Guardians of the Galaxy – a second movie review
Where the film hits its stride, though, is in the painting of its characters - which are a marvelous, dysfunctional and irreverent bunch of varying galactic species with individual agendas converging on a common goal of claiming the reward on a valuable artifact, oh, and maybe saving the galaxy.
Bradley Cooper is wonderful as the feral, sentient raccoon, Rocket. Chris Pratt's Peter Quill (AKA Starlord) is a good, funny, charismatic hero. Vin Diesel is mostly MIA as the tree creature, ...
Guardians of the Galaxy Movie Review
And all this for a superhero team that not many people know, and the first Marvel film not to feature one of the Silver Age group of characters created by Stan Lee.
The Guardians are a bunch of undesirables who find themselves fighting together to prevent one of the Infinity Stones from reaching Thanos. If that all sounds a little crazy, then welcome to the Marvel Universe (not just Earth, or Asgard, or wherever it is that Agent Coulson buys his suits) where universe destroying gems and ...
Lucy Movie Review
The story of a forced upon drug mule, in this case the radiant Scarlett Johansson whose stitched in cargo ruptures and floods her body with an intelligence enhancing drug is only the start of the strain of credibility.
What comes next is an example of one of the most crazed usages of computer enhanced imagery ever seen on the big screen as Besson covers a staggering array of ideas. This even includes another cinematic take on the big bang theory (as if The Tree Of Life’s example was ...
Sex Tape Movie Review
Part one of the film makes for some very uncomfortable viewing as it’s far more cringe than comedy but part two is actually quite funny as the viewer buys into the ridiculous storyline. It’s one of those film only stories where the main protagonists continually do things that only people in movies would actually do.
Casting also cuts fifty/fifty as there are few cinematic experiences less appealing than seeing lead actor Jason Segel naked and not to be gender biased, lead actress ...
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes Movie Review
The plague created by Will Rodman's Alzheimer's ‘cure’ has spread throughout the globe and decimated the human population and, presumably, empowered ape populations worldwide. Caesar's simian refugees build a growing community in the redwood forest while a splinter group of human survivors eke out an existence within the ruins of San Francisco. The diminishing fuel supply the human's require for electricity generation inevitably bring them into contact with Caesar's community who ...
Jersey Boys Movie Review
It should be noted that Eastwood's film is not a musical but rather features performances of The Four Seasons' music to signpost defined periods within the band's chronology. Correspondingly, the film is perfectly suited for those who love The Four Seasons music but do not possess a commensurate love of musicals (like me!) and as such appeals to a slightly different market. A smaller market it would seem given the film does not appear to be as successful as its theatrical predecessor.
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How To Train Your Dragon 2 Movie Review
Hiccup is clearly in a loving relationship with Astrid and Hiccup's dad, Stoick, is talking wedding bells. But there's a darkness that accompanies this maturing of the story elements and it proves to be a double-edged sword.
The unbridled fun of the first film (probably Dreamworks' best animated feature) takes a heavy hit in this one with the story centering around loss, love and loss again. Hiccup's discovery of his long lost mother (voiced by Cate Blanchett impersonating Emma Thompson, ...
Terminator: Salvation Movie Review
Like the make up job on Sam Worthington's exposed Terminator face, the film as a whole is patchy at best. Though there are plentiful nods to the previous films which will keep some diehard fans happy, some of the references (like recurrent sound bites, for instance) are laugh-out-loud cheesy. Abundant cheddar is also evident in the adoption of styles, shots and sequences that unashamedly resonate other (notably better) films: Aliens, Transformers, Mad Max (there's even a weird, mute kid - ...
Monsters University Movie Review
So it is that Monsters University arrives with much anticipation. The sequel has some mighty shoes to fill and sadly it falls some way short as it is surprisingly bereft of new ideas. What is presented here is simply a ‘further adventures of Mike and Sully’ film that could easily have gone straight to DVD.
The film channels the frat movies of the eighties. While that seems like such a great idea in theory, the potential remains largely unrealised here. Taking most of its cues from ...
Toy Story 1 & 2 (in 3D) Movie Review
I remember feeling a little like this the first time I saw Toy Story: the amazement that somehow a computer had created these textured colourful creatures that emoted and cavorted through such a beautifully detailed world. It's worth remembering that the first film came out nearly 15 years ago, when the top of the line Power Macintosh boasted a head spinning 120Mhz CPU and 16 Mib of RAM! (Of course Pixar used racks of Sun Sparkstations to actually render the movies, but you get my point.)...
