Monday Movies

Haven't done a movie review in a while - just watched:

The losers:
This is the A-Team update that didn't quite make it. Nice for explosions in the afternoon with a few brews but have something good to follow it with. The only actually good scene, the one where a hero "shoots" two rent-a-cops with his fingers, was used in the ads/trailers. All the other half-way good scenes are like that too and the context does not make them any better.

Lost Boys 2:
Not a sequel to the classic, but a re-imagining. The corniness was part of the charm of the original and some corniness remains here, punctuating matter-of-fact ultraviolence. eg. Telling his sister she's becoming a vampire: "OK, This is one of those 'good news' - 'bad news' situations." and on learning the bad news "Oh my God, you can't imagine how gross it is to constantly want to eat people: I'm a vegetarian!" But, there had to be a "but", I missed Cameron's studied approach to the thrill-seeking. These vamps are extreme-sports nuts, and the stunts should be breathtaking, but the suspenseful approach of the original to this (bridge hanging scene) emphasized the psychology. Here it is just lost. They also needed a twist. On the plus-side, Edgar Frog is done much better and making them all surfers ties the drama up nicely. Worth the watch. Set up the sequel in the extras - where we learn the other Frog brother is a vampire. I guess I'll be seeing it.

Wall Street: Money never sleeps:
Competent and slick with a tacked-on ending. Standard Hollywood with some nice lessons about bubbles and banking. Overall too light and charming for the talent brought to bear. Feels a little rushed. Shame. The result is that LB2 actually came out better.

Knight and Day:
Well, it's Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz ... what do you want? It's a light fluffy odd-couple spy movie with charm and silliness. Basically Tom plays the good agent who everyone thinks is rogue being hunted by his ex-partner, the actual rogue everyone thinks is good. Cam is the ditzy blonde with hidden talents and a big smile who he uses to get a package through customs. The package is a magic battery which will solve all the worlds energy needs ... which the bad guy wants to steal and sell. Interestingly, it seems our heroes are helping suppress the invention. Apart from that it's routine: another "have another beer" movie - maybe a white wine.

Except - for the beginning: in place of the usual "copyright theft is a crime" message is a speal about how "this DVD contains a digital file which lets you watch the movie on your computer, phone or mobile device". When I heard that I thought, "yeah right!" But it goes on, "After watching this movie be sure to put the disk in your computer and copy the file - just follow the instructions on the screen." And then the menu starts while I'm still waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Turns out that there is an encrypted file on the DVD you can only play with iTunes. There's the other shoe. Still, nice try eh?