Rogue Assassin (also known as War) is a typical action film, though it has a fairly boring name. The summary of the plot sounds just as boring as the name of the movie: an FBI-agent dies as a bystander in the competition between two criminal organizations(Yakuza versus Chinese Triads), and his partner starts chasing the killer for revenge.

Altough the plot of Rogue Assasin isn’t the most imaginative, the movie has a certain tension, which leads to that the movie can be watched again and again. The plot contains lots of clichés such as ninjas with samuraiswords, rule breaking agents and mob bosses defending their honour. There is also some problems in the plot, but a normal viewer doesn’t pay attentintion to those, since the main focus is on the action.

Jet Li makes brilliant work as an assassin named Rogue. Stone-faced Li is an ideal choise for this role, and he is very believable as an ruthless killer. The character of Rogue is told to have worked for CIA, but for some reason he started to work for Yakuza and help them with their competition with the triads. Suddenly Rogue begins to kill people also from the Yakuza, secretly collecting fees from both sides. The film tries to give the impression that Rogue is just greedy and wants to push the two factions in full war in order to get more money, but the viewer can easily see that there is something more complex behind Rogue. The real motive of Rogue is kept as a secret till the end, and the reveal ads a quite intresting twist to the movie.

The second main character is John Crawford (played by Jason Statham), an angry and frustrated FBI’s special agent who has tried to catch the murderer of his partner over three years. The revenge soon becomes an obsession, and Crawford stops following the rules – so the suspects are usually beaten and even slightly tortured. Jason Statham is definitely one of the best action actors of  today, however in my opinion Statham is unimportant for this movie – he could be easily replaced with a fresh and unknow actor, to emphasize Li’s great performance – besides, Statham is a bit too rough to be an agent.

So there are some problems with the casting and the plot, but Rogue Assassin is an action movie, so the action scenes are what matters the most. And this movie contains a lot of action. Fist fights, gun fights, sword fights, car chase, motorcycle chase, explosions. And everything is very well done. Overall I’m very pleased with the action scenes and the special effects, tough the final fight could have been a bit longer.

So this isn’t a masterpiece worth of Oscars, but Rogue Assassin is still a very good flick which fits perfectly for friday night if you want some action.

Saw is an indepentend horror film directed by James Wann. It’s premiere was in 2004.It was the first installment in the franchise, there are seven Saw-films overall. Saw’s plot starts when two men wake up chained in a dilapitated bathroom, with no clue how they ended up in there. In the middle of the room lies a dead man who has shot himself in the head. These two men, doctor Lawrence Gordon(Cary Elwes) and Adam(Leigh Whannell) ,who is a photographer, are given instructions how to escape this trap via microcassette recorder. Lawrence must kill Adam before the time runs out or else his family will be murdered. Adam is told simply to escape the room. Elsewhere the police are trying to catch the man who sets up these ”games”, the jigsaw killer.

The start of the film creates a very interesting layout to it and keeps the viewer interested. The plot is very well written overall, it stays exciting for the entire movie, despite the fact that Saw has a slower tempo than it’s sequels. It tells bit by bit a little more from this ”jigsaw killer’s” other victims and deepens Lawrence’s and Adam’s characters by revealing things from their past and by telling more from their backround. But very big part of the film is located in that single room where these two man are chained in, and still it manages to stay entertainig. This partially explains the fact that Saw was shot only in 18 days, which is very fast for a feature film.

Altough Saw had only about 1 million dollar budget, it looks and sounds very good. All the gory effects that are seen in it look very beliavable and will definitenely cause shudder in the viewer. Speaking of gore, there is not that much of it in Saw compared to it’s sequels, it has been used only (at least mostly) when the progression of story requires it and it has been carried out with good taste. Also the movie has a psycolochigal aspect to it, for it’s theme is ”How much blood would you shed to stay alive?”. Saw also gets a big plus from an epic soundtrack which is very memorable, especially the song at the end.

The characters in Saw are well written and believable with their faults and personal problems. But the absolute star of the film is the jigsaw killer, who is not a generic superpowered horror movie killer, instead he is a 54-year-old cancer patient, with at least questionable ideology. He wants to ”cure” people and make them learn appreciate life through these lethal traps he refers to as ”games”. There is always a way to escape, but not without infilcting terrible damage and pain to yourself. Also Jigsaw is very intelligent and plans everything he does very carefully. The casting for the movie is well made, Cary Elwes and Leigh Whannell do their job very well. And there is no bad performance seen in the film from anyone. But again, Tobin Bell does an astonishing job as the Jigsaw, and I couldn’t come up with a better man for the role. You can see the passion he put into his character from his acting.

Saw made a big impression on me, and I’d recommend it to anyone who likes well made horror films. The movie’s ending is very suprising and will definitely give you goose bumps. I also liked Saw’s brilliant and very interesting plot, which made me want to watch the second movie instantly. It is hard to find anything negative to say about the film, Saw is one the most succesful horror movie franchises in this century and in my opinion not without a reason!

Moscow doesn’t believe in tears (Moskva slezam ne verit) is a Soviet movie that was directed by Vladimir Menshov and released in 1979. It is a melodrama about the life of three women who move from the countryside to Moscow in search for a better life. It was once a real blockbuster in the Soviet Union.

The story begins when Katja (Vera Alentova), Ljuda (Irina Muravyova) and Antonina (Raysa Ryazanova) move to a university dormitory in Moscow. They all came there for a good education, job and a husband. It turns out that life doesn’t always go the way you wanted it to go. Katja doesn’t pass the exam to a university and has to keep working in a factory. Katja and Ljuda fall in love at a party and after dating for awhile Katja becomes pregnant. When Rudolf (Juri Vasiljev) finds out that Katja has been lying to him  about her life including her job,  education and financial situation, he dumps her. At this point Antonina and Ljuda are married and Katja is raising her baby girl alone.

The movie is divided into two parts. The second part starts after about 15 years. Katja is a director in a factory, her daughter is a teenager and she lives in her own apartment. Only one thing’s missing from Katja´s life; a husband. Later on a local train she meets her future husband, Georgi (Aleksei Batalov). When everything is finally going the right way, Katja’s ex-boyfriend turns up demanding to meet his daughter. Because of this Georgi gets hurt and  disappears for a week.  Later Ljuda’s husband found Georgi, had a proper conversation with vodka and anchovy, and Georgi decides to come back to Katja. The movie ends with Katja saying twice “How long have I been looking for you” .

The actors of the film are the best I’ve ever seen. The way they act is something you rarely get to see nowdays. Especially Irina Muravyova’s performance stood out in a good way. Also the casting was well considered. The roles were like made to the actors.

There are no special effects in this movie and I personally think that it doesn’t even need any. It’s plot, great actors, beautiful music and sarcastic Russian humour do the trick all by themselves. I would recommend this movie to everyone who wants to see something different than usually.

The third movie of The Fast and the Furious is Tokyo Drift. This movie is Japanese-American illegal street racing action film. Tokyo Drift was released in 2006 and it was directed by Justin Lin. The movie was shot in Tokyo and parts of Los Angeles. This third movie part of The Fast and the Furious is very different from earlier movies of The Fast and the Furious,because this movie has changed for example all actors and film crew ..

The plot tells a young boy, Sean Boswell, who likes drive to really fast. Sean’s passion is driving fast and that is the reason why Sean get into trouble with the police. Sean’s many strifes with the polices lead  to that he had to move to his father to the other side of the world. When Sean moves to his father to Japan, he avoid prison. Sean should stop to drive fast by car but he get to know drift in Japan. He meet also a girl and her boyfriend. Boyfriend doens’t like Sean and that’s why he challenge Sean in many different and dangerous drift-race. So, how does it happen, it have to see..!

In my opinion the actors of the movie is good even many people says that the actors of the movie sucks. I don’t no why…I can’t  maybe look the actors critically but i think the actors suit their own roles. Camerawork and special effects of the movie have really successful. The movie has really cool tuning cars, while slide down radical curves. That movie is also filmed really well, excellent perspectives. Soundtrack is good and suit to scenses. Stunts and amazing race acts  of the movie get viewers to enjoy and get to feel a few extra heartbeat. In my and many other people’s opinion the movie is known for cool tuning cars, amazing races and half-naked women.

Marley & Me is a movie based on a book written by John Grogan, which is also the name of the leading male actor in the movie. It was directed by David Frankel and the screenplay by Scott Frank and Don Roos. The movie is starred by two famous actors Owen Wilson (John Grogan) and Jennifer Aniston (Jenny Grogan) who, in the beginning of the movie, got married.

At the beginning of their joint life they follow the plan that Jenny wrote, which leads to moving to a warmer place and getting a house. John starts to work as a reporter but eventually becomes a very good columnist. In the fear of moving to the next step of Jenny’s plan, John decides to get her a puppy, a Labrador retriever, so that she wouldn’t think about having a child yet. They named the puppy Marley, who happened to be a total disaster, it eats the floor, chews the walls, drinks from the toilet, stays up all night howling when it’s a thunderstorm, gets kicked out of a behavior school meant for dogs etc. John’s boss wanted him to write a couple of columns and he couldn’t think of anything to write about but Marley. His columns were very liked, which lead to him being a columnist and he would almost in every column mention Marley. Despite Marley being a chaotic dog, it had a big heart and it loved Grogans very much. They had three children which made few years of their life very hectic but they managed to go through it even with Marley being part of their everyday life.

Jenny acts sometimes a bit selfishly when she herself doesn’t feel good and says and does what she wants, but when she realizes that she has done wrong, she honestly apologizes. John is sarcastic but very funny guy. He is also very honest and nice person.

The movie’s genre is both drama and comedy. I think that the most of it is comedy though it has a very dramatic ending. In my opinion, the movie is definitely worth of watching. I have watched it at least five times and I’m still not fed up with it, it always makes me laugh and in the end I cry my eyes out.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected journey is an fantasy adventure film released on 13 december of 2012. It is the first part of the trilogy, which is based on the novel ”The Hobbit” by J.R.R. Tolkien.
The film was directed by Peter Jackson, who also directed ”The Lord of the Rings”-trilogy, which is also based on Tolkien’s novel. The Hobbit is a prequel to The Lord of the Rings.
The Hobbit was filmed in New Zealand and many of those who worked on The Lord of the Rings, were also involved in this film. Some actors did also star their previous roles again in this film.
Those being, for an example, Ian McKellen as Gandalf the Grey, and Andy Serkis as Gollum. The new main actors consist Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins, and Richard Armitage as Thorin Oakenshield.
Weta Workshop created most of the props and Weta digital managed the visual effects. Soundtrack was composed by Howard Shore.

The story takes place in the fictional land of Middle Earth, where the Dwarwes have lost their capital town and the film follows a group of dwarwes who have accompanied with Gandalf and Bilbo Baggins.
Their mission is to kill the dragon that is staying inside the capital of the dwarwes and take their city back.
They meet all kinds of creatures and dangers while travelling across the Middle Earth. There is something bigger happening in the north as well, but it will not yet take a big part of the film.

I enjoyed the film a lot, and the lenght of the film didn’t bother me like it has bothered some of the reviewers. I didn’t get bored at all. The film was well made and it was quite accurate to the book and the feeling of the epic adventure was there.
It is easier to say what I didn’t like. I think that the film was made too much by using computer animation, and in some parts, it looked like it was closer to animation than a real movie. Many of the scenes were also made up in a very same way as there were scenes in the Lord of the Rings-trilogy.
The thing that troubled me the most was that the film was trying to be too much comedy. Even in the ”darker” scenes, there was something that was trying to get the viewer to laugh. There was also no blood at all, and it was really odd regarding the fact that the battle scenes was quite brutal besides that.
I would have liked a more serious view on the story. Now it seems that the film cannot decide whether it wants to be a comedy or a darker film. Now it doesn’t quite succeed on neither of these.
I wasn’t expecting anything like Lord of the Rings, so I’m still not disappointed on the film.
I liked The Hobbit a lot and I’m eager to see the following films of the series.

“Mamma Mia!” is a musical film and romantic comedy. It was released in 2008 and it’s adapted from a Broadway musical of the same name. The film is based on the songs of Swedish singing group ABBA. It was directed by Phyllida Lloyd and producer by Judy Cramer & Gary Goetzman. Movie was filmed in the Greek island Skopelos.

Plot

Sophie Sheridan (Amanda Seyfried) is a young woman who lives in Kalokairi with her mother Donna Sheridan (Meryl Streep). Donna is a single mother and owner of the old hotel. Sophie is about to get married but first she needs to find out who is her father. Sophie reads Donna’s diary and finds out that she has three possible fathers: Sam Carmichael (Pierce Brosnan), Bill Andersson (Stellan Skarsgård) and Harry Bright (Colin Firth). Sophie invites all the father candidates to her wedding ( without telling her mother) because Sophie is convinced that she will know which man is her real father as soon as she sees them.

All three men arrive on the island before the wedding. Sophie starts spending time with them and realise that she doesn’t have any idea which man is her real father. Sophie is trying to hide all three men, but it doesn’t work very well and Donna sees them. At the same time other wedding quests, like Donna’s best friends Rosie (Julie Walters) and Tanya (Christine Baranski) arrive to the hotel and Donna starts to figure out why all the men are on the island.

Soundtrack

The film genre is musical so it is obvious that there are many songs. Overall the actors sing about twenty different ABBA’s song during the film. Many of the actors are not professional singers but most songs still sound good (Especially when Amanda Seyfried and/or Meryl Streep are singing.) Unfortunately all men weren’t so good singers.

The plot is not that amazing but on the whole Mamma Mia is very bubbly and refreshing movie. I recommend it for those who like ABBA’s songs and those who just want to watch some happy and cheerful movie.

Written by MM