Search This Blog

Saturday 25 August 2012

Movie Newz: Did You know?

*Dumb and Dumber 2 re-ignites

So at least six months ago I was telling folks about a Dumb and Dumber sequel (a real one) and how excited I was, relating the possibility of Jim Carey actually being funny again! Well, a Harry and Lloyd reunion was then scrapped due to director commitments. So thanks to the original directors, the Farrelly brothers, a sequel is now back on track with plans to start shooting in 2013!

For exciting Plot information, Read Empires article here: http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=34947









*Uncharted movie? still, we wait

For those who were unaware, the construction of an Uncharted movie is long overdue. Almost 3 years since I first heard of Hollywood's desires, it seems the films production has taken one step forward and two steps back. The latest news tells us that the original director has abandoned ship while two new writers of come aboard. (you like that?). With no news on who will play the humorous dare-devil, the official news is directors Marianne and Cormac Wibberly will weather the screen play. Who? I can tell you they are the amateur master-minds behind such movies as The 6th Day (2000) ,Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003) and I Spy (2002). Eeek!

Strong rumours?

For more information: http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=34980



*The Latest "Looper" poster is a quality image.

The creators behind the eagerly anticipated movie that is Looper, rewarded the fans with the latest poster. It follows a twitter vote, that led to the most recent teaser. See below.


Notice the effort behind the scenes in creating the resemblance between Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis.




























*Fast Six? Where does it end?

 Yep, Fast Six is under way, continueing on from were they left off, which was in Rio, right? I enjoyed the last movie surprisingly enough, but now the production is just been greedy! Apparently the original cast as well as Dwayne Johnson is still assigned as well as that MMA women from that awful looking movie, Haywire 2011. (I still cant believe the cast they got for that film)

For more information: http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=34943



*RED 2 teaser poster

I believe I am one of very few who despised the release of Red. One can wonder how a film with such a good cast receive any such haters. Well, let just say the trailers released prior to the movie made it seem so much better, on top of it showing every funny moment to the point when I did see the film I found it far from humours. Anyway the sequel announced, fans can expect pretty much the same thing....a fantastic cast, that's it!







The Expendables 2 Review


In 2010 Sylvester Stallone reunited the child within me, and I am not talking Disney fantasies. The Expendables was quite significant in terms of all those big names in one explosive whirlwind leading to a nostalgic spotlight in relation to the 80's action genre. What was a mindless concept from Sly, it was obvious he carried the gruesome portrayal of Rambo (2008) and brought it to the streets which consisted of explosive scenes and disturbed characters.

Expectations were high for the sequel. Was there a chance that Arnold Schwarzenegger would play a bigger part this time around? Chuck Norris and Van Damme were also popping up in trailers. It looked exciting on paper so let's find out.

So after an introduction of pure carnage and to be frank, quite ridiculous stunts, Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone) is cornered by Church (Bruce Willis) as he once again seeks to assemble Barney and the gang for a routine mission that goes excitingly wrong. 

According to Church, Barney cost him 10 million from the previous mission so this would be the last of any dealings between Barney's mercenaries and Church. A sense of portrayal is exposed when Christmas (Jason Statham), Gunner (Dolph Lundgren) Hale (Terry Crews) and Co are found to be set up, resulting in immediate pay back and a path of destruction from the guys. The "Villain", who is titled eh, Villain, is the legendary (Jean-Claude Van Damme). Jean plays the role of a heartless Russian who is mindset on a cave full of heavy artillery leading to what he believes will create world war 2012. Yes, looking to start another world war...not on Sly's watch!

So it is from there we witness once again as Sly's expendables attempt to raise their credibility as well as save the day as they bump into Friends of old and older. (you know who).

The anticipation of the cameos we wait so eager for comes a lot sooner than expected. The action scenes and overall acting was genuinely poor. I prayed for a Schwarzenegger appearance to help make this better than it's predecessor. Trench (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is an old friendly rival of Barney and coincidentally bump into each other through-out the film as this sequel shows it's stupidity as Trench and Booker (Chuck Norris) appear in the most random of places failing to explain any logic on how and why they are there?. Booker is the lone wolf who can't help but throw in his own Chuck Norris jokes every so often.

I enjoyed this film for what it is. And what is it? well it is an all out war of the best with a plot that was thought up in the space of 30 minutes or less. To see Arnold and Van Damme back on screen was amusing and exciting. With all these egos, and with their history, neither are ever short of a quote or two...or three!

The testosterone in this film is laughable and I couldn't help but think Sly is bigger than ever as one of his veins looks the equivalent to my left leg.

One cannot help to be entertained by the stupidity of this film as we witness the over-reaction of  splattered heads, cringe one liners and mundane comedy. Unfortunately, I personally enjoyed the previous more as their was a better character in the enemy and supplied that touch of drama with Micky Rourke's involvement. Jet Li's Yang who also went missing through the sequel...unexplained really. I suppose that defines a Stallone movie in 2012.

So with a Mickey mouse storyline and a wider cast, the Expendables 2 failed to live up to the entertaining scenes in the original. I was not hoping to be blown away by actors performances but as a fan of the majorities cast, I felt, once again, manipulated in terms of the apparent involvement of Arnold and the rest that was used to sell the film.

Overall: Enjoyable if you forget your brain like I did with it's promotion supplying a better hype than the overall movie.













Thursday 23 August 2012

The Bourne Legacy Review


Following the trilogy that Matt Damon would be forever recognised, Jeremy Renner takes the brave role of Aaron Cross; a highly trained member of a black ops defence programme.

We get introduced to Aaron (Jeremy Renner) in the freaky weathers of Alaska as we witness the abilities of Aaron as he fends off wolves and climbs mountains...literally. The survival skills revealed would put Bear Grills to shame. As we try to get a hold of Renner's character, another story is unfolding as Jason Bourne has operation Blackbriar sweating on the fact he is trying to expose their links between a Treadstone project. This leads to a cameo return for Pamela Landy who is now being investigated by the FBI.

With the FBI up the asses of the CIA's operations, it is when former USAF colonel Eric Bryer(Edward Norton) is called upon to help weather the storm. So with the plot slowly getting under way, all is forgotten about the one of few remaining soldiers, Aaron, who finds himself caught in the headlights as Eric seeks to rid any trace of Treadstones trained soldiers.

Mark Turso (Stacy Keach), a retired member of the operation is also on thin ice. Although the majority of Turso's operation may not agree with Eric's way of dealing with the situation, it seems the clock is ticking as with Pamela Landy under interrogation, the programmes oblivion seems logical.

With Eric and Co desperate to finish Aaron, he is fighting two battles with his stamina and abilities beginning to wear. Aaron is pretty much a super-soldier who in order to remain in shape, he needs to take certain pills. Subscribed by the programme that assigned him, the green and blue pills are what is needed for Aaron to sustain his energy and hopes of surviving long enough to unravel the reason behind the programmes portrayal.

Dr. Marta (Rachel Weisz) is responsible for the routine dosage of pills supplied to the soldiers as Aaron soon learns that she might be the key to his investigation and survival.

Expectations were high, for myself anyway. So it saddens me to say that this movie could have been made under a different name and nobody would have noticed let alone cared! It succeeded in terms of a fine cast of acting but lacked the same high-octane concept of the originals. Of course the movie wanted to do-way with the previous flicks but it couldn't. It struggled to be it's own. The plot was pretty mundane as you focus on the situation of both Aaron and the Treadstone controversy.

When you are not watching Aaron run around landscapes you are updated every 15 minutes on how Jason Bourne is here, there, most places blah blah. The film seemed it wanted to try ever so hard to remind you that this movie is still a "Bourne" flick. News flash, it isn't. The story was weak, the action scenes were boring concluding with a car chase near the end that failed to anticipate an apparent sequel to come.

It is set a couple of years after the "Ultimatum" so the Pill concept might have seemed appropriate or original. Personally, the super soldier thing didn't do it for me. It stole the human knowledge and overall abilities that Jason Bourne Graced us with.

The Bourne Legacy was two hours too long for me. I was looking forward to Edward Norton and was quite glad to see him on screen again. As for the rest of the cast, quite frank they could do no wrong in such a basic movie!

Overall: Dull and too long with a story that failed to keep interest. Skip this and have a Jason Bourne night in!

5/10

Thursday 2 August 2012

Ted Review 2012


So following a dry portrayal of comedy in The Other guys and a typical mundane bad-ass in Contraband, Mark Wahlberg returns for another comedic attempt? Honestly, when watching The Other Guys I felt I was one unfortunate member of the audience to witness one of the worst comedy's of the decade. What looked like so much fun in the trailer, The other guys was funny for the first 20 minutes or less, then quickly dried up like a prune. The fact Will Ferrell out-shined Marky-Mark was blatantly obvious. So on that note, I had no hope for a humours Mr Wahlberg in the near future.

However, a friendship between Mark and an outlandish teddy bear has shown results of being one of the finest comedy's of the last ten years. When I admit my prior judgement to Mark and this movie was wrong, boy I was really wrong.

A young John Bennett (Wahlberg) gets the ultimate wish, one that savours himself from his lonely neglected childhood. John, who appears a friendly guy although his will to make friends differs from the final result. Even the bullied kid wants nothing to do with John!

On a privileged Christmas morning, John receives his friend to be;  a cuddly beady-eyed teddy bear that at the time could do no wrong. John who uses his imaginary mind makes an incredible wish resulting with inscrutable results. Introducing the life in the teddy bear, Ted (Seth MacFarlane), a walking talking stuffed bear with a humorous yet realistic soul.

It is from there we are introduced to a hilarious montage as the movie takes us to places through-out the lives of both John and Ted as the results show the hilarious brotherhood and the growth acceptance of the public towards Ted. He is famous for being a once in a life-time miracle. John and Ted spend their days smoking weed and watching Flash Gordan! The mood and laxy-daisy lifestyle is disrupted now and again as John appears to struggle with the right satisfaction from his girlfriend of four years, Lori (Mila Kunis).

Ted is a simple plot, well almost no plot just an amusing tale of two friends having a lot of fun while trying to play separate lives. John has trouble considering Lori instead of Ted while Lori believes the time is right to send Ted out on his own. Its fun concept concentrates on the events before and after the relationship between Ted and John with Ted showing his crude and inappropriate personality as a supermarket assistant. Ted is left to fend for himself as a stalker lurks in the background, Donny (Giovanni Ribisi) who is desperate to create the life of John for himself.

Seth MacFarlane's Ted offers so many Jaw dropping scenes that you wonder how many parents mistakenly brought their kids to this movie. Obviously the trailer reveals some adult humour which is very little in terms of the overall movie as there is no way you are prepared to witness the extent Seth has taken to provide the best of laughs! Seth MacFarlane aka Peter Griffin aka Ted has created a wonderful film filled with originality. There is an obvious touch of Family Guy providing the pro- American theme tunes jingling in every background, Seth creates comedy like no other.

Seth manged to form a perfect role around Mark Wahlberg. I believed in Marks character. Sure, he was a kid when he came to meet Ted, but the fantastic thing about his character is he never changes and every now and again his vulnerability and child-hood shows with his lack of maturity taking its toll on his relationship with Lori. This worked so much better in terms of Mark's comedic performance previously. I felt his character, or acting or possibly poor script made his desperate attempt to be funny look stupidly obvious and lacked ambition in the Other Guys. Mark Wahlberg won me over in this movie as I felt myself not only laughing at MacFarlane's Ted!

It's full of surprising cameos and some strange turn of events that will leave you wanting more from John and Child-hood side kick Ted. With a nice soundtrack and fantastic CGI (performed by Seth through Motion Capture), the dedication and "will" to make the audience laugh out loud is seen through-out the movie.

Overall: If you Like Peter Griffin you will adore the origin of both Ted and John.

7.5/10