Defiance

Spanks - 4

Director - Edward Zwick

Writers - Clayton Frohman & Edward Zwick

Starring - Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber, Jamie Bell & George MacKay

Release Date - 16 January 09

MPAA Rating - R

Defiance is a film about the Bielski Brothers and their camp during World War Two. It is adapted from Nechama Tec's book "Defiance: The Bielski Partisans". The Bielski's were a Jewish family living in Nazi-occupied Poland. Their parents were killed because they wouldn't go to the ghettos by the local police under the orders of the Nazi. The brothers fled into the forest and find other survivors. Tuvia, the oldest Bielski, becomes the leader. The camp continues to grow as more Jews escape the Germans. The film follows the groups survival in the forest.

The film's trailer makes it look like its about the Jews fighting back against the Nazis like a typical war movie. There are a few battle scenes, but the main focus is the lives of the people living in the forest. The struggles of a cold winter, the sibling rivalry between Tuvia and Zus, antisemitism from the Soviets, starvation, and keeping away from the Germans to stay alive.

It is a very good story. I don't know why it isn't well known, because you don't hear of that much good coming out of World War Two. It wasn't taught to me in high school, I don't know if it was in other high schools.

Defiance doesn't use and fancy cinematography or million dollar digital special effects. It doesn't need too. Its about the people and their lives, not the horrors of war. Showing all that would take away from the story of survival. The only problem I had was the film moves a little slow at times.

Quantum of Solace

Spanks - 4

Director - Marc Forster

Writers - Paul Haggis, Neal Purvis & Robert Wade

Starring - Daniel Craig, Olga Kurylenko, Mathieu Amalric, Judi Dench & Giancarlo Giannini

Release Date - 14 November 2008

MPAA Rating - PG

Quantum of Solace is the 22nd official James Bond film. It takes place immediately following the events in Casino Royale. Bond captures Mr. White and during his interrogation he escapes with the help of a traitor (who was M's bodyguard). Bond and M learn very little of the organization Quantum and using forensics from the traitor starts Bond's hunt to find out more about Quantum and to bring them down.

The film runs like a Bond film. He has no regard to public property, he doesn't give up, he doesn't follow orders, he uses his license to kill often and he gets the girls. I heard people saying that it didn't feel like a Bond film and it was just a spy thriller, but it felt very Bond to me.

The visual effects are still real and not 100 percent CGI. Some of the action sequences were similar to each other, which I didn't like and the one in Haiti was cut to quickly to tell what was happening, but those were the only 2 small problems I had with the action.

The film has nothing new and groundbreaking in the film making techniques, but who cares, not all movies need to be. It is a very fun film to watch, and very much worth seeing. It made me wish I was as awesome as James Bond. It is the best action film since Hellboy 2 and The Dark Knight and I can't think of any that will be this good until next summer.