Film Review - Flight (2013)

Flight is the first live action film directed by Robert Zemeckis since 2000's Cast Away and stars Denzel Washington as Captain Whip Whittaker, a flight captain who performs a miraculous act of heroism by saving 96 out of 102 souls onboard a flight that crashes, but his bravery may have been under the influence.

I went into Flight with very mixed expectations, the main reason I wanted to see the film was due to Washington's involvement with the film, does his involvement make it interesting or only serve to be one of the rare occasions where he fails to save the film he's in?

Well, actually it's a case of the middle of the road, Washington is indeed great in the film, bringing a lot of dimension and character to his role and lifting the general tone of the film to one where you rarely stop paying attention to him, John Goodman, Bruce Greenwood and Don Cheadle also pitch in good performances in their roles and the opening scenes with Whip at the helm of the crashing plane are spectacular though part of me couldn't help but think of the opening of the Dark Knight Rises and the background music that plays after Bane says "Crashing this Plane, with no survivors."

But the film also has a pretty big flaw to it and that is the overall storyline of the film feels pretty routine, delving into the age old tale of alcoholism and drug addiction that so many movies have tackled with before and no doubt will do after this movie has come and gone, Washington performs at his best in those scenes and it lifts the feeling of routineness in that part of the film but that feeling is still there but is better handled than it has been in the past on some occasions.

So overall Flight is pretty good with a great lead performance and some good plane scenes and supporting performances even if the film as a whole doesn't quite stick the landing though, that said the next time you get on a plane after seeing this movie say to yourself "calm down, now is not the time for fear, that comes later", 2 and a half out of 5.

Game Review - Aliens: Colonial Marines (2013)

Aliens Colonial Marines takes place after Alien 3 and sees a distress signal released by Corporal Hicks (Michael Biehn) from the USS Sulaco near LV-426 and a team of Colonial Marines led by a man named Winter are sent to investigate but they will find much more than they originally expected.

When I first saw the initial game play videos for this game last year I thought to myself "This looks really good and really authentic" to the atmosphere of James Cameron's 1986 sequel to Alien, I also got very excited to play the game and now the time had come in which I could now play it for myself.

Sadly though, the game does not live up to the high hopes I had for it, those hopes being that this might be a fun sci-fi shooter with some nice fan service not unlike High Moon Studios' two Cybertron titles, don't get me wrong the game is far from terrible, the sound design is clever, the shooting mechanics are solid, the weapon customization is good and its nice to see Biehn and Lance Henriksen reprising their roles from the film.

But the game as a whole feels very tedious to play and will get boring rather quickly with the endless times you die in a level, the lack of sufficient health and ammo to help you through fire fights and the overall length of level's that just made me think "Get on with It" now normally this shouldn't be a bad thing given that most single player campaign's average out at a length of 6 hours but here it feels like a drain on the player's playing time and it just left me with a feeling of "I've done enough" without even finishing the campaign which is something I always like to do so that I have a proper feeling for whether I want to keep the game for any future play throughs.

And on top of those problems, the actual fire fights in the game aren't that exciting, the stealth missions where your navigating Alien hives are exciting and do induce a sense of tension but the fire fights with the actual Aliens just made me think of the PS3 shooter series Resistance (Resistance 2 is very much Aliens as a game) and the shooter with the humans sent to kill you just made me think of Call of Duty.

Look, to sum up, Aliens Colonial Marines is far from terrible but it's also not a shooter that stands out among its peers, Aliens fans will certainly have a fun time with the game but for me, it just made me want to play the Resistance trilogy and the Cybertron shooters again as those were examples of not only good sci-fi shooters but in the case of Transformers how to do excellent fan service that makes them want to come back for more rather than trade it in when it's all over, if your keen to play it give it a rent first to see what it's like, 2.5 out of 5.

Film Review - Everything or Nothing: The Untold Story of 007 (2012)

Everything or Nothing or EON for short is a documentary that talks about the 50 years of James Bond and focuses on the three key men that helped to bring the character to life, author Ian Fleming and original producers Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman and the ups and downs that come with it.

EON is a terrific doco covering the history of the Bond franchise and a lot of the key players involved with the series over the years give their thoughts, there are some very nice moments such as when Roger Moore looks back in horror at a scene in The Man with the Golden Gun and Pierce Brosnan regarding both Kite Surfing in Die Another Day and a remark Martin Campbell told him on the set of Goldeneye, Tim Dalton also opens up about his short lived time in the part which helped to prepare the groundwork for Daniel Craig's interpretation at the moment.

And yet despite this and more, the doco also has a nice pace to it though there is a small part of me that wishes Sean Connery had agreed to be a part of it and be able to make his case, don't get me wrong his presence is all throughout the doco through archival interviews he's done over the years but a newly recorded one for the doco would've gone a long way, one of the things I liked about "We're Smegged" the doco on the new series of Red Dwarf was that while Doug Naylor seemed to point his finger at Charles Armitage for a lot of the problems, Charles was there to fight for his corner and it went a long way to explain some things but then again this is only a minor complaint for a great doco and I'm not that surprised Connery didn't get involved.

So all in all, EON is a terrific doco that is required viewing for any and all Bond fans out there in the world, 5 out of 5.

Film Review - 48 Hours (1982)

48 Hours is directed by Walter Hill and stars Nick Nolte as Cates, a cop who loses his gun during a case that sees fellow cops killed but his superiors insist he not go it alone so he recruits a convict played by Eddie Murphy.

48 Hours is a fun and well made action film by Hill, his direction is nicely paced and the cinematography by Ric Waite is quite good as well with its use of the night lighting around the city helping to create a sense of reality and atmosphere, James Horner also provides a nice score and both Nolte and Murphy make a great pair to watch, their chemistry is great and they play off each other very well.

Sadly however the film around them is not as good with the film lacking a strong villain to help bring the story into focus and give you a reason to want to see Nolte and Murphy resolve their differences and get rid of the villain, happily Murphy would get a shot to correct this 2 years later with Beverly Hills Cop that would also use his comic talent and fast movement better than this film did.

All in all 48 Hours is a solid action picture but like a later film from Hill, 1988's Red Heat it lacks a strong villain to go up against the heroes and as a result the film lacks a focus to it, 2 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Zero Dark Thirty (2013)

Based on the hunt for Osama Bin Laden, Zero Dark Thirty stars Jessica Chastain as Maya, a CIA agent determined to bring the criminal mastermind to justice, no matter the cost.

I went into Zero Dark Thirty with very mixed expectations, I had heard about the film prior to release but was unsure about whether it would do much for me, so could the film rise above the mixed feelings I had or was it to go lower?

Well, in all honesty it pretty much went lower than what I expected from it, the film for me was simply okay, there was nothing bad about it at all but overall I thought it wasn't all that great either, there are individual moments that really shine such as the opening scenes of torture that make for a very uncomfortable watch and left me thinking (Bane voice) "It is necessary evil" (Bane voice) when I was watching those moments and it helps to form the view that the film is not pro torture at all the more that I think about it, and the final raid on the compound that makes up the film's climax is well handled with low lighting, a clever use of night vision goggles and a nice sense of tension and editing.

The film also has some great performances as well, Chastain leads the pack but she also has some very nice backup support from Mark Strong, Jason Clarke and Kyle Chandler all of whom perform very well in their roles and in the case of Clarke becomes the standout performance of the film for me despite the very good work Chastain does in the lead role.

But however I also found the film to be very flawed for three key reasons:

First off is the length, the film runs 160 minutes and for me it felt way too long and could've easily lost a good 20 minutes to ramp up the tension of the hunt and give the film a sense of pace, the director of the film Kathryn Bigelow really lets herself down in this regard and I wish that she had reined herself in more in the same way that Ben Affleck did with Argo, always making sure the film hit its marks but also not feeling long in the tooth for its own good.

The second is the film's story and it feels very episodic at times with title headings explaining things in a way that makes you think that it would work better if the story had played out as a miniseries on television where that type of style would feel more natural to the film's events whereas here I found it to get in the way and stop the film somewhat whereas without that I might have felt like this had a more natural flow through the story.

And finally the third key flaw I have with this film is a flaw not that much different to the one I had with Hitchcock and that was knowing the ending in advance and simply waiting to get to that point and like that film when that moment comes its well handled and you get a sense of satisfaction that the wait to get there has paid off.

At the same time though, Bigelow's ex-husband James Cameron played with this conceit brilliantly when he made Titanic by opening the film in the modern day and starting with the wreck of the ship on the ocean floor, it may only sound like a small touch but to me it signalled "yes I know how it ends too and I'm going to embrace that to throw you off guard", part of me wishes Bigelow had done a similar thing though at the same time that type of opening would probably not have worked for this film.

So all in all, Zero Dark Thirty for me is not pro torture, not terrible but also not that great either though Bigelow fans and fans of this type of film will easily enjoy it, 2 out of 5.

Film Review - Expendables II (2012)

Expendables II once more sees Sylvester Stallone as Barney Ross, leader of the Expendables team as he also faces another assignment from Mr. Church (Bruce Willis) to deal with a stolen 5 kilos of plutonium by Vilain (Jean Claude Van Damme) but Ross will need some big help to take out this new villain.

Expendables II is a huge improvement on the first film which I thought was fine but suffered from some inconsistent storytelling, here the script feels much more focused, the action has more of a presence as does the action editing and direction feel more spaced out and the humour and characterization feels more natural than it did in the first film where it felt somewhat forced at times.

But it's hard not to talk about this movie and not mention the film's climax in an airport which is nothing short of spectacular for me, anyone who has wished for something like this to happen in an action picture will have their wish granted in a big way and I was smiling the entire time, Van Damme also makes for a much better villain than Eric Roberts did in the first film and the fight between him and Stallone was great to watch.

But if I do have one complaint about this film it's that I really wish Christopher Lambert had a role in it, there had been talk when this film was being prepared that he might be considered for a role but it never happened and its saddening for me that it didn't but still what's here on screen more than makes up for that.

So all in all, Expendables II is a huge improvement on the first film and it's also a film I really enjoyed watching, 3 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Looper (2012)

Looper is written and directed by Rian Johnson and concerns a guy named Joe who lives in the future though in the present he's played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt and is called a "Looper" who deal with people sent from the future who are then killed by the mob, but Joe's future self played by Bruce Willis escapes and is determined to change the future.

It's fair to say that I went into Looper with very high expectations as the current film marketplace has lacked a good Sci-Fi film for a long time, when I heard of this one I was very keen to see it but sadly my chances of seeing it in the cinemas were diminished due to bad scheduling and session times so alas the wait began for the film's DVD release and as I mentioned in my look back at last year's cinema going, it was the one film I regretted missing the most out of all.

But now the day had come at last, the time where I would finally, Finally get my chance to see this highly talked about Sci-Fi cult classic, could this do the impossible and match my high hopes or was all the long wait going to do was leave me feeling nothing but disappointment?

Well happily, so very happily even I can say that this was well and truly worth the wait, this was easily one of the finest Sci-Fi films I've ever seen and a lot of that credit goes to Johnson in both writing and directing, it's clear that at the writing stage he thought everything through in an exquisite level of detail and in terms of directing the film he makes good use of the 2.35:1 aspect ratio as well as delivering some very sharp editing that makes sure that the film has a sense of pace and structure to it as well as not making sure the audience get lost in all that time travelly paradoxy sci-fiyyy smeg.

But what also really stuck out for me were its three key influences, all of them cult movies from the 1980's, the films in question are Blade Runner, the first Terminator and Witness, all three clearly permeate throughout the film in terms of the character relationships, the visuals of the future, the bond between mother and son and a man risking it all for the one he loves most.

But my praise doesn't end with Johnson, it extends to the cast as well, JGL is fantastic as the young Joe and he really convinces your seeing a young Bruce Willis from around the time he made the first Die Hard film, Willis himself is the best he's been in a very long time and gets a few key moments of his own that remind us why we fell for him as a star 25 years ago and I did think to myself "Yippie Ki-Yay Motherfucker"

But there are other actors that also deserve mention, one is Emily Blunt who I have found to be very hit and miss over the years but really delivers the goods here, Jeff Daniels has a small role as well and he's very good as is Pierce Gagnon who plays the young boy.

But lastly I have to mention the music score composed by Nathan Johnson which plays a key part in the film and takes centre stage at times during it but is not your typical film score that's mainly there to be background fodder or sound as though its grating a chalkboard or being flushed down the toilet, this is a terrific score and I was reminded of Basil Poledouris's score for Robocop when it was over.

So all in all Looper is a terrific piece of Sci-Fi filmmaking and I really wish I had been able to catch in cinemas during its theatrical release but alas the film did not disappoint as I had dreaded it would and any Sci-Fi fan out there should seek it out for a watch when they can, it's really great, 4 and a half out of 5.