Tag: Films

The Expendables 2…

I was dissapointed in The Expendables, but I hoped they would make another film and try to get it right this time. I’ve just got back from The Expendables 2 and I’m glad to say they got it completely right this time!

If I’m honest, many of the elements of this film are the same as the previous one. The difference is this one is done with a lot more humor. The film and the cast don’t seem to take themselves too seriously and that pays dividends in the enjoyment factor. In the previous film there was a lot of violence, but this film has even more. What makes it better is it is taken to almost comic book proportions. Some of the grizzliest scenes had people in the audience laughing.

I’m looking forward to The Expendables 3!

Cheers

Tim…

The Dark Knight Rises…

I went to watch The Dark Knight Rises yesterday. Wow, that is one loooong film…

Let’s start by saying I never really got into the previous films (Batman Returns and The Dark Knight). This one was more of the same for me. Nothing felt new. Nothing really excited me. One of my mates thought it was amazing and couldn’t understand my apathy. Apart from the length, there is nothing wrong with the film. It just doesn’t do it for me…

I guess I’ve got to wait for the next kick-start to see if that one suits me…

Cheers

Tim…

Prometheus (3D)

I went to see Prometheus at the start of the month and wrote about it here.

A few days ago some friends asked me if I wanted to go with them to see it in 3D, so I did.

In 2D, the opening sequence was amazing. In 3D it was a bit of a let down. The opening credits (being 3D) jumped out at you and distracted from scenes behind. As for the rest of the film, some scenes worked and others didn’t. Pretty much any time there is movement, 3D sucks.

If I had gone to see the film in 3D first, I think my impression of it would have been quite different. If you have yet to see it, please go to the 2D version!

Cheers

Tim…

PS. The Spiderman trailer was a mess in 3D. All of us commented on it being just a big blur. Truly terrible. I think the film will be good though (in 2D).

Prometheus…

Let me start by saying, I’m a big fan of all the Alien films, even Alien 3, which seems to be the least liked. Having said that, if someone said I had to pick one it would always be Alien. I watch that film several times a month. 🙂 Ridley Scott is renowned for being uncompromising, so I went into Prometheus with some seriously high expectations, which always worries me as it kinda sets you up for a fall…

The opening sequence of Prometheus is quite possibly the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen on film. As I watched it I thought it was probably worth the £6 just to see that on a big screen…

If you’ve seen the trailer, you know what’s going to happen. A star map found on ancient ruins all over the earth is seen as an invitation to visit some alien world, whose inhabitants may be the key to the origins of life on earth. We go to visit and things may not be as they seem…

One of the really annoying things about the first Alien film is we are introduced to the Space Jockey, the big alien on the bridge of the space ship they find, but we never know who they are or why they are there. Prometheus is a prequel to the the Alien films, but focuses almost exclusively on the Space Jockey aliens, so at last we know something about them…

I won’t say too much about what happens, because I think it will spoil the ride, but suffice to say it answers a lot of questions about the Space Jockey aliens and the origin of the aliens from the Alien and AvP films. I think it is a fantastic addition to collection and as soon as it is released on DVD is will buy it. Hopefully I will see it again next week when I go to the cinema with some mates.

Noomi Rapace is unusual, in that her face looks completely different from every angle it is viewed from. She was great in the original Swedish versions of (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest) and I think she works well here. She is in fantastic shape in this film. She looks so strong and athletic. She is very much the Ellen Ripley style character of this film.

Michael Fassbender is incredible as the android/synthetic/artifical person on this mission. He gives me the creeps. There is a great introduction video to the “David 8” model here. It’s not a spoiler, but it gives you a feel for the spookiness of the David 8 character.

The rest of the characters are fine, but as far as I’m concerned, the film is really about these two characters.

So in summary, Prometheus more than lived up to my expectations. If you are a fan of the Alien films I would be surprised if you don’t love it.

Cheers

Tim…

Update: You might want to check out Peter Weyland’s 2023 TED talk here. No spoiler. Just a viral advert.

Safe…

Imagine what you would get if you attempted to shoot a film using a cameraman balanced on one leg, standing on a spin dryer, balancing on a wobble board, with electrodes up his ass, intermittently sending electric shocks where the sun don’t shine… The result would be the camera work employed by the makers of Safe.

I usually like Jason Statham in action films, but it’s hard to comment on his performance here because of the absolutely atrocious camera work. I’ve come to expect violent shaking of the camera during action scenes, because it seems the vast majority of Hollywood directors think attempting to give you epilepsy is the only way to make a film look exciting. It isn’t just the action scenes here though. It’s all over the bloody place. One minute you are staring at people’s feet as they walk down the stairs. There next minute there is just a blur on screen with the odd punch or kick (probably). Was anyone really proud of the camera work on this film? Did they go home thinking, “We did a good job today!”?

The story was OK. If this had been done by someone with a better eye I think I would have enjoyed it. It’s hard to judge what the fight scenes were like because I really couldn’t see much through the blur.

My recommendation would be to sit in front of any action film staring Jason Statham, make yourself go cross-eyed and shake your head as quick as possible, then tell all your friends you’ve seen Safe.

Cheers

Tim…

PS. Remember, if you go cross-eyed and the wind changes you’ll stay like that.

PPS. It’s probably not a good idea to actually go cross-eyed and shake your head violently while watching a film. You may feel sick, or get brain damage, or both…

Avengers Assemble…

If you have ever enjoyed a superhero film in your life you simply must go to see Avengers Assemble. It is totally fantastic. It has great action scenes, some really neat characters and is really funny at times too. I’ve not enjoyed an action film this much since I saw the first Iron Man Film. Awesome!!!

Iron Man/Tony Stark : I want to be him. He is too cool for school. He is Kool and the Gang.

The Hulk : All The Hulk films have been a bit of a let down because the only thing I really like is the green monster running around destroying things. The great thing about this film is it doesn’t have to fill two hours with the story of Bruce Banner, so you just get to see the bit you really want to see. The Hulk is fantastic in this film and adds greatly to the comedy elements. He literally had the whole audience laughing hard on several occasions.

Thor : I know the Thor film got a bit of a slating, but I liked it. I think the Thor character works well in this film.

Loki : I think he worked well as the bad guy. It’s always good when the bad guy is a little fragile.

Captain America : I didn’t like the CA film and I don’t really like the character in this film. It’s not Chris Evans fault. I just think the character is a bit lame and I feel no connection with him. He’s just totally meh.

Black Widow and Hawkeye : Whatever… Never heard of them before this film. Have no feeling either way about their presence in the film.

I guess you can see that in my head it’s an Iron Man and Hulk roadshow and I loved it.

So now I’ve raised your expectations you are going to hate it. 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

Lockout…

If you took Escape from New York and gave it a Sci-Fi touch-up you would probably end up with Lockdown. That’s not a bad thing, since I really enjoyed EfNY when I saw it as a kid. I thought Lockdown was a fun action film. It doesn’t push the boundaries, but what it does, it does pretty well.

Guy Pierce‘s character (Snow) is actually pretty similar to Kurt Russell‘s character (Snake Plissken). Mouthy and cool. Nice also to see Joseph Gilgun from the This is England film and TV spin-offs.

Overall I would say lightweight, but quite enjoyable.

I’ve been playing catch-up this week. Of the four films I’ve seen I think I enjoyed this one the most.

Cheers

Tim…

Wrath of the Titans…

Wrath of the Titans has one clear advantage over the previous film. It’s not a remake of a film I have seen masses of times. That alone makes it a little more interesting for me.

It looks great, but it does seem to drag on at times. I came out thinking they should have cut about 30 minutes to make it flow better. Imagine my surprise when I found out the running time was only 99 minutes. 🙂

IMHO this is a “wait for DVD” film. Even then I would hold on until you can get it in a sale. It’s not bad, but it won’t rock your world.

Cheers

Tim…

Battleship…

Where to begin with Battleship?

The good:

The bad:

  • If you hate disaster porn you’ll hate this film.
  • The aliens are an impressive mix of intelligent and retarded because they have some amazing technology, but they don’t bother to use it for quite obvious purposes, that would make them pretty much invincible. Lucky the human race is only ever invaded by amazingly advanced idiots.
  • The link into the Hasbro game Battleships is really ham-fisted. It’s not even similar to the game, which makes it even more embarrassing.
  • The film really needs an edit that can be shown outside the USA. There is about 10 minutes of footage that makes me want to vomit and quite frankly ruins the whole film. It makes Independence Day* feel like a multi-national experience in comparison. The fact that this is mandatory in Hollywood films kinda suggests it works will with the US audiences, so it probably pays to include it. I guess if the UK had any kind of film industry we would probably be just as bad, but since we can only make period dramas and east-end gangster films, we don’t get the opportunity to be quite so sickening. If this crap had been edited out I would have enjoyed the film sooooo much more.
  • It is so full of gaping holes you would think it was a Michael Bay film.

If you follow the blog you know that I go to some pretty awful films and enjoy quite a few of them. A little bit of editing and I would have come away saying very positive things. As it is, I’m so mentally scarred by the “Team USA” message, my overall impression was that it sucked.

Cheers

Tim…

* OMG, what a terrible film!

The Cabin in the Woods…

The adverts would have you believe The Cabin in the Woods is a “Game Changer”, “Astounding” and lots of other things that would make you think you are about to witness something that will change the course of movie history. That fact is, it’s just another teen slasher movie. It’s quite a good one as it goes, but there is nothing revolutionary here. I could have been watching any of the Scream films and it would have been pretty much the same experience.

If you like teen slashers, I think you will like this. To get maximum enjoyment, avoid any trailers, reviews with spoilers and hype.

Cheers

Tim…