My Favorite Movies

Wow! 5 of 5 stars for this X-men movie! Great story, great characters, extremely well created movie! Action, sci-fi, characters, scenses, wow! OK, I am a fan of the X-men series of movies (1 to 3). Now this installment gives the history of the key character Wolverine, from young kid just discovering his mutant skills to his time at war (from WWI to Viet Nam). This is a must watch movie; oh, Blu-Ray makes a big difference!! This is now on my favorite movie list!

5 out of 5 stars for this Mummy movie. The newest installment of "The Mummy" series (Brendan Fraser), this is my favorite of the series. With Jet Li (one of my favorites) as The Mummy and Michelle Yeoh in a supporting role, you have a great cast! This movie is almost in the league of the Indiana Jones movies. Great fun with lots of action and adventure. Did I mention the battle with the Yetti? This movie is worth watching!

Wow. A whole new universe to consider. What if it is a true story?

Jackie Chan's stunt work is unique and exciting. Nice to see real action not CG.

The best of the thee movies. I really enjoy the crisp action.

Great action-adventure movie! I have seen it many times!

The best of the two movies in the XXX series. An exciting action packed movie with a bit of Sci-Fi thrown in. A must see!

The third of this series and is a climax for the "pre-Luke" Star Wars saga. This is a strong movie that I enjoy watching (often). It has an amazing Jedi one on one battle scene. This is a must watch (a dozen times or so).

Of all six of the Star Wars movies, this is my favorite and the one I can watch a hundred times. Of special interest are the last scenes (about the last 30 minutes of the movie). A powerful climax to the series. A must see a few dozen times!

The best of the four Indiana Jones movies. Everything comes together in this movie. I'd go so far as to call this a masterpiece movie. From young Indy, the introduction of his Dad, the transition to today's Indy to "Leave it Dad" to riding off into the Sunset. Sean Connery was an outstanding performance as Indy's Dad!

One of my favorite Sci-Fi movies. Too bad they only made MIB 1 and MIB 2; more would be good.

One of my favorite Sci-Fi movies. Too bad they only made MIB 1 and MIB 2; more would be good.

One of my favorite movies. Seagal at his best. Oh, he is just the cook... Right.

I really like this movie. Great driving scenes. It is the best of the Fast and Furious set.

The best of the Matrix movies and contains the finale. What an amazing vision and special effects! A truly amazing one on one final battle.

The best of the 4 movies in this series.

This is the best of the Austin Powers movies. Of course, the whole series of movies are a parity of James Bond and the 1960s/1970s. Mike Myers does many of the roles. This is truly a funny movie that is well constructed.

The best of the LotR series. Of course based on the books by JRR Tolkien. All three movies were exceptionally well created and acted. This is the climax of the series and as expected the most exciting. This is one of my favorite movies.

The first in the serise of movies and still the best. OK, I actually like all of them. This is a fun movie that is faithful to the original Marvel character.

Of all the James Bond movies, this is my single favorite. I don't know why, but, it is. Not the most high-tech. Not the most future/sci-fi. Not the most expansive of plots. Just a good solid spy story. The whole thing is about a simple little communications encoder. Some really great scenary. A really solid story and movie. Oh, let's not forget Carole Bouguet's beautiful long hair: "For Your Eyes Only, Darling".

This was the best of the RH movies. Where RH 1 established the characters, this movie capitalized on them and was exciting. Both Tucker and Chan put in great performances. This is one of my favorite movies.

This is a simple and fun movie! Great idea (the Tuxedo) and it is well presented. The story is fun and fresh. Jackie Chan is wonderful as always! This is a movie I carry around on my laptop.

Chan, Wilson and Liu make a great combination in this fun east-meets-west story. Oh, I mean old west, you know, cowboy old west. OK. A cute story nicely presented and solidly acted.

The follow-on to Shanghai Noon. Chan and Wilson continue their characters but this time, they need to travel to old England. A fun and funny story.

I am very impressed with this movie. Just watched the extended Director's cut making it a very very long movie. The story is very complex with alot of flash-backs and even some flash-forwards. Several stories are intermixed until they finally all come together. Great characters. Unique style of photography and vision. I just added this to my list of favorites. I will have to see this movie a few times to completely digest and understand it; complex.

This is a great movie! Just added it to my list of favorite movies! OK, history lesson, F&F1 stared Vin Diesel in another of my favorite movies. Then things went odd with F&F2; different story line different people; not one of my favorites. F&F3 Tokyo Drift is one of my favorites but yet again different story line and characters. OK, this F&F (F&F4) goes back to the original characters with the original people and extends the original story. Note, in the blu-ray version in the extras menu, there is a 20 minute short "movie" that fills in the gap between F&F1 and the start of F&F4.

Insanely great action. State of the art photography with alot of live action; some green screen and very little CG. And the various races and car chases are edge-of-your-seat intense!

If you liked any of F&F1 to 3, you will love 4! This is a must see and I will see it again and again. Its already loaded into my little portable movie player via Digital Copy.

So, what's your opinion, Import Car or American Muscle Car?

5 of 5 stars for the sci-fi movie Fifth Element. OK, how do you summarize this movie? Sigh. OK, take three stone symbols which are a key to a protective weapon useable to keep away some nasty aliens who want to take the world, add in sexy girl (Milla Jovovich) who is a guardian of the weapon, a taxi driver (Bruce Willis), more aliens, some priests who know the secrets, an evil traitor working with the bad aliens and you have a really wild sci-fi story. Oh, it all takes place on the Earth in the dstant future. Did I mention the taxi moves in all 3 dimensions?

An expansive vision of a whole different Earth with many different types of beings. Bruce Willis does a great job in the Sci-Fi movie. Really good story and well executed. Extensive special effects and really wild sets. This is a must see sci-fi movie!

5 of 5 movies for the Blu-Ray sci-fi movie Tranformers: Revenge of the Fallen. OK, let's start with an equipment check. Blu-Ray & HDTV, sub-woofer cranked-up, lights out, popcorn in hand. Seat-belt on and here we go. Wow, you want action? You want loud booms and bangs? You want dizzing special effects? This is the movie for you! I just added ths to my list of favorite movies. The plot is relatively simple, but, it just gets in the way of the crashes, explosions and machine-on-machine combat. We have transformers from cockroach size up to monster size. We destroy a steel mill and some historical monuments. Some globe trotting with great scenery. But in summary, its all about the special effects and the transformers. A shout-out for the Blu-Ray version which has a second disk with more contents that the length of the original movie (well over 2 hours of behind the scenes). This movie is highly recommended.

5 of 5 stars for the comic book based movie Superman The Movie. This movie starts the franchise with the destruction of Krypton following sending of its last survivor to Earth. From the landing of his ice craft in the fields to his experiences in high school to his moving to Metropolis and working at the Daily Planet, this movies sets the basic history and story of Superman. An all star cast includes: Reeve, Hackman, Brando, Ford, Perine and Margot Kidder as Lois Lane. This movie has the sequence with Lane in a long gown going flying with Superman. Once Superman is established as a character, we enter the meat of the movie where Superman fights against Lex Luther (Hackman). Helped by Perine & Beatty's characters, Luther learns to use Kryptonite to neutralize Superman. Then he steals a nuke for purposes of setting off a major Earthquake on the west coast to move "ocean-front property" to the east.

A grand movie with sweeping music and visuals, this is a really fun movie and worth watching several times!

5 of 5 stars for the vampire and werewolf movie Underworld. I've seen this movie several times and continue to be amazed and the plot and visual look of the movie. Wow. I keep finding new subtle things in the movie overlooked in my first viewing. This movie is the starter for a 3 movie collection. Telling some of the history and moving forward with this story. Underworld and Underworld Evolution move the story further in time while the third movie tells the history of how we got here.

The story is about two races of beings, the upper class Vampires and the worker class Werewolves. In the old times, the races lived together in harmony, now they are at war. This story focuses on "a human" who we later learn has characteristics of both races and his blood is valuable to both races. Of course, our lead character (Kate Beckinsale) needs the help of a sleeping vampire lord. A very impressive movie with stunning visual look. Once you finish Underworld, keep on going with Evolution and Rise of the Lycans. Highly recommended and added to my list of favorite movies.

Space, the final frontier... 5 of 5 stars for the Sci-Fi movie Star Trek. One day in 1966, I sat down in front of my B&W TV to watch a new TV program, Star Trek. I've been a fan ever since! We started with the original series (Kirk & Spock), then a series of movies and then various TV series which explored before and after the original series. This movie presents the Kirk & Spock era from kids to the formation of the original series crew of the Enterprise. Well, there is a twist! In the opening sequence, Kirk's dad dies as James T is born. Say what? That's not the original time line! Hummm... There are several "odd things" happening in this timeline (Spock and Uhura kissing?). It is all part of this story line.

The movie is extremely interesting with a great plot! A really serious bad guy who has a really big ship he uses to "mine" planets. Oh, did I mention Spock "prime" (Leonard Nimoy) plays a key role? Truly great special effects from ILM. Very faithful to the original series and lots of eye candy for us fans (did you notice the tribble in the cage on Scotty's workbench?). Shout outs to: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto and Karl Urban (Kirk, Spock, McCoy) with each capturing the character without doing an "impression" of the original actors; respectful but not a carbon copy.

I'd like to give this movie a 10 of 5 stars, but, they won't let me do that! So, it has been added to my official favorites list. I really hope some smart people out there will take this timeline and fresh cast and move forward with a new weekly TV series. We could call it the New Original Series!

5 of 5 Stars rating for the movie version of Dan Brown's book Angels and Demons. This book is considered to be the #1 book in the Robert Langdon series as it was written before Da Vinci Code. However, with sales & marketing, most people assume Da Vinci Code is #1. A&D happens before the Da Vinci code. However, Ron Howard & team decided to make A&D happen after DVC in the timeline with several references to DVC. BTW, The Lost Symbol is considered #3 in the series happening after both DVC and A&D.

The story opens at CERN with a group of scientists trying to create anti-matter in large quantities. There are references to finding the "god" particle. We soon learn that one of the scientists is killed and his eye used to gain access to the secure room with the anti-matter. One large container (magnetic enclosure container) was stolen.

Flash forward to Robert Langdon's apartment where a Vatican police officer approaches Langdon to come to Rome to help with an investigation. Well, it is an active case with four kidnapped Cardinales who are to be killed one each hour leading up to midnight when a (anti-matter) bomb will destroy the Vatican. At this time, the current Pope has died (humm, maybe murdered?) and traditional efforts are happening to pick the new Pope. Oh, the four Cardinales are the four leading contenders for the role of new Pope. Why Langdon? Ah, the people claiming to cause this are the Illuminati of which Langdon has been working on a book about them.

Langdon performs some quick research in the Vatican Archives to learn where to start the search for the Cardinales. As with Da Vinci Code, Langdon's search is lead by symbols and history. As he chases each of the four victims, he is too late for most.'

The cool thing about this story is that it takes place within 12 hours of real-time. It is fast paced, exciting, good action with Langdon becoming more of an Indiana Jones with some of the action. The Langdon character is deeply and richly described and is likely to become iconic much like Jones.

As before with Da Vinci, Dan Brown's deep research and crafting of historical facts and locations to meet his needs for the story is impressive. It is interesting to note that all of the Vatican scenes were created in LA as they couldn't get permission to film. Scenes of other locations around Rome were shot on-site. The detail and richness of the sets and costumes is amazing! Tom Hanks as Langdon is wonderful and he is well on his way to being an icon. I can only hope that Howard/Hanks are working on the Lost Symbol.

I highly recommend Angels and Demons it is now on my favorites list. I specially recommend the Blu-Ray 3 disk set with an entire disk of behind-the-scenes materials.

5 of 5 stars for the fantasy adventure movie The Forbidden Kingdom. FK stars two of my favoriteaction actors in lead roles, Jackie Chan and Jet Li. I understand that this movie is based on a Chinese story of the Monkey King (btw I was born in the year of the Monkey). Jet Li plays the Monkey King who is captured by a evil lord and held forever. The magic staff (long pole) of the Monkey King makes it way thru time to a shop in LA. A young man (Michael Angarano) is given the staff by the shop keeper and told to return to its rightful owner. He finds that he has been transported to the Forbidden Kingdom where his adventure begins. First he meets a drunk man (Jackie Chan) and later a young lady "the Sparrow" (Yifei Liu).

A really nice story that is beautifully photographed. The wire line fights were good but as always seem fake (ah I mean super-natural). The story is good for the whole family. Great fight sequences (of course when you have Li and Chan). I specially liked how Li played the Monkey King during fight sequences. The beautiful sweetheart of the movie is the Sparrow (Liu). The sexy one is "the Witch" (Bingbing Li) with her magic hair.

A really wonderful fantasy movie and well worth the time to watch. I highly recommend this movie. The Blu-Ray has alot of behind the scenes materials and is well worth watching. Pass the popcorn and let's watch it again!

5 of 5 stars for the action-adventure movie Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Really nice to have Indiana Jones back after two decades. Older, smarter and a bit slower, but, still the Indy we all know and love. The movie opens with the Russians (oh, we're in the 1950's now) trying to break-into Area 51 to recover an artifact. They've brought Jones as a hostage and to find the artifact in the storage warehouse. From there, we're on a typical Indie quest. I can tell you that there is a Crystal Skull (or two) involved. We do see the return of Marian (Karen Allen) as Indie's lost girlfriend. There are other surprises in this movie.

Expertly crafted and on par with all three previous Indie movies.Richly photographed, great sets, great action and fun chases. I have added this movie to my list of favorites and highly recommend it! This is a two bag-of-popcorn feature movie! Let's hope for more adventures in the future.