Nothing wrong with simple, overblown, action entertainment but it's not the '80's anymore. You can't get away with just about everything, just in the name of entertainment.

You at least must have some substance and story in your movie, in order to feel involved with anyone who's in it and anything that is happening. Or, when you just have no good or original idea of your own; keep things as simplistic and straightforward as possible. Don't over complicate things by adding a whole bunch of different characters, we don't ever get to know and just make clear who the main villain is, what it is that he wants and make clear who the heroes are and what their motivation is. This movie does both things wrong with its story; it's lacking any sort of substance, with both its story and characters and at the same time it's also still over complicating stuff, by throwing in a whole bunch of unnecessary characters and pointless plot lines, that don't add anything to the real main story of the movie. It makes the movie a mostly messy and unpleasant one to watch.

It feels all over the place with its story and of course nothing is ever really making any sense in it. Sure, it's based on a cartoon and toy-line, for little kids, so of course I wasn't expecting a hyper-realistic type of action flick but it just bothered me how little the movie actually cared to explain and how silly it got at times. It come across as some lazy film-making to me, instead of something that adds to the fun of the overall movie, which probably was the approach the film-makers were going for with it.

This all mostly becomes apparent with the movie its villains and their villainous plot. Here is the problem with it; there just is no good villainous plan. OK, sure, so Cobra is trying to take over the world again but why? I mean what's the point of it all? What are they going to do once the world is theirs? And isn't controlling the world kind of overrated anyway? Sounds like a far too complicated and hard thing to do and it doesn't sound like any fun at all. It's only going to look good on your resume -leader of the world- but that's it really.

Thing with the villains that also bothered me was that I still don't really know who was supposed to be the main villain. I guess Cobra commander would be the answer but he barely is in the movie and he is given very little interesting things to do. At times I actually even also had a hard time figuring out who were supposed to be with the villains and who were supposed to be with the heroes in this movie. This confused me, especially at the beginning of the movie but continued to confuse me, also since characters for some reason change alliances in this movie.

But most of these things can also be said for the good guys of the movie, which just shows you how messily and ineffectively this movie is constructed and told. And was there a good reason for Bruce Willis to be in this? Was it necessary for Channing Tatum to return? All of this can be answered with a big fat no. There are too many new and old characters in this that just don't add enough and only add to the confusion and messy aspects of the movie.

But lets focus on some of the good things as well. It's not a bad looking movie and I was fond of its visual style, though the camera-work and editing was definitely still lacking at parts. At least most of the special effects and action are quite good and make it apparent this was a pretty costly movie to make. The budget shows on screen, which is always a good thing.

I also still liked some of the actors in this. It's good to see Jonathan Pryce having some fun with his role and hamming it up a bit, which was something this movie really needed. I also have to say that Dwayne Johnson is a pretty good lead for this movie. I have always been fond of him but not every part is right for him and his acting definitely is also still lacking in certain movies. Not in this one though. He's perfectly cast as Roadblock and even his acting is pretty good, all throughout.

Still the messy and poorly written script is keeping this movie down far too much and prevents the movie from ever becoming the big, fun, action spectacle that it clearly wanted to be.

4/10

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The G.I. Joes are not only fighting their mortal enemy Cobra; they are forced to contend with threats from within the government that jeopardize their very existence. From: IMDb.com

Directed by: Jon M. Chu

Starring: Channing Tatum, Dwayne Johnson, Ray Park and others

Current release date: March 29, 2013

(Review originally written at 17 February 2008)

While watching this movie I kept waiting for things to finally start of. It takes way to long for the movie to build up things. The movie is basically one big mysterious one, in which some odd things happen and when things finally get explained at the end, the movie still leaves more than a couple of unanswered questions and quite frankly, some things just don't make sense.

The movie could had become an interesting one, regarding religion and a scientific open approach about it but the movie doesn't really offer any material to think or debate about. It's as if the movie can't decide what angle to pick. Does it want to create a religious movie? Or does it want to create a deep going philosophical one, featuring arguments and hard facts. The end result now is something messy. It features realism as well as overblown movie moments, which doesn't really makes this a well balanced one. This movie basically is a poor man's "The Da Vinci Code". It makes this a very pointless movie to watch.

Not much wrong with its style though. The movie is visually good looking, which still makes the movie somewhat pleasant to watch.

It's mostly the story that makes this a silly one to watch. Once you start thinking about it, a lot of things in the movie just don't make sense. Why are some of these things occurring? And why are they happening in the way they are? The movie doesn't go to a lot of trouble to try and explain any of it. On top of that, the movie is also mostly predictable, in the way it progresses and it also isn't afraid to 'borrow' from other films.

The movie still has a pretty good cast with Patricia Arquette, Gabriel Byrne and Jonathan Pryce. So nothing wrong with the casting in this one. Everyon fits their roles well and especially Gabriel Byrne was good.

Had potential but it gets ruined by its silly story.

4/10

(Review originally written at 17 August 2006)

Pierce Brosnan was one fine Bond, so it's a shame he had to play in two of the worst Bond movies, this one and "The World is Not Enough". But of course even a bad Bond remains an entertaining one to watch, with lots of spectacular action, pretty girls and cool gadgets.

The story always has been sort of secondary in Bond movies but this one takes the cake. The story is absolutely ridicules and far from well conceived and handled. The idea of an media-tycoon wanting to fully control and create the news for his own personal satisfaction is a totally unlikely but above all a ridicules one. It makes the story as a whole ridicules, even for a Bond movie. The movie is filled with implausibilities and the movie never succeeds in making the story work compelling or engaging.

The movie handles lots of things wrongly, mainly things involving its story. I think this is probably due to Roger Spottiswoode's directing, who isn't exactly known as the best director or storyteller around. Lots of fine characters are wasted in this movie. Especially Teri Hatcher as the Bond girl, who Bond actually does have feelings for. Teri Hatcher plays the best and most interesting Bond girl in years but she only is in the movie for about 15 minutes. A real waste of a great and fine looking character, played by a great actress. Instead now were stuck with the bland acting Michelle Yeoh as a Chinese agent, who helps Bond on the mission. No offensive but Bond and Asians never worked out in the movies. There just is no chemistry and it helps to makes the character feel like an obsolete one.

Also the villains, a important Bond element, are wasted in this movie. Jonathan Pryce is a fine actor and he plays a great villain but due to the ridicules story, his character never convinces enough. Jonathan Pryce deserved to play a villain in a better Bond movie. We don't that often see him as a villain but with this movie he shows his versatility as an actor and proofs that he can play cold-hearted, ruthless villains as well. The rest of the villains feel more like an obligation than they are needed in the story, with the exception perhaps of the recently deceased Vincent Schiavelli who always is great to watch in any movie.

Thankfully some good Bond-regulars also show up again. Judi Dench is great as M and definitely a more serous one than the Bernard Lee M, who obviously mainly often served as a comic relief. They tried to change his character into a more serious one in the later Bond movies and replaced him with Robert Brown after Bernard Lee's death in 1981 and turned his character into a more serious one but none of them worked out quite as satisfying and powerful as the Judi Dench character. She gave the M character more personality and sense of power and control. A woman with balls, you may say. Other Bond-regulars in this movie are; Q (Desmond Llewelyn), Miss Moneypenny (Samantha Bond), Charles Robinson (Colin Salmon) and Jack Wade (Joe Don Baker).

The movie begins great and spectacular in perhaps one of the greatest Bond openings. Unfortunately the movie never lives up to its opening sequence, ever again, later in the movie. Basically the opening sequence is the only truly great and memorable sequence of the entire movie. The movie further more is filled with lots of spectacular action sequences and they do entertaining but I simply prefer a good old fashioned fistfight above a machine-gun shootout any day. It makes this Bond movie feel sort of artificial and without any heart or true inspiration. It has all the Bond elements, girls, action, the usual characters and gadgets but still this movie doesn't really feel as a Bond. Also the end sequence, normally the best and most spectacular, are disappointing in this movie and help to make this movie an extremely forgettable one.

Visually the movie is good looking and it has some fine cinematography in most of its sequences. Also the effects are good but it's a sort of unwritten rule that how more special effects are in a Bond, the worse the movie is, with some exceptions left out. The musical score by David Arnold is also fine and fitting for the movie. At first I didn't liked any of his Bond scores but they have grown onto me and I really start to appreciate and see the greatness of them all.

It's a movie that does entertaining but it doesn't do this consistently throughout the entire movie. It's filled with implausibilities and unlikely elements which causes this movie to have some unfortunately weaker and extremely forgettable moments.

5/10

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(Review originally written at 14 July 2006)

"Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" was an unexpected huge hit and success. It of course would be impossible for a sequel to top this success, mainly because of the reason that every originality and surprise is gone. This is also definitely the case with "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest". We already know the characters, we already know the style of humor in and we already know that it has supernatural elements in it. It makes "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" a less refreshing and surprising movie but luckily the movie is well made and has more than enough stuff in it to still make this movie a thrilling and entertaining one to watch.

"Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" is not a better movie than "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" for several reasons. As mentioned before, the freshness of the movie is gone with as a main result that the characters don't impress or entertaining as much as in the first movie was the case. Not even Jack Sparrow does. Another thing is that they wanted too much, as often in sequels is the case. The story is unnecessary complex, with unnecessary many characters in it. It also causes the movie to be unnecessary long (2 and a half hours!). But no of course the movie is no bore. It's a real roller-coaster ride of a movie, even though it takes some time at the start to find the right pace. The new main villain gets perhaps introduced a bit too late in the movie (about half way through I think) but once he gets introduced the action and fun really starts. The movie has countless spectacular and well executed moments in it, especially with the immensely large octopus named Kraken. Especially the last couple of minutes 'are heavy' with good and fast non-stop action.

This time the main villain of the movie is Davy Jones (half man, half octopus) and his 'The Flying Dutchman' crew. So rather than having an army of undead pirates, we now have an army of undead fish. Sounds less scary but the way the fishy crew looks is highly convincing and intense. Unfortunately Davy Jones (played by the always great Bill Nighy) is no captain Barbossa and I really missed him as the villain in this one.

The rest of the characters are mainly the same. Jack Sparrow is still as crazy as he is entertaining, thanks to Johnny Depp of course. It was also great to see how Keira Knightley's acting had matured. It was obvious that she is a more experienced actress now, when compared to the first movie. Her acting is more adult-like and she impressed and surprised me more as in the first movie. Orlando Bloom gets less interesting to do in this movie but he still is good and convincing enough as the heroic Will Turner, although he still is a bit boring as always. He just isn't as charismatic as Errol Flynn or Douglas Fairbanks who did similar movies as he did but only about a century ago.

Best thing about the movie are its visuals. Not only the locations and make-up are great but also especially the CGI (Oscar win guaranteed I predict). It makes the movie a feast for the eyes that is just as entertaining as thrilling to watch.

So its not as entertaining or fun as the first, mainly because everything is not as fresh and surprising anymore but the action, CGI and better acting still make this movie a thrilling and entertaining roller-coaster ride that is just as good to watch as the first movie, because of this very reason. Also the cliffhanger made me excited for part 3; "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End". I'm not going to spoil anything since I don't want to spoil the surprise for you.

Definitely a movie worth seeing that of course is best and most thrilling to be viewed while its still in cinemas.

8/10

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