Review: Wrath of the Titans**
For a sequel bursting and ablaze with special effects and offering far better 3D this time around – as it wasn’t done haphazardly in post production, director Jonathan Liebesman’s take on Greek mythology is surprisingly bland. Unfortunately for him, it’s a combination of bland script and even blander lead in Sam Worthington. Worthington is like the Nigel Mansell of the acting world; performing adequately and a rather likeable chap but never setting the world (or screen) alight. It’s as though Liebesman relies heavily on his effects to inject excitement into Wrath of the Titans (3D) as the rest is a…
Review: StreetDance 2 (3D)**
Regardless of whether it’s a good film or not, StreetDance has its loyal fan base – paying punters – ready to flock to see the latest nimble starlets battling against the odds and demonstrating some astounding moves as their ammunition. Admittedly, whether you’re a fan or not, it’s always captivating for the length of each dance set piece – and we all know the outcome and who the victors in the dance-off will be. However, waiting to be dazzled by each routine is as painful and ugly an experience as getting corns on the feet. In the 2012 film, after…
Review: The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!***
There is an unquestionable deep respect for our British creative institution Aardman Animations, and eager anticipation for their next project. Don’t be put off by the fact that its geniuses have teamed up with Sony and added 3D – The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists! is a quintessentially Aardman affair, bursting with fine detail that you can’t possibly take in, in one viewing. In fact, it could be argued that this detracts from the plot, which has its lagging moments, if being totally honest – Aardman magic aside. Pirate Captain (voiced with expert comic timing by Hugh Grant) is tired…
Review: The Hunger Games***
Forget 2012; finally, the games have arrived. Author Suzanne Collins’s post-apocalyptic world is projected for all to watch on the big screen. The obvious parallels between the existence we are introduced to in The Hunger Games and the possible collision course we are on are eerily not lost – it’s just a shame that the film for the uninitiated book reader results in more questions than satisfying answers. If it weren’t for such a powerful central lead by Winter’s Bone actress Jennifer Lawrence, we probably wouldn’t be half as captivated. North America in a not-to-distant future is gone, and all…
Review: Wild Bill****
Shot in the heartland of London 2012, actor-turned-director Dexter Fletcher’s new gritty Brit drama Wild Bill could be set anywhere, if it wasn’t for the occasional skyline prompt. But unlike the gloomy, award-winning Junkhearts that follows a similar ‘deprived London’ vein – and was released at the same time as Fletcher’s directorial debut at last year’s London Film Festival, Wild Bill has a more genuine heart to it for those of us who know the London Borough of Newham area, and it’s not obsessed with trying to hit rock bottom to provide grim reality portrayals. Wild Bill may well be guilty of…
Review: Contraband****
Chris Farraday in Contraband is another “made for Mark Wahlberg” part, the kind that allows this Boston-born star the chance to tap into his own tough upbringing experiences of being on the wrong side of the law, while showing a softie side. Although perfectly cast in the likes of Four Brothers, The Departed and The Fighter, like his comical Terry Hoitz role in The Other Guys, Contraband is not all grit but has some surprising hidden wit, complete with a running joke threaded through for the audience’s amusement in a tale of corruption, deception and good ol’ family values that…
Review: John Carter***
Writer-director Andrew Stanton tries his hand at live action this time, putting some of his fun Pixar magic from the likes of award-winning Finding Nemo and Wall-E into John Carter, an other-worldly adventure staged on Mars – or Barsoom, as adapted from Tarzan author Edgar Rice Burroughs’s work, A Princess of Mars. Whatever faults this film has, it does something that the dull Cowboys and Aliensfrom last year tried and failed to do; marry Western and sci-fi genres and the analogies between American civil war history between cowboys and Indians far better, opening up the Barsoom landscape that looks like…
Review: This Means War****
This week’s ‘date movie’, director McG’s This Means War, is wrapped in an action blanket from the start for romcom lovers weary of lovelorn, sugary angst from the start. Thankfully, it doesn’t start in an idyllic Manhattan suburb either. It comes crashing into fun focus, James Bond style, in the oddly intriguing pairing of Tom Hardy and Chris Pine – yes, Bane and Kirk unite. It shamelessly tries to hook the male/tomboy viewer in with a blast of guns blazing to set the scene for what is effectively a wickedly entertaining love triangle, headed by the bubbly Reese Witherspoon as the…
Review: Project X****
Imagine throwing the party you’ve always dreamed of in a venue primed for purpose – pesky neighbours and law enforcement aside. Imagine all the coolest people attending and dancing to some kick-ass tunes. It’s the stuff of decadent dreams that this out-of-control juggernaut feeds off, tapping into a real deep-rooted deviance from our days of youthful carefree living. After all, someone else can pay later; it’s all about tonight and now. And for The Hangover fans – director Todd Phillips produces this time – there is an even greater sense of the party boys being plunged into the virtual unknown…
Review: Safe House***
It’s safe to say that any film starring the charismatic Denzel Washington is placed on the box office map long before it’s even had a chance of a good run and further scrutiny. Although both the Training Day star and Safe House director Daniel Espinosa – steering his first English-language project here – were against labelling the film ‘an action thriller’ in London recently, it is in effect such, so will naturally come under the inevitable Bourne benchmark scrutiny. Ryan Reynolds stars opposite Washington in this as young CIA agent Matt Weston who is tasked with looking after fugitive and…
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