Drag Me To Hell (2009)

An early Drag Me To Hell review, courtesy of trusted source ‘Tobey Maguire’.

Got into a secret pre-screening of Sam Raimi’s “Drag Me to Hell” movie and damn. SO good.

First, when they said “a work in progress” they weren’t kidding. The footage was weirdly digitized and mostly blurry. Don’t know what caused that, it looked like YouTube quality.

But it didn’t matter. Even the unfinished VFX didn’t matter. This movie was so good it had the entire audience in the palm of its gnarled, witchy hand.

If you like Evil Dead you’ll like this. Sure, it’s PG-13 (or so they claim), so it’s not gory and there’s no bad language. But still in the first ten minutes a little boy gets dragged to hell in gruesome fashion and the whole thing is very messed up.

The story is simple: a bank teller refuses a loan to an old lady who turns out to be a witch. Chaos ensues.

And I mean chaos. We’re talking gypsy curses, ghosts, and goat demons. From the first attack to the end of the movie, it seems like every ten seconds something’s getting broken or something is getting killed. It’s REALLY tense from start to finish. I went in expecting a straight comedy like the final Evil Dead flick and was REALLY surprised how scary and intense the movie was.

But the movie does have its funny moments, like the kitty murder scene and the talking goat scene and the countless times the witch vomits some weird substance all over the hot chick.

Overall, I was surprised how clever the script was and how good the acting was. In particular, Justin Long is great. I mean, he’s relaxed and funny most of the time and then comes this INTENSE part at the end that I won’t spoil, but his performance is heart wrenching.

his movie twists and turns all the time. The plot is very simple, but it does a lot of things you don’t expect or normally see in movies. It’s so refreshing to see something so original.

This is a return to form for Raimi, who really blew it with Spider-Man 3. I hope he makes more movies like this in the future.

Director: Sam Raimi
Cast: Alison Lohman, Justin Long, Lorna Raver, David Paymer
Release Date: 29 May 2009
Grade: A-

Leave your own Drag Me To Hell review in the comments.

Star Trek (2009)

By Grace Cicatello

The 11th Star Trek feature jumps right into the story and action, without the usual pitfall of leaving the audience grasping for clarification. From the beginning it is obvious that great attention to detail was given. Usually in the television-to-big screen transition, mistakes in consistency with the details are often made, but this Star Trek movie is spot on with the minutiae and continuity in accordance with the Star Trek canon. It is noticeable by the story clarity and conciseness that the movie was thoroughly edited and refined as though it had been groomed with a fine-tooth comb.

Star Trek comes to us as a prequel to the original television series, this time based on a plot in which a black hole provides an alternate reality for the original cast of characters of the USS Enterprise. The audience is invited into the intimate early lives of both James T. Kirk and Spock, which had been inferred in other films but not so directly addressed as it is here. Star Trek then moves quickly into the scheme of a vengeful Romulan named Nero in his quest against Spock, ultimately taking his wrath out on anyone who comes in his path – Federation starships and other planets included. From there, fast-paced action puts the audience on the edge of their seats. Taking in one of the earlier IMAX performances after the release, audible gasps and clapping could be heard from the audience several times throughout the movie.

This Star Trek film really takes advantage of aesthetics. The movie is extremely visually appealing, from bright vivid colors to very well executed special effects. The USS Enterprise takes on an outer resemblance closer to the model of the original Star Trek series, however the inside main deck is dramatically redesigned in a clean, minimalist manner with neon colors against the white backdrop.

Being an avid Star Trek fan since early childhood, I went to see the new Star Trek movie expecting the worst but hoping for the best. Previous big screen efforts by the Star Trek franchise have been pretty average, and in the end always left me wanting for something more. This one, however, stands on its own and is definitely worth the theater admission, not an easy suggestion in this day and age. It is action packed, emotionally tinged, and contained comedic elements that were utilized in good health and not campy in the slightest. Overall, Star Trek is well written and very aesthetically pleasing. I am not one to see movies multiple times at theater, but this one has definitely left me giddy and wanting to see it again on the big screen.

Angels & Demons (2009)

By Deborah Young, May 04, 2009 09:06 ET
Bottom Line: Violent, occult thriller delivers as promised.
ROME -- Science or religion? Wait, there's room for both.

If the world could be rendered as simple as "Angels & Demons," we'd all be living in a less confusing place. Taking to heart the critics' lament that the first Dan Brown novel-to-film "The Da Vinci Code" was talky, static and arcane, director Ron Howard and his crew have worked hard to make Professor Robert Langdon's return a thrilling, faster-paced walk in the park.

It will be difficult for this papal mystery, beautifully shot in Rome and Rome-like locations, to gross less than its phenomenal predecessor, which topped $750 million worldwide for Sony Pictures in 2006.

Plucking the same violent, occult strings as "Da Vinci" while avoiding its leadenness, "Angels" keeps the action coming for the best part of 139 minutes. Scripters David Koepp and Akiva Goldsman have taken a firmer hand with Brown's material. The opening scene, for example, omits the hypersonic Vatican jet that transports crack Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) from Cambridge to Geneva in an hour, opting for more conventional means to get him to Rome and into the thick of the action.

Although this attack of realism might disappoint the book's die-hard fans, it pays off in depicting the Vatican as a fairly "normal" nation-state, and not as some all-powerful SMERSH-like nemesis. And in the end, most of those who attacked the film before seeing it on grounds of its being anti-Catholic will have to eat their words, as the warm-hearted ending casts a rosy glow around the College of Cardinals, the papacy and the faithful throngs in St. Peter's Square.

But back to the plot. The pope is dead, and the Catholic Church is preparing to elect a new one. The handsome young Camerlengo Patrick (Ewan McGregor), who was raised by the late pope, is heartbroken.

Whisked to the Vatican at the behest of Inspector Olivetti (fine Italian thesp Pierfrancesco Favino), Langdon learns that the four cardinals who are the most likely papal candidates have been kidnapped. In Vatican security, he meets scientist Vittoria Vetra (sultry Israeli actress Ayelet Zurer), privy to insider knowledge about how a cylinder of anti-matter was brutally stolen from the Cern labs in Geneva. It's child's play to put two and two together and realize that the Vatican is about to be blown up by the ticking bomb of anti-matter.

Into this futuristic world of protons and neutrons erupts the long-forgotten religious cult of the Illuminati, a group of 17th century forward thinkers who championed scientific truth and were forced underground by the Church. Now they're back, in the mysterious person of a fanatic assassin (Nikolaj Lie Kaas.)

Aided by Olivetti and the earnest young camerlengo, while hindered by deadpan Swiss Guards commander Richter (Stellan Skarsgard), Langdon goes about his semiotic business of pulling clues out of thin air.

The story line is brilliantly simplified into Langdon's search for the four cardinals, with Vetra and Olivetti as his sidekicks. His job is to find angel sculptures inside churches, which point to other churches. Black police cars race dangerously through the crowded Roman streets, always arriving five minutes too late to prevent the grisly death of an aged cardinal who has been branded with the words Earth, Air, Fire or Water. Hanks does a likable job of glossing over every implausibility, allowing the action to climax in gut-churning shots borrowed from cheap horror films.

Hanks fits more comfortably into the role of Langdon here, taking a moment to deliver some friendly one-liners. If "Da Vinci" was criticized for the lack of sexual chemistry between its protagonists, "Angels" simply refuses to suggest any kind of romance between Langdon and Vetra. Their total lack of a relationship is so stunning successful that it passes unnoticed.

This allows Koepp and Goldsman to concentrate on what the audience really wants to see: burning cardinals, spectacular explosions and incomparable studio reconstructions of Baroque Rome.

Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins (2009)

Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins (2009)

Starring: Christian Bale, Sam Worthington, Anton Yelchin, Moon Bloodgood, Common
Director: McG
Opening Date: May 22nd, 2009

THEY SAY
Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins will reinvent the cyborg saga with a storyline to be told over a three-movie span. The film is set in the future, in a full-scale war between Skynet and humankind.
On January 6th 2008, producer John Middleton had the following to say about the movie: "It's post-apocalyptic. It's set after the events of [Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines], where we see the nuclear exchange at the end of the movie, and we show what the world is like after this event, and we show how people try to deal in a post-apocalyptic world. And we introduce a new character, who becomes very important to the resistance and to John Connor, a new hero. It's really about the birth of a new hero."
About John Conner, he said: "I would look at him as a character that is introduced and that will grow in the second and third movies of the trilogy."
On Arnold Schwarzenegger's involvement in the film: "He has been approached, and in the early days of our development of T4, one of our producers, Andy Vajna, who's a good friend of his, spoke to him about doing a cameo. This was even before he was governor. But we know now that he is governor, he's got priorities that are above doing movies."
PLOT
In this new installment of The Terminator film franchise, set in post-apocalyptic 2018, Christian Bale stars as John Connor, the man fated to lead the human resistance against Skynet and its army of Terminators.
But the future Connor was raised to believe in is altered in part by the appearance of Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), a stranger whose last memory is of being on death row. Connor must decide whether Marcus has been sent from the future, or rescued from the past.
As Skynet prepares its final onslaught, Connor and Marcus both embark on an odyssey that takes them into the heart of Skynet's operations, where they uncover the terrible secret behind the possible annihilation of mankind.
WE SAY
To be honest we weren’t all that excited when a fourth Terminator movie was announced. And when it emerged that Arnie will only have a small cameo in it (if at all!) and that it will be directed by the pretentiously named McG whose credentials include the brainless Charlie’s Angels movies we just rolled our eyes and gave up on the whole affair.
After all, when one is honest about it, the three Terminator movies made thus far are basically the same movie made over and over again: an artificial intelligence from a future in which mankind is battling for its survival against said machines sends an unstoppable killing machine back in time to kill the man who will lead the human resistance before he is born or just a boy.
But it seems the future has finally arrived . . .
When it became apparent that Terminator 4 won’t be rehashing that whole plot again (after all, how can they after the ending of Terminator 3 – Rise of the Machines?) and that it will be largely set in the post-apocalyptic landscape in which humanity is pitted in a desperate battle for survival only glimpsed in the various movies we perked up. When they cast new action god Christian Bale (Batman in The Dark Knight) we really started paying attention. Hey, this new Terminator flick just might be worth checking out after all . . .
And then came that teaser trailer . . .
So: consider us excited. Terminator Salvation as the fourth movie is now officially titled just might be a worthy entry in the franchise, one that might even equal any of Jim Cameron’s entries (come on! did you see that trailer?). Or will at least be better than the tired rehash that was Rise of the Machines . . .

X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)

In the crowded pantheon of comic-book-derived movie-franchise superheroes, Wolverine, as embodied by the muscular Australian song-and-dance man Hugh Jackman, always seemed kind of special. A grouchy, sensitive loner with retractable metal claws and apparently unretractable facial hair, Wolverine brooded and growled through the first three “X-Men” pictures, helping to supply them (or at least the first two) with welcome grace notes of rough humor and macho pathos. And now “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” with its ungainly, geeky title and its relatively trim (under-two-hour) running time, helps explain just what makes this guy so intriguing and unusual.

In the crowded pantheon of comic-book-derived movie-franchise superheroes, Wolverine, as embodied by the muscular Australian song-and-dance man Hugh Jackman, always seemed kind of special. A grouchy, sensitive loner with retractable metal claws and apparently unretractable facial hair, Wolverine brooded and growled through the first three “X-Men” pictures, helping to supply them (or at least the first two) with welcome grace notes of rough humor and macho pathos. And now “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” with its ungainly, geeky title and its relatively trim (under-two-hour) running time, helps explain just what makes this guy so intriguing and unusual.