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Tyrannosaur (2011)
what Se7en is for New York, this film is for UK
OK so you don't get the glamour and intensity as you did in Se7en. But in the sense of a social commentary, whats wrong with British society is pretty much summed up in this short 1h 40 mins.
I cant understand why some people find some of the scenes disturbing, I think they must really be exaggerating or have been locked up in a room all their life. The scenes are realistic without being graphic, you don't ACTUALLY see the crimes being committed, only a camera shot of some kicking, someone moving, never the 2 connected, get the picture? Put this film into context, when America are destroying the world in the name of "freedom, democracy and Israel", we get lots of feel good forget everything dry American comedies and utterly obvious war propaganda films. Either way, I can even hear Americans screaming "no more yanki teen flicks , no more Shia Leboef and Nicholas Cage".
In short, a breath of fresh air to be entertained and have some soul searching done in one go. Great piece of Brit cinema, putting the yanks to shame with their crud "lucky number slevin" and remakes of everything that didn't need to be remade. Miss this film at your own loss. PEACE !
Lucky Number Slevin (2006)
How people can LIKE this film is BEYOND me.
Ben Ghandi Kingsley as crimeboss no.1, Morgan Shawshank Freeman as crime boss no.2, Lucy Cockeyed Lui as the most annoying character in cinema history (Shia Lebeof not inc), Bruce same old same old Willis as the "play them against each other" gangster role. Anyone starting to see a problem with the cast. Anyone who has seen any of them play their previous roles can appreciate THESE ARE NOT THE RIGHT CHARACTERS to a gangland drama.
I half expect Kingsley to come out with some "lets make peace" metaphor when he starts ordering the executions, and Freeman to start narrating some penguin march when he starts threatening in such a mediocre unbelievable manner, I can imagine all 4 of them laughing all the way to the bank as they took the producers money for a half arsed job. The 4 of them should know better than to take on such a cliché script with "I wannabe gangster" written all over it.
The violence is so unbelievable, the fight scenes seem comical, the film set looks cardboard, everything from the clothes down to the props just looks so out of place. It was painful to watch it for more than 30 mins. Its almost like they tried a Sin City type of atmosphere by using cheap sets and unrealistic acting roles. I still cant decide if they used cardboard or CGI for the sky scrapers. Its REALLY that bad.
Taiheiyou no kiseki: Fokkusu to yobareta otoko (2011)
American propaganda.
I saw the words "refreshing", "Japanese perspective" and "realistic" in the previous review which is UTTER tosh. Where does this guy get off telling such lies? There must be an American media machine feeding these lines to try sell this typical American self righteous arrogant movie, because so many have been made, I guess they are trying a new selling angle to make more money.
The acting is Awful, believe me, its some of the worst you will ever see, a knife wound results in instant death, an explosion forces everyone to lie flat facedown in a perfect 20m radius. There are 2 emotions in this film, and you will be hard pressed to recognise either of them.
The script is soooo cheesy, I think Disney would blush. The lines seem to specifically say "We Americans were so kind to the Japanese while we were killing them, we couldn't have torture bases in Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay, Baghram Airbase etc etc" Move on people, nothing to see here you haven't already seen 10 times 10 years ago.
Firefly (2002)
the best sci - fi series since star trek
178 ep of Star Trek:TNG, 79 ep of Star Trek, then 7 seasons of Star Trek Voyager, 7 seasons of Red Dwarf, Deep Space 9, Farscape, Babylon 5 and the others not worth mentioning have left a long tale of Sci-fi history, culture, cults and conventions. And I am ashamed to admit I have watched all of them :). Mainly due to my interest in people's vision of the future.
I saw the movie Serenity first, and later learned it spawned from a US TV series. Being so tired of American Sci-fi flops and seriously STILL reeling back from the awful "Crusade" and the cheesy vampire take offs from the US I didn't actually see the series until some 6 years later! Believing that the movie was the pinnacle of the producer and writers work. But how wrong I was. "Firefly" which incidentally is the classification given to it by the story of the starship Serenity, is every bit the well polished, oh so well written and scripted, brilliantly acted, greatly scened and enthralling story board that the movie is.
You see, Whedon hasn't just written a TV soap opera, the Firefly team have imagined up an ENTIRE universe of culture, religion, politics and history and every character in the series seems to flow with the narrative like one long thread. I must admit I didn't enjoy ANY of Whedon's past work but Firefly seems to be from a completely different personality. The characters are so well played you would be excused for thinking they were actually taken from the future, the way they periodically break into a futuristic adaption of Chinese. Unlike most sci-fi stories the continuality loops and anachronisms which are always a deep wound for sci-fi fans to rightly plunder have been well ironed out.
In summary, Firefly Serenity is a fantastically entertaining continuation of Western Sci-fi culture. I actually think the idiocy of FOX producers to cancel the series will solidify Firefly as one of the best sci-fi series of all time. Think about it. Every long running series has had some really awful spats of writers block where they obviously had to rush to produce a bad episode just to keep up the contract. Imagine the fame and notoriety Star Trek Voyager would have if it ended at season 2? And think about the strong cult status Red Dwarf would still have if they just didn't do that terrible season 6 and 7. I for one am glad the Firefly name is not soiled with bad episodes and dry spells just to fill the gap until the next plot development episode.
Sci-fi fans MUST HAVE.
The Flight of Dragons (1982)
A flight of fantasy to catch your imagination unaware.
If you think this is a cartoon for kids, then your in for a surprise, its every part the adults fighting fantasy that every dungeons and dragons epic was. But its done in such a way that any family member can watch.
The acting and cast is first grade without the ridiculous accents that cheap actors cant shake off and don't seem to want to when voice acting. Its sad that the world of Disney has cheapened the animation genre with over the top cheesy adaptations making monstrosities of classic tales and even factual histories into pop up musicals. Then people discovered Manga which was soon ruined by excessive nudity and cheap sex sells titles. I'm glad to say this timeless "flight of dragons" brings back animation and "art" to the level deserving of mass viewing.
As with all stories, it must be believable and amazing at the same time, without being predictable. You must have guessed I'm a sceptic since decades of disappointing films, movies and cartoons. But Flight of Dragons has lasted 30 years strong, and now my children watch it and everyone I introduced this animation to has passed it on too. And no matter how many times I watch it, I am always captivated by the swooping musical score and the sincerity of the way Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin Jr want to transport you to their love of the books they have an obvious fanaticism to. I hope unlike G.Lucas and Steve.S they will keep their cast of expert animators and artists.
House M.D. (2004)
Just cant get over the BAD BAD acting from Hugh Laurie.
You yanks really can cope with such a fake accent and corny , cheesy lines. WOW, no wonder you can vote for G Bush and live with it. You should know Hugh Laurie is no more than half of a comedy pair in the UK. I really don't understand how he scored with a US TV series. But really you guys are more then welcome to keep him.
I know over there you have one of the worlds worst medical administrations resulting in the worlds worst health care. So I ponder on the possibility that this series is an attempt to boost the bad reputation of the American medical system.
Indeed, it seems like Hollywood is running out of ideas, Scrubs, Doogy Howser and all the never ending dramas about Accident and emergency or the "Law". Seems they know how to keep you guys just amused enough to keep watching those adverts between the breaks and the propaganda during the news. I imagine thats the main purpose of these long running soaps.
Monsters (2010)
It should've been called "Travel log from Mexico."
The problem was people came expecting to see a film about monsters. Goes to show how important the title of a film is.
You start of watching the movie by not really caring about any of the characters or the situations they start in. Its the job of the director to "make you care". Usually by form of empathy or having very good looking actors. But this film has none of that.
At this point people in the cinema start thinking about walking out. But if your curled up in your armchair with some nice beverage watching this without the high expectation from the price of a cinema ticket, then you carry on to what is actually a very thought provoking travel / survival movie which unravels the majesty of travelling with people you meet along the way. The romance manages not to be cheesy and the action is not over the top. I would say most mature audiences will enjoy this.
As I said at the beginning, the makers of this film seem to have missed the mark with their target audience. Because, this is not an action, drama, romantic, sci fi, FX filled roller coaster AT ALL. Its instead a slow paced travel film set in central America, the "monsters" just seem to be in the back ground just defending themselves. I did get the feeling the REAL monsters were the American soldiers, maybe that was the story behind the title all along?
Shanghai (2010)
An entertaining film for the one who is tired of the same old same old
A good selection of actors cant save the fact that being an American made film about the orient is going to obscure the facts and bias the point of view.
Trying to make out that the most blood thirsty, violent war mongering country in the world was a mere pass-a-by in WW2 is non-sense.
Still, its a detective, romance, rebel uprising set in decadent shanghai makes for the lack of facts. Don't expect a documentary, but it beats watching another of those 999,999 type of American movies about American teenagers in American high school showing how superior America is.
Scene: Stone Cold (1997)
A Decent UK effort
This production was never meant to be a Hollywood cinema release, so why are you all trying to review like one.
It was made for the daytime UK T.V. A local station production.
It uses a few familiar faces from Brit TV. which I believe makes a film more entertaining, common actors do get type cast.
The film is meant to be a relaxing mid-night arm chair affair, not an exploding, hormone adrenaline Arnie flick. As such is does well to highlight the plight of the homeless in the UK. We think that it will always be someone else who will take care of things, but we all must do our part. We look past the homeless, the destitute, those worse of than us, hoping that we will never have to come in contact with them. That is until we end up in similar circumstances