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What I want to see in The Dark Knight Rises

Ben

I’m going to leave the big decisions to Christopher Nolan. What I mean is that I’m not going to comment on the actual story or what direction the film takes or anything like that. What I want are small things. These are things that appeal to the fan in me! I’ve been a Batman fan for as long as I can remember. From collecting the Batman Adventures comics as a kid and watching Batman: The Animated Series (which has never been bettered) to where I now try to collect as many Batman graphic novels as possible to keep me up to date with … Continue reading What I want to see in The Dark Knight Rises

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Easy A (2010) Review

Ben

There are some actors that just get catapulted into the spotlight, with everyone knowing who they are immediately, either for the right or wrong reasons. We’ve seen this in the recent past with Shia Lebeouf who found himself included in two popular franchises (Transformers and Indiana Jones) and also, more understandably, Michael Fassbender, who chose amazing films to star in, beginning with X-Men: First Class and continuing with A Dangerous Method and Shame and adding more credence to his name by appearing in this summers Prometheus. On the other side of that are the people who are delivering great performance after great performance but … Continue reading Easy A (2010) Review

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Raging Bull (1980) Review

Ben

If you are going to make a film about someone, particularly a sports film, don’t they have to have achieved something or have something unique/interesting about their life? Most sports films I have watched, particularly boxing films, have some sort of key element to the story that affects the main characters attempts at doing their sport. In Rocky it was that he was the ultimate underdog, in The Fighter it was the relationship with his brother and in Cinderella Man it was his age. I could understand the desire to create films of these people’s lives, even if the boxing was almost a distraction from … Continue reading Raging Bull (1980) Review

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Anchorman (2004) Re-View

Ben

They are making Anchorman 2. I’m going to let that one sit for a moment with anyone who didn’t know…….. This is hopefully great news but with any sequel, you just hope that it has enough magic to be repeated. Unusually for me though, I think this film actually does. I think it has a lot going for it and its all down to one thing… Will Ferrell. I have seen a lot of Will Ferrell films and when he is on comedy form, he is a pretty hard act to beat. Anchorman, in my opinion, was the film that … Continue reading Anchorman (2004) Re-View

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Le Donk & Scor-zay-zee (2009) Review

Ben

At some point everybody has been sat round with their mates, chatting, hanging out, not really doing anything of note but having such great “banter” that you think “this would make a great television show.” No actual plot to this tv show or development of characters, no real plan at all, just that what you and your friends are talking about and the jokes you are coming up with are so funny that everybody would enjoy it. I know I have. I’ve been sat with my friends and we’ve been out-doing each other’s ridiculous comments with much more ridiculous comments and I’ve … Continue reading Le Donk & Scor-zay-zee (2009) Review

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Hellboy 2: The Golden Army (2008) Review

Ben

I’ve never read a Hellboy comic so I feel at a disadvantage. As a self-proclaimed geek, I usually have some sort of prior knowledge or insight into a character or series if they have appeared in a comic. This means I usually end up judging the film based on how close they are to the source material, which characters they change or miss out completely and why, and where they can go with the series depending on what changes they’ve made. It’s the reason I’m really excited about The Avengers, Dark Knight Rises and Amazing Spiderman because they all seem to be heading … Continue reading Hellboy 2: The Golden Army (2008) Review

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Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011) Review

Ben

Pirates of the Caribbean works best when it’s not about Jack Sparrow. I think most people would agree that since the first film, the Pirates of Caribbean franchise has never really managed to rekindle that magic and it is because of one character, Jack Sparrow. The problem Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer have is that after they made the first film, what they created was one of cinema’s greatest characters. Johnny Depp had embodied a brilliant, funny, devious, courageous, bad boy pirate who is fantastic to watch and brings excitement and sparkle to the screen. What this led to was Disney and Jerry doing what most … Continue reading Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011) Review

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The Hangover Part 2 (2011) Review

Ben

I hate unnecessary or “forced” sequels. In my opinion, there are two categories films that warrant sequels fall into. They have to either be a character driven story, ie any superhero, Indiana Jones, James Bond, etc. Or be set in a world rich with story telling possibilities, ie The Matrix universe, Star Wars universe, Star Trek or (at a push) Jurassic Park. You’ll notice that these films follow a set pattern, especially those in the second category, they are usually science fiction or at least have a fantasy element to them. That is because these are the worlds where amazing, unbelievable things can happen to … Continue reading The Hangover Part 2 (2011) Review

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The Town (2010) Review

Ben

Ben Affleck baffles me. Before I started watching The Town, I asked myself, what good films have I actually seen Ben Affleck in? Nothing instantly sprung to mind. He didn’t seem to have that one film or collection of films that you reeled off when anyone asked for your favourite Ben Affleck film. Ask me about Matt Damon, I can do it no problem (in fact that led me to remember Affleck was in Dogma) but Affleck doesn’t seem to have that one, stand-out, famous role. Daredevil could have been it but it tried too hard to be like all other comic … Continue reading The Town (2010) Review

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The Fighter (2010) Review

Ben

Do the sports parts of “sports movies” actually have to be any good? To explain further, what I mean is, can you make a good sports film if the worst part of the movie is the bits where you portray the sport being played? I made the same argument in my review for Your Highness, I asked the question if a comedy film can be good if it doesn’t actually make you laugh. This is the problem I have with pigeon holing movies because there are plenty of films that do what they are designed to do badly but are … Continue reading The Fighter (2010) Review