Wonder Woman

Hello dear reader, hot off the heels of my ever so slightly overdue Guardians Vol 2 review I bring you in all its glory, the one, the only (appearing at a cinema near you) Wonder Woman. Now, there’s a lot of ground work to catch up with here, so if you’ll permit me I’ll get right down to it. Wonder Woman was officially created William Marston. However, the characters original conception and mythology was hugely influenced by the two main women in William’s life, his wife Elizabeth Holloway Marston & domestic partner Olive Byrne. So much so that they would continue to write Wonder Woman comics after Williams’s death in 1947. As far as female superheroes go, Wonder Woman is effectively ground zero for every female superhero character that has come since. Her influence cannot be underestimated and without her the comic book, superhero and movie industry today would be a very different place. It’s also worth pointing out that this is the first time Wonder Woman has ever made it to the silver screen in her own movie, played again by the very capable Gal Gagot and the first time that any comic book/superhero film (to the best of my knowledge) has ever had a female director. The director in question is Patty Jenkins, who coincidently was going to be the in the hot seat for the MCU’s Thor: The Dark World but walked away, almost taking Natalie Portman with her, citing ye olde ‘creative differences’. Jenkins herself doesn’t have what you would call an extensive CV. Apart from the film Monster, for which Charlize Theron won the Oscar for her portrayal of real life serial killer Aileen Wuornos, her directing duties have been mostly confined to television. Sheparding episodes of Arrested Development, Entourage and The Killing onto the small screen. Thankfully someone realised that she is very talented and decided to trust her with a nine figure budget and before you could say ‘go forth and show the world how female superheroes should be depicted’ she went forth and showed the world how female superheroes should be depicted.

So, as always, let’s begin at the beginning. Wonder Woman’s origin story was first set during the Second World War. However, this time they’ve pulled it forward by twenty’ish years and set the film during World War One. There are many reasons for this but I think the main one is it helps solidify the whole ‘we live a long time’ angle and given that the photograph of Wonder Woman’s team, which was first seen in last year’s Batman v Superman masterpiece (sarcasm claxon ahoy),  it went some way to creating a mystery about Wonder Woman’s age. Wonder Woman herself or Diana if you’d like to keep this casual was born and raised on a secluded island paradise called Theymscira. Populated entirely by women, these Amazons live in peace, away from the outside world but are fully prepared to kick butt should the occasion call for it. Just a little aside here, most of the Women that were hired to play the Amazons are professional athletes, including a boxer who I would actively go out of my way not to irritate. Unfortunately for them, the occasion does call for it when their seclusion is interrupted when a spy, flying a freshly stolen German plane, crashes just off shore. This in then closely followed by some rather annoyed German Navy types who are not at all impressed that someone has made off with one of their planes and more importantly, are moving heaven and earth to put small pointy metal projectile thingys into this spy, in order that he won’t do it again. Thankfully, and in no small part down the Amazon inhabitants of the island, the spy is rescued and the German Navy is dispatched from whence it came. Unfortunately and this may upset a few of you, the Princess Bride or again if you want to keep things casual, Robin Wright, gets shot and deaded. This is a sad moment in the film as her character Antiope is responsible for training Diana is the ways of combat and the aforementioned arse kicking. On the plus side though it does save the audience from hearing a very suspect accent that Robin had been using, which seemed to be a mixture of South American, Dutch and possibly Klingon. Having been rescued the spy, Steve Trevor, who I haven’t mentioned yet is being played by Chris Pine, tells Diana of this great war that is ragging across the globe. Wonder Woman is convinced that given the scale of conflict she’s just been told about, it must have something to do with the God of War Ares. So armed with nothing more than a sword, shield, a lasso of truth, impressive bracelets and a very expensive looking alice band, she leaves the island with Steve, determined to stop Ares at any cost and bring peace back to the world. 

And that is basically the set up and plot that drives the film forward for another two hours or so. However, unlike previous DCEU films, and as they say ‘forth times a charm’, this film actually works and is a pleasure to sit through. And just in case you were thinking that if it has Chris Pine in it then he must be the star of the show and Gal Gadot is just there in a secondary supporting role then let me allay your fears right now. This is a female centred superhero movie and Wonder Woman is the leading role. It has a great supporting cast too, including a very nice performance from Lucy Davis as Etta. David Thewlis as Sir Patrick, a rather stuck up British military type who tries to do the right thing but doesn’t always succeed and fresh from Trainspotting 2 we have Ewen Bremner as a sniper with some fire arms issues. As I mentioned before this is the best DCEU film by a country mile. It’s clever when it needs to be, has emotional impact when required and overall it looks like someone over at Warner Brothers may have actually taken the time and trouble to sit down and think to themselves ‘you know what, I’ve heard people say that these script things are terribly important. Why don’t we try and make sure we get this one right!’ Now, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. There are some pretty ‘iffy’ CGI moments and I do have a problem with the ending of the third act. I’ve read some reviews that have stated that it ‘falls of a cliff’ in the last ten minutes. Which I think is a tad unfair. Prometheus falls off a cliff in the last ten minutes, Wonder Woman is more like a stumble down a steep footpath, whilst battling an inside out umbrella in the wind and rain. The final battle is my main gripe and here’s why. At times it felt like a very polite game of tennis. 

‘I believe that’s the end of my go. Would you care to take a couple of swipes at me now?’ 

‘That’s very decent of you. Don’t mind if I do.’ 

‘Splendid, and when it’s you turn to come after me again, I’ll make sure I’m stood in front of something that’s flammable and highly explosive.’

‘That would be marvellous, what a simply stupendous way to spend the evening.’ 

Apart from that small grumble I can and will recommend Wonder Woman as a great film to go and watch. It does have that great musical riff that was first used in the Batman v Superman film, which I recently found out isn’t produced on an electric guitar but rather an electric Cello. (Every day’s a school day). It does have the potential to be the best Superhero film released this year but with Spider-Man, Thor: Ragnarok and the ‘very long shot’ Justice League still to come, I suspect that that crown may end up upon the head of another. Patty Jenkins can be very proud of the work she’s done here and I hope that she’s given numerous opportunities to repeat it. The king is dead, long live the Queen…  

Twitter Review:

A very large step in the right direction. Script & direction work Special effects need either more time or more money.

#WonderNoMore

Usueful Links:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0451279/?ref_=nv_sr_1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q8fG0TtVAY

http://www.empireonline.com/movies/wonder-woman/review/

Rogue One

Hello dear reader, quite a while back and in a galaxy that is many many miles away (Note to self: that strap line has potential but needs work, come back to it later), there was a story about a bunch of trouble making space rebels and their plans to stop a ‘rather large’ space station thingy from destroying like everything and stuff. This story was called Star Wars and it ended up making quite a lot of money. So much so that the man behind it, a Mr George ‘Jar Jar’ Lucas decided that he’d like to make some more films. And so began one of the most popular and influential sagas in film history. Directors came, went and came back again, as did the ability to write anything resembling a good screenplay. Actors got older, waistlines fought the eternal good fight against costumes, CGI was added, tweaked and then added some more and then Disney came along and bought up the entire franchise for just over four billion dollars and change. Now, you don’t part with that sort of money and not expect a return on your investment unless your last name is Trump or you happen to be clinically insane, possibly both. So, shortly after the ink had dried on the Lucas Film contract Kathleen Kennedy announced that there would be a Star Wars episode VII, VIII & IV. After this and once the internet had been fixed there was also an announcement that there would be three standalone films, that would also be set in the Star Wars universe. The first of these being the back story about how the Death Star plans were ‘half-inched’ and then passed onto those pesky space rebels I alluded to earlier. So there you have it. Episode VII has been and gone and as sure as night follows day, for the foreseeable future at least, we will be having regular visits and lots of space, Jedi, lightsaber, kill the baddies, my spaceship is cooler than yours, live long a prosper malarkey all set a long time ago in a galaxy far far away….

(I knew I’d nail that strap line if I gave it enough time)

So where to start with Rogue One. Well to begin with I will say it’s a great film but it’s by no means perfect. It does have its problems, some of which I will bring up later but before I get into the whole who, what, why when and where shenanigans I should warn you that there is absolutely no way on this earth, or on Tatooine for that matter, that I can say what needs to be said without drifting heavily into spoiler territory. In fact, I would go so far as to say that not only is it deeply in spoiler territory, it’s in flared wheel arches, twin bore exhausts and blanket on the parcel shelf territory too. So I’m going to assume that if you’re reading this then you’ve already seen Rogue One and you are fully aware of what happens, who it happens to and why they had to pluck a chicken to do it. If you haven’t seen it yet consider yourself warned and enter at your own peril…

So the first ten to fifteen minutes of the film are spent ‘world building’. We the audience get shown a series of different planets, which have all been conveniently labeled with title cards in the bottom corner. Just think Google Maps but on a much bigger scale. We’re introduced to new people and different characters. New good guys and new bad guys. 

Whilst we are planet hoping we are introduced to Lyra and Galen Erso, played by Valene Kane and Mads Mikkelsen respectively. They are the parents of Jyn Erso, a young girl who eventually becomes the hero of our film and who sets her stall out quite firmly under the good guy banner. 

Galen is visited by the Empire, in the form of Director Krennic. Krennic, who is played by one of Australia’s best ‘rent a bad guy’ actors Ben Mendelsohn and basically insists that Galen jumps on board ‘Project: Killer Death Beach Ball’ and during the course of his complex and convoluted negotiations Lyra decides to stop living and Jyn dips her toes in the world of competitive hide and seek. Krennic then leaves with Galen and before you can say ‘secretly working for the bad guys but making sure that I put a HUGE design flaw into the plans I submit’ Galen is working for the bad guys etc etc. Now, one of the reasons I think Rogue One doesn’t have an opening crawl is because this is all basically shown as flashback. Well to be honest it’s all flashback, given that it's set a long time ago but this first section is more flashback than the rest. But because this film has a time jump in it, the start gives you all the back story you really need to be going on with and it probably doesn’t need one.  

When we do jump forward we see Jyn Erso played, very convincingly, by Felicity Jones. We find her stuck in prison for doing something we never get told about but I suspect is very naughty. As she is being transferred, along with other prisoners, a small rebel group attack and set her free and this then sets in motion a very long chain of events that ultimately lead Jyn back to her father and the recovery of the Death Star plans. 

So what do I like about Rogue one? Well to start with it actually feels like a good old fashioned Star Wars film. It is full of great characters including a fantastic droid voiced by Alan Tudyk and an interesting performance from Forrest Whitaker as Saw Gerrera, and if you don’t like that character name Limpy McLimperson or Breathy McBreatherson would also work just as well. Ben Mendelsohn is a great bad buy and without wishing to be too harsh makes Hayden Christensen performances look about as scary as a Jawa armed with ice cream. It’s obvious from the start that a lot of time and effort has gone into trying to make this as good as they could but this now leads me into the ‘don’t like’ portion of my blog. Some of you may see a few of these complaints as completely wrong or just plain old nit picking but they did detract from my enjoyment of watching Rogue One.  

So in no particular order here goes… 

There aren’t any swipe edits.

For an expanded universe all the planets seem to be remarkably close to each other. For example, when the X-Wing fighters are dispatched to take out the Imperial base that Galen and Krennic are on they take about thirty five seconds to arrive.

The Death Star targeting seems to be as erratic and inconsistent as your average Strom Trooper. They manage to wipe out a city on Jedha without any problem at all but when the weapon is fired at the end of the film to stop the plans being uploaded, it misses by about 10 miles. That said I do like the fact that the Death Star seems to have an Eco or Green weapon setting and can be fired at low power. 

Governor Tarkin doesn’t work. It isn’t far off from being convincing but the CGI still isn’t good enough for me. And as for the other computer generated character at the end, well that looked even less realistic, in my humble opinion. 

I miss the 20th Century fanfare at the start. 

No Star Wars fanfare at the start either.

Darth Vader seems to be wearing rose tinted sunglasses, every time he’s on screen. 

Everyone dies.

Rogue One is basically one third chase movie, one third war movie and two thirds bad maths. It’s a solid four star film and I know it comes already burdened with expectation but there is definite room for improvement. The Emperor is mentioned but doesn’t get any screen time. The score from Michael Giacchino is good but it didn’t leave any lasting impression on me and overall I just got the impression that they were trying too hard to keep everyone happy. This is a good start for the standalone series and next we have the Han Solo origin chronicle, arriving at some point 2018. If it’s as good as Rogue One I’ll be happy. As long as he shoots first of course…

Twitter Review:

Strong female lead, a great character ensemble & a very strong effort.

#DoOrDoNotThereIsNoTry 

Useful Links:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3748528/?ref_=nv_sr_2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sC9abcLLQpI

http://www.empireonline.com/movies/rogue-one-star-wars-story/review/

Star Trek Beyond

Hello dear reader, it’s that time again. Yes, do try and contain your excitement but for the fourth time in under a week, its film review time. Or if you must, blog number 58. But before I get into the meat and bones of why you’re all here, I would just like to say a big thank you to everyone who takes the time to read these ever so slightly comical and dare I say it, informative, bloggy things. I do enjoy writing them and as long as that continues and there isn’t anyone out there of the opinion ‘If it blogs, we can kill it’ I will be more than happy, giving my ever so important assessment of what I go and see on the big screen.  

Now, normally I like to start out one of these reviews with a little background on the franchise, the director or even the actors in it. Sometimes all three, but given that there really isn’t that much I could write, that the awesome public (that’s you) don’t already know. So I’ll just give you a few basics to bring you up to speed and refresh the memories a tad. The Captain of the Enterprise is a lovely young man called James and believe it or not, his dad is Thor. His best friend is alien called Spock, who also works on the Enterprise. He has pointy ears that don’t pick up the Freeview Channels and to the best of my knowledge he’s died at least once. There’s a Medical Officer who once tried to kill Jason Bourne, cosplayed as a very violent judge and has also turned up in Middle Earth ridding a very nice horse. The Chief Engineer pretends to be Scottish and has an assistant that once played ALL the Oompa Loompa’s. We also have a very nice Communications Officer that occasionally likes to wear either green make up and hang around with an angry raccoon or blue make up and with a director that once killed Leonardo Dicaprio with an ice cube. Sulu and Checkov (R.I.P.) sit at the front and do all the driving and pointy weapons stuff and anyone seen wearing a red top will almost certainly end up dying before the end credits roll. Oh and of course, when it comes to the Star prefix, Trek is better than Wars. Lights blue touch paper and retires…

So 2016 is the fiftieth anniversary of the Star Trek and all things that ‘boldly go’, which I always think sounds like having to use the toilets at a music festival. Along with Star Trek Beyond there is also a new series in the works called Star Trek Discovery. This is due to hit the screens on CBS and Netflix in early 2017 and will have a twelve episode story arc that is being overseen by Hannibal’s show runner Bryan Fuller. Not much is known about it at the moment but I wouldn’t mind betting that they’ll be splitting infinitives before you know it and getting into more trouble than a Ferengi in an Acquisitions Anonymous meeting. However, I’m getting off the beaten track here. Star Trek Beyond is why you’re all here so without further ado and further distraction I give you my most humble opinion on what will almost certainly go down in history as the greatest Star Trek film released this year.

It’s Okay. Right, thank you for coming and don’t forget to tip your waiter before you leave… 

There is of course a bit more to it than that and simple describing it as okay is a little bit of an injustice to be honest. This is the third movie in what I’m reliably informed is called the Kelvin Timeline. Now, the first two movies have their detractors, for various reasons. The first film basically reset the clock and with the help of some wibbly wobbly timey wimey bits and bobs, effectively made every single Star Trek series and film, which had come before it, redundant. The second film was on a hiding to nothing when they decided to use Khan as the antagonist. Even with ‘swoony swoon’ Benedict Cumberbatch they were never going to recapture the glory of what is widely regarded as the best film in the entire Star Trek series: The Wrath of Khan. So where does that leave Beyond? Well this time around the director’s chair, that was vacated by J.J. Abrams, has been occupied by Mr Fast & Furious himself, Justin Lin and screenplay duties were handed over to Simon Pegg and Doug Jung. Which is a fairly good base to build upon. Although Mr Pegg’s acting choices recently have been a little bit erratic, he does have form when it comes to screenwriting and you can definitely see the comedic touches spread throughout the film. The action is served well with Lin at the helm and he even manages to crow bar in a motorbike and some stunts for Kirk to show off with. Bad guy duties are provided by Idris Elba, who plays Krall and without giving the too many spoilers away he has a history with Starfleet and feels as if has been abandoned by them. There are other notable mentions that should be given to Sofia Boutella, who plays Jaylah. She also has a history with Krall and it’s safe to say that they won’t be exchanging Christmas cards any time soon. Jaylah is a very strong female character. She isn’t written as a damsel in distress or as a hindrance that needs to be rescued every five minutes. In fact at times it’s the complete opposite and the she has to help those pesky men out of trouble. My only complaints with her character are that she doesn’t seem to have any lines with any other members of the female cast and for some reason, not passing understanding, every time Scotty talks to her; he uses the word ‘lassie’. And when I say every time, I do mean every time. I'm not sure if Simon Pegg was trying to set a world record here, when he was writing the screenplay but it did start to grate on me just ever so slightly a lot. Other shout outs (down with the kids) should go to Zachery Quinto’s Spock and Karl Urban’s Bones. They spend quite a bit of the film together and you can see their chemistry on screen. 

To sum up beyond I’d have to say that the third time was indeed a charm and if I’m being honest I think I enjoyed this more than its previous two films that came before it. It’s certainly a lot funnier and seems to have had more care and attention put into it with regards to the big action set pieces. That said, the final showdown between Kirk & Krall has enough issues with gravity to make Sir Isaac Newton weep. There is a nice nod to the original cast and a special ‘we will miss you’ Leonard Nimoy moment that’s worth mention. If rumours and Comic-Con are to be believed film four has already been given the green light and should be hitting our screens at some point over the summer of 2018. J.J. Abrams, who has had a producer hat on for all three of the new Star Trek Films, has given at least two interviews recently where is has stated that he wants to bring Chris Hemsworth back as Kirk’s father and that he will not be recasting the role of Anton Yelchin’s Chekov. However they deal with his untimely death I do hope that it’s done in a respectful way and it isn’t used as some throw away plot point to help push the story along. Star Trek Beyond continues the franchise with a step in the right direction. With a bit more polish and some tidying around the edges it could have been a contender for five stars. It does come up short in a few areas though. Namely, a bit more about Krall and exactly how he finds himself in the position he’s in far more importantly how he looks the way he currently does, would have been nice. My other main problem with Beyond is that the Star Base ‘York Town’ that plays a pivotal role in the plot it seems to have defences that are about as useful as mud flaps on a tortoise.  

With the original Star Trek films it tended to be the even numbered films that were good and the odd numbered that repeatedly missed the mark. With the new films it seems to be the other way around. So I guess we’ll have to wait and see if the next Star Trek film turns out to be as good as The Voyage Home or as bad as The Final Frontier. Phasers set to wait and see…

Twitter Review: 

Star Trek, Spoilers & Space Opera. Idris does dark & moody and Kirk and co do square jawed heroes.

#ThreeIsTheMagicNumber

Useful Links:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2660888/?ref_=nv_sr_1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tvq3y8BhZ2s

http://www.empireonline.com/movies/star-trek-beyond/review/

Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation

Hello dear reader. Just under twenty years ago Brian De Palma thought it would be a great idea to turn a TV series from the 1960’s into a film. Now back then this wasn’t as common as occurrence as it is now. These days you can’t go more than a couple of weeks, at most, without reading about someone in Hollywood wanting to relaunch, reboot and refranchise a show from the telly box. Recently we’ve had The Smurfs, 21 Jump Street and even the Man From U.N.C.L.E., grace our Multiplexes. However, back in the good old and glorious days of 1996 it wasn’t that commonplace. Movie goers were being offered everything from Independence Day to Fargo, Twister to Mars Attacks and Trainspotting to Scream without even a hint of cathode ray tube being the birthplace of inspiration. 

To say the first Mission Impossible film was a gamble by Paramount is a bit of an understatement. Sure De Palma had a great track record at that point, Scarface, The Untouchables and Carlito’s Way are impressive films but when thinking about directors with a proven record for bringing action to the screen, he’s not the first name that would spring to mind. Then of course there are budget concerns. Throw too much money at it and you’ll never make a profit. Not enough and you’ll look like the company that didn’t want to take it seriously. Thankfully someone in Paramount liked the screenplay, written David Koepp and Steven Zaillian, enough to let De Palma go away and play with eighty million dollars. And that’s going back to a time when eighty million dollars was considered a lot of money. Three sequels later, that have been directed by the likes of John Woo, JJ Abrams and Brad Bird, we find ourselves looking down the barrel of film five in the series, Rogue Nation, and things seem to be showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

Now I went into watching this Rogue Nation with high expectations. Its director, Christopher McQuarrie, is responsible for what is, in my humble opinion, the greatest screenplay ever written. Now I know that is a bold statement. Especially when you currently have the likes of Aaron Sorkin, Jane Goldman, Joss Whedon and Tina Fey wondering around, seemingly able to produce Oscar quality material faster than it takes most people to get up, shower and have breakfast. The screenplay I am referring to is of course ‘The Usual Suspects’ and if you haven’t seen the film may I suggest you do so this instant. May I also recommend (Warning: self-indulgent promotional plug ahead) you read my gloriously brilliant blog about the film too. Click here for awesomeness!

Rogue Nation is McQuarrie’s third stint sitting in the director’s chair. Following on from ‘Way of the Gun’ in 2000 and ‘Jack Reacher’ in 2012 and in many ways he’s still finding his feet. A lot of reviews I’ve read for this film have called it the best in the franchise, a masterclass in action etc etc but I came away from the film ever so slightly disappointed with what I’d just seen. Sure it does have great action, it has witty dialogue and most of the core cast returning but it doesn’t seem to be the great movie it’s trying so hard to be. It fails at being the sum of its parts. The stunts are visually entertaining but even having Mr Cruise stuck on the side of a nice and shiny green aeroplane as it takes off (and it really did have Mr Cruise stuck on the side of a nice and shiny green aeroplane as it takes off) just didn’t work for me. There are motorbike chases. A gun and knife battle that takes place in, around and on top of the Vienna Opera House and there’s also an underwater set piece that anyone who even remotely has a fear of drowning will find hard to watch. But overall I kept thinking ‘been there, done that’ as I watched it. 

Where the film really works though is with the introduction of new characters. Alec Baldwin pops up as Alan Hunley. A CIA head honcho with more than a passing dislike for Ethan Hunt and all things IMF. However, the real gem in Rogue Nation is Rebecca Ferguson. She plays Ilsa Faust, an undercover agent that used to work for British Intelligence. Without going in to spoiler territory it’s quite hard to say much more about this character but I will say that she is every bit Hunt’s equal, both intellectually and physically. She can not only run with the big boys, she can get them to dance to her tune as well. But for every good side of the coin there’s normally a bad side too and Rogue Nations bad side comes along in the form of Sean Harris playing the chief big bad guy, Solomon Lane. Through no real fault of Mr Harris, you can only act with what you are given after all, Solomon comes across as a badly written James Bond villain or a comic character that’s never really made it to the ‘A League’. Solomon is also ex-British Intelligence but has an accent that could best be described as wandering. Solomon never really delivers on the whole aura of menace thing that is almost a contractual obligation these days when it comes to bad guys. This is partly down to a haircut that looks like it was done at home in front of a mirror and a wardrobe selection that looks like he got dressed in the dark. I got the feeling that Mr Lane would have looked and felt more at home in an episode of ‘The Great British Bake Off’ than running an international crime consortium. Which leads me to another big problem I have with the film. 

The organisation that Solomon runs is called ‘The Syndicate’ and again without giving to much away is basically a branch of the Civil Service with muscle.  This muscle also has access to money, which it uses to help fund terrorists, wrong doers and anyone else who has a vested interest in sponsored violence (Scouts, Salvation Army, Mothercare, etc). But as a premise it just doesn’t work. The plot of the film revolves around the Syndicate needing to get its hands on a computer thingy that will give them access to virtually unlimited funds. However, the British PM is the only one who can activate the computer to release these funds. This requires a voice print and about nineteen other levels of security that have to be cleared. But of course that’s why these films are called Mission Impossible. 

On the whole it Rogue Nation isn’t a bad film but it’s certainly not the best of the franchise either. I enjoyed watching the fourth instalment ‘Ghost Protocol’ a lot more than this offering but it’s still head and shoulders above John Woo’s Mission Impossible II. That is not an easy watch and even forgiving the obligatory doves (why are there always doves in John Woo films?) It has Tom Cruise with long hair, a convoluted love story with Thandie Newton and more continuity errors than you can shake a stick at.  

As I touched on before the majority of the core cast have returned here, Including Jeremy Renner as William Brandt and Simon Pegg as Benji Dunn. Both of whom carry the films lighter and comedic touches very well. Renner isn’t given a lot to do here apart from wear a suit and keep Hunley from capturing Hunt. Benji on the other hand is far more hands on in this film than he has been in his previous two outings. Honourable mentions should also go out to Tom Hollander and to Simon McBurney who help move the plot along as and when required and in closing I’ll say this. Rogue Nation almost certainly won’t be the last we ever see of Ethan Hunt and his crew. As long as the franchise continues to make money Paramount will always have a vested interest in green lighting sequels.  My concern is that in order to keep the public interested that they’ll insist on going for bigger stunts and more incredible plots, so don’t be too surprised if you read in the not too distant future that Tom Cruise has been killed falling off the moon. He’s just crazy enough to try it…

Twitter Review:

Rogue Nation, Rogue plot, Rogue common sense. Great to look at but smoke and mirrors will only get you so far...

#GetMaskWearMaskFly

Useful links:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2381249/?ref_=nv_sr_1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmC6rZyByzk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afS5ks54tms

http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/review.asp?FID=138768

The Expendables 2

Let me set the scene. Its 2009 and its dawning on Sylvester Stallone that his days of making money from Rambo and Rocky franchises that he has spearheaded for the last thirty years maybe behind him. So what to do next? The answer to that question was a simple one. Put together a cast of action film icons and go make the best “leave your brain at the door” film possible.
So with that as its premise and starting point Stallone went away and put together a film that he also ended up directing, which included Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lungren, Randy Couture, Steve Austin, Terry Crews, Bruce Willis, Mickey Rourke and the terminator himself Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The film became The Expendables and basically it did exactly what it said on the tin. Lots of bang for your buck, an extremely high body count and enough blood on screen to fill about three Olympic size swimming pools.

The film, although never regarded as a classic in the grand scheme of things, made enough money for the studio behind it to start asking questions that went along the lines of “do you fancy making another one?” and “oh go on, pretty please”. Stallone, having recently checked his new and plumped up bank balance, didn’t have any issues putting the band back together and with the exception of Rourke everyone agreed to come back.
Having broken his neck in the first film Stallone and by his own admission, had taken too much on. So he decided to hand the megaphone duties over to the more than capable Simon West.
This freed Stallone up to come up with a screenplay that needed to be bigger and louder than the first. To say that he didn’t disappoint would be something of an understatement but more of that later.

With Rouke bailing on the sequel Stallone needed some new blood to join the party. Firstly he got Liam Hemsworth, who’s the younger brother of Thor for those of you not in the know. Just don’t expect to see him in the third film as and when that gets made (and it will). Then he persuaded the muscles from Brussels to sign on the dotted line. Jean-Claude Van Dam plays against type as the villain of the piece and what a job he does. Happily sending himself up at every available opportunity. The real trump card for this sequel though has to be the inclusion of Chuck Norris, who seemingly never looks like he ages at all. Norris has for a long time had a “legend” tag that he seems to follow him around and is something he appears more than happy to live up too. If you have five minutes to spare I urge you to head over to chucknorrisfacts.com . It’ll keep you amused for hours!

So let’s get back to that to that screenplay that Mr Stallone put together. The premise of the film is that JCVD is about to get his hands on six tonnes of old Russian cold war Plutonium and the CIA can't let that happen! Put simply this screenplay is appalling! It’s so far past bad it’s ridiculous. It doesn’t hold together in any way shape or form and I think the plot may have been asked to go away politely for a while whilst filming was under way. As for the filming itself, it’s preposterous. So full of continuity errors that I stopped counting after twenty minutes and it makes about as much sense as cheese socks.
That said, I LOVED IT!!! Every gloriously ham acted scene, every absurd and over the top death and illogical decision being made. I sat in the cinema for the entire duration of the film with the largest smile on my face. This may well be the first fan fiction film that has ever been green light and could also be the world’s first one star “must see” action film and although they do get far more screen time for this film it seems the only reason Bruce and Arnold were asked to come back was to commit each other’s trade mark catchphrases to celluloid with their tongue’s both fully inserted into their respective cheeks.

Given the fact that this film seems to have come up trumps and at the box office I can only imagine it’s a matter of time before Stallone receives another phone call begging for him to sit down and write another screenplay that pushes the boundaries of thought, perception and human understanding. But the problem he’ll have is this. How do you trump what’s already come before it? How do you make it bigger and better without actually turning up to the White House and saying “would you mind if we actually invaded Canada”?
And then of course there’s the other issue of who can you ask you be in it that hasn’t already been included. Other than Jackie Chan and Steven Segal there’s no other way to top the action cast list that’s already been put together. I would however suggest that if they do have a meeting where they try to come up with which actors to include, they should think outside the box a little just to keep the ideas fresh and original. An action flick that included the likes of Woody Allen, Ronnie Corbett or even Pingu is a film I’d pay to see!

Twitter Review:
Expendables 2 is a crime against film. No plot, no continuity, no point & for those exact reasons you have to go & see it!
#AMustSeeFilm

Useful Links:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1764651/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQf3YP8p85I