Review: Daybreakers (2009)

This time around the Vampires are the majority on Earth. Humans are being farmed for blood and are fast becoming extinct. They are now pushing fast on an alternative to human blood as feeding on another Vampire has dire consequences.

This movie plays on a big "what if?" scenario. It tells about an outbreak that cause most of earth's inhabitants to become vampires. Good thing is no more disease, they heal easily from minor injuries, and they live forever. Bad thing is, they are running out of humans to feed on. The writers thought out of ingenious ways to make the Vampires really live on. They thought of cars that could be used in brought daylight, the walkways underground, and how they farm the humans (ala Blade movie). Creators say that they had limited budget and it doesn't really show. They made a pretty good film and put it together real well. Not to mention the rebellious antics and thinking of Elvis (Willem Dafoe). What I didn't like about it is they don't have superhuman powers like running faster, agility, or being stronger that human athletes. I guess it would complicate the story but it could've made it a bit more exciting with action scenes.

Overall i'd give it a thumbs up for a good "what if?" scenario. Performances of the actors are great and the film was put together well making it levels away from being a B-movie.

Review: From Paris with Love (2010)

James Reese (Jonathan Ryhs Meyers) is a cool, calm, collected and logical agent assigned to the American Embassy in France. He has been applying to be an Special Ops Agent for the CIA for quite sometime till he has been given a chance to work with CIA's top operative, Charlie Wax (Travolta). Wax on the other hand is the complete opposite of Reese as he has unorthodox ways of stopping a lot (i mean A LOT!) of bad guys.

The movie itself starts as a regular cloak and dagger film with stealth, secret phone calls, bugs, and other secretive stuff. It picks up once Travolta comes in. From there on, bullets flew, bad guys shot (fell, had broken necks, kicked in the gut, among other things), cars exploded and a whole lot of dead bodies.

I liked this movie as this is the genre I usually go see. Action-Comedy which is fast paced with almost no dull moments. It had some weird moments but it's what I come to expect from Luc Besson's movies. I'd recommend this be watched in the theater or even get a DVD of it when it comes out. I'd like to watch it a couple more times (like what I still do with the Taxi series) sitting at home with a bowl full of popcorn and a cold soda.

Percy Jackson & The Olympans: The Lightning Thief

Okay, that was a very long title to type. Anyways, I was much anticipating this film since i've been reading the series. Much to my dismay, I didn't like the movie. I know, some of the scenes played out in the book was very much budget killers for being outlandish and I know they won't regress to making clay animations like Greek myth movies in the past.

First of all, Percy was being portrayed in another light here. It veered of from what he is really like from the book. In the movie, he was told straight out that he was the son of Poseidon. Not even a hint of mysteriousness. Grover was this cool goat in the movie. None of the timidness and nature loving found in the book. Luke's character fused Ares, Luke, and Kronos' character into one.

A lot of the characters are not in the movie as well. Ares, Kronos, the other Furies, Mr. D and some of the other characters transformed in the movie. On the other hand they added Persephone and the Hydra (which is a monster on the 2nd book).

Sad to say, a lot of the mystique, action, mystery that will keep you turning the page of the book are somewhat lost in the movie adaptation. I guess if you haven't read the book this movie will kind of be okay.

Paul Blart: Mall Cop

For me, this movie had me laughing for almost the whole movie for its sheer stupidity with a mix of being naive of a perfectly good person. That person is Paul Blart: Mall Cop. The character is an aspiring cop who has failed a good number of times from exams, most probably from his condition: he has hyperglycemia. He has to have sugar or else he faints. A good hearted person but at times too good that it places him in funny situations.

It has good action scenes, thanks to the parkour boys and we have to give credit to Paul Blart's rise from the dead type of getting up (with the help of a Segway). This movie is best watched at home with popcorn, drinks sitting on a couch with your family.

G.I. Joe - Rise of the Cobra

This post has been long overdue. Been very busy lately with office stuff (and got addicted with Mafia Wars. haha). Anyways, this is the live-action version of one of the 80's hit cartoon about the real american heroes.

As usual, they tweaked the story and characters to make it more appealing and fit it into the limited time of a movie. Duke here is still the main character but here he is seen to be an elite soldier before going in with the Joe's. He has ripcord for a best bud and both were pulled into the world of the Joe's. Scarlet still has Snake Eyes for a love interest but instead of Duke to be a part of a love triangle, they swapped it to Ripcord. Dennis Quaid played Hawk pretty well, unfortunately for cover girl her stint was short lived. Baroness on the other hand was married to a Baron, which is how she got her nickname. The Baron was not Destro. Destro for the most part of the film has the face of a normal human not until the last part. Cobra Commander was a revelation to me. It provided a good twist but they sorta gave hints along the way.

As an kid who grew in the 80's this is somewhat a breathe of fresh air for the old series. The action and CGI scenes were great (minus the fact that the suits made them jump around like crazy monkeys). Story wise was good enough to give most of the characters back story and depth to their personality. The ending provided room to make a sequel so we might as well expect one (just like Transformers). Plus the costumes made the Baroness and Scarlet real hot!!

Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen

*may contain spoilers

I watched it yesterday and was hoping to be blown away. Well, i was almost blown away. I was amazed at how they made the fight scenes between the autobots and the decepticons. It was great! Not only was it amazing but they actually slowed it down so we could actually follow what was happening. Megan Fox got even hotter and thanks to slow mo she went sizzling. I also liked the fact that John Tuturo was still in the movie. He added that weird comedy vibe. In the other hand, almost everything in the movie was tweaked (story and characters) but if you didn't grow up during the 80's it was a good sci-fi robot movie.

Although it had great moments, there will always be a "what the?" moments. What the hell is up with the terminator-ish villain they sent to get Sam?! For a couple of minutes there I though I was watching a Terminator movie. Next is the two autobots who talk like they are rap stars? It's bad enough that whites and asians copy the way rap stars talk but robot aliens from outerspace? That is just bad! Next up is Sam's mom. What the heck were they thinking when they made her act like that? It was just insane! There was a scene they made her eat "magic brownies" and made her all wacky. I just didn'y know what the writers were thinking when they wrote down the character. I didn't really find it that much amusing. There was also the issue regarding the matrix. In the original story, Optimus became Prime because of the Matrix not because he was the decendant of the Primes. I'm a bit so-so about what they did with it but it looked good in the movie (plus the matrix was smaller in the movie). Lastly, I could barely tell who is which became what. I mean, none of them looked like their original forms. Bumblebee became a Camaro, Iron Hide became a Pick-up Truck at least Arcee still is a motorbike albeit an earth type motorbike. Let's not forget Devastator, he became a huge pet monster! I still liked it if he just became a giant robot like before. Although he still destoyed everything in sight, a big huge a$$ robot like before is what I would prefer.

Eye candy wise, it was full of it. The tweaking of the story blended well with the prior movie. And eventhough I could hardly tell the decepticons and what the other autbots turned into it was a good enough sci-fi alien robot flick.

Top Gear Australia - Season 2

The boys down under are back -- minus Charlie Cox (he left the show saying he felt he could not offer enough time for the show). To step up to the plate, he was replaced by trumpeteer James Morrison. He was last seasons fastest celebrity in a bog standard car. For me he's a welcome addition since this is a show presented by average blokes (except for Steve, since he's a race driver) for average blokes.

Right now I've just caught up with this season's sixth episode and i'm still awaiting for the next one. I like this show because I get to learn about new cars and a little more about Australia and the Aussies.

For episodes of the show, just head over to www.finalgear.com.