Posts tagged review
The Expendables Review – A Fast Paced, Action Packed Thrill Ride
Aug 4th
To put it simply if you like your films profound and thought provoking The Expendables is not for you, yet if truckloads of bullets, explosions, bombs, shotguns, chase scenes, cheesy one liners and an ample amount of blood and guts are up your alley, this is a must! I went in to the screening pretty much expecting The Expendables to be a fast-paced, action packed thrill ride, and you best believe it delivered. In some aspects it surpassed my expectations, in a guilty kind of way the film cracked me up, some of the jokes and the down right ballsiness of the action had me in stitches.
The Expendables follows a group of mercenaries hired to infiltrate the fictional South American island country of Vilena and overthrow its ruthless dictator and the corrupt former CIA operative (Ed Richards) who pull his strings. At first they turn down the assignment due to the fact that they believe they will be sacrificing themselves to save the CIA embarrassing headlines. Yet after Stallone meets the general’s beautiful rebel daughter, Sandra (Giselle Itie), he rekindles his connection to a righteous cause in favour of the almighty dollar. Much has been made of the cast assembled, it is truly a dream team of action stars with Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Steve Austin, Randy Couture, Terry Crews, Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis, Eric Roberts and Arnold Schwarzenegger featured.
The much talked about scene with Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger was a particular highlight, the punch line at the end gained rapturous applause from me and the audience – I’m sure a couple mangasm’s were ensuing. Another standout scene was when the ultra charismatic Mickey Rourke, recalled the moment in Bosnia when he knew his soul had dried up. His character gave the film a slice of tranquillity the other characters lacked. As much as I enjoyed The Expendables, it did have it’s flaws, there was pretty much zero character development, parts of the acting were bad -real REAL bad, there were a number of moments were I couldn’t understand what people were saying. The plot was pretty light as well, it basically served just to support the action sequences, also randomly I was distracted by Stallone’s eyebrow’s – what in the holy name of ass has happened to them! Dodgy eyebrow‘s aside, I had a blast, it thoroughly tickled my nostalgia bone and was downright big, bold, testosterone filled fun!
7.8/10
The Expendables is in cinemas August 13, 2010. My Interviews with the cast are coming next week.
Robin Hood Review – Ridley Scott & Russell Crowe’s Latest Collaboration
May 11th
Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood is the origin myth of the heroic outlaw we all know and love, it pretty much functions as a prequel to the Robin Hood stories we have grown up on, this makes a more human and gritty Robin Hood than we’ve seen on screen before, especially compared to the sh*tty Kevin Costner version. Robin Hood serves as Director Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe’s fifth collaboration, and Ridley Scott’s third sword and sandal epic alongside the brilliant Kingdom Of Heaven and the EVEN more brilliant Gladiator. Although a sufficient addition to their fine collaborations, I left the screening with mixed feelings.
Parts of Robin Hood were a complete triumph, particularly the visuals, there is no doubt Ridley Scott is one of the finest film makers when it comes to making you believe you are in the world he’s created, so many period drama’s look like CGI’fests, this film feels one hundred percent organic. Yet the score slightly took away from that, it had no heart at all, I was fully aware which points of the film I was ‘supposed’ to feel a certain way by a few plodding strings, this took a lot away from an emotional point of view, it didn’t mix well for me, visually I felt engrossed in the period, yet due to the music I kept remembering I was watching a film, which in cinema is a crime.
Another issue I had mixed feelings about was that I felt the film’s basic principles have been covered by Ridley Scott before in both Gladiator and Kingdom Of Heaven, particularly corruptive power, courage, humanity and the distortion of religion for profit, I’m not completely mad at that though, it is still a problem our current world faces, and it gives the film purpose, I just wished the script approached it a little more creatively. I think because it wasn’t dealt with originally I wasn’t as emotionally invested in the film as I was in his previous works, I wasn’t anywhere near as moved as I was in Gladiator, even though the film was thrilling and a lot of fun I always felt like I knew what will happen and that everything will be fine in the end.
Russell Crowe exudes the intense courage and humanity a figure like Robin Hood warrants, yet I was surprised by how little he was used, he doesn’t really say that much, and what he does say he mumbles, there was only one exceptionally stirring bit of dialogue I can recall – when he promotes the charter of liberties, which compared to ‘ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED‘ and ‘My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions, loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next.‘ it’s not exactly wet your pants in excitement material! The film is crammed with great performances in general though, Mark Strong the current ‘rent a villian’ is great as the villainous Godfrey, and in fact every cast member pretty much cements their place as their particular character in the Robin Hood story.
Overall Robin Hood is a mixed bag, I would definitely recommend it, I just wouldn’t call it one of Ridley Scott or Russell Crowe’s better movies. If you enjoy great visuals, mixed with muddy action, heroism and great performances it’s a must. Robin Hood is in cinemas now.
7.5/10
Centurion Review – Neil Marshall’s New Film Starring Michael Fassbender & Olga Kurylenko
Apr 13th
Make no mistake about it, Centurion is a man’s movie, the type of man that would chuckle if a woman didn’t pick the iron when playing Monopoly, lucky enough I am that sort of man! I thoroughly enjoyed it. Centurion possesses all the key ingredients to tickle a man’s fancy – epic beards, dangerous women, swords, dirt, chases, decapitations, a band of brothers spirit, harsh wilderness and excess blood and guts. If you’re stimulated by decapitated heads in particular, this is a must!
Centurion is based on the legend of the 9th Legion, an army of 3000 Roman warriors who vanished without trace, Centurion is the tale of their conflict with their adversary, the Picts. Michael Fassbender is brilliant in the lead role as Quintus Dias a Roman corporal. Quintus is taken hostage by the Pict King, Gorlacon and the 9th are charged with bringing him home and ending Pict domination of Britain. Led by General Virilus (Dominic West – sporting a rather epic beard) and guided by a Pict prisoner and warrior named Etain (Olga Kurylenko – who does a great job as the main protagonist without even saying a word). But as they usually do, things go wrong when the legion is ambushed and Virilus is taken captive. Quintus and a handful of surviving soldiers (which include Noel Clarke, Riz Ahmed, David Morrissey, Liam Cunningham and JJ field) face a desperate struggle to keep themselves alive behind enemy lines, evading the Pict pursuers over harsh terrain, and in an attempt to rescue their General, then finally reaching the safety of the Roman frontier.
Neil Marshall has done a great job writing and directing this brutal and exhilarating film, visually Centurion is stunning and the characters are meaty and well developed, I actually felt for them, I felt hungry when they were hungry and I felt cold when they were cold (which looked like pretty much the whole time). I’ve been a fan of all of Neil Marshall’s films (yes even Doomsday – hold back the stones), when watching his work it always comes across to me that he’s a true fan of the genre of film he’s making, Centurion is no exception.
As much as I enjoyed the film, it did have a couple flaws, there were parts that were a bit incoherent – how did Quintuis escape the Picts at the start? What bright spark thought it would be a good idea to use Etain as a scout? It started off badly as well, the font used for the titles looked like it was made for a 13 year old’s media project, it completely distracted me from the beautiful scenery, in the scheme of the whole film that’s just nit picking though, Centurion lived up to my expectations and more, it’s a hell of a ride, I can see this having a cult following in years to come, which it comprehensively deserves. Two thumbs up from me.
8.7574574459/10
New Kick Ass Red Band Trailer
Feb 19th
A new Red Band Trailer for Kick Ass has been released online, it’s safe to say from watching it I’m sold, it wasn’t much of a doubt from watching the other trailers and clips but this has just cemented it further. The film looks completely nuts!
Kick Ass tells the story of average teenager Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson), a comic-book fanboy who decides to take his obsession as inspiration to become a real-life superhero. As any good superhero would, he chooses a new name — Kick-Ass — assembles a suit and mask to wear, and gets to work fighting crime. There’s only one problem standing in his way: Kick-Ass has absolutely no superpowers. His life is forever changed as he inspires a subculture of copy cats, is hunted by assorted violent and unpleasant characters, and meets up with a pair of crazed vigilantes, including an 11-year-old sword-wielding dynamo, Hit Girl (Chloë Moretz) and her father, Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage).
Brooklyn’s Finest 4 New Clips
Feb 17th
I like the look of this, it looks real intense, I’ve always been a sucker for crime thrillers, selling them to me is pretty easy, the poster alone pretty much got me. Brooklyn’s Finest is the new film from Antoine Fuqua, director of Training Day, Shooter & King Arthur so expect a lot of kickassery! Brooklyn’s Finest has a first rate ensemble cast in Richard Gere, Don Cheadle, Ethan Hawke, Wesley Snipes, Lili Taylor, Ellen Barkin, Will Patton, Michael K Williams (Omar in The Wire………’OMAR’S COMING’) and Vincent D’Onofrio. Check out 4 new clips below
Lee Daniels Precious Interview
Jan 23rd
Lee Daniels is a critically acclaimed Director and Producer, he has produced the Academy Award Winning Monsters Ball, The Woodsman and Tennessee. Daniels made his directorial debut with 2006’s Shadowboxer, starring Helen Mirren and Cuba Gooding Jr, Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire is his second directorial outing…
Set in 1987, it is the story of Claireece “Precious” Jones (Gabourey Sidibe), a sixteen-year-old girl born into a life no one would want. She’s pregnant for the second time by her absent father; at home, she must wait hand and foot on her mother (Mo’Nique), a poisonously angry woman who abuses her emotionally and physically. School is a place of chaos, and Precious has reached the ninth grade with good marks and an awful secret: she can neither read nor write. Precious is offered the chance to transfer to an alternative school, Each One/Teach One. In the literacy workshop taught by the patient yet firm Ms. Rain (Paula Patton), Precious begins a journey that will lead her from darkness, pain and powerlessness to light, love and self-determination.
Initially, the author, Sapphire, was against a film adaptation. Yet you won her over.
Lee Daniels: Love her. Love her for that. It took me nine, probably ten, years to stalk her. I have stalked her for ten years. Sapphire is a scholar. She is a genius. She is a poet. She is an intellect beyond belief. She doesn’t give a fuck about Hollywood. She don’t care about it, just doesn’t. It is about literature and I think that Lady Luck must have been on my side because she finally embraced the idea. I think that even if I did a bad movie, it would not affect her brilliant masterpiece and I think that she saw the difference in both. She finally realised it and I was there the right time stalking her.
Do you know why she changed her mind? Did she see one of your other films maybe?
Lee Daniels: I think it was a combination of things, but I think she saw Shadowboxer and she really thought I could bring something to the world that she created and she is very excited that I am doing it.
Did she come to the film set?
Lee Daniels: She came down once or twice. I think she had to watch some of what I was doing because I am dealing with her very profound book. She laughed at something that only Mo’Nique and I thought was funny and she was laughing with us because she got it. She understood that there is humour and that she was still the creator. There was a moment when Mo’Nique was laughing at something and I was laughing at something and Sapphire was laughing at something and we realised that nobody else was laughing but us and that we were on another plane. It was a surreal moment.
What was the moment?
Lee Daniels: It was the scene when the mother tells Precious about the HIV. Precious says, ‘Do you have it?’ And the mother says ‘No.’ And Precious says, ‘How do you know?’ And the mother says, ‘Because we didn’t do it up in the ass!’ No one else thought that was funny. I don’t think it was funny but it was this brilliant delivery of it. I think we were laughing at the execution. It was exactly how Sapphire wrote it in the book so there was this triangle of understanding between Mo’Nique, Sapphire and myself.
It is a tough film but also a very tough book. You have had to soften the delivery a little bit, and add a few more rays of light…
Lee Daniels: A little bit!! A lot of a bit. If I had done the book it would have been X-rated. Not that I have a problem with doing X-rated films. I haven’t yet. But this would have lost an audience. I think that the audience should be entitled to breathe. I think with the book, if it gets too much, emotionally, you can put it down. It affected me so that I had to stop. I had to digest it. I put it down and picked it up again later on and I think that the sequences and the touches of humour that we put in the script really do it justice. Geoffrey Fletcher really did a marvellous job translating this book, this script, and we just took it to another place on the screen. We had to let the audience breathe. If you’ve read that book you will know what I am talking about.
You’ve said that you knew people who were moments away from being characters in this story. From where in your life do you know these people?
Lee Daniels: I knew these people when I was a kid. I knew these people as an adult. I know these people now. As a 50-year-old man, there are Precious, there are Marys. These are real life people to me. Everybody in that movie is someone that I have known. And I find it surprising that people don’t know them. I know that if you live in New York City there is no way you don’t see Precious. And I often see Mary. I am down in the grocery store and I am watching mothers yank on their kids, and just really fuming at them, with a cigarette dangling from their mouth. It doesn’t matter if they’re black, Puerto Rican, white or Chinese. Each woman exists.
Was the character of Mary the hardest to cast? She needs to be very complex, almost macabre, yet able to show that she did have something good inside her once.
Lee Daniels: Mary is a very complex person and she was the first person that I did cast. Mo’Nique is my best friend; a very, very good friend and I speak to her every day. I like working with friends. Mariah Carey is another. Gabby has become a good friend. I like working with friends because I know they have my back and we have such a tight budgetary parameter in dealing with the film that you have to count on friendships to take you through those barriers. It is a difficult journey. With regards to Mo’Nique what we did, only friends can do. It went beyond the director-actor friendship; she really understands me. Mo’Nique understands me in my primal place and we just talked about her. And we talked about me. We talked about my insecurities, paranoia, hopes and dreams and sex life, and what I love poetry-wise and what literature I like. And then she sort of broke down and then we transcended all that shit that she knew that I wanted into her interpretation of Mary. It was volatile, explosive, a magical moment, for me. I expected everything that she gave me. I was not surprised by a syllable.
On that point, you’ve been very brave in talking about the abuse you suffered as a child. That’s reflected specifically in the movie, right, with Precious’ dream sequences?
Lee Daniels: I was never sexually abused, but I was physically abused at home. And when bad things happened to me or I saw bad things happen, I would fantasize. When I was 12, I saw someone killed. I remember very clearly that I went into a bubble and I became a prince in a silver crown, knighting someone with my sceptre. I just dropped into a place right there, so I wouldn’t feel the pain. My imagination was God’s way of protecting me and keeping me sane, and I think we catch that in the movie, yes.
When did you first decide that you wanted to direct films, as well as produce them?
Lee Daniels: I started directing theatre. That’s how it started. I was in theatre early on and I moved. The camera was an animal to me that scared me but I learned about that while I was managing actors, and while I was producing films. Because of that, actors have always been in my comfort zone. My whole thing to begin with in the entertainment industry was media and managing actors throughout the world and being on sets and studying. I was always studying the process of filmmaking through filmmakers and through cinematographers and through production designers etc etc. So that whole experience was learned not through your conventional way
Finally, what was the most important thing that you wanted to convey with this film?
Lee Daniels: That never again should we look at Precious and not look at Precious. When you stumble across this girl you will acknowledge her. Because I have cousins that are her, friends that are her and even having friends and cousins that are her, I still disassociate myself. It is so important for me that I embrace this girl with all my gusto, because she is embracing me. The other important part of this story is about learning to love yourself, and accepting who you are. Those are the two big points I hope people will walk away with from this film. Who knows if they will? But I pray to God that they do.
PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL “PUSH” BY SAPPHIRE is released in cinemas across the UK on 29th January 2010