Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)

Real Steel (2011)

Horrible Bosses (2011)

Moneyball (2011)

Ides of March (2011)

Green Lantern (2011)

This was a fun romp into another comic book themed movie, and I think it was put together rather well. Technically, the special effects worked, never seemed out of place and the story provided an engaging but straight-forward plot for us to follow along on. There was some lack-of-depth with the main moral of the story being that courage overcomes fear.

Ryan Reynolds is always fun for me to watch, I enjoy his delivery of mostly sarcastic remarks, filled with attitude. That was lessened to a certain degree here, because he had to play for most of the film, but it's still present and fun to watch.

Being the focus of the film, it's only natural that our hero become the most powerful of them all, but I think some depth could have been achieved if all of the green lanterns would have been more involved here. The flipside of that being as it stands, it's a hero coming-of-abilities story, and enjoyable as just that.

Early on we're treated to a flashback of his father dying, and that's used as the basis for the fear that he has to overcome. While an adequate plot device, it also felt weak too. Maybe I'm looking into it too much, especially seeing as it's only a PG movie so it's aimed at a wider audience, but a better establishment of the fear, or experience would have gone a long way.

There certainly weren't any twists and turns here, but they made a glaring omission in terms of tying off loose ends, and that seems to leave room for a sequel, which I'm sure is their intent.

Finally, it's a fun ride, with good special effects, and I enjoyed watching Tim Robbins in a more mainstream flick.

Platoon (1986)

This movie is hard for me to rate. In so many ways Full Metal Jacket is my favorite Vietnam--nay, war movie--ever. That aside, there was a lot to like here. I enjoyed the transformation of Taylor from a cleancut rookie into a battle-hardened soldier who's actions end up mirroring the actions of a commanding officer he despises.

The movie is wrought with symbolism, everything from the U.S. soldiers honouring their dead by bringing them home whereas they discard the Vietnamese dead with bulldozers and group burial plots to rebel and Nazi flags seen, although, the Nazi flag seemed out of place to me, and I'm not sure what it represented.

One thing that stuck out to me was the lack of soldier code names. Sure, there were some, but these are names that were used in iconic fashion in FMJ, yet here the soldiers mostly go by their last name. I can't help but wonder if Stone was trying to differentiate his film from the onslaught of Vietnam films that came out in the 1980s.