Creed Balboa is back. Oh joy eh! In the latest gripping instalment of.the Rocky saga our hero is persuaded to train a young inexperienced fighter. This lad isn't any old novice though. Nope, the fellow in question just happens to be Apollo Creed's illegitimate son. You see before old Apollo got the bums russian he had a fling with some trollope who had a son and then conveniently popped her clogs making Creed jnr a poor orphan. Never fear because Apollo's widow tracks the lad down in the American social services system and takes him home to live happily ever after. Unfortunately Jnr has fighters blood running through his veins and needs to follow the path of the warrior. So who better to train him than old Uncle Rocky. Admittedly, the plot leaves a lot to be desired but this is Rocky world innit. In Rocky world a boxer can have a world title fight after one professional fight. In Rocky world, the best pound for pound fighter on the planet is an Everton fan. In Rocky world anything is possible. Total bum fluff all round to be honest. Amazingly though, as with most Rocky films this particular type of gumph actually manages to grab you. The script is pish. The acting is much the same. The hole sometimes has a little plot in it but it still has that certain something.I have no idea what it is though. The fight scenes are excellent it has to be said. Much of the camera work is done in a kind of point of view of the fighters styley which leads to some really great shots. I enjoyed it. Much the same way as i enjoy slowing down and rubber necking traffic accidents. 6/10
Get on Paradise Alley or perhaps F.I.S.T. to see some of the best of Stallone. And if all else fails, there's always this...
The heart of the sea. Herman Mellvile seeks out an old sea dog (Brendon Gleeson) and gets him to relay his tale which will ultimately become Moby Dick. This is a sprawling epic of a movie. Chris Hemsworth does a fine job as the lead. He plays the first mate of the whaling ship The Essex. Having been overlooked for the captaincy of the vessel in favour of inexperienced posh boy Pollard (Benjamin Walker) he sets out to fill the hold with whale oil and win a captaincy of his own. Unfortunately things don't go according to plan as the hunters become the hunted. The CGI in this is terrific. The whaling scenes are breathtaking ànd the arse kicking they take is awesome. It's not all about sexy CGI though. There's a really good story in there as well. From the off, to disaster and their battle for survival. 8/10
Trainwreck My Mrs picked it and for a romcom is actually pretty funny - until it does the usual pish of getting sentimental/trying to be serious!! 6/10
The Hateful Eight My Sunday afternoon was spent watching Tarentino's new, soon to be a classic, epic western. And what a very enjoyable afternoon it was too. In fact it was probably the best 2 hours 47 minutes I have spent in a long while. This is a cracker of a film. The dialogue, as you would expect from Q, is fantastic. The characters are suitably nutty and dangerous. The set up and story brilliant. The cast is filled with Tarantino favourites. Samuel Jackson does a fine job, Tim Roth too. Michael Marsden does....emm. ....Michael Marsden. The leads steal the show though. Kurt Russell gets his fair share of going to be quoted for ever lines and delivers them with gusto and Jennifer Jason Leigh is the best of the lot. Good cameos from Bruce Dern and Channing Tatum in there as well. All in all its another excellent flick from the master. I may even go watch it in the cinema when it's released to get the whole experience of the 70mm he filmed it in. Some of the landscape scenes are stunning. Very reminiscent of the big sky westerns of the 50's and 60's. 9/10 P.S. I watched this on XBMC where there is ano Oscar's screaner available. It is perfect. I dare say you will be able to download it from the usual places. If so, do it and do it now before it gets taken down. You won't regret it. @DevAdvocate @luvgonzo @Moses
Forgot to post this on here... Just seen Star Wars The Force Awakens. 2/10 Pile of sh1t. I am honestly amazed it's getting such good reviews. Abrams has just re-hashed segs of the original films into this. No adrenalin in it except for the first time you see the MF flying again. Afer the prequels and now this, it's safe to say the adventure and excitement of the original films will never be recaptured. Massively disappointing. By the way, the 2 marks I scratched around to give, are for Ford, Daisy Ridley and the Millenium Falcon. The only 3 decent things in it.
Just watched spooks the greater good. It was ok, but nowhere near as good as the to show which is a shame. I thought kit aka Jon snow was a good leading man though and the 'main bad guy' was good as well, just the plot was maybe not as clever as I'd come to expect from the show. 7/10
Focus WIll Smith and the gorgeous Margot Robbie. I was expecting a scam/sting movie. I felt scammed this was such a shoddy affair and it did not even have Ms Robbie get her kit off which may have got an extra point. It fails miserbaly on every possible level, Smith could have phoned his part in. How this ever got funded and made is a mystery. 1/10 "The Sting " it Ain't.
The revenant Great westerns seem to be like buses, you don't see one for ages and then two come along at the same time. This one, based on true events (supposedly) is set in the 1820's frontier land. It tells the story of Hugh Glass, a scout and trapper who is beaten up by a grizzly bear and left to die by his mates. The baddy of the piece is an unrecognisable Tom Hardy and he gets Mr Glass's ripped apart back up by killing the chaps Pawnee son. This leads nicely into an excellent story of a quest for vengeance. Not easy for a guy all but dead and stuck in the wilderness. Leonardo DICaprio is again fantastic in the lead in this movie. He takes a doing all through it the poor fella. The scenes with the bear are especially brutal. Hardy is also great. The scenery steals the show though. The cinematographer is on top form. The director uses a lot of the tricks he used in Birdman. The use of extremely long takes as the camera moves along with action is particularly affective in this. You will see what I mean if you watch it. Another cracker that is available at all the usual places. 8/10
Lucy - great premise ruined by a weak plot which goes nowhere. The less said about the end the better. 4/10
The Hateful Eight - solid Tarantino film with shades of Res Dogs in parts but not directly. The film is a slow burn but when it all starts coming together you're hooked. Characters are developed very well. What I really like about the film is this: 1) You're never sure who your sympathies lie with. 2) Who you can trust. 3) Who each character at any given time should trust. As a result the tension builds very well. Not his best work but still very good. It IS a slow burn though (over two and a half hours) so be prepared. 8/10
I want to see this film but havent been overly impressed with tarantino's stuff since pulp fiction. Django was awesome but wasnt really fussed on any of his others. Hopefully ill love hateful 8
Was just saying the same to Gonzo on another thread. I started going off him, and Kill Bill was the last Tarantino film I'd seen tbh. Don't want to big this up but I enjoyed it. Not a lot of action btw. But I really liked the characters, some very fine performances imo particularly Jennifer Jason Leigh.
Yeah, I wasn't impressed with kill bill, the grindhouse film he did (cant remember its name) or inglorious bastards, i didnt think any of them were that good. But Django Unchained was a return to form, if not quite a return to the heights of pulp fiction, reservoir dogs and true romance (even though he didn't direct true romance, it was his film -the characters and writing were his)
Death proof wasn't great I'll give you that but Inglorious, come on? Kill Bill is a classic. Tony Scott financed Reservoir dogs when he bought the rights to True Romance. In my opinion True Romance was the better story.
Joy Jennifer Lawrence is great. Robert De Niro not so much. Nice story, nicely told, bit of a mheh to be honest. 6/10
