Rodent's Reviews

[The Rodent]

I reviewed I Am Leg-End a while back... rated it 83% (page 13 on here).


I liked it, but wouldn't say it was a favourite.

[Deadite]

The poor CGI monsters and its weak last act really hurt IAL for me. I do think the deserted city was beautifully realized though and I was also touched by his relationship with his dog.

[The Rodent]

Been exactly 2 months since my last review...


Out of respect for Deadite, I left my thread alone as he was the last person to post in here (as you can see above) and he was one of the last to rep me for a review too.


New review coming up in the next hour or so... Rodent's Reviews are now open again.

[The Rodent]

Review #225, Movie #296
Doom


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/58/Doom_movie_poster.jpg

Year Of Release

2005

Director/s

Anderzej Bartkowiak

Producer/s

Lorenzo di Boneventura, Laura Holstein, John D. Schofield, Jeremy Steckler

Writer/s

David Callaham, Wesley Strick, ID Software

Cast

Karl Urban, Rosamund Pike, Raz Adoti, Richard Brake, Dexter Fletcher, Al Weaver, Deobia Oparei, Ben Daniels, Yao Chin and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson

Notes And Trivia

Along with Brian Steel as one of the creatures in the film, (who is famous for playing Arnold Schwarzenegger’s body double in Terminator Salvation), this film has Doug Jones who played the infamous Pale Man and Faun in Pan’s Labyrinth.


The movie was panned by movie goers and critics alike for a number of things, but mainly for having very little to do with the Videogame it’s based on.


Garnering only 19% on RT, complaints ranged from “like a kid who comes over to your house and plays all your games without letting you play” to “awful performances” and even “the catering truck was probably not even up to snuff”.


Doom was also a Box Office failure, losing $5m.



---





Synopsis:
When an unseen creature tears through the Union Aerospace Corporation’s research facility on Mars, killing everyone it comes across, the Rapid Response Tactical Squad (RRTC) are called in to sort the situation out. In the team though is John Grimm… and his twin Sister Samantha is in the research facility.

On arrival though, the team and Sam realise that the base has been used for more than just a forensics lab and weapons testing facility… and that genetic research has produced something much worse than a few powerful guns.

Review:
Ok… I’ll start off with one phrase… post pub entertainment.

I say entertainment. What I mean is, when you’re a bit drunk and it’s late but there’s nothing on the telly, Doom is the movie to watch.

There’s little to no story or plot exactly apart from “we can’t let these things get off the planet” and a little side story with the Grimm Twins and a family history… but that’s it.
Everything else is simply guys shooting stuff, the occasional jump when the setting goes dark and copious amounts of un-stylised blood and gore.

The film does go extremely dark at times too. There are scenes that reminded me of Blade 2 when they end up in the sewers but in Doom there’s no blue-ish mood lighting… the actors seem to be lighting themselves using flashlights and it gets very disorientating. Not in a good way either as there’s almost no payoff in these scenes. They’re just dark for the sake of it.

The acting is pretty apt for the type of film too. The actors all seem to know they’re in a pile of crap and seem to sort of play along with it, giving only the bare minimum needed for the situation. It works though, which might sound odd, but the actors being not exactly crap, but just bordering it and it allowed me to actually get into the mind set of so-crap-it’s-actually-good.

The big fault I found, is like many Doom fans… the filmmakers have sacrificed “Hell” opening up and unleashing all sorts of baddies, and have made the term “Hell” some sort of metaphor instead.
Bad form guys. If you’re going to make a fantasy sci-fi, use the source correctly.

The film does have some redeeming features though among all the faults.
One is that the character writing is simple, yet they have dimension.
“Portman” for instance (played by Richard Brake, more famous these days as Joe Chill, the guy who killed Bruce Wayne’s parents in Batman Begins and also in Hannibal Rising) has a few layers to him, as too does “Sarge” played by The Rock.
Each character has been given a different “character”, kinda like a throwback to Predator almost where everyone has been given a treatment.
It’s nice to see this little touch in a film that’s so poorly written. The actors involved all seem to fit these personalities too, and that makes me think the casting director had their thinking-cap on while scouring the thousands (probably) of pages of B-Actors they had in front of them.

There does however seem to be a running theme of the actors almost fluffing their lines. Rosamund Pike is the worst of the lot though. She seems to be struggling with an American accent and get almost tongue-tied several times.





Which brings me to the acting.
Karl Urban, as usual is best on show as John “Reaper” Grimm. Urban as always gives 100%, makes it believeable and holds the action with enthusiasm.

Rosamund Pike, as I said above, is pretty out of her depth and is struggling with her lines. She’s also no Scream-Queen. A particular scene with one of our creatures banging against a window and her screaming at it is laugh out loud hilarious and yet also immensely painful to watch. Pike is abysmal in this film.

Dwayne The Rock Johnson is a surprise though. He stifles his lines a couple times like Rosamund but when it comes to the action and having a complete change in character as the film unravels is played brilliantly by The Rock.

Backup comes from Raz Adoti, Richard Brake, Dexter Fletcher, Al Weaver, Deobia Oparei, Ben Daniels and Yao Chin.
Most have little to do except wise-crack every now and then and get chomped. Richard Brake is prett good though as the drug-fuelled pervert “Porter” and Al Weaver as “The Kid” is a memorable role.

One of the most likeable of the background guys is Ben Daniels as Eric “Goat” Fantom. He’s the religious Soldier of the gang and holds the screen exceptionally well even though he has only a handful of lines.





Like the rest of the film, the action and effects are a mixed bag too.
The CGI is awful but the practical effects are top notch.

The CG is worse than something Paul WS Anderson churns out for his Res Evil movies but the practical effects beat most films of modern time. The puppetry and prosthetics are really very good in this film.

There’s a mixture of some pretty exciting chase scenes through dark narrow tunnels and waterlogged basements and the thumping soundtrack adds a lot to what could be generic gunfire and explosions.
The scene at the end in first-person mode is good to see, but wasn’t utilised brilliantly tbh and has way too much CGI.
The other problem is that the film goes into Zombie oriented territory rather than bringing anything new to the table.




---





All in all, so-bad-it’s-good… but also so-bad-it’s-just-bad.



Half-decent disparate characters, some decent acting, and decent action/practical effects… the rest is pretty poor and will leave a bitter taste in the mouths of the Videogame Fans.



Anyone else, watch it after a few beers and there’s nothing on TV… just make sure you’ve got a few drunken friends round as well. Then it may just, only just, be a blast.



My Rating: 43%
http://i1163.photobucket.com/albums/q552/The-Rodent/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/RodentRCircleR5050StampNew_zps36b9d868.png (http://s1163.photobucket.com/user/The-Rodent/media/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/RodentRCircleR5050StampNew_zps36b9d868.png.html)



rating_2_5

[nebbit]

Glad to see you are http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110711020546/potcoplayers/images/3/31/Open.gif :yup:

[The Rodent]

I have had a bosting idea for my #300 movie review...


YouTube link of me talking about a movie.


It was mentioned ages and ages ago between SC and I, but I thought I may well make my 300th movie... a video review... and make it the special one.


Would it be allowed by the Mods?

[Cobpyth]

Why wouldn't it be allowed? I'd love to see a video review!

[Swan]

Yes. And then you should do a video review with Sexy. On Young Guns 2.

[cricket]

I say go for it!

[Jack1]

Good idea. Go for it.

[The Rodent]

Review #226, Movie #297
The Amazing Spider-Man 2


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/02/The_Amazing_Spiderman_2_poster.jpg


Year Of Release
2014

Director/s
Marc Webb

Producer/s
Avi Arad, Matt Tolmach

Writer/s
Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, Jeff Pinkner, James Vanderbilt, Stan Lee, Steve Ditko

Cast
Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Sally Field, Jamie Foxx, Dane DeHaan, Campbell Scott and Paul Giamatti




Synopsis:
When Harry Osborn is brought home from Boarding School and discovers a deadly family secret, he makes every effort to find an end to the plight of the Osborn Bloodline. Discovering what the cure may actually be, things will get incredibly complicated for Peter Parker...



... meanwhile, Parker and Gwen are also torn between their feelings and their futures when Gwen decides to take a scholarship in England... but things are even worse behind the scenes than they think when Max Dillon a massive fan of Spider-Man, who is a lonely and put upon nobody that works in the electrical engineering dept. of Oscorp...



... finds himself in an accident...

Review:
Wow.



I thought it'd be extremely difficult to better the first movie, I rated it 95% on page 32 of my thread.

The sequel though... simply rocks.



Upgraded in many areas. The first film is toned back into reality. As I said about it, it's an origins story. A lead up.
This film keeps within the realms of reality as much as it can and incorporates the fantastical side of the comics, with little regard to the rest of the realism to be honest, and makes the action and effects side of things immensely beautiful to watch and also heartpoundingly exciting.

This movie feels like a culmination of "fan want"... in terms of the bigger action, fans for a long time have been stuck with the crappy Spider-Man 3 from Sam Raimi and have wanted larger set pieces and wider story.
Amazing gave them some of that, but was held back for the story.
Amazing 2 however, ramps the action through the roof, has huge destruction value, oodles of storylines and plot devices and never shies away from the occasional hit of genuine peril. I mean, in this film, there are deaths. Spidey doesn't save the day every single time with every single character who is in danger.

It stands out because of this slight tilt toward the braver side of the Age-12 rating.



One thing that lets the film down though, is the underdeveloped plot with Max/Electro.
It's kinda hard to know if he was a fan of Spidey before or after he was saved by our favourite Webslinger.

Also, the reason behind Electro having a vendetta against Spider-man feels convoluted.
I get the point that this guy has some sort of attachment issues and is a bit odd, to put it bluntly... but going from fan to enemy felt very rushed.



The rest though, even the relationship between Harry Osborn and Parker, is well put together and believable and Parker's relationship with Aunt May and the disappearance of his parents is expanded brilliantly and adds a massive depth of character to the story of Peter's past.

This movie also has that lovely touch of humour that made the first film so much fun.
Again, the humour is through the dialogue and well written characters rather than just a load of slapstick and visual stuff.

Along with the humour though, are hits of real and genuine emotion. I cried at this film at two separate points.
Now that takes something special. I never cry at films, especially comicbook films.



The acting is top drawer too.

Andrew Garfield as Parker/Spidey is yet again proving he's the perfect choice for the role.
This time round he's more mature, a little naïve at times when it comes to other people's feelings and Andrew manages to balance to rebellious and tortured Peter and the wisecracking Spider-Man perfectly.

Emma Stone also, yet again, proving she is perfectly cast. Her bubbly and loveable Gwen Stacy is backed up by a genuinely strong yet fallible love interest for Andrew. We saw this in Amazing... in Amazing 2 she manages to capture the heart of the viewer.
Her on-screen chemistry is also on top form.

Jamie Foxx plays our villain Max Dillion, aka; Electro.
Now, Foxx makes a huge impression as a comicbook villain. As always with Foxx he gives absolutely everything to the role but the bad side is the writing of the character.
It was just too rushed and that made it unbelievable. If they had just taken a little more time developing the Max Dillon side of the character, it would have been better. The Electro side of the character is utilised brilliantly though.

Dane DeHaan as Harry though, nails this role.
The last time I saw DeHaan was in Lawless and he rocked... here, his change in character, even in his gait, is brilliantly pieced together... one downer though, he wasn't utilised as well as he could have been. I was hoping for a 2 Vs 1 with Goblin and Electro... but it wasn't delivered. This is obviously just an introduction for Harry, like the first film was an intro for Spidey.

Back up comes from Paul Giamatti in more of a cameo role tbh... and Sally Field as Aunt May is in one of the 2 scenes that brought me to tears with some great, and highly understated acting.



The action and effects, like I said, have been ramped up.

We have huge battles between Spidey and Electro that leaves chunks of the city in ruins, leaves the city in darkness... it's choreographed beautifully too. Some of the slow-mo style action scenes we saw in the first film are used again here and they don't disappoint.

The backing track that kicks in when the action gets going adds some great tension and excitement too...



... there's also a bit of fisticuffs between Spidey and Harry that leaves a huge impact on the development of Peter Parker and it's shot so well it's hard not to actually feel what happens. It's very hard hitting.




---



All in all, an relatively underdeveloped villain in Max, but Electro was utilised nicely.
Harry, Gwen, Parker, May... all make massive impacts on the story and the writing and general aura of the movie is top notch.

The humour is there, the tragedy is there, the action is definitely there.

One of the best comicbook films going, and an even more amazing follow-up to The Amazing Spider-Man.

My Rating: 96%

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5

[Sexy Celebrity]

I guess I'll give you a rep, even though I have no trust in these new Spider-Man movies and I actually liked Spider-Man 3 (though I understand the negative reviews for it).

[Captain Spaulding]

Wow. 5? My spidey-senses are tingling.

Growing up with Raimi's Spider-Man films and being such a fan of Tobey Maguire in the lead role has left me with some bias toward these new films. If they wanted fresh faces, that's fine, but I still fail to see the reason for rebooting the franchise so quickly. I didn't particularly like the first Amazing Spider-Man, largely because it wasted so much time retelling an origins story that everyone already knows. I doubt I'll like the sequel, either, but who knows? I'll check it out sometime soon.

[seanc]

Rep for the effort Rodent. Unfortunately I disgree with about everything you said.

[The Rodent]

Shame. I guess you guys are still hung up on the overly colourful Raimi outings. Comparing them to the new films, Amazing outweighs them in almost every way.


They're also based on different comics. Raimi's were the Spiderman comics, Webb's are based on The Amazing Spider-Man.


I was weary about rebooting the other comic so soon myself as well... however I was surprised at how much more fun in a less-comic way they are.
Watching Raimi's films, I find them to be just way too bright and colourful and far too campy.


Spiderman was half decent. Not great, but decent.
Spiderman 2 was a lot better.
Spiderman 3 was gash. Utter rubbish.

[Gideon58]

Review #4: Cowboys And Aliens.

Another 'western' from me, kind of.

Interesting concept based on a comic book of the same name and it certainly feels like it too. But mostly in a good way.

The way the two ideas are put to screen don't quite gel properly, though maybe that's down to the whacky idea in the first place.

Though in saying that, Cowboys And Aliens doesn't try to be a western, nor does it try to be a sci-fi. It's somewhere in between. A genre I've never seen before outside of a Dr Who episode or even the terrible Wild Wild West.

Daniel Craig is interesting as the rough and tough 'man with no name'. Similar in ilk to Eastwood, though Craig's story is explained over the duration of the film.
Harrison Ford is almost perfectly cast as a grizzled old war veteran with a heart. He does the job, but you can't help feeling sombody else could have done it better.
As too is Olivia Wilde as the beautiful western Damsel in distress. But with a twist.

Supporting cast from Sam Rockwell and produced in part by heavy weights Spielberg and Ron Howard, the movie almost can't go wrong.

As far as the writing and action goes, it's definitely a popcorn movie.
Fun, loud, storyline written about as good as it could have been, the dialogue well written and is well recited from the cast and the CGI is wonderfully rendered.
The film makers, especially director Favreau, at least had the gumption to hide the CGI based enemy in the shadows till the end. When unveiled, the Aliens don't disappoint either.

Seen as a low percentage scorer when it first hit cinemas, I think that should be ignored and let the viewer decide whether they like it or not.
Certainly a must see for anyone who hasn't, solely because of the chalk and cheese premise.

I for one am a believer.

My rating 85% http://i1163.photobucket.com/albums/q552/The-Rodent/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/RodentRCircleRecommendedStampNew_zpsebffc047.png (http://s1163.photobucket.com/user/The-Rodent/media/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/RodentRCircleRecommendedStampNew_zpsebffc047.png.html)

I've read this review a couple of times and I'm still not sure exactly how you feel about this movie.

[The Rodent]

That's one of my earliest attempts at reviewing. Not just the 4th review on here, but also the 4th review I ever wrote :D

[Justin]

Has anyone actually gone back and re-watched Raimi's first Spiderman film? It has not aged well.

[The Rodent]

I have a couple times. Yeah, since watching the two Amazing films of recent years, I'm not really that big a fan of Raimi's films anymore.

[Sexy Celebrity]

Write another review.

[The Rodent]

I've noticed actually... I never did the third Cornetto film and I also never broke my review of the first two into separate reviews either...


Stay tuned, two repeats of Shaun and Fuzz and The World's End coming right up.

[The Rodent]

Shaun Of The Dead


Red Strawberry

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/ec/Shaun-of-the-dead.jpg


Salesman Shaun is a bit of a slacker. His job sucks and his life outside of work revolves around drinking with his pot dealing best mate Ed down at the Winchester Pub, playing video games in his underpants with his pot dealing best mate Ed... and forgetting about his Girlfriend Liz's needs.

When Shaun crosses the line and forgets about a romantic Anniversary dinner with Liz, she dumps him, only for the world to come under attack from Zombies...

... and Shaun does everything he can to make sure that his Mum and Stepdad, his best mate Ed and his ex-Girlfriend are safe from attack...

... by taking them to the Winchester Pub.


Awesome awesome awesome... three words right there that describe Shaun down to a Z...

Many call the film a parody of many other movies but Shaun really is a highly inventive and incredibly clever throwback to the horror genre, with a ton of new stuff thrown in and lashings of typical Pegg And Frost humour.
If you want a Pegg/Frost Parody movie, watch Paul.

For a start, everything in the film is recognisable.
The character traits of the main two heroes being slacking no good boyfriends who immediately think "Winchester Pub" when the Zombies attack is just a part of the real life humour that's laden throughout the film.

The other thing is the dialogue writing, especially with two sides of the story.
One being the arguements between Shaun, Ed and whoever they're fighting with...
The other being the pally side of things between Shaun and Ed too.
It's very, very authentic and gives the one-liners and humour much more of an edge than any other buddy movie going.
Even the more colourful language is laugh out loud funny.


The acting is also spot on.
Simon Pegg as Shaun and Nick Frost as Ed are absolutely two of a kind. Their chemistry on screen is so real (obviously with them being real life besties). It's been a long time since there's been such a special screen duo. They're fantastic.
Kate Ashfield as Liz is also an inspired piece of casting. Her chemistry with Pegg is another top piece of work and Ashfield is seriously likeable. She's definitely the right pick for a girlfriend for Shaun.

Back up comes from Penelope Wilton, Dylon Moran, Rafe Spall, Lucy Davis, Jessica Stevenson, Martin Freeman, chameleon actor Peter Serafinowicz and acting heavyweight Bill Nighy.


The other thing that really pieces the film together perfectly is the almost slapstick and surreal nature of some of the stunts and highly charged cinema.
It adds even more depth to the action and even more humour to the blood and gore on screen too.

Smashing a Pub Landlord with pool cues to a Queen soundtrack has to be seen to be believed.

The gore and blood effects are also top notch, especially some of the Zombified locals.


---


All in all, Shaun sums up what it takes to make an almost perfect comedy horror.
It's highly gory when needed, full of great acting chemistry, real and surreal, has great dialogue and even manages to pull a few heartstrings with the character arcs that run through the running time too.
Brilliant.

My rating: 97%
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rating_5

[The Rodent]

Hot Fuzz

Blue Original

http://hollywoodhatesme.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/hot_fuzz_ver6.jpg


Nicholas Angel is an exceptional Policema... ... Police Officer.
He's so successful that his collegues in London are embarrassed by his success and his Superiors ship him off to a quiet little, crime free town called Sandford in the middle of nowhere, much to Nicholas' chagrin.

Within minutes of arriving in Sandford however, he arrests most of the youth population and near closes the local pub too.
Basically making a name for himself immediately.

When something ominous appears in the shadows of Sandford's alleyways, Nicholas, long with his new Police Officer Partner Danny Butterman, start making waves by accusing everyone on Sandford of wrong-doings.

Is Nicholas' inability to "turn off" causing him to go mad?
Or is Sandford, the crime free Model Town, really just a cover for something more sinister?


Another awesome, awesome awesome (yep, an extra awesome) turn of events from the team behind Shaun Of The Dead.
This time round, the overall aura of the film is a touch more serious but the humour and dialogue writing is just as good, just as real and surreal in places and, if not a little bit better than the predecessor.

It contains the same hints of small scale storytelling with a hint of larger things going on in the background as Shaun had, but in a sleepy town setting rather than inside a pub.
The main thing with Fuzz though is that there's a much better written character arcs on all levels. Pretty much all of the main cast are given room to grow with their respective roles, and Pegg and Frost are given much more fleshed out characters too, who then develope along the running time as well.
The dialogue has also been tweeked, along with some bad language anad some extremely funny one-liners mixed into the occasional talky and more quieter scene between new-cop-buddies Angel and Butterman.

With all that mixed with the acting chemistry that was seen in Shaun, this film is a definite must see.


Which brings me to the acting.
Pegg and Frost, well, where to begin. They seem to have had much more riegn with this one. A large chunk of their scenes were also ad libbed (albeit in-keeping with the script) along the running time to and it makes the whole thing much funnier.

Back up this time round comes from heavyweight Bill Nighy (again), Martin Freeman (again), Rafe Spall (again)... but with additions from Paddy Considine, Olivia Coleman, Bill Bailey, Bill Bailey again, and more heavyweights in the forms of Edward Woodward, Steve Coogan, Cate Blanchett, Joe Cornish, Jim Broadbent and Timothy Dalton.

Everyone on board also seems to be enjoying themselves immensly too. The overall atmosphere is tip top.


What's special about Fuzz compared to the first film, is that it's much more high octane in terms of action and effects.

There's the usual surrealsim in terms of some of the scenes like Shaun did, but the action overall is much more explosive, much faster, much more exciting and still has elements of blood and gore and bad language to it too.
With Pegg's character Angel being a Supercop, imagin Shaun Of The Dead but with, well, a Supercop in the thick of the action.

They're also managed to incorporate some homages to other movies amongst the chases and gunfights too. Top stuff!


---


All in all, louder, prouder, funnier and much better written. The chemistry on screen is top notch and the action and effects improved 100%.
It's also much more likeable with the fact that there's more characters to get behind and laugh out loud with.
It's also a rare thing, although it's not a direct sequel, it still outweighs the first film.

My rating: 98%
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rating_5

[The Rodent]

Review #227, Movie #298
The World's End


Mint Green Choc Chip

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d8/The_World%27s_End_poster.jpg


Year Of Release
2013

Director/s
Edgar Wright

Producer/s
Nira Park, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner

Writer/s
Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg

Cast
Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Paddy Considine, Martin Freeman, Eddie Marsan, Rosamund Pike, Reece Shearsmith, Bill Nighy and Pierce Brosnan


Synopsis:
Gary King, a self obsessed slacker, stuck in the past and hooked on holding onto his youth... decides one day to round up all his old school mates and try one last time to do "The Golden Mile", a pub crawl through their hometown of Newton Haven.


Reluctantly, the others agree, they've all moved on with their lives afterall but think it may be nice to catch up after all these years... but on arriving at Newton Haven the group discover something odd with the townspeople... and something odd about Gary King Of The Humans.

Review:

Erm... ok...


This film has been not so much slammed by fans of the first two Cornetto films... but it was met with a warm reception.


TWE, I found, was a warm and loving nod to nostalgia and the thoughts that go through the heads of most people pushing 40 years old... and throws that sentiment into a sci-fi mystery setting and laces the whole thing with the recognisable Pegg-Frost-Wright-Situational-Humour and visual gags.


What I liked about TWE is the way it ties into the first two movies as the spiritual sequel it was meant to be.
This film is like a culmination of what the trilogy stands for... the same/similar gags and running jokes... set into 3 disparate films:
1) Shaun's Horror 2) Fuzz's Action 3) End's Sci-Fi



The movie does lack that touch of originality though... Shaun and Fuzz were parody style movies and faithful loving nods to films of olde, and they upped the ante with some cracking writing... TWE lacks the cutting edge creativity and I think it's down to not being a parody of anything.

That said, with it being relatively original, it stands out from the other two even more so... and in a good way.



There is however, one thing that far outweighs the other two films. Character writing.
The characters seen throughout have been given a real decent treatment and backstory that unfolds throughout the film... and Gary King in particular has been given a history that is far more touching and tragic than any character seen in the Cornetto films so far.
Thumbs up for that!



As for the acting...
Pegg and Frost are at their usual... playing off each other for the kicks and coming to loggerheads as their differing characters disagree with each other.
Nick Frost in this one is much more the everyman than an oafish simple minded buffoon, and is almost more of a lead role than Pegg too.

Paddy Considine, Eddie Marsan and Martin Freeman as the other friends in the group are also a joy to watch.
Totally different characters with what feels like genuine history between them meeting up for the first time in donkey's years and they all work so well together alongside Pegg and Frost.

Rosamund Pike backs the guys up in a kind of "revisited love triangle" and she's pretty funny too when she's given the right direction.



There's also more action, effects and, well, stuff going on in this one.
Fuzz was pretty action oriented, but TWE adds a pile of CGI and pyrotechnics on top of the car chases, fisticuffs and running around like lunatics.
The general aura of the film is top drawer too. The photography, choreography and general scene placement add huge mystery between the more highly charged scenes.

The effects budget also hasn't been spared. The odd hit of puppetry and CGI is top drawer.


---

All in all, lacking that original touch... but also more original in that it wasn't heavily parodying other films.
Better character writing and a better story behind it, and definitely more personal in terms of plot devices that come from the character backgrounds.

Tons of fun too, if anything, more fun than the first two, if not quite as funny.

Just a shame the Cornetto gag was lacking :down:

My Rating: 95%

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rating_5

[cricket]

Great reviews Rodent. I've only seen Shaun of the Dead so far and loved it. I have to get to the next two.

[Justin]

I didn't care for the ending of "The World's End". It felt a little tacked on.

[The Sci-Fi Slob]

Review #227, Movie #298
http://media1.giphy.com/media/PrAMyghZaYjm/200.gif

[The Rodent]

The oddity in numbers is down to some being franchise reviews. The whole trilogy/quadrilogy etc in one review.

[the samoan lawyer]

Love Shaun of the Dead but the trilogy got progressively worse for me as it went on. Rep for the reviews though.

[The Rodent]

Review #228, Movie #299
Eight Legged Freaks

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c0/Eightleggedfreaks.jpg


Year Of Release
2002

Director/s
Ellory Elkayem

Producer/s
Bruce Berman, Dean Devlin, Roland Emmerich

Writer/s
Ellory Elkayem, Jesse Alexander

Cast
David Arquette, Kari Wührer, Scott Terra, Scarlett Johansson, Doug E Doug, Leon Rippy and Tom Noonan


Notes
The movie itself is inspired by Elkayem's short film in 1997 called Larger Than Life and was originally going to be called Arac Attack.
The current title of the film came about when Arquette ad-libbed the line "Get back you eight legged freaks!" though Arac Attack is a used title among some European countries.




Synopsis:
The A-Typical accident in a small town sees a barrel of toxic waste dropped into a lake... of course, this radiated the nearby wildlife, including insects...

... and these insects are gathered by Joshua, a local man with an exotic Spider Farm, so he can feed his beloved Arachnids.

Unbeknown to Joshua, his business is about to grow into something bigger than he could ever expect.



Review:
Heh! Right, Freaks is a serious guilty pleasure of mine since I first saw it about 10 years ago.

It was slammed by a number of critics and movie goers but if you can get into the hammy and campy feel of the film, it is an absolute blast.

Many have called it an homage, or even a failed homage to the olde B-Movies but what the film really is, is an homage-parody.

The general writing and especially the dialogue, seem to have been made cheesy and campy on purpose, but delivered by the actors in a serious way, which makes the film much funnier in a subtle way than other parodies like the numerous X Movies (Scary Movie or Epic Movie etc).
It then backs up the subtle and knowing campiness with hits of slapstick and the occasional pulling-a-funny-face by the actors and has some pretty darned good action and effects that drive the plot along.

Think along the lines of the Tremors sequels... except this film has the benefit of being intentionally funny whereas Tremors 2-4 are unintentionally crap.
Eight Legged Freaks also has the added bonus of Scarlett Johansson in nothing but a towel getting squirted with buckets of white stuff.



The acting throughout is pretty decent too.
David Arquette seems to be having the most fun as our lead. He has a natural knack for capturing cheesiness in his roles, along with stuff like Scream for instance, and he fits perfectly in a movie like this.

Kari Wührer is also good to see as the main heroine and love interest for Dave. She plays off Arquette's camp side with a tendency to go serious and pouty and she can certainly hold herself in the action scenes too.

Doug E Doug is pretty cool too. He's like the nutjob the group. A radio broadcaster who believes in Aliens and Government conspiracies yet has trouble believing in Spiders. Doug brings a genuine element of zany comedy to the mix though, especially when he seems to have been given free reign with his lines.

Scott Terra and Scarlett Johansson as Wührer's kids play pivotal, if slightly background characters but both are good throughout.


Backup comes from Leon Rippy, Rick Overton, Tom Noonan (uncredited), and Frank Welker's voiceover as our villainous spiders.



The action and effects are top fun too.
Slapstick, blood, cartoonish elements (including a cat being chomped) a few deaths, some dead bodies and tons of slime and goo.
Mixed into some pretty decent chase scenes, including kids on dirt bikes and some car chases, some underground action in an old mine and various people getting chomped up like cannon fodder while our main heroes do their campiest best to stop the invasion.




---



All in all, hammy fun and knowingly cheesy... and runs with it along with the actors getting into the fun.
Backed up by various takes on Incy Wincy Spider as the backing track.

Though technically not the best film of its type, films like Tremors, Zombieland and even Slither etc take that title, Freaks is still top fun.

Proper guilty pleasure of mine.

My rating: 84%
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rating_4_5

[Captain Spaulding]

I enjoy all three films in the Cornetto Trilogy, but Shaun of the Dead is the only one that I love.

Homage or not, I thought Eight Legged Freaks pretty much sucked.

[Sexy Celebrity]

I've never seen Eight Legged Freaks, despite the star.

[JayDee]

Regarding the Cornetto trilogy I've seen 2 of 3. I have seen Shaun of the Dead but only once and it was like 10 years ago. As a result I don't remember a great deal of it except that I wasn't overly impressed. And then just a month or so ago I gave Hot Fuzz a go. Again didn't really do much for me. As a result I'm not exactly desperate to get to World's End. Maybe one day though.

Oh and I came across a new shirt for your wardrobe :D -

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y193/JayDee87/09-Product-Page23_zpsa5e55493.jpg (http://s5.photobucket.com/user/JayDee87/media/09-Product-Page23_zpsa5e55493.jpg.html)

[The Rodent]

Not long after writing these, I'd noticed you hadn't reviewed them, JayDee...


I think they're top films, worth a go. Give them another chance.


I prefer this one for a shirt though, made it myself :D ...


http://i1163.photobucket.com/albums/q552/The-Rodent/Artwork/ThreeFlavoursCornettoTrilogyPosterNoWriting_zps4bc80da7.png

[The Rodent]

Review #229, Movie #300
Moon


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b0/Moon_%282008%29_film_poster.jpg


Year Of Release
2009

Director/s
Duncan Jones

Producer/s
Stuart Fenegan, Trudie Styler

Writer/s
Nathan Parker, Duncan Jones

Cast
Sam Rockwell and Kevin Spacey

Notes
Duncan Jones was originally a Commercial Director for French Connection Clothing, and had also worked as a cameraman at his Father's (David Bowie) Birthday Party... Moon was his first full length feature and won 9 of the 15 awards he was nominated for.


Synopsis:
Lunar Industries in the year 2035 are the leading supplier of clean and renewable energy... they scour the Moon's surface using automated machines, collecting Helium-3 which the Moon has a bountiful supply of, and then they ship it back to Earth.

Involved in the process is a one man workforce, Sam Bell, who keeps an eye on the machines, does some handiwork and repairs when needed and keeps the Moon Base in order. Alongside Sam, is GERTY, an A.I droid/computer that assists Sam, keeps him safe and sane (something to talk to).

When Sam has an accident though... an extremely disturbing secret is revealed about Sam's purpose, life and very existence.

Review:
One of the best films of 2009?... nope... one of the best films of the 2000s...


Moon is basically an acting lesson, a choreography lesson and a writing/screenplay lesson for all budding movie makers.

There's not a great deal happens in the first chunk of the film, we get to meet Sam and GERTY, learn their relationship, Sam's character and what he's there for and how some of the isolation has affected his character.
Then, the accident happens...

After that, things get spooky and mysterious and the viewer is never really sure what is happening around Sam... are we witnessing something through his isolation effected mind or are these things really happening?

After the explanation is given though, it throws the audience into almost a psychological panic alongside the main character we've come to not just know, or think we know, but have also fallen in love with.
The twist/explanation that happens in the middle of the film also gives a highly philosophical edge as the viewer now begins to question their feelings toward Sam(s).

Even GERTY is given a change in personality... the viewer gets thrown on the backfoot a number of times when GERTY seems to change his/its alliances.

The very atmosphere of the movie is built up of the mystery surrounding Sam(s)... his journey to find the truth and disturbing realisations are wonderfully simplistic yet brilliantly original, making the film easy to understand, especially when it could have been highly confusing.
You never forget the feeling of loneliness though which adds depth to the setting.



Sam Rockwell nails this role though. He has to play a number of different styles of character in the film... aggressive, thoughtful, hyperactive, injured, fit and well... and at times incredibly funny too, his conversations, arguments and insults with himself, are hilarious to watch.
Lacing all of the emotions with a disturbed and confused undertone and some madness (from the isolation) thrown in too.
Simply put, I don't think anyone could have done this better than Rockwell. Absolutely 1st Class.

Kevin Spacey backs him up as the voice of GERTY.
Spacey is also on top form. He does a kind of monotone voice for the droid... similar to his voice in Se7en and even has a strange sense of menace about him. That screenas well which shows his apparent emotion is also pretty spooky.



Action and effects... well, think of this film as a Sci-Fi-Drama... a Sci-Fi with a Human story to tell... with the CGI and practical effects around the base and out on the Moon's surface simply backing the story up.

It's all rendered nicely though, is highly realistic and the makeup jobs are top.
The choreography too for Sam Rockwell is absolutely brilliant though and is so well put together and natural, it's almost unnoticeable.

The music is also perfectly placed and adds a massive power to the emotions and frustrations that Sam is going through.


---


All in all, a psychological and philosophical movie laced with some brilliantly funny humour, emotion, mystery and some very real tragedy and heartbreak.
Sam Rockwell makes this film believable though, by far some of the best acting I've ever seen.
I'm finding it almost impossible to find a fault with the film to be totally honest. Even some of the highest rated films in my reviews have a few faults...
Highly, highly recommended.


My Rating: 101% (gotta be)
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rating_5

[Sexy Celebrity]

Ick. Except for the part in the beginning where you see Sam Rockwell taking a shower, I was really disappointed by Moon.

[The Sci-Fi Slob]

Eight Legged Freaks is a very underrated b-movie horror. Great review of Moon, I would have rated it the same.:up:

[The Rodent]

I'm surprised SC has actually seen it :P


Cheers, Slob! Moon is pretty close to making my new Top 10...

[Sexy Celebrity]

I currently own Moon.

It was directed by Duncan Jones, who directed and wrote Source Code, the Jake Gyllenhaal movie, which I love. If you haven't seen that yet, check it out. That's why I decided to see Moon. But I didn't like Moon. At least, I couldn't get into it. I guess because it had a different screenwriter... it just wasn't as good as Source Code.

[Captain Spaulding]

I agree with you that it's one of the best films of 2009, but not so much one of the best of the entire 2000's. Your raving review makes me want to revisit it, however, since I haven't seen it since it first came out.

[honeykid]

I currently own Moon.

It was directed by Duncan Jones, who directed and wrote Source Code, the Jake Gyllenhaal movie, which I love.
He's also David Bowie's son. There's no reason to mention that other than it's the kind of thing you like to know.

I didn't care for Moon either. I didn't dislike it, it just didn't do anything for me. Apart from looking much better than it's £5m budget or whatever it was, I failed to see what was so good about it.

[The Rodent]

Cheers CS... Yeah, my 101% rating is for special films... I've a few I've given 100% to, but the extra % is that special must see, must own movie.

[Sexy Celebrity]

For real? Duncan Jones is David Bowie's son? The guy who wrote and directed my Source Code??

[The Rodent]

I see you guys have glossed over my review... :D


I mentioned that in the notes section.

[Sexy Celebrity]

I gloss over everything.

[The Rodent]

Well, I'm just about to hit my 300th review, so I'm doing a Rodent's Revisited like I did with Trek a while back...


Special one this... call it a Rodent's Retrospective.

[The Rodent]

Rodent Revisits
Young Guns


A Rodent Retrospective

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/aa/Young_Guns_%281988_film%29_poster.jpg


Year Of Release
1988

Director
Christopher Caine

Producers
John Fusco, James G Robinson, Joe Roth, Paul Schiff, Irby Smith

Writers
John Fusco

Cast
Emilio Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland, Casey Siemaszko, Lou Diamond Phillips, Dermot Mulroney, Charlie Sheen, Geoffrey Blake… with Jack Palance, Terry O’Quinn and Terence Stamp


Notes
Tom Cruise was on set during the end fight, he was visiting his friends Estevez and Sheen, and he even has an uncredited role in the film… watch out at the end for the moustachioed Cowboy who sprays blood on the camera when he gets shot.


Estevez was also extremely depressed during filming as he had been through a bad breakup with his Girlfriend… so Lou Diamond Phillips got an inflatable sheep, put it in some women’s clothing and left it in his hotel room for him.


Two actors were also shot during production. Estevez was hit in the face and Mulroney in the shoulder. Apparently the blank firing guns had wadding and ceramics packed into them, causing some projectiles to fire from the ”safe” weapons.


The scene when Estevez and Sutherland are writing a letter wasn’t scripted exactly… the Director withheld the “speech” from the actors and had Estevez read from a cue-card to make it seem like he was making the speech up off the top of his head.


---


Synopsis:
Based loosely on the Lincoln County War of 1878 and the beginnings of the Billy The Kid Legend.

Englishman John Tunstall’s aim in life is fair game and fair play in business (cattle ranching) and making a profit, and it has brought him into conflict with The House, a gang made up of wealthy Irish Ranchers and Politicians plus their several groups of gunslingers and cowboys, who believe Tunstall has stepped onto their turf.


When Henry McCarty, a young yet streetwise kid appears on the streets of Lincoln and ends up in a sort of protective custody of the wealthy Tunstall, Henry (more commonly known as William H Bonney) finds himself in a homely “school” environment where he and Tunstall’s other men work as Cowboys to pay for an education.


It also turns out McCarty is known around the County, and so are most of Tunstall’s other men, and with Tunstall hiring these disparate characters, most of them good with a gun, tensions run high between the two factions of Tunstall and The House…


… and The House, driven by greed, anger and jealousy, make a move against John Tunstall, and bring War to Lincoln County...

Review:
I say “loosely” based on The Lincoln County War in the synopsis… Young Guns is the most accurate telling of the legend than any other film outside of a documentary.
The filmmakers, wisely maybe, have taken key elements of the War, and watered them down for an audience to fit into an hour and twenty running time.
The film never loses the viewer, or bombards you with too many talky scenes or scenes with no payoff.


The movie plays out like a typical action western and never fails to disappoint from scene to scene simply through the style of writing and dialogue that’s laced throughout.
The feel and look of the movie adds great depth that’s missing from most other Billy The Kid movies… being based more toward reality rather than on Dime Novels and make-believe stories of that bygone era makes Young Guns stand out through sheer realism and historical fact.
The entire movie has a feel of being shot with a sepia filter on the camera lens too, not a bad thing though, it adds to the authenticity of the Wild West setting.
There’s also some situational humour throughout too, so it’s not all about gunfights and high speed horse chases.


There’s even a few hints at genuine research on the filmmakers behalf, for instance when Billy quips “I ain’t left handed” while reading a newspaper article.
There is one scene though that stands out… the killing of one of The Regulators alongside two of The House’s men called William Morton and Frank Baker and it shows that our “Good Guys” weren’t exactly innocent of murder throughout the War.
Thumbs up for that, it’s a relatively historically accurate portrayal of what kind of men our apparent Heroes could be when it suited them.


The bad point of the film though… it may be the most accurate telling of the War, it has still been watered down for an audience.
The Lincoln War itself has more to it, which could have made for a longer, maybe more interesting movie historically.
The War itself took place over a 6 month period and had a couple hundred men involved. The Regulators themselves numbered near 70 men… but in the film we only see a maximum of 7… most of them too are crossed and merged with real life people who were omitted from the cast sheet.
The role of Billy The Kid is also inaccurate. Billy was never a leader, nor even a key player for that matter, so some of the Dime Novel influence of the 1800s still affects the story to an extent. Even so, Billy’s character, is spot on.


The Filmmakers decided the use of 'Brat Pack' actors would be good for a serious movie and they hit on a very special casting.
Emilio Estevez as Kid is an inspired piece of casting, Estevez carries The Kid’s persona extremely well. Young and cheeky yet streetwise and naïve at the same time. Most of the humour comes from Estevez too, which in reality was true.
Charlie Sheen makes possibly his best appearance on film too as Richard Brewer, the original leader of The Regulators (which is almost true). Sheen also comes to loggerheads with Estevez a number of times and it’s actually pretty cool to watch two real-life Brothers fight onscreen.
Kiefer Sutherland is also perfectly cast as Josiah G “Doc” Scurlock. He’s a little too handsome though, but his character traits are bang on the money. I loved Sutherland in this role.
Casey Siemaszko and Dermot Mulroney make a kind of humorous double-act as Charlie Bowdre and Dirty Steve Stevens… Mulroney’s character was a kind of addition as the real Steve didn’t have a lot to do with the War. They make a great double act though and their chemistry with each other is great to watch. Their roles have been merged with the real-life relationship between Bonney and a lad called O’Folliard, who were best friends.
Lou Diamond Phillips plays another rewritten role in Chavez Y Chavez… he’s totally different to the real life man but Phillips carries the huge weight of being more a supporting character that then has a pivotal role on more than one occasion.
Supporting actors include:
Jack Palance as LG Murphy. Believe it or not, Murphy had little to do with the actual War. He was dying of cancer during the War and it was two other guys who we don’t really see who were behind the original murder. Palance though, man this guy is menacing when he wants to be… he’s also a perfect villain. Hey, it’s Jack Palance, what more can I say?
Terence Stamp as John Tunstall is (as always with Stamp) a very inviting character, mature, wise and mildly amusing. A little old, Tunstall in real life was only 24 years old, but Stamp makes the perfect surrogate father figure for the wayward Cowboys he’s hired.
Patrick Wayne, son of John Wayne, makes a cameo as Pat Garrett too and Terry O’Quinn also makes a couple shows as Tunstall’s Lawyer Alex McSween.
All in all though the handsome cast of 'good guys' teamed against Palance's group of grizzly, hairy ‘bad guys’ makes you route for the Regulators even more.


The action and choreography though is superbly portrayed throughout. Horse chases, gunfights, the occasional murder… all held within a real backdrop and backstory.
One thing that will throw the audience is that what appears to be an OTT gunfight ending, actually happened in real life.
In real life though, the fight was much larger than what is shown in the film… which is where the movie suffers again sadly with watering down some of the facts.
If they had made just a slightly larger scope for the movie then that ending would have been possibly the best climactic scene to any Western in the history of film.
We’d have been talking 200 House members and a pile of mounted soldiers, all facing off against around 40 Regulators...


---

All in all, more accurate than any other Lincoln/Kid film, and I mean ever, it’s still inaccurate in many respects.
Young Guns though is a ripping adventure across the Wild West and has that accuracy to back it up and gives all the thrills, laughs and gunplay a Western Fan would want and stands the test of time after 26 years.
My rating: 90%
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rating_4_5

[Sexy Celebrity]

Oh my God. I was going to say -- you should do a brand new review of Young Guns.

You have!

But, I mean -- no big surprise.

[The Rodent]

Well, I figured with it being the first review I wrote and I'll be on my 300th next...


... it'd be nice to give the my 1st ever review/movie a proper write up, rather than the handful of lines I gave it back in 2012.

[Sexy Celebrity]

Did you really destroy your copy of Young Guns on DVD? Or did you just destroy one copy and you have 8 million extras on hand?

[The Rodent]

It's gone... microwaved it.

[Sexy Celebrity]

I'm sorry. You shouldn't have done that.

[The Rodent]

Review #230, Movie #301
Young Guns 2: Blaze Of Glory

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/64/Young_guns_ii.jpg

Year Of Release
1990

Director/s
Geoff Murphy


Producer/s
James G Robinson, Paul Schiff, Irby Smith

Writer/s
John Fusco


Cast
Emilio Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips, William Petersen, Christian Slater, Alan Ruck, Balthazar Getty… with James Coburn, RD Call, Scott Wilson and Viggo Mortensen


Notes And Trivia
William Petersen takes over the role of Pat Garrett from Patrick Wayne (who was a simple cameo in the first film), and Petersen’s role in the film is when he’s hired by James Coburn’s “John Chisum” to track down The Kid. Coburn himself played Pat Garrett in Peckinpah’s “Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid”.

This film was also marred with injured actors… Getty was replaced by a body-double in a few scenes after he was injured falling from his horse and Diamond Phillips broke his arm too, causing the now famous knife fight scene between himself and Christian Slater.

Jon Bon Jovi also has more to do with the film than just the soundtrack. He appears on screen as one of the prisoners in Bob Ollinger’s Pit. He’s the one who now only sits next to Sutherland and Phillips in one scene, but also gets hold of a gun during the breakout scene, but is killed before he can fire it.

Bon Jovi was hired by Estevez after he wanted to use “Wanted Dead Or Alive” in the film… but Bon Jovi felt it wasn’t right for the film and actually wrote the now famous new track “Blaze Of Glory” that would fit the theme of the film. Blaze Of Glory was then used as a sub-title for the movie, reached #1 in the charts, and became the name Jon Bon Jovi’s debut solo album too.


---



Synopsis:
In 1950, an old man appears in front of an attorney and makes an amazing claim… that he’s Billy The Kid.
The attorney is rightfully sceptical of the man’s assertions, as Billy The Kid was killed nearly 70 years before. So he asks for proof…

… irritated, the old man starts to recount his life.

Review:
Now, picking apart Young Guns in my last review, amma do the same right here :)

YG2 seems to have been influenced much more by the Dime Novels, hearsay, legends and make-believe of the 1800s and early 1900s… the movie does manage to follow history relatively closely, but huge artistic licence has been taken in many aspects of the film.
Man of the characters we see are, like with the first film, fusions of lots of other people (probably to keep the cast sheet down like with YG). Alan Ruck’s character “Hendry William French” is a prime example, he’s a midge-modge of Henry Newton Brown and Big Jim French.

There’s also huge changes in character fates. Many of the people we see die, didn’t… and some of those die in the way other real life people died.
The whole film is like a crossing and merging of numerous factors and done simply for cinematic effect. Even more so than Young Guns.

But boy does it work well… :D

YG2 is a rip roaring fun ride of gunfights, ramped up humour, some tragedy and some genuinely exciting cinematic chases and scenery.
The idea of having “Legend” drive the story, backed up by fact, rather than Young Guns’ Fact backed up by Legend, makes YG2 easier to “get into” and a hell of a lot more fun to watch.

The major thing that makes a mark, is the higher production value of the film. The budget was near twice that of YG… and having more of the same casting choices, this time with some even bigger names, makes for a much more “eye friendly” film too.
The dialogue also has some brilliant one-liners and better overall writing.

I also loved the mythology of the beginning and end of the movie using Brushy Bill Roberts as a lynchpin for the entire film and then, leaving it up to the audience to make up their minds about “the truth”.


The acting is on a par with YG too.
Estevez, Sutherland and Phillips return from the first film, all giving the same performances. Sutherland this time round has to wrestle with his conscience more though as he has a Wife and child. Phillips is much more spiritual this time round too, and Estevez on occasion approaches the realms of an unlikeable Billy The Kid, with some of the lies and mind-games he plays with people he considers his pals.

We do however have Balthazar Getty, Alan Ruck and Christian Slater backing up our original Heroes.
Ruck as I said, is a modge of two people, but he carries it well and plays the background character nicely.
Getty plays a character that was missing from Young Guns called Tom O’Folliard. In truth, the character should have been in the films from the very, very start as he and McCarty were best friends for a long time and fought against The House together, but this buddy-duo-dynamic was given to Siemaszko and Mulroney in the first film.
O’Folliard has also been rewritten as 15 years old. In truth he was older the Billy. The relationship between he and McCarty is bang on though, and Getty has great chemistry with Estevez.

Slater, plays Dave Rudabaugh, a new addition to the gang, which in truth is pretty close… and is bang on the money in writing and acting. Loud, naïve, happy to kill, happy to steal, full of himself and very charismatically played by Slater. Best role in the film by a long, long way. Possibly Slater’s best role ever tbh.

William Petersen plays our Sheriff Pat Garrett. Nicely, we see a history to the character, a roots almost, even though it is totally based in fiction. Garrett and McCarty did know each other, but not the way the film would suggest, but the build up makes for a character we can understand. Petersen is as always, on top form. His chemistry with Jack Kehoe who plays Ash Upton while the two are writing Garrett’s autobiography is also tops.

Back up comes from James Coburn as Chisum and Viggo Mortensen as a “Poe”, a fictional character used to piss Garrett off on occasion.
In a nod to fact though, we have Scott Wilson as Governor Lew Wallace and a meeting between him and McCarty.


The action, choreography and photography have all been ramped up though for this one.
The bigger budget has allowed for louder guns, bigger scope and simply a better “looking” movie this time around.
The film isn’t The Quick And The Dead large, it’s held back in reality, but the larger scope for the action makes for a more exciting movie than the first one, even if there’s no real “end scene”. What I mean is, Young Guns had a watered down, but still exciting “Battle Of Lincoln” at the end… YG2, doesn’t have that sort of “big scene”… just a series of skirmishes and a bunch of horse chases that outweigh the skirmishes and chases seen in the first movie.

The rock’n’roll Bon Jovi soundtrack mixed with a better written original soundtrack is a nice addition too and makes for some brilliantly exciting cinema.



---

All in all, bigger and louder than the first film, much more fun and definitely funnier in places.

Packed with one-liners and memorable scenes, but sadly feels like the filmmakers lost their way when keeping closer to fact like with YG.

Still though, it’s up there with the best of the Western genre and reeks of style, huge, huge charisma and has at least some substance behind it too.

A good follow up though? It’s disparate, but yeah, it’s good.

My Rating: 84%

http://i1163.photobucket.com/albums/q552/The-Rodent/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/RodentRCircleRecommendedStampNew_zpsebffc047.png (http://s1163.photobucket.com/user/The-Rodent/media/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/RodentRCircleRecommendedStampNew_zpsebffc047.png.html)
rating_4_5

[seanc]

Hard to disagree with anything you said. I love these movies quite a bit but while I think Young Guns is one of the better films of the genre, II is just a great time. Doesn't hurt that the soundtrack is one of my favorites. Good review.

[The Rodent]

Cheers bud!


The sequel is one I've had on my list for well over 2 years and the first YG review I did was my first ever, so it was kinda short and pretty naïve the way I wrote it.


Glad my rewrite of YG and new review for YG2 have worked though. Aside from some grammar, I'm pretty happy with the way they've come out.

[Captain Spaulding]

I've never seen them, but The Young Guns movies strike me as westerns for people who don't typically enjoy westerns. Kinda like Back to the Future: Part III. They look like fun movies, though.

[Sexy Celebrity]

Is it called Young Guns 2: Blaze of Glory over there in the U.K.?

Here in the U.S. it's just called Young Guns II.

And I'm sure you already know this, but I prefer Young Guns II over the first film. At least I currently do.

[seanc]

I've never seen them, but The Young Guns movies strike me as westerns for people who don't typically enjoy westerns. Kinda like Back to the Future: Part III. They look like fun movies, though.

I could see someone thinking this about the second, although I still think it is a good bit different than BTTF. The first one is a pretty standard western though, it's just bad ass as well.

[The Sci-Fi Slob]

Two great reviews of the Young Guns films there, Rodent. But, to be honest, I can't remember if I've seen Young Guns before. I get it mixed up in my mind with City Slickers for some reason. I may have seen it when I was a kid, but I just can't remember. Added both to my watchlist.

[Swan]

I currently own Moon.

It was directed by Duncan Jones, who directed and wrote Source Code, the Jake Gyllenhaal movie, which I love. If you haven't seen that yet, check it out. That's why I decided to see Moon. But I didn't like Moon. At least, I couldn't get into it. I guess because it had a different screenwriter... it just wasn't as good as Source Code.

He's also David Bowie's son. There's no reason to mention that other than it's the kind of thing you like to know.

I didn't care for Moon either. I didn't dislike it, it just didn't do anything for me. Apart from looking much better than it's £5m budget or whatever it was, I failed to see what was so good about it.

He's also a philosophy major.

Also, you are both wrong. Moon kicks ass.

[The Rodent]

Review #231, Movie #302
Stephen King’s IT


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b0/It_1990_Promotional_Poster.JPG


Year Of Release
1990


Director/s
Tommy Lee Wallace


Producer/s
Mark Basino, Allen S Epstein, Jim Green


Writer/s
Stephen King, Lawrence D Cohen, Tommy Lee Wallace


Cast
Adults: Richard Thomas, John Ritter, Annette O’Toole, Dennis Christopher, Harry Anderson, Tim Reid, Richard Masur, Michael Cole
Children: Jonathan Brandis, Brandon Crane, Emily Perkins, Adam Faraizl, Seth Green, Marlon Taylor, Ben Heller, Jarred Blancard


And Tim Curry


Notes And Trivia
IT was one of the longest novels ever written by King as he decided to have every monster he could think of in one story… and IT eventually became his last novel about actual monsters too.


King also mentioned that he would have preferred IT to be a 32 part TV Series (an hour per episode) rather than the two part 4 hours the 1990 film became.

When Tim Curry was in his Pennywise outfit, he stayed in character at all times, even when he wasn’t in front of the camera… and as a result, everyone, even the Director, would avoid him through genuine fear.

Curry was also reluctant to play Pennywise as he would have been contracted to wear a lot of makeup. His fears stem back to when he played Darkness in Ridley Scott’s film Legend.

After seeing Curry’s audition though, Director Tommy Lee Wallace decided that the performance would be strong enough to cut back on the use of makeup, giving Tim Curry an air of relief.

Alice Cooper would have been cast if Curry had turned the role down.

Jonathan Brandis who plays the young Bill, and John Ritter who plays adult Ben, both died in 2003. Ritter also kept one of the playing cards with Pennywise’s face on it.

Believe it or not, the scene where thick red blood flows from the photo album was at the time (1990), considered the most controversial part of the movie. It was only afterward that other TV Miniseries’ and shows began pushing the envelope as to what kind of gore and disturbing imagery they showed.

IT started a trend among TV shows that paved the way for braver and more open creativity in Television.

Every one of the cast members involved, have said filming IT was the best experience they’ve had in their careers. Richard Thomas in particular said his favourite time on the project was during the restaurant scene with the Fortune Cookies.


---



Synopsis:
In 1960, seven disparate kids, all considered outsiders by the other kids at school, form their own little gang after they find a common ground with each other.
Naming themselves “The Loser’s Club”, they discover that recent deaths in the town of young children, and a disturbing number of deaths over the decades, are all connected by a malevolent thing.
They uncover that every 30 years, children have been mysteriously dying, and dying in vast numbers, and this disturbing series of events has been happening for centuries.

So they take a stand, and decide to fight It in any way they can.

But in 1990, 30 years later… The Loser’s Club find out that It, is back.

Review:
Billed as a Miniseries, sometimes as a 2-Part TV-Movie, IT is a very special and underrated 4 hour movie with some brilliantly scary and disturbing scenes mixed with an slight air of nostalgia and some fantastic acting.

For a start, the first half is genuinely scary. It tugs at the primordial fear within the viewer; a strange and unknown, yet all powerful and malicious entity. The kind of thing that childhood nightmares are made of, no explanation for the fear, but the fear is real and the thing is too for the sufferer.

The film utilises this fear perfectly, for instance making Pennywise appear from nowhere, or appear in a place he couldn’t possibly be, like a grate in a sewer or inside the 3 inch wide water pipes on a sink.
The other thing is sometimes not showing the audience IT.
Simply using the camera as the perception of what IT is seeing, running through sewers with a steadycam as if the audience is looking through IT’s eyes.
It’s all very cleverly shot and choreographed.




A lot of the time, critics pull apart the second half of the film though, saying it’s too sentimental and that the adult actors aren’t as engaging as the kids.
I failed to see this apparent mawkish sentiment myself. I kinda see the adult actors as not as engaging though, but they all still give it their all and they’re all (adults and kids) perfectly cast as the different ages of their characters (either 10 years old or 40 years old).

In modern day terms though, this film means more today than it did back then: Children going missing at the hands of “something evil”, with no explanation as to how or why.
Ahead of its time though? Nah, not really. It’s just the premise of the story being so prominent retrospectively, when compared to modern day.




I am kicking myself right now too.
I redid my Top 100 a couple weeks ago for 2014-2015… and didn’t include this little gem. What a dope.




The acting, well, there’s just too much on show to go into specifics.
We have 14 actors to go through plus a load of support too.
Richard Thomas and Jonathan Brandis as Bill
John Ritter and Brandon Crane as Ben
Annette O’Toole and Emily Perkins as Beverly
Tim Reid and Marlon Taylor as Mike
Dennis Christopher and Adam Faraizl as Eddie
Harry Anderson and Seth Green as Richie
Richard Masur and Ben Heller as Stanley
Michael Cole and Jarred Blancard as Henry Bowers, the school bully who returns in 1990.

All give 100% as the movie flits between 1960 and 1990, with most of them copying each others’ mannerisms and characteristics.
I also totally forgot that Seth Green is in this too. In particular though, Green absolutely wipes the floor with his adult counterpart Harry Anderson.




There’s little action exactly… it’s more about the atmosphere and camerawork and some brilliantly choreographed scares.
Some of the effects are a little dated though, at one point having to rely on stop motion too but the general look and atmosphere is tip top.
The second half is not as scary but is still engaging to watch, I don’t care what RT or IMDb says, and the first half is spellbindingly unnerving.



---

All in all, seen as a cult classic, it’s still one of the best King adaptions.

Genuinely frightening and filled with some very disturbing scenes and imagery.
Second half’s not quite as strong but is still a solid 2 hours of evil Clowns and adults revisiting their childhood nightmares.

My Rating: 92%
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rating_5

[cricket]

I put It as an honorable mention on my horror list only because I haven't seen it in a long time. It really is an awesome movie. As much as I like Alice Cooper, having Tim Curry in the lead role was the only way to go; he is so good in It.

[Sexy Celebrity]

I've wondered if IT might actually show up on the damn television show countdown. Probably not, though -- it's not foreign.

I remember IT when IT first aired. My parents taped it.

[christine]

The book's good too

[Captain Spaulding]

The book is one of my favorites by King (right up there with The Shining and The Stand), but I didn't like the movie. I agree that Tim Curry is awesome and he makes it watchable, but overall it felt way too much like a TV movie: poor production values, questionable acting, certain scenes structured to make room for commercials, etc.

And I can't believe it omitted the adolescent gangbang from the novel. I mean, what the f**k TV censors!?!?! :D

[The Rodent]

Two repeats coming up. The Thing...


I noticed I hadn't split the double review up of them back on page 27, but I had also marked the wrong one for the reviews section as I had rewritten The Thing (1982) once before.

[The Rodent]

John Carpenter's The Thing

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c1/ThingPoster.jpg

The movie is based in the Antarctic, a group of scientists find themselves completely snowed in and cut off from the outside world during a heavy storm.
Norwegian scientists from another nearby science base and a husky sled dog all appear at their camp in less than comfortable circumstances, the group are then forced to defend themselves from the two unstable, trigger-happy Norwegians.
Upon checking out the Norwegian base to find out what happened, they find a scene of horror and torture and decide to bring back a terribly mutilated and inhuman corpse to their own camp for analysis...

... then the nightmare that overtook the Norwegian base becomes increasingly realised to the American scientists, as they are plunged into a world of pain, paranoia, sheer horror and a fight for survival against an enemy that can hide in plain sight.


Said by many to be a remake of the 1951 movie "The Thing From Another World", Carpenter's movie is simply based on the same novel "Who Goes There?" by John W Campbell.
The Thing is a closer take on the novel than the 1951 movie, which featured a 'man in suit' monster that resembled more of a giant vegetable crossed with Frankenstein’s monster.

Carpenter's masterpiece is a joy to behold. The tension of the cramped base corridors makes the feeling of being watched all the more potent and the paranoia between the characters can be felt by the viewer, right down to the toes.
There's also fantastic exposition, especially with the use of flashbacks seen on video recordings made by the Nords. It adds an element of untold mystery to the proceedings and gives the events much more depth and realism.


The movie's special effects are absolutely top notch, the collaboration between Rob Bottin and Stan Winston is very, very special.
Utilising animatronics, hand puppets and the very occasional ‘man in suit’ costume, the movie excels at putting the audience on the backfoot.
Only one, partially fake special effect is used in the entire movie in the form of a matt painting combined with Bottin's awesome mechanical effects, the rest is practical, real, juicy and extremely well modelled by the two effects geniuses.

The other thing with the effects and action is that they're used when needed.


The acting is also spot on. Kurt Russell, who is mediocre at the best of times, is wonderfully 'take charge' and tough when needed, his brooding take on the strange sequence of events works brilliantly.

Star turns from Wilford A Brimley, Keith David, Richard Masur and Donald Moffet make the characters work even better, these guys really hit their roles with perfection.
Keith David in particular plays with the audience's paranoia too with his more highly wound temperament.


Mix all that with Carpenter’s spooky, low tone soundtrack (a soundtrack that beats all of his others hands down) makes this another must see movie from me, especially before the ‘prequel’ (based at the Norwegian camp) is released this year.


---


All in all, one of the finest creature features ever made and one the finest horror stories put to screen. It plays not only with script devices but also with the audience expectations and gives frights, thrills, spills and sheer paranoia in bucket loads.

My rating: 95%
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rating_5

[The Rodent]

The Thing

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/65/Thingprequelfairuse.jpg

Set just days before Carpenter's Masterpiece, The Thing follows the exploits of the Norwegian camp a few miles away from Outpost 31.
The team of Nords and a handful of Americans discover what appears to be a crashed ship buried under 100,000 year old ice and nearby, an unidentifiable body too.
Digging up the body, they cart it back to base and try to take a skin sample...

... unwittingly though, they awaken the sleeping creature and all hell breaks loose and the team find themselves facing days of paranoia, fear, gore, horror and grand adventure as they become the first humans to come face to, erm, faces, with The Thing.


What could have been a fantastic build up and a mystery solver for fans of the original, sadly is just an excuse for CG gore, CG violence, CG fire, and CG monsters tearing people apart left right and center.

The movie does however excel in the paranoia stakes. The feelings of distrust in the main group are felt really very well and are an exceptionally good throwback to the original movie. However the well pieced together paranoia is thrown quickly to one side and forgotten about in favour of all out action and gore.


The rest of the film however, is simply badly written and tends rather to go for gory shocks and very little in the way of actual exposition in the storytelling. The main fault is the head cast member, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, automatically knowing exactly what the creature is before it's really even begun to do anything... and most of her explanatory dialogue has been lifted directly from the original film.

Now, ok, anyone watching will know, but surely there should maybe be something new added to the mix... or even some sort of discovery for the characters to go through. Sadly though, it's all explained so unbelieveably quickly by a character that has no knowledge of such a creature until now, that it reminded me of the badly written script of the A Nightmare On Elm Street remake.

Along with Winstead's lifted dialogue from the original movie, there are even a number of scenes that directly mirror the original, just to add that air of authentic-lack-of-imagination.

There's a few little hints of continuity though. Especially with some of the creature remains that are found in the original film but there are also however, some gaping continuity plotholes.


The acting is about the best part of the whole thing.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead does her best. She holds the poor script together really very well and carries the tension of the quieter scenes well too.
Joel Edgerton is also on form. Not top form, but he's there, and does a decent job.

Backup comes from Eric Christian Olsen, Ulrich Thomsen, Adewlae Akinnuoye-Agbaje and Jorgen Langhelle makes a likeable and memorable Norwegian.


The action and effects are really what the movie uses more than anything else and sadly, as I said, is mainly CG with only the odd hint of real puppetry and man-in-suit technology.
It's well rendered and highly glossy and flashy... but sadly, the lack of slime and snot gives the film a disappointing finish in terms of the fright factor.
It's just too fake really for The Thing.

The original soundtrack is used though, which gives a nice touch to proceedings.


---


All in all... a faux nostalgic film that falls flat on more than several occasions.
It's enjoyable as it is, but having it tied into the original film so tightly and yet also so loosely (because of the plotholes), it makes the whole thing feel like a remake rather than the loyal prequel it's desperately trying to be.
Would I recommend it though? Actually, only for one maybe two viewings.

My rating: 42%
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rating_2_5

[the samoan lawyer]

Not seen the new The Thing but i love the original, great reviews again Rodent.

[cricket]

Right on Rodent; I think those last 2 reviews are spot on.

[Citizen Rules]

Great reviews, Rodent. I hold John Carpenter's The Thing in high esteem. I haven't seen the new version.

What a great descriptive line you wrote:

"...the paranoia between the characters can be felt by the viewer, right down to the toes."

That one line describes the movie to a tee. You really could feel the paranoia, what a fine job the director did.

[The Rodent]

Rodent Revisits
Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes



http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/81/Rise_of_the_Planet_of_the_Apes_Poster.jpg

Year Of Release
2011

Director/s
Rupert Wyatt

Producer/s
Peter Chernin, Dylan Clark, Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver

Writer/s
Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver, Pierre Boulle

Cast
James Franco, Freida Pinto, John Lithgow, Brian Cox, Tom Felton, David Oyelowo

And Andy Serkis

Notes And Trivia
Short trivia this time… WETA, the guys behind LOTR (and whom created Andy Serkis’ Gollum makeover) are the magicians who created the Apes for the film.

---



Synopsis:


A team of scientists lead by Will Rodman, have been testing genetically engineered viruses on Apes in the quest to find a cure for Alzheimer’s disease. Will’s Father is also suffering from the disease.
In the process, an infant is born to one of the tested Apes and is found to be incredibly clever, at only a few days old he is feeding himself and using tools.

Raised from birth with Will and his Father, he is named Caesar and becomes disillusioned with his role in the family unit. Is he a pet? Is he just some thing that lives with them? What is his background? Many questions trouble Caesar, and he must come to terms with what Will reveals.


A while later after certain tragedies strike, the now fully grown Caesar is placed in a primate centre where he plots his escape and masters a plan to become the Alpha Male in this new world of Apes in which he now lives.

Review:


I was dubious about the rebooting of the series, especially after the Markymark remake that pretty much killed it off before it began. Man that film was gash!

I’m glad to say though that I was wrong, I was very wrong indeed.


The story is exactly that: A story.
It’s written brilliantly and plays out relatively simply so it’s easy to follow, but the steps that the movie goes through to make the build-up possible is perfectly executed and extremely believable.


There are also homages of the original franchise with occasional glimpses of the Icarus Space Shuttle shown on various news broadcasts and newspapers, some of the Apes’ names seen throughout and a few lines of dialogue too.


The film also successfully builds a sense of philosophy when it comes to Caesar actually being more humane than some of the Humans he comes into contact with.
It’s actually that good you find yourself on the side of the Apes rather than the humans and gives the viewer a completely different depth and outlook to the Apes' Franchise Legacy.


There’s also the side of the Humans laced into it too which allows the viewer to see things from all sides. Good and bad Humans, and also good and bad Apes… it’s very broad in the story telling and emotions of the characters.
There’s also the occasional shock in the plotline too, especially with Caesar’s abilities. At one point I actually said ‘Whoa’ out loud.


One thing missing though is the Female Chimp called Cornelia. There’s a small hint about a connection between her and Caesar, but it’s incredibly glimpsing and I get the impression something was snipped from the final cut of the movie.




The acting is another bang-on-the-money bonus.
James Franco who is mediocre in my book is very likable and engaging. It’s by far his best role outside of 127 Hours. Definitely a worthy leading man.
Tom Felton feels a little typecast as a worker at the primate centre. He does his Draco Malfoy thing from Harry Potter but he’s very slimy and smarmy and really makes for a good ‘baddy’.
John Lithgow makes a welcome appearance as Franco’s ill Father. He’s very loveable and you really make a connection with the character as he flits between normal and confused and frustrates and worries Will at the same time. I loved Lithgow in this film.


By far, of course, the best acting comes from Andy Serkis as Caesar. Imagine King Kong but with more of a personality and man-sized rather than 30 feet tall. Then multiply that performance by 100 and you’re getting relatively close. Serkis is absolutely fantastic.
You can also strangely tell it’s Serkis doing it. The role reeks of him, but in a very, very good way.


Backup comes from Brian Cox as the primate centre owner, Freida Pinto as Will’s new squeeze and David Oyelowo as Will’s Boss. There’s also too-many-to-count mime artists and motion capture people involved, but they all do a magnificent job.




As for the effects, well, where to begin?
You can tell that the Apes are CGI but it’s extremely stylish and works fantastically with the tone of the movie.


The action is another plus point. It’s exciting and very well choreographed. It’s also smile-renderingly paced and contains some imaginative hints by the filmmakers. The end scene on the bridge and how the Apes use their surroundings is also wonderfully original.


The whole lot of action is held together brilliantly though with the acting involved and the fact you care, or hate, the respective characters involved. It’s also all held back in reality and doesn’t go all Hollywood-Michael-Bay-OTT.


The soundtrack is also heart pounding and edgy.


The only downer is that the film is only 90 minutes long. It could really do with another hour, at least.




---


All in all, by far one of the best films of recent years and it certainly a surprised me in a pleasant way.
Great acting, great action, brilliant effects.


I just can’t wait for the sequel.


My Rating: 100%
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rating_5

[The Rodent]

Dawn review is coming up soon, which is why I've redone Rise.

[cricket]

I loved Rise of the Apes; it's the last time I went to the movies besides the drive-in.

[The Rodent]

Review #232, Movie #303
Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes



http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/77/Dawn_of_the_Planet_of_the_Apes.jpg

Year Of Release

2014

Director/s
Matt Reeves

Producer/s

Peter Chernin, Dylan Clark, Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver

Writer/s

Mark Bomback, Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver, Pierre Boulle

Cast

Jason Clarke, Gary Oldman, Keri Russell, Kodi Smit-McPhee, John Eyez, Enrique Murciano, Kirk Acevedo


And Tobi Kebbell, Nick Thurston, Karin Konoval, Terry Notary, Doc Shaw and Andy Serkis

Notes And Trivia

Rupert Wyatt, director of Rise, was attached to this film for a while until he felt bogged down with a release date that he deemed as too close. He subsequently left the project and then Matt Reeves, the man behind Cloverfield, was hired as a replacement director.


In taking on the project, Reeves hired Mark Bomback to do a rewrite of the script that was written by Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver (who were responsible for the script for Rise).


Bomback is responsible for crapfests like Race To Witch Mountain, Die Hard 4 and the 2012 remake of Total Recall. Yet for all his failures, Bomback delivered an absolutely bosting script for Dawn.


---



Synopsis:
Ten years after Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes, Caesar and his group of Apes have laid the foundation of a home in the Muir Woods, just outside San Francisco.
They haven’t seen sight of a Human for many a year, and Caesar often ponders what happened to them.

When a small group of Men appear on the borders of the Apes’ home and kill one of the Apes, Caesar and the others are shocked and confused… even more so though, the Humans are taken aback by how intelligent and organised the Apes are, and the fact they can also talk…

… and a shaky and incredibly fragile peace treaty is eventually agreed upon between the two factions, as there is something near to the Apes’ home that the Humans need…


Review:

Oh. My. God.

I loved Rise. Rated it 100%. Shock and awe filled me with the first movie, and I was knocked backwards, sideways and every other way when I watched it.

Dawn… is no different.

An incredibly tight and twisting script and sequence of events, disparate character writing and very clever exposition threw me at almost every turn.
I had no idea what to expect from the film as it was playing out.

We’re treated this time round to a rounded character base within the Ape Group. Caesar and his family and the hierarchy and ranking within the entire Ape group, which is thrown into disarray and confusion with the arrival of the Humans.
The Human side of it all when they discover these intelligent Apes and the trials and tribulations of Human politics back at the Humans’ home.

Then there’s the mistrust between the two groups… each one not knowing what the other will do or what they’re planning.
All the while, Caesar and Malcolm (Clarke) are making a connection. A connection that is seemingly frowned upon by Humans and Apes alike.

You’re never really sure of a number of characters’ (both Human and Ape) alliances either. The exposition gives slight hints, but nothing that ever gives away what is actually going to happen. It’s very cleverly pieced together.

The good thing with this film too is that we meet the Apes first and we get to see and know their society. There’s no mixing it up and confusing the viewer.
And it’s fantastically nostalgic to see armies of Apes smothered in war paint, riding on horseback and carrying weapons and at one point rounding up Humans into cages.
I loved tons of scenes throughout this film.

Like with the first film, there are many undertones of almost “racial” tension. Good and bad Apes, good and bad Humans… all with understandable reasons for their mindsets.

One thing though… ignore the trailers. The film resembles them very little and is similar to the first by using story to back up the action and set pieces. The trailers give totally the wrong idea of an all-out action fest with little substance.
Many of the characters are misrepresented in the trailers as well.

The use of a MacGuffin is also a bit cliché but it works and is utilised well without taking up too much of the storyline.




The acting is ramped up too for this one too.
Andy Serkis seems comfortable in the role of Caesar, though he was perfect in the first film, and he seems to have been given a much freer role too so he can add his own humour and emotion to the character. Serkis absolutely rocks this movie… and all from behind a blanket of CGI.

Jason Clarke as Malcolm, our leading Human, is also on top form. He’s streetwise, intelligent and full of charisma and makes the viewer feel calm when he’s around. Clarke is a brilliant leading man.

Gary Oldman is on top form too. He’s a guy who is a kind of Mayor for the Humans, who has little trust in Apes and is highly dubious as to what they’re up to.
He’s kind of a half-antagonist and has a heart, a man who has been placed in a position of power and the viewer can see and understand why he is the way he is. I loved Oldman in this role.

Tobi Kebbell is the new actor who plays Koba. Koba was seen in Rise but this time round he’s more of a General within the Apes’ forces (fighting, hunting etc) and is a stalwart but questionable friend of Caesar. Koba’s role within the story is also one of surprise.

Backup comes from Keri Russell and Kodi Smit-McPhee as Clarke’s missus and son respectfully… and from John Eyez, Enrique Murciano and Kirk Acevedo as Humans who work with Clarke’s character. Acevedo in particular has a small but pivotal role in the distrust between the Humans and Apes.

Again though, there are too-many-to-count mime artists and motion capture wizards to name but they’re all magnificently charismatic throughout. We do see more of Cornelia in this film though, which is a good thing.




The effects and action though… wow.
Ramped up in the CG stakes, the Apes and computer generated sets are awesome to look at, but nothing that goes OTT or Hollywood stupid.
We’re talking about physically athletic Apes using spears, horses and occasionally guns, and Humans using guns and occasionally tanks… and it’s all held together with a realistic tone and some lovely choreography.
The photography is also some of the best I’ve seen. There are a number of scenes that keep the heart racing, and the mind running to catch up and brings a sharp focus on who is involved within the fighting and lets the viewer get involved in the emotions of the action.


---

All in all, a rare example of a sequel bettering the lead up. Even though the lead up was fantastic.
Dawn gives all the fantasy thrills and spills a fan would want, and has a damned good story, screenplay and script to back it up.


Rise got 100% from me, and though Dawn is better, it’s not quite good enough for the magical 101% rating. It’s very, very close though.

My Rating: 100%
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rating_5

[Gatsby]

First! Great review as always Mr. Rodent. :D

I really liked Dawn of the Planet of the Apes as well, my favorites are Andy Serkins' motion capture performance, the calm but at the same time powerful direction, and the cinematography that excelled in making you feel like you were right next to the battlefield. Although the movie dragged the plot a bit boringly here and there the pros covered that all up in my opinion.

[seanc]

Good review Rodent. I did not enjoy Dawn nearly as much as Rise but certainly seem to be in the minority on that.

[The Rodent]

Dawn is great in the way it's a popcorn movie with both an untold and a told story.


Kinda in the same ballpark as Aliens or Jurassic Park...


Sad thing is, neither of these films made my recent Top 100. I forgot about Rise and hadn't seen Dawn when I was doing the list. That'll be rectified next year though...

[JayDee]

Love Rise and really liked Dawn. Would certainly give the edge to Rise just because I found it to be more fun and entertaining against the darker edges of Dawn. Rise also had a lot more heart that was missing a bit from Dawn I felt


Sad thing is, neither of these films made my recent Top 100. I forgot about Rise

I had noticed Rise wasn't on your list and was really surprised. Didn't realise you just forgot it and thought it had just drastically dropped from being really high up to completely off the list

[cricket]

I can't wait to see Dawn-great review Rodent!

[The Rodent]

Review #233, Movie #304
Teenage Mutant NinjaTurtles



http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/09/Teenage_Mutant_Ninja_Turtles_film_July_2014_poster.jpg


Year Of Release

2014


Director/s

Jonathan Liebesman


Producer/s

Michael Bay, Andrew Form, Bradley Fuller, Galen Walker, Scott Mednick, Ian Bryce


Writer/s

Josh Appelbaum, Andre Nemec, Evan Daugherty, Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird


Cast

Alan Ritchson, Pete Ploszek, Jeremy Howard, Noel Fisher, Danny Woodburn, Tony Shalhoub, Megan Fox, Will Arnett, William Fichtner, Tohoru Masamune, Minae Noji, Whoopi Goldberg and Johnny Knoxville


Notes And Trivia

The movie was originally going to be called “Ninja Turtles” but after negative feedback from fans, and the fact the title left it open for the filmmakers to use Aliens as a backstory, it was put back to Teenage Mutant.



Bebop and Rocksteady were pencilled in as appearing in the film but were dropped out in place of having them show in a sequel instead.



Leo’s face was based on Russell Crowe, Raph on Clint Eastward, Mikey on Bill Murray and Donny was based on Leonard Nimoy.

Splinter’s face was based on Japanese Legend Toshiro Mifune.



Ernie Reyes Jr who appeared in TMNT 2: The Secret Of The Ooze, and was a stunt double for Donatello in the first TMNT film in 1990, served as a Martial Art Consultant for this film.



The iconic line “Tonight I dine on Turtle Soup” made a welcome return for this film.

The TMNT Christmas hit “We Wish You A Turtle Christmas” from 1994 is hinted at in this film.

The iconic scene from the cartoons where the four Turtles jump from a rooftop and drop past the camera makes a show near the start of the film.

Usagi Yojimbo is also hinted at in this film too.



This is the first time in Turtle history, that Leonardo actually carries proper Katana. All other incarnations say he carries them but the swords are, in reality, Ninjato.



It was also released on the 30th anniversary of the Turtles first appearance.


---



Synopsis:
April O’Neil, a young but downtrodden reporter for Channel 6 News hopes one day of finding that big story that will make her a star in the world of TV News.
The city has been under attack from The Foot Clan for a while now, and April is hot on their heels, especially after the recent theft of genetic material.

While scoping out the local docks she witnesses The Foot carrying out another theft, and a shadowy figure appears and fights them off… and a while later, after trying to hunt down this vigilante, she comes across 4 giant Turtles…

Review:
Hmmmm…. hmmmmm………

This film… is…

Ok…

Chalk and Cheese.

There are some huge faults with this movie. One being it plays out so incredibly quickly.
There’s no big realisation. No mystery or anything really intriguing.

It’s a case of skipping backstory with a handful of dialogue. We see the Turtles’ backstory, albeit rewritten, and that’s it.
There’s nothing that really makes the Turtles’ actions, or The Foot’s actions, make any sense.
They just sort of… are.
“This is these guys, these are those guys, this is what they are… now on with the fist fights and wisecracks.”

It’s pretty hollow in terms of story and emotion. Especially compared with the original film, and for that matter the original 1989 cartoons too.

Nothing that gives the viewer an emotional thrill either. The first TMNT movie from 1990, had piles of spiritual content, the mystery of Ninjutsu and the emotional content that came from the history of the Turtles’ and Splinter’s beginnings.
There was a family thing going on. A family feud almost too between Splinter and Shredder.
This film has none of that apart from Splinter occasionally saying “you’re Brothers” now and then.
It’s pretty weak in terms of connection.

It’s like a midge of the original graphic novel, the 1989 cartoon, the 1990 film and its sequels and then some added extras from the later cartoons thrown in for good measure.

The backstory of the Turtles and Splinter being rewritten was something I had reservations about too, but to be honest, it does work. Sadly though it’s the way it unfolds on screen with the bad screenplay that lets it down.

It feels, well, lost, for a TMNT story.


-


But, apart from the faults behind the writing… this film is an absolute blast to watch.

It has some brilliant fight scenes, has all of the characters down to a T (pun intended) and is incredibly funny at times too.
It’s everything a TMNT movie should be in terms of a few brainless battles and wisecracks and I couldn’t help really getting behind the Turtles while they’re knocking Foot Soldiers around like ragdolls.
Along with being funny though, it’s a fun movie to sit through.


-


The acting though is top drawer too.

Alan Ritchson as Raphael
Pete Ploszek as Leonardo (voiced by Johnny Knoxville)
Jeremy Howard as Donatello
Noel Fisher as Michelangelo

These 4 guys (5 if you include Knoxville as Leo’s voice) nail these roles. They have the right characteristics and carry the humour extremely well, even during the more exciting scenes.
I loved these guys in these roles, even more-so than in any other incarnation.
Noel Fisher in particular as Mikey, I can see becoming a firm fan-favourite… he’s perfect.

Danny Woodburn as Splinter (voiced by Tony Shalhoub)
There’s not a great deal to say about Woodburn/Shalhoub as Splinter. He’s more a supporting character but is nicely used when the going gets tough. I’m glad we get to see Splinter kick some ass though like he does in the cartoons compared to the immoveable puppet we had in 1990.

We have though an underused, and also underdeveloped villain, in William Fichtner as Eric Sacks. After the finale, we don’t see what happens to him or the outcome of his villainy.
The Shredder aka: Oroku Saki, played by Tohoru Masamune is also a bit hit and miss. He’s simply just muscle used to knock the Turtles around and he’s mostly CGI too. It’s good that the filmmakers used the Super-Shredder thing, being that the new Turtle design would have kicked the original Shredder easily, but we needed more Oroku Saki and less man-in-supersuit throwing kicks and punches. He makes a good fighting baddie, just not a great baddie.

Megan Fox as O’Neil is also pretty apt. Fox is a bit dodgy at best in all her other roles tbh, but as the nosey reporter, who borders annoying on occasion, is perfectly played by Fox.

Backup comes from Will Arnett (wanted to see more of him) and Minae Noji as Karai. Noji should also have been given more scope, especially as a second-in-command to Shredder.
Whoopi Goldberg also makes a show in a rewritten role as the head of Channel 6 News, who treats April O’Neil like she’s gone mad.


-


The action and effects though really make this film a Turtle Film.
Top effects in the CG stakes and some awesome set pieces combined with some brilliant choreography make this one stand out from the crowd of Turtle incarnations.

It’s exciting to watch and constantly impresses when it shows the occasional nod to the previous Turtle cartoons and films.

There are a number of highly charged scenes and one-liners throughout that had my heart going and hit all the right buttons for a Turtle fan.




---


All in all, top effects and action, tons of fun to watch and laugh out loud funny on more than several occasions… sadly, the screenplay is a bit of a mess and the story isn’t built on like with the predecessors… a top Turtle film though and is everything, action wise, a Turtle film should be…



… but is it culturally relevant anymore? I think this film may have arrived 10 years too late.



Still top fun though. Worth a go if you’re a fan.


My Rating: 86%
http://i1163.photobucket.com/albums/q552/The-Rodent/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/RodentRCircleRecommendedStampNew_zpsebffc047.png (http://s1163.photobucket.com/user/The-Rodent/media/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/RodentRCircleRecommendedStampNew_zpsebffc047.png.html)


rating_4_5

[Sexy Celebrity]

Leo’s face was based on Russell Crowe, Raph on Clint Eastward, Mikey on Bill Murray and Donny was based on Leonard Nimoy.

And look who just died.

Johnny Knoxville

Didn't know he was in this. Knew Whoopi was. :whoopi:

Oh, he voices Leonardo.

With all these trivia things you include, you really should beat JayDee for Best Reviewer.

I need to see this Turtles movie. I think I'd probably like it to some degree.

[The Rodent]

I reckon you would tbh. It's not as good as the original 1990 film but it's a good film for fans.

[Sexy Celebrity]

There are some huge faults with this movie. One being it plays out so incredibly quickly.
There’s no big realisation. No mystery or anything really intriguing.

It's unbelievably fast. I just watched it. I thought the movie was really good for the first hour, but at that point, it just bombed. It also felt too CGI and too jittery. They never slowed down and took a breath. Once they start fighting and heading towards the big showdown, it's just action, action, action, action.......

It’s pretty hollow in terms of story and emotion. Especially compared with the original film, and for that matter the original 1989 cartoons too.

Yes. This wasn't better than the 1990 movie.

Nothing that gives the viewer an emotional thrill either. The first TMNT movie from 1990, had piles of spiritual content, the mystery of Ninjutsu and the emotional content that came from the history of the Turtles’ and Splinter’s beginnings.
There was a family thing going on. A family feud almost too between Splinter and Shredder.
This film has none of that apart from Splinter occasionally saying “you’re Brothers” now and then.
It’s pretty weak in terms of connection.

Yes.

But, apart from the faults behind the writing… this film is an absolute blast to watch.

I had hoped it would be and in the beginning, it seemed like it would, but I thought it'd be a lot better. I wouldn't really call it a "blast."

It has some brilliant fight scenes, has all of the characters down to a T (pun intended) and is incredibly funny at times too.

It is funny at times, but not constantly. Not a lot.

My favorite part was probably the second (and unfortunately, last) scene with Whoopi Goldberg :whoopi:, where April's telling her about the turtles.

The fight scenes were annoying. They reminded me of the cheesy fight scenes from the 1990's Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, especially when Shredder was fighting.

The acting though is top drawer too.

Alan Ritchson as Raphael
Pete Ploszek as Leonardo (voiced by Johnny Knoxville)
Jeremy Howard as Donatello
Noel Fisher as Michelangelo

The only thing I liked was hearing Johnny Knoxville as the voice of Leonardo. Besides that and Whoopi Goldberg, the acting wasn't anything special. Megan Fox was decent but underdeveloped and I hated her stupid male sidekick/love interest.

The turtles never felt like real people to me. I just thought they were all CGI creations. It was not as good as the people from the 1990 movie.

These 4 guys (5 if you include Knoxville as Leo’s voice) nail these roles. They have the right characteristics and carry the humour extremely well, even during the more exciting scenes.

They just seemed like voices playing over the film to me. I wasn't really impressed much.

I also thought the Splinter rat was incredibly weird and annoying. I prefer the puppet from the 1990 movie.

We have though an underused, and also underdeveloped villain, in William Fichtner as Eric Sacks. After the finale, we don’t see what happens to him or the outcome of his villainy.

Saw that villain coming. All I can say about him is he was a lot better than Shredder.

Backup comes from Will Arnett (wanted to see more of him)

I wanted to see so much less of him.

and Minae Noji as Karai. Noji should also have been given more scope, especially as a second-in-command to Shredder.

She was interesting, but all she did was stare at things and look evil.

Whoopi Goldberg also makes a show in a rewritten role as the head of Channel 6 News, who treats April O’Neil like she’s gone mad.

She was great casting for that part, but totally underused. If they do a sequel, I hope they bring her back.

… but is it culturally relevant anymore? I think this film may have arrived 10 years too late.

Nah. I think it was great timing.

[The Rodent]

Review #234, Movie #305
Battleship



http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6e/Battleship_Poster.jpg


Year Of Release

2012


Director/s

Peter Berg


Producer/s

Peter Berg, Brian Goldner, Scott Stuber, Sarah Aubrey, Duncan Henderson, Bennett Schneir


Writer/s

Jon Hoeber, Erich Hoeber, based on Battleship by Hasbro


Cast

Taylor Kitsch, Alexander Skarsgård, Rihanna, Tadanobu Asano, Jesse Plemons, Brooklyn Decker with Liam Neeson, Peter MacNicol and Gregory D Gadson


Notes And Trivia

The movie is filled with real life events and people used for footage for the film.

The filmmakers used anything from footage of the London Riots of 2011 as “Apocalyptic rioting” in streets seen in news broadcasts to actual Army and Navy personnel as extras on the ships.

All of the ships in the film are real life ships in the US Navy too, albeit with some CG footage of the ships, but they’re real ships nonetheless.

Real life veterans were used as well in a few scenes, some of which served in WWII.

Most of the locations in the film were shot in the actual locations too, for instance shots of Hawaii were filmed in Hawaii, rather than just being a CGI blanket.


There are also numerous throwbacks to the game Battleship as well. Even though many people and critics have criticized the movie for having little in common with the game, there are several nods… missiles that resemble the killer pegs, grid systems on the ship’s screens that resemble the game’s aesthetic used in place of RADAR when the RADAR system fails (the RADAR on the actual game was always just a useless sticker that had no function), plus others.


---



Synopsis:
In 2006, NASA decides to try to communicate directly with a planet called “Planet G” they have discovered outside our solar system.
In the meantime though, Alex Hopper is living with his brother Stone Hopper. Stone is a Navy man and highly disciplined, Alex however, isn’t, and is constantly screwing up his life.
After an incident sees Alex get arrested, and this time putting Stone’s life as a Navy man in jeopardy, Stone goes off the rails…

… and enlists Alex into the Navy to teach him some humility and dignity.

Only the worst is about to happen in the year 2012, when Planet G sends back a response to the 2006 message that NASA sent.

Review:
Ha!

You know what?
This movie isn’t actually half bad.

Ok, the script is hokey at times and the plot is totally ridiculous… it’s still a thrill ride to sit through and is actually quite exciting in places too.

The bad points… well, most border that magical line of so bad it’s good.
There are tons of clichéd scenes of people running in slow-motion while the world explodes behind them and some pretty dire dialogue mixed in to some of the better scenes, very Michael Bay-ish. There’s also a chunk of questionable actions on behalf of the Navy/Military guys too.

Put those thoughts aside though and watch the movie as a whole and it’s a proper lads’ movie filled with some funny one-liners, some half-decent exposition and some awesome effects and action.


The major thing with this film is the reality it captures in the look and feel of the tones. Realistic action and explosions (with the occasional hit of artistic license of course dealing with Aliens and stuff) and the little touches of reality when it comes to paying tributes to Military personnel and Navy ships of old and new.


-


The acting too is pretty apt as well to be honest. The whole cast seems to know what kind of film they’re making and nobody seems to be trying too hard or trying too little.

Taylor Kitsch, who I’m not really familiar with, plays Alex, our slacker Hero who has to dig deep when the sh*t hits the fan. He plays it pretty cool too. You can see there’s an element of intelligence behind him and he holds the action together well.
Alexander Skarsgård plays Stone. Skarsgård isn’t seen a great amount to be honest, which is a shame. It does however add more authenticity to his character and to the actions of Taylor Kitsch’s Alex.

Rihanna is a huge surprise though. Singer turned actress? Almost. She’s not seen a massive amount so it was more of a gimmick having her billed near the top of the list. When seen though she plays it really quite well.

Brooklyn Decker and Gregory D Gadson play a kind of double-act and side story when the Aliens arrive on land. Decker (love interest for Kitsch’s Alex) is gladly kept to the background though as she’s pretty dull at best.
Gadson though, in one of those nods to real life, plays a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel who was retired due to being a double amputee. His character has to go through moments of realisation with his condition so he can, ahem, stand up to the Alien threat. It’s a lovely touch to add to what could have been just a brainless actioner and you can really see Gadson’s dedication to the role.

Backup comes from Tadanobu Asano, Jesse Plemons (wanted to see more of him) and Liam Neeson.


-


The action and effects though are really what it’s all about.
There are some brilliantly choreographed set pieces and hits of action.
The Aliens and Alien tech is also not expanded on greatly, which I think is where this movie works so well.
The filmmakers gladly kept at least some air of mystery about these invaders and it makes to whole thing gel more as an action piece.
The CGI though is tip top.

Also, seeing a superbly rendered Battleship open fire with everything it has, cannons, machine-guns, missiles etc, at another ship, is awesome to watch.

And all backed up by some kick-ass AC-DC music :up:



---


All in all, a 10 minute set up so the action can start and it’s guns blazing from then on in. It does have though, a bit of a brain behind it with a few scenes of realisation, and all the lovely touches of reality mixed into the occasional clichéd line make this movie a guilty pleasure of mine.

Not perfect, but actually not that bad.

Watch it while, ahem, sinking, a couple beers.

My Rating: 86%
http://i1163.photobucket.com/albums/q552/The-Rodent/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/RodentRCircleRecommendedStampNew_zpsebffc047.png (http://s1163.photobucket.com/user/The-Rodent/media/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/RodentRCircleRecommendedStampNew_zpsebffc047.png.html)

rating_4_5

[Optimus]

I love Battleship. I watched it again last night and it's awesome. Really don't get the negative rep it has.

[The Rodent]

It is a ton of fun when in the right mindset. I watched it at my friend's house the other day when it was on telly.

[Optimus]

It is a ton of fun when in the right mindset. I watched it at my friend's house the other day when it was on telly.

It's actually coming up in my top 100 :). I know it's stupid, but it's so damn fun.

[Captain Spaulding]

After seeing you praise Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Battleship, I think maybe you should call your doctor and schedule a MRI. Clearly something in that noggin of yours isn't working properly. ;)

I've mostly blocked Battleship from my memory, but I remember it feeling like Transformers on Water: big, dumb, loud, full of clichés and stereotypes, an over reliance on CGI, horrible dialogue, etc. Even though I thought it was terrible, though, I don't fault anybody for liking it. I like my fair share of big, dumb action movies . . . just not these CGI-fests that resemble video games more than films.

As for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, it's hard for me imagine anyone over the age of eight actually enjoying it, especially anyone who grew up with the original movies and animated series. I found the movie excruciatingly painful. It was like watching someone chew up my childhood, then slowly ***** it out for the next hour and forty minutes. I know Michael Bay wasn't the director, but the movie has his ugly smear all over it. The characters were all obnoxious and the casting choices seemed like middle fingers to the audience. (Megan Fox? Whoopi Goldberg? Will Arnett? Johnny Knoxville? I'm surprised Pauly Shore didn't show up as Casey Jones at some point.) The Turtles themselves looked hideous and like caricatures of their former selves. ("Donatello is the smart one, so let's put glasses on him! Raphael acts like a thug, so let's give him a do-rag!") I'm happy for you that you were able to put a clothespin over your nose and somehow enjoy the film despite the nauseating stench, but I couldn't disagree more with your review.

[nebbit]

After seeing you praise Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Battleship, I think maybe you should call your doctor and schedule a MRI. Clearly something in that noggin of yours isn't working properly. ;)

:rotfl::rotfl:

[The Rodent]

Review #235, Movie #306
Guardians Of The Galaxy



http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8f/GOTG-poster.jpg


Year Of Release

2014


Director/s

James Gunn


Producer/s

Kevin Feige


Writer/s

James Gunn, Nicole Perlman

Based on Guardians Of The Galaxy by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning


Cast

Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Lee Pace, Michael Rooker, Djimon Hounsou, John C Reilly, Glenn Close and Benicio Del Toro


Notes And Trivia

The soundtrack for the movie was released on tape cassette and vinyl and reached #1 in the US. It’s the first time in history that a movie soundtrack album made of already existing songs has ever made the #1 slot.

Chris Pratt’s audition was so good, that James Gunn offered him the role even though Pratt was out of shape. Pratt had put on a lot of weight for another film which he had yet to lose, but the filmmakers had seen him in the past in the movie Zero Dark Thirty, in which he was pretty muscular.

In fact, Pratt was so good in the auditions that Gunn offered to use CGI to “buff” Pratt up. In a move of mutual respect though, Pratt worked out and lost 60lb of fat and built up a load of muscle in just 6 months.

Pratt called his fitness regime “torture” but admitted that his shirtless scenes were worth the effort when he saw how good he looked on the playback monitors, marking a moment of personal pride for his physical achievement.

Zoe Saldana pushed the production to use makeup instead of CGI and Motion Capture for her character.

Vin Diesel recorded all of his dialogue (repeated lines of “I am Groot”), in Russian, Mandarin, Spanish, Portuguese, German and French so his voice could be used in different language cuts of the movie.

Even though Diesel only really has one line of dialogue (I am Groot), he still repeated that line over 1000 times in post-production for the character.

After 10 weeks of training for a fight scene, Pratt and Bautista were then told their scene would be changed as it wouldn’t work on camera. They then had barely a couple of hours to learn a new fight scene.

James Gunn then threw another spanner in the works by wanting the new fight to be filmed in one continuous shot… which took Pratt and Bautista 22 takes to get right.

Bautista was a proven trooper on the film. His full body makeup took 5 hours to apply every morning. Bautista though would stand throughout the entire process, would then go out and film for several hours, and then spend another 90 minutes having the makeup removed… and he never complained once. Not once.

Djimon Hounsou wanted to play Drax, but the role was given to Dave Bautista and Hounsou was offered the role of Korath. Hounsou was a little miffed at the choices though but later admitted Bautista was the better choice after seeing how muscular Bautista is.

Rocket Raccoon was based on a real raccoon that lives in the UK called Oreo.

Bradley Cooper, who voices Rocket, based the performance on Joe Pesci’s performance in Goodfellas.


---



Synopsis:
Peter Quill, who at the age of about 10, was abducted by Aliens on the day of his Mother’s death, has been living the past 26 years in space with a group of mercenaries and thieves called the Ravagers.
Quill has been basically working as an intergalactic garbage man and scavenger, who finds/steals and sells anything he can.

When Quill comes into the possession of a mystical Orb, he will be taken on an even bigger adventure.

The Orb you see, is a rather sought after item… and there are some pretty nasty beings looking for it. In particular, there are two despotic warlords called Thanos and Ronan.

Along the way, Quill will become entangled with the most rag tag bunch of cretins, murderers, warriors and, well, weirdoes, that you can imagine.

Review:
I didn’t really like GotG on first watch. Well… ok, I liked it, but didn’t think it was worth the hype. Sedai on here has said the same.
However, my curiosity was sparked and a couple more goes at it has seen me loving this movie.

It starts out pretty sombre with Quill seeing his Mother die.
Then there’s a leap in time and we’re thrown into the world of adult Quill. And what an introduction we’re given, and what a world it is too.
This film is one of the funniest and well pieced together adaptions of a comic book I’ve seen.

There’s an air of untold, hinted history and mysterious backstory going on too. Some of Quill’s history as well and a few future surprises in store that are hinted at.
It’s not the sort of sloppy, bog-standard writing usually found where there are slaps in the face with explanatory dialogue. This film keeps things held back and allows the script, plot and screenplay to unfold over a period of time.

The other thing is that if you’re not in on the comics, like myself, the movie is still so well put together that you can watch it and know exactly what’s going on. Even among the twists and turns that take place.

It’s great to see a film that does this these days, especially a comic book film.

The humour is also bang on. There’s a mix of slapstick and choreography that add fun to the scenes and some of the dialogue, especially between our titular Heroes during some of the action, that had me laughing out loud.
Pedantic, cutting, witty, insulting humour that is recognisable within modern standards of comedy.

There are also a handful of scenes that are touching too. A couple of them serve as exposition in the story as well, which is another good piece of writing.

The bad points, in terms of the comic to film transition… I’ve never, ever read the books, so I guess my liking of the movie is down to not really being an original fan boy. I have however seen a few comments from the comics’s’s fans about how they didn’t like certain changes.
The filmmakers have changed a few of the characters from what I’ve read up on. Including the way some of them physically look. Drax for instance was originally green-skinned in the comics, but in the film, he’s like a reddish rusty colour so he doesn’t look like Hulk.
That sort of thing.

-

The acting is also top notch.
Chris Pratt as Quill starts the film as he means to go on. Funny, charismatic, holds the action well and has some great one-liners that he delivers with such a deadpan and also original style, makes him a Hero love really love. Pratt has proven he’s a worthy leading man with this role.

Zoe Saldana plays Gamora, our “Warrior” Guardian. She’s kind of a dual role in this and she’s very, very slinky and sexy. There’s also some scenes of peril for her, particularly when they end up in jail and Saldana holds it all together really well.

Dave Bautista as Drax is second only to Pratt. Bautista, is exceptional. He started out as a Wrestler and Mixed Martial Artist in real life. But wow… his charisma and chemistry with everyone around him is second to none. He pretty much steals any scene he’s in too. By far one of the best turns I’ve seen from a guy who isn’t really an actor. He’s also immensely funny at times and even has an air of emotion about him as well whenever he talks about his (Drax’s) wife and daughter.

Bradley Cooper as Rocket Raccoon is also on form. Cutting with his humour and dialogue and seems to be the genuine brains of the group. Cooper’s voice is also unrecognisable at times. He doesn’t sound like Cooper.

Vin Diesel plays motion capture and voice for Groot. Groot seems to be the most memorable of the characters yet I can’t help but notice it’s really the animators and the editing that made him so good. All Vin has done really is move about a bit and say “I am Groot”. He’s still a ton of fun though and by far the ugliest, yet cutest character in the group.
The post credits scene for Groot though is really funny though.

Lee Pace adds some villainy for the proceedings, and he’s like a mixed villain really. He’s pretty darned threatening when he wants to be and then suddenly throws in a funny performance, almost like an inept villain at times too. Pace is brilliant.

Michael Rooker (in another of those rewritten roles), Djimon Hounsou, John C Reilly (brilliantly underplayed), Glenn Close and Benicio Del Toro (fantastically evil) add some back up as various supporting characters.

-

The action, choreography and effects really tie this film together.
Highly charged action on more than several occasions and the choreography, mixed with the slapstick elements and funny dialogue make GotG stand out from other comic incarnations.

The CGI is also tip top.
There’s a highly stylised look the the film that crosses comic-looking with some cartoony elements and other hits of realistic looking effects. The whole effects side of things are rendered exceptionally well.

Add to that a banging 70s and 80s soundtrack with a Heroic original score, this film is top trumps within its genre.



---



All in all, one of the best adaptions I’ve seen. There’s a couple of little hints of experimentation that almost didn’t work and some fans of the comics might not like the handful of changes, but overall it’s a brilliant comic book adaption.



Very funny, tragic at times, great action and set pieces, top story and writing.



This film is an absolute beauty.



My Rating: 98%



http://i1163.photobucket.com/albums/q552/The-Rodent/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/RodentRCircleRecommendedStampNew_zpsebffc047.png (http://s1163.photobucket.com/user/The-Rodent/media/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/RodentRCircleRecommendedStampNew_zpsebffc047.png.html)

rating_5

[Sexy Celebrity]

Rodent, I want you to watch and review Nightcrawler.

[The Rodent]

I'll se what I can do. See if I can get a hold of a copy.

[Optimus]

Glad to see you enjoyed it more Rodent. I've just reviewed it myself and I loved every minute of it.

[The Rodent]

I saw your review :up:


You posted it while I was writing mine :D

[nebbit]

:love: this movie :yup: nice review Mouse :kiss:

[The Rodent]

Thank you Nebs! Glad to see you're back :)

[JayDee]

Just catching up with some of your reviews Rodent. I've got to admit to becoming vaguely intrigued by watching Battleship. Had never, ever given any consideration to watching it but just recently I've noticed a few people on here declaring a real fondness for it which has made me sort of interested. Only very slightly though

Then there's the Turtles film. I repped it just because of the effort you took but oh boy I couldn't disagree with you more! I thought it was incredibly poor. I thought the action was an incoherent mess, the script was awful in parts and the dialogue was laughable. The tone was all over the place, particularly when it came to the humour. You had a mixture of really infantile stuff which made it seem like it was for young kids (fart jokes) followed up by some sexual innuendo and overtones which made it seem very inappropriate for you kids. I thought Michelangelo came across as very sleezy in his advances towards April, especially when he talked about his shell hardening.

So just as a general film I thought it was poor, but as a Turtles film it was even worse. As many people know I love the Turtles and so much of it just seemed wrong. For a start the way they looked. The film turned the Turtles into these big lumbering monsters, completely robbing them of any charm. And they were so busy with all the additional bits and bobs added to their costumes. Even worse though was Splinter who looked like a slimy turd with a Fu Manchu moustache. And I thought a number of the voices were off as well. Johnny Knoxville I thought was a horrible choice for Leonardo. He could have worked for Michelangelo perhaps but not the noble, serious Leo. And such a recognisable voice I found just quite jarring. And I didn't think Splinter's voice had anywhere near enough age and wisdom

Oh yeah and I forgot to mention Megan Fox as April O'Neill. I know it's been said many a time before but oh my god that girl cannot act! Aside from the first Transformers film I hadn't seen her anything so didn't realise just how bad she was. No matter what emotion she was meant to be expressing her voices and facial expressions just never changed.

Anyway sorry for hijacking your thread Rodent. I was only planning on saying that it was terrible but got carried away :D

[The Rodent]

Review #236, Movie #307
Labyrinth


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6b/Labyrinth_ver2.jpg

Year Of Release
1986


Director/s
Jim Henson


Producer/s
Eric Rattray


Writer/s
Terry Jones, Dennis Lee, Jim Henson


Cast
Jennifer Connelly, David Bowie, Brian Henson, Frank Oz and Kevin Clash


Notes And Trivia
Along with a number of puppetry and mime artists like Frank Oz and Kevin Clash, none other than Danny John-Jules makes an appearance in Labyrinth. He voices one of the weird and wonderful “Firey” puppets, the ones who remove their own arms, legs and heads. John-Jules, a dancer and singer, is best known to British audiences as “Cat” in the Red Dwarf comedy series.

Labyrinth is heavily influenced by movies like The Wizard Of Oz and the works of the late Maurice Sendak.

Sendak’s work as an illustrator brought us things like the much respected Where The Wild Things Are and In The Night Kitchen.

What’s interesting about Labyrinth in terms of influence is that it has itself been influential on modern day stories, mainly Harry Potter.
Mysterious and magical Owls. The names Hogwart, Ludo and Hermione. The mentioning of a Goblin King in The Philosopher’s Stone. The Labyrinth itself and rescuing someone within a set time. The influence behind Rowling’s “Animagi”. The usage and importance of the crystal orbs. The speech about dreams given by Dumbledore in The Prisoner Of Azkaban. Plus hundreds more.

Another thing, what I said about the movie Willow, in an earlier review in this thread, that’s the 1988 fantasy film Willow starring Warwick Davis.
I mentioned how Willow was the Granddaddy of CGI in movies because of its use of that morphing scene.
Labyrinth outdates Willow by over 2 years, and the entire start sequence with the Owl, is totally CG and marks the first ever attempt at a photorealistic animal using CGI in a major motion picture. There’s also a touch of CGI (and rotoscoping) when it comes to the “Firey” creatures too.
So, in retrospect, Labyrinth is the real Granddaddy of CGI in movies.


---



Synopsis:
Sarah, an imaginative 15 year old girl is in a bit of a pickle. Her Father and Stepmother have had a baby boy, Toby. And seemingly, all they want to do is go out and socialise, leaving Sarah in charge of her Stepbrother.

And all Toby ever does is cry, causing Sarah even more grief.

One night, while left alone with Toby yet again, Sarah recites to him the story of The Labyrinth, which is a book she has been reading, in an attempt to vengefully tease and scare the crying Toby… and she wishes the Goblins would come and take Toby away forever and end her grief.

But as she turns out the light in Toby’s bedroom, Toby’s cries immediately stop.

Review:

Oh boy. I saw this movie way back when I was a kid and had never forgotten about it, but couldn’t remember a large enough amount of it to warrant buying the DVD.
Gladly, it was on TV the other day while I was round at a friend’s house and I got the chance to see this slice of 80s fantasy cheese and hammy antagonists again.

And what a huge chunk of fun it is.

There’s a lavish world filled with monsters and creatures of all shapes and designs and Henson and his geniuses have pulled out all the stops to make a rich and fulfilling fantasy movie, packed with humour and peril and a pretty good, albeit simplistic, plotline to back it up.

Now, there are many similarities with this film as with Henson’s other fantasy The Dark Crystal (1982).
The exposition in Labyrinth is lacking somewhat and the legend behind the world they’ve created is amateur at best. There’s no real meaning to it.
It’s simply a world, ruled by a Goblin King. And that’s it. Much like TDC, it’s a case of ”here’s this world, let’s just get on with it” and no genuine explanation behind it all and it gives an air of “why?” about it all.
What I’m on about, is other fantasy films and stories like LOTR, or even Star Wars, which have an organic and believable (albeit imaginary) history to them. Labyrinth, like The Dark Crystal before it, has none of that.

However, the film does have a solid background that comes from Henson and his team.
The puppetry and special effects in this film are by far some of the finest I’ve ever seen.
The kind of level they’re on is that of Audrey II in Little Shop Of Horrors (1986), which coincidentally was connected to Danny John-Jules and Frank Oz as well.
The film as a whole is brilliantly pieced together through the puppets, muppets, animatronics and occasional use of CGI, camera tricks and some awesome costumes. One of which, called “The Junk Lady”, reminded me a of a technique recently seen in the Star Wars Episode VII “JJ Abrams thank you video” on YouTube.
It’s really more about showcasing their brilliant techniques and their mastery of the craft with a plotline of sorts behind it to give some credibility to what they’re doing.

Some of the action is also top notch, especially how they were dealing with puppets and animatronics. It’s pretty darned exciting at times too as the audience-character connection makes the hits of peril more, well, perilous than it could have been.
-
The acting is pretty good too.
David Bowie stars as our head antagonist Jareth, the Goblin King. Bowie is seemingly having a ton of fun with the role, surrounded by muppets, puppets and little people in costumes. However, when he’s given a freer reign with the scenes, Bowie really shines. He’s engaging, fun, camp and full of charisma. His delivery of some of the more scripted lines are a little amateur though.
He also sports some wonderfully tight trousers throughout that leave little to the imagination :D

A young Jennifer Connelly plays Sarah. And for such a young actress to take the lead of the film, Connelly makes a proper job of it. She lifts the slightly weaker dialogue and direction from Jim Henson to new heights and tbh, Connelly makes this movie tie together with her natural ability to make the unbelievable believeable.

Back up comes from too-many-to-count mime artists and puppetry masters.
But let’s just say, Frank Oz, Kevin Clash, Jim Henson and his Son Brian are heading the creatures on show.


---

All in all, one of the best puppet/muppet movies ever made. Brilliantly choreographed and is a showcase of mastery when it comes to the effects and dedicated work from Henson’s team of Wizards.

A little amateur in the writing stakes but filled with a kicking 80s fantasy soundtrack, decent acting from our Female lead and David Bowie being as camp and as hammy as humanly possible.

My Rating: 94%
http://i1163.photobucket.com/albums/q552/The-Rodent/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/RodentRCircleRecommendedStampNew_zpsebffc047.png (http://s1163.photobucket.com/user/The-Rodent/media/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/RodentRCircleRecommendedStampNew_zpsebffc047.png.html)
rating_5

[edarsenal]

Frieeennnd

Been a couple years since seeing this and i've always enjoyed it since first seeing it when it came out.

Good review!

[The Rodent]

New look coming soon to Rodent's Reviews...


New headers, new stamps. Realised I'm in the 300s now in terms of movie count so I've decided to update the thread. Next review unknown but it'll be the first of my revamp.

[The Rodent]

Ok... decisions decisions...

Current/old:
http://i1163.photobucket.com/albums/q552/The-Rodent/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/Reviews%20Pics/Rodent%20R%20Circle%20Recommended%20Stamp%20New_zpszrbowt0v.png (http://s1163.photobucket.com/user/The-Rodent/media/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/Reviews%20Pics/Rodent%20R%20Circle%20Recommended%20Stamp%20New_zpszrbowt0v.png.html)
http://i1163.photobucket.com/albums/q552/The-Rodent/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/Reviews%20Pics/Rodent%20R%20Circle%20R5050%20Stamp%20New_zpswd8qsdys.png (http://s1163.photobucket.com/user/The-Rodent/media/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/Reviews%20Pics/Rodent%20R%20Circle%20R5050%20Stamp%20New_zpswd8qsdys.png.html)
http://i1163.photobucket.com/albums/q552/The-Rodent/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/Reviews%20Pics/Rodent%20R%20Circle%20Rejected%20Stamp%20New_zpsbklrtpas.png (http://s1163.photobucket.com/user/The-Rodent/media/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/Reviews%20Pics/Rodent%20R%20Circle%20Rejected%20Stamp%20New_zpsbklrtpas.png.html)


Old design, never got used.
http://i1163.photobucket.com/albums/q552/The-Rodent/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/Reviews%20Pics/Rodent%20R%20Circle%20Stamp%20Recommended_zps4se7suol.png (http://s1163.photobucket.com/user/The-Rodent/media/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/Reviews%20Pics/Rodent%20R%20Circle%20Stamp%20Recommended_zps4se7suol.png.html)
http://i1163.photobucket.com/albums/q552/The-Rodent/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/Reviews%20Pics/Rodent%20R%20Circle%20Stamp%205050_zpsp1rtoww0.png (http://s1163.photobucket.com/user/The-Rodent/media/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/Reviews%20Pics/Rodent%20R%20Circle%20Stamp%205050_zpsp1rtoww0.png.html)
http://i1163.photobucket.com/albums/q552/The-Rodent/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/Reviews%20Pics/Rodent%20R%20Circle%20Stamp%20Rejected_zpsmhzdfmqf.png (http://s1163.photobucket.com/user/The-Rodent/media/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/Reviews%20Pics/Rodent%20R%20Circle%20Stamp%20Rejected_zpsmhzdfmqf.png.html)


New design made an the past hour.
http://i1163.photobucket.com/albums/q552/The-Rodent/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/Reviews%20Pics/Revamped%20Recommended%20Stamp_zpsjzgkrzg4.png (http://s1163.photobucket.com/user/The-Rodent/media/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/Reviews%20Pics/Revamped%20Recommended%20Stamp_zpsjzgkrzg4.png.html)
http://i1163.photobucket.com/albums/q552/The-Rodent/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/Reviews%20Pics/Revamped%205050%20Stamp_zpszocz5ytz.png (http://s1163.photobucket.com/user/The-Rodent/media/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/Reviews%20Pics/Revamped%205050%20Stamp_zpszocz5ytz.png.html)
http://i1163.photobucket.com/albums/q552/The-Rodent/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/Reviews%20Pics/Revamped%20Rejected%20Stamp_zpsc5defhw7.png (http://s1163.photobucket.com/user/The-Rodent/media/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/Reviews%20Pics/Revamped%20Rejected%20Stamp_zpsc5defhw7.png.html)




Which one should I go for in the Rodent Revamp?

[gbgoodies]

Ok... decisions decisions...

New design made an the past hour.
http://i1163.photobucket.com/albums/q552/The-Rodent/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/Reviews%20Pics/Revamped%20Recommended%20Stamp_zpsjzgkrzg4.png (http://s1163.photobucket.com/user/The-Rodent/media/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/Reviews%20Pics/Revamped%20Recommended%20Stamp_zpsjzgkrzg4.png.html)
http://i1163.photobucket.com/albums/q552/The-Rodent/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/Reviews%20Pics/Revamped%205050%20Stamp_zpszocz5ytz.png (http://s1163.photobucket.com/user/The-Rodent/media/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/Reviews%20Pics/Revamped%205050%20Stamp_zpszocz5ytz.png.html)
http://i1163.photobucket.com/albums/q552/The-Rodent/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/Reviews%20Pics/Revamped%20Rejected%20Stamp_zpsc5defhw7.png (http://s1163.photobucket.com/user/The-Rodent/media/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/Reviews%20Pics/Revamped%20Rejected%20Stamp_zpsc5defhw7.png.html)


Which one should I go for in the Rodent Revamp?


I like these, but you should make the colors gold, silver, and bronze for the rating levels of good movies, and maybe blue or green for movies that are just okay, and red for bad movies.

[The Rodent]

I thought about the gold, silver and bronze but I've always gone with the full colour red/yellow of my avi for the good films, a saturated for a medium and black for rejected. I think it stands that a decent film, or one I would recommend, gets the full colour treatment.


This is what I'm doing with the new headers. Took this from my Guardians review on the last page as an example.


Guardians Of The Galaxy

http://i1163.photobucket.com/albums/q552/The-Rodent/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/Reviews%20Pics/Guardians_zpscvfit0dy.png


Year Of Release
2014

Director/s
James Gunn

Producer/s
Kevin Feige

Writer/s
James Gunn, Nicole Perlman
Based on Guardians Of The Galaxy by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning

Cast
Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Lee Pace, Michael Rooker, Djimon Hounsou, John C Reilly, Glenn Close and Benicio Del Toro


Notes And Trivia

[gbgoodies]

That looks very nice.

I know how to get the movie poster image centered, but is there a way to resize it here when you post it, or do you have to do that in an editor before you upload it?

[The Rodent]

Ah... that's my little secret.


:D


To be totally honest, that header image is one picture. I've Photoshopped together an image with those film reels on it, and then pasted and resized the Guardians poster, saved the image and then uploaded to Photobucket.


I'm thinking of this design as well.


http://i1163.photobucket.com/albums/q552/The-Rodent/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/Reviews%20Pics/Guardians%202_zpshmtarnq5.png (http://s1163.photobucket.com/user/The-Rodent/media/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/Reviews%20Pics/Guardians%202_zpshmtarnq5.png.html)

[The Rodent]

If you're making an image for MoFo... try sizes of 700 wide max, and 500 tall max... that way it will fit into your post/on one page perfectly.

[gbgoodies]

Ah... that's my little secret.


:D


To be totally honest, that header image is one picture. I've Photoshopped together an image with those film reels on it, and then pasted and resized the Guardians poster, saved the image and then uploaded to Photobucket.


I'm thinking of this design as well.


http://i1163.photobucket.com/albums/q552/The-Rodent/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/Reviews%20Pics/Guardians%202_zpshmtarnq5.png (http://s1163.photobucket.com/user/The-Rodent/media/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/Reviews%20Pics/Guardians%202_zpshmtarnq5.png.html)


They're both nice, but I like the films reels better. The dark color of the curtain border in this image make it look a little bit claustrophobic.


If you're making an image for MoFo... try sizes of 700 wide max, and 500 tall max... that way it will fit into your post/on one page perfectly.

That sounds like a lot of work. My reviews are so short that they're basically just ratings, not reviews, so I usually just grab an image off the Internet that's close enough to the size I need, and I just upload it here.

[The Rodent]

Use wiki then... wiki pictures are pretty standard in their sizes and tend to work well on MoFo.


In fact, look over this entire thread and all the posters in here are wiki's.


But yeah, just a tip really, keep the images smaller than 700x500 and they'll fit perfectly on MoFo. Any bigger and the site resizes them, or they won't fit into one page and you have to scroll down to see the bottom half of the image.

[The Rodent]

I prefer the film reels too tbh. They look pretty flash.

[gbgoodies]

Use wiki then... wiki pictures are pretty standard in their sizes and tend to work well on MoFo.


In fact, look over this entire thread and all the posters in here are wiki's.


But yeah, just a tip really, keep the images smaller than 700x500 and they'll fit perfectly on MoFo. Any bigger and the site resizes them, or they won't fit into one page and you have to scroll down to see the bottom half of the image.


Thanks. I'll try to remember that.

Sometimes I find a few different movie poster images for a specific movie, and I try to pick the one that I like the best, so whether or not there's a choice makes a difference too.

[The Rodent]

I'm going with these... and made an improvement. small change to the colouring and a slight shadow underneath...


http://i1163.photobucket.com/albums/q552/The-Rodent/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/Reviews%20Pics/Revamped%20Recommended%20Stamp%20Shaded_zpse8lrgkr5.png (http://s1163.photobucket.com/user/The-Rodent/media/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/Reviews%20Pics/Revamped%20Recommended%20Stamp%20Shaded_zpse8lrgkr5.png.html) = Regardless of rating, I'm recommending the movie for fans of all types of genre, actor or whatever. Basically I'm saying you should see it.


http://i1163.photobucket.com/albums/q552/The-Rodent/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/Reviews%20Pics/Revamped%205050%20Stamp%20Shaded_zpsmhfcrwps.png (http://s1163.photobucket.com/user/The-Rodent/media/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/Reviews%20Pics/Revamped%205050%20Stamp%20Shaded_zpsmhfcrwps.png.html) = Middle of the road. Not for everyone, but I'd recommend it for fans of the genre, actors, director or general style of movie.


http://i1163.photobucket.com/albums/q552/The-Rodent/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/Reviews%20Pics/Revamped%20Rejected%20Stamp%20Shaded_zpsx1muykrb.png (http://s1163.photobucket.com/user/The-Rodent/media/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/Reviews%20Pics/Revamped%20Rejected%20Stamp%20Shaded_zpsx1muykrb.png.html) = Total garbage. Avoid.

[gbgoodies]

I'm going with these... and made an improvement. small change to the colouring and a slight shadow underneath...


http://i1163.photobucket.com/albums/q552/The-Rodent/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/Reviews%20Pics/Revamped%20Recommended%20Stamp%20Shaded_zpse8lrgkr5.png (http://s1163.photobucket.com/user/The-Rodent/media/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/Reviews%20Pics/Revamped%20Recommended%20Stamp%20Shaded_zpse8lrgkr5.png.html) http://i1163.photobucket.com/albums/q552/The-Rodent/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/Reviews%20Pics/Revamped%205050%20Stamp%20Shaded_zpsmhfcrwps.png (http://s1163.photobucket.com/user/The-Rodent/media/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/Reviews%20Pics/Revamped%205050%20Stamp%20Shaded_zpsmhfcrwps.png.html) http://i1163.photobucket.com/albums/q552/The-Rodent/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/Reviews%20Pics/Revamped%20Rejected%20Stamp%20Shaded_zpsx1muykrb.png (http://s1163.photobucket.com/user/The-Rodent/media/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/Reviews%20Pics/Revamped%20Rejected%20Stamp%20Shaded_zpsx1muykrb.png.html)


The only one that I can see a difference in (from your earlier post) is the black one. The border looks thicker, but that's probably just because of the shading on the dark color.

[The Rodent]

I've edited that post a little too :D


There's a tiny change in the contrasts and the 50/50 one and the Rejected one have both had the borders recoloured to match the browns and blacks.

[The Rodent]

What you guys think about this for a header design?


http://i1163.photobucket.com/albums/q552/The-Rodent/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/Reviews%20Pics/Guard%203_zpsd2c6s7ep.png (http://s1163.photobucket.com/user/The-Rodent/media/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/Reviews%20Pics/Guard%203_zpsd2c6s7ep.png.html)

[The Rodent]

Review #237, Movie #308

http://i1163.photobucket.com/albums/q552/The-Rodent/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/Reviews%20Pics/Review%20Header%20Sunshine_zpsotmmpfbe.png


Year Of Release
2007

Director/s
Danny Boyle

Producer/s
Andrew MacDonald

Writer/s
Alex Garland

Cast
Cillian Murphy, Chris Evans, Hiroyuki Sanada, Rose Byrne, Cliff Curtis, Troy Garity, Benedict Wong, Michelle Yeoh and Mark Strong

Notes And Trivia
Alex Garland and Danny Boyle had worked together before on The Beach and 28 Days Later… Boyle at the time was interested in making a different film though but was taken aback by Garland’s script and got Andrew MacDonald involved.

20th Century Fox however were dubious as the script was, in their minds, similar to the Solaris remake. The Solaris remake bombed at the Box Office too, which put more doubt in the minds of the Fox big-knobs.
Garland and Boyle then spent an entire year rewriting the script and eventually got backing from Fox Searchlight Pictures… bit the backing was totally based on the past working relationship between Garland and Boyle. FSP then gave total creative control to Garland and Boyle, trusting them with $40m.

With the movie being based in 50 years’ time, Boyle’s casting choices were purposeful. He believed that in the future, China and America will be the leading Nations in space travel, so he cast Asian and American actors, or British actors who can do American accents.

Sunshine’s basis in reality (not just with casting but also) with science, was supervised by none other than Professor Brian Cox. Brian is famous in Britain as a television presenter of a number of Physics programs and general scientific shows.

In broader terms, Dr Cox been labelled as the new Sir Patrick Moore, and even as the Attenborough of Physics.

Cox overlooked every aspect of the science involved in the film, even doing a commentary track for the DVD explaining how some of the far-out things seen are actually scientifically accurate.
Dr Cox’s input was fundamental in keeping the movie as realistic as possible.

Dr Cox was also a key role in how the actors behaved.
Cillian Murphy especially, spent time with him in Geneva at the Large Hadron Collider, studying what Dr Cox does and how he does it, even sitting in the corner of the room while incredibly boring Physics meetings were being held.

Murphy even studied the mannerisms of the various Physicists (without them knowing at the time), including Dr Cox’s, and incorporated them into his character.

It was only once the film was released that Cox and his colleagues noticed Cillian was doing their little ticks, movements and mannerisms.

If you look closely too, the Fox Searchlight logo at the start of the movie, is actually playing backwards.

http://i1163.photobucket.com/albums/q552/The-Rodent/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/Reviews%20Pics/Seperator%201%20Shaded_zpsidhv5ynj.png (http://s1163.photobucket.com/user/The-Rodent/media/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/Reviews%20Pics/Seperator%201%20Shaded_zpsidhv5ynj.png.html)




Synopsis:

The Sun is dying. A mission called Icarus-I is sent to save the Sun, and us, by delivering an incredibly powerful bomb, and it has failed. Icarus 1 disappeared without a trace.

Icarus-II, has now been sent with a similar bomb to complete the failed mission…

But on approaching Mercury, they pick up a distress signal.

Review:

I didn’t like this movie on first watch. I get the impression a lot of people are in the same boat.
However, Sunshine is simply not a science-fiction thrash’em up full of aliens and explosions and far-out fantasy.
It’s a sombre and pretty downbeat sci-fi-sci-fact movie that, although at times is kinda boring, has great payoffs from scene to scene and a couple fantastic twists throughout the running time.
One good thing though, is the quieter scenes, or more boring stuff, doesn’t last for too long. It kinda comes in little hits before something new happens to keep the story going and keep the viewer interested.

It’s been summed up in the DVD commentary as well, that the film can be interpreted in numerous ways.
It’s not deep exactly, but there are a few ways this movie can be, well, “seen”. Is it a psychological movie or a drama? Is it sci-fi or sci-fact?

Well, it’s all of these things.

The cleverest part of this movie is also its downfall though. The reality and fact based sciences.
This film is truly one of a kind yet this can alienate some of the viewers, especially those in a mindset of wanting a sci-fi extravaganza, or maybe something like the movie called The Core.
Sunshine is a very grown up, serious, adult sci-fact movie, laced with the occasional hit of artistic licence so that the simple yet effective and affective story can keep going.

The other thing is Boyle’s use of colour. Inside, everything is grey and green, white, black and so on. It’s only outside the ship that yellows and reds are used so that the Sun and any scenes with fire are more of a shock to the viewer’s system.

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The acting is, with the lower tones and scenes in the film, on a top tier when it comes to movies of this kind.
Cillian Murphy as our lead hero, is bang on form. The work he put into the character I mentioned shines (ahem) through at all times. He’s also incredibly naturalistic with it too and has a few moments of peril to get through. Cillian’s acting though, makes all the hits of action much more powerful and believeable. Cillian nails this role.

Chris Evans also makes a decent hero. He’s like the polar opposite of Murphy. The two even come to loggerheads a few times. Evans though plays it naturally as well, and comes across as a likeable and intelligent rogue on the ship. Certainly one of Evans’ best acting roles, as most people know him as the action hero these days.

Cliff Curtis also makes a memorable character within the group. He’s the Doctor and Psychologist keeping the crew sane during their trip. The introduction of his character and some of his lines of dialogue during the running time though throws the viewer. You’re never really sure exactly what going on in his mind. Is he dangerous? Or is he just a little weird? Brilliantly played by Curtis.

Hiroyuki Sanada, Rose Byrne, Troy Garity, Benedict Wong, Michelle Yeoh play more background and supporting roles though. I wanted to see a little more of these guys but they’re just sort of, there.
Benedict Wong plays a more pivotal role though at one point and plays it extremely well, he steals the scene when certain things go bad for the crew.
Mark Strong also makes a showing in two separate parts of the film as Pinbacker. His second show in the movie though, he’s unrecognisable.


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The action and FX though are on top form. The CGI throughout is incredibly simple and very well rendered. In particular the scene with Mercury going across the face of the Sun is beautiful.

The action and more highly charged cinema is held in reality too. The odd hit of artistic licence as I mentioned keeps things looking very stylised and exciting but holding most of the movie in reality and keeping the action stakes in the ballpark of “when needed” instead of just for the sake of it, makes Sunshine stand out from the crowd.

Toward the end, there’s also a sequence of highly claustrophobic action when Murphy is stuck inside one of the space suits and the choreography is brilliantly underplayed.

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All in all, not what I was expecting when I first saw it, but it has grown on me over the years.

Full of intrigue and some fantastically realistic writing. The hits of peril and more fictional action and science makes it a little easier to get into, but it can be difficult to immerse yourself when the movie is so different from any other of its genre.

Worth a go if you’re after a well written space drama crossed with some genuine nerdy stuff.

My Rating: 92%
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rating_5

[Sexy Celebrity]

Is this the cheap, imitation, knockoff version of JayDee's Movie Musings?

[The Rodent]

It's an upgraded version of Rodent's Reviews.

[JayDee]

Is this the cheap, imitation, knockoff version of JayDee's Movie Musings?

Where have you been Sexy? That's what this thread has always been! :p

[The Rodent]

JayDee doesn't have fancy pictures and paragraph separators like I do.


Or as good reviews either.

[The Rodent]

Review #238, Movie #309

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Year Of Release
2014

Director/s
Jose Padilha

Producer/s
Marc Abraham, Eric Newman

Writer/s
Joshua Zetumer
Ed Neumeier, Michael Miner

Cast
Joel Kinnaman, Gary Oldman, Michael Keaton, Jackie Earl Haley, Abbie Cornish, Michael K Williams, Jay Baruchel, Aimee Garcia, Patrick Garrow and Samuel L Jackson

Notes And Trivia
It was in 2005 when Screen Gems announced it was working on a remake of RoboCop and they were marred with disappointment after disappointment throughout the entire preproduction… from 2005 till 2013, the studios had hired and then lost Darren Aronofsky after he deemed the studio to be in danger from their own financial problems and the fact that MGM were dictating what Aronofsky would and wouldn’t do in the movie.

The studios then trawled through pages and pages of actors to fill the title role, including Tom Cruise, Michael Fassbender, Johnny Depp, Russell Crowe and Keanu Reeves.

At this time however, they still hadn’t found a replacement for Aronofsky.

Hugh Laurie and Clive Owen were also shortlisted for the role of Raymond Sellers, the CEO of OmniCorp and the role of Dennett Norton was shortlisted to Edward Norton who proved totally disinterested.

Eventually, Michael Keaton and Gary Oldman took the roles, alongside Jackie Earl Haley and Abbie Cornish, but only a few weeks before shooting was supposedly starting.

The troubled production and casting also lead the filmmakers to cast non-actors in some roles, as nobody wanted anything to do with the movie.

More bad news followed though, when concepts for the new RoboCop suit were unveiled and were met with disdain by fans and critics. It was almost a carbon copy of the Nolan’s Batsuit.

Even after a redesign, the suit was mocked.

Another area of mocking and unfavourable comments were because the film was shot in Toronto, Vancouver and areas of Ontario, and not in Detroit.

Jose Padilha eventually took over as director in around 2011-2012… but again, the movie was hit with disappointment. Padilha was met with the same dictatorship that caused Aronofsky to leave.

Padilha even took to calling a friend and fellow director Fernando Meirelles (City Of God) and confiding in him about the “hell” he was going through.

Padilha’s experience on the film also near pushed him to quitting the business, calling it “the worst experience of my life” and “I have never suffered so much, I will never do this again”.

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Synopsis:
When Alex Murphy uncovers what is potentially a corrupt crime circle in Detroit’s Police Force, an attempt is made on his life.

It fails, but Murphy is left blind, deaf, paralysed from the waist down and burned over almost his entire body.
Enter Dennett Norton, a neurosurgeon and prosthetics whizz in OmniCorp’s laboratories, who says he can fix Murphy, and make him a “better” “human” than he ever was before.

Review:
Ugh.

RoboCop… one of the most iconic 80s movies ever made.

A product of its time in many ways, but is also one of the finest precognitive movies too. RoboCop, under the helm of Verhoeven, shows glimpses of a future that seemed far-out… but turned out to be true. It was also a tightly wound nest of boxes that surprised the viewer on every level.
It had class, style and soul.

This remake is simply a product of its time: All CGI, and no writing to back it up.
We have zero charisma from the production team. The film simply plays out in a 123, ABC script line, has zero to no realisation involved and even less emotional connection when it comes to the character writing.

There’s nothing in this movie to keep the viewer’s attention. Sure, there’s some nifty looking effects, I was pretty impressed at the reveal of RoboCop’s inner workings… but it’s a scene that was
A) A question we didn’t ask
B) An answer we didn’t need

Also, a greenscreen and CGI is no match for Rob Bottin’s work on Weller’s face.

So that’s it really. The movie just sort of, exists.

As for the character writing… poor. Very, very poor.
As an example, we have the rewritten Clarence Boddicker in the shape of a guy called Fallon, or Vallon, maybe Thallon? Not sure what his name was tbh… and I don’t really care, and neither did the filmmakers either by all accounts as he was played by a non-actor and had all of 30 seconds of screen time before he was, quite easily, dispatched by our titular Hero.

Lewis too. A white woman, now a black man, who for some reason, decides to play the race card at random in a scene in which it has no place.
What’s worse with that line, is there was no lead up to it. No exposition for it. A totally random race joke for the sake of it.
Lewis also, originally was RoboCop’s lifeline. Robo’s partner and almost love interest too. In this film, Lewis doesn’t do anything. It’s only in the third act that this non-character appears and simply stands in front of the ED-209 units so they can’t shoot RoboCop.

I mean, this is the treatment of all of the characters throughout the movie.
This character is this, that character is that. Action! Cut! Print it. Get it in the cinemas quick.

Even the iconic lines from the original show up and are slapped back down again with ignorance, and in scenes with little payoff.
Like Lewis’ race joke, the iconic “Dead Or Alive You Are Coming With Me” line is slapdashed into a random scene, just for the sake of it.

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The acting is about as good as you can expect from such a troubled production.
Gary Oldman, Michael Keaton and Abbie Cornish doing the by-the-numbers thing and our non-actor in Patrick Garrow as Fallon, Vallon or whatever his name was occasionally grimacing at his goons.

Joel Kinnaman is best on show as Murphy/RoboCop though. Gladly so, but again, there’s little substance to this rewritten role and the dialogue he was given is, well, generic.
He did ok though as Robo, but, the rewritten and more human RoboCop is simply a role that any actor could do.
Peter Weller had to work at his role, he had to become RoboCop.
Kinnaman just simply had to turn up and recite his lines. There was nothing different, nothing original.

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This movie really revolves around the CGI and action.
It’s exceptionally well rendered though too. But like I said, it is no substitute for Rob Bottin’s mastery of prosthetics and makeup.
The action is choreographed well too, but again, another slap down comes from the piss poor writing and poor audience-character connections.
Good choreography needs to be made exciting.

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All in all, a terrible remake.

Anyone like myself who loves the original will probably be in the same boat as myself and wish they hadn’t bought the DVD.

I’m certainly glad I never spent the cash at the cinema though.

It will probably be more enjoyable if you haven’t seen the 1987 masterpiece that was brought to us by Verhoeven, Neumeier, Miner and Bottin.

My Rating: 23%
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rating_1_5

[The Sci-Fi Slob]

They replaced Lewis with a black guy? WTF! :rolleyes:

[The Rodent]

Exactly... I get the impression that his race joke was some sort of attempt at being satirical, maybe racy (no pun intended)... "I'd Buy That For A Dollar" line as well was just sort of, thrown in.


The entire movie seems like some sort of afterthought. The whole thing.

[gbgoodies]

I'm glad to see that you rejected the RoboCop remake. I thought it was so bad that I turned it off about a half hour into the movie.

[edarsenal]

i've been tempted a few times, seeing it on the shelf at my library, and each time, something told me "Don't do it," and now I see why. I absolutely love the original from the first time i saw at the movie theater and countless times after.
Thanks for jumping on the grenade for this one and saving the rest of us from this wreck.

[cricket]

I've been tempted to watch this too, but I'm so against it in principle because the first is one of the greatest movies ever made. The Rodent has made the final decision for me.

[The Gunslinger45]

Now here is a review I have been waiting for. I know you love the original, and LOATHED the idea of a remake. There are some things that cannot be redone. Robocop was perfect as is. Why try and do it again?

[The Rodent]

Review #239, Movie #310

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Year Of Release
2008

Director/s
Nicolas Winding Refn

Producer/s
Rupert Preston, Danny Hansford

Writer/s
Brock Norman Brock, Nicolas Winding Refn

Cast
Tom Hardy, Matt King, James Lance, Kelly Adams, Jonathan Phillips and Amanda Burton

Notes And Trivia
Charlie’s first crime was at the age of 19, he stole £26 from a Post Office, for which he was sentenced to 7 years.
He has been in jail since 1974, with only 131 days as a free man. Of these past 41 years, he has been kept in solitary confinement for 37.


He is labelled as Britain’s most violent, and most expensive Prisoner. He has been involved in numerous assaults of fellow Prisoners, Prison Guards, has held 10 sieges and has been the key player in numerous Hostage taking incidents.


Charlie was also an associate of the Kray Twins (both being played by Hardy in the upcoming movie Legend)…
The Krays themselves have said that Charlie is one of the scariest men they’ve ever known.


Along with the injuries he has dealt out to others, he has been on the receiving end a few times too when Prison Officers have teamed up against him (one-on-one fights are pointless).
He has, in his words, “Been smashed to bits” several times and has even been stabbed by the Guards.
One of the worst cases was when he was beaten within an inch of his life, and left in a cage for two days with no food, water or medical attention.


His love for physical strength and fitness is also legendary, hence the Guards needing to team up against him when things go awry.
Charlie is known to do 3000 push ups every morning without fail and has done so since he was young, and is strong enough to bend prison bars with his bare hands.
His life as a free man, those 131 days, he earned money as a Bareknuckle Boxer and would fight the toughest Gypsies he could find, sometimes fighting two or three of them at the same time.
He even fought Pit-Dogs, dogs bred for fighting.
He never lost a fight and even killed a dog with his bare hands. He regrets killing the dog though as he’s a lover of animals.


Charles Bronson, known these days legally as Charles Salvador, has never killed anyone, but has served almost his entire life in prison and is still under an indeterminate sentence.


He will most likely die in prison.

-

Tom Hardy wasn’t initially allowed to meet Charlie Bronson before filming and they were kept to phone conversations only.

Eventually though, they were allowed to meet face to face and Charlie was so impressed at Hardy’s physical transformation (3st (42lbs) in pure muscle within only a five week period), he gave personal praise for the casting choice.

Charlie then shaved off his moustache and sent it to Hardy so they could make it into a prosthetic for Hardy to wear in the movie.

After initial release of the film, Charlie was banned from seeing it. Charlie’s Mother saw the movie though and gave praise, which according to Charlie “If Mum likes it, that’s good enough for me”.

The System then gave in and allowed him to view it in 2011. Charlie has gone on record since and has said he loved it, and that Tom Hardy is the finest British actor.

Charlie and Tom have been good friends ever since.

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Synopsis:
Michael Peterson, a young man in Luton near London England…

… is about to step into the big world and become something of Legend.

Review:
Not much point in having a big synopsis ^^

Bronson is a fictionalised, but also relatively close portrayal of the titular Legend that is Charlie.

Half of the artistic licence and fiction in the story mostly comes from Charlie himself and some of the fascinating stories he’s told.
The other half of the fiction is based around the incredibly stylish narration that Winding Refn and Hardy have laced into the movie.

The film plays out as if we’re inside Bronson’s head… his inner monologue physically standing in front of us (and an audience) and telling his story.
It then cuts to flashbacks and flash-forwards’s to tell Charlie’s life.

It’s by far one of the most hitting movies, stories and well, lives, that has been produced.
The truths of the script and story are handled with care, and add a huge gravitas to what could have been just a generic yet violent true story.
Bronson’s truthful scripting and screenplay laced with the more fantasy side of things paint a portrayal of a character that should not only be feared, but is also tragic and should be almost pitied and sympathised with.

There are also lashings of humour in the movie. Hardy manages to make almost a funny anti-hero and the writing of the humour, especially in the dialogue and occasional situation seen, makes this hard hitting violent movie actually fun to watch at times.

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Then there’s the acting.
We’ve got backup from a number of actors and actresses but none are seen a massive amount.
James Lance as the Brummy Art Teacher is the biggest standout role though. He adds huge charisma to what was almost a non-existent sheet of co-stars.

This film is really what it says on the tin: Bronson, with Hardy in the role.
This, is a Powerhouse of a performance. Hardy encapsulates everything about Charlie and then lifts the entire performance to something that, if the movie wasn’t so violent, could have won him numerous awards.
There’s also the trademark “Tom-Hardy-Eyes” going on. Hardy manages to actually be scary in this film as though he’s tapped into some primordial wickedness that everyone else in society has managed to suppress.
All the while he’s japing and giggling, staring directly at the camera or simply sitting making growly noises while the world around him goes about its business, Hardy rocks not just this movie, but the movie world.

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There’s little in the way of effects and so on, but there are numerous makeup jobs and injuries to Bronson and more than a few fights going on throughout.
The choreography is tip top too and keeps itself in reality throughout, adding more weight to the proceedings.

Hardy even sings a little ditty about half-way through, and is pretty unnerving while he’s doing it.

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All in all, one of the best fantasy crossed with reality biopics going.

Tom Hardy deserves much more praise than he’s already gotten over the past 7 years and the filmmakers hit a very special chemistry between the script and screenplay and juggling fact with fiction to make an entertaining, if a little unnerving and scary movie.

I’ll say it again, this is a Powerhouse performance from Hardy backed up by brilliant writing and direction from Winding Refn.

My Rating: 99%
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rating_5

[The Sci-Fi Slob]

He is a nutcase. He is a hard bastard. But it's still a 4 star film for me. Nice review though mate, keep them coming.:)

[Cole416]

Watched it this afternoon. Didn't love it, just because I didn't understand it. Tom Hardy went all out on this, it was nuts. I'm surprised the same person made Drive.

[The Sci-Fi Slob]

Watched it this afternoon. Didn't love it, just because I didn't understand it. Tom Hardy went all out on this, it was nuts. I'm surprised the same person made Drive.Drive? Don't you mean Locke? Drive was Ryan Gosling.

[Cole416]

Drive? Don't you mean Locke? Drive was Ryan Gosling.
Nicholas Winding Refn was the director of Drive and Bronson is what I meant. Crazy to see 2 very different movies.

[The Sci-Fi Slob]

Nicholas Winding Refn was the director of Drive and Bronson is what I meant. Crazy to see 2 very different movies.Oh yeah, sorry. Drive isn't brilliant either imo.

[cricket]

Love Hardy, but was very disappointed in Bronson. I didn't like it at all.

[The Rodent]

May as well do an update now I've hit 310 films. Been a while since I did one.


PAGE 1
1 - Young Guns 90%
2 - A Nightmare On Elm Street (2010 Remake) 2%
3 – 2012 15%
4 - Cowboys And Aliens 85%
5 – Cloverfield 80%
6 – Leon 75%
7 – Dreamcatcher 30%
8 - Alien 3 Definitive Version Vs Theatrical Release 90%
9 - The 'Burbs 85%
10 - Starship Troopers 90% [11]
PAGE 2
11 – Predator 99%
12 – Robocop 100%
13 - John Carpenter's The Thing 95%
14 - Alien Vs Predator and Aliens Vs Predator Requiem 25% & 70%
15 - Terminator Foursome (1-4) 90%, 95%, 10% & 75%
16 - The Fourth Kind 35%
17 - Jurassic Park 80%
18 - Pirates Of The Caribbean Original Trilogy (1-3) 95%, 97% & 96%
19 - The Dark Crystal 65%
20 – Tremors 90% [27]
PAGE 3
21 – Paul 30%
22 - Full Metal Jacket 85%
23 - Demolition Man 70%
24 - Dumb And Dumber 95%
25 - Ridley Scott's Robin Hood 15%
26 - Christopher Reeve Superman Foursome (1-4) And Superman Returns 97%, 99%, 70%, 0% & 50%
27 - Batman Begins 90%
28 - The Dark Knight 95%
29 – Ghostbusters 98%
30 - Star Wars Franchise (1-6) 100%, 100%, 98%, 20%, 5% & 55% [46]
PAGE 4
31 – Critters 89%
32 - The Matrix Trilogy (1-3) 90%, 75% & 75%
33 – Arachnophobia 65%
34 - Super 8 45%
35 - The Shawshank Redemption 100%
36 - The Abyss 98%
37 - Troll Hunter 10%
38 - John Carpenter's The Fog 95%
39 - Dog Soldiers 95%
40 - The Shining 99% [58]
PAGE 5
41 - Indiana Jones Foursome (1-4) 100%, 99%, 100% & 1%
42 - Robert Rodriguez' Predators 85%
43 - Sam Raimi's Spider Man Trilogy (1-3) 85%, 95% & 45% [66]
44 - Rocky Franchise (1-6) 95%, 93%, 75%, 80%, 50% & 94%
45 - The Lost Boys 95%
46 – Evolution 90%
47 - Alien Foursome (1-4 Includes A Rerun Of Review #8) 100%, 100%, 90% & 40%
48 - Jurassic Park Trilogy (1-3 Includes A Rerun Of Review #17) 80%, 65% & 10%
49 - Gremlins Duo (1 & 2) 85% & 65%
50 - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Original Movie) 90%
51 - 30 Days Of Night 80% [83]
PAGE 6
52 - From Dusk Till Dawn 96%
53 - I, Robot 60%
54 - Steven Spielberg's War Of The Worlds 50%
55 – Blade Runner 100%
56 – Armageddon 70%
57 – Signs 80% [89]
PAGE 7
58 - The Quick And The Dead 90%
59 – Ransom 100%
60 - The Big Lebowski 100%
61 - Ghostbusters Duo (1 & 2 Includes A Rerun Of Review #29) 98% & 70% [93]
PAGE 8
62 - Pitch Black 85%
63 - The Day After Tomorrow 65%
64 - Independence Day 88%
65 - Cat's Eye 89%
66 – Equilibrium 80%
67 - Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes 100%
68 - The Karate Kid (Original Movie) 95% [68th Review 100th Movie]
69 - Die Hard Franchise (1-4) 95%, 40%, 85% & 87%
70 – Poltergeist 90%
PAGE 9
71 - The Passion Of The Christ 100%
72 - Paranormal Activity 5%
73 - Paranormal Activity 2 15%
74 - Pulp Fiction 98%
75 - Critters Foursome (1-4 Includes A Rerun Of Review #31) 89%, 15%, 55% & 30%
76 – Unforgiven 100%
77 - Black Hawk Down 95%
78 - The Fly (1986 Remake) 94%
79 - Lake Placid 65% [116]
PAGE 10
80 - Back To The Future Trilogy (1-3) 98%, 85% & 80%
81 - Lethal Weapon Foursome (1-4) 97%, 98%, 90% & 93%
82 - Star Trek Franchise (1-11) 85%, 95%, 87%, 83%, 86%, 89%, 78%, 32%, 80%, 84% & 98%
83 - Of Mice And Men 96%
84 - An American Werewolf In London 94% [136]
PAGE 11
85 - Predator 2 (Includes A Rerun of Reviews #11 & #42) 99%, 99%, 85%
86 – Jaws 100%
87 - American Pie Original Trilogy (1-3) 95%, 85% & 85%
88 – Godzilla 86%
89 - The Negotiator 92%
90 - The Green Mile 101% [144]
PAGE 12
91 - The Mist 98%
92 - Silent Hill 58%
93 – Highlander 86%
94 - The Goonies 97%
95 – Batman 93%
96 - Batman Returns 94% [150]
PAGE 13
97 - I Am Legend 83%
98 – Titanic 97%
99 - Saving Private Ryan 101%
100 – Avatar 96% [100th Review, 154th Movie]
PAGE 14
101 - The Simpsons Movie 70%
102 - District 9 84%
103 – Slither 88%
104 – Wanted 68% [158]
PAGE 15
105 – Casino 100%
106 - No Country For Old Men 94%
107 - Blown Away 50%
108 - The Cowboys 87%
109 - K-PAX 83%
110 - The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy (1-3) 95%, 96% & 97%
111 - Edward Scissorhands 93% [167]
PAGE 16
112 - The Expendables 90%
113 - Little Shop Of Horrors 100%
114 - 3:10 To Yuma 74% [170]
PAGE 17
115 – Trainspotting 98%
116 - A Bug's Life (Part Of Rodent's 5 Review Pixar Marathon) 91%
117 - Cars (Part Of Rodent's 5 Review Pixar Marathon) 38%
118 - Monsters Inc. (Part Of Rodent's 5 Review Pixar Marathon) 100%
119 - WALL-E(Part Of Rodent's 5 Review Pixar Marathon)101%[175]
PAGE 18
120 - The Incredibles (Part Of Rodent's 5 Review Pixar Marathon) 97%
121 – Gladiator 98%
122 - The Dark Knight Rises (Includes A Rerun Of Reviews #27 & #28) 90%, 95% & 98%
123 - King Kong 87%
124 - Mortal Kombat 65% [180]
PAGE 19
125 – Appaloosa 38%
126 – Legend 91%
127 - Dead Calm 92%
128 - The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button 83%
129 - Top Gun 71%
130 - Mission: Impossible Foursome (1-4) [130th Review, 189 Movies In Total] 89%, 91%, 96% & 96%
131 – Twins 87%
PAGE 20
132 - Pearl Harbor 12%
133 - Tremors Trilogy (1-3 Includes A Rerun Of Review #20) 90%, 23% & 11%
134 – Paulie 86%
135 - Hard Target 78%
136 - Universal Soldier 88%
137 - Sudden Death 83% [197]
PAGE 21
138 – Timecop 92%
139 - The Crow 88%
140 - American History X 100% [140th Review, 200th Movie]
141 - Gone Baby Gone 83%
PAGE 22
142 – Waterworld 91%
143 - The Fifth Element 93%
144 - Cop Land 94%
145 - Mississippi Burning 100%
146 - Beverly Hills Cop Trilogy (1-3) (Part Of Rodent's 15 Review 1980s Marathon) [208] 97%, 82% & 27%
PAGE 23
147 - Field Of Dreams (Part Of Rodent's 15 Review 1980s Marathon) 90%
148 - Stand By Me (Part Of Rodent's 15 Review 1980s Marathon) 97%
149 - Rain Man (Part Of Rodent's 15 Review 1980s Marathon) 100%
150 - Big Trouble In Little China (Part Of Rodent's 15 Review 1980s Marathon) 86%
151 - Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (Part Of Rodent's 15 Review 1980s Marathon) 100%
152 - Innerspace (Part Of Rodent's 15 Review 1980s Marathon) 90% [214]
PAGE 24
153 - Short Circuit Duo (1 & 2) (Part Of Rodent's 15 Review 1980s Marathon) 89% & 63%
154 - Commando (Part Of Rodent's 15 Review 1980s Marathon) 68%
155 - Explorers (Part Of Rodent's 15 Review 1980s Marathon) 88% [218]
PAGE 25
156 - The Untouchables (Part Of Rodent's 15 Review 1980s Marathon) 92%
157 - Flight Of The Navigator (Part Of Rodent's 15 Review 1980s Marathon) 96%
158 - Platoon (Part Of Rodent's 15 Review 1980s Marathon) 98%
159 - Uncle Buck (Part Of Rodent's 15 Review 1980s Marathon) 90%
160 - Weird Science (Part Of Rodent's 15 Review 1980s Marathon) 79%
161 - The 40 Year Old Virgin 81% [224]
PAGE 26
162 - The A Team 82%
163 - Dante's Peak 91%
164 – Volcano 84%
165 – Hancock 54%
166 - True Grit Vs True Grit 96% & 96% [230]
PAGE 27
167 – Watchmen 94%
168 - John Carpenter's The Thing And The Thing (Includes A Rerun And Small Edit Of Review #13) 95% & 42%
169 – Scrooged (Part Of Rodent’s 5 Christmas Movie Marathon) 93%
170 – Bad Santa (Part Of Rodent’s 5 Christmas Movie Marathon) 83% [234]
PAGE 28
171 – Home Alone (Part Of Rodent’s 5 Christmas Movie Marathon) 87%
172 – Elf (Part Of Rodent’s 5 Christmas Movie Marathon) 91%
173 – The Grinch (Part Of Rodent’s 5 Christmas Movie Marathon) 78%
174 – Ghost 98% [238]
PAGE 29
175 – Prometheus 89%
176 – Willow 92% [240]
PAGE 30
177 – The Expendables 2 (Includes A Rerun Of Review #112) 90% & 92%
178 – Dredd 96%
179 – Repo Man 98%
180 – Alien Hunter 0%
181 – Two Of The Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy 97% & 98% [246]
PAGE 31
182 – Reign Of Fire 23%
183 – Porky’s 87%
184 – Fly Away Home 95%
185 – Rear Window 99% [185th Review 250th Movie]
PAGE 32… The Start Of The New Look Reviews
186 – Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves 94%
187 – Speed And Speed 2: Cruise Control 93% & 4%
188 – Deep Blue Sea 72%
189 – The War Of The Worlds 76%
190 – The Amazing Spider-Man 95%
191 – This Boy’s Life 94% [257]
PAGE 33
192 – Skyline 7%
193 – X-Men The Franchise So Far 84%, 87%, 89%, 81% (Wolverine) & 82% (First Class) [263]
PAGE 34
194 – Vertical Limit 28%
195 – Street Fighter 3%
196 – Eraser 82%
197 – Man On Fire 84%
198 – Jeepers Creepers 87%
199 – Man Of Steel 91%
PAGE 35
200 – Judgment Night 93% [200th Review, 270th Movie]
PAGE 36
201 - Close Encounters Of The Third Kind 101%
PAGE 37
202 - The Bone Collector 68%
PAGE 38
203 - The Star Trek Franchise - 2 Part Rodent’s Revisited and Star Trek Into Darkness 97%
PAGE 39
204 - Chopper 93% [274]
PAGE 40
205 - Pan’s Labyrinth 101%
206 - House Of The Dead 0% [276]
PAGE 41
207 - Kick-Ass Duo 92% & 92%
208 - One Hour Photo 92%
209 - Lawless 97% [280]
210 - Prisoners 100% [281]
PAGE 42
211 - Coraline 99%
PAGE 43
212 - TRON 100% [283]
213 - TRON Legacy 100%
214 - Starman 100%
215 - X-Men: Days Of Future Past 98% [286]

PAGE 43 - PAGE 49
Repeated Reviews Of Franchises And Double Review Posts For The New MoFo Reviews Page

PAGE 49
216 - World War Z 82% [287]
217 - Night Of The Living Dead 94%
218 - Dawn Of The Dead 93%
219 - Day Of The Dead 90%
220 - Land Of The Dead 84% [291]
PAGE 50
221 - Diary Of The Dead 24%
222 - Survival Of The Dead 78%
223 - Identity 91%
224 - Stake Land 93% [295]
PAGE 51
225 - Doom 43%
226 - The Amazing Spider-Man 2 96%
PAGE 52
Shaun Of The Dead Revisit
Hot Fuzz Revisit
227 - The World’s End 95%
228 - Eight Legged Freaks 84%
229 - Moon 101%[300th Movie]
PAGE 53
Young Guns Revisit
230th Movie - Young Guns 2 84%
PAGE 54
231 - Stephen King’s IT 92% [302]
The Thing (2011) Revisit, split for the reviews page
The Thing (1982) Revisit, split for the reviews page
Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes Revisit
232 - Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes 100%
PAGE 55
233 - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014) 86%
234 - Battleship 86% [305]
235 - Guardians Of The Galaxy 98%
236 - Labyrinth 94% [307]

PAGE 56 - START OF THE NEWEST LOOK RODENT'S REVIEWS
237 - Sunshine 92%
PAGE 57
238 - RoboCop (2014 remake) 23%
239 - Bronson 99% [310]

[honeykid]

Nicholas Winding Refn was the director of Drive and Bronson is what I meant. Crazy to see 2 very different movies.

No, they're pretty much the same movie. That's one of the problems with both of them.

[The Rodent]

Made a few more adjustments to my new look reviews :D


Matched the MoFo green to the squiggly bits and made 3 different designs for the headers.
The last 3 reviews have the 3 differing designs at the top :up:

[The Rodent]

As for Bronson, not sure if I've seen so much dislike for a film that has a performance that's so revered.


You guys are weird.

[Optimus]

I loved Bronson. Hardy's performance was excellent.

[The Rodent]

Review #240, Movie #311

http://i1163.photobucket.com/albums/q552/The-Rodent/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/Reviews%20Pics/Review%20Header%20Beavis%20And%20ButtHead_zpskoz3cckk.png


Year Of Release
1996


Director/s
Mike Judge


Producer/s
Abby Terkuhle, Michael Blakely, Mike Judge


Writer/s
Mike Judge, Joe Stillman


Cast
Mike Judge, Mike Judge, Mike Judge, Mike Judge, Mike Judge, Demi Moore, Bruce Willis, Robert Stack, Cloris Leachman, Richard Linklater, Greg Kinnear, Tony Darling and David Letterman


Notes And Trivia
The movie was extremely difficult for the crew to put together, particularly Mike Judge, as all of their past experience was in the television show. Judge explained that with the TV show being so well established, the film was “ad hoc”, meaning it was created in a way that would fit the two main existing characters and left little room for movement in the story they had come up with.

The hallucination scene was directed by animation legend Chris Prynoski and was based on works by Rob Zombie.

During the scene, there is a backwards soundtrack of Beavis and Butt-Head saying “Everybody go to college, study hard, study hard”.

Chris Farley and David Spade were almost cast in the lead roles, as the studios were actually in favour of making the film live-action.

At the time, the movie had the largest December opening weekend of all time.

The AC-DC song Gone Shootin’, makes a show in the movie… the main Gone Shootin’ guitar riff was played backwards and used in the TV show’s start sequence for years without AC-DC knowing about it. It was only in the movie’s DVD Commentary that Mike Judge confesses they used the AC-DC track in the TV show.

The “God Dam” joke was also something Mike Judge hated at the time as it wasn’t the typical Beavis-style line. He got the joke from his Grandmother. Yet it was the one thing in the film that was quoted more than any other line. He has since seen the funny side, but still says he doesn’t like the joke.


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Synopsis:
When our favourite cartoon high-schoolers have their home broken into, they come to one conclusion… it sucks.

So they go out on a grand adventure to “find this butt-hole that stole our TV”.

Review:
Hah! I was a huge fan of B&B from the very start and when the movie was released in 1996, my Brother and I saw it together.
For a 14 year old lad who loved the show, this movie was everything I could want.

Has the movie held out these days though? Sure has, but only if you’re an 80s/90s teen who grew up with the show.

B&B isn’t really a universal movie. It drops the acts of having music videos laced into the story (not that there ever really was much actual story per episode) for a more linear plot of traipsing across America running into various forms of adventure, all based around a MacGuffin.
The dropping of certain formatting and going for a basic adventure opens the movie up for non-fans, but is still a little closed because of the humour that maybe only fans will find funny.

What makes the movie watchable though, for fans anyway, is that the characters of Beavis and Butt-Head are at their dumbest best in amongst all the strange and wonderful events they get caught up in, the one-liners and crude remarks they score from the convoluted plotline and the various cartoon violence they dish out on each other.
It’s kinda like The Simpsons, well, in a way… it starts out with them wanting to get their stolen TV back, to thinking they’re going to score, and then ends up with them involved in an International Terrorism plot involving a deadly virus.

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There’s not much I can say about the acting or voice-over work tbh. Mike Judge is on form as the main duo, plus a number of others.
Bruce Willis and Demi Moore show up too as Hubby and Wife criminal mastermind duo Muddy and Dallas respectively. Willis in particular doesn’t sound like Willis, he does a pretty good job.

The main voice-overs who make an impression are Tony Darling and David Letterman as the two Mötley Crüe roadies. If you know the main two characters, you’ll know exactly who these two new additions are meant to be.

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The action, well, erm, effects… no wait… animation? Yeah, the animation is a touch up from the TV show. It’s still hand drawn and jittery, but has had a bigger budget put to it and there’s a couple computer effects in there too that add that air of bigger-budget to the mix.
The action and highly charged scenes tend to revolve around slapstick cartoon violence, rather much like the TV show, just with more enthusiasm from the filmmakers. A “let’s see what we can do with them now” sort of thing and a “I have an idea for a scene, let’s incorporate it somehow”.

It is pretty funny though at times, especially when Butt-Head is endangering Beavis’ life and laughing about it.

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All in all, you’ll need to be a fan of the TV series to enjoy it, as I said it’s not that universal in terms of humour, but the more relaxed take on the B&B world might make it a bit more bearable for someone after a cartoon adventure.

As a fan though, watching in the way fans would, this is a must see if you haven’t yet.

If you’re not a fan, get ready for some crude humour and cartoon slapstick violence.


My Rating: 88%
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rating_4_5

[Cole416]

Good review, but I haven't seen the movie. Might end up checking it out since you liked it so much :)

But, I thought you had said in my ranking thread that you liked Return the best out of the Star Wars films yet you have it as 98% compared to the others at 100%. Maybe it was someone else who said that :shrug:

30 - Star Wars Franchise (1-6) 100%, 100%, 98%, 20%, 5% & 55% [46]

Either way, props to the review again! :up:

[The Rodent]

Ah, my review ratings don't reflect my favouritism for said movie.


I mean, an example is I rated Titanic really high, yet it wouldn't make a Top 1 million list if I ever made one. My ratings are all about how well the movie is made.

[Cole416]

Oh ok gotcha!

[The Rodent]

I try to be as neutral as I can when reviewing :D


Sure, I do go personal sometimes, (who doesn't?) but I try to be as neutral as I can be.

[Sexy Celebrity]

I mean, an example is I rated Titanic really high, yet it wouldn't make a Top 1 million list if I ever made one. My ratings are all about how well the movie is made.

Bullsh*t. You're just embarrassed by Titanic because it's a girly, romantic movie.

[honeykid]

Chris Farley and David Spade were almost cast in the lead roles, as the studios were actually in favour of making the film live-action
That's everything you need to know about Hollywood, isn't it? That would've been a mistake that would've made the "Ed Stone" seem like much ado about nothing.

Like you I love this film to bits and spent the last 10-15 minutes of the film trying to stay in my cinema chair while laughing almost uncontrollably.

[Iroquois]

Ah, my review ratings don't reflect my favouritism for said movie.


I mean, an example is I rated Titanic really high, yet it wouldn't make a Top 1 million list if I ever made one. My ratings are all about how well the movie is made.

Dude, you're probably the most lenient reviewer on this site.

[The Rodent]

Dude, you're probably the most lenient reviewer on this site.



Is that a good thing or a bad thing :p

[Iroquois]

Is that a good thing or a bad thing :p

Neither, really. It's just interesting considering how you claimed to be as neutral as possible when reviewing films since you do give out a lot of really high ratings, most notably to some unlikely candidates (case in point - X-Men Origins: Wolverine (http://www.movieforums.com/reviews/search/any/higher/2080/any), which you reviewed at a far higher score than anyone else on this website did) and also a relatively small number of low ratings (which are usually reserved for bad installments in franchises you otherwise like). Obviously, you don't claim to be completely neutral (who can?), but I think that your attempt to give ratings based on objectivity more so than subjectivity doesn't really come through a lot of the time.

[The Rodent]

Oh well. As long as people are reading and enjoying them, that's why I write them.


I do try to be fair with them all though.

[The Rodent]

Review #241, Movie #312


http://i1163.photobucket.com/albums/q552/The-Rodent/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/Reviews%20Pics/Review%20Header%20Godzilla_zpsmqvbvmhs.png (http://s1163.photobucket.com/user/The-Rodent/media/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/Reviews%20Pics/Review%20Header%20Godzilla_zpsmqvbvmhs.png.html)

Year Of Release
2014


Director/s
Gareth Edwards


Producer/s
Thomas Tull, Jon Jashni, Mary Parent, Brian Rogers

Writer/s
Max Borenstein, David Callaham, Toho


Cast
Aaron Taylor-Thomas, Ken Watanabe, Elizabeth Olsen, Juliette Binoche and Bryan Cranston


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Synopsis:
In 1999, Janjira Nuclear Plant Engineer Joe Brody and his Wife Sandra are working on fixing a rather troublesome electrical fault inside the Plant that is seemingly caused by seismic activity of an unknown source... however Sandra is killed in a tragic accident when the fault breaches the Plant’s protection protocols.

The Nuclear Plant then goes critical, and the entire area is locked off and declared a Death Zone.

15 years later, Joe is still trying to uncover what he thinks is a cover-up by the Government… and his Son, Ford, who has moved on from the death of his Mother Sandra, is dragged back into his Father’s conspiracy theory driven lifestyle.

Review:
Hmm, for a Summer Blockbuster, Godzilla, the Godzilla, should hit all the right buttons and give thrills and monster driven spills galore.

What we have though, is a pretty bland an uninteresting set of circumstances that revolve around dirty and grimy sets and way too many cutaways when the action does actually start.

The major problem with the action of Godzilla, is that there’s very little Godzilla. There’s also very little monster action in general too, and the director seems to have taken the idea of keeping the creatures hidden (ala-Cloverfield) and made it just way too cutaway-ish.
You get a glimpse of the creatures about to go head to head, and just before the monsters clash with each other, boom! there’s no payoff. We get either a hard cut to another scene, or something like a bunker door closes in front of the camera and we don’t get to see the rumble.

Then, toward the end of the movie, there is a big showdown… which lasts all of 8 seconds. Yes, really.

The other part of the movie, well, the main part of the movie, is the human side of it all. Running and hiding while buildings are being knocked over by the monsters (which we don’t get to see fighting).
Sadly, the human characters seem to made of wood and cardboard with very, very little connection to the audience. Our main hero in Ford, played by Aaron Taylor-Thomas, is really just a generic soldier type who does very little throughout apart from run a bit and occasionally says something that moves the story along when things are getting slow in the plotline stakes.
The rest of the human side is simply more generic scientist types, some military types and a lot of cannon fodder for building rubble to fall on and squish while the monsters are fighting and apparently knocking the surrounding buildings down (which we don’t get to see).

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I’ve already mentioned Aaron with his generic role. He plays it well, but this actor, and character for that matter, should not have been the lead in this movie.
Elizabeth Olsen plays Aaron’s Wife… and she’s more a non-character. I’m not even sure why she was in the movie tbh.
The treatment of Juliette Binoche is similar too. She’s Sandra, and her death is the plot driver in the first 20 minutes or so.

Ken Watanabe seems to be confused as to what his role is.

Bryan Cranston as Joe Brody though, is the best on show. He absolutely steals his scenes, robs the limelight from everyone around him, makes this movie exciting… and then gets killed off 30 minutes in.
After his death, the movie just becomes a generic (yes, using the generic word again) and boring destruction movie.

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The action and effects are really what it’s all about tbh as, like I said, the characters and actors involved weren’t utilised or written greatly. Which is a shame, as like I said, the characters take up most of the movie.

I’m likening this film to Reign Of Fire (remember that Dragon movie with Christian Bale?)… the CGI and sets are tremendous… and it’s great to see the proper looking Godzilla get a big budget turn on the big screen after Roland Emmerich went in favour of a T-Rex looking Godzilla.

However, with the bad writing, and keeping it all so lacking in terms of monster footage and having them bashing heads together, the great effects and small handful of well choreographed action and fighting are just, well, wasted.

The new creatures seen in the M.U.T.O monsters is a nice touch though, it does add an air of freshness to proceedings knowing that the big G is fighting something we’ve never seen him fight before.

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All in all, this movie should, not could, should, have been so much more.

Badly written, confusing at times in terms of actual story, especially on first watch, and for a Godzilla movie, there’s not that much actual Godzillary Monster Madness.

The film overall, is of a poor enough standard that I’m actually going to recommend watching Emmerich’s 1998 big budget outing before giving this big budget outing a go.

The 1998 movie, also being character driven like this one tried to be, at least utilised its characters… and still managed to get the big G seen on screen.



My Rating: 58%
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rating_3

[edarsenal]

was a beavis and butthead fan. Should try the test and see if i would enjoy "Bungholio" as much as i did in my youth.

As always, damn fine review

and, oh yeah, I have been wanting to see Bronson and thoroughly enjoyed the review you gave!

[Optimus]

You where very generous with your rating if Godzilla, because that movie suckeeeddddd. Every you hated i hated 10 times more :).

[Iroquois]

I had it at 2. Far from the best, but difficult to really get worked up over (except for a couple of character deaths that did wreck the film's momentum a bit). In any case, it's still preferable to the 1998 Godzilla.

[The Rodent]

I tie my popcorns to percentage ratings :)


I still think Emmerich's Godzilla is better than this one though, better characters, better acting, better writing, and better action too.

[honeykid]

I still think Emmerich's Godzilla is better than this one though, better characters, better acting, better writing, and better action too.
Wow. Really? I've not seen either, but I've seen some of the Emmerich version and it was awful. I really don't see how the new one could be worse.

[The Rodent]

Imagine watching paint dry, then realising after several days that the wall hasn't actually been painted.

[Captain Spaulding]

I wrote a review for Godzilla back when it came out. I gave it the same rating, but judging by your remarks, I clearly enjoyed it a lot more than you. I agree with your criticisms about the poorly developed characters. I'm sure everybody agrees with that. But I actually liked that the movie keeps teasing the audience when it comes to seeing Godzilla on screen. To me, that made the payoff feel so much more special. I can understand why some viewers might feel gypped, though.

[nebbit]

Nice review Mouse http://www.smileys4msn.com/displaysmiley.php?show=165 Great layout :yup:

[The Rodent]

This is probably going to take more than 10 minutes, but I'm going to go through all my reviews and adjust the ratings.
My recent talks with Iro, plus some of you other guys too, has got me thinking that my ratings may not be totally accurate.
I also have a high rate of either 4 to 5 and 0.5 to 1.5 and not a great amount in between.


Bare with me if you're reading and the ratings keep flitting around.

[nebbit]

Take your time Mouse :yup:

[The Rodent]

:D I've done 5 pages so far... still got a few to go.

[JayDee]

While it doesn't appear that I've got much support (except from Cap) I've got to say that I really rather liked Godzilla. As a human drama it was definitely found wanting, but as a monster movie I thought it was pretty good.

[The Rodent]

Review #242, Movie #313


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Year Of Release
2004

Director/s
Jared Hess

Producer/s
Jeremy Coon, Chris Wyatt, Sean C Covel, Jory Weitz

Writer/s
Jared Hess, Jerusha Hess

Cast
Jon Heder, Jon Gries, Efren Ramirez, Aaron Ruell and Tina Majorino

Notes And Trivia
The name Napoleon Dynamite apparently came to writer Hess by coincidence when he met a homeless man who was using the name.

It was only two days before filming was due to finish, that a young extra on the movie mentioned to Hess that the name was made up by Elvis Costello in an album in 1986.

Hess has admitted he feels a little embarrassed by the situation, and that he had no idea it was Costello’s property. Costello however hasn’t taken any sort of legal action for the use of his property.



The movie is set in the 2003-2004 school year in Idaho, but many people have taken note of a number of things that appear to be of 1980s and 1990s styles, for instance the usage of VHS and Walkman tape players, particular songs heard throughout, certain vehicles, dial-up internet and certain fashions like hair in sideways ponytails and Napoleon’s Moon Boots.



The shooting of the cow scene with the school bus full of kids watching, happened in real life to director Jared Hess when he was a child.



Jon Heder, who plays Napoleon and Efren Ramirez who plays Pedro, both have identical twins.



Many people claim Jon Gries is vegetarian, and the scenes where he eats steak and spits it out made people believe it even more. The real reason he was spitting it out is that it hadn’t been cooked properly and tasted horrible. Gries isn’t vegetarian.



The now famous dance scene at the end was choreographed by Tina Majorino. She used dance moves from Michael Jackson to Soul Train.



Napoleon Dynamite is also a remake of sorts. The original short was made by Jared Hess and Jon Heder back in 2002… almost everything that featured in the short made it into this movie too.



If you watch closely, none of the main characters wear footwear with laces.


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Synopsis:
Napoleon Dynamite is a loser. Not even a loveable one either. He’s also a nerd, who isn’t very clever.
He’s bullied by everyone, has no friends, has a very large chip on his shoulder and is always trying to prove a point or put down those who actually take an interest in him.

Enter Pablo, the new kid.
Pablo is pretty similar to Napoleon, but seems a little more numb when it comes to a personality… and Pablo decides to run for Class President…

… with Napoleon in his corner.

Review:
Simply, I love this movie. It’s another one that missed out on my recent Top 100, but that’ll be rectified next year when I redo it.

When I was at school, I knew a guy who was exactly like Napoleon who we called “Veador”, and I actually looked it up to see if the movie was made by anyone I knew back then. It’s that close.


What we have is an extremely clever and realistic script that evolves round one of the most realistic and well-rounded lead characters I’ve seen in a long, long time.
The whole movie simply revolves around Napoleon and his daily hijinks, whether it be dragging a plastic toy behind the bus using fishing-wire, or playing Swing Ball by himself.
What I mean is, the movie has no real direction exactly… there’s no, well, destination. It’s simply a series of connected skits with Heder, and occasionally Pablo, at the centre of it all.
It’s only in the third act when Pablo and Napoleon decide to go for Class President that there’s any real destination for the lead characters, including Majorino’s character Deb.

Each scene however, if you do get the humour, has a number of laughs and little nods to real life that are not just recognisable to most, but almost bring about a feeling of nostalgia.
The whole humour side of it is also majorly downplayed throughout. There’s no whacky zany comedy going on, it’s all held back and comes across like a sort of situational comedy.

This movie is a bit like The Big Lebowski… you either get it, or you don’t.

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This movie really revolves around characters and acting.
We have Jon Heder as Napoleon, our annoying nerd, dweeb loser. Heder nails this role and rightly so got an award for best breakthrough role.
Efren Ramirez plays Pablo, our almost emotionless counterpart for Heder. Efren also nails his role, though not seen as much as Heder.
Tina Majorino plays Deb, who at one point becomes a kind of love triangle between our two main guys. I haven’t seen anything from Majorino since Waterworld, but here she’s pretty likeable.

Jon Gries backs them up as Uncle Rico, the total loser ex-Footballer who thinks he’s God’s Gift to everything. Gries is fantastic, and has a number of little quirks to the way he plays what could have been just a generic ass of a character.

Aaron Ruell plays Kip, Napoleon’s Brother. Ruell is also at his best as a kind of emotionless loser.

Backup comes from Haylie Duff, Emily Kennard… and Diedrich Bader makes a brilliant show as Rex.

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All in all, I can’t say much more about this movie apart from, well, it exists.

You have to sit and watch it though, and if you “get” it, you’ll see exactly why I love its humour and real life take on real life subjects.

A Cult Classic in the true sense of the phrase.


My Rating: 92%
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rating_5

[JayDee]

I've only seen Napoleon Dynamite the one time, not long after its release. So that's at least 10 years since I've seen it. I remember pretty much nothing about it except for one thing; I hated it! All I remember is that it really p*ssed me off. I wanted the film to have a face just so I could punch it! :D

I remember it coming out at pretty much the exact same time as Garden State with reviews and film mags packaging them together as this pair of great indie comedy-dramas. Having loved Garden State I then couldn't have been anymore disappointed with Mr Dynamite.

It's a film that I should, and likely will revisit someday to give it another chance though

[seanc]

Been a few years since watching Dynamite. I have seen it two or three times though and I think it is hilarious. From the obvious things like the dance, Liger, and Wolverine hunting to the more subtle like Uncle Rico's football poses and the ramp jump. I think the movie is gold.

[ursaguy]

Comedies like Napoleon Dynamite are the main reason why I think your objective system is inapplicable to some types of movies. Everything that makes you like it made me hate it. It feels like a bad SNL episode. It's a series of vaguely related skits with no real purpose or payoff. If the jokes aren't funny to you, it's a waste of time.

[The Rodent]

I think you've put that in the wrong thread, Charlie.

[The Gunslinger45]

I think you've put that in the wrong thread, Charlie.

And that is why he was banned. :D

[The Rodent]

Comedies like Napoleon Dynamite are the main reason why I think your objective system is inapplicable to some types of movies. Everything that makes you like it made me hate it. It feels like a bad SNL episode. It's a series of vaguely related skits with no real purpose or payoff. If the jokes aren't funny to you, it's a waste of time.



But the same can be said about any movie and movie critic.


You could rate Film X at 4.5 because you thought it was funny, or touching, or emotional, or whatever, based on whatever criteria you personally use... but I may not find it any of those things, which means the 4.5 you gave it is totally pointless.

[The Rodent]

Another example is 2001: A Space Odyssey.


Revered by many, and will more than likely top the MoFo 1960s list.


I think it's overrated... if anything, on a personal level, I think 2001 is total garbage and would rate it 1.5.
Does that mean it really is crap? Of course not, so, just like all my other ratings, although I try to keep as neutral as I can, my ratings are my ratings, and don't exactly represent a general vote.

[leanhnam220]

This topic is interesting

[Captain Spaulding]

I love Napoleon Dynamite! It was one of those "it" movies for awhile that rarely gets mentioned anymore. I still think it's hilarious. I used to quote the movie all the time. Like you basically said in your review, either the humor clicks for you or it doesn't, making it a very love it or hate it type of film. I tried watching the short-lived animated series that aired awhile back but the magic didn't translate to that format. Since Heder and Hess's careers seem to be on fumes nowadays, I'd love to see them make a sequel. I'm sure it would be terrible, but it'd be fun to revisit these characters.

[The Rodent]

Nooo! Don't say that, someone in Hollywood will read that and decide to remake it :laugh:

[The Rodent]

Review #243, Movie #314


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Year Of Release
2011

Director/s
Gavin O’Connor

Producer/s
Gavin O’Connor, Greg O’Connor

Writer/s
Gavin O’Connor, Anthony Tambakis, Cliff Dorfman

Music
Mark Isham

Cast
Joel Edgerton, Tom Hardy, Jennifer Morrison, Kevin Dunn, Franks Grillo, Erik Apple, Kurt Angle
With Nick Nolte

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Synopsis:
Two Brothers Brendan and Tommy, were raised by a sick Mother, and an alcoholic, abusive Father.
After their Mother died, Tommy joined the Marines and bottled up years of rage and torturously painful memories… and Brendan became a Physics Teacher and raised a family of his own, vowing never to allow his own family to come to ruin in the way his own Father allowed years ago.

Both Boys have another former life though… their Father also trained them to wrestle, box and fight.
He trained them so well in fact, that both of them could have been contenders…

… and a big tournament is around the corner… with Brendan’s motives toward saving his family from eviction and bankruptcy, and Tommy’s motives are, well, Tommy’s motives, and Tommy’s recent past, are yet to be revealed.

Review:

What… a… movie…

This is by far one of the strongest films of the 2010s… even one of the strongest since the Millennium. Thinking about it… of the past 20 years.

It’s odd this, but a movie based on what it is, fighting and MMA, shouldn’t be this good.

The filmmakers have delicately balanced a story and a genuinely touching and realistic backdrop into what could have been a generic Octagon Battler between two Brothers, and then twisted the whole thing into an inspirational, brutal, touching, even heart-wrenching journey of two (sometimes three) men with an incredibly troubled past, all trying to either forget or make amends for what they have all been through over the years.

I said brutal a moment ago. It’s not just the fighting side of things, and we do see some incredible fight scenes, but there’s a huge chunk of brutality that comes from the heartfelt and, well, heavy hitting story and emotions seen throughout.

It’s a very well crafted story containing everything from drama to action that never fails to impress with every turn it takes.

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The acting is also bang on.
I’ll start with Tom Hardy… Hardy isn’t the main role here… he’s more a joint lead that kinda takes a slight backseat to Edgerton. Hardy though… wow.
He goes from a genuinely damaged individual, constantly brooding, to a snarling lump of muscle with bloodshot eyes and foam spitting from his mouth from scene to scene.
Hardy holds the quieter scenes fantastically with his natural ability to portray internal pain… and when the going gets rough in the fights, he then smashes audience expectations and becomes a genuinely scary psychopath, but a psychopath with a purpose.

Joel Edgerton is our main guy as Brendan. Another wow.
I have never seen an actor go from Mr Nice Guy to a genuinely thinking and mentally deep fighter as intensely as Edgerton. This isn’t just Joel’s best role to date, it’s one of the most touching and emotionally involved roles I’ve ever seen from him.
Edgerton has proven he has the chops to be a leading man with this film, and his acting while in the Octagon, covered in blood and bruises, actually had me in tears more than once.

The rest of the cast are just really backup roles. Kevin Dunn is brilliant though, especially when he’s leaping around his living room while watching the fights on TV.

However… Nolte… massively charismatic. It’s not often I’ve seen Nolte actually act. He’s normally the tough grizzly guy.
Here though, Nolte also had me in tears. He is immensely powerful in his supporting role of the ex-alcoholic Born-Again-Christian, who is trying his best to make up with his damaged Sons.
Nolte rocks this movie. He’s perfect.

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It’s the third act that the fight side of things really comes together. There are a few skirmishes with Edgerton in the second act though too.

The third act of this movie had my heart pounding and my hands shaking from start to end.
At one point I actually shouted “yes!” when certain things happen in the Octagon.
The choreography of this movie is held in reality so tightly, and the awesome, awesome writing and acting leading up to it, makes the finale/s of this genuine story incredibly exciting.

The other good thing with the third act, is once it starts, it doesn’t ever let up or go quiet half way through.

There’s also a brilliantly underplayed score and soundtrack throughout that gets the heart going when certain incidents are occurring, or are about to occur.

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All in all, I cried, I screamed, I felt.
This movie, being based on what it is, is an absolute gem. Fine acting, and I really mean fine, great story, realistic backdrop and character research from the writers.

This film is inspirational.

My Rating: The magical 101%
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5

[The Sci-Fi Slob]

Nice review, Rodent. :up: Nick Nolte stole the show in this.

[Optimus]

Warrior is a fantastic movie. I wen the cinema twice to see it and i also own the movie on dvd. It made my top 100 favourites aswell so i agree with everything you said.

[MovieMeditation]

That's a great review, Rodent. I can feel your thoughts and feelings coming through my screen here... Brillant writing.

And not only that, you are so right. This film is just great. I agree with everything you say. A powerful and touching film that really shouldn't be as good as it is. But thankfully it exceeded every one of my expectations.

Once again, a well-written and well-done review! :up:

[cricket]

Rodent, you probably remember Masterman; Warrior was his favorite movie and that's why I watched it. I could not believe how much I loved it. It's full of cliches but it doesn't matter. It's one of the most emotional movies I've ever seen, and I was thoroughly involved for its duration. Whenever we get to a 2010's countdown, it'll be a contender for my top spot.

Great review, have you seen it before?

[The Rodent]

I saw it on TV a couple times and had it recorded on the DVR, but I got hold of a DVD today and got to see the whole thing without adverts and bits cut out.


Glad my review works though, I was worried people would say I was harping about it too much.
It's really hard to find any fault with it, which is why it gets the 101%.

[Optimus]

I saw it on TV a couple times and had it recorded on the DVR, but I got hold of a DVD today and got to see the whole thing without adverts and bits cut out.


Glad my review works though, I was worried people would say I was harping about it too much.
It's really hard to find any fault with it, which is why it gets the 101%.

Its deserves all that praise mate. I actually think the movie is underated and kind of got lost back when it was released.

[The Rodent]

I've seen a review saying "all the Rocky's rolled into one"


Erm, yeah, it's on a totally different level to Rocky. It's not even on the same planet as the Rocky series.

[Optimus]

I've seen a review saying "all the Rocky's rolled into one"


Erm, yeah, it's on a totally different level to Rocky. It's not even on the same planet as the Rocky series.

I love the hotel room scene, very powerful moment.

[The Rodent]

Yeah that's a very touching scene. Gives massive depth to their past.


Also Nolte while trying to talk to Brendan outside the house. Heartbreaking yet understandable from Brendan's side of things, but Nolte nails it at the end of the scene when he sees the kids inside the house looking out.

[The Rodent]

Well, it was released today on DVD... may as well get a review done...


Jurassic World coming up...

[The Rodent]

Review #244, Movie #315



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Year Of Release
2015


Director/s
Colin Trevorrow


Producer/s
Frank Marshall, Patrick Crowley

Writer/s
Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver, Derek Connolly
And the late great Michael Crichton


Music
Michael Giacchino, John Williams


Cast
Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Vincent D’Onofrio, Ty Simpkins, Nick Robinson, Jake Johnson, Lauren Lapkus, Brian Tee, Omar Sy with Irrfan Khan and BD Wong


Notes And Trivia
The movie contains numerous nods to the original movie/s, including a statue of Hammond (also as a nod to late actor Sir Attenborough), Dallas Howard’s wardrobe being almost completely white like Hammonds in JP, a book one of the characters is reading called “God Creates Dinosaurs” with an image of Ian Malcolm on the cover, the Gallimimus Stampede scene was filmed in the exact location as the one we say in JP, one of the original Jeeps from JP with the number 29, and the original Visitor Center where the first film ended to spectacularly.


After Stan Winston died, his employees started their own company called Legacy Effects. LE are responsible for the animatronics in Jurassic World. There is even a shop seen in the film called Winston’s, as a mark of respect to Stan.


“Indominus Rex” means “Fierce King” in Latin.


Chris Pratt actually spoof recorded a video online, a number of years ago, of him apparently getting a text from Steven Spielberg with an offer to do Jurassic Park 4. Pratt didn’t realise that a few years later he would actually get that opportunity.


The concept of using a Great White Shark to feed the Mosasaurus, was Trevorrow’s nod to Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws”.

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Synopsis:
Jurassic World, built on the bones of the original failure that was Jurassic Park, has been enjoying huge success with visitors from across the Globe for years… but attendance numbers are declining and the shareholders, management and Ingen are worried.

So, being as immoral and money-oriented as they are, they cook up a classified experiment that will give the public something new to ogle, and have nightmares over… all in the name of $$.

Review:
Almost beautiful.

Some people had Star Wars when they were kids, later it was Independence Day and later still the kids had LOTR.

At 11 years old, my childhood was Jurassic Park.
The awe. The Spectacle. The Magnificence. The Mystery. Standing in that cinema lobby, with the JP music playing and the trailer on repeat on the screens dotted all over the place.


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Jurassic World almost recaptures that, and with a modern twist of great CGI and improvements in animatronic technology.

For a start, it’s best to watch this movie with that inner-child switched firmly on… and not so much leave the brain at the door, but leave that adult side of the brain behind when the movie starts.
I’m not saying this is a kids’ movie, not by a long shot, but it’s better not to have the adult part of your brain that looks at logic and reasoning that can spoil a movie like Jurassic Park, and Jurassic World.


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This movie has lashings of similar mentality from the Ingen suits that we saw in The Lost World, in that they simply only care about money and profits with total disregard to morality. The movie also has a number of nods to the original films too, and not just the occasional prop or statue of Hammond either. For instance, there’s an arc of sorts with Raptor intelligence which gives a genuinely organic believability to proceedings.


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What’s also nice to see is that there are a few scenes which were considered but not filmed for JP and JP2 that gladly make their way into JW… for instance Pterosaurs vs a Helicopter (exciting scene if a little short lived)… and numerous parts from the book that were never even considered for the original movie and were just cut from the script.


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This movie is very busy, but in a very good way, with little hints and nods to what we’ve seen before, original concepts from Crichton’s book/s, original concepts of its own, and loads of interesting characters who are actually pretty well written and acted for a movie that was originally called a “brainless actioner” by some (dumbass) critics.


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Chris Pratt leads our cast as ex-Navy man and Raptor expert Owen Grady. He’s been brought in to train Raptors as an experiment to see if they can be domesticized… and if so, how far?
Pratt, well, let’s just say Pratt doesn’t carry this movie, and doesn’t have to. He’s a solid leading man, given a solid character to work with, and is surrounded by other solid actors and backups. Pratt is funny when needed though, especially when he’s given a little free reign, and carries the action and serious side of things perfectly.


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Bryce Dallas Howard plays Claire Dearing, our leading Lady. She too holds it together like Pratt and has great chemistry with whoever she’s on screen with, especially Pratt. BDH is like a Female John Hammond in a way. She starts out cold and almost impersonal, and comes out of her shell as the movie goes on and eventually she becomes a Heroine amongst the shenanigans and backs up Pratt’s solid Hero brilliantly.


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We also have a generic, but needed I guess, double act with Ty Simpkins and Nick Robinson. They’re BDH’s Nephews, visiting the island for a week that end up alone in the jungle… with BDH and Pratt having to rescue them. They work together well though and Nick Robinson as the older Brother of the two has an arc of sorts from being a typical disinterested teen, to being a proper Big Brother for his little Bro.


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Backup comes from Vincent D’Onofrio as an Ingen man-in-the-field who is a total slimeball,Jake Johnson and Lauren Lapkus as JW’s Control Room techies (Johnson is like a likeable Dennis Nedry) and Irrfan Khan is our centre of morality in a similar role to Bryce’s character Claire.
Khan in particular is brilliant too.
BD Wong, who we haven’t seen since JP, also shows up in a pivotal role… and isn’t quite as likeable as he was 23 years ago. he plays it well though.


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The effects and action are mostly CG.
There is a massive chunk of practical effects though backing it up, and the choreography is tip top.


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Some of the action is overloaded with too many Hero-Shots though… as if the movie was trying to make as many trailer moments as possible, but it doesn’t stop the movie from being exciting when the action gets going.
The brilliantly rendered CG and animatronics with the well pieced together choreography make up for that.


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All in all, a ton better than JP2 and an incalculably massive improvement on the cartoon that was JP3.

Filled with hits of recognisable story arcs and traits we’re used to from the Jurassic Franchise, and upgraded to modern day audiences with the action and effects.


Exciting, scary at times, atmospheric, funny, nostalgic to an extent… but most importantly and oddly it feels fresh and, well, new.


My Rating: 89%


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rating_4_5

[The Rodent]

Review #245, Movie #316



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Year Of Release

2014


Director/s

Jennifer Kent


Producer/s

Kristina Ceyton, Kristian Moliere


Writer/s

Jennifer Kent



Music

Jed Kurzel


Cast

Essie Davis, Noah Wiseman, Hayley McElhinney, Daniel Henshall, Barbara West, Ben Winspear


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Synopsis:
Amelia Vanek, a Widower and Mother, has been spending the past 6 years raising her Son Samuel by herself. Amelia has struggled long and hard raising her boy but like many a single parent before her, she has coped rather well.
Samuel though is a very different boy and has what seems to be a highly active imagination, some kind of ADHD and is also what seems to be a technical whizz and tends to build weapons out of wood and elastic bands, string, cricket balls, and anything else he gets his hands on. Samuel’s behaviour also causes trouble at school and Amelia removes him from class due to what she perceives as a lack of understanding by the school board.

However, a book called Mister Babadook appears out of nowhere in Samuel’s room and she reads it to him as a bedtime story. The book however is darker than she realised once she’s already halfway through it, and it scares Samuel to the point he fixates on it relentlessly, eventually blaming “Mister Babadook” for his own behaviour.
The book is dark enough too that it even scares Amelia.

And as Samuel’s lack of sleeping and erratic behaviour take its toll on Amelia, causing her too to miss sleep and eventually lose her job… she too starts to see Mister Babadook.

Review:
Simply astounding.

Low budget (there’s only really two people in this film), and filmed primarily in one location… the Babadook is a masterclass in how to stage a psychological horror movie.

This film is incredibly unnerving to watch, there are many, many scenes throughout which sent shivers down my spine… and some of those scenes weren’t even the usual atmospheric spooky set-ups either. They were mundane scenes, given their gravitas by Essie Davis (Amelia) and the varying ways she reacts to things around her. The spooky scenes, every one of them, put me on edge. It’s very well crafted.
Horror movies, psychological or not, don’t tend to make me feel uncomfortable or, well, scared… and I mean at all… but wow, The Babadook is incredibly intense in its delivery of shocks and some occasionally generic spooky scenes, all held together by the fantastic photography and, well, simply, its lack of soundtrack.

The drab and dreary surroundings of the house also make for a great backdrop with the strange occurrences that are happening.

What’s also highly apparent with the movie as it progresses is the change in character that Amelia and Samuel go through. It’s as though their roles actually switch half way through and you wonder if these things are really happening, or if Amelia’s descent into madness is making her imagine it all.

Either way, I had to keep pausing this movie to take a breath, no joke.

And then… there’s that ending.

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Essie Davis plays Amelia, with Noah Wiseman as Samuel. I’m not familiar with other work from either of these two actors…
Davis is immense in this movie. She starts out as a stressed single Mother, and falls gradually, and scarily, into the realms of psychopathy. Davis is incredibly realistic throughout too and never gets hammy or camp with it either. Her introduction is also perfectly played too, as she manages to get the audience on-side with her genuine personality and makes us care about her, and even sympathise with her.
Wiseman too manages to do this, but in reverse. As I said, the two roles sort of switch as the movie goes on. Wiseman manages to portray the kind of kid that most would walk away from or even hate to be around, and then he becomes someone you want to help and protect. Wiseman, for such a young age, rocks this role. He also plays the scarier scenes perfectly. I doubt any other young actor would be able to pull of such a layered role to be totally honest.

The rest of the cast are really non-characters though. They appear for a couple brief scenes and are never really seen again. This movie is all about Mother and Son Amelia and Samuel.
The rest of the cast though work, and are believable.

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The effects of this movie are all based really around the photography and lighting, there’s little in the way of actual effects exactly.
There are a few scenes with the odd hint of CGI and some usage of what appears to be puppetry/man-in-suit but it’s really quite well rendered and pieced together.

The photography and the way the scenes are choreographed is absolutely tops though. Even in the quieter scenes I found myself watching the background, just in case something was going to happen.

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All in all, unnerving, spooky, genuinely scary.

This movie is a modern masterpiece.

This truly is The Exorcist of today.



My Rating: 101%

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rating_5

[the samoan lawyer]

Great reviews Rodent, last 2 were both great films for me. I probably would have loved Jurassic World no matter what and Babadook was much better than I expected, in fact I actually enjoyed it better the second time around.

[The Rodent]

Yeah JW is a great movie. It's in my new preliminary Top 100 at the moment.


Babadook... if I'd have had a pillow, I would have hid behind it. Never known a horror to do that to me before :D
I'm almost guaranteeing that Babadook will make the new 100. Brilliant movie.

[MovieMeditation]

Great review of Jurassic World, Rodent!

You hit many of the right notes on why people are wrongfully bashing this film. Yes, the original had a little better characters and a little better script, but it's still a fun blockbuster made for you to have a great time. People are sometimes blinded by the past and overly praising something that perhaps isn't several miles better than they would like to think.

Anyways, really good review! :up:

[nebbit]

Great review of Jurassic World, Rodent!

Ditto :yup:

[christine]

Rodent - I loved the Babadook too. We watched it late at night on holiday - a cottage in the middle of nowhere, pitch black outside. I was scared out of my wits!

[The Rodent]

It's really good isn't it?


I was surprised at how good. I've been living in this mindset of modern movies being crap, especially modern horrors... Babadook blew me away though.

[The Rodent]

Thanks Nebs! Have you see Babadook yet?

[nebbit]

Thanks Nebs! Have you see Babadook yet?
Not yet :blush:

[Gideon58]

Review #4: Cowboys And Aliens.

Another 'western' from me, kind of.

Interesting concept based on a comic book of the same name and it certainly feels like it too. But mostly in a good way.

The way the two ideas are put to screen don't quite gel properly, though maybe that's down to the whacky idea in the first place.

Though in saying that, Cowboys And Aliens doesn't try to be a western, nor does it try to be a sci-fi. It's somewhere in between. A genre I've never seen before outside of a Dr Who episode or even the terrible Wild Wild West.

Daniel Craig is interesting as the rough and tough 'man with no name'. Similar in ilk to Eastwood, though Craig's story is explained over the duration of the film.
Harrison Ford is almost perfectly cast as a grizzled old war veteran with a heart. He does the job, but you can't help feeling sombody else could have done it better.
As too is Olivia Wilde as the beautiful western Damsel in distress. But with a twist.

Supporting cast from Sam Rockwell and produced in part by heavy weights Spielberg and Ron Howard, the movie almost can't go wrong.

As far as the writing and action goes, it's definitely a popcorn movie.
Fun, loud, storyline written about as good as it could have been, the dialogue well written and is well recited from the cast and the CGI is wonderfully rendered.
The film makers, especially director Favreau, at least had the gumption to hide the CGI based enemy in the shadows till the end. When unveiled, the Aliens don't disappoint either.

Seen as a low percentage scorer when it first hit cinemas, I think that should be ignored and let the viewer decide whether they like it or not.
Certainly a must see for anyone who hasn't, solely because of the chalk and cheese premise.

I for one am a believer.

My rating 75%
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4
Wow, you liked this movie a lot more than I did...I thought this movie was confusing and left too many questions unanswered. I wrote a review of it on my thread if you want to check it out.

[The Rodent]

Review #246, Movie #317


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Year Of Release
2015


Director/s
Gil Kenan


Producer/s
Roy Lee, Sam Raimi, Robert G Tapert


Writer/s
David Lindsay-Abaire, Steven Spielberg


Music
Marc Streitenfeld


Cast
Sam Rockwell, Rosemarie DeWitt, Jared Harris, Jane Adams, Saxon Sharbino, Kyle Catlett, Kennedi Clements, Nicholas Braun


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Synopsis:
The Bowen family, comprised of Father Eric, Mother Amy and the children Kendra, Griffin and youngest Daughter Maddy, are in the aftermath of Eric losing his job and the family losing their last home, move into a new home.
At first the kids, especially Griffin, aren’t too happy with the move and before they can settle in properly, strange things start happening upstairs, mainly in Maddy’s bedroom.

Review:
I was soooo against this movie when I heard about its production. I rated the 1982 original at 90%... it isn’t perfect, but is a classic horror adventure with charm and charisma in bucketloads.

Well, the finished product here with this remake, is something of a hit and miss affair tbh.

Poltergeist is yet another product of its time. Lots of effects, hollow plot/script writing and shallow characters, not enough running time for explanations or build-ups and relies on quick-fire, generic shocks to make its impression on the audience.
The film contains many nods to the original though. An electrified bannister rail, strange things that move around on their own while the camera wasn’t looking (ala-dining chairs but in this case it’s comic books), the kid wanting a night-light, a lightning storm and a scary tree… however, blankets of CGI are no substitute for the time, effort and pure skill of the original movie’s effects wizards who made that scene with the dining chairs possible (along with other scenes of course).

The thing I said above about the running time, is that the original movie had a build-up. It starts small with the occasional big hit of shocks or scares and then got larger as it went on.
In this film, the ghosties are all-powerful from the immediate get-go but appear to be hiding their true strength unless it suits the moment.
It’s as though the filmmakers wanted to get straight into the big stuff as quickly as possible, and sadly it destroys any credibility and atmosphere that the movie could have had, and, even sadder is that it destroys what was potentially a pretty atmospheric and spooky movie.
What I mean is, sure there are a couple successful scenes that try to build up atmosphere and spookiness… for instance the brilliantly scary hide-behind-a-pillow clowns scene... but the next scene afterward, or the scene leading up to it, are so shallow that anything these decent scenes have just becomes, well, a trailer moment and nothing more.

The film also seems to have small pieces of dialogue lifted from all 3 of the original movies too. There’s just well, no charm with this remake.

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The acting… well… let’s start with Rockwell as the Dad Eric.
What. A. Let. Down.
This is by far one of the worst turns I’ve ever seen from possibly my most favourite actor of the past few years with exception to Tom Hardy.
Rockwell is wooden, plays it by the numbers, and actually has an air about him as if he doesn’t believe in the production. It’s like he doesn’t want to be there.

Rosemary DeWitt as Mother Amy, well, let’s just say she’s no JoBeth Williams. Bland, uninteresting, wooden at times and also has that air of not-wanting-to-be-there.

Kyle Catlett is best on show as Son Griffin… and by a long, long, long way. He’s charismatic (though with a couple wooden deliveries of lines)… but Kyle makes this film believable in certain stages when some of the spooky shenanigans are kicking off.

Jared Harris is our psychic expert on the spooky happenings… and seems more of a gimmick than anything else as a battle-scarred Irishman. Harris plays it straight though to try and be as believable as he can be, which is a nice touch… but the poor writing of his character simply knowing immediately what to do and what’s going on, (without the sheer magnetism that Zelda Rubinstein brought to the original role), makes for yet another shallow and unbelievable character for the audience to not care about.

The rest of the cast, including Saxon Sharbino and Kennedi Clements are really just backup roles tbh and have little to no impact on the story, plot, atmosphere or viewer really.
Clements, who is our rewritten Carol Anne is also, sadly, underused massively.

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The effects and action… well, as I said there’s very little atmosphere with one or two scenes that are successful, but the photography and general choreography are pretty good and certainly up to modern standards.
The bad writing lets it all down though and, like I said before, buckets of CGI is no match for practical effects.

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All in all, it’ll be a good film if you haven’t seen the original… lacking any kind of charisma, badly written character-wise and hollow in the plot and zero to no build-up at the start.

If you have seen the original, you’ll enjoy the occasional nod to the 1982 movie but overall, when it comes to remaking Poltergeist and having this as the finished product… you will inevitably wonder why they did it.

I will say though, if you can, watch the Extended Cut. It has a couple extra scenes that make some of the lacklustre scenes a little more, well, interesting.


My Rating: 37%
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rating_2

[ursaguy]

I agree with a lot of what you said. It's definitely not good, but it could have been worse. There are a couple of clever scares in it, but the actors are quite awful. Great review, I never thought about how the pacing killed the logic of the ghosts.

[edarsenal]

forgot to rep two films I had previously read and now seen that the remake of poltergeist is everything I truly feared it would not be.

Thanks for braving that mire for the rest of us to avoid.

Regardless, damn fine writing as per usual

[nebbit]

Never watched this movie :eek: won't now for sure :yup:

[The Rodent]

Review #247, Movie #318

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Year Of Release

2011

Director/s

Shawn Levy

Producer/s

Shawn Levy, Susan Montford, Don Murphy

Writer/s

John Gatins, Dan Gilroy, Jeremy Levin, Richard Matheson

Music

Danny Elfman

Cast

Hugh Jackman, Dakota Goyo, Evangeline Lilly, Anthony Mackie, Olga Fonda, James Rebhorn and Kevin Durand

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Synopsis:
Robots have replaced humans in blood sports, and in 2020 Charlie Kenton, an ex-boxer, is competing in the world of Robotic Fighting.
Charlie though is a bit of a loser. His robots suck, his judgement is almost non-existent and he’s in serious debt with various nasty-types.
He has a Son though, called Max… whom he never sees… and Max’s Mother has just died. Instead of trying to become a Father though, Charlie happily signs Max over to Max’s Aunt and her well-to-do Hubby for straight up cash.
Only, Aunty and Uncle are going on an expensive posh holiday and having a kid in tow would simply not do… so they leave Max and Charlie alone together for a few weeks… and Max, under the guidance of Charlie, comes across an old, beat-up, rusty and dented sparring-bot called ATOM.


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Review:
I love this film.
I called it a guilty pleasure, but there’s no guilt in it at all. It’s simply, well… I love this film.
It’s a typical sort of feel good affair with one or two hits of peril occasionally, and it’s pretty predictable.
Put simply, this is like Rocky and Karate Kid, with a new theme of robots and gears getting knocked all over the boxing ring instead of blood and sweat.
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Real Steel is fun, exciting, well-paced and even had me tear up during the finale.
What’s good with this movie is the writing. Sure, ok, it’s predictable… but the writing makes you care for the characters involved.
They’re funny, gritty at times, cross slightly into comic (especially Kevin Durand, in a good way though), and most of all they’re believeable.
It draws the viewer into the world around them, and makes the peril and laughter all the more enjoyable.
Another thing I liked, is the writing behind our lead robot, ATOM. Is he sentient? Isn’t he? Is he just shadowing? Are we reading too much into his autonomous behaviour?
Awesome stuff.
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What backs the simplistic and well-done story, is the acting.
Hugh Jackman as Charlie is absolutely brilliant. Perfect as the rough, not-good Dad… and has the physicality that matches the ex-boxer character. Jackman’s natural charisma and at times machismo hold the viewer to the screen at all times. He’s faultless. And when the finale is underway, Jackman seriously outshines everyone else. You can see he’s having fun.
Dakota Goyo as Max too is perfect casting. Another actor you can really see enjoying himself and getting a massive high from all the attention the character is receiving. He’s also pretty apt with some of the physical stuff when he’s dancing in front of about 2000 people.
Goyo though holds the emotional side of things too. There are a few times he’s in tears, both good and bad, and he plays it brilliantly.
Evangeline Lilly as Charlie’s missus, Baily Tallet, is good if seldom seen, but she’s able to bring out a softer side to Jackman when seen together and her chemistry with Goyo is tops. She’s also an emotional heavyweight in the finale too.
The rest of the cast are more background characters, and Kevin Durand plays a slime ball who gets his comeuppance.
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The effects and action of the movie are absolutely banging-top-drawer stuff.
The choreography of the fights it awesomely exciting and heart pounding. A lot of the excitement is from loving the characters, and having an connection to ATOM too, but it’s also a combination of things from the music (Danny Elfman going totally against type, in a good way), effects, choreography and style.
The final fight, especially when Jackman take the controls manually, is that part which had me in tears. The lead ups to this scene/sequence, with all the above successes in writing and so on, combined with the score, is almost touching and Jackman in those slow-mo shots… wow.
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I’ve not seen CGI like this for a long time either. It’s very polished and extremely well finished. Some of the best going, by far.
A good thing with the action and effects is that they enhance the viewing, rather than blanket it.
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All in all, a standard set of circumstances, set around a modern twist of robots and brilliant CGI effects and action.

Real Steel is so simple, and yet so already-seen-before in the scripting stakes… yet so connective between the viewer and the characters and their story… it actually makes the movie so much more than a basic CGI fest or actioner.

Good for all ages (though rated 12 in the UK). I highly recommend Real Steel, simply because of how much fun it is, how touching it is, the fantastic action and acting, with such a recognisable story.

A knockout.

"I want you to fight for me. That's all I ever wanted"

My Rating: 100%

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rating_5

[gbgoodies]

Great review of Real Steel. It's one of those movies that I have to watch every time it's on TV.

[Gideon58]

Review #4: Cowboys And Aliens.

Another 'western' from me, kind of.

Interesting concept based on a comic book of the same name and it certainly feels like it too. But mostly in a good way.

The way the two ideas are put to screen don't quite gel properly, though maybe that's down to the whacky idea in the first place.

Though in saying that, Cowboys And Aliens doesn't try to be a western, nor does it try to be a sci-fi. It's somewhere in between. A genre I've never seen before outside of a Dr Who episode or even the terrible Wild Wild West.

Daniel Craig is interesting as the rough and tough 'man with no name'. Similar in ilk to Eastwood, though Craig's story is explained over the duration of the film.
Harrison Ford is almost perfectly cast as a grizzled old war veteran with a heart. He does the job, but you can't help feeling sombody else could have done it better.
As too is Olivia Wilde as the beautiful western Damsel in distress. But with a twist.

Supporting cast from Sam Rockwell and produced in part by heavy weights Spielberg and Ron Howard, the movie almost can't go wrong.

As far as the writing and action goes, it's definitely a popcorn movie.
Fun, loud, storyline written about as good as it could have been, the dialogue well written and is well recited from the cast and the CGI is wonderfully rendered.
The film makers, especially director Favreau, at least had the gumption to hide the CGI based enemy in the shadows till the end. When unveiled, the Aliens don't disappoint either.

Seen as a low percentage scorer when it first hit cinemas, I think that should be ignored and let the viewer decide whether they like it or not.
Certainly a must see for anyone who hasn't, solely because of the chalk and cheese premise.

I for one am a believer.

My rating 75%
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4
Liked your review of Cowboys and Aliens...a film I personally didn't really understand. You liked it slightly more than I did and though I found the film confusing and full of plotholes, I couldn't take my eyes off the screen either.

[Gideon58]

Review #6: Leon.

From director Luc Besson, who's style of film making is odd at the best of times, comes another highly improbable sequence of events that are somehow very engaging.

The plot evolves around a streetwise but extremely naive 12 year old girl Matilda (Natalie Portman) and hitman Leon (Jean Reno). Thrown together in an 'odd couple' situation after Portman's family are killed by crooked cops, led by Gary Oldman.

It shouldn't work. It really shouldn't work. The premise of the situation is unreal, odd and very provocative, which, oddly, actually forces it to work.

It's the way Besson presents the characters and the way the actors carry thier roles that's spot on.

Portman's Matilda is almost uncomfortable to watch at times due to the 'Lolita' essence that Besson has put into the character. Though Portman, even at that young age she was, carries the role perfectly. The naivity of the character is seen in a very real sense at times too.
Jean Reno acts Leon as being wonderfully withdrawn from reality. Leon seems to just follow events as they happen and deals with each outcome accordingly, never really planning ahead, occasionally he realises what's going on and gets uncomfortable when reality hits. Eventually coming to care for Portman as a father figure.
Now, as for Gary Oldman, where to begin? His drugged up DEA officer is menacing while onscreen yet you can't take your eyes off him. Twitchy, unstable and dangerous when provoked, which doesn't take alot either. Oldman actually makes the viewer feel uncomfortable even when he's not doing anything.
He's certainly a runner in my top 50 movie villians of all time.

The movie's humour tends to come from the awkward, mildly sexual moments between Leon and Matilda, which gives the movie a few 'shouldn't laugh' moments, but Leon's reactions are what makes it funny, as Jean Reno again, is spot on.

Though slightly unreal in the premise, all in all a momentarily funny and very engaging movie with a hit of action at the end. Not beautifully shot but certainly stylish and the characters are extremely well written and played.

My rating 74%
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4
Your review of Leon is on the money....I agree with every word.

[Gideon58]

Review #7: Dreamcatcher.

Based on a Stephen King novel, Dreamcatcher is about an Alien invasion in a remote mountain setting in Maine and four, (now grown up) school friends.

Starring Hollywood favourites Morgan Freeman, Tom Sizemore (Heat, Saving Private Ryan), Timothy Olyphant (Hitman, Die Hard 4), Jason Lee (Mallrats, My Name Is Earl) and Thomas Jane (Deep Blue Sea) and Donnie Wahlberg (Saw 2, NKOTB), the movie feels as though that's where all the budget went.

Though the actors do their jobs well, you never really get into the events happening around them.
Sure, there's some mystery at the start, but it's quickly and simply explained away, leaving the viewer with no real reason to keep watching other than for full on CGI action.
The beginning of the movie is probably about the best part, the 'buddy feelings' hit on by the main cast work well. But it isn't enough to hold the viewer.

The CGI effects are sub-standard too, as I said, the movie's budget seemed to go on the actors' wages. Plus, the creatures are shown near the start of the film, leaving the viewer with nothing to really look forward to.

The story also hasn't moved from King's book to the screen very well at all. It feels rushed, almost unfinished.
Some interesting concepts are their though, 'memory warehouses' and magical ways of finding 'lost things' give the aura of the film a different depth, but not much.

Sadly, it could have been a lot, lot better.

My rating 44%
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2.5
I have not seen this movie, but your review doesn't surprise me because I've discovered over the years that, with very few exceptions, Stephen King books don't translate very well to the screen.

[Gideon58]

Your review of the original Terminator film is spot on.

[Optimus]

Gideon why don't you just reply once with Multi quotes?.

[Beatle]

No plot spoilers contained in any of my reviews.

All of my reviews are given a neutral percentage rating, regardless of how much I like, or dislike, the film.
What I have devised however, is a symbol system based on my Avatar that shows my own personal feelings toward each individual film.


Top Film. Me Likey! Forever!
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Middle Of The Road, 'Good But Standard' Movie For Me Personally.
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Personally, I Avoid At All Costs. I Pretend It Doesn't Exist.
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---

Review #1: Young Guns.
Ok, an older film but I thought, seeing as it's my favourite movie.

Based loosely on the Lincoln County War of 1878 and the beginnings of the Billy The Kid Legend. Film makers decided the use of 'Brat Pack' actors would be good for a serious movie and they hit on a very special cast.

For a start, the acting from all parties is spot on. Terrence Stamp as John Tunstall is (as always with Stamp) a very inviting character, mature, wise and mildly amusing.
Emilio Estevez as Kid is an inspired piece of casting, Estevez carries the Kids persona extremely well. Young, cheeky, trigger happy, streetwise and also naive.
Supporting/almost main actors include Jack Palance, Charlie Sheen (before he was apparently 'winning'), Kiefer Sutherland, Casey Siemaszko, Lou Diamond Phillips and Dermot Mulroney.
All in all, the handsome cast of 'good guys' teamed against Palance's group of grizzly, hairy bad guys makes you route for the Regulators even more.

The entire movie has a feel of being shot with a sepia filter on the camera lense, not a bad thing though, it adds to the authenticity of the Wild West setting.
The climactic gunfight scenes are wonderfully staged if a little slow to get going.

The bad points: It's loosely based on fact. Said to be the most accurate movie based on the Lincoln War, and I'd agree it is the most accurate film outside of a documentary, but it's still far from actual fact.
The Lincoln War it's self has more to it, which could have made for a longer, maybe more interesting movie.
Though throw those thoughts aside, crack open a bottle and enjoy a well made western.


One thing that will throw the audience is that, what appears to be an OTT gunfight ending, actually happened in real life.

My rating 90%. http://i1163.photobucket.com/albums/q552/The-Rodent/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/RodentRCircleRecommendedStampNew_zpsebffc047.png (http://s1163.photobucket.com/user/The-Rodent/media/Rodent%20MoFo%20Stuff/RodentRCircleRecommendedStampNew_zpsebffc047.png.html)
rating_4_5



I've been feeling I've been neglecting you, as I visited all the other major reviewers, yet I absolutely love your originality. And believe it or not only now has it occured to me that your avatar says R instead of S. What a dummie!

Hey that's also a clever, that 'Brat pack', merging 'brat' with Sinatra.

as far as i know, this was when they were young and forthcoming, taking seriously their business, the Sheens. On the opposite side we had Dennis Quaid, who was more interested in getting wasted and laid. :lol: So i heard, at least.

btw I love Jack Palance. Here's his own way of receiving an Oscar:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGxL5AFzzMY

[The Rodent]

Review #248, Movie #319



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Year Of Release
2015


Director/s
Ridley Scott


Producer/s
Simon Kinberg, Ridley Scott, Aditya Sood, Michael Schaefer, Mark Huffam


Writer/s
Andy Weir


Music
Harry Gregson-Williams


Cast
Jessica Chastain, Michael Pen͂a, Kate Mara, Sebastian Stan, Chiwetel Ejiofor with Sean Bean, Benedict Wong and Jeff Daniels

And Matt Damon


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Synopsis:
A manned mission to Mars is going well, until a huge storm brews up and the crew have to abandon the mission and head back out into space.
Only on the way back to the shuttle in the immense winds and flying rocks and dust, one of the crew, Mark Watney, is hit by a piece of flying debris and thrown across the Martian tundra, and his lifeless body disappears into the dusty darkness.


After a short search for Mark’s body, the crew reluctantly leave behind their fallen crewmember, believing him to be dead from the impact.


A while later back on Earth, NASA spot something odd on the Mars Satellite imagery: Photos of the Mars Base, that were taken hours apart, show that one of the Mars Rovers has been moving around on the surface.

After months alone on Mars with what was thought to be no food, water, power or communications with anything off-planet… Mark Watney is still alive.

Review:
Awesome, awesome , awesome.

Damn I wish I’d gone to see this at the cinema. I bought the DVD instead. Sooo glad I did.
The Martian is an insightful, stirring, emotional and inspirational look at the Human psyche and spirit.

The movie revels in showing a realistic portrayal of being stranded, alone, with nothing but your wits to rely on for survival.
The good thing with this film, is the back and forth with Mars and Earth. We see NASA and its top tier people all clambering for an explanation and trying to keep the media happy and form a rescue plan at the same time, Matt Damon on Mars doing his survival thing, the crew of the ship doing their own thing to figure out how they can help… it’s pieced together nicely, apart from maybe one small cut in time with a generic “X Months Later” card
This makes me wonder if they were running out of things that Damon could do, or if there was a huge chunk of movie that was cut out for timing.


The other small fault was toward the end when another Space Agency gets involved. It felt a little, well, forced. A kind of “regardless of politics, Humans are deep down a good species” sort of hippy thing.

The movie is funny though at times. Some of the shenanigans that Damon gets up to and the banter between the various cast members over the radios and computers, is realistic and heart-touching at times.
There were also a few times I felt like crying. Not just the odd emotional scene with Damon and his predicament… but also with the odd hint of disaster for him when he has the inevitable accident or incident that blows away all his hard work.
This is all down to the audience-character connections tbh… the writing of the characters mixed with the acting, is perfect.

There’s also simplicity to this film that reminded me of Scott’s masterpiece Alien. Stuck in a place, surrounded by harsh conditions, simply trying to survive.
Also there’s the space-suits that Scott seems to be a fan of in his sci-fi movies.


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Damon is brilliantly charismatic with his lone-hero thing. His monologues at camera give an impression of “found footage” and the general choreography and photography of the rest of his scenes blend perfectly with Damon’s natural ability to draw the viewer in.
Jeff Daniels, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Benedict Wong and Sean Bean play the main NASA foursome on Earth who are trying to formulate a rescue plan. They play off each other brilliantly too and hold the more serious tones together nicely when compared to Damon’s mix of tragedy and humour.
The rest of the cast, are really support for the background of the story. Jessica Chastain, Michael Pen͂a, Kate Mara and Sebastian Stan aren’t seen a huge amount really until the third act. They’re solid though, and Chastain in particular as the Mission Chief who blames herself for Watney’s situation is nicely played by JC.


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As for the action and effects… well, there’s a ton of CGI… and it’s perfectly rendered. Most of it is un-spottable due to the brilliant way it’s incorporated into the movie.
The good thing though, is the film also has huge amounts of actual sets and set pieces, practical effects and the occasional pyrotechnic as well.
The action that comes in small hits is utilised as an accent to the rest of the choreography and photography rather than just for the sake of it. The movie more relies on seeing how Watney is making sure he survives on a brilliantly rendered mix of CG and practically built Martian tundra. Good job!


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All in all, apart from a couple timing issues (that “Months Later” card being one of them), The Martian is a top notch sci-fi, comedy, survivalist, tragedy adventure.
Ridley Scott, after the past 10 years or so of dodgy movies like Exodus, Robin Hood, Kingdom Of Heaven and Prometheus, is definitely back on form.
Funny, touching, heart-wrenching, tragic… and will more than likely reach the heights of “Classic” in a few years from now.



My Rating: 98%

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rating_5

[seanc]

Nice to see some Martian love lately. I know it's fluff, but it is the kind of fluff I love. Made my top five last year.

[TONGO]

All the contradictory reports on Batman vs Superman, Im very curious YOUR review on it. Please help me cut thru the fat, and decide if I should spend money to see this or not. :)

[The Rodent]

Doubt I'll get chance to see it tbh. It might be a DVD watch when it's released.

[DalekbusterScreen5]

Doubt I'll get chance to see it tbh.

Judging by the reviews, that's probably a wise decision! :D

[The Rodent]

Took my time with this one... saw it at the cinema but now I got the DVD I've been able to finish it properly.


Might be a few spoilers hints in this, but nothing that can totally ruin the film if you haven't seen it yet.




Review #249, Movie #320



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Year Of Release
2015


Director/s
J.J. Abrams


Producer/s
Kathleen Kennedy, J.J. Abrams, Bryan Burk


Writer/s
Lawrence Kasdan, J.J. Abrams, Michael Arndt
George Lucas


Music
John Williams


Cast
Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Adam Driver, Harrison Ford, Peter Mayhew, Carrie Fisher, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong’o, Domhnall Gleeson, Andy Serkis


With Max von Sydow


And Mark Hamill



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Synopsis:


Around 30 years after Return Of The Jedi, Luke Skywalker has vanished. He had been rebuilding the Jedi Order but tragedy struck and Luke disappeared. In his absence, the remnants of The Empire has rebuilt itself into The New Order and they are searching for Skywalker as they know if he were to return to power, it could spell the end of them.


Standing in The New Order’s way though is the remnants of The Rebellion, now known as The Resistance, led by General Leia and under the support of the New Republic.


In the meantime also, a young and foolhardy Stormtrooper called FN-2187 has renounced The New Order and makes his escape, hoping to find a quieter and violence free life, and in the process he rescues a captive Resistance Fighter called Poe Dameron… and together they make their way to the desert planet Jakku.


But FN-2187, now dubbed as “Finn”, finds himself thrown back into the midst of the action… with a young girl called Rey by his side.


Review:


There’s been a lot of bad press on this movie, but there’s been a huge amount of good press too.


I’m one of the good ones :D


TFA, gives old fans a taste of the magic that the original gave them all those years ago, and almost washes the bitter aftertaste of the prequels away with ease.


The movie contains lashings of recognisable elements of the originals, from the effects, obviously the characters and some of the settings with an even-more-gianter-big-Death-Star thing going on (ala-ROTJ) and a planet that resembles Tattooine, a buddy-story between Finn and Poe, and a small funny looking creature that resembles a Yoda style character.


There’s even a few scenes that are similar, for instance when Poe hands BB-8 something… it resembles Leia in A New Hope with R2-D2.


These aren’t a bad thing though. The movie is acting like a bridge for the new generation. Giving tastes of the original trilogy, with the fact that it’s a modern movie, and the backup of modern effects (both CG and practical) and combines it all with the fact that being a bridge is not all the film is about.


There are new elements to the story and new plots and subplots going on.


For instance Luke’s exile, and the past story of why he disappeared… the story of Kylo Ren, and his history and future… and the hints of where Rey is going to end up. Rey also has a backstory which is yet to be revealed and it makes her character even more exiting in terms of the Star Wars Universe.


There’s also that incident toward the end of the film that cements Kylo Ren as a villain to really despise and get the audience’s attention.


Many people also barked about the ending too. I say, well, it’s simply a great ending. It makes you want to see Episode 8. It puts you on the edge of your seat, willing time to pass so you can see what happens next, especially after the tragedies that befall our heroes in the third act.


There hasn’t been a sci-fi movie with so much emotional pull, combined with such an ending as this since The Empire Strikes Back.


The movie also has tons of mystery to it too. Some characters and some backstories are never fully explained and it makes you want to see more to find these things out.


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The new cast are also on form.


I’ll start with Oscar Isaac as Poe Dameron… he felt a little underused. Isaac is a floppy haired, good looking good guy, who kicks ass, has charisma in bucketloads and has the dashing charm that has been missing from Star Wars since 1983. I seriously hope he appears more in Episode 8.


Adam Driver is our villainous Kylo Ren. Kylo is a wannabe Vader, basically, and Driver portrays a guy who is tormented and mentally unstable perfectly. Driver also gives us an emotional villain, in that he knows he isn’t strong enough for certain things, and he shows a fear within himself that pushes him to rage. If anything, Lucas should have cast him as Anakin Skywalker in Episodes 2 and 3, he’d have been great in the role.


Now, Boyega as Finn… I have to say… he’s great stuff. Boyega plays the naïve, almost undereducated but full-hearted and caring hero. Boyega captures a brilliant humour within the character too, totally out of place, doing what he can to help his friends and do what’s right in the situation. His humour sometimes borders slapstick, but not too much, and it’s a lovely breath of fresh air to the SW Universe.


Daisy Ridley as Rey though… I think I’m in love. She too has a naivety to her, but overall she’s headstrong, streetwise, she’s beautiful, athletic and carries massive charisma into every scene. At times Ridley has a wide-eyed wonder to her, which is great for the character of someone who has lived her whole life in a ruined AT-AT Walker in the middle of a desert, who finds herself thrown into a situation she’s unfamiliar with. Daisy Ridley nails this role.


The older cast are back to their standard in this film too… although as real people they have matured, as too have the characters. They’re recognisable, but also slightly different and it adds a nice touch to the film to see our beloved characters portrayed in such a fashion.


Ford as Solo with Mayhew as Chewbacca and Carrie Fisher as Leia… it’s all brilliant to see and witness these characters, albeit older and maybe a bit wiser, together on screen again.


The rest of the cast, from Serkis as Snoke, to Nyong’o as Maz Kanata, all give 100% to make a movie filled with memorable characters.


Domhnall Gleeson as General Hux in particular is good as a bitter and ruthless Commander. He borders slimy too at times and definitely one to watch for in later Episodes.


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The effects and action… awesome. Simply awesome.


Practical effects used wherever and whenever possible. No blankets of greenscreens and the CGI is perfectly rendered alongside the practical stuff. Actual sets, actual locations… and the budget wasn’t spared one bit when emulating the weird and wonderful looking creatures and puppets we loved from the original trilogy.


The action itself is also “Star Wars”. This movie was lacking the triple action set-up that was often used in the other movies. We had 2 major battles at the end of this film instead of 3… but the choreography, mixed with the way the movie gets you to care, or hate, the characters involved makes the movie stand strong next to the other movies that came before it.


Gladly also, John Williams is back with his unforgettable musical talent, making his unmistakable mark on the movie.


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All in all, a great follow-up to Episode 6.



Exciting, funny in places, definitely tragic, nostalgic to an extent. Great characters, great storyline (if a little close in some areas to the other movies), and it looks fantastic.



Far better than the prequel trilogy (although I do sorta like them)… and is on-par with the original movies.



Star Wars is back! Finally! Star Wars is back! Bring on Episode 8!



My Rating: 98%



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5

[Sexy Celebrity]

Glad to see you like that and especially glad to see you liked The Martian.

I remember right after I watched The Martian, I private messaged you saying that you needed to see it. I thought you'd like it.

[The Rodent]

It was your recommendation that I bought The Martian :D
Wish I'd gone to the cinema though. Great movie, one of Scott's best.

[The Rodent]

Review #250, Movie #321

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Year Of Release

2015

Director/s

Alejandro G Iñárritu

Producer/s

Arnon Milchan, Steve Golin, Alejandro G Iñárritu, Mary Parent, Keith Redmon, James W Skotchdopole

Writer/s

Mark L Smith, Alejandro G Iñárritu, Michael Punke

Music

Ryuichi Sakamoto, Alva Noto

Cast

Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Domhnall Gleeson, Will Poulter

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Synopsis:
1823, a band of trappers lead by Captain Andrew Henry through the wilderness of America (the area later becomes known as The Dakotas).
Hugh Glass, the scout and guide for a party of trappers, is attacked and near killed by a bear. The tough and relatively brutal John Fitzgerald and youngster Jim Bridger stay behind to recoup losses from a recent Indian attack, and to also carry Hugh through the wilderness while the rest of the trappers head back to a nearby outpost. To make matters worse though, the trappers are still being stalked by the Indians.
So, with the future looking dim, Fitzgerald buries Hugh alive, with Bridger opposing the decision, and the two leave the area to escape the Indians.
What Fitzgerald didn’t realise though, is that Hugh’s resolve and will to live will be his undoing.

Review:
I bought the DVD, based on reviews and the recent hype surrounding the film.
I had to try 4 times to sit through this movie.


This isn’t the average movie of loss, brutality and revenge. It’s a beautifully photographed movie, backed up by incredibly strong acting… but that’s where the hype should have stopped.


The major problem with the film is the pacing immediately after bear attack (about 10 minutes in). The movie starts out pretty exciting with an Indian attack, then there’s the bear attack… then the movie kinda stalls for 90-110 minutes, with loads of speeches and random scenes of talking about death and the harshness of life in the early 1800s, with Hardy’s actions pitted against DiCaprio’s constant grunting and foaming at the mouth while he’s dragging his injured body around the snow covered wilderness.


Even with the great acting involved, you don’t get to care about the characters because of the pacing, and it makes the main selling point of the movie, the survivalist theme, a chore to sit through. Another let down was the constant barrage of things going wrong for our hero. It felt like a Wild West version of Gravity… if something can go wrong, it will.


There’s also the fictitious elements of the movie involving Hugh Glass’s family that kinda feels like it’s forcing some sort of faux-Dances-With-Wolves feel to the audience’s collective mind. It’s typical of Hollywood to throw in some fakery, but this faux-spirituality felt like a pointless addition tbh. In real life, Glass lived with the Pawnee Indians, and I guess it was technically easier to have that connection by throwing in a half-cast family for the character than explain that background over the course of a few hours.


The Indians on the trail of our main characters also have their own little story as to why they’re hot on the heels of the trappers… sadly, this little side story is never really realised, which is another pointless addition to the proceedings.


Pelts are also mentioned about 600 times within the first 10 minutes of the movie and then sporadically throughout too, and it gets boring almost immediately.


Once all the survivalist stuff is over with though and the road to recovery is well on its way, and the next part of the movie begins (well, the last 20 minutes or so), this is when things get a bit more interesting.
You feel like “Ok, the boring crap and the grunting are out of the way, now on with the payoff”. It pays off as well tbh, though it was almost too late after that long-winded middle in which you sit watching some characters doing some stuff, and it’s only in this last 20 minutes that you start to realise the movie has kinda panned itself out like real life. As in, nothing too fantastical going on, just a brutal survival story.


Now, although you do start to care about Hugh Glass, at least to an extent, simply because of DiCaprio’s acting, and you start to care about whether or not he’ll get his revenge after all he’s been through, it’s still hard to care much for the minor characters after the dodgy pacing of the last 90-110 minutes.


I will say though, aside from the movie being dull, it is beautifully shot. The look of the film is dirty, grimy, cold, wet, harsh and generally grey. The movie excels at making the viewer feel the harshness of the surroundings. The whole time I felt as though I had frozen toes and a stone in my shoe.
The backgrounds and wilderness settings are beautifully rendered and realistic, but another bad point comes from the filmmakers constantly throwing in revealing shots of the countryside and mountains. Just when you think something is going to happen, or when you want something to happen to move the pacing along, the camera simply pans sideways and reveals a panoramic view of the surroundings… or failing that it’s a shot of the sky… then it’s back to either DiCaprio and his grunting, or Hardy and Poulter talking about life lessons and more pelts.

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As I’ve said, the acting is solid. Just a shame there’s no audience-character connection.


DiCaprio is on absolute top form. During filming, he was actually plunged into ice cold water and had to crawl around in the mud and snow. You get the impression that most of his discomfort was actually real. Some of it probably was tbh, but he makes a top impression as a guy who is in serious trouble.


Hardy is also on form, but I felt he was playing a chunk of it by the numbers. It wasn’t really a role that Hardy had to work at, and it felt as though he was just, well, there. As always with Hardy, his turn was in no way a bad one, I’ve still yet to see Hardy turn in a bad performance… it just felt like a generic villain character.


Poulter is underused though tbh as Jim Bridger. When he’s allowed to act, he does so really well, but he was pushed to the back a bit more than I’d have liked, especially when he was put next to the generic role that Hardy was cast in.


Gleeson makes a decent show though, but still wasn’t seen a huge amount. He really only comes into his own at the end, but his presence is definitely worth it.

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The choreography, like the photography, is also top-notch stuff. There’s Indian attacks and Hugh Glass’s survival throughout the tough conditions and trying to heal wounds using gunpowder, the bear attack (albeit with some slightly dodgy CGI), and a big fisticuffs battle at the end too.


Some of the action throws itself back to more regular cinema too with an obligatory water rapids ride when Glass is trying to escape approaching Indians.


Some of the camera work is also fantastic. For instance there are few shots where the camera follows someone running, action going off around them, then getting on a horse, then riding fast… and camera fluently follows the action in a single take.

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All in all, solidly photographed and shot, great choreography in small stints and DiCaprio is stunning… but it wasn’t worth the hype.

Exciting first 10 minutes followed up by a decent payoff in the third act once you’ve fought your way through the chore of the middle 110 minutes… but I guess you have to sit through all that for the ending to work.

My Rating: 73%

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rating_4

[Sexy Celebrity]

I had to try 4 times to sit through this movie.

I tried once and haven't been in the mood to try again.

And you say the movie gets BAD after the beginning? Yikes. It was always bad to me.

And great acting? I thought you hated Leonardo DiCaprio.

DiCaprio is stunning…

:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

[The Rodent]

I don't like him, but credit where credit is due.
Not sure he deserved the Oscar, but he's pretty good in the movie.

[Iroquois]

All those complaints and criticisms and it still gets a 4 (even though a 73% should technically round down to 3.5). That's...interesting.

[The Rodent]

0 0
1-10 0.5
11-20 1
21-30 1.5
31-40 2
41-50 2.5
51-60 3
61-70 3.5
71-80 4
81-90 4.5
91-100 5

[Iroquois]

Okay, that makes sense.

[The Rodent]

:D

[edarsenal]

playing catch up with everyone I've missed being away from early spring to now.

great reviews; with Revenant I actually got caught up in that slow lag time in the middle of the film, but totally get what you're saying.

[The Rodent]

Damn it, I missed your post until now.
Cheers for the reply bud... thanks for the reps :D

[The Sci-Fi Slob]

I strongly disagree with your rating of The Revenant. I rated it 74.67886/100.:D

[The Rodent]

:D

[Optimus]

I really enjoyed The Revenant. Nice reviews as always Rodent.

[The Rodent]

Been a while since I reviewed. Almost 18 months :eek:


Photobucket also messed the thread up by changing their settings and stuff so all my images in the past are now broken links...


So, going to revive the thread soon with a classic :D


So, thread reboot with new images and stuff coming soon:


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[KeyserCorleone]

OK, now I gotta see Reel Steel because of Danny Elfman.

[FarahStjohn]

I was once certainly fairly staggered by using using how an incredible arrangement I esteemed it. On prime of that, notwithstanding the way in which that, i've a significant meta-vitality about it on record that it marches such an broad number of matters I despise about entrance line movie advancing, for instance, giving the entire pride away inside the trailer, or hanging a predominant want on tossing than on describing. Whatever one thinks about it, it possibly a high-quality pushback against those kinds of things.

[mark f]

Say WTF?

[cat_sidhe]

Middle button post?

[Chypmunk]

Must admit I've known a few people with a predominant want on tossing than on describing so the post makes perfect sense to me :shrug:

[mark f]

It reads like a discussion of the new The Lion King trailer with some misspellings/missed autocorrects but it also could be a mistranslation of a goulash recipe.

[John-Connor]

Part Of Rodent's 15 Review Marathon Of The 1980s Classics And Their Sequels

Review #149 (4th of 15): Rain Man

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b2/Rain_Man_poster.jpg/215px-Rain_Man_poster.jpg


Charlie Babbit is a successful car dealer, but one of his deals is about to go awry and he has to take off across America to sort out the mess.
When news reaches him that his estranged father has died, he cancels the trip temporarily and goes to the Will Hearing, only to discover that he has an older brother he'd never heard of... a brother that will inherit all of his father's wealth.
Jealous and upset, he visits his brother in the hope that he can maybe twist him into giving up the inheritance and to investigate this disturbing turn of events, but finds out that Raymond is a Savant, or Autistic if you will, and he takes Raymond on his now un-cancelled trip across America to rediscover his past and his family and get his car deal sorted out...

... but things won't be as logistically simple or as emotionally easy as he thought with Rain Man by his side.


An absolutely fantastic film of self discovery and emotional connection comes from the minds of some of the best actors and filmmakers in the business.
Rain Man isn't just another simple odd-couple movie... it's a heartwrenching movie that also manages to be funny, painfully emotional and extremely intense in the turn of events that captures the feelings of family and love perfectly.

It's another movie that's based mainly around the acting but this time round it has one of the finest screenplays and actual character developments I've yet to see in any movie.
It's extremely believeable too. Unknown pasts and secretive families taking the forefront of the screenplay and the voyage of discovery that the main duo go down is very very well pieced together. The scenes when they go to a Casino are brilliantly funny too.


What makes the film stand out from any other film of it's kind, is the awesome screenplay. There are sequences of events and discovery that not just the cast go down, but the audience is taken down too.
It's almost an education in the subject of Autism and how the human mind works... the subject matters involved have definitely been well researched before being put to script. It's also handled with incredible care for detail and respect.
Very well done indeed.


The acting, not only is a surprise from Tom Cruise, is wonderful throughout.
Cruise in particular, like I just said is a surprise to be sure, but he's extremely real in the events that are unfolding around him. His feelings of regret, jealousy and occasional smarmy and slimy persona shine through greatly. His frustrations with Raymond are also felt by the viewer too.
Now, Dustin Hoffman as Raymond is an absolute gem in the movie world. Dustin's quiet, unassuming yet brilliantly intelligent character is not only annoying, but heart wrenchingly loveable and funny. Hoffman even won an Academy Award for his role. One of the finest performances going I'd say.

Back up comes in the forms of Valeria Golino and Jerry Molen but the movie really is all about Cruise and Hoffman on their road trip.


---


All in all, the film lacks almost nothing... the performances, screenplay, script, soundtrack and especially the emotions the viewer is taken through are all incredibly powerful.
One of the best dramas from the best decade for movies, an absolute must see.

My rating: 100%
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Real Talk! Cheers BRodent!
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[Inmyseat]

Haaaaaaaaaaaa..I love Starship Troopers-100%

[xSookieStackhouse]

Haaaaaaaaaaaa..I love Starship Troopers-100%

same here loved the first one!!