Caro the Movie Critic

Noah (Russell Crowe) hugging his wife (Jennifer Connelly) and the baby. Do you recall the fable of God telling Noah that he will destroy the world? The Holy Bible puts that story in brief paragraphs making us comprehend that God did flood the lands and its wicked victims for 40 days and 40 nights. But, what did Noah do? He built an ark to protect the animals and his family? Tackling a subject or topic from the Holy Bible is a difficult project to pursue because a filmmaker can be too ambitious or can take too many risks to present the final cut to the audience as one grand-scale movie. For example, Cecil B. DeMille made two versions of The Ten Commandments  in 1923 (the silent version) and in 1956, which was the most recognizable version starring Charlton Heston. Even, there are many movies about Jesus and a movie which takes place during the last few years of Jesus which was Ben-Hur , also starring Charlton Heston. Sometimes, a filmmaker can get too carried away or controver...

Arnold's BACK in action...again. Arnold Schwarzenegger. He's the man who could do his job and terminate (yeah, it's a pun) anybody who gets in his way...well, only in the movies. Ha-ha. But, every Arnold fan knew he was returning to films because he provides adrenaline and testosterone to the screen. I mean, take a look back at his career: The Terminator movies, True Lies , Predator , Commando , Eraser , Kindergarten Cop , etc. Some of the movies listed are very good action flicks. But, this movie has to be one of his most forgettable movies in his resumé. John "Breacher" Wharton (Schwarzenegger) is the leader of a DEA team consisting of: James "Monster" Murray (Sam Worthington), Joe "Grinder" Phillips (Joe Manganiello), Eddie "Neck" Jordan (Josh Holloway), Julius "Sugar" Edmonds (Terrence Howard), Tom "Pryo" Roberts (Max Martini), Bryce "Tripod" McNeely (Kevin Vance), "Smoke" Jennings (Ma...

Shailene Woodley training. As far as young adult books are concerned, any studio is craving for financial success when studio executives pitch an idea to develop a series of movies from a popular series of young adult books. Warner Bros. had a lot of successful franchises in the bag, but none as ginormous as the  Harry Potter series. New Line Cinema: Lord of the Rings . Lions Gate: The Hunger Games . Summit Entertainment: The god-awful Twilight series. Now, with this franchise, Lions Gate and Summit teamed up to start a new franchise with Divergent . As far as a film series' inception is concerned compared to the other franchises, this is not a promising start. The movie takes place in a futuristic and deserted Chicago. We see people walking around wearing identical colors matching their place of living. They are divided into five sections: the Erudite, the smartest people in dark blue clothes; the Amity, the kind and peaceful in orange and yellow; the Candor, the honest in b...

Kid Cudi and Aaron Paul looking horrified if the movie is going to be good. "Need for Speed." Ok. When I was a young pre-teen, I did play a few video games of Need for Speed. It looked cool to be pursued by cops with spikes, explosions, and back-up cops and also just racing with adrenaline rush. It's like a free-style NASCAR game. What I did not expect is that the filmmakers made a premise and come up with a story and adapt it from the video game. However, I had hope for this movie if it could have been another companion piece to the Fast and Furious franchise. As it turns out, I shook my head with disbelief after the movie was over. Tobey Marshall (Aaron Paul) is a former famed race car driver who runs a garage in New York called Marshall Motors, which was owned by his recently deceased father. Tobey and his friends, consisting of Benny, Joe and Little Pete (Kid Cudi, Ramón Rodriguez, Harrison Gilbertson) is struggling to make some money after a person from the ban...

Gustave (Ralph Fiennes) and Zero (Tony Revolori) being alarmed. Wes Anderson has created some bizarre, but original pieces of work over his career that I have absolutely admired: Rushmore (my personal favorite), Bottle Rocket, The Fantastic Mr. Fox, Moonrise Kingdom and The Royal Tenenbaums (which I have finally liked recently, but I do not adore it as much as many people). Sometimes, his camera work and camera angles are equivalent to Martin Scorsese's work from the long takes to the quick zoom-in. But, all of his flair and technique is his own signature. What's great about Anderson's work is that he takes all of his wacky characters and place them into his stories or plots full of humor and/or melancholic consequences.   Moonrise was my personal choice of the best film of 2011; but, this movie may be one of the best movies of 2014. The unfortunate part is that it is March. Let me put it to you this way. If this movie does not turn out to be one of the best movies ...

The soldiers are going to work...again. "THIS...IS...SPARTA!" King Leonidas exclaimed as he pushes a guy down the well. Remember 300 ? Mostly, everybody does. It was viewed a really quotable movie with great bloody visuals. After I watched the prequel, I suppose, I did not really share many people's enthusiasm with the movie as I found Zach Snyder's vision really distracting with super slow-mo sequences, distracting "creature" characters, and lack of imagination. Although, I did praise the visuals. However, this sequel desperately wants to be Snyder's 300 . But, unfortunately, it failed the test. The Athenian general, Themistocles (Sullivan Stapleton), leads his army against King Darius' (Igal Naor) army of Persians into Greece in the Battle of Marathon. The Greeks brutally defeats the Persians while Themistocles kills Darius as Xerexes (Rodrigo Santoro), his son, watches the tragic death. Themistocles walks away as he sees Xerxes' eyes as ...

Jesus (Diogo Morgado) is hailing cheers from the crowd. There have been many film adaptations centering around the chronicles of Jesus' life from his birth to his death. I cannot really debate which film depicts Jesus' life or section of his life the best. My two personal best films about Jesus are: The Passion of the Christ directed by Mel Gibson which depicted the last hours of his life in a graphic state and Jesus of Nazareth , a long TV-movie which depicts his whole life by the great director Franco Zeffirelli. Since Easter is around the corner, those are the two movies I'd recommend to watch and experience (the former for mature adults only). This movie is distractingly bland. The movie starts with John, the last disciple living in exile, telling the story of Jesus Christ. The movie opens with a brief nativity scene and leaps forward quickly to an adult Jesus (Diogo Morgado) gathering his fellow disciples from John to Peter to Matthew. Jesus gathers more follower...

The passengers think Bill Marks (Liam Neeson) is a terrorist. Airports and airplanes. The lines. The crowds. The delays. Everything that Bill Marks (Liam Neeson) hates about flying. When it comes to airports, I have to go through the procedure with taking your carry-on baggage and luggage on the flight. Then, I go through security which I have to admit is not as bad, just follow the rules and guidelines. After security, what do you do? If you are two or three hours early, you have time to kill: Have something to eat, watch something on your IPad, shop, etc. As you board and get on the plane, anything can happen from turbulence to maybe something unexpected like this movie's situation. This movie is silly and preposterous, but it is a fun movie to watch. The movie opens with Bill Marks tired drinking alcohol and arguing with a supervisor on his cellphone glancing at a photo of his daughter. But, he is trying to get his act together by lighting a cigarette while he is being pus...