Chappie Movie Review
The story revolves around a computer sciences geek Deon Wilson (played by Dev Patel, he of Slumdog Millionaire, The Newsroom and Best Exotic Marigold Hotel fame) who creates an Artificial Intelligence program to help his robots achieve a level of human consciousness. His place of employment has already used his technology to build robots that the police use to enforce the law in Johannesburg. Upper management is opposed to this, so he goes rogue to complete the task. This is when the story ...
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 ...
Big Hero 6 Movie Review
Disney's cinematic adaptation of Marvel's Big Hero 6 markets itself off the back of Wreck-It Ralph and Frozen but it is an inferior film to both of those movies, lacking the intergenerational appeal and depth of those predecessors.
Big Hero 6 is all just a bit ‘kiddie’ and twee compared to its contemporaries. Yes, this is a kid’s movie but after all the intergenerational ‘kids’ movies we've had from Pixar and others, a plain ol' kids movie barely cuts it anymore. The beauty of ...
Interstellar Movie Review
Environmental disaster is coming and our days are numbered on Mother Earth. Unfortunately the world is also consumed with an incongruous mixture of hyper-cynicism, conspiracy and hopeless optimism: living day to day, hoping for the best, shunning technology; existing in a perpetual state of damage control, rather than seeking new horizons. In the words of traumatised ex-test pilot, Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), we have become caretakers rather than explorers and pioneers. In what appears to ...
Sharknado 2: the Second One Movie Review
A movie about tornados sucking up sharks and destroying Los Angeles was an unexpected phenomenon. Sharknado dominated the twittersphere when it first aired, the term ‘Sharknado’ began appearing in mainstream media, and organisations (including the Red Cross) used the film’s success to promote storm safety information. The Asylum is not a company to miss an opportunity, and they have released the sequel a year later.
Sharknado 2 starts with the stars of the first film, Ian Ziering ...
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 ...
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 ...
Elysium Movie Review
The story follows Max (Matt Damon), a downtrodden underclassman vying for asylum in the privileged celestial city of Elysium. Like his poverty-stricken brethren, Max is an oppressed would-be saint crushed under the iron heel of an elitist upper class that is evil beyond redemption.
Emotionally-laden key words such as 'homeland security' and 'no-fly zone' are bandied about to ensure we don't miss the point and one of the bad guys is Apartheid incarnate with his penchant for authoritarian ...
