Tag: Review

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Green Lantern (2011) Review

Ben

DC made Green Lantern about six years too late. Rather than make a superhero film at the beginning of the superhero craze, alongside Raimi’s Spiderman, Fantastic Four and even Iron Man, they decided to throw their contribution amongst the others when we were at the height of the genre. The problem with doing this is that if you are going to make a film that belongs to genre that is already highly saturated, you have to do it with something original… and Green Lantern isn’t original! It could have been though. DC have Superman and Batman and with those two characters they … Continue reading Green Lantern (2011) Review

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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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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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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

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Dark Star (1974) Review

Ben

For me to enjoy a film, something has to happen! For me to really enjoy it, that something has to be amazing or interesting, keeping me intrigued enough throughout. I’ve seen a couple of films recently that have managed this, Avengers Assemble, Source Code, Street Kings – just click on the “Ratings List” tab to see which films have kept me entertained. Dark Star won’t even touch the top 20. I know that the idea of nothing happening is sort of the point but the idea of isolation and being alone has been done brilliantly before. Castaway is a perfect example … Continue reading Dark Star (1974) Review

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Bad Teacher (2011) Review

Ben

The best thing about Horrible Bosses were the Horrible Bosses! This was because whoever cast that film made the genius move of casting three actors and making them play against type, doing and saying things you wouldn’t usually associate with that actor. This worked best with Jennifer Aniston because she was usually seen to play “the girl next door” romantic interest type so seeing her acting overly sexual was funny (and sexy!) I even went as far to say that the film suffered from the fact that it didn’t focus enough on the horrible boss characters and relied too heavily on … Continue reading Bad Teacher (2011) Review