It’s such an awesome movie isn’t it? Going to Vegas made me want to watch it again - I’m watching it right now as I type this :)

i don’t steal from people who can’t afford it, and i don’t hurt people who don’t deserve it.

Movie Review: Parker (2013)

IMDb Summary: A thief with a unique code of professional ethics is double-crossed by his crew and left for dead. Assuming a new disguise and forming an unlikely alliance with a woman on the inside, he looks to hijack the score of the crew’s latest heist.

What I liked:

• Parker - as in, the character himself. He’s like a modern day Robin Hood.
• Jason Statham as Parker. Cause he’s fucking Jason Statham doing what he does best, which is being a badass.
• Jennifer Lopez as Leslie. Just to clarify: I still do NOT like J.Lo, and I still am not super thrilled that she got cast in this movie opposite my boyfriend (hehe) seeing as how I think that she is a terrible singer and an even worse actress. However, this role seemed to be more suited to her, in that she didn’t have to go too far out of her comfort zone, and was neither too annoying nor super helpless either. It’s also interesting to note, that despite what I had originally expected of her role, she is not Parker’s love interest (yay!).
• The fight scenes. I had mentioned in my post about Die Hard, that one of the unbelievable things about Jason Statham movies is that no matter how many fights he gets into, he walks away virtually unscathed almost every time. Not so in this movie. The fights are VERY gritty - which caused me to cringe a couple times - and a whole lot more realistic than most other fights in his films.
• The witty one-liners. After witnessing one of Parker’s “jobs”, Leslie asks, “How do you sleep at night?” He replies, “I don’t drink coffee after seven.” Haha!

What I didn’t like:

• Not enough fight scenes. It’s pretty simple - when I go to see a Jason Statham movie, I’m pretty much only looking for one thing: for him to kick tons and tons of ass. Sure the fight scenes that were featured in the movie were pretty good, but for an action movie, the action was a bit lacking.
• The flashbacks at the beginning of the film. Sometimes flashbacks are done well (see: Lost) and other times they’re not - case in point: this movie. They pretty much came out of nowhere and didn’t flow well with the movie.
• Jason Statham’s Texas accent, because as much as I love him, let’s be honest: any accent that Jason Statham attempts still sounds like a British accent.

What was my favorite scene?

Probably the final fight scene against Carlson (Wendell Pierce) and Melander (Michael Chiklis) in which Statham plays his usual stealthy but deadly assassin, and Leslie displays some heroism as well.

Interesting Tidbit:

Clifton Collins, Jr., who played Ross in this film, also previously co-starred with Jason Statham in Crank: High Voltage.

Final Thoughts:

I’d been meaning to post about this movie for a while now (I actually watched this movie it’s opening weekend of January 25) – I had a partial draft for a long while now and finally got around to finishing it today because between then and now, work and life kept getting in the way – but I digress.

Overall, I thought Parker was a pretty okay movie. Not the most impressive or memorable entry in the Jason Statham film catalog – acting-wise, I still think The Bank Job is his best, and action-wise I think Safe is his best – but entertaining enough for lil ole me :)

Ever felt like you were so tired, yet you can’t seem to fall asleep? Or so hungry, yet for some reason you don’t have the appetite? Yeah, it’s been that kind of week - one of the most emotionally draining ones I’ve had in a long while :(

Blerg!

i will look for you. i will find you. and i will kill you.

Movie Review: Taken (2008)

IMDb Summary: A retired CIA agent travels across Europe and relies on his old skills to save his estranged daughter, who has been kidnapped while on a trip to Paris.

What I liked:

• Liam Neeson as Bryan. I’ve never seen any of his movies before, so I didn’t really know what to expect, least of all that Liam Neeson was such a badass action star! Loved him as the retired CIA agent who kicked tons and tons of ass all in the name of vengeance.

• Maggie Grace as Bryan’s daughter Kim. I’m a HUGE fan of Lost so it was cool to see her here. Although when I first saw her, she was so convincing as a teenager that I had assumed that this movie was probably shot before she got her big break on Lost. Turns out that this movie was released 3 years after she left Lost as a series regular.

• The suspense. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time.

What I didn’t like:

• The subject matter was a little heavy. Prostitution, human trafficking, underage women - it’s all very disturbing and not easy to watch - especially given that the victim was the main character’s daughter.

Interesting tidbit:

After watching this movie, I looked it up on Wikipedia and found it interesting that the Luc Besson produced and co-wrote this movie with Robert Mark Kamen - the same duo who produced and co-wrote The Transporter.

What was my favorite part of the movie:

The scene in which Bryan tortures Marko (Arben Bajraktaraj) - the man who kidnapped his daughter- with electricity.

Final thoughts:

I wasn’t actually planning to watch it, but ended up doing so because Tom put it on the other night because it’s one of his favorites. Like I mentioned before, parts of this movie were a bit difficult for me to watch, given that it deals with human trafficking and prostitution, and I couldn’t help but think how distraught, disturbed, and enraged I would be if someone I knew was in this situation, let alone my daughter. Having said that, Liam Neeson was absolutely awesome in this film. He portrayed all of these emotions so well, and you can’t help but root for him to find the bad guys and give them what they deserve.

it’s been awhile

since I’ve posted anything really deep and profound on my blog. The last month and a half or so has been pretty crazy, between the crazy overtime I’ve been pulling at work, a trip to Vegas, then getting sick (the worst I’ve had in a while), and now jury duty on top of work, and hence I’m falling behind on Tumbl’ing (Tumblr’ing?). I’m hoping things slow down in the next month, but we’ll see…

I have a couple movies that I’ve seen recently that I’ve been meaning to blog about as well as some movies we’ve gotten that I need to catch up on (among them: Argo). Stay tuned.

Side note: This is the first time in a while that I’ve posted from my computer (I often like, comment, reblog or do short posts from the Tumblr app on my phone)… what’s up with the new UI? Not really liking this new “overlay” box that comes up when you create a new post… Plus it’s a bit buggy - the hyperlink feature doesn’t really work. And trust me, you DON’T want me to be the person QA’ing your website.