M:I III, SILENT HILL, SENTINEL, TAKE THE LEAD

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 3
Or M:I III as the poster lists it. Anyone need to be told what sort of movie this is? I sure as hell hope not! If you DO, what are you doing reading MY blog? Silly people.
So, yes, the movie is STILL about Tom Cruise (not as much as the second one was...whew) but the supporting characters (everyone ELSE) gets something to do that helps to build on their character. They help Tom out of many a jam and act like a well oiled machine. This doesn't mean they get to help him fight the bad guy at the end, of course. That part is still for Tom but they all at least get some development so it would be nice to see them in M:I IV.
Well, except poor Ving Rhames. Poor Ving is the only other person who's been in all of them and we STILL only know about as much aout the character as we always have. Tom Cruise gets a girlfriend and gets to whine about the job... Ving just does the job. Maybe it's time for Ving to quit the series... hmmmm.
OH, yeah... Tom has a g/f in this one. No more sleeping with the wrong woman (M:I I) or trying to get a girl he likes to go back to an ex of hers (M:I II). Nosireebob, this time he has an honest-to-god GIRLFRIEND. A 'civilian' one, at that. I'll go ahead and ruin this point for you right now... this IS NOT LIKE MR AND MRS SMITH. She isn't a secret agent and they will never even try to set that up. Someone at my showing blurted this dumb shit out and had everyone looking for clues.
Sigh.
Anywho, what you WILL get is some really nice action set pieces, some awesome stunts, some interesting CGI work and a wonderful. 2D villain played by an oscar nominee. I just find that last part kind of funny. There really is no depth to the villain... he's a bad guy. That's it. Thru and thru, he's a bad guy.
It isn't perfect but it was damn fun. It would be nice during the interrogation scene of the bad guy to actually show his POV during the REALLY tense part of it but you can let it slide since it is so well acted. Sure, I hate it when a movie is done in flashback... it ruins the suspense since you KNOW where it's heading.. and I think they could've actually cut out everything prior to the fuse being lit and the theme music cue and just saved that for the bed room scene before the mission starts. And the ending ... not the climax, the ENDING... could've been a bit better done but meh... minor details considering how much pure fun you get to have in this thing.
If you haven't seen it yet, go see it and come back and re-read this and tell me if you agree. Thanks.

SILENT HILL
This is one spooky ass movie. I never played the game... not that I remember. I had heard about it but it wasn't my sort of game. Not really into these types of run around and look for clues games. Give me a game where I can shoot something. Even Resident Evil didn't work for me. My buddy, Jon, would beat the game and then I'd come over and play it. He'd handle all the tedious running around and moving things and finding clues and getting health herbs and crap and then get to a door and hand me the controller. "Bunch of zombies on the other side," he'd say and I would get all excited and run into the room, guns ablazing! Then I would hand it back to him and wait for another crowd scene.
Ok, back to Silent Hill. In a nutshell... kid gets adopted, kid sleepwalks and gets into dangerous situations scaring the adoptive parents, kid always screams "SILENT HILL" as she wakes which happens to be in same state they adopted her from so the mama (against papa's wishes) takes kid to Silent Hill,promptly loses kid and spooky shit commences.
All taht is in the trailer so don't give me grief about spoilers, ya bastiches!
Is it spooky? HELL YEAH! Is there gore? Some that's REALLY gory and some that is just kind of gory. Is there a lot of CGI? Yeah. Does it work? A lot of it. Is it SCARY? Naw.. it has some tense moments but really this is a haunted house movie.
What's the difference?
Haunted house movies are spooky... suspenseful. It's not about the jump scares so much as it is about just making you... nervous. A haunted house movie puts you on the edge of your seat and keeps you there. A scary movie likes to catch you off guard.
So Silent Hill succeeds at being that... but it isn't truly a horror movie or a scary one. Though I DO have to say it's like Carrie as if Clive Barker wrote it. Go see it and you'll understand that.

SENTINEL
Wasn't bad. Secret Service agent (Micheal Dougles) gets framed for plotting to kill president (SLEDGE HAMMER!!!) and he can't say WHY he is doing suspicious stuff or where he is since it would implicate someone else.
Another SS agent (Keifer Sutherland) is assigned to investigate with a new recruit (what the hell was her name?) who was recommended by Douglas to work with Sutherland since they used to be good buddies but aren't anymore.
Whew.
That's a lot of plot, huh? Naw. This is really just a good made-for-tv movie with a movie-movie cast. The real culprit is easy to spot and the movie plays out as expected but it's harmless and enjoyable and certainly worth a rental.

TAKE THE LEAD
Antonio Banderas does Stand and Deliver with ballroom dancing instead of math and with mostly black kids instead of latinos.
Cool. One that was easy to sum up! :)
Just don't write the movie off as a "been there, done that, still picking popcorn out my teeth" kind of movie. It's actually quite good. The dancing is amazing and makes me want to learn. Shame i would need a partner and something I've heard about called 'spare time' but oh well. The movie feels rushed even at a nearly 2 hour running time but that's a good thing. The kids are the usual gang of misfits and it's never completely explained how they would use the lessons beyond class (or if they did) and it's highly doubtful they were based on any one particular student but were probably all amalgams or creations for dramatic purposes.
No big deal. It isn't about historical accuracy. It's about the IDEA.
And the dancing.
And damn... the dancing is good.