Movie Review: Hellboy 2

One of my anticipated films since the trailer came out. Looked to be one helluva an action packed movie with a twist of witty remarks and a lot of humor. As expected, all three were present. But there was an odd feeling that I was watching an M.I.B. (Men in Black) movie rather than a Hellboy sequel. It looked to me that the creatures that they made looked more like aliens rather than mythical beings. One example was the guy with a talking tumor that looked like a baby. Looked like it was straight out of an M.I.B. series. Another thing that I was looking for was when was Hellboy be transformed to his true devil self to unleash his power to save everyone from death kind of scene. I very much liked that part on the first movie. But this time around, he just went bashing away in his normal half-horned self. Anyway, if I was to rate this movie i´d give it 3 out of 5 stars (it could´ve been higher if his devil self made an appearance).

Movie Review: Wasabi (2001)

It´s not the oh so spicy ingredient you add to soy sauce use for sushi. It´s a movie (shown last 2001) written and produced by Luc Besson (yes, I do like most of his works. especially the taxi series) and stars Jean Reno (Ronin, Godzilla). It follows the story of Hubert (Reno), a tough verteran french cop, wherein he was suspended for his unorthodox style of catching criminals. Suddenly, he gets a phone call from a lawyer from Tokyo telling him that the woman he loved and left him 19 years ago is being cremated and he is the sole beneficiary on the will. As he arrives at Tokyo, not only does he discover letters and pictures from his past but that he also has a cop-hating daughter (Ryoko). As the two come together mishaps and outrageously funny misadventures start as the Mafia is somewhat involved. This is an off-beat action comedy one would enjoy, if you don´t mind reading subtitles.

*pic grabbed from wiki

Review: Taken

No, it´s not the one by Steven Speilberg. This one is written by Luc Besson of the French ¨Taxi¨ series.

It´s about a retired CIA ¨preventer¨ Brian (Liam Neeson) making more time for her daughter after being away for the government. After which her daughter asks his permission to go to Paris to allegedly see museums but really follow a band on tour. Reluctantly, he agrees and her daughter goes to France. After a few hours on arriving on France her daughter and friend were kidnapped and will be sold off for sex slaves. Brian, pulling out his resources flies to France to find his daughter´s captors and save her within 96 hours before she disappears forever.

During the first few minutes the movie was boring. I was eagerly waiting for something to happen. But once the location moves to Paris it steadily went to overdrive. There was a lot of hand to hand combat ala Jason Bourne but not like the use-anything-you-grab as a weapon type of thing but almost to that extent. Car chase was long enough but could´ve used more in my opinion (i´m a sucker for great car chase scenes ala Ronin and the Bourne series). I also liked it when he got a little hurt when he jumped from the bridge to the boat. It makes it a little more believable that you could get hurt from jumping from that height. Only wish the Audi from the last part was used as in a car chase seen. The sound from the car was awesome. Overall, I really liked the film. It goes to show that Neeson still has the ¨force¨ in him for action. Good Job!

Review: The Mummy 3: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

*may contain spoilers

Well, it´s the third installment of ¨The Mummy¨ series. This time they go to china where Alex, Rick and Evelyn O´Connells´ son, has uncovered the tomb of the first emperor of China known as the Dragon Emperor. One thing leads to another. A Mummy has been awakened, his army, then all hell breaks loose.

I noticed that Jet Li´s character, the dragon emperor, was unbelievably strong in all aspects. He could control the five elements (earth, water, fire, wood, metal). When he became immortal, he could shape shift into anything he wanted. Above this, he is a superb martial artist. Now, my question is how the heck did Rick (Branden Fraiser´s character) defeated Jet Li in a fist fight? Wherein the first part of the movie Jet Li defeated 3, count them three, trained assassins without breaking a sweat. They could have thought of somehow to bring him down to mortal status or disable some part of him to make it believable. Here, a mortal with above human strength defeats a superb martial artist? I guess that is Hollywood. Anythings possible.

*picture came from wikipedia