God dammit, another film I wanted to be amazing and It has let me down. I’ve really got to stop hyping up movies to myself. First things first, this is not a terrible movie… It just wastes a lot of potential from a director I thought … Continue reading Chappie – Review – 54/100
Jupiter Ascending Trailer Eugh, you know when you want a film to be really good, and not just because I want all films to be good but because cinema is so devoid of original content on a big scale in the sci-fi genre that I just … Continue reading Jupiter Ascending – Review – 61/100
When I saw the trailer for this film I did immediately think this would just be a James Bond/chav crossover and to be fair it’s not a million miles away but I’d throw the tonal action of Vin Diesels Triple X in there too. Matthew … Continue reading Kingsman: The Secret Service – Review – 82/100
A lot has been already said of the new Fantastic 4 movie… cast of relative unknowns… the fact that the villain Dr Doom is a blogger… has made a lot of peoples minds up already without a trailer even being seen. Well, now we have seen the trailer, only a teaser mind but things do not look terrible. When people start to complain about superhero movies all being ‘the same’ it’s worth remembering that director Josh Trank has already directed a unique kids with super powers film in Chronicle in 2012 (definitely worth a watch) which is why the slightly darker tone of the trailer was no surprise to me. There’s no telling how the cast will do but I think Jamie Bell is good value and Miles Teller was great in Whiplash, so I’ll definitely give it a go. I know Kate Mara from House of Cards (which she did a good job of) and Michael B Jordan has been retained from Chronicle so I can’t infer anything yet, another trailer will help. But until then;
Next up is is the Child 44.
I have an advantage in that I already know a bit about this from the book but from those who don’t know, the film basically follows disgraced State Security agent Leo Demidov (Tom Hardy) as he investigates a series of gruesome child murders in Stalin’s Soviet Union. Personally I would have seen this film regardless of the cast based on the recommendations/the book, but for others there are a couple of signs this could turn out to be a cracker.
Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman and Vincent Cassel are in it. That is acting gold right here. There must be something a little bit special about the project to get those names involved. Hardy especially is about as versatile as an actor can get these days and is wanted for just about anything. For him to take the lead says a lot in my opinion. Another sign is that Ridley Scott is on as a producer so you know visually it is going to be interesting. I’m a big fan of his work and do think he’s a complete asset. Even though director Daniel Espinosa’s only recognizable film to date is Safe House (Denzel Washington/Ryan Reynolds), I actually thought the action was quite enjoyable and while that may have suffered for being a bit ‘basic’ for want of another word, with the source material here it shouldn’t be an issue.
I think this is definitely one to watch.
Lastly this week the trailer for “It Follows” came out. Not going to lie the first thing I thought when hearing the score for the trailer was that it reminded me of the film The Guest…. and then Maika Monroe turns up… also in The Guest… strange considering none of the film makers from The Guest are featured here, anyway I digress.
This teen horror where some young buck transfers some sort of hoodoo to Monroe through intercourse that follows her around is either going to turn out to be shit and bland, or innovative and creepy, it’s hard to say from the trailer. It looks like there could be some chills down the spine moments but if it is this same ‘I’m being followed’ theme for the whole film it’s definitely going to need to change things up to be any good. Only time will tell.
Thank god for this trailer after the underwhelming experience that was the Ant Man one. Check it out below;
Avengers : Age of Ultron Trailer #2
So what do we know that we didn’t in the first one?
Very little really. Only that;
AJG
Let’s be honest, there’s nothing that will fill the Breaking Bad hole in our lives (for those that actually watched it) all we have it the distant memories of Walter White & Jesse Pinkman going on adventures, sometimes together as friends, sometimes separate as enemies.
If there’s one thing we can all agree on is that it is… was… and always will be pretty compelling viewing.
So apart from watching it all over again what you can take a look at is the extended trailer for Better Call Saul which is finally here!!! As well as this there is also a trailer for creator Vince Gilligan’s new project Battle Creek. Both look like they could be good.
Enjoy!
AJG
Watch the Chappie trailer here.
Watch the Run All Night trailer here.
Of the 2 Chappie is a definite to look out for. Brought to you by Neil Blomkamp (District 9, Elysium) there are a few things that can be guaranteed;
From the trailer we are ticking the boxes and the theme of AI is strong this year with Ex Machina coming out soon too. This looks fun, interesting, the effects look good and you can tell when a director is worth seeing by the names attached to the film (Hugh Jackman, Sigoruney Weaver, Dev Patel, Sharlto Copley).
Release Date; UK & US – March 6th 2015
The Run All Night trailer has all the potential that maybe Taken 3 should have been. Neeson playing a badass father again doing whatever necessary to keep his family safe. Ed Harris is the villain (we assume) this time wanting revenge for Neeson killing his son to protect his own. I think what makes this seem more appealing is that Neeson isn’t pretending he’s a good caring father, he just looks like a guy who will do what it takes and it doesn’t appear to try to be anything it’s not, which is why we all loved Taken 1 & not its successors. Maybe, just maybe it won’t be shit.
Release Date; UK – May 1st 2015 US – April 17th 2015
I’m going to try and keep this short as it’s almost not worth the brain power… this franchise needs to die.
Neeson’s back, but instead of his daughter being taken from him, his ex-wife is taken from him… permanently, he’s been set up for it & is on the run from the police and there are also another load of eastern Europeans trying to kill him while he finds out the truth… because that’s the honourable American thing to do. Instead of perhaps take the easier way presented just over an hour in where he could have been exonerated AND got police help. No matter.
Neeson does looks ‘too old for this shit’ there are a few foot chases in this movie where he looks like he going at a quick saunter compared to the young fit policemen sprinting after him. I even think Neeson is tired of these films, he’s never been the deepest actor but I just wasn’t convinced that he even supposedly ‘loved’ his ex-wife from his acting after he finds her dead body or sees her in the morgue (these are not spoilers by the way). He just mutters something in his gruff tone and moves on. In fact most of the characters are pretty terrible in this film bar Forest Whitaker (which is not a sentence I find myself saying often), the inspector who keeps nearly catching him & can’t stop playing mono cats cradle with an elastic band. This is to no consequence of the overall film though.
Oliver Megaton (who directed worse Taken 2) known only to me for Transporter 3, that riveting thrill ride, did nothing but provide average action sequences with ridiculous cutting to go along with this predictable story line. Seriously, it’s like he set himself a target to get 6 camera shots every 2 seconds of choppy action. This is because 1) the action is boring & 2) Neeson is visibly past it, but you can’t hide from me or any other film goer for that matter. The geriatric friendly fighting choreography was also dull and didn’t really look like he should be able to take these guys down anymore. And the penultimate battle, holy shit, it was like fighting a boss on a mega drive game, a Russian in his tighty whiteys standing in the same crabbed position just blowing the shit out of everything until Neeson finds a way to take him down, comical isn’t even the word.
TL;DR
I heard someone mention it reminded them of a shit version of the Fugitive… that is spot on. In fact, just go watch The Fugitive instead (great film). This is a franchise dying a slow death with uninteresting characters that bring nothing new and action that just isn’t that good. Please for the love of god, see something else.
35/100
AJG
There's good, there's bad, then there's what I think. 