Posts Tagged ‘Movie’
29
Jul
Posted by vagrantesque in Movies. Tagged: Film, hugh, jackman, japan, Movie, Review, samurai, wolverine. Leave a comment
Well this is by far the most movie reviews I’ve written in a single month.
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Starring: Hugh Jackman, Tao Okamoto, Rila Fukushima
Director: James Mangold (Walk the Line, 3:10 to Yuma)
Rating: M
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So let’s talk about how terrible X-men Origins: Wolverine was. It told a largely made-up story that cobbled together as many mutants as possible (apparently X-Men: The Last Stand didn’t teach the producers any lessons about that mistake), though most of those mutants were far from fan favourites and the ones that were (e.g. Gambit, Deadpool) were either barely in the movie or horribly mishandled in more ways than one. The CGI was notoriously terrible, which hampered its overly ambitious action sequences and admittedly kinda cool early treatment of Wolverine’s near-agelessness. I gave it a pass when it was first released because it could never actually have been quite as terrible as people were making it out to be at the time, but my opinion of it has deteriorated rapidly over the years nonetheless. It has few redeeming qualities and I cannot bear to watch it again. I mean, just watch this Honest Trailer from ScreenJunkies. It sums things up pretty well.
Glad we got that out of the way, because The Wolverine is a much, much better film than that travesty. Let’s just ignore the fact that such a feat should not be difficult and read on to find out why.
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26
Jul
Posted by vagrantesque in Movies. Tagged: alien, del, Film, guillermo, jaeger, kaiju, Movie, pacific, Review, rim, robot, toro. 2 comments
I saw this bombastic movie over a week ago and I wasn’t really intending to review it; to be honest I think it’s a pretty simple equation. But I’ve seen and heard some negative things about the film since then that have been blown way out of proportion, so here we go anyway.
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Starring: Idris Elba, Charlie Hunnam, Rinko Kikuchi
Director: Guillermo Del Toro (Hellboy, Pan’s Labyrinth)
Rating: M
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As the last real big action blockbuster of the American summer, Pacific Rim promised a certain brand of fresh sincerity amidst a rather bleak landscape of introspective superheroes getting down on the fact that they’re superheroes. It promised a film featuring giant robots fighting giant aliens, helmed by one of the most passionate directors of our time. As it turns out, Guillermo Del Toro‘s personal homage to essentially every humongous mecha anime ever (like many Mexicans his age, Del Toro grew up watching a huge amount of Japanese-produced television because of how relatively cheap it was to broadcast compared to Hollywood content) pretty much delivers on that promise. If you want to keep reading this review, by all means please do – as always I appreciate your interest and support. But if the idea of giant robots fighting giant aliens grabs you, rest assured this movie does that idea fantastically and you NEED to go see this movie. Go.
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9
Jul
Posted by vagrantesque in Movies. Tagged: 2, carell, Despicable, Film, Me, minions, Movie, Review, steve. Leave a comment
Here’s the second of two quick-fire animated movie reviews!
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Starring: Steve Carrell, Kristen Wiig, Russell Brand
Director: Pierre Coffin & Chris Renaud (Despicable Me)
Rating: PG
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What’s not to like about the Despicable Me set-up? The first film was regularly hilarious, unexpectedly heartwarming and packed some impressive visual tricks. It stands as one of my all time favourite animated movies to this day and I’ve seen it quite a few times. So when I heard there would be a sequel directed by Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud, the same two people at the helm of the original, needless to say I was pretty excited. While the sequel doesn’t quite live up to the legacy of the first movie, it contains enough laughs and charm to come with a recommendation from yours truly.
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8
Jul
Posted by vagrantesque in Movies. Tagged: Disney, Film, mike, monsters, Movie, pixar, Review, sully, university. Leave a comment
Unlike last year, I have now somehow managed to see all of the late-June movie releases that I wanted to in 2013, as of a couple of nights ago. Perhaps a little late, but there was a lot of good stuff to see! Two reviews coming right up.
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Starring: Billy Crystal, John Goodman, Helen Mirren
Director: Dan Scanlon (Tracy)
Rating: G
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It’s been a long time since the original Monsters Inc, a movie I fondly remember watching in the cinemas as a kid all the way back in 2001. The movie was instrumental in building a quite frankly phenomenal track record for Pixar Animation Studios, a run of form that only grew even more impressive over time until it finally began to lose steam a couple of years ago with Cars 2. The studio became well-known for surprising its audiences by finding clever new ways of tugging at their heartstrings, as well as delivering messages with at least some degree of subtlety. Following last year’s good but unusually by-the-numbers effort Brave, however, there has been somewhat of a backlash against the company. A rather undeserved backlash. Critics and general audiences alike had come to expect a certain sentimental ingredient in their Pixar films and when it stopped coming, their collective sigh of disappointment descended on Hollywood like a grossly overinflated black cloud, particularly after Disney’s Pixar-less Wreck-It Ralph turned out so well last year.
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1
Jul
Posted by vagrantesque in Movies. Tagged: Film, Man, Movie, Nolan, of, Review, snyder, steel, superman. Leave a comment
Here it is: The latest big and blockbusting effort to make Superman relevant to the masses again. I saw it four days ago.
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Starring: Henry Cavill, Michael Shannon, Amy Adams
Director: Zack Snyder (300, Watchmen)
Rating: M
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Man of Steel was one of my most anticipated films of 2013 and it had been so for a while, despite the fact that I am not a comic book reader and never have been. There were just so many fascinating questions to be answered – could Christopher Nolan‘s influence on the Superman mythos translate into another superlative movie despite the unavoidable need for the inclusion of superpowers? Would General Zod prove a worthy villain in yet another reboot of the character? And how would Zack Snyder‘s post-Sucker Punch direction factor into things? Having seen it now, when all is said and done, it turns out Man of Steel is a rather difficult film to review. Or at least to score. It has been tormenting me for days.
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22
Jun
Posted by vagrantesque in Movies. Tagged: brad, Film, Movie, pitt, Review, war, world, z, zombies. Leave a comment
Three of my most anticipated films of the year came out this week. Here’s the first of them.
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Starring: Brad Pitt, Mereille Enos, Fana Mokoena
Director: Marc Forster (Finding Neverland, Quantum of Solace)
Rating: M
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It’s a wonder Brad Pitt‘s new zombie virus outbreak film World War Z has even come out in cinemas, given its well documented production troubles. The script, adapted from a well received but difficult to film novel trilogy, was almost completely re-written and re-shot along its tumultuous journey to our screens. It was only the determination and stubbornness of Pitt‘s production team that allowed it to scrape through. And at the end of the day I’m glad it did.
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25
Apr
Posted by vagrantesque in Movies. Tagged: 3, Downey Jr, Iron, Man, Movie. 1 comment
Marvel Studios’ first follow-up to last year’s breakout hit The Avengers has just hit Australian cinemas and I saw it last night.
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Starring: Robert Downey Jr, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ben Kingsley
Director: Shane Black (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang)
Rating: M
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It was just about one whole year ago that Joss Whedon‘s The Avengers single-handedly changed the face of the comic book movie sub-genre, illustrating in truly emphatic fashion that sometimes when you manage a risk as skilfully as Marvel Studios did, it can pay off in a big, big way. Five separate superhero movies led up to that blockbusting success and Hollywood is now abuzz with talk of people who want to emulate its winning formula. But Marvel Studios itself is not done with The Avengers. Not by a long shot. A gigantic sequel is coming and for that to pay off in any kind of similar way, another build-up of movies needs to happen. At least that’s what the Disney-owned company has suggested. So Iron Man 3 has the task of kicking off what people are calling the “second generation” of Marvel features.
It was a wise decision to start with the “man in steel”, as not only has Robert Downey Jr‘s portrayal of Tony Stark proved to be the most bankable of the four Avengers leads, but the character also has arguably the most number of dangling questions left over from the end of that super-movie (You could make a case for Thor in this regard, but if you do then have no fear – he has a movie coming out later this year as well). Stark had a hell of a traumatic experience saving the world from one of its own missiles – an experience that very nearly killed him – and the effects of this are visible from the very beginning of Iron Man 3. Stark’s ego has been cut down considerably by the otherworldly things he has seen. He is shaken up.
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16
Apr
Posted by vagrantesque in Movies. Tagged: man of steel, Movie, Nolan, snyder, superman. Leave a comment
This article was written by deldog30, a high school teacher with a deep fondness for comic books and the culture surrounding them.
—Written by deldog30—
—Edited/formatted by Vagrantesque—
Man of Steel is the upcoming Superman reboot from director Zack Snyder (Watchmen, 300) and producer Christopher Nolan. I have been counting down the days until this film’s release for some time now, and my level of anticipation has grown to the point where I have been consuming as much Superman-related media as a can. From comic books, animated movies/TV shows, even the classic films starring Christopher Reeve as the Man of Steel himself (Yes I have even been dabbling in some Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman).
Below (in no particular order) are five reasons why Man of Steel has the potential to be the best film of the year.
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1. Superman is a great character.
Superman is indeed a great character and has been since his creation in 1932. It is only the greatest of characters that stand the test of time, and lend themselves to a variety of interpretations. Superman, alongside Batman and Wonder Woman, is no doubt among the greats. I cannot wait to see another interpretation of this character, this time on the big screen. It will be interesting to see how Snyder chooses to handle Superman’s great power combined with his compassion for humankind and his willingness to protect life even at the cost of his own. Here’s a taste of Superman’s sheer awesomeness: In the comic book All-Star Superman, after learning of his imminent demise he wastes no time and goes to work to help as many as he can before his time is up. Rather then searching for a cure for himself he literally cures cancer for the benefit of others; it is this selflessness that makes him so great.
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13
Apr
Posted by vagrantesque in Movies. Tagged: Battleship, Movie, perspective, Review, themes. Leave a comment
Think of this next guest post as a companion piece to the Battleship movie review I posted last year. It’s written by the rather Canadian Foxtale.
—Written by Foxtale—
—Edited/formatted by Vagrantesque—
When I first heard that Battleship was going to be a movie, my first thought was “How?” That thought was pretty quickly answered when I jumped online and checked out the trailer. I assumed straight away, as most people must have, that someone had decided to get Giorgio A Tsoukalos to write an American patriotic piece and he somehow snuck in his favourite subject matter.
If he hasn’t already used this movie as evidence of Ancient Aliens, he’s losing his touch.
But then I went and saw the movie. And I’m not sure if it’s just my overimaginative use of deconstructive theory that led me to this Alternate Battleship Hypothesis, but I think this was one of the most subversive films of 2012. While on the surface, Battleship appears to be a cheesy showing of Americans shouting “MURICA” and winning the day through good old freedom and American ingenuity, I think underneath the script writer was brilliant.
I realise this film has been covered in a previous Vagrant Rant post, and so I’ll leave it to you to read that for the surface criticisms (for which there are many). I’ll deal with the underlying themes, for hidden in this movie is a brilliant commentary on American over-aggression against foreign foes, a realistic view of how first contact might play out, and some good old fashioned paranoia over China.
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7
Feb
Posted by vagrantesque in Movies. Tagged: jennifer lawrence, linings, Movie, playbook, Review, silver. Leave a comment
Saw this two nights ago. The Oscars are closing in!
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Starring: Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert de Niro
Director: David O. Russell (Three Kings, The Fighter)
Rating: M
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I’ve gone into Oscar season a little darker than usual this year. Perhaps due to the Academy’s rather off-putting snub of Skyfall, The Dark Knight Rises and even, where it matters, Django Unchained and Argo, I wasn’t in the mood to do the research. So I went into Silver Linings Playbook without the knowledge that it had a nominee in each of the major acting categories, with only half a trailer and the name of a rather skilled director to give me any idea what to expect. This happy combination set me up to be sucker punched by a film that may just have done to romantic comedy what the excellent The Cabin in the Woods did to horror: prove that daring to shake things up can really work as long as you have the talent to back up your bravado.
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