The Punisher

As we were going through Netflix trying to find something to watch we can across The Punisher. A classic badass, suspenseful action packed movie. Apparently I’m the only one that has not seen this movie and according to my friends it was a must see. The movie was classic Travolta, being one bad dude. The movie stars Omar Avila, who plays a FBI undercover agent whose family gets murdered. He Takes matters into his own hands when he decides to torture, murder, and punish, everyone that was involved or responsible for the death of his family.

                Before I watched the movie, I had heard of it before, and thought it was an older movie. to me it looked like a 90’s movie, but too my surprise it was released in 2004. This did two things for me, make me feel old, and make me realize how far we have come in such a short amount of time with things like picture quality and special effects. Putting that aside, the plot line was good, It constantly had me guessing what was going to happen next. The action and explosions were really good, sometimes even over the top, but I’m not going to sit here and complain about an explosion being too big. The only real con that I saw was that it could get a little corny during some parts. The movie only got a rating of 6.3 out of 10 on IMDB.com which I think is a little low. If you’re a guy that likes action, and Travolta, you want to watch this movie.

                If I could compare it to any movie I would say that it is like the movie Taken. Both movies are about ex undercover “agents” whose family gets messed with by some bad people. They need to use their skill set they have acquired over there years of working for the government to hunt down and kill. One of the big differences in this movie is that the bad guy is played by John Travolta, who is one of the best in the business to play that role. Have you not seen Pelham 123? One other thing is that the main character in The Punisher survives and makes it through 4 or 5 times more injury in the movie than the main character in Taken. It can be a little corny and unrealistic at times. Overall I give this movie a 8 out of 10 and definitely recommend watching this movie. It is a classic action film with so many great one liners that people will be quoting for years to come. 

Vertical Limit

           

           Vertical Limit, the most intense movie I have ever seen. If your one who like thrillers, suspense, or climbing, than this movie is for you. This movie will have you at the edge of your seat literally the whole movie. It begins with a brother sister and father, stuck in a sticky situation on a climb in the dessert. A mistake during this climb will ruin the relationship between these two siblings until his sister gets stuck on one of the toughest and biggest mountains to climb, K2. It is a race up the mountain to save her life while they have to deal with everything that could possibly go wrong. I mean it, by the time I was ¾’s the way through the movie I was guessing what would happen next. The only way I was able to do this is because I knew something terrible and awful would happen.

            Besides that it was pretty good action, and good effects for a movie that was made in the year 2000. I personally think they did a great job for the technology they had at that time period, obviously it is no avatar but it’s a good thriller with special effects. I am trying to think of movies that I could compare this movie to for you guys, but I really can’t think of one. The movie only got a rating of 5.6 out of 10 on imbd.com, that being said, I think it is because it’s a little corny and outrageous. From my point of view I agree with those characteristics, but I also think it is a very unique movie, unlike anything I have seen before. So if you’re in the mood to watch a movie that is unique, intense, action packed, and nothing like you have seen before Vertical Limit is a good choice.

Hangover 2

The movie I will be reviewing this week was a little bit of a disappointment. I was a big fan of the first Hangover movie so maybe my expectations were just set too high going into the film. I’m sure my expectations for this movie are not too much different than anyone else’s that has seen the first Hangover. I expected it to be pretty similar, which it was. I expected there to be a few twists and thought it would be just as good as the first one.

         

          The movie begins with the crew all meeting up and heading to Thailand for Doug’s wedding. The only thing that changed was instead of Doug blacking out with the guys it’s his fiancé’s little brother. Don’t get me wrong I did not hate the movie, there were some parts that were hilarious. It’s just not the same as the first because it is more predictable, and a lot of the same.

          When they wake up Teddy (Doug’s fiancés brother) is missing and they have that day to find teddy and make it back in time for the wedding. As they uncover the night I would boldly say I think it may have been a more crazy night than the first hangover. There are explosions, missing body parts, face tattoos, and shaved heads.

          There is not too much more for me to say because I don’t want to ruin the movie for you, but I would stull recommend going to see it. I would rate it a 3 out of 5 stars, compares to the first one which I would give a 4.75 out of 5 stars. It is a flick that is worth watching if you’re in the mood for a comedy.

Glory Road

             
            As I was flipping through the channels on my couch the other night I couldn’t find anything to watch. I flipped one more channel and came across a movie that was just about to start. The name of that movie was Glory Road. This was what I call destiny, I am a huge sports fan, as well as a closet history geek and this movie was perfect for me. It’s a true story about the Texas Western basketball team and there road to become NCAA Division 1 National Champions.

                There catch is that they are a no name team at the beginning of the season. Their head coach is a first year college basketball coach, his previous coaching job was the head coach of a girls high school basketball team. As he realized it was going to be tough to recruit good players to make a competitive team due to the fact they were not an established basketball program they needed to find a solution. His solution was to recruit black players, this was in 1966 when that was socially unacceptable. With the final roster 7 blacks and 5 whites, the team would have to face adversity against each other, the fans, and eventually the whole country.

                This movie gives a look at the brutal truth to what discrimination was like in the 60’s, and really inspired. I’m not going to spoil the movie for you, telling you if they win or lose. This movie is definitely a must see, and I give it a four out of five star rating. I promise this is a one of a kind movie, and you haven’t seen anything like this. It’s like Rudy in the discrimination sense and miracle in the triumphant, proving people wrong sense. Now stop reading this and go watch the movie.

Taken

The last movie that I watched was Taken. Let me just start off by saying that I can’t believe that this is the first time that I have seen this movie, it was that good. Taken is a movie about a retired CIA agent whose daughter is kidnapped in Europe to ultimately become a sex slave. His 17 year old daughter calls her father as she is hiding under the bed while the kidnappers are in her hotel. He tells his daughter Kim so stay calm, remain under the bed, and shout out all the information she can before they take her. It is now up to her father to use all of his skills he learned from the CIA, hunt down his daughter, and take her back before it is too late.

The action in the movie is outstanding and the storyline is equally amazing. It reminds me a bit of the movie Bourne Supremacy, both movies are about secret agents, who have a life or death mission to solve, with the twist that they are starting with nothing. It is all up to their skills and training they have acquired, mentally, physically, and intellectually. I would not hesitate to say that this may be the best action movie I have ever seen. Defiantly it deserves a five out of five stars rating. If you have not seen this movie it is time to go Red Box is immediately, what are you waiting for?

21 Jump Street

The last week before vacation I saw the movie 21 Jump Street. I really liked the movie, it was very funny. The first seen of the movie set the tone for me, at that point I knew that it was going to be hilarious. It starts out with Jonah Hills character and Channing Tatum’s character back when they were in high school. Jonah Hill was a fat wanna be Eminem nerd. His hair was dies bleach blonde and he had braces, rocking the ever so popular snow pant jeans. If you don’t know what snow pant jeans are then you should probably look up the style and I’m sure you will remember it. Channing Tatum’s character is the cool popular kid in high school, who makes fun of nerds like Jonah Hill for fun on his spare time. Years later they are in the same police academy class and graduate as best friends and partners. They are terrible cops that are assigned a park as there patrol area.

The boys get their chance to go undercover as high school students but to their surprise high school has changed since they were there. Roles are reversed when Jonah Hill becomes the cool kid and Channing Tatum’s role was reversed as he became a nerd. The point of their undercover operation is to find out where this new crazy drug is coming from in the high school. Overall I would rate the movie a 4 out of 5 stars. The one movie it kind of reminded me of was The Other Guys with Will Ferrell and mark Wahlberg. It’s similar in the fact that it is a comedy about two cop partners that suck at being cops, I think that 21 Jump Street was funnier than the Other Guys.

Project X

Project X was the movie I went to see this week. This is the most hyped movie I have seen in a while. The commercials have been comparing this movie to The Hangover, and Superbad. I would have to say that it was a great movie, and I would like to see it again. I would recommend it to all of you but in no way is it as good as the hangover, or Superbad. I can see the comparisons to Superbad, 3 high school losers, trying to make a name for themselves, hookup with hot girls, and become popular. The movie is about these 3 kids and there one opportunity to throw a party that will be a game changer to their social status at their high school. The movie is exactly what you expect it is going to be, which is the craziest party you have ever seen.

            One thing I thought the director did a good job with was building up characters from the beginning of the movie and tying them into the movie in later scenes. Going into this movie you need to expect the unexpected. One thing that I think separated the movie and made it unique was the filming style. The movie is shot as a documentary, which gives it a more authentic feeling. They made the movie feel realistic in the sense that they showed real media clips talking about the party, like Jimmy Kimmel, as well as stating that the events that occur are a true story in the beginning of the movie.(even though we know that its fake)

            The way back from the movie was an adventure on its own. I was driving this girls car that my roommate and I borrowed which was a POS Toyota. When we left the theatre we could see it had been snowing, the roads were bad and it was sketchy enough in this 2 wheel drive 4 cylinder Toyota. Once we got on the highway is when things got bad, the windshield wipers seemed to work everywhere but right in front of the driver’s side. Snow was covering the highway completely to the point where you could not see pavement. After getting passed by a few 18 wheelers and listening to my roommate cry the whole ride back, we eventually made it back safely, thank god cause I can’t even afford to fix my car right now, never mind someone else’s.

Berlin Road

     This was a crazy weekend to say the least. My roommate Ladas, me, and our friend Bobby decided to send it to sugarloaf for the night after a great day of riding at loon. We ended up leaving loon around 6pm, we had no place to stay, we would figure something out when we got to the mountain. The main focus on our minds was being at the mountain bright and early the next morning to shred. About an hour into the ride we already had no service. Naturally Ladas and me were making jokes telling bobby he better not crash, after all we were out in the boonies with no service. About 2 and half hours into the trip the GPS told us to take a right onto Berlin road. We could see that the GPS was just taking us in a circle that connected back to the road that we were on but we had nothing to loose. Maybe this really was the way to get to Sugarloaf. When we got on this road we could see that it was a dirt road, there was a thin layer of snow covering it and you could tell by the banks on the side that it had been recently plowed. We keep driving for about a mile, all of us intrigued about where it would take us, the further we went, the darker it got and the more the snow covered the road. As we came up to a fork the GPS told up “please take a right on Berlin road” what the hell we are already on Berlin road but we took the turn anyways. The next thing that we saw was a sign on the ground that said “road narrows one lane road”. It all happened so quickly, we came up to this narrow road and before we could even make a decision of weather we could turn back Bobby was already on the road. We were just going to keep on keeping on until we arrived at Sugarloaf. This narrow road turned out to not be a road at all, it was a snowmobile trail and there was no turning back. A: because the road was too narrow with ditches on each side. B: because we were in 2 feet of snow and we were afraid that if we stopped we would get stuck. As we kept going we could hear the snow rubbing up against the undercarriage of the Subaru. We were swerving back and fourth barley avoiding the ditches on either side of us. The next thing we know we are at the top of a huge hill, it felt like a slow motion roller coaster that was of the tracks and could crash at any second. We finally made it down the hill, but had no time to feel any relief. In front of us we faced a hill of equal size and to no ones surprise the car stopped. We sat in the car as bobby tried spinning the tiers but it was not moving. The first thing I did was told Ladas to call 911, we had no other options at this point. Unfortunately we forgot that you couldn’t call 911 when you have no cell phone service. Bobby decided it was worth a try to dig us out, we couldn’t split up because there were only 3 of us. I cracked open a red bull, put on my winter jacket, got the board from the roof rack and started to dig. After about an hour of digging we decided to try to turn it around. I was directing in the Back and Ladas was at the front. We managed to pull a 14-point turn and turned the car around. Now we had to get the car all the way back up the hill. Bobby had to stay in the tracks we made on the way down. We could see how many close calls we had almost going off the road on the way there. As we were making it up this hill I realized we had a shot to get out of this mess. About ¾ way up the hill a deer about the size of our car bolted in front of us across the trail. We didn’t hit it and made it up the hill. Once we reached the dirt road it felt like we were driving on a newly paved highway. After that 2-hour delay of Berlin road we ended up making it to sugarloaf. We found a room at the Sugarloaf Resort Hotel right on the mountain thanks to Bobby’s dad’s credit card. And survived our journey through berlin road.

            As for this weeks Movie, My recommendation is live free of die-hard. This is a great action movie. Bruce Willis plays the Ultimate badass who saves the country in Bruce Willis Fashion. I do not want to give away too much about the movie but I would give it 4 stars out of five. Let me know what you think of the movie. 

A Bronx Tale

I’m sitting here at apartment 35 right now after a rough weekend to say the least. The pats blew it to no other than Eli Manning, enough said. After an emotional night the apartment, I am sitting in my apartment right now which is trashed, literally. There is trach juice on the floor behind me which my roommate left on the floor for it to leak everywhere.  Instant news from my roommate, Maffee just said he pissed the other night, worst part is that he pissed on our living room floor, it was it was absorbed by his Irish flag, typical. Right now I am getting ready to watch a movie called A Bronx Tale that my boy Joe let me borrow and said it was a sick movie.        

The movie was not good, it as great. It’s a tale about a kid named Calogero, he  is an Italian boy who lives in the Bronx. His parents are straight Italians, his dad(Robert Deneiro) is a hard working bus driver just trying to get by for his family. Calogero’s life takes a turn when he witnesses the neighborhood mob boss named Sonny, murder someone on the street right in front of his stoop. The police come and make Calogero identify the shooter from a lineup. When he is asked if Sonny is the shooter, he says no. From that point on Sunny begins to see Calogero, who becomes like a father figure to Calogero. Throughout the movie Calogero is constantly influenced by Sonny. There are great action fight scenes, and a realistic feeling to what life was really like back in the 50’s and 60’s in the Bronx. The movie cover topics from racism, to the harsh reality of crime and the struggles people faced. Calogero is constantly rebelling against his father who is very against the mob and hustle, but Calogero sees it as the life of luxury, money and power which he dreams of.  The end of the movie is something I do not want to spoil cause this is a great movie, and I just don’t feel like I could do that to my readers. I will rate this movie 4.75 stars, until next week, see ya later.