Film Review - The A-Team (2010)

The A-Team is based on the hit TV series from the 1980's and stars Liam Neeson as Hannibal Smith, the leader of a small squad of men who are charged with killing an American general and disgraced from the service, but Hannibal is not one to go quietly without a plan.

I wasn't expecting much from this movie at all but I was intrigued as it starred Liam Neeson, one of my favourite actors but low and behold I actually had a good time with this time, director Joe Carnahan goes wild and woolly with his camerawork in the action scenes bringing to them a real style, but what anchors this movie is the four main leads, I mentioned Neeson who is also pretty good as Hannibal, there's also Bradley Cooper from The Hangover who does well with his role as does 'Rampage' Jackson a UFC fighter taking the Mr. T role but not quite succeeding with it but the standout here is Sharlto Copley from District 9, looking disturbingly like Michael Bay he plays Mad Murdoch and is pretty much as crazy as Bay, pulling off some insane helicopter moves.

All in all, it's a serviceable action picture that was better than I had expected, worth a 3 day rental fee so a 2 out of 5.

Film Review - How to Train your Dragon (2010)

How to Train your Dragon is the latest production from the animation arm of Dreamworks and concerns a island of Vikings who are trained to kill Dragons who attack their isle some parts of the year, but the son of one Viking voiced by Gerard Butler has other ideas.

Dragon is one of the highlights of the first third of 2010, which normally is full of forgettable pictures that studios don't want to deal with that much, Craig Ferguson steals the show in terms of the voice actor department as the teacher of the young Viking students, there are some impressive flying sequences and action scenes and surprisingly I was reminded of James Cameron's Avatar, in terms of how he begins to see the dragons and also of how events take shape at the end of the film.

All in all, this is not bad, kids and adults should find it enjoyable and Dreamworks Animation have made their first genuine hit, so a solid 3 out of 5.

Film Review - The Social Network (2010)

The Social Network is the latest film from director David Fincher and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin and concerns the origins of the hit social networking site Facebook as well as the ups and downs.

Now I know when I reviewed Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps that I said that that film was the last one of the year that I had any interest in, well I did have some interest in The Social Network even though it's released after that film, mainly due to the film's hype generated by the reviews from critics, most of which say that it was the film of the year.

But are they right: Well, Yes and No, for these reasons, for the first 2/3rds of the film's running time the movie is on top form, Sorkin's script churns out enough wit and social commentary to keep the viewer interested, this is backed up by Eisenberg's amazing performance as Mark Zuckerburg, the founder of Facebook, his timing is spit perfect and he comes across as a cross between Data from Star Trek The Next Generation and Gordon Gekko from Wall Street, a socially disconnected person who analyses everything and everyone around him and can do dangerous things with it when motivated, something that his partners should have seen right from the start as the signs were clearly there to see.

But unfortunately, the film has a pretty big failing and that is the last act, strangely enough this coincides with when they meet the character played by Justin Timberlake, from here I felt it turned into a replay of the first Wall Street film Oliver Stone made, with Zuckerburg turned into the Bud Fox character Charlie Sheen played in that film and JT as Gekko, the slick business man who takes to naive dreamer under his wing and leads him right down the garden path while manipulating him at the same time, to bolster that viewpoint Andrew Garfield's character also takes on the Martin Sheen role from that film, as the straight laced man who tries to point out to his friend that he's being manipulated, even if Zuckerburg tells him otherwise, which leads to a somewhat lacklustre conclusion to the film which is a pity as when this film was good, it was very good.

Overall, this is a pretty good film for the most part but the third act scrambles it, so a 4 out of 5 for The Social Network.

Film Review - Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010)

Prince of Persia is based on the video game of the same name and is also the latest blockbuster from veteran producer Jerry Bruckheimer, the story here is that there is a young boy from the streets (who's totally not Aladdin) who is adopted by a king as he shows great courage, but the prince played by Jake Gyllenhall soon finds himself on the adventure of a lifetime with a mystical princess played by Gemma Arterton.

To be honest, this movie sucked the big one, not as much as Robin Hood did but was a little better than Clash of the Titans, Gyllenhall is pretty much the best thing about the movie as he's pretty good in holding his own, however this film had no script at all, the battle scenes were pretty much the same as the game that inspired this movie and Arterton was a little too much like Carrie Fisher in the first Star Wars.

But that's not all that this movie suffers from, it also suffers from a villain which pretty much makes you think "I'm the bad guy" the moment he's introduced and there's the return of our old friend the reset button, plus that time honoured tradition of a good and respectful actor making a complete idiot of himself for a few dollars more, ah the little things in life.

So overall as I said, this movie sucks and isn't worth your time, hopefully Toy Story 3 can redeem the blockbuster season before Twilight sucks out it's audience, but please don't see this I mean it's only got a 1 out of 5 and you wouldn't see a movie rated only that high right.

Right?

Film Review - Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010)

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps is the sequel to the popular 1987 film from Oliver Stone, who also directs this movie, the story this time is that Gordon Gekko played by Michael Douglas is now out of jail and wants back in on the game of financial trading, and Jake Moore played by Shia LaBeouf may just be the key to do just that.

Before I give you my overall thoughts I'm going to regal you with a tale of woe, I had really been looking forward to this movie and it was the last of the year that held my interest and as the release date approached I got excited and was anticipating my chance to get to my cinema to see it, sadly the powers that be conspired against me and the afternoon session I desired slipped through my fingers, making me VERY unhappy but I held out hope that this was only for the first week but as the second rolled around again my hopes were dashed, but after that second week the film stopped playing, and my anger grew big time but as fate would have it, I was thrown a bone and a session fell into my lap.

4 long weeks after the film's national release.

And with that, I now have seen the film and you're probably asking "how was it"; well sad to say that it's not terrible, mainly because of Douglas himself, he inhabits Gordon Gekko in the same way that James Earl Jones is the true voice of Darth Vader, sadly outside of him the film is predictable and at times fairly dull to watch, mainly because both of the family and finance stories don't mesh, in the first film the family story and the financial story meshed together into a cohesive whole, here that doesn't happen.

Another big problem is that unlike the first film, there is the lack of a strong villain, again in Wall Street 1 there was the Terence Stamp character as well as Gordon to rally behind, here Josh Brolin is fairly weak as is Shia, the centre of the film again just as Michael Cera was in Scott Pilgrim, he's a dead weight.

Overall, this is not a terrible sequel but it feels perfunctory and frankly, not worth your time and believe me, after waiting 4 long weeks to see it, I write it with a heavy heart, only a 2 out of 5 overall, money may never sleep but sometimes, people do.

Film Review - Rocky V (1990)

Rocky V is the fifth entry in the series and this time Rocky Balboa returns from Russia to find out his money is gone and his brain is damaged, with that he retires and reopens Mickey's old gym, but waiting for him there is a hungry young fighter named Tommy Gunn and a scrupulous Don King type promoter named George Washington Duke.

This movie, in all honesty is nothing but a complete and total disaster, everything here feels completely forced and while it wants to return to the heartfelt roots of the first two movies, heart is what's missing from this film and the Rocky series always ALWAYS works best when it has heart, personal drive and determination at its centre.

And that was in all of the previous four movies, in the first film the drive was for Rocky to escape his down and out life in the slums of Philadelphia, stand up and say "I am" with a proud standing within himself, in Rocky II it was the realisation that boxing is the only thing that gives his life meaning and that he cannot deny it any longer no matter how hard he tries, Rocky III the realisation that he's lost the "eye of the tiger" his edge and that he can only get it back from an old enemy and in Rocky IV it was doing it all for a friend.

But do we get any of that inspiration that makes those films work, no we don't, instead we get a hockey family melodrama and a pitiful attempt to close off the series which also failed even at those tasks.

In the end, skip this chapter as it's by far the worst of the series, heck even Stallone himself has since disowned this entry in the series and hey I can't blame him so points for that but again, don't watch this movie 0 out of 5.

Film Review - Rocky IV (1985)

Rocky IV is the fourth in the series starring Sylvester Stallone as Rocky, the Philadelphian Boxing Champion who this time faces off against Ivan Drago, a Russian boxer played by Dolph Lundgren, but after seeing Drago kill Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) in the ring, the Italian Stallion wants to make this fight not only personal but also East vs. West.

You know, I actually had a lot of fun watching this movie, Stallone and the regulars are good as always but what struck me most here is the energy, the Rocky movies have always worked best when they have that energy and personal drive at their centre and here it's on show, despite the fact it feels like one of those movies where an action taken by a central character would avoid the main events but then again you wouldn't have a movie if that had actually happened now would you.

But hey, I ain't complaining about that as this was a fun and entertaining movie that was an improvement on Rocky III but not as good as Rocky II so a 3 out of 5.