Movie review rant 2014

Status
Not open for further replies.
The Tomorrow, When the War Began series is the best book series ever written. IMHO. Well its my second favourite series I've ever read anyway. You should definitely read them Chlidonias. There is an initial series of seven books, and then three books that form a follow up series (The Ellie Chronicles). NZ gets a fairly decent role in the books actually.

In the books, the invading country is never identified - the characters never figure it out exactly, but also the author (John Marsden) said he didn't want to focus on that aspect, but on what teens would do. (But I don't think its North Korea). The characters are much less stereotypical, or the stereotypes are much more subtle, in the books - the film exaggerates these greatly. And I didn't find anything particularly odd about the relationships either - they obviously had more time to develop in the book/s.

Having said that, I loved the film. It captured the tone and point of the book pretty well, and looked great on the big screen. Its very interesting to see a universe you have spent so much time in (I've read the entire series over ten times) brought to life, and I don't think I had many issues with how it was done. I'd probably give it 9/10 if I was rating it. Sadly I think sequels are unlikely.
 
Actually, I heard recently that a sequel was in production, and until reading the above posts, never doubted the rumour.

And then there's this:

Find - IMDb


And I haven't read the books, but really enjoyed the movie.

:p

Hix
 
nothing to do with the above movie, but have you read "Taronga" by Victor Kelleher? It is a novel from 1986 about a telepathic boy in Australia after an apocalypse, and a major part of the story involves the remains of Taronga Zoo. It has been a very long time since I last read it, but I remember it as being good (although possibly only because of the zoo angle).
 
Hix said:
Actually, I heard recently that a sequel was in production, and until reading the above posts, never doubted the rumour.

And then there's this:

Find - IMDb
Click to expand...

I heard that too, quite a few times, but then it all went quiet - I haven't seen any news about it for quite a while, and do wonder if it will get off the ground. I would like it too.
 
Chlidonias said:
nothing to do with the above movie, but have you read "Taronga" by Victor Kelleher? It is a novel from 1986 about a telepathic boy in Australia after an apocalypse, and a major part of the story involves the remains of Taronga Zoo. It has been a very long time since I last read it, but I remember it as being good (although possibly only because of the zoo angle).
Click to expand...

I have read it, but also very long ago. And I don't remember enjoying it that much. Possibly I should find it and read it again. Its certainly a great premise.
 
R.I.P.D.

How best to describe this movie? Well, if you like the Men In Black movies (you know, M.I.B.) then you'll either love this movie because it is a straight rip, or you'll hate it because it is a straight rip.

A cool but ordinary cop (the loathesome Ryan Reynolds) is recruited to become another sort of cop in a world he never knew existed (hunting down ghosts instead of aliens), and to do this he is partnered with a codgery old-timer (Foghorn Leghorn, oops, I mean Jeff Bridges. Pretending to be Foghorn Leghorn). Together they have to save the world before the end of the movie. I mean, seriously, it is literally as if they were using the same script!

Unfortunately for R.I.P.D., Ryan Reynolds lacks the personality of Will Smith (or, indeed, any other kind of personality) and just smirks his way through scenes. Will Smith may play the same “aw-hell-naw” character in almost all his movies but at least he can act. And while Jeff Bridges can act, in this movie he does not appear to have remembered to do so, unless gurning through Colonel Sanders facial hair counts as acting.

There are a few funny moments here and there but not enough to save this stinking pile of garbage.

Oh, also, it has Kevin Bacon in it.
 
Lucy
The promos looked good, and starring Scarlett Johansson and Morgan Freeman, written and directed by Luc Besson, I was expecting a great action movie, even if it was going to be a bit fanciful. I was disappointed.

Luc Besson should leave science fiction to the experts. I was happy to ignore the erroneous (but oft-quoted) premise that "humans only use 10% of their brains" as long as there was a good storyline, but while the main part of the movie was OK, the ending was crap. And at the start of the movie there were a lot of cutaways that were really annoying.

Scarlett Johansson did some good acting for the first ten minutes. Then her character changed and she had to act unemotional, which I imagine wasn't awfully hard for her. Morgan Freeman was ... well ... Morgan Freeman. Don't misunderstand - neither actors are at fault; I lay all the blame for this movie with Luc Besson.

Don't waste your money watching it at the movies, wait until it comes on TV. And only if there's nothing better on the other channels.

4/10

:p

Hix
 
Damn. I was really looking forward to seeing Lucy, but it's now low down on my list thanks to your review.
 
Speak to some other people who've seen it. My views might be tainted because I was expecting lots, but didn't get it.

:p

Hix
 
Hix said:
Speak to some other people who've seen it. My views might be tainted because I was expecting lots, but didn't get it.

:p

Hix
Click to expand...

I'll still watch it. I need to wait for it to be released on BluRay, so I may not see it until the end of the year any way.
 
I enjoy watching the occasional foreign film, so I was quite looking forward to 'The Raid: Redemption' because of its great online reviews.

It's an Indonesian film showcasing the native 'silat' style of martial arts. For a relatively low budget film, the choreography of the fight scenes was outstanding. Note that this is an extremely violent film about a SWAT team getting blown away one by one in a multi-storey low-income drug den (think of the 'projects' or 'council flats'), so not for the feint of heart.

If you didn't mind the violence of 'City of God' and you enjoyed the fight sequences of 'Ong Bak', then you simply must watch this 2011 movie. I can't wait to watch 'The Raid 2' (2014 release), but I seriously dread the butchered (pun intended) Hollywood remake.

8/10
 
THE WOLVERINE

If there's only one good thing about the X-Men movies (and there is), then it is Wolverine. In fact all those movies would be a whole lot better if the other mutants were absent and only Wolverine was in them. That's just plain common sense and so that's what they have done (er, again). In this one they are re-working Wolverine's back-story (again!!) and have put him in Japan because they wanted a giant samurai robot fight-scene. There are a couple of other mutants present but one only has a vague future-seeing ability which is more Asian-mystical than mutant, and the other one is only Viper.

There's lots of action to hide the plot, and also lots of Wolverine-with-no-shirt-on scenes (for those who just watch for that sort of thing). To make it even more exciting Wolverine loses his regenerative powers and becomes just like a normal person! So much so, that after being shot ten times and stabbed a few more, he passes out from blood loss a day later!! There is also a really dumb fighting-on-top-of-a-bullet-train scene, but overall this is an awesome action movie and you all should watch it.
 
Chlidonias said:
THE WOLVERINE

If there's only one good thing about the X-Men movies (and there is), then it is Wolverine. In fact all those movies would be a whole lot better if the other mutants were absent and only Wolverine was in them. That's just plain common sense and so that's what they have done (er, again). In this one they are re-working Wolverine's back-story (again!!) and have put him in Japan because they wanted a giant samurai robot fight-scene. There are a couple of other mutants present but one only has a vague future-seeing ability which is more Asian-mystical than mutant, and the other one is only Viper.

There's lots of action to hide the plot, and also lots of Wolverine-with-no-shirt-on scenes (for those who just watch for that sort of thing). To make it even more exciting Wolverine loses his regenerative powers and becomes just like a normal person! So much so, that after being shot ten times and stabbed a few more, he passes out from blood loss a day later!! There is also a really dumb fighting-on-top-of-a-bullet-train scene, but overall this is an awesome action movie and you all should watch it.
Click to expand...

We did.... years ago when it came out... Is the world turning at the same rate in NZ? :p
 
nanoboy said:
We did.... years ago when it came out... Is the world turning at the same rate in NZ? :p
Click to expand...
erm, The Raid: Redemption was released in 2011, The Wolverine was released in 2013.....
 
Hix said:
Lucy
The promos looked good, and starring Scarlett Johansson and Morgan Freeman, written and directed by Luc Besson, I was expecting a great action movie, even if it was going to be a bit fanciful. I was disappointed.

Luc Besson should leave science fiction to the experts. I was happy to ignore the erroneous (but oft-quoted) premise that "humans only use 10% of their brains" as long as there was a good storyline, but while the main part of the movie was OK, the ending was crap. And at the start of the movie there were a lot of cutaways that were really annoying.

Scarlett Johansson did some good acting for the first ten minutes. Then her character changed and she had to act unemotional, which I imagine wasn't awfully hard for her. Morgan Freeman was ... well ... Morgan Freeman. Don't misunderstand - neither actors are at fault; I lay all the blame for this movie with Luc Besson.

Don't waste your money watching it at the movies, wait until it comes on TV. And only if there's nothing better on the other channels.

4/10
Click to expand...
I think you should read this -- Lucy: The Abridged Script | The Editing Room -- and then watch the movie again :p

It sounds amazing!! :D
 
Yeah, I like that script better.

:p

Hix
 
300

I've put off watching 300 for a long time because I thought it was going to be really really dumb. However I watched it the other day, finally, and it is not completely as dumb as I had thought it would be. I do love a good historical drama. Sure, maybe Xerxes wasn't really a nine foot tall Brazilian showgirl, maybe in real life the Spartan force of 300 men actually had 7000 other soldiers at their back, maybe they really did wear armour in battle and not fight in loincloths and capes, maybe possibly there weren't really even any monsters and mutants on the Persian side. But, er, I've forgotten where I was going with that.

Anyway, the movie isn't short on violence and blood and gross overuse of slow-motion. I think the entire thing was shot on a sound-stage if the horrible CGI backgrounds are anything to go by. I have read that the effects are supposed to harken back to the movie's “graphic novel” origin, but I think that must just be a clever way of saying the CGI sucks. The ethnicities and accents are wildly all over the place as well: the guy playing Xerxes may look somewhat less than Iranian but at least he doesn't have Leonidas' Scottish accent! And somehow I couldn't get past David Wenham (Faramir from Lord of the Rings) pretending to be hard-core enough to be a Spartan....

On the plus side there are some good one-liners and ripostes in the movie, the best of which are apparently translations of actual quotes the Spartans used!! Blimey. Those bits where they were told the Persian arrows would blot out the sun and the Spartans replied “then we shall fight in the shade!”, and when they were told to surrender their weapons and the Spartans replied “come and take them!” – those were really said by the Spartans at the Battle of Thermopylae! For the Persians it must have been like facing off against three hundred 80s-era Schwarzeneggers!! If the Spartans had film cameras imagine the action movies they would have made!

I would rate this movie two ways: one, relative to how everyone thinks it is so great, about a four out of ten – it's really not worth the acclaim it gets because it is really rather silly – but two, just as your standard Hollywood actioner, maybe it's worth a five or six.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top