Posts Tagged ‘Movie’
27
Jul
Posted by vagrantesque in Movies. Tagged: 2014, brett, dwayne, Film, heracles, hercules, johnson, Movie, mythical, ratner, Review, rock. Leave a comment
Here’s something I certainly didn’t think I’d be watching in cinemas this year.
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Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Ian McShane, John Hurt
Director: Brett Ratner (X-Men: The Last Stand, Tower Heist)
Rating: M
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Brett Ratner. The name just fills me with such icky feelings. The man who dragged the X-Men movie franchise down in my adolescence hasn’t made very many good films since Rush Hour 2 some 13 years ago, so I wasn’t exactly brimming with confidence going to see his latest film, Hercules. Yet a very cleverly cut second trailer (the first one was awful), which revealed the importance of the film’s quite impressive supporting cast and the lighthearted tone of their involvement without spoiling the actual movie, turned me around. Hercules is actually a decent slice of dumb fun, despite its narrative unevenness.
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14
Jul
Posted by vagrantesque in MUBC. Tagged: 2014, 25, blast, cast, episode, five, Game, halfway, mega, Movie, MUBC, of, podcast, twenty, ultra, Year. Leave a comment
It’s time to take stock of the amazing movies of 2014 thus far on the 25th episode of the Mega Ultra Blast Cast. We three nominate our personal frontrunners for movie of the year to complement our half-yearly game conversation on the previous episode, leaving room to discuss the gaming/movie news of the hour, the awful state of Shane’s room, yet another Kingdom Hearts argument, the apparent game drought of the moment and why I won’t play Hearthstone. It’s MUBC. It’s “slick” and “focused”. Yes.
If you feel so inclined, go for a run, take a scenic drive, jazz up your afternoon commute or just curl up on the couch and play some games while you listen to the opinions of three hyperactive Sydneysiders.
You can play the whole episodes right off this page if you like:
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Or you can go to the Soundcloud site/app and listen from there:
https://soundcloud.com/mega-ultra-blast-cast/mubc-25-mid-year-movie-madness
(To download and listen offline, follow the link and then click the download tab)
As always if you enjoy what you hear please share the cast with your friends – Until next time!
3
Jul
Posted by vagrantesque in Movies. Tagged: 2, dragon, fury, hiccup, how. to. train, Movie, night, Review, toothless, two, your. Leave a comment
My apologies for the lack of content lately. The FIFA World Cup is dominating pretty much all aspects of my life at present, including my sleeping patterns. But today is a rest day!
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Starring: Jay Baruchel, Cate Blanchett, Gerard Butler
Director: Dean DeBlois (Lilo & Stitch, How To Train Your Dragon)
Rating: PG
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It’s been a while since the first How To Train Your Dragon movie flew into cinemas and swept up the hearts of more than a few moviegoers. Though Dreamworks’ animated feature output had been inconsistent since the first Shrek, the fantastical 2010 coming-of-age tale about a social outcast who finds his purpose through a chance dragon meeting was a bona fide hit in more ways than one. It nailed the difficult balance of appealing to a wide range of audience tastes, with badass dragons on one hand and some tear-jerking moments built off strong characterisation rather than tacky manipulation on the other. It was a great film, and four years later the now-franchise has managed to top itself. How To Train Your Dragon 2 is just downright excellent.
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26
May
Posted by vagrantesque in Movies. Tagged: 2014, blink, days, dinklage, Film, fox, future, magneto, marvel, Movie, mystique, of, past, Review, superhero, trask, wolverine, x, xavier, xmen. Leave a comment
Ooh boy, been waiting for this one for a while…
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Starring: Hugh Jackman, Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender
Director: Bryan Singer (The Usual Suspects, X-Men)
Rating: M
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What’s this? A good multi-superhero movie that isn’t made by Marvel Studios?
As movie franchises go, the X-Men movies mean a lot to me. Not only do I remember where I was when I first saw X-Men III: The Last Stand in cinemas back in 2006, I also remember what I was wearing and who I was with. I was so damn excited for that movie and to see it play out as such a mess after the first two X-Men films had literally made me interested in comic book mythology was not the greatest feeling. Three years later the release of the underdone and just generally awful X-Men Origins: Wolverine meant the franchise was suddenly “only 50% good”, and while 2011’s X-Men First Class was a triumphant return to form with a fun political twist and last year’s The Wolverine didn’t suck, the franchise was still lagging far behind the efforts of Disney’s Marvel cinematic universe. And there was still that lingering bad taste in my mouth from 2006. Well, not anymore.
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21
May
Posted by vagrantesque in Movies. Tagged: 2014, bryan, cranston, edwards, Film, gareth, godzilla, gojira, Movie, muto, Review. Leave a comment
GOJIRA!!!
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Starring: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, Bryan Cranston
Director: Gareth Edwards (In the Shadow of the Moon, Monsters)
Rating: M
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I feel it’s worth mentioning for the sake of this review that I don’t really have any sort of connection to Godzilla in any of his various incarnations over the last half century or so – I didn’t even see the 1998 movie despite being a fresh-faced nine year old with plenty of similar interests at the time. My limited knowledge of the king of the monsters and his kaiju buddies comes from other forms of referential media, starting with that Season 2 South Park episode where Barbara Streisand reveals her true form and goes on a rampage. My exposure to this new Gareth Edwards take on the Godzilla mythos is limited to one trailer I saw last month in the cinema.
That being said, the 2014 Godzilla is pretty damn cool, and with some rebalances it could well have been one of my favourite movies of this year. It’s a shame that the film’s human elements aren’t more engaging.
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7
May
Posted by vagrantesque in Movies. Tagged: 2, amazing, Film, Man, Movie, Review, spider, spiderman, two. Leave a comment
Time to make good use of an extremely rare case where Australia gets a huge movie before the US does.
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Starring: Andrew Garfield, Jamie Foxx, Emma Stone
Director: Marc Webb (500 Days of Summer, The Amazing Spider-Man)
Rating: M
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I’m still questioning why the first Amazing Spider-Man had to play out the way it did in 2012. Sure, I get the business reasons behind Sony Pictures wanting to keep the Spider-Man license and thus needing to churn out another film within a certain number of years after the conclusion of the Sam Raimi trilogy of Spidey flicks. But I’m sure I don’t stand alone in the camp of people wondering why said situation had to mean a reboot functioning almost identically to the first 2002 Spider-Man. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 presents an opportunity for the aptly named Marc Webb and his gang to kick on, having established their groundwork, and show what sets this new version of Spider-Man apart from the mostly well-regarded Raimi movies. In this regard, ASM2 succeeds, which is great, but disappointingly it fails to learn from the mistakes that plagued Raimi‘s Spider-Man 3 – the one that had too many villains vying for attention. It’s just a wee bit over-indulgent.
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29
Apr
Posted by vagrantesque in Movies. Tagged: divergent, Film, Movie, Review, roth, shailene, veronica, woodley. 1 comment
Oh my word, it’s almost May. Do I have some things to catch up on.
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Starring: Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Kate Winslet
Director: Neil Burger (The Illusionist, Limitless)
Rating: M
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Cynical mode activated. Here comes yet another Lionsgate young adult teen novel series stretched into more movies than is necessary for the sake of raking in extra money, following in the footsteps of Twilight and The Hunger Games. Brace yourselves, because Neil Burger‘s Divergent is a post-apocalyptic tale with a female protagonist, a radically restructured dystopian society with distinct costumes that indicate moral allegiance and a bit of romance thrown in. Now where have we seen that before?
Cynical mode deactivated. I was introduced to the Divergent saga (written by the surprisingly young Veronica Roth) much the same way as I was The Hunger Games – an interested sibling and the promise of a “next big thing”. Yes, in a way that makes me a part of Lionsgate’s ideal demographic, who still isn’t over the buzz generated by The Hunger Games – I mean, just look at the first Divergent trailer and compare it to any of the HG ones. But I am a notoriously appalling reader of fiction and yet I got through the first Divergent book relatively painlessly. Why? Because there is more to this series than a checklist of popular modern elements – its themes go deeper – or at least more intimate – than politics, into a more personal ideological space. Its futuristic Chicago is divided into five factions, each one requiring its members to adhere to a single prevailing virtue (Knowledge, courage, selflessness, kindness and honesty respectively). I’d easily recommend the book, for the most part, to anyone interested in its concept. The movie? Not quite as much. It’s certainly watchable, and it gets several things right, but it has issues.
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20
Apr
Posted by vagrantesque in Movies. Tagged: batman, book, comic, Dark, dc, Film, galaxy, guardians, Iron, Knight, Man, marvel, Movie, of, steel, superman. Leave a comment
We dive into the second half of Guest Week with an Iranian-born movie/gaming fanatic packing some prior experience writing for entertainment media publications in his home country.
—Written by XVSting—
—Edited/formatted by Vagrantesque—
July 2008. The latest installment of Gotham’s caped crusader was released and unexpectedly, it changed the face of comic book movies forever. The Dark Knight by Christopher Nolan was not only the most appreciated comic book even to this date, but it elevated the comic book genre from cheesy-colorful costumes to award winning dark tales. With extraordinary performances and breathtaking action, The Dark Knight shattered every single barrier and expectation audiences had from a comic book movie. 2008 was also the birth of the first installment of Disney’s fresh cinematic universe that would revolutionise the genre with their masterfully planned strategy. The question is, did titles like 2012’s The Avengers benefit audiences and related movies by creating a new standard, or has their greatness damaged the smaller and solo franchises? Let’s get started and see how far our beloved and flashy comic book movies have come!
The battle is on.
While the world didn’t end at 2012, it was definitely a landmark year for comic book movies. As a kid (and I’m positive this was the same for all comic book fans), all I ever wanted was to see a crossover between characters such as Spider-Man and the X-Men together in a movie (Even a small reference would make me happy). Hence the reason why I loved games such as Marvel vs Capcom or Marvel Ultimate Alliance so much – they were one of the few entertainment media sources where fans could experience all those characters together in one picture. As I grew up, and essentially got more informed about the industry, that dream slowly faded away due to the multiply copyright dramas of each character and their respective rights holders. As much as I love and appreciate the greatness of The Avengers for turning mine and probably all comic book fans’ dream into reality, it has created a set of fresh expectations for viewers and related studios. In short, Avengers was so good, everyone is now taking their own approach to catch up with Disney’s meticulously planned universe. Does that help us to see more extravagant movies with all-star characters? Yes. Has it affected the quality and progress of titles that are following this path? Well… this is where I think comic movies and generally most of the blockbuster trend might be going wrong.
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24
Jan
Posted by vagrantesque in Movies. Tagged: dicaprio, Film, leonardo, martin, Movie, Review, scorsese, street, wall, wolf. Leave a comment
Oh look, here’s another one. This one only just came out yesterday in Australia.
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Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Matthew McConaughey
Director: Martin Scorsese (Goodfellas, The Departed)
Rating: R18+
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I would be lying if I said I had seen all of Martin Scorsese‘s movies, or even all of the movies that piqued my interest from him. Despite how renowned the American is as a cinematic legend, and for good reason, there are certain common traits about his movies – mainly their really long run time – that have impeded my desire to seek them out. I enjoyed his secret identity gangster flick The Departed and his unexpectedly competent, beautiful family movie Hugo, but both films caught me looking at my watch more than once wondering just how much longer I would have to wait until the next story event happened. The same problem ultimately hampers his latest effort The Wolf of Wall Street – at 2 hours 59 minutes it’s even longer than any of his best-known films – even if it remains so damn entertaining throughout that it almost manages to overcome the issue.
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22
Jan
Posted by vagrantesque in Movies. Tagged: 47, japan, keanu, Movie, reeves, Review, ronin. Leave a comment
I saw this the same day as Saving Mr Banks. I struggle to think of a greater contrast.
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Starring: Keanu Reeves, Hiroyuki Sanada, Rinko Kikuchi
Director: Carl Rinsch (Newcomer)
Rating: M
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When I was in Tokyo late last year, I was understandably surrounded by more larger-than-life advertising than I could shake a Pocky stick at. Though anime, J-Pop and fashion billboards dominated the urban landscape, the one Western film that seemed to be getting enough coverage to register amongst the madness was 47 Ronin. Such a presence is understandable, as the film claims to present a fresh, more visually appealing and more fantastical interpretation of one of Japan’s most well known and highly celebrated historical legends than has ever gone before (many, many times, mind you). Yet this latest take on the beloved Japanese tale ends up disappointingly flat despite some cool moments.
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Vagrant Rant 