Argo Review

Release Date: 7th November 2012

Age Certificate: 15

Running Time: 120 mins
Director: Ben Affleck
Writers: Chris Terrio and Joshuah Bearman

Stars: Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston and Alan Arkin

The film Argo is a dramatisation of the 1980 CIA-Canadian secret operation to extract six fugitive American diplomatic prisoners out of revolutionary Iran. The way they try and carry out this mission is to make a fake film called Argo and pretend that these six people are the film crew. Ben Affleck's character comes up with this idea. Affleck directs Argo and obviously stars him. It’s a really intense dramatic thriller that was one of the best films from last year.   

You can tell that hey have put their research into the film this is because it has a great sense of realism. Ben Affleck is amazing. His first film was Gone Baby Gone, which was a fantastic film and then he came out with The Town, which in my opinion was not as good as Gone Baby Gone but still amazing. And now he has Argo which I believe is his best film. It’s fast and real. The 120 minutes of Argo seems to fly past far too quickly.

This is also one of Ben Affleck’s best performances, playing this American hero he has put himself as he may want to dramatise the role. But he is so toned down and makes the audience believe he is just a normal person with an idea that is so ridiculous it’s amazing. A good performance also comes from Bryan Cranston, which I’m kind of getting a little bit tired of saying, every time he comes on screen he takes on the role like it is himself. Alan Arkin and John Goodman's relationship is really funny, it's fantastic, you couldn't get two better people to work with each other. It always seems that Alan Arkin plays the same role in each film (the guy who swears a lot), which is still great to me.

Oh, and the mustaches will also keep you entertained.  

8.5/10

Argo trailer:

Total Recall Review

Release Date: 29 August 2012

Age Certificate: 12A

Running Time: 118 mins

Director: Len Wiseman

Writers: Kurt Wimmer

Stars: Colin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale and Bryan Cranston

When the first trailer came for the new Total Recall I was interested. This is because I didn’t really like the original Total Recall, I found it ridiculous, corny and silly. But if you have Arnold Schwarzennegger in an action film it has a licence to do that. So I went into the cinema hoping I was going to walk out a happy man. If you have seen the trailer you know what it is about and if you haven’t; a man goes to a place called Recall and he has a plan to make his life more exciting. There was nothing wrong with his life before it was just that he was bored with it and wanted a change. They do this by implanting memories into his mind. However, when they do this he is surrounded by the army, as if he was a spy. He then takes them down with some badass moves but he doesn’t know how. It escalates from there on in. To finding out his wife wants to kill him. Finding Melina who wants to help him and then finally meeting the villain Cohaagen played by Bryan Cranston, who seems to be in EVERYTHING recently, but I’m pleased with that because he is an amazing actor.

Colin Farrell plays Douglass Quaid/Hauser, he does this really well. He fits into these kind of films well, Colin is also not cheesy like Arnold, which I love. Kate Beckinsale plays Douglass’s wife, she makes the audience believe that she can kick her husband’s behind, she is evil and dangerous. And finally there’s Bryan Cranston, who like I said has been in everything recently. This is certainly not a bad thing because he makes the characters believable and usually sinister. 

The action sequences are amazing; the film is directed by Len Wiseman, who has also directed Die Hard 4. The scenes are well choreographed and there’s no shaky cam. So this didn’t give me the headache I had after the film. The noise gave me the headache; the film was very loud. Another thing I enjoyed, apart from the noise was that it wasn’t converted into rubbish 3-D it was good old 2-D.

Before I went to see this film it had very bad reviews, I believe critics just hate remakes just because it isn't the original. There’s no reason why they hate it, they just do. I wouldn’t say it was a terrible film, I never got bored with this film, but it wasn’t a great film. You can’t really compare it with the original Total Recall apart from the cheesy Arnold. This was an average film, when it becomes available to rent and you want to watch a brain numbing action go and rent this. Oh, I almost forgot a woman has three boobies in this film.

7.0/10

Have a look at this:

Drive Review

Release Date: 23 September 2011

Age Certificate: 18

Running Time: 100 mins

Director: Nicolas Winding Refn

Writers: Hossein Amini

Stars: Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan and Bryan Cranston

Review:

Drive is about a stunt man played by Ryan Gosling, with an interesting secret life. He Drives. He meets a quite girl across the hall from him; she seems to be single with a single child. But when her husband is released out of prison, it’s a shock to the Driver and things start to go downhill for him. Ryan Gosling plays the role perfectly, even though his lines must take up half a page. But this is how the Driver is supposed to be betrayed. Ryan is one of the most engaging actors out there at the moment.

The film is well paced, some may say it is slow and boring but I will just shake my head at them. The film has a very 80’s action vibe to it, from the music to the dialogue. The first scene in the film will suck you in and you will not want to look away. Apart from Ryan Gosling the director is the star of this film (Nicolas Winding Refn), because he makes it the most stylish movie of 2011. Every shot is like a painting. On the downside he does occasionally overdo it a couple of times in regards to the slow motion scenes.

 I will put my hands up to that the violence is gratuitous in some parts of the film p.s you could feel a bit sick in those scenes. Some could say that it ruins the film because it may be classed as silly and cheapens the performances of the actors, but I think otherwise, mostly because I love the film and I refuse to criticise it.

Overall, I think this is the most stylish film I have ever seen, it is well paced, the action is heart racing when it hits and Ryan Gosling plays the driver fantastically (calm, cool and ready to drive). I would give this film:

9.0/10

Here's is the trailer: