Moon Zero Two (1969)

Movie-A-Day Challenge

Day 8

Hammer Films

Moon exploration was all the rage in 1969, given with the first men to land on the moon in July, it was only natural that low budget studios began to crank out such movies featuring what they believed the future held in this exciting advancement in our space programs. The makers Moon Zero Two, felt that the future (2021, to be exact) would be full of people colonizing the moon, evil billionaires would hold weird space parties full of cheesy music, weird outfits, weird hair and space drinks. As we know, this sadly isn't the case. But I'm sure plenty of parties are pretty similar.

Moon Zero Two is an odd sci-fi film. The tag line reads "The first moon 'western'" and.. well, I guess that's true. I wouldn't really know for sure if it's the first, although I will say that not a whole lot of it felt very western to me. The film follows the exploits of former astronaut-turned space salvager, Bill Kemp, who's hired by the previously mentioned evil billionaire, who unknowingly to Kemp, wants Bill to capture a nearby asteroid that can be used to launch a rocket to other planets, which he can then colonize.. for PROFIT. I sense a missed opportunity for a good profit meme.

There's also some stuff going on with a girl who crosses Bill's path who is on the hunt to find her brother who went missing when mining in a far off area of the moon, but this story isn't really that interesting, until she can no longer deny Kemp's dashing looks and his rugged yet charming personality, which leads to awkward flirtation that is never fully delivered on, but certainly hinted at (for a sequel?). Kemp's space cowboyness is undeniable, maybe some would say there would never have been a Han Solo or Malcom Reynolds had it not been for Bill Kemp. I'm not one of those people, but hell if I'd argue with you if you presented me a case for it. 

If I had to say some good things about the film, it's that for a low budget sci-fi movie from the 60s.. is the effects are pretty good. They won't blow your socks off, but comparing them to a lot of other movies coming out around that time, they did a good job with what they had to work with. When compared to the best of sci-fi, this is horrible dreck. But compared to other movies of it's ilk, it's actually not that bad. I wouldn't recommend ever sitting through it though unless you can catch the Mystery Science Theater 3000 version, which was a really funny episode.

We're the Millers (2013)

Movie-A-Day Challenge
Day 7

Warner Bros.

A drug dealer gets robbed, and in order to make right by his boss, he's sent to Mexico to pick up a stash of pot. He decides the best way to get in and out of the country is to hire a group of people to pretend to be his family and go down in an RV pretending to be on a family vacation. It's an R rated comedy that I ended up liking a lot more than I thought I would. Jason Sudeikis is great, and the rest of the cast is equally game. It's nothing ground breaking but it get's the job done.

Recommended

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Red Dawn (2012)

Movie-A-Day Challenge
Day 6

FilmDistrict

I like the original Red Dawn, but I can admit that it's not really a good movie. It's just fun, cheesy, 80s escapist entertainment. It's filled with logical flaws but it's easy to overlook. It wasn't an untouchable movie but if it were going to be remade, it should have been better than this. If you've never seen the original, you might like it, but if you have, you know the story, it isn't any better here.. it's just updated. It's pretty forgettable.

Skip It

Ultimate Avengers 2 (2006)

Movie-A-Day Challenge
Day 5

Lionsgate

The Avengers try and help out the Black Panther in his defense of his homeland, Wakanda, during a mutant invasion. Much worse than the previous Ultimate Avengers. The flaws of the original one were masked enough to where I enjoyed it. But the second time around, the animation, voices, story.. all of it just felt really weak. I lost interest numerous times, and it ended up being a chore to get through. Which is pretty sad considering there's only 72 minutes to the damn thing.

Skip it

Haywire (2011)

Movie-A-Day Challenge
Day 4

Relativity Media

Haywire was met with critical praise when it came out, but the reaction to it by the casual movie goers was the opposite and I understand why. When promotion came out for the movie, it seemed like a straight up action movie with lots of gun shooting but it's more of a thriller with some real hard hitting fight scenes. I was expecting the former, but was really glad that wasn't what the movie ended up being. The story isn't anything you haven't seen before, but like most of Steven Soderbergh's films, he rises above whatever basic story is given to him. Gina Carano still needs work as an all around actress but I think she has a lot of potential as an action star.

Recommended

The Bling Ring (2013)

Movie-A-Day Challenge
Day 3

A24

Based on the real life story of rich kids breaking into the houses of rich celebs, The Bling Ring is an okay movie that never bothers to dive too deep into any of the real life crime and drama. Emma Watson is great in her role and it's a great looking picture, but with all of the main characters so damn hard to get behind, the story of their crimes needed to be more in depth in order to pull you in but instead everything just seemed glossed over and rushed. Came out around the time Spring Breakers did, and I felt both movies were similar in story and flaws. One of those tough movies to judge because nothing in it is bad, it just feels like a a wasted opportunity.

Mild Recommendation  

Ultimate Avengers (2006)

Movie-A-Day Challenge
Day 2

Lionsgate

I'm beginning to realize one common theme for any super hero animated feature I'm looking forward to: I always feel like I'm going to like it much more than I actually did. As Leonard Maltin would say "The film is long on razzle dazzle" but there's really not a whole lot of substance to it. Fine for what it is, and at a run time of 72 minutes, it's hard to really complain too much about anything in it. It's a short ride that's fun, but really isn't anything that will convince you that most of these animated features are worth your time.

Mild Recommendation for the die-hard comic/animation fans, Pass for everyone else.

The Wolverine (2013)

Movie-A-Day Challenge
Day 1

20th Century Fox

I usually complain at great detail about my disdain for most of 2009's X-Men Origins: Wolverine. From it's laughable CG, to the plot holes, to.. whatever the fuck it is they did to Deadpool.. it's safe to say I'm not a fan of that one. But I did enjoy The Wolverine a lot more. I've never read the Japanese Saga that the movie is based on, but I did enjoy the setting change and I thought the action was pretty good, especially the train fight sequence. There's been better comic movies, but this is a good step in the right direction for the Wolverine series, I'm looking forward to the next one.

Recommended

X-Men: First Class (2011)

20th Century Fox

After the uneven X-Men: The Last Stand, Fox had to decide where to go with the X-Men series. They decided to go the route with X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which absolutely was enjoyable but pretty stupid and filled with plot holes. So, they went the way of a "reboot" and that brought us X-Men: First Class, which I will say is my tied with X2 as my favorite X-Men flick. If you haven't seen this one, this one is a must watch.

Michael Fassbender steals the show, I loved Ian McKellen as Magneto, but I like Fassbender that much more. He's just so damn good, every one of his scenes where he lets Magneto's dark side show, are easily the films best moments. Most of the cast is good as well, although none shine quite as bright as Fassbender. The other thing that really helps the movie is how much it is toned down compared to the over abundance of mindless action that took place in Last Stand, it helps make the action scenes more memorable when there isn't a huge fight every fifteen minutes. Instead that time is spent on developing the characters and making you more interested in each one from Xavier and Magneto all the way down to the smaller ones like Banshee and Havok. Each character gets something to do, and it's refreshing to see that in an X-Men flick.

You don't have to be a big fan of this genre in order to like First Class, the plot has a Connery 007 kinda feel but with super heroes, and throw in a kick ass Magneto, and well.. that's a pretty good combination. Like I said before, must watch, even for non fans.

Highly Recommended

X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)

20th Century Fox

I don't know why the third movie in most trilogies is always shitty. Sure there has been a few moments where the final installment has been the best, but it's usually the worst. Especially when it comes to comic book movies. Spider-Man 3, Blade: Trinity and now X-Men: The Last Stand. Superman 3 was saved from that list because they thought it'd be a good idea to make a 4th one.. and that one sucked even more, so 3 was only the second worst in the series! That's one of the few redeeming things you can say about that one. Now let's see if we can say anything redeeming about The Last Stand?

That wasn't meant to be so hard.. let's see.. it has.. explosions! Lots of explosions! And Colossus fighting bad guys! And.. Kitty Pryde! Yeah, there we go: it has Kitty Pryde. It's the cool thing to say that this is an awful movie, and it really isn't. It's never boring and has some pretty entertaining moments, but some of the decisions are so stupid that it makes any fan of the X-Men easily turn against the film. Case in point, Cyclops. After wasting him in two movies, he's got one scene here, in which he dies. The fearless leader of the X-Men, going out in a scene that doesn't even top five minutes, early on in the movie. I know it's probably for the best since he was so wasted the whole series, but it still pissed me off.

The plot has some silly things going on in it, mostly shit that Bret Ratner always tries to do in his movies, and it's mostly harmless but always stupid. Everything is talked about with great importance and drama, but it always comes off very "meh". Honestly, it took me three times to watch this movie over the past 8 years and I always lost interest at some point, this time I didn't but I completely see why I had in the past. With so many important things going on, things shouldn't be so damn uninteresting at times.

They did right a few wrongs with this movie, namely Storm gets used like she should have been, and the inclusion of the danger room and Kitty Pryde were fun, but like I said, when you sandwich those moments in between a bunch of crap.. well, you aren't left with anything that special. That said, if you can look past the misuse and lack of staying true to the source material, this isn't really all bad. X-Men: The Last Stand teeters dangerously close between crossing over into both good and bad, it never really strives to be anything more.

Very mild recommendation for fans of the first two.

X2: X-Men United (2003)

20th Century Fox

X2: X-Men United is still one of my favorite superhero moves. There's just so much to like about it, it's a real shame that all of the momentum this movie built up, was quickly destroyed by the very uneven X-Men: The Last Stand. Regardless, this is about X2, and it should be required viewing for anyone diving into superhero movies for the first time.

Like all good sequels, X2 takes all of the parts that work about the first X-Men, and amps them up. The best parts of the cast of the first movie (Wolverine, Magneto, Professor X and Jean Grey) still hold true in this one. Sadly, the weaker parts are still the same: Storm is pretty meaningless still, although not as meaningless as she was in the first movie. Cyclops is once against misused, this time having his screen time cut in half as he gets brainwashed into becoming a villain and spends most of the movie being a brainless bodyguard. If anything X2 does make up for this by introducing Nightcrawler (the opening scene at the white house was easily my favorite scene in the whole movie), and giving Iceman a little bit more to do. Iceman would see a heavy increase in X3, one of the few things that movie did that I enjoyed, but more on that later. Brian Cox plays William Stryker, the man behind the facility that created Wolverine, and his scenes with Jackman are easily some of the best moments of the film.

Despite coming in before the true comic book film golden age began, in my opinion X2 holds up very well compared to the newest of movies. It's full of action, good effects and some great, memorable moments. If you see just one movie from the original trilogy, this is the one to see.

Highly Recommended

X-Men (2000)

20th Century Fox

Nowadays, films based on super heroes get churned out every year. Most are very good and only a few are awful (here's looking at you Ghost Rider). Back in 2000, this wasn't the case. For every good one, there were five that were a complete misfire. Then came Bryan Singers take on X-Men and things started to change.

It wasn't without it's issues, but the movie still holds up as a pretty good comic book adaptation. The biggest problems were the misuse of a few characters (which would tend to be the problem in all of the X-Men movies, outside of First Class). Cyclops, the leader of the team in the comics, is a joke, he gets to do a little bit in this movie, but you never really feel like he's as strong as he was in the books. His screen time would be lessened in each subsequent film until he was mercifully killed off in The Last Stand, but more on that later. Halle Berry was pretty hit or miss as Storm, but I feel she got better as the series went on. The rest of the X-Men were all pretty good, with Wolverine, Professor X and Jean Grey being the stand outs. It's pretty much their series, especially Wolverine, but as Andy put it to me "Hugh Jackman was so good as Wolverine they had no other choice." It's hard to disagree with that.

Aside from Mystique and Magneto, the villains are all pretty worthless. Toad and Sabretooth are pretty worthless, constantly messing up everything they attempt to do. They're never shown on the same level as anyone they're fighting against. Which is odd, consider how bad ass Sabretooth was in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The helplessness of these two villains is made up for by how great Ian McKellen is as Magneto, he would go on to be the strong point of every film he was involved in, in both this series, but in just about everything else he's ever been in.

Despite the fact that comic book films have come a long way since 2000, X-Men still holds up pretty well. The story is basic and pretty intriguing early on, but it does lose a bit of it's momentum and tumbles towards a dull finish. It's not entirely perfect film but it's definitely a good start for the series.

Recommended

The Great Movie-A-Day Challenge!

A lot of people do movie-a-day challenges, mostly a predetermined list filled with their favorite actors, favorite films and so on. These usually last about 30 days, I would like to follow one of these lists at some point, but for me.. I dream of a bigger challenge: 365 Days. A movie a day until I get married. I wanted to make it a list full of movies I've never seen, which is what I'll be trying to stick to, but sometimes you just want to relive films you love. So.. fuck it, no rules! Well.. except for the whole movie a day thing.

It's quite a task, I tried one awhile back and fell off around 26 days. It gets hard after awhile to try and fit a movie in every day but with great determination, different working hours and a huge backlog, I feel this can be done. .Or I'll fail. Failure is an option, and the most likely possibility. Either way, I look forward to the challenge, I hope to clear off a lot of movies I haven't seen. If I make it to 365, there'll be a party, masquerading as a wedding reception.

I'll post each day what I've watched with a short paragraph review, and we'll see how long I can keep it going! Now that it's out on the interwebs, I can't really not fulfill it, it's easy to let myself down but all my readers? The.. one or two of you. Well, that's just something I can't do.

The challenge begins tonight with: The Wolverine! (2013)

Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole (2010)

Warner Bros.

Maybe it'd be best for Zack Snyder to stick to animated movies, I found this movie to easily be the best thing he's made. I've always thought his movies were slick with really fun, yet slightly overdone action scenes but they always felt like they were missing something. After the constant disappointments, I was so pleased to see that Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole, not only exceeded my expectations, but turned out to be one of my favorite animated kids movies.

Based on the series of children's books named Legends of Ga'Hoole, the story tells the journey of a young owl named Soren who grows up hearing the mythical tales of a group of warrior owls named the Guardians who fight against the evil owls known as the Pure. His brother Kludd, who had grown tired of his brother's love of the tales, quickly becomes jealous of Soren as his natural abilities are much stronger than his own. Not to spoil too much, they get into some trouble, and are eventually rescued by two owls who end up being members of the Pure. Soren escapes with the help of an owl who's working as a double agent in order to save his family, and he embarks on a journey to find the Guardians, and attempt to go back to save his brother and defeat the evil Metal Beak and the entire Pure group.

The film has the darker tone like most of Snyder's adult efforts, but it's not enough to say the movie isn't intended for little ones. Not everything works out like most kids movies, and that's something to appreciate. The story is engaging, and should even draw in the adults. Easily, the films best qualities are the superb animated, this was easily one of the best looking animated films I've seen in some time. The fight scenes between the owls, were standard Snyder, slow motion sequences mixed with some great visuals. While they sometimes feel a little forced in his other movies, in this one they didn't. They really felt like something that other animated movies should aspire to live up to.

Guardians was met with mixed reviews and didn't make a ton of money at the box office, which is a real shame considering much worse animated movies (like the Smurfs!) made far more money and were pieces of shit compared to this one. So while we get to have multiple Smurf and Alvin and the Chipmunk movies, we get to have only one Guardian movie which was does potentially set up for a sequel that will sadly never come.

Highly recommended.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)

Columbia Pictures

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 could be an "amazing" movie were it not a superhero movie. That seems like a rather silly statement but it's true. This movie succeeds when it focuses on the relationships between its main characters but it falls apart when Spider-Man is fighting his foes and twisting around in mid-air, all for the benefit of those who paid for the 3D glasses. There are two big battle sequences (well, two and a half) and the story grinds to a halt when these occur. Maybe I needed to chip in a few more dollars for the 3D, that way I could get the most out of it.

I would rather talk more about what the movie does right, and it has a lot in it's favor. This is the truest presentation of Spider-Man that I have seen on screen. He spins webs any size and catches thieves just like flies, all while having the "friendly neighborhood" nature from the comics. One perfect example is when he assists the fire department while wearing a firefighter's hat, then swings the hose around like wild west gunslinger. Andrew Garfield appeared to be having so much fun playing Spider-Man, which helps to sell this side of the character very well. He also brings out the brooding nature of Spider-Man as well, as he's conflicted over his relationship with Gwen Stacy. In the previous film, her father (played by Denis Leary) died during the climatic battle with The Lizard and he made Peter vow to keep her out of danger. Now Peter is suffering a slight form of post-traumatic stress as he sees Captain Stacy wherever he goes. It's also a role reversal for Denis Leary following his previous role on the tv series, Rescue Me. I like how Peter seemingly has the weight of the world on his shoulders, while still retaining the humorous nature of Spider-Man, and Garfield is perfect for the job. I've bought into his performance in this movie more than I did in the first film.

I was a harsh critic of rebooting the series so soon following the Sam Raimi movies, especially going back to his origin story. However, I realized that was a smart move by the movies' producers. Every Spider-Man villain is a mad scientist gone bad or an experiment gone wacky, so it makes perfect sense to tie everything to Oscorp. Peter's father worked for the company, Curt Connors/The Lizard was a top scientist, obviously Norman Osbourn is a key figure, and now new villains Harry Osbourn and Max Dillon are linked to the company as well. Oscorp had a presence in the previous series but it wasn't as pronounced as it is now. The evil underbelly of Oscorp follows in the footsteps of other movie conglomerates such as OCP (in the RoboCop films) and Weyland-Yutani (of the Alien series.) This time around, Max Dillon is a nerdy electric engineer and Jamie Foxx brings the character to life. He reminds me a lot of the transformation of Edward Nygma in Batman Forever as his obsession with the movie's hero is what drives him. It looks like Jamie Foxx had a lot of being a stereotypical geek and I'd love to see a gag reel of his outtakes.

The other villain of the film is Harry Osbourn, played with gusto by Dane DeHaan, who is easily my favorite of the film. He has a lot of similarities with Peter Parker and it's what makes him such a great villain. Every hero in these superhero movies has a villain who is his equal; they're two sides of the same coin. For example in Captain America, both Steve Rogers and Johann Schmidt were given the same super soldier serum, yet they took different paths. Harry and Peter were both separated from their parents at a young age, who were both scientists working on the same project. Its a great move to tie them together this way so we can learn more about Peter's parents, which was barely teased in the first movie. It seems that great care was taken to craft this elaborate backstory for Richard Parker, father of Peter, and this sequel will not be the end of it. Playing up the scientific side for this new series will hopefully lead to the 6-armed Spider-Man; though its probably wishful thinking on my part. Although we know it's not the end of Oscorp, since both movies have teased the robot tentacles of Doctor Octopus.

Though Harry Osbourn was an entertaining part of this film, I didn't like the visual aspect of his Green Goblin. I wish one of these Spider-Man films would do him justice. In the original Raimi movie, Norman Osbourn the man was awesome; Norman Osbourn the Goblin was awful. He looked more like a robot, so it's an amazing feat on the part of Willem DaFoe that he was able to act while wearing a mask with a fixed facial expression. With this new movie, I understand the reason behind the Goblin we see but it made me wish for that damn robotic Goblin. With heroes and villains, their name usually comes from their transformation- Peter Parker is bitten by a spider, so he's now Spider-Man; Curt Connors was working with reptiles to regenerate limbs, thus becoming The Lizard; Captain America was a patriotic hero from World War II; Tony Stark wears an iron suit; and Magneto can attract and move metal objects, similar to a magnet. That's why it makes sense that they took the "Goblin" name literally. This version in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is troll-like after the effects of a hereditary disease afflicted by the Osbourns. Even though I understand the reason behind it, it doesn't mean I have to love it. I just wish that someone would give us the classic comic book version of the Green Goblin! If this were a Marvel Studios-produced movie, they would definitely stay true to the iconic design. A guy in a green mask and purple outfit isn't any more or less ridiculous than a guy swinging around town in blue and red spandex. The problem is the same for the Electro charactere. The electric blue look is odd at first glance, which is because they also took the name literally and transformed the character to resemble an actual eel. Or from my viewpoint, he looked like the funky guy on a TOOL album cover. I would have preferred him to stay in the form he takes towards the movie's end, which is that of a massive electric current that flows throughout the city's power grid. Though staying in the form of electricity leaves one less guy for Spider-Man to battle.

Speaking of Marvel Studios films, it feels as if Sony/Columbia Pictures are trying to recreate the Marvel Universe films in their own Amazing Spider-Man universe. However it cannot be done; Spider-Man is just one man. Marvel has the benefit of stretching its story across the films of four different characters, while Sony/Columbia Pictures are trying to do that same level of story-telling in only two films. I appreciate the effort, it just makes things so cluttered. Raimi's progression of the Harry Osbourn character was told over the course of 3 movies, while in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Harry is introduced and transformed in less than two hours. It also causes the pivotal moment of Gwen Stacy's death to be rushed as well. Gwen's death occurs in this film, and while I try to avoid writing about spoilers, I feel this is something most everyone knows is a turning point for Spider-Man/Peter Parker. He spends much of this movie feeling guilty over the death of Captain Stacy, yet he's already over her death by the film's conclusion. Gwen's death should haunt him longer and I felt this movie needed to have a down ending, similar to The Empire Strikes Back. It makes me feel that Sony really does meddle too much with these movies, which is what was the problem with 2007's Spider-Man 3 and also the reason why we never saw a 4th film in that series.