Based off a true story in 2009, Captain Phillips stars Tom Hanks as the aforementioned captain whose cargo ship is hijacked by Somalia Pirates led by Muse (Barkhard Abdi) and his terms of ransom will be high as will be the stakes for the Captain's rescue.
I went into Captain Phillips with very mixed expectations as while it looked like an interesting thriller, the preview for this film really put me off with his BWAAAAMMMPPPP noises and fast cutting and I thought "this doesn't look all that good" but I became curious as to whether I was being mislead by a bad preview which can be the case at times and that the film itself might be good.
Well as it turned out to be the case, the film went straight down the middle for me, don't get me wrong it was much, much better than I thought it would be mainly due to Paul Greengrass's direction and the solid performances by Hanks, Abdi (he is the real star of this film) and the nicely surprising appearance by Max Martini from Pacific Rim and I certainly did smile when he showed up.
But alas I wasn't really all that engaged for a large chunk of the film, it's well made, the climax is very tense but as I think more about it I get this feeling of "Eh, it was alright and I was glad I went and saw it but at the same time it was just straight down the middle.", it's probably the best I can explain that feeling but that was honestly how I felt throughout a lot of this movie.
So to wrap this one up, Captain Phillips is worth seeing for its terrific climax and solid performances from the two key leads but for me it was very much a straight down the middle thriller, 3 out of 5.
Friday, October 25, 2013
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Film Review - About Time (2013)
About Time is directed by Richard Curtis and stars Domnhall Gleeson as Tim, a man who learns from his father (Bill Nighy) that he has the ability to travel through time, an experience he comes to learn well and hopes it will make him lucky in love, though he has no idea what will be in front of him.
I went into About Time very hopeful as the premise of it being a Sci-Fi romance movie reminded me in some way of the first Terminator movie which at its heart was a Sci-Fi romance as well as Arnold walking around killing a bunch of people but that's that movie, did this one deliver the goods?
Right-a-Rooney it did, I thought this was a very charming film with some nice heart to it and good performances by Gleeson, Nighy and Rachel McAdams who is better than I've seen her be in some time in this role, I also really liked the time travel premise the film develops and the rules that govern it and had me thinking a little bit about it after the film was over.
However the film is not without its faults and the main one is that it's too long and at a certain point in the film I began to get a little impatient and started to check my watch on a few occasions, if you had pretty well cut out the stuff with the kids for the most part then the film would've been much more manageable and maybe, just maybe the ending might have had a little more emotional impact.
So yeah despite that small flaw, About Time is a well made and touching rom com that is well worth seeing, 3 out of 5.
I went into About Time very hopeful as the premise of it being a Sci-Fi romance movie reminded me in some way of the first Terminator movie which at its heart was a Sci-Fi romance as well as Arnold walking around killing a bunch of people but that's that movie, did this one deliver the goods?
Right-a-Rooney it did, I thought this was a very charming film with some nice heart to it and good performances by Gleeson, Nighy and Rachel McAdams who is better than I've seen her be in some time in this role, I also really liked the time travel premise the film develops and the rules that govern it and had me thinking a little bit about it after the film was over.
However the film is not without its faults and the main one is that it's too long and at a certain point in the film I began to get a little impatient and started to check my watch on a few occasions, if you had pretty well cut out the stuff with the kids for the most part then the film would've been much more manageable and maybe, just maybe the ending might have had a little more emotional impact.
So yeah despite that small flaw, About Time is a well made and touching rom com that is well worth seeing, 3 out of 5.
Film Review - Rush (2013)
Rush is directed by Ron Howard and stars Chris Hemsworth as James Hunt and Daniel Bruhl as Niki Lauda, both fierce rivals on the Formula 1 circuit in the 1970's, a rivalry that can prove deadly.
I went into Rush with very high expectations as I really loved the documentary Senna from 2011 and this film looked terrific from the previews I saw, did it hit pole position or crash out on the track?
Well, not only did it hit pole position but it came first at the finish line, I really loved this movie almost from start to finish, I thought Howard's direction had a vitality to it that his early work like Cocoon had and didn't feel limp and ridiculous like his Da Vinci films did, Hemsworth was great I thought and confirmed my view that he has become the new Mel Gibson and Bruhl was more than his equal as Lauda and the scenes between the two of them are terrific.
The other thing I really liked was how it recalled the era of the 1970's, an era that I'm very fond of and some of the songs that were used in the soundtrack really got my attention, one of those being "Gimme Some Lovin" which was also used in Days of Thunder, I also thought Olivia Wilde was surprisingly good in her small role, proving that she actually can act as well as be a pretty face.
So all in all, Rush was everything I hoped it would be and more and will surely be one of my favourite films of the year, a definite must see, 4 and a half out of 5.
I went into Rush with very high expectations as I really loved the documentary Senna from 2011 and this film looked terrific from the previews I saw, did it hit pole position or crash out on the track?
Well, not only did it hit pole position but it came first at the finish line, I really loved this movie almost from start to finish, I thought Howard's direction had a vitality to it that his early work like Cocoon had and didn't feel limp and ridiculous like his Da Vinci films did, Hemsworth was great I thought and confirmed my view that he has become the new Mel Gibson and Bruhl was more than his equal as Lauda and the scenes between the two of them are terrific.
The other thing I really liked was how it recalled the era of the 1970's, an era that I'm very fond of and some of the songs that were used in the soundtrack really got my attention, one of those being "Gimme Some Lovin" which was also used in Days of Thunder, I also thought Olivia Wilde was surprisingly good in her small role, proving that she actually can act as well as be a pretty face.
So all in all, Rush was everything I hoped it would be and more and will surely be one of my favourite films of the year, a definite must see, 4 and a half out of 5.
Friday, October 11, 2013
Film Review - Gravity (2013)
Gravity is the new film from director Alfonso Curaron and stars George Clooney and Sandra Bullock as a pair of astronauts working on a satellite when word of a Russian attack comes through and causes an accident that leaves them adrift in space and struggling to get home.
I went into Gravity with very high expectations as I am a big Sci-Fi fan and like hearing the clarion call of the trumpet I felt compelled to heed the call and go and see it the first chance I could but alas upon release that chance didn't come.
But now the time had come when I could finally get my chance to go and see this film and as I held my ticket and waited for the film to start, I began to get more and more impatient "enough of this, give me the film I have waited for." I thought and did it deliver?
Like hell it did, this is both a terrific and terrfying sci-fi flick that is also for my money one of the year's best films, Bullock and Clooney are at near career best form here, both play off each other very well and Bullock nicely surprises in terms of handling the more dramatic scenes with ease and I also liked Ed Harris's very small role as well.
But the real star of this film is Curaron and he extracts EVERY. SINGLE. BREATH. out of his audience with his opening scenes of wonder at the world below that then seamlessly transition to moments of pure terror that had me on the very edge of my seat and feeling a little bit faint at times during the film and I was certainly very happy to breath the free air again afterwards.
But to extend on the tension of the film, Curaron also plays on the fears people have in life very well, fears of disaster, closed environments, fire and doom are fears people hold in their life in one way or another and this movie exploits those brilliantly, at times I thought I was watching a Sci-Fi/Horror film as the fear it creates is so well handled that you really feel it in a big way.
So all in all Gravity is a terrific and terrifying cinema experience that I am more than happy to recommend to anyone up for the ride but like a roller coaster some may feel bouts of sickness afterwards so please keep that in mind, 4 out of 5.
I went into Gravity with very high expectations as I am a big Sci-Fi fan and like hearing the clarion call of the trumpet I felt compelled to heed the call and go and see it the first chance I could but alas upon release that chance didn't come.
But now the time had come when I could finally get my chance to go and see this film and as I held my ticket and waited for the film to start, I began to get more and more impatient "enough of this, give me the film I have waited for." I thought and did it deliver?
Like hell it did, this is both a terrific and terrfying sci-fi flick that is also for my money one of the year's best films, Bullock and Clooney are at near career best form here, both play off each other very well and Bullock nicely surprises in terms of handling the more dramatic scenes with ease and I also liked Ed Harris's very small role as well.
But the real star of this film is Curaron and he extracts EVERY. SINGLE. BREATH. out of his audience with his opening scenes of wonder at the world below that then seamlessly transition to moments of pure terror that had me on the very edge of my seat and feeling a little bit faint at times during the film and I was certainly very happy to breath the free air again afterwards.
But to extend on the tension of the film, Curaron also plays on the fears people have in life very well, fears of disaster, closed environments, fire and doom are fears people hold in their life in one way or another and this movie exploits those brilliantly, at times I thought I was watching a Sci-Fi/Horror film as the fear it creates is so well handled that you really feel it in a big way.
So all in all Gravity is a terrific and terrifying cinema experience that I am more than happy to recommend to anyone up for the ride but like a roller coaster some may feel bouts of sickness afterwards so please keep that in mind, 4 out of 5.
Saturday, September 28, 2013
Roadshow Home Video: The Next Generation
For a while now I've written columns about my fond memories for certain VHS brands here in Australia, first was the big R Roadshow releases that existed from 1982 to 1985 and the other was for CEL cassettes that existed mainly in the mid to late 80's.
But this one is for one that to me is very special and that is for the next incarnation of Roadshow Home Video cassettes, the next generation as it were when it first came into being in late 1985 under the Village Roadshow banner with the big yellow V and the Terminator-esque music that accompanied it.
My fondness for this particular brand began in my younger years when I saw a copy of the Roadshow cassette of the UK Thriller Hennessy with the late Rod Steiger in my house, you could say it was love at first sight for me as I would think about it during the day at school as well as the top sticker on the tape which had a small blue version of the V on it, can still remember an ad for "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" that showed before the movie began.
Though that particular tape would fade away over time (hey the DVD revolution made short work of a lot of tapes so I'm not the only one) my love of the Village Roadshow cassettes became more and more fond as the years rolled on with releases like Robocop 2, Basic Instinct (which previewed Romper Stomper and Fortress, two of the first Roadshow Entertainment titles), Maid to Order, Rebel which has become a rare title over the years and many others.
In 1986 Roadshow did something very cool on some of their releases, two of those were Rebel mentioned above and Sky Pirates ("Indiana Jones and the Temple of Crap" according to its director John Lamond) and that is after the movie they had a little short movie on there which I thought to be a pretty cool way for short film makers to get their work seen in a big way so major kudos for that short lived venture.
Part of that fondness also extended to the spin off labels created around that same time, one of those was Premiere Home Entertainment which had a brilliant opening and closing logo with booming orchestral music, an outer space setting and a laser that reminded me of the Death Star.
And again like Hennessy my fondness also comes from my early youth and a copy of Eddie and the Cruisers 2 that was in my house at the time and was released under the Premiere label and since then I'd never forgotten the logo described above.
And again as with the Village Roadshow releases that fondness would grow over time for the Premiere releases with titles like Truly, Madly, Deeply, The Punisher with Dolph Lundgren, Death Before Dishonor which had a special double sided cover and was directed by Terry Leonard who worked on Raiders of the Lost Ark and Blood Simple the debut film by the Coen Brothers which had a brilliant trailer at the time.
And so, that is my column talking about my love and fond memories for Village Roadshow Video tapes, it's a brand that I hold dear when I think about that era and I'm sure others do too.
But this one is for one that to me is very special and that is for the next incarnation of Roadshow Home Video cassettes, the next generation as it were when it first came into being in late 1985 under the Village Roadshow banner with the big yellow V and the Terminator-esque music that accompanied it.
My fondness for this particular brand began in my younger years when I saw a copy of the Roadshow cassette of the UK Thriller Hennessy with the late Rod Steiger in my house, you could say it was love at first sight for me as I would think about it during the day at school as well as the top sticker on the tape which had a small blue version of the V on it, can still remember an ad for "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" that showed before the movie began.
Though that particular tape would fade away over time (hey the DVD revolution made short work of a lot of tapes so I'm not the only one) my love of the Village Roadshow cassettes became more and more fond as the years rolled on with releases like Robocop 2, Basic Instinct (which previewed Romper Stomper and Fortress, two of the first Roadshow Entertainment titles), Maid to Order, Rebel which has become a rare title over the years and many others.
In 1986 Roadshow did something very cool on some of their releases, two of those were Rebel mentioned above and Sky Pirates ("Indiana Jones and the Temple of Crap" according to its director John Lamond) and that is after the movie they had a little short movie on there which I thought to be a pretty cool way for short film makers to get their work seen in a big way so major kudos for that short lived venture.
Part of that fondness also extended to the spin off labels created around that same time, one of those was Premiere Home Entertainment which had a brilliant opening and closing logo with booming orchestral music, an outer space setting and a laser that reminded me of the Death Star.
And again like Hennessy my fondness also comes from my early youth and a copy of Eddie and the Cruisers 2 that was in my house at the time and was released under the Premiere label and since then I'd never forgotten the logo described above.
And again as with the Village Roadshow releases that fondness would grow over time for the Premiere releases with titles like Truly, Madly, Deeply, The Punisher with Dolph Lundgren, Death Before Dishonor which had a special double sided cover and was directed by Terry Leonard who worked on Raiders of the Lost Ark and Blood Simple the debut film by the Coen Brothers which had a brilliant trailer at the time.
And so, that is my column talking about my love and fond memories for Village Roadshow Video tapes, it's a brand that I hold dear when I think about that era and I'm sure others do too.
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
Film Review - Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985)
The third entry in the Mad Max series, this story sees Max (Mel Gibson) come across Bartertown where his possessions have been taken after they're stolen by Jebediah the Pilot (Bruce Spence) while there he runs into Aunty Entity (Tina Turner) and after he runs afowl of her finds himself banished where a group of children find him and see him as their saviour to take them to their Promised Land of the Tomorrowmorrow.
Having been a massive fan of the first two Mad Max films I was very keen to sit down and watch the third film again after a few years since my last showing, the first two for me are very much 5 out of 5 films if there ever were any and are the only two films I've seen that have come close to rivalling the Star Wars Trilogy as my favourite films, could this one have any real chance of measuring up?
Well it doesn't to be honest as this third film really meanders around the place in terms of telling its very thin storyline that doesn't really feel like a fully formed film but more of a collection of 3 short films that make up the whole somehow:
The first of these "Bartertown" is probably the best of the three but not by much as its main fight sequence whilst decent enough just felt very out of place in what I would call a Mad Max movie, I mean almost all of the action in the first two films was set in high speed pursuits out on the open road just as the Goose says in Mad Max 1 "See you on the Road like we saw the Nightrider" I mean that is what should have happened here and not this hand to hand fight that as I said is okay but feels very out of place in this series.
The second of these "The Tribe of Lost Children" is where the film virtually dies and it feels like Steven Spielberg took over the director's chair from George Miller in this part of the film though to be frank if he had directed the whole movie then I wouldn't have been in the least bit surprised by that as it feels a lot more like something he would do with Harrison Ford, hell you could've swapped Gibson for Ford in this movie and have it be "Indiana Jones and the Tribe of Lost Children" and again you would not notice the difference.
And finally the last segment which is the climactic chase sequence is frankly a fucking rip off to every Mad Max fan that watches this film as not only does it feel like an afterthought (you know something folks we'd better have a big chase scene for all the Mad Max fans out there because the truth is the other films had them) but it feels VERY VERY VERY anti climatic to the point where you begin to feel ripped off afterwards.
And as for Bruce Spence well he's barely in the damn thing, he shows up at the beginning of the film and then he's tossed aside until there's 10 minutes left in the full film and given the key role he played in the last film, again it feels like a rip off for the fans to do this and as for Turner well she's decent enough but almost completely forgettable and when compared to the Nightrider, the Toecutter and the Lord Humongous who were the chief villains in the first two films it feels gravely disappointing.
But then again this whole movie has that feeling permeating all through it, no doubt caused in a large part by the absence of producer Byron Kennedy who sadly passed away before this film was made and given how vital his role was to the success of the first two films, his absence is felt all throughout this movie as both Gibson and director George Miller don't seem to have their heart in this film at all and you can see it written on Mel's face at times especially during the final chase scene, it's very very sad that the series ended in this manner and hopefully the fourth film due next year will set things back on track.
So all in all, I cannot recommend Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome as much as I would like to with all of my being given how big a fan of the first two films I am but I cannot do that as it feels very thin story wise and film wise feels more like 3 separate films rather than 1 complete one and given how focused and fast paced the first two were this feels like a big step down, 1 out of 5.
Having been a massive fan of the first two Mad Max films I was very keen to sit down and watch the third film again after a few years since my last showing, the first two for me are very much 5 out of 5 films if there ever were any and are the only two films I've seen that have come close to rivalling the Star Wars Trilogy as my favourite films, could this one have any real chance of measuring up?
Well it doesn't to be honest as this third film really meanders around the place in terms of telling its very thin storyline that doesn't really feel like a fully formed film but more of a collection of 3 short films that make up the whole somehow:
The first of these "Bartertown" is probably the best of the three but not by much as its main fight sequence whilst decent enough just felt very out of place in what I would call a Mad Max movie, I mean almost all of the action in the first two films was set in high speed pursuits out on the open road just as the Goose says in Mad Max 1 "See you on the Road like we saw the Nightrider" I mean that is what should have happened here and not this hand to hand fight that as I said is okay but feels very out of place in this series.
The second of these "The Tribe of Lost Children" is where the film virtually dies and it feels like Steven Spielberg took over the director's chair from George Miller in this part of the film though to be frank if he had directed the whole movie then I wouldn't have been in the least bit surprised by that as it feels a lot more like something he would do with Harrison Ford, hell you could've swapped Gibson for Ford in this movie and have it be "Indiana Jones and the Tribe of Lost Children" and again you would not notice the difference.
And finally the last segment which is the climactic chase sequence is frankly a fucking rip off to every Mad Max fan that watches this film as not only does it feel like an afterthought (you know something folks we'd better have a big chase scene for all the Mad Max fans out there because the truth is the other films had them) but it feels VERY VERY VERY anti climatic to the point where you begin to feel ripped off afterwards.
And as for Bruce Spence well he's barely in the damn thing, he shows up at the beginning of the film and then he's tossed aside until there's 10 minutes left in the full film and given the key role he played in the last film, again it feels like a rip off for the fans to do this and as for Turner well she's decent enough but almost completely forgettable and when compared to the Nightrider, the Toecutter and the Lord Humongous who were the chief villains in the first two films it feels gravely disappointing.
But then again this whole movie has that feeling permeating all through it, no doubt caused in a large part by the absence of producer Byron Kennedy who sadly passed away before this film was made and given how vital his role was to the success of the first two films, his absence is felt all throughout this movie as both Gibson and director George Miller don't seem to have their heart in this film at all and you can see it written on Mel's face at times especially during the final chase scene, it's very very sad that the series ended in this manner and hopefully the fourth film due next year will set things back on track.
So all in all, I cannot recommend Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome as much as I would like to with all of my being given how big a fan of the first two films I am but I cannot do that as it feels very thin story wise and film wise feels more like 3 separate films rather than 1 complete one and given how focused and fast paced the first two were this feels like a big step down, 1 out of 5.
Film Review - White House Down (2013)
White House Down stars Channing Tatum as Cale, a police officer who dreams of a job with the US Secret Service protecting the President (Jamie Foxx) who makes a vow to withdraw all US troops from the Middle East but during a tour of the White House with his young daughter, the place is attacked Die Hard style.
White House Down was for me, a very fun time at the movies, mainly due to some smart writing by James Vanderbilt and solid direction by Roland Emmerich who also made the Day After Tomorrow and 2012, Tomorrow I really enjoyed whilst 2012 was simply too silly for my liking though this film is a nice return to form for him.
And Vanderbilt's script is a big reason for that, it's a script that has it's quiet moments solidly written that made me think that this had been thought through to some extent whilst it's action scenes for the most part are completely silly and it's not afraid to embrace that fact which for me added to the enjoyment of the film and at times I was reminded a great deal of the first Die Hard film, especially during one scene with a Tank.
The film also has some very solid villains, for me a big big big requirement for the overall success of an action picture and this movie more than delivers on that front, notably James Woods and Jason Clarke who is excellent in this movie essentially playing the Alexander Godunov role from Die Hard (I don't want neutral, I want dead) and Woods well when I saw his name pop up I thought "This won't be good, he was the lord of the Underworld" a reference to his voice role as Hades in Disney's Hercules.
As for Tatum and Foxx well they make a pretty good duo but I would've preferred Chris Evans in Tatum's role as he embodies the all American Action Hero better than Tatum does plus Evans has more charisma and screen presence than Tatum does who is very bland here in this role though Foxx more than picks up the pace in that department and does very well as the President as does Michael Murphy, Richard Jenkins and Maggie Gyllenhall in their roles as well as Joey King who plays the daughter.
As for the film's action scenes well some of them are quite good while the film's hand to hand fight scenes are not, they're shot too close and edited too quickly so you lose track of who's who and where they are during some of them.
But sadly the action critically lacks the teeth of the post Die Hard action films it wants to be like as there is a fairly big body count piled up during this film and almost little to no blood is shown which I found hard to believe nor does it have the coarse language those films had much more of, there's some of it here but not as much as I would've liked given the kind of film it wants to be.
But this point sadly is not the film's fault but rather the US rating guidelines it has to work in, almost every big action picture has to have the PG-13 rating attached to it (the American version of our M rating) in order to bring in the biggest possible audience so that the film could bring in big box office numbers on it's opening weekend whereas if this film had indeed been made in the post Die Hard era where R rated action films were allowed to be made (some of which were rated M here in Australia, Die Hard being one of them) then this would've had the violence and language it needs to become a real winner as without those elements, the film gets a bit hollow at times and given how so much of this film works, its a real shame.
So all in all despite Tatum's blandness and some fairly hollow action in parts, White House Down is great fun due to smart writing and solid villains, well worth a look, 3 and a half out of 5.
White House Down was for me, a very fun time at the movies, mainly due to some smart writing by James Vanderbilt and solid direction by Roland Emmerich who also made the Day After Tomorrow and 2012, Tomorrow I really enjoyed whilst 2012 was simply too silly for my liking though this film is a nice return to form for him.
And Vanderbilt's script is a big reason for that, it's a script that has it's quiet moments solidly written that made me think that this had been thought through to some extent whilst it's action scenes for the most part are completely silly and it's not afraid to embrace that fact which for me added to the enjoyment of the film and at times I was reminded a great deal of the first Die Hard film, especially during one scene with a Tank.
The film also has some very solid villains, for me a big big big requirement for the overall success of an action picture and this movie more than delivers on that front, notably James Woods and Jason Clarke who is excellent in this movie essentially playing the Alexander Godunov role from Die Hard (I don't want neutral, I want dead) and Woods well when I saw his name pop up I thought "This won't be good, he was the lord of the Underworld" a reference to his voice role as Hades in Disney's Hercules.
As for Tatum and Foxx well they make a pretty good duo but I would've preferred Chris Evans in Tatum's role as he embodies the all American Action Hero better than Tatum does plus Evans has more charisma and screen presence than Tatum does who is very bland here in this role though Foxx more than picks up the pace in that department and does very well as the President as does Michael Murphy, Richard Jenkins and Maggie Gyllenhall in their roles as well as Joey King who plays the daughter.
As for the film's action scenes well some of them are quite good while the film's hand to hand fight scenes are not, they're shot too close and edited too quickly so you lose track of who's who and where they are during some of them.
But sadly the action critically lacks the teeth of the post Die Hard action films it wants to be like as there is a fairly big body count piled up during this film and almost little to no blood is shown which I found hard to believe nor does it have the coarse language those films had much more of, there's some of it here but not as much as I would've liked given the kind of film it wants to be.
But this point sadly is not the film's fault but rather the US rating guidelines it has to work in, almost every big action picture has to have the PG-13 rating attached to it (the American version of our M rating) in order to bring in the biggest possible audience so that the film could bring in big box office numbers on it's opening weekend whereas if this film had indeed been made in the post Die Hard era where R rated action films were allowed to be made (some of which were rated M here in Australia, Die Hard being one of them) then this would've had the violence and language it needs to become a real winner as without those elements, the film gets a bit hollow at times and given how so much of this film works, its a real shame.
So all in all despite Tatum's blandness and some fairly hollow action in parts, White House Down is great fun due to smart writing and solid villains, well worth a look, 3 and a half out of 5.
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