Duel Review

Release Date: 1971

Age Certificate: PG

Running Time: 90 mins

Director: Steven Spielberg 

Writers: Richard Matheson

Stars: Dennis Weaver, Jacqueline Scott and Eddie Fireston

Duel is Steven Spielberg’s first feature film, it’s a about a business commuter making his way to his next appointment. On what should have been easy journey, he passes a forty ton truck. The driver for some reason takes an instant dislike to him. This is when things start to get a bit rough, David Mann (Dennis Weaver) has to push his foot to the ground to try and get the truck off his trail and this is where you have your film.

 It’s amazing how Spielberg has created an hour and a half film out of a short film idea, and yet he keeps it tense and exciting throughout the film. He has something about non-human villains in his films i.e Jaws. But yet they are even more menacing than humans.

We never actually find out why the driver wants to kill David, it just adds to the tension and randomness of what he has planned. All we actually see of the truck driver is his arm. This is when he tells David to pass by. We also see his pristine cowboy boots when he walks along side his truck. This also adds to his menace.

Duel is a good film, the chase scenes are perfectly filmed, the screams of the engines and the different camera angles all add to the excitement. All of this equals one of Spielberg’s best films.

7.8/10

Check out the trailer here:

Skyfall Review

Release Date: 26 October 2012

Age Certificate: 12A

Running Time: 143 mins

Director: Sam Mendes

Writers: Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and John Logan

Stars: Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem and Judi Dench

Bond is back with a bang. Skyfall needed to wash the minds of the public from the abomination, Quantum of Solace. Skyfall stood taller than my expectations; I was so delighted to sit through the 2hours and 23 minutes of nonstop Bond action.

With Skyfall comes, cars, violence, girls and above all a great villain. Javier Bardem gets the honour of playing a Bond baddy, and well, he certainly performs. He is memorable from start to finish, unlike his predecessors, from Quantum of Solace and Casino Royale. The audience actually feels that Bond is tested with Javier, Bond is off form and definitely not at his peak due to what happens to him at the start of the film.

As for the acting, both of them where astounding and as always Judi Dench is amazing. The acting is just one thing that fits this action packed thriller together. The action scenes are tense, the script is good and finally the directing is astounding. Sam Mendes can direct a film, that’s for sure. Every shot is like a painting, they are beautiful.

Javier Bardems villain, Silva, is connected to M, I’m not going to say why, but this tests Bond’s loyalty to her. This finally adds heart filled emotion into a Bond film, which is a pleasant change. Another surprise is that it actually has a story to it; most times you sit down to watch a Bond film it’s just a bit of fun, whereas Skyfall, is a proper feature film.

Skyfall is astounding from start to finish; this is the best Bond film. It was certainly worth fifty years of waiting.

8.75/10

'Let the sky fall':

Looper Review

Release Date: 28 September 2012

Age Certificate: 15

Running Time: 119 mins

Director: Rian Johnson 

Writers: Rian Johnson

Stars: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis and Emily Blunt

In the year 2074, some sort of tracking technology has made it virtually impossible to dispose of bodies secretly, so they send the target thirty years into the past. This is where a hired assassin awaits, these people are called Loopers. But the last thing a Looper wants is for the gangsters to close the loop. This means they have to transport the Loopers future self back into the past where they have to kill them like any other target.

The film is a unique twist on a usual time travel film, I like that. It’s only once in a blue moon that an odd film is great. But unfortunately, the film did not seem to click together, something wasn't there, something I can’t really place my finger on.

But first, let us start with the positives then I will point out the things I did not enjoy. When Joseph Gordon-Levitt first popped up onto the screen, he seemed like a man with a tad too much make up on his face. I had to get used to this. He is one of my favorite actors, and he did not disappoint, his performance was the best in the film. Joseph’s life still holds much more. The defining moment in this film was when two versions of the same man discuss time paradoxes over a dinner table. The film is just full of acting masterpieces; this was the best attribute about the film.

A disappointing thing about the making of Looper is that it had a tiny budget of what it was trying to achieve ($30,000,000), when you look on the scale of high end sci-fi, Inception had a budget of $160,000,000; Looper is blown out of the water, it’s minuscule  You could see they had to make cut backs because one minute he was driving an old Mazda, the next he was on a futuristic hover bike.

Another downside of the film is that if the gangsters from 2074 can send the target anywhere in the world, why would they send them to a Looper. Why not just cut out the middle man; zap them in a volcano or in the middle of the sea. These little floors just annoy me in a film, I want to go home and not think ‘hang on...’

Looper is far from perfect; the main thing holding it up is were its acting performances and directing. It had good intentions but fell flat. It was my most highly anticipated film of the year, for it to slap me in the face was very disappointing. 

7.5/10

Play this on loop:

Ted Review

Release Date: 1 August 2012

Age Certificate: 15

Running Time: 106 mins

Director: Seth MacFarlane

Writers: Seth MacFarlane

Stars: Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis and Seth MacFarlane

Ted is directed by Seth MacFarlane and it stars Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis and Seth MacFarlane as Ted. When Mark was a little boy at Christmas he received a teddy bear and he wished for his big cuddly teddy to come alive so they could be the best of friends. This was because Mark didn’t have many friends at that time in his life (the voice over for the beginning of the film was Patrick Stewart, which I found kind of cool). In the morning the teddy comes to life and has a cute voice and every time you squeeze him he said, “I love you.” The film then skips thirty or so years later and Ted and Mark have become ‘big boys’ smoking pot and drinking booze, nothing says the best of friends like that. The idea of the film is that Mark still loves his teddy bear at the age of 35. But the only thing bridging a gap between the two guys is Mila Kunis, Marks girlfriend. So somebody has to go, the bear or the girl.

This film was directed by Seth MacFarlane, who is the creator of Family Guy, so you know it’s going to be funny and have links to his popular animated series. I found the film amusing and I liked the story. There were some hilarious moments in this film. Most of the laughs came from racism, sexism and just darn rudeness, but that’s what you have to love about Seth. Mark Wahlberg made it look like he had a great relationship between the bear and himself. This takes great talent to make the audience believe you’re the best of buddy’s with a toy. Another thing Seth brings into this film is the links to the 80's and 90's and if you were around in those decades you will get a lot out of this film.

I liked this film, it was a bit crappy in parts but with the lay out like Family Guy, it’s going to be funny. This is definitely comedy of the summer.

7.5/10

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:

Brick Review

Release Date: 12 May 2006

Age Certificate: 15

Running Time: 110 mins

Director: Rian Johnson

Writers: Rian Johnson

Stars: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Lukas Haas and Emilie de Ravin

Brick in my opinion is one of the most under rated films...EVER! Brick stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt, before he was becoming well known and this film betrays the true talent he possesses. And this is one heck of a film to get yourself noticed, I am talking about the director Rian Johnson, he wrote and directed this film. The film is about when Joseph gets in touch with his old girlfriend and finds out she is in bit of a pickle. She then turns out dead, so he takes it amongst himself to investigate what happened. Also, he tries to found out what she did in her past life. It is a noire mystery film set in high school. This can sometimes be an issue because the viewer starts to think how come they have so much time on their hands and can you really believe that they are out there being detectives and nearly getting killed. I thought this until it started to make fun of it, this was when one of the characters mums were offering him apple juice while they were in a really intense scene. I loved this dimension to the film.

This film has a very complicated plot and if you pay attention closely you will be able to follow the story. I love this film, it is hardcore Noir, which I love. Joseph is amazing in Brick, I believed he was worthy of an Oscar, I think he deserves it for this film and 50/50 (which I have also reviewed). If you have not seen this masterpiece I insist you go on Amazon and buy this film. 

8.0/10

Brick trailer here:

Chronicle Review

Release Date: 01 February 2012

Age Certificate: 12A

Running Time: 84 mins

Director: Josh Trank

Writers: Max Landis

Stars: Dane DeHaan, Alex Russell and Michael B. Jordan

Yet another found footage film, before I laid my eyes on this feature film I thought it was going to be the same old stuff. But this film actually manages to make it a good film. When I saw the trailer I decided it was going to be yet another terrible film or it could be a rare surprise. Chronicle is about three guys who find a meteor alien thing at a high school party. This thing then gives them wonderful powers. I believe this is a great concept because it tries to betray what school boys would actually do with powers.

The thing what used to really annoy me about the found footage genre was that the person would have stopped filming all of the crazy happenings going on around them. But this film shows that the main character, who is abused by his step dad and is bullied in school wants to document his life with these powers. I think the film does this really well. I enjoy how the director has made this character able to control the camera with telekinesis, this enables the camera to be steady and not constantly shaking and not making the viewer feel sick. It also gets inventive camera shots which added a new depth to the film.

The finale is somewhat ridiculous. Throughout the film you knew that this tormented kid was going to burst out and unleash his powers. When he does it bursts out in to amazing special effects but I can’t help saying it was crazy and stupid but it was fun.

This was a great superhero film which has come out of nowhere.

7.2/10

Pow! trailer right here: