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OZ: THE GREAT AND POWERFUL - REVIEW

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After Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland received mostly unimpressed reviews from critics and audiences alike, that the studio jumped right into yet another fantasy classic reboot/sequel/prequel/whatever is surprising and somewhat risky. Then again Alice In Wonderland made a badgillion dollars at the box office... So yeah, never mind. It makes perfect sense lol This time around, we get Sam Raimi taking on the works of L. Frank Baum, and when I say that I mean it very loosely because we don't get a sequel involving Dorothy and co or even an amalgamation of Baum's third and fourth Oz books (tackled brilliantly in the 80's by Return To Oz ). No, we're following the wizard himself! Not quite what you'd expect but an interesting take on the whole thing, let's see if it works. After all, the first film was called The Wizard Of Oz not "Dorothy's Big Adventure". Mostly... yes. It does work. Ok, I'll get the bad stuff out of the way

SPIDER-MAN 3 - REVIEW

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Widely recognised as THE worst Spider-Man film to date, Spider-Man 3 was Sam Raimi's final outing as the Marvel hero's puppetmaster. Watching it back when it came out I was left entertained but a little bit confused to say the least. It looked like a decent Spider-Man movie and yet... Something was a bit off. Spider-Man 3 sees Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) yet again screwing things up with Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst) and donning the black Venom suit as a million other things happen. You've got Thomas Haden Church turning into The Sandman and causing havok around the city for whatever reason, you've got James Franco's Harry Osborn finally taking over the Goblin suit (well, a  snowboard and a Cobra outfit), you've got Gwen Stacy (Bryce Dallas Howard) being introduced... it's certainly a handful and much more than just the usual mad-scientist-goes-nuts scenario. By the end you'll be wishing for a straight-forward mad scientist plot though... A lo

SPIDER-MAN - REVIEW

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Sam Raimi may not have seemed like the most obvious choice as director for this first proper Spider-Man movie at the time but he proved everyone wrong creating a popcorn movie with enough entertainment, humour and faithfulness to the comic books to feel like a worthy attempt. The film begins with tedious narration more suited to a Dr Seuss animation and closes with it as well so not the most promising of starts but from the moment we actually meet Tobey Maguire's Peter Parker things start making sense. Raimi goes for a lighthearted tone actually well suited to the character and the whole film feels very much like a comic book. The build-up to Parker becoming Spider-Man is perfectly handled with the film ticking all the right boxes in terms of superhero origin stories: teen romance, tragic family crisis, growing powers/puberty, bullies, clear villain... It's cliched but in a good way. There's a sense that it's all very self-aware and knows what it's doing. I sh

WHY COOKIE ROCKET?

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RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES - REVIEW

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Making a good film involving talking apes throwing spears has never been an easy task. The Charlton Heston-starring original almost feels like a fluke in that it did everything right with content that could so easily have been botched-up. I mean, what's sillier than apes riding horses? I'll tell you. CGI apes riding horses. Yes, many of the old Planet Of The Apes sequels failed to capture the original's stature, yes the TV series didn't have the budget needed and yes the Tim Burton remake is the director's worst achievement to date. And yet I would gladly sit through Mark Wahlberg's soulless journey once again rather than rewatch this new offering. Why, do you ask? Seen the trailers? Really what it comes down to is the sheer irrelevance that this entire production displays. The "rise" of the apes has been pretty much covered left and right in previous instalments besides, here's one film which will no doubt ruin the end twist of the ori

YOUR HIGHNESS - REVIEW

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Stoner comedy Pineapple Express being one of the best, most underrated comedies of the past few years, the prospect of a new James Franco-starring, medieval times-set randomfest was certainly very promising. And yet alas the version of Your Highness I had in my head beats this one hands down. Yes, unfortunately Your Highness doesn't quite deliver, it's definitely fun, but something got lost along the way. First, you've got Danny McBride whom, although he's usually a good guy to have around, is just not likeable enough to sustain our interest throughout. Even if he does proudly wear a Minotaur cock necklace... Everyone's on the ball though and at the very least look like they're having loads of fun: Franco, Portman, Deschanel, all great. It is Justin Theroux though who steals the show as the film's slimy villain. So what's wrong with it? Well unfortunately it's the jokes. It's like the film forces itself to include stoner humour when re

JAMES DEAN - REVIEW

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James Franco stars in this decent TV movie about the life of troubled Hollywood icon James Dean. The casting of Franco is perfect and his portrayal is entertaining to say the least. The film itself is the usual biopic template with Dean's daddy issues and his climbing success steadily developed throughout. The film looks great and although it romanticizes a lot of Dean's life, that style feels strangely appropriate. Perhaps the melodramatic nature of Dean's work ( Rebel Without a Cause , East of Eden ) makes it a logical choice and adds a tragic feel to the whole thing. For such a short life as a subject, the film does really well to keep us hooked and although there's the usual name-dropping inevitable with biopics (Martin Landau!) it doesn't overdo it and sticks to the important stuff. Not bad, definitely worth checking out.