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X-Men Origins: Wolverine…

I’ll keep this short. The movie sucked. It’s somewhat enjoyable while watching, but afterwards it’s utterly forgettable.

1. It feels like the fisher price version of Wolverine. The writers seem to have removed his balls, as he is a complete pussy here.
2. Reportedly it cost 140 million; I have no idea where all that money went. The special effects are lackluster and the action scenes are uninspiring.
3. The story has bunch of plot holes and nonsensical parts…even for a comic book movie.
4. Deadpool gets completely ruined.
5. Jackmen is ok as Wolverine, not on par with his earlier portrayals.

Just skip it and watch the cartoon instead.

*

The Soloist…

Based on the real life experiences (and subsequent book) of Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez (Robert Downey Jr.), the film chronicles Lopez’s discovering of Nathanial Ayers (Jamie Fox), a middle aged homeless man suffering from schizophrenia who just happens to be a musical prodigy. Lopez tries to get to the root of how someone with such a gift could fall so far and attempt to get Ayers some much needed help.

Sounds like a pretty interesting story right? Well it wasn’t. Boredom was the only crescendo here. I’ve never been so happy to see the credits roll on a film. Ayers’ story is sad. He’s got a great gift of music, but an equally sizable curse in schizophrenia, which he seems to be aware of yet he turns down treatment. It’s hard to feel sympathy for someone who doesn’t want help, which is a terrible thing to say in this case because mental illness is a very serious issue. It gets old after a while, Lopez tries to help and Ayers freaks out and then we start all over. Lopez does make some progress, but there is nothing close to a Hollywood ending.

The end of the film mentions some statistics of homeless in Los Angeles. Ayers’ homeless was certainly a central factor in the film, but more importantly it was his mental illness that drove him to his current circumstances, something that is completely glossed over. That to me is the bigger point, about how a support structure and system could completely fail someone as it did Ayers. How many other people have a similar story? The film depicts many of the homeless as having mental issues. Could all that be avoided if their issues were caught early on or if treatment would be provided on a more massive scale? Those were the questions I had, none of which even remotely addressed.

On a side note, the best part of the movie, in a sarcastic sadistic way, is when the LA Mayor implements a $50 million initiative to help the homeless, but it turns out to be just a bunch of massive arrests to get them off of the street. $50 million worth of out of sight, out of mind.

*

Taken…

Let me tell you, nothing gets me going like a good old revenge/deathwish flick. They are the procedurals of action flicks. Everyone knows what and when things are going to happen, but it doesn’t matter. The more brutal the death to better and Taken does an admirable job.

So what’s good? Liam Neeson, he’s not your typical action star. I can’t even think of another action movie that he has done (Phantom Menace does not count). The accent, his age, the way he carries himself, it’s just a little different from the same old same old.

All of these types of films need to have a token interrogation/torture scene and Taken has a new little tactic that I have not seen before on film. Let’s just say two steel spikes and some electricity get intimate. It’s not earth shattering stuff, but just enough spice to prevent this film from becoming completely bland.

What’s bad? It’s a genre film and as such it’s nothing new. No surprises here, you can guess the plot and all the twists coming from a mile away. But hey, who cares? It’s Liam Neeson fucking shit up. Yes please.

**