Godzilla (2014)

3/5

Gareth Edwards's Godzilla reboot is not really a monster movie; it is a surprisingly well-constructed and engaging story that just happens to have some monsters in it. The acting is first-rate, the camerawork is top-notch, and the computer-generated creatures feel believable. But for all the things it got right, it got one big thing wrong.

The most glaring problem with this movie is the same one I found in The Shining: there's a lot of build-up without any follow-through (until the last few minutes of the movie anyway). It's exhausting and frustrating, not exciting and tense. Imagine thinking, "Something's gonna happen, something's gonna happen, something's gonna happen," and then nothing happens. Over and over again. I can't imagine watching it again; I'd just be skipping through the first 75 minutes because it's a lot of nothing followed by more nothing.

A pretty good movie otherwise.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0831387/

Vantage Point (2008)

4/5

Vantage Point is a movie Sameer and I light-heartedly made fun of for its over-the-top action and cliched dialogue while simultaneously watching the trailer again and again in anticipation of its release. We decided not to see it in theaters due a slew of bad reviews, but I am happy to announce that all those reviews were wrong! This movie met and exceeded all my expectations. The plot follows an attempted assassination on the President while at a counter-terrorism summit that continually gets more and more unnecessarily convoluted and never actually reveals the terrorists' true motivations. And yet, by the end of the movie, you don't care at all. Because it set up a series of small mysteries and revealed them incrementally such that you finish the film feeling satisfied. It is remarkably successful at getting you to suspend your disbelief from beginning to end.

Dennis Quaid was an actor whom I (and Hollywood) had forgotten about. But he gives a strong, convincing performance that anchors this entire movie. The cinematography was alright, but the real visual star was the locale. The shots were beautiful, although the rapid-fire editing made it somewhat difficult to see at times. The dialogue was not as awful as the trailer made it seem--they picked the worst sentences for the trailer, which magnified their stupidity. The action, however, was incredible. I'm generally not a fan of car chases, but this one had me sitting on the edge of my seat. It is absolutely amazing. This entire movie emanates a feeling of cool. Think Lost meets 24. And watch it.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0443274/