Saturday 28 April 2012

Battleship [Movie Review]



[Post published by Liviu, on Liviu's [Personal] Blog]


After watching Safe House [Liviu's blog] it was time for action-for-it's-own-sake, i.e. Battleship [official site; en.wikipedia; IMDB]


Action?


You betcha! :D Now, who do we know to be a fan of action? Hmm, let me think... Oh, I know: me, me, me!

To put it short, we get plenty of action, special effects and the like. Do we care that sometimes it doesn't make sense? Noooo....

Ok, the beginning is terribly boring, so is the 3-minutes final part... because they lack the action and try to build some sort of a story :)) Why would they try building a story, when it is obvious nobody goes to this kind of movie for the story? :))


Story line?


Look, it is not that kind of movie that you go watch for the story line, or for the acting etc. Really.

Ok, the story goes like this: Some bad ass invading aliens versus some good humans defending our little-shiny-lovely-blue planet. Humans kill all aliens and their 4 cool ships. End of story.
Yeah, sweet, great idea, congrats, whatever!
Now hit it with the special effects, please! :))

Plot holes [imdb.com via Mr. Andrei, PhD, thank you]? Well, yes, of course. So, ignore the story line, and just concentrate on the special effects.


The aliens are not bad, not in this situation at least, if you ask me...


Disclaimer: I've always said that when we meet aliens, we'll be like the indians and they'll be like Europeans, so we'll get killed. Good bye! - the movie says the same, which is the reason the humans start killing the aliens the moment they seem them. Ok, 1 minute later to be more precise.

As a side note, I am not that sure the aliens are that bad in the given scenario...
They do not provoke the humans in any way, nor make any hostile movements.
They just horn back (i.e. they reply) to the human ship. Their horn though as a side effect breaks the glass of the captain's deck cabin and kills the idiots (I mean senior officers) inside - so it happens that the hero's brother gets killed this way so the hero shall later lead the killing of all aliens. Anyway, the rest of idiots (I mean senior officers from other ships) interpret the aliens' reply horn as an aggression, start shooting all they have against the aliens, which legitimately defend themselves and sank a couple of human ships. Really, that's how all started.

In the meantime, the aliens also launch some cool wheel-like weapons [gawkerassets.com; eonline.com] to destroy a bit some city. Really cool weapons: they move around, analyze everything (buildings, bridges etc.), decide what objects seem important, find their weak points, and attack those weak points, leading to deadlock and/or destruction with respect to the targeted objects. Cool!

Getting back to the idiot humans, if you ask me, this "shoot first, ask questions later" policy shall for sure get the human species killed, even if the aliens come in peace...

Oh, and the aliens only want to dial back home because they have lost their communications ship. Obviously, humans put all their efforts into stopping them because they imagine the aliens shall call other ships to kick humans' ass. Now, given how the situation has evolved so far, wouldn't you?

So, I must confess that this time I felt pretty bad about being on the human side.

Nevertheless, the special effects are cool...


Actors?


Well, it's not that kind of a movie (in which actors show some great skill), you know... I mean, who cares what the actors do while you get so many special effects? As long as they look terrified and keep running around and shooting, they're ok with me :))

Liam Neeson - too little, too cocky.

Taylor Kitsch - hmm, ? Dunno, does not convince me. Anyway, he's our hero: he has been a loser for some time, but his brother enrolls him in the navy, which changes his life, reaches the stage of a senior officer etc. - he is second in command on his ship, therefore becomes captain of his ship when the real captain dies, and leads the battle against aliens.

Rihanna - first she acts like a teenager making jokes on everything, but then you realize it's a female, and then you realize she's a navy soldier, and then you think: wait, what? But it's ok, given the hero's messed up life before he enrolls in the navy. So, Rihanna's attitude fits in the scenario eventually.

Brooklyn Decker - sexy, that's all.


Army PR?


Plenty of it. There's so much army PR in the movie that at times you may think you're watching enroll-in-the-army-please advertisements.


Conclusions


Is it worth the time & money? For the action, yes!
Regarding the story, well you don't go watch it for the story...

Sunday 22 April 2012

Safe House [Movie Review]



[Post published by Liviu, on Liviu's [Personal] Blog]


These days I have watched Safe House [official site; en.wikipedia; IMDB], therefore I plan to review it for you. (Ok, I have watched many other movies since the last review, but didn't take the time to review them for you. Shame on me!)


Action and/or thriller?


We get quite a lot of action, yes. I'd call it the "classic style" (as in "this is the way it happens in real life where all the laws of Physics apply") of action:
  • people running around,
  • people fighting & shooting at each other (i.e. combat scenes),
  • fast scenes, but not extremely fast etc.
, therefore we do not get:
  • cool special effects,
  • scenes shot from high above comprising the agitation of a city combined with the movie action etc. - It would have been interesting to get that type of images with respect to Jo'burg [en.wikipedia, 'cause you haven't heard this slang word before, have you?] - I mean, if they took the trouble to film it there, why not show how cool the city is? Also, some action scenes would have been more interesting if shot this way... but they might have felt less real though.

I suspect the thriller side of the movie kept the action to the real world level. In my opinion everything shown in the movie is perfectly possible in real life. It is all doable, especially in the case of a trained professional.

We do get a smart thriller, with a couple of twists, but not too many. You always sense the action & details & story are well thought of, thoroughly analyzed for consistence & coherence etc.

So, we get a smart thriller packed in a very real-life feeling of action.


Story line?


Espionage mixed with corruption & private interests, CIA etc. the usual.
However, we're lucky Ryan Reynolds is here to save the day! Also, Denzel is not such a bad guy after all, but not a good guy either...


Actors?


Denzel Washington - well, you know him, he does his job well.

Ryan Reynolds - pretty cool. He keeps getting better and better at acting. Does a fine part here.

Vera Farmiga - a nice/pretty (but not sexy) appearance from now and then. She gets shot towards the end, but you won't miss her.


Conclusions


Is it worth the time & money? Yes! Go see it, you'll enjoy it!

Sunday 1 April 2012

1. Schrodinger's cat is alive! 2. E.U. to borrow money from PIIGS countries, instead of lending!



[Post published by Liviu, on Liviu's [Personal] Blog]


Schrodinger's cat [wikpedia] is alive!


Schrodinger finally remembered to look inside the steel chamber and found his cat alive and healthy!!! Unbelievable!

I was so busy during the last 77 years with listening to radio, watching TV, then [re]installing Windows yearly for about 23 years, then the Internet (IRC, sharing lolcat photos, checking mail at Yahoo! and Google, then using Facebook, Twitter etc.)... that I have completely forgot about my cat! The poor thing is well and alive, and hungry for milk :)) - Can you imagine the impact of lolcat photos with _my_ cat? It's gonna be huge, this cat is destined to be famous, I tell you :)), declared Mr. Schrodinger earlier this morning.


E.U. to borrow money from PIIGS countries, instead of lending!


European Union officials have come to the conclusion that the solution to saving the euro currency is simple, yet counterintuitive: instead of lending money to the PIIGS, they should borrow money from them.

Here goes the reasoning:
  1. If EU lends them money, PIIGS get worse by the day, as we have already noticed
  2. The lenders always are strong, while the borrowers are weak
Therefore, to change the situation, you simply need to reverse the roles: the borrowers must become lenders and vice-versa. There you go, crisis solved!