Cindy, from Nocturnal Wonderings, has decided to join us today for some movie reviews. Yay!

Vantage Point.

I was intrigued by the premise but wasn't sure how good it would be. Turns out it had me wondering how it would all end. Basically the story is told from, wait...6 or 7 different points of view but it's not done all intertwined like one story from beginning to end. It plays one person's experience and then the clock resets back to 12:00 noon and you get to see all the same action (about 15 to 20 minutes) but from another person's POV. In all, I think one POV was not necessary but the rest were needed to get the whole picture. Even then, the characters will see something or experience something that is kept from the viewer and thus, the viewer can't really figure it all out before the end of the movie.

I would suggest renting this movie without reading the back blurb. I haven't read it yet but it might let some of the mystery out of the bag. I have to admit I figured out who one of the 'baddies' was right from the start and only because I had seen a similar set up with other films.

In a nutshell, the President of the United States is about to make a statement of peace that terrorists can't allow. They need to force the President to continue keeping the world at arms length by making him a target and forcing the Americans to bomb some place. Yep, that's about as deep as I got into it.

Shoot 'em Up

Wow. Just, WTF was that!!??

Here's what you need to know, don't go into this movie expecting the laws of physics, logic or even good taste to make remote sense.

Shoot 'em Up starts off fast and weird and doesn't ever let up. At first I was shocked at some of the perverse actions by the characters and then I decided to just see where the film went. I admit to fast forwarding when something was about to happen with a dead body. (you'll know what I'm talking about the minute the scene starts if you rent the movie). Also, I was watching this movie with my 23 year old cousin and although she is all grown up, I still feel like I should shelter her from some stuff but seriously, some of the stuff that came on the screen was so far out there I wasn't expecting it and I sure couldn't so anything about it when we both 'ewwwwww-ed' or said 'whatthefu-gross!!!'

The movie starts with the hero (I mean this is the loosest sense of the word) sitting on a bench and witnessing a pregnant woman in a hospital gown running (and grunting in labour) through some extremely bad streets. She is quickly followed by a guy with a gun. Hero gets up, heaves a sigh, and we're off!

Basically the hero kills umpteen bad guys, gets a baby, goes to a whore who breast feeds men (yes, we were shocked and grossed out) and everywhere they go, more bad men (or dead guys walking) show up until they are forced to figure out why everyone seems to want this baby dead. In the end, who cares, it's all about camera angles, shock and bullets. And some gore but not like that Tarrantino guy.

I guess if your hubby or SO wants to watch a shoot 'em up kind of movie you could rent this one and have a great time watching the wackiest sex scene ever filmed (and definitely written by some man who thinks he's all that).

I liked it despite myself. Who knew?

Awake

Turns out there is more to this movie than I thought. All I knew was it about some guy who felt and heard everything while undergoing an operation under anesthesia. Sounded like the movie was made to horrify so I ignored it and never planned to see it. My cousin had other ideas and while reading the back blurb out loud to me in the store mentioned that the hero overhears plans to kill him while under anesthesia.

Ohhhhh, a plot. Me likey.

Once the 'bad guys' were revealed I figured out how it was going to end. I thought it could have been better but it wasn't a complete waste of time either. That's probably a big ol' C grade if that helps.