Film Review - Lego Ninjago the Movie (2017)

Lego Ninjago is the third film in the Lego series and this time concerns the Ninja Force a team of high school kids who pilot giant Mechs and protect their home city Ninjago from an evil warlord named Garmadon but when he destroys their mechs in an attack the Ninjas must travel through a secret forest to uncover the true secret of their power and stop Garmadon once and for all.

Lego Ninjago is sadly a big disappointment of a film and it’s a real shame as I really liked both the Lego Movie from 2014 and this years Lego Batman movie and like those films this one has some nice Lego visuals that do make you go “Wow this looks really neat” and also makes you wonder how all of it was built plus there was a cute Kitty Cat in the film.

But unlike Lego Movie and Lego Batman this movie does not have either an interesting story or interesting characters and after a while I started to get really bored and checked my watch more than once as it all feels very predictable with the father and son reconnecting, the team learning to work together, the big revelation where everything comes into focus which sometimes can work but most times just feels like an attempt to wrap up the plot in a quick manner and the whole learning to love your true parentage which again can work but sometimes like here can feel very patronising.

And so that was my review of Lego Ninjago and it’s a real letdown from the 2 previous Lego films and I would watch those instead, 1 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Captain Underpants (2017)

Captain Underpants is based off of a series of books and tells the tale of 2 young school boys George and Harold who create their own comic strip called Captain Underpants a loveable but dim witted superhero but when their school principal Mr Krupp threatens to put them in separate classes one of them hypnotises the principal into becoming Captain Underpants.

I don’t really have a lot to say about this film other than I laughed a lot pretty much throughout the whole film and many times out loud the film has a very brisk pace and sharp writing that feels like its piling on gag after gag after gag much like Airplane, The Naked Gun or Hot Shots would do and like those films I really laughed a lot.

Not to mention this movie actually has a really fun villain in Professor P (to reveal his full name would spoil the surprise) and his plan was pretty damn good and unlike so many supervillains in the Marvel Studios and DC film universes he wasn’t boring or forgettable he had a plan and he was great fun to watch while doing so.

And so that was Captain Underpants a film that made me laugh a lot and had a great villain which is more than most big budget superhero movies nowadays accomplish, 3 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017)

Kingsman the Golden Circle continues on from where 2015’s Kingsman the Secret Service left off and also sees Matthew Vaughn return to direct the story here sees Eggsy (Taron Egerton) settling into his life as a Kingsman agent but when their headquarters is destroyed in a missile attack by the reclusive super villain Poppy (Julianne Moore) he and Merlin (Mark Strong) make their way to the Statesman in the US where friends and foes old and new await.

I was very much looking forward to this movie as I adore the first Kingsman it was dark, comic, violent, stylish and right up my alley in terms of what I like to see in entertainment films plus it had great suits something that I thought of when I went to the Gold Cup in Mt Gambier earlier this year plus the preview with Frank Sinatra’s My Way did a lot to get me excited for number 2.

However in that intervening time we got Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 and John Wick Chapter 2 and both for me were decent enough, entertaining enough but also nowhere near as good as their predeceasing films and in all honesty going into Kingsman 2 I was expecting the same thing.

Happily very happily I was wrong as this was a really fun sequel even if it is not as good a film as the first Kingsman was and first off I want to start with Vaughn’s direction here having proved himself with number 1 it feels like the training wheels are off and its time to go speeding down the highway at full bore and he does that bouncing from characters to action to locations to storylines as if he was infected with the crazy gene from the first film and at times it is dizzying to watch but I was never bored despite the lengthy 141 minute running time.

Secondly the performances here are all very good Egerton continues to prove what a great young actor he is and he is very charming and likeable here Colin Firth makes a welcome return here even if his side plot ran on a scene or 2 too long Strong is also quite good here and the Statesman actors Pedro Pascal, Channing Tatum, Halle Berry and Jeff Bridges who actually talks normally again are also great fun.

But the 2 best performances have to be Moore and Sir Elton John who plays himself and is just a delight to see taking the complete mickey out of himself and Moore despite her charming persona plays a ruthless villain well once more having done President Alma Coin in the Mockingjay movies and like Jackson in the first film has a nasty streak to here as well.

And finally in the positives the film has some great high energy action including a true pre credits sequence set to “Let’s Go Crazy” from Purple Rain that also helps to set the frantic tone for the rest of the movie and a gadget laden 3rd act climax with dogs looking like Ravage from Transformers is also great fun.

However as much fun as this movie is it sadly lacks the bite the first film and that comes down to the plan Samuel L Jackson’s character had in mind it gave the film a much more weighty feel whereas this sequel goes for a much more cartoonish and comedic tone not like the James Bond film Moonraker which was a very comedic and large scale film that has divided audiences and like this film you go with that or you don’t.

And so that was my thoughts on Kingsman the Golden Circle a great fun sequel even if it lacks the first films bite, 4 out of 5.

Film Review - IT (2017)

IT is based off of the novel by Stephen King and concerns the tale of 7 kids known as the Losers as each don’t have a lot of friends (the kids are played by Jaeden Lieberher, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Sophia Lillis, Finn Wolfhard, Wyatt Oleff, Chosen Jacobs and Jack Dylan Grazer) but they have each other and all of them see visions of a terrifying clown named Pennywise (Bill Skarsgard) who likes to pray on their worst fears in life.

IT is an okay horror film that is mainly lifted up due to the strength of its young cast all of whom are terrific both as individual young actors and as an ensemble group they hold your attention, have good chemistry and you come to root for them and want them to succeed plus the film had a couple of nice references to the 1988/89 setting that made me smile and their side of the story these young kids who are bullied and become this close knit group was a very interesting story.

Sadly the horror aspects of the film feel very very over produced and all the hallmarks are on show:

- The jump scares
- The loud soundtrack that goes DA DUM!
- The crew splits up and then starts to get picked off
- The dark corridors where the crew gets lost
- Someone tries to disrupt the crew’s plan

And so on and so on and after a while it really started to bother me and I begun to check my watch just waiting for all the jump scares and loud noises and quick cuts of monstrous Pennywise to end and all of it as I mentioned just felt so over the top that it did not feel all that scary and sometimes for me at least all you need is a good actor being let off the leash to be scary.

And we have had that example this year in James McAvoy in Split who was both scary and fun and without the need for quick cuts, jump scares and loud noises on the soundtrack M Night Shymalan simply put his trust in him and you only had to look at what he could do soon he shall show the world how powerful the Horde can be.

I’ve gone off track so I will wrap up this review here in short the kids are great but the horror stuff feels over produced, 2 out of 5.

New Radio Ep

Alright folks here is my new Radio episode where I review:

- Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets
- Logan Lucky
- The Dark Tower

As always you can listen here: https://soundcloud.com/abclocalradio_sa/friday-flicks-final-aug-25