Tag Archive for Dwayne Johnson

FAST & FURIOUS 6 (Film Review)

FF6 poster

FAST AND FURIOUS 6 in theaters now!

Summer has started and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has again bathed in baby oil and flung himself at the big screen.  This time he reprises his role as Agent Luke Hobbs in Universal Pictures’ “Fast & Furious 6″.  Featuring pretty much everyone who’s ever starred in the street racing series, “FF6″ serves as a link for the previous five films and gives us a glimpse at where the films are heading.  Director Justin Lin also returns to the franchise he resuscitated with the fourth installment and it’s clear from the first racing scene that he’s not afraid to take her into the red.   Read more

PAIN & GAIN (Film Review)

Pain & Gain teaser poster

PAIN & GAIN in theaters now from Paramount Pictures

Anyone familiar with weight lifting scenes in movies has no doubt heard the mantra “No pain, no gain!”  Some might argue this could be Michael Bay’s personal mission statement as he’s gained quite a bit for himself by inflicting pain on the intelligence of moviegoers everywhere for nearly two decades.  Personally, I don’t mind his films with their hyper-active visuals and no-brainer storylines, as they’ve set the standard for what has become the modern American popcorn movie.  This weekend, his latest Summer blockbuster, “Pain & Gain” opens… one week before the Summer movie season actually begins. Maybe Paramount wants to see men pumping iron before Iron Man pumps all the cash out of next week’s box office? Read more

G.I. Joe: Retaliation (Film Review)

GI JOE 2 poster

G.I. JOE: RETALIATION in theaters now

Channing Tatum won me over with his performances in “21 Jump Street” and “Magic Mike”… or at least the Directors and Editors did.  If you want to see the blind leading the blind, go no further than 2009′s “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra”.  In that film, Hollywood’s worst director, Stephen Sommers, succeeds in getting a performance from Tatum that’s as plastic as the toys it was based upon.  Throw on top of that a script full of plot holes, bargain basement VFX and Marlon Wayans and you’ve got yourself a war on good taste.  Fortunately, Paramount Pictures 86′d Sommers and brought in the next wave of Joes.  “G.I. Joe: Retaliation” should’ve instead been titled “Resuscitation”, because that’s exactly what it does:  breathes life into a franchise that all but had its dog tags sent home. Read more

SNITCH (Film Review)

Snitch Poster

SNITCH in theaters now from Summit Entertainment and Participant Media

As a child of the 80′s, I grew up loving the “ABC Afterschool Special”.  I guess I never really gave much thought to the social importance of these cheesy little shows, nor did I realize how bad they really were.  Going back now,  watching these things are not unlike watching “Reefer Madness” with the joke being the not very subtle (and often too heavy-handed) “message”; the very quality that redeemed such schlock.

In 2004, Participant Media, then known as Participant Productions, was founded as a socially relevant alternative to the empty calorie offerings of mainstream Hollywood pictures.  Their latest release, “Snitch”, produced by and starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, is a movie with a message.

That message: The Rock might want to avoid dramas. Read more