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Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, a review by GSyren

Title	Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (5-051895-219577)
Director	Brad Peyton
Actors	Dwayne Johnson, Michael Caine, Josh Hutcherson, Luis Guzman, Vanessa Hudgens
Produced	2012 in United States
Runtime	94 minutes
Audio	English DTS 5.1, French Dolby Digital 5.1, German Dolby Digital 5.1, Italian Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles	Danish, French, Finnish, Norwegian, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish
Overview	The new family adventure Journey 2: The Mysterious Island begins when seventeen-year-old Sean Anderson (Josh Hutcherson) receives a coded distress signal from a mysterious island where no island should exist. Unable to stop him from tracking the signal to its source, Sean's new stepfather, Hank (Dwayne Johnson), joins the quest that will take them first to the South Pacific, and then to a place few people have ever seen. Or lived to tell about. It's a place of stunning beauty, strange and threatening life forms, volcanoes, mountains of gold and more than one astonishing secret. Together with Gabato (Luis Guzmán), the only helicopter pilot willing to risk the trip, and Gabato's beautiful, strong-willed daughter Kailani (Vanessa Hudgens), they set out to find the island, rescue its lone human inhabitant and escape before seismic shockwaves force the island underwater and bury its treasures forever, in this follow-up to the 2008 worldwide hit Journey to the Center of the Earth.
My thoughts	This is another of those movies that I wasn’t sure about, so I waited until I could get it relatively cheap. This is also a case of setting my expectations low. I like Jules Verne. I have read The Mysterious Island, although it was long ago. I also read the Illustrated Classic when I was a kid, and I have seen the 1961 Harryhausen film, the 2005 Hallmark TV version and the 1995 TV series. None of them follow Verne’s book very closely, and this one certainly doesn’t either. Being quite recent, it’s no big surprise that this movie has the better special effects. But good special effects does not equal a good movie. We have seen this over and over. Is Josh Hutcherson a good actor? If he is, he certainly doesn’t show it in this movie. Dwayne Johnson can be good in action movies, but isn’t good here. And Michael Caine is pretty much wasted. The less said about Luis Guzmán, the better. And you know something must be wrong in a movie when Vanessa Hudgens comes off as the least irritating character... The script varies between silly and ludicrous, but at least it seldom gets boring. So, if you can put your brain in neutral for an hour and a half (at least it’s not overly long), then it can be an acceptable time killer. But hardly anything more than that. If you want a good Mysterious Island, go with Harryhausen. It’s not Verne’s Mysterious Island, but in spite of Harryhausen’s creatures it’s probably the closest you get. The TV series is also quite entertaining, but it certainly isn’t Verne. Still, either of them is better than this mess. Definitely avoid the Hallmark version, though!
My rating	2.5 out of 5

(From Reviews and ramblings by Gunnar on September 26th, 2013)

I Am Legend, a review by RossRoy

WHAT THEY SAY

The last man on earth is not alone. Will Smith plays that lone survivor in 'I Am Legend', the action epic fusing heart-pounding excitement with a mind-blowing vision of a desolate Manhattan. Somehow immune to an unstoppable, incurable virus, military virologist Robert Neville (Smith) is now the last human survivor in New York City and maybe the world. Mutant plague victims lurk in the shadows...watching Neville's every move...waiting for him to make a fatal mistake. Neville is driven by only one remaining mission: to find an antidote using his own immune blood. But he knows he is outnumbered...and quickly running out of time.

MY THOUGHTS

Pretty interesting movie. As usual, I didn't care too much for the CGI creatures, but as CGI creatures go they were OK. But the rest of the movie is very good. Will Smith gives a great performance here as our main protagonist. I especially like how he plays with the fine line between mental breakdown and being strong to find the cure. I also liked the idle banter with the mannequins. I watched the alternate ending. Meh! What the alternate ending suggests would've made a much better ending, but the CGI creature cannot render it convincingly. So the decision to go with a Hollywood ending is the right one in this case.

RATING

(From RossRoy's Random Viewings on July 8th, 2010)

Angel Marathon, a review by addicted2dvd

21. Power Play
Original Air Date: 5/12/2004
Angel's strange behavior convinces the gang that he's joined an elite group of evildoers called the Circle of the Black Thorn - a group he could have only joined by killing one of his own.

Guest Stars:
Christian Kane
Dennis Christopher
Alec Newman
Jenny Mollen
Adam Baldwin

My Thoughts:
Starting to get really good again. This is basically the first part of the series finale. The team thinks Angel went bad... but that is what he needed them to think.

My Rating:

(From Angel Marathon on March 25th, 2010)