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‘The Raid’ Is An Insane Action Experience
Tama: Good morning everyone. We have some guests trawling the halls today. Now go to work. And please enjoy yourself! Encompassing a lot of my thoughts for how awesome The Raid was can be simply brought down to saying that during my viewing of the film, following yet another incredibly well filmed, well choreographed action sequence, my friend announced that he was sweating. It was humorous, but appropriate, as the film is so exhausting, yet riveting to watch; so intense, yet satisfying to see the action taking place; and so simplistic in setup, yet so rewarding in regards to seeing filmmakers deliver an enjoyable film, that taking a second to make a statement about one’s awareness is really the only way to keep one from getting too involved and ending up hitting someone yourself. Ok, so maybe the film isn’t crazy and immersive enough to make someone do something that stupid, but The Raid is easily one of the finest action films to grace screens in quite some time.
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‘Comic-Con’ Gets Its Own Lighthearted Documentary
I believe San Diego Comic-Con has gained enough relevance in the cultural zeitgeist where people are at least aware of its existence, regardless if they truly know what it is or what it used to be. In the documentary Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope, Morgan Spurlock attempts to pull back the curtain on what Comic-Con used to be about, what it is about now, and what it means to the various people that attend. At least one of these themes is best explored, but at least it is the area of the film that provides the most stakes cinematically. As a whole and as a person who has been attending Comic-Con, I think this documentary skirts past some of the more interesting and important aspects of the convention; however, I think the overall tone of the doc is lighthearted enough to certainly make it enjoyable overall.
The Hunger Games Are On Like Donkey Kong
Katniss Everdeen: Wanna see what I got you today? It's a mockingjay pin. As long as you have it, nothing bad will happen to you. I promise. It seems like The Hunger Games could have easily been a huge disaster waiting to happen, regardless of the monetary success it becomes in its opening weekend. The film is based on another popular book series, geared more towards a teenage audience, featuring a familiar narrative, with a romantic angle added on to boot. We are already seeing crowds go wild and chanting things such as, “Team Peeta,” which could easily come off as nonsense to those unfamiliar. Thankfully, this heavily anticipated film is pretty damn entertaining. Given the strong lead performance, solid handle on bringing the source material alive, and maintaining a certain level of excitement throughout, I was very happy to be thoroughly pleased by the results and more interested in reading the other two books in this series. Now regardless of whether or not one has read the books, I think there is a lot to enjoy in this film, especially given the crazy amount of hype it has to live up to. Some flaws aside, this could be the start of a new franchise that is both well crafted and worthy of such high fan reaction.
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Those Wrathing, Clashing ‘Titans’ Are At It Again
Hades: You sweating like a human, brother. Next, it will be tears. I think there is a certain amount of humor in the fact that Wrath of the Titans is essentially a take-two on this movie series. Wrath was certainly felt in regards to the 2010 film (which was in no way helped by the 3D that was then used as the key example of bad usage of the format to compare other films to). Now we have the sequel to a film that doesn’t seem to have much high regard, yet made a huge box office splash during its release. For being a sequel, Wrath is certainly an improvement. It follows a lot of familiar sequel tropes, which involves being bigger and badder, yet retreading a lot of the same plot beats from the first film. Fortunately, the key element is that this film is more fun than the first, which is good, because I did enjoy the idea of remaking the original 1981 Clash of the Titans, but was disappointed with what came out of that. Wrath of the Titans may not become a cheesy classic like the original Clash, but at least its decent matinee fun.
The Walking Dead: Season 2, Episode 13 – Beside the Dying Fire Review
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