Monday 29 July 2013

The Internship

You’ve got Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn in a comedy together, so you pretty much know what type of humour is on offer. The Internship is very funny, but then I loved dodgeball, and this film has similar moments to that – they are the underdogs of Google’s internship programme and are fighting to come out on top. There's even a kind of dodgeball moment in there, mashed up with Harry potter of all things!! Do they really do that at Google!?! It was nice to see Dylan O’Brien in this – Styles from the Teenwolf TV series – I was wondering why he now had hair in TW's latest season! Whilst you can probably guess the outcome of the story, it’s the journey you go through to get there that's the fun part – the ups, the downs, and how you can relate to the trouble you may have had yourself when it comes to jobs. Watching this on a Monday after work was such a great way to relax and just giggle at the end of a long day. I would like to know if it’s really like that at Google because it looks incredible. The only question that remains is, after this movie, will Google take on the ‘older’ professionals as interns, or do they already do that? I can imagine that this movie will now become the essential watch for all those future Google interns before they have their interviews.

Friday 26 July 2013

Pacific Rim (in 3D)

In full Japanese style – i.e. Godzilla versus some other giant monster type thing, Pacific Rim is fun on a large scale. The monsters, known as Kaiju, are aliens who have found a way to travel to earth via a portal from deep within the ocean. The 3D works well for the technology in this movie as we are shown triple layer transparent computer screens that the actors are operating, but other than that 2D would be just as impressive. Whilst you might be thinking this film is all about Robots apparently the ‘Robots’ are really exoskeletons (called Jaeger) which take 2 humans to operate from the inside – I guess it’s like a form of puppetry. It is up to the talented Jaeger pilots to keep these immense aliens at bay whilst the aliens arriving on the planet are becoming bigger and stronger. Directed by Guillermo del Toro of Hellboy fame, it isn’t surprising to see Ron Perlman play a colourful character in this. What adds to this film is that it's been made in a way so you can see and in some ways feel how heavy and immense the Jaegers are, but if they lose the fight they are equally like giant tin cans that can easily be ripped open. Can the world be saved before it's destroyed? Well that’s the mission so you'll have to go and find out! An enjoyable movie with great robot effects for a summer evening’s entertainment.

[Extra scene: there's a 20 second scene during the credits, so you might want to stick around for that.]

Sunday 21 July 2013

Is it a bird? Is it a Plane? Man of Steel

We were all waiting to see if this would be as bad as the last one or the same calibre as the Christopher Reeve original. Whilst it is far better than the last one you can’t really compare it to the orignal. Man of Steel you feel is a lot closer to the actual comics, with one of the biggest longest battles you’ve seen between 2 people. Strong performances all round, particular from Russell Crowe who makes a worthy Jor-El and great scenes on Krypton before the planet dies. I don’t think they chose the right actor for General Zod though (Michael Shannon) – he didn’t really have any screen presence, and his fellow Kryptonian female compadre stole the show. I think everyone who enjoys superheroes and likes Superman will have to see this movie just so you can say that you have.

Thursday 18 July 2013

Before Midnight

Did you watch Before Sunrise in 1995 and Before Sunset in 2004? If you did then you’ll have to watch Before Midnight as you’ll want to see how Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) have come along since their chance meeting on a train in Europe in 1995. Each film takes place within a particular day and they are generally about love and life experiences. Once you’ve started watching them you can’t help but want to see the next one, and then the next - although I wasn't expecting a 3rd. Celine always over thinks everything and comes across a little crazy, and Jesse must have the patience of I don’t know what to put up with her craziness. This is a charming trilogy but would appeal to a very specific audience who enjoy listening to non-stop, amusing and creative, conversation. You do really need to see the other 2 movies first though for this one to make sense.

Thursday 11 July 2013

Stuck in Love

If you watch the trailer for Stuck in Love you know that it’s going to be an art house type movie - strong characters and a script where everyone has a lot to say intellectually or philosophically. On the character level this is a great movie because there are many little story lines that gives them depth and keeps it interesting. Greg Kinnear plays an author who has lost his creativity since the day his wife, played by Jennifer Connolly, left him. Three years later he is still convinced she will come back. In the meantime he is pushing his teenage son and twenty-something daughter to write and become authors. The film follows them through a year, and so much happens during that year both in the kids' lives and in the adults' lives; there are funny moments and tearful moments. Saying that, this is definitely a good one for the ladies and for art house lovers who like screenplays filled with meaning and real life.

Thursday 4 July 2013

The Purge

The premise for this film is terrifying. the World, or more so the United States, is in harmony – practically no unemployment or crime throughout the year. How have they achieved this? The Founding Fathers in the US have started an annual event whereby people can go and commit whatever crimes they want, without consequence, within in a set 12 hour period – the annual Purge. Mainly murder it seems is the crime of choice as indicated at the beginning of the movie with a montage of ‘CCTV footage’ scenes. It's okay if you’re rich because you can afford the security system to protect yourself! Or is it?  The night of the Purge anything can happen and anyone could be after you. A night that really gives an excuse to all the psychopaths out there to go and do whatever they want. But everyone understands why the night is needed!!

When you see Ethan Hawke in this you may remember that he was in a very similar film, in a similar role in 2005 – the Assault on Precinct 13 remake. Barricaded in a police station under attack by criminals who want to kill him. Same story with The Purge, but set in a house, in the future, and he has his family to protect. I thought this would be a hard one to watch given its topic, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought and given the nature of horror movies nowadays this one is quite mild in comparison.