Its been quite a while since I have been to the movies. There were a few movies I wanted to see, but after reading bad reviews for most of them I just decided to wait for DVD (we are in a recession ya know). I did get out this weekend and saw Taken and Slumdog Millionaire in the theater as well as Appleseed(1988) at home compliments of netflix.

I heard from a few people that taken was good.  I have to say that I wasn’t disappointed.  In short the plot is a ex-spy’s daughter goes to Paris on vacation with a friend and gets captured to be sold into prostitution.  The father (Liem Neeson) then uses his spy resources and expertise to get his daughter back.

The story itself was good,  it kept me entertained through out the movie.  I will say that Liem, while he played the part well, is to old to play this part.  Reason being it required some Borne style action, and he is just to old to be doing that stuff.  Quite a few of the fight scenes, it just feels like the enemy gives up the fight and lets him kill them.  Also in one part of the movie a guy is driving away with his daughter in a Audi, and he is kinda keeping up….on foot.  Another thing I didn’t like was the mother played by Famke Janssen.  To be honest, I can’t name one movie I felt she did a good job in.  Every time I see her on screen her character always seems a bit flat to me.  Was no different this time.  Good thing she doesn’t have that many speaking parts.  Overall though, the movie was worth a watch.  Not a must see though.  I’d give it a 3 out of 5

I am a fan of animes with machines and based in futuristic settings (Gundam, Ghost in a Shell, Macross, Eva, etc.).  I didn’t really hear about Appleseed until recently, so I decided to check it out.  Started from the beginning, the 1988 movies based off of the original manga.  I have to say that I was pleased with the movie, its about 68 minutes.  Felt like longer but not in a bad way.

Story is after WWIII a new society was built where people can live together peacefully.  Of course there are some groups that don’t agree with this new way of life and try to destroy it (terrorists).  The city is run by biodroids (half human, half robot).  The biodroids have created a very powerful weapon that will link to a central computer system called Gia.  The main enemy in the movie believes that this will lead to the destruction of mankind and works with other known terrorist to stop it.  Deunan and her partner Briareos are two swat officers (formally outcasts living outside of Olumpus) who are trying to take down the terroists.

I would definitely say its worth a watch, but if your not into this type of anime, then you can probably skip it.  You should probably let your kids skip it as well….lots ‘o expletives.

I heard about this movie winning awards, but I wasn’t really interested in seeing it until my buddy John told me he enjoyed it.  I decided it was worth a shot.  I am pretty glad I went to go see it, it was a good movie.

The plot is a poor boy from the slums gets on India’s version of who wants to be a Millionaire.  He gets to the last question for 20,000,000 Rupees, but then gets arrested because they think he is cheating.  That’s where the movie starts.  Throughout the movie they are going through the questions with him, seeing how he knows the answers.  He doesn’t know the answers because he was taught them in school, he has little education.  He knows the answers to these questions because of life experiences, and that’s what you see in the movie.

The movie is basically a love story.  He goes on the game show because he knows this girl that has been in and out of his life will be watching.  Anyone who knows me knows that I’m not big into love stories, but I still enjoyed this movie.  I would recommend checking it out.  It will be out of theaters soon though so if you want to see it you should do it soon.

In terms of upcoming movies, I’m not really seeing anything that looks interesting to me besides Watchmen and Star Trek.  Transformers is a given, but that is a ways off.  G.I. Joe looks a bit iffy to me.  After X-Men III, I’m not remotely interested in the Wolverine movie.  We shall see though.  I’m getting Appleseed(2004) within the next few days so after I get done watching that I will put my thoughts of it on the blog.