The Raid 2: Berandal (2014)

Posted on August 4, 2014 by Felix Vasquez

Way too often have I invested time in a martial arts film only to find the sequel is pretty much just a repeat of the same beats from the original. Thankfully “The Raid 2” is a wonderful and seamless extension of the original Gareth Evans’ crime thriller. Evans returns to deliver what is now a much more complex narrative based around deception, the mafia, and a very elaborate revenge ploy that promises to bring down even the most valiant heroes in the story. Evans manages a very fluid timeline that makes “The Raid 2” a very good chaser for the powerful first action entry. Immediately after the massive raid in the first film, we find out that things never quite worked out too well for hero Rama.

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The Mighty Ducks (1992)

Posted on August 2, 2014 by Felix Vasquez

“The Mighty Ducks” is just one in a long line of “Bad News Bears” wannabes that pits a crotchety man with a bunch of misfit athletes to use sports as a form of self realization. Thankfully “The Mighty Ducks” is one of the best of the bunch, choosing hockey this time to help a group of smart aleck kids come of age. There’s also Emilio Estevez who is a cynical businessman with the heart of a hockey player, who finds that he still loves the game despite his regrets.

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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)

Posted on August 1, 2014 by Felix Vasquez

It’s surprising that for a movie about anthropomorphic talking turtles that director Steve Barron takes the premise with as much seriousness as possible. Director Barron just seems to get the appeal of the Ninja Turtles, walking the line between the mainstream versions and the original Eastman and Laird R rated comic book. The turtles here have a hard edge, but are entertaining sympathetic heroes, and they’re the center of what is still a damn good action film about family, revenge, unity.

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Divergent (2014) (DVD/Digital)

Posted on August 1, 2014 by Felix Vasquez

Ultimately the adaptation of “Divergent” is a mixed bag that left me conflicted toward the level of quality presented. The film is almost two and half hours in length that does nothing but set up the premise for future events, and yet I found the world unfolding to be pretty fascinating. When it tries to be anything other than simple science fiction fodder, it clubs us over the head with on the nose clunky metaphor and social commentary. When it stopped trying for profundity, it actually managed to entertain and kept me very engrossed in the events that unfolded. It’s not at all as intelligent as it thinks it is, but it’s a pretty solid epic all things considered.

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Transcendence (2014) [Blu-ray/DVD/Ultraviolet)

Posted on July 31, 2014 by Felix Vasquez

It’s interesting to see that Johnny Depp is at a point in his career where he can just film himself with the cast for twenty minutes worth of a two hour movie, and then just rely on special effects for the rest of the film. I imagine Depp was in a bungalow vacationing, and would interrupt his getaway to film his footage for a few days with green screen. For a film that revolves around demonizing technology to emphasize how it destroys humanity and human contact, it’s inadvertently comical to see most of Depp’s performance rely solely on him having zero contact with anyone in the cast. And even when Depp is on screen, you’d swear he was being played by a robotic double still figuring out that tricky concept called emotions.

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S.E.R.P. (2013)

Posted on July 31, 2014 by Felix Vasquez

Director Mark Schwab’s “S.E.R.P.” is thought provoking science fiction, but along the lines of “Primer.” Its considerable low budget confines it to one room where it’s very similar to a stage play, but opts to tell a very interesting story about the evolution of technology and the concept of consciousness and morality. While it’s by no means a perfect indie film, it has aspirations to do more than show off flashy effects and action. It’s based more around how scary cognizant technology is, and how it can be the undoing of pure evil in humanity.

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CBGB (2013)

Posted on July 28, 2014 by Felix Vasquez

How do you make a movie about CBGB in the structure of a routine narrative? Where do you start? Why do we have to see the origins of CBGB through a comedy lens? “CBGB” is what Hollywood envisions the origins of CBGB were. It’s clean, it’s sanitary, it’s inoffensive, and it paints some of the most iconic bands in rock music as mere footnotes in the world of the iconic New York club. To make things worse, its star looks really bored with the material, almost as if he’s slogging through a character and a script that he doesn’t quite understand.

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