Release : 2014-05-28
Genre : Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Romance, Family
Runtime : 97 minutes

Storyline

The untold story of Disney's most iconic villain from the 1959 classic 'Sleeping Beauty'. A beautiful, pure-hearted young woman, Maleficent has an idyllic life growing up in a peaceable forest kingdom, until one day when an invading army threatens the harmony of the land. Maleficent rises to be the land's fiercest protector, but she ultimately suffers a ruthless betrayal an act that begins to turn her heart into stone. Bent on revenge, Maleficent faces an epic battle with the invading King's successor and, as a result, places a curse upon his newborn infant Aurora. As the child grows, Maleficent realizes that Aurora holds the key to peace in the kingdom - and to Maleficent's true happiness as well.

Don't believe the fairy tale.

Nice re-interpretation of the sleeping beauty children's tale. Angelina Jolie has some really good moments in which a simple smile from her can make you shit your pants, although the interpretation is, in some parts, irregular. Elle Fanning is not a good option as "the Beauty" in the same way Kristen Stewart wasn't for Snow White. Angelina eats completely her role as Charlize Theron eat Stewart's. Sharito Copley has a great performance, as always, and the FX are really decent.

Release : 2013-08-21
Genre : Action, Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, Mystery, Romance
Runtime : 130 minutes

Storyline

In New York City, Clary Fray, a seemingly ordinary teenager, learns that she is descended from a line of Shadowhunters half-angel warriors who protect humanity from evil forces. After her mother disappears, Clary joins forces with a group of Shadowhunters and enters Downworld, an alternate realm filled with demons, vampires, and a host of other creatures. Clary and her companions must find and protect an ancient cup that holds the key to her mother's future.

You have been chosen

I have not read the books. Judging by the reviews from people who have read them that seems to be a good thing as most of them seem to complain that the movie is not a good representation of the books. Then, when looking at the book ratings at Goodreads there seems to be a rather large spread between reviews loving the book and reviews hating it.If I had read the books I would expect them to sit on my young adult shelf in Goodreads. At least the movie is clearly for a teenage audience. Nevertheless it is quite entertaining as far as I am concerned. A bit silly and predictable at times but still entertaining. I would even call it a family movie although there where some scenes that might be a bit scary for the youngest ones in the family.The story is yet another variant of the classical young girl or boy discovers that there are things that go bump in the night and also that she is part of those things. I have to say that I quite like those kind of stories.As I wrote I found the movie quite entertaining but, although I cannot say that I have anything specific to complain, the movie never really lifts itself above the average crowd of entertaining movies. The special effects are ok but nothing more, the acting is average, the story is okay and so on. It was enjoyable 130 minutes and I never felt bored but I never went wow either.By the way, it never became clear to me why this episode was called City of Bones though. Maybe that is one of the things that the movie left out from the books.

Release : 2014-02-21
Genre : Action, Adventure, Drama, History, Romance
Runtime : 105 minutes

Storyline

Set in 79 A.D., POMPEII tells the epic story of Milo, a slave turned invincible gladiator who finds himself in a race against time to save his true love Cassia, the beautiful daughter of a wealthy merchant who has been unwillingly betrothed to a corrupt Roman Senator. As Mount Vesuvius erupts in a torrent of blazing lava, Milo must fight his way out of the arena in order to save his beloved as the once magnificent Pompeii crumbles around him.

No warning. No escape.

For being a Hollywood attempt at ancient, non-American, drama this is a decent enough piece of entertainment. Unfortunately, as is too often the case when Hollywood tries to make these kind of movies these days, it is also underdeveloped, shallow and somewhat cheesy.The movie have a decent enough cast and I have to say that their performances are generally good. At least as good as the script allows for. The story is pretty straightforward. Young slave is forced to become a gladiator and he is good at it. Beautiful woman enters the scene and Amor gets to work. Bad guy enters the scene and does what bad guys usually does to screw things up. It is a simple story which allows much freedom and which of course is spiced up quite a lot by being set against the backdrop of an exploding volcano.However, the movie could have done a lot more with the story. Even though the special effects are miles more advanced than movies like Ben-Hur with Charlton Heston or works by Cecil B. DeMille it somehow fails to achieve the same impression of awe and grandeur. If you cut out the volcano a lot of the scenes felt just ordinary somehow.Well, it is still a decent enough piece of entertainment. I quite liked the character of Atticus and the gladiator parts are not bad. Some of the volcano effects are reasonably impressive as well. However, why is it that Hollywood producers and directors totally lack any form of knowledge of the subjects they use in their movies? You take an exploding volcano, which in itself should be enough, and then all of a sudden you throw in a tsunami wave which movies towards the volcano. What the f? That is just so ignorant. I do not expect historical accuracy of a movie like this but Christ, you do not have to slap the faces of the thinking part of the audience like this. The scenes where the ships were coming floating through the streets of Pompeii was also the worst special effects of the movie, regardless of the ridiculousness of the entire tsunami thing.The end? Well, anyone who has read a few of my reviews knows that I am a sucker for happy endings so you can probably guess that I am not overly happy about this one. I guess one have to say that, at least, it was realistic though given that, once the eruption had started, there would be little way to get away from the volcano by any means available at that time.

Release : 2012-02-17
Genre : Action, Comedy, Romance
Runtime : 97 minutes

Storyline

Two top CIA operatives wage an epic battle against one another after they discover they are dating the same woman.

It's SPY Against SPY

Release : 1986-05-16
Genre : Action, Romance, War
Runtime : 110 minutes

Storyline

For Lieutenant Pete Mitchell and his friend and Co-Pilot Nick Bradshaw being accepted into an elite training school for fighter pilots is a dream come true. A tragedy, as well as personal demons, threaten Pete's dreams of becoming an Ace pilot.

Up there with the best of the best.

Release : 2014-05-08
Genre : Action, Adventure, Science Fiction, Romance
Runtime : 143 minutes

Storyline

DIVERGENT is a thrilling action-adventure film set in a world where people are divided into distinct factions based on human virtues. Tris Prior is warned she is Divergent and will never fit into any one group. When she discovers a conspiracy by a faction leader to destroy all Divergents, Tris must learn to trust in the mysterious Four and together they must find out what makes being Divergent so dangerous before it's too late. Based on the best-selling book series by Veronica Roth.

What Makes You Different Makes You Dangerous

I should probably mention right away that I have not read the book-trilogy that this movie is based on. Given the content matter I might actually have liked the books. The movie? Well to me the movie was a rather mediocre one. As the blurb states the story is set in a dystopian future but we do not really get to know how they got there except the standard explanation that there was a war. The world is a bizarre mixture of primitive post-apocalypse living and modern, futuristic tech. The division of people into factionswell to me it felt pretty dumb to begin with and the idea that some people could not possibly fit into more than one faction was absolutely ludicrous to me. How the hell was it supposed to keep peace by deliberately factioning people against each other?Okay, trying to get over these gripes, what about the rest of the movie. Well it was okayish I guess. It did give me the same feeling as when reading a young-adult book and I would say that this movie is most suitable for a younger audience. The story is rather predictable. There is the initial training part where Tris of course gets a few friends and in particular befriends one of her tutors. Not surprisingly there is also the obligatory jerk. The one thing that makes the movie a bit out of the ordinary are the induced dream sequences which are not too bad.Later in the movie Tris starts to discover the plot of the bad guys and of course goes off to save the day. Again these part are simple and predictable. The ease by which Tris and a few of her friends manages to infiltrate the lab/headquarters of the baddies is rather unbelievable. It of course helps that it seems like it is only the good guys who can shoot straight or fight worth a damned with a few occasional exceptions when the script calls for it.The movie is, as far as I understand it, based only on the first book in the trilogy so it is perhaps not very surprising that it ends with a lot of loose ends but, for Christ sake, they fight their way to stop the plot, taking down a lot of people on their way, and then they leave the chief mastermind of this despicable plot lying unconscious but alive on the floor just taking off. That just felt dumb!It is not a bad bad movie but I do not understand the high ratings some people seem to give it.