Infinite and Hotel Mumbai

Movies with a body count.

Infinite

Memories are a funny thing, especially if you can retain yours past death as you get reborn into a new body. This is the whole premise of this film which stars Mark Wahlberg as one such "gifted" individual who is self medicating his "crazy" but actually is the key to saving or ending the world. While the action is average, supposedly super knowledgeable characters make stupid decisions regularly which kind of breaks the whole fiction. Not recommended.

Hotel Mumbai

This tense movie depicts the night the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in India was attacked by terrorists, and isn't shy to show the violence enacted upon the people. Good points for realism and good acting too, especially by the bad guys who also get to goof around occasionally. I did find that they had a small "hotel" interior to work with though which meant sometimes it felt that the whole place was just four rooms, two hallways and a lobby but other than that, no significant complaints to be found. Recommended!

Shooter (TV Series)

He doesn't miss... often.

Bob Lee Swagger (Ryan Phillippe) is one of the best retired snipers in the world. It is amazing that bad guys keep trying to mess with him throughout this three season series produced by Mark Wahlberg (who originally played Swagger in a movie of the same name). There are decent action scenes and obviously a bit of gun play, but there are parts in the story which will make you go "Huh?"

The plot unravels a bit later in the series.

It is still entertaining though, and an easy recommendation for action fans, especially action fans that like guns. I give it three Black King's out of five and would actually watch the whole thing again.

Invincible

I... think they forgot to put the word "Not" at the start of the title.

Mark Wahlberg plays a football (should I say, grid iron) fan who so happens to be out of luck in finding work, and in life in general. An opportunity arises when the team / club he follows holds open try outs for the new season. Did I mention this is a Disney movie? Well, you probably know how it goes then. It's also supposed to be a true story on the life of one Vince Papale, but you know how things get lost/edited in translation to the silver screen. :P

If they were really invincible they'd play like the Aussies and not wear armor.

Acting wise, everything is ok - especially all of the pub gang. I didn't quite feel the chemistry between the love interests though. Also there are a lot of sepia toned shots which while they set the era fine actually became annoying for me. Obviously there's a fair bit of football here too, and numerous shots that only serve as name dropping for actual fans I imagine. Overall it's a decent enough movie and one I give two and a half touchdowns out of five to. Don't really have a need to see it again though.

Kill all Robots! Transformers: Extinction and Chappie

 Transformers: Extinction

Less explosions and better story.

If you haven't seen any of the previous Transformers movies, rejoice! There is no requirement to do so for this film as most of the previous protagonists were scrubbed / killed off during a time skip. Speaking of time skips this movie certainly begins with a few! Fortunately once it gets back on the rails it does a pretty good job of telling its tale, that of how the humans decided to kill all these metallic alien bastards known as either Autobots (goodies) or Decepticons (baddies). For some reason, Optimus Prime (the good guy leader) is number one on the hit list.

Ok, good things first: Mark Wahlberg is a good lead, better than -all- the army guys previously. He plays the part of overprotective father / skilled enough inventor pretty well and I rather enjoyed that he could take on lesser bots by himself. The CGI is outstanding as always, and those cars the robots transform into are -really nice-! There are less explosions than the previous movie (I think) but it also has a better story. Quite liked all the sponsor shots too.

Not sure -why- a robot would make a weapon that size but whatever.

Negatives include: Bits where humans should definitely have died, the "daughter" character is hot but incredibly stupid (oh, let me take a nap beside this giant alien space ship which the authorities are hunting down!), the samurai bot forgets he can turn into a helicopter after using it once(?), all the "extra" bots talk way too much in combat and for some reason there exists stupid "comedy" bots that serve no purpose other than to get laughs. Think carefully as to why the hell you would create such a thing.

The main negative though is that the film feels long. It reached the third act and it just began introducing new characters, what? Anyway, all up I give it two and a half transformium cubes out of five but have no real desire to watch the whole thing again.

~~~

Chappie

Featuring the least secure defense company ever.

In this film, South Africa has an almost fully automated police force with "Scout" robots being the new front line all the bad guys have to deal with. Yah, F-U Robocop! While profitable for his company, the creator of the robots is unhappy because he still wants to create a robot that is more than just a machine - he wants a robot that is self aware (possibly because he's never seen any Terminator movie ever), and through exploiting the really, really weak security measures of his work place (which is meant to be a multi million defense contractor) he gets his wish. Unfortunately the bot falls into the hands of scumbag gangsters thanks again to security flaws, and they end up having to raise the bot as one of their own.

Aww, cute doggie!

Alright, good stuff first - CG is great, how they make Chappie be cute also gets the thumbs up from me. Hugh Jackman (who rocks a mullet and speaks in his native Australian accent here) plays the antagonist and is fantastic. Not only does he stand for the "opposing church view" of requiring to destroy all godless constructs but also highlights the very, very flawed security of the defense company by carrying a gun everywhere he goes. Even pointing it at colleagues in the office. The action scenes are great and the body count is high: both positives in my book.

On to the dumb stuff: I think I've harped on enough about a defense company having moronically lax security, lacking something as basic as monitored video cameras but that's just one of many plot holes. Such as bad guys letting people that know where their base is, and people forgetting they have advanced tech and time to prepare it. Also, the gangsters who become the main focus of the film were unlikable and as the robot slowly but surely took on their traits it also became unlikable. I was really hoping for a "and then they all died" ending but it wasn't to be. I was definitely cheering for Hugh's character at the finale. 

Anyway, it's an entertaining ride if you don't mind the holes but it's not one I'd like to take again unless there's an alternate ending option I don't know about. All up I give it two and a half broken robots out of five.

Ted

Stuffed toys grow up too.

This is the story of how an ordinary guy has to choose between his life long best friend and his long time girl friend. It just so happens that one of them is a magical, living teddy bear. This cameo filled comedy is not one for kiddies though as the obscenity meter is pretty high, which is odd for a flick that has a pretty nice music backing it. There are a number of hilarious moments, but those are also tempered with jokes that reference other movies and shows that may go overhead for some.

Now I know it was the intent of the plot to make the main male characters a bit douche baggy, but for me it pushed it to the point where I wasn't cheering for them anymore. I actually caught myself hoping that they would fail and die miserably, and was liking the cameo characters better which is always a bad sign. Fortunately they -somewhat- redeem themselves in the third act, but not quite enough for my tastes. All up, I give Ted two and a half stuffings out of five and have no desire to watch it again.

Right back at ya, Ted.

Max Payne (2008)

[Post #20 of the Blaugust Challenge!]

Max Payne is out for revenge of the violent nature. This movie picks up just as he learns of clues on who he can enact it on. Before I go any further I should mention that I've never actually played any of the Max Payne games, so I don't know how well it ties in there. That aside, Mark Wahlberg makes a decent grumpy and angry protagonist, though he speaks a bit softly at times. Everyone else does a not so memorable job with the pretty basic yet effects laden plot.

What does work well though are the many moving camera shots which often involve variations of light sources and floating particles. Also very cool is the extensive CGI used in key spots of the movie, often when characters get high on a particular drug called Valkyr. The audience gets to see just what all of them hallucinate about.

Tripping balls has never been so appealing!

As expected there is a little bit of gun play and shooting and while the "bad guys" still have a poor hit chance they actually do a better job here than in most other action flicks. Just as well because most of the fighting is over pretty quickly, and like me you might be left wanting a little bit more just as the movie abruptly ends. Maybe they were angling for a sequel? Still, it's a pretty entertaining ride and I give it three bullets out of five.

Blaugust Bonus: I've never taken recreational drugs despite hanging around acquaintances that did in my school days, nor do I drink any form of alcohol. I guess peer pressure is less when you are the odd one out? Saying "no" is pretty simple for me (actually I try to say "never," when offered as it drives the point home better). I also don't smoke, thanks to my dad. He used to smoke a pipe. When I was little I asked what it was like so he gave it to me then told me to inhale. After coughing out that disgusting taste he told me "that's what it is like all the time," and I never smoked anything again. He would eventually stop smoking too, after getting a quadruple bypass. Afterwards the doctor said to him quite plainly to stop smoking or die. I'm grateful that I never got into that stuff.

Mark Wahlberg's solution to 9/11

Just wanted to post something about non-gaming news for a change. There was an article I saw recently involving Mark Wahlberg and his solution to the terror attacks on 9/11. He has since apologized for them, but I think there is some truth to what he initially said.

While I'm not sure if Mark himself was the solution (hard for him to be on multiple flights simultaneously), I do think that more people with his attitude and the balls, talent and luck to back it up certainly could have at least saved the towers and the people in them. Flying/landing a plane with no experience would likely still result in all the planes being lost, but that would have cut down the death count tremendously.

I can only hope that the people on those planes despite not knowing their destination were proactive in the end and were not meek little sheep that allowed themselves to be herded quietly and obediently to their doom. Maybe they did put up an epic fight and those terrorist guys were just uber close combat specialists who defeated everyone on the way to the cockpit, including folks with as much or more experience than Mark. We'll never know. Gotta say if that's how it went down then those terrorist guys certainly earned the win, but I think they simply didn't meet much/enough resistance. And when good men do nothing, well ... you know the rest.

It's a bit of a change in the way most people think these days though. For example, in every single self-defence course I've been to and heard of they always advise in the event of a robbery to give the robber what he wants and hope he backs off. To avoid conflict. To keep yourself safe and basically let someone else deal with the problem. Gas station attendants when held up (here anyway where they aren't packing shotguns under the counter) just give the money and report the incident. It almost sounds like an every day transaction. "Oh, are you here for your weekly robbery mr. robber? That's excellent as I had already prefilled the forms". This sort of attitude is basically saying, yup. If you are going to get screwed, just bend over and take it then complain to someone later.

I suppose it comes down to how much you value what you are losing, and if you have enough conviction to fight for it. I know there are crazies who would probably fight to the death for $10 dollars, while others would just sit idly by and lose things (material and otherwise) of much greater value (in my mind anyway). In the case of the gas station I can clearly see they don't want to be sued by dying employees. The amounts in one register would be miniscule compared to a successful legal action involving a serious injury/fatality. The whole legal thing comes into play too - just how far do you go to "win" against an opponent? Injure? Maim? Kill? Kill then mutilate and put on a display? All little things that hold people back from what they ought to do.

My examples of robbery really seem out of place since life generally outweighs "other stuff", but when it is your life being robbed that's when things become interesting. Everyone only gets one life (apart from those of you who get reincarnated apparently). How many does yours outweigh? If you have been on one of the planes and you somehow figured out the plan to ram it into the tower (unlikely), would you have killed those terrorists knowing they were the only pilots left on the plane (which was quite likely)? If it was in your power would you have put the plane's passengers to certain death by killing the pilots but saving the people in the towers (one of them anyway)? Or if given the chance would you have simply used the only available parachute on yourself / a loved one because you felt that life was worth more than everyone else's combined?

That's a pretty broad what-if scenario. Maybe I should cut it down to this: If the terrorists told you that you were just hostages for a few hours would you believe them and let them control the plane unchallenged, regardless if they held hostages?

We all know what Jack Bauer would do.