Friday, 4 October 2013

The East (2013)


This move is a collaboration between  director Zal Batmanglij and Writer/producer and Star Brit Marling. Both are on a trajectory to be huge stars.  The East is an Eco terrorism group lead by Eric from True Blood. Ellen Page is also a member of the gang. Sarah a deep cover operative from a very tony private security firm infiltrates the group. Of course she discovers she is in way to deep.
The movie is very preachy but in a good hearted way. There last ten minutes is full of great twists and turns.  It got a well deserved 75% from Rotten Tomatoes, the box office was disappointing at less than $3 million, but hopefully it does well in DVD. Well worth the rental or purchase.

Three point six stars

White House Down


Its a movie by Roland Emmerich of Independence Day fame. He also did Stargate, The Patriot, 2012 and The Day after Tomorrow. This is one of his best.  WHD stars Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx, two actors who I am generally lukewarm on.  Tatum takes on the Bruce Willis role in this Die Hard formula flick and Jamie plays a very Obama like president. What really grabbed me about this movie is how prescient it was about today's headlines. White House Down rocks. I have one little quibble about the basement tunnels and when you see the movie I am sure you will agree. White House Down had the misfortune to come out a few weeks after the very similar but not nearly as good Olympus has Fallen. Rotten Tomatoes piled on giving it only 50%, I say its at least 50% better than that. I strongly recommend this movie.

Three point seven five Stars

The Raid: Redemption (2012)


Its an Indonesian movie but the plot could be a domestic  A SWAT team raids a gangs holdout and gets more than they bargained for. The story is very close to Dredd, and I would be surprised if there were not some copyright infringement by the Dredd creators.
For a foreign film to break through the chatter and have success in North America is rare, those with subtitles jump over a higher bar. The Raid succeeds because its speaks a universal language of highly stylized violence and action. The cover of my DVD says " one minute of romance and 99 minutes of non-stop carnage"  At least half a dozen minutes of that Yayan Ruhian play MAD DOG in some very intense Pencak Silat martial arts fights to the death. He would make a wonderful villain in any movie, and I really hated his character in this one. Rotten Tomates gave it 85% and for a movie that cost about a million to make made $4Mill box office in the USA alone. If action films are your genre this is a sure thing.

Three point eight stars