Next is a 2007 film starring Nicolas Cage as a magician that is pursued by the FBI, because of his ability to see into the future. Actress Julianne Moore plays the agent that is seeking to catch Cage, so that she can prevent an imminent terrorist attack on the United States.

The film overall was pretty good. It made clever use of Cage’s ability to see into the future and had some pretty coll special effects. For some reason, the film didn’t do all that well in the box office market, though it was heavily promoted.
It’s still a good movie to watch; even own, if you’re into mild sci-fi films.

Budget: $70 million
Director: Lee Tamahori
Starring:
Nicolas Cage
Julianne Moore
Jessica Biel
Thomas Kretschmann
Michael Trucco

The Island is a 2005 Michael Bay film about a group of people that think they are survivors of a surface apocalypse. they live underground waiting to win the lottery, that will someday take them to the only inhabitable surface area -the island.

Only thing is, the lottery is really your death ticket and there are no winners.

The film was really good and interesting from a futuristic point of view. Some of the audience didn’t care for the film, though it seemed to be one of those films where they really couldn’t explain why. Either you like it or you don’t.

It’s loaded with eye candy for both men and women, with a really good plot and plenty of twists and turns.

A very good rental or own.

Budget: $122 million
Director: Michael Bay
Starring:
Ewan McGregor
Scarlett Johansson
Djimon Hounsou
Sean Bean
Steve Buscemi
Michael Clarke Duncan
Ethan Phillips
Noa Tishby

Edge of Darkness is a 2010 film starring Mel Gibson. It’s been a while since he’s been a lead in a movie; even though, he did an outstanding job with his character.

The film is about a Boston Police Officer, who watches the murder of his visiting daughter, then tries to figure out who killed her and why.

The film has several twists and turns and everyone Gibson comes into contact with, appears to be involved. What makes watching Gibson so fun is, he really does turn into the loose cannon cop, he’s known for from other films, while trying to solve the murder in this one. The end – we’ll you’ll have to rent it to see, but everyone gets what they have coming to them – Gibson style.

Overall a great rental.

Budget: $60 million
Director: Martin Campbell
Starring:
Mel Gibson
Danny Huston
Ray Winstone
Bojana Novakovic
Shawn Roberts
Caterina Scorsone

Signs is a 2002 film, starring Mel Gibson as a simple farmer trying to raise his kids. Then one day, they discover a crop circle in their corn field. Trying to figure it all out and what it might mean, Gibson has to deal with keep his kids grounded and the line of people that want to ask him what he knows.

Soon, we learn that the crop circle was the fun part as news reports start pouring in about alien landings all over the place. One of the people Gibson knows, points out that they may be afraid of water, since all of the landings have been away from lakes and oceans.

Eventually, an alien does make it to Gibson’s farm; tries to kidnap his son, but the clever Gibson remembers the ‘water.’
Using the half empty water glasses, that just happen to be on top of everything in the house, Gibson defeats the alien, gets his son back, and saves all their lives.

Overall, the film was good. Upon intially seeing it, I did feel like the trailer and advertising was a little misleading. The film focused a lot more on the family and not so much on action. Those action scenes that did come up felt rushed, pushed, and some even felt staged (check the block).

Still a good film though, just wanted more from M. Night Shyamalan.

Budget: $72 million
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Starring:
Mel Gibson
Joaquin Phoenix
Rory Culkin
Abigail Breslin
Cherry Jones

Platoon is an awesome 1986 Oliver Stone film that won four Oscars. The film, for those still out there that haven’t seen it — follows a small infantry platoon during the Vietnam War. It shows the daily life and routine, while also showing each individual mans struggle to keep their own sanity, deal with the hardships, and survive long enough to get back home.

The film has an all star cast. Most of the young faces in the film were just beginning their careers in Hollywood when they were cast for this film.

For those you that haven’t seen it — if you don’t like war movies, then this is not for you, but if you do like war movies and haven’t seen it, you can still rent it and watch it. It’s a really great film!

Budget: $6 million
Director: Oliver Stone
Starring:
Johnny Depp
Keith David
Forest Whitaker
Kevin Dillon
Willem Dafoe
Tom Berenger
Francesco Quinn
John C. McGinley

Minority Report is set in the future when there is virtually no murders in the Washington D.C. area. Tom Cruise’s character Chief John Anderton is part of the precrime unit that has the ability to predict and prevent murders that are about to take place. The person caught about to murder someone is then place in a cryo type sleep.

Only problem for Anderton is, his name is about to come up, predicting he is going to murder someone. Now he’s in a race against time to find out who the prediction says he’s going to kill and to clear his name. While he’s doing all this, he’s being pursued by his old team of cops.

He eventually learns that sometimes, there is a hiccup in the predictions, and a minority report is created from this hiccup. Anderton, knowing he’s not going to kill anyone, needs his minority report.

Overall, a great action packed film with twists and turns from beginning to end. It was a great film when it was madde and still is.

Budget: $102 million
Director: Steven Spielberg
Starring:
Tim Cruise
Max von Sydow
Steve Harris
Neal McDonough
Patrick Kilpatrick
Jessica Capshaw

After the awesomeness of the first Transformers, people were really excited for this one to come out. Overall, it was a good film, but unlike the first one, this film seemed to be more about the special effects, Megan Fox, and a forced plot. Most of the things I recall reading about the film, turned out to be momentary snippets that didn’t amount to much.

The film is about Megatron being brought back to life by a crew of Decepticons that are hiding on earth. From there, they have to find the key to a machine that has been hidden on the planet for thousands of years. The Decepticon behind all this is named Fallen.

So, the film, while loaded with action and awesome special effects, really lacked an attention grabbing plot. For a film that is 150 minutes long, you really need one of those.

Budget: $200 million
Director: Michael Bay
Starring:
Shia LaBeouf
Megan Fox
Josh Duhamel
Tyrese Gibson
John Turturro
Isabel Lucas
Rainn Wilson
Ramon Rodriguez

Resident Evil is a 2002 film that is a take off the very popular video game. It stars Milla Jovovich as Alice. Alice works for the powerful Umbrella Corporation and wakes up, not knowing who or where she is after the secret facility she works in has been attacked by a secret virus.

The film closely follows the video game. Obviously there’s more to do in the game than in the film, most game to film movies don’t transition over over well. The first time we saw the film, being fans of the game, there was a bit of disappointment, but as time as gone on, it tends to grow on you, especially if you’re a repeat movie watcher.

Overall, the film is good, they’ve built a successful franchise from the game and now the movies – there is a 4th being released soon.

Budget: $32 million
Director: Paul W.S. Anderson
Starring:
Milla Jovovich
Michelle Rodriguez
Eric Mabius
James Purefoy
Colin Salmon

Superman Returns is a 2006 film, about Superman/Clark Kent returning to earth after being gone for several years. Where did he go? He went to look for his home planet of Krypton after scientists had said that they might have found a remnant of it floating in space.

After returning to Earth both Superman and Clark are welcome by the people of the planet and the folks at the Daily Planet. Soon though, they’ll all discover that Superman’s arch enemy has again been up to no good. He’s plotting to change the face of the planet by sinking the continents and replacing them with his own kryptonite laced land masses.

Superman soon discovers the plot, that Louis Lane and her son have been kidnapped, and that the people of earth are doomed if he can’t stop Lex Luther. After battling Luther’s gang and barely surviving, Superman again returns, only this time he’ll attack the problem – the mass itself. Using his laser eyes, he burrows into the planets crust, and picks up the land mass and flies off into to space with it saving everyone.

Soon after, he discovers that the son of Louis Lane is also his son.

Overall, a great film with great special effects. There are some hardcore comic book fans out there that didn’t respond well to the film, but the vast majority of people liked it.

Budget: $209 million
Director: Bryan Singer
Starring:
Brandon Routh
Kate Bosworth
Kevin Spacey
James Marsden
Parker Posey
Frank Langella
Sam Huntington
Eva Marie Saint
Marlon Brando
Kal Penn

Iron Man 2 is a really good 2010 sequel to the first. The film picks up where the first one left off, only this time Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) has several problems that he needs to solve. First, the arc reactor he wears to keep himself alive is also killing him, he hands his company over to Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), and a Russian physicist (Mickey Rourke) from the past would like nothing more than to see Stark and his legacy killed.

The film has full blown action and special effects, along with a whole bunch of new futuristic gadgets that you most certainly will find cool.

Overall, it’s a really good sequel & and a third is currently in the works.

Budget: N/A
Director: Jon Favreau
Starring:
Robert Downey Jr.
Don Cheadle
Scarlett Johansson
Gwyneth Paltrow
Sam Rockwell
Mickey Rourke
Samuel L. Jackson
Clark Gregg
John Slattery
Jon Favreau
Paul Bettany
Kate Mara
Leslie Bibb