BigPopa's Weekend Review: Robots and Guns

Oh man. I was looking on my blog list the other day and realized it has been almost a month since I have written anything. Even longer since my last Casting Call. Sheesh, I need to get on this. But I do have some good excuses: workload has been increasing and I moved into a new house. Yeah, been busy. So, to get back into the swing of things. So here's a couple of movie reviews to get started.


Wall-E
Runtime: 97 minutes
Rated: G
Directed by: Andrew Stanton

Quick Synopsis: Wall E is a movie about a garbage robot who has been on earth alone for the past 700 years, cleaning up the mess that we, as humans, left behind when we evacuated the planet due to overpopulation. But there's a twist, Wall E has developed a personality and is very lonely. That all changes when a ship lands on Earth and sends out a probe, Eve, who Wall E befriends and follows back to her mothership. What follows is the unlikely story of a simple, crude robot becoming the hero of mankind.

Now I don't know about you guys but I freaking love 90% of what Pixar puts out, the only exception being A Bug's Life. What I loved about this movie, and what other people have complained about, is the lack of dialogue for the first 30-45 minutes or so. But the reason I loved it is this; Pixar told the story through visuals alone. Watching Wall E work everyday, play with his pet, collect things, and even come home to relax after a long day's work was an awesome thing. Even when Eve gets 'sick'(I'm trying not to spoil it for anyone if they haven't seen it) he still expresses his desire to care for her through his actions.

I think that we, as movie fans, get so wrapped up in the dialogue of the movie and the conversation between the characters, we don't see the actions and nuances of the people. I loved that Pixar wasn't afraid to be a silent film for the first half. Most of the robots don't talk at all, but their actions says more than any amounts of dialogue could.

Now this movie definitely had some political and social commentary in it, if you want to look that deeply into it. I would suggest not doing this and going to see this movie in the mindset of a child. If you haven't seen Wall E yet, do so immediately. Behind Iron Man, it's my favorite movie of the summer so far.


Now on to my second film review.



Wanted
Runtime: 110 minutes
Rated: R
Directed by: Timur Bekmambetov

Quick Synopsis: Wesley Gibson is the biggest pushover you have ever seen. His boss walks all over him, his best friend is doing his girlfriend in the butt, and his life sucks. This all changes when an assassin tries to kill him and he joins a fraternity of assassins, the same fraternity his father belonged to. This fraternity uses a certain device to read 'Fate' and to decide who is their next target. Now Wesley is out to kill the man that killed his father.

That's basically the story in a nutshell, besides a few twists along the way, which I don't want to reveal here. Wanted really doesn't know what kind of film it is. Is it a film about a pussy that becomes a bad ass killer? Is it a movie about a young man trying to find his past? Or is it just a straight out action film with lots of bullets and death? Honestly, I don't know either.

James McAvoy is really becoming a good actor, although I really wanted to shoot him through the whole car chase scene(screaming your head off for 10 minutes is NOT acting). After he becomes a bad ass, he really turns it up a notch in that department. Morgan Freeman gives his usual great performance and Angelina, who we all obsess over, really barely did anything the whole film. Her role was the most disappointing by far.

The action scenes were all really well done. The car chase scene, as well as Wesley's first few assassinations were a lot of fun to watch. Too bad Hitman didn't show this much creativity.

While I enjoyed Wanted, it honestly wasn't even as good as Shoot Em' Up, a movie I regard as one of the best action movies in awhile. If you like action movies, go see it and you will probably have a good time. Otherwise, this movie is a coin flip.


P.S. Hope you haven't missed my ladies too much.