Review : The Giver

“In a seemingly perfect community, without war, pain, suffering, differences or choice, a young boy is chosen to learn from an elderly man about the true pain and pleasure of the “real” world.”

 

Firstly let me say, they supposed to listen to the guy with memories, and they did not give a shit about anything he had to say. So overall the idea behind The Giver, is that at something, mankind destroyed itself more or less, and then the people that were left remade civilisation. Now in doing so, they went, yeahhh all that stuff that could ever make us fight, we are getting rid of that. Jump forward a few generations and we have the entrance of our protagonist who has become the new person meant to receive the memories of the past. So they do this memory transfer by like magical birth mark tattoo, which, is, something…never really explained it however. And that isn’t a problem really, i just feel like they missed an opportunity to give us some more information, and do a little more world building. The actual world building itself isn’t to bad either, there just is only really one place, thats now the new world, soooo, not much had to be done anyway. The performances are pretty good as well, no one really seems to be holding back the film in anyway ( and as my friend pointed out, and i totally agree Odeya Rush looks just like a mini Mila Kunis). They’re all meant to be somewhat wooden, so when certain character start to change you can see a big change in their demeanour. The movie starts in black and white, and where i thought they were going to go the Pleasnantville route, and start to spot colour everything and slowly spread it, they did it in a different and interesting way, which i have to go give them props for. I don’t know if thats how its done in the books, but visually it is very interesting. The end of the movie is also pretty anti-climactic in my eyes, in not so much that there is a lack of a resolution, but there is no really conclusion. So the narrative itself gets some closure, but you the viewer don’t get so much. it left me wondering if that was meant for a sequel, if thats how the book ends, or if they just thought that would for some reason be a nice ending. All in all The Giver is an enjoyable movie, with some very uplifting and touching moments capable of serving up some feels. But some gaps in the story telling and way it ends doesnt make the movie stand out at all.

 

Review Score : 6 out of 10 

Movies that NEED a sequel

So as the title implies, this is a list of movies that don’t have, and i think really need, or should have a sequel or sequels. So here goes.

 

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is a brilliantly done, dark and brooding adaptation of the book. Fincher’s directing fits perfecting with the subject matter and themes to create a really visceral and pulse pounding movie, thats not for the faint of heart. Trouble with negotiations seemed to have have prevented this from getting a deserved second film.

The Incredibles

Who in the HELL green lit Cars 2, and not The Incredibles 2, like seriously….WHO!? This is such a great movie, not just for younger ones, but for everyone. Great characters, great story, great animation, even made a butt load of money, and yet, STILLLLL no sequel guys, come on.

The Golden Compass

Daniel Craigs second entry on this list wit The Golden Compass. This may not have been the greatest reviewed movie of all time or anything, but i certainly believe it was done more than well enough to warrant a sequel. Money is usually the one to blame for these kind of situations and making only 370 Million worldwide means this movie may, and i repeat MAY, have barely broken even. However i still think it had enough quality to warrant a second outing.

Dredd

One of the best sleeper hits of 2012 (with people that actually saw the Damn movie) was Dredd. This gritty truer to source material retelling of the Judge Dredd canon flew under so many radars that it made no where near enough money to get a sequel green lit, but you know if you were one of the few to see it, its a damn good movie, and maybe the original Judge Dredd sullied the name beyond hope.

Serenity 

One of the best pure Sci-fi flicks around, Serenity has a rabid fan base, a great cast, and great acting. So many people want this sequel, or at least the ones that do are very vocal about it, but i’m not so sure if we can ever prise Joss Whedon off of some Marvel property to ever make another sadly.

Review : Let’s Be Cops

“Two struggling pals dress as police officers for a costume party and become neighborhood sensations. But when these newly-minted “heroes” get tangled in a real life web of mobsters and dirty detectives, they must put their fake badges on the line.”

What we have here, is solidly the second best buddy cop comedy for the year, and that is indeed some praise to be had. And in the vein of the aforementioned film, this one has a few similarities. Firstly, for a first time partnering in a feature film, the chemistry between Damon Wayans Jr. and Jake Johnson is really good. I know they work together on a series, but that doesn’t mean they would be able to carry an entire movie. To their credit they do very well to do so, with the help of the always funny Rob Riggle and Keegan Key. There are some similarities in the plot points also, but how much can you really expect from a buddy cop comedy. That being said, there is surprisingly more plot development here than I would have expected, which is mostly a really good thing. There is also a decent blend here of lower and higher brow humour, but this is definitely an adult movie. It’s really surprising how great of a year this has been for rated comedies. So if you’re looking for a pretty decent laugh, from a good assemble cast, with some great laugh out loud moments give this movie a check. These kind of comedies not your thing, then wait for something else to come out.

Review Score : 7 out of 10

Review : Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

“A group of mutated warriors face off against an evil kingpin who wants to take over New York.”

Well what can I say about this movie. Its fun yeah, not like Guardians fun, but its fun I guess. The turtles really are the best part of this movie for better or worse. They were done really well honestly, the CGI and motion capture on a whole was really well done. The new look they’re sporting does grow on you during the movie so its not as distracting as you think it might be. BUT if you really don’t like their look then you will really have a hard time with it. The movie is filled with very typical Bay humour even though he didn’t direct, only produce, but still they’re there. Also this movie is very much devoid of a real plot, and real story telling. Everything is done through the most plain jane form of exposition, that being, someone just taking on the mantle of telling part of the story. There are also a giant amount of conveniences put in here to make sure things could keep going along smoothly. So don’t go in expecting any deep plot here, or even any real attempt to tell a compelling story. So what do you get? You get a whole lot of ninja turtle action, and well done action indeed. The scene where they’re sliding down some slopes is pretty well done and the bet part of the movie honestly. Also, if you’ve seen the trailer, you’ve seen the end of the movie, in the same way that you’ve seen the end of the amazing spider man two if you saw the trailer. Which I hope isn’t the start of some kind of trend, but in the end this movie is pretty much the definition of average, and has a score to match that.

Review Score : 5 out of 10

Review : Step Up All In

“All-stars from the previous Step Up installments come together in glittering Las Vegas, battling for a victory that could define their dreams and their careers.”

Never has there been a more perfect summation of a movie in life. Now before we start, I must say that I am EXTREMELY biased towards a movie like Step Up. I love dance movies to no end, and as such my personal enjoyment of a movie such as this would more than likely be infinitely greater than an average movie goer. That being said, I will still score the movie impartially, even if my review makes it sound a lot better. The dancers here are allll incredible. My two personal favourites would be Moose and the human robot, but there are no weak links in this dancing chain, and it really shows. Its nice to see where they try to go movie after movie with regards to their choreography. As for the more cinematic elements here, it pretty much goes along your very typical, formulaic, movie tropes that you can find. Events and plot twist come along just as and just when you’d expect them. Which makes for a predictable movie yes, but if like me, you can go into this movie without great expectations of a thespian variety, and keep your hopes for great dancing and dance related fun, then you can have a really good time. So all in all, as far as being a cinematic movie goes, its pretty middle of the road, but if you like dancing and the spectacle that it can be, then definitely give this movie a look .

Review Score: 5 out of 10
Review Score in my heart: 9 out of 10 ❤

Review : Guardians of the Galaxy

“Light years from Earth, 26 years after being abducted Peter Quill finds himself the prime target of a manhunt after discovering an orb wanted by Ronan the Accuser.”

So, if there is one thing about this movie, or one way to describe this movie, it would be FUN. This movie is seriously a lot of fun, and that fun factor is going to cover up many of this movies flaws, with both comic book fans and non-fans alike. The characters are good, they aren’t all fleshed out as well I might like, but over all as a group they work together really well. Rocket and Groot pretty much steal the show here, anytime they are on screen they pull alllll of the attention to themselves and its so nice to see that two characters as crazy as a genetically modified raccoon and a man-tree could be so well done. This movie does suffer from the same problem that some of the other more recent Marvel movies have suffered from, and that is an underwhelming villain. Ronan, as a villain, does some things right and some things wrong. Firstly, his costume is fine, he does look cool and all that, and so does Nebulla and the other handful of baddies. However his character lacks something extra, that little something that really makes you connect with and both understand their motives and want to see them taken down. Thanos looked good too for all of the 5 minutes he was on screen. The overall plot of the movie is a little bit light, but that’s kind of expected since we have a group of 5 never before seen characters here that would have needed as much time as possible to introduce, so there was never going to be much time to delve fully into a super deep plot. All of these things however are things that many people will be ready to over look as well as many might just not see because they are going to be caught up in having a good time. This movie is really quite a lot of fun, and genuinely very funny. All in all you will have a good time with this movie, it will lose some of its luster under finer examination, but a good time nun the less.

Review Score : 8 out of 10