Film: The Rock (1996)

Blu-Ray


Review: This is one of Michael Bay's few good movies, probably because it was one of his first films and he was more restrained from his later excess. Bay is famous for his action scenes, well-shot but senseless since he seems to have scripts written around his action set-pieces instead of the other way round. In "The Rock", he has three great actors bringing their 'A' game and a fun, energetic script that isn't overwhelmed by unnecessary action scenes. After Ed Harris' Marine General takes over Alcatraz Island and threatens San Francisco with chemical weapons, the government sends Nicholas Cage, a WMD expert to help disarm them with the only convict who escaped the famous prison, Sean Connery, as a guide.

Quotes:
"I'm one of those fortunate people who like my job, sir. Got my first chemistry set when I was seven, blew my eyebrows off, we never saw the cat again, been into it ever since."

"The men of marine force recon are selected to carry out illegal operations throughout the world. When they don't come home, their families are told fairy tales about what happened to them... and denied compensation. Well, I have choked on these lies my entire career. Well here and now the lies stop!"

"Have you ever been in a combat situation before?"
"Define combat, sir."
"An incursion underwater to re-take an impregnable fortress held by an elite team of U.S. Marines, in possession of eighty-one hostages and fifteen guided rockets loaded with V-X poison gas."
"Oh. In that case, no sir."

"Major Anderson, if you have any concern for the lives of your men, you will order them to safety their weapons and place them on the deck."
"Sir, we know why you're out here. God knows, I agree with you. But like you, I swore to defend this country against all enemies, foreign, sir... and domestic."

"You enjoying this?"
"Well, it's certainly more enjoyable than my average day... reading philosophy, avoiding gang rape in the washrooms... though, it's less of a problem these days. Maybe I'm losing my sex appeal."

"You've been around a lot of corpses. Is that normal?"
"What, the feet thing?"
"Yeah, the feet thing."
"Yeah, it happens."
"Well I'm having a hard time concentrating. Can you do something about it?"
"Like what, kill him again?"

"What is wrong with these people, huh? Mason? Don't you think there's a lot of, uh, a lot of anger flowing around this island? Kind of a pubescent volatility? Don't you think? A lot of angst, a lot of 'I'm sixteen, I'm angry at my father' syndrome? I mean, grow up! We're stuck on an island with a bunch of violence-for-pleasure-seeking psychopathic marines, SHAME-ON-THEM!"

"You know, I like history too, and maybe when this is all over you and I can stop by the souvenir shop together but right now I just... I just wanna find some rockets!"

"I'm not about to kill 80,000 innocent people! Do you think I'm out of my fucking mind? We bluffed, they called it. The mission is over."
"Excuse me, general... but what about the fucking money?"
"There is no fucking money. The mission's over."
"Bullshit, it's over!"
"You're talking to a General, marine! Maintain discipline."
"I'm not a marine, Major. The day we took hostages, we became mercenaries. And mercenaries get paid. I want my FUCKING money!"

4 1/2 out of 5 Stars

Film: Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (2008)

Blu-Ray


Review: A cute film that follows several teenagers as they travel around Manhattan one night searching for their favorite band's secret concert venue. Nick's is still trying to get over his ex-girlfriend when he meets Norah, his true musical soulmate, but it takes him a while to fight off his depressive funk and realize it.

Quotes:
"Also that mix CD... uh, that I left on your doorstep was the last one that I'll be making for you. More or less..."

"Ohh! It's much better than the uni-boob."
"This isn't going to work, okay. He's hung up on Tris."
"You look gorgeous. And let me tell you something, Nicky is definitely worth the underwire. He just needs a little push, that's all."

"You don't have to yell. It's not a train station. We're in a tiny car."

"Are you off-duty?"
"This isn't a cab."
"Are you off-duty?"
"It's not a cab, my friend, I promise you."

"Okay. I'm just gonna tell you something. I was kidnapped tonight. Seriously. In this van with these guys talking about going balls deep. Sounds like fun, right? Not always. Scary."

"If anyone is getting raped in that van, it'll be a guy."

"I never wash my pants. I like to keep the night on them."

"Are you sad that we missed it?"
"We didn't miss it. This IS it. C'mon. You wanna go home?"

4 out of 5 Stars

Film: The Terminator (1984)

Blu-Ray


Review: I am a fan of Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Terminator series, but I was never smitten by the first film. While Linda Hamilton grew into the Sarah Connor role for the sequel, I didn't have much empathy for her character in the original so I kinda lost interest in the never-ending chase even though I loved the sci-fi concept behind it. Arnold is great as the imposing killer cyborg, but I preferred his later takes where he could show more of his comedic timing. With this Blu-Ray, I've have now watched the film only for a second time.

Quotes:
"Come with me if you want to live."

"There was a nuclear war. A few years from now, all this, this whole place, everything, it's gone. Just gone. There were survivors. Here, there. Nobody even knew who started it. It was the machines, Sarah."
"I don't understand."
"Defense network computers. New... powerful... hooked into everything, trusted to run it all. They say it got smart, a new order of intelligence. Then it saw all people as a threat, not just the ones on the other side. Decided our fate in a microsecond: extermination."

"The 600 series had rubber skin. We spotted them easy, but these are new. They look human... sweat, bad breath, everything. Very hard to spot. I had to wait till he moved on you before I could zero him."

"Listen, and understand. That terminator is out there. It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead."

"Why were the other two women killed?"
"Most of the records were lost in the war. Skynet knew almost nothing about Connor's mother. Her full name, where she lived. They just knew the city. The Terminator was just being systematic."

"What've we got? Moth balls, corn syrup, ammonia. What's for dinner?"
"Plastique."
"That sounds good. What is it?"
"Nitroglycerine-base; it's a bit more stable. I learned to make it when I was a kid."

3 1/2 out of 5 Stars

Film: The Other Guys (2010)

Blu-Ray


Review: A very funny movie centered around less heroic 3rd String detectives who stumble onto a massive financial fraud case. This is Mark Wahlberg's first comedy, but he successfully builds off the comedic aspects of the foul-mouthed police sergeant he played in "The Departed" and he interacts well with Will Ferrell's forensic accounting detective who loves doing the desk-work other cops despise. Directed by the Adam McKay of "Anchorman", the film is filled with improvisations and quotable lines.

Quotes:
"What is this?"
"It's my car, it's a Prius."
"I feel like we're literally driving around in a vagina."

"If you were in the wild, I would attack you, even if you weren't in my food chain. I would go out of my way to attack you. If I were a lion and you were a tuna, I would swim out in the middle of the ocean and freaking eat you and then I'd bang your tuna girlfriend."
"OK, first off: a lion, swimming in the ocean. Lions don't like water. If you placed it near a river or some sort of fresh water source, that make sense. But you find yourself in the ocean, 20 foot waves, I'm assuming off the coast of South Africa, coming up against a full grown 800 pound tuna with his 20 or 30 friends, you lose that battle, you lose that battle 9 times out of 10. And guess what, you've wandered into our school of tuna and we now have a taste of lion. We've talked to ourselves. We've communicated and said 'You know what, lion tastes good, let's go get some more lion'."

"You know what, I'm going to hang onto the wooden gun."
"To give me back my real gun?"
"No. I'm going to give you this... It's a rape whistle. You blow that if you're in any trouble, and someone with an actual gun will come and help you out."

"Your farts aren't manly."
"Are you serious?"
"They sound like a baby blowing out birthday candles."

"At age 11, I audited my parents. Believe me, there were some discrepancies, and I was grounded."

"I think the best way to tell the story is by starting at the end, briefly, then going back to the beginning, and then periodically returning to the end, maybe giving different characters' perspectives throughout. Just to give it a bit of dynamism, otherwise it's just sort of a linear story."

5 out of 5 Stars

Film: The Hobbit in High Frame Rate (HFR 3D)

While I think "The Hobbit" was a great movie and I enjoyed it more than the Lord of the Rings movies on a first viewing, this is not a regular review of the movie's creative content but more about my thoughts on the new High Frame Rate (HFR) technology that it introduced. I have now seen the movie twice, once at the Standard Frame Rate in 3D so I could watch the movie without being distracted by the new format and then again to experience the HFR 3D. I think I made the right choice.

Since the introduction of sound, film has been shot at 24 frames per second, while HFR has doubled that to 48 fps. As long as the frame rate is over 14 fps, the human eye can not see the individual frames. The higher the number, the smoother the motion becomes with less visible motion blur. Like flipping a picture book at a faster and faster rate.

My first impression is that HFR 3D is much better than the motion-smoothing settings on HDTVs which I hate and turn off. Since the HDTV setting adds extra frames to movies/TV shows that were originally shot at 24 fps, the extra clarity can expose flaws in the makeup, costumes and sets that the director didn't expect the audience to see. But since "The Hobbit" was originally planned for 48 fps, Peter Jackson was able to make sure the level of detail on the makeup, costumes and sets was high enough that the added clarity did not expose these seams. (I still noticed Gandalf's contact lens in one close up though. Ha!)

While Jackson solved that first basic problem of higher frame rates, it created another that I am not so sure I will get used to. The biggest change is that the motion is so smooth and clear, that it feels like you are watching the most expensive, lavish theatrical production ever instead of a movie. If you love a theater experience, you may find this to be amazing but to me it made this epic fantasy film set in Middle-Earth seem like I following along with a talented, well-costumed group of LARPers (Live Action Role Players) running around New Zealand. Instead of being swept up in the movie, I felt like I was the cameraman, actually riding along the dolly track or on the crane near the actors. (This effect lessens the farther the camera moves away from the actors, restoring the filmic look in mid-to-far shots.)

The upside of this clarity is that while actual humans and sets looked too real in HFR, the computer-generated-graphics (CGI) felt just right since the motion blur at the standard frame rate causes problems for CGI characters placed in a real environment. For example, while the sled chase in "The Hobbit" looked cartoonish at 24 fps, it looked like the wizard, Radagast, and his rabbits were actually running across the real landscape and dodging rocks at 48 fps. Matte paintings in the background looked faker though at 48 fps, but that might be from the 3D effect instead of HFR. In one shot, it looked like Bilbo and the dwarves in the foreground were looking at an obvious painting of Rivendale in the background.

For the future, I can see HFR working great for documentaries, nature films, and pure CGI movies like Pixar's, but I don't know if it is the right tool for fictional story-telling where I am trying to suspend my belief with a little movie magic. James Cameron mentioned that he wanted to film his "Avatar" sequels even higher at 60 fps and I can see it looking amazing in that 90% CGI environment.

Film: Frailty (2001)

DVD: Enhanced 16x9


Review: This isn't a jump-scare horror, but the more effective kind that makes the viewer wonder how they would deal with a horrible situation. This is Bill Paxton's first film as a director and he also plays the father who claims he has seen a vision from God and tells his two young sons that they were given a mission to destroy demons living among them. The film is told from the perspective of the older skeptical son trying to cope with his dad's religious fervor.

Quotes:
"What is that, Dad?"
"That's a demon, son."

"You didn't think anyone knew about that, did you? But God saw you! And you can't escape God's wrath!"

"Don't cry for her son, she wasn't human."

"He was my father. I loved him even if he had gone crazy."

"Ain't that Travis kid the boy whose been givin' you trouble at school?"
"Yep. He's a demon."
"You can't make things like that up, son. Killing people is wrong, destroying demons is good. Don't worry, God will send you your own list when you're older."

"I hated Dad's God, and I would have run away if it weren't for my brother. I just couldn't leave him there."

"Come in and close the door. Are you afraid?"
"Of what?"
"You."
"Only demons should fear me. You're not a demon are you? The angle said you were. I can't believe that. I won't. You're my son, and I love you more than my own life. You know what's funny about all this Fenton? I'm afraid of you."

5 out of 5 Stars