My small March

Sabotage

The Good:  Admitting halfheartedly, Sabotage is Arnold's best since coming from retirement. He seems like he's gotten over the fact that he's not the immense, muscle bound, box office phenomenon who rips through the bad guys with big guns and one liners like he once was. I noticed some reinvention going on the part of Arnold, taking on a teaching role. David Ayer continues to impress with his stylistic gun fights and gritty scenes, while continuing on his saga of exploring departments of law enforcement.

The Bad: Even though David Ayer films astonishes with it's adrenaline, he continues on with these bland and sometimes confusing story plots. One minute, this movie's a whodunnit and then it all of sudden turns into a revenge plot in a most sloppy transition. Also, the characters, like in most Ayer films, are the most one dimensional,GI Joe-like misfits I've ever seen. Well, except for End of Watch, which was probably the only Ayer story with fleshed out characters. No, Alonzo Harris, not you either. Although, I will say, Sabotage has the most unlikeable characters, minus two, in any Ayer film.

The Ugly: In Sabotage, you can really sense Arnold wants to reinvent himself, through his determination to act his butt off in every scene that he's in. With that said, let's not forget Arnold Schwarzenner is a horrible actor, which seems like that will never change. His diligence to being on point is nothing against the inevitability of a syndrome of poor performance. I guess that's what so sad about it. He's willing to change but now that he's going into a character that leads and mentors others, it sort of requires a higher quality of acting. Now, he'll never be a Anthony Hopkins, but Sean Connery took on these roles after his Bond career was up and did just fine. Also, Connery is not great actor, so there is a slimmer of hope of Arnold but not with Sabotage, especially when his character is written as a corrupt asshole, who has no sign of leadership qualities, where his unit almost just walks all over him. I mean he has absolutely no control over these guys.

Outcome: With all the Bad and Ugly, this movie is really fun, gory and filled with great action scenes. When Olivia Williams and Harold Perrineau make they're appearances, the movie gets even better.

Noah

Welcome back, Russell Crowe. Best performance in a long time. Rarely, do I see films adapted from books done so creatively. Great movie.

Robots, Volcanoes, and Airplanes- You know it's FEBRUARY 2014.

Robocop

 For a while, I use to believe that remakes, specifically re-imaginings, were so harmless. Then, 2007 came around with the remake to Halloween. In conversations, I can no longer just say Halloween is one of my favorite horror movies; now, I have to specify using the word "original". However, this could all just be left alone if the remake of an original would be good, but in the case of Halloween, I can't. The same can be said for Robocop. Word of advice: when trying to give an material a soul, it can be easy to misidentify soul with melodrama. If there is anything this remake has over the original, it is it's obsession with tears, crying, and overacting speeches. Also, the original has more soul, and it's magnificently more up to date with the world today than this remake garbage. Robocop (2014) tried bringing a belief of depth into this movie, by bringing in the family element, great actors, made Lewis a guy, and made some key changes to the Murphy character. Sounds good, right? The wife character is just in the way. I never thought I would ever say this but Samuel L. Jackson was such a nuisance in this; they replaced the great commercials from the original with boring exposition that in the end is truly meaningless. Lewis did absolutely nothing. The city of Detroit, which I this time would have great to capitalize on, was completely ignored. Like I said, the original, even as old as it was, still captures Detroit's state, today. Side notes: This movie is PG-13 and replaces Robo's flesh tearing Auto 9 with some high tech taser gun, WEAK! I would not buy this for a dollar.

           Pompeii

Good mashup of disaster and gladiator genres. Keifer Sutherland was a joy to watch as the villain, even though his accent was terrible. Paul W.S. Anderson continues with his great visuals. If your going to see this, the theaters is the best place.

Non-Stop

The first half of this movie is fantastic and heart-pounding. Second half, things just get crazy and becomes a typical Neeson ass kicking movie, which is nothing bad. Loved this movie.