Review: Source Code (2011) - Duncan Jones

"Source Code is not time travel. Rather, Source Code is time re-assignment. It gives us access to a parallel reality."

          This was a film I’d heard a lot about when it came out in the cinema, and really wanted to check it out unfortunately I never got around to it, so I thought I’d rectify that. The premise of this movie is really interesting and is full of the kind of twists that M. Night Shyamalan is best known for having in his films, but that’s getting a bit ahead of myself. So the basic plot of the movie is, a US soldier (Captain Colter Stevens played by Jake Gyllenhaal) using an experimental device called the “Source Code” is able to relive the last eight minutes of someone’s life, in this case the man in question is Sean Fentress, a school teacher who died on a train bombing that took place before the films story starts. The majority of the film takes place during those eight minutes before the train explodes, with Stevens  trying to find out who and what caused the explosion as the man responsible claims that the train bombing was a precursor to a larger dirty bomb that he will detonated in downtown Chicago.

          It was really interesting to see Stevens try a variety of different methods to identify the bomber and locate the bomb to identify characteristics which may help identify the bomber; it’s also funny to see him avoid pitfalls he previously encountered and solve problems from experience. The whole movie on the train feels like a puzzle and you feel invested in the solving the problems and feel invested when it’s solved. However not all of the film takes place on the train. Stevens is supported by a team of scientists and army personal; it’s in these scenes we feel unease and that there might be something more going on that they’re not telling both us the audience and Stevens, as they are very unwilling to answer his questions each time he returns to his cockpit after each eight minute segment. Eventually Captain Colleen Goodwin (Vera Farmiga) explains to Stevens that his body is on life support and that his mind is connected to the Source Code machine and that the cockpit he’s been returning to after each mission is just a figment of his imagination, this angers Stevens and he demands that he be allowed to die. They deny his request and send him back into the Source Code, where eventually Stevens’s identity’s the bomber as Derek Frost (Michael Arden), who the army track down and arrest.

          Stevens then asks if he can be returned to the Source Code one last time to try and save the people on the train and then have his life support switched off, which Dr. Rutledge (Jeffrey Wright), the boss of Source Code initially agrees to, but reveals he was only lying to Stevens and orders Goodwin to wipe his memory and prepare him for the next mission. Goodwin instead decided to honour Stevens wishes and sends him back into the Source Code where he successfully catches the bomber and emails Goodwin thanking her for what she did for him, he then disarms the bomb and even has the whole train carriage he was on laughing as he kisses Christina Warren (Michelle Monaghan) the pretty girl who was sitting opposite him on the train as the timer runs out on the eight minutes. Goodwin then pulls Stevens life support and we see him die.

          The movie then flashes to the earlier that morning where Goodwin receives an email from Stevens thanking her for what she has done and telling her that the Source Code works better that they could ever have expected, the date is then revealed to be that of the day of the train bombing, which now never took place. The next scene is of Stevens now permanently in Sean Fentress body going on a date with Christina Warren.

          I really had no idea what to expect from this film when I watch it, other that knowing the basic plot. I was blown away by how engaging the story was and how little the eight minute train segments over lapped and in no way were boring or repetitive. I would highly recommend this film and I’d give it a 8/10. Well worth checking out if you haven’t seen it already.

Trailer Review: Double Feature: Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters & Hansel & Gretel Get Baked

So the story of this film is basically what happened to Hansel and Gretel after they escaped the Witch and the Gingerbread house from the classic fairytale. They become witch hunters and action movie heroes. This actually looks really good and is a great re-imagining of the characters and looks like its going to be a great action movie, I just hope it’s better than Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter was. I for one will definitely check it out when it comes out in cinemas. Check it out here Hansel And Gretel: Witch Hunters - Totally Witchin' Trailer

Another Hansel & Gretel movie worth mentioning is Hansel & Gretel Get Baked, which unlike this films more action/steampunk style setting is more of a comedy horror where Hansel & Gretel are two twenty something stoners, it looks pretty funny and looks like it will be a good movie, hopefully it gets the horror and comedy elements balanced. Check it out here  Hansel & Gretel Get Baked Official Trailer #1

Trailer Review: Evil Dead (Remake) Trailer #2 (2013) - Fede Alvarez

"We're going to get you. We're going to get you. Not another peep. Time to go to sleep."

          No one ever likes seeing their favourite film getting a sequel/prequel, but what they like even less is seeing it remade. So as a fan of the Evil Dead film franchise I understand where the negative feelings are coming from, but I’m going to give this film a chance and if you’re a horror fan or fan of the franchise it deserves to be at least checked out. For those of you not in the know Sam Rami, director of the Spider-man trilogy (the Toby Maguire one, in case you’re reading this after The Amazing Spiderman No. 3) was originally best known for his horror film trilogy The Evil Dead , which while made on a shoestring budget and not getting a wide spread release, went on to become one of the Horror genres most popular film franchise and a cult film series in its own right. Basically The Evil Dead films are held up on a pedestal by its fans and its untouchable, so when Sam Rami announced he planned on making a Evil Dead 4, after dropping out of Spider-man 4, fan interest was high, would we see a continuation of Ash’s fight against the Deadites, but the project never went ahead and was mentioned very little after the initial announcement. Then in early 2011 Bruce Campbell announced that a remake of The Evil Dead was underway with himself and Sam Rami serving as executative producers, opinions were strongly mixed.

          So with the film coming out shortly, have they done a good job at mixing the old and the new? In my opinion yes they have, they’ve kept the more serious horror feel of the first Evil Dead film and built on that. This film look genuinely terrifying, which I hope it is, it’s a bit of a pity to see the humour of the two Evil Dead sequels is missing, but I for one will be going to see this movie and I hope you do too.

Check out the trailer below or at the link here: EVIL DEAD - Full Redband Trailer

Trailer Review: Spring Breakers Trailer #1 (2013) - Harmony Korine

Who needs plot?

"Spring Break forever bitches!"

          Alright I know what you’re thinking, but hear me out, thisis supposed to be a great film, even if it does seem like it’s just relying outthe four main actors; Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson and RachelKorine running around the place in their bikini’s. The basic plot is these fourgirls rob a restaurant to finance their trip to Spring Break and pretty muchjust dance around the place and get drunk in the sun in their bikini’s, hmm theplots really not helping me justify talking about this film, anyway once they’reat Spring Break they get arrested for taking drugs and get bailed out by JamesFranco’s character, who has them do his dirty work. Anyway check out thetrailer here or below:Spring Breakers Trailer

Review: Django Unchained (2012) - Quentin Tarantino

"D-jango, you black son of a bitch!"
"The "D" is silent, hillbilly."

          This films reputation and history definitely precedes it, not only for its subject matter the Ill touched upon topic of slavery in America, but also for the film’s director and writer Quentin Tarantino’s style and presentation. I think Tarantino is the kind of director you either love or hate, very few people feel impartial about his movies, Django is very typical of his style and presentation and storytelling, so fan’s of his will love it for this, while the unconverted will not appreciate it. So as someone who loves his films, I loved this movie, but I’d like to state that it doesn’t just get a free pass because it’s a Tarantino movie; it genuinely earned my respect and admiration.

          Most people will know the basic plot so I will outline that here and try to keep it spoiler free. The basic premise is that Django Freeman (Jamie Foxx) a slave is bought and freed by Christoph Waltz character (Dr. King Schultz) a bounty hunter, who then help Django free his slave wife Broomhilda von Shaft (Kerry Washington) from Leonardo DiCaprio’s character’s (Calvin J. Candie) plantation “Candyland”. Ok that’s pretty much what you see in the trailer, no spoilers. The film despite being two hours forty five minutes long, never once felt like it was dragging and really flew by in my opinion, which is a testament to how good a director Tarantino is. The thing that surprised me most about this film was how genuinely funny it was at time and had everyone in the cinema where I saw it in hysterics and then the very next scene had you wincing or look away from the violence (a few scenes are very graphic, mostly though the violence is in that Tarantino nearly cartoony style).

          The characters and story are flawless and just beautiful. It’s very hard for me to pick out an actor, who wasn’t great in the role they played; each of them gave it their all. I couldn’t write this without mentioning how beautifully everything was shot, Tarantino did an outstanding job in selling the time period the film took place in and also made the film feel like it could have been an old western movie. And while I can’t say for certain how accurate the portrayal of slaves in America at the time, I can say it felt very real and while it might have been stylised it’s based in a real place.

          I would highly recommend this film to anyone who loved Tarantino, this movies for you. If you’re not a fan I don’t think this film will do anything to change your mind, but you should still be able to appreciate how great the film looks and the story. If I was to describe how this film, I’d say it like Kill Bill crossed with Inglorious Bastards, but set in a western universe, if that makes sense. For me personally I’d give this film a 10/10, it’s a great movie and I had a great time watching it.

Review: Resident Evil: Retribution (2012) - Paul W.S. Anderson

"You two made it... I thought I was the only one that survived. What is this place and why is everything in Russian? And what's with the S&M getup?"

          I can’t say I was looking forward to seeing this film, the series so far has been really disappointing, the games which the story is loosely based off are some of my favourites so its such a pity to see the characters treated this way.

          The story of this film picks up exactly where the last one ended with Alice captured by the Umbrella Corporation and being held in their secret underwater research centre. It’s actually not that unbelievable a scenario for the franchise. In this particular facility, Umbrella have built simulations of various major cities from around the world in order to show off their biological weapons to countries that could use them against each other a la cold war nuclear missiles style. These simulations are filled with clones of various past characters who have appeared in this franchise, allowing previous actors to return and in some cases play two roles, which is quiet an interesting idea. There’s not really much more I can say about the plot without giving it away, so let’s talk about the film in general.

          The story’s consistent with previous films in the franchise, as in not that great and really doesn’t hold up to too close an examination but is still decent, the character development is very hit and miss, mainly miss but some characters do grow and change, most stay the same as can be expected with the fifth film in any franchise, dialogue is its usual cheesy self and is full of typical action movie clichés. However the fight and action scenes are where this movie really shines and can give bigger budget movies a run for their money.

Having said all that these films are a guilty pleasure, judge me all you want. But their great popcorn movies and I can enjoy it at that level and check off my brain and have a good time. Would I recommend it to anyone? Yeah, anyone looking to kill a bit of time, that enjoys good action movies and can leave their brain at the door, it also a great film to watch drunk or drinking with friends, not for everyone though. I’d rate this film as a 4.5/10 not a horrible film, but by no means a good one.

Review: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) - Peter Jackson

"Why don't we have a game of riddles and if I win, you show me the way out of here?"

          To say I’ve been looking forward to this film along time is an understatement, so unfortunately I cannot promise an unbiased review, I can instead promise a fan’s review. So for me personally the build up and production history of this film are as big a part of its story as the actual film and book on which it’s based. This is quiet a rare film for me where I knew the story going in and for the most part knew what to expect having read the book, and yet half the films story was new to me, you could say the story  was Unexpected.

          Ok on to a bit of the history of this film, I’ll try and keep this brief. The film has been in production since late 2007 and was originally set to be two film directed by  Guillermo del Toro, with Peter Jackson serving as Executive producer, development of the film was notoriously slow which eventually lead to Del Toro’s departure from the project and Jackson taking over directing duties. Now as most of you will know the story of The Hobbit is a prequel to The Lord Of The Rings (LOTR), it was originally written as a children story and having read the book the story is very light and doesn’t have the same depth to it as LOTR so I was shocked when it was announced that Peter Jackson was looking to split the story up into three films, as I personally thought two was stretching it a bit but made sense if they were going to tie the plot of The Hobbit into that of LOTR. I think what we got in the cinema was the extended version cut of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing if you’re a fan of the extended versions of the LOTR movies, but can turn off casual/new fans of the film franchise. Also the addition of a lot of extra material from JRR Tolkien’s other works mainly the Appendices from the end of The Return of the King and possible taking some cues from The Silmarillion (especially the parts filling in the blanks between as well as around The Hobbit and LOTR stories).

          So thoughts on the film, as much as I loved it, it was a bit slow and took ages to get going. We’re introduced to a younger Bilbo (Sixty years before the events of the LOTR took place), who for the most part isn’t as likable character as the Bilbo we meet in the LOTR. This younger Bilbo is quiet reserved and stuck in his ways and has very little interest in doing anything out of the ordinary. He is whoever forced into action by his friend Gandalf the grey and eventually agrees to join an adventure with a group of thirteen Dwarfs and Gandalf looking to reclaim the Dwarves lost home from the possible deceased dragon Smaug. This first film is mostly following Bilbo’s journey to overcome his more comfort-loving reserved side and him realising that he can be a useful member of the team and that he has unique skills to offer. There is also a lot of side plots introduced in this movie that weren’t present in the book that while the fill in the blanks of what’s happening in Middle Earth, do little to serve the story except increase the running time. Having said that though, I really did enjoy this film, visually its stunning and while practical effects such as having actual actors in make up as the Orc’s were replaced with Computer Generated Graphics this time around I still found myself being drawn into the story and investing in the character.

          While I think the decision to split the story into three films was foolish and resulted in scenes that would have normally been included on an extended cut of this film making it into this movie, it was still a great movie. The only warning I’d put on it was to only go see it if you love The Lord Of The Rings movies (especially the extended cuts) if you only liked them maybe just wait until its out on DVD/BluRay and rent it then. For me personally this film was an 8/10, great potential but a bit bloated in part.

Review: Total Recall (2012) - Len Wiseman

"If I'm not me, then who the hell am I?"

          I didn’t grow up on the 1990 version of this film, and I’ve only ever seen in it parts so I won’t be comparing the two films, I will instead be judging this film solely on its own merits and flaws, I might do a comparison of the two if I watch the original one or if people ask for it. So let’s start with the basic plot, in a dystopian future: a factory worker, who’s happily married, feels like there’s something missing in his life, so he goes to Rekall to have artificial memories implanted into his head, to make him think he’s a more exciting person, however once the memory implantation starts all hell breaks loose and the machine triggers memories of another life and the movie then becomes one long chase scene as the main protagonist tries to discover who he really is an unlock the secrets inside his own brain.

          Colin Farrell is great in this role as the dual character of Douglas Quaid/Carl Hauser its one of his better roles in my opinion and he plays the character quiet believably. Kate Beckinsale is great as Lori as a UFB undercover agent posing as Douglas Quaid’s wife. Then the main cast is rounded off nicely by Jessica Biel playing Melina a member of the resistance and Carl Hauser’s love interest. The rest of the cast are brilliant with Bryan Cranston as the corrupt and ruthless Chancellor of the United Federation of Britain Chancellor Vilos Cohaagen and Bill Nighy as Matthias Lair, the leader of the Resistance. As you can tell by the character’s this isn’t a typical sci-fi film and instead in my opinion uses it as a medium to tell a much deeper social and political movie along the likes of 1984, but I could be reading into the film a bit much as I personally found the similarities striking and obvious.

          Maybe expanding on the political landscape will help explain this film a bit more, we learn that most of the world has been destroyed by a global war leaving only the United Federation of Britain ((UFB) (Britain and a few surrounding countries)) as well as The Colony (Australia) inhabitable, making space, both to live in and work in an extremely valuable and rare commodity. Workers live in The Colony and work in the UFB each day via The Fall (a gravity elevator/shuttle/train like system that transports people between the UFB and the Colony through the centre of the Earth). So this creates a two tier society with residents of the UFB being affluent and well off and ruling the workers of the Colony. This situation then gives rise to the rebellion who’s plan is to separate the Colony from the UFB, which does sound very Orwellian but as I’m not familiar with the 1990 movie or the original short story this was based on I can’t say if that’s the intent of the source material or this adaption’s own spin on it.

          Let’s talk about the graphics and visuals. In short their stunning, the film feel like it takes place in the same universe as Minority Report (2002) (another Philip K. Dick, short story adaptation) which I like and feel is a nod to their shared origins. The world of the film also looks and feels like it’s lived in, as in the buildings are run down, the props looks old and busted like they should if this world was real.

          People have criticised this film and I feel most of that comes from people who were more attached to the 90’s version of the film will judge this film more harshly than others who are new to it. One of the biggest complaints was the lack of character development, which I can justify by the fact the main character of Douglas Quaid/Carl Hauser is already a developed character, he just doesn’t know it, due to being brainwashed. I’d nearly go as far to relate his arch to that of Guy Pearce’s Leonard Shelby in Christopher Nolan’s Memento, where the character doesn’t grow so much as our understanding of the character’s past does instead.

          So to wrap things up, I would recommend you check this movie out, it’s a great action sci-fi film and can certainly be enjoyed on that level alone, but if you like to explore the deeper socio-political message like I did you’ll find something deeper to this film. So I would give this film a 8/10, a great action movie, with more to it than meets the eye.

Review: Looper (2012) - Rian Johnson

"I work as a specialized assassin, in an outfit called the Loopers. When my organization from the future wants someone to die, they zap them back to me and I eliminate the target from the future. The only rule is: never let your target escape... even if your target is you."

          Hello new favourite film. To say this movie has a simple premise is too vastly under sell the story and idea’s that went into creating this movie, putting it simply this is a film that demands your attention and rewards you for it.

          The film starts by introducing you to the world of Looper (basically it’s the near future 2044, and time travel hasn’t yet been invented, but it is in the year 2074 and is outlawed soon after, however criminal gangs use it to get rid of people they want killed by sending them into the past, it also mentions about 10% of the population develop psychic abilities due to a mutation) and explains what a looper is (a hitman in the present (2044) who kills people from the future (2074), sent back in time by gangs in the future as its impossible to dispose of a body due to over population) and the current state of the world (over populated and struggling to provide for people in major towns and cities).

          Ok, if you’re still with me, Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Joe in 2044, and has prosthetics and make up to look like Bruce Willis who also plays Joe in 2074 and is sent back in time to 2044 to be killed by his younger self, known as closing your loop, which frees you from your contract and seems strange but that’s the rules. The premise of the film is then how your younger selves actions can affect and alter your older selves memories and impact on their life, which makes for some interesting scenes and idea’s but can get very confusing. The movie has a very Terminator-esque feel to it and they do share some similar treads with the older Joe (Willis), having to carry out a mission that in his own mind would undo the reasons for him getting sent back in time. I don’t want to mention any more of the plot but if you like the sound of it so far I’d highly recommend checking it out.

          How would I rate this movie, I’d give it an 9/10, it blew me away with its premise and visuals and the make-up that Joseph Gordon-Levitt looks amazing, he’s really convincing as a younger Bruce Willis, so go check it out.