Mad Max: Fury Road

Over last weekend we went to see Mad Max: Fury Road.  Wow.

It is as if the director had watched every Michael Bay Transformers movie and then decided that he could go to around 11 or 12 on that scale. Or more. The action is relentless, violent and in some parts a bit queasy making (at least for wimpy old me).

Tom Hardy does a great job as Max. Not that he has to say much. I think they gave him his script written on the back of a cigarette packet. Charlize Theron is great in the film as well. She has lines and everything. All the souls in the movie are tortured, torturing or both.

If you like your action fast moving and with lots of spectacle then you'll love it. If you prefer films where the most action packed thing that happens is that Lady Faversham comes to visit and they can't find the best tablecloth, then you might want to give it a miss.

Spooks: The Greater Good

Spooks: The Greater Good is a happy tale of fairies and unicorns, living together in "Happy Paradise Land". Everyone is nice to everyone else and there are always lots of cakes for tea.

On the other hand, this might be a lie. Why should you trust me? Why should you trust anyone? After seeing this film I won't be doing much trusting. Everybody is pretty horrible one way or another, but then again the TV show this is based on wasn't big on Rainbows and Cupcakes either.

If you like twisty stories with a bit of action thrown in, or you enjoyed the TV show, then it is well worth a trip to the cinema.

Avengers: Age of Ultron

Avengers: Age of Ultron is great big daft movie with mostly loud bits. There is a plot, and it mostly works. And you should go and see it. And buy popcorn. Lots of popcorn.

Go See Shaun the Sheep the Movie

As I've mentioned before, I don't go to the movies for dramatic insights into the human condition. I go for fun. And popcorn. 

Shaun the sheep is fun. It won't win any prizes for dialogue, because there isn't any. But there is a nice story, well told, with some very funny set pieces. The phrase "recommended for children of all ages" is a bit overused these days, but I reckon this one really is. 

Paddington the Movie

Go see Paddington. You'll enjoy it. It's a rather slight tale, but very well told. It's from the producers of the Harry Potter films. You can tell this because they seem to have employed a large number of British actors who have all worked with the young wizard. 

I wasn't exactly dragged along to the showing. I've always quite liked Paddington. We had one or two of the books by Michael Bond floating around the house as I was growing up and the TV series voiced by Michael Hordern was always good fun. But I was a bit worried about what they might have done with the story when they made it into a film. 

I needn't have been concerned. It is very well done, with some lovely set pieces and running gags. One musical joke is direct steal from "There's Something About Mary", but since they stole it from "Blazing Saddles" that's fair enough. And it was still funny.

If you are like me and want to walk out of the cinema feeling happy, then you should go along. There's enough knowing, and silly, humour to keep grown ups occupied and plenty of slapstick for the kids (and grown ups like me).

I don't go to the pictures to get depressing insights into the human condition, or to learn of the terrible things that people do to each other. I can get all that from five minutes of the news. I go the the cinema for a good time. And you get that from Paddington.

A Streetcar Named Desire

A few weeks ago we went to see Monty Python live at a local cinema. Tonight we went to see a proper play which was beamed all over the country from the West End.

A Streetcar named Desire is a bit of a break from my usual entertainment fare of superheroes and productions that explore how many ways it is possible to break the laws of physics in a single action sequence. But it was very enjoyable none the less.

The subject is not a happy one and anyone looking for an uplifting ending is going to leave disappointed. But the production and acting, particularly Gillian Anderson in the central role of Blanche DuBois, was top notch.  

I think I get quite a bit of my enjoyment from a play as I struggle to understand the behaviour of the characters after I have seen the whole thing. If it is a good one it is always more complicated than it seems at first glance. This is that kind of play. Well worth a look if you get the chance.

Go See "Edge of Tomorrow"

Tom Cruise in good film shock horror. Yes, it is a genuinely splendid piece of Sci-Fi action with Tom in the starring role.

Groundhog Day meets the D-Day landings meets War of the Worlds. And a standout performance by Emily Blunt too. You really, really should go and see Edge of Tomorrow. Really.

You still here?

Go see the Grand Budapest Hotel Movie

This post is all about the title really. Just go see. We saw it last night and it is awesome. It's both the kind of movie they don't make any more and a kind of movie I've never seen before. Amazing.

Lego Movie. Everything. Is. Awesome.

Went to see the Lego movie today. Of course, as a kid I had some Lego, although I was more of a Meccano man to be honest. But I've always liked the stuff, even more so when they produce amazing kits like the VW Camper Van. 

So of course we went to see the film. It really is going beyond product placement .The product is the movie. And it was produced by one of the largest toy manufacturers in the world. And the shops are full of toys built around (and from) it. But it is still crazy great. 

There is enough going on at all levels to make it interesting. Plenty of smart one-liners and cultural references. Loads of stuff being blown up. Some properly sad moments and a proper ending that I reckon really works. 

Go see. And probably buy a kit or two as well....

American Hustle. Go See.

Nothing shifty about this lot, oh no.

I don't often go to "grown up" films. The next film I want to see is the "Lego Movie". Nuff said. But tonight I went to see a proper, grown up film. It even has swear words and raunchy scenes, although there is nothing particularly graphic and nobody dies in a gruesome way.

American Hustle is what I would call a "proper" grown up film. The characters are complicated and incredibly well acted. There are no people who are completely good, and only a few who are completely bad. The plot is well told and compelling and by the end you really care what happens to everyone.

The story, of con artists who end up having to corrupt a good man in order to stay out of jail, is not particularly American I reckon. It is almost Shakespearean in the way it unfolds, but there is a lot of hustle. 

The film is up for lots of awards, and rightly so. Go see.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

There are two kinds of trilogies. There are the ones where the first film is a smashing success and they have to build it out a bit, like Back to the Future, Indiana Jones or, ahem, Star Wars. Then there are films that are naturally structured that way, for example Lord of the Rings (and probably the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo when they get round to it). 

The Hobbit would have made a really successful single film. It is a rather thin book and there is plenty to sustain a hundred action packed minutes. But one film means one ticket sale. So it is now a trilogy. The first film did a good job of setting up the characters. The job of the second film is to get them into a horrible mess and the third film will hopefully tie everything together. The good news is that “The Desolation of Smaug” does a good job as the second film.

It is a bit on the long side, but manages to pack in plenty of action, character development and even a bit of romance.  And it leaves things balanced on a cliff-hanger that will have us all go back and buy the third ticket to find how it ends.

Everyone gets into their role with gusto, although Gandalf the Grey seems a bit tired this time out, which is not surprising I suppose as he is quite literally old before his time in this outing of the franchise.

If you enjoyed any of the earlier films you will love this one. It has all you would expect, including helicopter shots of earnest warriors of difference sizes striding over hill tops and running through caverns and over stone bridges with no handrails.

Pacific Rim. Go see.

First things first. Pacific Rim is complete rubbish. But it is so complete that it is actually quite wonderful. If you are prepared to make the mental effort to suspend your disbelief somewhere really high (or just leave the critical part of your brain at the door) then you will really, really enjoy it.

If you are able to take on-board “facts” like it requires two melded human brains to control a giant toy robot and that the best way to select pilots for said robots is to to have them try to hit each other with wooden sticks then you will do just fine.

The thing that did it for me was the level of detail and little cultural references that made the daftest parts make sense at the time. The acting is well up to par and everyone gets on with the job in hand with enormous gusto. The computer graphics guys had taken the sensible precaution of making sure that most of the action is either at night, in the rain, underwater or all three at once, so that everything looks properly believable and any necessary bending of the laws of physics is nicely hidden.

If you only go and see one big, daft, movie this summer then it has got to be this one.

I liked it so much I bought the book. Which is very good too.

Monsters University

They even have a fake university web site, which is well worth a look.

We went to see Monsters University tonight. A prequel to Monsters Inc,, one of my favourite films ever, it tells the story of how Mike and Sculley got together and started their child scaring career. It’s a good romp, but for me it didn’t have anything like the emotional depth of the first film. There are some great moments and the animation is astonishingly good, but since there was no way it could have the character “Boo” I guess it was always going to be a step down from the original.

Having said all that the short film they showed before the main feature, The Blue Umbrella, was an absolute master class in how to fill a little film with emotion. When you get to this level the fact that the pictures were made using computers seems completely incidental. They just used the tools to make something quite wonderful, and almost worth the price of admission by itself. I really hope it makes it onto the Blue Ray release.

Despicable Me 2–Just Go and See It

It is not often these days that I find myself in a completely packed movie theatre. But we did today. I'm sure that some if it was to do with the "Orange Wednesday Two for One Deal" on tickets, but the rest had to be to do with the film.

I really enjoyed Despicable Me when it came out, and so I was well up for seeing the sequel. And Despicable Me 2  definitely delivers.  Good action sequences, nicely constructed story (not that it needed that much to be honest). And loads of minions.  Great fun. Go see.

Star Trek into Darkness

Went to see "Star Trek into Darkness" today. It is truly splendid. Great story, great ending, nods to the original series and film. I'm looking forward to seeing it again, so that I can get more of the references. 

The only part of the film that didn't work for me was the uniforms that they all wore to the inevitable dressing downs that Captain Kirk gets from time to time from which ever admiral takes against him. They were really stupid. Think Russian Army circa 1960 mixed with Pan Am flight attendant 1970. But apart from that, excellent film. Go see it.

Update on 2013-05-21 15:14 by Rob

Hmmm. Re-reading this post reminds me of the old car that I used to have with the broken headlights. Most nights it used to be a case of "Start Wreck into Darkness".

Iron Man 3 Rocks

Went to see Iron Man 3 last week. Very good film. Shows the value of having the lead character played by a proper actor. Lots of action and explosions, but also some good plot twists and a very human heart at the centre. Recommended.

GI Joe: Retaliation Movie Review

OK. Lets get this out of the way at the start. GI Joe “Retaliation” is as good as any movie inspired by plastic dolls made for boys to play with can be. I saw the very first one and thought it was a great piece of lightweight throwaway fun. This one is a bit darker though. And they’ve thrown away the silly gadgets and added Bruce Willis. I think the director must have watched “The Expendables” a few times before making this film, and made a few changes to match. Unlike “Trance”, there is hardly any plot and things are mostly moved along by cartoon violence and blowing things up. Which is fine by me.

Go see Pirates–Band of Misfits

I’m on holiday this week. So of course I went to see a movie. This one seems to have lots of names, in our listings it was called completely different things in different cinemas. Some of the titles mention scientists, some don’t. Still brilliant though.

Don’t waste time reading my notes on how good it is. Just go see it.

The Muppets

I’ve enjoyed The Muppets since first seeing their TV shows way back when. And A Muppet Christmas Carol is one of the best films ever made. Tonight we went to see the latest Muppet Film. Well worth a visit, although you’ll be humming the songs long after you have left the cinema.

Go see “The Artist”

The Artist is a comedy drama about a falling silent star and a rising talking one. Sort of “A Star is Born” but in black and white, with hardly any speech, and no Barbra Streisand.  But there is a dog.

I liked it a lot. Touching, funny and with a heart. If you want a genuinely different cinema experience, you should get to see it.