Movie Review: Eagle Eye

Been very busy this past few weeks so posts have been shelved and now I have a lot of backlog. Anyways, this is a sci-fi movie conceptualized a few years back and when it finally got a go signal the technology sort of caught up so some aspects of the movie are not so far fetched. For an action movie this was great! A lot of chase scenes, stunts, freak events, explosions, the whole shebang. But basically this is a sci-fi movie so involves technology, and for this they needed an AI that began thinking for itself. It took matters into its own hands and that's when the trouble starts.

Although I could give high praises for this movie but it still is not without glitches. Some of the things/parts/events were so far fetched like remote operated machinery on the public network, control of power lines on the public network, and almost all of the cctv cameras were on a public network? Aside from this, if you slightly tone down your reality meter this movie will live you in awe. Overall the movie is up there for action and sci-fi flicks, plot was good, story was good, acting was great, even the effects were great. Shia LaBeouf could really pull-off an action/sci-fi movie and goes to show he's on the road of being one of the great actors out there!

Movie Review: Disaster Movie

Just as the title says, it is a disaster movie! It's just one incoherent, unintelligent, pushing the envelope type of movie. National Lampoons it ain't. They were good parts but not a lot. Mostly they just jump from one scene to another, there is no fluidity. It's like they just suddenly thought of squeezing some bits here and there out of the blue. I guess it's due to the fact that they wanted to squeeze as much parody or spoof of someone or some movie. I did a short list of spoofs and impersonations they did and it turned out to be a long one.

- Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana
- Alvin & the Chipmunks
- Get Smart
- Dr. Phil
- The Hottie and the Nottie
- Iron Man / Hulk / Hell Boy
- High School Musical
- Juno
- Cloverfield
- Ella Enchanted
- Step Up 2
- Jumper
- 10,000 B.C.
- American Gladiators
- Sex & the City
- Amy Winehouse
- Justin Timberlake
- Jessica Simpson
- Batman (The new one)
- Indiana Jones
- Speed Racer
- Wanted
- Women of Wrestling
- Michael Jackson
- Night at the Museum
- Beowulf
- Kung Fu Panda
- Narnia's Prince Caspian
- Love Guru
- Hancock

Whew! Well that's mostly the things I noticed. And there's the guy that keeps on flipping the coin when he decides. I can't seem to think where they got him. Plus I thought Juno was annoying enough, they raised it a few more notches and what they did was way more irritating! (good job!) Lastly, what the heck was the thing with the dropping cows?

Chuck Season 2

There are two new chuck episodes that recently aired. Been waiting for this season to finally start. I really like this show, first, because of Ms. Strahovski (you know why...), secondly, Chuck (because the character is down to earth and simply funny and very quick witted), and of course Mr. Baldwin of his portrayal of a cold hearted government agent that suddenly grown a heart. Put them all together and it´s a roller coaster of action with a twist of comedy and a dash of romance.

Episodes so far for season 2:

Episode 1: Chuck vs. the first date
Chuck and Sarah finally have their first real date and Chuck is getting closer to getting his normal life back with the Cipher to replace him as the Intersect or so it seems...

Episode 2: Chuck vs. the seduction
Chuck has been assigned to seduce ¨the black widow¨ with the help of an ex-agent known as ¨The Legend¨ to get information on the whereabouts of the real Cipher but with things don´t always goes as planned.

Movie Review: Babylon A.D.

A Sci-Fi movie set decades in the future, Thoorop (Vin Diesel), a mercenary accepts a job from Gorsky to escort a young woman named Aurora (Mélanie Thierry) and her guardian Sister Rebeka (Michelle Yeoh) from Russia to New York City. Through the journey Thoorop discovers that Aurora has a hidden secret that even she doesn't know. All the while, Aurora was created for an elaborate scheme made by Noelite, a religious organization, to control the world.

The actors were good, the stunts were great, the action scenes were okay (albeit short and sometimes confusing) but the sequence of events and tension were a bust. It was all just mindless violence. The storyline was a bit confusing, the climax was a little so-so and the ending will leave you with just a bug "huh??!" moment. It's just not spectacular enough. I did not enjoy the movie at all. Not even the fact that Vin Diesel and Michelle Yeoh was there and could make up for this flop. If you want to see this movie i'd recommend to just go rent it out. It's not worth the money.

"Babylon A.D. is a 2008 science fiction film based on the novel Babylon Babies by Maurice Georges Dantec. The film was directed by Mathieu Kassovitz and stars Vin Diesel, Mélanie Thierry, Michelle Yeoh and Lambert Wilson. It was released on August 29, 2008 in the United States." - wikipedia

Pilot Episode: Top Gear Australia

The Australian counterpart of the UK hit motoring show Top Gear finally aired last September 29, 2008 on SBS. It basically has the same format as the original. The set is identical, the race track is also made in an airport runway except it´s not abandoned, and it´s also hosted by three blokes.

The shows hosts (from left to right) are, Warren Brown, cartoonist and motoring columnist for The Daily Telegraph, Steve Pizzati, advanced driving instructor, race driver and freelance motoring journalist, and lastly Charlie Cox, MotoGP commentator for the BBC, and a former radio presenter and ex-racing driver. The three make up the show. As I see it, Brown has similarities with Capt. Slow, Pizzati with Hammond and Cox to Clarkson as being the leader of the pack. They have their own local jokes (which i´m still trying to understand) and crazy antics done with an Australian twist (e.g. meals on wheels).

The segments are also based on the UK show, with power laps, news, segments, and they even have their own version of the Star in a reasonably priced car dubbed Star in a bog standard car and the first star was Vince Colosimo (whom i´ve never seen before) and the white Stig was there, apparently his Australian cousin wasn´t found yet or something.

Since this is just the pilot episode, i have high hopes that there will be more cars, more challenges, and more accidents!! This will be fun.

Fifth Gear 14×08 is now out

This is the last episode for this season and they might be back early next year. The torrent is here and the scene details here courtesy of Final Gear. Enjoy!

Movie Review: Bangkok Dangerous

Hitman Joe (Nick Cage) is a hitman for hire. Doing 4 jobs in a country and lives by 4 rules. He goes to Bangkok for another set of hits but slowly breaks his own rules and puts him in a crossroad in his life.

This is a Hollywood remake of the original Bangkok Dangerous shown around 1999. This time, instead of the lead character being a deaf-mute the leading lady is the one playing a deaf-mute. The remake is not that good. The story is a little bland. Not enough punch to keep you on the edge of your seat. The ending is not what I expected but suits the movie to a degree. If I would rate it, I´d give it 2 out of 5.

Fifth Gear - [14x07] - 2008 09 22

Is already out. The show was ripped by Moto. Haven't had the chance to watch it. Show details are here (by Final Gear) and the torrent is here. Enjoy!

The Suite Life on Deck - Free download

Anything free is worth mentioning right? Stumbled upon this while reading up on Gear Diary. It's free to download via Itunes. Hope they don't take it down yet. Get the free itunes link here. You could also visit Gear Diary.

Watch it! It's good to watch light comedy from time to time.

Movie Review: Death Race

A remake of the film Death Race 2000. Set in the year 2012 where US economy plummeted, crime is rampant, and private companies handle the prisons. Ames (Jason Statham) was set-up for the crime of killing his wife the same day the factory he had been working on closed down. Six months has passed and he was coerced by the warden Hennessy (Joan Allen) to replace her champion Frankenstein, who was presumably killed by Machine Gun Joe (Tyrese Gibson) from the prior race Race. Upon joining Death race, a reality show based race wherein you kill to survive while winning the race, he finds out who killed her wife and who set him up. Once Ames knew that he was never going to be released from prison, he devised a scheme to escape prison and find his daughter to live together again.

Much of the old characters and basically the same plot from the original was really used but this time the theme and popularity of the reality based shows were used. The races was brutal and exciting but aside from that nothing much. Jason Statham is a powerful actor but whenever he delivers his lines is like listening to an old man, he sort of whispers that you can´t hear much what he was saying. So if your a fan of Carmaggedon, this is will most likely tickle your fancy. Plus Natalie Martinez is true eye candy.

Movie Review: Beowulf

Released in 2007, it´s a full motion capture film directed by Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future, Forest Gump). A cross of the original epic poem and the one starring Christopher Lambert a few years ago.

What I like about it is some of the scenes ad shots are very much life-like that I sometimes forget that this is not a live action movie. Next is the Angelina Jolie capture (wonder how they scanned her body?), another serving please. The chosen voice actors really fit the part. Rey Winstone really gave Beowulf soul and I happily give two thumbs up for John Malkovich (as Unther), the character really felt conceited.

I really don´t like this sort of films (motion capture) but they are really looking good, almost life-like and very believable but I hope this doesn´t go mainstream. I still want to see real actors playing characters.

Live Action Movie - Dragonball

Oh no! Fox really used an American to play Goku. From the looks it they might be deviating from the original storyline of the DB series. Until I see a trailer, this one has fail written on it.

Dragonball stars Justin Chatwin as Goku, James Marsters as Piccolo, Emmy Rossum as Bulma, Chow Yun-Fat as Master Roshi, Jamie Chung as Chi Chi, and Park Joon as Yamcha. The movie arrives in theaters on April 3rd, 2009.

Trailer: X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Finally found a trailer of the upcoming Wolverine movie. It´s titled X-Men Origins: Wolverine. It will be centering on the life of Logan on how he came to be the man known as Wolverine. From what I see on the trailer there is Sabertooth, Blob, and Gambit finally makes an appearance. It looks like it this will be one helluva movie.

Here´s the bootleg version from a comic-con:



Slated for Release on May 1, 2009.

Live Action Movie - Blood: The Last Vampire

It is slated for release on March 2009 with Korean Actress Jun Ji-Hyun (Sassy Girl) to play as Saya, main character.

I haven´t seen any trailers as of late but I hope it could come close to the anime Blood+ (I have yet to watch the original digital anime Blood: The Last Vampire film). It was pretty gruesome with all the blood and gore.

Here´s a trailer I found on youtube on the original digital film:

*props to starzmedia for the upload

Movie Review: Hellboy 2 - The Golden Army

One of my anticipated films since the trailer came out. Looked to be one helluva an action packed movie with a twist of witty remarks and a lot of humor. As expected, all three were present. But there was an odd feeling that I was watching an M.I.B. (Men in Black) movie rather than a Hellboy sequel. It looked to me that the creatures that they made looked more like aliens rather than mythical beings. One example was the guy with a talking tumor that looked like a baby. Looked like it was straight out of an M.I.B. series. Another thing that I was looking for was when was Hellboy be transformed to his true devil self to unleash his power to save everyone from death kind of scene. I very much liked that part on the first movie. But this time around, he just went bashing away in his normal half-horned self. Anyway, if I was to rate this movie i´d give it 3 out of 5 stars (it could´ve been higher if his devil self made an appearance).

Bitoy´s Funniest Videos

It´s a mix of America´s Funniest Videos, The Jamie Kennedy Experiment, and Girls Behaving Badly with a Filipino Twist aired on GMA 7 every weekend. This show is funny and all but there is one thing that I noticed after watching it week after week. Ever notice it when it´s back at the studio and Bitoy (Michael V) is doing spiels to introduce the next segment the audience that they place behind him are good looking girls with short skirts or short shorts? Now, that´s what I call product placing! It´s like they subconsciously draw us (red blooded males) to watch the show. I don´t know about you but it adds a little spice to the show instead of just staring at Michael V all the time.

X-Family Ep 16-20

Yey! Finally doremii fansubs released Ep 16-20 of the Taiwanese drama x-family. Unbeknowst to many that I happen to watch j-drama, k-drama, and c-drama. Some shows due to the influence of my wife. And yes, I did watch KO One before watching this. I liked this show because it was a cross between street fighter and x-men plus they´re funny!! Hope they release more in the coming months. I´ll still be patiently waiting as always (eventhough i watched a few episodes on youtube and barely understood a word). More power doremii!

More asian dramas at: Doremii Fansubs

*pics grabbed from www.mysoju.com

Review: Taken

No, it´s not the one by Steven Speilberg. This one is written by Luc Besson of the French ¨Taxi¨ series.

It´s about a retired CIA ¨preventer¨ Brian (Liam Neeson) making more time for her daughter after being away for the government. After which her daughter asks his permission to go to Paris to allegedly see museums but really follow a band on tour. Reluctantly, he agrees and her daughter goes to France. After a few hours on arriving on France her daughter and friend were kidnapped and will be sold off for sex slaves. Brian, pulling out his resources flies to France to find his daughter´s captors and save her within 96 hours before she disappears forever.

During the first few minutes the movie was boring. I was eagerly waiting for something to happen. But once the location moves to Paris it steadily went to overdrive. There was a lot of hand to hand combat ala Jason Bourne but not like the use-anything-you-grab as a weapon type of thing but almost to that extent. Car chase was long enough but could´ve used more in my opinion (i´m a sucker for great car chase scenes ala Ronin and the Bourne series). I also liked it when he got a little hurt when he jumped from the bridge to the boat. It makes it a little more believable that you could get hurt from jumping from that height. Only wish the Audi from the last part was used as in a car chase seen. The sound from the car was awesome. Overall, I really liked the film. It goes to show that Neeson still has the ¨force¨ in him for action. Good Job!

Review: The Mummy 3: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

*may contain spoilers

Well, it´s the third installment of ¨The Mummy¨ series. This time they go to china where Alex, Rick and Evelyn O´Connells´ son, has uncovered the tomb of the first emperor of China known as the Dragon Emperor. One thing leads to another. A Mummy has been awakened, his army, then all hell breaks loose.

I noticed that Jet Li´s character, the dragon emperor, was unbelievably strong in all aspects. He could control the five elements (earth, water, fire, wood, metal). When he became immortal, he could shape shift into anything he wanted. Above this, he is a superb martial artist. Now, my question is how the heck did Rick (Branden Fraiser´s character) defeated Jet Li in a fist fight? Wherein the first part of the movie Jet Li defeated 3, count them three, trained assassins without breaking a sweat. They could have thought of somehow to bring him down to mortal status or disable some part of him to make it believable. Here, a mortal with above human strength defeats a superb martial artist? I guess that is Hollywood. Anythings possible.

*picture came from wikipedia

Fresh and Hot Popcorn

My thoughts about shows, movies and even anime will start it´s life here. It´ll be a quick look on the stuff on the boob tube and the silver screen. With this said, bring on the popcorn!!