Change Your Image
Movie-Fan1138
Reviews
Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021)
Delete the Josstice League
This is amazing . Made for the fans. Well done Zack Snyder
Bill & Ted Face the Music (2020)
Most Excellent
Really had the spirit of the first two movies & a fitting end to the story. Good to see them again.
Cobra Kai (2018)
Easily one of the best shows of 2018
Pretty much watched this show over a single day .
When I saw the trailer ... I thought "oh look they brought karate kid back as a tv show" & thought it would be a parody of itself .
There are a lot of references & call backs but they feel organic & welcome & not really forced at all.
Great performances from the cast & in particular Zabka who brings the most laughs & also you really root for him . The whole good vs bad guy has been flipped & thrown into a blender.
Just watch this show .. didn't expect it to work but it was amazing .
Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017)
This is not going to go the way you think
Star Wars :- The Last Jedi
*Spoilers*
A highly enjoyable movie going experience in a Star Wars gift box .
This is not going to go the way you think....
The lights dim, the certification screen appears ... followed by the twinkling Lucasfilm .
It is happening ... a new Star Wars film continuing the story that started since before I was born & Luke Skywalker is in it .
The familiar fanfare & crawl .. not a whiff of trade taxation routes in sight . So far so good .. the crawl basically tells us what happened in The Force Awakens.
It starts off with a bang , straight into a space battle , Poe Dameron character introduction by brazenly flying straight ahead & requesting to be put through to General Hux & a jokey exchange ensued . It felt like a strange start to go straight for the humour , this movie is full of the unexpected though with a lot of what was set up in Force Awakens answered , albeit unexpectedly.
There is then a sacrifice of one of the bombers lives .. (the last remaining bomber) the sister of the character Rose who we meet later . This was a powerful scene & the sacrifice of her life to destroy the dreadnought is mirrored at the end of the movie by Rose . This battle shows the recklessness of Poe , who wants to shoot first & ask later .
Then we are introduced to the Mysterious Snoke who manages to rag doll Hux through a hologram (he gets thrown about a lot in this instalment)
Turns out while the resistance may have taken out the Dreadnought they were actually now being tracked by the First order . After resistance makes a jump to lightspeed they realise that the first order can now track them through jumps , so it would be a waste of fuel to continue to jump .
This makes up one of the main plot lines & is also the one with most plot holes , it felt like the first order could have taken out the resistance ship much sooner by simply calling on more ships & heading them off .
The first order plan is to simply wear them down & pick them off one by one until the main ship runs out of fuel. So basically a car chase in space where both were travelling same speed & just waiting on the tank to get empty .
The other part that bothered me watching it was the side quest that Finn & Rose went on . Whilst getting chased through the Galaxy by a massive imperial .. ahem first order starship .. it is possible to zip away unnoticed to another planet to find a code breaker , they managed to free some slaves & the animals used for racing ,get arrested & thrown in jail , meet Benicio Del Toro character DJ who just happens to be a code breaker & also seemingly could have escaped himself at any time .perhaps he was waiting there for his next mark .
They can go in this whole side mission to another planet & get back to the resistance ship & then still carry out the main part of the mission which entails getting aboard Snokes ship to destroy the tracking . Phew ... this whole mission was a failure & resulted in more people dying later due to being double crossed by DJ . This whole section could have been cut or trimmed extensively.. story wise it would have been avoided by Laura Derns character , Holdo , being a bit more forthcoming with the plan .. but then Finn wouldn't have anything to do.
It turns out that the plan was to sneak away when they were as close as possible to the old rebel base on Crait.
One of the most anticipated scenes from the intentionally misleading red herring trailer was Kylo Ren training his sights on his Mother's ship (General Leia) He decided against it .. but his wingmen has other ideas & opened fire .
Cue Leia being blown into space & seemingly killed . It felt that it was a possibility at this point that Kylo could save her & maybe begin his redemption arc towards the light ... but no .. Leia used the force to pull herself back to the ship. It did seem odd to watch this but there was no gravity & wouldn't have taken much force to nudge in the right direction .
Questions & answers-
Rey & Luke
What everyone was waiting for . What happens next after Rey hands Luke the lightsaber ... it was completely unexpected , he threw it over his shoulder & wandered off . This isn't the Luke Skywalker we were looking for .. he is old grumpy & doesn't seem too interested in the Jedi or the ways of the force . This whole section draws parallels with the Empire Strikes Back , when Luke goes to find Yoda.
Who is Rey's parents ?
They are nobody .. not Skywalker or Kenobi .. it is revealed by Ben Solo that Rey parents sold her when she was young & were never coming back . This is an important message of this film that you don't need to have Royal blood to be special. It is mirrored by the ending scene of the slaves on the Casino planet using the force & showing the symbol of the resistance . I got the impression that Kylo Ren knew something in the force awakens when he force chokes the commander " WHAT GIRL"
The same goes for Snoke .. all of the theories were out of the window as he was killed mid way through . No real answers to find , however that does make it more real .. the more the characters are connected the smaller the universe becomes . Think Anakin building C-3PO as an example .
The standout moments were Luke meeting with R2D2... it was a short scene but it was instant childhood right there , the old grizzly Luke melted away & he was the farm boy from tatooine. R2 also sucker punched him by showing the first clip of Leia "Help me Obi wan Kenobi ..your my only hope"
The throne room scene with Rey Ben & Snoke . Kylo says "I know what has to be done ..." mirroring TFA scene with Han.
& he kills Snoke . An amazing lightsaber battle folllowed with Reylo fighting side by side & for while it lasted it was amazing . It seemed he was Ben Solo again...
Then the old "join me & we will rule together " happened & they were back to being Rey & Kylo , Ben Solo was gone .
Yoda appeared as a force ghost & it was amazing . It was the crazy Yoda of old . "Patience Young Skywalker"
The whole film was tense and full of twists & a lot of great moments .
The final showdown between Kylo & Luke was interesting as it showed the force being used in a way that I haven't really seen before . When Luke showed up I knew something was up as he looked younger & had shorter (and darker) hair .
I turned to my wife & was like "why is Luke young?"
They had a short battle , mostly dodges by Luke & Luke said ala Obi wan . "If you strike me down in hate I will always be with you ."
The final shot of Luke when it's revealed he isn't actually there on Crait & is actually force projecting was amazing & a great callback to Star Wars with Luke looking out to the twin sunset & then disappeared like Yoda.
Luke must return as a force ghost in ep9 especially since Carrie Fisher will not be in it .
The acting was great by all involved , in reflection it wasn't as tight as the force awakens. The side mission was really what let it down for me , any time that was happening I wanted to get back to see what was happening elsewhere . There was a great scene at the final battle though where Finn was going to sacrifice himself to save everyone & at the last minute was saved by Rose . This mirrors the sacrifice earlier by Rose sister .
Some are rating this as the worst Star Wars film ,lower than Phantom Menace & Attack of the Clones .
I would place this (if forced) just under TFA
Side note Porgs are better than Ewoks
Here is my order
Empire
New Hope
ROTJ
TFA
TLJ
ROTS
AOTC
TPM
Taken 2 (2012)
Taken 2:retaken
Spoilers ahead so beware******
The original Taken was a pretty refreshing back to basics popcorn movie about how far a father would go for his daughter. I loved the original & looked forward to this one. I thought it was going to be the sheik from the original relatives who would be exacting revenge, it turned out to be the sex slave peddlers relatives out for "justice".
OK let's get the bad stuff out if the way...
1.The Albanians speak English all the time.. In the 1st movie he had to hire a translator & important plot point in original hinged on the pronounciation of a certain phrase. In this they just chat in English to save the audience from reading subtitles.
2.I have never seen a stand off in a movie where the character in threat is allowed to make a phone call ... And the call is to warn the other person in danger.. They just kind of stand there and let him finish the call.
3.if kidnapping someone who has singlehandedly wiped out a small task force in the previous movie... Make sure you keep someone watching him & maybe search him and also use something stronger than plastic to tie him up. The boss essentially said to him "you have half an hour to try and escape" we are all going to leave and go upstairs to watch TV..."
4.As soon as Kim started driving the taxi , I knew the movie would end with her passing her driving test. Also she is an amazing driver under pressure , she should have easily passed 1st time.
5. What's the point in having secret agent friends if they never help you out when your in trouble... Surely they should have got a shot in this one to rescue their friend .. Instead all they got to do was eat barbecue and play golf. 5.1 On that note ,he tried to phone the agent friend at the beginning but couldn't get him... But at the end it turns out he had his mobile number. Why didn't he phone the US Embassy.
6. If Taken 3 gets made & one of the sons ends up to be Kim's boyfriend as suggested by others, it will make all the effort they went to track him down meaningless . I don't know if it was just me but the last scene I thought he was going to attack Brian , but they just had milkshakes & didn't seem too traumatised about the whole affair.
OK the good stuff...
Liam Neeson beating everyone up for 90mins ... It's worth it just for this.
All in all a sort of illogical film that was just made to grab more cash... I think the meeting went sort of like this..."How can we make a sequel to this standalone movie that's surprisingly made us a lot of cash?.....Hmm what if we make the main character get Taken this time...? OK that will do....that way we can still call it Taken.. Somebody get Liam on the phone."
In saying all of this I still enjoyed the movie , it is what it is . A reasonable action movie pretty much carried the whole way by Liam Neeson, who would give Bourne a run for his money. (Character not movie) 6/10 for me.., nowhere near the original but still enjoyable.
The Inbetweeners Movie (2011)
Great!
Just saw this tonight. I had high hopes for this & it delivered. Really like the subtle progression of characters. Under all the gross out stuff there is something more important.We care about these guys.
The Good:
Great laughs, the set pieces were well executed. The jokes always delivered. This didn't really feel like a movie, more of an extended episode. Great send-off for the guys as series 3 just kind of stopped.
The Bad:
Minor niggles but was maybe a bit too formula-ish & stereotypical outside of the main characters. you will know what I mean when you meet the "villain" I know the gross-out stuff is what most people will enjoy, but 5 min of these guys just talking is infinitely better than 100 sick-gags.
The Verdict?:
Good , long overdue finale for the inbetweeners. (Should they be called the normals now?) Well worth a watch . You don't even need any prior knowledge of the show to enjoy this. As to be expected the best part is the interaction between the leads & they genuinely seem to be the characters. Lots of good solid laughs.
Go see it now.