Mission Impossible Rogue Nation is the fifth film in the series and this time Chris McQuarrie takes over both screenplay and directing duties and the story here sees the IMF (Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames and Jeremy Renner) dissolved by the deputy director of the CIA (Alec Baldwin) but a shadowy organisation called The Syndicate threatens global peace and only the IMF can stop it.
When compared to how I felt about Terminator Genisys and Ant Man I enjoyed Rogue Nation a lot more than I did those pictures and those reasons are two:
- The first is the action set pieces McQuarrie and his team have put together, for the most part they are very exciting to watch and have a real sense of reality to them and while watching one of them in particular I thought to myself "I wish Mad Max Fury Road had this feel to it" in terms of not looking so heavily filtered as that film does whereas here there's a much more natural look to the proceedings and it makes the action and stunts feel more exciting to watch.
- The second is the IMF cast, Cruise equips himself fine here but at this point he feels more like an action windup toy to me in some places, Pegg has some nice humour moments while Renner and Rhames very much play supporting roles outside of the main action meanwhile Baldwin who I felt to be inspired casting given his role as Dr Jack Ryan in the Hunt for Red October is okay here but part of me sorely wishes he had a much larger role in the film.
But sadly however the film for me has a very big problem and that is the Syndicate itself and it feels like a very dull organisation whose figurehead just feels like a bland nobody and not in the least bit threatening while Rebecca Ferguson as the film's primary female agent just feels like a poor stand in for Emily Blunt (Cruise's co star from last year's Edge of Tomorrow) and as a result I found her pretty dull in this film.
But coming back to the villain problem I have with the film, these sort of Spy adventure stories really need a strong adversarial organisation (The Anti version of your main lead's organisation one could say) in order to really thrive and feel memorable for an audience I mean can anyone on this green Earth imagine Inspector Gadget WITHOUT Dr. Claw or his MAD Agents that would be just not worth watching frankly or indeed James Bond without SPECTRE though we already saw that and thankfully they're making a comeback with SPECTRE in November as the series hasn't quite been the same without them.
And so that was Mission Impossible Rogue Nation a fun if slightly dull and forgettable film in places and not a patch on Kingsman the Secret Service from earlier this year and TBVH you should rent that film instead of seeing this one in cinemas, 3 out of 5.
Thursday, July 30, 2015
Thursday, July 16, 2015
Film Review - Ant Man (2015)
Ant Man is the latest Marvel Studios production and stars Paul Rudd (who also co-wrote the film) as Scott Lang a small time thief who is busted after breaking into a house and is soon released by Dr Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) who then offers him a very unique job opportunity.
To be very honest with you all part of me was not looking forward to this film primarily because for a long time Edgar Wright (who I'm a huge fan of and who retains both a story and script credit along with his co-writer Joe Cornish who also co-wrote the 2011 Tintin film with Edgar) was going to make this movie and he was starting to put his team together in late 2013/early 2014 (Rudd, Douglas and Evangeline Lily were all cast during this period) and Steven Price who did the music for Gravity was going to do the music for this film plus it looked like Wright was going to re assemble his Scott Pilgrim team to make this film but then in May 2014 Wright left the project and my interest in this film plummeted afterwards.
But all is not lost and after some promising word of mouth prior to release my interest was piqued once again, could this film deliver for me or would the bitter disappointment over Wright's departure still linger on in my mouth.
Well surprisingly it didn't but although the film for me is fine it is also pretty forgettable not long after leaving the cinema but before I delve into that in more detail I want to talk about what I did like which is the cast and the visual effects, the FX scenes here are very clever and as a result it made the action sequences they serve more exciting than they were in Avengers Age of Ultron and the main cast are all good here especially Rudd and Michael Pena who in my view is where Edgar's influence still remains on the script.
But apart from those there are some big flaws here:
- The first is once again Marvel Studios and Kevin Feige the producer supreme serve up a very very bland villain in Yellowjacket, not once did he feel threatening or in any way interesting, he just felt like a boring straightjacket who goes way too OTT when he becomes Yellowjacket and this is but one half of my now complete and utter frustration with this franchise and that is for all of the decades of history of these characters in the comics they continually drop the ball where it should count the most and as a result I don't feel any sense of tension or jeopardy for Ant Man or his allies.
(It also doesn't help when you think to yourself during the climax "Eh he'll be fine as he'll be back in Captain America Civil War next year.)
- The second is the near complete waste of Lily in this film and once again Marvel and Mr Feige have decades of history to draw from in terms of the comics and they continually make their films a boys own affair now I know there were some female characters in Age of Ultron but outside of Black Widow they didn't make much of an impression and again it just isn't good enough anymore.
And here is also where I want to talk about Phase 2 of Marvel as a whole as the law of Diminishing Returns when it comes to sequels applies here and yes I know that all of the comic book fanboys and girls have loved what they've done but for me personally this feels like a real step down and it's also where Disney's acquisition of Marvel in 2009 has now fully born fruit as these films have not gone down the darker edged route that they've promised only to go "never mind" because heaven forfend we scare any of the little kids in our audience.
And finally to wrap this up seeing this film has now made me more keen for Bryan Singer's X-Men Apocalypse next year which looks to have that dark and scary tone, a genuine villain in Oscar Isaac's En Sabah Nur (Apocalypse's birth name) as well as key roles for the female heroes in Jean Grey and Mystique and the villains in Storm before she becomes one of the X-Men and Psylocke as well as an imaginative story promising to date back to the days of Ancient Egypt and how Mutants are seen as some sort of sign of Gods among Men, I sincerely sincerely hope this film delivers on that promise.
And so that was Ant Man which is fine but also very forgettable for me, 2 out of 5.
To be very honest with you all part of me was not looking forward to this film primarily because for a long time Edgar Wright (who I'm a huge fan of and who retains both a story and script credit along with his co-writer Joe Cornish who also co-wrote the 2011 Tintin film with Edgar) was going to make this movie and he was starting to put his team together in late 2013/early 2014 (Rudd, Douglas and Evangeline Lily were all cast during this period) and Steven Price who did the music for Gravity was going to do the music for this film plus it looked like Wright was going to re assemble his Scott Pilgrim team to make this film but then in May 2014 Wright left the project and my interest in this film plummeted afterwards.
But all is not lost and after some promising word of mouth prior to release my interest was piqued once again, could this film deliver for me or would the bitter disappointment over Wright's departure still linger on in my mouth.
Well surprisingly it didn't but although the film for me is fine it is also pretty forgettable not long after leaving the cinema but before I delve into that in more detail I want to talk about what I did like which is the cast and the visual effects, the FX scenes here are very clever and as a result it made the action sequences they serve more exciting than they were in Avengers Age of Ultron and the main cast are all good here especially Rudd and Michael Pena who in my view is where Edgar's influence still remains on the script.
But apart from those there are some big flaws here:
- The first is once again Marvel Studios and Kevin Feige the producer supreme serve up a very very bland villain in Yellowjacket, not once did he feel threatening or in any way interesting, he just felt like a boring straightjacket who goes way too OTT when he becomes Yellowjacket and this is but one half of my now complete and utter frustration with this franchise and that is for all of the decades of history of these characters in the comics they continually drop the ball where it should count the most and as a result I don't feel any sense of tension or jeopardy for Ant Man or his allies.
(It also doesn't help when you think to yourself during the climax "Eh he'll be fine as he'll be back in Captain America Civil War next year.)
- The second is the near complete waste of Lily in this film and once again Marvel and Mr Feige have decades of history to draw from in terms of the comics and they continually make their films a boys own affair now I know there were some female characters in Age of Ultron but outside of Black Widow they didn't make much of an impression and again it just isn't good enough anymore.
And here is also where I want to talk about Phase 2 of Marvel as a whole as the law of Diminishing Returns when it comes to sequels applies here and yes I know that all of the comic book fanboys and girls have loved what they've done but for me personally this feels like a real step down and it's also where Disney's acquisition of Marvel in 2009 has now fully born fruit as these films have not gone down the darker edged route that they've promised only to go "never mind" because heaven forfend we scare any of the little kids in our audience.
And finally to wrap this up seeing this film has now made me more keen for Bryan Singer's X-Men Apocalypse next year which looks to have that dark and scary tone, a genuine villain in Oscar Isaac's En Sabah Nur (Apocalypse's birth name) as well as key roles for the female heroes in Jean Grey and Mystique and the villains in Storm before she becomes one of the X-Men and Psylocke as well as an imaginative story promising to date back to the days of Ancient Egypt and how Mutants are seen as some sort of sign of Gods among Men, I sincerely sincerely hope this film delivers on that promise.
And so that was Ant Man which is fine but also very forgettable for me, 2 out of 5.
Saturday, July 4, 2015
Film Review - Ex Machina (2015)
Ex Machina is written and directed by Alex Garland and stars Dominic Gleeson as Caleb, a young computer coder working for a company headed by the reclusive Nathan (Oscar Isaac) and Nathan invites him to his mountain hideaway to show him something that could change the world.
Hmmmm the more I begin to think about this movie I really start to feel mixed by it and this feeling I just cannot escape but before I delve into what misfired for me I want to talk about what I did like and that is the look and feel Garland creates for this film, it has that very old fashioned Sci-Fi feel to it where the ideas were the strongest and not everyone going BANG! CRASH! BOOM! every 5 seconds and the performance by Alicia Vikander as Ava the creation at the heart of this film is really very good, hopefully she isn't wasted in the upcoming Man from UNCLE film later this year.
But outside of that again I just didn't find myself all that engaged with it emotionally and I can't help but feel that it's because both Nathan and Caleb aren't that interesting as characters, they sit around, drink booze, talk about computer stuff but they also feel like very straight laced white bread caricatures who could probably have done with some intimacy with the opposite sex as the way they talk about the women of this film is kinda problematic for me.
And the reason I feel this is so is because to them women can easily be dismissed as some sort of rogue computer program that if it goes wrong then they can use their intelligence to create one that obeys their commands which is probably why I found the climax pretty interesting and to cast Gleeson and Isaac in these roles made me feel somewhat that they were pretty much wasted in this film and when it comes to Isaac that feels disappointing to say.
And so that was Ex Machina, Garland's look and feel is great but his male characters really sunk it for me, 2 and a half out of 5.
Hmmmm the more I begin to think about this movie I really start to feel mixed by it and this feeling I just cannot escape but before I delve into what misfired for me I want to talk about what I did like and that is the look and feel Garland creates for this film, it has that very old fashioned Sci-Fi feel to it where the ideas were the strongest and not everyone going BANG! CRASH! BOOM! every 5 seconds and the performance by Alicia Vikander as Ava the creation at the heart of this film is really very good, hopefully she isn't wasted in the upcoming Man from UNCLE film later this year.
But outside of that again I just didn't find myself all that engaged with it emotionally and I can't help but feel that it's because both Nathan and Caleb aren't that interesting as characters, they sit around, drink booze, talk about computer stuff but they also feel like very straight laced white bread caricatures who could probably have done with some intimacy with the opposite sex as the way they talk about the women of this film is kinda problematic for me.
And the reason I feel this is so is because to them women can easily be dismissed as some sort of rogue computer program that if it goes wrong then they can use their intelligence to create one that obeys their commands which is probably why I found the climax pretty interesting and to cast Gleeson and Isaac in these roles made me feel somewhat that they were pretty much wasted in this film and when it comes to Isaac that feels disappointing to say.
And so that was Ex Machina, Garland's look and feel is great but his male characters really sunk it for me, 2 and a half out of 5.
Film Review - Shaun the Sheep (2015)
Shaun the Sheep is based off of the Aardman series and sees Shaun on the farm going through his daily schedule until one day he sees a Bus ad saying "Have a Day Off" so he decides to plan a Day Off but it all goes wrong and his owner finds himself in the Big City which leaves Shaun with the task of having to rescue him.
I'm gonna cut to the chase here and say that I was not a huge fan of this film personally speaking but before I delve into that I want to talk about what I did like and that is the stop motion animation which is very good to look at here and some of the gags of the film which were funny though probably not in the same way that Minions just made me laugh out loud.
But besides that personally speaking I wasn't all that engaged with it and I think the main reason is that to my mind I felt like it was primarily enjoyed by very young children (I had a similar reaction to Pitch Perfect 2 when that opened in terms of not enjoying it though that films target audience would) and as a result well as I said above I wasn't all that engaged with it.
And so that was my review of Shaun the Sheep, those familiar with the TV series or with young kids will enjoy it but I personally didn't, 2 out of 5.
I'm gonna cut to the chase here and say that I was not a huge fan of this film personally speaking but before I delve into that I want to talk about what I did like and that is the stop motion animation which is very good to look at here and some of the gags of the film which were funny though probably not in the same way that Minions just made me laugh out loud.
But besides that personally speaking I wasn't all that engaged with it and I think the main reason is that to my mind I felt like it was primarily enjoyed by very young children (I had a similar reaction to Pitch Perfect 2 when that opened in terms of not enjoying it though that films target audience would) and as a result well as I said above I wasn't all that engaged with it.
And so that was my review of Shaun the Sheep, those familiar with the TV series or with young kids will enjoy it but I personally didn't, 2 out of 5.
On the Air Season 2 Episode 6 - Aloha Sir
Alright folks here we go again:
Here is the audio from my latest Radio episode where I talked about the following:
- Aloha
- Jurassic World
- Minions
- Inside Out
And the show wraps up with Selina and I paying tribute to the late great Sir Christopher Lee.
As always to listen to the audio either click on the streaming option in your browser or right click and "save target as" to save it to your computer.
And as always the link is here: http://blogs.abc.net.au/sa/2015/06/friday-flicks-aloha-jurassic-world-minions-inside-out.html?site=southeastsa&program=south_east_mornings
Here is the audio from my latest Radio episode where I talked about the following:
- Aloha
- Jurassic World
- Minions
- Inside Out
And the show wraps up with Selina and I paying tribute to the late great Sir Christopher Lee.
As always to listen to the audio either click on the streaming option in your browser or right click and "save target as" to save it to your computer.
And as always the link is here: http://blogs.abc.net.au/sa/2015/06/friday-flicks-aloha-jurassic-world-minions-inside-out.html?site=southeastsa&program=south_east_mornings
Thursday, July 2, 2015
Film Review - Terminator Genisys (2015)
Terminator Genisys is the newest entry of the Terminator franchise and again sees The Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke) continue their fight against SkyNet along with John Connor (Jason Clarke) and Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) but this time an app called Genisys promises to bring about the famed Judgment Day.
Look this movie is not a terrible one but it is also not very good either for these three reasons:
- The first is that the storyline feels very convoluted and at times the film is tying itself up in knots in terms of how it tries to make sense with the first 2 films from James Cameron as well as trying to reboot the series (and it was this point where I was reminded very much of X-Men Days of Future Past from last year but that film had Bryan Singer holding a very firm hand on the whip whereas here Alan Taylor doesn't really seem to have any idea as to what he wants to do with this film.)
- The second is that the film feels very bland to sit through and again I come back to Taylor's direction, it has no life in it and when you compare it to the dark and grimy LA nights that Cameron brought in the first Terminator as well as the high tech gloss that he brought to the 2nd film everything here feels very very bland and forgettable and not to mention very noisy with its endless BWAMMM DOOOOOP COOOOOOMMMM sounds that feel more at home in the Transformers series.
- And lastly the film is just an overall boring movie to sit through in the cinema, the action scenes are forgettable, the performances for the most part don't resonate save for Clarke and Arnold (I would've much rathered watch them together as their story was kinda nice) and the musical score (a real highlight of the first 2) feels very by the notes (then again Hans Zimmer helped produce it so you can't be totally surprised.)
Look Terminator Genisys when I look at it is not the worst film in the world but to be very very honest I would much rather recommend the first 2 Terminator films and X-Men Days of Future Past to you instead as those are much more worth your time because this movie is not, 1.5 out of 5.
Look this movie is not a terrible one but it is also not very good either for these three reasons:
- The first is that the storyline feels very convoluted and at times the film is tying itself up in knots in terms of how it tries to make sense with the first 2 films from James Cameron as well as trying to reboot the series (and it was this point where I was reminded very much of X-Men Days of Future Past from last year but that film had Bryan Singer holding a very firm hand on the whip whereas here Alan Taylor doesn't really seem to have any idea as to what he wants to do with this film.)
- The second is that the film feels very bland to sit through and again I come back to Taylor's direction, it has no life in it and when you compare it to the dark and grimy LA nights that Cameron brought in the first Terminator as well as the high tech gloss that he brought to the 2nd film everything here feels very very bland and forgettable and not to mention very noisy with its endless BWAMMM DOOOOOP COOOOOOMMMM sounds that feel more at home in the Transformers series.
- And lastly the film is just an overall boring movie to sit through in the cinema, the action scenes are forgettable, the performances for the most part don't resonate save for Clarke and Arnold (I would've much rathered watch them together as their story was kinda nice) and the musical score (a real highlight of the first 2) feels very by the notes (then again Hans Zimmer helped produce it so you can't be totally surprised.)
Look Terminator Genisys when I look at it is not the worst film in the world but to be very very honest I would much rather recommend the first 2 Terminator films and X-Men Days of Future Past to you instead as those are much more worth your time because this movie is not, 1.5 out of 5.
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