DEATH WISH (2018) - REVIEW
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MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - FALLOUT - VLOG REVIEW
Talking about the Mission: Impossible franchise, including the latest instalment: Mission: Impossible - Fallout .
TOMB RAIDER (2018) - REVIEW
Based on the 2013 video game, Tomb Raider is Hollywood's latest attempt at bringing Lara Croft to the big screen. Alicia Vikander plays the iconic character in a prequel story that has Croft travel to a Skull Island-like location in order to find out what happened to her father, who is presumed dead. Whenever anything is rebooted, it tends to divide fans quite a bit as some embrace the new take on their favourite character and others reject it entirely. The recent game gave Lara Croft a new look, a bow and arrow instead of her usual two guns as well as more of a backstory. Those hoping for a movie reboot to the Angelina Jolie-starring Lara Croft: Tomb Raider films, which were very much inspired by the older games, might have to wait a lot longer as this new movie aims to tell a modern and somewhat more grounded story. Vikander's Lara Croft is no witty super-spy or Indiana Jones -type explorer, she's a normal person who just happens to be very smart (when the plot dema
FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST - REVIEW
Based on the popular anime series, Fullmetal Alchemist is a 2017 live-action adaptation from Japan following Alchemist brothers Elric and Alphonse as they encounter a range of powerful enemies and search for the Philosopher's Stone. The film was recently released on Netflix. We first meet the two brothers as children when an alchemy experiment aiming to bring their dead mother back to life goes wrong. Cut to years later and we learn that Alphonse's body somehow vanished after the botched experiment and he now inhabits a knight's empty armour indefinitely, hence the nickname "Fullmetal Alchemist". Unless Elric, who has himself lost limbs, can somehow recover the Philosopher's Stone, he might not be able to ever summon his brother's body back. A big action sequence early on depicts the brothers fighting against a man whom, they believe, is using the Stone nefariously and the scene boasts some big CGI effects, something the film fails to match before it
BLACK PANTHER - REVIEW
Marvel's latest spin-off movie, Black Panther , sees Chadwick Boseman's T'Challa finally assume the Wakandan throne following his father's untimely death in Captain America: Civil War . He soon, however, faces a powerful new threat in the form of Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan). The character of Black Panther was one of the best aspects of Civil War and that, coupled with the promise of an excellent African-American cast, meant that there was a lot of hype surrounding this movie prior to its release. Indeed, there was a genuine attempt here to introduce one of Marvel's classic heroes in a unique and progressive way, at least compared to what we've seen so far from the MCU. Mostly set in Africa, Black Panther embraces its setting fully and the culture that's on display, from the traditional customs of Wakanda's fictional yet familiar utopia to its advanced technology, is refreshingly different and appealing. This is a gorgeous-looking movie with som
WHAT HAPPENED TO MONDAY - REVIEW
Released on Netflix in 2017, What Happened To Monday is a science fiction thriller starring Noomi Rapace as seven sisters named after each day of the week who try to survive in a dystopian one-child-only society. In order to tackle an overpopulation problem and attempt to fix the environment, the Child Allocation Bureau, run by Glenn Close's intimidating politician, enforces this one-child policy which takes the oldest siblings, if there are any, and cryogenically freezes them until society can accommodate them. When a woman dies while giving birth to identical septuplets, her father (played by Willem Dafoe) decides to raise the kids in a way that allows all of them to live their lives. Each of them is allowed to leave the house on a specific day of the week, hence their names, if they pretend to all be the same individual. At home, they can look and act like who they are but outside, they become the same person. Of course, when one of them doesn't come home as planned, t
KING ARTHUR: LEGEND OF THE SWORD - REVIEW
After re-imagining Sherlock Holmes his own way, Guy Ritchie recently turned his attention to the Arthurian legends and delivered King Arthur: Legend Of The Sword . Due to a ridiculous budget that didn't translate to much on screen, the film was a box-office flop and was mostly panned critically. The film opens with a scene in which Uther Pendragon (Eric Bana) takes on giant elephants in an over-the-top sequence that would fit quite well in a Lord Of The Rings movie. This could set the tone for a proudly ridiculous, action-packed epic but, while it is indeed shamelessly silly, it's not exactly the thrilling actioner you'd expect. Parts of the film are over-stylised, bloated and full of giant CGI creatures, other parts feel bare and not unlike a relatively low-budget effort like Centurion or an Uwe Boll movie. But it's the sub-par writing that really prevents this King Arthur film from being the fun roller-coaster ride it wanted to be. The masterful Excalibur
ATLANTIS: THE LOST EMPIRE - REVIEW
Released in 2001, when CG animation was starting to rival 2D in a big way, Atlantis: The Lost Empire was Disney's science-fiction love letter to Jules Verne and, while it was successful at the box-office, the film got mixed reviews so it remains a cult favourite. This wasn't your typical Disney musical aimed at a very young audience, Atlantis is a song-free action adventure with a proper sci-fi plot and it feels more like a big-budget Spielberg epic or a Star Wars movie set underground than anything else. The plot sees nerdy linguist and cartographer Milo Thatch (voiced by Michael J. Fox) lead an expedition to Atlantis after his research piques the interest of an eccentric millionaire. He is joined by a team of loveable misfits, mysterious femme-fatale Helga Sinclair and stern Commander Lyle Rourke. After a surprisingly deadly run-in with an unusual creature under the ocean, the gang finally reach Atlantis where Milo meets Princess Kida (Cree Summer) and they both start
AMERICAN MADE - REVIEW
With Narcos being such a huge hit on Netflix, it's not too surprising that a movie would come along to capitalise on the show's popularity. American Made stars Tom Cruise as a pilot tasked by the CIA to spy on Central American rebels before he gets involved in all sorts of shady business. Loosely inspired by the true story of pilot Barry Seal, who was involved in drug smuggling back in the 70's and 80's, American Made aims to show the way that governments can use people as pawns then discard them without a care in the world. Barry (Cruise) is landed in various life-threatening situations he can't really get out of without terrible repercussions by the CIA and druglords like Pablo Escobar. He is first hired to fly over enemy bases and take photographs with his plane but, soon enough, he becomes a courier for General Noriega, smuggles drugs and weapons and is being chased by the DEA once the U.S. publicly vows to beat the war on drugs. You definitely feel for th