Sorry...

Things have obviously slowed here at the Action Reaction. Personal stuff.

Just like at the cinema, January is usually a stinker--just look at last year.

Either way, I'll try and be back up at full power by February.

Until then, here's a John Woo-directed Lost in Space pilot, via i09...embedding not available, depressingly enough.

Be back soon.

Review: The Book of Eli

"I won't tell you again, she's too hot to be in the movie!"

Post apocalyptica has nearly run its course. The end of the end of the world, is coming soon, but not to a theater near you. Fortunately for us, by opening the Hughes Brothers' The Book of Eli, we may be putting a cap on the genre. A greatest hits of sorts, Eli learns from the mistakes of others and ends the world right—and righteously, at that.

Some 30 years from "the war," Bible-wielding, martial artist and weapons expert Eli (a stalwart Denzel Washington) traverses across the barren U.S. of A with a simple, sole purpose in mind: to "go West." After slaughtering a band of road warriors with his macabre machete, Eli almost haphazardly comes upon a small town, headed by shrewd-thinking Carnegie (Gary Oldman) who has a blind mistress, Claudia (Jennifer Beals), who has a downright babe of a daughter played by Mila Kunis, in Solara (not to be confused with the Toyota luxury coupe). The Bible which Eli holds is a special one, in that it's (probably) the last one on Earth, or at least in the U.S., or at least on the path Eli is taking. Either way, Carnegie wants that shit, and he's going to get it at any cost.

Standing tall in the pocket, Denzel steers the ship with experienced, deliberate charisma. The repetitiveness of his '90s performances has all but faded, and now, well into the new millennium, he just keeps getting better and better. And, trained by Dan the man (Inosanto), he's looking pretty fly out there at 55+. After dabbling in a spree of familial, light-side supporting roles, it's nice to see Gary Oldman back in the fold as the film's main villain. Other than his name, Carnegie's really not much of a character, but as always, Oldman effortlessly rises above generics. Everybody fits—from our biblical hero and crafty villain, to the wily second-in-command (Ray Stevenson) and blind supporting female (Jennifer Beals), to the freakish road warriors, to great cameos by Michael Gambon and Tom Waits, all except Mila, of course, who had my mind firmly elsewhere.

The Washington-Oldman showdowns are easily some of the best moments of the film. Bar none, these two professionals know how to do it; hero actor meets villain actor and the fireworks fly. The Old Western-style standoff feels more like 'Clint Eastwood vs. the Stormtroopers' in terms of gun-slinging capability, but the latter, third-act raid on the house more than makes up for it. Voyeuristic and fun, the Hughes Brothers give special effects a good name. Perhaps, the most ingenius moment of the film is when Eli's name is revealed visually—a portal into his past, if you will—but only for a moment. For this alone, Hughes Brothers, I salute you.

In the end, there is some sunshine in The Book of Eli, which, despite an conventional-yet-unconventional third-act breakdown, manages to come out alright. It's The Road with a plot, it's Terminator: Salvation with a director(s), hell, it's even Children of Men with some humor, and hopefully it's the last of its kind for a long, long time. With that in mind, I only have one question: Who's ready for The Book of Solara?


**1/2 out of ****

~ Patrick Fryberger

Van Damme does Stallone

Priceless:



Source: Kung Fu Cinema

Jackie Chan: The Musical

Tell me you're not excited.

A preview?

Review: Daybreakers

Ethan Hawke wants YOU to see his new movie

Throwback red titles and eerie opening credits perhaps set the bar a little too high for Daybreakers, an ambitious, bloody mixed bag of new tricks, some of which work, and some that don't. It's an original concept thrown into the worlds of Blade, Blade Runner, and 28 Days Later... In other words, it's thrown to the dogs, but some pretty well-trained and likable ones at that.

It's 2019, and obviously, things are bad (where's my utopian "a few years from now" future?). Vampires have taken the stage and humans are hunted and farmed in processing plants that somehow fit in skyscrapers. Edward Dalton (Ethan Hawke) just so happens to be the Chief Hermatologist of Bromley-and-something, the central harvesting organization headed by sleazy-creepster Charles Bromley (Sam Neill). Enter a chance encounter with a Toyota—ironically driven by people who are still human—and Dalton finally acts on his feelings, helping the humans with vampires while they help him become human again. Yeah, yeah, it's all nice.

There's a lot of easy-lay casting going on here...Ethan Hawke as the hero who questions his futuristic plight (Gattaca), William Dafoe as the all-American rebel underdog (okay, no example, but the glove fits too tight, especially the crossbow), and, of course, B-movie showman Sam Neill (Event Horizon) as the big creepy boss with familial issues. The new bro's on the block (twins too), the Spierig Brothers, are definitely raw talents, with emphasis on the raw. Their direction is at times refreshingly unconventional (aforementioned credits) and others strictly anything but. There are so many little brilliant moments—almost too many to remember—but the weak, shortchanged script compliments those moments will countless eye-rollers; at some point in the middle it was literally back and forth: whoa, eye-roll, whoa, eye roll, eye roll, eye-roll, eye-roll, whoa.

For a movie about a lack of blood, there's sure plenty of it to go around on-screen—there were stretches I felt I was in a permanent cringe and that my back or neck was going to suffer for it. And visually, that was really the only thing Daybreakers had going for it: the Spierig's need to get hooked up with ILM or at least in cahoots with James Cameron or Lucas because their special effects are straight outta 1997, where even something like Spawn looks better. It's the kind of bad C.G.I. we've been trained on, but shit, man, it's 2010 and Avatar already happened. Get with the program.

Somewhere near the pivotal, third-act plot twist, someone in the audience muttered, in melodramatic tenor, "The Daybreakers," and I couldn't help but laugh. That sentiment is exactly the problem with this film, it's an A movie's mind stuck in a B movie's body, and stuck in a thick, jammy-jelly sort of way, thrashing about while it can until ultimately embracing its lower bar. But if there were three words that could properly summarize my experience, they would be these: So much blood. Extra half-star for effort.


**1/2 out of ****

~ Patrick Fryberger

Reaction Action Roundup: Doing my job for me...

I want YOU to keep doing my job for me...photo courtesy of AOBG.

AGAIN...is Kung Fu Cinema, kicking ass and taking names and providing a thorough preview of this month's upcoming action releases. Check it out.

Jim Emerson letting Jeff Wells be Jeff Wells = Priceless.

Steven Sodorbergh brings back the cast of Traffic for Gina Carrano to Knockout. I'm in.

The House Next Door has another one of their epically-long "Conversations," this time on what probably remains my favorite Cronenberg (Scanners and Videodrome close), the wonderfully off-key Crash.

A great image I remember first stumbling upon at Bloody Disgusting and now again at Theater of Mine...snapped from The Violent Kind, dirty dirty:



Like the above image, WTF or FTW? You tell me. DANGEROUS MINDS ONLY... Just kidding.

A little off-topic, but very much essential in my eyes: May I present to you, the Gran Turismo 5 cover art.

And finally, the 11 Worst Action Movies of the Decade, according to All Outta Bubble Gum. Infinitely arguable.


And, well,

...

Getting excited

I had taken peeks at this every few months or so, but I'll admit I wasn't really interested. Now, the more and more I look at it, I'm realizing that these are the kinds of movies that need to be made. This is the kind of movie that I would love to make. What was I thinking (Edgar Wright at the helm, a supremely cool premise, a movie with "vs." in the title, what more could I ask for)? Scott Pilgrim takes on the world in '10. Be there.

Source: /Film

In pictures

2000

Traffic

Runner up: Best in Show
Runner up: Battle Royale

2001

Gosford Park

Runner up: Donnie Darko
Runner up: The Royal Tenenbaums

2002

Undisputed

Runner up: Adaptation
Runner up: Whale Rider

2003

Kill Bill, Vol. 1

Runner up: X2: X-Men United
Runner up: Gozu

2004

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Runner up: Collateral
Runner up: Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

2005

Brick

Runner up: Red Eye
Runner up: Broken Flowers

2006

Children of Men

Runner up: Inside Man
Runner up: Idiocracy

2007

Hot Fuzz

Runner up: Ballast
Runner up: There Will Be Blood

2008

The Dark Knight

Runner up: J.C.V.D.
Runner up: Che

2009

District 9

Runner up: Up in the Air
Runner up: Pandorum



Ten More That Deserved More (chronological):

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Girlfight
In the Mood for Love
Memento
Mulholland Dr.
Training Day
28 Days Later
A Scanner Darkly
Wristcutters: A Love Story
Rachel Getting Married



Write-ups unfinished, maybe to come soon...back home with family and friends, obviously taking priority.