It's always good to see some new, big, action movies, featuring some big name actors in it, with a decent budget behind it. It always make you hopeful it's going to be something great and entertaining and something that's going to take you back to the heyday of genre. It's rare though that the actual movie also truly works out as something great and I have to say that this movie is also far from a great one. Still watchable and good enough but at the same time also still somewhat disappointing, all things considering.

It's simply true that a high budget action flick, directed by Antoine Fuqua and staring the likes of Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart and Morgan Freeman raises certain expectations. And in that regard, this movie never lives up to its expectations and you might even consider it to be a somewhat disappointing one.

It mostly is disappointing since it never feels like a great action movie, all throughout. It has some standout action moments in it but the overall movie seems to be lacking the right sort of ideas and script to turn the movie into a fun, action packed and exciting genre movie as well. It has the right sort of concept but it's still lacking the right sort of story, strangely enough.

I actually think it is due to it that the Gerard Butler character, who's the movie its 'hero', is constantly battling a bunch of nameless and faceless bad guys, in the hallways and rooms of the White House, while the movie its main villain, played by Rick Yune, is spending 90% of the time inside of a bunker, far away from all of the action. It's an issue that easily could have been resolved by adding a bunch of henchmen, with an minimum amount of character development, in the movie. It just isn't all that exciting to watch Gerard Butler fighting and killing a bunch of anonymous guys, also because you just know that none of them is going to ever give him a really hard time, while a henchman might be an excuse for the movie to feature some sort of standoff, in which our main hero might actually get injured and nearly beaten. That's already something more engaging and exciting than anything that ever happens in the actual movie really.

That's still the biggest problem with this movie; it just isn't ever the most exciting or engaging movie to watch. I never felt any tension, both in regard to its story and action. It never felt to me like the world or any of the characters were in true danger, despite everything that the movie is doing and saying.

The action also isn't always shot that well. Or well, perhaps I should rather say it's the editing that's lacking about it. Uses too many fast cuts, so you can't always tell what's happening. It's also a bit too heavy on it CGI, especially at the beginning. It still amazes me how in this day and age sometimes CGI effects can still look so obviously fake. It just takes me out of the movie too much, also especially since there is absolutely no need for everything to be CGI, all of the time.

I always thought that Gerard Butler was a pretty good action star and that may still be true but still he feels out of place within this movie. Maybe this is the type of movie that would have benefited more from a younger and more charismatic, new action star in it. I also had a real hard time seeing Aaron Eckhart as the president. every time he showed up on screen I had to remind myself he was playing the president and not some sort of CIA agent or adviser for the president, or anything along those lines.

But really, it's not like I ever hated this movie. Thing I still especially liked about it was how straightforward the movie was with some of its action. It can be a pretty brutal movie at times and it isn't holding back with its violence, which is a good thing to note for all of the action movie lovers out there. It's also of course a good looking movie, despite some of its earlier mentioned criticism toward its editing and use of CGI. Also the acting is above average, for action movie standards at least but that's no big surprise once you watch its cast-list.

Really not a great movie story-wise and also action-wise it isn't the greatest movie you will see but at least it's never terribly bad or gets truly ridicules with anything, though you still do need to have some suspension of disbelief of course. It's perfectly watchable and also entertaining enough, to watch it at least once.

6/10

Watch trailer

A former Secret Service agent works to prevent a terrorist attack on the White House. From: IMDb.com

Directed by: Antoine Fuqua

Starring: Gerard Butler, Angela Bassett, Robert Forster and others

Current release date: March 22, 2013

Funny thing with Will Ferrell movies are that they can really make me laugh but still they aren't ever really great movies. Same can be said for this movie as well; it made me laugh but as a whole, it really was a lacking movie to watch.

It still handles its main concept well enough though. You would think that a comedy about a political campaign and two opposing candidates would consists out of some very formulaic political jokes. After all, we all know very well political campaigns are often all silly smear campaigns, with sleazy and slimy candidates, trying to suck up to their voters, by using all of the right words and promises. In other words, you basically could know what to expect from a comedy that is poking fun at this phenomenon but I have to admit the movie came up with some pretty need and original stuff. Some of the formulaic and typical jokes are there but there really are plenty of original moments in this movie as well, that might catch you off guard. It really are the random moments in this movie, that have absolutely nothing to do with its main plot, that are the best and funniest.

But it at the same time also really is a one note movie. It's about a political campaign and that's it! Well, that's not entirely true, since they actually try to throw in a bigger plot, involving the Dan Aykroyd, John Lithgow and Brian Cox character but this really doesn't work out all that well for the movie and it also so easily could had been left out, or replaced by something more clever and less formulaic.

Because this mostly is being a one note movie, it also starts to drag and loses its comical effect after a while. You don't feel that the movie is ever going anywhere truly good or provoking with its themes or story and it's never really building up effectively toward its end.

But I guess it's true this is not really a movie that mostly relies on its writing anyway. It more relies on its principal actors and their deliveries of the jokes and visual gags. And really, you can't really go wrong when you have comedy experts such as Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis involved. They still help to make this movie a really fun experience, that however won't stay in memory for long.

6/10

Watch trailer

Two rival North Carolina politicians with presidential aspirations tangle with one another. From: IMDb.com

Directed by: Jay Roach

Starring: Will Ferrell, Zach Galifianakis, Jason Sudeikis and others

Current release date: August 10, 2012

An introvert freshman is taken under the wings of two seniors who welcome him to the real world. From: IMDb.com

Directed by: Stephen Chbosky

Starring: Logan Lerman, Emma Watson, Ezra Miller and others

Current release date: September 14, 2012

(Review originally written at 2 August 2007)

It feels like the movie was trying to hard to be comical, with formulaic predictable comical moments, fast directing and editing and a typical comical musical score, that desperately tries to make some sequences look and feel more comical. The movie comically mostly relies on cheap gay jokes. With handling gay subjects in American movies always feel 10 years behind in time. It doesn't make the story and movie feel like the most original or clever one. The movie does have its fun and humorous moments but its not ever anything too hilarious. Luckily the movie does work better on its romantic levels. In that regard this movie is a pretty enjoyable and sweet one.

It's still a well made movie. Seems to me that Damon Santostefano really is not bad director. Things flow well and it makes this movie a rather enjoyable 98 minutes. The movie has the power to make you forget how incredibly formulaic it all is while you're watching it but in the end you'll realize that this movie really isn't the best or most original movie around in its genre. Also the standard bittersweet ending doesn't help much to this.

Matthew Perry isn't good enough to carry this movie. It was just too much his Chandler role from "Friends" all over again. It was as if he wasn't even trying to play a totally different comedy character. A different haircut is simply just not enough. Dylan McDermott on the other hand was simply good in his role and so was Neve Campbell, whose career unfortunately seems to go nowhere. But the supporting cast is perhaps even better and more impressive with high caliber actors such as Oliver Platt, John C. McGinley, Rick Gomez and Bob Balaban, though they certainly aren't their best playing comical roles, with the exception of John C. McGinley. who is great in basically every kind of role. Too bad his and other roles in the movie are too insignificant.

Very well watchable, despite being not the best or most original in its genre.

6/10

(Review originally written at 15 October 2006)

All the elements to makes this a great genre movie are present here, especially in its formulaic but yet promising story premise. Then where did it go wrong? By the characters and cast for starters.

The movie has an impressive cast and most do a more than fine job. It's ironic that however the actors I were most worried about (Usher Raymond, Ashton Kutcher) did a great job playing their roles and the actors I was most confident about (Dylan McDermott, Tom Skerritt, among others) were miscast in the movie. But disappointing or not, every character in the movie lacked some good development and background. The main character (played by James Van Der Beek) start off promising but as the movie progresses you more and more begin to wonder to yourself what makes the main character so special or even relevant for the story. Dylan McDermott is a good actor and he also for most part is good in his role but he just isn't convincing enough as an experienced tough dying gunslinger. It makes you wonder why Robert Patrick and McDermott didn't switched roles in this movie. It would had made the story at least a bit more believable. The main villain is being played by Alfred Molina. Perfect you would think. The character however seriously lacks some development and depth which makes him a pretty shallow and way too uninteresting main villain for the movie. And then there are the actors who are just simply underused in the movie, such as Tom Skerritt. I mean does he even have lines in this movie? Cause I really can't remember any. So poor casting and character treatment all around for this movie.

They tried very hard to make this movie a cool action movie, also with a bombastic action score from Trevor Rabin. But however the movie is lacking in way too many action sequences to make this a good genre movie. They also desperately tried to make the action moments cool, with quick shots and cuts, that however really don't add up to each other and instead make the movie an incoherent one when it comes down to its action. The movie as a whole has poor editing all around. It almost seems as if this movie wasn't even shot entirely and the movie was not put together until in the editing room, when it was too late to do some pick up shots.

Despite it's promising premise, nothing in the movie really works out the way it was supposed to. It really is too bad because in its core this movie really had potential. But perhaps they should had known better not to touch the Western genre, that has been pretty death by now for the few past decades. This movie now is nothing more than a still somewhat watchable movie for on a rainy afternoon, that perhaps should had gone straight-to-video immediately instead.

Perhaps best watchable for the die hard genre fans only, everyone else can better just skip this one.

4/10

Watch trailer