Retro Movie Review – Tomorrowland
The story revolves around a parallel universe that is not unlike the hidden world in Ayn Rand’s opus Atlas Shrugged (minus the extreme narcissism). It’s a land where science is let loose to the benefit of mankind. This gives the filmmakers a platform for some very cool wishful technology and also features a lot of fantastic set design artwork.
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With a list of participants that includes director Brad Bird (The Incredibles and The Iron Giant), George Clooney and ...
Retro Movie Review – The Martian
It is equal parts thriller and scientific exploration and focuses on the human resolve to rise to the occasion and survive despite all the odds. Matt Damon is fantastic as the hyper intelligent astronaut that due to circumstance gets left behind on an aborted manned mission on Mars.
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His approach to survival is based around his scientific knowledge and raw will to live but it is tempered by irreverence towards his circumstance and to the authority figures that he ...
Retro Movie Review – The Lego Movie
The underlying message is a positive one (believing in yourself and seeing greatness in everyday moments) but really even if the theme was completely saccharin, who could take that much offense when it is delivered by yellow plastic beings with hooks for hands!
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The jokes fly fast and furious while the filmmakers get the mix of adult humor and childlike wonder spot on. There is also the fun of identifying the voice actors. The list includes Morgan Freeman, Jonah ...
Retro Movie Review – Sausage Party
It is so surprisingly crude, crass, creative, outrageous and funny, it is literally like nothing you have ever experienced before. It will also provide a great test to see how easily you are offended. It pushes things so far, it becomes a new paradigm. Its R rated status is complete vindicated and I would have loved to have ease dropped on the conversation of explanation between the father and his very young son that I saw attending the preview screening.
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The ...
Retro Movie Review – Kubo and the Two Strings
The film uses stop motion animation (with one of the techniques cleverly shown in the end credits), CGI and what one might possibly imagine is hand drawn imagery and looks fantastic. Voiced by an A-list of vocal talent that includes Charlize Theron, Ralph Fiennes and Matthew (put down those bongos) McConaughey, they are given rich text to work with.
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The story is an out right fantasy voyage and while this is a genre whose charms often elude, this is so inventively ...
Retro Movie Review – Deadpool
Ryan Reynolds is the perfect man for the job and his ability to act the class clown and emote even with his face covered in a silly red and black mask is outstanding. He has finally found a role that utilizes all of his talents. Animator Tim Miller makes his directing debut with Deadpool and his sense of pace is spot on. He throws so many jokes and unique ideas your way that the fun doesn’t stop from the hilarious opening credits to the very end crazy credit (don’t miss it).
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Retro Movie Review – The Revenant
The film directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu (Birdman and Babel) tells a story based on a book by Michael Punke called The Revenant: A Novel of Revenge. The book was inspired by the life of a 19th century fur trapper named Hugh Glass. The trapper profession during Glass’ lifetime was highlighted by an existence of extreme hardship from both the harshness of the land and the extremes of the weather.
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During an excursion collecting fur pelts in the unsettled ...
Retro Movie Review – Spectre
The feeling lingers that they started with an overall direction for the Craig films but ended up taking too many diversions along the way. Some of the reveals are far from the surprise the filmmakers intended. Also extending the realism and casting Bond as more human and less the gadget guy has worked with only half of the four films. This sombre realism worked well with Casino Royale and Skyfall, less so with Quantum of Solace and Spectre.
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Even though Craig is ...
Retro Movie Review – Terminator Genisys
The story throws a lot your way and it relies quite a bit on the viewer’s past knowledge of the Terminator film series and its liberal take on time travel. Most of the plot twists originate from that ethos and they are at times hard to follow. It also features a progression of special effects as the early reels show simpler CGI while the later reels try their best to blow your mind with what’s now possible with zeros and ones.
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The new cast play better with ...
Retro Movie Review – Kingsman: The Secret Service
Colin Firth as Kingsman agent Harry Hart is flawlessly cast as our introduction to this world of perfect gentlemanly conduct and deadly killing precision. And in stark contrast to the recent proclivity of the Bond franchise to do away with all those cool spy gadgets, this film is littered with deadly hardware that would have made the old Q more than happy.
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Underlining the cool technology on display is a story based on character development, honour and paying back ...
