Willie's View Movie Reviews

     How does J.J. Abrams top the success of the previous STAR TREK movie that re-launched the franchise and breathed new life into the Sci-Fi Phenomenon? By bringing back and re-inventing STAR TREK's greatest villain and daring to explore and reinvent existing characters that have been around for more than 47 years.        But is tinkering with beloved characters a good move? That's what Abrams and company did with 2009's STAR TREK and they continue to explore new dimensions without seriously altering Captain Kirk, Mr.Spock and the rest of the crew of the Starship Enterprise.       STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS is a roller coaster ride of action,suspense and high drama. Did I mention the action? It's like an Indiana Jones movie, moving at breakneck speed.       And the film makers continue to explore the very thing that has drawn us to the beloved Enterprise crew for many years-the interaction and relationships of Kirk and friends and how they work together to get

LIFE OF PI=Lifeless film      LIFE OF PI is about a boy stranded in a lifeboat with a Bengal Tiger, after the boat they're on sinks during a storm. And that's pretty much it. Well there is more to it than that, but nothing that really gets you into the movie. Nothing that makes you care about Pi.     That's my big problem with THE LIFE OF PI. I wanted to care, but I didn't. I found the pacing to be slow moving because, like I've already stated, there isn't a whole lot there. I never go into plot details. I let you figure that out on your own, if you decide to watch the movie.     The visuals are the best thing about the movie, but there's only so much of the ocean, flying fish, glowing jellyfish and fighting a Bengal Tiger that I can take.    No, I haven't read the book this movie is based on and now that I've seen the movie-that's a lesson in survival itself-I don't have to. But don't take it from me. I could be wrong. If th

                  When I first heard that Tom Cruise was making a movie based on Lee Child's book series JACK REACHER I was intruiged even though I never nothing about Jack Reacher or had I read any of the books.                      So I went to my local Library and picked up the first book in the series THE KILLING FLOOR and fell in love with the JACK REACHER book series. However, upon reading the books, I realized the movie had made an error in casting Jack Reacher. In the books, Jack is 6 foot 5 inches and weighs around 250 lbs.He is also somewhat scraggly. He IS NOT a 5 foot 7 inch, 180 pound pretty boy. I also began to understood why other Reacher fans were up in arms over the casting of Mr. Cruise. 1) Because he's Tom Cruise and 2)like I already mentioned, Mr.Cruise doesn't fit the character build. My interest in seeing the movie diminished and instead, after the movie opened and played itself out in theaters,I had decided to wait to see the movie on DVD and re

WARNING:  This blog entry contains nothing but spoilers regarding IRON MAN 3. If you have not seen the movie yet, I advice you to not read this. You will be spoiled. Don't say that I didn't warn you.   SPOILER WARNINGS out of the way, I can discuss what has Fan boys across the world with their panties in a bunch over IRON MAN 3.    Now that we have the    The Mandarin, Iron Man's arch enemy in the comic book is not in this movie. Oh sure, he is talked about and we even believe for over half the movie that Sir Ben Kingsley is the Mandarin. But he isn't. It turns out that he is a British stage actor hired by Aldrich Killian, the real villain, to portray a terrorist issuing threats against the President and America.    Ben Kingsley's performance is brilliant and deserves an Oscar nomination. He fools you into believing he is this extreme threat to Tony Stark and America. Then, we the audience get pants half way through the movie.     It's a bold and

       A buddy of mine, Jon Lewis-say hello everyone reading this, to a wonderful man of God.        Anyway, my buddy, Jon, approached me with the idea of merging my two blogs together as one. Basically talking about movies or reviewing movies through a Biblical view instead of a worldly view.       Then I really got to thinking about what Jon said. Why not? Could I do it? I recalled the last movie I saw in theaters, IRON MAN 3 and about how Tony Stark being this brillant creator of technology and businessman yet when it comes to wisdom, and I'm talking Biblical Wisdom, really the only wisdom there is in this world, he is bankrupt. How so, you ask? That is an example and possible entry for the future.      Jon is so right. We need to point out Biblical principals in movies today or the lack of Biblical principals. Maybe, just maybe by God's will, someone reading this who doesn't believe and God and doesn't believe that Jesus died on the cross for his or her sins, j

IRON MAN 3      My thoughts on the latest installment in the Iron Man series will remain as spoiler free as I can keep it. Perhaps I will write an entry in the very near future discussing one particular spoiler that has Fanboys across the world upset with writer/director Shane Black. I think it is genius, although my very first reaction was negative.    IRON MAN 3 finds Tony Stark battling demons from his past(1999 to be exact) that he alone created. They rear their ugly head to wreck havoc and destruction in Tony and friend's lives. How Stark deals with that is the core of the movie. Robert Downey Jr. gives what I feel is his best performance on film in his fourth performance as Tony Stark/Iron Man. As always, he dominates the film with rapid fire dialogue and humor. He is matched against Guy Pierce as Aldrich Killian, a techno scientist like Stark, who's ideas are shot down by Stark and retaliates years later with a revenge plot that rocks Stark's world to it's v