Posts Tagged ‘Review’
31
Aug
Posted by vagrantesque in Movies. Tagged: 2, ass, Film, girl, hit, kick, kickass, moretz, Movie, Review, wadlow. Leave a comment
Now here’s a movie that’s fun to review. It came out last week.
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Starring: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Chloe Grace Moretz, Christopher Mintz-Plasse
Director: Jeff Wadlow (Cry_Wolf, Never Back Down)
Rating: MA15+
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In 2010, when the first Kick-Ass movie came out in cinemas, it was a pretty novel idea to see a movie so earnestly reflect the real life explosion of social media (liberal use of MySpace notwithstanding) to ground a truly bizarre, highly stylish, blood-spattered and frequently pitch-dark concept in a kind of hyper-reality. The whole thing was unfathomably fresh to the point of controversy and, while certainly not for everyone, became an instant favourite among plenty of comic book movie fans who didn’t know they wanted something so different. In 2013, however, it’s understandably quite a bit harder to recapture that kind of freshness. Acknowledging social media is hardly a unique gimmick anymore and the shock of seeing an 11 year-old girl (Chloe Grace Moretz as Hit Girl) swearing and dismembering left and right is dampened both by repetition and by the fact that she is no longer 11. With that important caveat out of the way, it’s worth saying that Kick-Ass 2 is a very entertaining movie. The series is still funny, still stylish and if you enjoyed the first one, your money will be well spent on the sequel.
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27
Aug
Posted by vagrantesque in Games, Wii U. Tagged: 3, nintendo, olimar, pikmin, Review, three, Wii U, WiiU. Leave a comment
As of today I’ve had this game for a month, so I think it’s about time I posted this review. To be honest, I wish I could spend some more time with it, but hey, there are actually more Wii U games to play now! I finished the story mode this morning.
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Platform: Wii U
Developer: Nintendo
Rating: G
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What adorable little murderers.
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Finally!
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Here, dear readers, is the first brand new, single player Wii U game that might actually have a case to justify a purchase of Nintendo’s newest home console by itself. It’s taken almost nine months to appear, but Pikmin 3 is a reminder of why Nintendo fans love the quirky Japanese company so much. It’s beautiful, it’s charming, it’s an absolute blast to play and, over a decade after the first game in the series debuted on the GameCube, there is still nothing else quite like it.
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20
Aug
Posted by vagrantesque in Movies. Tagged: blomkamp, copley, damon, elysium, Film, matt, Movie, neill, Review, sharlto. Leave a comment
This is my 25th movie review on Vagrant Rant! Thanks for reading, people.
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Starring: Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Sharlto Copley
Director: Neill Blomkamp (District 9)
Rating: MA15+
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Being a South African by birth and an Australian by environment, I have a natural bias towards underdog success stories from the Republic. South African directors making their mark on Hollywood have provided quite a few of these stories lately (seriously, watch Gavin Hood‘s Rendition if you haven’t already) and none have done so more loudly than Neill Blomkamp. In 2009 the relatively unknown talent teamed up with famous producer Peter Jackson to bring the world the truly excellent District 9, a heart-pounding sci-fi flick that was not only a pertinent allegory for apartheid-era South Africa but an entertaining adventure all on its own. The Blomkamp–Jackson team was earmarked as the overwhelming favourite to do a Halo movie, but after that potential project got shot down (for the umpteenth time, I might add), Blomkamp went back to the drawing board and came up with Elysium, another politically charged sci fi romp.
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14
Aug
Posted by vagrantesque in Movies. Tagged: bank, Film, heist, magic, magician, Me, Movie, now, Review, rob, see, you. Leave a comment
This one only just hit Aussie cinemas, despite going Stateside in May. Who knows why.
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Starring: Mark Ruffalo, Jesse Eisenberg, Morgan Freeman
Director: Louis Leterrier (The Transporter, Clash of the Titans)
Rating: M
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Regardless of whatever I’m about to say in this review, Louis Leterrier‘s Now You See Me undoubtedly deserves some credit for being marketed really well. It has a quite frankly incredible cast, a snazzy look and a captivating concept that brings to mind a mash-up of Christopher Nolan‘s The Prestige and the very successful Ocean’s Eleven franchise. Magicians who rob banks – now ain’t that novel? It certainly wasn’t afraid to flaunt any of these strengths during the many months of trailers, posters and hype that preceded its American release and now, a month and a half later, its Australian one. When it comes to actually watching the movie play out on screen, though, it may become apparent that (oh boy, I just can’t wait to type this) the real magic trick is the movie itself. It deceives you into thinking it’s good. Abracadabra.
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7
Aug
Posted by vagrantesque in Movies. Tagged: end, Film, frost, Movie, pegg, Review, worlds, wright. Leave a comment
The Blood and Cornetto trilogy comes to a rather spectacular end.
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Starring: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Rosamund Pike
Director: Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz)
Rating: MA15+
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Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are surely, by now, a team of near-legendary status. Their cooperation begat the amazing 2004 British comedy classic Shaun of the Dead and its spiritual successor, 2007’s fantastic Hot Fuzz. Fans of the two off-beat, violent and absolutely hilarious films have been waiting an awfully long time for the third and final film in what is now known as the “Blood and Cornetto” trilogy (though in the interim Wright did give the world the wonderfully stylish graphic novel adaptation Scott Pilgrim vs The World). Finally, here it is, armed with explosions and laughs and plenty of beer. This is The World’s End.
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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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11
Jul
Posted by vagrantesque in Games, Wii U. Tagged: and, Game, intelligent, minigame, Review, systems, wario, Wii U, WiiU. 2 comments
My first-ever Wii U review! Starting now there will be at least one exclusive Nintendo-published game worth playing, at least in theory, released for the content-starved console each month until year’s end. Is this one of those? Uh, well…
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Platform: Wii U
Developer: Intelligent Systems
Rating: G
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That devious moustachioed entrepreneur wants to charge $80 for this.
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Games.
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The Wii U needs them. Pretty badly. Barring Lego City Undercover and Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate back in March, admittedly both good titles, there has been a whole lot of nothing released for the console since December last year. But starting with Game & Wario, the gaming giant is set to release a relatively steady stream of quality leading all the way up to Christmas. Whether you enjoy Game & Wario will depend on whether you think it’s worth paying full price for a game that packs just as much fun and imaginative content as it does dull and lifeless “ideas”.
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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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