Mini Reviews: Identity (2003), The Bourne Legacy (2012) & The Last Witch Hunter (2015)

I do love a good mystery/thriller! It’s hard to hunt this kind of movie down because once you know there’s a big twist, you find yourself trying to work it out, so when a work colleague mentioned Identity (2003) and said it ‘was a bit of a weird one’ I yelled for them to say no more and watched it that very night. It’s a brilliant movie about a bunch of strangers who all find themselves trapped at a motel, which is creepy enough until one by one they all get murdered.

It was an entertaining watch, and I didn’t see the twist coming, but my real complaint is that the twist came too early, and the actual ending itself was pretty unnecessary. Still, a good movie and I’d recommend it to other fans of the genre.

It took me far too long to watch the original Bourne trilogy, and with the latest movie on the horizon, I thought it was about time I watched The Bourne Legacy (2012). Plus, it’s got Oscar Isaac, so that was a selling point. (Spoiler Alert - That was a bit of a Cabin in the Woods moment for me, doh). I think my fiance enjoyed this more than I did, but it was an entertaining watch on a rainy weekend evening, with some great action scenes that had me on the edge of my seat and a little twist I wasn’t expecting either.

If nothing else, it’s got me really excited for Jason Bourne later this year!

It’s family movie night. We’d been planning for the last 2 weeks to watch Everest together. At the last minute, my Grampy decides Everest looked boring (argh!) and suggests we watch The Last Witch Hunter (2015) instead. Well….I do always say that I’ll watch any movie once. I didn’t even realise it was actually set in the present day, which cheered me up a little. It’s the kind of fantasy movie my 14 year old self would have loved, obsessed over actually, but now, it just wasn’t enough. It was entertaining at the time, but 3 weeks later I can barely remember it.

Which made me feel like a total snob when the credits rolled and my family gushed about how amazing it was. Well, they are the same family who hail San Andreas one of the greatest disaster movies! Sorry…

Review: Fast and Furious 7 (2015)

I am feeling quite smug today, I have managed to watch not one but BOTH of the movies that me and Allie said we were looking forward to this month, if you didn't catch it, here it is.  Anyway, after begging numerous people to come with me to see Fast and Furious 7, I ended up going on a Monday lunchtime on my own.  Aside from a few childish (and somewhat mean) comments from fellow cinema goers regarding visiting the cinema alone, it was awesome.

So, Fast and Furious picks up when 6 left off, Owen Shaw (Luke Evans) is still in a coma and his bigger, badder and angrier brother (Jason Statham) is still out for revenge.  After (somehow) putting the brick wall of Agent Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) in hospital, it's down to Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his 'family' Brian (Paul Walker), Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), Roman (Tyrese Gibson) and Tej (Ludacris) to take him down.  Partnering up with shady Government official 'Mr Nobody' (Kurt Russell) to stop a new piece if software 'Gods Eye' getting into the wrong hands in exchange for help finding Shaw.

I was really looking forward to this, partly because I wanted to see how they had worked with finishing the movie after the passing of Paul Walker and because I knew there would be some sort of tribute to him at the end.  As you all well know by now I love a good weepie, although its a bit harder to shake off when you know the person has gone in real life.  It's fair to say that I only noticed one part of the movie that was quite clearly not Walker but one of his brothers.  I watched a documentary afterwards which showed some of the scenes where his brother and CGI technology were used and I had NO idea.  Kudos to the tech team for pulling that whole thing off because it is really well done.

Ok sorry back to the actual movie. As always, it is filled with cheesy one-liners and physics defying action sequences and I loved every minute.  I was on the edge of my seat through the whole thing, I laughed, I cried (a lot).  The way it was shot kept the pace of the film up throughout, the speed zoom into certain rooms or items was really clever.  There were some truly ridiculous sequences where you knew there was absolutely no chance it could happen in real life (flex your muscles to break a cast, skydiving cars, car jumping through, not one, not two but THREE skyscrapers!) but that's almost all part of the fun now.  If you got to see these films, you know that is what it's going to be like.  If you're going to in there to rip it apart and analyse every last scene, don't bother seeing it, you wont enjoy it. You have to love it for what it is.

I was thrilled to hear that Fast and Furious 8 has been given the green light, however I'm not at all surprised.  Mr Nobody barely had a look in as a character in this movie (I think it was supposed to be a more prominent thread but had to be cut back in light of script changes after Walkers death) but I am lead to believe he will have a much bigger part and impact in the 8th instalment coming next year.  I had a few niggles with the story, it all seemed a bit jumbled and confusing but I think that may be due to the late stage script changes.  I'm hoping for a more solid storyline in the next one.

The ending was not at all what I expected, I think it was better than what I expected but I have to say it was extremely emotional.  I was holding back tears in the cinema, I dread to think what I will be like if I ever watch this at home.  The voiceover from Dom (Vin Diesel) is so moving and heart-breaking, more than likely because he was speaking from a real place.  I also noticed the words in the song played were really relevant, I googled it afterwards and 'See you again' was written as a tribute to Paul Walker.

If you like these films for what they are you'll love it, it's as simple as that.

Looking Forward to Seeing at the Cinema: April 2015

Wow, another month flew by and at the time of writing this, I still haven’t been able to watch my choice from last month! In fact, I think I might have cheated and picked 2 (The Voices & SpongeBob) and I haven’t seen either. Rats. Although, here in the UK my beloved Orange Wednesdays are re-starting in a few days under a new guise, so I’ll be able to afford the cinema again. Huzzah! - Waaaaaaahh I was gonna pick this, serves me right for disappearing for 2 weeks!! doh! You snooze you lose!

Do I even need to explain my choice this month? It can be nothing other than Avengers: Age of Ultron. I’m so excited for this, I’m going to have to book my tickets soon because I really want to see this at an IMAX screen. It’s the only way to watch it! I’ve been really good as well at keeping as much as I can a surprise, I saw the teaser trailer when it came out but I’ve watched nothing else since. Thor, it’s been too long since I last saw you…

Avengers: Age of Ultron is released in UK cinemas on April 23rd 2015.

Well seen as Allie STOLE me choice (ok didn't steal at all, I just didn't make the effort to create this post before she did ha!) I have had to have a re-think - even though all I'm really looking forward to is Age of Ultron!

So I had a look through the listings for April and this popped up:

I shouldn't be looking forward to it but I am, I have loved all the Fast and Furious films (except Tokyo Drift) and I don't care.  I find them entertaining, funny and gripping and that's all I ask for in a movie most of the time.

Plus I have to say I am intrigued to identify if you can tell where they have used Paul Walker's brother instead of him.  I think it might end up being a bit emotional to watch as I nearly burst out crying the first time I saw the trailer, speaking of which, here it is...

I figured you'd pick this anyway seeing as you know, it's 'so superior' to Need for Speed! ;)

  

Fast and the Furious 7 is released in UK cinemas on April 3rd 2015.

Review: Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

UPDATED:

You'll know by now that although I have a few Marvel graphic novels knocking around, I'm more of a DC girl. Understandably then, when I first saw the trailer for Guardians of the Galaxy, I had no idea what was going on. I watched this film the other night mainly because I felt I had to; the trailer didn't excite me at all to be honest.  This is weird, because I don't have any graphic novels lying around and the trailer for this had me jumping up and down in my seat, so when I realised it came out while I was in the US on holiday, I had to find the nearest cinema (and lucky for me it was an IMAX!) - Happy Jenna!

So, if you've been living under a rock and don't already know what's going on here, Guardians of the Galaxy is about an odd bunch of outlaws who eventually form a team who try to save the world.

The team is formed of leading man Peter Quill/Star Lord (Chris Pratt), Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Drax (Dave Bautista), Rocket the racoon (voiced by Bradley Cooper) and loveable tree, Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel).

I want to just say right now before I continue that I really did enjoy this film, so anything that I whinge about is purely me being picky. I find it much easier to pick out flaws in films I enjoyed for some odd reason. 

The film opens to your usual comic-book scene, a heart-breaking family tragedy. Seriously Marvel, can you stop it? Five minutes into this film and I'm crying, I was sold an action packed space film with a bucket load of comedy! A few tissues later though and we're into the story that ties our 5 heroes together.  Ditto, I was in tears, as you all know I am a sucker for a sob story so it didn't take much!!

I loved the little introduction scenes, but Rocket and Groot just owned every scene they were in. Sorry Star Lord, but you really weren't the leading man here. Where did Groot come from though? We got a backstory for everyone but him. I guess we wouldn't have understood it anyway, as all Groot says is 'I am Groot!'. Which provides many laughs throughout the film actually.

My favourite was by far Rocket, his sarcastic humour and general presence stole every scene, maybe a first for Bradley Cooper?!  Still no entirely sure why they used a high profile (probably expensive) actor to voice Groot when he had a total of 2 lines?!  Any ideas?  And Peter Quill, Chris Pratt where have you been hiding all my life (I think it was under a layer of pudginess) this man is beautiful and funny - swoon!!!

We also get introduced to our film's main bad guy, King Thranduil Ronan the Accuser, who wants to destroy the galaxy. I'm not too sure why, to be completely honest, but let's face it, he needs to be stopped.  I hadn't even noticed this until you mentioned it, but there is no real back story as to why this guy wants to destroy the galaxy and himself, but hey ho, every superhero film needs a bad guy!

This film was simply beautiful to watch in terms of visuals, it really was. The action scenes in particular were amazing and I wish I had seen them in IMAX. The humour just never stopped either and I think it'll still be just as funny when re-watched, especially that prosthetic leg moment! Considering I had no expectations whatsoever, I was really pleased in the end. Only one moment made me groan, which was the *spoiler* 'I hope he doesn't realise I switched the real artefact with this completely identical fake one I somehow obtained!' part. But only that moment.  Actually, I had a bone to pick with the ending as well: Why did this artefact that can destroy entire galaxies not kill Star Lord, why is he so powerful?! Thoughts?

I found this film to be an experience, for a start it was a live action movie that I actually enjoyed in 3D (this is extremely rare with me and I've discussed 2 in the last week!) but also because I didn't go in with any expectations.  With the likes of Superman etc as I know the stories and the backgrounds, I expect them to be good.  I knew nothing about GOTG, therefore I had nothing to base an opinion on, I think because of that I enjoyed it so much more!  The 3D didn't make any of the action scenes difficult to watch (which is my usual peeve) and it made some of the flying scenes look incredible, especially in IMAX. 

The comedy was the best part by far, Rocket and Groot were hilarious but they also skipped out of any cheesy or awkward moments by throwing a joke in.  This is so different from the other comic book movies I've seen where they love their cheesy, love in moments.  In fact, the only real serious moment I could think of (Peter and his gift) finished with a comedy twist.

The characters all seemed to get the right amount of airtime and enough back story to make you care about what happens to them, which is impressive with five lead characters (although one is a tree!).  I think I heard there will be a sequel, I hope there is but now I will have expectations so they will have to step it up a notch!

I don't know how to rate Guardians of the Galaxy. I'm under strict instruction not to give out half-points, in fact I had to argue out of having a 5 star rating system, but I'm sat between an 8 and a 9. It was better than 8 for sure, but I've seen better films that I gave a 9. Ugh...I'm going to stick with an 8, and maybe change my mind!  Sorry but I just think 1-10 is enough, half points just make it that much more complicated! And if you keep moaning we will go back to 5! ha!

This would have been a 10 except for my one annoying gripe (see above, spoiler in grey!) which knocked it down to a 9!