Starring: Denzel Washington, Chris Pine, Rosario Dawson, Ethan Suplee, T.J. Miller, Kevin Corrigan, Kevin Dunn.
Brief Synopsis: Rookie Will (Pine) is joining veteran railroad worker Frank (Washington) to pick up and deliver a shipment. Meanwhile, Dewey (Suplee) and Gilleece (Miller) accidentally let a train get away from them with no driver - setting up a thrill ride to try and figure out how to stop the train before it gets to a largely populated area.
Opinion: This was pretty darn fun. You pretty much know what you are going to get from Washington now, but Pine is still somewhat of a new commodity - and so far he has done a great job. And, even though his role was small, anytime you can get Kevin Corrigan in a film I am going to love his character. He is great. Pretty exciting film, and also pretty hard to believe that something like it could actually happen.
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Starring: Karl Urban, Olivia Thirlby, Lena Headey, Wood Harris, Warrick Grier.
Brief Synopsis: In a future United States, most of what is left is a wasteland. Not just police officers, but law enforcers are now judge, jury and executioners depending on how they see it. A new drug called 'slo-mo' is introduced and after Judge Dredd (Urban) and his new partner Cassandra Anderson (Thirlby) find a couple of dead bodies and decide to check out the slum tower known as Peach Trees, which is ruled by drug lord Ma-Ma (Headey).
Opinion: Wow, a non-stop thrill ride. I was really hoping to check out the original Judge Dredd before I watched this one, but I had heard so many good things that I just decided to check out the new one. And, it was a great action flick. Urban was great as Dredd, and my first real introduction to Thirlby - even though I have apparently seen her a handful of times before. She was just more of a standout here.
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Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Chuck Norris, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Terry Crews, Randy Couture, Liam Hemsworth, Nan Yu.
Brief Synopsis: Church (Willis) has returned to force Barney (Stallone) to retrieve an item from a plane that has crashed in Albania and sends along tech expert Maggie (Nan). Barney pulls up his Expendables crew and has no problems tracking down the item. But, Billy (Hemsworth) is captured by Jean Vilain (Van Damme) and his crew - which forces Barney to hand over the retrieved item. The rest of the film, the Expendables look for revenge on Vilain and his crew, and look to retrieve the stolen item.
Opinion: In the first film, I was just happy to see some of the old guys - Stallone and Lundgren for the most part - but the film itself wasn't exceptional, though it was still enjoyable. This one, though, I felt was much better and more of a fun ride. Plus, seeing Stallone, Willis and Schwarzenegger shooting their guns side-by-side was just amazing to see. Looking forward to the next installment.
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Starring: Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Famke Janssen, Leland Orser, Jon Gries, D.B. Sweeney, Luke Grimes.
Brief Synopsis: Bryan Mills (Neeson) and his daughter, Kim (Grace), are still trying to recover from the events that happened in the first film. But, apparently so are the families of those that Mills killed trying to recover his kidnapped daughter. And, they are out to kidnap the family again and make Mills suffer like they did.
Opinion: As much as I was still into this film, I don't think they caught the lightning that they did during the first film. Something in that one just mesmerized a lot of people - including Neeson's delivery over the phone of that one conversation with the kidnappers. The first film was centered around Grace's character, but she wasn't as involved as she was here - though I liked her, she may have held Neeson back a bit. Not sure, but I liked the first one better.
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