Movie Bytes: The Expendables (2010)

Directed By: Sylvester Stallone
Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Jet Li, Jason Statham, Mickey Rourke, Terry Crews, Dolph Lundgren, Randy Couture, Steve Austin, Bruce Willis

What It’s All About:

Barney Ross and his team of highly trained mercenaries “The Expendables” are offered a job on the island of Vilena in the Gulf of Mexico. The team need to overthrow the brutal leader General Gaza and restore peace to the island. As the misson unfolds the team learn more about themselves and what it means to fight in a unit together.

The Final Verdict:

The Expendables is a bad movie. Stallone feeds audiances a sub-par story that is in no way compelling, lazy dialogue and relies heavily on explosions to tell the story for him. This is what makes The Expendables so much fun to watch. Filled with corny one liners, a testosterone filled cast of action stars from days gone by and thrilling stunts not involving CGI; The Expendables offers a chance to switch off your brain and just have fun at the cinema. Sure it lacks an oscar winning story and performances but it sure does have a lot of balls to the wall action.

2/5

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Movie Bytes: The Karate Kid (2010)

Directed By: Harald Zwart
Starring: Jackie Chan, Jaden Smith

What It’s All About:
Remake of the 1984 classic of the same name, The Karate Kid tells the story of Dre Parker and his mother as they move to Beijing from their home in Detroit to start a new life. Dre quickly becomes friends with Mei Ying but Cheng and his friends are adapt in martial arts and keep the two apart, beating up Dre. The maintenance man in Dre’s building, Mr. Han saves him from a beating, and attempts to help the boy by talking to Cheng’s karate instructor to leave Dre alone. Instead Dre must learn karate from Mr. Han and fight for respect and friendship.

The Final Verdict:

Remaking a classic film is never and easy task, but when the remake features none of the original characters from the source material, you have to wonder what the studio execs were thinking other than cashing in on a successful franchise. Jaden Smith simply lacks the connection that audiences had with Ralph Macchio back in the 1984 iteration. The back story for the Parkers is never explained, why do they have to move to Beijing? This is never explained, and leaves the movie feeling flat. The only thing that saves this film is Jackie Chan’s performance, which is stellar and should be a highlight in his long and successful career. Entertaining enough, but simply cannot be compared to the original.

2/5

Movie Bytes: The Lovely Bones (2009)

Directed By: Peter Jackson
Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, Susan Sarandon, Stanley Tucci

What It’s All About:
Based on the best selling novel of the same name, The Lovely Bones tells the story of Susie Salmon, a fourteen year old girl that is raped and murdered. Stuck in-between death and the afterlife, Susie watches as her family deals with her disappearance. Her father becomes obsessed with finding out what happened to his daughter, and Susie is stuck between wanting vengeance towards her killer and wanting her family to move on from their tragic loss.

The Verdict:
When watching The Lovely Bones you can’t help but be captivated by the story that unfolds on the screen, yet the constant mood swings between a light-hearted movie and a dark thriller offer enough juxtaposition to pull away from the immersion. There are some real stand out moments in this movie, yet the constant changes of tone and themes simply don’t mesh well with the source material. Stanley Tucci’s performance is outstanding, and Mark Wahlberg has his shining moments. The Lovely Bones is certainly worth a watch, yet it could have been so much more.

3/5

Movie Bytes: Drag Me To Hell (2009)

Directed By: Sam Raimi
Starring: Alison Lohman, Justin Long, Lorna Raver, Dileep Rao

What It’s All About:
The story follows loan officer Christine Brown (Lohman) who tries to impress her boss and refuses a loan to a sick gypsy woman. The woman places a curse on Christine, that after three days of torment and horror, will then devour her soul to the depths of hell.

The Verdict:
Sam Raimi is back to this true form, making horror films that are as easily terrifying as they are laugh out loud funny. Alison and Justin have great on screen chemistry, and with some truly scary moments this is another movie to put along the likes of Raimi’s highly successful Evil Dead movies. Scary, funny and intriguing, Drag Me To Hell should be one to add to your collection if you love over the top, campy horror flicks.

3.5/5