GRITZ Movie Reviews: Awake, The Mist, Hitman, Beowulf
Posted: Dec 07, 2007AWAKE
I had this dream. In it, a young Darth Vader was sleeping around with Sue Storm from The Fantastic Four....
Hayden Christensen stars as Clay Beresford, a filthy rich business man who is in dire need of a heart transplant. Jessica Alba is his girlfriend Sam, who promises to stand by his side during the transplant, especially given the fact that mere hours before surgery, they ran off and got hitched. Clay’s Mother doesn’t like Sam nor does she trust her. The scariest part here is that while the surgery is happening, the guy is awake. He feels them cut open his chest and spread his ribs. He feels them pull out his heart. Now this borders on a Saw movie. Spooky. I can’t say much, as I don’t want to be a spoiler. What I will say is that I really enjoyed this one. There are some real surprises and twists that I honestly did not see coming.
Four and One Half Stars
THE MIST
David Drayton and his young son Billy are among a large group of terrified townspeople trapped in a local grocery store when a bizarre mist rolls into town. David is the first to realize that there are creatures not of this world lurking in the mist. Survival depends on everybody in the store pulling together, but that seems very unlikely as one woman, a religious freak, begins to convert those trapped inside like a modern day Jim Jones. It soon appears that the monsters inside the store are as dangerous as those outside. Stephen King turns in another great horror story, and while I had already heard many folks criticize the movie’s shocking ending, I felt it worked perfectly. Hey kids, every movie cannot have a fairy tale ending. Think about it.
Four Stars
HITMAN
Timothy Olyphant stars as a genetically-engineered, elite assassin known only as Agent 47. He is the best of the best, but even the best can be thrown off track by a beautiful woman, as 47 discovers. There is no shortage of action and gun play in this film, based on a popular video game, and there are a few interesting moments, but for the most part i found it to be the “same old thing.” Judging from the trailers, I had built up higher hopes. Still, it is what it is. A testosterone driven bullet fest. Praise the lord and pass the ammunition.
Two and One Half Stars
BEOWULF
What an ego this guy has! Of course he does kind of back up his boasts with sheer courage and muscle and destroys the beast Grendel. We all know the old poem from high school, and they did a good job of telling the story here, but to be honest, I didn’t like the new "animation mixed with live actors technique." It got on my nerves. Even when Grendel’s Mommy dearest, Angelina Jolie, comes up out of the swamp naked - well, that part was good - but I’d rather have seen actors and CGI. Then again, it wasn’t shown in 3D in my theatre, and from the look of it, there were countless scenes made just to utilize the 3D effect. I don’t know, it just didn’t set well with me.
Two Stars
Movie Reviews by Michael Buffalo Smith
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