Maxim’s Movie Reviews and Opinions Blog

The Hangover (2009)

Director Todd Phillips continues along the lines of his previous comedies, “The Old School” (2003) and “Road Trip” (2000).
The plot: The movie opens with one of the groom’s friends calling the bride and telling her the Doug is not going to make it. Because they lost him. In Las Vegas. [...]

Bookmark

[Read more →]

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (2009) R 106min

The plot: A New York subway dispatcher Walter Garber (Denzel Washington) is summonned on the radio. He is told by the mastermind of the hijacking (John Travolta) of the Pelham 1 2 3 train to follow his orders: to demand 10,000,000 dollars ransom from the mayor of New [...]

Bookmark

[Read more →]

12 Rounds (2009)

“12 Rounds” is an action thriller starring WWE’s John Cena (The Marine), Ashley Scott (S.W.A.T., Walking Tall, Into The Blue, The Kingdom) and Aidan Gillen (Shanghai Nights and The Wire TV series) directed by Finnish director Renny Harlin (Die Hard 2, The Nightmare on Elm Street 4, Cliffhanger, Deep Blue Sea, The Long [...]

Bookmark

[Read more →]

Inside Man (2006)

Inside Man is a supposed perfect heist movie directed by Spike Lee and starring Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Jodie Foster, Willem Dafoe and Christopher Plummer.
The plot: In the opening sequence Dalton Russell (Clive Owen) confesses on video from a cell  that he is planning an execution of a perfect heist. Then he and his [...]

Bookmark

[Read more →]

Stop-Loss (2008)

This Paramount Pictures’ Iraq war-themed drama shot in Texas and Morocco was directed by Kimberly Peirce (writer and director behind Boys Don’t Cry) and written by her and Mark Richard. Starring Ryan Phillipe, Timothy Olyphant (Catch And Release, Live Free or Die Hard, Hitman, Turok) and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Beethoven, Roseanne, The Lookout, 10 [...]

Bookmark

[Read more →]

Tropic Thunder (2008)

This latest summer comedy is directed by Ben Stiller – his first movie since Zoolander (2001), and is written by Ben Stiller, Justin Theroux and Etan Cohen.
The plot: A big-budget war movie with star-actors is being cancelled by the studio. Desperate to save the movie and turn it into a biggest baddest war movie ever [...]

Bookmark

[Read more →]

The Dark Knight (2008)

By now everyone knows that The Dark Knight (a.k.a. Batman Begins 2) has been a boxoffice record-setting sequel to the 2005′ Batman Begins. This menacing graphic novel made for screen was directed by Christopher Nolan, who also directed the original Batman Begins and written by Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan, the [...]

Bookmark

[Read more →]

The Lookout (2007)

This movie passed relatively unnoticed at the theatres: it wasn’t aggressively promoted, and other, bigger movies were also showing.
The plot: Chris (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) was once a great high-school hockey player, but after a car accident that kill two of his friends and Chris had a head injury that caused the short term [...]

Bookmark

[Read more →]

Déjà Vu was directed by Tony Scott, producer and director of such films as The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Tristan and Isolde, In Her Shoes, Man on Fire, Big Time, Spy Game, Enemy of the State, True Romance, Top Gun and many many more including TV series NUMB3RS. Produced by [...]

Bookmark

[Read more →]

A clone of “Clear and Present Danger” set in Saudi Arabia in present days. Not very deep, but the action and suspense of the second half of the film is quite good. The film makes the point is there’s more to the price of oil then Dollar amount, but it’s more of a background, a set up for another Hollywood movie.

Bookmark

[Read more →]

The Last King Of Scotland (2006)

*** May contain spoilers ***
The plot: Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy), Scott, graduated from medical school and randomly picked Uganda to practice his skills. He arrived in the poor, but beautiful country just in time for Idi Amin (Forest Whitaker) to take over the country from deposed president Milton Obote after a [...]

Bookmark

[Read more →]