Movie review - Terminator Salvation

I saw T4, AKA, Terminator Salvation last week and I did enjoy it a lot. I saw it at Cinéma Banque Scotia (formerly The Paramount) in theatre 4, which is one of their "smaller" room (it's still big enough, mind you), but selected it because it was a DLP projection. Digital means no scratches, lines, pops and other annoying defects. Purists will say old film is still the best, but I am a digital man...

As a tag line say "it happened". Judgment Day, that is. No time travel in this story, we are in the middle of the war, launched by Skynet. So I was expecting an action movie with lots of explosions, shooting, chases, killer robots and much mayhem. Instead, I got a lovely family story reflecting on the aftermath of global warming on the North Pole. NOT! I got exactly what I was expecting. Lots of action. The story was good enough for this type of movie, but it does have a few holes. But that's not what I was thinking while I was watching, so I don't mind.

One thing that spoiled it a little for me, was knowing in advance a plot element about one of the character, which should have been a surprise, but was revealed before the movie got out. I think it was in the trailer, actually. But that was not enough to completely spoil it. Just a little.

John Connor, played by Christian Bale, is of course a key element in the story, but we also follow other characters throughout the movie. The most important character is probably Marcus Wright, played by Sam Worthington. While the original actors were not really in this movie, there are two "cameos" from T2's characters...

If you are a Terminator fan, do go see this movie. While it didn't get as much praise as another recent SciFi movie, it certainly is worth seeing on the big screen. Personally, the order in which I would put the four movies, starting with the one I like best is: T2, T1, T4, T3.

Last thing I want to mention is that one of the trailer in front of this movie was Surrogates, starring Bruce Willis. What surprised me most about it was that this movie is coming out this year, filming is obviously well under way, but this is the first I heard of it! Looks interesting.

Movie review: Live Free or Die Hard

John McClane is back! Played by Bruce Willis, the unluckiest cop on Earth is once again stuck on a mission he didn't chose but for which no one else is available, so he take care of things like any anti-hero would.

You'd think that after all he has done he would have been recognized and rewarded, but he's still didn't make it past detective. Here, he is asked to escort a computer hacker, Matt Farrell, to be delivered to the FBI, after he is made a suspect in a big hacking crime. There are other suspects, which get killed one after the other, which is not known to McClane when he gets to Farrell's home. But just moments after he enters his place, things get crazy, with shoot-outs and explosions, the first of many during the movie.

I really liked this movie, full of action, humour and some decent hacking. Computer hacking in movies are often way off reality, but here it's fairly believable. One thing I did not know (i tried not to get too much info ahead of time), is that Kevin Smith (AKA Silent Bob in Dogma, Clerks, Mall Rats, etc) is playing another hacker in this movie. So of course, there is one or two Star Wars references... ;-)

The actions and stunts, on the other hand, are next to impossible in some cases. But that's OK for this type of film and dare I say, expected. We see a few examples in the trailer, so if you're not sure that you want to see this movie yet, check it out to have a good idea of what to expect.