Captain America: the First Avenger

the Poster:

the Trailer:



the Plot:
In the present day, scientists in the Arctic uncover a circular object with a red, white and blue motif.

In March 1942, Nazi officer Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving) and his men invade Tønsberg, Norway, to steal a mysterious Tesseract possessing untold powers. Meanwhile, in New York City, Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is rejected for World War II military duty because of various health and physical issues. While attending an exhibition of future technologies with his friend Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Rogers again attempts to enlist. Overhearing Rogers' conversation with Barnes about wanting to help in the war, Dr. Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci) allows Rogers to enlist. He is recruited as part of a "super-soldier" experiment under Erskine, Colonel Chester Phillips (Tommy Lee Jones), and British agent Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell). Phillips is unconvinced by Erskine's claims that Rogers is the right person for the procedure, but relents after seeing Rogers commit an act of self-sacrificing bravery. The night before the treatment, Erskine reveals to Rogers that Schmidt underwent an imperfect version of the procedure and suffered side-effects.

Back in Europe, Schmidt and Dr. Arnim Zola (Toby Jones) successfully harness the energies of the Tesseract, intending to use the power to fuel Zola's inventions. Schmidt, having discovered Erskine's location, dispatches an assassin to kill him. In America, Erskine subjects Rogers to the super-soldier treatment, injecting him with a special serum and dosing him with "vita-rays". After Rogers emerges from the experiment taller and more muscular, one of the attendees kills Erskine, revealing himself to be Schmidt's assassin, Heinz Kruger (Richard Armitage). Rogers pursues and captures Kruger, but the assassin commits suicide by cyanide capsule before he can be interrogated.

With Erskine dead and the super-soldier formula lost, U.S. Senator Brandt (Michael Brandon) has Rogers tour the nation in a colorful costume as "Captain America" to promote war bonds, rather than allow scientists to study him and attempt to rediscover Erskine's formula. In 1943, while on tour in Italy performing for active servicemen, Rogers learns that Barnes' unit was lost in a battle against Schmidt's forces. Refusing to believe that Barnes is dead, Rogers has Carter and Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper) fly him behind enemy lines to mount a solo rescue attempt. Rogers infiltrates the fortress of Schmidt's HYDRA organization, freeing Barnes and the other captured soldiers. Rogers confronts Schmidt, who reveals his face to be a mask, removing it to display the red, skull-like face that earned him the sobriquet "the Red Skull." Schmidt escapes and Rogers returns to base with the freed soldiers.

Rogers recruits Barnes, Dum Dum Dugan (Neal McDonough), Gabe Jones (Derek Luke), Jim Morita (Kenneth Choi), James Montgomery Falsworth (J. J. Feild), and Jacques Dernier (Bruno Ricci) to attack the other known HYDRA bases. Stark outfits Rogers with advanced equipment, in particular a circular shield made of vibranium, a rare, near-indestructible metal. Rogers and his team successfully sabotage various HYDRA operations. The team later assaults a train carrying Zola. Zola is captured, but Barnes falls from the train to his apparent death.

Using information extracted from Zola, the final HYDRA stronghold is located and Rogers leads an attack to stop Schmidt from using weapons of mass destruction on American cities. Rogers clambers aboard Schmidt's aircraft as it takes off. During the subsequent fight, the Tesseract's container is damaged. Schmidt physically handles the Tesseract, causing him to dissolve in a bright light. The Tesseract falls to the floor, burning through the plane and falling to Earth. Seeing no way to land the plane without the risk of detonating its weapons, Rogers crashes it in the Arctic. Stark later recovers the Tesseract from the ocean floor, but is unable to locate Rogers or the aircraft.

Rogers awakens in a 1940s-style hospital room. Deducing from an anachronistic radio broadcast that something is wrong, he flees outside into what is revealed to be present-day Times Square, where Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) tells him he has been "asleep" for nearly 70 years.


the Riviu:
this is so not my cup of tea! and thank goodness that i'm not that much of a tea people.

i know that some people is raving about this film but to me, so many weak points. how can a man's bones be elongated by a scientifically made serum? i mean, if it's giving muscles and brawns, that i can accept. this one, nope.

and what is this Tasseract thingy? not much is told of it, and how it interact with any surface. how can it be contained by a simple box and then transfered into lamp-like container before burning holes of the so-called state of art aircraft? and then easily handled by the hands of Schmidt and later on by Howard Stark's under-the-sea equipment? arghhh..

and the chemistry between Peggy and the Captain America, too stunted. i'm wondering about her position in all of this setup. she was seen recruiting, training and then visiting Captain America near the enemy lines.

and then during the assault at Hydra's last base, she stuck out like a sore thumb, being the only woman in the frontlines. to think her as the sole woman accepted in the army is not a commendation but rather a degrading point. one, just one. it's a very, very man's world. though the scene where she emotionlessly opening fire on Cap's shield, that's pure gumption :) yay to Women's Power !

this movie has Howard Stark playing some important roles alongside Peggy. he was shown to be a flamboyant ladies man. but his presence is not that, how to say it, attention-commanding? the last time the world saw Mr Stark senior is in the Iron Man 2 where he was portrayed to be a very harsh father. serious. driven. Mr Cooper's presentation of him that somehow tries to mimic Robert Downey Jr's mannerism as Tony Stark, well, fell flat, and trodden. sorry Mr Cooper, it just felt wrong.

as for the bad guys, the only thing i find myself respecting is the Heinz Kruger's suicide, some sort of an art, you know. the teeth gnashing, the frothing mouth :giggles:

i mean, the Red Skull keeps repeating the power the gods and all that mulch but why did he keep running away when confronted? hello! you've got a blasting-on-the-spot gun right? why don't you and your faceless army just move forward and blast everything away? tak paham aku. the American soldiers and the selected few who made into Caps' squad were just using conventional guns and snipers. so why are you so chicken-ish? no use of having that Tasseract thingy la gitu. and no power of the gods :tongue struck out:

and it's kinda funny when the prisoners of war (PoW) came out from the cages so healthy and brawnish, ready to rumble in the HYDRA's tanks. baiknya la HYDRA organisation ni bagi diorang makan dan tak dera-dera semua. even the ones who were at the Allies camp earlier look much beaten and sorrier than that lot. and these PoW were left unsupervised somewhat at the HYDRA camp and managed to escape, all 400 of them. which is kinda stupid.

and what is stupider, you may ask, is the location of the weaponry base and factories are displayed for everyone to see. hello, it's not a secret ek? sape2 je bleh tahu.

and when the locations are revealed with Cap's waging war on each base one by one, don't they heighten the security nor relocate their bases to somewhere else? no. they have to wait for Captain America to come barging in and destroy their place.

haiyoh.

true enough, i'm not that impressed. only the fact that Cap's shield with its dents and whatnots is impressive to me. i like that fact. a simple fact to show that Cap is vulnerable and simply a human being.

of course, woman may salivate of the yummy display of Cap's skin, and i really appreciate that once revealed to us the effect of the serum on Steve, he wore a white shirt over the bare skin and pursued the assassin in high speed motion. so no excessive drool is produced.

ya, i can attest to the fact that Cap is really a decent man and deserves my respect apart from his lean and fit physicality. yup he sure does :grins:


the Pix:

Ramona and Beezus: why not just Ramona?

the Answer:

Because it is based on the Beverly Cleary's books which focus on Ramona Quimby and her sister Beatrice, known as Beezus. Beezus and Ramona is realistic fiction, written from nine-year-old Beezus' point of view, as she struggles to get along with her four-year-old sister. the movie however focus more on the antics of Ramona, the exasperating precocious pest.


the Poster:

the Trailer:



the Plot:
this movie touches on the relationship between Ramona (Joey King), a precocious girl with her family, mostly with her big sister, Beatrice 'Beezus' (Selena Gomez). her father, Robert (John Corbett) was laid off and her mother, Dorothy (Bridget Moynahan) was left to be the sole breadwinner.

the relationship between Ramona and Beezus was like a seesaw, angry bursts a minute, a loving cuddle next, unlike the close relationship that their Aunt Bea (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Dorothy shared. Ramona was annoying, imaginative and somewhat behaving like a pest, where all that she touched often end up causing troubles not only to herself but also to those around her. she hardly had any friend, save for her neighbor, Howie (Jason Spevack).

in the meantime, Aunt Bea was courted by her high school sweetheart, Hobart (Josh Duhamel) who in turn is Howie's uncle who just got back from his scientist field trip in Alaska (or somewhat). As for Beezus, she hated her uncool name and worried about her feelings for her longtime friend, Henry (Hutch Dano).

as the family dealt with their ups and downs, Ramona worked through her life, clueless but with zeal and persistence to find the happily ever after for everyone.

the Riviu:

the movie is interesting as far as a family flick is in concern. it taught kids on how to handle such familial misgivings where your dad loses his job, the house is risking bank repossession and what you have to do when things don't get into your way.

believe it, Ramona has tried everything: selling lemonade, washing car, trying out as a Princess in a commercial campaign.

and though she often aggravates her family, mostly Beezus, they tolerates her.

i particularly love Dorothy's response when Ramona decided to run away from home. it was dealt nonchalantly but she also planted heavy stuffs and a baby monitor in Ramona's big suitcase just so she can run away but not that far so the family can catch up to her.

however as for the close relationship shared between Dorothy and Beatrice, it's not so subtle and perhaps wasn't given much emphasis. i only got to know that the close relationship of Dorothy-Bea often becomes the aggravation for Beezus as she regarded Ramona as a pest instead of being a close sister that she deserves.

figuring Beezus out, i believe that SG did a very nice job of portraying a loving sister though how much Ramona's antics embarrass and cause her ire. and her love interest, Henry is very nice too!

Josh Duhamel's Hobart was a very kindhearted guy who deserves the sweet Aunt Bea. though he would sink low by bribing Ramona to get close to Bea, it was done so gallantly and heartwarming. If i was in Bea's shoes, i wouldn't mind hopping into his arms the moment he proposes, figuratively speaking :) he's so nice!

all in all, the chemistry between the actors and actresses was very believable. and Joey King as Ramona does indeed carry and drive the film very well. her connection with her father was very tight and supportive as he struggled over jobless situation and pulling his weight around the house. and who would have known that the longest picture in the world, drawn together by Ramona and her father in order to cheer her up after a very bad day at the school would end up solving their problems and landing Robert a job as an art teacher at Ramona's school?

oh well, we all love a happy ending :)

anyway, the songs played in the movie and the quirky imaginations of Ramona as she plots her next move and such do earn this movie its additional half star. because i love the quirkiness (^^,)t

the OST:

Two Similar Mousedeers: Jeremy Renner vs Daniel Craig

... TSM or in its original language: Pelanduk Dua Serupa.

this is simply a Malay simile to describe 2 person who is a spitting image of each other.

i was watching Jeremy Renner in the Ghost Protocol and was acutely reminded of Daniel Craig in Casino Royale.

which prompted me to watch Casino Royale again, for the sake of another Slow-Pokey post. and made me somewhat impatient for the Avengers film to come out on the Net, JR is cast as Hawkeye in the movie.

yup, one of the reasons for my tardiness in reviewing fresh-from-the-oven movies is that i'm not allowed to go to the cinema to catch up on the latest flicks. i had to settle by waiting oh-not-so-patiently for the DVD version to be available on the Net.

me = LAME.

anyway, back to TSM, i had this uncanny feeling that these 2 guys are sort of look alike. perhaps they should be cast as brothers? :wink: :wink: hollywood people, do take note!

Jeremy Renner

Daniel Craig

maybe it was the nose, the complexion or the square cut face. oh well, maybe it was all me.

do you think that JR is similar looking to DC? let me know by dropping your comments ya.

we have passed 1,000 mark!

wah, 1,010 views already!

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thanks peeps. Do come here more often :)

Mission Impossible 4: the Ghost Protocol

the Poster:

the Trailer:


the Plot:

In Budapest to intercept a courier holding Russian nuclear launch codes, IMF agent Trevor Hanaway (Josh Holloway) is killed by assassin Sabine Moreau (Léa Seydoux), who is working for a person code-named "Cobalt" (Michael Nyqvist).

Soon after, the other members of Hanaway's team — Jane Carter (Paula Patton), and newly promoted field agent Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) — extract Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and Ethan's source Bogdan (Miraj Grbic) from a Moscow prison.

Ethan is assigned to lead Jane and Benji in infiltrating secret Moscow Kremlin archives to locate files identifying Cobalt, who is known to be a Russian consultant with a goal of detonating a nuclear bomb.

During the mission, someone broadcasts across the IMF frequency, alerting the Russians to Ethan's team.

Although Benji and Jane escape, a bomb destroys the Kremlin, and Russian agent Sidorov (Vladimir Mashkov) arrests Ethan, suspecting him as responsible for the attack.

The IMF extracts Ethan from Moscow. In the mean time the Russians have called the attack an undeclared act of war, and the US president activates "Ghost Protocol", a black operation contingency that disavows the IMF.

Ethan and his team are to take the blame for the attack, but will be allowed to escape from government custody in order to track down Cobalt. Before Ethan can escape, the IMF's secretary (Tom Wilkinson) is killed by Russian security forces led by Sidorov, leaving Ethan and intelligence analyst William Brandt (Jeremy Renner) to find their own way out.

The team identifies Cobalt as Kurt Hendricks, a Swedish-born Russian nuclear strategist who believes the weak must die for the strong to survive, so he plans to start a nuclear war to initiate the next stage of human evolution. Hendricks bombed the Kremlin in order to acquire a Russian nuclear launch-control device; however, he now needs the activation codes from Moreau in order to launch a nuclear missile at the United States.

The exchange between Moreau and Hendricks's right-hand man, Marius Wistrom (Samuli Edelmann), is due to take place at the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

There, Ethan's team members separately convince Moreau and Wistrom that they have made the exchange with one another.

However, Moreau identifies Brandt as an agent. While Ethan chases Wistrom — only to realize that Wistrom is actually Hendricks in disguise, escaping with the codes — on the other hand, Jane detains Moreau.

Moreau attempts to kill the inexperienced Benji, and Jane kicks her out a window to her death.

Brandt accuses Jane of compromising the mission for revenge against Moreau, but Ethan accuses Brandt of keeping secrets from them, as he has displayed fighting skills atypical of an analyst.

While Ethan seeks more information from Bogdan, Brandt admits he was assigned as security detail to Ethan and his wife, Julia (Michelle Monaghan), in Croatia. Brandt says that while he was on patrol, Julia was killed by a Serbian hit squad, prompting Ethan to pursue and kill them before he was caught by the Russians and sent to prison.

Bogdan and his arms-dealer cousin inform Ethan that Hendricks will be in Mumbai. Hendricks facilitated the sale of a defunct Soviet military satellite to Indian telecommunications entrepreneur Brij Nath (Anil Kapoor). The satellite could be used to transmit the order to fire a missile. The team heads to India to prevent Hendricks from using the satellite, which can be controlled from computers at Nath's home.

While Brandt and Benji infiltrate the server room to deactivate the satellite, Jane gets Nath to reveal the satellite override code.

But Hendricks has anticipated Ethan's plan and uses a virus to turn off Nath's servers before sending a signal from a television broadcasting tower to a Russian nuclear submarine in the Pacific to fire at San Francisco.

Ethan pursues Hendricks and the launch device while the other team-members attempt to bring the broadcast station back online. Ethan and Hendricks fight over the launch-control device before Hendricks jumps with it to ensure the launch.

Benji kills Wistrom, allowing Jane and Brandt to restore power to the station and enabling Ethan to deactivate the missile, while the fatally wounded Hendricks witnesses the failure of his plan just before he dies. Ethan is then confronted by Sidorov, who sees Ethan has stopped the missile, proving the IMF is innocent in the Kremlin bombing.

The team reconvenes weeks later in Seattle. Ethan introduces the team to longtime colleague Luther Stickell and then issues new assignments. Benji and Jane accept, but Brandt refuses.

Ethan reveals that Julia's death was staged, as he knew he could not protect her, and used her death as a pretext to infiltrate the prison, where he believed he would find men associated with Cobalt. Relieved of guilt, Brandt accepts his mission while

Ethan watches Julia from afar. She spots him, and they share a smile before he embarks on his next mission.


the Riviu:

what i love most about this movie is the solid team of protagonists that seem to have a lot of chemistry together. i particularly love Brandt's character. and the best scene that wins hands down would be when Jane kicks Moreau out of the tall Burj Khalifa. yup. the BEST!

and the twist at the end regarding Brandt's absolution of guilt is very nice indeed. to reveal that Julia is still alive and living a separated life from Ethan would be enough but the storyline gave the unnecessary emphasis by showing their exchange of smiles before Julia walked away. i mean, is there no more passionate love and longing? korang tak rindu ek laki bini?

as for the antagonists, i think the scriptwriter gave too much emphasis in making a credible action sequences and how the good guys struggle one after another slip-ups in their planning. that should explain as to why i would feel that the villains are too distant. the motivation of the major antagonist that is Cobalt in wrecking a nuclear war to help civilisation developed further is lame. i mean, what drives and motivates him so much that he'd risk his life for it?

and Moreau's character was so sullen in silence that her good looking presence doesn't have that lasting effect.

Nath, another villainous technopreneur does not seem bad. randy though he really is. the pure lust he supposedly have for Jane is blatantly missing. why? because Jane painfully looks unsure of her spell as a woman over man. what we are looking for here is a teanspoonful of confidence oozed by Miss Angelina Jolie in "the Tourist" to make us viewers really buy into the idea that Jane is so breathtakingly desirable for Nath to fall into her.

in conclusion, this movie is a definite fave and is up for another round when i'm free. yup. it's that good minus all the peeves that i've ranted earlier.

go watch this one!