Underworld: Awakening (3D)

First Hit:  This dark film had very few interesting or believable moments.

The other action woman based film I saw this weekend was this one.

Kate Beckinsale plays Selene a hybrid vampire and lichen. She is not fully trusted in the vampire group who hide underground. The lichens are also underground because the humans declared war on both sets of non-humans.

Yes, this is a lot to suspend belief on, and if the filmmakers, writers and directors did a better job of setting it up it might have worked better. They didn’t and therefore I sat there watching a darkly shot film with unbelievable action performed by someone who didn’t own the movements as her own. In other words, she wasn't authentic.

Yes, Beckinsale is good looking, her eyes are sharp and wonderfully contrast against the background, but I didn’t buy the premise that she was her character.

Eve (played by India Eisley) is Selene’s daughter. She’s unaware that she had this daughter. Yes, hard to believe but the setup is that while Selene and her former lover Michael (a lichen) were housed in chambers Dr. Jacob Lane (played by Stephen Rea) crossed them and created Eve. She was developed to provide new antibodies for lichens so that they don’t succumb to silver.

In essence this film is about a mother protecting her daughter.

Beckinsale, although very attractive, just didn’t emote the strength to be the heroine of this film. Rea was fine as the lichen Dr. Lane. Eisley was probably the best of the lot in her role as sometimes innocent and other times big time powerful monster. Len Wiseman and John Hlavin wrote a very week script while the dark direction was unfortunately led by both Mans Marlind and Bjorn Stein.

Overall:  Pretty much a waste of 88 minutes and of course it is open-ended for a follow-up film.

Haywire

First Hit:  Although the story is not very strong, Gina Carano is good as a private intelligence action contractor.

I saw two action films with women as the lead characters this weekend and the primary difference is believability of their skills.

Mallory (played by Gina Carano) is a contractor for hire. She will provide protection, rescue hostages, or anything for a price. She’s a former Marine as was her hero father Mr. Kane (played by Bill Paxton).

The filmmakers made enough of this backstory making her skills and intensity believable.

The film begins with her sitting in a booth drinking a cup of tea. The intensity on her face tells the whole story, she’s in the middle of a story and we are slowly invited in. One thing I noticed was that there were no opening credits, which was nice.

The basic story is that she is set up to be eliminated along with a Chinese hostage she is supposed to rescue. However, Paul a British intelligence officer (played by Michael Fassbender) who is the guy that has to kill her soon realizes that this is going to be difficult. At every turn there are people after her and she takes care of business in a reasonable fashion.

Towards the end she’s offered a legitimate job with the US Government but she has a revenge streak in her and therefore until she finishes the people who tried to finish her, she isn’t taking the job.

Carano is fully capable of making this role hers and she does an outstanding job of having me believe she was capable of all her moves. Fassbender was good as the British MI agent. Antonio Banderas, as Rodrigo, did a nice minor turn as the instigator of the films events. Channing Tatum, as fellow free agent Aaron, fits his role well. Paxton is wonderful in his small role as Carano’s father. Michael Douglas, as Coblenz, was good as the government man pulling the strings. Ewan McGregor, as Kenneth the leader of the outside contracting agency, seemed lost in his part. Lem Dobbs wrote an OK script in that it held together enough although it wasn’t powerful. Steven Soderbergh did a great job of taking a moderate script and making this film work interestingly.

Overall: This film was fun and enjoyable to watch because the main character made it work.

Contraband

First Hit: Although a bit unrealistic, this was an entertaining film.

Mark Wahlberg and Giovanni Ribisi carry this film as Chris Farraday and Tim Briggs respectively.

They are on the opposite sides of society; Briggs a proud punkish nowhere drug dealer while Farraday has cleaned up his act and has gone straight installing home security systems. Briggs gets Farraday’s brother in-law to become a mule for a drug shipment which he has to dump off the back of a ship as it is entering port.

Now owing a lot of money for the drugs and payment, Farraday, decides to assist his dimwitted brother-in-law’s loss by running a shipment of counterfeit money from Panama. However this plan goes wrong in multiple ways and it is up to Farraday to fix it. The danger of course is that if Farraday doesn’t fix the problem his best friend and former business partner will kill his wife and family.

What you say? Yes, Farraday doesn’t know that his supposed best friend is really heading up the operation that set up his brother-in-law and now he’s getting setup himself. However Farraday is the smartest guy in the film and he figures out a way to it all right for himself and his family.

What makes this film entertaining is the interaction between Farraday and his real friends and his shipmates. He’s an everyman with just enough more smarts than the people around him. And when he says to his wife Kate (played by Kate Beckinsale) “trust me, I’ll take care of this” you know he’ll make it right and he does.

Wahlberg is perfect as the everyday hero and guy doing the right thing. Ribisi is fantastic as the slightly twisted thug who can be as vile as any thug could hope to be. Beckinsale is good as the trusting wife. Ben Foster as Sebastian was very good as Wahlberg’s betraying best friend. Aaron Guzikowski wrote a reasonable script from the Icelandic film Reyljavik-Rotterdam. Baltasar Kormakur directed this action film in a fully unexplainable and entertaining way.

Overall: Not a great film by any stretch of the imagination but it is fun to watch.

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol

First Hit: Whatever one might say about Tom Cruise or this franchise of films, this film was entertaining.

Improbable would be a word that would fit but so would entertaining.

Despite all the odd dialogue and character development, this film is entertaining. OK, enough already about how entertaining it was.

This highly improbable story comes together because the actors make it work. Ethan Hunt (Cruise) is one of the government’s leading IMS agents. He commands the storyline and the sequences as a lead agent needs to.

William Brandt (Jeremy Renner) is the “Analyst” who has a story to tell. Benji Dunn (played by Simon Pegg) is the techno-nerd of the group. The last member of this team is Jane Carter (played by Paula Patton) is the other hands-on physically skilled team member.

The story is simple, someone wants to start a nuclear war between the Russians and Americans. The protagonist Kurt Hendricks (Michael Nyqvist) is a brilliant but slightly insane man who wants to be seen and counted on the world stage. Therefore he obtains the launch codes to Russian missiles and proceeds to make it the launching of a missile a retaliatory event.

This film is filled with great chase scenes and my favorite was the multi-story parking garage. This story also features the tallest building in the world and some of the shots brought up my, once thought gone, fear of heights feelings.

Cruise, despite what one thinks of him, has the ability to charm with good looks and be part of a chase scene and make it work well. Renner gives a strong performance as the Analyst with a story to hide. He's great in this role and provides added intelligence. Pegg is perfect as the odd-ball side kick with blather and brains. Patton is very good as a skilled fighter and her looks, as her character is required to be, fit the part well. Nyqvist is good as the steely man who wants to be seen. I liked Lea Seydoux as Sabine the assassin. Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec did a great job of coming up with a story line that works and is entertaining. Brad Bird did an excellent job of keeping the film, light, active, engaging, and without waste.

Overall: I enjoyed this 4th film in this franchise and would watch a fifth.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

First Hit:  This was one of the worst scripted and directed films ever and a true waste of time.

If I ever chose to sit through another film directed by Guy Ritchie, I would hope someone comes into the theater and shoots me.

I would prefer the pain of this than to sit through another mindless attempt by a man who has no understanding of filmmaking. He has good actors, whom I’m sure got paid well, puts them in front of a camera, and through a bunch of special effects try to  makes something that people will sit and oooo and ahhh to.

Please will someone give Richie an apprenticeship to a filmmakers school?

Robert Downey Jr. as Sherlock Holmes, knows better than to do films like this with a director like this. He's too smart, at least I thought he was. Jude Law, as Dr. Watson, will, with experience, know better than to do films like this where he has no character development or meaningful part. Michelle Mulroney and Kieran Mulroney, wrote a crappy, mindless script. Guy Ritchie might do well doing music videos which tell no story. In the film business the objective is to tell a story. His attempt here and in the previous one Sherlock film, which I also panned, at directing reeks of an amateur child playing with grown up tools and only liking the switches and dials to play with.

Overall: How does he get money to make these things?