THIS PAGE WILL HOLD ARCHIVED MOVIE REVIEWS FOR FILMS BEGINNING WITH A - C. IF YOU HAVE SEEN A FILM AND WOULD LIKE TO SUBMIT A REVIEW THEN SEND IT TO Thecamstar@musicwithtc.co.uk
One thing about reviews on this site, please don't put any spoilers into the review.
ALIEN VS PREDATOR - REQUIEM
Someone will die When I heard they were making a second AVP movie, I was seen walking away from the informant shaking my head and mumbling, something like "why why why, don't some people keep some things on the drawing board as a bad idea?
I then saw the trailer some months later and was seen rubbing my chin pulling that "hummmm I may have to go and see that..." face... well last night I went to see the film in question
Thinking back to the first instalment of this little franchise I wasn't holding out much hope at all for this film. but I have to say it was far better than the first one, but it still wasn't up there with the original Alien movie which came out back in 1979 I do believe.... but I was entertained and enjoyed the viewing...
The premise of the film was... the ship that came to pick up their fallen comrade at the end of the AVP, appears to be what seems to be a research spaceship, as it has vats of Alien embryos on shelves....the fallen comrade if you recall was infected by an Alien embryo...the embryo hatches and attacks one of the other Predators, a fight ensues and the spaceship falls to earth releasing the stored embryos, but not before a distress signal was sent by the Predators.... the distress was received by Predator home planet and a rescue mission gets launched... once the rescuer arrives on Earth, he discovers the wrecked ship and is on the hunt to destroy all the escaped Aliens but as always the Alien has started to breed using humans as hosts and feeding by sucking on brains... whilst all this is going on, a township gets caught in the middle of the battle and you guessed it, no one is safe. So essentially this film is set straight after the first AVP movie, or so it would seem.... I feel a third part coming....
It's kind a strange as watching the film you find yourself routing for the Predator, even though he does take out a few humans, but that kind of makes you realise that the Predator is not quite an out and out Predator, as he only kills humans who attack him or are likely to hinder his efforts in taking out the Aliens, where as the Aliens just kill anything that moves.
The film had the usual stereotypes, the boy fancy girl couple, but the girl is dating someone else and the someone else thinks the other bloke is a loser, when in fact it's the boyfriend who is the loser... you watch the film know that the boyfriend is gonna get his comeuppance, but it's all about how and when. You have the usual strong female, the two males fighting for leadership of the survival group, the little kid and not forgetting the typical weasel... who in this film doesn't last long at all.... Oh you mustn't forget the government bureaucrat who has the attitude that everyone is expendable...Though all the stereotypes were there, I'm not sure the casting director earned their money as the acting was pretty poor at times, but you could see what they were trying to do.
I actually did enjoy this film, especially if you are going to compare it to the first escapade, and some people did get taken out quite coldly, the best take out for me was when two people approached the Predator with guns... man that was a cold take down...
Would see this film again, yes I would, especially if it's like a lad’s night in, because there would plenty of jokes to be had... though I did like this film, I would not buy the DVD or even the Blu-Ray disk. I'd give this film an 7/10 for entertainment value, not a bad film all in all and being only 94 minutes not too long either.
Beowulf - 3D Version
I'd been saying for a quite awhile that I wanted to see this film. When you see Ray Winstone's name, Anthony Hopkins' name you're expecting some solid acting... and then with Angelina Jolie's name bring a hope sexiness to the table.... but alas only Anthony Hopkins shone for me in what turned out to a pretty poor film
The premise of the film was that a small Danish village was being terrorised by a monster and along comes Ray Winstone's character Beowulf who decided to stand as the villages champion and take on the monster. Along the way he becomes corrupt only to come full circle and make the ultimate sacrifice. The Film is based a poem I believe.
As you may or may not know this film is actually an animated film and the version I saw was in 3D, or RealD as it's called these days. In terms of a film, when you take storyline and content into account and this film was pretty poor. As an animated film, apart from Sir Hopkins, the rest of the voice acting was very bad indeed, to be honest when you think about the names behind voices you and have to wonder, because I'm current playing Assassins Creed, Drakes Fortune and Heavenly Sword on the Playstation 3 and voice acting in these games is far superior to the voice acting in Beowulf. I was very disappointed. As an animated film, the animation was fantastic, mainly due to the 3D aspect, but that said I got the over all impression that this film was only derived because they wanted to show how far 3D filming has come since 1983 when Spacehunter was out.
The 3D effects, though outstanding, in my opinion there were just unnecessary 3D angles, especially in the first scene, with bodies coming towards the film just for the sake of it so to speak.
Taking the film as a whole, I would have to give this film 6/10 and the only reason why it's so high is because of the animation. Would I see this film again, very very unlikely that I would, but that said 3D glasses have come a long way since the cut a strip out the newspaper. The pair I got, are very 1980's Blues Brothers Chic... As for buying this film on DVD, not for the film no, but if there were extras on there about 3D filming making I'd consider it.
Blood and Chocolate - http://www.apple.com/trailers/mgm/bloodandchocolate/trailer/
When I saw the name of this film I initially thought, it’s got to be some kind of girlie love story film… but when I went to see The Return they showed a trailer, link is above… as you can see from the trailer, it is far from a girlie film…
This film like The Return starts in the past with a little girl… then jumps to present day.
The premise of this film is that the aforementioned little girl is in fact a lycanthrope or werewolf… but she happens upon a non-lycanthrope who is in fact a Graphic Novel artist/writer and he is researching the werewolf phenomenon and plans to release a Graphic Novel… the film follows their relationship and how it impacts on her duties as a lycanthrope.
The film itself was very good, I really enjoyed the film, and it had enough action to keep me entertained, and as a bit of the fantasy, Sci Fi fan some of the legendary facts in the film were pretty good too. I had a few qualms about how a normal person, as the writer is portrayed to be, would really react if faced with a pack of wolves and also they never really elaborated on his past which would give you an insight into some to the things he could suddenly do as a normal person.
Would I buy this film on DVD… yes I would, but it would mainly be dependant on the DVD extras, as I’d hope there would be some documentaries on Werewolves and the like, Having seen this film I may well look at getting a copy of the novel that this film is based on. I would give this film 8 out of 10.
Link to novel write-up is here..http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_and_Chocolate_%28novel%29
CRANK... When I saw the trailers for this movie and the fact that Jason Stratham was the star, I feared it was going to be a Transporter 3 film in the disguise of something new, and alas my fears were kinda right. Mr Stratham is seems is the new action movie star, and being British I guess the Americans love the accent of their new found action hero, but for me the film was too much like the Transporter movies in that the main character was in an impossible situation but with a few timely kicks and punches everything was cool. Don’t get me wrong, Stratham obviously as to make a living and right now these kinds of scripts seem to have his name plasterered all over them.
The film itself was fast moving and fun to watch and there were quite a few jokes in the film and light hearted moments.
A fair few people got taken out quite coldly by Stratham but considering his condition throughout the film you kinda knew there would be a lots of continuity errors throughout the film and there were, but it kept me entertained for 88 mins, and would I watch the film again, well not on my own, but if the boys were round and were wanted to watch something to pass comment like Science Theatre 3000, then this film would be on that short list.
Casino Royale... After all the build up, hype, adverts and everything else, I came out of the cinema a tad disappointed with this film. Now I’m a reasonable big Bond fan, not as much as my man B, but still a fan. To be honest I have never read the book or seen the spoof film of this remake, but that said, this film was set before Live and Let Die and Dr No, so the mid 60’s. It is all about the making of James Bond as a person, but yet it was set in modern day 2006. Personally I had a problem with that, but many of my pals didn’t. Infact we’ve agreed to disagree on whether it should have been set retro or modern. The film itself was slick as all James Bond films should be, and I love the black and white scene at the beginning especially as it brought back memories of the following line... “That’s a Smith and Wesson… you’ve had your six”… pure class... also throughout the film were the classic one liners from Band, that if said by anyone else the movie would slip into the ‘B’ movie category, and become a prime targer for ‘Science Theatre 3000’ I could sit here and reel off the storyline but by now most people with all the hype and so forth will know that. Suffice to say, as much as I was disappointed, I’m still glad I went to see this film in the Cinema and the new bond is not too bad. Sean is still the best bond, but this guy is up there, he was a pleasant surprise and I think he will grow into a legend in this role. Would I buy this film on DVD, more than likely yes, but it has inspired me to try and get a copy of the book and the spoof film, along with giving Dr No another watch.
CLOVERFIELD
I went to see this film one Sunday morning first showing with my mate DD, who is a massive film watcher, I'd seen the trailers of this film and it reminded me very much of the trailers for the Blair Witch Project, I never did see the Blair Witch Project so went into this movie quite open minded about the way this film had clearly been shot... or perceived to have been shot, if you haven't seen the Blair Witch Project, basically the whole film is shown as if it were filmed on a camcorder, which after having watched Cloverfield does kind of give a different perceptive on the storyline.
The premise of the film is that a home movie is switched on by an unknown person, the camera had been found in Central Park New York, on the camera is a recording of what appears to be the leaving do of a guy called Rob, he is heading off to Japan, at his leaving do his love interest turns up and it's clear they both are into each other but don't want to admit it, she (Beth) leaves the do after having an argument with Rob, soon after it happens there is a massive explosion and all hell breaks loose in New York City and it appears that NYC is under attack from something. Whilst the City is being evacuated from Manhattan across the Brooklyn Bridge, Robert gets a call from Beth, and she is trapped in her apartment, so he decides to mount a rescue attempt, three other party goers decide to with him, of which one Hud, is still filming the proceedings. The film follows their adventures.
Having the whole film is shown in Camcorder mode, I guess has it's merits but I can see why some people I've talked have said they'd feel sick watching it as the camera is always moving about, especially when the rescuers have to make a run for it, or Hud has to put the camera down so he can both his hands to do something. But one thing I did like, which was actually bought to my attention by DD, was that, you felt part of the whole film, because the whole story was from the perspective of John Doe on the streets, i.e. in normal disaster movies the scene is kinda set in place before the event happens.. Towering Inferno after the first 10 minutes you know that there's going to be a fire in a this brand new skyscraper... actually the title of the film gives it away, then you got the Poseidon Adventure you know there's gonna be an issue with the boat, also Independence Day, the Alien Ships were being tracked and you were shown this from the start of the movie, where as Cloverfield gave nothing away in the title and after 15 minutes of watching this Camcorder footage you start thinking "Where is this movie going" but bang right as you think that, the disaster strikes, but as DD pointed out, it was clear that the government and army knew something was about to happen because they were there so quickly, but you as an audience were kept in the dark as were the characters (john and Jane Doe's) in the movie, which kind of made you think, how many near misses does your government not tell you about.
Did I enjoy the film, well on the whole I'd have to say yes, it took a little getting used to viewing a whole intense film from a Camcorder point of view, but I'd say it added to the enjoyment of the movie.
Would I see this movie again, I reckon so, after all I do like a good disaster movie, especially when you start to care about the characters, though I doubt I'd go and see it in the cinema again
Would I buy this movie on DVD, to honest very unlikely, but that decision maybe swayed depending what extras were on the DVD. Out of 10 I'd give this film a solid 8 out of 10.
Curse of the Golden Flower… http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony/curseofthegoldenflower/action_medium.htmlSeeing
the trailer for this film bought back distant memories of two classic shows I used to watch as a kid… Monkey (http://www.monkeyheaven.com/) and The Water Margin(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_Margin) … at the time I classed these as top draw martial arts shows, then with Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and The House of the Flying Daggers the whole marital arts genre was taken to another level… well this film doesn’t disappoint. The premise of the film was that the Emperor for some reason which was never really made clear had decided to feed the Empress a daily concoction of medicine for the shakes she was having, but he had added a secret ingredient which wasn’t good thing… when it get revealed that this is happening we get to see the consequences. The film was a whole lot more than that, let’s just say… Suicide, back stabbing, incest, intrigue, Ninja and a whole whole lot of whoop ass getting dished out. As a film in terms of head count and amount of people this film is huge, either that or they had some NASA spec PC doing all the CGI… this was good. As I said to my pals today if I had to describe this film in a sentence it would read… “Massive cinematic escapism about the life and times of a dysfunctional family”, that said the film is well worth a watch. Jay Chou Ywon Fat was excellent as the Emperor. If I had to pick holes in the film I would say the trailer gave the impression there was more fighting scenes but there wasn’t that many, for me there wasn’t enough, but the story line was pretty weighty which helped and thus I didn’t really miss the fact there wasn’t lots of battles or fight scenes. As a whole film I would give this film a 7 out of 10… would I buy this film on DVD, I doubt it to be honest, but if there were some historical extras about Dynasty’s of the orient then I would consider getting it.