Set in futuristic Metro City, a small city that floats on top of Earth, Toby Tenma (Freddie Highmore) is an 11-year-old boy genius whose father is the Head of Ministry of Science. Toby sneaks into the demonstration room when his father and other scientist are experimenting with the two cores of energy, a “positive” (good) blue core and a “negative” (evil) red core and he ends up evaporated by a robot called “The Peacekeeper” which is powered by red core.
Devastated by the lost of his son, Dr. Tenma (Nicolas Cage) works day and night to create a robot that reassembles his son and has all of Toby’s memory by using the hair strand of his son left on the cap. He powers him up with the blue core and is excited to spend time with his son, he soon realizes it isn’t the same and the new Toby reminds him that his son is gone.
By accident, Toby learns that he is actually a robot and can fly but President Stone also discovers Toby’s blue core energy and tries to capture him. He ends up on the surface of Earth and finds a group of kids led by a caretaker named Hamegg as well as some robot friends to learn the purpose and true meaning of life only to be forced to fight ala Roman style with other robots in a stadium with robots after Hamegg reveals Astro as a robot. Astro forcefully wipe out all the robots but refuses to fight Zog, a giant construction robot which he revives using his blue core energy. The military then arrives and captures Astro.
Back in the lab which Astro is created, Dr. Tenma takes out the blue core and apologizes to Astro but Astro apologizes for not able to be a better son. Dr. Tenma’s conscience comes to mind when he almost gives the blue core to President Stone. Instead, he puts it back in Astro and tells him to escape. Stone uses the red stone to activate The Peacekeeper but is absorbed into it. The Peacekeeper then goes on rampage, destroying everything in its path in order to get Astro. In the end, Astro sacrifices himself to stop the Peacekeeper and dies since the blue core was drained from the explosion.
Zog then arrives and revives Astro with some of the blue core energy Astro gave him previously.
Overall, Astro Boy is a brilliant animated film with great morale value. The film is suitable for kids and adult alike and is a great way to introduce the original Japanese manga to everyone. Astro Boy may be a robot, but he certainly has a great heart, or more like a “positive” core. So, is the movie.
Charlize Theron kissed a girl for 20 seconds for $140,000 during a live auction for OneXOne in San Francisco in an attempt to overcome the $280,000 Jeremy Piven had raised. She announced that she would kiss a man for seven seconds, or a woman for 20. Apparently, the woman outbid the two men to kiss Charlize Theron for 20 seconds. What a kiss!
The Road is a movie about a father (Virgo Mortensen) and son (Kodi Smit-McPhee) walk for months across a ravaged, post-apocalyptic landscape in search of civilization. Starring Viggo Mortensen, Charlize Theron, Kodi Smit-McPhee, The Road will be released on October 16, 2009.
John Hancock (Will Smith) is an alcoholic superhero whom everyone loves to hate. Although he has saved many lives, Hancock has destroyed buildings, trains, roads, cars and many others to get his job done. The last time he captured several criminals, it cost the city nearly $9 million to fix the damages. His image is further tainted with videos of him saving lives butt-naked spreading around in YouTube.
When Hancock saves Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman) from being run over by a train, Ray invites Hancock to come over to his house for some spaghetti meatballs. Hancock then meets Ray’s wife, Mary Embrey (Charlize Theron) and son, Aaron (Jae Head). Hancock seems to be attracted to Mary someway.
Before Hancock flies off, Ray offers to help Hancock to change his image and to get the public to like Hancock. In doing so, Hancock has to spend time in jail in order to prove to the city that they need him when he’s not around. Even in jail, Hancock creates trouble by stuffing a criminal’s head into another criminal’s butt.
Finally, after more than two weeks in jail, the Chief Inspector calls for Hancock to help them to solve a huge bank job in which four heavily armed robbers have taken many as hostages and the cops have failed miserably to even get near to the bank. Hancock arrives in a black Velcro costume that has everyone amused. Before he flies off, he tells the Chief, “Good job”, a phrase taught by Ray during his jail time. It is amusing how he wrongly uses the phrase throughout the bank job robbery.
Later Hancock learns that Ray’s wife, Mary also possesses the superhuman strength and speed he has and is technically his wife. He also learns that he’s actually not an alien, but a member of an ancient race which have been referred to as angels and gods throughout history. They are at least 3000 years old and are the last remaining couple of the race which eventually died out because of their weakness which causes them to lose their powers when in close proximity to one another. Members of this race were created in pairs, and are inevitably drawn towards each other. Ray’s Wife is revealed to be the other half of Hancock, and that they are ‘fated’ to be together. Ray’s Wife and Hancock have a brief fight scene and during this scene tornado and other weather disturbances wreak havoc on the city.
Hancock begins to lose his powers as he grows closer to Ray’s wife, and his feelings grow, which has almost caused him his life when he is shot by a robber in a convenience store. In the hospital, Hancock and Mary are assaulted by a group of prisoners who vowed to take revenge on Hancock and have escaped the prison. Mary is heavily injured by gunshots while Hancock tries to fend off the criminals. In the end, in order to save her life from a mortal wound, he leaves her proximity to restore both his powers and hers, healing her.
The movie ends with Ray, Mary and Aaron leading a normal life while Hancock is contented being a superhero.
Overall, the movie is humorous, almost like My Super Ex-Girlfriend, but slightly funnier albeit containing tonnes of excessive languages and scenes.
