Cradle 2 the Grave (2003)

The flick has great action scenes
but that’s just about it. In this 2003 action film, starring Jet Li and rapper
DMX, an intelligence officer must join forces with a thief so they can retrieve
some diamonds all while saving the thief’s daughter and saving the world from a
lunatic who plans to sell the diamonds that have the power to be used as
weapons.

Cradle 2 the Grave offers a
few good jokes, great action scenes and a few other things that can remind you
of the classic exploitation features from the 1960s and 1970s. But the rest of
the movie is just plain ol’ bad. The acting in the picture is awful, the plot
is even worse, the music is terrible, the dialogue is even more terrible than
the plot and don’t even let me get started on the cinematography. Everything in
the flick is just poor the only good things are, like I said, the few jokes,
the action scenes and the few scenes that pay somewhat tribute to the
exploitation genre.

Rating:
1.5 stars out of 5.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005)

Okay so I hadn’t seen this movie
because it didn’t grab my attention, but now that I have seen it I must say it
was good but not perfect. In this 2005 adaptation of C.S. Lewis popular children’s
novel we get the story of Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy for siblings who have
found a passage to the magical world of Narnia a land which is inhabited by all
sorts of fantastical creatures including talking animals, dwarves, mermaids and
even Santa Claus himself. But the thing is that Narnia is currently being ruled
by the evil White Witch, so now the four children must now fulfill a prophecy
which will get the magical land out of its current state and back to its normal
happy filled way.

I must say this film is very, very
imaginative with all its characters. I never would have imagined creating such
magical place for a feature. Okay, so this flick as far as stories go is very
good, its character are very detailed and simple all at the same time leaving
everybody to enjoy the picture in a better much easier way. Now, although the
story is simple and whatnot it can get a bit boring which is I think the thing
that kind of slows it up. The things that really make this film are its
wardrobe, visuals, setting and its vast roster of very imaginative characters,
not to mention that it is very colorful for this type of movie. Overall the
movie is good but I can’t say that it is perfect because it had me yawning for
quite a while.

Rating:
4 stars out of 5.

Kill Bill Vol. 1 & Vol. 2 (2003 – 2004)

This two-part film has to be the
greatest revenge flick done in a long time, all thanks to master
writer/director Quentin Tarantino. The fourth movie by Tarantino gives us the
epic revenge story of Beatrix Kiddo A.K.A. The Bride A.K.A. Black Mamba an ex-member
of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad who is targeted by her former boss Bill
after finding out that she is pregnant with his kid and she is getting married
to another guy. This epic action drama pays homage to many film genres like
kung fu cinema, samurai films, Italian spaghetti westerns and exploitation
movies all while making numerous pop culture references and an extensive use of
popular music.

There’s no doubt in my mind that
this is one of the best action flicks of the first decade of the new millennium
and that it is also one of my personal favorites, being that I love Quentin
Tarantino and all. Everything in this movie is great, the acting, directing,
choice of music, cinematography and script, its homage to movie genres and film
movements, its use of anime and its use of buckets of blood and exploitative
violence. The picture in its entirety is just a masterpiece of cinema and
storytelling, just like I have told my friends multiple times “It is a novel
told through the seventh art”.

Rating:
5 stars out of 5.

Fred Claus (2007)

No matter which film you saw first Fred
Claus or Four Christmases you can see Vince Vaughn playing basically
the same type of character in both flicks. In this 2007 holiday themed comedy
we get Mr. Vaughn as Frederick “Fred” Claus the brother of Santa Claus
(portrayed by Paul Giamatti) who now must work in Santa’s shop as a payback
favor, but Saint Nicholas has no idea what he is getting into for his brother
brings him nothing but problems, problems that will lead to almost canceling
Christmas forever by an efficiency expert (portrayed by Kevin Spacey) who has
been waiting for this opportunity ever since he was a child.

Considering that this is a family
film I will say that this is a very well done flick for this type for this
genre. But that doesn’t mean that the feature is a masterpiece or anything like
that. The picture has a great plot for this type of genre, but it deals with
vague acting and directing. The thing that saves it is its story, its
characters and its version of Santa’s little village. But overall the film just
isn’t movie gold; it is just a somewhat fun flick for kids and for the entire
family.

Rating:
2.5 stars out of 5.

Four Christmases (2008)

Vince Vaughn once again plays his
usual laid back “cool guy” type of character in another crappy movie. In this
2008 holiday romantic comedy flick we get Vince Vaughn and Academy Award Winner
Reese Witherspoon as a Californian couple who are forced to spend the holidays
with all of their divorced parents, hence the name Four Christmases, due to the
fact that they can’t go to their usual holiday spot because all the flights in
the San Francisco International Airport have been canceled due to a fogbank. By
spending time with their divorced parents the two main characters start to find
out some “bones” they had in their respective “closets” leaving them to ask a
lot of questions about their relationship.

This film is filled with a great
cast and it can certainly do a whole lot more, but its story, characters and overall
script just plain sucks. I mean the plot is very predictable and the acting by
a lot of the actors is just plain and simple bad. I feel that the movie needed
to be rewritten once again, if it ever was rewritten. It needs more detailed
characters, better dialogue and a highly more imaginative and original plot.
But not everything in the flick is bad there are few things that actually make
you laugh, but they are just too little to surpass badness of this feature.
Overall the picture is just plain bad in its plot, characters and dialogue;
only a few little things are actually funny, but they are very little.

Rating:
1.5 stars out of 5.

Calle 13 – “Entren Los Que Quieran” (2010)

The
first three by Puerto Rican duo Calle 13 were all masterworks of music. Their
self-titled first production was highly influenced by reggaeton which was
probably the most popular musical genre in Latin America at its time; their
second piece Residente o Visitante continued to have a few reggaeton
influences but it was highly more inclined to alternative hip hop and Latin
sounds; their third production Los de Atras Vienen Conmigo completely
said “goodbye” to reggaeton and focused on other musical genres such as
alternative hip hop, cumbia, salsa and even electro; this new production, like
its predecessor, doesn’t have any contact whatsoever with reggaeton and instead
focuses on other world-like genres where there can be found influences from the
usual hip hop, Hawaii, India, Broadway, rock music, merengue and even Western
cinema.

I
had been waiting for a long time to see what would be Calle 13’s new album and
what types of music would this new production explore seeing that in each album
new musical genres were being taken as influences. When it finally came out I
was very excited, I mean quickly went out, bought it and when I put it in my
car I was, first of all, laughing my ass off but then I was completely amazed. Calle 13 just never seizes
to amaze me. This album is way more personal and it focuses more on social
issues like political, death and the use of guns which can be seen in songs
like “La Bala”, “Vamo’ A Portarnos Mal”, “Preparame La Cena” and “Digo Lo Que
Pienso”. A few artists that helped the duo complete this masterpiece are Omar
Rodriguez-Lopez, of The Mars Volta, Seun Kuti and Toto la Momposina. Overall
the album is just a masterwork of music and it has to be one of the greatest
productions from any Latin American and overall artist.

Rating:
5 stars out of 5.