Tag Archives: Jason Momoa

A Minecraft Movie – Movie Review

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TL;DR – It is a film that absolutely captures the essence of the camp it is adapting. Even if all the added features should have been enough to torpedo the movie, it remained a solid kid’s film, even if it made some questionable choices.  

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid and post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film

A Minecraft Village

A Minecraft Movie

This was such an interesting movie for me to review, not in the least that it has been in devilment hell for ten years or so, which makes it fascinating to see what was finally produced. But also, this is a film about a video game that I have probably had my second-longest relationship with. Every year, I dive back in and build a new Minecraft world from scratch, discovering all the wild changes that have been made since last time. But video game adaptations can be very much hit or miss, and that long of a production period does give me pause.  

So, to set the scene, one day, a boy really wanted to be a miner, but no kids were allowed. Time went on, and when Steve (Jack Black) became an adult, he ran back into those mines, found a cube and activated a portal to another cube-based world. It was a joy to create until, one day, he discovered a portal to the Nether, ruled by Malgosha (Rachel House/Allan Henry), who loves gold and hates creativity. Forced to send his dog fleeing with the cube, the portal remained undiscovered until one day when four weird and different characters, Garrett “The Garbage Man” Garrison (Jason Momoa), Henry (Sebastian Hansen), Natalie (Emma Myers) and Dawn (Danielle Brooks) from the town of Chuglass rediscover it. When they step through, they find themselves thrown into a world where everything from the trees to the grass to the sheep are all now cubes. It is a wild world that becomes even more dangerous when the sun goes down.

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The Fall Guy – Movie Review

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TL;DR – It’s a wonderful romp, full of pomp and circumstance, and a desperate need for an extra edit.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a sequence in the credits and a mid-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of the film.

Filming a car chase.

The Fall Guy Review –

Today, I am looking at a film that is genuinely quite odd. It is an Action-Adventure, Romantic-Comedy, Mystery, Adaption of an Old TV Show, that is also making a meta-commentary on how Hollywood treats people who work on the stunt team. Yet with all of that, they made it work, and a blast of fun at that.

So to set the scene, Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling) is a suave and super-confident stuntman who knows how to take a fall while on fire and thrown into a rock. When he is not being blown up, he is flirting with the very professional camera operator, Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt). However, when his incompetent actor Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), who could not do his own stunts in his dreams, wanted a stunt done again because they saw ‘too much face’. But the stunt goes wrong, and Colt breaks his back. Eighteen months later, Tom’s Producer, Gail Meyer (Hannah Waddingham), calls Colt, who is now a valet. She needs him to come back to Sydney because Jody has her first director role, and they need his stunt prowess. But did anyone ask Jody?

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Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom – Movie Review

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TL;DR – While Aquaman is quite fun in places (the whole volcano fight), you could feel that they struggled to find the right tone, so it bounces all over the place and never settles into its rhythm. Also, it can’t escape the fact that it feels fruitless watching it because you know it is about to get hit by a big re-do button.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a screening of this film.

Whales.

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom Review –

Oh my, look, a lot is going on with this film that is not its fault. It did not go into production knowing that it would be the final entry of the DCEU, and much like The New Mutants, it does not deserve that kind of legacy. But we can’t go into it ignoring all the stuff around it because I brought that baggage in, and I don’t think I am alone here.

So to set the scene, Arthur Curry (Jason Momoa) is now living two lives. By day, he is the King of Atlantis with all the responsibilities and limitations that come with it. But at night, he is a father to a son they had with Mera (Amber Heard). This is not an excellent combination for a sustainable life. All it would take is one issue to torpedo everything. Enter Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), who has had Dr Stephen Shin (Randall Park) search the globe for Atlantean tech so he can repair his suit when he discovers an even greater power lurking in the ice.   

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The Flash – Movie Review

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TL;DR – Through all its pre-production issues, the final product is a blast of fun, but I am not sure it would have the staying power on repeat watches.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film

The Flash running at speed.

The Flash Review –

We are entering quite a tricky period for Superhero films. While they have been the dominant media property over the last decade, the shine is starting to come off the genre. While we will probably not see the great Western collapse again, how many players does the industry have room for? Can you still engage with a property you know is about to be rebooted? And can multiverses still work? These are some of the questions we will look at with our review of The Flash today.

So to set the scene, Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) is living his life as part of the Justice League, but not as a leading figure as we see when Alfred (Jeremy Irons) calls him up before his morning breakfast to help clean up some of Batman’s (Ben Affleck) mess in Gotham City. But while he is very good at catching babies, the main issue in his life is trying to get his father, Henry (Ron Livingston), out of jail. He is serving a life sentence for murdering his wife, and Barry’s mother, Nora (Maribel Verdú), something Barry knows his dad did not do, but no one listened to him because he was just a kid at the time. In his frustration, Barry runs so fast that he breaches the speed of light and begins to transverse back and forwards in time, and surely nothing bad can happen from that.  

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Fast X – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A high-octane blast from start to finish, with a bombastic style that only this series can pull off.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid-credit scene

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film

Warning – There are many flashing lights in this film

Dom drifts his car.

Fast X Review –

If you had asked me which new film from 2001 would spawn so many sequels that you could legitimately call it a Saga, it would not have been The Fast and the Furious. I mean, it was not a bad film. Indeed it was an interesting spin on a standard narrative setup. But I struggled to connect with the series until I watched Fast Five. It was then that I got it. I bring this up because we might be at the 10th film, but we are diving back into the past.

So to set the scene, we open ten years in the past as Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) rip a vault out of a police station and onto the streets of Rio de Janeiro. It was a great success, but in the process, they kill Hernan Reyes (Joaquim de Almeida) and knock his son Dante Reyes (Jason Momoa) into the bay. Ten years later, Dom is teaching his son Brian Marcos (Leo Abelo Perry) how to drive, and all is well with the family when a knock on the door reveals a wounded Cipher (Charlize Theron). She warns him that someone is out to get him and his family, which is a problem because Roman (Tyrese Gibson), Tej (Chris “Ludacris” Bridges), Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel), and Han (Sung Kang) are in Rome, and no one can contact them.

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Slumberland – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A film that might have some of the most out-there performances I have seen but was missing a bit of substance in places.    

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene

Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix service that viewed this film

Flip and Nemo dance in the streets of a glass city.

Slumberland Review –

Grief is always a complex emotion for a film to land. Sure, you can phone it to get some emotional engagement from your audience, but if you want to tap into something more profound, that is a lot of work. Add to this the nuance needed when building a film directed towards a younger demographic, and you get the film we are looking at today.

So to set the scene, we open on a lighthouse on an island where Nemo (Marlow Barkley) lives with her father, Peter (Kyle Chandler). Nemo knows everything about the lighthouse, and every night Peter tells her stories of Flip (Jason Momoa) and the adventures they had when he was a kid. But when Peter is lost at sea during a rescue, Nemo must leave the lighthouse and live with her uncle, whom she never met and who lives in the city. No one is happy with this move. However, when Nemo goes to sleep, she is surprised when her soft toy pig comes alive, and even more so when her bed wakes up and smashes out of her window, taking her back to the lighthouse, but not quite as she remembers it, and someone from her father’s past is waiting for her.     

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Peacemaker: Season One – TV Review

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TL;DR – There was a surprising amount of charm on show here but also an almost equal amount of frustration.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Binge subscription that viewed this series

Post-Credit Scene – Each episode has an end credit scene

Peacemaker opening titles

Peacemaker Review –

Recently my day-time contract ended, and I have a bit more time during the day to catch up on things I missed before starting my next one. In this catch-up mood, I wanted to look at things that I had heard good things about but still had questions about. The first thing on this list was Peacemaker, a spin-off of The Suicide Squad film, which I liked, but based around a character Peacemaker (John Cena) that I didn’t. I was interested to see just how that juxtaposition would work, which was intriguing.

So to set the scene, it has been months after the events on Corto Maltese, and Peacemaker has recovered enough to be let out of the hospital. Seeing as no one is there to take him back to prison, he takes the chance to run out of the hospital and back to his home, a trailer painted with the American flag. But of course, he was not free as members of A.R.G.U.S. black ops squad “Project Butterfly” drew their guns on him. They need a psychopath to stop the ‘butterflies’, and Peacemaker is perfect for the job, just as long as Leota Adebayo (Danielle Brooks), daughter of Amanda Waller (Viola Davis), can leave some incriminating evidence if the whole thing goes sideways. Now from here, we will be looking at the episode and season as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.

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Dune (2021) (Dune: Part 1) – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A cinematic work of genius and masterclass in literary adaptation     

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film

Dune. Image Credit: Warner Bros Pictures.

Dune Review –

Few films have filled me full of trepidation and promise, like the prospect of another Dune film. Dune is a book series that means a lot to me, and the miniseries fits in as one of those foundational moments where you discover the joys of filmmaking. Add to this the spectacular run of films from Denis Villeneuve from Sicario, Arrival & Blade Runner 2049, one of which was my top movie in 2016. Look, this is a long way of saying I came into this with very high expectations, and can I say that this film exceeded all of them.  

So to set the scene, in an empire that spans the galaxy, the most valuable commodity is The Spice Melange. It extends life, allows intergalactic travel, and can only be found on one planet in the entire galaxy: Arrakis, Dune. The brutal House Harkonnen runs Dune, though its cruel Barron (Stellan Skarsgård) and his nephew Glossu Rabban (Dave Bautista), commonly called “Beast Rabban”. But their time running Arrakis is up, as the Emperor has decreed that House Harkonnen’s mortal Enemies House Atreides, led by Duke Leto Atreides (Oscar Isaac), manages the planet. All is well, but Leto is fearful for him, his son Paul (Timothée Chalamet) and consort Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson). Because while this is a great opportunity, it could also be a trap.

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Movie Review – Aquaman

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TL;DR – Bombastic, silly, overly long, but still by far some of the best fun DC has made so far.    

 Score – 3.5 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid-credit scene

Aquaman. Image Credit: Warner Bothers.

Review –

To say that the DC Expanded Universe has had a rough launch up to this point would be a bit of an understatement. Indeed, of all the past films, only Wonder Woman (see review) felt like a coherent film in any great sense. So, more than ever, the first film after Justice League had to hit the ground running, even more so after background conversations that the expanded universe was losing a lot of its big-name talent. Now while Aquaman is not a perfect film, it is a film with a lot of style, and more than most of the films that have come before it was just fun.

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Movie Review – Justice League

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TL;DR – Is it as good as Wonder Woman, no not by a long shot, but it is also not the steaming mess like the last two films, so there has been some improvement here.

Score – 2.5 out of 5 stars

P.S. – There is a mid and end credit scene.

Justice League. Image Credit: Warner Bros.

Review –

Ok before we start I need to say that this is actually a very hard film to review because while it shouldn’t matter, you can’t avoid not looking into the issues this film had in pre-production. Firstly, you have the disastrous reaction to both Batman v Superman (see review) and Suicide Squad (see review) hitting after production had already started, and you can see the course correction that they tried to make here. But also during production Zach Snyder’s family suffered a great tragedy and he stepped aside which meant that the reshoots and final edit was completed by Joss Whedon. So it is hard to work out where to direct criticism, but also you don’t want to heap stuff on someone who has suffered greatly. So will all this groundwork I will try my best to be objective here but you can’t help but bring outside stuff into this.

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