I have recently begun writing film reviews and posting them to my blog at [link]. I have reviewed several movies already, including Contagion, Captain America, Courageous, Final Destination 5 and Columbiana. I will continue to watch and review movies, as I enjoy sharing my point of view. These reviews are rated on a Rent/Buy/Pass level, as well as a 5 star rating system.

As a sample of my reviews, here is my review for Colombiana...




"A young woman, after witnessing her parents' murder as a child in Bogota, grows up to be a stone-cold assassin." Sounds familiar, huh? That's because Colombiana plays out very similarly to any other vengeance-driven film. Starring Zoe Saldana (Star Trek, Avatar) and directed by Olivier Megaton (Transporter 3), this film starts off in Colombia but most of the film bounces around as the main character seeks out her revenge.

While directed by the same guy who directed Transporter 3, Colombiana bore very little similarity to the third installment of the action-packed Transporter series. While I will give the costume, hair/makeup and set/props departments props for making the film look real, editing and direction could have used some work. Events were portrayed fairly well, and most of the editing was good, but the fast-paced fight scene toward the end was choppy, but not quite as bad as the fight scene editing from the Bourne series.

The most important thing with this film to point out is the rating, though. Rated PG-13 by the MPAA, this rating is misleading in this case. Colombiana is NOT for middle-schoolers. The violence in this film is intense, and the serial revenge killings put the movie well into R territory, even though on-screen blood is relatively understated. Also present are a few steamy, strongly implied sexual scenes with implied nudity, though nothing explicit occurs. There is also drinking and smoking, and the script includes some profanity, including at least one usage of the F word that I noticed. Bottom line is that Colombiana is a PG-13 film with a very R-ish edge.

I'm giving this film 3 out of 5 stars. If you don't mind watching another revenge-driven film with an R-ish edge, then go out and rent Colombiana. Otherwise you may just want to pass on this film and watch The Punisher (with Thomas Jane and John Travolta) instead.