Montag's Movie Reviews

If you know anything about the fact that this movie even exists, I’m honestly a little shocked. The ad campaign for this movie almost didn’t exist. But enough about that. Short up-front question: should you see this movie? If you like action and you’re not offended by gore, yes. If you are lame or a small child, no. I joke, but honestly this is definitely not for kids. The story telling is very direct and simple and that very much works in the movie’s favor. The pacing does seem a little on the fast side, but that works when considering the general setup of the film. The fast pacing actually helps with the suspension of disbelief and in drawing you in to the conflict of the main character Gray. I was a little miffed that he didn’t get very much in the way of actual character development, but Upgrade is very much a movie about ideas. And in all fairness, Gray’s character development does exist, it’s just way more subtle than what you typically see in other films. In fact,...

Godzilla: A Movie Review May 20, 2014 at 10:22pm Public Friends Friends except Acquaintances Only Me Custom Close Friends St. Patties Day Party See all lists... Limited Profile Dayton, Ohio Area Carroll High School Villanova University Family Acquaintances Go Back To sum this movie up in a word:  solid.  I know some people have been talking a lot of smack about this most recent incarnation of the G man, but I would like to say that this film stands reasonably well on its own merits and leaps and bounds above the 1998 version with Matthew Broderick.  The cinematography is good and well constructed, the monster action is very enjoyable and while the acting is just passable, it doesn't get in the way (which is more than can be said for other films, *cough* sucker punch *cough*). There is admittedly some padding before we get to the good stuff, but honestly it's really not that bad and at least it's not overly dull.  The entire way the movie is framed feel...

So first question to get out of the way:  is this movie better than the 90s version with Stallone?  Answer:  yes, by leaps and bounds.  After all, any film is generally improved by the absence of Rob Schneider, who is to comedy what cancer generally is to a healthy human body.  Now don't mistake me on this point, I'm not saying Rob Schneider single-handedly ruined Judge Dredd, although he is fully capable of such a feat.  The 90s version was simply cheesy in general, which is not bad all by itself, but this is a comparison inevitably and I'm not going to waste time with quibbling. So getting right down to it: Dredd is gritty, brutal and totally unapologetic.  It pulls no punches and doesn't shy away from its deservedly harsh subject matter.  After all, I would expect law enforcement after a near breakdown of society following a nuclear world war to be pretty brutal.  I understand that there's an entire concept of realis...

If I was to describe the Avengers in a single word it would be this:  Nirvana.  The film wants for nothing.  There's action, story, character development, and well placed humor bits.  It's everything we were promised and nothing we weren't.  You want super hero conflicts?  You got 'em.  You want gratuitous amounts of action?  You got it.  You want Stan a Lee Cameo?  Better question:  could it be an Avenger movie at this point without one?  You want Hulk Smash?  You bet your sweet candy ass Hulk Smash! There are a few nit-picky things that I could say about the movie, but they all fall wildly short of what the movie gets right.  This movie is a rock star affair from start to finish, with the screen play by Joss Whedon (geeks try to hold it together), and visual and sound effects done by none other than Weta studios and Skywalker light and sound. You already know the cast, we all know the score....

If I was to describe the hunger games in a single word, yes I know this is becoming a habit with me, it would be this:  Stark.  Having read the entire hunger games trilogy, I feel that this is appropriate, but does not necessarily make for the best movie.  Let me clarify though:  the very austere and even severe impression that I get from the movie isn't bad, it just isn't fun.  Interesting, compelling, provocative yes, but fun, no. A brief word to those that are fans of the series:  the movie is fine.  Structurally there isn't anything wrong with it and all the most critical details are left intact, as they had damn well better be if these people hope to make a trilogy out of this.  Being a fan of the series myself and having read all the books, I notice the glaring differences where small or large details have been left out and while I'm not thrilled, it didn't prove to be a deal breaker either.  On the whole, I would say...

To jump right in, the grey is a movie about a group of men that survive a plan crash in Alaska and their struggle for survival as they are hunted by a vicious pack of wolves.  Now, while that simple description does roughly cover the movie, it really does not do it full justice. For such a seemingly simple concept, there is a surprising amount of depth to this movie.  While the characters are not all that well fleshed out, the acting is quite solid so you still do manage to get a sense of them as individuals and there are some small glimpses into their lives here and there that give perspective on their motivations as they struggle to continue living. This movie is not a fancy exercise of intricate story telling.  The plot is very simple.  But even so, it is striking and forceful.  In the scene where the plane crashes, there's an incredibly visceral feel to it that I've not experienced in many other films.  I've seen a lot of movies w...

       When I first saw the trailer for this movie, I thought to myself "this looks kinda neat, I think I'll enjoy it."  So after that I promptly stopped watching any trailers for it and avoided all news media concerning it.  Didn't even look on IMDB for the filmography.  Yes, I review movies and remained willfully ignorant of as many of the pertinent details of the film as possible.  Why you might ask?  It's simple really, when I saw TRON, it was the same deal:  I avoided being saturated by news media about the film like some of my friends and was thus able to enjoy the movie more than they did.  I was actually really excited when Daft Punk showed up because I had no idea they were going to be in the movie. Anyhow,  what's this movie about?  The simplest and fastest explanation is this:  it's a dystopian future where time is quite literally money, and life.  Everyone has been techno-organically wired wit...

The story of Colombiana is pretty standard, but it comes from a writer and director that I like very consistently: Luc Besson. I've been following him more or less ever since he wrote and directed one of my personal favorites; Leon: The Professional. He also did The 5th Element and a bunch of other stuff I really liked, even the transporter trilogy, which admittedly isn't the most intricate storytelling ever, but its still a lot of fun. But anyhow about the movie: it's got good acting, solid action, and reasonably good pacing. Some parts are a bit far fetched, but that's par for the course with a Luc Besson production. It is a little on the short side at an hour and forty minutes (most movies these days being 2 hours or longer) and that's good because it gets straight to the point and doesn't waste your time with a bunch of superfluous junk. Admittedly there are a few shortcomings in the plot development and it feels a bit rushed a...

It's time for an indie movie review! What do you get when you mix classic gore/slasher elements with a comedy? Usually something pretty godawful and not worth mentioning here or anywhere else. However, sometimes, the slasher/comedy combo can be pulled off competently. Please note that all of the "Scary movie" entries are complete and utter failures and I have no idea how they made 4 of the damned things, the first one wasn't even that funny. Fortunately I am glad to report that Tucker & Dale is a success story for slasher/comedy combos. Now admittedly I am getting to this movie a bit late, it was making the indie circuit about this time last year. However, indie films are a little quirky in when and where they're released (reference similar issues I had with Boondock Saints II). But happy days are here and I found this little gem amongst a rather large pile of dross whilst wandering through the cavernous expanse of the interblag...blag....

So where to begin? At first I was a little apprehensive when I found out that they had cast Chris Evans for the role of Cap, since I've never seen him in anything all that serious and lets face it, Captain America is a pretty big deal. But I must say, I was pleasantly surprised by how things turned out. In my opinion this may be the best Avengers movie yet. Blasphemy! I know! Thor didn't offer too much competition, but that really wasn't its fault since Thor has never had the most interesting plots anyway, unless you've got a real thing for Norse mythology or something. Please allow me to clarify though: Thor was not bad in any way really, it just wasn't great either and it just ended up somewhere in what I consider to be a respectable sort of middle area, being better than mediocre, but not as good as great. Anyhow, the Iron Man movies were good, but they didn't have one advantage Captain America uses to the fullest: a little thi...

So there are some things that I liked about TF3 [that's transformers 3 and not team fortress 3 (sorry to the team fortress fans)], and a few things that I didn't like. Right now I'm feeling in a dessert first sort of mood so I'll start with the things I liked. Number one: No Megan Fox. Now this may seem like a really shallow thing to give a movie points for, but any movie that previously had a Megan Fox infestation and finally had the good sense to see the doctor and get a shot of good decision making deserves points in my book. Rumor has it that when initial contract negotiations were taking place, Megan Fox was demanding more money and Michael Bay was like "ha yeah right." So miss Fox threw a tantrum and was then disappointed to find out just how valuable she really was to the transformers franchise (and much to my joy they went with someone else, who I personally think is better looking and a better actress, pouty lips and all). The s...

If someone gave you $300 million dollars and said " Make me an awesome movie about the Green Lantern ", you might think to yourself 'Ah, twice as much money as Thor and X-Men: First Class had - easy as pie!'. If you're director Martin Campbell and you've impressed everyone with movies like Edge of Darkness and Casino Royale, but secretly hate super hero movies and Hollywood producers with an insane cunning, and really want to make an expensive pile of fail, you'd have made " Green Lantern ". The short review - don't waste your money on this unless you *literally* have nothing better to do than watch paint dry. If you like comic books, or even just action movies, AVOID AT ALL COSTS. Where to begin... I heard bad things about the movie, but I thought 'How bad could it be?'. First things first. Ryan Reynolds. Generally known for playing slightly air-headed characters with a sense of humor and formulaic Hollywood looks. Star of fifty-two ...

Lets kick this off with saying that X-men first class is the best x-men movie I've seen so far. The first two movies were ok and the third one and wolverine origins were utter dross. I have a sneaking suspicion that Marvel had a little more to do with this production than the last 4 films, even though the movie was produced through 20th century fox. Anyhow, as for the movie itself, it's good. All the characters are interesting in some way and despite being mutants, they're very human in how they feel. The film is very much a social commentary on outcasts and social acceptance and the general close mindedness and fear that tends to dominate the average persons outlook when it comes to anything new or different. Aside from all that the film is simply very well done. I loved the casting, James Mcavoy was a great choice for Professor X, but even better than that was the choice for Magneto. Michael Fassbender has really managed to capture what I think is t...

It's hard to know where to begin with Hanna. The movie certainly isn't what you expect and it definitely isn't what I'd call a feel-good film. At its core it's dark and edgy with a relentless soundtrack that's just a little heavy handed at times. If I had to pick any single guiding influence on this movie it would have to be Clockwork Orange, just because of the cinematography, pacing, and atmosphere. There is definitely a British feel to the movie, a lot of which can probably be attributed to director Joe Wright. Wright hasn't got a lot of work under his belt thus far, but what he has done has been good and he was definitely branching out of drama and into action going from easily recognized titles like Atonement and Pride and Prejudice to Hanna. Hanna doesn't have any definitive problems as a film, the directing is fine, the cinematography is good and the plot, in spite of a few nagging holes, doesn't completely fall throu...

If I was to describe Sucker Punch in a single word, it would be this: disappointing. Now the reasons for my disappointment aren't as simple as "the movie was just bad." On the whole sucker punch isn't bad per se, it had a lot of potential and it just didn't deliver on that, hence the disappointment. When I first saw the trailer, I thought "hey, this looks like an interesting idea and with Zach Snyder at the helm, it should be well executed." Now I will admit that I made a mistake in assuming the movie would be good just because a director I liked was working on the film. I've been disappointed before in cases like Kurt Wimmer and the award winning stinker Ultra Violet. Admittedly, I should have taken a clue from the fact that Zach Snyder had only directed 4 full length films before working on Sucker Punch. 300 was sort of idiot proof because it had such a simple concept, although I know all the historians were booing and hissin...

Normally, I'm not a big fan of direct to DVD releases. They tend to have low production values, bad writing and sub par acting. However, every once in a while some titles will be released directly to DVD because of factors other than being crap. Sometimes a movie has a good idea, solid writing, and a strong cast, but the studio involved just feels like it doesn't appeal to a large enough audience to make a sufficient profit. Sometimes you can run into material that is either controversial or in the most rare cases, ends up with the almost superfluous NC-17 rating. As far as I know, there has not been a widely released title in theaters that held an NC-17 rating for as long as I have been alive (I could always be wrong about this, but I would need to do more digging before I found out for sure). In the case of Unthinkable, the film runs into the controversy category for reasons to be straight lined to DVD. The main premise of Unthinkable is torture. Not that torture is go...

If I've learned anything from writing in the public sphere it's that people don't look at your work the same way you do. Your masterpiece may never be regarded as such by anyone but yourself to the day you die. And if I've learned anything from writing reviews it's that people only seem to have fun when I'm busy ripping a film a new orifice. So in this vein here is another secretion from my literary bile duct concerning a direct to DVD (for reasons that will become abundantly apparent in this review) sequel to what I felt to be a reasonably good movie. To start 30 Days of Night was originally a comic book written by Steve Niles and it was really good and gathered a pretty loyal following from what I understand. Enough so that it found itself being adapted into a full blown movie under the direction of David Slade, who really hadn't done much film directing at the time and honestly had spent much more time doing music video productions (a...

It's time for a retro movie review! Ok, so lets jump into the way-back machine to about 9 years ago and take a brief look at an amazing but little known film called Equilibrium. It was the brain child of Writer/director Kurt Wimmer. Equilibrium was a brilliant action film and although it never took off in theaters, it has since become a cult classic. The film had excellent pacing, solid acting (thanks in large part to the surprisingly A-list casting), fantastic action and terrific concept design. Equilibrium was a good action film and a surprising social commentary given the fact that it was an action movie. Now lets jump back into the machine and take a look at a film just 5 years back called Ultra Violet. Odds are you never saw this movie and I'm going to encourage you to continue to not see Ultraviolet. Why you might ask? The simple answer is that Ultra Violet sucks out loud which is both sad and a little unexpected. It's sad because Wimmer has p...