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.
