Battle Los Angeles - a review by Camilo Arenivar

This is a different kind of alien invasion movie. It is more like "Blackhawk Down" with aliens. It is, first and foremost a classic American military war movie - complete with hoo rah Marines and heavy on the camaraderie that makes up the real life service that has been captured in war movie after war movie. The twist is, the war is not Afghanistan, Iraq, Italy, Nazi Germany or Somalia - it's Los Angeles. Santa Monica, Venice and the West Side to be exact.

This is another movie that maybe leads you to believe is more sci fi alien fantasy epic than war movie. There are great lengths taken to build the background story with some of the characters that will later be used to draw at the heartstrings. There is limited success with this.

There is a lot of fighting, explosions, and all out battle. A lot of ground battle between alien forces and U.S. troops. I felt the movie could have been a little shorter. Fort the most part, the movie works as an alien based war battle film. As a sci-fi scary alien invasion movie, not as much. Dialogue and acting was not so great, special effects were. Way better than the last urban alien invasion movie, 2009's "Skyline", which was awful, but not quite as good as 2008's "Cloverfield". Let's hope Steven Spielberg's "Super 8" delivers this Summer.

Rating: 80

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The Adjustment Bureau - A review by Camilo Arenivar

This movie is not the ones you see the commercials for - the fast paced chases, the crashes, the running through doors into other places. Well, all those things DO take place in the movie, but the whole movie is not like that, despite the totality of the trailers and commercials appearing that it is. That does not, however, make this a disappointing film. The first very good movie of 2011, as far as I am concerned, The Adjustment Bureau blends pure unadulterated romance with a sci fi background, and philosophical themes for good measure.

The Adjustment Bureau excels as a romance where the protagonists are up against forces beyond their control. Perhaps even beyond this World. The movie has a strange, slightly supernatural feel, yet there is nothing over the top happening through most of it. The action takes up maybe 15 minutes total, this movie is more about the story.

Rep. David Norris (Matt Damon) is a boy wonder politician, working his way up the New York state political stage and one very important day, he meets this woman in the men's room. Later, he accidentally stumbles on to these strange men moving people around and he is told "You’ve seen behind the curtain that you weren’t suppose to know existed". And thus begins the stranger part of this movie. Who are these people? What are they doing? Why won't they let him do what he wants? How come he keeps ...well I don't like to give away the story. This movie is less of a thriller and more of a slightly cosmic love story, more like "City of Angels" than "The Bourne Identity".

David Norris: Are you angels?
Harry Mitchell (of The Adjustment Bureau): We’re more like case officers.

The philosophical new agey slightly preachy side of this movie may turn some off - but I loved it.

Rating: 88

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