Suicide Squad - The Anti Heroes of DC Comics

This movie has been buzzing in the media for quite some time and I have known since past few months that it would be premiering in August 2016. I was really intrigued to see how the movie would be. However, when the trailer finally shown before the start of few movies I watched in the past weeks, it was probably not what I was hoping for. Even my wife was thinking that the film looked like a B class movie. Anyway, I still wanted to watch this as early as the premiere date but I was only able to do it after it played for 2 days. So was the movie really not good or it was actually entertaining? Maybe the next few paragraphs can help shed some light.

Brief Story Line

After the events from Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice (BVS), the US government & military leaders were worried and was looking for answers towards the threat that Superman or other super men may posed in future. Amanda Waller (Viola Davis - Ender's Game, Blackhat, How to Get Away with Murder TV series etc) a government official wanted to create a task force consisted of the worst kind of bad guys whom she could control and provide the protections they required. She offered this idea to the government by showing the data of the most dangerous bad guys. 

First in the file was Floyd Lawton aka Deadshot (Will Smith - Hancock, Men in Black, Focus etc) who was an expert in weapons and also assassin for hire. He was notorious for never ever missed a shot. He was captured only because Waller provided a tip on his whereabouts in Gotham city. Next was Dr. Harleen Quinzel aka Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie - The Wolf of Wallstreet, Focus, Legend of Tarzan ec) who was a former psychiatrist in Arkham Asylum where she fell in love with The Joker (Jared Leto - Panic Room, Dallas Buyers Club etc). She became a psychotic person and could do lots of damage without remorse.

The rest of them consisted of Digger Harkness aka Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney - Divergent, A Good day to Die Hard, Terminator Genisys etc) who was a thief and used boomerangs as his weapon, El Diablo (Jay Hernandez - Hostel, Quarantine etc) who could throw fire from his hands, Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye Agbaje - Pompeii, Annie etc) who had skin condition like a reptile and could breath in the water and finally Dr. June Moore (Cara Delevingne - Paper Towns, Pan etc) who could summon an ancient witch called Enchantress who had the power of teleportation and dark magic.

All of these bad guys were in prison and Waller committed to the military leaders she would be able to control all of them under the lead of Col. Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman - Robocop, Run All Night etc). Waller also convinced them that these people were all expendables. If they were unsuccessful, they could be terminated instantly. After some convincing action, finally the task force was given the go ahead. In order to ensure they would be willing to work under Waller and Flag, they were all promised reduction of jail time. 

Meanwhile in Midway City, a very powerful force had taken control of the city and it was protected by a lot of monsters. The task force who sort of called themselves Suicide Squad were assigned to do their first "assignment" which was to free Midway City and also to gather a "package" from there. They were joined by additional member Katana (Karen Fukuhara) who was very expert in using sword and she was like a protector of Flag. Things also got more complicated when Joker tried to break Quinn from the clutches of Waller during this assignment.

So would the squad really be willing to do their assignment? And if yes, could they complete it without hurting anyone else or even their own friends? Could Joker get Quinn free? And what was actually happening in Midway City? Find them all in this interesting take of the anti heroes trying to save the day.

End of Brief Story Line

After watching the 2 hours movie, I felt that it was having a lighter tone than BVS. There were quite frequent funny moments usually involving Quinn and few crack jokes by Deadshot. There were even some few humorous 1 liner from the rest of the cast. The action sequences were quite amazing. I think the most enjoyable character to see was Quinn who was having like a sick relationship with Joker and a real psychopath. My most memorable scene was when Deadshot shooting at so many monsters in Midway city.

There were quite a lot background music playing in this movie and the special effects were quite good as well. One thing that I could not understand was I thought the sound effects were not exceptional. I watched in a theater with 11.1 sound system so I should be having a full blown sound effects but instead I felt it was sub standard. Perhaps I should see in Dolby Atmos? Anyway, for those who are not too fussy like me on this aspect, should not be too bothered.

This movie may not be too suitable for kids as the main characters were actually bad guys who were forced to do good. In fact, if it were not for the scenes where we were able to laugh, I feel that this movie was actually a bit dark. Compared to BVS though, I feel the finale was not as spectacular. However, in terms of DC cinematic universe, I think this film serves as a good bridge till the next movies coming in the near future such as Justice League, Wonder Woman and so on. 

If you are looking for different kind of super "heroes" movies, this is definitely one you should see. Oooh, don't forget that this is not a Marvel movie, so there is no end credit scene which you have to wait till very end. There is however a mid credit scene which you do not want to miss.

Happy watching!

Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out 5 stars

Jason Bourne - Bourne Back at His Best

The second movie of our second movie marathon day yesterday was this action packed film. I was a fan of the Bourne series which I think was quite exceptional for an old fashion action movies with short hand combat, gun shooting and wild car chases. After the 3 original series where Matt Damon starred, the 4th installment was having a different star to play, i.e. Jeremy Renner (The Bourne Legacy). In this 5th one, Matt Dammon reprised his role as the former CIA assassin. So what was the story all about now? Let's get on with it, shall we?

Brief Story Line

After years of the event from The Bourne Ultimatum, Jason Bourne (Matt Damon - Elysium, The Martian etc)  was now hiding in the dark in Greece and became a street fighter to get money for survival. He never seemed to lost his touch though. Meanwhile Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles - 10 Things I Hate about You, Monalisa Smiles, etc) the former CIA operative hacked into CIA server from Iceland to access some of the old CIA data from previous Black Ops. Her intention was to exposed what she believed as CIA's wrongdoings in the past. If you have watched the previous Bourne movies, perhaps you would be familiar with the names of the operations, i.e Treadstone (where Bourne was recruited) and Blackbriar which was the follow up to Treadstone and exposed earlier. A new operation code after Blackbriar was Ironhand. 

While looking into Treadstone files, Nicky noticed that Bourne (previously David Webb) had been under surveillance even before recruited and that his father Richard Webb (Gregg Henry - Guardians of the Galaxy) might have some part in the program. The hacking was found out by the CIA cyber ops head Heather Lee (Alicia Vikander - Seventh Son, The Man from U.N.C.L.E) and her director Robert Dewey (Tommy Lee Jones - Men In Black etc). Nicky escaped from Iceland and arrange to meet with Bourne in Greece to inform him about her findings. During a big demonstration in Athens, where they were supposed to meet, Heather, Dewey and the rest of the CIA team already setup teams in place to capture them. After very tense scenes of running on foot plus car and motor cycle chase involving Dewey's "thug" called the Asset (Vincent Cassel - Ocean's Twelve, Ocean's Thirteen etc), finally Bourne escaped to Berlin.

Bourne was able to decrypt the data she got from Nicky and started to get flashbacks of the last day he met with his father. Based on this data, he would look for Smith who was the operative involved in Treadstone program. He had retired and lived in London now, so Bourne went to London after escaping another attempt of his capture by CIA.

In the CIA headquarters, Heather recommended to Russel, Director of National Intelligence that Jason Bourne might still be useful and she believed he can be brought back to work for CIA, despite the disapproval of Dewey. Russel agreed to this suggestion and gave Heather the lead for the operation to convince Bourne. If she was unsuccessful, the Asset would kill Bourne. 

So can Bourne be convinced to return to CIA? What was the history of Bourne that he was trying to find out? And why does Dewey insisted on killing him? What was Ironhand project and its relation with Deep Dream application? Find them all in this exciting, over the top action 2 hours movie

End of Brief Story Line

Wow, this movie I think was the best in the 5 installments of Bourne series. The movie was fast paced, full of intense scenes and the action sequence were just crazy. The special effects of the action scenes in the end were great and it would definitely strap you to your seats. Even my wife could not let herself go to toilet as she was worried she might miss important scenes.

The sound effect were outstanding. All the bullets flying around and those amazing car & motor chases sounds were amazing. The background music was also very good and definitely added the element of tense. In almost every scenes, there would be the feeling of rush which I think was due to the music.

For those of you who had not seen any of Bourne movies, might be feeling a little bit loss of what the story is. But if you do not want to spend hours to watch the previous 4 films, and if you do not mind a little bit of confusion in the beginning part, then maybe you can still enjoy the movie. 

As an action movie fan, I totally feel this is a top quality one. This is a highly recommended movie. Ooh and if you happen to really buy tickets to see this, I suggest you try to have seats at around the back. There were a lot of scenes where the cameras were not standing still and following the actions around which I think would be better seen from further up rather than from middle seats.

If they really are making another sequel to this one (yes, the ending did give impression that they can still make it), I would definitely be watching it.

Mike's movie moments rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Ice Age: Collision Course - The Fifth Installment of Ice Age Franchise

Well it has been a rather crazy weekend as my wife and I went for a second movie marathon day in a row on Sunday. But instead of 3 movies like on Saturday, we only watched 2 movies yesterday. First one that we watched was an animated movie which we were hoping would give us tons of laughs like we had in previous Ice Age movies.

Brief Story Line

Unlike the Disney/Pixar movies, there was no short animated movie prior to the start of this film. So it immediately started with Scrat our favorite squirrel who was still obsessed with his acorn and while he was trying to bury it on the ice surface, dropped to a place where there was a space ship (yes you read it right, a space ship). While still trying to get the acorn, Scrat accidentally activated the space ship and went flying out of space. Due to these actions, the space ship had made all the planets revolving around the sun and also made a huge asteroid attracted to earth.

Meanwhile on earth, Manny the mammoth (Ray Romano - Everybody Loves Raymond TV series) was worried with his daughter Peaches (Keke Palmer) growing up and going to marry Julian (Adam Devine - Pitch Perfect). He believed that Julian was not good enough for Peaches. His wife Ellie (Queen Latifah - Valentine's Day, 22 Jump Street etc) encouraged Manny to get to know Julian better. Diego the tiger (Denis Leary - The Amazing Spiderman) and Sid the sloth (John Lequizamo - Carlito's Way, Chef etc) also share the same thought. 

During the night celebrating the anniversary of Manny and Ellie, there were so many lights in the sky and finally they realized there was a meteor shower coming to earth. The party was cut short, despite Manny still quarelling with Peaches as she was going to leave for adventure after marrying Julian. All of the herd, including Shira the female tiger (Jennifer Lopez - so many movies), Granny Sid's grandmother (Wanda Sykes - Evan Almighty)  and Crash & Eddie (Sean William Scott - American Pie series) hid inside a cave until the meteor shower cleared.

On the other side of the continent, a place where some dinosaurs still existed, Buck the one eyed weasel (Simon Pegg - Shaun of the Dead, Star Trek etc) had taken away an egg from 3 dinosaurs who stole it and made them offended. Buck escaped from the 3 of them and found his way to Manny and the herd. He told Manny that there was a reason for the huge asteroid coming to earth which would wipe out the earth and literally kill the entire civilization. So Buck with the help from Manny and his friends would go on a journey to save the world while being chased by the 3 dinosaurs.

So can Buck, Manny, Sid, Diego and the rest of the herd really save the world? Can they escape from the 3 dinosaurs who wanted to prevent it from happening? What was the real reason for the asteroid coming to earth? And what would Scrat's role be in this? Find them all in their adventures.

End of Brief Story Line

After watching this movie, I felt that it was not as fun and hilarious as the previous installments. I thought some of the scenes were not funny enough. At first I thought my wife enjoyed it so much coz she laughed quite a lot. But apparently she told me she had the same feeling as I did. For me the story was felt to be too forced. The Scrat's scenes were also too much and made the story line became uncharacteristically not funny. In previous installments, Scrat had always been only in very minor role and usually did not have major impact. But in this movie I personally felt it was just too much and reached the point of no longer funny.

Of course there were some good as well in this movie, like the great visual animation, and there was a scene with Bucky which I believed would have been very cool in 3D (we watched in the normal 2D). Some kids may also enjoy the fun of the chase and the colorful pictures, but as the story continued, I think even those kids grew tired and they did not laugh as hard as in the beginning. There was also a character voiced by Jessie J and of course she sang a song as well in the end credit scene. 

Bottom line, I was a little bit disappointed with this one and perhaps it would not be a good idea for them to make a 6th installment. Unless if they wanted to get back to basics like in the 1st one which was very good according to me (the one where only Manny, Sid and Diego helping to return a toddler to human family).

Anyway, if you are interested in bringing your children to watch this movie, I think still quite ok. But if you plan to watch this without them, perhaps it's better if you watch other movies.

Mike's Movie Moments rating: 3 out of 5 stars