Freerunner

Parkour can be best described as a discipline that emphasizes getting from point A to point B in the most efficient way possible. Google the term or free-running and you can see for yourself some of the crazy things that the people who use parkour can do. Parkour was developed by David Belle, but the history of parkour's movements go back decades. They just haven't had a name put to them. For most people, the only way they have heard of parkour is through film. District B13 was among the first action films that employed the sport. Parkour was also used in the opening scenes of the James Bond reboot, Casino Royale. As a result of it's effectiveness in movement, parkour has been used by governments as a tool to help train their military. The sport has gained in popularity as it's been featured not just in films like District B13, but also video games like Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and Mirror's Edge. Free-running is similar but emphasizes more self-expression and more acrobatic creativity. When movies base themselves around a specific sport, the results can be.....mixed.

Free-runner opens on a bunch of...well free-runners in a race for money. Jumping over people, cars, and each other, they try to reach the finish line. During one of the races, the group are kidnapped by a ruthless billionaire who pits them against each other in a lethal race. With collars attached to explode when an hour passes, the group are forced into a life-or-death race to the finish. If you're going to make a movie based specifically on a sport like free-running, actually make the movie ABOUT free-running. Don't add in a retarded plot like a bored billionaire pitting athletes against each other to make more money. It doesn't work. It also doesn't help that the acting is uniformly awful. The mustache-twirling billionaire without a mustache is particularly grating. There's a lot of stuff in here that just screams....ripoff. For instance, you've got a token black guy with a pirate patch over one eye. Who does he resemble, I wonder? Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury from The Avengers? No....couldn't be. What about the Vulcan neck pinch he employs to paralyze his victims? I kid you not, this guy literally grabs people by the back of their neck and squeezes and they go into convulsions. Really?! Not only that, the unnecessary gore gets in the way.

What about the action scenes? When you can actually see what's going on, they're actually pretty spectacular, since they don't use wires, except for safety reasons. The scenes where they jump through windows and off buildings? They actually do that, no special effects involved or green screens. It's pretty awesome. But the problem is, is that you can barely see what's going on, because the camera work sucks. They don't focus on anyone in particular and the camera shakes like a chihuahua on crack. It's amateurish at best. The stunts and fight scenes aren't half-bad, but as a result of crap camera-work, you don't really see a lot and in a movie dealing with parkour/free-running, you want people to see what's going on. Freerunner is just a bad movie overall, and nothing really comes together. Crap plots involving a hospitalized grandfather and kidnapped girlfriend? Padding. For a movie that runs only 88 minutes, it felt longer. Had they cut out all the stuff in between action scenes, the film would probably be only thirty minutes or so, but that would be worth more than what we got. If you want to see a movie about parkour or freerunning, check out District B13 instead. You get much more bang for your buck with that movie, and best of all, you can see what's going on. Overall, Freerunner gets a 5/10. It gets a 5 because when you finally see some of the stunts, they're awesome, but the rest of the movie is a complete joke.

The Rocketeer

Movies based on comic books go back decades. The one that really made comic book movies popular was Superman: The Movie, released in 1978. There have been smaller movies based on popular comic books throughout the 80s and 90s that ranged from horrendous, like Roger Corman's version of Fantastic Four to the stellar, like Tim Burton's Batman. But somewhere in the mass of movies released in the early 90s, a true gem of a movie was unfortunately overlooked and flopped at the box office: The Rocketeer. The character first appeared in 1982 as a back-up feature of Mike Grell's Starslayer series.

The film opens in 1938 Los Angeles with ace pilot Cliff Secord(Bill Campbell) flying his plane in preparation for an airplane show. He spots some gangsters running from the cops and is subsequently shot down, but survives. The crooks have apparently stolen a top-secret rocket pack from industrialist/aviator Howard Hughes(Terry O'Quinn). The guy running the show behind the theft of said rocket pack, gangster Eddie Valentine(Paul Sorvino) works for famed Hollywood star Neville Sinclair(Timothy Dalton) who may not be who he says he is. Together with his girlfriend Jenny(Jennifer Connelly) Cliff tries to keep the rocket pack from falling into the wrong hands, while engaging in some high flying mischief himself. The Rocketeer is perhaps one of the most underrated films in the past 25 years. It has a solid story with a great lead in Bill Campbell, who plays a flawed yet earnest pilot trying to make the best of a floundering career when he discovers the rocket pack. Jennifer Connelly is great as Cliff's love interest who gets tangled up with Timothy Dalton's character. Timothy Dalton of James Bond fame, makes a great villain in Neville Sinclair. He comes across as a very charming actor, ironically enough, and then turns evil at the drop of a dime and it's seamless. He does it very well.

Joe Johnson, who would direct last year's excellent Captain America: The First Avenger, has directed a fantastic adventure film that pays homage to the comics and pulp stories from the 30s, 40s and 50s, without actually naming them. The film is well paced and the action sequences are thrilling with Secord flying all over the place with the rocket pack. It's also a film that has a sense of humor. While respecting the stories that inspired it, it also pokes fun at them as well. Like Indiana Jones, The Rocketeer has a particular look that's right of the 30s. While the film isn't perfect and there are plot holes abound, nevertheless, the earnestness of the film and the fantastic direction and acting make this a film that's worth watching by any fan of cinema. With a rousing score by legendary film composer James Horner, The Rocketeer is a blast-to-the-past that will have you on the edge-of-your seat rooting for the good guys the way that action movies used to do years ago.

On a side note, the film was made for $40,000,000, but it only grossed $46,000,000 during it's entire theatrical run around the world, which is a shame. This a great adventure film that will have you wanting to strap on a rocket pack and take to the skies. It's very underrated, but I strongly recommend it to anyone who likes adventure stories. Overall, barring some plot holes, I give the film a solid 9/10. It's spectacular in every way and then some. With fantastic acting, a great story and characters, The Rocketeer deserves a place on the shelf of any movie fan.