Category: Action Movies (Page 118 of 165)

Blu Tuesday: Greedy Studio, Hidden Agenda

July 14, 2009 / Jason Zingale

In lieu of my weekly Blu-ray column, I wanted to take the opportunity to take a closer look at one of this week’s higher profile releases. Fans of Ang Lee’s martial arts epic, “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” have been waiting for an HD version of the film for quite some time now, but no one could have imagined it would happen like this. Instead of being given the update it deserves – complete with new bonus material and a silly subtitle like The Green Dynasty Edition – the film limps onto Blu-ray as part of a three-pack with two other movies it has nothing in common with other than falling under the wuxia subgenre. That’s not a slight against the included Zhang Yimou films (both “House of Flying Daggers” and “The Curse of the Golden Flower” are quite good in their own right), but rather the studio for thinking they could get away with such a heartless scam.

While most fans of “Crouching Tiger” will likely enjoy the other two movies (no doubt Sony’s big selling point), what the studio has failed to consider is that those same people probably bought them on Blu-ray the first time around. An unfortunate oversight or a crafty scheme to force consumers to pay for an added value they don’t want? I’m going to lean towards the latter, especially when the “Crouching Tiger” disc has been treated so poorly. True, the movie looks absolutely stunning in high definition, but there isn’t a single new thing about the release other than the upgraded video and audio. The same three special features have been imported from the DVD, while the addition of access to BD-Live means very little in terms of ever seeing new extras. If you don’t own any of the films, you could certainly spend your money on worse things, but just know that by doing so, you’re only encouraging Sony to do more of the same in the future.

Action Movies, External Movie DVDs, Movie Dramas, Movie DVDs, Movies

Ang Lee Blu Tuesday Blu-ray Blu-ray bonus features Blu-ray reviews Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon House of Flying Daggers The Curse of the Golden Flower Zhang Yimou

More comic book-to-movie stuff

July 14, 2009 / Bob Westal

I’ve got a thoroughly crazy day ahead and it’s anyone’s guess whether I’ll be posting about the Wednesday release of the new “Harry Potter” flick or any other important movie-world news tonight or tomorrow. In the meantime, though, a couple of quick links to stuff that’s been going on in the film/geek-sphere of things.

* First of all, just in case you haven’t been reading, say, Cinematical, Variety, or CHUD, as was long ago prognosticated, Natalie Portman will be the love interest in the upcoming film based on Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s “The Mighty Thor.” Indeed, her character will be based on one from the comic’s early days. Christopher Campbell has the blog reaction. I’m cool with it, personally.

* AICN has the (very lengthy) scoop on the comic book film from the highly underrated Matthew Vaughn (who I personally feel is much better filmmaker than his old partner, Guy Ritchie). I’m not familiar with the very odd sounding “Kick-Ass” but I’m willing to give this one a go, though I get the feeling I might wind up closing my eyes a few times as I did during the jail sequence in “Watchmen.” On the other hand, I kind that I kind of like stylish movie violence. Yeah, I’m a walking mass of contradictions.

Action Movies, Actresses, External Movies, Movies

Kenneth Branagh Kick Ass Matthew Vaughn Natalie Portman The Mighty Thor

Brüno earns his umlaut

July 12, 2009 / Bob Westal

On Friday I wrote the following:

There’s obviously general agreement about the numbers, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this one proved the prognosticators wrong either by making a lot less or a lot more money than expected.

Well, the only person proved wrongish was me. The only surprise was that that there appear to be absolutely no surprises as Sacha Baron Cohen and director Larry Charles’s “Brüno” is projected to have made $30.4 million to top the weekend — just slightly exceeding the pre-opening estimates. The slightly bad news for Universal is that the film had a rather large drop off in its second day at the box office. Variety calculates it at 39%, Nikki Finke says 37%. (I can’t check who is right because Variety isn’t giving a complete breakdown of the daily performance, and may be working with slightly different numbers than Ms. Finke. I also suck at math.) In any case, it does show an increase over the “Borat” numbers. Also, this kind of film is a bit cheaper to make than some others, possible lawsuits notwithstanding.

Christian Bale, Public Enemies No big surprises further down the rankings either, with “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs” breaking the $100 million mark with $28.5 million in its second “frame.” That’s an ice-cool $120.6 million so far for the family flick. If I may copy the Variety house style, “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” made an automatic $24 million for a Gigantor-sized $339 domestic total, with THR/Reuters proclaiming it “easily the biggest movie of the year.” (Well, I’m still hoping for a surprise.) and “Public Enemies” knocked over the public to the tune of $14.1 million. Nikki Finke is reporting that competing studios are talking down the star-driven gangster movie’s chances of hitting the $100 million mark.

Critics and the public were, for a change, speaking with one voice and gave a box office D-grade to the week’s second wide release, the high school comedy, “I Love You, Beth Cooper.” The adaptation of a novel by original author Larry Doyle and director Chris Columbus matched its dismal critical performance with a seventh place showing, netting a paltry $5 million despite being in 1,858 theaters.

Action Movies, External Movies, Movie Comedies, Movie Dramas, Movies, News, Sci-Fi Movies

Bruno Chris Columbus I Love You Beth Cooper Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs Larry Charles Larry Doyle Public Enemies Sacha Baron Cohen Tranformers: Revenge of the Fallen

A little Sunday morning ultraviolence, with a side of religious imagery

July 12, 2009 / Bob Westal

Continuing on a theme from last night…Chow Yun Fat is a paid assassin with a heart of gold in John Woo’s 1989 “The Killer,” a classic badass variation on the twice-filmed weepy, “The Magnificent Obsession.”