2010 was a tough, tough year to rate films; so many excellent films, it remains the most memorable year for me. Inception won out, but even with Tron Legacy and Toy Story 3, How to Train your Dragon came a very, very tight second behind Christopher Nolan’s mind-warping thriller. Even now… I question that choice:…
Review: Maleficent (2D)
Is there any better example of missing the point than this? Maleficent: “I am the Queen of All Evil” – Sleeping Beauty 1959. Now, Maleficent is a Paragon of True Love. When the realm of fairies and the world of humans fall into war, Maleficent, one of the most powerful of fairies, strives to protect her…
Review: Sleeping Beauty
Possibly the definition of style-over-substance, I can barely explain why I love this film above all other Disney films… It almost ditches everything narrative to provide one of the greatest villains of all time. For me the film is hardwired: I love it. The story is as simple as they come. When Princess Aurora is…
Review: Pain and Gain
You actually have to remind yourself this is a Michael Bay movie. Mark Wahlberg is Daniel Lugo, a bodybuilder and fitness trainer who, inspired by little more than movies, brings together two equally dimwitted friends in a bid to attain his American Dream. How? By kidnapping a man and stealing all of his money. But…
Review: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2
I really enjoyed the first Cloudy movie, and was sad that I never got around to seeing this sequel in the cinema. Now I can say that while it doesn’t quite live up to the quirky original, it is full of some of the most silly, most adorable food animals! Following on directly from the…
Review: The Family
A funny, if a little glib, black comedy from one of my favourite directors Luc Besson. Giomatti Manzoni (Robert De Niro) is a husband and father and once respected head of an American mafia clan, only now he and his family find themselves relocated to France under a witness protection scheme. While mafia hitmen look…
Saga Review: X-Men (2000 – 2016)
I love my X-Men movies, but it shouldn’t be any surprise to Cinema Cocoa readers that I did not follow the comics… in fact these films were all I knew about them! Let’s not waste any more time, we have six films to go through! X-Men (2000) You know what worries me the most about…
Review: Insidious – Chapter 2
Oh James Wan… no matter how hard you try you still aren’t convincing any scares out of me. Following the events of the first film, Chapter 2 follows the Lambert family as they attempt to leave the horrors behind by moving into father Josh Lambert’s old home. But when they do it is apparent something…
Review: Godzilla (2014)
I didn’t like my first attempt at reviewing Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla, it was too much of a rant for my tastes, so I took the time to watch the film again. It really has been 2014’s most divisive film yet and I wanted to be sure of my original opinion (You can’t say I’m not…
Remake Rumble Review: Godzilla
It is ironic that people today moan about action movies having ten, twenty minutes of solid action and destruction; little do they realise that films have been doing this for decades! This is something of a Remake Rumble as well as a saga review. The original Gojira, an American release of the same film Godzilla:…