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FLASHBACK: It’s 1988. A movie titled Alien Nation comes out. It’s about a group of aliens that come to earth and become integrated with us humans. They become part of our society and of course so does the racism but also become the victims of a new kind of discrimination.

It’s 2009 now. District 9 tackles some of the similar issues but gives it a twist. It takes it to a new level that is dramatic and inspiring. It takes what could be a simple sci-fi movie and makes it into something that we can all learn a lesson from.

The back story is that this alien ship came to Earth. For some reason they have run out of fuel and are stranded. The humans take the “prawns” (as they are known) and place them in a highly restricted area. The aliens are not allowed in the city of Johannesburg. They are kept segragated. This continues for 20 years. Finally the people of Johannesburg get so fed up with the aliens that they want them moved to a different area.

District 9 is like watching a documentary on History Channel (even though it’s sans the “Channel”) and it’s spliced together with actual footage of situation that those being interviewed are describing. It chronicles an MNU agent (similar to the U.N.) giving eviction notices to the “prawns” so that they can be moved to their new camp called District 10. During this eviction process something happens which changes EVERYTHING you thought you knew about this movie. I am not going to give it but I can tell you that it’s pretty emotional what happens and you start to feel for the characters at this point and also start to feel some compassion for the “prawns”.

When watching this movie you can’t tell that it was made on a budget of 30 Million dollars. The sets were all real, the shacks and shanties were real. They used actual shacks that had been evicted and had the people used to better government housing. This must have saved money on sets BIG TIME and of course it gave us that realism that made this movie so excellent.

The main actor in this film, Sharlto Copley is not even an actor at all. He was asked by the director to be a main character in this film and he decided “Hey, why not?” He was amazing. His protrayal of a individual trying to climb the corporate ladder while trying not to fall into the shadow of nepotism within in his world was an interesting dynamic. He had this nerdy quality to him that made you laugh at how uncomfortable he was in front of the camera. It was like watching a South African version of Michael Scott. Well done.

I can’t give away too much of the plot but I will say this: we need to learn how to treat each other even when one is different. Being different is not bad. But this movie shows us how that can happen and also how bad it can get. The movie makes you think, ponder and actually think about how you and WE treat our fellow man.

Oh, and they blow shit up. THE ALIEN WEAPONS ARE INSANE! One of them shoots what looks like lightning and when it hits the target it just VAPORIZES it.

Overall, District 9 was highly entertaining. It was fresh and edgy (sorry Charles) and gave us something different from the “He’s not into you, he just wants to bang” and the “BLOW SHIT UP WITH NOT PLOT” summer blockbusters. It was made to enterain and to make you think at the same time and it pulled it off beautifully.

8.5 out of 10. MUST SEE!

Jason:  Dude, the movie was really good.
Phil:  You must be joking….
Jason:  Nope, it was actually pretty damn good.
Phil:  Hmm, suspect.

That’s the overall response I am seeing between people who have seen ”G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” and those that are not to sure if they wanna waste the money to go.  This point of view I can totally understand.  It happens all the time with summer blockbusters.  They movie is fed to us every minute through TV spots, trailers during other movies and then there are the review sites.  Rotten Tomatoes had the movie at 89% on Tuesday (with only a few BIG reviews on the site) and then the morning of the release the site had the movie at 29%.   This was due to the fact that all the big reviewers had thrown up their reviews bashing the hell outta this movie.  This happens all the time.  It happened with “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” too.  The fan reviews on the site were saying “Go See It!” and “AMAZING”.  But then you get the wanna be Roger Ebert’s out there trying to make place in the industry and they just DESTROYED it.

So here it goes……….

I didn’t love this movie but it was definetly a fun-filled action-packed summer blockbuster.  I don’t think it’s going to break box office records or anything like that but it has the potential to get good enough reception to where they could make a second one and with that usually comes more funding.  To me, that is when a series of movies start to get really good.  But I am gonna break down my review into 3 main categories: Acting/Casting, SFX and Plot.

Acting/Casting
With summer movies it seems to me that the main one thing that the director is trying to do is to entertain us.  They do this with bringing fresh new talent, a big superstar and of course comedy relief.  This movie had all of that.  You have Dennis Quaid starring as “Gen. Hawk” the man leading all the missions from the SUPER SECRET UNDERGROUND BASE!  Then you have the “n00b” Channing Tatum as “Duke” who is the born leader.  While watching this movie the actor and the character reminded me of my brother-in-law Garrett.  Garrett has those moments of letting his guard down and being funny but for some reason you just know that this guy was born to be a leader, police officer or some form of a badass.  Damon Wayons was the main comic relief as “Ripcord” and he pulled it off well, nothing too cheesy but that’s expected from this type of movie.  The two female roles of “Scarlett” and “Baroness” were cast beautifully.  These two women just played their roles perfectly. 

SFX
Yes, there was a good portion of this movie that was CGI.  But, it was no “Revenge of the Sith” which almost EVERY shot of the movie had some special effect thown in by George Lucas just so he could maintain a hard-on for Anakin.  This movie kept a good balance of actual studio shots and special effect shots in between.  The quality of the SFX was not even close to the level of the newest Transformers but I don’t remember at any point during the film actually being taken outta the experience and saying “Whoa, that looked fake as shit”.  That didn’t happen.  Overall the SFX were par with what most movies are doing these days with the budget they had for this film.

Plot
This is the main thing that drives a movie.  If this part of a movie doesn’t work you will find the seats of the film about as empty as a poetry reading by Sarah Palin, it aint gonna bring in viewers.  The plot for this movie is basic but it has it’s moments that keep you wondering what is going to happen next.  It starts off with a mission, deliver some missles from Point A to Point B and hopefully dont get attacked.  Well, they get attacked.  But not just by anyone, it’s COBRA!  A shitstorm of gunfire and missles and explosions ensues.  But with this fight we are introduced to EVERYONE that is in the plot. 

The rest of the plot revolves around COBRA trying to get those missles and the Joe’s trying to protect them.  Battles happen and everyone learns lessons during those battles.  Hell, knowing is half the battle anyways.  Right?  But there is also the plot line of what is going on with Zartan and his evolution to who we always knew him as in the cartoon.  Also there is scientist character that we are introduced to.  This scientist is the main drive behind COBRA and it’s NeoViper squadron.  That is also one of the plot points that makes this movie pretty damn cool, nanobots!  That’s right, nanobots.  Microscopic robots that can do a SHIT-TON of cool things and COBRA has the means of using these nanobots for super evil plots.

There aren’t the blue and red lasers we know from the cartoon but I am glad those were gone.  I am an adult and know that those types of lasers aren’t here yet, I wanna see soldiers having to reload guns.  However, COBRA has come up with this new type of gun that shoots like energy blasts and of course there is NO BLOOD when they kill someone.  Great way to not get an “R” rating.  And of course during the movie I was waiting for two things to happen: someone to say “Yo, Joe!” and for someone to explain that “knowing is half the battle” and I am not gonna tell you if happens or not!  Gotta keep some things secret.

Overall, this movie had it all for me.  I am the type of person that sometimes I just wanna be entertained.  I wanna watch a movie for 2 hours and just sit back and relax and get taken away to another world.  This had it all for me.  The plot was entertaining and totally plausible.  The SFX were good and didn’t make me throw my popcorn at the screen and the acting wasn’t horrible but it wasn’t anything worthy of a small golden statue.  “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” was a fun summer action movie. 

Rating: 7.5 out of 10