Movie Review: Hercules

Brett Ratner (Rush Hour) helps close out the July book with the story of Hercules.


Dwayne Johnson (Pain & Gain), with his yak testicle hair beard (that's what he claims), plays the title role of Hercules, the demi-god son of Zeus and a mortal woman.  To be free of Zeus' jealous wife Hera's attempts to kill him he must go through the 12 labors.  These are tasks set before him that only a demi-god such as himself can perform.  This is the story you expect, going into a film about Hercules.  This is the story you get for the first 10 minutes of this film.  Turns out he's gone through his 12 labors and now is a mercenary for hire that goes around with his rag-tag group of merry men (and one Amazonian woman) doing tasks in exchange for gold.  He is hired by Lord Cotys (John Hurt, Snowpiercer) to train the men of Thrace to defend his kingdom from the evil warlord Rhesus.


This all seems utterly ridiculous, and it is, but it turns out to be a bit of fun.  The story, although told poorly in this film, is quite interesting at the base of it.  You find out that Hercules may not be a demi-god after all.  His nephew travels with him on his adventures and tells the tales of his previous acts.  Each time the tales get taller and taller until you finally have a legend born of a man who was born the son of Zeus.  I think this is an interesting commentary on how myths and legends are created out of word of mouth.  Even though this film is filled with flaws, that was probably the one thing that bothered me most.  It is heavily implied that Hercules is only a mortal man, but you see him perform some pretty superhuman feats throughout.  This and the other flaws didn't even bother me that much though, because the movie was just plain fun.


Before I get to the part where I had fun, I need to point out some other flaws.  This is because I want to make sure you're completely aware that this is not necessarily a "good" movie.  To start with, it's just poorly written.  As I said, the base story is a nice twist, but after it is revealed it becomes a little predictable.  It is also filled with the tropes and clichés of action adventure films like this.  The script is not great either.  There are a lot of lines that just don't work, and some dialogue that seemed to go a little too modern day.  All that being said, if those are the kinds of things that you just cannot get past in a movie, then you may just want to walk away.  If you think that you might be able to move past this if some other proper ingredients were thrown in, then I'll get to what I liked about the film.


The actors.  Not necessarily the acting, but the actors.  It was like they all knew what kind of hokey movie they were in and decided to just go with it.  It just seemed like they were having fun playing these characters, and that flowed through to me having fun watching them.  Dwayne Johnson, in his usual fashion, just oozed with his natural charisma and really hammed it up for the camera.  Some of Hercules cohorts were even more fun to watch.  Rufus Sewell (A Knight's Tale), plays kind of his right hand man, Autolycus, who is handy with daggers.  He gets some good, well-timed quips in with his dialogue.  Ingrid Bolso Berdal (Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters) plays a fierce no-nonsense Amazonian.  The highlight had to be Ian McShane (Cuban Fury) though.  He played a "seer", Amphiaraus, who was burdened with the ability to receive visions from the gods, including when someone's time was up.  You just didn't know what was going to come out of his mouth.  There is a fun recurring theme about visions of his own death that pays off with what was the biggest laugh at my screening.  There are a few chuckles in this film, but it does try to take itself seriously throughout most.  It's just that it's so self-aware, that it allows you to laugh with it in some scenes instead of at it.


Where it gets serious is the violence.  This is another part of the film that excelled for me.  There were a couple of big battles that, in such a shoddy movie, were themselves well shot and fun to watch.  One of my earlier complaints about the film was the fact that Hercules was still kind of superhuman even though implied that he was merely mortal.  Most of his super-heroic feats were on the battlefield, though, and just gave a little extra flair to the fighting going on.


Again, I must say that this is not really a "good" movie in the technical sense, but it is entertaining.  If you want an Oscar contender, you're in the wrong place.  If you're looking for a light, fun summer popcorn flick on weekend afternoon, then there are far worse movies you could go with.  And in the land of 2 1/2 to 3 hour movies that have recently been flooding the theaters, this movie has the added bonus of breezing by with a mere 98 minute run time.


Rating: ******---- (6 out of 10)


Memorable Quote:
Amphiaraus: Do you mind? I was having a moment. 

Movie Review: The Purge: Anarchy

Lock up your doors and barricade the house, because James DeMonaco (The Purge) is bringing us our second annual crimefest with The Purge: Anarchy. (Note: I never saw the first movie and was still able to follow this one just fine in case you haven't seen it either.)


Oddly enough the story in this sequel to last years film takes place during the 6th annual purge in America.  The purge is a 12 hour period that happens every year where all crime is legal and emergency services are not around to help you.  Within the film, the news is claiming that the yearly purge is responsible for lower unemployment and poverty the rest of the year.  Also, it seems that during the purge, everyone who goes out resorts to murder.  There doesn't seem to be much looting or vandalism, which is convenient for businesses not losing money.  I'm assuming we can all just get past how ridiculous this premise is.  It's made blatantly clear in the previews, so if you're still interested in seeing it after that I can assume you have looked past that.


This film follows a sergeant (Frank Grillo, Captain America: The Winter Soldier) who goes out during the purge on a specific task, not just general mayhem like most others.  Who he is after is left a mystery until the end, but you understand that it is some sort of revenge on someone because he is heading out on the one night when crime is legal and he's armed to the teeth.  Meanwhile, a struggling waitress (Carmen Ejogo, Alex Cross) and her daughter (Zoe Soul, Prisoners) are trying to stay safe locked up in their apartment, but a group of almost military type men break in and force them to go on the run.  They are caught and the sergeant sees their struggle on the way to his destination and decides to rescue them out of the goodness of his heart.  As he does this, another couple, Shane (Zach Gilford, The Last Stand) and Liz (Kiele Sanchez, Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium), hide in the back seat of his car.  They were trying to get to Liz's sisters house for safety before the purge, but their car broke down and they were trying to escape a group of masked individuals that were chasing them down.  Once this unlikely group gets together, the fun begins as they try to survive the night and evade all the people that had been trying to get them to do God knows what.


As it turns out, this is another film about the 1%ers versus the 99%ers.  There is an anti-purge group that is trying to stop the purge from happening because they believe that the rich and powerful are just using it as a form of population control.  Of course the poor are the ones who are going to wipe each other out because they don't have the money to protect themselves.  Besides greedy, this film also depicts the rich as sadistic people who would watch murder as sport if given the chance to do it legally.  I would say if you want to see a better violent film about class warfare, then check out Snowpiercer.  That's not to say this film doesn't have a few merits of it's own though.


I thought that once you get over the whole silly story setup in the beginning of the film, it turns into a pretty decent little thriller.  The five heroes of the story are trying to get across the city in the middle of the night with different kinds of people out to get them.  This keeps the tension up because you get focused on their efforts to get away from one group just to have them round a corner and all of a sudden you go, oh yeah, there's that other group.  It's mostly a thriller, but there are a few little scenes thrown in there that will make you jump as well.


The acting is competent by most.  They make the most out of the material they are given.  The script gives them the problem of just having hokey dialogue here and there throughout the film.  The exception to this rule would be the lead, however.  Frank Grillo is just fun to watch and rises above any problems there might be with the script.  He plays a torn man very well.  He is a good man who is out to do something bad and you can see how it is eating away at him through the film.  Grillo has been in several films that I have seen, but I haven't paid much attention to him.  After this and Winter Soldier though, he is definitely on my radar to watch for what he does next.


So, the film's premise has it's problems.  I don't think it's as clever as it pretends to be, but it is still a different and interesting idea.  It will be interesting where they take this idea in the inevitable next film. Maybe they'll show the clean-up the day after the purge.  I'd hate to be the one who has to deal with all those dead bodies.  This one itself had a great lead performance and some good tension through the second half of the film.  Worth a rental when it comes around.  And in case you didn't get from this review or the trailer, it is a bit of a violent movie.  Not really recommended for children 3 and under.....apparently someone at my screening didn't get that memo.


Rating: ******---- (6 out of 10)


Memorable Quote:
Half the cast at one time or another: Stay safe.

Movie Review: Snowpiercer

The international train, Snowpiercer, (directed by Joon-ho Bong (The Host)) finally rolled into theaters here in America.  I recommend you hop on board while it's still around.


The film opens in present day, and people are all concerned about global warming and the damage we're doing.  So, in our infinite wisdom, us humans created some chemical or something to counteract it.  It does the complete opposite and brings on a new ice age, killing off everything.  There was one man, however, who had invented a train that runs on some sort of perpetual motion engine, basically meaning that it runs forever without stopping.....because science.  The people who were lucky enough to get on board are the last people on Earth.  Cut to 17 years later.  The train has been divided into different classes.  The haves live up in the front by the engine.  The have-nots live at the tail end.  Soldiers come to the back to check the head count routinely and give the "lower class" some protein bars for food.  They also occasionally kidnap the children.  Enter Curtis (Chris Evans, Captain America: The Winter Soldier), the reluctant hero, to lead the tail-enders on a rebellion to run the length of the train and take over the engine.




This film is really heavy handed with the commentary on society and classes.  The haves and have-nots, the rich vs. the poor.  Any given movie has some sort of social commentary, or reflects the views of the filmmaker, but the heavy handed ones *cough* Avatar *cough* usually lose me.  This one kept me by also being a very entertaining film.  I did like the way it turned things around and brought everything full circle at the end, much like the train ride itself, though.  The movie was good from the start, but it got even better when some questions started getting answered.  I think this film did a good job of getting most of my big questions answered, even the one about why they would even keep the tail-enders alive if they were such a nuisance.  You can watch this movie and see the tail-enders working their way up the scale of society.  They fight through the soldiers in the middle of the train (the middle class), up to the front of the train (the 1%ers).  Or you could just watch this film for the bizarre, entertaining romp that it is.  You take the journey with these people because each time they come to the door of the next car, you are just as clueless about what is behind it as they are.  Anyway you look at it, it is just an entertaining, well acted, fun movie.




For the most part, the story is pretty serious.  It even gets downright violent and bloody at times.  The only pitfall of the film may be that at some points it just gets weird out of the blue.  One example, without spoiling, would be a big battle in the middle of the train.  There is a scene involving a fish that just makes you wonder what it was even about and kind of takes you out of the moment.  It comes around and sets up a sight gag later, but still leaves you wondering.  In the same fight scene everyone just stops, and when you find out why it's another wtf moment.  There is even one particular character that seems very out of place in the whole thing.  Tilda Swinton (Constantine) plays Mason, sort of the "right hand man" to the creator of the train.  She is just over the top goofy with fake teeth and a big old overbite.  She is taken as a hostage by the rebellion to help them get through the train.  She is such a key player that you eventually just go with it because she stays so well in character the entire time.




The rest of the acting was really good as well.  Chris Evans does a wonderful job as the reluctant hero.  You wonder the whole time why he doesn't think he's good enough to lead this group even though he does a hell of a job of it.  He does get to have a monologue towards the end that he delivers well, and also makes you wish you hadn't wondered.  Among the rest of the cast is a kind of mentor to Curtis, Gilliam (John Hurt, Alien).  He was one who once was friends with the train's creator.  Then Curtis has a young man who idolizes him played wonderfully by Jamie Bell (Billy Elliot).  To get through each door, they break Namgoong (Kang-ho Song, The Host) out of prison along with his daughter Yona (Ah-sung Ko, The Host).  Namgoong is the designer of the doors separating each car of the train.  He and his daughter agree to help in exchange for a potent drug they are addicted to on the train.  They are quiet figures and you slowly figure out their story as the film progresses, and get to know just what other motivations they have.  That is another great thing about this film.  Chris Evans is leading the rebellion, but the film is not just focused on him.  It takes the time to develop each of the supporting characters without getting overly drawn out and also without derailing the main story.  And finally, in mentioning the performances, I can't fail to mention the kick-ass Tanya who joins the crusade because she is on a mission to find her kidnapped son.  She is played by the always wonderful Octavia Spencer (The Help).




This film is just a fun and bizarre ride.  The first viewing is the best also, because you just never know what you're going to get behind each new door.  The cinematography is done well too.  It does get bloody, but the camerawork is done in a way that the actual blows are not shown on screen, but it still gives you enough of the picture to squirm a little.  There are also some beautiful shots of the frozen wasteland outside of the train.  This movie will definitely not be for everyone.  However, if a little blood doesn't scare you away, and you like action (with a few random moments of weirdness), then I recommend taking a ride on this crazy train.


Rating: *********- (9 out of 10)


Memorable Quote:
Mason: Know your place. Accept your place.  Be a shoe.

Movie Review: Deliver Us From Evil

Scott Derrickson (Sinister) delivers another creepy, atmospheric tale in his latest movie Deliver Us From Evil, inspired by true events.


Eric Bana (Munich) plays NYPD officer, Ralph Sarchie.  He and his partner, Butler (Joel McHale, Ted) get called to a case of domestic dispute where a man had beat his wife.  Later, they take a case where a woman had thrown her child over a railing at a zoo.  Things just get stranger and stranger as the clues start tying the cases together.  Sarchie is a man who lost his faith in God a long time ago and just believes that the people he is dealing with are certifiable whack jobs.  A priest named Mendoza (Edgar Ramirez, The Bourne Ultimatum), who is familiar with performing exorcisms thinks otherwise.  Slowly, Mendoza changes Sarchie's mind and they start to work together to bring this bizarre case to a close.


First and foremost, this film is labeled and advertised as a straight horror film.  I thought it was much more than that.  To me, it was more of a police drama with supernatural tendencies.  I think this is a good thing.  That is what I appreciate about Scott Derrickson's newest film.  He doesn't just throw a generic horror story up on the screen.  He gives you a solid story in a horror setting.  This film was more about Sarchie, and his lack of faith.  It was the age old story of good vs. evil.  After seeing man do so many bad things, can Sarchie's faith be restored?  What exactly will it take to restore that faith?  You find out he's got his own personal demons to work through from things he's done and seen done as a cop in NY.  Don't get me wrong.  The horror element is definitely strong.  There are many jump scares.  Also, if you believe in demons and possessions, then the possession and exorcism scenes can be quite terrifying.  Derrickson is also good at creating a dark, creepy atmosphere in his films that keep you on the edge of your seat, expecting something terrible to happen at any moment.


The acting was another solid thing about this movie.  I think Eric Bana is a fine actor, and he really shined in this film.  He did a good job of keeping his New York accent throughout.  He also just really got into the character.  The only time I felt he fell a little short was in his scenes with Olivia Munn (Magic Mike), who played his wife in the film.  Her acting was just a little too over the top for me.  Part of this was that the dialogue just didn't work as much for me between these too characters.  Her overacting seemed to rub off on Bana, who in turn kind of fell apart in his scenes with her.  The chemistry was much better between him and his other two co-stars.  Joel McHale really surprised me as Sarchie's partner.  I'm so used to seeing him clowning around on "The Soup", or "Community".  He was still the comic relief in this film, for lack of a better phrase.  However, he still really pulled off the tough guy act well.  He just had to be the one to throw in a few zingers here and there.  Edgar Ramirez plays the kind of priest you expect to show up in this kind of film, but he just does it so well that you don't care.  He's the "unconventional priest" who smokes and drinks and knows how to exorcise your demons.  He is just written and acted so well that it just kind of works.


Again, I don't want anyone to think that I don't think this is a horror movie by any means, but it just worked as more than that for me.  However, that being said, the cinematography in this film is very creepy.  It is always dark and rainy, but never so dark that you can't see what's going on up on the screen.  The mood is always suspenseful, but there is some tension easing moments from the likes of Joel McHale.  He never went light enough to throw you off though.  There is one scene towards the end of the film that I'm a little on the fence about whether it was too much comic relief or not.  A character shows up at the police station during a key scene towards the end of the film.  I felt this was a serious and scary moment that made the comic relief lines almost a little too jarring, and took me out of it a bit too much.


Overall, this was a solid movie.  If you are looking for something to scare you this summer, then this could be the one to check out.  It's also a great police drama about a man who's searching for answers after seeing too much evil from his fellow man.


Rating: *******--- (7 out of 10)


Memorable Quote:
Butler: What's wrong with it?
Sarchie: It's a cat.  That's what's wrong with it.