Teen Titans Go To The Movies – Film #60

Posted on August 10, 2018 by Dave On Film

Robin or Robbed?

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I’ve never seen Teen Titans, or Teen Titans Go!

Mainly because I ain’t a kid anymore…or so I thought……..I have now decided I am going to watch the entire back catalogue of episodes…because this film is fantastic.

It’s the story of Robin, Starfire, Cyborg, Raven and Beast Boy who are minor characters in the DC Universe. Obviously Robin is living in Batman’s shadow and longs to star in his own movie…but to do that, he needs an arch-enemy so goes about trying to make Slade his true enemy to ensure movie makers want to do a Robin film in the future.

This film is a delight. It’s packed full of comedy from the basics that kids will love (yeah, there’s a fart joke in there), right up to the film completely referencing the DC Universe, the Marvel Universe and anything else it can get its hands on. The Lion King is dropped in as a reference, as is Back To The Future.

It’s a smart script, with a very good story. I was absolutely expecting an average film, but I found myself smiling throughout, and tapping my foot along with the musical numbers (the film isn’t a musical, there’s just a couple of moments where it fits).

The voice acting is absolutely spot on and this is absolutely the animated movie of the year for me so far.

4.5/5

Posted in 2018, Films, Movies | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Equalizer 2 – Film #59

Posted on August 6, 2018 by Dave On Film

Equalizer, or random number generator?

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Denzel Washington’s first ever sequel…but is it any good?

Yeah, it’s not bad actually.

So I only saw the first Equalizer movie last night for the very first time and I was impressed with it…it was two hours of pretty much Denzel kicking shit out of anyone who has wronged anyone…very much a more up to date, brutal version of the TV show of the same name.

So here we are with the second one, which I saw on a Cineworld Unlimited Preview screening tonight and I’m in two minds about it.

First up, the action is there…but there feels like there’s not enough of it. In the first film, you always felt like you were about twenty seconds from Denzel going postal on someone. But that leads me onto issue number 2 with this film.

There’s too much character development for characters outside our main guy’s central point. In a sense, it very much grounds Robert McCall (Denzel) in the storyline by having him coach a young street kid through life, as well as meeting with other characters he has come across whilst working for Uber…sorry, Lyft.

The early stages of the film show a few “random” moments of Denzel stumbling across situations which need to be “Equalized”, but then you get way too much pace-slowing characterisation in the middle, with plenty of deeper information about McCall’s past in there too.

It’s not a bad film by a long shot but I kinda wanted more John Wick than John Q.

6/10

Posted in 2018, Films, Movies | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Ant Man & The Wasp – Film #58

Posted on August 2, 2018 by Dave On Film

Ant Queen, or buzzed off?

Ant-Man_and_the_Wasp_poster

Finally, Ant Man & The Wasp lands in the UK. After being delayed, yet released elsewhere, the latest movie in the Marvel Universe is here and it’s a great ride.

Straight off the bat, this films is full of everything. There’s plenty of comedy, action and plenty of heart and sentiment to really make it fit into the universe really well.

A lot of speculation has been around since Ant Man/Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) wasn’t present during the events of Infinity War and how he fits into the storyline. This film, by the end brings it’s timeline into line with everything else nicely.

Michael Pena is fantastic as the main comic relief in the film, with a cross of silliness and smarts which works really well in a setting which never really takes itself that seriously.

In terms of the heart I mentioned, it’s certainly there. Michael Douglas’ Dr Hank Pym is still searching for his wife who he believes to be alive in the Quantum Realm. At the same time, Ava (Hannah John-Kamen) is trying to use the exact same technology to fix herself after being over-exposed to the Quantum Realm previously.

The whole film centres around the battle between Ava and our heroes trying to get a laboratory to where they need it so they can complete their respective missions.

The 3D in this film is phenomenal…it helped seeing on IMAX, but it delivers perfectly, especially when we see any shots of the surreal Quantum Realm.

Evangeline Lilly is great as Hope/The Wasp. She bounces off Rudd really well and their partnership really works on screen.

If you go see…there’s two end credit scenes…the first one is worth it…but the one at the very end of the credits really isn’t worth staying for.

4/5

Posted in 2018, Films, Movies | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Mission Impossible: Fallout – Film #57

Posted on July 25, 2018 by Dave On Film

Mission Impossible or Missing in Action?

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Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is back for his 6th outing as the agent out to save the world.

This time it’s nuclear. A cell has hold of three plutonium cores which are ready to be popped inside a bomb and detonated causing carnage.

It’s up to Hunt and his team (Ving Rhames and Simon Pegg) to hunt down an elusive terrorist behind the plot and bring them down before they can set the bombs off.

The team are joined by an MI6 agent (Henry Cavill, complete with THAT moustache which was CGI’d out of Justice League) and there’s a few familiar faces that pop up along the way.

I mentioned Cavill’s moustache then for a good reason. Remember the disappointment that was Justice League? There needed to be extensive reshoots for the movie, but Henry Cavill had moved onto filming Mission Impossible where he had to keep and maintain a moustache. He was allowed to go back to film the JL reshoot as long as he didn’t have a shave…so they CGI’d his moustache out to hilarious effect…

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But back to Fallout.

I’m going to say it….strongest entry in the entire Mission Impossible series. It’s big and loud throughout, exactly what is needed. I saw it on IMAX 3D and it genuinely benefited from the sheer size and sound of the IMAX screen. The 3D is wonderful and definitely one I would highly recommend donning the glasses for.

Cruise doing his own stunts is phenomenal, the story is pretty good, every single set piece from a bathroom fight to Parisian car/bike chases are absolutely nailed.

Its so much fun.

4/5

Current movie list…trending at 100 movies for the year…complete with links to all the reviews where I did them either on YouTube or as a Blog Post here on my blog :

 

02/01/2018 1 Three Billboards…
07/01/2018 2 My Little Pony
09/01/2018 3 Downsizing
14/01/2018 4 Coco
15/01/2018 5 The Commuter
27/01/2018 6 Maze Runner : Death Cure
31/01/2018 7 The Shape Of Water
03/02/2018 8 Early Man
05/02/2018 9 Winchester
06/02/2018 10 I, Tonya
13/02/2018 11 Black Panther
13/02/2018 12 The Mercy
23/02/2018 13 The Greatest Showman : Singalong
26/02/2018 14 Game Night
02/03/2018 15 The Greatest Showman
09/03/2018 16 Red Sparrow
13/03/2018 17 Love, Simon
16/03/2018 18 Walk Like A Panther
17/03/2018 19 Peter Rabbit
22/03/2018 20 Tomb Raider
25/03/2018 21 Blockers
26/03/2018 22 Isle Of Dogs
27/03/2018 23 Unsane
29/03/2018 24 Ready Player One
03/04/2018 25 A Quiet Place
11/04/2018 26 Duck Duck Goose
12/04/2018 27 Thoroughbreds
12/04/2018 28 Rampage
12/04/2018 29 Death Wish
12/04/2018 30 Pacific Rim: Uprising
14/04/2018 31 Truth Or Dare
14/04/2018 32 Ghost Stories
26/04/2018 33 Infinity War
01/05/2018 34 The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
04/05/2018 35 The Strangers: Prey At Night
05/05/2018 36 Tully
09/05/2018 37 I Feel Pretty
12/05/2018 38 Sherlock Gnomes
13/05/2018 39 Life Of The Party
14/05/2018 40 Book Club
15/05/2018 41 Deadpool 2
17/05/2018 42 Breaking In
28/05/2018 43 Show Dogs
29/05/2018 44 Solo: A Star Wars Story
06/06/2018 45 Jurassic World 2
08/06/2018 46 Kaala
16/06/2018 47 Hereditary
20/06/2018 48 Incredibles 2
22/06/2018 49 Ocean’s 8
05/07/2018 50 The First Purge
06/07/2018 51 Tag
10/07/2018 52 Hotel Artemis
15/07/2018 53 Secret Of Marrowbone
16/07/2018 54 Soorma
17/07/2018 55 Skyscraper
22/07/2018 56 Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again
25/07/2018 57 Mission Impossible: Fallout
Posted in 2018, Films, Movies | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Mamma Mia 2: Here We Go Again – Film #56

Posted on July 22, 2018 by Dave On Film

Super Trouper, or Party Pooper?

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We’re going back to the island!

5 years have passed and life has moved on. Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) is now reopening the hotel on the island, with a grand reopening party set to take place. Sophie reminisces about her mother and her life and through a series of flashbacks, we get to see how Donna (Meryl Streep and Lily James) came to meet Harry (Colin Firth and Hugh Skinner), Bill (Stellan Skarsgard and Josh Dylan) and Sam (Pierce Brosnan and Jeremy Irvine).

Wow that paragraph took more writing that it should have done.

The concept of the film is simple, and as it’s a Mamma Mia movie, you’ve got a load of Abba music thrown in there too.

So here’s the thing….when Mamma Mia first came out ten years ago…it was alright. The main problem I had with it was the fact that as they wanted to shoe-horn in as many of the big, famous ABBA tracks as possible, they often felt very much misplaced and it caused the story to suffer because of it.

What MM:HWGA does is look through an entire catalogue of music, and then see which songs fit the story rather than doing it the other way around…and because of this it works so much better. There seems to be proper sentiment in the tunes, there’s all the elements there of the first film, but better done.

Also, not going to lie…I could literally watch Lily James who plays Young Donna, in absolutely anything…she is so beautiful and a fun presence on screen.

I don’t want to give too much away about the story, just in case there’s anyone who hasn’t actually seen the trailer (which gives about 90% of the film away anyway).

Go see it.

Much better than a 3/5 I would have given the first one.

Solid 4/5 for this

Current movie list…trending at 100 movies for the year…complete with links to all the reviews where I did them either on YouTube or as a Blog Post here on my blog :

02/01/2018 1 Three Billboards…
07/01/2018 2 My Little Pony
09/01/2018 3 Downsizing
14/01/2018 4 Coco
15/01/2018 5 The Commuter
27/01/2018 6 Maze Runner : Death Cure
31/01/2018 7 The Shape Of Water
03/02/2018 8 Early Man
05/02/2018 9 Winchester
06/02/2018 10 I, Tonya
13/02/2018 11 Black Panther
13/02/2018 12 The Mercy
23/02/2018 13 The Greatest Showman : Singalong
26/02/2018 14 Game Night
02/03/2018 15 The Greatest Showman
09/03/2018 16 Red Sparrow
13/03/2018 17 Love, Simon
16/03/2018 18 Walk Like A Panther
17/03/2018 19 Peter Rabbit
22/03/2018 20 Tomb Raider
25/03/2018 21 Blockers
26/03/2018 22 Isle Of Dogs
27/03/2018 23 Unsane
29/03/2018 24 Ready Player One
03/04/2018 25 A Quiet Place
11/04/2018 26 Duck Duck Goose
12/04/2018 27 Thoroughbreds
12/04/2018 28 Rampage
12/04/2018 29 Death Wish
12/04/2018 30 Pacific Rim: Uprising
14/04/2018 31 Truth Or Dare
14/04/2018 32 Ghost Stories
26/04/2018 33 Infinity War
01/05/2018 34 The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
04/05/2018 35 The Strangers: Prey At Night
05/05/2018 36 Tully
09/05/2018 37 I Feel Pretty
12/05/2018 38 Sherlock Gnomes
13/05/2018 39 Life Of The Party
14/05/2018 40 Book Club
15/05/2018 41 Deadpool 2
17/05/2018 42 Breaking In
28/05/2018 43 Show Dogs
29/05/2018 44 Solo: A Star Wars Story
06/06/2018 45 Jurassic World 2
08/06/2018 46 Kaala
16/06/2018 47 Hereditary
20/06/2018 48 Incredibles 2
22/06/2018 49 Ocean’s 8
05/07/2018 50 The First Purge
06/07/2018 51 Tag
10/07/2018 52 Hotel Artemis
15/07/2018 53 Secret Of Marrowbone
16/07/2018 54 Soorma
17/07/2018 55 Skyscraper
22/07/2018 56 Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again
Posted in 2018, Films, Movies | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Skyscraper – Film #55

Posted on July 17, 2018 by Dave On Film

Skyscraper or Shite-scraper?

skyscraper_poster

They don’t make them like they used to….until now!

Dwayne Johnson is back with another absolute blockbuster. Arguably the hardest working man in movies at the moment, Johnson is firing out movie after movie that are just hitting all the right notes. Jumanji was surprisingly decent, Rampage was a romp, and here he is with a film which is straight out of the 80’s and 90’s golden age of cheesy action flicks.

Skyscraper is a simple storyline…someone has built a massive skyscraper, Dwayne Johnson is an ex military man with one leg following an incident (something which isn’t dwelled on) and his family are living inside the residential section of the super structure whilst he assesses it. It passes the asssessment, then terrorists take over and set the state-of-the-art building on fire, disabling all the fire safety measures, and framing Johnson in the meantime.

But with Johnson’s family, including wife Neve Campbell (who hasn’t aged a day since I first saw her in Scream), are trapped inside the building and Johnson has to get inside to save them

Cue death-defying leaps of faith, tense shuffles over small planks over raging fires, an ingenious way to scale a building, some pretty naughty bad guys and plenty of foreshadowing thrown into the mix.

I’m saying this now…Skyscraper is great.

I saw it in IMAX 3D and it really brought it to life…especially the moments where they showed the height perspectives etc.

Stunning special effects, fairly average story, but executes really well.

It’s dumb, it’s fun and it’s 2hrs of great cinema. This is what the big screen was made for.

4.5/5

Current movie list…trending at 98 movies for the year…complete with links to all the reviews where I did them either on YouTube or as a Blog Post here on my blog :

 

02/01/2018 1 Three Billboards…
07/01/2018 2 My Little Pony
09/01/2018 3 Downsizing
14/01/2018 4 Coco
15/01/2018 5 The Commuter
27/01/2018 6 Maze Runner : Death Cure
31/01/2018 7 The Shape Of Water
03/02/2018 8 Early Man
05/02/2018 9 Winchester
06/02/2018 10 I, Tonya
13/02/2018 11 Black Panther
13/02/2018 12 The Mercy
23/02/2018 13 The Greatest Showman : Singalong
26/02/2018 14 Game Night
02/03/2018 15 The Greatest Showman
09/03/2018 16 Red Sparrow
13/03/2018 17 Love, Simon
16/03/2018 18 Walk Like A Panther
17/03/2018 19 Peter Rabbit
22/03/2018 20 Tomb Raider
25/03/2018 21 Blockers
26/03/2018 22 Isle Of Dogs
27/03/2018 23 Unsane
29/03/2018 24 Ready Player One
03/04/2018 25 A Quiet Place
11/04/2018 26 Duck Duck Goose
12/04/2018 27 Thoroughbreds
12/04/2018 28 Rampage
12/04/2018 29 Death Wish
12/04/2018 30 Pacific Rim: Uprising
14/04/2018 31 Truth Or Dare
14/04/2018 32 Ghost Stories
26/04/2018 33 Infinity War
01/05/2018 34 The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
04/05/2018 35 The Strangers: Prey At Night
05/05/2018 36 Tully
09/05/2018 37 I Feel Pretty
12/05/2018 38 Sherlock Gnomes
13/05/2018 39 Life Of The Party
14/05/2018 40 Book Club
15/05/2018 41 Deadpool 2
17/05/2018 42 Breaking In
28/05/2018 43 Show Dogs
29/05/2018 44 Solo: A Star Wars Story
06/06/2018 45 Jurassic World 2
08/06/2018 46 Kaala
16/06/2018 47 Hereditary
20/06/2018 48 Incredibles 2
22/06/2018 49 Ocean’s 8
05/07/2018 50 The First Purge
06/07/2018 51 Tag
10/07/2018 52 Hotel Artemis
15/07/2018 53 Secret Of Marrowbone
16/07/2018 54 Soorma
17/07/2018 55 Skyscraper
Posted in 2018, Films, Movies | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Soorma – Film #54

Posted on July 16, 2018 by Dave On Film

Soorma or Soor-nah?

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With one finger held aloft, Sandeep Singh celebrates another goal for India in hockey, using his Drag-Flick to maximum impact.

Soorma is the story of Sandeep Singh, a young man who dreamed of becoming a big Hockey star in India, whilst also attempting to get the girl of his dreams.

Having very little experience of Hockey as a game, I was going into this movie somewhat blind. Luckily it all fell into place nicely.

It’s a great film about coming of age, getting better in a chosen sport, and suffering an amazing setback and the struggle to try to recover from it. As I knew nothing about Sandeep Singh, or what happened to him in real life, the story was completely fresh to me and I approached it not knowing whether I would be able to get behind a movie about a star in a sport I never really watch.

But I did. I found myself rooting for him. There’s some great montage sequences throughout, showing him getting better at Hockey and up to being the household name he clearly is today. It was all put together really well and I now know about India’s biggest Hockey star.

My second foray into Bollywood movies and both this and Kaala have been revelationary joys.

I will definitely be keeping my eye on what is coming up next.

3/5

Posted in 2018, Films, Movies | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

The Secret Of Marrowbone – Film #53

Posted on July 15, 2018 by Dave On Film

Marrow-Boner or Marrow-Bore?

Marrowbone

Finally, a Horror film in 2018 worth really shouting about!

2018 has been an up and down year for horrors. Unsane and A Quiet Place brought a different spin to the genre, splitting a lot of people’s opinions on whether they were good or not (I thought they were decent…read my reviews clicking on the links) but then everything came crashing back down with recent flops The Strangers Prey At Night and Hereditary.

So when I saw a trailer for another horror film, seemingly set in a house, with a dead mother and something happening, I genuinely thought this was going to be a big pile of Meh!

I was wrong.

Marrowbone is the story of four children who lose their mother. They are clearly on the run from someone who seemingly finds them one day. Jump forward 6 months and the family are living in fear. They are being plagued by an unknown spirit in the house that they have vowed not to leave, and the memory of their parents lives on in them.

Cue some very tense scenes with kids walking off down hallways, long glances at covered up mirrors etc.

The direction and writing of the film is fantastic and takes a lot of Chekhov’s gun moments…that don’t get used. What I mean by that is that as a seasoned movie goer, you see certain things and think “that has been shown to us so it can be used again later in the movie” and then doesn’t.

What this does is creates a sort of unease and tension which is exactly what the film is aiming to go for.

When you get to the end, you realise how brilliantly it’s all coming together. Its difficult to talk about anything in the final third without spoiling anything…so just go and see it.

Great acting too, especially from George MacKay in the lead role.

It’s not perfect, but it’s great. There’s some genuinely jumpy jump scares, which you can see coming a mile away, but still work so well.

Enjoy!

4/5

Posted in 2018, Movies | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

Hotel Artemis – Film #52

Posted on July 10, 2018 by Dave On Film

Hotel Artemis or Hotel Total-Miss?

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Hotel Artemis should have been good. Look at that cast list and you have the makings of something amazing. You have Oscar winners, Hot up and coming actors…and Dave Bautista…what could possibly go wrong?

The answer is….so much

It’s unfortunate, as the idea is fantastic. In the near future, in the middle of riots all across America, “The Nurse” (Jodie Foster) runs Hotel Artemis, a members-only hotel-cum-Hospital where the underworld can come to get fixed up before being sent back out on their way. Bautista is the big orderly, and there’s plenty of crooks knocking around the place to make this a really intriguing prospect for a film.

But it just falls way short of what it could be.

Don’t get me wrong, the art direction of this art-deco style hotel being used as a hospital, along with some of the acting performances are absolutely on point. But when it’s backed up with a plot which is so horribly coincidental and insubstantial, it draws you way to far away from everything else.

I genuinely felt let down by the film as a whole as I wanted it to be good and found myself trying to force any “well that bit is well done” type thought into my brain, but it just wasn’t coming.

Unfortunately it suffers too much because of this. Whilst not being terrible, it’s not good either.

2/5

Posted in 2018, Films | Tagged , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Tag – Film #51

Posted on July 6, 2018 by Dave On Film

To Tag, or not to Tag, that is the Question!

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Based on a True Story, and taken from the Wall Street Journal article “It takes planning, caution to avoid being it”, Tag is the story of a group of friends who have been playing the same game of Tag for 30 years. The only problem is…one of them has never been tagged. Jeremy Renner is the one who has always outrun them, outsmarted them and generally just been better at the game than them.

Ed Helms, Jon Hamm, Jake Johnson and Hannibal Buress are the rest of the friends who are vying to bring down Renner in this year’s game (they only play during the month of May).

Lets start out by saying that this film is hilarious…literally laugh out loud funny whether it’s the well written lines, or the action, with Renner’s commentary during his slow-motion outsmarting of his friends. It’s so good.

However…the film takes a turn at one point which I didn’t enjoy. I ain’t going to explain what it is, but one of the story arcs in the last third of the film takes a turn which I both didn’t expect, and also fear it could suffer because of it. It’s a story around Renner’s fiancee, which you will fully understand when you see it.

But away from that, its truly fantastic. I did expect a bit more of a fun ending than we get, but hey you can’t have everything!

Great cast, and a film which feels like it comes straight out of the “Horrible Bosses” camp.

4/5

Posted in 2018, Films | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments