Just got back from cinema. Initial thoughts on Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.... It's... okay. Will write a proper review (with spoiler boxes, so if you want to know, click on them) at some point this evening. EDIT: Make that review tomorrow, need to see the film again really. I still am not sure what I made of it.
Cannot get on the iPad as Mrs mop has it so I'm gonna watch an old DVD I have, Day 85, film 85, "KES", love this film, what's not to love, the brilliant Brian glover, Colin welland and even Lynn perrie, all play great parts in this film...
Just watched 'The Interview', James Franco is like a hideous hybrid of Robert de Niro and Jim Carrey in it, can't believe such a stupid film created all that controversy.
Particularly recommend - Koyaanisqatsi: Life out of balance. But that's not the best quality copy I linked. With a good tv and sound setup it would be worth finding a better copy. There is a 5 1/2 hour director's cut out there somewhere. Watched "The Wind That Shakes The Barley" again. A good film but I much prefer the more directly historical based style of "Michael Collins".
Just the 5 1/2 hours? I'll find it, save it for winter though ............. bike riding weathers coming!
Right... Batman v Superman. Spoiler: Review with possible spoilers Well, the wait is finally over. Batman and Superman are in a big screen film together for the first time in history. The result? A sloppy attempt at setting up the DC Universe. Batman v Superman has its moments though with great performances from almost every one and action that could rival Man of Steel, but it was difficult to not walk out of this film and feel overwhelmingly disappointed. For a film that finished filming over a year ago, you would think Zack Snyder and Warner Bros would make all the effort in the world to edit in and out the stuff that's important and tighten the movie, but that isn't the case. It's directed by the aforementioned Snyder and stars almost the entire Man of Steel cast along with Ben Affleck and Jeremy Irons as Batman and Alfred respectively. The performances are mostly great all around, including Amy Adams, who unfortunately felt out of place for most of the film. I have no problem with Adams' portrayal or the character of Lois Lane being in the film, but she was misused and overused here. She and General Swanwick from the first film have several small scenes that are used for us to find out more about Lex Luthor. But the problem is, it's a good 15 minutes of the film that could have shaved down to 3 or 4 minutes worth of scenes. Speaking of Lex Luthor, the casting of Jesse Eisenberg caused a big stew of controversy when it was first announced, and I think it was warranted. I've seen the film twice now and had different opinions both times. The first time I was entertained by Lex but also confused as to why they went the route they did with the character. The second time, I was annoyed by the performance and the over the top portrayal of what should be a menacing villain. A few scenes here and there had those classic Luthor aspects that I've loved from the animated series and films, but the tone they went with for Eisenberg's performance just doesn't work. There's little humor in an incredibly dark film, and Lex seems like he's from a completely different film. The other big problem the film unfortunately has is its title and marketing. Most of the marketing material was well done and proposed "the greatest gladiator match in the history of man", but the reality is that it's merely 10 minutes of a 2 and a half hour film. The fight itself is phenomenal. It doesn't hold a candle to the fight in the comic book "The Dark Knight Returns" by George Miller, but it's probably the best part of Batman v Superman. The focus was all over the place though. Everything from the fight onto the ending is good cinema, but man does it take a long time to get there. There are still plenty of great aspects to this film, however. Diane Lane has a few heart-warming and gut-wrenching scenes. Laurence Fishburne provides some good comic relief as the head of the Daily Planet, Perry White. Jeremy Irons gives us our most involved and badass Alfred to date. Even Gal Gadot, another questionable casting choice, showed acting chops that I didn't think she had here and got me excited for the Wonder Woman film next year. Which brings me to the weirdest part about my feelings about this film. As many problems as there are, it didn't get me any less enthused for the future of the DCEU. Some few surprises in the film, tease Justice League which was neat, particularly The Flash teaser. And I'm incredibly stoked for Ben Affleck's solo Batman film. With that said, I don't think I can get that excited for Justice League if Snyder still directs. I have to believe many of the directing and editing mistakes came from him. But perhaps even Warner Bros themselves needs to take some of the fault for giving Snyder too much reign? Another positive though was Hans Zimmer's score, unsurprisingly. I loved the way him and Junkie XL managed to weave in Superman's theme with the new haunting Batman theme. Ben Affleck may very well be the definitive Batman. Everyone knew his Bruce Wayne would be great but his Batman does not disappoint. There are scenes which rival the action in the Arkham video games in terms of style, creativity, and fluidity. I couldn't be more excited for Affleck to write, direct, and star in the solo film whenever it may come out. I probably need more time to think on this statement, but at the moment, that's how I feel about him. I honestly can't believe I'm sitting here typing an average review for a film that's one of my most anticipated of all time, but I am. There are plenty moments of pure greatness here, but for every incredible scene, there's an unnecessary or strange scene out of place. Sure, I enjoyed the film more the second time I saw it, but I just can't believe how sloppy of a filmmaking job this was. A missed opportunity for Warner Bros for sure. Pros: Ben Affleck, the action scenes (particularly Batman and Wonder Woman), Zimmer's score, Performances of most of the cast. Cons: Jesse Eisenberg, Incredibly sloppy editing, slow first half, poorly written, the last frame of the film. 7/10 Spoiler: Definite spoilers Didn't really mention Superman too much in that review looking back, and that is probably because he's pretty average for most of this film. In reality, this is a Batman film with friends. Henry Cavill is a good Superman, but he's been somewhat unlucky with what he has to work with. Oh, and here's something that just majorly pissed me off... Superman dies killing Doomsday. Now, for anyone out there wondering, that does happen in the comics, in the aptly titled "The Death of Superman" from the mid-90s. My problem is not that he dies however. My main problem is that after his funeral, which closes the film, the very last frame of the film teases that he's still alive. Now, obviously Superman isn't going to stay dead, that would be ridiculous. But showing that he's still alive about 10-15 minutes after you kill him is just ****ing stupid and makes the death pointless in the first place. In the original comic, Superman didn't come back in the next issue, he was kept dead for months, which in comic books, is a long time. please log in to view this image Spoiler: Definite spoilers pt. 2 Batman kills people in this. Something else which annoyed me somewhat. Batman doesn't kill people. It's always been noted that Batman is on such a fine line, that if he were to kill, he'd just go over the edge. Zack Snyder apparently took a lot of inspiration from the comic "The Dark Knight Returns" by George Miller. According to Snyder, Batman kills many people in it. He might want to reread it, because this morning I fancied reading it again myself, and noticed this particular quote: please log in to view this image Hmm...
Right, two films last night. The 5th Wave. What can I say? It was just horrible. Horrible nonsense. For children. Who probably wouldn't like it because it's just horrible nonsense. The opening 15 minutes were okay but after that, well, you know. I watched it all in case it turned a corner but it didn't. If me writing this prevents anyone else from watching it then I guess it wasn't totally in vain. That's the only positive I can think of. Even Chloe Grace Moretz was terrible. 2/10. Before that I watched Bone Tomahawk. Kurt Russell, Patrick Wilson, Matthew Fox, Richard Jenkins with cameos from Sid Haig and David Arquette. Brilliant line up, brilliant film. Set in the Wild West, four men set out to rescue Wilson's wife, Russell's deputy and a drifter from cannibalistic native Americans. Russell is superb, playing essentially the same character he played in The Hateful Eight, he has all the best lines and is cool personified. It's funny, gritty, believable (with a pinch) and frequently gory. Two and a quarter hours flew by. 9/10.
Cheers, enjoyed that. A proper grown up film among all this cartoon and Bond ABC Minors fodder. Certainly different and memorable. And wierd! I got the impression that there might have been much allegory that went over my head but a captivating story even if an unoriginal one. Keep em coming, got to fill the football free void.
Ho. Lee. ****. My film last night, Cop Car. What are the odds of that? Two kids steal dodgy sheriff Kevin Bacon's cop car and Kev is well pissed off. Pretty good. 7/10.
I suspect quite a lot of people will have seen Cop Car this week, it's the featured movie on Sky, it's on every night.
We aint. By featured you mean you have to watch it at specific times? Who does that?? Watched the last Hunger Games last night. Enjoyed it as much as the others, which is a lot. I'd read the books so no huge shocks for me in it, still enjoyable mind. Watched Captive the night before. Had huge potential but...ultimately disappointing. Huge holes in the story, huge missed chances, just...disappointing.
No idea, I haven't watched it, I'm not a fan of Kevin Bacon and the missus didn't fancy it. Wicker Man was on last night, I'd forgotten how weird it was.
It's on Premier, so it's on every night and it's one of the first ones that comes up when you go to On Demand.
I did not know that. I don't have Sky and watched it on Kodi, I'd never heard of it before, decided to watch it based on some reviews on IMDb after they'd suggested it based on Bone Tomahawk. Did I mention Bone Tomahawk is awesome? Anyway, the weather today prevented me from getting on t'interweb until now so I watched Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans. Nicholas Cage in one of his finer performances of recent years. Probably should be a 7 but as Eva Mendes co-stars and I would give her one, 8/10.
