Sunday 22 July 2012

Real Steel

Robot Boxing with Wolverine sounds good to me !

So Hugh Jackman plays a boxer who has had to retire because boxing is now banned so takes part in Robotic boxing and along the line somewhere lost his way in life.

We find later that he was once married and has a child, he decides to strike a deal with the "new parents" to have him after they have been on holiday for which they give $50'000, and his son doesn't want to be the with him, he buys a robot with the new gotten gains and enters him in match which he promptly loses and has his new robot destroyed. He takes his son to a robotic scrapyard to find parts where the find a obsolete robot and his promptly takes to him and wants it the Hugh Jackman character so no but he persists and takes it himself, They find the robot is an old sparring model and not worth much, However they enter it in a fight which it surprisingly wins.

So we then a some futuristic Robot Rocky training montages, more winning of matches, and some so obvious father and son bonding moment, and we eventually end up in a robot world championship fight.

So what do we have here ?? Imagine a cross between Over the Top (the father and son bonding after years apart), Rocky (the underdog coming from no-where to fight the champ) and Robot Jox (a obscure 80's Human controlling Robot's movie).

If you can ignore certain aspects of this film you will enjoy it, my main gripe is the utter predictably of the storyline.

It's an ok movie if you have a bit of time to kill but not a classic by any means.


Sunday 15 July 2012

Paranormal Activity 3

A film we have been wanting to watch for a while so we watched it.

So its a prequel to a prequel which seems strange on its own, so hopefully we are going to get the origins of the demon, it starts out with the sisters from 1st 2 films as youngsters and we start in the same vain, coincidently Mums new boyfriend also likes playing video camera's.

So a whole lot of freaky things start happening which to be honest is nothing new, It seems in this film the demon seems to take interest in the youngest sister as she seems to be able to communicate to it.

The ending is quite dramatic, and take my advice to watch the 1st 2 films before you watch this as I didn't and had to piece together why it made sense, but it does make sense and fills the missing gaps.

Sorry that this is a short review but any of story I tell you would spoil the film, its all integral.

On the whole it still has its jumpy moments and after the initial viewing I thought Meh but as I say piecing it together afterwards It was good, just wished I had watched the 1st 2 now !



Saturday 14 July 2012

Batteries not included

An 80's film I caught whilst channel hoping.

The film opens to a building which evil developers are trying to have knocked down, the last few remaining tenants want to stay so the company resorts to bully boy tactic's and intimidation to try and get them out with a guy going around smashing up the place, we have old guy and his wife (who has dementia) starting caving under the pressure, they go to bed one night when Alien Robot's arrive looking for a power source which they find, they all wake in the morning to find all things that where smashed up are now repaired (I guess they fixed up the place in exchange for the electric), the senile old dear found them during the night and is now feeding them various bits of household appliances, they find the robot's and become apart of the small community which comprises of a struggling painter a pregnant woman, a retired ex boxer who can only communicate by reciting TV commercials.

As the film progress the Alien Robot's have babies (that's right robot babies) one of which the retired ex boxer brings back to life by fixing it, also the company steps up it campaign to get them out, will they do it; I will let you guess the very predictable ending !

Overall a entertaining film but for god sakes don't even attempt to try and take it seriously !






Thursday 12 July 2012

Cowboys & Zombies

That's right you read it such a film does exist.

The film starts with a cowboy bounty hunter getting his bounty and turning him in for the reward, with his money he goes and gets himself a prostitute with the sole purpose of using her as bait to capture a Indian accused of raping a white woman, the ruse works and Indian appears, he captures the Indian and tells the prostitute he has paid for her freedom, oh and we get a German bounty hunter trying to nick the bounty but gets shot.

Meanwhile in town they find a meteorite which they decide has treasure in it and decide to split it open (big mistake! ),  the rock releases some kind of air borne zombie turning virus and turns them into zombie's, they burst into tent where the prostitutes are, where we get a 3 minute gratuitous scene of a zombie chasing her with her boobs bouncing in the breeze !.

Anyways we go back to our heroes with the Indian handcuffed when you get it, a zombie turns up, he chases the heroine where the cowboys hears it and rushes to the rescue his gun jams and he still tries to rescue her the Indian gets the gun working and shots the zombie, by this time the cowboy decides the Indian is ok, we later find out the rape is all made up.

They go back to town where they find more zombies and try to battle there way out.

A quite nice twist on the end is also nicely unexpected.

The film itself is entertaining, the town however looks like it should be in a wild west show, and there is far to much boobs for no reason to be honest though I am not going to complain about that, zombie effects also good.

For a film thrown together for $30'000 watch it If you have 90 minutes to kill.




Transformers

A childhood favourite for me interested to see how well it would translate to the big screen.

The films starts with us getting told that we don't know how the Transformers where created, pretty convienant huh !.

We then get a battle in the desert with Transformers and marines which introduce us to Tyrese Gibson who later pops up in the end battle scene, then we cut with a teenager trying hock his great grandfathers possessions from his artic adventure (this is significant) to try and save to get a car, we later see his father surprise him for a getting a b grade in his exam and get him a car but wait the car is unlike no other car as we later find out, eventually after the kids car starts going places on its own he gets freaked out and follows it where we find lots more transformers and they let him into the secret of the glasses, and he also finds about out the decepticons (the bad transformers know where he is and want them also this explained earlier with them hacking a computer), the good transformers (auto-bots) explain why they need the glasses and he agrees to hand them over. We also have the added the added element of Megan Fox to the teenager's love life.

Eventually we get to all mighty end battle which is pretty spectacular, which is what Director Michael Bay does best (special effects).

Overall the film is entertaining obviously we get the boring laying down of characters lives as we do in film series but as a film its very entertaining, would I recommended it ? Well yes it has explosions, action, transforming robots and Megan Fox, what more could you need for a boys night in.

Could have done without a pompous Optimus Prime though ! 




Wednesday 11 July 2012

The Green Hornet

Ok I watched this with a open mind as I was in 2 doubts about it.

It's about a spoilt rich kid who one day inherits his fathers newspaper empire but wants nothing to do with it, one night doing a drunk bender with new friend Kato they beat up a gang who where intimidating a bunch of people, the press get wind of this and Seth Rogan uses his newspaper to basically advertise himself as the Green Hornet, his new friend Kato invents a load of new crime fighting gadgets and adapts the cars with new weapons and defences, during which there is a romance angle with the new secretary of the newspaper where both guys want her romantically and so obviously conflict happens, also during the film we get crime boss Christoph Waltz getting jealous of all the attention the green hornet as wants him dead, anyways we find out that his fathers death was no accident and was killed for exposing crime by the Senator and well that's basically it.

Not a bad film but not a good one either, really could have done without the romance angle and lose a lot of the slapstick, it was a good way to kill a bit of time is the best I can rate it.

The only highlight of the film is Christoph Waltz as the bad guy.


Solitary Man

I had not seen a Michael Douglas film since Disclosure so thought I would it go.

He plays a man who runs a car dealership and leaves his wife to expand his empire but soon finds his life crumbling around him due his dodgy dealing's and his indiscretion's ( I'm wondering how much actual acting Douglas had to do for this role), After one sordid encounter with his new wife's 18 year old daughter (that's right there was a love scene with this wrinkly and this young lady), she tells her mum and she kicks him out, he then finds his life crumbling around him his Daughter disowns him after another indiscretion with her friend. He ends up begging friends for handout's and then only job he can find is flipping burger's, the films ends with a lifeline from his former wife which he realises he loved all along but has to deicide will he carry on going down this road or take the help.

I can't really talk about Douglas's part in this because talk about art imitating life, Susan Sarandon's role as the ex-wife and Danny DeVito's as the best friend where peripheral at best as was Jesse Eisenberg's as the College Student' showing Douglas around campus, the stand out performance was Jenna Fischer as the long suffering daughter.

An ok film at best, but i wouldn't recommend it.

Oh and I didn't realise there where that many hard-up women in New York  !


Repeaters

One the movies I watch at night when there isn't much on.

This one I found is a cross between Trainspotting and Groundhog Day, yep it does exist and this is it.

So the film is about 3 recovering crack addicts going through de-tox, after a horrid day for all 3 of them they find they are re-living they day after the initial shock they realise they can do what they want so initially go on a orgy of drugs and violence, eventually they realise that the affects of their actions have affects on other people's so try and change their ways, 1 of the 3 however descends deeper into anarchy and his actions get darker and more violent to the point where the other 2 former friends try and stop him, so turns his attentions to tormenting them whilst the others are still trying to make amends.

The film tries to be dark and shocking and whilst a little entertaining comes over as utterly predictable and you could probably guess at 3 potential outcomes and you would be right with one of them, but for a low budget film is well shot.


Monday 9 July 2012

X-Men First Class

A pretty good film and thoroughly enjoyable I don't know how accurate it was compared to the Marvel Comic but I found it informative.

The film follows Charles Xavier (Professor X) and his life and meeting with the first few mutants and most importantly Magneto and Mystique ( they could have explained in the later x-men film that mystique doesnt age fast), He encounters Mystique when they are both children and Magneto in his pursuit of revenge.

Through the film they recruited by the government to help (and be exploited) to develop their own powers for themselves and for others, Magneto seeks revenge against the Nazi/Mutant who killed his mother even though their agenda's turn out to be same, that mutants are the future and humanity is wrong, Charles tries to change his opinion and whilst even forging a friendship seems to be unable to do this.

My only main problem with this film is backgrounds could have been deeper explored on the other mutants in the film, for example one the characters is Scott Summer's brother (Cyclops) but that is never explained and would also add to the element that mutations are genetic. 




The Dictator

I was expecting a typical Sasha Baron Cohen and to be honest that's what I got, However a definite improvement on Bruno, with plenty of giggles to boot.

He plays a ruthless despot dictator who has anyone killed that displeases him so typically has his enemies, The main enemy is his uncle and whilst on a trip to america they plan to make their major move to displace him, however this happens accidentally during a attempt at torture where he loses his trademark beard and then low and behold no-one can recognise him (seriously !), then we get him meeting lefty female radical Anna Faris (well she is the queen of parody comedy films) and his attempt to adjust to his new world whilst to get his place back as rightful leader.

A usual performance from Cohen and Farris as they only seem to be able to do that kinda film, Ben Kingsley plays a good supporting role as The Dictators Uncle.

Overall though a good film and a good way to kill a bit of time.


Saturday 7 July 2012

Avengers Assemble

Well what can I say, A wonderful film, all the previous Marvel film's since 2008 have been leading to this, so you have all the main protagonists, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Captain America, throw in Black Widow (who was in Iron Man 2) and Clint Barton AKA Hawk-eye and what you have there is a mix of some of the baddest ass superheroes the Marvel Universe has to offer and then the guy who bring them all together Nick Fury, then you have the antagonist with Loki being a some what used villain still trying to step out of stepbrothers Thor's shadow.

All the characters blend beautifully each bringing their own uniqueness to the film, what also makes the heroes good is there is no pomposity to them they all have there flaws and this makes well more human, even though besides Thor they all are.

I am not really going to talk about the film cos no review could do this film justice, you NEED to see this.

With this film its ends what marvel call phase 1, I personally can not wait for phase 2 and the second Avengers.

Oh and please let Joss Whedon direct again the man knows what geeks want !


Thursday 5 July 2012

The Muppet Movie

Well its a Muppet film, but it is entertaining plenty of jokes and silliness to keep the kids happy and plenty of undercover jokes for the adults to enjoy and a few jazzy singing and dancing scene's.


Spoiler Alert


The film is about 2 brother's and one's love of the Muppet's (the younger brother is a Muppet, If I where the husband I would be questioning the parentage), they go on dream holiday to see the Muppet's studio, accompanied by the eldest brothers other half who are initially going to celebrate 10 years of dating, she is getting annoyed at how the brothers seem to be unable to do anything apart, anyway they get to the studio to find its going to be demolished by an evil oil baron and that Kermit signed over the rights and to get them back has a week to put on a show and raise $10'000'000(maniacal laugh!!), disturbed by this news the brothers and girlfriend finds Kermit and persuades him to find the old gang, and well that's it, oh and the girlfriend buggers through lack of attention, will they do it wont they do it will he win back the girl, watch it you maybe surprised at the ending.


Good performances by Jason Segal and Amy Adams also Jack Black plays an excellent kidnapped special guest.






Oh and it won a Oscar for best original song, guess which one.



Tuesday 3 July 2012

3 Cinema Movies in a Day !

How ??.

Is what you maybe asking, well it's quite simple really, our local cinema occasionally has offers and the previous Sunday they had 99p day, so every movie they had on that day was 99p, so that's how.

I saw Avengers Assemble again, The Muppets and The Dictator and will very shortly be doing reviews.


Monday 2 July 2012

Why ??

Well because I love movies, from big Hollywood blockbuster's to small straight to DVD/blu-ray, You can often find many gems from obscure straight to DVD films as I have watching late night films, and lets face it some of the blockbusters can be total crap !.

You will probably find if you do follow me that there will be a lot of action, horror, adventure and superhero films, well I am a boy after all :o) .

So What I will do is give it a rating and a review I know it doesn't really matter what I think but I am looking to hook up with other films buff's and compare opinions.