Angry Birds 2 is the second in the series and this time Bird Island and Pig Island are constantly pranking each other after the events of the first film but then word of a third island, Eagle Island comes, Bird and Pig must work together to save their Islands from extinction.
Angry Birds 2 does pretty much what it says on the box, it’s a perfectly fine animated feature that will entertain and make you laugh which it did me and I did enjoy the Birds and Pigs prank each other as well as the pretty neat way that the Birds get around by using slingshot transportation and springy landing pads plus Peter Dinklage remains good fun as the Mighty Eagle.
As for the story and animation again they aren’t too bad but feel very typical of the genre nowadays, the story at times cuts to using pop songs to elevate their emotional moments and it didn’t quite work for me while the animation was okay but nothing overly fantastic.
And so that was Angry Birds 2 and I had fun with the film even if its nothing I’ll head to the rooftops to scream about, 2 out of 5.
Tuesday, September 24, 2019
Film Review - Ad Astra (2019)
Ad Astra is directed by James Gray who made the Lost City of Z a couple of years ago and stars Brad Pitt as Roy McBride, an astronaut in the near future where Earth is suffering from catastrophic electrical surges that may have been caused by a project his father (Tommy Lee Jones) is working on and now the son must search for the father to find out what’s going on and if the surges can be stopped.
Ad Astra is a real mixed bag of a film with some big positives first of those is the sheer spectacle of the film itself, the production design, visual effects and cinematography are all first rate and really make this movie worth watching on a large cinema screen and there were numerous times where I sat there thinking “Wow this is pretty” and the 4K release of this movie will be very nice.
Secondly Mr Pitt is superb here and I would love to see him get a Best Actor nomination for his work here, he carries this movie effortlessly and makes it look easy when compared to most actors and it has been easy to forget how good of an actor he can really be as he’s mainly been remembered for his handsome leading man routine which is a disservice to his broader talents, Tommy Lee Jones and Donald Sutherland I enjoyed seeing in this movie while sadly Ms Liv Tyler and Ms Ruth Negga got really very little to do save for a few scenes here and there.
Sadly however this movie’s script is its biggest weakness, the film tries to balance the high stakes of the electrical surges and possible corporate secrets with the personal search of a son for his father in space and it never feels like the two sides really come together in a way that adds to both stories and makes them feel complementary to each other and at one point there’s monkeys floating in Space and all I could think was the Saiyans from Dragon Ball which were ape like in their appearance and turned into giant ones at the sight of a full moon and I had some other thoughts but that would be telling as it ties into the climax.
And so that was Ad Astra and as a spectacle it looks great and warrants a big screen watch but as a script I wasn’t as fond of it, 2 and a half out of 5.
Ad Astra is a real mixed bag of a film with some big positives first of those is the sheer spectacle of the film itself, the production design, visual effects and cinematography are all first rate and really make this movie worth watching on a large cinema screen and there were numerous times where I sat there thinking “Wow this is pretty” and the 4K release of this movie will be very nice.
Secondly Mr Pitt is superb here and I would love to see him get a Best Actor nomination for his work here, he carries this movie effortlessly and makes it look easy when compared to most actors and it has been easy to forget how good of an actor he can really be as he’s mainly been remembered for his handsome leading man routine which is a disservice to his broader talents, Tommy Lee Jones and Donald Sutherland I enjoyed seeing in this movie while sadly Ms Liv Tyler and Ms Ruth Negga got really very little to do save for a few scenes here and there.
Sadly however this movie’s script is its biggest weakness, the film tries to balance the high stakes of the electrical surges and possible corporate secrets with the personal search of a son for his father in space and it never feels like the two sides really come together in a way that adds to both stories and makes them feel complementary to each other and at one point there’s monkeys floating in Space and all I could think was the Saiyans from Dragon Ball which were ape like in their appearance and turned into giant ones at the sight of a full moon and I had some other thoughts but that would be telling as it ties into the climax.
And so that was Ad Astra and as a spectacle it looks great and warrants a big screen watch but as a script I wasn’t as fond of it, 2 and a half out of 5.
Film Review - Rambo: Last Blood (2019)
Rambo: Last Blood is the fifth and final film in the Rambo franchise and once more sees John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) living on his ranch in America and helping raise a young Mexican girl who heads home when she learns of her real father, when she disappears on that trip Rambo gets angry and goes looking for her but will never draw First Blood he’ll only fight back.
I was very excited for Rambo: Last Blood mainly because of the films trailers which looked very promising and my love of 1982’s First Blood and 1985’s Rambo: First Blood Part 2 which are iconic slices of 80s Americana to this day but 1988’s Rambo 3 was pathetic and silly and 2008’s Rambo was okay could Last Blood be a fitting finale or more proof that Rambo should’ve walked off into the Sunset long ago.
Well Rambo: Last Blood is not a bad movie not at all, Sly is as reliable a screen presence as he’s ever been and at 73 he proves in this movie that he can still carry a film when he tries to and doesn’t phone it in like he has done in some of his past films, the violence in the film more than justifies the R18+ rating the film has here in Australia and sadly its uneven when it works it works very well but when it doesn’t it feels like its right out of the most recent Mortal Kombat games in terms of its visual look.
Plus there is a great opening scene of Rambo rescuing some Hikers trapped in Floodwaters that feels right out of the first 2 films and when it was over I thought It’s A Long Road by Dan Hill which was the song that played over the end credits of First Blood.
Sadly however much like the 2008 Rambo which was also R18+ violent this new movie doesn’t have a good story, sure he goes to Mexico but it doesn’t play out in an interesting way and it feels more like Millennium Studios which was born out of the Cannon group from the 1980s had a script for a Taken like action film sitting in a draw and Sly came to them wanting to make a final Rambo film and they dusted off that script and just shot that and it really feels not only old hat but the chief villains are cartoonish in a bad way.
But maybe this was inevitable given how much Rambo 1 and 2 represented America in the 1980s and their response to the Vietnam War starting off with the sombre reality of that conflict and those who came home being shunned from society and living day to day, moving from place to place and taking what odd jobs they can to survive in First Blood and then the Reagan era fantasy of “We’re Gonna Win This Time” that permeates through Rambo 2 it really made those movies and this character feel iconic and to have a story that feels like its 5-10 years old be the end isn’t good enough and this has happened time and again with franchises and brands we come to love and I wish it would stop.
So that was Rambo: Last Blood and its not awful not at all but given the meaning of Rambo 1 and 2 this movie just isn’t good enough and fans deserved far better, 2 out of 5.
I was very excited for Rambo: Last Blood mainly because of the films trailers which looked very promising and my love of 1982’s First Blood and 1985’s Rambo: First Blood Part 2 which are iconic slices of 80s Americana to this day but 1988’s Rambo 3 was pathetic and silly and 2008’s Rambo was okay could Last Blood be a fitting finale or more proof that Rambo should’ve walked off into the Sunset long ago.
Well Rambo: Last Blood is not a bad movie not at all, Sly is as reliable a screen presence as he’s ever been and at 73 he proves in this movie that he can still carry a film when he tries to and doesn’t phone it in like he has done in some of his past films, the violence in the film more than justifies the R18+ rating the film has here in Australia and sadly its uneven when it works it works very well but when it doesn’t it feels like its right out of the most recent Mortal Kombat games in terms of its visual look.
Plus there is a great opening scene of Rambo rescuing some Hikers trapped in Floodwaters that feels right out of the first 2 films and when it was over I thought It’s A Long Road by Dan Hill which was the song that played over the end credits of First Blood.
Sadly however much like the 2008 Rambo which was also R18+ violent this new movie doesn’t have a good story, sure he goes to Mexico but it doesn’t play out in an interesting way and it feels more like Millennium Studios which was born out of the Cannon group from the 1980s had a script for a Taken like action film sitting in a draw and Sly came to them wanting to make a final Rambo film and they dusted off that script and just shot that and it really feels not only old hat but the chief villains are cartoonish in a bad way.
But maybe this was inevitable given how much Rambo 1 and 2 represented America in the 1980s and their response to the Vietnam War starting off with the sombre reality of that conflict and those who came home being shunned from society and living day to day, moving from place to place and taking what odd jobs they can to survive in First Blood and then the Reagan era fantasy of “We’re Gonna Win This Time” that permeates through Rambo 2 it really made those movies and this character feel iconic and to have a story that feels like its 5-10 years old be the end isn’t good enough and this has happened time and again with franchises and brands we come to love and I wish it would stop.
So that was Rambo: Last Blood and its not awful not at all but given the meaning of Rambo 1 and 2 this movie just isn’t good enough and fans deserved far better, 2 out of 5.
Saturday, September 7, 2019
Film Review - Angel Has Fallen (2019)
Angel has Fallen is the third in the Fallen series and once more stars Gerard Butler as Mike Banning who is guarding the President (Morgan Freeman) when a Drone attack comes and the President is in a Coma and Mike is framed for the attack and though he says the One Armed Man did it-sorry-He didn’t kill the President, the Authorities response is I Don’t Care and he has to now clear his name.
Angel has Fallen has got to be one of the big surprise movies of the year for me as I expected very little going into seeing it and I had a great time watching it as this is a fun, top of the line B movie that delivers on exactly what it promises on the box, Mr Butler is a lot of fun as Agent Banning as he fights everyone around him to clear his name and sure the plot has some similarities to the Fugitive but I had fun with that and even imagined Gerard “THERE WAS A MAN IN MY HOUSE.”
Danny Huston is also really good in the film and though his plot line is very predictable I still enjoyed it as is Mr Freeman though the one person I enjoyed seeing the most is Mr Nick Nolte who looks very frail and he was shaking a lot in his scenes but he’s still as grouchy as he’s ever been and I had a lot of fun watching him and Gerard growl at each other in their scenes.
And lastly the film has a lot of great action scenes with what look like proper blood effects.
And so that was Angel has Fallen and its terrific fun for old school action film fans like myself, 3 and a half out of 5.
Angel has Fallen has got to be one of the big surprise movies of the year for me as I expected very little going into seeing it and I had a great time watching it as this is a fun, top of the line B movie that delivers on exactly what it promises on the box, Mr Butler is a lot of fun as Agent Banning as he fights everyone around him to clear his name and sure the plot has some similarities to the Fugitive but I had fun with that and even imagined Gerard “THERE WAS A MAN IN MY HOUSE.”
Danny Huston is also really good in the film and though his plot line is very predictable I still enjoyed it as is Mr Freeman though the one person I enjoyed seeing the most is Mr Nick Nolte who looks very frail and he was shaking a lot in his scenes but he’s still as grouchy as he’s ever been and I had a lot of fun watching him and Gerard growl at each other in their scenes.
And lastly the film has a lot of great action scenes with what look like proper blood effects.
And so that was Angel has Fallen and its terrific fun for old school action film fans like myself, 3 and a half out of 5.
Film Review - IT Chapter 2 (2019)
It: Chapter 2 is the second part of the IT adaptation and this time the Losers are now Adults (James McAvoy, Jessica Chastain, Bill Hader, Isaiah Mustafa, James Ransone and Jay Ryan) who return to Derry, Maine when word of Pennywise the Clown (Bill Skarsgard) comes back to haunt the town once again.
It 2 is okay overall, its not a bad movie in any sense of the word but its not a film that really to be honest justifies its existence but before I delve into those elements I want to talk about the good and there is some quite good stuff here.
Firstly the Horror element works much better than it did in the first film as its much less of the jump scare/quick cut/loud noise variety and more of the rollercoaster of darkness variety where all kinds of crazy stuff happens to scare the smeg out of the audience and I really liked a lot of those scenes as they justified the MA15 rating.
Secondly Mr Hader is really good here balancing the drama and the comedy really well and the film itself does have some good ideas in it regarding childhood trauma and how it can manifest itself in adulthood through conditions like Anxiety and Depression and Mental Illness.
But sadly this film has some major problems in it as I mentioned above briefly well here they are in more detail:
- First the use of Comedy in this movie really didn’t work too well for me and I am someone who can be very mixed on the use of Comedy in a movie as it feels like most of the time it’s the actors trying to get a laugh out of a packed crowd in a cinema and when that works it works very well but here it feels too overplayed as it comes after virtually every horror moment and as a result its attempt to give the film some levity fell flat, if this is going to be a Horror film make it one and don’t throw a Fucking Fuck bomb into every Fucking moment so people might laugh it didn’t Fucking work.
- Secondly there are far too many callbacks to IT Chapter 1 in this movie, almost every major part of the film does this flashback to the younger actors who were wonderful in that first film and really did a lot to lift up that film for me that it highlights how weak the older cast outside of Mr Hader are and they have some good moments but they just do not hold a candle to the kids from IT 1 and again if your going to make this from the point of view of the adults then Fucking Do IT! Okay don’t try to cut back and forth as like the comedy it doesn’t bloody work.
- And lastly the ending is very anticlimactic and when it was going on I just sat there thinking “Is that It, is this what we really built up to all this time?” and when I think on this ending I keep thinking that you could in all honesty put it onto the end of the first film and that would be totally fine as what it does it make this story of the Adults fighting Pennywise feel almost pointless and given its 169 minute running time it is not the feeling you want to have after that long in a cinema seat and you walk out of it.
And so that was IT Chapter 2 and its not a bad movie but its also one that really isn’t anything much either but fans will go and see it and I hope they like it more than I did, 2 and a half out of 5.
It 2 is okay overall, its not a bad movie in any sense of the word but its not a film that really to be honest justifies its existence but before I delve into those elements I want to talk about the good and there is some quite good stuff here.
Firstly the Horror element works much better than it did in the first film as its much less of the jump scare/quick cut/loud noise variety and more of the rollercoaster of darkness variety where all kinds of crazy stuff happens to scare the smeg out of the audience and I really liked a lot of those scenes as they justified the MA15 rating.
Secondly Mr Hader is really good here balancing the drama and the comedy really well and the film itself does have some good ideas in it regarding childhood trauma and how it can manifest itself in adulthood through conditions like Anxiety and Depression and Mental Illness.
But sadly this film has some major problems in it as I mentioned above briefly well here they are in more detail:
- First the use of Comedy in this movie really didn’t work too well for me and I am someone who can be very mixed on the use of Comedy in a movie as it feels like most of the time it’s the actors trying to get a laugh out of a packed crowd in a cinema and when that works it works very well but here it feels too overplayed as it comes after virtually every horror moment and as a result its attempt to give the film some levity fell flat, if this is going to be a Horror film make it one and don’t throw a Fucking Fuck bomb into every Fucking moment so people might laugh it didn’t Fucking work.
- Secondly there are far too many callbacks to IT Chapter 1 in this movie, almost every major part of the film does this flashback to the younger actors who were wonderful in that first film and really did a lot to lift up that film for me that it highlights how weak the older cast outside of Mr Hader are and they have some good moments but they just do not hold a candle to the kids from IT 1 and again if your going to make this from the point of view of the adults then Fucking Do IT! Okay don’t try to cut back and forth as like the comedy it doesn’t bloody work.
- And lastly the ending is very anticlimactic and when it was going on I just sat there thinking “Is that It, is this what we really built up to all this time?” and when I think on this ending I keep thinking that you could in all honesty put it onto the end of the first film and that would be totally fine as what it does it make this story of the Adults fighting Pennywise feel almost pointless and given its 169 minute running time it is not the feeling you want to have after that long in a cinema seat and you walk out of it.
And so that was IT Chapter 2 and its not a bad movie but its also one that really isn’t anything much either but fans will go and see it and I hope they like it more than I did, 2 and a half out of 5.
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