portarian

Had a chance to view it this week with only the trailer as a guide as to what I was about to see. It turned out to be mildly better than I was anticipating. Mark Wahlberg brought a comical element that worked with the overall story with Denzel basically being the straight man throughout. Denzel plays his role smoothly with a slight sarcastic comedic side. I thought they both played off each other very well to keep you intrigued with the ongoing twisting plot. Good to see James Edward Olmos after a long absence from the big screen. Always be LT. Castillo from Miami Vice fame to me. Don't base your opinion on the trailer as I had. Worth a look.

Ballistic Ecks Vs. Sever is very artistically shot but the use of slow-motion becomes a little tiring half way through the film.

The story revolves around Retired FBI agent Ecks(Banderas) and ex-operative Agent Sever(Liu) both with a seperate agenda involving the same man(Henry). If you like slo-mo and pyro-techniques then go see this film because they love using them!

The film is entertaining enough to keep you in your seat for the 90 minutes its on the screen. Both Lucy Liu and Antonio have been better but this is not meant to be an oscar candidate, but more a high-energy Matrix-like ride for a hour and a half!

I know the premise to this film seems like you have seen it before, but Ice Cube does a great job to bring feeling to story we "have" seen before. Ice Cube stars as "Calvin" the disgruntled owner of a Barbershop he took over for his departed Father. Calvin is always in a state of thinking he can do better than the Barbershop.

There are some good characters in this film starting with Cedric the Entertainer as "Eddie" the wise Barbershop veteran with "interesting" views on African-American history. Ice Cube carries the show in what is his best work since Higher Learning.