ONE PARAGRAPH REVIEW: In Bruges

Howdy ladies and gents, time for another quick review and today I’m talking about In Bruges. So this is a film I’ve been meaning to watch for a while now, I’ve not only heard a lot about it via some film critics/fans I follow online, but also from my mate at uni who told me to check it out back in 2012 or 2013. So is this film a good watch or not? Well read on and find out! 😀

The plot can be summed up as the following: “Guilt-stricken after a job gone wrong, hitman Ray and his partner await orders from their ruthless boss in Bruges, Belgium, the last place in the world Ray wants to be.” I have to say that was engaged from the beginning due to the fact that I not only liked the two main actors but also because of their current situation. They had essentially come from a hitman job that had gone wrong in the UK and had to lay low and wait for instructions, and while it wasn’t clear what had happened yet. I liked the mystery that surrounding these characters and suspense surrounding the call from their boss, Harry. While it was fun to get to know both characters and see their differences in personality, I wasn’t super captivated by the story. I was interested but was waiting for something to hook me. And then when you found out what happened with Ray and why these characters are in their current situation, that’s when the film got me. And from there, what followed was a series of unexpected scenarios that ranged from being hilarious to shocking to strange and crazy. I liked the film’s sense of humour, it was dark, twisted and blunt and while not all of the dialogue landed for me, some of those lines were frigging funny as hell, and luckily the humour never came at the expense of the serious moments as it was well-balanced throughout the film. The cast was great. First you have Colin Farrell as Ray who is a charismatic, straightforward and rude kind of guy who I found  little funny but mostly unlikable for a while, until I saw what happened to him in the past and how he acted around some other characters, he isn’t a complete douche, he has a heart and can be good occasion and Farrell was just delightful. Brendan Gleeson was great as Ken, I have yet to see a film where Gleeson disappoints me and the same rules apply here, he’s serious, yet witty and is a nice counterbalance to Ray. Farrell and Gleeson have great chemistry, they’re like an old married couple bickering, but you can see that there is a solid bond there. But it might be Ralph Fiennes who steals the show as Harry. Good gravy, what a guy! From the time he’s introduced via a phone call he leaves a solid impression, and from there he has so many scene-stealing moments with his magnetic presence and his hot and cold personality, he’s cool, but when you piss him off he’s merciless and crazy, and this might be one my favourite performances from Fiennes ever because he reminded me of Ben Kingsley in Sexy Beast. I also enjoyed Clémence Poésy who was delightful as Chloë Villette and Jordan Prentice brought some good humour as Jimmy, and I also liked Thekla Reuten as Marie and Jérémie Renier as Eirik. In conclusion, In Bruges was a film I enjoyed far more than I expected with interesting themes, great performances, good humour, a really nice and melancholy film score and unexpected revelations.

So have you seen In Bruges and if so what did you think of it? Leave your thoughts in the comments below and I’ll see ya in the next review, laters! 😀

 

QUICK REVIEW: Assassin’s Creed (It Sucks!)

Howdy ladies and gents, time for a film review, the first of 2017 and how does one kick off the new year of film watching in the cinema? By watching a terrible film like Assassin’s Creed that’s how! Now I knew the film would be bad, I heard the reviews coming out of the US, but I didn’t think it’d be THAT bad, but good gravy what I endured yesterday was on another level of bad. I feel like I need to rant about this film a bit so sit back and check out my small assessment of this film.

The plot for the film can be described as the following:

“When Callum Lynch explores the memories of his ancestor Aguilar and gains the skills of a Master Assassin, he discovers he is a descendant of the secret Assassins society.”

So Assassin’s Creed, where do I begin? The film is tedious, long, nonsensical and boring. And let me reiterate, BORING! The worst offence a film can commit is to be boring and good god man this film put me to sleep. The film has come minor interesting elements when focused in the past during the Spanish Inquisition, but we only spend a limited amount of time there and most of the film takes lace in the present and all of that material is dull and tiring. Half of the time I had no idea what was going on and when I was following the plot I was questioning the logic and decisions of all of the characters. The plot’s already pretty ridiculous with some of the history and mythology, and the people behind this film did a poor job of engaging you in the world but also buying into the concept of what was happening. After a while I just stopped caring, and I thought the film would end at least 3 times before it finally stopped and if the film didn’t feel long before you definitely felt it in the last quarter of the film where the film felt like it was dragging its feet. It was insufferable.

The cast try their best with the material but even they can’t look good in this film because unless you are Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard or Jeremy Irons, you were irrelevant or used to further the plot. Most of the secondary characters have no depth or development which makes you wonder why they were in the film in the first place. Fassbender probably was the best as Callum Lynch and Aguilar de Nerha, but that’s probably because he has the most screen time, this might be the worst I’ve seen from him but this was probably more so the script than his acting.

Oh and the presentation, so lacking. Visually this film had some decent action scenes, but they should have been better, they lacked creativity, style and the sound effects for the punching, slicing/cutting of weapons and explodes felt lacking. The use of CGI was bad, far too many characters or locations were done using special effects and while some of it was unavoidable, at the same time it felt overused and since it wasn’t very polished, when it was bad it was really noticeable. Also whoever edited this film needs to be sorted out, not only was there too much editing within the fight scenes, but sometimes the quick edits during conversations or certain scenes was off-putting. The film score from Jed Kurzel was just bad, and had no impact, besides one track that I could remember towards the end, everything else was bad.

In conclusion Assassin’s Creed was just bad, not the worst film I’ve seen, but just incredibly underwhelming and unremarkable. The film had glimmers of goodness and utilized the game’s basic elements, but at the same time it failed to bring the best aspects to forefront while creating all new issues for the film adaptation. Don’t waste your time with this film even if you’re curious, it’s a waste of time.

 

In The Heart Of The Sea Trailer #1 Quick Review

Howdy ladies and gents, time for a quick trailer review and today I will be talking about Ron Howard’s next big film, In The Heart Of The Sea. Now I’ve been hearing a lot about this film for a while, however, it wasn’t until this trailer came out that I’ve truly gotten invested in this film. I was always going to watch it purely based on the fact that it starred Chris Hemsworth and it was directed by Ron Howard, but this trailer makes me more excited than ever for it.

Check out the trailer below:

So my immediate thoughts after seeing the trailer? Nice, I am intrigued.

Now I’ve never seen too many Ron Howard films, but I know of his credentials and after seeing and loving Rush last year, I am totally down with whatever he decides to direct in the future and while the subject matter shouldn’t really interest me, this trailer is convincing me otherwise. What we have here is a group of men on a ship out at sea looking for a legendary whale, that’s the gist of the tale, however, this trailer makes out like there is much more going on beyond that. It seems like while there is definitely a whale, it seems like there’s many other things going on with the main character and his crew.

There are gun battles, ships being wrecked, harpoons are lifted and thrown, men fall overboard, ships are on fire, birds are flying around in the air for some reason, two men drift ashore on a beach and there’s someone on an island alone. And there’s a lot more on display, but it just looks like there will be a great deal of things happening besides the hunt for the famous whale. And speaking of the whale, bloody hell, look at the size of the thing! And from the way the trailer is handling him, he seems to be treated like some kind of natural disaster, like Godzilla, a monster of the ocean that is hidden until it wants to be found and then causes madness at sea for the humans involved. I love it.

I love the visual style, it seems very dark, vivid with strong colours, interesting lighting and it comes across very stylized and atmospheric and even though there is a use of visual effects, it doesn’t look like it overshadows the film but helps enhance the visual experience. What also helps is the music, the music helps amplify the visuals on-screen having a slow, calm sound and then builds up during the montage of imagery and then winds back down at the end.

In conclusion In The Heart Of The Sea is looking pretty awesome and the fact that it is coming out in March of next year means I won’t have to wait too for it, I’m down for it.

So what do you think of the first trailer for In The Heart Of The Sea? Does it make you excited or does it leave you uninterested? Whatever your thoughts are be sure to drop them below and I’ll see ya on the next review. 😀

 

Edge of Tomorrow Review

Hello there people of the internet, time for another film review and today’s review comes in the shape of Edge of Tomorrow. Now at first I was interested in watching this film because of the story and Tom Cruise’s involvement. But then when the trailers came out slowly my interested died and I really started to hate that stupid song used in the trailers! So is the film good or bad? Well read on and find out.

Here’s the synopsis for the film:

“In the near future, an alien race has invaded the Earth and defeated the world’s military units. Major William Cage (Tom Cruise), a military officer untrained for combat, is deployed into a combat mission against the aliens. Though Cage is killed in minutes, he finds himself starting over in a time loop, repeating the same mission and being killed. Each time, Cage learns to better fight the aliens, and he teams up with Special Forces soldier Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt) to defeat them.”

The story is very intelligent, intriguing and ambitious. The best way to describe this film is a cross between Source Code and Terminator, and while this film clearly takes references from films like these and others, it has its own way of doing things that keeps you invested a unique kind of character-driven story. I liked the tone of the film as it was serious but also quite humorous and moved a decent pace throughout. At first the story comes across as interesting but not overly engaging, it’s not until Rita Vrataski comes into play that things start to become cool. The only issues I have with the film is that sometimes things slow down a bit at points and sometimes the story can get a little confusing.

As for the cast they are all very good with the two leads, Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt doing well along with cool their co-stars. Firstly Tom Cruise as Major William Cage is awesome. For first time in ages Tome Cruise doesn’t play a character who isn’t automatically badass. Cage is a man who knows nothing about fighting, combat or war, and due to him being thrown into battle he has to learn and adjust and become capable of saving humanity. Emily Blunt is just awesome as Rita Vrataski. Blunt plays this well-known soldier who is well-versed in battle, but also knows what is going on behind the scenes with the aliens and Cage’s situation. I loved how cool, driven and how she is a no-nonsense kind of woman, but still has layers. Bill Paxton is incredible as Master Sergeant Farrell Bartolome. At first I couldn’t properly identify him, but I knew I’d seen his face before and then I finally recognizes his face and voice. Paxton’s character was awesome, he was commanding, funny and a smart-ass, but you had to love him because of his charm and great dialogue. Also Brendan Gleeson as General Brigham is delightfully gruff, blunt and another no-nonsense kind of person and he has some great lines in the film..

When it comes to the presentation it was some good stuff. Visually the film is great, there is a lovely gritty and moody atmosphere that comes with the locations on and off of the battlefield, in addition to that the CGI and cinematography is very well executed providing some really cool and well-choreographed action sequences. Also the soundtrack by Christophe Beck was pretty good too.

In conclusion Edge of Tomorrow is smart film that takes ideas seen in previous sci-fi films and puts an interesting spin on things with a good plot and great central performances from Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt. While this isn’t the best film I’ve seen this year, it was a hell of a lot better than I expected and is possibly one of Cruise’s best films in recent years.

Rating: 8/10

So what did you think of Edge of Tomorrow? Whatever your thoughts are be sure to leave them below and I’ll see ya on the next review, laters! 😀