Assassin’s Creed in Real 3D

I never played any of the video arcade games of Assassin’s Creed, but judging from the movie, the game must be pretty serious.

I have been waiting for this movie for over 18 months. It’s better than I expected, but not as good as I hoped it would be.

The movie is dark, grey and a bit dreary. The action is awesome!! There are many cool fight scenes and sequences. Michael Fassbender looks “hot” without a shirt on. The 3D aspects are ok.

The bigger issues are that the movie is disorganized, the story and/or plot is disjointed. Nothing happens in a sequence that you can really follow. There are philosophical undertones to the movie, but even those are not fully developed and there is too much CGI.

I left the theater with a big question mark on my face because I didn’t really understand the story or lack there-of.

“Assassin’s Creed” may join the likes of “Silent Hill” and “Hitman 47” that is a video game to big screen adaptation that isn’t very successful.

If you played the game or are a video game fanatic, the fight scenes and sequences are pretty awesome to see.

This is a 2 ½ Star Movie!

The Gambler (2014)

I love Mark Wahlberg. I think he’s a good actor, but this remake of the 1974 “The Gambler” that starred James Caan doesn’t quite cut it.

The movie drags for the first hour and twenty minutes. The best part is the last 30 minutes. It’s almost worth seeing just for the last 30 minutes, but the key word in my sentence is ALMOST!!

Mark Wahlberg plays Jim Bennett who is both a high Stakes Gambler and a Literary Professor at a local college. He borrows from a gangster (Michael K. Williams) and puts his own life up for collateral. Jim then pits the gangster against the operator of a gambling ring (Alvin Ing). The story unfolds from there…

I do have to say that the dialog for the gangsters was awesome. Their gift for gab was a lot more than I expected.

The 1974 version of “The Gambler” is available via Netflix. I believe that you will find more enjoyment watching that version.

This is a 2 Star Movie!