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.