3.5 Razors

The Losers

  • Title: The Losers
  • IMDB: link

the-losers-posterSo far 2010 is turning out to be a good year for those who like action flicks, especially those based on comic books. First Kick-Ass gave us the bloodiest super-hero movie ever, and now the The Losers show up to give us a classic tale of wronged would-be-do-goers out for revenge.

Based on the Vertigo comic, the film begins with a mission gone wrong. The CIA Special Forces Team known as “The Losers” are betrayed by a their mysterious unseen handler (Jason Patric) and left for dead in the jungles of Bolivia. Months later the team is approached by yet another mysterious figure (are you sensing a pattern here?), a woman (Zoe Saldana) willing to offer them a chance to get their revenge.

The team includes Commander Clay (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), the hard-as-nails Roque (Idris Elba), the sharpshooter Cougar (Oscar Jaenada), the pilot Pooch (Columbus Short), and nerdy tech Jensen (Chris Evans – who manages to steal every scene of the movie, except perhpas those in which Saldana takes off her clothes).

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Kick-Ass

  • Title: Kick-Ass
  • IMDB: link

“How come nobody’s ever tried to become a super-hero?”

From one idle comment thrown out to his two friends (Clark Duke, Evan Peters) at the local comic shop begins a dream that will quickly turn into a nightmare. Into every life a little ass kicking must fall. There are those who kick the ass, and others who get theirs kicked. Based on the comic series by Mark Millar and John Romita, Jr. Marvel Comics’ latest adaptation takes us into the world of an unremarkable teen with a remarkable idea.

Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson) decides the world could use a super-hero, and why not him? Ordering a scuba suit and a pair of billy clubs online, our new hero (under the moniker “Kick-Ass”) quickly proceeds to get his ass handed to him in all manner of ways. His attempt to stop a pair of thugs from boosting a car doesn’t exactly go as planned. The outcome leaves our hero stabbed, beaten, hit by a moving car, and naked in the back of an ambulance. Ouch!

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How to Train Your Dragon

  • Title: How to Train Your Dragon
  • IMDB: link

Aside from the fact that How to Train Your Dragon includes Vikings and dragons it’s very similar to many teenage comedies Hollywood has put out over the years. Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) is your typical Ugly Duckling character. Although the term “nerd” is never uttered it’s fair to say if the Vikings had a word for Hiccup this would be the modern translation. On the Viking island of Berk the clumsy Hiccup is as far from the Viking ideal as one could get, and a constant irritation to his father (Gerard Butler).

Much like nerds of our era, Hiccup struggles with his ineptitude. He thinks too much, makes crazy inventions, and is the butt of jokes by not only the gang his own age but everyone in the village. And, of course, our hero has a crush on a girl (America Ferrera) who’s everything he’s not: athletic, self-assured, and a true warrior. Though he might not be a typical Viking, Hiccup does want to take part in his peoples’ most important mission – fighting dragons. After trapping a dragon with one of his many inventions Hiccup is unable to kill the wounded creature and instead decides to try and help the creature fly once more.

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Sherlock Holmes

  • Title: Sherlock Holmes
  • IMDB: link


Everyone’s been making a fuss about the new Sherlock Holmes movie, from Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels English Crime filmmaker Guy Ritchie, and how it’s suposed to be a different animal from the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle detective stories that are ingrained in Pop Culture. Many have worried it would be all flash and dazzle, a fear that wouldn’t be totally unjustified considering the quick-cut editing and matter-of-factness dialogue that Ritchie’s filmography has been host to. But now that it’s out, it turns out we have nothing to worry about – well, almost nothing.

The Sherlock Holmes we’ve come to know is the one with that ridiculous deerstalker hat, perpetually starring through a magnifying glass and walking alongside an amusingly obese Watson. While it’s always more entertaining to see a jolly fat man in the movies than Holmes‘ version – the slim but adept (and to be fair, pretty strong in his own right) Watson presented in this latest movie, played by Jude Law, is just one example that proves the changes made in Ritchie’s Holmes work pretty well.

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The Princess and the Frog

  • Title: The Princess and the Frog
  • IMDB: link

It’s been awhile. For more than a decade Disney has been, well, very un-Disney. In many ways, with the latest animated feature, the company returns to the roots. We’ve got a classic tale, a princess (of sorts), talking animals, big musical numbers, true love triumphant, a wicked villain, and a curse.

The Princess and the Frog, Disney’s 49th animated feature film, might not be in the same class as Sleeping Beauty or Snow White, but for the first time in a long time the studio has released a movie that feels like a Disney film (and not an animated feature that any studio could have produced).

That’s not to say the movie doesn’t have its warts. The Princess and the Frog is at least 15 minutes too long, the story meanders a bit in places, and the animation isn’t as crisp as I’d like. That said, over the course of the film you can feel (at least in places) the old-time magic being re-awoken. In many ways through the process of making this film it feels as if the studio is slowly rediscovering itself.

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