Punisher War Zone - Boring Gorefest

If you're looking for a decent action flick, Punisher War Zone is not a good choice. This is one of those cases where Marvel Comics should have left the previous version alone and move onto something different.

Replacing Thomas Jane (has a new show on HBO called Hung; looks very promising so far!) with Ray Stevenson was a terrible idea. Stevenson has zero likeability in this flick and he'll never flash believable emotions of a man who lost his family to the mob. If you have a weak stomach and a need for a good writing, this is not the movie to look to. The goryness of this film is not so much gross as it is unnecessary. Marvel is branding this under the more mature geared name Marvel Knights and it's getting off to a good start. Blade is far superior when it comes to films geared towards adult audiences.

I always thought that Marvel would do well with rated R type movies but its just not the case. The X-Men, Spider-man, and soon to be Iron Man series has done quite well for PG13 movies. Is it me or does Ray Stevenson resembles Sean Bean? You know, the guy from the 1st Lord of the Rings.

Incredible Hulk - Sans The Comic Book Frames

Eric Bana and Jennifer Connelly got replaced by Edward Norton and Liv Tyler. Not sure if casting made a huge difference but the script definitely took a more serious tone. I guess I was one of the few that liked the Eric Bana version of the Hulk. The whole take on making it seem like watching a comic book was kind of neat. Nevertheless, Marvel decided to reboot the Hulk into this one.

The Incredible Hulk sort of branches off from the previous with Bruce Banner (Norton) on the run in South America trying to control his anger, preventing an unleashing of his Hulk-powers. Banner tries desperately to find a cure, forcing him to return to the US. On his way to find a cure, Banner bumps into his beloved Betty Ross (Tyler) while her dad, General Ross (William Hurt) is hunting him down. Hulk's nemesis this time around is the Abomination (Tim Roth).

The acting in this version was definitely the high point to consider over the previous version. Norton isn't the prototypical choice for blockbuster movies but he does an admirable job commiserating with his dilemma and the on-screen chemistry with Tyler. The Incredible Hulk isn't a great flick but it'll serve the purpose of entertaining you with a decent story and fight scenes. At least it doesn't make you feel like you wasted your time like X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Knowing - For A Nic Cage Movie...Not Terrible At All

Seems to be a crapshoot when watching something that stars Nicolas Cage. The good, the bad, the ugly. Knowing was surprisingly good as I had very low expectations of this movie when the trailers first came out.

Knowing is part of a slew of apocalyptic movies that every warm-blooded human enjoys given their curiosity to wanting to know how it'll all end. The premise of Knowing is about a young girl in the 1950s writes down a sequence of numbers that spells out each and every major disaster that is to come. Nicolas Cage's (John) son (Caleb) receives this sheet of numbers as it was part of a time capsule that was buried at his grade school.

The movie suspense is centered on John's journey into finding out that the page indeed tells three main factors to each disaster: the exact date, number of people that die, and the coordinates of the event. John experiences firsthand 2 of the disasters with the last event being the end of existence. The suspense was well written as each clue engages you into the next until the end result is well...the end!

There may be some controversy surrounding this film as there is an indication that the "whisper" people are not so much messengers ( guardian angels) of God as they are aliens. What I kind of took from it was that from our point of view, what we believed to be a God was really aliens. Maybe I choose to believe this from the perspective of an atheist and this makes more logical sense. Anyhoo, Knowing blends the suspense elements of Signs with a bit of the Day The Earth Stood Still twist.

Push - Too Cool For Anyone

Just released on DVD July 7th, Push was a flick highly recommended by a coworker. Push is one of those films that tries hard to feature a concept of Hong Kong actioned themes with visually appealing actors (Chris Evans, Camilla Belle). The plot of the film tries so hard to get your attention that it lacks the pure concept of simplicity. You're busy spending time figuring out the different kinds of special talents each group brings. The title of the film describes the ability of pushers - those that have the ability to manipulate (push) a person's actions.

What puzzled me was Chris Evans' character, Nick, has underdeveloped powers of moving (telekinesis - think Jean Grey from X-Men). Nick manages to die or get severely injured so many times, it makes you think whether he even qualifies to be a protaganist. Is it me or is Dakota Fanning's acting gotten significantly worse? Her incessant screaming in War of the Worlds was mindnumbing. I was hoping for something not crappy with Djimon Hounsou in this flick but his character was nothing notable. About the most refreshing thing about this film was having it shot in Hong Kong. Nice to know that there are other places to film action movies other than New York or LA.

If you're looking for an action flick that has more to bring to the table, rewatching Jumper or the Matrix is your better bet.