Sucker Punch (2011)

From the creative mind of Zack Snyder, the film director who brought us 2007’s 300 and 2009’s WATCHMEN, comes the epic action-fantasy-thriller from Warner Brothers Pictures and Legendary Pictures called SUCKER PUNCH. Set in the 1960’s, The film follows the story, as what Snyder describes it as an “ALICE IN WONDERLAND with machine guns”, about a young girl named Baby Doll (Emily Browning – Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, The Uninvited), who gets placed in a mental institution by her stepfather some time after her mother dies. With being locked away against her will and not losing her will to survive, Baby Doll urges four other young girls: the outspoken Rocket (Jena Malone – Donnie Darko, Saved!), the street-smart Blondie (Vanessa Hudgens – High School Musical, Beastly), the fiercely loyal Amber (Jamie Chung – Sorority Row, Grown Ups) and the reluctant Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish – Bright Star, Stop-Loss) - to band together as she envisions a plan, by using her vivid imagination of an alternative reality, to escape from their captors as the girls engage in a fantastical warfare against everything from samurais to serpents, with a virtual arsenal at their disposal. Together, they must decide what they are willing to sacrifice in order to stay alive. But with the help of a Wise Man (Scott Glenn – The Hunt for Red October, The Right Stuff), their unbelievable journey-if they succeed-will set them free. The film also stars Carla Gugino (Watchmen, Sin City) as Madam Gorski, Oscar Issac (Robin Hood, The Nativity Story) as Blue and Jon Hamm (TV’s Mad Men, The Town) as the High Roller. I thought this film was both very visual and very entertaining to watch. I enjoyed this film a lot more than WATCHMEN. The performances by Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish, and Jena Malone were fantastic. I even especially liked Oscar Issac for his performance as Blue. Amanda Seyfried was originally set to play Baby Doll, but dropped out due to scheduling conflicts with her HBO TV series “Big Love”. The movie was filmed at the Vancouver Film Studios in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada from September 10th, 2009 to January 22nd, 2010 with a budget of $85 Million. After it was first announced by Warner Bros. to be released on October 8th, 2010, the studio pushed the film to be released five months later on March 25th, 2011. Opening at #2 at the box office, while 20th Century Fox’s DIARY OF A WIMPY KID: RODRICK RULES opened at #1, with $19,058,199 opening weekend. I make this movie one of the best films I’ve seen of 2011. If you like action movies that have beautiful but sexy young women shooting guns and kickin’ ass, SUCKER PUNCH is that movie I recommend for you to see.

John Q. (2002)

What happens when a father is given so many options and is left with only one choice? You’ll have to see for yourself in Director Nick Cassavetes’ (The Notebook) 2002 Drama from New Line Cinema called JOHN Q. Two-time Academy Award winner Denzel Washington (1989 – Best Supporting Actor, Glory; 2001 – Best Actor, Training Day) plays John Quincy Archibald, a down on his luck husband/father/factory worker, whose only son Michael (Daniel E. Smith) is diagnosed with an enlarged heart and then finds out he cannot receive a transplant because HMO insurance will not cover it and decides to take drastic measures by taking a hospital full of patients hostage until the hospital puts his son's name on the recipient's list. The film also stars Robert Duvall (The Godfather) as Chicago Police Lt. Frank Grimes, James Woods (Once Upon a Time in America) as Dr. Raymond Turner, Anne Heche (Six Days, Seven Nights) as Hospital Administrative Supervisor Rebecca Payne, Kimberly Elise (Tyler Perry’s Diary of a Mad Black Woman) as John’s wife Denise Archibald, Eddie Griffin (TV’s Malcolm & Eddie) as the street talking Lester Matthews, Shawn Hatosy (The Faculty) as the cocky Mitch Quigley, Kevin Connolly (HBO’s Entourage) as Hospital nurse Steve Maguire, Obba Babatundé (Philadelphia) as Chicago SWAT Police Sgt. Moody, Ethan Suplee (TV’s My Name is Earl) as Hospital guard Max Conlin, Laura Harring (Mulholland Dr.) and David Thornton (Home Alone 3) as John and Denise’s friends James and Gina Palumbo, Paul Johansson (TV’s One Tree Hill) as news reporter Tuck Lampley, and Ray Liotta (Goodfellas) as Chicago Police Chief Gus Monroe. I was thirteen and in the eighth grade when this film came out. I missed the chance of seeing this in the theaters and forgotten about it over the years till I finally saw it when I was 22, and I thought this was a very entertaining movie. I thought all the actors, and not just Denzel Washington, were all terrific in their performances. As the story is taken place in Chicago, Illinois, the movie was filmed in Toronto and in around Hamilton, Ontario, Canada and part in Canmore, Alberta from August 7th to November 3rd, 2000, with an estimated budget of $36,000,000. Released two years later on February 15th, 2002, JOHN Q became a box office hit. Opening at #1 with $23,275,194 during its first weekend, and ended up with a total domestic gross of $71,026,631. I consider JOHN Q one of the best Denzel Washington movies I’ve ever seen. And if you haven’t seen it, I totally recommend it.

Set It Off (1996)

Released in 1996, is director F. Gary Gray’s (Friday, The Italian Job, Law Abiding Citizen) action-crime-drama-thriller SET IT OFF. Lifelong friends since childhood and raised in the dangerous projects of Los Angeles, California, Four young African-American women: Lita “Stoney” Newsome (Jada Pinkett-Smith – Madagascar, TV’s Hawthorne), Cleopatra “Cleo” Sims (R&B and Hip-Hop musician/actress Queen Latifah), Francesca “Frankie” Sutton (Vivica A. Fox – Kill Bill: Vol. One, Independence Day), and Tisean “T.T.” Williams (Kimberly Elise – Tyler Perry’s Diary of a Mad Black Woman, For Colored Girls), struggle through life with lack of money while working as night janitors. And after they each witness a series of tragic events, they decide to turn to a life of crime by robbing banks. The film also stars John C. McGinley (TV’s Scrubs) as L.A.P.D. Detective Strode, Rap artist/record producer Dr. Dre as Black Sam, Theater actress Ella Joyce as L.A.P.D. Detective Waller, Anna Maria Horsford (TV’s The Wayans Bros.) as Ms. Wells, Thomas Jefferson Byrd (Ray) as Luther, special appearances by Charlie Robinson (TV’s Night Court) as Nate Andrews and F. Gary Gray himself as a low rider driver, and Blair Underwood (TV’s L.A. Law) as Keith Weston. I’ve heard about this film since as long as I remembered. I finally watched it, and I thought this was a very entertaining movie. The performances by Pinkett-Smith, Latifah, Fox, and Elise I thought were fantastic. There is one scene of the film that I thought was hilarious to watch is when the women are imitating characters from Francis Ford Coppola’s THE GODFATHER, with Fox as Vito Corleone and Latifah as Peter Clemenza. Before she would go on star in Tyler Perry’s films DIARY OF A MAD BLACK WOMAN and FOR COLORED GIRLS, SET IT OFF marked the theatrical film debut of Kimberly Elise, who was waitressing at a restaurant during the start of her career and was discovered by the film’s producer Dale Pollack. Filmed entirely on location in Los Angeles, California from December 19th, 1995 to February 12th, 1996 with an estimated budget of $9,000,000, the film was released on November 10th, 1996, with $11,807,451 opening weekend, and later grossing over $36,049,108 nationwide. SET IT OFF is one of the greatest crime movies I’ve ever seen, next to THE TOWN and DEAD PRESIDENTS, and I make it a definite must see for all movie lovers to watch.

Drive Angry (2011)

Visionary film director Patrick Lussier (2009’s MY BLODDY VALENTINE 3D) has taken the spirit of classic 70’s action films and 3D by combining them together for the explosive, high octane, 3D action-adventure-thriller from Summit Entertainment and Millennium Films called DRIVE ANGRY. Academy Award winner Nicolas Cage (1995 – Best Actor, Leaving Las Vegas) stars as Milton, a hardened felon who breaks out of hell to go after Jonah King (Billy Burke – The Twilight Saga), the crazed leader of a vicious cult, who is responsible for the murder of his daughter and kidnapping his daughter’s baby. With the help of a sexy but tough as nails waitress named Piper (Amber Heard – Pineapple Express), her vintage 1969 Dodge Charger, and one last chance at redemption, Milton has three days to avenge his daughter’s death and save her child from being mercilessly sacrificed by the cult while avoiding capture by an enigmatic assassin, who’s also the devil’s right hand man (William Fichtner –TV’s Prison Break). The film also stars David Morse (The Green Mile) as Webster, Katy Mixon (TV’s Eastbound & Down) as Norma Jean, Charlotte Ross (TV’s NYPD Blue) as Candy, Pruitt Taylor Vince (Mississippi Burning) as Roy, Jack McGee (The Fighter) as Fat Lou, and Tom Atkins (John Carpenter’s The Fog) as Cap. Capone of AIN’T IT COOL News said that this film “must be experienced on the big screen” and I thought this was a very entertaining movie that’s got a lot of great action sequences, and I also thought that this film is almost as a reference to Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino’s GRINDHOUSE movies. I thought Billy Burke’s performance as Jonah King was both scary but good. The movie was filmed on location in Minden, Plain Dealing, and Shreveport, Louisiana from March to May 2010 with an estimated budget of $ 50,000,000. If you’re a fan of action movies or a Nicolas Cage fan, than DRIVE ANGRY 3D is a movie that I recommend for you to see.

Unknown (2011)

“Do you know what it feels like to become insane? It’s a war between being told who you are and knowing who you are… Which do you think wins?”

From Director Jaume Collet-Serra and Producer Joel Silver, the team that brought us 2005’s HOUSE OF WAX and 2009’s ORPHAN, comes the psychological action-drama-thriller from Warner Brothers Pictures and Dark Castle Entertainment called “UNKNOWN”. Based on the novel “Out of My Head” by French author Didier Van Cauwelaert and originally entitled “UNKNOWN WHITE MALE”, The film tells the story of Martin Harris (Liam Neeson – Schindler’s List, Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, Michael Collins, Taken, and The A-Team), an American doctor, who awakens from a coma after being in a car accident in Berlin and soon discovers that someone has taken on his identity. With no one believing who he really is, being hunted by mysterious assassins, and with the help of an unlikely ally named Gina (Diane Kruger - Inglorious Basterds, National Treasure), Martin plunges headlong into a deadly mystery that will force him to question about not only just his identity, but his sanity, and just how far he's willing to go to uncover the truth about who he really is. The film also stars January Jones (TV’s Mad Men, American Wedding) as Martin’s wife Elizabeth Harris, Aidan Quinn (Benny & Joon, Legends of the Fall) as Martin B., Bruno Ganz (The Reader) as Ernst Jürgen, and Frank Langella (Frost/Nixon, Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps) as Rodney Cole. Carrie Keagan of NGTV said “It’s TAKEN meets THE BOURNE IDENTITY”, and I totally agree with her. I thought this was a very entertaining movie that had me guessing till the very end. I enjoyed a lot more than TAKEN and I credit Neeson’s performance one of the best I’ve ever seen him in. The movie was filmed entirely on location in Berlin, Germany from December 16th, 2009 to March 28th, 2010 with a budget of $ 30 million. I recommend UNKNOWN to all movie lovers, and I make it the first best film I’ve seen in 2011.

Ransom (1996)

From Ron Howard and Brian Grazer, the Academy Award winning Director-Producer team of APOLLO 13, A BEAUTIFUL MIND, and THE DA VINCI CODE, Bring us the most intense crime thriller from Touchstone Pictures and Imagine Entertainment called RANSOM. Released in 1996, the film follows the story of New York City’s multimillionaire airline owner Tom Mullen (Mel Gibson – Braveheart, Lethal Weapon trilogy) and wife Kate Mullen (Rene Russo – Lethal Weapon 3-4, Get Shorty), whose only son Sean (Brawley Nolte - Affliction) gets kidnapped by a gang of criminals, who demand $2 million as ransom. At first, Tom cooperates with the N.Y.P.D., and then later tries a unique tactic with the kidnappers’ leader by offering the ransom money for his head. The film also stars Gary Sinise (TV’s CSI: N.Y.) as N.Y.P.D. Detective Jimmy Shaker, Delroy Lindo (Malcolm X) as FBI Special Agent Lonnie Hawkins, Lili Taylor (I Shot Andy Warhol) as Maris Conner, Liev Schreiber (Scream) as Clark Barnes, Evan Handler (TV’s Sex and the City) as Miles Roberts, and actor/musician Donnie Wahlberg (New Kids on the Block, TV’s Blue Bloods) as Cubby Barnes. I sort of grew up watching this film because my Dad took me and my family to see this movie at a drive-in movie theater when I was eight years old. I forgotten about it as the years passed, and I never saw it again till I was a teenager when it was broadcasted on television. Although Ron Howard directed a very entertaining thriller, but it’s hard for me to watch it because this is one of the most intense thrillers I’ve ever seen and can’t watch. The performances of Gibson, Russo, Sinise, Lindo, and Taylor were sensational. And also Liev Schreiber, Evan Handler, and Donnie Wahlberg were also good in their performances. Gibson was nominated for a 1997 Golden Globe award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama, but he lost to Geoffrey Rush for his performance in SHINE. Filmed entirely on location in New York City, New York from January 10th to May 10th, 1996, with an estimated budget of $80 million, RANSOM was released on November 8th, 1996. With $34,216,088 on its opening weekend, the film later grossed over $136,492,681 domestically. RANSOM is one of the best films of the 1990’s, and if you’re a fan of intense crime thrillers, this movie has it all.

The Green Hornet (2011)

I'm not a Seth Rogen fan, nor will I ever see him in KNOCKED UP or PINEAPPLE EXPRESS. But THE GREEN HORNET was the 1st movie of his I've seen in theaters. Based on the character of the same name that had originated in a 1930’s radio program and has appeared in movie serials, a 1960’s television series that starred legendary Martial Arts star Bruce Lee as Kato, comic books and other media, the 2011 movie follows 28 yr old irresponsible playboy Britt Reid (Seth Rogen) as he becomes the heir of his late father’s newspaper company The Daily Sentinel and teams up with his father’s assistant Kato (Asian pop singer Jay Chou), a mechanic and skilled martial artist, to become crime-fighters who pose as criminals in order to infiltrate real criminals, and also to prevent enemies from using innocents against them. The Film was Directed by French filmmaker Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) and also stars Academy Award winner Christoph Waltz (2009 – Best Supporting Actor, Inglorious Basterds) as Russian gangster Benjamin Chudnofsky, Tom Wilkinson (Michael Clayton) as Britt’s father James Reid, Edward James Olmos (TV’s Battlestar Galactica) as The Daily Sentinel’s managing editor Mike Axford, David Harbour (007 – Quantum of Solace) as D.A. Frank Scanlon, Edward Furlong (Terminator 2: Judgment Day) as meth dealer Tupper, and Cameron Diaz (Charlie’s Angels) as Britt’s secretary Lenore ‘Casey’ Case. I really loved the action sequences but the comedy I thought wasn't that great. However, there were some funny gags like when Rogen accidently shoots himself with the gas gun and running away from the cement truck. I loved how they showed a drawing of Bruce Lee as a tribute to the legendary Kato. As I was watching Rogen, he reminded me of Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark from IRON MAN. But to me, I thought he was ten times worse than Tony Stark. I’m also surprised that he co-wrote the story with his friend and collaborator Evan Goldberg, who both did Rogen’s past movies. I thought Jay Chou was awesome. I thought the performance by Tom Wilkinson almost reminded me him from ROCKNROLLA, cause he had the same attitude he portrayed from that movie. It's weird for me to see Cameron Diaz in this film because I thought she was least expected. And the scenes between her and Rogen I thought were dumb. After seeing Christoph Waltz in INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS, I was happy to see him in this film as Chudnofsky. And I thought he did a great job in his performance. I was surprised to see James Franco, Rogen’s Pineapple Express co-star, in a terrific cameo appearance as rival drug dealer Danny "Crystal" Clear. Filmed entirely on location in Los Angeles, Calfornia in late 2009 with an estimated budget of $120 million, the film was originally to released as a regular film in the summer of 2010, but Sony pushed it to January 2011 to secure more time to convert it into a 3D film. As for the film itself, I only loved the action but not the comedy. But I recommend that you see it if you’re a Seth Rogen fan like I’m not. Sorry!