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Showing posts from June, 2010

Review - The A-Team

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The A-Team (2010), PG-13 - Like many people my age, I grew up watching The A-Team on tv. It started in 1983 and ran for 5 seasons. Outside of a few random re-runs seen during my college years, I'm pretty sure I haven't re-watched any of those old episodes. Having said that, I was still fairly leery of this big screen adaptation going into it. Could a movie made almost 30 years later possibly hit on the same things that made the tv show so popular without destroying the fond memories of the show from my childhood? Quite surprisingly, the answer is yes. The plot isn't anything ground breaking, but it does the job. The A-Team is comprised of 4 Rangers who complete special missions (quite often of the black-ops variety) for the Army. After an operation goes bad, they are wrongly accused, striped of their ranks and imprisoned. The movie then follows their shenanigans as they break out and proceed to attempt to clear their names by proving their innocence. The c

Review - Splice

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Splice (2009), R, 104 minutes - Splice is the story of a pair of scientists, Clive and Elsa (Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley respectively) push the edge of accepted legal and ethical practices when they splice human DNA into their latest experiment. They had previously made a scientific breakthrough when they spliced together DNA strands from a handful of species to create an entirely new species. The goal that they hoped to reach with the new species was to be able to synthesize it's genes to create vaccines for livestock. Clive and Elsa believe that with the inclusion of human DNA, they would be able to instead synthesize genes that could lead to cures for many human diseases. When their financial backers want to focus on the development of the genes for livestock vaccines as opposed to pushing ahead with the ethical question mark that would be working with human DNA, the pair decide to conduct an experiment including human DNA off the books. The result is a creature they co

Review - Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

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Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010), PG-13, 106 minutes - Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time was the post HeroesCon movie this year joining the ranks of such classically mediocre films as Superman Returns, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Hulk (Edward Norton), and Terminator: Salvation. It also happens to be the latest video game property to be adapted to the big screen. Jake Gyllenhaal plays the lead character Dastan, an orphan of the streets of Persia who became the adopted son of the King after the King witnessed Dastan stand up for a fellow orphan when the King's guard's caught him stealing. Dastan grows up to lead what is basically a special forces unit in the Persian Army. Dastan's unit is the group actually breaches the defenses of the holy city of Alamut when Dastan's brother Prince Tus decides to invade because he was told that Alamut had been supplying Persia's opposition with weapons. It is during this invasion that Dastan comes ac