Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist (2008) Re-View

I’ve spoken before about how high expectations have ruined films that I probably would have liked, but I’ve never gone back to a film and had my opinion fall so much as it did with Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist. There are films I’m sure I wouldn’t appreciate as much as I did when I was a kid, other than for nostalgic reasons, like Hulk Hogan’s Suburban Commando or the Kevin and Perry film but it wasn’t that long ago that I’d seen Nick and Norah. I guess expectation was the cause of the problem at the first viewing. I remember … Continue reading Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist (2008) Re-View

Hall Pass (2011) Review

The Farrelly Brothers peaked very early in their movie-making career(s). I still consider Dumb and Dumber a proper comedy classic. It has the perfect mix of great, goofy, likable characters, played brilliantly by Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels, mixed with a story that kept these two great characters getting involved in chaos, danger and general, hilarious situations. It has scenes I can still remember, word for word, even now, as well as loads I have forgotten about until I catch this repeated on TV sometimes. There’s Something About Mary and Me, Myself and Irene were the only ones to come close to repeating … Continue reading Hall Pass (2011) Review

Avengers Assemble (2012) Review

Think of what you wanted from this film – picture it on-screen, actually happening! Now open your eyes and see it because everything I wanted this film to include and hoped to see actual actors perform on-screen is included! Everything! This review is going to be so positive that I don’t actually know where to begin! A couple of months ago I posted an article that compared the three big superhero films this year and weighed up their pros and cons. Avengers had me worried because it was a film that brought together superheros that struggled to tell their own … Continue reading Avengers Assemble (2012) Review

Easy A (2010) Review

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

Raging Bull (1980) Review

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

Anchorman (2004) Re-View

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

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

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

Hellboy 2: The Golden Army (2008) Review

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

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

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

The Hangover Part 2 (2011) Review

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