Batman the Killing Joke is based off of the graphic novel written by Alan Moore and sees Batman (Kevin Conroy) once more on the hunt for the Joker (Mark Hamill) who has kidnapped Commissioner Gordon as he attempts to make him think "Why So Serious?"
The Killing Joke gets off to a rather slow start with a short film focused on Bat Girl (Tara Strong) that really only exists to flesh out the character and has one scene in particular that made me go "Okay what the hell" when you see it you'll know but once the main storyline gets into gear the film finds its stride.
And that stride comes in the form of Hamill himself who absolutely slays as the Joker this time and like the late great Heath Ledger in the Dark Knight (and watching this film I could see where Christopher Nolan and Co got some of their inspiration from for that film) every time he's on screen you just sit there gripped to the seat unable to look away for even a micro second and his "Looney Song" is just fantastic in both a smile inducing and creepy way.
One other thing came to mind when I finished watching this film was how much it felt like (at least to me) that it honoured DC's Graphic Novel legacy in a way that the live action films sadly seem to be turning more and more away from and no doubt this has come as a result of the response to Batman V Superman back in March which was very dark like a DC Graphic Novel would be but it didn't work for an audience more use to the fun and fancy free tone of the Marvel Studios films and as a result the DCU seems to be walking away from its legacy and that makes me a little sad.
And also hearing Hamill in this film also highlighted just how utterly pathetic and deeply disappointing Jared Leto was in Suicide Squad, how could they do that to the Clown Prince of Crime it just makes me really really mad.
And so that was Batman the Killing Joke save for the kinda weak and slow start once the main storyline gets into gear it becomes very entertaining, 3 out of 5.
Wednesday, August 31, 2016
Wednesday, August 24, 2016
Film Review - Hitchcock/Truffaut (2016)
Hitchcock/Truffaut is a documentary based around a series of interviews conducted over a week in 1962 between Alfred Hitchcock and Francois Truffaut though the doco also contains comments from some of our own master filmmakers like Martin Scorsese and David Fincher among others.
This doco was fantastic truly terrific stuff though it does get off to a bit of a slow start but when it gets to just the 2 men talking about their craft it becomes probably the greatest master class on cinema that any film lover could ever dream of to the point where you become tempted to get out a book and start writing down everything they're saying in the hope that you will learn something out of it all.
One thing I picked up the most from this doco was a line of Hitch's that he wrote in a letter to Truffaut saying that perhaps he should have taken more risks with his work and experimented a bit more with his art form which was so precise and carefully crafted yet came with a deep understanding of his audience and that resonated with me given how this year in movies in particular has played out where more and more filmmakers if they spend a big budget don't really get to do much with their medium instead they just follow orders.
And one only has to see the new Fantastic Four or Suicide Squad to see where that can lead it rarely ends well and even if a filmmaker does get to experiment like Dr George Miller did with Mad Max Fury Road last year or Edgar Wright did with Scott Pilgrim vs. The World there's no guarantee that audiences will jump on board en masse so it can be a bit of a double edged sword sometimes.
And so that was Hitchcock/Truffaut a great doco and one of my fav film watching experiences of the year, 4 and a half out of 5.
This doco was fantastic truly terrific stuff though it does get off to a bit of a slow start but when it gets to just the 2 men talking about their craft it becomes probably the greatest master class on cinema that any film lover could ever dream of to the point where you become tempted to get out a book and start writing down everything they're saying in the hope that you will learn something out of it all.
One thing I picked up the most from this doco was a line of Hitch's that he wrote in a letter to Truffaut saying that perhaps he should have taken more risks with his work and experimented a bit more with his art form which was so precise and carefully crafted yet came with a deep understanding of his audience and that resonated with me given how this year in movies in particular has played out where more and more filmmakers if they spend a big budget don't really get to do much with their medium instead they just follow orders.
And one only has to see the new Fantastic Four or Suicide Squad to see where that can lead it rarely ends well and even if a filmmaker does get to experiment like Dr George Miller did with Mad Max Fury Road last year or Edgar Wright did with Scott Pilgrim vs. The World there's no guarantee that audiences will jump on board en masse so it can be a bit of a double edged sword sometimes.
And so that was Hitchcock/Truffaut a great doco and one of my fav film watching experiences of the year, 4 and a half out of 5.
Monday, August 22, 2016
Film Review - Green Room (2016)
Green Room is written and directed by Jeremy Saulnier and stars the late Anton Yelchin as Pat the head of a band called the Ain't Rights who are facing the end of their tour when a gig comes their way at a secluded club owned by Darcy (Patrick Stewart) and Darcy has very dark secrets in his club that he will do anything to protect.
Green Room is simply terrific and very genuinely one of the years finest crafted films for these three key reasons:
- First is Saulnier's direction it is truly fantastic to watch just from a craftsman point of view, the film is only 96 minutes long but he makes the absolute most of every moment he puts on screen, nothing feels flabby or wasted but instead air tight and sharply paced, I hope sincerely to see more of him in the director's chair soon.
Another person deserving praise is Sean Porter who was the cinematographer on the film and the mood he creates with that bar with the deep greens and black blacks and beer coloured yellows its almost as if you can feel the piss and vinegar and vomit stains on the wall and the empty glasses on the bar with beer foam still inside, just great world building here.
- Secondly the action in the film is properly violent and bloody and as someone who is so utterly sick to death of seeing toothless and bloodless action in the action films released these days it like Hardcore Henry was very refreshing to see some real blood in the action scenes.
- And lastly the performances are all very good, it is so sad to be watching this after Yelchin sadly passed away and this film shows that he still had so much more to give us as an actor and that it's just so sad that he was taken from us so soon in his life and Stewart is a truly fantastic villain he doesn't do much but his sheer presence reminds us constantly that this guy means business and he'll do whatever it takes to protect his livelihood and again he is just fantastic to watch here.
And that was Green Room which joins Eddie the Eagle and X-Men Apocalypse as one of my top films of the year so far, 4 out of 5.
Green Room is simply terrific and very genuinely one of the years finest crafted films for these three key reasons:
- First is Saulnier's direction it is truly fantastic to watch just from a craftsman point of view, the film is only 96 minutes long but he makes the absolute most of every moment he puts on screen, nothing feels flabby or wasted but instead air tight and sharply paced, I hope sincerely to see more of him in the director's chair soon.
Another person deserving praise is Sean Porter who was the cinematographer on the film and the mood he creates with that bar with the deep greens and black blacks and beer coloured yellows its almost as if you can feel the piss and vinegar and vomit stains on the wall and the empty glasses on the bar with beer foam still inside, just great world building here.
- Secondly the action in the film is properly violent and bloody and as someone who is so utterly sick to death of seeing toothless and bloodless action in the action films released these days it like Hardcore Henry was very refreshing to see some real blood in the action scenes.
- And lastly the performances are all very good, it is so sad to be watching this after Yelchin sadly passed away and this film shows that he still had so much more to give us as an actor and that it's just so sad that he was taken from us so soon in his life and Stewart is a truly fantastic villain he doesn't do much but his sheer presence reminds us constantly that this guy means business and he'll do whatever it takes to protect his livelihood and again he is just fantastic to watch here.
And that was Green Room which joins Eddie the Eagle and X-Men Apocalypse as one of my top films of the year so far, 4 out of 5.
Film Review - Kubo and the Two Strings (2016)
Kubo and the Two Strings is the latest Laika animated production and tells the tale of Kubo (Art Parkinson) who is a young boy who is tasked with finding an ancient battle suit in the hope that it will help him and his mother live freely from an evil sorcerer (Ralph Fiennes.)
Kubo is beautifully animated truly beautiful with its use of stop motion animation just to look at this film is a true delight, the waves, the lights, the landscapes, the action all of it is just impeccably put together and Charlize Theron is great in the film as well playing a bad ass Monkey with a real attitude problem.
Sadly however the films storyline just didn't do much for me and all throughout the film I just struggled to get all that engaged with it and primarily because I felt it got pretty predictable with its story and character arcs in a way that I kinda began to figure out what was going to happen ahead of time and given that this film is meant to be about the power of storytelling and how it impacts our lives as well as the lives of those around us it feels a little disappointing that the film falls short in this key area.
That said some older kids 7 to 12 will enjoy this film but that would be about it I feel (saw a couple of young kids in my session and they did squirm a little bit) but for me personally it was just okay, another meh film in what has been a very meh year for movies in general, 2 out of 5.
Kubo is beautifully animated truly beautiful with its use of stop motion animation just to look at this film is a true delight, the waves, the lights, the landscapes, the action all of it is just impeccably put together and Charlize Theron is great in the film as well playing a bad ass Monkey with a real attitude problem.
Sadly however the films storyline just didn't do much for me and all throughout the film I just struggled to get all that engaged with it and primarily because I felt it got pretty predictable with its story and character arcs in a way that I kinda began to figure out what was going to happen ahead of time and given that this film is meant to be about the power of storytelling and how it impacts our lives as well as the lives of those around us it feels a little disappointing that the film falls short in this key area.
That said some older kids 7 to 12 will enjoy this film but that would be about it I feel (saw a couple of young kids in my session and they did squirm a little bit) but for me personally it was just okay, another meh film in what has been a very meh year for movies in general, 2 out of 5.
Saturday, August 6, 2016
Film Review - Hardcore Henry (2016)
Hardcore Henry is a Russian production all in First Person Perspective as a man named Henry wakes up in a lab missing an arm and a leg but after his scientist wife pieces him back together a man named Akan attacks and kidnaps her forcing Henry to go and rescue her.
Now I was really excited to see this film as the preview for it was fucking exhilarating with its use of Don't Stop Me Now by Queen and the action scenes feeling really exciting but could the film itself actually deliver the goods?
Well no sadly as this movie is a big disappointment for me so much so that when it ended I thought to myself "Is That It?" but before I delve into that I want to talk about what I did like:
- First off the film looks terrific the First Person Perspective works a real treat and while watching it I thought to myself "This is as if someone took a VR Helmet and turned it into a movie camera to shoot a film" and it really felt that way at least for me and not once did I feel bored looking at the film from that technical perspective.
- And secondly the violence in the film just had me grinning from ear to ear as this is full on R rated violence with oodles of blood on screen and it is about fucking time too as I am so sick to death of all these big action films that just chicken out with their violence because they want that magical PG-13 rating that gives them the maximum bang for the buck and boy does it feel so fucking good to have some blood in a film again.
But where this film faulters majorly is in its storytelling frankly it's just a ripoff of Robocop from 1987 where you have the cybernetic guy, the evil villain, the big twist to it all and none of it really was that interesting for me and the use of Don't Stop Me Now in the film itself was immensely disappointing but that's all I'll say on that front.
As for Akan the lead villain well he wasn't all that great don't get me wrong his powers look great but all he ended up being was a cheapo Magneto knockoff but without any real motivation which Magneto always has and why it makes him such a compelling villain to watch.
And so that was Hardcore Henry sadly my biggest disappointment of the year so far, rent Robocop instead, 1.5 out of 5.
Now I was really excited to see this film as the preview for it was fucking exhilarating with its use of Don't Stop Me Now by Queen and the action scenes feeling really exciting but could the film itself actually deliver the goods?
Well no sadly as this movie is a big disappointment for me so much so that when it ended I thought to myself "Is That It?" but before I delve into that I want to talk about what I did like:
- First off the film looks terrific the First Person Perspective works a real treat and while watching it I thought to myself "This is as if someone took a VR Helmet and turned it into a movie camera to shoot a film" and it really felt that way at least for me and not once did I feel bored looking at the film from that technical perspective.
- And secondly the violence in the film just had me grinning from ear to ear as this is full on R rated violence with oodles of blood on screen and it is about fucking time too as I am so sick to death of all these big action films that just chicken out with their violence because they want that magical PG-13 rating that gives them the maximum bang for the buck and boy does it feel so fucking good to have some blood in a film again.
But where this film faulters majorly is in its storytelling frankly it's just a ripoff of Robocop from 1987 where you have the cybernetic guy, the evil villain, the big twist to it all and none of it really was that interesting for me and the use of Don't Stop Me Now in the film itself was immensely disappointing but that's all I'll say on that front.
As for Akan the lead villain well he wasn't all that great don't get me wrong his powers look great but all he ended up being was a cheapo Magneto knockoff but without any real motivation which Magneto always has and why it makes him such a compelling villain to watch.
And so that was Hardcore Henry sadly my biggest disappointment of the year so far, rent Robocop instead, 1.5 out of 5.
Friday, August 5, 2016
Film Review - Suicide Squad (2016)
Suicide Squad is based off of a DC comic and stars Will Smith, Margot Robbie, Joel Kinnaman, Viola Davis and Jared Leto among others as the US Government representative Amanda Waller seeks to establish a special task force in case Superman turns evil again but this group will be hard to control.
I was very 50/50 going into this movie as DC's Cinematic Universe much like Marvel's in 2008-2012 has gotten off to a very rocky start for I was not a big fan of Man of Steel whilst I warmed to Batman V Superman with the extended version but I was looking forward to Jared Leto as the Joker so could this film turn the ship around for DC or are there still rocky waters ahead.
Well I hated this movie and for these reasons:
- Firstly the film is just so lifeless on screen to the point where it feels like your being hit over the head with a hammer and it makes your head hurt, none of the scenes ever really felt like they came alive for me and the storytelling here was pretty weak with a lot of flashback segments in the beginning that in some cases could've been their own film and then grinding the whole thing to a halt in the middle act and then crafting a boring CG filled climax.
- Secondly the action is thuddingly noisy as it is constantly filled with LOUD MUSIC THAT PLAYS EXACTLY LIKE THIS!!! and after a while it all just got too much for me and it added I think to the being hit over the head feeling I elaborated on in my previous point and also the film has this attitude towards women that for me made me very uncomfortable after a while which also didn't help matters.
- And lastly I really didn't like a lot of the performances, Smith as Deadshot didn't really register for me all that much, Robbie went way too over the top as Harley Quinn, Jai Courtney did a really cringeworthy Aussie accent as Captain Boomerang (Courtney himself is Australia but this was way too cartoonish) Joel Kinnaman basically did the "Army Officer 101" act as Rick Flagg while Ben Affleck basically had a glorified cameo as Batman.
But there are two performances in particular that disappoint me one of those is Leto's as the Joker and that character has always been fun over the years whether he was played by Jack Nicholson or Mark Hamill or the late Heath Ledger but this time Leto barely did anything nor did he have any meaningful screen time and for me I just hate it when such a great character like the Joker is wasted in this manner.
The other is Cara Develeigne as the Enchantress and frankly she was not very good in this film and again another Super Hero film suffers from having a weak villain and boy oh boy oh boy am I getting sick to death in so many ways of this.
I will say however that Davis as Waller is a terrific performance but again its one that basically has Davis sitting around a desk barking orders and making threats and it feels like a bit of a waste, hopefully a more meaningful role will come in the future for this character.
And so that was Suicide Squad one of my least favorite films of the year so far, 1 out of 5.
I was very 50/50 going into this movie as DC's Cinematic Universe much like Marvel's in 2008-2012 has gotten off to a very rocky start for I was not a big fan of Man of Steel whilst I warmed to Batman V Superman with the extended version but I was looking forward to Jared Leto as the Joker so could this film turn the ship around for DC or are there still rocky waters ahead.
Well I hated this movie and for these reasons:
- Firstly the film is just so lifeless on screen to the point where it feels like your being hit over the head with a hammer and it makes your head hurt, none of the scenes ever really felt like they came alive for me and the storytelling here was pretty weak with a lot of flashback segments in the beginning that in some cases could've been their own film and then grinding the whole thing to a halt in the middle act and then crafting a boring CG filled climax.
- Secondly the action is thuddingly noisy as it is constantly filled with LOUD MUSIC THAT PLAYS EXACTLY LIKE THIS!!! and after a while it all just got too much for me and it added I think to the being hit over the head feeling I elaborated on in my previous point and also the film has this attitude towards women that for me made me very uncomfortable after a while which also didn't help matters.
- And lastly I really didn't like a lot of the performances, Smith as Deadshot didn't really register for me all that much, Robbie went way too over the top as Harley Quinn, Jai Courtney did a really cringeworthy Aussie accent as Captain Boomerang (Courtney himself is Australia but this was way too cartoonish) Joel Kinnaman basically did the "Army Officer 101" act as Rick Flagg while Ben Affleck basically had a glorified cameo as Batman.
But there are two performances in particular that disappoint me one of those is Leto's as the Joker and that character has always been fun over the years whether he was played by Jack Nicholson or Mark Hamill or the late Heath Ledger but this time Leto barely did anything nor did he have any meaningful screen time and for me I just hate it when such a great character like the Joker is wasted in this manner.
The other is Cara Develeigne as the Enchantress and frankly she was not very good in this film and again another Super Hero film suffers from having a weak villain and boy oh boy oh boy am I getting sick to death in so many ways of this.
I will say however that Davis as Waller is a terrific performance but again its one that basically has Davis sitting around a desk barking orders and making threats and it feels like a bit of a waste, hopefully a more meaningful role will come in the future for this character.
And so that was Suicide Squad one of my least favorite films of the year so far, 1 out of 5.
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