The Legend of Tarzan tells the tale of Tarzan (Alexander Skarsgard) and his lady Jane (Margot Robbie) returning to Africa to prevent the envoy of his Majesty of Belgium Elon Rom (Christoph Waltz) from finding the diamond mine and wiping out the natives in the process but they're not going alone as they'll have an American doctor (Samuel L Jackson) to help them.
I hated this movie there I said it for three key reasons:
- Firstly the storyline for this film is just a mess and the more I watched of the film the more I thought that I'm watching a sequel to a film that really doesn't exist save for in the flashback scenes and those scenes when they came on I thought to myself "Why isn't that the movie I'm watching right now" as that would've been about Tarzan King of the Jungle Lord of the Apes swinging through the Jungle, meeting the lady Jane and learning about his past before his parents were killed instead the story we get is boring and I didn't care for any of it.
- Secondly the cast is almost completely wasted, Skarsgard sounds a lot like his father Stellan (Captain Tupolov of the SS Konavalov) but all he does is stare a lot and run around with his shirt off, Jackson plays a very poor comic relief and Robbie is wasted as Jane and like seeing Rebecca Hall wasted in a film it is not a sight I enjoy one bit and as for Djimon Hounsou as one of the tribal kings well he may as well have not bothered to show up as he barely does anything for fucks sake.
- And thirdly Waltz is a really poor villain as all he does is the usual Christoph Waltz schtick that works when Quentin Tarantino has his hands on him but hasn't worked since but then again this was also the same bozo who took the chief inspiration for Dr. Claw from Inspector Gadget and turned him into a Buffoon but hopefully Waltz can get back on form soon.
I will say however in the films defense that there are some nice moments regarding a Wilderbeest Stampede (it did however make me think of the Lion King) and Tarzan actually being Tarzan and thinking about that last point just makes this whole sorry affair really feel like a missed opportunity.
And so that was Tarzan for me one of the year's worst films along with Warcraft, the 5th Wave, Angry Birds and the Revenant, 1 out of 5.
Thursday, July 21, 2016
Film Review - Hunt for the Wilder People (2016)
Hunt for the Wilder People is directed by Taika Waititi and stars Julian Dennison as Ricky a young orphan who is sent to live on a Farm in Remote NZ but after the death of his foster mother runs away to live in the woods which causes his foster father (Sam Neill) and the authorities to go and look for him.
Hunt for the Wilder People is good fun with plenty of great laughs to be had, I have to say that I laughed more in this than I did in Ghostbusters but that is the better film, Dennison and Neill play off each other very well and like in Lord of the Rings the New Zealand countryside looks great.
But apart from that I wasn't all that with this film don't get me wrong I liked it and laughed a lot and think that the Skux Life will eventually choose us all but it wasn't a film that really kinda stuck in the memory for me so consider this one a very short and sweet review and a 2 and a half out of 5.
Hunt for the Wilder People is good fun with plenty of great laughs to be had, I have to say that I laughed more in this than I did in Ghostbusters but that is the better film, Dennison and Neill play off each other very well and like in Lord of the Rings the New Zealand countryside looks great.
But apart from that I wasn't all that with this film don't get me wrong I liked it and laughed a lot and think that the Skux Life will eventually choose us all but it wasn't a film that really kinda stuck in the memory for me so consider this one a very short and sweet review and a 2 and a half out of 5.
Film Review - Ghostbusters (2016)
Ghostbusters is a reboot directed by Paul Feig and stars Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones as the new team of Ghostbusters who must stop a paranormal threat to their city of New York.
Part of me was dreading going to see this film primarily because A) The previews for the film were utterly utterly utterly dreadful and B) The Polar Vortex of Bitterness and Hatred that was just so unfairly dumped on not only this film but also Ms Jones who only did what any other actress would've done in her place and that is sign up for a big film like this one.
Well I am so very happy to say that the film is good fun, it's not a great film like the original 1984 film is but it is one you will be glad you went and saw as I certainly am and coming out of it I felt angry frankly that the film copped so much hatred as it's really only just a film but these people don't want change they just want things to be as they remember them as we saw with the Force Awakens last year and if you do do anything different like this or Batman V Superman or X-Men Apocalypse did well you get punished and that I think is just very very unfair.
But back to the film and first off the girls play off each other very well and Feig is happy to let them riff with each other when they get to do so before cracking the whip to keep them on track, McCarthy and Wiig I thought had really great chemistry while McKinnon and Jones weren't as effective, Jones in particular was sadly (very sadly) the weakest of the group, I like the street smart Hustler character she plays but after films like Creed and Straight Outta Compton I'd like to see the loud black person stereotype put on a dusty shelf to gather dust for all eternity.
Secondly the visual effects are great with all the ghosts and proton pack firings it definitely put a smile on my face while watching it especially when the girls lit em up that made me a very happy boy cause it said to me "They're Ghostbusters." and that gives me such joy when I think about that.
Sadly there are 2 big problems with this film:
- First of those is the storyline, frankly it's not that great for while it's a reboot of the series it also wants to have its Hot Dog and eat it too by playing with the iconography of the original film and I felt that it either should've been a clean reboot or a continuation with the 3 remaining original members passing the torch to the new team and had either of those happened I think it would've been a stronger film.
- Secondly the villain was pathetic frankly he was a tiny little Smeghead with delusions of grandeur and not that different than all of the post Loki Marvel villains that Earth's Mightiest Heroes could squash in 2 minutes, a good villain like Dickless in the original film could've been a great asset I mean you can't just cast Charles Dance and then have him do sweet fuck all I mean seriously.
And so that was Ghostbusters and it's good fun but it's not a great film like the original film but still this is worth a watch if you get the chance, 3 out of 5.
Part of me was dreading going to see this film primarily because A) The previews for the film were utterly utterly utterly dreadful and B) The Polar Vortex of Bitterness and Hatred that was just so unfairly dumped on not only this film but also Ms Jones who only did what any other actress would've done in her place and that is sign up for a big film like this one.
Well I am so very happy to say that the film is good fun, it's not a great film like the original 1984 film is but it is one you will be glad you went and saw as I certainly am and coming out of it I felt angry frankly that the film copped so much hatred as it's really only just a film but these people don't want change they just want things to be as they remember them as we saw with the Force Awakens last year and if you do do anything different like this or Batman V Superman or X-Men Apocalypse did well you get punished and that I think is just very very unfair.
But back to the film and first off the girls play off each other very well and Feig is happy to let them riff with each other when they get to do so before cracking the whip to keep them on track, McCarthy and Wiig I thought had really great chemistry while McKinnon and Jones weren't as effective, Jones in particular was sadly (very sadly) the weakest of the group, I like the street smart Hustler character she plays but after films like Creed and Straight Outta Compton I'd like to see the loud black person stereotype put on a dusty shelf to gather dust for all eternity.
Secondly the visual effects are great with all the ghosts and proton pack firings it definitely put a smile on my face while watching it especially when the girls lit em up that made me a very happy boy cause it said to me "They're Ghostbusters." and that gives me such joy when I think about that.
Sadly there are 2 big problems with this film:
- First of those is the storyline, frankly it's not that great for while it's a reboot of the series it also wants to have its Hot Dog and eat it too by playing with the iconography of the original film and I felt that it either should've been a clean reboot or a continuation with the 3 remaining original members passing the torch to the new team and had either of those happened I think it would've been a stronger film.
- Secondly the villain was pathetic frankly he was a tiny little Smeghead with delusions of grandeur and not that different than all of the post Loki Marvel villains that Earth's Mightiest Heroes could squash in 2 minutes, a good villain like Dickless in the original film could've been a great asset I mean you can't just cast Charles Dance and then have him do sweet fuck all I mean seriously.
And so that was Ghostbusters and it's good fun but it's not a great film like the original film but still this is worth a watch if you get the chance, 3 out of 5.
Sunday, July 17, 2016
The 2016 Halftime Report
Hard to believe but half of 2016 is already over and with that it is time to sound the half time siren and assess the year so far.
Unfortunately I have to say that the year so far in movies has not been that good, don't get me wrong it has not in any way at all been a bad year in film not at all but it has also been so bland and so blaze and so bleh that with 1 or 2 exceptions so little has stood out for me, those being X-Men Apocalypse and the Hateful Eight.
And I can't help but feel that this has been building under the cinematic fog that fell over me in the last 3 months of last year (the September to December quarter) which is also the period where Oddball dominated to such a degree that it left a very large shadow over the other new release films (some of which I did like such as the Martian, the Intern and Miss You Already) that it kinda made them all feel all the same in terms of their tone and look (nice, soft, middle of the road, crowd pleasing and not too far out there on the edge.)
And all of that built to such a degree where I just wanted to tear my hair out to the point where I became Bald Charles Xavier style that I just thought to myself "That's It after I've seen the Force Awakens I am taking a break from new releases" though that would change somewhat as Joy and the Good Dinosaur beckoned as well.
But enough about that as I wanted to make the point more clearly that that shadow finally lifting in January has only really revealed a dry depleted desert of a cinema going landscape where it all feels the same and nothing really sort of stands out and for me I just don't like that as I want those darker and more serious films to go to as I enjoy going to those the most.
All of that aside there is still half a year left to go on the cinema going front and a lot can happen in that time so things could turn around, it might turn out to be a faint hope but after the last 9 months I have to hope that things will get better.
Unfortunately I have to say that the year so far in movies has not been that good, don't get me wrong it has not in any way at all been a bad year in film not at all but it has also been so bland and so blaze and so bleh that with 1 or 2 exceptions so little has stood out for me, those being X-Men Apocalypse and the Hateful Eight.
And I can't help but feel that this has been building under the cinematic fog that fell over me in the last 3 months of last year (the September to December quarter) which is also the period where Oddball dominated to such a degree that it left a very large shadow over the other new release films (some of which I did like such as the Martian, the Intern and Miss You Already) that it kinda made them all feel all the same in terms of their tone and look (nice, soft, middle of the road, crowd pleasing and not too far out there on the edge.)
And all of that built to such a degree where I just wanted to tear my hair out to the point where I became Bald Charles Xavier style that I just thought to myself "That's It after I've seen the Force Awakens I am taking a break from new releases" though that would change somewhat as Joy and the Good Dinosaur beckoned as well.
But enough about that as I wanted to make the point more clearly that that shadow finally lifting in January has only really revealed a dry depleted desert of a cinema going landscape where it all feels the same and nothing really sort of stands out and for me I just don't like that as I want those darker and more serious films to go to as I enjoy going to those the most.
All of that aside there is still half a year left to go on the cinema going front and a lot can happen in that time so things could turn around, it might turn out to be a faint hope but after the last 9 months I have to hope that things will get better.
Saturday, July 16, 2016
Us Lucky Punks: Revisiting Dirty Harry
Not content with revisiting Blade Runner I also became inspired to rewatch 1971's Dirty Harry which made Clint Eastwood into a superstar and set the standard for virtually every single Cop related film and TV show that followed.
This is a film that I have a very vivid memory of watching for the first time I hired it in 2008 from my local Video Store and was genuinely knocked out by it though back then what struck me the most was Clint Eastwood's performance in the film, he just held the screen whenever he was on with his striking and no nonsense appearance and it absolutely inspired me to track down as many films of his as possible.
But that was then and this is now and re watching it again a couple of weeks ago brought back the very same reaction I had when I first watched it and along with Eastwood there were 2 other factors that struck to my mind when I watched it.
- The first of these is Don Siegel's direction and it is simply the work of a master, he wastes no time getting to the heart of the story (the film immediately opens with Scorpio's first kill) and making the absolute use of every scene in the film, no scene and no frame feels wasted and the film has this feeling of being air tight and extremely tense especially as the confrontation between Harry and Scorpio comes ever so closer and Harry races against time to find Ann Marie Deakin before she suffocates to death.
What Siegel also brings to the film is a sense of the contemporary, this was a new hero for a new time the early 70s which saw the world enter a very contentious time (the end of the Vietnam War, the Watergate Scandal, the Whitlam Years and the Escobar and Miranda Decisions regarding the rights of criminals) and Inspector Callahan suit the time perfectly with his no nonsense heroics and sense of the righteous cause where all that mattered to him was the safety and security from the evil of San Francisco an evil that he knows all too well can strike at any time and without warning.
There's also an interesting parallel between Harry Callahan and James Bond as 1971 also saw the release of Diamonds are Forever which began the transition to the much more light hearted tone of the Roger Moore period in that franchise and while the 007 films of the 60s embodied the free love, promiscuous, high class and clear good guys and bad guys feelings of that decade Callahan is much more of a working class hero with shades of grey as well as being a much more rigid and take control type of hero.
- The second one was Andrew Robinson's performance as Scorpio and the dynamic between him and Harry is a fascinating one because in some ways it resembles the dynamic between Batman and the Joker, one is very stoic and soft spoken while the other is chaotic with a capital C and they complement each other rather well I think.
Another thing is that Scorpio simply has no regard for anyone no matter their age, gender or race as far as he's concerned they're simply the next target in his sights and he'll kill them without any hesitation but if you pin him down he'll use the system against you and that makes him dangerous and as a result you sit there watching it thinking "Somebody please get rid of this guy."
Thinking about this film also made me think of the films inevitable sequels that followed and how each of them just simply never measured up to the original film and I think the absence of both Siegel's direction and a strong villain in Robinson very much hurt the series going forward and as far as I'm concerned without a strong adversary to challenge the heroes whether they carry a badge or be Earth's Mightiest Heroes in the Avengers I just don't care whether the hero survives or not it's just become that simple for me now.
And so that was my revisit of Dirty Harry discussed, I hope you all enjoyed reading it.
This is a film that I have a very vivid memory of watching for the first time I hired it in 2008 from my local Video Store and was genuinely knocked out by it though back then what struck me the most was Clint Eastwood's performance in the film, he just held the screen whenever he was on with his striking and no nonsense appearance and it absolutely inspired me to track down as many films of his as possible.
But that was then and this is now and re watching it again a couple of weeks ago brought back the very same reaction I had when I first watched it and along with Eastwood there were 2 other factors that struck to my mind when I watched it.
- The first of these is Don Siegel's direction and it is simply the work of a master, he wastes no time getting to the heart of the story (the film immediately opens with Scorpio's first kill) and making the absolute use of every scene in the film, no scene and no frame feels wasted and the film has this feeling of being air tight and extremely tense especially as the confrontation between Harry and Scorpio comes ever so closer and Harry races against time to find Ann Marie Deakin before she suffocates to death.
What Siegel also brings to the film is a sense of the contemporary, this was a new hero for a new time the early 70s which saw the world enter a very contentious time (the end of the Vietnam War, the Watergate Scandal, the Whitlam Years and the Escobar and Miranda Decisions regarding the rights of criminals) and Inspector Callahan suit the time perfectly with his no nonsense heroics and sense of the righteous cause where all that mattered to him was the safety and security from the evil of San Francisco an evil that he knows all too well can strike at any time and without warning.
There's also an interesting parallel between Harry Callahan and James Bond as 1971 also saw the release of Diamonds are Forever which began the transition to the much more light hearted tone of the Roger Moore period in that franchise and while the 007 films of the 60s embodied the free love, promiscuous, high class and clear good guys and bad guys feelings of that decade Callahan is much more of a working class hero with shades of grey as well as being a much more rigid and take control type of hero.
- The second one was Andrew Robinson's performance as Scorpio and the dynamic between him and Harry is a fascinating one because in some ways it resembles the dynamic between Batman and the Joker, one is very stoic and soft spoken while the other is chaotic with a capital C and they complement each other rather well I think.
Another thing is that Scorpio simply has no regard for anyone no matter their age, gender or race as far as he's concerned they're simply the next target in his sights and he'll kill them without any hesitation but if you pin him down he'll use the system against you and that makes him dangerous and as a result you sit there watching it thinking "Somebody please get rid of this guy."
Thinking about this film also made me think of the films inevitable sequels that followed and how each of them just simply never measured up to the original film and I think the absence of both Siegel's direction and a strong villain in Robinson very much hurt the series going forward and as far as I'm concerned without a strong adversary to challenge the heroes whether they carry a badge or be Earth's Mightiest Heroes in the Avengers I just don't care whether the hero survives or not it's just become that simple for me now.
And so that was my revisit of Dirty Harry discussed, I hope you all enjoyed reading it.
Monday, July 11, 2016
On the Air Season 3 Episode 8: Just Keep Swimming, Just Keep Fighting
Well folks here is my latest Radio episode where I talk about:
- Finding Dory
- Warcraft
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Out of the Shadows
- Me Before You
As always you can listen to it here: https://soundcloud.com/abclocalradio_sa/friday-flicks-june-24-2016
- Finding Dory
- Warcraft
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Out of the Shadows
- Me Before You
As always you can listen to it here: https://soundcloud.com/abclocalradio_sa/friday-flicks-june-24-2016
Thursday, June 30, 2016
Film Review - The BFG (2016)
The BFG is based off of the Roald Dahl book and is directed by Steven Spielberg and written by the late Mellisa Mathison who also wrote ET in 1982, the story here concerns Sophie (Ruby Barnhill) who is whisked away to Giant Country by a Big Giant (Mark Rylance) but could this Giant be Friendly or Enemy?
I've been something of a Steven Spielberg agnostic for a number of years now, I just can't help but feel that he peaked somewhat after that group of films consisting of Jaws, Close Encounters, Raiders of the Lost Ark and ET there were some bright spots along the way like Jurassic Park but most of the films he's made since haven't really done much for me so I went into this film somewhat apprehensive.
To my surprise I actually thought this film was pretty good I went along with it, the music by John Williams was really good one of the better scores he's made in the last little while, the look of the film and the visual effects were very nice and Spielberg's own direction felt very alive and fast paced the kind we used to see from him in those films like Jaws and Raiders of the Lost Ark.
And also Rylance was great as the BFG and thinking about him in the role it's hard to imagine anyone else playing that character now but all of this was in the first two thirds of the film as the last third sadly went a little off the rails and got a little too silly for my liking and also it became a waste of Rebecca Hall who I love as an actress and was so good in the Gift last year, how sad to see her in such a nothing role in this film.
And so that was the BFG a great first two thirds is undermined by a silly 3rd act but still it is worth a watch, 3 out of 5.
I've been something of a Steven Spielberg agnostic for a number of years now, I just can't help but feel that he peaked somewhat after that group of films consisting of Jaws, Close Encounters, Raiders of the Lost Ark and ET there were some bright spots along the way like Jurassic Park but most of the films he's made since haven't really done much for me so I went into this film somewhat apprehensive.
To my surprise I actually thought this film was pretty good I went along with it, the music by John Williams was really good one of the better scores he's made in the last little while, the look of the film and the visual effects were very nice and Spielberg's own direction felt very alive and fast paced the kind we used to see from him in those films like Jaws and Raiders of the Lost Ark.
And also Rylance was great as the BFG and thinking about him in the role it's hard to imagine anyone else playing that character now but all of this was in the first two thirds of the film as the last third sadly went a little off the rails and got a little too silly for my liking and also it became a waste of Rebecca Hall who I love as an actress and was so good in the Gift last year, how sad to see her in such a nothing role in this film.
And so that was the BFG a great first two thirds is undermined by a silly 3rd act but still it is worth a watch, 3 out of 5.
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