The First Purge – Film #50

Posted on July 5, 2018 by Dave On Film

A night of terror, or a terrible night?
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The Purge franchise always brings up the questions of “who would you kill if you were able to?”….What? Just me? Erm…moving along….

The Purge franchise has jumped around somewhat. From the low budget start, all set within one house, to the bigger budget sequels, seeing more and more carnage unfold with each cinema release.

The premise is simple, for one night a year, everything is legal…Murder, sex crimes…everything!

In the first three films, the focus was very much on insurance companies cashing in, or corrupt politicians trying to off fellow candidates.

In “The First Purge”, we go back to the very beginning, when the new government in America implements a social experiment on Staten Island. This “experiment” quickly gets dubbed “The Purge”. Many protest groups look to shut down the idea, whilst others are readying themselves for carnage, whether aiming to hole up and protect themselves, or ready to head out and participate whether for revenge or to gain stature in the community.

What I enjoyed was the fact that there was plenty of character development in the early stages of the film. This was something I felt was never fully fleshed out in the previous films and it worked really well to see the motivation behind some of the actions later on.

It’s definitely the strongest of all four films, and the dynamic of the Purge being a new concept really changes is up from the other films where all the characters are super-prepared and tooled up ready for it. This time round, everything is a lot more raw. You have a lot of gun and knife play involved and it’s much more grounded.

One major part of the film, without actually forcing it, is the social issues it raises, mainly around race, and the political undertones of everything. The Race issue is the most obvious though, with a predominantly black cast, all of whom are fantastic, and most of the antagonists being white males. At one point, there’s even a bunch of people dressed as Ku Klux Klan members, so you can see the angle they were aiming for.

The film is fantastic throughout. As I mentioned before, great characterisation, spot on action, and a great addition to the franchise.

Even if you haven’t seen any of the others, this one stands alone, and you wouldn’t miss anything by going to see this on it’s own!

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

Ocean’s 8 – Film #49

Posted on June 21, 2018 by Dave On Film

Ocean’s Great, or Ocean’s Not Worth The Wait?

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What a great ensemble cast.

What a great chance to use this film as an empowering message for women the world over.

What a poor excuse for a film!

Ocean’s 8 misses on so many levels.

You have the potential for a great film. 8 great actors and a film franchise that is, if nothing else, fun. Something that this film completely forgot to include at any stage of the creative process.

In a very weak link to the originals, Sandra Bullock is Danny Ocean’s brother, and here endeth the links to the original. Where Ocean’s 11 was funny and an enjoyable romp, filled with a decent story and loads of twists and turns, here we have a very weak storyline which does nothing for women whatsoever. Why have the entire basis of the film revolve around 8 women trying to steal some jewellery…way to go with the empowerment there, having women swooning over shiny things!

There is literally zero laughs throughout…and I mean zero. It’s actually painful. Halfway through I found myself asking “am I watching a drama here?” and being thoroughly confused about what they set out to do with this film.

In true Ocean’s style, there’s a twist towards the end, one that happens and you just kinda shrug and say “is that it?”. You have characters who have not even been mentioned throughout the film just pop up and make a play as though as the audience we should have known who they were all along.

Bullock and Blanchett do their best, and act like they are genuinely making a half decent film, but “half decent” would have been an absolute godsend to the tripe we get served.

Don’t waste your time

1/5

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Incredibles 2 – Film #48

Posted on June 20, 2018 by Dave On Film

Incredible, or a load of bull?

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Every now and then, Cineworld offer their Unlimited Card holders a chance to see a film before it’s official release day through their “Unlimited” screenings, where only members can go see the film…but a few times a year, they pop in a film that they keep secret until the moment that the lights go down and the title card appears. This was one of those films.

As always, I was running through the list of possibles. Was it going to be Adrift? Maybe Skyscraper? Maybe even the new comedy Tag…

…then the lights went down and Incredibles 2 started.

There were actual cheers of delight when people realised what was about to be shown.

It’s been 14 years since the first Incredibles film, a time when Pixar were firing out hit after hit after hit. They had smashed it with the first two Toy Story films, A Bug’s Life, Monsters Inc, and Finding Nemo, and when Incredibles came out, I was genuinely excited.

But unfortunately I am not a massive fan of the first film. It’s decent enough, but for me, it just wasn’t Toy Story or Nemo, and despite having a love for superheroes, I never really got into the original Incredible film.

So fast forward 14 years and here we have the long-awaited sequel. It wasn’t a film I was overly bothered about until I had seen the trailer. Once the trailer was out in the public, I genuinely got excited. It looked funny, it was taking a slight new direction in that more of the focus was going onto Elastigirl, and who doesn’t enjoy the fact that we will finally get to see Jack-Jack using his powers.

So as the film started…I was ready for a ride.

And what a ride it was!

This film is absolutely fantastic.

They nailed every element of it. Mr Incredible struggling to look after three kids who are a handful, Elastigirl being thrust into the limelight by a tycoon who is wanting to make superheroes accepted, Violet, struggling with boys, Dash struggling with Math(s), and Jack-Jack struggling to control his new found powers which come to a head in an absolutely hilarious scene featuring him in a battle with a raccoon.

The story is done extremely well, which is a relief. I think, as writers, they had to think about the people who enjoyed the film in 2004 and how they were now 14 years older, so they have to tailor the comedy and story to that fact, and they do it so well.

The visuals are stunning. We saw it in 2D, but I will definitely be going back to watch it in 3D as it was clear some of that will be brilliant.

There’s a great bad guy character too (although those with photosensitive epilepsy may want to stay away), who really challenges the heroes.

I recently heard an interview from 2005 with Brad Bird, the writer and director of both films. Back then, when interviewed by Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo, he had said that he didn’t want to do an Incredibles 2 because he didn’t want to ruin it.

What he has done is made a film which is BETTER than the original, and really built on it’s decent foundations to make something special, funny and full of family-related heart throughout.

Well worth getting excited about

4.5/5

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Hereditary – Film #47

Posted on June 16, 2018 by Dave On Film

Clucking fantastic or inherited garbage?
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When a film’s trailer looks truly scary, and plenty of reviews are coming in saying it left them feeling disturbed etc, I expected big things from Hereditary.

Unfortunately it didn’t deliver anything like it could and probably should have done.

What you have is a fairly creepy story, with some back story to keep things spooky and a moment around a third of the way in which truly made me jaw drop. But then the whole thing devolves into something that confuses even itself at times.

It pulls from so many influences, like The Exorcist and Final Destination, but sometimes feels like a complete mismatch of ideas all thrown into a pot and brewing up something which did not quite work.

Some of the set pieces were actually laughable…and I am talking about full on laughs where people in the cinema were losing it as how bad they were.

It just felt like it didn’t know what type of horror it wanted to be, so went with everything and did everything poorly.

2/5

Posted in 2018, Movies | 7 Comments

Kaala – Film #46

Posted on June 8, 2018 by Dave On Film

Killer Kollywood or Subtitled Slop?

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I have been wrongly calling this a Bollywood movie all day, but research says that the Tamil-language films of India are classed as “Kollywood”, so here we are…my first ever Kollywood movie!

As I have literally watched everything else Cineworld currently has on screen, I found myself looking at the listings and seeing Kaala listed. It opened tonight and there was a trailer…I watched the 10 million viewed trailer…see what you think…

As soon as I saw that I thought “this is going to be watchable”.

And you know something…this was way more than watchable!

It’s the story of the people of Mumbai who are living in the Dhavari slums. A gangster called Haridev “Hari Dhadha” Abhayanka who is in the pocket of the government is trying to evict everyone from the slum so they can build a housing project on there, to raise the profile of the city. However, Karikaalan “Kaala” (played by Rajinikanth), along with his people, oppose everything that is going on. Kaala has many followers and is even referred to as the King of Dhavari. Because of this, Abhayanka continuously sends his men after Kaala to attempt to kill him so he can stop the uprising of the people in the slums.

So its a basic story of big man wanting to put the little people down, turfing them out at the same time (very recently the exact same story as Early Man), but what you have here is a stylistic film which is sometimes action flick, sometimes love story, with a spattering of comedy in there too.

This was my first experience of an Indian film at the cinema and it was one I wasn’t quite prepared for. There was whooping and holla’s thrown at the screen, especially when Rajinijanth appeared…I can only guess he is some kind of Tamil legend!

I thoroughly enjoyed the whole film. There’s a couple of fight scenes which are shot absolutely amazingly…an early one on a bridge being a big highlight with people fighting in slow-motion in the rain! Pa. Ranjith’s direction is absolutely on point.

Also, Rajinijanth is the coolest motherfucker in the world! I used to think Samuel L Jackson was cool…but in this film, this guy makes the art of removing and putting his sunglasses back on an art form. It was like watching a recent Chuck Norris film. In fact, Rajinijanth is the focus of many Chuck Norris Fact-like jokes.

It’s really made me think a lot about other films I should now be seeing from that part of the world!

4.5/5

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

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

Posted on June 7, 2018 by Dave On Film

Awesome t-rex, or Dennis Nedry-like fail?

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The Dinos are back on our screen again.

Cheap Plug – Listen to myself and Mark react live straight out from the cinema on the Feature Freaks Movie Podcast Episode 2 : Click here to listen

Time has moved along since the events of Jurassic World and Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) is now working in a dinosaur protection programme. When a rich guy, the former partner of John Hammond, asks her to go to the island with a small group to rescue some of the dinosaurs from Isla Nublar which is about to be decimated by the now-active volcano.

Naturally she is going to need help, so ropes Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) into the mission…and we’re going back to the island.

Naturally, everything goes a little wrong, and the ulterior motive of the mercenaries and the rich guy’s aide Eli Mills (Rafe Spall) is revealed.

This is a great film in many respects, ruined by a few little moments. One issue that I have is the amount of content that was shown in the actual trailer. As there’s some pretty pivotal and monumental moments in the trailer, that I have seen at least 12-15 times now, I was clearly anticipating a lot of the segments in the film, which then ultimately reduced the amount of peril felt at those points.

It’s still a good film though. Halfway through I felt like it lost its way a little, and I felt myself willing it to get better after the thrilling first half-hour, and thankfully it really did ramp up towards the end.

Is this as good as Jurassic World? No, but it’s a strong addition to the franchise.

3.5/5

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

Solo: A Star Wars Story – Film #44

Posted on May 29, 2018 by Dave On Film

Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs, or rabid womp rat?

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Anyone remember that time between 1983 and 1999? A whole 16 years between Star Wars films, then again another ten years from 2005 to 2015….then since then, one Star Wars film a year.

Thats the time we are in now. Disney own the rights, Disney will throw money at the franchise and basically kick out anything they want which will continue to raise their stock in the product.

When Force Awakens hit, I wanted it to be amazing…and it was decent, but lacked something. Then came standalone movie Rogue One, which absolutely blew me away. Everything worked and fit together into the saga so well. Then they nailed it again in my eyes with The Last Jedi….surely the Star Wars saga was due a Jar Jar Binks in amongst the Chewbaccas….a real pile of bantha fodder….

…yet this isn’t it.

Solo tells the story of a young Han Solo (although Solo was a name given to him, which we see pretty early in this film), played by Alden Ehrenreich who is trying to become a pilot, own his own ship and return to find lost love Qi’ra (Emilia Clarke). Along the way, Solo’s cunning and mouthy charm lands him in trouble wherever he goes, leading him to meet Chewbacca…and the story begins.

This is a great film and one which fits into the Star Wars Universe brilliantly. We get some vital backstory for Han Solo, which leads into Episode 4 really well…even if the timelines do feel a little “off” towards the end…something I am going to have to read up about.

There’s plenty in there for diehard fans to enjoy. Plenty of nods and references to things we know and love. Once again we have a brilliant droid called L3, voiced by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, and Donald Glover really plays the suave and eccentric Lando Calrissian perfectly. Even Paul Bettany as Dryden Vos really puts in a creepy, evil villian performance.

Alden’s portrayal of Han, at first left me feeling like it was mis-cast, but as the film progresses, everything comes together with him. I don’t know if the movie was shot in chronological order or not, but it feels like he settled into the role more as it went along.

A fantastic addition to the franchise and this won’t be the last time I see this

4.5/5

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Show Dogs – Film #43

Posted on May 28, 2018 by Dave On Film

Top dog or throw me a frickin’ bone?

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I have seen this movie twice now. Twice in one day.

I say twice, but the first time was the first half hour before my three-year-old decided the film was too loud and wanted to go home.

I went back this afternoon to rewatch…and I wish I hadn’t bothered!

Basic story : A panda has been kidnapped and is going to be sold whilst a Dog Show (think Crufts) is going on in Las Vegas.

FBI agent Will Arnett and New York police dog Max (voiced by Lucacris) are teamed up. Oh and Max talks, but only to other animals.

Yeah, the story is VERY basic.

Also, so is any enjoyment.

Now, a lot has been mentioned in the press this last week about the “ball-fondling” scene and how it’s highly sexualized and how it had to be removed from the film in the states.

The problem is, that’s not the problem with the film…the problem is that it’s just not a good film.

It’s wallowing very low on the laugh scale. In fact, the only laughs were raised from mild slapstick in a couple of places, and some silly references to other films, even if they are misplaced completely. For example, Max calls Frank (Arnett) “Hooch”, then gets corrected by another dog that Turner was the Human, Hooch was the dog. Then another segment, a bad guy references “Good Cop/Bad Cop” from the Lego Movie, which Will Arnett reacts to with his Lego voice saying “What do you know about that?” and I laughed….before realising that Arnett doesn’t even voice that character in the Lego films!

And lets not talk about some of the really bad CG in the film. The talking part of the dogs is absolutely fine, but when a dog is forward rolling over cars, or acting like a mad dog in one part, it just really takes you away from it all.

Kids arent going to particularly love this, adults are likely to hate it.

Give it a week and it’ll be out of cinema and on it’s way to DVD

3/10

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

Breaking In – Film #42

Posted on May 17, 2018 by Dave On Film

Breaking in, or breaking down?

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Payback is a Mother? More like Payback, I wouldn’t bother!

Breaking In is the lovely story of a mother and her kids moving to a house which just happens to have top notch security throughout, oh and her father has been killed recently, oh and there’s a safe with $4m inside…oh and Bella’s Dad from Twilight wants it.

After some initial “where are my kids in this big old house” moments, Gabrielle Union (playing Shaun Russell) gets locked outside the house by 4 members of a gang who are after the money, whilst her two kids are inside with the bad guys.

Cue mummy trying to get back into the house, in a twist on normal “trapped in somewhere” movies.

The problem is, it’s not very exciting. There’s some strange decisions by some of the characters, and the story lurches from moment to moment. There’s even times when the writer can’t even seem to decide whether Billy Burke (playing leader Eddie) is all that bad, then oh he’s evil, then oh no he’s alright-ish. For films like this to work, you need to have an antagonist who is genuinely frightful…something this film fails to deliver on.

Very poorly done, but 90 minutes of entertainment none the less.

2.5/5

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

Deadpool 2 – Film #41

Posted on May 15, 2018 by Dave On Film

A second coming or tiny-handed flop?

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I’m not going to beat around the bush with this one…much like my review of Infinity War, you’re either going to go see this and be excited by it, or you’re not…in which case you are probably not even reading this review…so in the words of Deadpool, pump the hate brakes!

Deadpool 2 is as on the money as it comes. Sheer and utter perfection. I remember seeing the first film and thinking it was amazing, but this truly takes it to a whole other level.

The comedy is absolutely on point. Every single other character is the film is perfectly placed and adds to the story well, there’s some heart to the story and it never strays from what made the first film good, that 4th wall breaking chaos that brings you into the film like nothing else.

It’s very self aware, never more so than in the end credits (don’t stay until the very end, as soon as the scrollers come up, you can leave)

If you liked the first one, you will absolutely love this!

5/5

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