Big cat conservationist Larry Black travels into the Indonesian jungle to find the endangered Javan Leopard. However all is not quite as it seems with the creature, and Black soon finds his quest becoming a deadly one.
This is a terrible, terrible movie. The acting is poor, the story is stupid - the Javan Leopards turn out to be some sort of "Were Leopard" or something. Everyone behaves stupidly, and all in all it's just a bad, boring movie.
The Numbers Station
Emerson Kent is a CIA hit man whose missions are delivered to him via "the numbers", secret broadcasts of strings of numbers sent out by the CIA regularly. When one of his jobs goes wrong Kent is given a bad evaluation and demoted to personal guard for one of the women who works on a "numbers station", broadcasting the numbers to his colleagues. But when the station comes under attack Kent is forced back into the action once more.
Decent little action thriller this. It's obviously done on a budget, so it doesn't go in for really big over the top action scenes - no big car chases or anything. But that gives it a more real feeling than a lot of these films have, makes the action more personal and in your face. In the end it's not a really great film, but it's pretty good and well worth a watch.
Incidentally, the mysterious broadcast of numbers over the radio is a real thing. It is widely believed that these numbers are indeed broadcast by intelligence agencies to send information to agents in the field. What those orders are, nobody is saying...
Maverick
Mel Gibson is Bret Maverick, a card sharp who dreams of one day entering a huge winner takes all poker tournament. But it seems that everyone he meets along the way is determined to rip him off or kill him.
Based on the old TV series, this is a fun romp of a movie. Nothing really super special, and it's one of those comedies that will make you smile rather than laugh, but the cast are engaging and obviously having some fun with it, and it's worth checking out.
After Earth
Over a thousand years in the future Humanity lives on a new world, Terra Nova - old Earth having reacted to environmental abuse by turning against humanity, driving him from the planet. Terra Nova turned out to have issues of it's own as a planet, though - including an attacking alien race that releases horrific monsters called "Ursas" which sense humans literally by smelling their fear. When General Cipher Raige takes his son on a routine space trip their ship is caught in an asteroid storm and crash-lands on Earth - the one planet now completely hostile to all alien life.
After Earth isn't quite as awful as most people claimed it to be... but it has to be said, it's got a lot of issues. Foremost amongst there is Jaden Smith. His character is alone for much of the film, so it rests squarely on his shoulders. There's a lot for him to do... and whilst he gives it a good effort, he simply isn't up to it.
The "hell-world Earth" isn't up to much either. The General talks as if it's going to be a horrific place - but truthfully, there's really very little in the way of danger. There's a bunch of monkeys that attack Jaden because he throws rocks at them. There's a poison leech. There's some big cat predators. And it gets really cold at night. And that's it. The only "big hellish danger" in the film is the Ursa, and they have to import that to the planet with them! And though it is a nasty and impressive monster, it only shows up for the last ten minutes or so.
All in all, not a worthwhile film.
The Purge
America is a country at peace - the economy is strong, crime is at an all time low, and life is good - largely because of the annual Purge, a 12 hour period when all crime is legal and all emergency services are suspended. Those who can afford it mostly sit the purge out behind steel shutters and elaborate security systems - that's how the Sandin family spend theirs. But this year things go very wrong for the Sandins - because when a wounded man shows up at their door screaming for help, one of the kids lets him in - and some very nasty characters are determined to get to him, no matter what it takes.
The Purge is an effective little thriller - not great by any means, but it takes an original and intriguing premise and hangs a fun "home invasion" story onto it. There's also some political commentary going on, messages about how the "haves" and "have nots" deal with the purge and what it's true purpose may be. To its credit the film doesn't really belabour any of this - it's just kind of there as interesting background detail.
Worth seeing, for sure.
Pacific Rim
The Earth is under alien attack - but rather than ray guns and flying saucers, the aliens are sending biological weapons in the form of giant monsters called Kaiju, to smash and destroy Human cities. We respond with "Jagers", giant fighting robots to take on the monsters. But after years of battling the Kaiju are getting the upper hand, and the war may soon be lost.
Pacific Rim should really be the ultimate "geek" film - seriously, how can you go wrong with giant monsters fighting giant robots? And it is kind of good. The monsters are pretty cool, the robots are pretty cool, and some of the fighting is indeed pretty cool. But there are flaws here. The characters are paper thin (right down to a hero who is essentially Maverick from Top Gun), there isn't a plot twist that you don't see coming a mile in advance, and it's all just a bit of a let-down compared to what it could have been.
Still, it's worth watching and certainly half a plug better than the likes of Battleship, and miles better than Transformers.
Now You See Me
A quartet of up and coming magicians each receive a mysterious calling card summoning them to a hotel room where they are presented with detailed plans for a series of amazing illusions. But as the four use the illusions to catapult themselves to stardom as "The Four Horsemen", their first big trick involves a bank robbery live on stage - and when the money turns up missing it appears that the illusion may have been reality after all. With the FBI involved, a complex game of wits is played out with hundreds of millions of dollars at stake.
Now You see me is a good movie, well made, well acted, and with an entertaining premise that it handles well. If anything, it's biggest flaw is that it's a little too clever for it's own good. Some of the twists are a bit silly and unnecessary, and some of what the magicians are supposed to be getting away with is a bit preposterous. But if you don't over-analyse it, it's a good fun movie.
World War Z
When a Zombie Apocalypse sweeps across the world, it is up to UN operative Brad Pitt to seek out the source of the infection and, if possible, some way to fight back.
World War Z is a pretty standard zombie movie featuring the modern "still living fast moving person who is infected by a virus" iteration of the zombie. By now we've seen so many zombie movies that there's really not a lot new or special that we can see, and this film never gives us anything new or particularly special. So it never really rises above "okay". But that said, it's not a bad movie, either. The zombies are pretty well done, creepily nasty when seen up close and with a funky anti-like behaviour in groups. The plot moves along effectively enough, though there's a bit too much "go here, now go there, now go there" for my taste. And the main characters have an implausible ability to take major injuries and just kind of shrug it off. Hand chopped off? Metal rod shoved through your entire body? Don't worry, you'll be up and running around killing zombies in a day or two!
Overall worth a watch, but nothing special.
R.I.P.D.
Nick is a cop who has just turned bad - together with his partner Hayes, he stole some golden antiques from a crime scene. But when his conscience gets the better of him he tells Hayes he's going to come clean - only to have Hayes kill him on their next mission together. But that's just the beginning of Nick's problems when he finds himself recruited into the R.I.P.D., heaven's police department. Charged with policing the souls of the un-dead, Nick is determined to tackle his unfinished business on Earth along the way.
R.I.P.D is really a disappointment. There's real promise in the premise, and there are some genuinely fun moments - probably most amusing is the idea that R.I.P.D. cops have "avatars", an appearance unlike their own which is how humans perceive them. It's a joke they dip into every now and again, and it's genuinely funny seeing Ryan Reynolds and Jeff Bridges being portrayed by James Hong and Marisa Miller.
Unfortunately, the film really flubs all this potential. The story just isn't that interesting, and the treatment of the bad guy souls who hang out on Earth is just kind of silly and gross. The attempts at sentimentality fall a bit flat, too. All in all there isn't enough good to get you through the bad, and it all just ends up being a bit tedious.
White House Down
Cale is a Capitol policeman who is down on his luck. He manages to score an interview for the Secret Service, and takes his daughter along for the day as she is fascinated by the White House. Unfortunately whilst he's there a terrorist group invade the building, seizing control and attempting to grab the President. Cale manages to get to him first, and a deadly cat and mouse game begins.
Well, if you've seen Olympus has Fallen then you've pretty much seen this film. It's an odd comparison really, though. On the whole, White House Down is a bit more tongue in cheek, a bit less gritty and a bit more fun - hell, there's a scene where the President is shooting rockets out of his limousine as Cale tears around the White House grounds! They both get a bit preposterous towards the end... well, even more preposterous, anyway. All in all, not bad if all you want is Die Hard in the White House.
The Lone Ranger
John Reid is a peaceable law officer in the old west, a man who believes that guns are evil and the railroad is bringing in a new era of peace. When his brother is brutally murdered and John is left for dead, he is rescued by enigmatic Indian Tonto - and sets out for justice in the form of the Lone Ranger, a masked rider for justice!
There's a good film in here somewhere... unfortunately it all gets a bit lost in self indulgence. Things just drag on and on, often padded out for no particular reason. Take the framing story, wherein an elderly Tonto is telling this tale to a kid. What's the point? It adds nothing to the story, simply serves to pad things out by about 15 minutes or so. The upshot is that by the time the big finale rolls around and the exciting Ranger theme swells, you should be going "yay!" but instead you're thinking "get ON with it, already!"
2 Guns
DEA Agent Bobby Trench has worked undercover in the drug world for so long that his superiors are seriously worried that he has begun to "go native" and do this stuff for real. When Trench engages in a minor bank robbery at the urging of his criminal partner Marcus Stigman, the two find that the bank contained vastly more money than they expected - which gets them in trouble with some very nasty people indeed. Things get even more complicated when Stigman turns out to be an undercover Navy Intelligence officer!
2 Guns is a buddy cop movie with a lot of twists along the way to keep you interested. It works, mostly because of the chemistry of the two leads, and although it's not really a great film, it is a very good one. Well worth seeing.
Iron Man 3
Stark is back, and this time he's facing The Mandarin - an evil terrorist who is a kind of super Bin Laden, threatening to kill the President of the United States. But can Tony stop him, when the Mandarin seems to have an army of super-human bad guys at his disposal?
Iron Man 3 is a film with some issues, primarily a weak main villain with motivations that are kind of stupid. There's a major twist along the way that comic book fans will hate, and I kind of hated myself. But at least it's kind of original, so there's that.
All in all it's a nice enough ride, lots of spectacle. It's better than Iron Man 2, but it still doesn't quite have that extra little something that the first film had.
The Wolverine
Logan returns, this time living in the hills as a recluse desperate to get away from the world. But the world comes knocking in the form of Yukio, an employee of Yashida, a Japanese soldier that Logan saved from death in the Nagasaki atomic bombing at the end of World War II. Now an old man, Yashida wants to say goodbye to Logan before his death from cancer. But on arrival in Japan Logan finds himself entangled in a web of greed and power - and matters are complicated when he finds that his power of regeneration has been stolen!
Not a terrible film, really, but also not a particularly good one. The worst flaw of the film is that it sets out to show us how Logan would deal with having to be mortal and vulnerable again... yet it never really does explore that territory very well. Logan is shot, repeatedly, and each time he just kind of walks it off. Including a shotgun blast to the abdomen. Seriously, the extent of the change is that he bleeds a bit, and he grunts and groans a bit, and he patches himself up with bandages and whatnot. Beyond that, he just keeps on running around cutting people up with his blades. There's no real exploration of how he feels about any of it.
The ending goes all over the top with a giant Adamantium Samurai Robot, which is kinda cool. And there's a mutant lizard woman along the way, whose character is largely pointless. All in all, meh.
The World's End
Gary King had the best night of his life when he was a teenager, the night he and his friends tried to do the "golden mile" pub crawl. Although he had the time of his life they didn't quite complete the crawl, and he has always seen it as the great regret of his life. Now, 20 years on, he is determined to get his friends back together to go and repeat the night. But all is not well in the town of Newton Haven - much of the population has been replaced by alien robots!
The third film of the "Cornetto Trilogy" (Sean of the Dead, Hot Fuzz), this is the weakest of the three. The biggest flaw is the lack of subtlety in the character of Gary King himself. Previously Pegg's leads have always been men who lack a certain something in their lives - in Sean of the Dead he needed to grow up a little and accept some responsibility, in Hot Fuzz he needed to learn to let go of rules and procedures and live in the moment.
Here, Gary needs to learn to not live in the past... but the movie practically screams that message at us from the moment we meet Gary, and that live in the past attitude is almost literally his only characteristic. He wears the same clothes he did as a teenager on that night - it's implied that that one outfit is literally the only thing he ever wears. He drives the same car he did then. He listens to the same music - and I don't mean just the same songs, I mean he literally still has the same mix tape in his car that he did 20 years ago, and it's the only tape he ever listens to. And literally the only thing he ever talks about is how fantastic the pub crawl was. Unlike Pegg's previous characters this guy is so one dimensional, and so incredibly nasty about it, that you don't like him at all. You don't empathize with him, you don't want him to succeed, you don't care if he overcomes his issues. By the time the "twist" comes along and starts to generate a little sympathy for him, it's too late.
Outside of that the the town overtaken by robots is kind of fun, although the repeated fight scenes get a bit repetitive. The ending is a bit out of nowhere as well.
Percy Jackson : Sea of Monsters
Percy is back! This time, accompanied by his friends Annabeth Chase, Clarisse La Rue and Tyson, his half brother, Percy goes on a journey to the Sea of Monsters to retrieve the Golden Fleece and save Camp Half-Blood.
Pretty much a retread of the original - different story, but same mix of weirdness and magic. Enjoyable enough.
Elysium
In the future Earth is an overcrowded slum, whilst the rich and powerful live on a gigantic orbiting space habitat called Elysium. Max Da Costa has spent his whole life looking up at Elysium and dreaming of having a life there. But when a factory accident leaves Max with only days to live, he is given new impetus to get to Elysium in time to use their advanced medical technology to save himself.
Some good and bad mixed together here. The film looks great, and Matt Damon does a pretty good job as Max. Sharlto Copley also turns in a great performance as deranged mercenary Kruger. the Earth of the future is a grim and gritty place, not an evil tyranny as such, just somewhere where the system tends to grind people underfoot through lack of resources and lack of caring.
But there is a lot of silliness here. Jodi Foster gives a terrible performance, which an accent that wanders erratically all over the place. And for a big political message film, the message is kind of daft. I lean left politically myself, at least by American standards, and yes, I absolutely think that extreme wealth inequality is a serious issue. It's a sign that something about your society is broken, and it needs to be addressed. But the message of this film seems to be that the way to address it is for poor people to just raid the rich people and steal all their stuff. And sorry, but that's just stupid. If you came back to Elysium ten years later, all you would find is EVERYBODY would be poor and living in squalor, on Earth and Elysium alike.
The Starving Games
No, not the Hunger Games, the Starving Games. In which Kantmiss Evershot must fight for her life in the 75th annual Starving Games, where she could also win an old ham, a coupon for a foot-long sub, and a partially eaten pickle.
It's a comedy, see? You can tell because on IMDB it's listed in the "Comedy" genre. You certainly can't tell because it's funny to watch. In fact it's painfully awful to watch.
Credit where it is due, though, the film did make me laugh about twice.
Riddick
Last seen as King of the Necromancers, we pick up with Riddick being betrayed and left badly injured on yet another hostile planet filled with vicious creatures. We follow him as he sets about the grim business of survival, and then begins to work out a way to lure some off-worlders to the planet so that he can find a way to escape.
It's pretty good stuff, this. A shade below the first film, perhaps, but certainly far better than the nonsensical second one. Whilst there are elements of the first film here in that Riddick ends up facing an endless horde of monsters, this is a rather different film - that horde doesn't show up until the last 25 minutes or so. Up to them we're watching Riddick learn to survive in a kind of grim Robinson Crusoe way, and then lure in and take on two groups of bounty hunters in order to escape the planet.
Riddick is a great character and he's fun to watch here - the only problem with him is that perhaps things come a little too easily to him, he so outclasses other humans that there's not really much of a sense of competition with them. But all in all this is a good film, well worth a watch.
