Reviews

Two Brothers starts with the siblings, Kumal and Sangha, and shows how they are playful and protective of one another. Kumal was the more meek of the two and Sangha would knowingly protect his brother when in trouble. After the older tigers were killed (seems the villagers do not like random tigers hanging out while they are working), Kumal and Sangha are separated. Kumal ends up in a circus like atmosphere where he is trained to jump through flaming hoops and such (which actually comes in handy later in the movie). Sangha ends up, at first, with a family. Raoul (Freddie Highmore) loves Sangha but is forced to give him up, due to Sangha killing the family dog in self-defense. It now had the taste of blood and was no longer safe to be in the company of humans.

As both tigers became adults, they had led a less than extraordinary life, both with cruel owners and both ending up in a cock-fighting environment, where they were forced to fight one another.

To me, the only enjoyable part of this movie were the tigers, themselves. The people only made it boring and wishing for the movie to either end or cut back to the tiger footage. I assume the tigers were trained to do certain things and then pieced together to form a cohesive story for them. Other footage seemed to be just film of the tigers acting naturally, which was important for the movie.

Two Brothers was a great children's movie. Some adults would probably enjoy it as well but it was definitely not made for them. This is not the kind of movie I could watch over and over but was worth seeing at least once.

Andy Garcia and Michael Keaton star in the classic policeman vs bad guy story, but with a twist. Garcia is Frank Conner, a cop with a son named Matt who desperately needs a bone marrow transplant. Keaton is Pete McCabe, a hardened prisoner who seems to be the only person in the world who matches little Matt's bone marrow type. So eventually, Pete is talked into giving the marrow transplant, but in reality has a plan for escape, leaving Matt and his father, Frank, with nobody, Frank has no other choice but to find Pete and bring him back alive. This is where the cat and mouse plot begins, after nearly an hour of setting it up.

Desperate Measures had the potential to be so bad. I never would have imagined myself enjoying it this much. Thanks to a rainy day and a few hours to kill, I decided to watch this movie and it exceeded my expectations (which were not very high).

I still would not say this is a great movie. In fact, it is pretty average but Michael Keaton gives an enjoyable performance as a hardened prisoner. Normally, I would expect Garcia to be the bad guy and Keaton to be the cop, but Keaton honestly works out better as the bad guy.

The worst part of the movie has to be the kid, Matt, played by Joseph Cross. Nothing he says or does is what a young child his age would actually be thinking or saying. I am not even really disappointed so much with that, but his delivery was terrible. I know he is just a kid, but there are much better child actors who could have portrayed this much better. All in all, worth about a 7/10.

Needless to say, I sat through the entire movie, hoping for some kind of payoff in the end. It never came. I was bored before I got through the first 15 minutes. I actually feel ripped off for paying the $3 to see it I can't say enough at how bad the acting is. Not one person in this movie stood out as an actor or actress worth my time. Tania Galarza was supposed to be the lead female, or, well, the lead feminine female. The whole movie was pretty much cast as female. If a male showed up, he was a stereotyped male pig or a weak male which the girlie gangsters could easily rough up, and I use that term loosely. Anyhow, Tania was supposed to be the beautiful woman with whom the lead male, in this case Misha Gonzales, would fall for. Tania could not even convince me that she was just a normal girl. That's how bad her acting was. And don't get me started on the even worse Misha.

One last complaint... It seemed as this movie was made for some kind of a school project or something. I doubt anyone got paid and all the scenery shots were re-used over and over and over. I got tired of seeing the same train tracks with the same train rolling by at the exact same time. If there's one thing this movie lacked, it's professionalism. That's it for me. I've wasted enough time on this already.