Film 51 - The Edge of Tomorrow

The Edge of Tomorrow - 31/05/2014

Live. Die. Repeat. Nothing New

When we eventually do get invaded by an advanced life-form, which is soon if films are to be trusted, then we already know it's weakness because it has been done so many times in films now.

To name a few:

Independence Day - upload a virus to the main computer to take out the entire alien race

The Matrix: Take out the central main computer to wipe out the hunters

The Avengers: Send Iron man through the black hole into the main computer to take out the invading aliens

And countless other films....

In The Edge of Tomorrow, Tom Cruise is infected by alien blood whilst thrown into an onslaught on the beaches of France.  This blood causes him to keep reliving the same onslaught over and over again until he learns how to end the war.  To start the day over though, Tom has to die.  This is a very interesting concept but the live, die, repeat brought nothing new to the day as the film brought nothing new to the screen.

There are some really cool battle scenes and I must say, quite exciting, but then it just all starts again and with the big reveal of an age old tactic for taking out the big bad (spoiler - but if you have seen any of the above films, then it is not!) it becomes very run of the mill action.

If you took the repetition out of the day and just focused on Rita (Emily Blunt) and the J-Squad in a "Aliens" style film, then for me this could have been really interesting as I said, the battle scenes were very enjoyable, but then would it have been just another run of the mill sci-fi action film and I would be having another rant about un-originality.

Film 50 - X-Men: Days of Future Past

X-Men: Days of Future Past - 24/05/2014

Back in the early 90's I was a massive fan of the X-Men cartoon, and still to this day love the introduction.

So imagine how happy I was when in 2000, I went to watch Brian Singer's X-Men, and again in 2003 for X2, and also imagine my disappointment at Brett Ratner's Xmen Last Stand, which was terrible.

Brian Singer returns to the helm for the newest installment of the X-Men franchise and brings along many of the original cast to reprise their roles, X-Men: Days of Future Past.  The trailers for this seemed quite erratic and I was concerned that the film was trying to do too much and would be very confusing.  Weaving the future cast (Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Ian Mckellen etc) with the First Class cast (James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence etc) playing the same characters, and throwing in big robots (Sentinels) for good measure.

X-Men DOFP is brilliant! The story is perfectly done and the characters really engaging.  Great nods of humour to the original films and comics, with excellent effects.  One character that really stood out for me was one that may cause a little problem for Marvel Disney, this was Quicksilver.  His scenes were brilliantly entertaining and fun, and as the same character (but played by a different actor) is due to appear in the next Avengers film can it be done as well?

The bad guys are evil, the Sentinels are reminiscent of the hunters from the good Matrix film, and you really do root for the good guys.

Clare hadn't seen any of the X-Men films before and went into this fresh, and she loved it too.  Admittedly, some of the names escaped her by the time we had left the film, with Clare referring to them as "the metal guy" and "The quick one", but I knew who she meant.

What makes this film even better, is Mr Singer decides to completely wipe the slate clean by erasing Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine from the X-Men film continuum. Resetting the mistakes made by those films

When I went watching The Amazing Spiderman 2, I commented that Marvel needs it's webbed hero back, with X-Men I believe it is in the right hands and I am looking forward to the next installment (which is hinted at with the post credit scene.....bring on the Apocalypse)

Film 49 - Pulp Fiction

Pulp Fiction (20 Year Anniversary) - 20/05/2014

pulp/ polp/ n. 1. A soft, moist, shapeless mass of matter

2. A magazine or book containing lurid subject matter and being characteristically printed on rough, unfinished paper

American Heritage Dictionary

New College Edition

20 years ago, I was a big cinema and film buff (surprise, surprise) and frequently went to Walkden Cinema with my cousin Gill.  Walkden Cinema was our favourite, not due to the fact that we had to take cushions with us as the seats were so hard and old, but as we always sneaked into several different screens after we had finished our initial film of choice as nobody monitored them.  Another reason for Walkden being our choice was the disregard for film classifications.  In 1994 I was 15 and ready to watch an 18 certificated film at the cinema, that film was "Pulp Fiction".

From the opening scene with Honeybunny and Pumpkin discussing their imminent diner robbery, Vincent Vega and Jules Winfield's Royale with Cheese and Big Kahuna Burger conversations, Mia Wallace's night out with Vince, The Gold Watch, to Marvin's backseat brain mess and the Wolfe, Pulp Fiction is a genuinely brilliant film and one that defines the 90's era.

With massive amounts of dialogue perfectly delivered, John Travolta and Samuel L Jackson absolutely steal the show.  Their nonsensical conversations at the start of the film about Vince's trip to Amsterdam, foot massages and Vince's night ahead are perfectly funny and haunting at the same time, knowing the events that will follow.  All these scenes are embedded in my memory and until recently I didn't realise how many times they are cited by myself,  "Check out the big brains on...", "That is a tasty burger".

Cineworld decided to do a special evening showing Pulp Fiction on the big screen to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of this masterpiece and I pre-booked my tickets early expecting a few people to turn up.  What I didn't expect was a full cinema, even the poor disused seats at the very front of the screen were taken by people turning up last minute preparing for serious neck injuries.  Within the first 10 minutes of the film it had far exceeded the 6 laugh test with the full audience really laughing out loud, as Miserlou kicked in the audience cheered and, for the first time in my cinema experience, when the film finished a small applause started in recognition of the film.

I would love Cineworld to do more of these screenings as they are obviously a success, given the right film.

Jaws, Alien, Marx Brothers, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Holy Trilogy, The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, Jurassic Park, The Blair Witch Project, 12 Angry Men, just to name a few.  Seriously Cineworld, with some of the drivel coming out at the moment, there are some great nostalgic films that will fill your cinema's.  

Just to put it out there, I never saw "The Goonies" at the cinema......

Film 48 - Godzilla

Godzilla - 16/05/2014

Anti-Climatic is the only word I can use to describe Godzilla.  The trailers really got me hyped for this film, and after the 1998 remake, things could only get better, surely?

When Godzilla is on screen, and I admit he is pretty impressive (and even still looks like a man in a suit), he dominates the screen, but just as things are about to get really interesting, the film cuts away to another scene.  Let me explain, at one pivotal moment when Mr Zilla meets a MUTO (Massive unidentified terrestrial object) for the first time and the two monsters charge towards each other, just as the moth-like Gargantua takes it first strike it cuts away to a news report on what happened.  Don't tell me what happened, show me!  Again, when in Hawaii, Zilla and MUTO charge, cut to Aaron-Taylor Johnson sat on a train talking to a little kid....I am sorry, but I went to see Godzilla not a soppy melodrama!

This happens several times.  It is like the film did not have enough budget left for several big fight scenes and they were saving their pennies for the last 25 minutes.   It felt as though it was building to a great bit of entertainment and then to be left short so quickly, so many times, just let the film down 

Why Brain Cranston is in the film is another quandary, he isn't the main focal point of the film (as the trailer would suggest) and to be perfectly honest, he really didn't need to be in the film at all.

Cineworld definitely had the subwoofer turned up to 11 (or possibly even 12) as the bass was really powerful.  So when the monsters are stomping around I could really feel the vibrations under my seat.  This was a great effect.

I didn't think Godzilla was a bad film, but not a great film.  I thought the final battle scenes and the ending were great, but just short of entertaining. 

Looking on IMDB the reviews for this film are 9/10 or 10/10, which is probably just down to the hype (unless I really did miss something), it is definitely down in the 6's and 7's

Film 47 - Bad Neighbours

Bad Neighbours - 10/05/2014

I don't want to seem as though I am getting old, but in my 35th year, I finally think I have reached a certain point.

Music doesn't seem like actual music anymore, kids really do not respect their elders and Seth Rogan really needs to accept that "stoner comedies" are just not funny, and I really did think that there was a serious over-use of the F word in Neighbours and 99% of it was just not needed.

We had seen the trailer a couple of times before seeing this, and believe me the "funny bits" are in there.  Which when you have already seen the funny bits a few times before, they stop becoming funny and you just smile.  When your saving grace was what you actually showed in the trailer, then there is not really much point in seeing the film.

Seth Rogan and Rose Byrne are terrible parents, mixing with the all night raves with magic mushrooms, weed and copious amounts of alcohol with the new fraternity that has moved next door, whilst listening for whimpers from their beautiful little girl via a baby monitor.  When the parties don't stop, the parents decide enough is enough and decide to quieten down the frat.

I have not felt like walking out of a film since "Nine Months" (which is probably the worst film I have ever seen at the cinema), but today I was very close to doing this.  If they had solely focussed on the new parents struggling with their new born daughter and the trials that come with (as these bits seemed to work in the film) then I may have been midly interested, but the constant f-ing and stoner attitude got boring really quickly.

Maybe it is just me getting old, but this one is a film to avoid....or just watch the trailer (it's less painful)

Film 46 - Transcendence

Transcendence - 9/05/2014

Before going watching Transcendence, I had heard a few reviews, all of them slating the film, the critics did not like this one.  Only Mark Kermode gave it a reasonable review.

So I went to this expecting to the mildly entertained and eventually let down, I wasn't

I was really interested in the story and the characters and, for me, for the first time in a long time Johnny Depp was not being an over-the-top caricature. 

Mr Depp plays Dr Will Caster, whose ideas on Artificial Intelligence raise questions on what it is to be human and if creating the perfect AI is meddling in god like territory.  A terrorist group called R.I.F.T orchestrates an attack on the leading companies on AI and Dr Caster is shot with a radiated bullet.  His partner, Rebecca Hall, decides to "Transcend" his brain into the already created AI program to help save her dying husband. 

The question is, "Is this Dr Caster's conscience, or the original AI wanting to expand (a la Skynet)"

I was thoroughly entertained for the full running time (although contradictory, in retrospect, it was a little too long), the concept really made me think and then ending was not a fluffy Holywood one.  Clare and I talked all the way home about this one.  I know it was not a film Clare truly enjoyed, but it did raise discussion.

Kata Mara's character, as the leader of RIFT, was a little over used and seemingly pointless for the whole second part of the film, they could have cut her completely.  Morgan Freeman plays Morgan Freeman, but Rebecca Hall and Paul Bettany are excellent

I would say avoid reviews on this one (except mine of course), go and watch it and form your own opinion, or wait till it is out on Netflix.

Made me a little excited for Interstellar

Film 45 - Sabotage

Sabotage - 8/05/2014

I think the last time I watched a Schwarzenegger film at the cinema, it was 1994 and he was playing Harry Tasker in True Lies.  He lost his headliner status a few years ago, and evident from the amount of people in the cinema for opening night, he has never gained it back.

From the writer of Training Day and End of Watch, David Ayer brings Schwarzenegger back as head of a team of elite DEA undercover specialists.  When $10m goes missing from a drug bust and members of his team start to fall foul of some serious accidents, fingers start to point away from the drug cartel the money was stolen from to the within the team itself.  Is someone taking out their teammates just for the money?

The style of Training Day is evident here, Sabotage is ultra violent, stylish and ugly.  How this was granted a 15 certificate is beyond me, the gore is graphic, the blood is spilled on a regular basis and gratuitous.

Loosely based on Agatha Christies, "and Then There Were None", it is a question of "who is betraying who and why?" although I did kind of guess the outcome from the very beginning.

This is another film to add the The Governators list of meh films, he should just stick to cameos in the Terminator Series (although CGI!) and The Expendables. 

Film 44 - Locke

Locke - 1/05/2014

With a hard decision to either turn left and go home to his wife and kids or turn right to deal with a problem that is life changing, Tom Hardy's Locke makes a difficult choice.

On paper, Locke does not have the interest levels turned up to 11.  Tom Hardy is driving to London whilst making phones calls via blutooth to his work, the council, his wife and kids, and the problem that lies ahead.  I learnt more about concrete in this film than any other film I have watched, ever!

Only Tom Hardy is present for the whole film, no other actors are given any screen time, but I felt close to ever person on the phone, I knew what they looked like, I could sense how they were feeling.  Having just Tom Hardy on screen is not a bad thing (for those of you who don't know, I may have a little man-crush on him), he is brilliant as Locke.  A man who has made a terrible mistake and chooses to deal with it rather than hide away.

A completely engaging film that focuses on character development, there are no car chases, no explosions, no big set pieces, just brilliant acting from everyone.  The excitement come from having the right mix of concrete, making sure the re bar's are sorted, know the score of the match, and of course the resolve of the "problem".

I am in strong belief that the less you know of the film, the more you will enjoy, which is why I am not really going into "the problem" much

One thing that did keep taking me out of the film was the avoidance of product placement.  Ivan Locke gets into his BMW at the start of the film and the logo is evident throughout, but conversations on the phone refer to "The German Lager", "The Football Team", "
The cider I like", surely they could have even made up names like they do on popular TV Soaps, such as Stellberg, or just done normal product placement.

I don't think the cinema experience adds anything to this film and it is perfectly fine to watch at home on Netflix (or LoveFilm), but it is definitely worth a watch.

Clare's 1 word review: imaginative