G.I. JOE: RETALIATION

This week, I caught the above sequel starring Bruce Willis, Channing Tatum, Dwayne Johnson, Lee Byung-hun, Adrianne Palicki, D.J. Cotrona etc.

Channing had only a brief role as Duke, the leader of the elite G.I. Joes team, and was killed off early in the movie. Dwayne who played Roadblock, took over the leadership role as one of three Joes who survived a surprise attack on them. He enlisted the help of General Joseph Colton, acted by Bruce, with the two other Joes (Lady Jaye and Flint) and Snake Eyes etc to investigate the matter to avenge the deaths of their teammates.

Lee Byung-hun had a meaty role again as the bad ninja Storm Shadow who initially with the bad guys Firefly, Cobra Commander and Zandar, joined forces with Roadblock and team to redeem himself from the accusation of assassinating his uncle the hard master. He did asians proud by reprising his role as a formidable opponent from the dark side.

I didn't like it as much as the original movie and the best part for me were the ninja fighting scenes on the cliff-faces. The opposing ninjas of two, Snake Eyes and Jinx, were dueling against many red suit ninjas and were swinging from cliff to cliff, much like spiderman.

On a side note, I noticed square-jawed D.J. Cotrona, who reminded me of a younger Tom Cruise, much like I noticed Tom Hardy in the 2010 movie "Inception" before he was cast as Bane in the 2012 "The Dark Knight Rises". If I am a talent scout, I would definitely say he has the potential to be a bigger star. Interestingly, I found out that he was cast as Superman in Warner Bros. movie "Justice League: Mortal" but due to the writers' strike in 2007-2008, the film was never made. What a pity! However, if he has it and his performance made producers and directors notice him, then we would surely see more of his films coming our way sometime.

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE - GHOST PROTOCOL

Today's weather - sunny

The first Mission Impossible was screened in 1996 and the 3rd part was shown in 2006. This Tom Cruise vehicle is finally here after 5 years but I wasn't too thrilled to watch it. After watching so many movies for so many years, I guess it is hard to get me excited anymore unless it is really good.


As before, Tom plays the IMF agent Ethan Hunt, who is once again in hot soup. Together with Jeremy Renner of "The Hurt Locker" and Paula Patton, they went through seemingly impossible tasks in Dubai, Mumbai etc to prevent the launching of a nuclear missile that is expected to set forth the next stage of the human evolution.


I wasn't too thrilled by the storyline and acting but I was actually more amazed that Tom Cruise looks visibly older than before and his body, though seemingly muscular, was also sagging badly in various places. See what time can do and has done to someone who was once so young, fresh and virile looking when he first started out in the entertainment industry. Call me superficial but I guess we should never take our youth for granted because it is only there for a short while only. Before we know and realize it, it will be lost with the snap of the fingers.


Anyway, there was a brief cameo by Josh Holloway from the TV series "Lost", who lopped off his long tresses, and died within the first few minutes into the movie.