Movie Review for 5/21/09

Terminator Salvation released 5/21/09
Stars - Christian Bale, Sam Worthington
Director - McG
Studio - Warner Bros

The fourth installment of the Terminator series follows an adult John Connor (played by Christian Bale) as he attempts to organize a human resistance force which could prove to be mankind's last true hope in the war against the machines. Opening in the year 2018, Terminator Salvation finds John Connor's certainty about the future shaken by the sudden appearance of a mysterious stranger named Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), whose last memory is of sitting on death row and awaiting execution. Unable to determine whether Marcus was sent from the future or rescued from the past, Connor begins to wonder whether there is still any hope left for the human race as the robots grow more powerful and aggressive than ever before. It appears that Skynet is preparing a devastating final attack designed to eliminate the human resistance once and for all, leaving Connor and Marcus with no choice but to strike back at the cybernetic heart of Skynet's operations. Once there, the two battle-scarred soldiers discover a devastating secret regarding the potential annihilation of all humankind.

I know I sound like a broken record here but another disappointment, Terminator Salvation was another blockbuster with great special effects and poor story telling. The talented Christian Bale played the roll as adult John Connor fairly bland and emotionless. Christians Bale's voice he used in Batman was excusable because maybe he was trying to hide his identity but low and behold that same voice shows up here and instead of excusable it is now laughable. McG again brings his wild and erratic style to this movie which doesn't work here, actually never really works anywhere. The story was jumpy and hard to follow and unlike Star Trek, if you didn't see the first three movies of this series it would be impossible to follow. The original Terminator was released 20+ years ago and yet this movie expected you to remember minor details from it to follow along. James Cameron I am sure is disappointed as well.


Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
Stars - Ben Stiller, Amy Adams
Director -Shawn Levy
Studio -Fox

Ben Stiller returns as Larry Daley, the unfortunate night watchman who continues to encounter living and breathing museum exhibits in Night at the Museum 2: Escape From the Smithsonian.

Who would of ever thought that I would be impressed with this movie more the Terminator but I was. I was never a fan of the first Night at the Museum even though I thought it was cute and was good for children this one surpasses that. Ben Stiller in this movie seems to stay out of the way of the abundant of crazy and abundant new and old characters which is exactly what it called for. Amy Adam is such a brilliant and versatile actress played Amelia Earhart as a adventurous and exciting independent woman of the 40's even adding thoroughly entertaining 40's Hollywood accent that just added to the roll. The always funny Bill Hader played a vane and bumbling General Custer and added many laughs throughout. This is a rare movie where the sequel was better than the original.