Author: Ben

A film fan who likes to write reviews about every film they have seen. Been writing reviews on every film I've seen since 2008!
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Good Luck Chuck (2007) Review

Ben

Some films have great ideas but unfortunately just miss a certain spark. That spark can be anything, the script, the characters, parts of the story, the dialogue, the special effects. Sometimes a film is really good, bordering on brilliant but is just let down by one element which doesn’t fit with everything else. Good Luck Chuck suffers from this problem. The spark its missing is that it didn’t really cast the right actors. I’m not saying that the actors are terrible. Dane Cook does a decent enough job, as does Dan Fogler as his best friend but I was watching the … Continue reading Good Luck Chuck (2007) Review

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Limitless (2011) Review

Ben

Bradley Cooper is becoming an actor to keep your eye on. He has already proved that he can hold his own amongst an ensemble of very cool actors like Liam Neeson and Sharlto Copley in The A-Team and to a lesser extent, Zach Galifianakis and Ed Helms in the Hangover. I hadn’t really seen him hold his own and carry a film himself, until I watched Limitless. Bradley Cooper does a great job of carrying this film. He has shown he isn’t a lightweight, good-looking, comedy actor but someone who can play a part that requires a performance which is slightly more dramatic. … Continue reading Limitless (2011) Review

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Skyline (2010) Review

Ben

A key part of any film has got to be good acting and a good script but is there any chance that putting all your money and effort into a different area of the film, making sure that is amazing, can actually redeem the first two elements being poor? I don’t think this would work with any other type of film but Skyline seems to manage it. It has poor acting, poor dialogue and the first act of the film is tedious at best but when the action kicks in and the aliens start appearing, this film just seems to transform itself. Skyline was always fighting … Continue reading Skyline (2010) Review

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Charlie Wilson’s War (2007) Review

Ben

Tom Hanks is the quintessential “intelligent actor.” What I mean by that is I don’t know the last time I saw Tom Hanks in a bad film. Tom Hanks probably wouldn’t be on the top of anyone’s “best ever actors list.” He would certainly be near the top, maybe making top five and I’d argue always top ten but hardly ever number one but if you look at some of the people put in higher regard, some of their film choices are a bit dodgy. The classic duo is Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. There is no doubt that these two are … Continue reading Charlie Wilson’s War (2007) Review

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Don’t use two films to tell a story when one will do!

Ben

Die Hard, Indiana Jones and Toy Story, three pretty perfect trilogies. In my opinion there isn’t one film in any of these series that has a huge, detrimental effect on the others. This is because every single one of those films is a single story, not trying to carry over any plot-threads, unanswered questions or huge story arcs from any previous film and what’s more, the first film didn’t try to set up the sequels before it had even finished! This has been a ridiculous trend in films that I don’t think ever really works. Recently I watched the worst possible case … Continue reading Don’t use two films to tell a story when one will do!

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The Three Musketeers (2011) Review

Ben

There are some stories and characters that if you just adapt and stick to the bare bones of what has made them timeless classics, you can always, with very little effort or talent, make a half-decent, watchable film. I’m not talking about a masterpiece everytime but just a film that when you leave the cinema or turn off the DVD, you nod, your happy with the last two hours you’ve spent and you move on. If you have any skill or talent at all, you can take those timeless and amazing characters and make something brilliant. The kind of characters I’m … Continue reading The Three Musketeers (2011) Review

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Adventureland (2009) Review

Ben

Jesse Eisenberg is on the brink of acting greatness! I don’t think he’s quite a household name yet. I’m sure I could say “Jesse Eisenberg is a really good actor” and most people would say “who?” until I added, “the guy from Social Network.” I make this bold statement about his “acting greatness” because at the moment he is on a 100% success rate with the films I’ve seen him in. In Social Network he was perfect as the pretentious, arrogant but ultimately brilliant Mark Zuckerberg. In Zombieland he played the same sort of character but with a much more awkward, … Continue reading Adventureland (2009) Review

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Planet Terror (2007) Review

Ben

When it came to the two Grindhouse films, Rodriguez made the clever choice and consequently the superior film. He realised that the best aspect of the B-movie, Grindhouse films was the gore, scantily clad woman, poor to hammy acting and ridiculous story. It had to be horror but in a “ram-it-down-your-throat” kind of way. While Tarantino had some of that, it always felt like a Tarantino film in a Grindhouse style rather than a dedication to Grindhouse. The biggest difference? – Zombies! It’s simple really. Zombies offer you gore, blood, horror (but not the tense, creepy kind) and humour, either … Continue reading Planet Terror (2007) Review

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My idea for the inevitable Avengers sequel.

Ben

As much as I loved Avengers Assemble (my review was ridiculously positive) I left the cinema with one nagging question… what next? Whedon and Marvel did the best thing they could, making this Avengers film as if it was stand-alone, their last effort, the only one. They gave the fans everything they would want to see from an Avengers film, in particular the hero vs hero and the perfectly pitched comedy! The only problem is, where do you go next? What story do you tell that warrants the Avengers Assembling one more time? Furthermore, what story do you tell that ties together all the … Continue reading My idea for the inevitable Avengers sequel.

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Death Proof (2007) Review

Ben

The key to what makes Quentin Tarantino a brilliant film maker isn’t the stories he’s telling (though some of those are brilliant) or his shot choices as a director but it is actually his skilled script writing. In all of his films that I’ve seen, from Kill Bill to Reservoir Dogs, people aren’t talking about the action sequences or even the amazing twists in his sometimes complex plots but instead they mention the brilliant dialogue. Everyone who has seen Pulp Fiction either loves the “Royale with Cheese” scene or thinks the religious monologue by Sammy L is ultra-cool (or both!) The same … Continue reading Death Proof (2007) Review