Pitch Perfect 2

6th June 2015 - Leigh

I blame the Glee generation!

We repeated our "night before screening of the original" tactic that we applied for The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, watching Pitch Perfect knowing that the day after we would be watching it's sequel.

Clare had originally thought that the films were based on Baseball not A Capella glee clubs.  I had heard so much praise for the original film prior to watching this and felt that whilst there were fun moments it was all a little too camp and predictable to be hailed the classic that is seemingly claims.

With most of the cast returning (thankfully Anna Kendrick is along for the ride), the Barden Bella's are kicked from their current tour for "mooning" and "front mooning" the President of America.  The are then replaced by a German A Capella group Das Sound Machine, who live up to all the stereotypical racial tropes you can think of.  The Bella's decide that the only way to reclaim their title is to enter the International A Capella competition and win, which at first seems an unattainable task as they have lost their "voice".

I actually laughed more during Pitch Perfect 2 than the original and mainly at the sub character of Lily (Hana Mae Lee) who just steals the show for me as the whispering member of the Bella's.  Some of her comments and mannerisms are just delightful.  Elizabeth Banks and John Michael Higgins are brilliant and the commentators for the A Capella events and their views on the shows are always comedic and somewhat skewed.

As far as sequels go, if you enjoyed Pitch Perfect then there is pretty much the same here, and of course, throw Anna Kendrick in the mix and you can't complain

Mad Max - Fury Road (3D)

5th June 2015: 18:00pm - Bolton

Oh, What a Lovely Day!

Diving straight into the action and not letting up for two hours, Mad Max Fury Road is a visual masterpiece of practical effects, great story development and just sheer entertainment.

Taking part in some kind of alternate Mad Max time frame, Fury Road starts with a 5 minute chase scene with no explanation, who are the people chasing our hero? Why are they branding him,. and where are they?  Moments later we are introduced to Imperator Furiosa, a big rig driver who has a secret.  All the characters are not given any exposition or back story, you learn as the film progresses. 

Fury Road then goes on a monstrously massive car chase sequence with little dialogue.  The spectacles of the chase scenes are just beautiful yet disfigured,  I sat forward for most of the film, laughing at the ridiculous transports such as the Rock Band Rig, or the porcupine cars, being taken in by the action, and drawn to the characters of Max, Furiosa, Nux, Immortan Joe and the Wives.

Furiosa for me is the main character and Max only used as a name to link the film to an apocalyptic world without explanation.  Charize Theron is brilliant cast and superbly acted throughout, as her story evolves the character of Furiosa becomes more human and endearing, and leaves you yearning for more.

Immortan Joe is a Bane-esque bad guy who has warped the minds of his "war-boys" who spray their mouth with chrome paint before jumping to their deaths hoping for Valhalla.  He is a haunting nemesis with one thing on his mind, and relentless with his task.

Nicholas Hoult plays Nox, one of the War Boys mentioned above, who has probably the biggest character arc in the whole film, very entertaining to watch as he goes from completely warped and brain washed going to hero of the day.

Mad Max Fury Road is a must watch on big screen film, and recommended.  It is slightly gruesome in parts, but very entertaining 

Poltergeist (3D)

3rd June 2015 - Leigh - 21:30pm

There have been some terrible and pointless remakes of classic horror films recently, and most of them have a Platinum Dunes (Michael Bay) connection.  There have been a few brilliant re-imaginings slipping through the net as well, although the ratio does favour the latter.



Not being a fan of remakes in general, but having a nostalgic interest, I ventured to Leigh Cineworld, to watch Poltergeist in 3D (another thing I am not a fan of!), with low expectations.

Poltergeist (2015) takes the original film's story, plot and pretty much everything but the name Carol-Anne and copies it straight from the page.  There are a few things done well, the clowns are ridiculously creepy, the special effects are far superior to the 1982 version, yet the practical effects still look better in the original.  The kids are creepy, one scene involving shadows actually made the hair on the back of my neck tingle.  There are nods to the classic version, "I't not like your house is built on an ancient burial ground", Hooper High, in reference to Tobe Hooper, but I cannot forgive the #ThisHouseIsClean reference.  No-one, but No-one can say that line but Zelda Rubinstien and there is no need to put a hash tag in front of it to make it "cool"

I have to admit, I enjoyed watching the updated version, however, as I mentioned above, the film is creepy in parts but lacks the scares of the original (and that was a PG, and Stephen Spielberg!)  It is happy to throw in lazy jump scares and loud music rather than building tension.  As a stand alone film disregarding the superior original, it is better than most of the horror films I watched in 2014, it is a popcorn film, one to just enjoy for what it is and then walk away smiling.

As a side note, I was in Las Vegas a few years ago with my brother and a memorabilia shop had the clown from the original film sat in a rocking chair.  I was going to buy it for him and leave it sat at the end of his bed, then one night just move it whilst he slept! oh the fun!  The Clown from the 1982 Poltergeist makes the remake version look like a cabbage patch doll in comparison

Tomorrowland: A World Beyond

31st May 2015 - 10:15 am - Bolton

With so much to catch up on after a two week holiday, we had to flip a matchbox (no coins available) to see what film was next.  Tomorrowland was the film chosen for us.

Another Disney film based on an attraction (or an area of attractions), Tomorrowland feels like an extended version of the little movies they show before a ride.  I expected to walk into a merchandise shop on the way out of the cinema with Tshirts, replica badges and toy guns available.  The only difference was the length of the promo video.  At over two hours some of the ideas seem dragged out as filler rather than expanding on other aspects of the world.

When a kid with heart and passion for science yet hosting a delinquent desire is arrested for disabling a NASA destruction, she finds a mysterious badge in her belongings.  When it is touched she is transported to a futuristic world with flying monorails, jet packs and beautiful buildings. Unfortunately she only has a couple of minutes there and is thrown back into reality waking up in a swamp.  With a need to get back to this Tomorrowland, she seeks the help of Athena (who must have attended the Hermoine school of acting) and Mr Clooney, playing Mr Clooney.  But is Tomorrowland all it is made up to be, or is there an ulterior motive to the Future Project?

With colourful effects and glorious vistas, Tomorrowland is all filler and no oomph.  It seems to be confused with what it is actually trying to achieve, a really thin story line and an anti-climax finish make the two hours seem longer.  It is not a bad film, there are moments to enjoy and grumpy George is a delight, but it just lacked direction.  Tomorrowland is a Sunday afternoon kids film, but with the effect budget you would expect it to be an highly entertaining blockbuster, it isn't. 

Unfriended

9th May 2015 21:15 Leigh

Taking the found footage style horror of recent years and giving it a well needed update.

Since Blair Witch took the box office by storm with little production budget and massive returns, and then Paranormal Activity did the same a few years later the found footage genre has become very samey.  Unfriended takes the same premise, but instead of being found footage, it is live footage taken directly from the laptop screen of the main character.  The whole film is a laptop screen flipping between different applications such as Skype, Spotify, Google, Instant Messenger and even Chat Roulette.  This may seem a little dull, but of a age when computers run our lives, it just fits really well.

I often find myself flipping between multiple applications, even whilst writing this review, I have Spotify open, with Whatsapp on my phone chatting to my wife, this is what life is now.

The film opens with footage form YouTube of a high school student Laura Barns, who had be pushed to the limit with CyberBullying, and ultimately shot herself.  This is all the back story you need to start with. Then Skype kicks in and group chat begins, but who is the anonymous person in the chat group?  As things progress, the intent of the mysterious intruder become more evident.  Is it the ghost of Laura Barns seeking vengeance or is one of the group playing games?

Unfriended is not a horror film, although there are moments of horrific incidents.  The "Paranormal Activity£ bass growl does appear a few times which took me out of the tension as you know it is building to something instead of you just being shocked, but the use of camera glitches, buffering times, load errors, refreshing screens and not being about to "un-friend" someone added nice little cyber horror cliche's

there are a couple of real stand out moment that will be copied in future "found footage" films.  The printout section for me was brilliant, very tense.  Also a scene in which the group is unsure if a screen is frozen, so they ring the mobile and it starts to vibrate and move on the "frozen" camera was unnerving

When the film ended, I turned to Dave (he had come with me to watch the film, obviously) and we both said, "I enjoyed that!", when Dave got home he uninstalled skype and covered the camera on his laptop.

Orignally called Cybernatural, which I am glad they changed, Unfriended is a great little genre based film that does the job right.  Very entertaining, not too long, but based on this there will be 100's of spin offs and sequels to follow.  So watch it now and then wait for Skypernatural, The Twitter Zone or Spotifright, because they are on the way!

Big Game

8th May 2015 18:40 Bolton

From the opening scene I felt like I had been transported back to the early 90's to an era of Demolition Man, Cliffhanger, Broken Arrow, Die Hard with A Vengeance, and it felt good.

Samuel L Jackson is the President of the United States who finds himself lost in the wilderness of Finland after Air Force One is shot down by terrorists.  He is found by a local boy who is out to prove he is a man by returning to his village with his right-of-passage.  Hot on their heels are the terrorists out for big game hunting and a turncoat secret service member with a vengeance.

The whole film took me back to the big hero, big adventure action movies I grew up with. An over the top plot, crazy but likable action sequences and one big boom at the end.  The visual effects felt like they were done in this era to.  The big explosion at the end must have take all the special effects budget as the green screen scenes were just terrible, but this made it just that little bit better. With the young hero atop a fridge hanging from a helicopter the background seemed to be that of a 50's car sequence, but I just loved it

The kid (Onni Tommila) is just brilliant - very entertaining, very well acted and endearing as well

It does feel a little empty in places, the bad guys aren't that big and there is a major opening in the end 10 minutes that I am unsure why it was left like this (Jim Broadbent!)

This is one of those films that can be great entertainment for a younger audience, but nostalgic for the older bunch (my era), a film that you can put on a Saturday night and not worry about spandex wearing super-heroes with dark history's, just great fun.

I left the cinema with a smile on my face, but wondering about the ending.  I will not spoil it for you, but surely there should be some kind of comeuppance for someone!?

Monsters: Dark Continent

7th May 2015 20:50 Bolton

The belated sequel to the Gareth Edwards home project felt like it knew what it wanted to do, it just didn't know how to do it.

I saw Monsters a few years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it, although it is not a film I have re-watched since that initial viewing.  A film about monsters that shows little of the monsters and is more character based.  Gareth Edwards did all the visual effects on a limited budget and at home in his bedroom.  Proving that big things could be done with big imaginations, this opened him up to do the recent Godzilla film, but that is another story, and one that doesn't feature much of the titular monster as well.

Based a few years after the original, the armed forces are now eliminating the hulking alien creatures using tactical strikes and big weapons, but this has been resulting in civilian casualties in the Middle East, which in turn is causing the local insurgents to retaliate.  When a crew of naive Detroit soldiers join the war, they are hungry for a bug hunt, but when they are sent on a recovery mission the facts of war come to life.

Monster: DC had a couple of scenes where the visual landscape was very artistic and detailed character emotional states.  It also makes you question who are the monsters? The physical being of the "Monsters" are graceful and never with malicious intent.  The just happen to be massive and clumsy footed sometimes.  When one of the massive behemoths finds a downed mate, the emotion portrayed shows how angelic these creatures are.  There is a scene reminiscent of the Gallimimus stampede from Jurassic Park, smaller monsters are flocking around the Humvee's of our main characters with no threat.  Just passing by and running along side the vehicles, delicately avoiding contact.

It just seemed to long and without reason for far too long, there is lots in the film for me to enjoy, but I just didn't.  It felt like it was trying to be something it wasn't, trying to hard to capture the emotion and feeling of the first film but make it bigger.  It was slow and the majority of characters were void of character.  

If you haven't seen Monsters, then it is worth a watch, if you haven't seen Monsters:DC then just watch Monsters again.