my thoughts on.... 'Stone' (2010)

How can you have a film with Edward Norton, Robert De Niro, Milla Jovovich and Frances Conroy and it not be fantastic? Not too mention, Edward Norton has had an excellent track record, over the years, of not making any films that were garbage. If I was to watch one of his films, I was pretty much expecting to see something great. 'Stone' is in no way a bad movie.... it just seemed to not quite live up to his usual standards. It was a well done movie, that just suffered from a slow moving and uninteresting script and a story that you ultimately just don't care too much about. It's kind of like watching a Nascar race waiting for a wreck, but it never happens and you leave feeling like you saw something neat, but it never paid off in any way. I watched the whole thing waiting for a hook or a big twist or turn or something. Maybe if I'd known in advance that it was just a slow boiler of a movie, I might have understood it and enjoyed it more, you know? I suppose you can't have a perfect record forever. Edward Norton played a similar character to what he did in 'American History X' or 'Primal Fear'. It felt kind of like old territory.

Here is the plot according to http://www.imdb.com: "Parole officer Jack Mabry (Robert De Niro) has only a few weeks left before retirement and wishes to finish out the cases he's been assigned. One such case is that of Gerald "Stone" Creeson (Edward Norton), a convicted arsonist who is up for parole. Jack is initially reluctant to indulge Stone in the coarse banter he wishes to pursue and feels little sympathy for the prisoner's pleads for an early release. Seeing little hope in convincing Jack himself, Stone arranges for his wife Lucetta (Milla Jovovich) to seduce the officer, but motives and intentions steadily blur amidst the passions and buried secrets of the corrupted players in this deadly game of deception." This makes it sound more interesting than it was. Maybe I just wasn't paying enough attention?

I'm hoping that one of you out there saw this and enjoyed it. I have a feeling that I'm going to re-visit it again in the next decade, as I truly feel like I missed something with this movie. I just can't belive that all of this talent could make something so luke warm. You have this strange relationship between De Niro and Norton's character and when they add Milla's character into the mix, it just gets odd. She is such a stand out performance compared to everyone else that she kind of overshadows the bland plot. De Niro feels like he's sleepwalking and Norton feels like he has been out of work for a decade, which he hasn't. Finally, Frances Conroy, was Frances Conroy.... smoking cigarettes. The potential of this cast and movie were huge. If you see this movie and find a different experience than what I found, please drop me a line and fill me in on what you saw and got out of this movie. Please.

When the smoke cleared and all was said and done, I still gave this a 3 out of 5 star rating. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good. It just made me long for other films from these actors. I am still looking forward to what everyone involved has coming up next, as there is a lot of potential in this movie. In the meantime, I'm going to continue wondering to myself what went wrong with 'Stone' (2010)? Avaialable OnDemand or to rent.

my thoughts on.... 'Resident Evil: Afterlife'

it's no secret that i'm not a video game player.... i used to be when i was a youth.... then i was on and off again in college.... and eventually i got a Wii for free in a contest, bought a couple of games but never really used it that much.... but i've seen a lot of the video game movies that have come out.... and i must say that the 'Resident Evil' movies have been some of my favorite.... granted, i know little to nothing about the games, but that doesn't seem to matter with these.... they're stand alone movies.... i would even say that the 'Resident Evil' movies are good movies outside of the video game realm.... they may not be deep thinking films, but they're fun to watch and have a continual storyline that just keeps getting more and more in depth.... although, i'm not sure if it makes a lot of sense at times.... i mean, the Umbrella Corporation are sure going through a lot of trouble to get Alice back.... and meanwhile, the world has basically ended.... regardless, i've watched the whole series multiple times and they never get old.... i like the storyline and the actors involved.... no matter how over the top it gets, i still look forward to each new movie that comes out.... you know what, it doesn't hurt that Milla Jovovich is the star.... she's a fairly credible action heroine and kicks some ass on the big screen.... i have yet to see her in a movie that i didn't like.... and she's especially cool in these movies.... Alice is a great character....

in this 4th installment, we find Alice and her squadron of clones attacking the Umbrella Corporation in Tokyo.... after barely escaping with her life, she makes her way to Alaska where an outpost is supposed to be located.... once she realizes that the outpost doesn't seem to exist, she ends up re-united with Claire Redfield.... she takes her plane with Claire and heads to find a new location and refuge.... she ends up in an abandoned prison with several other survivors and finds out that the outpost has re-located to just outside of where she is.... the rest of the movie is spent showing Alice and the other survivors trying to get to safety....
there are some great scenes of zombie horde action.... there is a horrific giant, known as The Executioner, who has a frightening fight with Alice and Claire.... there's lots of great action sequences.... the special effects are pretty solid.... and despite the fact that this was originally in 3-D, it holds up well in 2-D and doesn't seem to cheesy.... even if you can see where the shots are in the movie.... now, being a fan of the franchise, i may be a little biased but i gave this 4 out of 5 stars.... as i've done for the other 3 movies as well.... again, it's not high art.... it's a zombie, horror, action movie with a plot.... so if you haven't seen any of them yet, please start with the original and watch them all in order from there.... if you don't expect too much, i think you'll be pleasently surprised....

before you watch this, watch: 'Resident Evil', 'Resident Evil: Apocalypse', and 'Resident Evil: Extinction'