Dreamworks newest animated outing held a lot of promise in my mind, from a promising trailer showing some gorgeous landscapes, colourful creatures and good laughs. Yet while these are present, it didn’t play out as well as I’d hoped. The Croods are a prehistoric caveman family and the father, Grug (Nicolas Cage) protects them by being overly paranoid…
Review: Battleship
Battleship? More like a Sub… …with ham and cheese! Am I right? Following the success of the Transformers film franchise, Hasbro runs its finger down the index of toy licenses they own and inexplicably land on the Battleship board game. The film follows a young man drafted into the Navy in a bid to get…
Review: XXX2 – State of the Union
I had the unfortunate situation of watching one of my favourite television channels all day only for them to put this on. Good god. So I can vaguely remember seeing Vin Diesel’s XXX in the cinema, and what I recall was a brazen attempt at a bigger, bolder, American version of James Bond (it even…
Saga Review: The Fast and the Furious
Oh dear, what have I got myself into now? So, The Fast and the Furious was a niche film that really hit the culture of street racing on the head; it had average-to-good character driven elements and excellent stunt and vehicle work for a single film. So naturally Hollywood had to milk it to the…
Review: Modern Times
Incredible how a film made in 1936 can have so much social and economical subtext in “modern times”! Charlie Chaplin plays a gormless but talented man working a repetitive job in a factory, only for a nervous breakdown to cause him losing his position, only to wind up in jail over a misunderstanding! But before…
Review: The Wizard of Oz
Having seen Oz the Great and Powerful I was inspired to go back and re-watch the two other films based off L. Frank Baum’s books, the famous 1939 MGM classic and the underrated Disney sequel from the 1980s! The Wizard of Oz (1939) An eternally timeless classic, forever referenced and loved. Personally, I have some…
Review: Quiz Show
The first film I’ve seen that was directed by Robert Redford, Quiz Show is rightfully regarded as one of his best. Based off a true story, the film follows the ethical minefield of a quiz show at the advent of television that encouraged its contestants to cheat by giving them the answers ahead of time….
Saga Review: Die Hard
For me the Die Hard series began with the third film, Die Hard with a Vengeance, mostly because I was eleven when it came out, then television showed it later with a censored cut. It would be a little while before the first two would be brought to my attention! So what can you say…
Review: Lincoln
Steven Spielberg is probably the only man who could take a subject matter as dry as politics and as well known as Lincoln’s victory over the 13th amendment and make it worth watching for over one-hundred and fifty minutes. Daniel Day Lewis gives a powerhouse performance as the United States sixteenth President as he deals…
Review: Django Unchained
After seeing Django Unchained it is a wonder why it took Quintin Tarantino so long to make a Western! Set in 1858, “two years before the Civil War” we follow the slave named Django (Jamie Foxx) when he is freed by a German bounty hunter (Christoph Waltz) who needs him in identifying some of his…