Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Battle: Los Angeles

It's always Los Angeles or New york isn't it? The aliens never land and do battle in Fort Smith or Poplar Bluff. I wonder why that is... and the aliens always have to pick the most populated places to wage war. You'd think war would look easier with fewer humans to contend with...

Battle: Los Angeles is a lot like some things you've seen before. Alien beings invade large American city, and don't much enjoy the welcome they receive. This time, they are met by a team of United States Marines led by SSgt Michael Nantz.

Nantz and crew are dropped behind enemy lines on a mission to rescue some civilians who have been stranded before the whole sector gets obliterated with air strikes. The combat is mostly house to house, street by street, and filmed kind of like in a documentary style. It's gritty and dirty and up close, and almost beginning to end, save for a small dramatic bullshit scene where a bunch of tough marines show their feelings. Yeah, they could've cut that shit out.

Oh, and I can't forget the frequent references to the U.S. Marines, and their fighting spirit. Much was made of that... so much, that I'm tempted to believe the U.S.M.C. traded technical assistance in exchange for free recruiting soundbites. Could it be? Nah, that's not possible, is it?

In summary: Grab a soda and popcorn and enjoy the show. Nothing artistic or moralizing about this one. Instead, you get a whole lot of whizbangboom for the buck, and much better than the last whizbangerboomer I saw some months ago... what was it? ... yeah, the Expendables, that over-hyped loser with a bunch of geriatric action heroes from the 80's.

5 comments:

whall said...

There are so many movies I can't wait to see. And it's not even summer yet!

RobertDWood said...

You're right about the USMC connection,
http://www.nola.com/movies/index.ssf/2011/03/aaron_eckhart_went_through_mil.html

They had an active duty Marine working as a liaison with this film and providing military hardware and real USMC extras for the filming.

Mrs. D said...

Benster saw this movie last week with one of his friends. Hey, how much does it cost for a movie ticket out there?

Brian said...

Yeah, the military has a long history of lending support to movies that they think will portray them in a positive light.

The fact that the Navy helped make one of the most overtly homoerotic movies of all time just cracks me up every time I think about it.

Gino said...

mrs d: $11 bucks at the newer modern places. some of the others, maybe $10.

brian: anything with tom cruise is homoerotic by default, isnt it?

palm boy: actually, it was a rhetorical question. it was just so obvious.

whall: thanks for stopping by. i tend to write about movies when i see them, so you can start here before summer.