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ianjwood-73912
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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (2016)
Improvement, but no where near enough.
Now for the second film, I'd have to say it's a step in a good direction, which it being a sequel, is shocking.
It has more humour than the first, still not enough, but it's an improvement. The biggest thing about the second would have to be the new characters, introducing Bebop and Rocksteady (seen above) was a personal favourite. Being two massive characters in the Turtle's universe, I actually loved how they did them as well. Two muscle- bound meatheads who get a serum which makes them into well, bigger muscle-bound meatheads, with horns and tusks. They're share a great chemistry before and after, just how they should. Now Casey, Stephen Amell is a different story, I absolutely love the actor, he's really good. Just he doesn't fit the Casey role. The role doesn't carry enough badassary, he seems like a bumbling buffoon at times, it just doesn't work. That is the script's problem, not Amell, he did the best he could with the role. Baxter Stockman I am indifferent on, he doesn't really do much. and last but not least would be Krang, who I must say, looks disgusting but awesome.
The story is a lot more exciting, throwing in so many iconic characters helps it a lot. The additions and extra humour are what carries this movie. It has alright action scenes like the first, but it lacks good dialog, the humans seem less human than the turtles do. One big plus is Shredder, they seem to have took him back to his human roots, no big clunky robot armour. I could be wrong though, he wasn't given much time to suit up. Hopefully that was by choice though.
I'd definitely rate this higher than the first, it has worse con's but it also holds much more pro's.
65%
Minions (2015)
They must have made a fortune in merchandise.
Watched this with my kid, having high expectations after Despicable Me 2.
The opening scene where the minions go from one master to another is easily the best bit, it's a lot of fun. It gets worse and worse as it goes on, the novelty wears off quickly when it's all that's shown for an hour and 31 minutes. It feels like they have tried to monetise a franchise, which isn't surprising, majority of film companies do the same.
It's a great idea, everyone went crazy for the minions after Despicable Me, it's definitely something people wanted. Just what people wanted was the Minions and there hilarious shenanigans, where as this film offers boring dialog, the minions gibberish was the best dialog. I damn near fell asleep towards the end.
The start is great, a lot of fun and then it just falls completely off for me. It became boring. It's a great history lesson for the kids, and even the less informed adults. It is nothing spectacular, just a marketing ploy. 57%
Despicable Me (2010)
A heartwarming family flic.
One of the funniest animation movies I have ever seen, from Steve Carrel's awkward humour to the minions Mr.Bean type sounds.
The movie follows the lovable villain Gru and his minions, as he tries to become the best supervillain that ever lived, by stealing the moon. Of course along on the way he meets 3 girls who he adopts, which inevitably teaches him the error of his ways.
It hold up as a film for children and adults, a really good family experience. The littlest girl is the cutest thing ever and the minions are hilarious and adorable. It's a lot of fun to watch, by yourself or with your family.
I'd recommend it to anyone really, it's a heartfelt story with a lot of laughs.
68%
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)
Lacks the humour that the turtles would normally bring.
Watched this with a couple of knuckleheads, we voted, ended up watching Turtle's.
To start, I absolutely love the old Turtle's live action movies, they're really funny. Which gives the remakes a hard act to follow.
I'm unsure how I feel on how they've changed the turtles, making them massive creepy half human turtles. It takes a much more realistic approach, weather it's good or bad I can't deliberate. If I had to compare the turtles from the 1990's movies and these ones, the old ones would edge it. By what they had to work with back then, they did really well. With what we have now, they did alright, I understand it must be hard to make a live action turtle that isn't creepy looking.
Megan fox works as a great piece of eye candy, when she's bent over out the window of the car, lord have mercy. As April though, ehhhhhhh, not very fitting for the character.
Considering it's a Turtle's movie, it lacks humour, the action is great though. It's a good adaptation, I'd have preferred the original origins, like any turtles fan, but by no means is it bad. If they added a lot more humour and better casting, it could of been a lot better.
The biggest flaw I would say is Shredder, he feels like a massive robot, rather than a very powerful ninja. I don't like that all the characters seem to have quite big changes or altered origins, it takes a lot away from it. The majority of the target audience must be the old Turtles fans, and to change such big details, it hurts it's rating a lot.
If it wasn't for the nostalgic factor, I'm not sure I would have watched this movie, it seemed so generic. I'm glad I did though.
62%
http://afilmadaykeepsthedocaway.blogspot.co.uk/
Contraband (2012)
Average at best.
Today's film I randomly caught on TV. I was hooked from the start, wasn't even in the mood for a movie, it just caught my eye.
It seems like such a generic film, nothing overly interesting or original about the plot, it's carried by great actors. Marky Mark puts in some work, being a large portion of why I even continued to watch this movie. The script seems to be a mash up of clichés, from the one last heist to the we have your family bit.
It isn't something you need to see, but it's something worth seeing.
62%
http://afilmadaykeepsthedocaway.blogspot.co.uk/
The Shallows (2016)
127 hours, but on the water.
I wanted to watch The Shallows because it is similar to 127 Hours, a survival story. In part, I was right, they are fairly similar, in the way of it's a film based around one person, fighting for there life. The Shallows has more of a living factor, Nancy (Blake Lively) vs. a shark. I feel this is where The Shallows falls behind, some bits with the shark just don't seem believable, never the less it was a good film, being a fan of Blake Lively helped. She carries the role well, the acting can't be faulted.
I can't say much bad about the movie, I enjoyed it, it was interesting from start to finish and the visuals were amazing, the setting and Blake Lively. They really make you feel for the character, her personality is really sweet, you want her to survive. A favourite character of mine would have to be Steven Seagal (the seagull), At the end when she's dragged onto the shore and she stops and looks around, and the seagull's jumping about, made me laugh. As funny as I found it, it took away from the seriousness of the movie.
I'd recommend it to anyone who likes a good survival story.
67%
http://afilmadaykeepsthedocaway.blogspot.co.uk/
Suicide Squad (2016)
A good movie, so much wasted potential.
I have been waiting a long time to watch this, finally got the chance today.
I'll start with the characters, it's understandable that with so many characters some get pushed to the back. Suicide Squad felt like that, the only people from the team to get a decent screen time and back story is Deadshot (Will Smith) and Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie). Which isn't all that shocking, them being the biggest stars in the movie. I felt like all the characters were two dimensional, not offering much character development or depth.Will Smith stands above the rest, it felt like a Deadshot movie at times, which would be great, but it is meant to be the Suicide Squad, not Deadshot and pals. I loved Diablo, you can't fault any of the casting, all the actors suited the characters. The only issue with Diablo is it seemed so rushed, 0 too 100 in seconds, he never really showcases much, all the awesome things he could do, he turns into a massive fire demon and has a wrestling match with Incubus. Reminded me of the Green Lantern movie, all the possibilities and they go with something boring and unimaginative. Now we get to the Joker, Jared Leto offers a new take on what's one of the most iconic DC bad guys. As good as Leto did, it made no sense to have Joker in this movie, other than for Harley's origins. He seemed to add nothing to the movie. I mean, it's the Joker, I expected some crazy plan/sub plot, all we got was a sub-par rescue attempt. I enjoyed how Enchantress was portrayed, the only thing I didn't like was the weird dance moves when she was tearing the sky open. It seems pointless going into the other members of the Suicide Squad, considering they didn't find the time to either.
Having seen Assault on Arkham, I had really high expectations, it being one of my favourite animated movies. They do something Suicide Squad doesn't, make you connect to all the characters. Suicide Squad would have been much better if they had either used King Shark, or made Killer Croc half decent, he looked like gravel painted green. He's meant to be a monster, an anthropomorphic crocodile, not a gecko with human limbs.
The plot seemed miss paced, it spent 40 minutes introducing the characters, yet they still couldn't make you feel for them. The ending was lacklustre, I feel like Incubus fighting Diablo was boring. It's two very powerful beings fighting, yet I still felt like there was no real threat throughout the movie. They could just have easy been fighting over the last yogurt in the fridge. I was short of hoping for awesome superhero action.
I had fun watching Suicide Squad, I loved Harley Quinn and Deadshot, they was done really well. My review may seem harsh, I actually enjoyed the movie, I will probably end up watching it again, but it doesn't change all the flaws and mistakes. I wish it was better, nothing would be better than DC catching up with Marvel and us having two amazing universes. Seeing how they deal with a collaboration/team movie when Justice League is just around the corner worries me, a lot.
73%
http://afilmadaykeepsthedocaway.blogspot.co.uk/