Iron Man And Captain America: Heroes United (2014) - Movie Review

Official Score = 1 1/2 Devils 

At this point, who hasn't heard of, 'The Avengers'... I mean, 'Iron Man', 'Captain America', 'Hulk', 'Thor' and the rest at this point seem to be the hot ticket in movies these days! And the actors and actresses that play  them have become some of the most famous actors and actresses on the planet! But there is one side to the world of, 'The Avengers', that generally tends to be over looked, but is a shame that it is... That being the animated side!

The truth is, is I could give you a lot of great reasons why the animated version is so great... The reason why they are so great is the fact that how it is all put together, the voice over work, as well as the technical side in bringing the characters to life, as well as the story line is in my opinion is pretty close to being as good as the live action movies (that is if you are like me and are a fan of animation...)

The problem is, is that where as most of these types of animated movies are generally pretty fun... Iron Man And Captain America: Heroes United (2014)... Sadly is not one oft he better of the series...

Definitely not one of the better of the series...

Starring: Adrian Pasdar (Heroes), Roger Craig Smith (Sonic Boom), Fred Tatasciore (Ultimate Spider-Man), David Kaye (X-Men: Evolution), Clancy Brown (Highlander) & Liam O'Brien (Star Wars Rebels).

Now the truth is, is this story is pretty fun... You see in this story, Hydra leader, 'Red Skull' (Liam O'Brien) has hatched a plan along with his Hydra henchmen and, 'Task Master' (Clancy Brown) to kidnap Captain America (Roger Craig Smith) and to steal technology from Iron Man/Tony Stark (Adrian Pasdar), in an effort to build a race of super soldiers that are only loyal to Red Skull!

Captain America & Iron Man in an adventure all their own!

But after Captain America is kidnapped, it will be up to Iron Man (with some help from the, 'Hulk' (Fred Tatasciore)), to not just rescue Captain America, but to get the three of them working to stop Hydra and the Red Skull as well as Task Master before the bad guys can take over the world!

No... The story is not the problem... Is it the talent? No of course not!

You see just about everyone in this movie has been doing these roles for years, and brought the same level of brilliance to this movie that they have brought to the, 'Avengers' cartoons that they have been playing for years!

No what it is... It is the animation... I don't know why they decided to change the animation for the, 'Heroes United' series, but it sucks and is horribly distracting!

In the end though, if you can get past the bad animation... Well this movie is pretty well worth it then... Other wise, this movie may not be for you!

A Nightmare On Elm Street (2010) - Movie Review

Official Score = 1 1/2 Devils

Besides the Aliens franchise, one of the earliest horror movies that I can ever remember watching is, A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)…

I remember at the time that this movie which had a young Patricia Arquette (True Romance) in it, both scared the hell out of me, and also entertained me as well, part of the reason for this obviously was Freddy Krueger (whom at that time was still being played by Robert Englund).

Now at this time Freddy Kruger was really coming in to his own as a trickster who stalked his upcoming victims in their dreams before he killed them! I also found that I liked the dynamic (and the differences) of the team that would work to defeat Freddy as well (including, a jerk, a geek, a loner strong man, a tough girl, a true believer, and the sceptic… to name a few).

Unfortunately this dynamic would begin to fade in the, ‘Nightmare On Elm Street’ series as the sequels went on, but at this time it was still strong, and in some cases this particular film would help to create an interest in the series as a whole, and is part and parcel the reason why I was glad to see the remake to the classic original series recently!

As a stand alone it is pretty good, as a remake... meh...

Written by: Wesley Strick (Cape Fear), Eric Heisserer (The Thing) and Directed by: Samuel Bayer (Green Day: Bullet In A Bible). Starring: Rooney Mara (The Social Network), Jackie Earle Haley (Watchmen), Kyle Gallner (Red State), Katie Cassidy (Kill For Me), Thomas Dekker (The Good Lie) and Clancy Brown (Starship Troopers).

This movie is a re-imagining of the story that we have all grown up to enjoy and get frightened at, you see, a whole bunch of teenagers who become friends at their local High School, start one by one getting terrorized in their dreams by a hideous man in a striped sweater and hat, who is also wearing a glove, that calls himself, ‘Freddy’ (Jackie Early Haley)…

And as these friends start to die off one by one, it will be up to these kids to discover what is going on, and in the process discover a secret that binds these kids together before they thought they had ever met!

Freddy Krueger is about to destroy his first set of kids!

Now all in all, in reviews that I have read and people that I have talked to who have seen this movie, all and all, one for one, each one of them have had very negative comments to make about this movie… And I have to admit that I think that characterization of this movie is kind of fair, but mostly biased…

The truth is, is that this movie is not a horrible movie as a stand alone film… (what I mean by stand alone film, is that if this movie was not a remake, it would not have been that bad.) Of course in the end though, this movie is very paint by numbers and does not have all that much originality to it… Which as a stand alone is kind of bland, but as long as it is a good paint by numbers (like this one is), it is palatable… But as a remake of a classic horror franchise, just straight up sucks!

In the end, this movie is not a horrible, but it could have been better, and if you are looking to watch this movie for the sake of watching it and not expecting some huge fanfare… Then you might enjoy it, otherwise I would not recommend checking this one out.

Starship Troopers (1997) - Movie Review

[caption id="attachment_330" align="alignright" width="220"] Official Score = 2 1/2 Devils[/caption]

Now I did this really all through most of the 90s and the early part of the new millennium! During this time I got the chance to see what in my opinion was some of the greatest Science Fiction and Horror movies of the 1990s and early 2000s!

One of these movies happened to be Starship Troopers (1997):

Written by: Edward Neumeier (RoboCop) and Directed by: Paul Verhoeven (Basic Instinct). Starring: Casper Van Dien (Sleepy Hallow), Dina Meyer (Saw), Denise Richards (Valentine), Jake Busey (Identity), Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother), Clancy Brown (Highlander), Seth Gilliam (The Wire), Patrick Muldoon (Stigmata) and Michael Ironside (Terminator: Salvation).

This movie, (which is based on the novel by Robert Heinlein), is an awesome good time, that tells the story of a future where the world is united under the banner of, 'The Federation', a world government which follows a socialist mentality, where there are two classes of people that live in the Federation.

1. The first one is that of a, 'Federation Citizen'. A person who has served the world government in a military capacity.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="650"] A Citizen working in the Mobile Infantry will help protect the Federation from, 'Bugs'![/caption]

2. The second one being everyone else!

Now this movie tells the story of a group of friends, (which includes: Johnny Rico (Van Dien), Dizzy Flores (Meyer), Carl Jenkins (Patirck Harris) and Carmen Ibanez (Richards)). These friends are dreamers that dream of joining the service so that they can become, 'Citizens' of the Federation.

Rico and Dizzy end up in the Mobile Infantry, Carl ends up in the Intelligence Service and Ibanez ends up in flight school (with a guy by the name of Zander (Muldoon), with whom Rico does not like as he is actively pursuing a relationship with Ibanez who for the first half of the movie is dating Rico.)

After they all head off to their various academies though, the bugs (A large alien race that tends to look like bugs and are hostile to humanity), attack and completely destroy Buenos Aires (the home town of almost all of the characters in the movie.)

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Three best friends from, 'Buenos Aires' come back together to celebrate a major victory against the Bugs![/caption]

Now of course the action in this movie is spectacular, and being as this is a Paul Verhoeven movie, of course the special effects in this movie are spectacular.

But I have to say that the best part of this movie is the story... What I mean by this is that essentially this movie tells the story of a group of friends that are about to graduate High School and head off in to the real world with a lot of dreams and hopes for their futures both together and apart!

http://youtu.be/Y07I_KER5fE