For a while now I've written columns about my fond memories for certain VHS brands here in Australia, first was the big R Roadshow releases that existed from 1982 to 1985 and the other was for CEL cassettes that existed mainly in the mid to late 80's.
But this one is for one that to me is very special and that is for the next incarnation of Roadshow Home Video cassettes, the next generation as it were when it first came into being in late 1985 under the Village Roadshow banner with the big yellow V and the Terminator-esque music that accompanied it.
My fondness for this particular brand began in my younger years when I saw a copy of the Roadshow cassette of the UK Thriller Hennessy with the late Rod Steiger in my house, you could say it was love at first sight for me as I would think about it during the day at school as well as the top sticker on the tape which had a small blue version of the V on it, can still remember an ad for "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" that showed before the movie began.
Though that particular tape would fade away over time (hey the DVD revolution made short work of a lot of tapes so I'm not the only one) my love of the Village Roadshow cassettes became more and more fond as the years rolled on with releases like Robocop 2, Basic Instinct (which previewed Romper Stomper and Fortress, two of the first Roadshow Entertainment titles), Maid to Order, Rebel which has become a rare title over the years and many others.
In 1986 Roadshow did something very cool on some of their releases, two of those were Rebel mentioned above and Sky Pirates ("Indiana Jones and the Temple of Crap" according to its director John Lamond) and that is after the movie they had a little short movie on there which I thought to be a pretty cool way for short film makers to get their work seen in a big way so major kudos for that short lived venture.
Part of that fondness also extended to the spin off labels created around that same time, one of those was Premiere Home Entertainment which had a brilliant opening and closing logo with booming orchestral music, an outer space setting and a laser that reminded me of the Death Star.
And again like Hennessy my fondness also comes from my early youth and a copy of Eddie and the Cruisers 2 that was in my house at the time and was released under the Premiere label and since then I'd never forgotten the logo described above.
And again as with the Village Roadshow releases that fondness would grow over time for the Premiere releases with titles like Truly, Madly, Deeply, The Punisher with Dolph Lundgren, Death Before Dishonor which had a special double sided cover and was directed by Terry Leonard who worked on Raiders of the Lost Ark and Blood Simple the debut film by the Coen Brothers which had a brilliant trailer at the time.
And so, that is my column talking about my love and fond memories for Village Roadshow Video tapes, it's a brand that I hold dear when I think about that era and I'm sure others do too.
Saturday, September 28, 2013
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
Film Review - Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985)
The third entry in the Mad Max series, this story sees Max (Mel Gibson) come across Bartertown where his possessions have been taken after they're stolen by Jebediah the Pilot (Bruce Spence) while there he runs into Aunty Entity (Tina Turner) and after he runs afowl of her finds himself banished where a group of children find him and see him as their saviour to take them to their Promised Land of the Tomorrowmorrow.
Having been a massive fan of the first two Mad Max films I was very keen to sit down and watch the third film again after a few years since my last showing, the first two for me are very much 5 out of 5 films if there ever were any and are the only two films I've seen that have come close to rivalling the Star Wars Trilogy as my favourite films, could this one have any real chance of measuring up?
Well it doesn't to be honest as this third film really meanders around the place in terms of telling its very thin storyline that doesn't really feel like a fully formed film but more of a collection of 3 short films that make up the whole somehow:
The first of these "Bartertown" is probably the best of the three but not by much as its main fight sequence whilst decent enough just felt very out of place in what I would call a Mad Max movie, I mean almost all of the action in the first two films was set in high speed pursuits out on the open road just as the Goose says in Mad Max 1 "See you on the Road like we saw the Nightrider" I mean that is what should have happened here and not this hand to hand fight that as I said is okay but feels very out of place in this series.
The second of these "The Tribe of Lost Children" is where the film virtually dies and it feels like Steven Spielberg took over the director's chair from George Miller in this part of the film though to be frank if he had directed the whole movie then I wouldn't have been in the least bit surprised by that as it feels a lot more like something he would do with Harrison Ford, hell you could've swapped Gibson for Ford in this movie and have it be "Indiana Jones and the Tribe of Lost Children" and again you would not notice the difference.
And finally the last segment which is the climactic chase sequence is frankly a fucking rip off to every Mad Max fan that watches this film as not only does it feel like an afterthought (you know something folks we'd better have a big chase scene for all the Mad Max fans out there because the truth is the other films had them) but it feels VERY VERY VERY anti climatic to the point where you begin to feel ripped off afterwards.
And as for Bruce Spence well he's barely in the damn thing, he shows up at the beginning of the film and then he's tossed aside until there's 10 minutes left in the full film and given the key role he played in the last film, again it feels like a rip off for the fans to do this and as for Turner well she's decent enough but almost completely forgettable and when compared to the Nightrider, the Toecutter and the Lord Humongous who were the chief villains in the first two films it feels gravely disappointing.
But then again this whole movie has that feeling permeating all through it, no doubt caused in a large part by the absence of producer Byron Kennedy who sadly passed away before this film was made and given how vital his role was to the success of the first two films, his absence is felt all throughout this movie as both Gibson and director George Miller don't seem to have their heart in this film at all and you can see it written on Mel's face at times especially during the final chase scene, it's very very sad that the series ended in this manner and hopefully the fourth film due next year will set things back on track.
So all in all, I cannot recommend Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome as much as I would like to with all of my being given how big a fan of the first two films I am but I cannot do that as it feels very thin story wise and film wise feels more like 3 separate films rather than 1 complete one and given how focused and fast paced the first two were this feels like a big step down, 1 out of 5.
Having been a massive fan of the first two Mad Max films I was very keen to sit down and watch the third film again after a few years since my last showing, the first two for me are very much 5 out of 5 films if there ever were any and are the only two films I've seen that have come close to rivalling the Star Wars Trilogy as my favourite films, could this one have any real chance of measuring up?
Well it doesn't to be honest as this third film really meanders around the place in terms of telling its very thin storyline that doesn't really feel like a fully formed film but more of a collection of 3 short films that make up the whole somehow:
The first of these "Bartertown" is probably the best of the three but not by much as its main fight sequence whilst decent enough just felt very out of place in what I would call a Mad Max movie, I mean almost all of the action in the first two films was set in high speed pursuits out on the open road just as the Goose says in Mad Max 1 "See you on the Road like we saw the Nightrider" I mean that is what should have happened here and not this hand to hand fight that as I said is okay but feels very out of place in this series.
The second of these "The Tribe of Lost Children" is where the film virtually dies and it feels like Steven Spielberg took over the director's chair from George Miller in this part of the film though to be frank if he had directed the whole movie then I wouldn't have been in the least bit surprised by that as it feels a lot more like something he would do with Harrison Ford, hell you could've swapped Gibson for Ford in this movie and have it be "Indiana Jones and the Tribe of Lost Children" and again you would not notice the difference.
And finally the last segment which is the climactic chase sequence is frankly a fucking rip off to every Mad Max fan that watches this film as not only does it feel like an afterthought (you know something folks we'd better have a big chase scene for all the Mad Max fans out there because the truth is the other films had them) but it feels VERY VERY VERY anti climatic to the point where you begin to feel ripped off afterwards.
And as for Bruce Spence well he's barely in the damn thing, he shows up at the beginning of the film and then he's tossed aside until there's 10 minutes left in the full film and given the key role he played in the last film, again it feels like a rip off for the fans to do this and as for Turner well she's decent enough but almost completely forgettable and when compared to the Nightrider, the Toecutter and the Lord Humongous who were the chief villains in the first two films it feels gravely disappointing.
But then again this whole movie has that feeling permeating all through it, no doubt caused in a large part by the absence of producer Byron Kennedy who sadly passed away before this film was made and given how vital his role was to the success of the first two films, his absence is felt all throughout this movie as both Gibson and director George Miller don't seem to have their heart in this film at all and you can see it written on Mel's face at times especially during the final chase scene, it's very very sad that the series ended in this manner and hopefully the fourth film due next year will set things back on track.
So all in all, I cannot recommend Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome as much as I would like to with all of my being given how big a fan of the first two films I am but I cannot do that as it feels very thin story wise and film wise feels more like 3 separate films rather than 1 complete one and given how focused and fast paced the first two were this feels like a big step down, 1 out of 5.
Film Review - White House Down (2013)
White House Down stars Channing Tatum as Cale, a police officer who dreams of a job with the US Secret Service protecting the President (Jamie Foxx) who makes a vow to withdraw all US troops from the Middle East but during a tour of the White House with his young daughter, the place is attacked Die Hard style.
White House Down was for me, a very fun time at the movies, mainly due to some smart writing by James Vanderbilt and solid direction by Roland Emmerich who also made the Day After Tomorrow and 2012, Tomorrow I really enjoyed whilst 2012 was simply too silly for my liking though this film is a nice return to form for him.
And Vanderbilt's script is a big reason for that, it's a script that has it's quiet moments solidly written that made me think that this had been thought through to some extent whilst it's action scenes for the most part are completely silly and it's not afraid to embrace that fact which for me added to the enjoyment of the film and at times I was reminded a great deal of the first Die Hard film, especially during one scene with a Tank.
The film also has some very solid villains, for me a big big big requirement for the overall success of an action picture and this movie more than delivers on that front, notably James Woods and Jason Clarke who is excellent in this movie essentially playing the Alexander Godunov role from Die Hard (I don't want neutral, I want dead) and Woods well when I saw his name pop up I thought "This won't be good, he was the lord of the Underworld" a reference to his voice role as Hades in Disney's Hercules.
As for Tatum and Foxx well they make a pretty good duo but I would've preferred Chris Evans in Tatum's role as he embodies the all American Action Hero better than Tatum does plus Evans has more charisma and screen presence than Tatum does who is very bland here in this role though Foxx more than picks up the pace in that department and does very well as the President as does Michael Murphy, Richard Jenkins and Maggie Gyllenhall in their roles as well as Joey King who plays the daughter.
As for the film's action scenes well some of them are quite good while the film's hand to hand fight scenes are not, they're shot too close and edited too quickly so you lose track of who's who and where they are during some of them.
But sadly the action critically lacks the teeth of the post Die Hard action films it wants to be like as there is a fairly big body count piled up during this film and almost little to no blood is shown which I found hard to believe nor does it have the coarse language those films had much more of, there's some of it here but not as much as I would've liked given the kind of film it wants to be.
But this point sadly is not the film's fault but rather the US rating guidelines it has to work in, almost every big action picture has to have the PG-13 rating attached to it (the American version of our M rating) in order to bring in the biggest possible audience so that the film could bring in big box office numbers on it's opening weekend whereas if this film had indeed been made in the post Die Hard era where R rated action films were allowed to be made (some of which were rated M here in Australia, Die Hard being one of them) then this would've had the violence and language it needs to become a real winner as without those elements, the film gets a bit hollow at times and given how so much of this film works, its a real shame.
So all in all despite Tatum's blandness and some fairly hollow action in parts, White House Down is great fun due to smart writing and solid villains, well worth a look, 3 and a half out of 5.
White House Down was for me, a very fun time at the movies, mainly due to some smart writing by James Vanderbilt and solid direction by Roland Emmerich who also made the Day After Tomorrow and 2012, Tomorrow I really enjoyed whilst 2012 was simply too silly for my liking though this film is a nice return to form for him.
And Vanderbilt's script is a big reason for that, it's a script that has it's quiet moments solidly written that made me think that this had been thought through to some extent whilst it's action scenes for the most part are completely silly and it's not afraid to embrace that fact which for me added to the enjoyment of the film and at times I was reminded a great deal of the first Die Hard film, especially during one scene with a Tank.
The film also has some very solid villains, for me a big big big requirement for the overall success of an action picture and this movie more than delivers on that front, notably James Woods and Jason Clarke who is excellent in this movie essentially playing the Alexander Godunov role from Die Hard (I don't want neutral, I want dead) and Woods well when I saw his name pop up I thought "This won't be good, he was the lord of the Underworld" a reference to his voice role as Hades in Disney's Hercules.
As for Tatum and Foxx well they make a pretty good duo but I would've preferred Chris Evans in Tatum's role as he embodies the all American Action Hero better than Tatum does plus Evans has more charisma and screen presence than Tatum does who is very bland here in this role though Foxx more than picks up the pace in that department and does very well as the President as does Michael Murphy, Richard Jenkins and Maggie Gyllenhall in their roles as well as Joey King who plays the daughter.
As for the film's action scenes well some of them are quite good while the film's hand to hand fight scenes are not, they're shot too close and edited too quickly so you lose track of who's who and where they are during some of them.
But sadly the action critically lacks the teeth of the post Die Hard action films it wants to be like as there is a fairly big body count piled up during this film and almost little to no blood is shown which I found hard to believe nor does it have the coarse language those films had much more of, there's some of it here but not as much as I would've liked given the kind of film it wants to be.
But this point sadly is not the film's fault but rather the US rating guidelines it has to work in, almost every big action picture has to have the PG-13 rating attached to it (the American version of our M rating) in order to bring in the biggest possible audience so that the film could bring in big box office numbers on it's opening weekend whereas if this film had indeed been made in the post Die Hard era where R rated action films were allowed to be made (some of which were rated M here in Australia, Die Hard being one of them) then this would've had the violence and language it needs to become a real winner as without those elements, the film gets a bit hollow at times and given how so much of this film works, its a real shame.
So all in all despite Tatum's blandness and some fairly hollow action in parts, White House Down is great fun due to smart writing and solid villains, well worth a look, 3 and a half out of 5.
Thursday, August 22, 2013
Film Review - Kick Ass 2 (2013)
Continuing the story from the first Kick Ass film, this follow up sees Mindy aka Hit Girl (Chole Moretz) being grounded into a normal life by her step father but Kick Ass himself meanwhile (Aaron Johnson) finds himself teaming up with a new fighting force called Justice Forever headed by Colonel Stars and Stripes (Jim Carrey) and good timing too as a new enemy calling himself the Motherfucker is about to make a big impact in their lives.
I went into Kick Ass 2 with relatively optimistic expectations based around the fact that I really enjoyed the first film, I got from that what I wanted from Iron Man 2 that year which was a fun and exciting comic book film, did the sequel deliver the goods?
Sadly not as this film for me was a very unpleasant watch and the more I've thought about it the more I begin to really hate it for that reason, the violence here is just way too much and all of it is in pretty graphic detail, there were numerous times where I just had to close my eyes and look away from the screen as it was all just too much for me to bear.
I was also reminded of the style and tone of Robocop 2 in that like that film it's dark, nasty and violent purely because it can be but the first Kick Ass film like the first Robocop film filmed its violent moments in a way that wasn't off-putting or uncomfortable to watch whereas here it was just too much.
I also didn't really enjoy the more serious tone to the storyline as it just made the more comical elements from the first film feel very out of place and in that instance I thought of last year's Super with Rainn Wilson and Kevin Bacon which was basically a deranged lunatic putting on a costume and killing people with a wrench and like that film I didn't enjoy what I was seeing one bit.
And as for Carrey as the Colonel well he just phones it in something chronic and doesn't really end up doing an awful lot anyway though Moretz is just amazing and her performance anchors this film in a huge way and her scenes were the only time I was enjoying what I was watching.
And so to wrap it up, I did not enjoy Kick Ass 2, it was too dark, too nasty and too violent for me and I was wishing the film had an R18+ rating here in Australia because of that fact whereas the first film justified it's MA15+ rating whereas here it does not, rent the first film and ignore this one, 1 out of 5.
I went into Kick Ass 2 with relatively optimistic expectations based around the fact that I really enjoyed the first film, I got from that what I wanted from Iron Man 2 that year which was a fun and exciting comic book film, did the sequel deliver the goods?
Sadly not as this film for me was a very unpleasant watch and the more I've thought about it the more I begin to really hate it for that reason, the violence here is just way too much and all of it is in pretty graphic detail, there were numerous times where I just had to close my eyes and look away from the screen as it was all just too much for me to bear.
I was also reminded of the style and tone of Robocop 2 in that like that film it's dark, nasty and violent purely because it can be but the first Kick Ass film like the first Robocop film filmed its violent moments in a way that wasn't off-putting or uncomfortable to watch whereas here it was just too much.
I also didn't really enjoy the more serious tone to the storyline as it just made the more comical elements from the first film feel very out of place and in that instance I thought of last year's Super with Rainn Wilson and Kevin Bacon which was basically a deranged lunatic putting on a costume and killing people with a wrench and like that film I didn't enjoy what I was seeing one bit.
And as for Carrey as the Colonel well he just phones it in something chronic and doesn't really end up doing an awful lot anyway though Moretz is just amazing and her performance anchors this film in a huge way and her scenes were the only time I was enjoying what I was watching.
And so to wrap it up, I did not enjoy Kick Ass 2, it was too dark, too nasty and too violent for me and I was wishing the film had an R18+ rating here in Australia because of that fact whereas the first film justified it's MA15+ rating whereas here it does not, rent the first film and ignore this one, 1 out of 5.
Thursday, August 15, 2013
Film Review - Elysium (2013)
Elysium is the new film from the writer and director of District 9 Neil Blompkamp and the story here concerns the world's richest building a paradise space station in space to preserve their way of life from the ruins of the Earth, on this deserted world we meet Max (Matt Damon) a factory worker who may hold the key to mankind's salvation.
I went into Elysium with very mixed expectations as while I really enjoyed District 9, the previews for this film made me cringe in a very bad way, playing out like a bad class warfare of rich vs. poor in the future Ughh, give me a fucking break, I did however become more hopeful that this was simply bad advertising and that the film itself would deliver the goods, would this be the case?
Sadly not as quite frankly this movie was pathetic for reasons I will now list in more detail:
Firstly the tone of this movie is all over the place, parts of it play out as very serious, parts of it are very violent, parts of it play out as laughable and parts of it also border on being cartoonish, there is no real sense of a consistent tone to the film and its storyline which I found to be that heavy handed that I just sat there bored for the most part and walking out of the cinema with a long face thinking "This was from the same man that made District 9, pathetic"
The second point is the performances which again are all over the place, Alice Braga stands out as Frey but the rest are nowhere near as good, Damon is a bore in the lead and it made me think that anyone else could've done this part hell Idris Elba would've been a better fit which left me baffled the more I thought about it, Foster is simply wasted in her role and Copley goes so far over the top I just started laughing at him whenever he spoke, he reminded me a lot of those guest star MAD agents from Inspector Gadget like Presto Chango and The Clockmaker hell based on this performance Copley could've played the Clockmaker in an Inspector Gadget reboot.
But lastly this movie also fails at having exciting action sequences as all of them are filmed and edited in a way that makes you think it was all done in a blender as they are so frantic to watch that you lose track of who's fighting who in what space whenever this happens and as a result it severly weakens the film as a whole.
There were however two things I did like about this film aside from Braga's performance and that was the visual style and the musical score, the visuals in this film are very well done and make you believe that these worlds really exist and the music underscores the film's events nicely and lend some sort of life to them that otherwise doesn't exist.
And so it pains me to have to say this but Elysium is not worth your time and money, the film is all over the place in terms of its storyline, performances and action to be worth recommending and frankly, I expected something better than this from the man that made District 9 and as a result it's a real letdown, 1.5 out of 5.
I went into Elysium with very mixed expectations as while I really enjoyed District 9, the previews for this film made me cringe in a very bad way, playing out like a bad class warfare of rich vs. poor in the future Ughh, give me a fucking break, I did however become more hopeful that this was simply bad advertising and that the film itself would deliver the goods, would this be the case?
Sadly not as quite frankly this movie was pathetic for reasons I will now list in more detail:
Firstly the tone of this movie is all over the place, parts of it play out as very serious, parts of it are very violent, parts of it play out as laughable and parts of it also border on being cartoonish, there is no real sense of a consistent tone to the film and its storyline which I found to be that heavy handed that I just sat there bored for the most part and walking out of the cinema with a long face thinking "This was from the same man that made District 9, pathetic"
The second point is the performances which again are all over the place, Alice Braga stands out as Frey but the rest are nowhere near as good, Damon is a bore in the lead and it made me think that anyone else could've done this part hell Idris Elba would've been a better fit which left me baffled the more I thought about it, Foster is simply wasted in her role and Copley goes so far over the top I just started laughing at him whenever he spoke, he reminded me a lot of those guest star MAD agents from Inspector Gadget like Presto Chango and The Clockmaker hell based on this performance Copley could've played the Clockmaker in an Inspector Gadget reboot.
But lastly this movie also fails at having exciting action sequences as all of them are filmed and edited in a way that makes you think it was all done in a blender as they are so frantic to watch that you lose track of who's fighting who in what space whenever this happens and as a result it severly weakens the film as a whole.
There were however two things I did like about this film aside from Braga's performance and that was the visual style and the musical score, the visuals in this film are very well done and make you believe that these worlds really exist and the music underscores the film's events nicely and lend some sort of life to them that otherwise doesn't exist.
And so it pains me to have to say this but Elysium is not worth your time and money, the film is all over the place in terms of its storyline, performances and action to be worth recommending and frankly, I expected something better than this from the man that made District 9 and as a result it's a real letdown, 1.5 out of 5.
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
5 Years On, Do you ever think about the Future?
The latter part of that column title is a question that dates back to the first ticks of the clock, the first sands of the Hourglass and the first beeps on our Alarms each and every day and what Jack Nicholson asked in the first Batman film by Tim Burton.
Do you ever think about the Future?
Well myself personally, I have for the last few months as this month marks the 5th anniversary of my commencing reviewing movies and writing columns about them in ways such as fond remembrances and tributes to those who are no longer with us and that I was fond of.
And in that I have thought about the 5 years I've been doing this and also asking myself: Have you gotten any satisfaction from doing it, do you still enjoy doing it, does it still make you smile to be sitting in a cinema chair and enjoying the experience of the moment before the pre show starts?
Well it's been hard to say yes to that primarily due to the fact that I've felt like I've been going in circles doing it as very little for me seems to have changed since I started.
Well sort of, if anything it's been more of a case of one step forward, two steps back as in that time as I'll outline below:
The first and what has to be the most obvious for me is the fact that my local cinema has closed twice in the past 18 months, the first closure was in mid to late 2011 due to low business sales and lack of attendance which made me a little sad as it was at that time the easiest route for me to access new release films even if they came a good 3-6 months late for the most part.
Well it didn't stay closed for long as new ownership came in at the end of 2011 and gave it as much of a spit shine as they could, putting in a bigger screen, more speakers, a new projector less likely to break down and even going some way to put in new heating systems and new seats that actually had drink holders in them.
But this work was not completed as 2012 progressed and while there was a minor surge in attendance, there didn't seem to be a great deal of change in that front, the last film I saw there was Taken 2 which came at the same time as the rest of the country but only had a very small handful of people there at my session despite huge ticket sales elsewhere in the country.
Meanwhile, a part of me began to get very skeptical as to whether my newly refurbished cinema could succeed but people around me kept saying "Give it time and money and it will do okay" and at first I dismissed it but as the months rolled on I began to think "Maybe they're right, maybe once they get their hands on a digital projector then things will turn around" as during last year a lot of cinemas began converting to digital projection and as a result they got prints of films a lot quicker.
Plus the new James Bond film Skyfall was right around the corner and I was being reassured that it would come to my local, after all its Bond you'd have to be mad not to book it.
But on November 1st of 2012 that changed.
For what happened that day was that my local cinema closed for a 2nd time and it was the end, hold your tears and count to 10, feel the sadness and then, hear my heart break again for Skyfall was so so close and my excitement for the film had begin to build in a big way but alas I would have to travel to go and see the film.
What made things worse was that many people I knew were to see the film that day and for me this was the salt being rubbed in the wound in a big way which did not make me any happier I must admit.
Which brings us now to 2013 and the next three reasons I have thought about the future:
The first of these is the now required travelling to go and see new releases films which adds a 3 hours there and back again in order to get to my nearest cinema which can be both a blessing and a curse.
A blessing in that I can see a film in a nice-ish environment without any of the problems that plagued my local the entire time I went there but a curse in that it limits the time I can head to a film as the sessions have to be within an 11am-4pm slot which can sometimes turn out not to be the case.
The 2nd reason has been that this year's lineup of films has been pretty weak and up until the record breaking success of Iron Man 3 had not been particularly good at the box office, hell with the exception of Man of Steel it may be the only decent performer at the box office this year with most of the big films failing to catch on with audiences and the smaller stuff not getting much of a release into cinemas so most film goers don't get much of a chance to see them until their out on DVD.
Plus the third and final reason is that my local cinema now has no chance of coming back as a local church which shared the building bought it out for their own purposes, probably not as sad as when it closed but at the very least when it was refitted it gave me a chance to catch up with some new releases when I didn't particularly feel like travelling to go and see them as well as see some like Ben Affleck's Argo in a cinema one last time but that chance is gone now and there ain't much I can do about that.
As you can no doubt imagine, these reasons have had me thinking pretty long and hard about whether I want to continue reviewing films anymore given that there are now some pretty big hoops to jump through now to see new release movies.
But there are still a few months left of this year and some movies that I'm pretty excited about such as:
- Elysium: The new Sci-Fi flick from the director of District 9 which I still hope will be good despite some terrible previews for the film.
- Gravity: Another new Sci-Fi flick this time from Alfonso Curaron the director of Children of Men which I was not a big fan of but I'm still keen for this one.
- Thor the Dark World: The new Marvel film which looks promising somewhat from the preview I've seen but hopefully I will find it more enjoyable than I found Iron Man 3 and the first Thor movie.
- Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2: I really liked the first one and the preview for this one left me looking promised that this one would be good to, here's hoping it delivers the goods.
- And lastly the new Jack Ryan film directed by Kenneth Branagh and starring the new Captain Kirk Chris Pine who I think is a worthy successor to Alec Baldwin in the role of Dr. Ryan, I hope sincerely that he delivers the goods.
Those would probably be my top 5 heading towards the end of the year, will those be enough to guarantee a 6th anniversary from me in 12 months time or may I decide that after December enough is enough, I've done this now for 5 years and gone in circles as a result while others around me have had more success and until I myself can change the situation where I do have much easier access to new release films, well let me just say this Only Time will Tell.
Do you ever think about the Future?
Well myself personally, I have for the last few months as this month marks the 5th anniversary of my commencing reviewing movies and writing columns about them in ways such as fond remembrances and tributes to those who are no longer with us and that I was fond of.
And in that I have thought about the 5 years I've been doing this and also asking myself: Have you gotten any satisfaction from doing it, do you still enjoy doing it, does it still make you smile to be sitting in a cinema chair and enjoying the experience of the moment before the pre show starts?
Well it's been hard to say yes to that primarily due to the fact that I've felt like I've been going in circles doing it as very little for me seems to have changed since I started.
Well sort of, if anything it's been more of a case of one step forward, two steps back as in that time as I'll outline below:
The first and what has to be the most obvious for me is the fact that my local cinema has closed twice in the past 18 months, the first closure was in mid to late 2011 due to low business sales and lack of attendance which made me a little sad as it was at that time the easiest route for me to access new release films even if they came a good 3-6 months late for the most part.
Well it didn't stay closed for long as new ownership came in at the end of 2011 and gave it as much of a spit shine as they could, putting in a bigger screen, more speakers, a new projector less likely to break down and even going some way to put in new heating systems and new seats that actually had drink holders in them.
But this work was not completed as 2012 progressed and while there was a minor surge in attendance, there didn't seem to be a great deal of change in that front, the last film I saw there was Taken 2 which came at the same time as the rest of the country but only had a very small handful of people there at my session despite huge ticket sales elsewhere in the country.
Meanwhile, a part of me began to get very skeptical as to whether my newly refurbished cinema could succeed but people around me kept saying "Give it time and money and it will do okay" and at first I dismissed it but as the months rolled on I began to think "Maybe they're right, maybe once they get their hands on a digital projector then things will turn around" as during last year a lot of cinemas began converting to digital projection and as a result they got prints of films a lot quicker.
Plus the new James Bond film Skyfall was right around the corner and I was being reassured that it would come to my local, after all its Bond you'd have to be mad not to book it.
But on November 1st of 2012 that changed.
For what happened that day was that my local cinema closed for a 2nd time and it was the end, hold your tears and count to 10, feel the sadness and then, hear my heart break again for Skyfall was so so close and my excitement for the film had begin to build in a big way but alas I would have to travel to go and see the film.
What made things worse was that many people I knew were to see the film that day and for me this was the salt being rubbed in the wound in a big way which did not make me any happier I must admit.
Which brings us now to 2013 and the next three reasons I have thought about the future:
The first of these is the now required travelling to go and see new releases films which adds a 3 hours there and back again in order to get to my nearest cinema which can be both a blessing and a curse.
A blessing in that I can see a film in a nice-ish environment without any of the problems that plagued my local the entire time I went there but a curse in that it limits the time I can head to a film as the sessions have to be within an 11am-4pm slot which can sometimes turn out not to be the case.
The 2nd reason has been that this year's lineup of films has been pretty weak and up until the record breaking success of Iron Man 3 had not been particularly good at the box office, hell with the exception of Man of Steel it may be the only decent performer at the box office this year with most of the big films failing to catch on with audiences and the smaller stuff not getting much of a release into cinemas so most film goers don't get much of a chance to see them until their out on DVD.
Plus the third and final reason is that my local cinema now has no chance of coming back as a local church which shared the building bought it out for their own purposes, probably not as sad as when it closed but at the very least when it was refitted it gave me a chance to catch up with some new releases when I didn't particularly feel like travelling to go and see them as well as see some like Ben Affleck's Argo in a cinema one last time but that chance is gone now and there ain't much I can do about that.
As you can no doubt imagine, these reasons have had me thinking pretty long and hard about whether I want to continue reviewing films anymore given that there are now some pretty big hoops to jump through now to see new release movies.
But there are still a few months left of this year and some movies that I'm pretty excited about such as:
- Elysium: The new Sci-Fi flick from the director of District 9 which I still hope will be good despite some terrible previews for the film.
- Gravity: Another new Sci-Fi flick this time from Alfonso Curaron the director of Children of Men which I was not a big fan of but I'm still keen for this one.
- Thor the Dark World: The new Marvel film which looks promising somewhat from the preview I've seen but hopefully I will find it more enjoyable than I found Iron Man 3 and the first Thor movie.
- Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2: I really liked the first one and the preview for this one left me looking promised that this one would be good to, here's hoping it delivers the goods.
- And lastly the new Jack Ryan film directed by Kenneth Branagh and starring the new Captain Kirk Chris Pine who I think is a worthy successor to Alec Baldwin in the role of Dr. Ryan, I hope sincerely that he delivers the goods.
Those would probably be my top 5 heading towards the end of the year, will those be enough to guarantee a 6th anniversary from me in 12 months time or may I decide that after December enough is enough, I've done this now for 5 years and gone in circles as a result while others around me have had more success and until I myself can change the situation where I do have much easier access to new release films, well let me just say this Only Time will Tell.
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
Film Review - The World's End (2013)
I went into The World's End very excited for it having really loved Hot Fuzz from 2007, a film I hold to be very important to my film going life and despite some missteps from this trio (Edgar, Simon and Nick Frost) solo outings (Edgar's Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and Simon and Nick's Paul) I was very excited to see the band back together again on a new full length film, their efforts helping to redeem Steven Spielberg's Tintin adaptation from 2011 so could this deliver the goods?
Well it actually did just that thing as this is a very funny and well made British comedy, Pegg anchors the whole thing effortlessly and I was reminded a lot of Graham Chapman from the Monty Python days who had a similar ability to play both drama and comedy very well and Pegg has that ability as well, he also has excellent backup support from Martin Freeman, Rosamund Pike, Paddy Considine, Frost and Eddie Marsan, the 5 guys play off each other very well and Pike adapts to Wright's directorial style very well plus part of me also loved her saying "Crumbs" a lot as well.
As for Wright's work as director well like his other films it's sharply focused, well paced, is very fast and quick and everyone on board adapts to it very well in a way that parts of Scott Pilgrim did not and Pegg's writing is more focused this time and not as indulgent as Paul seemed to get at times plus it's just for me a real pleasure to see this group making new movies, the other time I feel this way is when Ben Affleck directs a new film though following Argo will be enormously difficult.
So all in all, The World's End is a lot of fun and is worth the time for both Comedy and Sci-Fi fans, 4 and a half out of 5.
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