V FOR VENDETTA

Theater: Showcase Cinema de Lux 16, Okolona, Kentucky

If you've read the graphic novel, this movie doesn't follow along quite as Alan Moore wrote it.

But thank god that it doesn't have to.

There are two types of adaptations. The first take the source material and alter it only in medium, translating it to a moving form. The second takes the foundation, the underlying pieces of that material, and molds it into something different, but still familiar; sometimes even sometimes better.

The film is better than the graphic novel.

And here's why:

• It's simpler. The fat has been trimmed, but the message has remained the same.
• The key visuals remain intact.
• The acting is fitting ... imagine having a British cast playing Britons ... Hollywood should have figured that one out a long time ago.
• The story is jumbled ... even if you read the graphic novel, there are surprises in store.

Hugo Weaving acts pantomime the whole movie, wearing a mask. And it works, without ever seeing his face.

Time have changed since the novel was written, and the film (sometimes disturbingly) brings that to light, tying in this British future into our current world. It makes you be thankful that we do not live in a world like that.

See it if - you like masks; you like Natalie Portman; you're looking for a solid political commentary on where the worldhas been and could (in a worst case scenario) go
Rent it if - you're too embarassed to go see a comic book movie.

16 BLOCKS

Theater: Movies Palace 6 Theaters, Elizabethtown, Kentucky

Bruce Willis plays a New York cop who's down, out, drunk, and not quite nice.

Sound familiar?

But this time Mos Def plays a squirrely informant, and Bruce Willis chased by fellow cops trying to squelch the witness.

Surprisingly good in its simple premise, it doesn't achieve greatness. It's better than Die Hard 2, but give me Nakatomi Plaza or With a Vengeance any day instead.

See it if - you've been waiting for Die Hard 4 for too long
Rent it if - you want to compare the receding hairline frame by frame versus say, Tears of the Sun.

ULTRAVIOLET

Theater: Movies Palace 6 Theaters, Elizabethtown, Kentucky

So, Kurt Wimmer is completely on my shit-list now.

He made a great movie (Equilibrium) and then he makes this, Ultraviolet. If Equilibrium were his novel, this is his comic book. But unfortunately for all of us, it's the comic book you find in a gutter after a kid who spent his allowance on it throws it away in disgust, whereas his novel would be preserved in a library of other works as great as it.

The story seems (and is) simple, but it's told so disjointed that you're not really sure what's going on. Jovovich plays Violet, a synthetic vampire due to government testing on her that made her faster, stronger, and ... immune to sunlight?

And there's a defenseless kid in the story, like there always is, and a mysterious helper, and an oppressive government, and the head of the government, and a paranoid society.

There's more backstory to the movie, but it never gets explained. And when it comes to the action, it's just bad. The climactic fight is with swords (cool) in the dark (stupid) ... so even when they light the swords on fire (again, cool) they still manage to make it painful to watch.

The visuals are highly stylized, but the effect is much less Sin City and much more we-ran-out-of-special-effects-money-so-lets-make-it-all-look-like-crap.

Is this better than Milla doing a third Resident Evil? Honestly, I can't answer that question. And that's what makes me so scared.

Kurt, please let your next movie (if you get the chance to make another one after this) more like your first.

Sincerely,
Me


See it if - you have a thing for Milla (which I never did)
Rent it if - you like watching bright colors move on a screen in your living room.