Seventh Son Movie Review
Once you get pulled into its world of crazy, it’s actually a good bit of fun. Bridges as head Spook, Master Gregory has never been more over the top (and that's saying something). A Spook in this context is one who helps deal with witches and other creatures that go bump in the night. They are also adept at hand-to-hand combat with a drink in one hand and little else.
The set up is thin with little more than a head demon to take down, this simplicity however is flushed out by the ...
Jupiter Ascending Movie Review
The fact they never really transcend the uneasy combination of science fiction and fantasy shouldn’t deter any serious Matrix fan from giving this opus a go. Add the now almost obligatory 3D glasses and the biggest container of popcorn you can carry and you have one very current big bang cinema experience on your hands.
But this recommendation comes with a few conditions. First, if you suffer from vertigo, forget about it, as the relentless 3D action and change of perspective will have ...
The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies Movie Review
Unperturbed by this, Peter Jackson has attempted to do the exact same thing with his Hobbit films bar the good sense to realise prior to publishing that destroying the tone of the original book is, in fact, a bad idea. Is it arrogance or egoism on Jackson's part to presume that he can improve upon Tolkien or is it economic studio interference to produce a cash cow? I suspect a fair portion of both but the result is the same: a three hour movie extravaganza of a children's novel which ...
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, ...
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.)...
Alice In Wonderland Movie Review
This vivid approach isn’t just limited to the visuals either. The landscapes and creatures are integral to a story that also expands the mind. One thinks that the story’s original author Lewis Carroll might have gotten hold of some of the Blue Caterpillar’s best stash before pen was put to paper.
Australian actor Mia Wasikowska as Alice, starts out as a dour young girl sent off to marry a man she doesn’t love and through the magic of the story becomes a luminous woman ready to ...
Ted Movie Review
The surprises continue with the acting with Mark Wahlberg proving himself particularly adept at this style of raunchy comedy and his rapid-fire white-trash name recital is one of the film’s most laugh out loud moments. Ted, the CGI created teddy bear voiced by MacFarlane himself also defies simple categorization by being both offensive and inviting at the same time.
Elsewhere taste is stretched to the absolute limit and this nothing off limits approach is refreshing in its disregard to ...
Snow White and the Huntsman Movie Review
The story is not helped by the casting of Hollywood’s blandest starlet in Kristen Stewart nor in Chris Hemsworth whose main claim to fame so far is a comic book character. In Hemsworth's defence, though, he doesn't have much to do bar getting angry and hitting things with a hefty weapon and somehow falling in love with the heroine (I'm still not sure exactly where in the story this happened but it did… apparently). After half an hour it's abundantly clear this is going to be a generic ...
The Lego Movie Movie Review
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!
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 Hill, Liam Neeson and ...
