Synopsis
Lieutenant Detective John McClane (Bruce Willis) is back for more. When he is called in to do a routine pickup for the FBI, things go terribly wrong. Now the young hacker (Justin Long) he was sent to collect is his only means of bringing down a cyber-terrorist with a grudge against the government and a thirst for money. With the country hanging in the balance, “In McClane we trust.”

Review

I’ve always been a fan of the Die Hard films. The everyday cop takes on powerful maniacs has always been a good story, but what makes it better is McClane’s wit. I have to say that it’s a little lacking in this movie, but it doesn’t hurt the film too much. The action, effects, and overall plot more than overcome any shortage of McClane one-liners. Here is my take on Live Free or Die Hard:

Plot: By far, this is the most complex Die Hard plot. It takes a while for the motives of the villains to become clear. More than that, there are several pieces to a very complex scheme. In the end, this film stays true to the basic premise of the first film–it’s all about the money. In this fourth installment, McClane’s daughter (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) plays the role of the familial bargaining chip, a position formerly held by his wife in the first two films. That component of the movie was a little formulaic, but that’s ok.

Acting: Bruce Willis can still do a good job. McClane is back, but he is a little more jaded. In the previous films, McClane is a little more good-humored. In this film, he’s disgruntled due to a divorce and a crumbling relationship with his daughter. Justin Long is definitely a source of comic relief for this movie. He plays a hacker duped into helping the cyber-terrorists. Hearing him rant about a media-controlled society and the gross inadequacies of Creedence Clearwater Revival are fun to watch, not to mention his exchanges with Willis. Also, there is a funny but brief role played by Kevin Smith.

Action/Effects: The action in this movie is over-the-top and almost non-stop. You won’t get bored during this movie, and there isn’t a very long intro. I liked that about this movie–it picks up the action pretty quickly, but still does a good job of revealing the plot smoothly. The stunts, fight scenes, and CG stuff was great. All the action is fluid and the CGI stuff is not very obvious (except of course the F-35 jet, which couldn’t possibly be real.) Interesting note–they actually did take out a helicopter with a police cruiser. Only the propeller on the helicopter and falling gunman were CG.

Overall: This was a good movie and definitely worth watching. I would definitely recommend seeing it in the theater and I would go so far as to say its worth a prime-time ticket. You really have to see this on the big screen to appreciate the stunt sequences and special effects.

And in case you don’t believe me, here is a review from EW.com by Owen Gleiberman. I agree with the review on everything but the grade. When so many unentertaining films are popping up in theaters, Live Free or Die Hard stands out a little. I would have given it a B+/A-. I think that’s a fair grade when you come out of a theater saying “that was pretty good.”

Die Hard Collection (Die Hard / Die Hard 2 – Die Harder / Die Hard with a Vengence / Live Free or Die Hard – Bonus Disc)

Synopsis
The pirates are back and badder than ever in this third installment of the Disney saga. Captain Jack (Johnny Depp) is stuck in Davy Jones’ Locker and the rag-tag gang of mutineers, maidens, and swordsmiths must journey to World’s End to bring him back to the land of the living. But they are pursued by the evil East India Trading Co., who now controls Davy Jones (Bill Nighy) and his cursed ship, The Flying Dutchman. A dangerous storm is brewing and the nine pirate lords must be united to wage war and keep the seas free…..

Review

So this review is a little late since this movie was released in May, but as my new “editor” pointed out, I have to write this one to complete my review of Dead Man’s Chest. I gave that a conditional 4 stars so I need to review this movie and then make an addendum to that review. To keep it simple, I’m going to use my new format to cover reviews a little more quickly.

Plot: This plot is confusing as all heck, which highlights the poor planning and execution of the second film as well as this one. There are a lot of subplots which don’t necessarily come together very well. Though I liked this movie far more than I liked the second chapter, this one could have been better. Better planning on the screenwriters’ parts could have distributed the subplots more evenly between the films and made At World’s End a little more understandable. If you don’t catch everything when you see this movie, don’t worry, neither did most people. Even the director said it was confusing. And if anyone cares, the Callipso subplot served absolutely no purpose (except to create a giant whirlpool). I must admit that Keith Richard’s cameo was amusing. Oh, and any romantics in the audience may have a slightly bitter taste in their mouths when all is said and done.

Action/Effects: The action in this movie was pretty good. I was definitely entertained even if I didn’t fully get what was going on. The sword fights were pretty well choreographed and the CGI stuff looked pretty good. They definitely tried to top part 2, which I think they accomplished.

Overall: This was definitely an improvement over Dead Man’s Chest, but it still didn’t meet expectations. I go back to a previous comment that this plot/series is not an epic or great saga. Each film should have been completely self contained. Since it is a big CGI/action flick, it’s worth seeing in the theaters, but still not up to snuff. Grab a matinée show, it’s not worth the prime time ticket price.

Pirates of the Caribbean – Dead Man’s Chest (Two-Disc Collector’s Edition)

Overall Rating: *****

Casino Royale @ IMDB

Summary:
When James Bond (Daniel Craig) is promoted to 007, he must prove himself against a terrorist financier (Mads Mikkelsen) and learn that in the spy business, you really can trust anyone.

Review:

Plot: The plot for this movie was pretty well put together. I liked the flow a lot, though it started to get a little confusing. When you get to the end of the movie, it becomes clear why the plot is not so clear cut. If you feel like there are parts missing, I wouldn’t hold your breath for them to fill in the blanks by the end of the film. Personally, I think it was an interesting approach. The mission and action played out the way I expected a true Bond movie should, with almost no gadgets.

Acting: There was a lot of negative hype around the selection of Craig as Bond. I’ve seen him in other films, like Layer Cake, and he met my expectations. Since he is playing an “immature” Bond, he comes off as an arrogant and slightly niave assassin. Though he is suave, he’s not quite as charming as Sean Connery and Roger Moore. Perhaps, we’ll see a little improvement in future films, masked as character development. The Bond Girls didn’t really stand out, but they were much better than Halle Berry and Denise Richards.

Action: Entertaining and engrossing, especially the first major chase/fight scene. The best part was there was no percievable CGI. I was very pleased to see that considering the apalling job they did in Die Another Day.

Overall: Definitely worth the ticket price. I was impressed with this reboot of the 007 franchise. I recommend seeing it on the big screen, you won’t be dissappointed.

Overall Rating: ***

Final Destination 3 @ IMDB

Synopsis:
When Wendy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) has a premonition of a horrible rollercoaster accidents, she saves a handful of her classmates from a horrible fate. But when the survivors start dieing one by one, Wendy realizes its harder than it seems to cheat death. Can she convince everyone that death has a design for all of them? This is the third installment of the Final Destination series.

Review:
Some people are probably wondering why I gave this movie three stars. In fact I would bet that most people would give this movie one star, two if they were feeling generous. I have to be honest, I liked it. Probably because I’m a fan of the series. Plus its always fun to see what cool and sinister methods they develop to kill all the characters off. I never wrote a review for Final Destination 1 & 2. So if you’re not familiar with the series, here is the critical info: folks somehow cheat death, death’s not happy, death finds more complicated means of killing said folks. The only dissappointment I had with the previous films is that they killed Clear Rivers (Ali Larter) in FD2. I thought she was a good lead character (and potential tie between all of the films).
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Overall Rating: ****

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest @ IMDB

Synopsis:
Captain Jack (Johnny Depp) is back in this action-packed sequel to the Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl. Captain Jack Sparrow’s time is up. The dreaded Davey Jones (Bill Nighy) has called to collect on the deal that made Jack the captain of the Black Pearl. His only hope is to find the Dead Man’s Chest, an artifact of great power, that will bring Jones to his knees. But things get complicated when Lord Cutler Beckett (Tom Hollander), head of the East India Trading company makes a play for the Chest, dragging Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth Swann (Kiera Knightley) in to the adventure.

Review:
This was one movie I was really anxious to see. I thought the first film was excellent, and I hoped the sequel would live up to standard it set. I have to say that I was a little dissappointed. I enjoyed the movie but I think it could have been a lot better. There are somethings that were as good as the last time, including Depp’s, Bloom’s, and Knightley’s performances. The effects were also as good as the last time. In fact, I think there was a slight improvement. The CG and creature effects seemed more refined than they did in the first one (fluid movements, etc.).
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Overall Rating: ****

Superman Returns @ IMDB

Synopsis:
After a mysterious five year absence, Superman (Brandon Routh) returns to Earth to find a world that has learned to live without him. His life as Clark Kent seems to pick up where it left off, but the love of his life, Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) has moved on and now has a five year old child. Now the Man of Steel must find a way to deal with the cost of his absence and take on the most notorious criminal mastermind of all time, Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey). Superman Returns continues the Superman saga but picks up after Superman II.

Review:
Its difficult to think that this new incarnation of the Man of Steel could possibly compare to the one imortallized by the late Christopher Reeve. In truth, no one can play Clark Kent like Reeve could, but Routh was not bad. I’ll be frank, I felt that if this movie was going to crash and burn in a ball of kryptonite laced flames, it would be Routh’s fault. I have nothing against him personally, but he got selected for the part strictly on his appearane. He supposedly looks like Christopher Reeve, but I’ve never seen the resemblance. He didn’t do a bad job and he seemed to get the dorkiness of Clark Kent correct.
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