Daybreakers

I did not love this movie. I love vampires (grown up ones, not teen ones), and sci fi and all that jazz, but this movie was too hokey. There were so many missed opportunities. I liked the general premise, but everything in the movie moves way too fast. We start out focused on Edward (played by Ethan Hawke. SERIOUSLY do we need another lead vampire named Edward right now?) who we quickly learn is a human loving vampire, who wants to do away with human farming and find a synthetic blood or a cure for vampires. He soon meets a human named Elvis. His real name is Lionel but he goes by Elvis because his heart restarted, or something equally cheesey. Elvis was a human turned vampire turned human. Ed thinks it's impossible, but when Elvis tells him how he did it, he can't resist. He too wants to be burned alive, then have the fire put out, then have his heart start burning again. Naturally. So Ed gets humanized and he, Elvis, and human hottie Audrey go vampire-huntin. First stop, the home of one of Ed's former coworkers, who sets them up and captures Audrey. Ed and Elvis run, Ed's brother tracks them down and feeds on Elvis. Turns out that human turned vampire turned human blood is a cure that doesn't involve a personal barbecue, but humanizes vampires lickity split. So now Ed has a way to get back at his old boss. A man whose own daughter abandoned him when he became a vampire and she refused to turn. She's later captured as part of a human round up, daddy dearest has her turned, she goes rogue and gets killed for real. It all happens so fast you don't even have time to care. Frankie (Ed's brother) apparently feels bad for some reason, even though we don't learn anything about him or what's happened to cause this change of heart. He's always got tears in his eyes, like he's feeling some great emotion, but we're just not a part of it.

There is so much potential in this movie, but zero character development. There is a hint at a romance between Ed and Audrey, and I thought maybe they'd throw Frankie a bone. There's not even really an ending. I guess everyone ends up getting killed except for Ed, Elvis and Audrey, but who knows what's going on in the rest of the world. The vampires unknowingly cure themselves by feeding on humans that were vampires that were humans, but then other vampires eat them, it's a whole thing.

Ethan Hawke was awesome. He's back, baby. His voice is a tiny bit annoying. It's very "Batman when he's trying to sound different than Bruce Wayne", but he makes it very sexy. All the vampires smoke, and it's so funny how foreign it is to see socially acceptable smoking in movies these days.

I enjoyed the movie, it was entertaining on a purely superficial level, but I didn't feel like it was one of the best vampire movies I've seen. Plus aside from not being able to die, these vampires had no special skills. Where's your super strength and lightening speed!

I just wanted to know the characters better. All of them. I can't even remember Ed's boss's name, or his daughter's name, or the vampire doctor's name. And I just saw the movie about an hour ago.

Invictus

Loved the movie, hate myself for being so ignorant about the world around me. I mean, I knew Nelson Mandela was in jail for 27 years. I knew he got out. I knew he eventually went on to be the president. And quite frankly that's where my "knowing" ends. Not that the movie was 100% historical truth, but I didn't know what, if any, impact Mandela had on his country. I didn't know if people (blacks, whites and everyone in between) loved him or hated him. I didn't know what the hell rugby was. Quite frankly I still don't. Like football and soccer combined or something.

The movie is wonderful. Matt Damon is great in it. You expect Morgan Freeman to be great. He's Morgan Freeman. But Matt Damon wouldn't be shooting guns and disarming bombs while evading the authorities, so I was worried. His character was humble, and he came across as humble playing him. We get a great look at what South Africa was like just after Mandela's election. Simply put, blacks were proud and loved him, the whites thought he was going to ruin the country. I'm sure he brought the country together in more ways that through rugby, but in Invictus, we see that he got the entire country of South Africa behind the rugby team during a time when the blacks hated them, based solely on principal. He mandated that the team go, during their busiest training season, to every village in South Africa and train with the youth. They endeared themselves to their people, their people stood behind them, and they won the World Cup. I'm simplifying it, but while it probably took years of training and endurance and blood and sweat and tears; it seemed simple. Get the country to stand together for one united rugby team, and they will learn to work and live together. It's beautifully shown when a small black boy, who travels (it seems alone) to the World Cup with no ticket. You almost get suspicious because he's loitering around a car full of cops fidgeting in his bag. Does he have a gun? Why would he have a gun? He's so tiny! Turns out he just wanted to hear their radio and listen to the match. He slowly works his way over closer to the car, sits on the hood, is seen drinking a soft drink, and when South Africa wins the policemen hoist the boy up on their shoulders and cheer. In a couple of hours they went from shooing the boy away from them, to cheering with him for the rugby team. It was really remarkable.

I highly recommend it!

The Taking of Pelham 123

I almost didn't review this movie because it was so blah. Denzel Washington and John Travolta are basically tied as my favorite actors of all time. Travolta because he's so incredibly versatile. He plays goofy, funny, sexy, a woman, serious, and apparently vindictive. His acting in the movie was top notch. I adore Denzel Washington because he emotes with his face, and barely has to say a word. He played the same exact character he plays in every other movie, but in a lower tax bracket. He's a soft spoken do gooder who always saves the day. You might question his motives at first, but he always comes through. Halfway through I was convinced that he was a bad guy. Probably because I wanted so desperately for him to do something different. This isn't a role that I would have thought John Travolta could pull off, but he did. Denzel, well, of course he pulled this off. Even in American Gangster, the movie where he does play a bad guy, you find yourself wanting him to win. He plays the role with such class and control. He's a bad guy from the start, but one you'd like to take home to your mother. Not like John in Pelham 123. He's pure evil until the end. He's a rotten guy who got caught, served his time, got out, and became more rotten. I just love him.

The movie itself was not great. Too many stupid things happen that just make your eyes roll a little bit. A teen has his web came hooked up and is chatting with his girlfriend while he's on the train. After he's taken hostage, they lose connection, they regain connection when the computer is thrown perfectly under the seat, not harming it, but setting into into position to show everything going on, AND the girlfriend is somehow smart enough to stream the feed live on the news. Even though she's pissed that he won't say he loves her. He's a hostage with a gun to his head and one of them has already been killed, but she needs to know he loves her. So now Denzel and his cohorts have eyes on the train, know who they are dealing with, and make their move. There's a heroic moment where the terrorists led by Travolta are going to kill a random passenger; a woman traveling with her young son. A man steps in front of the gun and sacrifices his life for her. That's it. He's dead, and on with the movie. They never touch on it again, and though it's a movie, I wanted more for this man.

Travolta, "Ryder" wants $10,000,000. Either an arbitrary number made up to throw the police of the trail of what they are really doing, or money that "Ryder" is using to pay off his team. Ryder has already used a few million he saved from the last time he embezzled, and bought something in the stock market, which somehow sky rocketed when he took hostages on the subway. Am I nuts or just stupid? Why does the stock market race for the stars when there is a hostage situation? Before he's killed Ryder's up to over $300 million from his little stint playing the market. I didn't get it.

We hear hints here and there that Denzel's character Garber is being investigated for accepting a bribe and has been demoted at work pending an investigation. Works out well for Ryder. He uses it to create some common ground between the two men, and when the man on Ryder's team who is going to drive the train gets killed, he can demand Garber come into the tunnel and take over, Garber being a former "motor man". We never find out if they were trumped up charges or if Garber took $35K. I really hate it when events in movies seem to have real purpose and deeper meaning and they are just crap used to leapfrog to something more important. I feel like they could have found a better way to get under Garber's skin, and find out about him. So there isn't an internet article about him being accused of taking a bribe...maybe we can have Ryder hack into the transit authority database and find out Garber has two kids and threaten them. Or say they are going to his wife's house to...I don't care, punch her in the jeans.

I liked the movie because I like movies. I like watching John Travolta shock and surprise me. I like watching Denzel Washington PERIOD. That man ages really well. Too many holes in the flick, folks.