If there’s only one man that could pull off a movie like “The Island”, it’s Michael Bay. In the summer, when moviegoers seek refuge in films that can keep you entertained, even with a 136-minute running time. Michael Bay has been known to release these kinds of films almost every summer, just for us average moviegoers. This year, the dynamic action duo of Michael Bay and Jerry Bruckheimer take a break from their usual pack as Michael Bay ventures on his own into “The Island”. I should mention that I’m a huge fan of Michael Bay, who has made some of my personal favorite action movies of all-time. So, does Mr. Bay live up to his reputation or give us a semi-stinker like “Pearl Harbor”?

The usual Bay film requires you to “leave your brain at the door” before you watch it so that you don’t take some ridiculous storylines seriously. If you leave that brain at the door here, you’ll be very lost, for “The Island” actually has an intelligent story. The film centers around Lincoln Six-Echo (Ewan McGregor) and his love interest, Jordan Two-Delta (Scarlett Johansson). Both are apart of an underground utopian facility during the year 2019. The large population in this facility believe that the world outside of the facility is contaminated by poison from all the pollution. Their lives are all organized, clean, and controlled. Everyone is required to wear the same jumpsuits, keep a balanced diet, exercise, work, etc. The people are told what to do through the people running this high-tech facility, using giant-screen TV’s. The one thing that keeps them going everyday, though, is the Island, which is supposedly the last uncontaminated spot on the planet. Everyday, two people are chosen through a “lottery” to go the Island, where no one hears from them again, thinking that they are living the dream life.

But, one day, Lincoln begins to wonder what his purpose in life is. How come they find survivors everyday if the world is contaminated? Why can’t he choose what he can and cannot eat? Is there anything else outside of this Island? All his questions are answered through a little run-in with the truth… there is no Island. And, the world is not contaminated. He realizes that people who are sent to the Island are actually killed. Once everything becomes clear, he grabs Jordan, who was chosen for the Island, and makes a daring escape out of the facility and into the real world. But, why is this all happening? Simply put, they’re all clones of real people of the world. Basically, a rich person can get a clone of him or herself to be stored in this facility, and if anything were to happen to them (such as an accident that required a body part or two), the clones would help them live on by using their spare parts.

Are you still reading? Yeah, it can be complicated. The first half of the film takes place in the facility, which is just a long build-up for some fantastic action scenes and special effects. Considering that the movie takes place in the future, like Spielberg’s “Minority Report” or Proyas’ “I, Robot”, the look was very important. In fact, “The Island” actually resembles “Minority Report” in lots of ways. Some of the special gadgets and vehicles used in the film are similar in both films. “Minority Report” didn’t feature Lamborghinis, Aquafinas, and Xbox’s, but other than that, both are similar and top-notch for that matter. “The Island” looks stunning in every way. From the explosive action sequences to just a general look at the underground utopia, you’ll experience some eye-popping effects and imagery.

Although the film has a great story, you can’t deny what “The Island” actually is. It’s a summer blockbuster, and because of that, the main purpose is to entertain; not win academy awards. “The Island” succeeds with flying colors here. It contains some of the most loud, explosive action scenes I’ve ever seen. And, there’s enough to keep you at the edge of your seat for the whole ride. “The Island” will be one of the most entertaining films you’ll see all year.

McGregor and Johansson (who looks sexier than ever…) gave good performances. From the beginning of the film, where they have the intelligence of a 15-year old, to the end of the film, where they learn how to drive cars and use guns, both acted very well. Supporting performances came from Steve Buscemi, Michael Clarke Dunkan, and Sean Bean, who is the founder of the facility. Buscemi added a lot of humor to the movie while he was there. Dunkan was barely in the film, but his small role is something you’ll probably never see from him ever again.

Being a fan of action films, Michael Bay films, and sci-fi films, I can honestly say that “The Island” lands on top or near the top of all these lists. Unlike most action films, “The Island” is quite smart. Being fast, cool, and fun never hurts an action film, of course. The best thing about “The Island” is that it reminded me of those great action films from the 90’s. Featuring some of the best action scenes of the past ten years, I’d highly recommend this summer’s great summer blockbuster, “The Island”, to just about anyone looking for a good time at the theaters. You don’t even have to leave your brain at the door!

It’s tough to make a video-game adaptation for a director. You have to please the fans by staying as loyal to the game as humanly possible while still being able to make it fun for non-fans of the game. Generally, this genre gets a lot of hate because films like “Tomb Raider,” “Resident Evil,” and “Final Fantasy” didn’t meet the gamers’ high expectations. Director Andrzej Bartkowiak (yeah, I know, I can’t say it either) makes a daring move by sitting in the director’s chair for one of the most beloved video games of all-time, “Doom.” Being a huge fan of the game series since I was around seven years old, you could tell that I was pumped. I’m not only a fan of the game, but also ‘The Rock,’ which just made me twice as excited. I’m a religious player of the game, so I had high expectations, of course. And, let me tell you, it’s the most faithful adaptation to date.

“Doom” wastes no time at all. Five minutes into the movie, the elite team of marines know their mission, they’re on the planet, and they’re doing their stuff. On a high tech facility in the future (not too far in the future, though), located on Mars, an experiment goes horribly wrong, as it usually does with these types of films. The teams, led by former WWE wrestler/entertainer, ‘The Rock,’ goes into the facility and resolve the situation, making sure that nothing leaves that building, let alone the planet itself. But, unfortunately, they had no idea what kind of things they were getting themselves into.

Bartkowiak wanted this film to be loyal to the video game. In order to do this, he had to go for the R-rating to assure that it’s packed with the gore the game provides. And, I say with full confidence that you won’t be disappointed by some of the gory moments in the film. It’s a real treat, indeed. But, he went above and beyond here. What made the video game so popular was the “first-person-shooter” mode, which is when the only thing you can see on the screen is your arms holding the gun instead of seeing the whole character. FPS mode has become very popular among video games, with games like “Halo” and “Half-Life” using such tactics. Bartkowiak made a shocking move by incorporating that little feature into the film. Personally, I was very worried with this idea. From the trailers, it did look like something that could either be totally awesome or absolutely awful. Luckily, it was the former. The scene lasts the perfect amount of time where it’s not too long, yet long enough to satisfy and give you a good time. Once one of the characters, Reaper (Karl Urban), enters FPS mode, I really felt like I was sitting at home, playing “Doom 3” on the Xbox. I was extremely impressed.

“Doom” stayed loyal to the game, but how was the entertainment aspect of the film? Well, yeah, but in a different way. Unlike other movies like this, “Doom” tried to be suspenseful and add a horror aspect instead of ‘The Rock’ just “blowing stuff up.” In the first 30 minutes of the film, you’ll see the team searching through the halls and rooms of the building. For some, this can be good. It’s sometimes good to see an action movie that doesn’t have flat-out action 100% of the time and tries other ways of keeping the audience entertained. For others, this 30 minutes of the film can be a little dragging. It kind of depends on what you expected for the amount of action. I didn’t expect “Doom” to take this route, so it did become a little slow, but not fully boring. I was still hooked to the film, so I guess it succeeded.

After 30 minutes, the real fun begins. The creatures come out in full force, and you’ll get to see some awesome action sequences. The FPS mode doesn’t happen until near the end of the film, but you’ll be pleasantly surprised with how fun this movie can get after the “semi-boring” part of the film is over. It almost makes you forget about the first part. There’s one hand-on-hand fight at the very end of the film that could rank as one of the best fights I’ve ever seen on screen. If I had space (and if it were an empty theater), I would have begun to do cartwheels down the aisles.

The performances aren’t that great, but above-average for what you would expect from a movie like this. Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, once named the next big action star, shows off why he was labeled as the next big action star in this film. ‘The Rock’ has so much charisma when he’s playing the team leader, Sarge. He played the role exactly like how I would imagine. Reaper, played by Karl Urban, is also decent in his role, and becomes a significant part of the film with the FPS mode. Reaper’s sister, Samantha Grimm, is played by the beautiful, former Bond girl, Rosamund Pike. These three are the best parts about the film, as the rest of the team is just there for the fun.

“Doom” is a dream come true for fans of the video game. It’s the most faithful video-game adaptation to date. If not for the somewhat slow beginning of the film, I would consider this a near perfect film (in terms of a video-game adaptation and pure entertainment). If you come into “Doom” expecting an Oscar-worthy storyline, top notch performances, and some creative, thought-provoking dialogue, turn around, and stay as far away from this film as humanly possible. This film is made to entertain, and nothing more. And, it succeeds and doing what it set out to do. Fans will not be disappointed.

In 1980, hot off his recent horror classic, “Halloween,” John Carpenter made the original “The Fog.” That film did not receive the type of loving that “Halloween” got, unfortunately. I recently sat down to watch the original “The Fog” before I went to see the remake, and to my surprise, it wasn’t that bad. Certainly not a classic by any means, and far from even being remotely scary (although the score is great), but still entertaining fluff. So, considering the fact that I see pretty much every horror movie released, I went to see the remake to the 1980 John Carpenter flick, expecting a decent horror flick at best. And, to tell you the truth, both the original and the remake are neck and neck, something that doesn’t happen often.

In “The Fog,” a thick fog approaches the small, friendly town of Antonio Bay. What’s special about this “fog?” Well, 100 years prior, a ship of lepers was horribly wrecked in this fog when the founders of the town purposefully misguided the ship, killing everyone on board. 100 years later, the mariners are back to seek revenge on those who killed them. The fog traps everyone in Antonio Bay, making it easier for the mariners to seek out the decendents of the founders of the town. The main characters are Nick Castle (Tom Welling), his girlfriend, Elizabeth Williams (Maggie Grace), and radio talk show host, Stevie Wayne (Selma Blair).

“The Fog” is the farthest thing from an intelligent horror film. It’s filled with plot holes, embarrassingly laughable moments that require one to burst out laughing, a no-name cast that delivers less than acceptable performances (minus maybe one exception), and so on. It’s basically a traditional teen “wannabe” horror flick with girls walking around in their panties (it’s PG-13, you know…), scared black men, and the oh so enjoyable “teen-partying-leading-to-complete-death” scene. Nothing about this film sets it apart from other teen horror flicks, but personally, I didn’t really expect it to. The fact of the matter is… I had a good time watching it. It’s certainly not the smartest thing, like I said, but it’s entertaining. If you end up hating it, I believe you’ll still have fun laughing at the film, if anything.

In terms of “horror,” “The Fog” doesn’t really succeed, and to be honest, I don’t think it tries very hard to be a horror movie. I don’t recall even one scene that could even remotely be considered scary. But, I guess that isn’t unexpected considering how unscary the original one was as well. If scares are what you’re expecting, lower your expectations, ASAP. The difference between the original and the remake here is that unlike the remake, the original had a sense of tension, mainly thanks to its score. The remake’s score does nothing for it, and with a soundtrack featuring rock music from Fall Out Boy (which I didn’t mind, personally), not much tension will occur.

Performance-wise, everything was mostly… blah. Other than a decent performance from “Lost’s” Maggie Grace and Selma Blair, nothing else was very noticeable. Tom Welling often became very annoying with his one liners like, “we’ve gotta get out of here!” But, you can’t expect much from a cast like this, anyways.

Although “The Fog” has some lame moments, I found the film to be very entertaining, overall. It’s stupidity can often become a positive breathe of fresh air before the strong Oscar season begins in a month. Even though it’s not really scary, it does use the cheap scare tactic here and there, which fits in well with the month of October. If you’re in the mood for a senseless, but fun teen horror flick, go see “The Fog.” If you want to see something good, though, wait until “Saw II” or something better comes out. “The Fog” is not where you need to be spending $8 on if you want something intelligent to watch. It’s just entertaining, and nothing more.

I consider “Saw” as one of the greatest horror films of all-time. It’s not quite scary, but it really hit a chord with me last year. The gore, mixed with the brilliant (if slightly flawed) premise and twist, made the movie for me. So, I was a bit disappointed that Lion Gates would not leave “Saw” alone and release a sequel within exactly one year of the original. I don’t blame them, considering the huge success “Saw” was in the box-office last Halloween, but sequels hardly ever match the original, and with the originality of “Saw,” one has to worry if “Saw II” was going to bring it down. Still, I anticipated seeing what they had to offer in the second part. “Saw II” blew me away in a way I couldn’t have imagined.

In “Saw,” the infamous serial killer that doesn’t actually “kill you,” nicknamed Jigsaw, made his mark on two unlucky fellows by locking them in an old bathroom of an abandoned warehouse to either kill themselves or the other in order to survive. In “Saw II,” Jigsaw is back, and he’s raising the bar in a big way. Eight people, all connected in some sort of fashion, are locked in a booby-trapped shelter filled with a lethal nerve gas that will take effect in two hours (after they woke up). In order to survive, they must find an antidote. The antidote is located in different hidden sections of the house, and it is their job to look for clues to survive, if they don’t try to kill each other first. Meanwhile, a somewhat unethical cop and his SWAT team track down Jigsaw and try to make him confess where the eight people are, but Jigsaw one ups the cop by not only letting them watch the torture through a few monitors, but he also shows him one of the eight people locked in the house – the cop’s son.

The tagline for the film is, “Oh yes, there will be blood.” It’s the most accurate tagline I’ve heard in a while. Right from the opening, we’re introduced to a short version of one of Jigsaw’s twisted games, as one guy sits in a room and has to cut his own eye open to retrieve a key (which was inserted into him), which will unlock the death mask that his around his neck and will snap shut in a minute. It’s a fantastic and exciting way to get the film started, I must say. Lots of the death traps set in the house will make your stomach a little uneasy, but that’s the whole point of the film. If you thought the original was sick and twisted, you haven’t seen anything yet. Anything at all.

Although one can’t expect good or great performances from a cast in films like these, Cary Elwes’s performance in the original was quite unbearable. Thankfully, we have a much better cast and much more believable performances, even if not that great. I think I was most impressed by Frankie G, of all people. Even though his acting is kind of… out there, he still gave a believable performance of someone who would be willing to do anything to survive. You’ll see what I mean once you watch the film. Like I said, the performances weren’t great, but unlike “Saw,” the ones in here were acceptable.

The best thing about the original, though, was the shocking conclusion. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever been so surprised during an ending in my life. There was just no way “Saw II” could have a better ending, in my mind. However, it came close. “Saw II” had one hell of an ending. It wasn’t as shocking as in the first, but still shocking enough. There’s two parts to the twist, though. If you watch a lot of horror films like I do, you’ll figure out one part to the twist easily, but it still seems surprising at the end of the film. There’s also one scene that’s almost guaranteed to either have the audience clapping and laughing at the same time. It’s quite memorable.

“Saw II” is one of the best sequels to pretty much any film. It takes the weak parts of the original and improves upon them, and it’s also extremely entertaining, just in time for Halloween. In a year where we’re overloaded with PG-13 horror flicks with no scares, no blood, and no fun (most of them), “Saw II” satisfies in all categories. It’s, hands down, the best horror film of 2005. I welcome “Saw III” with open arms.

Zingaling your reviews are very intelligent, even if I don't agree (there are several I don't agree with).

Trust me on Nov 17, we are having words. (Have not read you SAW II in case it had spoilers)

I suggest you watch this a 2nd time. The reason why you like a lot of the movies you do, is because they are fun. I mean yes, I have fun too. However SAW was hardly 'fun'. The horror was cool, but everything around it sucked.

Also the PG-13 films are all psychological horror films. So there is no need for blood. Anyway i'm prepared to view SAW 2 as a different movie.