Friends

24 December 2009 @ 10:10 pm

I only had a few movies on my Netflix queue that were labeled in the action and adventure genre(s), so I made a batch out of them. Turns out it was a good reminder of why I don't watch more action/adventure movies...

Escape from New York (1981)

Soaring crime rates cause the United States to turn the city of New York into a maximum-security prison. Unfortunately for the president of the United States (Donald Pleasence), that's precisely where he lands when he's forced to bail out of a crashing Air Force One. Condemned criminal and former war hero Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell) rescues the chief executive -- but the president must promise to grant Plissken his freedom in return.

This is one of those movies that make the people I know say "Are you kidding me!?" when you tell them you've never seen it. So I decided I needed to see it. And I have to say, I'm almost sorry I did. I wasn't entertained at all and by the end I was paying more attention to how much time was left than I was paying to what was going on. Still, I'm glad to be able to say I've seen it now. [Rating: 2 stars]

Air Force One (1997)

Harrison Ford stars in this high-stakes thriller set in the skies aboard Air Force One, in which Russian terrorists (led by Gary Oldman) conspire to hijack the aircraft with the president and his family on board. The commander in chief finds himself facing an impossible predicament: give in to the terrorists and sacrifice his family, or risk everything to uphold his principles -- and the integrity of the nation. Glenn Close co-stars.

When you hear "action film starring Harrison Ford, Gary Oldman and Glenn Close" this is pretty much exactly what you'd expect. So while it wasn't original or surprising or anything like that, I still really enjoyed it. It wasn't boring for a second, and ... dude, it's Harrison Ford, Gary Oldman and Glenn Close. [Rating: 3.5 stars]

Romeo is Bleeding (1994)

Corrupt New York City detective Jack Grimaldi (Gary Oldman) has a nice home, a beautiful wife (Annabella Sciorra) and a sweet, if stupid, mistress (Juliette Lewis). Attempting to live beyond his means, he supplies tips to the mob about the locations of protected witnesses. But Grimaldi gets in over his head when he's assigned to guard sultry Russian hit woman Mona Demarkov (Lena Olin) in this quirky black comedy directed by Peter Medak.

Here's a plot summary and a cast that appealed to me. Sadly, it turned out boring and uninteresting. :( [Rating: 2.5 stars]

Apocalypto (2006)

Oscar-winning director Mel Gibson moves on from biblical fare to tackle the end of the Mayan civilization in this gripping action-adventure set just before Spain's conquest of Mexico and Central America in the 16th century. When an invading force threatens his peaceful existence, a courageous native risks everything to protect his way of life -- even if it means leaving his beautiful mate and unborn child behind.

I actually wound up liking this movie more than I expected to. There was always something interesting to look at -- animals, scarified/tattooed bodies, landscapes -- and the sound was great. The story... Well. It took about half the movie before I figured out why what was happening was happening, and by that time ... something else was happening! But it was never boring because I was always either trying to figure out what the hell people's motivations were, or people were running around and shooting arrows at each other and rolling around half-naked in the dirt. Lots of action! [Rating: 3 stars]

Taken (2008)

While vacationing with a friend in Paris, an American girl (Maggie Grace) is kidnapped by a gang of human traffickers intent on selling her into forced prostitution. Working against the clock, her ex-spy father (Liam Neeson) must pull out all the stops to save her. But with his best years possibly behind him, the job may be more than he can handle. Famke Janssen also stars in this relentless action-thriller from director Pierre Morel.

I had some mixed feelings about this movie. Mostly I liked it, and I would definitely watch it again. There were a few points, though, where I found Liam Neeson's character to be completely unsymapthetic, even though everything he was doing was for his kid. He just made me really uncomfortable at one part in particular. [Rating: 3.5 stars]