While the ending is punchy, the forgettable setup for this racer story is slow and predictable. Lightning McQueen finds himself outclassed by new and faster racers and threatened with retirement, he vows to be the one who decides when he’s done racing. The Cars franchise is probably the most brittle of the Pixar series and…
Tag: sequel
Review: War for the Planet of the Apes
The latest installment is still incredible to look at, but feels a little directionless and even anti-climatic compared to the incredible Dawn that preceded it. Set fifteen years after the rise of intelligent ape kind, War follows Caesar and his growing tribe of apes as they try to escape a ruthless human colonel who wants to…
Review: Transformers – The Last Knight
The endurance of this particular fan of the Transformers films has apparently, finally, run out. It is the end. With Optimus Prime travelling out into space looking for his creators, Earth sees the return of Decepticon leader Megatron as well as a planet-sized menace from beyond the solar system. All that can save us is…
Trilogy Review: The Mummy
Despite The Mummy franchise derives from themes of Life after Death, and that “death is only the beginning”, it has certainly gotten more rotten and dead after each resurrection. Doesn’t spell much hope for Universal Studio’s “Dark Universe” kickstarter The Mummy, the 2017 film starring action hero Tom Cruise… Mostly because fans today covet the…
Review: Alien – Covenant
Director Ridley Scott returns to the franchise he created, and boy howdy has he forgotten how to build suspense. The colony ship Covenant, housing over 2,000 people in suspended animation, experiences technical difficulties in its long voyage and at the same time, detects another habitable world and a strange signal originating from it. Looking at a…
Review: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2D)
Remarkably untethered to the greater MCU, the sequel expands the first although doesn’t rise above it. Running as heroes for hire, the Guardians of the Galaxy find themselves in trouble from all angles: a client, The Sovereign, want them dead, as do the mercenary outfit The Ravagers. But for 80s junkie and all around space…
Trilogy Review: Death Race (2008, 2010, 2013)
Death Race (2008) The remake of the David Carradine 1975 film is surprisingly star studded and overall a good piece of vehicular entertainment. In the heady future of 2012… Jason Statham plays Jensen Ames (“like the car”) an ex-con working in a steel factory who’s world is turned upside down when he is framed for…
Review: John Wick: Chapter 2
So many guys killed! To criminal syndicates and Mafia across the globe, John Wick is a name to be feared. Death’s emissary they say. Before, he massacred a crime lord’s entire operation because they stole his car and killed his dog, now those in power see Wick as an asset again; out of retirement. Now…
Review: The Lego Batman Movie (2D)
Lego Batman is a riotous time, as insane and fun its 2014 originator but not quite as endearing. Batman is the hero of Gotham, he is loved and praised by all, despite him being a selfish, arrogant loner living in a huge mansion, at constant odds with his emotions. When super villain Joker sees this weakness…
Review: Ghost in the Shell (1995)
With the American live-action adaptation of 1995’s manga adaptation Ghost in the Shell hitting cinemas this March, I have the glorious task of revisiting a franchise I so dearly love. Like a lot of kids born in the mid-eighties anime was a very alien and kind of frowned upon deviation of popular media. It hadn’t…