has been occupying a lot of her time and energy. Ofcourse this is her duty. Incredibly, she does not even know he is dying. She snorts cocaine, her life is in total disarray. Why she has a dog is beyond me and chooses to keep a pet in an apartment complex that does not allow pets? This only leads to continued chaos in her life and causes her to storm around the neighborhood stapling up lost dog signs. This is what takes her into Eddie's life who happens to collide with the dog while driving. Fortunately, the dog only has a broken leg because of it. Eddie contacts Scarlett about the dog he has taken in. Scarlett is placated.

Marisa Tomei decided to allow a producer to persuade her to show her breasts on the big screen. I am not sure if this is the going treand, but someone had the same discussion with Biel as well and it apparently worked. I know Halle Barry received $1 million extra to briefly show her chest in the short but outstanding action movie Swordfish. In this movie and in The Wrestler, it does make the movie more realistic. The knock on Sin City, is Jessica Alba never showed her chest and if she was unwilling to do so then perhaps she should not have not been offered the character.

Forest Whitaker plays Charlie who is absolutely despondent and in agony because his wife was recently killed. He is driving around the city trying to get someone to kill him. Even offering them $50,000 to take his life. He does not want to kill himself for religious purposes I am sure. Regardless, it does not make it right and this not the avenue anyone should be on.

Shoeless Joe Jackson is in the movie but he is not in uniform. Ray Liotta plays Jack Doheny who spent 25 years in prison. He is relieved to be out of prison and it seems he did not dime anyone out so he is paid for it. I am not sure how much, but he is given a suit case with tens of thousands in cash to help him start a new life. He falls in love with Scarlett and is a frequent customer of hers at the strip club. Jack is someone in LA who does not a full time schedule.

I would rather see Courtney Cox but atleast we have Jessica. Lisa Kudrow actually plays a role that means something. Sally is her given name and she falls for Charlie who falls asleep in the restaurant booth. Sally is a waitress who is recently divorced. She really likes Charlie and even kisses him and gives him a slice of apple pie. I am not sure which one of them is worse off. Probably Charlie, since his car is stolen by the confused hooker who wants to obtain a sex change.

This is the shocking part of the movie. Wow, Patrick Swayze is back in a real role. He is not making some second rate action movie either. Velvet Larry is Scarlett's manager and knows that Scarlett is a money maker for him. They both need each other for cash reasons.

Kris Kristofferson makes an appearance and it is not in a Blade movie. He is Randall and the one who meets Jack in a public bus to make the handoff. It appears he represents the organized crime syndicate that Jack did not rat out. Jack accepts the payment with relief and satisfaction. Randall respects Jack for the sacrifice and commitment he showed.

Charlie has a dream in a church that makes it clear to him that it is not his time to go. His wife appeared in the dream. This allows him to possibly begin a relationship with Sally. Jack dies alone, it seems he passed away in an ally but rather than use the money he was given to pay for his health condition, atleast a bed, he pays for Scarlett's son's medical bills. The name is never said but we all know who took care of that bill. I have no idea how she was supposed to pay it. Scarlett also took the tickets to Paris paid for by Jack and the movie ends suddenly with Qwerty accepting the invitation. He would be a fool if he did not.

He came out of no where with this one-Eddie I mean. I never heard of this actor.

Velvet may miss Scarlett but I doubt it is vice versa.

The music in this movie was decent. The story line was better in the first half. The movie ended quickly and many of these characters have been done previously. Scarlett being ashamed of her profession when someone she cared about was observing, so she covered up. This has been done before.

What was the point of this movie? It seems to be about second chances. The ending was pleasant for all of the characters. The confused hooker committed suicide which is not really sad because what were they doing for society? Was this person helping or hurting? This movie was filled with some solid drama. Was this movie on par with Traffic or even Babel? Not quite. This was the second Ray Liotta film of the same genre. The other was Crossing Over which was clearly heads above this movie. I guess this type of story is in vogue. I am waiting for Transformers II. I hope is not a head scratcher like Terminator Salvation.

I allocate this movie two stars.*

Prison Break: The Final Break

Dominic Purcell is back as the bad ass but loyal and loving brother Lincoln Burrows. This movie is an alternate ending to the series which just ended after season 4. Four years on television, season one and three being the best to me. The final season, was really not that spectacular but still good.

Wentworth Miller returns as mastermind Michael Scofield. This time he has the FBI to deal with and another prison challenge. Nothing new there. The average looking and really plain attractiveness of Sarah Wayne Callies is the same Dr. Sara Tancredi. I think the casting director fell asleep or was bribed when accepting her to consume this powerful role as the love interest of the world famous Miller. But she was the face we all had to look at for several years now. This time she is the one who was imprisoned for shooting the brother's wicked mother. She was arrested on their wedding day. To the dismay of Scofield and Burrows and everyone else. She was hauled off on murder charges. Even though it was in protection of Scofield, Sara is arrested. Sara shot the mother for many reasons and Scofield's mother was about to murder him. The camera did not catch this though so that is the story that we were given. The law enforcement community was not going to show these people any leniency since they made the Bureau of Corrections look pretty bad in the prison in Illinois.

Sara clearly does not belong in prison but this is fiction. It is just an absolute waste of tax payer resources.

Amaury Nolasco is back Fernando Sucre and his friendship continues with the brothers. This is an outstanding relationship as he teams up to break out Sara. Robert Knepper is ofcourse present as the evil and notorious Theodore 'T-Bag' Bagwell. The scarred General has a role here since he is imprisoned with Bagwell. Mahone is present as he wants to join the FBI so badly but he resists this temptation to offer the FBI any substantial information. He gives the FBI enough to satisfy them but not to reveal what is really going to happen. The FBI knows that the brothers are planning something that they assign an FBI agent to follow them around. He is a real antagonist as well. The writers make the FBI look pretty bad in the eyes of the viewer.

The General lives up to his vindictive ways by putting a $100,000 hit on Tancredi. The female and male prison are evidently adjacent to each other. This is why Scofield and Lincoln do not have that much time to work.

The shocking role in this movie is from the "Father." The cute girl in Point Break plays a glasses wearing female daddy. No joke. She is not that pretty any more and no longer Keanu Reeve's honey. She ends up wanting to kill Sara. Sara receives some help from Gretchen Morgan though. Gretchen is in the same prison as Sara and defends Sara since she knows Sara is possibily her ticket to jolt from the prison. Gretchen is caught though, why she was not standing still is beyond me.

Michael does not escape with Sara. The electronics of the prison do not work exactly like he planned. What is that? Hey, he planned this escape in only a day. Sara and Scofield's son escape and Lincoln and Sara float away from America's shores to Costa Rica. Lincoln's girlfriend assists here with Sucre's teamwork. Scofield still had the sickness in this movie. That part of his character did not change. He knew his days were numbered. Sara's was not and he wanted his child to be born in a proper manner and with his mother. With a free life ahead of him and her.

Strange I have not seen Scofield in other films. Sucre, Bagwell, and Burrows all have branched out and added to their resume. Miller has not. I am not sure if this is buy choice or what. Bagwell has emerged strong. He should have won awards if he did not as potraying that depraved character. Mahone had already made a name for himself before the series ever began.

This was an excellent TV movie and the first one I have ever written about for this blog.

I allocate this movie four stars.***

Casablanca

Humphrey Bogart plays in this hugely successful film of yesterday. This movie arrived in the middle of the 20th century and in the midst of the worst war this country has ever scene. Rick Blaine is his name and he owns a thriving restaurant in Casablanca. Casablanca is a French territory but it is being occupied by Germany since France capitulated to the Germans.

Rick used to live in France and he fell in love with Ingrid Bergman who plays Ilsa Lund. Lund is pretty but I doubt she would be that popular now a days. Ofcourse Uma Thurman has appeal despite being goofy looking, tall, and skinny. Cameron Diaz is not that pretty but she receives roles. So who really knows? Paul Henreid plays Victor Laszlo who is married to Lund. Lund must keep their marriage a secret because Laszlo is one of the prominent Jewish leaders of the underground resistance against the storming German onslaught. While Laszlo is away for business, Lund and Rick have a few weeks to drive around in romance in the French countryside. They have have time to wine and dine themselves. Lund would be at risk if the Germans ever captured Laszlo and determined that she was his wife. She does not inform Rick of this so every base is covered and there was not any moral issues unless one wants to take it up with her. So perhaps she has sinned, but the public never had anything but empathy for her situation.

Rick was forced to leave Paris when the Germans took control of Paris. He wanted Lund to accompany him but this never occured. She knew she could not leave her husband. Rick had to leave his restaurant in Paris broken hearted without ever knowing why only a note was left for him from the woman he loved.

Dooley Wilson plays Sam who was the outstanding pianist and singer at Rick's American Cafe in Casablanca. Rick is the one who was dragged weeping onto the train by Sam.

Well, about 1-2 years later, Lund and Laszlo come marching into Rick's popular cafe in Casablanca. Rick's cafe is just hopping every night, Rick is enjoying his life but remaining low key and knows not to bump any shoulders. He allows the leading French official to win at his roulette wheel for instance to avoid any business stoppages and political road bumps which could cause Rick's restaurant revenue loss.

The Germans want to stop Laszlo from having any influence or becoming the next charismatic leader to the Jewish world wide community. Rick gives his coveted and pivotal transfer letters to Lund and Laszlo. He does this as he has the French official at gunpoint. Rick risks his life for the common good. Rick knows the Germans are wrong despite wanting to shy away from politics. Lund wants to remain behind with Rick. She says she can not leave him twice. Laszlo knows his wife has feelings for Rick. Laszlo wants to get to America to begin a Jewish group while not having to worry about being snatched up by the Germans. In enabling this to happen, Rick ends up shooting the German general to enable the plane to leave Casablanca. The French official covers up for Rick. In the end, good and love prevailed.

To me, this movie does not come close to Apollo 13, Braveheart, Shawshank Redemption or other spectacular movies of the contemporary era. But this was a simpler time. Kind of ironic when it seemed the world was caving in to many people at the time.

The writing was exceptional. It would not make it in the modern era. No blood, boobs, bombshells, or boisterousness.

I am not going to allocate this movie any stars. It is out of my league. It is not of my time. I do not know how to evaluate it. It is an American classic already so really what is the point.

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian

Ben Stiller took the part a few years ago as Larry Daley and it has proven to be a bonanza. This could be an ongoing series or they could end if after this one. This sequel was as good as the original though both films are neither spectacular. I mean, we are not talking Dumb and Dumber, The Waterboy, or Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. It is not even Ben Stiller's funniest movie which is probably Meet the Parents or There's Something About Mary. The latter may be his best movie.

The pretty face in this movie is Amy Adams who plays Amelia Earhart. She was in Talledega but they plained her up in that movie. I am not sure why Larry never asks Amelia where her plane went down. That is one of the mysteries of the world, where her final fatal crash took place?

Owen Wilson plays Jedediah Smith. I am not sure if that is a real person or just a fictional or generalized cowboy fit for a museum. Smith has plenty of action in this film though he spends a lot of the film in a sandy situation. Ofcourse his friend Larry comes through and gets him out of it. With the help of the Roman general-Octavius-who actually does most of the leg work along with the help of a squirrel.

Robin Williams returns as Teddy Roosevelt. He is also shown as the just the copper bust of the former outstanding President. TR is no where to be found throughout most of the film which I do not understand and does not seem to be trapped inside the trailer with the rest of the statues from the museum.

The movie revolves around the ancient Egyption seal again. This time the main antagonist is
Hank Azaria who plays Kahmunrah. He is Ahkmenrah father who seems to be jealous of the success of his son in leading Egypt and his popularity. The apple fell far from the tree here. Ahkmenrah has morals, whereas his father is bent on power and conquest. He has Al Capone, Ivan the Terrible, and Napoleon Bonaparte on his side. I disagree with the latter, never wanted to be dictator nor a king, he was chosen for this role. He did not run for emperor, he was granted this honor. He never wanted to become a powerful politician but he did want France to be safe. With England, Russia, and Prussia surrounding his country, was he suppose to capitulate? Capitulate is what France has done in virtually every threat and engagement since then.

The museum is replacing all of the replicas and statues with talking holograms. Larry is perturbed so he locates his friendly statues in the basement later that night. He has missed them and vice versa. Larry has taken on a new role in life. Larry is no longer the night security guard but a businessman whose company is emerging and it is called Daily Devices. He hosts his own TV show and has guest stars like George Foreman to promote his show and name.

On the search around Washington's museums, Jonah Hill makes an appearance as a security guard with Larry. This could be the funniest scene in the movie. Jonah and Stiller are hilarious bickering back and forth. Larry has learned some moves with a flashlight and he shows at the movies climax when he defeats Kahmunrah with the team work of Amelia.

Larry receives a distress call Jedediah Smith which alarms him later that night. With the help of his son who seems to have a military like layout of Washington D.C. to guide his father around the area, Larry locates his friends later than night. When he finds his familiar statues, they are taking shelter in a trailer protecting the golden seal. Kahmunrah and his soldiers are attacking the trailer and trying to grab the seal. With the mistaken help of Larry, they obtain the seal. Larry is chased around with the seal and for some reason can not make it back to his comrades. He has a chance to make it but for some reason he does not which damages the movie. Kahmunrah is outsmarted by Larry when Larry makes up a story about another artifact but this is only a trick to lead Kahmunrah and his men into an octopus trap. This octopus would not survive 3 minutes out of water but this movie is totally fiction. This octopus which Ahab so badly wants to kill tosses Kahmunrah around and his men. For some mystical reason, being tossed 20 feet in the air and landing awkwardly does not deter nor slow them down that much. Larry fails to make his plan work completely. Strange.

There is a cool scene when Larry and the pretty Amelia get sucked into the famous painting that occurs in NYC after WWII during the huge post war celebration.

Kahmunrah and his never speaking soldiers catch up to Larry and obtain the seal. But when the put the seal on their mysterious door, they realize they need the code. For some reason, Kahmunrah does not know the code and dispatches Larry to find the code. Half the movie is Larry trying to find the code with Amelia and her nice figure in tow. She craves anything that looks like an adventure. This forces Larry to go outside the museum and into the space and aviation museum. On the way, they speak with Abraham Lincoln which is amusing. Inside the museum, the Tuskegee Airmen salute Amelia and she returns this respectful motion.

I wanted to see T-Rex fight the octopus but this never occured. Amelia and Larry crash an airpline through a giant window. Part of the museum is wrecked. I wanted to see what the museum management and security guards said the following morning. Amelia flies off in the night with another airplane, where to? I am not sure and what will occur during sunrise? I guess she will disappear again. The movie returns to the original museum and they have an excellent plan. The writers came through with this idea. The museum opens up at night and Larry's friends can act and move without anyone being the wiser. They think they are elaborate props.

Larry sells his company and donates the rich proceeds to the museum with a request that the museum operates at night. The manager is ecstatic. Larry is the night security guard. This would be a story in its own right, someone who starts his company and it takes off from the ground up cashes out in mid stride to become a security guard. This would be like Kurt Warner returning to be a grocery bagger before he wins a Super Bowl with the St. Louis Rams.

The movie is never dull. Larry is slapped by monkeys again, this time two of them. A cute little space monkey makes his way into the film. A huge fight at the end and not one person is hurt nor injured. Pretty ridiculous. What happens to Al Capone and Ivan the Terrible at the end? Not sure. There are many questions unanswered inexplicably. The movie is pretty short but it is entertaining. The small plane that Amelia few around in the movie would have been shot down since that airspace is strictly controlled being that close to the White House. But that is too serious for this light hearted film.

I grant this movie two stars.**

Terminator Salvation

IThis is Christian Bale's second post apocalyptic movie and both times they are disapointing. Reign of Fire was the first and this movie just assumed the dragons would wipe out military. I, and many others did not buy this. That movie showed a creature, about 30% heavier than a full size African elephant, get blasted with a 50 caliber machine gun without having any affect. This did not make any sense. It does not matter if the beast weights about 8 tons, a 50 caliber round would have an affect and multiple rounds will cause this animal to not maintain lift. A few rounds from a 50 caliber machine gun and a blue whale would probably die and this animals weighs about 80 tons. OK, the dragon has a thick hide, so? Not nearly thick enough to prevent the puncture of a 50 caliber round.

There was a nuclear explosion in the beginning of this movie, in 2018, where did this come from? This electromagnetic pulse is what knocked down Tech Com's helicopter that Connor was flying.

Bale is the up and coming hero named John Connor. This movie does not show the nuclear exchange between Russia and the US which was disappointing. I guess McG thought this was already shown in Terminator II. I do not think so.

This movie only took place in California which was disappointing. I understand many lives were lost but this movie acted like only about 1000 folks were left in that state. A state of 36 million. I am not sure about that. In both terminator one and two, the future fighting scenes show hundreds of men fighting T-800's and Connor is commanding them. This is not the CA we see now. But I know the future can be different based on the results of both of these films. I know the future scenes here were in 2029 which is not that far fetched if it is in Japan or China. This movie acted like humans were just scattered about and 99% of the population was lost which I can not believe. Judgement day killed 3 billion people. Radiation would kill tens of thousands of more. But the USA would still have milions of citizens left. It would take years for Skynet to be able to make T-600's. Ofcourse I could be over thinking this.

This movie never showed how hunter killers (HKs) were made nor developed. Apparently the storyline from Terminator III does count a little. In that weak movie, miniture HKs were revealed and developed by man. How did Skynet further develop these? How far is the reach of Skynet? What are the capabilities of an HK? Star Trek did not explain much either about the USS Enterprise model. Apparently, the HK can run down an A-10 Thunderbolt but it can be shot down by one as well.

Another bone offered to Terminator III is that the T-800 model is powered by nuclear fission. This was not mentioned in the first two Terminator films. What powers the T-800, John Connor uses this knowledge and ability to annihilate Skynet's North American compound at the end of this film. I expected the explosion to be more powerful though after it was supposed to be nuclear.

Sam Worthington plays the tough Marcus Wright which the movie starts off with. He is on death row but before he is about to be executed by lethal injection in Texas he is visited by someone from Cyberdyne Systems. Marcus is on death row for killing two police officers and his borther. They want to use his body for research. This is never really explained. Some pictures are shown by Skynet at the end of this movie but not enough. Skynet also takes the face of this woman. This woman seems to be a nun but this is only a front. The paper that he signs says Cyberdyne systems and her clean shaven head is a scheme to make her appear holy. But apparently his body is going to be used for something more sinister.

Marcus becomes a hybrid and is released or becomes active when a nuclear blast knocks his labratory lose. Or he becomes active when John Connor and his men wake him when finding his labratory. Apparently, Skynet was performing tests on humans. Skynet is successful with Marcus thanks to Cyberdyne Systems. Apparently, Cyberdyne continues it's research despite it's headquarters and top research labratory being blown up by Sarah Connor with the help of the Director-Miles Dyson. Cyberdyne is trying to find a human body to turn into a machine, a hybrid, something with a beating heart that has a computer chip and powerful metal frame. They are successful with the unique Marcus. Marcus does not know the year and does not seem to have aged after 14 years have passed. The movie begins in 2003, but most of it occurs in 2018. So he was just in passive captivity for about 15 years in some resting state. Not explained.

Moon Bloodgood plays an A-10 pilot named Blair Williams. She falls for Marcus and allows him to escape capture from Connor's command. This is an action packed scene, pretty much both ways. The command is hidden and protected by magnetic mines and gun towers. Funny or scary, Skynet has terminator fish in the nearby river. I am not sure if Skynet is trying to pick away humans from Connor's command or if every river on the west coast is stocked with terminator fish.

Michael Ironside from Top Gun is back and plays the stubborn General Ashdown. He and Connor are both tricked by Skynet in thinking this hidden frequency can shut down Skynet and the machines it controls. Or just the machines. In fact, it is just a tracing message which will lead Skynet right to their location. Ashdown and his commanders are in a submarine off the coast of California and they remain hidden. Their location is on a need to know basis only for obvious reasons. Ashdown and his top officers are killed by a HK when they turn on that frequency. Connor's humanity saves many tech com resistant fighers though. Ashdown is OK with bombing Skynet's North American headquarters based in San Fransisco. Connor informs everyone listening to his call to stand down since there are many humans being held prisonor at this station.

Connor never realizes Skynet's trick but Marcus does. Connor infiltrates Skynet to find Anton Yelchin who plays Kyle Reese. Connor does not want tech com to bomb Skynet since Kyle would be killed and Kyle is his father. The problem I have with this is Anton is a good actor and proved this in Star Trek but he is small. He is not nearly as big as Michael Biehn is who plays Kyle in the original Terminator. Whatever. Kyle Reese, the new version, is a capable leader though and has some methods to killed Terminators. He kills a T-600 with the help of a little friend by dropped a truck frame on him. Kyle also saves Marcus or helps him atleast. Ofcourse Marcus helps Kyle by fixing his radio.

The movie copies some road action from Mad Max. The writers copied an idea from Transformers in having a large machine spit off a smaller, more mobile machine or a machine more suitable for that mission. The movie had some decent music and did show that human compassion can still exist in this depravity. But man's evil also persists when some men are going to rape Blair but Marcus helps her out. It is hard to believe that some humans do not want to fight back when the T-600 is pretty slow and can be defeated. I understand they are demoralized.

Kyle, Marcus, and the small girl stop at a gas station and meet some bad ass humans being managed by an old woman. Out of no where, a massive robot appears and grabs the old woman. Where did this robot come from? Implausible. Then this human transport works in coordination with an HK, fills a blown out section of a bridge to capture Kyle, Marcus, and the little girl. This is a pretty good scene and the terminator motorcycles are excellent road clearers. Though this is copied from last years spectacular batman movie.

Marcus is able to redeem himself at the end of the movie. Not only does he save Connor's life he has a significan impact in helping destroy Skynet's North American command. In fact, he uses his computer access and ability to infiltrate to shut down Skynet's powerful defenses surrounding the compound. Ironically, Skynet created Marcus to be the ultimate infiltrator but this backfired on Skynet. Connor is critically maimed in a fight against a T-800 which is described in the next paragraph. The final scene has Marcus willing to offer his heart to save Connor's life. Marcus always wanted a second chance and he was able to earn it. This is what drove him. He wanted to make things right. Perhaps the resistance can use Marcus's frame to create a machine to fight on their behalf.

This movie, like others, proposes the powerful idea on when human free will begins and ends. If Marcus commits terrible acts after Cyberdyne transformed his body into a machine, are these considered sins? This is a discussion theological professors and church hierarchy to have.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is shown at the end but it is not really him. It is was obvious CGI special effects. So this was disappointing. OK, I know Arnold is older but why make him 20% larger than he really is. He is like a hulking monster. Ridiculous. Then Connor uses his ingenuity and spills molten steel on Arnold/T-800, by shooting a hole with a shotgun in the molten steel container. This molten steel pores out on top of the T-800. This should have been an end to the fight. Ofcourse the fight should have ended right in the beginning if the T-800 picked up Connor and snapped his neck. The movie already had many flaws up and to this point, but this scene is just icing on the poorly tasting cake.

The T-800 is a powerful machine, much more than a human being. But it is susceptible to shot gun rounds and certainly a grenade launcher at point blank range. The T-800 most likely could not be killed by shot gun rounds, perhaps 100 of them, but it would repel its advance. How do I know this? I have seen Terminator 1 and watch the show. This final scene is over the top and outlandish. In fact, a homemade bomb like grenade is what blew up the T-800 in the first movie. It did not kill it, but it cut it in half. The T-800 here, just takes the grenade round like I would a poke with a finger. I do not think so.

This fight occurs near the assembly line on where Skynet is developing the new T-800's. The T-800 is the new version of Skynet's T-600 to roam the earth killing humans. An upgrade from the current T-600 which is slower and more noticeable. This molten steel does not have any affect on the metal frame of the T-800. It recovers with full capability. I do not think so. That is not conceivable.

If this movie was not hyped up and part of this awesome franchise, it would be impressive. But it did not fulfill its mission. It fell through. Wolverine is better and so is Star Trek. The new version of Batman, James Bond, and Star Trek all work. They all came through. What happened here? Well, it could not be four out four. Terminator II was blatantly and substantially better than this movie. I guess we have to wait for Transformer II. There will be another terminator. It appears it will occur in another part of the world. This movie takes place in CA. The only hint that the rest of the world exists is that one of Ashdown's commanders is Russian. Another massive disappointment. I hate it when movies of this caliber only exist in a certain section of the world. What is happening in the rest of the world? How are native Americans coping? How about Nigerians? How about Iraqis? To many questions left opened. They did mention Bakersfield and Reno though as having a tech com presence. Outstanding.

OK, this movie finally showed Skynet. After all this talk. Wow. But iRobot and Eagle Eye, and perhaps some other films, already has beat the Terminator artificial writers to the punch. Sad but true. Skynet has been revealed in other movies. And iRobot is more credible since it occurs in 2035. Skynet and human technology of HTs are still decades off. Americans made Skynet but never typed in an ethics code and apparently have not given the ability to launch nuclear weapons a biological security step. This would prevent Skynet from ever having the ability to create this massive holocaust. OK, but this occured and fans of the storyline accept this. But iRobot occuring little further in the future adds credibility to its plot. iRobot would have been better as well if it showed some scenes on what was occuring in Tokyo, Prague, and Mexico City for instance.

When Skynet is finally defeated, perhaps with iRobots solution with nanobytes, T-800s should be reprogrammed to do all of the labor and heavy work and give humanity a break for decades to repopulate the land and the USA. This would be a strategic and calculated idea. After this war, humanity may need to take a forty year brea-atleast from physical labor.

I allocate this movie three stars.***

The Horsemen

This is from revelation, 6 verse.

1I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, "Come!" 2I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.
3When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, "Come!"
4Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make men slay each other. To him was given a large sword.

5When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, "Come!" I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. 6Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, "A quart[a] of wheat for a day's wages,[b] and three quarts of barley for a day's wages,[c] and do not damage the oil and the wine!"

7When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, "Come!" 8I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth."

Why do people enter dark rooms alone? Pretty stupid.

I have always liked Dennis Quaid. Detective Aidan Breslin who is an expert in teeth in this movie. His son is the caper in the end. Aidan is an excellent detective but a terrible father. Apparently, he does not know his son's room is painted freakishly white. Actually, his trauma at the end does not make be feel sorry for him since he was not there with his son when his wife and son's mother died. Ofcourse this is no excuse for his son to behave the way he does and act like life in unfair. Another spoiled American teenager acting stupid. Not unlike the two idiots who shot up Columbine over ten years ago.


Ziyi Zhang is Kristen from Rush Hour II who stars in this movie. She just tosses her life away. She came from rags in China and lived in paradise in an American home and she chose to take a disgusting route. She is psycho. I would like to meet her character after she has spent about 20 years in prison. She is not that big, I doubt her confidence would be that bright after she is slapped around a few times.

Clifton Collins Jr. from Star Trek plays Stingray in this serial killer saga. This movie borrows a page from Seven in that the evil returns home. Stingray is caught off guard as he is unaware that Aidan's son is part of this twisted group which has twisted parts of the bible and turned them into a sick reality. The horsemen make Nero from Star Trek appear sane. But Nero has the fire power to create planetary damage which he proves. I am sure the horsemen would the same thing without any reason at all. Clifton was also in the stellar movie Traffic.

Barry Shabaka Henley plays Tuck from the solid movie Miami Vice. Miami Vice was rejected by more than one but I thought it was excellent. It started and ended with real life intensity. Some slow scenes about 30 minutes into the movie but I thought it was well made. Tuck is Aidan's Lt. in this film and seems to the forensics Doctor as well. Ofcourse, like many average movies, everyone but the main star just disappears at the end and is no where to be found. The Jackal with Bruce Willis is most memorable in this aspect. Where does everyone go?

The crazy but hilarious Russian from the massive hit Armageddon-Peter Stormare is in this film as well. David Spitz is his name and his character just disappears. It is not really explained but it appears that was suckered into a sexual relationship with Kristen. She got him but I am not sure what he will be charged with. It depends on her age. He will atleast be charged with breaking and entering and assaulting a police officer. Why Aidan is searching a home without any lights on with his partner no where to be found is beyond me?

The father who found the right path in the superb basketball movie Hoosiers, played by Chelcie Ross is Police Chief Krupa in this film. His impact is limited. No press was shown in the movie. Odd. The movie took place in Detroit since they spoke of a Red Wings game. Aidan can not make the game because of work but then never wants to make it up to his sons. It is not as if he works 100 hour weeks. This was a supreme case but he can not make time for a night out with his kids? No excuse, poor parenting.

The villians in this movie are just random people who are extremely ignorant and easily persuaded. I am still not sure who the ring leader is but these horrendous contraptions to kill folks. The funny thing is, these loony tune nutcases destroy themselves with their own devices and Kristen even turns herself in. Ofcourse she has a dead fetus in a plastic bag which she gives to Aidan. I wonder if she turned psycho in China or America?

Why the horsemen put the teeth in the middle of a frozen pond in the beginning is beyond me? Why the police are not covering the fire escape or back door is troubling as well? This movie does not really end since Kristen says there are many idiots out there that want to drug people and suspend them with hooks. These idiots take the cynical message American Beauty tried to present us with and took it a lot further. Here, spoiled teenage American, your life is miserable even though it is not, just ruin it and possibly someone elses. Ignorance beyond comprehension. Your life is tough? Take a trip to Nigeria, Russia, parts of China, Honduras, Mexico, etc. Then complain. Ofcourse if someone wants to kill themself in a gruesome way, that is their perogative.

This movie had some suspense. The storyline was pretty good. The characters were not developed and I did not care for any of them. Perhaps Stingray's, that is about it. I did learn some things though and it did inspire me to reread parts of revelations.

I give this movie two stars.**

Driven to Kill

Steven Seagal plays a Russian bad ass named Ruslan Drachev. It is a B rate with terrible acting. Ofcourse they usually are. Seagal almost acts as bad as Van Dam. I do not understand why the level of funding would affect the acting. Seagal never was a bad actor, but in these B rate movies he is making now his acting is laughable. This movie in particular.

Ruslan just beats people up all movie. Actually, that is an understatement, he smashes people's heads in. In the beginning, he could have just punched one guy and walked away. The second would have shut up, not put up. And this idiot listens to Ruslan and gets on his knees. Rusland kicks him in the faces and smashes him into a glass and wooden cabinet. In reality, this second so called bad ass would have either walked or ran away. Ruslan would have been in jail for assault even if the bar tender liked him. This was a nice bar too, Ruslan just expects these two idiots to pay for the damage?

In Hard to Kill the villians killed Seagal's wife and Seagal sought and obtained his revenge. In this joke movie, they critically injure his pretty daughter and vanquish his sister. The difference was, this movie's acting and script were absolutely terrible. Some decent music at times but any punch landed and the sound affects were almost as exagerated as the 1960's Batman and Robin with "Bam" and "Splat" displayed in large characters. The punches did not even come close to landing in this film. Seagal can run though, a little. Not bad for someone as old as he.

Seagal is not tarnishing his legacy by making these films. He will still go down as one of Hollywood's great action actors and one who actually knew how to fight. Seagal obviously still likes to make pictures. I am not sure if he needs the money or what. I guess it is better than sitting around all day wandering around the home.

One of the detectives was so generic, his fake mustache was a sight for sore eyes. I do not even know where these fools come from. This movie takes place mostly in Russia. Rusland probably makes dictator Putin happy since he kills about 15 of Russia's La Cosa Nostra. Though there is some collateral damage. Good riddance. Mafia is better when they stay hidden.

Seagal is one of my favorite action actors of all time. His hand to hand fighting skills are awesome and he used to break people's arms with the best of them. He had some awesome moves. He was highly entertaining to watch. I believe Exit Wounds was his last movie with any budget behind it that Seagal was in.

One guy slapped another lost soul at the end and his hand must have been three foot away from the receiver's face. The probably most fictional aspect in this film is Seagal being a crime novelist. Don't get me wrong, I like Seagal. He is not a liberal wack job like Charlie Sheen nor an anti-American punk like Sean Penn. Seagal does not slide down the same slope as most the Hollywood baffoons. The ones contributing to the demise of California. China deserves taking market share from foolish and spoiled America.

I allocate this movie one star.* Atleast Rusland's daughter is attractive. And it is still better than Nicolas Cage's Wicker Man.

Angels & Demons

The best line in the movie is when Stellan Skarsgård's character Commander Richter states to
Tom Hanks's character Robert Langdon that his church feeds the hungry and the poor, what does your church do? And Langdon is just silent and speechless since his character is so smart he can not make a decision on what religion to choose. A man that is so smart, he can not conjure up any type of convictions. Any religion is fine, choose one. Catholicism would be a wise choice.

The movie begins in European Organization for Nuclear Research which is know as CERN. It is on the Franco-Swiss border and is a particle accelerator. This is a particle physics labratory that are working on finding out more information on the beginning of genesis, when the universe and matter was created. In this experiment, they created anti-matter. This anti-matter is harmless as long as it is in a sealed container and does not come into contact with matter. If this small particle does, it could create a 5 kiloton explosion.

Ewan McGregor plays Camerlengo Patrick McKenna who is the priest of the Vatican. At first, he seems benign and holy but even if he was innocent, I knew he was twisted after giving a misguided speech to the Cardinals. He claims the church has tried to hold back science which is not entirely true and a sweeping generalization. The church made some mistakes with Galileo and this is widely known. But the church did not try to impede Bill Gates when he was writing Windows software in the late 1970's in a garage. The church has not never villified NASA. The church has never ordered Lamborgini to make a slower car and to use less technology in their car frames. The church never ordered baseball bat makes to not invent the graphite bat. I can go on and on.

Ayelet Zurer played Vittoria Vetra who was much prettier than Audrey Tautou who played Agent Sophie Neveu in the da Vinci Code. Both were directed by Ron Howard. Vittorie is a physicist at CERN and she is the one who discovers that one of the anti matter particles they captures and created was stolen. And one of her colleagues was killed to enable this clean theft.

Richter seems like a plausible villian when he unethically confiscates Vittoria's paper work and journals when she is not looking. He uses his Vatican power to do this and informs her that nothing belongs to her person or anyone's for that matter when they stop on Vatican power. He has that authority.

The movie occurs when the Catholic church does not have a leader since the Pope was murdered. Ofcourse no one knows this. The villians are supposedly a secret society called the Illuminati. Langdon is summoned or politely asked by the Vatican to facilite this investigation. The investigation begins when the four prominent Cardinals are kidnapped by the Illuminati and a message is revealed. They will be executed around Rome beginning at 8 pm that night. Langdon agrees to take part in this search and this one of a kind situation.

Langdon is a Harvard Professor whose expertise is history, signs, and symbols.

Three Cardinals are killed in this movie in disgusting and symbolic fashion. The fourth is saved by Langdon and Richter and the Vatican police.

The Vatican was infiltrated by this evil and they almost successfully suffocate Langdon down in the sealed off archives room along with the archives supervisor.

The movie has many of Rome's famous sights and mentions many historic figures. The movie is entertaining and Dan Brown does not slap or fallaciously insult the Catholic Church like he did in the Harry Potter like da Vinci Code. That movie was as much fiction as Star Trek. Ofcourse the new Star Trek was riveting, funny, pulsating, and did not run on forever.

The demon in this movie turns out to be McKenna and his henchmen. He has a nasty and impure view on things. Like science is not ready to discover or know such things. Like he is? What does that mean anyhow? The angels are Langdon, Richter, Vittoria, and many others.

He wants to destroy the church to unite the church and its international citizens on the fact that evil exists. Real nutty. All he has to do is higher a marketing firm to run world wide ads on an actual threat that radical Islam presents. I am not sure why McKenna does not have his trained assassin kill Langdon and Vittoria at the end when they are in the secret Vatican excape passage. I am not sure why Langdon does not try to grab a gun from a dead Vatican police officer and shoot the assassin killing everyone in the church that represents fire. This movie discuss earth, air, fire and water-the four classical elements. At midnight, the 5th ingredient or factor was supposed to be revealed, which is anti-matter.

McKenna was going to blow up St. Peter's square and the Vatican city with anti-matter. He did not want to kill thousands of people that is why he was pleading with the highest ranking non kidnapped Cardinal to evacuate the square due to this threat. The Cardinal did not agree with McKenna so potentially, this anti-matter explosion would not just destroy Vatican structures and itself, but thousands of lives. McKenna created this threat and also hired this highly skilled killer. Something out the Bourne books with his chameleon like predilection. This would make sense from the Illuminati's corner since religion would be destroyed by science. McKenna was truly out there, killing the pope. The Vatican failed to do a proper background check on this guy. The movie did paint a small picture that he was on a small power trip. He revealed his background a little with a short conversation with Vittoria that after endless searching I could not find back in the movie.

The Illuminati are a fictional group resurrected by the imagination of Dan Brown. Good for him, his ideas have afforded him more material items. In this pursuit of attention and slander, he has slaughtered history and given the invalid Bill Maher a reason to smile. The fictional story is, that the Illuminati were attacked by the church in the late 16th century. The ruse continues, with the church actually killing four Illuminati members with their bodies tossed out in the street for public view. The church saw scientific acheivers as a threat to their control. What control though? Members choose to believe because the holiness of Jesus Christ and his teachings. Among countless other reasons. This is only Dan Brown's fascination and for his profit seeking nature. He can tell a story though.

The movie was interesting. It had some serious music and the excitement was predominate. It did not carry incessantly on like the da Vinci Code. That story was based on Leonardo da Vinci, whereas this story centered around the Galileo discovery that the earth revolves around the sun. Some humor was mixed in and the mystique and allure of the Vatican was featured throughout.

The anti-matter explosion at the end was formidable and lived up to the hype. McKenna tried to prop himself up as the sacrificial hero towards the finally but the key given held by Richter opened up the truth. He tried to suck Richter in on his dirty plan but Richter was not going for it. McKenna was afraid that CERN's discovery would make the church obsolete but Richter, me, and anyone with a clue, realize and know that science and religion and exist together. I do not see the difficulty in seeing mutual and shared grounds regarding science and religion. The compliment each other. Either side trying to destroy the other is counter productive to say the least and beastly and outrageous to say the worst. This tell tale conversation between Richter and McKenna was caught on tape. Technology was used by this recording to relay the truth to the religious leaders. This alone is a sign that both can be used to help each other and to make for a better future. I wonder if Dan Brown realizes this?

Langdon finally obtained his year long wish. He could not complete his book without gaining access to the Vatican archives. After numerous petitions, everyone of them was rejected. After helping saving Vatican and many lives, the fresh new pope granted the book that Langdon long sought to help his own academic research. He can now complete his book.

This movie was not as good as The International or Duplicity. But was good. It did not undermine itself like the da Vinci Code since it did not erroneously attack the church. This movie should not eclipse Wolverine or Star Trek in popularity or something to talk about. The zeal and stunning cinematography was in the latter two movies mentioned. Make way for the two T's though, Transformers II and Terminator III.

I allocate this movie three stars.***

Next Day Air

This movie was hilarious. Donald Faison is one of the stars in this movie. He was the mercurial running back in Remember the Titans. In this movie, he goes by Leo. He works for a delivery company who seems to take his life and job for granted. He embarrases his mother who happens to be his boss. He smokes weed on the job and works haphazardly.

But the real funny man in the movie is Mike Epps. He plays Brody and he plays his typical character which is someone just flopping around in life. He is a robber who has happened to be caught by the authorities or shot by another fellow hoodlum. His roomate is another Remember the Titans graduate Wood Harris who plays the grouchy and a ruffian named Guch. They both are wondering through their wayward lives with a bum sleeping on their couch who they do not like and barely know. They are both too scared and chicken shit to kick him out. When a drug dealer, Brody's cousin accidently sits on him when he does not see him sleeping on the couch, that was hilarious. Wow, that was funny. This ghetto loser was wearing dark clothes and the couch was black leather. They come into a curse or inheritance when 10 bricks of quality brick cocaine is accidently delivered to them by the sloppy Leo. It is in a pot, inside a box. It was being sent to his Philadelphia deliveryman Omari Hardwick who is called Shavoo.

Mos Def has to pay the bills and perhaps has not obtained enough roles lately so he decided to be Eric in this movie. He is a co worker of Leo and just as big of a loser. He does not care about deliverying boxes but he has already been in trouble with the law so he took the job to keep his parole officer off of his back.

Shavoo, the only thing it seems he has done good in his life is earn the right to date the cute Yasmin Deliz who plays Chita. Not only is she taller than him, she can cook a little. This movie is not complicated. Leo mistakenly delivers the wrong box to the wrong house. If it was too a law abiding household, the police would have been called and he probably would have been killed by the Mexicans for being an incompetent fool. The apartment is occupied by the ghetto but thinking of getting out of his Mike Tyson robbing ways Guch. And ofcourse by his cohort in crime and video game partner Brody. They have no intention of calling the police about the drugs nor finding the proper owner. They easily find out that the package was delivered to the wrong home. They are thinking cash profit though, not doing the right thing. And it costs them all in the end.

Leo though comes out ahead, he survives the deadly shoot out at end the climax of this comedy and takes off with almost all of the $150,000 in cash. He was pretty sloppy about it and he walked out with a shotgun whichw as stupid. This would only bring attention and some bystanders saw his face. Dumb, so he will probably be arrested later that day. He did a foolish job of getting away. Ofcourse he is not innocent, he chooses to be a pathetic worker, smoke drugs, and work with indifference towards people's possessions being mailed. This guy is buying drugs while at work and does not even close his work truck with undelivered boxes exposed and in sight. Brain dead.

Guch and Brody are both killed. I am not sure about their loser roommate. What happened to him? Shavoo survives but can he heal without attending a local hospital? His girlfriend grabs the drugs and carries him away. Leo should have grabbed both but perhaps not. He did a poor job of walking away with the cash. Not even securing properly in his bag, not even putting a little in his pocket. Carrying a shotgun rather than bringing a handgun. He did many things wrong.

The funniest scene in the movie when this fool was leaning against the wall and two drug dealers were arguing about who stole their supplies. I thought that was hilarious. There were various ridiculous scenes in this Philadelphia movie. Ofcourse this movie only took place in about 6 different locations. There were many guns and some cool music. Wood Harris is a lot thinner than his Titan football days. He is plays the hard core and alpha male role pretty well.

I allocate this movie two stars.**

Miss March

This movie is a horrible. Raquel Alessi who was absolutely stunning in Ghost Rider, even eclipsing her older self played by Eva Mendes in that movie-is still gorgeous. It is shameful that decrepid looking actresses like Kirsten Dunst take on big roles but Raquel must float blanketless movies like this one. It has only been two years, what happened? Cindi Whitehall is her character's name.

This movie is not worth discussing that much. It is stupid High School movie. Though it just 4 years since the main character falls down some stairs in a prom night party and sinks into a coma. His best friend is still loyal but his father is not really and he has to deal with muscle atrophy. It would be a slow and healthy recovery but his nutcase friend wants to travel to a Playboy Party. Eugene Bell is the main character's name. His loser friend is Tucker Cleigh. Both characters are so naive and clueless, it must be fiction. Tucker is out of control in life and anyone that ridiculous would have probably been dead before age 20. His parents were a non influence or no where to be seen.

Tucker is brain dead throughout the movie, a negative human being. He is not cool, why this movie makes appear to be cool is not a good image to promote. Though it only fools the true lost causes in High School and younger. I grew up with one on Shirley Dr. and met other in life as well. But even most rejects would determine Tucker is not someone worth emulating. His car is not appealing either. Only for pot head perhaps.

This movie does devastate hip hop music. They belittle and degrade hip hip down to its root. I do not think Ice Cube falls in this line, but some other rappers do. Some Eminem songs are deplorable but the he does this to gain attention. Ludicrous is trash and full of debauchery. he falls under this category and this movie attacks him. Some of it is funny but this movie is not worth seeing ever again and will not last more than one weekend in the theatres. The music video shown in the middle of this polluted movie was disgusting. Hip hop does defile woman but this song is over the top. Even MTV would reject a song so baseless and contemptible.

These dumbasses drive across the country since Eugene's former high school girlfriend has become a playboy playmate. Eugene wants to rekindle the relationship and talk to her how she denounced her so called good girl ways and became a slut. She is a slut. I do not think becoming a playmate requires screwing everyone that walks by. With looks like that, it is not necessary.

The music is OK. There are a few funny scenes. There are a lot of attractive females. One thing the blockbuster Star Trek could not figure out. That skinny girl in that movie who had a think for Spock was cast in the wrong film. Hugh M. Hefner makes a guest appearance.

A disgusting scene at the end. I do not know who thinks that is funny. Repulsive.

Alessi must not be able to act though. Why is she not given that many lines? She acts better than Kirst Dunst though, that is not saying much.

I allocate this movie one star.*

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past

Matthew McConaughey plays in another love story. This movie will probably last one weekend in the theatres and it is the like the 6th identical movie he has made. Or it seems so. He has not played in a movie that is half way interesting since We Are Marshall. He is a wealthy skin photographer named Connor Mead. I am not sure why someone in this line work would not be single. It just seems like an affair would be surly inevitable. Not very many woman would want to marry this type of man who held a job in this industry. But I could be wrong because the money is good and every situation is different.

Jennifer Garner plays Dr. Jenny Perotti. It would be nice to see a movie where the characters have a profession that is not just so simple as a Dr. How about a store manager at Costco?

Connor is a player and his brother is getting married to emotional psycho. This bride used to be in Party of Five with the lovely Jennifer Love Hewitt. Emma Stone is Allison Vandermeersh who is about to marry Connor's dorky brother.

Michael Douglas must have had a week off in his schedule to agree to play Uncle Wayne. He is actually a ghost and informs Connor that he is going to be visited by three ghosts. They try to pinpoint where Connor went wrong in his judgement and moral understanding of woman. They want to fix him because he is flawed. He is flawed when it comes to his warped view of marriage. Marriage is a powerful relationship which is sacred but if he does not want to settle down, why should society view him as being strange or harsh? He is not a bad person nor is anyone like this. If a lot of loose woman want to sleep with this guy, so? This movie points out how dumb some woman are since so many think they are the one to change a swinger and smooth talker of this caliber. He is too good at this game. Hilarious or pathetic.

If the Connors of the world want to risk catching an STD, that is their perogative. This ensures a constant stream of revenue and importance to the medical industry. The cycle marches on.

This movie is redundant and may not even break even in the box office. Some decent music but that is just to block out the weak and repetitive story line.

I give this movie one star.*

Star Trek

This was the most exciting and intriguing Star Trek movie ever made. Ofcourse I have not seen them all and probably never will. It was a stimulating sensation. It was just non stop action. And that is one of the few issues I had with the movie. Some of the dialogue could have been spread out a little more. Thankfully I have seen it twice now.

Chris Pine who is basically a no name performed gallantly as James T. Kirk. He is cocky and undaunted. For instance, in a high risk mission later on in the film, is he screaming with joy as a comrade dies when his parachute does not open? I think the sound editor made mistake in that fast moving scene.

Kirk is living a sloppy life though and he is probably on the way to an early death if he is not talked some sense into by Bruce Greenwood who plays Capt. Christopher Pike. Greenwood has been in many movies and has played the villian before in the not so good Double Jeopardy. Greenwood was in the spectacular movies Deja Vu and I, Robot. Kirk is funny and has many snippy one liners. It seemed he took some from Wolverine who I wished had more crusty and sarcastic comments in his movie. The unrealistic aspect here is that Pike would not be an active recruiter while an actual Captain. Now, giving a young punk like Kirk a man to man discussion, which for Kirk's sake was long over due-because he did not have a father, that is fine. But being there the following morning ensuring Kirk rides off to boot camp, not likely. In addition, Pike shutting down a restaurant by telling everyone to leave, callous for sure. Normally, he would have just asked or demanded Kirk walk outside with him to discuss his options.

Eric Bana is the villian in this captivating film. He plays a peculiar Romulan named Nero who is bent on turning Federation planets into black holes. I am not sure if his name is supposed to have some Roman symbolic link. Nero is mixed up but when this movie had the chance to explain what was actually happening they failed. The time to do this was when Nero was interogating Pike. The only thing Nero said was his vessel was a mining vessel and he was doing God's work when his planet was destroyed by Vulcans. This never occured. His planet was devastated by a supernova that Spock was too late to stop. Spock was going to squash this supernova with some super powerful red liquid which artificially creates a black hole. Spock ended the supernova using this red liquid but this was after Romulus was destroyed. It was not the Vulcans fault nor Spocks. Nero has this twisted.

Vulcan is utterly destroyed by Nero has a result. The elder Spock played by Leonard Nimoy is marooned on an icy planet within site of his home planet's Rumulan caused implosion. This is where the movie has some flaws. They explained things too quickly and did not have another character repeat them like other movies do. Seeing this movie twice is probably necessary to gather all the complex situations which are tossed at us. I had too. Zachary Quinto plays the younger Spock and he is in the entire length of the film.

Nero and his Romulus crew are flying a massive vessel which is intimidating to say the least. There are pointy extensions that extend outward like a jelly fish's tentacles. Nero is able to time travel but he does not know what year it is. Pike says he is full of it at the end but did a poor job of trying to change Nero's mind. Pike just quit as I explained before before he had a nasty large Centurian bug weave itself into his brain or spinal chord. It must have worked since Nero was able to place his vessel about 100 miles off the surface of the pacific coast line. How this bug was removed is beyond me but he was shown in a wheel chair at the end. This is fully conceivable.

The movie begins with Kirk's father being killed by Nero and a earth's Federation war ship being blown away by a barrage of weapons fired by the futuristic Romulus vessel. Nero also requests a visit by the captain and he quickly kills him in a psychotic act of rage. Now, this is another mistep by the writers. This Captain would have had a death pill in his mouth or on his person. All astronauts are given one when entering outer space. Even Jodie Foster's character in Contact was given one before being dropped in that wicked spinning circular geomatric machine. Anyone transporting to an enemy vessel, unarmed, holding critical knowledge in his or her brain, would have the capability to end his or her life in a short manner. Kirk's father is killed crashing his vessel into the hulking Romulus space ship while 800 humanoids escape. Including his pregnant wife who gives birth to Kirk. Why his pregnant wife is on a war or exploring space ship is illogical and contrary to rationality.

Kirk grows up without a father and acts like it. He crashes a 1960's car off a cliff while an outstanding and appropriate song by Beasty Boys is blasting-Sabotage. I loved that. Kirk is undisciplined and rebellious. The military cleans him up. As it does so many folks in the present day.

Pike persaudes Kirk to join Starfleet because his aptitude scores are impressive. Kirk agrees and completes the normal 4 year training program in 3 years. The movie did not want to show any of this training which is disappointing. I was hoping for some more information on the Enterprise class ships and why they are shaped that way and more about their capabilities. They missed an outstanding opportunity here. Also, some fighting classes or physics courses could be shown in about a minute. Oh well, Kirk seems to conquer anything that is tossed at him but is accused of manipulating the final which is a war fighting stimulation that Spock designed. This pits Spock and Kirk against each other. I was not too impressed with Kirk's bridge team, they seem to act child like in this scene. Kirk's cocky attitude only upset higher ranking officers, including Pike.

This movie had some funny characters. The engineer's little alien friend was cute. Similiar to the Ewoks in Return of the Jedi. But this movie was better than any Stars Wars flick. The dialogue in Star Wars was often dry and unnapealing. I can not believe that so many bought those DVD's. There are so many better movies now that have been made since then. They occupied a few years but those times are over with. Just like past Star Trek films, they seem crippled and counterfeit compared to this newest Star Trek creation.

Another revelation of this movie is who played Dr. Leonard 'Bones' McCoy. Karl Urban who clearly lost weight to play this part to appear weaker and less imposing. He was a cold blooded assassin in The Bourne Supremacy and a total wrecking crew in Pathfinder. His performance was superlative and it was completely different than any of us have seen thus far. Similiar to Bana in this film who played a frightening villian, both added value to this film. They also explained why McCoy is nicknamed Bones.

Romulans are seemingly much stronger than humans and have the jumping and agility to that of the another Hollywood alien called Predator. I wanted to see Spock square off with Nero at the end. I was disappointed with that. Spock destroys Kirk in a fight on the bridge. Basically, humans do not have the strength of our alien counterparts. I think not having Nero fight Spock at the end who Nero was calling out the entire movie and killed his mother and planet, left a void in the culmination of this film.

The plot is strong though. The creativity is just fascinating. The Romulans have a massive hanging drill that extends down to the surface of a planet which cuts a hole deep into the interior. Then they drop the red liquid, just a drop, into the core, and within minutes the planet crumbles into a singularity. They did not explain too well or at all where this red liquid came from or who invented it.

Spock senior shows Simon Pegg who plays Scotty how to transport a biological entity to a space ship while traveling at warp speed. Apparently Scotty's algorithm does not include the concept that space is moving. I think this is sort of cheating though, Scotty can not say he discovered this concept himself. How Spock the elder knows Kirk is going to land on this ice planet or where is beyond me. Why Kirk just walks away from jettisoned space pod is beyond me as well. But I guess he did not have a choice since remaining in the pod is just a slow death. This planet is unlivable and he was not dressed that warmly. Ofcourse the advanced fibers on his clothing could be impenetrable. Still his face was exposed. He is not given weapon or some food? So basically he is sentenced to death for insubordination. Odd. This ice planet had some massive and nasty creatures roaming around.

In this icy cave when Kirk and the elder Spock have a mind meld, this is when Spock discusses he may represent an alternate future. I am not sure what this means? Time travel regarding different futures is discussed by Spock and Kirk on the bridge of the USS Enterprise. Spock seems to take the upper hand in this conversation with the skinny girl helping him. She is exceptional at linguistics though. In fact, her translation of a Klingon message is what enables Kirk to make the decision in the beginning that they are flying into a trap. This is right in the beginning. I am not sure if Nero was from 25 years in the future or 100 years. His advanced weaponry seemed more than 25 years removed. Yes, his vessel was a mining one but they must have armed it with state of the art weaponry since he is just chewing up klingon, vulcan, and human war ships. Kirk is happy that his father is alive to see him graduate from the Starfleet academy. Ofcourse if the young Kirk had his father in his life, graduation would be not that surprising. From any college. He would not have been crashing cars off cliff ledges neither racing from the police.

Zoe Saldana plays Nyota Uhura who secretly in love with Spock despite Kirk showing interest. She is too skinny and for her to be the pretty face in the film, I am unimpressed. Where is January Jones or Alisha Cuthbert when you need them?

The funniest scene is when Kirk asks his Asian space shipmate what type of hand to hand combat training he has had and replies, "fencing." I thought Pike was going to take him with him when Nero requests for him to come aboard his ship. Since Kirk and Spock warned Pike it is foolish to travel to an enemy ship who has already shown they are prone to violence. Kirk says the time for diplomacy has passed.

The movie has wonderful music and a blessed plot. The action was riveting and plentiful. Some of the storyline could have been explained a little more though. The special affects were magnificent. The hulking Romulus vessel being sucked into a black hole at the end was awesome. This black hole was created by Spock purposely crashing his smaller sprinter space ship into the much larger Romulus ship.

Because of the intensity of the music, I believe Wolverine is a little better than this movie. Both earned four stars to me, but I have to go with Wolverine because I actually understood what the characters were saying for the most part. I am not sure why Star Trek rushed the dialogue like that. It is not unique in this regard. Yes, we like action but we are not going to fall asleep if someone is not punched or blown up after 30 seconds. Kind of insulting really.

I allocate this movie four stars.****

Undisputed II: Last Man Standing

This is not a new movie at all but I enjoyed the original and the nemesis in the movie, or one of them is in the recent glamorous movie Wolverine. Michael Jai White is supposedly the good guy in this movie who plays George Chambers. Well, he did some right things at the end of this movie buy trading some big time money for the release of a man who deserves a second chance and is not a threat to society if he ever was. Russia has a tendency to trashing human rights and tossing people in jail for political reasons. Some reasons could be inexplicable.

Scott Adkins plays Yuri Boyka who is one of the villians in this movie. He is a jerk with an attitude problem, sort of like Chambers is in the beginning. They are made for each other. The problem is that Chambers developes some character as the movie progress whereas Boyka remains the prick he probably always has been. He probably started out a bully but worked hard to become a polished kick boxer. Despite losing the final fight against Chambers, his Russian supporters and financial backers should release and send him to the west to join in the UFC. I am sure they could make more money off of him there rather than having him fight scrubs in prison. But if they can frame and manipulate the system and set up fights with Boyka, perhaps not.

The not so pretty girl in the movie is Daisy Lang who plays Svetlana. Maria Ilieva is the reporter who only had once scene but should have had more.

Chambers is a washed up boxer in the USA, probably heavy middle weight, who is in Russia doing some commercials since he is low on income. His selfish agent is urging him to cooperate so they can make as much money as possible. Chambers is tempermental and does not seem to think about the future much. He is not being asked to do that much, just pronounce some words in Russian properly. His distaste for compromise is striking. When he is set up I really do not feel sorry for him. He is tossed in a decrepid prison which makes a US prison appear like a palace. But the prisoners in Russia in this film are not as intimidating as the prisoners in a US prison.

Chambers is set up with cocaine being found in his hotel room. His agent is not really helping him since he wants a large pay day as well. Chamber's agent is not being truthful when he meets with Chambers in prison and informs him he has not called his lawyer yet and the US embassy is doing their best but it may take longer than a month.

Boyka and Chambers are being arranged to fight. Boyka has been asking for some real competition for a while now but this is not really shown. He is mopping up everyone else the Russia establishment puts in the ring with him. It is a field day. Chambers does not want to fight Boyka, not in the ring but he is told he must if he wants his freedom back.

To say Boyka is consumed with his own ego is like saying Will Smith likes to make solid movies. Boyka thinks he is the next evolution in the long line of outstanding human fighters. The Egyptions, Greeks, American boxers, and then Boyka. That is his line of thinking. I am not sure why he does not eat better since he has reached star status in the prison. But I never saw him shoveling human waste like they made Chambers do. I did not see Boyka being screamed at or harangued for perhaps putting some warmer clothes on Chambers when being tied up outside in the freezing cold. This was after the first fight when Chambers was demanding his freedom and the warden would not grant it even though they had an arrangement. Chambers destroyed him with one punch. Put his face in some food or what passes for food in that prison.

Boyka won the first fight because Chambers was drugged. Chambers dominated the first round since Boyka decided only to box and not to kick. He changed this strategy in the second round but that was after Chambers was drugged. They drugged Chambers by mixing sleeping drugs inside his water bottle. Boyka was not happy with this the next day when he realized this was the case. He killed one of the culprits. Chamber's corner man committed suicide over this guilt.

Chambers wins the final fight, buying the freedom of his coach. His coach is crippled due to Russian prison gunfire. This old man coach trains Chambers in the art of grappling and close knit fighting. Which is essential in his victory. Chambers is released from prison as promised in a nice suit and farewell.

Chambers is elated at the end and seems to have a character awakening. He becomes a better person. But this movie finishes incomplete. Where did his agent go? Chambers finds out that his agent is in on this deal, his set up, and him being blackmailed to fight. Chambers threatens to destroy him. The writers failed to put a final revenge scene at the end. His agent deserves to get punched a few times. Regardless of Chambers new found conscious and human understanding, his agent should not be left off the hook. Atleast destroy his reputation in the industry.

The movie had very little decent music, not enough pretty girls. The script was devoid of any humor. The acting was typical. Boyka's round house kicks were impressive and I am not sure if they were camera tricks since they were so fast and lethal. There was not a hero in this movie, atleast not in the first half. Chambers was too violent and emotional to cheer for, unreasonable as well. The final fight between the American and Russian was not that intense. A rain drop compared to the action packed fight between Rocky Balboa and Ivan Drago in the climactic and enduring Rocky IV.

I allocate this movie one star.*

Obsessed

Idris Elba plays Derek. Derek is a grown black man with a professional career on track who has it all. A nice little baby and a lovely wife. Beyoncé Knowles is his wife and her name is Sharon in this copy cat film. This movie has been made before in so many other forms. The only difference here is a white girl going after a black man. I know the KKK would be highly upset with this one. It appears Kobe Bryant had a case of this in Colorado. This did not end his career or cause it much harm but this cost him probably $200 million total in endorsements that he could have obtained in his career. This money has gone to Lebron, Tiger, and other athletes.

The gorgeous girl in this movie, is the stunning Ali Larter who plays Lisa. This is not the first time Ali Carter has played a slutty character. She has a famous scene in a High School football movie with whip creme in Varsity Blues. She has always been attractive and she could probably seduce many men. But, Derek should have handled this situation in a different manner from the outset. It is hard to say though, in this day and age, the man is usually screwed. Any allegations and most people take the woman's side. The woman has political correctness on his side. Derek does have the color of his skin which political correctness could protect. His wife would not accept this though, nor any wife perhaps. Derek was not given the benefit of the doubt by his wife nor his company in this movie.

Derek should have explained what happened at the Christmas party and in his car after work with Lisa to human resources (HR) right after this occured. He should have gone to HR right after the Xmas incident. He went to his friend-Jerry O'Connell who plays someone named Ben-who just laughed it off and did not take much heed. His friend needed help and was grasping at straws. Ben should have taken this more seriously and he sensed this temp-Lisa-preferred black guys. Lisa was an excellent assistant but the learned the ropes and secrets of the office quickly. This impressed people but Derek should not have let her get that close, should have brought his wife to the Xmas party. That is a administration error and a sloppy company policy.

Lisa was out of her mind. She over doses on prescription medication inside Derek's hotel room at a company retreat. I guess she wants to toss her life away to disrupt a good person's life. She is hospitalized but this paints a negative picture on Derek and her relationship. Selfish and sickening. Derek should not have let his drink out of his site and Ben should have noticed Derek was drugged or acting strangely as they walked back to their hotel rooms.

The movie is unrealistic here though. Derek would have told his male co workers that this girl was at the hotel trying to seduce him. He could have had one of his friends step and either occupy this girl or scare her off. At worst, one of Derek's co workers could have kept her at bay. Then there would be witnesses to this girl's irrational pursuit and unhealthy actions. But this is fiction, like Basic Instinct, it is just a story which is made up and untrue.

Lisa quits her temporary job at Derek's hedge fund firm. This releases the pressure off of Derek. But the worst is about to come. She continues to obtain information on his plans from the gay secretary at the firm. This person should be written up for divulging this information to non company employee. When Derek and Sharon are out to eat, they hire a baby sitter. Lisa manipulates her way past the baby sitter and takes the baby outside the home. She leaves the baby inside their car, in the baby seat. Ofcourse this is after Derek and Lisa go crazy and the police are notified. They take the baby to the hospital to have him checked out. They also install a home security system.

Lisa gains access to their home again thinking Derek is coming home and Sharon is off in San Diego. She is obsessed with Derek hence the title so that is a positive aspect of this movie. Sharon returns since Derek asks her if she remembered to set the home security system. She forgot. So she returns and finds Lisa in one of Derek's T-shirts. She wants to entrance and mesmerize him. It would not work, she chose a married man. This could work on some married men though, the weaker ones or the ones with pathetic wives.

This is where this movie goes awry. It bounces again off of reality. Sharon should have called the police instanly she sees Lisa rather than discuss anything with her. Rather, they engage in a 5 minute movie ending brawl. Ali Carter is hot but her fighting like this is unappealing. Even if it is with Beyonce. Beyonce wins and the female Detective is too late and a dollar short. But atleast the Charles family can live on in peace. Though there is about $10,000 in house damage considered Lisa trashed their home when they were at the hospital a few nights prior.

This movie is a smorgasborg of many other movies. It is not worth paying for, even if Ali Carter was nude. She was not and this movie had very little entertaining scenes. It is predictable and will last about one weekend in the theatres. The writing is subpar and plain. Nothing worth quoting, not even close. I am not sure one scene was humorous. Even Silence of the Lambs had some funny scenes. But it was still better than Wicker Man.

I allocate one star for this movie.*

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Hugh Jackman is back as Logan and/or Wolverine. This is a blockbuster and it is supreme. It is a triumph and compensates for the Australia debacle of last year. Logan is a Canadien but I guess he enjoys fighting for America. The beginning was cool and showed some history. I did not know Logan was that old. This movie explained how Logan earned his name Wolverine.

This movie had lots of action. Logan had and has a brother. The actor is Liev Schreiber who plays Victor Creed and/or Sabretooth. Liev was outstanding and made his start in Denzel Washington's Manchurian Candidate back in 2004. Liev pumped up for this movie since he was a cold blooded killer. Wolverine can kill just as easily and even more so when he is layered with adamentium. But Wolverine has a conscious. This differs from his comic book persona where he is written as someone who loves to fight. This switch occured back in X-Men I. He is still portrayed as a survivor, not a team player, but he is prone to peace in the movies-not so in the comics and cartoons.

Victor and Logan are brothers and fight in many wars together. They learn to survive on their own as children when Wolverine kills a man for killing his father. But it was not his father, Logan actually kills his own father for shooting the man who was kind to him. Victor is the older brother and has a danger and violent streak from the outset. This is his nature. He is also undisciplined. For some reason, Logan's ability to heal faster and to absorb more pain than his brother is pronounced and revealed. After an incident in the Vietnam war and their surviving of a firing squad, they are held prisoner. This incident would not have occured if it was not for Victor acting undisciplined and mistreating the Vietnemese citizens. Logan was just defending his brother. But with automatic weapons, they were actually captured at this time. This is when Danny Huston presents himself as William Stryker. Huston has been in many other films, including a frightening but realistic vampire movie a couple of years ago called 30 Days of Night.

Stryker has a special unit that goes on missions in America's interest and Strykers as well. He finds adamentium in Africa which is a powerful metal and once it is cooled it is indestructable.
Ryan Reynolds is on this team as Wade Wilson and/or Deadpool. He has extreme sword fighting ability and supreme hand eye coordination.

Dominic Monaghan is also on this team as Chris Bradley and/or Bolt. I have never favored this actor. He just did too many asinine things in Lost that I can not forgive. Despite dying for the plane survivors at the end of season 3, I never forgave him for all the problems he caused, lying about Locke, being a loser drug addict, etc. In this movie, he can form and power machines and electrical compenents with his mind. Sabretooth eliminates him because Stryker is killing mutants because he does not like them. Stryker is wrong, not all mutants deserve to die. In fact, some could be used to enhance the quality of life for everyone. He is starting a war when it is not necessary. Sabretooth is one of his hitmen.

The pretty girl in this movie is someone I have never seen before and her name is Lynn Collins
or Kayla Silverfox. I am sure her last name is not the one she was born with. She is also a mutant but this is not known by Logan. She is one the one who gives Wolverine his name. Her powers are powers of persuasion and manipulation. She uses these to force Wolverine to fall in love with her. But he really did love her. Logan leaves Stryker's team in Africa after just seeing and being surrounded by too much violence and killing. This upsets his brother the most. Logan is working as a lumberjack in the Canadien Northern Territories. A lot of fresh air and blue skies. This world is erupted with Kayla is killed by Sabretooth. Stryker warns Logan that someone is killing his former team members after Bolt is found murdered. Any forensic scientist could determine who actually killed Bolt if they knew who Sabretooth was. It also turns out that these hits are being ordered by Stryker himself. To take this a step further, towards the end, Logan finds out that Kayla was a Stryker plant and she was acting like she loved him. Logan is upset for not smelling the deceipt. Another powerful trait of his.

Logan fights his brother at the logging sight. Sabretooth is quicker and more skilled than Logan. Both can heal exceptionally fast. Sabretooth has claws or fangs and they extend to about 3 inches. He also runs like an animal-on all fours and covers considerable ground. He is bigger and stronger than Wolverine. He breaks the bone claws that extend out of Wolverine's arms by stepping on them. He does this when wolverine is momentarily defeated and in pain. This is convincing and mind altering blow. This is like breaking three bones in someone's body. Sabretooth does not kill Wolverine here even though he could have. Sabretooth is in cahoots with Stryker. Stryker wants Wolverine alive so he can convince him to committ himself to one of his precious experiments. Stryker sees potential in Wolverine but this idea turns into a bust. Much to the dismay of Stryker. Wolverine is not a loyal soldier, he is inherently independent.

Stryker sets this up since he knows Wolverine's healing abilities are extraordinary. He wants to create the ultimate weapon. Weapon X. He does this in Canada at a seemingly broken dam in the middle of Canadian Rockies. After Kayla is killed, Wolverine realizes that it is Sabretooth, his brother who commits this murderous act. Wolverine fights Sabretooth and loses-as I have already explained. He wants to continue this fight but Stryker convinces Wolverine that he can make him even more lethal, possibly invinciple, in a painful process. Logan agrees. Getting his bone claws broken on one arm by Sabretooth was a mind numbing percussion. The process is going well but Stryker takes it too far when he wants to erase Logan's memory. Logan is upset and rejects this chapter of the surgery. Logan escapes but to be followed and hunted down when Stryker realizes he can not control Wolverine. This part of the movie is probably abouta 10 - 15 years ago and remains in this time. The attack helicopters were not Apaches and this movie still had to take place before X-Men I. This is part of a larger story. A continuing timeline.

A mutant that is totally loyal to Stryker is eventually killed by Wolverine. Wolverine quickly realizes and so does Stryker that his adamentium skeleton is powerful and Wolverine's claws are a frightening weapon. This mutant that Wolverine kills is David North and/or Agent Zero. Daniel Henney is the actor's name and he appears to be Japanese despite not having a Japanese name. Agent Zero kills two good people, an older couple that clothes and feeds Wolverine after running from the Alkaline Lake sight. Funny how Stryker does a lot of his work in Canada. I am not sure how he works this all out.

After Wolverine survives this battle, kills his armed attackers, he sets his sights on his brother and Stryker. The movie takes us to Las Vegas for a short while. Then to New Orleans. Wolverine wants to find where Stryker's base is. Taylor Kitsch plays Remy LeBeau and/or Gambit. Wolverine is told that Remy escaped Stryker's mutant experimental labratory and Wolverine wants Gambit to inform him where this place is. Gambit is not too keen on this and fights Wolverine. Wolverine could have killed Sabretooth in New Orleans but Gambit interupts this. Yes, Sabretooth is in New Olreans as well, on Bourbon Street. Gambit has the powers to form electrical surges and power to any object. For instance, he uses a deck of playing cards as super powerful bullets which blast Wolverine through the bar's wall and propels him into an alley. This is when he sees Sabretooth. Gambit is impressive and an expert poker player with his capability. But Wolverine eventually cuts down Gambit to size and informs him that they are on the same side. Gambit flies Wolverine to Stryker's lair. This is when Wolverine is informed of Kayla's deceipt and Stryker's trickery. He did not like Stryker before, it is safe to say he is enormously upset with him now.

Wolverine decides to free the trapped mutants with Kayla's assistance. One of them is the mutant which becomes an X-Men, named Cyclops.

Stryker is not only killed mutants he is capturing some of them to harness their power. Scott Adkins or Weapon XI is his latest trophy. Stryker has a top medical team working for him. Strkyer knows he will never be able to control Wolverine. So he begins to work on a new idea. This shift is Weapon XI, after Wolverine's escape which was Weapon X. But that did not work out obviously. Weaon XI has the power and ability of about 12 mutants. Weapon XI and Wolverine square off and the fight continues to the top of a nuclear cylindrical structure. This is where Wolverine wants it. Weapon XI is about to kill Wolverine but Sabretooth who has been observing the descending chaos and devastation saves his brother. Weapon XI has extreme fighting ability, probably from Deadpool. He is a handful for the both of them which decide to fight back to back. The fight is incredible and a powerful ending. Weapon XI has Cyclops laser beam, adamentium swords which extend out of his arms, and has the ability to disappear and reappear. With team work, Wolverine is able to decapitate Weapon XI. But his falling head still continues to shoot out his laser beam which destroys the cement nuclear super structure. Gambit may have saved Wolverine's life or atleast saved him some discomfort when about 200 tons of cement was about to pulverize him. Sabretooth escapes after Wolverine warns him that he is still unhappy with him. Sabretooth reminds him that they are kin.

Stryker appears with a gun that fires specially designed adamentium bullets. He is told by his top doctor who is pretty as well that adamentium bullets will not kill Wolverine because Wolverine has incredible healing abilities. But Stryker believes they will destroy his memory. Stryker shoots Wolverine as Wolverine is running straight for him to not discuss the current baseball season. Stryker shoots him in the head and this stuns Wolverine, this is successful in stopping his momentum. Wolverine does not remember who Kayla is as she passes away. This is why Wolverine spends X-Men I and II trying to regain his memory. Xavier helps him in this endeavor. Stryker has shot Kayla as well. Wolverine recovers and escapes with Gambit in an airplane as the Canadien government realizes some terrible events are occuring on their soil.

Sabretooth seems to handle Wolverine pretty well in X-Men I. They fight twice. It is not a perfect story. This movie clearly reveals that with an adementium skeleton, Sabretooth does not stand a real chance against his little brother.

This movie is entertaining, is an epic, and is full of adventure and intrigue. One disappointment is Wolverine did not have enough funny and cool one lines. In the beginning, after the the firing squad, he murmers that it tickled to General Stryker. Towards the end, when fighting Weapon XI, he could have said things like: "It appears I am going to sweat today." Or, "Can we talk this out?" Or, "I may have to get dirty on this one."

After the closing credits, there is a short scene with General Stryker. He is going to be questioned for the disappearance of another General. Stryker did murder him because this General was going to slice the funding of Strkyer's operation. But can this be proven? It must not be since General Stryker is in full affect in X-Men II.

I think one would run out water before they wore down the shoes on their feet.

The movie took us around the world. There were not any standout flaws. It was as good as Iron Man last year. Much better than Hulk II which was horrendous. Not sure if it will equal Transformers II or Terminator: Salvation. I do know Wolverine could kill many terminators and I would love to see him fight a T1000. I would also like to see Wolverine kill Aliens and some Predators.

I allocate four stars for this movie.****