Legion (Devil’s Advocate Review)

Delivering a biblical ass whooping to the non-believers of the horror genre, Legion capitalizes on intense action and seriously scary scenarios. Legion defies what you would think of a film based on biblical angels as it doesn’t really delve into the mythology at all. I don’t know much about the roles of the different angels and it honestly wasn’t important in this particular story. The whole story is focused on moving the action along. There is no unnecessary depth or pointless tangents. There is just enough character development to give you a sense that these characters could be anybody. The film pits a diverse cast of characters fatefully thrust into an impossible situation out in the middle of nowhere. Combining an interesting mix of religious mythos and Zombie horror Legion becomes unlike anything I’ve previously experience. It doesn’t re-invent the wheel, but is more or less a new tire on and old-timey wooden frame: interesting to say the least. Overall, Legion is an entertaining adventure and a good excuse to put angels to war and deliver awesome action from the heavens. For making the purity of the paradise here-after as demented as H-E-double-tooth-picks, I give this crusade 3.5 pitchforks.

Legion

I am awaiting confirmation, but it seems to me that Hollywood wants the world to end. Okay that may be a little harsh, but for more than a decade now the number of apololiptic or end of the world films has increased. From natural phenomena to biblical prophecy, we have over the years watched this world end, the aftermath and even the salvation of mankind. Sony now introduces their vision of the End of Days in the 2010 release of Legion.

Episode 9: Extraordinary Measures

This week Veer and Mike discuss true desperation and what it takes to get top billing over Han Freakin’ Solo.

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Actor Spotlight: The Merchant of Venice

“If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?”

The Merchant of Venice is a film based on the William Shakespeare comedy of the same name.   I say comedy, but it is also pretty dramatic as well. Actually, the film adaptation plays much more like a drama with moments of comedic relief. 

Extraordinary Measures

Extraordinary Measures or, as I like to call it, Indiana Jones and The Lost Enzyme of Pompe is a pretty ordinary film overall.  So ordinary that it could have easily been a CBS movie of the week. 

Devil’s DVD Disappointment: Saw VI

Incredibly they actually have gotten away with making 6 of these films, and yet it’s claiming to be a juggernaut franchise to make even more? The weekend has barely passed and shooting for the 7th film has already gone under way. To me, that’s jumping the gun and showing no regard for the success of the previous film, and that’s more of an attitude that the film makers are just going to continue on and on with the series until the viewers lose complete interest.

Devil’s DVD Advocacy: Whip It

It’s tough to be original in Hollywood these days. Sure, you can occasionally find a unique idea or two, but if it’s too new, producers won’t want to back it. Instead, they’d prefer tried and true ideas that have proven themselves capable of making money. Whip It, the directorial debut of Drew Barrymore and starring Ellen Page, does not cover any new ground in the area of coming-of-age tales, except maybe the concept of roller derby as a means of belonging. Instead, it embraces the classics and reminds its audience of the ability to imbue oneself with initiative and pride and to fulfill anything one desires.

Good Hair

Chris Rock’s Good Hair is a documentary that looks at what “good hair” means to African-Americans in our part of the world. It’s an incredibly funny and thought provoking movie. The movie brings up a lot of discussion on what hair means to different people. Although it never judges anyone directly it does poke fun at a few people and companies that take hair and themselves too seriously.  Always funny.  Never judging.

The Spy Next Door (Lil Devil)

I admit it; when I see Jackie Chan’s name on anything, I’m instintly curious about what has he gotten himself into this time. In his latest release The Spy Next Door, he plays….wait for it….A Chinese National who has been “loaned” out to the CIA (at this point in time I’d like to point out that the likleyhood that the Chinese government would loan out anyone to the United States is beyond words I can use in a family friendly article). Yeah, raise your hand if you’ve scene a version of this before. Seriously though, Jackie is at home in the film. You get exactly what you expect from him; moments of unbelievable martial arts skill and the predictable slapstick.

The Book of Eli (Devil’s Advocates Review)

For those looking for a good ole fashioned Christian-themed blockbuster but thought The Chronicles of Narnia too childish or Fireproof too horrible, The Book of Eli may be a perfect fit. Never before has so much bloodshed and so many decapitations come together in the name of The Book (well, at least if you don’t count real life).

The Book of Eli

Every actor gets to a point where they want to do a vanity project simply for vanity’s sake. Book of Eli is Denzel Washington’s vanity project. Washington, the son of a Pentecostal preacher, plays the protagonist in the film who carries a shotgun and a sword, but his main weapon is his faith.

Actor Spotlight: The Devil’s Advocate (Not the famous movie review site, but rather the film)

Al Pacino is an actors actor. To every part he brings that special something to make his role an instant classic. From a softly spoken line to the occasional hoo wah he gets the job done. Sometime it makes me wonder if he can make a bad movie. The Devil’s Advocate had the makings of a potential disaster. Keanu Reeves crappy southern accent is enough to bring the ship down. However thanks to the genius of an Al Pacino that does not happen. Enough of my acting man crush lets talk about the movie.

Episode 8: Leap Year

This week Veer and Mike reveal Leap Year to be an affront to the Women’s Lib movement and discuss making good career decisions. 

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Devil’s DVD Disappointment: Gamer

I really wanted to like this film; after all I personally feel that Michael C. Hall (Showtime’s Dexter) and Kyra Sedgwick (TNT’s The Closer) are on top of their respective games in their current incarnations on television. I wanted to see how Gerard Butler (300) would grow as an actor after leading us against a force of thousands in his last movie. I even wanted to even see if Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor could outgrow the Crank franshise. In the end Gamer for the lack of a better phrase, has no game.

Devil’s DVD Advocacy: The Invention of Lying

Who doesn’t like a little self-deprecating humor now and then? I did say “a little” right? The Invention of Lying was written by the film’s star, Ricky Gervais, and there is a wide expanse of little pot shots at his weight, height, and other various features strewn all throughout the film. The interesting part is that these remarks are born out of the notion that nobody can tell a lie. My question is: sure people can’t lie, but are they allowed to use a modicum of candor when speaking to or about people?

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Terry Gilliam never disappoints me. I know that when I see his film it will be like nothing I’ve ever seen before. At the age of 10 I found Time Bandits and I was hooked.  The Imaginarium… was an artistic wonder. Once again I’m torn with the Avatar problem.  Visually I found the film to be a work of art; however the plot a little muddled.  It seems to me it’s a movie best set for The Music Box, and not the Cineplex. That’s not to say I didn’t dig it. I don’t think the average movie viewer will.

Youth in Revolt

Cera grows a mustache despite the rumors.

Young men will always in their innocence believe that they can make a difference; that they can make their own mark in this world.  Youth in Revolt is a traditional coming of age film with a familiar twist; the nice guy trying not to finish last. 

Actor Spotlight: Serpico

As a change of pace, we will begin 2010 and this year’s Spotlights focusing on an actor instead of a director, and to start us off is one of the greats from the New Hollywood era: Al Pacino. Now we all know his big break in the film industry (after the lead in The Panic in Needle Park, a warning against heroin addiction) was Coppola casting him in The Godfather over several more established actors such as Warren Beatty and Robert Redford. But it was 1973′s Serpico, directed by Sidney Lumet and with Pacino in the titular role, that proved he wasn’t a one-trick pony and could play a character outside of the criminal element.

Actor Spotlight: Sea of Love

Whoo-ahh, it’s Al Pacino month here on the site.  No i’m not reviewing Scent of a Woman.  My review is of a film done three years before that, 1989′s Sea of Love.  Sitting down the other night watching this with my wife made us laugh.  No this isn’t a comedy, we laughed that you can always tell an 80′s movie by the cheesy theme music played in the background in the credits and at certain points throughout the film.

Devil’s DVD Advocacy: Big Fan

Before you read this article, I want you to know that Big Fan is in no way a comedy. Forget the fact that the movie stars my favorite comedian for the last 5 years or so, Patton Oswalt, or that it was written/directed by Robert Siegel, the former editor-in-chief of The Onion. It is a dramatic character study, through and through. So instead, try to keep in mind that Oswalt has done serious work recently in Dollhouse and United States of Tara, and Siegel wrote The Wrestler last year, another film in the same vein of a sports movie without sappy messages. Also featuring Kevin Corrigan and Michael Rapaport, Big Fan paints a sometimes uncomfortable, sometimes frustrating, but always sincere portrait of a man so dominated by his love of football that even a personal trauma exacted by his hero may not be enough to set him free. But while it may not lift your heart, it will absolutely win you over with its inspired acting and passionate direction; believe me, this one is GOOD! 

Devil’s DVD Advocacy: The Hurt Locker

The Hurt Locker is an action-packed yet serious look at the war in Iraq as seen through the eyes of a military bomb squad. In it, we follow a U.S. Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit (EOD) as it gets a new leader for their last month in Iraq. That’s how we meet James (Jeremy Renner from 28 Weeks Later), the new EOD squad leader. He’s been transferred to Iraq from Afghanistan and immediately starts to do things his way. Like, stopping a speeding taxi while on his way to inspect IED’s by standing in it’s way and shooting out the windows when the driver refuses to obey orders. “If he wasn’t an insurgent he is one now.”, James says as Marines yank the driver out of the taxi.

Devil’s DVD Advocacy: Moon

With the rise of CGI and its effect of making standard action movies huge blockbusters, there’s been a real lack in a favorite genre of mine: thought-provoking sci-fi. Some of my most treasured films fall into this category: The Matrix, Blade Runner and Minority Report. Finally, the industry has been blessed with another: Moon, starring Sam Rockwell and directed by Duncan Jones.

Episode 7: Up in The Air

In this episode Devil’s Advocate Spencer Diedrick joins Mike to discuss the George Clooney/Jason Reitman project. We discuss the merits of webcam firings and the appeal of the Fantastic Silver Fox himself.

Listen to the episode and we promise to send George Clooney to fire you in person.

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Daybreakers (200th Post)

Brief synopsis of the film goes like this: in the near future of 2019 it seems that a bat carried a mutation that transformed any person bitten to take on the characteristics of a Vampire ( no reflection, burst into flames in sunlight, craves blood, etc.) and the problem isn’t that the vast world’s population are Vampires but the fact that their human “food crops” are placing the human population to zero. Now the vampires look to their Hematology researchers to find an “alternative” food source. Ethan Hawke plays the lead researcher on the quest to “save” the Vampire species. His journey leads him to find more than an alternative but possibly a solution to end all problems.

Daybreakers (Devil’s Advocate Review)

Beware  Twilight fans, there is another vampire movie out there with the lead being named Edward.  However Daybreakers is far from being the lovy dovy, teen romance flick the Twilight movies bring.  The opening scene alone, featuring a young vampire burning in the sunlight, shows us this isn’t the same type of vampire movie society is being accustumed to in the last few years, but more like everyone was familiar with years before last.  Personally i’m glad.  I’ve been a fan of the vampire genre for years and I like to see gritty in-your-face bloodthirsty vampires more interested in feeding their thirst for blood than worry about love.

Leap Year

Leap Year is typical post-Oscar craze fare.   And the truly sad part is that Oscar sweetheart Amy Adams is in this uninspired selection.  She will no doubt come out unscathed, because everyone is allowed at least one bomb.  Right?

Carriers DVD Review

Now I know what you’re thinking, Oh no! Here’s another movie about, a post-apocalyptic, near future, world, where the world’s population is plagued by a pandemic caused by a viral infection creating zombie like symptoms. OK, on the surface the film may seem that way, but let me tell you why I think this movie is worth taking a look at. Even though this may look like another zombie/ viral horror knock- off, there is a slight difference, rather than the film makers concentrating on the zombies, or even the viral infection, the main focus is on the consequences the situation may cause. Think Zombieland, (which if you haven’t seen it yet, it is highly recommended among the Reviewers here @ DA) yet more serious, and a lot less zombie killing, not to say there isn’t any just think that the film does not make it the purpose of the movie.

Episode 6: Coming Soon to Theaters in 2010

2010 is upon us.  We did a bit of research to see what is on the silver screen horizon and gave our picks for most anticipated of 2010.  Listen as Veer reveals his inner child and I wax “nostalgic” about ”future” films (how is that possible?)

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The Princess and the Frog

Sometimes, one must go back to the drawing board in an attempt to capture a moment that has past.  Disney does just that, as it returns to hand drawn animation in their newest release The Princess and the Frog.  The movie, which was high anticipated in my household (Zara is 3), was in a single word, okay.  The animation does not wow you, the storyline does have Disney’s traditional message of looking past the exterior and into the interior of an individual and frankly scared a lot of children watching the movie.