starring Sean Patrick Flanery, Norman Reedus I'm a huge fan of the original Boondock Saints movie.  It's one of the best movies I've ever seen.  But, Hollywood being Hollywood, nothing that great can't go without a crap-ass sequel.  Here you go. Even amongst bad sequels, though, this one is beyond horrible.  The idea behind it was probably pretty good on paper, fleshing out some characters or whatever, but it translated into a worse than shitty film. The general idea is that the two brothers' and their father have gone back to Ireland and settled down on a sheep farm.  Then the father's history comes back to haunt them and, of course, they resume their roles in Boston. A lot of attempted twists are thrown in and some obvious strings left untied for potential sequels later.  Mostly, though, the story is chaotic, lame, and full of badly-conceived ripoffs of the original. First, they try for the comic relief with a Mexican who makes a lot of stupid cliche jokes.  The brothers themselves were funny enough, I don't know why they had to throw this La Raza (literally, that's his character) into the thing.  I guess they thought there were too many white people in the script. Next ...

starring Mel Gibson To be honest, it's hard to go wrong with a movie starring Mel Gibson or in any way involving him.  This one is no exception.  For those who have read We Were Soldiers Once.. And Young by Lt. Col. Harold Moore, USMC (ret.), this is the movie based on that book and which Moore said was the most realistic, intelligent, soldier-oriented movie on Vietnam he's ever witnessed. The story details the battle of Ia Drang, one of the first and most pivotal of battles in Vietnam.  The movie doesn't get into politics, reasons for this-or-that, etc.  Instead, it chronicles the lives of the soldiers who fought in that battle, their families, and how the war affected them for good or ill.  Ia Drang lasted for several days in which the battle-tested, well-equipped, and well-situated North Vietnamese Army attempted to oust the Americans and their brand new, never-before-tested air combat troops. The movie shows the bravery, the folly, and the horrible power of modern war.  Mel Gibson does an excellent job playing the role of a seasoned combat colonel who leads the way Patton lead: from the front.  Unlike Patton, however, Lt C. Moore allowed feelings to show, humanity to exist, ...

starring Christian Bale I've become kind of a fan of Christian Bale, who has definitely been the best of the Batman series actors and has been in some other great flicks, some of which I've talked about here.  This is another good one that shows not only Bale's great talent on-screen, but his ability to pick really awesome scripts to work with. In the movie, Bale is emaciated and somehow starved his already-thin figure to make himself so for the role.  He's a machinist at a plant and has a curiously empty life, but an active inner consciousness.  He's an insomniac (hence his drawn look and too-thin frame) who suffers from occasional delusions. The movie moves really well and has an edge-of-your-seat quality that is hard to beat.  I can't give you details on what happens in the movie, since that would give away the excellent plot twist - the one you'll never see coming.  This is one of the better movies I've seen in a little while and well worth the watch. Highly recommended.Related posts: The Dark Knight