Salt

Okay, to say that I was somewhat disappointed in Phillip Noyce's 2006 "Catch A Fire" starring Derek Luke and Tim Robbins would be the understatement of the decade. This was the director of "Patriot Games" and "Clear and Present Danger", two films I really enjoyed. "Catch" had a great cast and the potential to be up there in the canon of top anti-apartheid films. That never happened and Phillip Noyce then turned his attention to directing a few episodes of "Brotherhood" and then disappeared.

That was until now. Phillip Noyce has re-emerged with Salt, a powerhouse movie starring Angelina Jolie as Evelyn Salt, Liev Schreiber as Ted Winter, and Chiwetel Ejiofor as Peabody (apparently making up for his role in 2012).

The film starts off three years in the past with a spy exchange in North Korea of Salt and some unamed North Korean spy. Salt is welcomed back with open arms and resumes her career in the CIA. She's about to head home to her loving spider hunting (I am not making this up) husband until a Russian defector states that Salt is a Russian spy and is going to kill someone major (doing my best to not give the plot away here) in NYC at the funeral of the Vice President. Then the film becomes a high octane chase movie with Salt doing her best to avoid capture and being shot by jumping from truck top to truck top.

I would have to say that this role for Angelina would have to be her most physically demanding role of her career. Sure she didn't do her own stunts but she did an awful lot of running and fighting in this movie then she's ever done before and she does it with much swagger. Sure she fought in "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" and "Wanted" but those movies don't even come close to the physicality of this film and Angelina pulls it all off convincingly. That goes for the rest of the cast as well. Liev and Chiwetel are no slouches when it comes to laying the smack down or chasing Salt around.

The cinematography captured the beauty and the grit of NYC perfectly and the editing was spot on. Nothing was cut from too soon or too late. The only underwhelming thing about this flick was the score. James Newton Howard usually does an exceptional job of scoring films but in this instance his music seemed directionless and forgettable until at the very end of the picture where he seemed to finally find his footing.

It's apparent Phillip Noyce has created a great popcorn summer hit and has made a triumphant return to movie making. You'll definitely enjoy this one so get your tickets, sit back, and prepare yourself for a fun ride and I'll see you at Salt 2!!!!

Predators

Okay, initially I wasn't going to review this movie (I was basically going to leave it alone) BUT a friend asked me to and so here I go.

Directed by Nimrod Antal and written by Alex Litvak, Michael Finch, and Jim and John Thomas (Jim and John wrote the first Predator movie), Predators is like a pretty good sandwich with nasty tasting bread. Meaning the beginning makes utterly no sense and the ending was completely ludicrous but the middle of the movie wasn't all that bad. If you can get past the beginning and if you leave maybe four or five minutes before the ending AND if you liked the very first Predator movie with Arnold then you won't mind some of the images in this movie.

Now I know you're probably asking yourself "why Adrian Brody?" and honestly, I don't know. I can't defend that move because it made no sense when I first heard he was going to be in the movie and now after seeing the movie I still don't get it but whatever. He plays "Royce" and he's the first person you see on screen, free falling through the clouds and plummeting towards a planet. Just when he's about to become a human meteorite his parachute opens (where this chute comes from is NEVER explained by the way) and he lands uninjured. As does the Yakuza gangster "Hanzo" played by Louis Ozawa Changchien, the big Russian "Nikolai" played by Oleg Taktarov (who just so happens to carry the same kind of gatlin gun that Jesse Ventura carried in the first film), "Isabelle" played by Alice Bragga (who you the viewer is supposed to believe is the young woman who survived in the first Predator movie along with Arnold) and all the others that parachuted in for the fun. Yes I said parachuted, don't ask me I didn't write it.

I know, I know, you're wondering where is Laurence Fishburn in all this. His character "Noland" also parachuted in but that happened years ago. For Noland, the planet became his own little island like the kind Tom Hanks inhabited in "Cast Away". The only thing Noland was missing was his very own "Wilson" because he was definitely talking to himself (can you say cliche?). He saves the group and then completely descends into Survivor mode and completely implodes (or explodes if you know what I mean).

Royce and his band of merry killers happen to wander into the Predators camp and in another nod to the first movie, there is a classic Predator trussed up. Royce figures there must be a ship that the predators use to get off the planet and he wants that ship for himself so he frees the tied up Predator in the hopes that he wants off the planet as badly as Royce does but the lead Predator arrives and the fight that ensues between the classic and evolved Predator is almost like the first time you saw two Terminators fight, it was impressive. Now this is where I would suggest you either walk out of the theater, turn off the DVD, or if you're really smart and wait for it to hit cable, this is where you change the channel because after the fight the movie turns south in a hurry.

The music by John Debney is a throw back to the first Predator score by Alan Silvestri, there's not much difference there (which is a good thing) and even the song playing during the closing credits is "Long Tall Sally" by Little Richard which of course was in the first movie. Now you could say that's due to a lack of originality but I would much rather say it's done to pay homage to the original film (they could have done a better job of that but they didn't so don't hope for more).

Would I recommend this movie to someone? ONLY if they are truly in love with Predator and would like to rinse that sour taste out of their mouths left behind from the AVP movies. If they aren't that person I would say skip it and wait for the bootleg DVD or cable.

I'll see you at the theater people!!!!

Inception

First off, welcome to Killer Korn, my movie review blog. So many people who know me consider me a critic and think I'm too hard on films because I view them differently then the average viewer (not that you're average but you know what I mean). I chose to put my thoughts on movies down in a blog (kudos to Art for helping out with the blog name).

Now I chose to start my blog reviewing the most amazing movie of the year so far (Tron Legacy may have something to say about movie of the year but we'll have to wait until December for that). Inception by Christopher Nolan is without a doubt the best movie of the year and so far it's put to shame every movie that's come before it this year. That's because not only is Inception an original idea and not a part 2 or part 3 (i.e Iron Man 2, Toy Story 3, Shrek the Third) but because it has something for every movie goer.

It's an intelligent movie, almost a "talkie" (that's what I call a movie when there's more talking than there is action) but just when you think that the action erupts on the screen with no apologies. A foot chase through Mombasa, a car chase through the streets with a van full of sleeping people complete with freight train, a shootout on snow covered mountains and so much more.

Dom Cobb played by Leonardo DeCaprio is the leader of a rag tag team hired to do something that's deemed to dangerous and virtually impossible. Inception is a movie where Dom and his team are hired to enter your dreams and steal your secrets. This time a Japanese businessman (Ken Watanabe) wants to hire Dom and his team (Ellen Page as the architect, Joseph-Gorden Levitt as Dom's right hand man, and Tom Hardy as the forger) to plant an idea into the subconcious of Cillian Murphy to get him to change his mind on a business idea. That's one hell of a plot but when you throw on top of all that how Dom can't get over or let go of the memory of his deceased wife Mal (Marion Coutillard) and how he's doing this last job in the hopes of getting home to his children and you have the makings of the meatiest movie in a long time.

I didn't think Nolan could top The Dark Knight but Inception blows Dark Knight out of the water and that's definitely with the help of Hans Zimmer score. It's taut with tension and pushes the movie along in ways a score is supposed to. It becomes a character on it's own and it's definitely one of Hans' best score in a long time (yes it's better than his score for last years Sherlock Holmes and that was a pretty good one too).

I am going to see it again because I want to make sure I didn't miss anything (it's possible) and basically because it's just a damn good movie. If you haven't seen it, SEE IT! And if you have seen it and are going to see it again, I'll see you at the theater.