Olympus Has Fallen (2013)

Olympus Has Fallen is slightly entertaining but mostly embarrassing. The details are very messy. The first 20 minutes of the movie is the best part. Everything else is a display of severe American incompetence.

The cast is pretty spectacular and the acting is generally good. It just doesn't play out well. It's a sloppy excuse for an action movie. I really don't understand what happened here. The budget for this movie was pretty hefty at $70 million. I'm going to have to put this one on the director, Antoine Fuqua, and the two writers Creighton Rothenberger and Katrin Benedikt. All three of whom do not have much experience. So maybe the onus is on the producers for choosing three noobs to handle all the fire power behind the casting. Boggles my mind that so many heavy weight actors signed on for this one.

Speaking of a heavy weight, an underrated one, Ashley Judd as the First Lady is the main spark of energy; which is actually unfortunate.

The casting is the only saving grace for this one. I mean, for the most part, they have actual Korean actors play the Korean roles. That's unique! If only the writing and directing were as detailed and thorough, this movie could have been good. Instead, it will make you sigh and huff for two hours.

Olympus Has Fallen trailer...

IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2302755/

Oblivion (2013)

After a long break from routine, I'm slowly wading back into the calmer waters. What might the calmer waters include? MOVIES! WOOHOO! Now that I have been introduced to Ultraviolet, the movie cloud, I'm even more excited!

The first movie I watched on my shared Ultraviolet library was Oblivion with Tom Cruise. Although other actors are in it, Tom Cruise commands the entire movie...like a movie hog. The only other well-known actor is Morgan Freeman and trailing far behind is the guy who plays "Jaime Lannister" from Game of Thrones. I'm not at all saying that a movie needs to have well-known actors to be good. This is just clearly the Tom Cruise show. Quite frankly I can't tell if he saved the movie or ruined it with his persona.

Oblivion is a strange one. Intriguing story but lacking in it's delivery. Every moment is just one step away from being great. In the end, it feels like you woke up and you're trying to tell someone your dream really quickly before you forget. This movie feels like they took a rushed synopsis of a dream instead of using it as a foundation to expound upon. Even if they had done that, the concept would be better suited for a tv show.

Worth a watch if you like Tom Cruise, but otherwise you're not missing much if you skip it.

On a scale of 1-10, Oblivion is 6.5