Movie Review – Deadpool

TL;DR – Is it as good as its marketing campaign, no, that was pure genius, but it is still pretty darn good and a fun film to watch, though so so so so so not for kids.

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

P.S. yes there is something after the credits

Deadpool. Image Credit: 20th Century Fox.

Review

This is a really interesting film for a number of reasons, firstly most (if not all) comic book movies stick hard and fast to the American PG-13 rating, it’s safe and opens it up to a wider audience, instead, Deadpool went for its American R rating with gusto. It’s also a film that has to fit in the X-Men universe, but then it also has to stay true to the source which has a unique style that destroys the 4th wall at times. It has Ryan Reynolds as its lead, and unfortunately he doesn’t have many more chances left to be a headliner (after The Green Lantern, which to be fair was not his fault), it is also a film that has been in development hell since the early 2000s, taking a ‘leaked’ proof of concept trailer for people to greenlight the film. So here we are after a simply brilliant advertising campaign, what kind of film do we have? A pretty good one, but also a very adult film, I mean a very adult film, like seriously the whole 9 yards, like how did they get away with that, adult film.

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Movie Review – The Hateful Eight

TL;DR – A beautiful film in a certain respect, filled with Tarantino’s trademark gore but not a whole lot of anything else

Score – 2 out of 5 stars

The Hateful Eight. Image Credit: TWC.

Review

So two of the three films I have seen this year have been set in the snowy reaches of frontier America, both contain people battling against the elements and a lot of blood, violence and unsettling themes. However, while I walked out of The Revenant feeling that I had witnessed something truly remarkable, when I walked out of The Hateful Eight I felt, “well, yer, that was a thing”.

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Movie Review – The Revenant

TL;DR – Bleak but Beautiful, Though provoking but brutal, Heart-wrenching but uplifting, One of the most visually stunning films I have ever seen but one I don’t think I ever want to watch again

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

The Revenant. Image Credit: 20th Century Fox.

Review

Wow, the first movie for the year and boy is this an amazing work of art, this is a movie that is at times hauntingly beautiful and at other times horrifically brutal, this is not a film to take your children to, there are vivid violence and some very disturbing scenes. The Revenant is fictional retelling of the real life story of Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) who was left for dead after being mauled by a grizzly bear and has to try and survive in the barren frozen wastelands of (the now) The United States of America fighting his own body, the elements, and the indigenous population.

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Movie Review – Star Wars: The Force Awakens

TL;DR – “Sing Hallelujah!, Sing it, Sing Hallelujah!, Sing it, yeah, Sing Hallelujah! … Sing Hallelujah!” – Dr. Alban

Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars

Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Image Credit: Disney.

Review

Ok before we start I am going to try my best to have no spoilers in this review, but you should be warned that while I may try my best there may be a couple of little tidbits throughout this review. Anyway, this is a great film and you should go into with as little information as possible, go see it before someone spoils it for you.

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Movie Review – Creed

TL;DR – Wow what a surprize, did not see that coming, one of my movies of the year.

Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars

Creed. Image Credit: MGM/ Warner Bros.

Review

So cards on the table, I was not planning to go see Creed. I never really watch the Rocky films, they were always a little before my time and didn’t get the same reruns on TV like movies such as Die Hard. That being said, I know most of the main plot points through clips here and there, impersonations and parodies etc. So not seeing any of the others, combined with it being a sports film, a genre I don’t generally like and the last movie I saw Michael B Jordan in Fantastic Four (see review), his acting was so wooden he could give Chris Pine a run for his money, was a perfect storm of meh, can’t be bothered. But a number of people recommended it to me, and I am glad they did because boy was I wrong.

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Movie Review – Spectre

TL;DR – Not as good as Skyfall in any real respect, but much better than Quantum of Solace

Score – 2.5 out of 5 stars

Spectre. Image credit: MGM/Sony.

Review

If I had been reviewing Spectre right after Quantum of Solace I think I would have been much more favourable to it, simply because any Bond film has to be better than that mess. However, between now and then we’ve had Skyfall, which ditched all the story baggage they had been building upon for a standalone Bond adventure and it was a much better film. Alas Spectre decides you know what’s good let’s go back to all that lore we were building up ‘cause you know what people loved that. Ok look it is not that bad, there are some really great moments, there is just a lot of faff you have to get through as well.

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Movie Review – The Last Witch Hunter

TL;DR – Honestly a bit of a disappointment

Score – 2.5 out of 5 stars

The Last Witch Hunter. Image Credit: Summit Entertainment.

Review

I honestly don’t know where this film went wrong, it has a good cast, it clearly has talent working behind the scenes and it has an interesting premise, but in the end, it kind of feels like we have a movie that is just paint by numbers.

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Movie Review – Black Mass

TL;DR – “This is … This is … This is…. ‘What?’ .. This is borrrrring” Scott Pilgrim

Score – 2 out of 5 stars

Black Mass. Image Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures

Review

Black Mass is a ‘true’ story about how the FBI ended up being entangled with an Irish-American mobster James ‘Whitey’ Bulger from Boston in an attempt to take down the local Italian Mafia, leading to the FBI ‘unexpectedly’ backing Whitey into becoming the crime lord of Boston. So during Black Mass, we get to see the rise and fall of James ‘Whitey’ Bulger and his Winter-Hill Gang, and that’s not a spoiler because they tell you that in the first couple of minutes of the film. Before we go on I cannot tell you how true the ‘based on True Events’ tag is, I mean I could research it, but the film honestly does not feel like it is worth the effort.

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Movie Review – The Martian

TL;DR – A movie with tension, humour and humanity, go watch it

Score – 5 out of 5 stars

The Martian. Image Credit: 20th Century Fox.

Review

The Martian is a film about adversity and challenge in an environment that will kill you, which would make a very interesting film, now take that environment and put it on another planet and then leave your protagonist alone as everything crumbles around them.

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Movie Review – Pan

TL;DR – I feel like I have seen this movie, this is the same story over and over again, but it has its moments

Score – 2.5 out of 5 stars

Pan. Image Credit: Warner Bros.

Review

Pan is a story of how Peter Pan became the boy that never grew up, how Hook becomes Captain Hook and how Hugh Jackman decided that we was just going to have fun and ham it up for an hour and a half.

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