THIS PAGE WILL HOLD ARCHIVED MOVIE REVIEWS FOR FILMS BEGINNING WITH J - L. 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.
JUMPER
The first time I'd heard anything about this film was on the radio... it was a radio ad, so didn't have the aid of pictures... obviously, wasn't sure from what I was hearing that I'd want to see this film, then I heard the line that sold it to me... "There are always consequences".... it wasn't the actual words... it was the fact that the words were said by Samuel L Jackson and I do like a film with Mr Jackson in it, especially if there is a chance he could be delivering a speech.... he never did complete that speech in Deep Blue Sea, anyway I digress.... so having established I wanted to see this film, I got round to seeing it a few days back.
The premise of the film is that a schoolboy loner, "David Rice", gets embarrassed in front of the school girl he wants to get with and ends up falling through a frozen lake and this causing him to find out he has the power to teleport where ever he wants to. The film jumps eights years and you see him as a young man with a finely tuned teleporting skill, but he finds out he isn't the only teleporter.. or Jumper and along with finding that out, he finds out there are a group of people called Paladins, lead by Mr Jackson's character "Roland" whose goal is to rid the world of jumpers as they feel that jumpers are an abomination to human society. The film follows "David Rice" played by Hayden "Anakin Skywalker" Christensen and how he deals with newly discovered threat and the fact he does actually have allies.
Am I glad I saw this film? Yes I am, there had been a fear that it may steal ideas from the Hiro character out of Heroes, but thankful it didn't. Though I am glad I saw the film, if I had a choice of watching Jumper or Heroes.... Heroes would win everytime, and not because Heroes has more people with different powers, it because Heroes is far better in terms of acting. In my opinion Mr Jackson was his usual top drawer self and put in a great performance, but the rest of the cast with the exception of Michael Rooker who played "David Rice's" dad, the acting was poor..... very poor.... despite that, the film was good and I enjoyed the concept.
All scenes with Mr Jackson were really good except one.... all I'm gonna say is.... "London Bus".... come on.... please... but yeah a good film and if you are a Mr Jackson fan, like Sci-Fi are an avid listener to Geek Syndicate then you should try and see this film.
Would I get this film on DVD, well rumour has it this film is part of a trilogy... so I'll wait for the triple pack, but as a one off film, and even though Mr Jackson is in it, I won't be buying this DVD anytime soon. Out of 10, I'd have to score this film with a good 7...
THE KINGDOM
Thy Kingdom Blown Away
When I saw the trailer to this film I was in two minds as whether to see the film, but I decided to give it a watch and I quite enjoyed this film despite the obvious dig at the US government at their involvement in the Middle East. The film starts with a short sequence of clips explaining how the Middle East got into the state it has from the early days of when Saudi started digging water they struck Oil also Saddam's raid into Kuwait and the obvious climax of Sept 11th....
The premise of the film is that a US safe haven within Saudi Arabia has been hit by a suicide bomber killing a fair few people and a covert FBI contingent is sent in to find out who did the bombing and bring them to justice, but alas they become hunted instead of the hunter
Jamie Foxx is good in the lead role and other great supporting roles are played by Jennifer "Alias" Garner and Mr "Entourage" + Smokin Aces" Piven. The film was fast paced and action packed but yet had lots of feeling and emotion in it. As I this was quite a political film and it reminded me of the TV series Sleeper Cell which was quite an intense show, but as this was only a 2 hour long film it wasn't too bad, but it did give you an insight as to how people are affected by terror attacks.
Would I watch this film again, probably yes, if it was on terrestrial TV, would I buy the DVD, it would depend on what extras were on the DVD, as I'm intrigued about the mentality of these terror attackers. Out of 10, I'd give this film 8... it's worth a gander, even just for the beginning sequence which was very informative.
The Last Legion
I have to say, when I heard the radio trailer for this film I caught the line which went "What you do echoes through eternity", I should have guessed this film was going to be as bad as it was... as that line was actually said by Russell Crowe in the top drawer modern day epic Gladiator.... and an epic this current film was not
Don't get me wrong I was "Entertained" but not thoroughly.... this was a poor man's attempt at an epic.... even Robin Hood Prince of Thieves was better than this film
The premise of the film was that a young Roman boy get's caught with his hand in the cookie jar so to speak, but it turns out he in the new Caesar. The guard who caught him in the cookie jar gets assigned to protect him to his last breath.... a horde of barbarians come and raid Rome and take over, sending Caesar to a Prison, where the boy discovers the Origin Caesars sword, which has an amazing power. After a daring escape the boy and his comrades end up in a place called "Britannia" where they search for "The Last Legion" and aim to make their last stand.
Now the major problem I have with this film is that is touted itself as a film based around the fall and rise of Roman.... to the film was only in Roman for the first quarter of the film, the rest of the film was set outside of Rome and there was no real reference to how the actions this troupe of people affected Rome, it was a badly thought out and a very flawed film...In the end the I was watching the film for maybe a few classic lines, but alas they never came. even when the main man made the obligatory rousing the men speech it fell short..... a long way short... even Samuel L Jackson's speech in Deep Blue Sea was better and he never got to finish that speech.
Would I watch this film again.... not if I can help it, quite frankly the film was a waste of 102 minutes of my life. I had more joy holding my manhood in the gents afterwards and staring at the wall in front of me. You know when I said I was entertained..... I lied....Would I buy this on DVD..... Nope... out of 10... this film gets 4 at best....