The Amazing Spiderman

The Amazing Spiderman Poster

To be honest I wasn’t that excited about this film as I was extremely annoyed that they were remaking what was my favourite Marvel superhero, however what made me watch it was “Andrew Garfield” and “Emma Stone’s” inclusion, I watched “Boy A” a couple of years ago and really enjoyed “Andrew’s” performance as “Jack”, and I have enjoyed most of “Emma Stone’s” films to date, most recently being “Crazy Stupid Love”.

Before you start to read my review I want everyone to know that I am by no means a reader of comic books and I don’t know any of the origins of “Spiderman”, however I did know his first love was “Gwen Stacy” instead of “Mary-Jane Watson” so it was always a little strange that they changed that in the original film with “Sam Raimi” directing.

I always found it quite hard to believe “Tobey Maguire” playing a geek for some reason, but I was wondering how “Andrew Garfield” would change the role of “Peter Parker” and make it his own? Well he does do an excellent job of making the role his own; you can always tell when an actor is going to have an exceptional career by the small movements he makes in films, from hand gestures to the facial expressions he conveys to the audience. “Andrew Garfield” has everything to be a brilliant actor in my personal opinion; I hope he is around long to prove me right, because he is one “helluva” prospect. He makes “Peter Parker”, a much darker character, not so innocent and just the right amount of “geekyness” , along with this, you don’t always feel like “Peter” is chasing a lost cause with trying to be with “Gwen”, the chemistry between “Emma Stone” and “Andrew Garfield” is excellent probably because of their off screen relationship, however I never felt like “Gwen” was above “Peter” which was a nice touch, where as I always got the idea that “Mary Jane” was too good for “Peter”.

So the acting as I have said is of an excellent standard, and just for this alone it needs to be watched, the way in which it is filmed is very good too, it’s a much darker version of “Spiderman”.

There is one thing that did disappoint me about this film, and it’s the lack of feeling that they didn’t even try to break away from the 2002 version of “Spiderman”, especially with “Uncle Ben” being in the film, I won’t say what happens just in case someone hasn’t seen either of the films, however if you have seen the 2002 version you know what happens. Which is obviously keeping in touch with the comics however it just feels like there is a lack of thought gone into trying to change the outcome, thus the film feeling a little same old “Spiderman”, in other words it lacks effort in breaking the mould.

The CGI in places is a tad ropey obviously and especially on “Dr Connors” (Played expertly by “Rhys Iffans” when turning into the  “The Lizard”, in parts in laughable for a high budget movie.

Overall the film is a good reboot, however for me, 

just felt like a remake rather than a reboot, which is a tad disappoint because had this been their first attempt at making “Spiderman” movie, this easily would have been my most favourite Marvel film. However it never seems to break the mould which leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. It’s almost like they have wasted “Andrew Garfield” and “Emma Stone’s” talent, like they were a second thought as such. All I have to say is where are “Kirsten Dunst” and “Tobey Maguire” now?

Drag Me To Hell

Drag Me To Hell Post

Since this film was released, I had heard a lot of good things about it. Being directed by Sam Raimi (Spiderman Series) I must admit, I enjoy his directorship (along with Tony Scott and M Night Shymalan as my favourite directors.) So I was looking forward to watching this horror film, with parts of it showing a touch of classic-ness with certain camera angles and the old school use of shadows, rather than ridiculous CGI.

Basically the film, is about a young Loan Advisor “Christine Brown”  who tries to impress her boss “Jim Jacks”, for the assistant managers position, by declining a loan for an old gypsy lady “Sylvia Ganush” to keep her home, however what she doesn’t realise is that she is about to be cursed by the gypsy because she has rejected her loan.

And so the horror starts, Christine is stalked by a powerful demon called the “Lamia” who will stalk her for 3 days, and then finally dragging her literally into hell, however Christine tries to stop the “Lamia” in many ways, but does she have enough time to stop him? Well you will have to see and find out.

Justin Long is plays the worried boyfriend, Clay Dalton, who is also a professor which adds to the depths of the story with his parents annoyed that he is going out with a farmer girl. Dileep Rao plays “Rham Jas” who tries to help with ways of getting rid of the demon from her life he is also a shoulder for Christine to lean on because he is the only one that understands the curse.

There are many good things about this film, and it certainly did its job in making me jump, it returns to the roots of horror, by having quick panning shots making the audience wonder what is going to happen in the next shot.

The soundtrack is extremely creepy and definitely adds to the scariness of the film. I don’t really have anything negative to say about the film but its not amazing or genre defining, its just a good ol’ horror, which will definitely make you, laugh, jump, be scared, and just ask WHY!

Its definitely worth a watch and one of the better horrors this decade, it doesn’t take itself too seriously and this helps it out. Its very cool and very slick. Go Watch It NOW!

Drive Angry

Drive Angry Poste

Recently I have signed up to “Netflix” which allows you (the audience) to watch a large database of movies over the internet for £5.99 (however I have the first month free, after noticing the advert on TV). So I took it upon myself to start with Drive Angry.

I saw the adverts plenty of times when going to the cinema in early 2011, however, the cheesy script and sub-par acting really put me off of going to see this at the cinema. It some ways I made a good decision but in others, I made a bad decision because its one “helluva” ride.

From my point of view, Nicholas Cage in recent years hasn’t made very many good films, a lot of people slated “Knowing” but I quite enjoyed it until the end. “Bangkok Dangerous” I heard was awful, I didn’t particularly like either National Treasure (Even though my other half absolutely adores them). “Next” and “Season of the Witch” were supposed to be awful, alongside “Ghost Rider” which was truly awful (and they are still making a sequel!)

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Anyway, as you can see from above, I did not have high expectations for “Drive Angry” what so ever, especially with the ridiculous title. So what’s it all about?? Well its basically about “Milton” (Nicholas Cage) who breaks out of hell, because a sadistic satanic cult have kidnapped her, and he has broken out of hell, to get her back safe and sound, along the road is Amber Heard’s character “Piper”, she is not your typical blonde girl. Although very pretty she is also a bit of a “hard nut”, she is “Milton” helping hand. There are a few peripheral characters such as “the accountant” played by William Fichtner and The cult’s leader “Jonah King” who is played by Billy Burke.

Story is a little on the weak side, it’s not original and it’s not fantastically portrayed, but I did have a bit of an epiphany while watching the film. I notice that the whole demeanour of the film is cheesy, so I came to the conclusion that the whole film is SUPPOSED to be cheesy.

The acting is sooooo cheesy that it is something you will find back in the 80’s in a B movie, it really is that terribly cheesy. However, it does redeem itself on the action factor, there is quite a bit of it and this makes up for some of the way in which the film is executed.

Nicholas Cage plays a typical “Bad-Ass” quite well; he always has played very good villains, such as “Face-Off” and “Con-Air”. He has some very cheesy one liners. Amber Heard, plays the part of a tortured girl quite well and also has some cheesy one liners, she supports Nic Cage very well.

The music is very old-school and very rock and roll especially the last song at the end of the film.

Overall it’s a good ride, but sub-par In many categories, very enjoyable, but wide of the mark. The best thing I can suggest is, rent it and see what you think, I certainly wouldn’t buy it.

Abraham Lincoln:Vampire Hunter

Abraham Lincoln Poster

When seeing the trailer for this film I was extremely unsure as to whether or not I was going to see the film or not, I finally decided to go and to be honest I was extremely disappointed…………….with the person next to me. This gentleman, (gentleman isn’t really the right word to use for this man, annoyance is probably more like it) decided to talk all the way through it with his chavy loud mouthed girlfriend, while being on his phone, nose-breathing extremely loud and rustling on his extremely large box of popcorn.

As you can you can probably tell I didn’t have the best experience when I went to see this film, I was extremely close to causing some damage to the chair in front or the idiot sat next to me.

Anyway RANT OVER!

Back to the film, from the producers of “WANTED” they have brought a modern twist to Abraham Lincoln’s short life, that he is a vampire hunter (something tells me you already knew this by the title).

Abraham Lincoln is played by Benjamin Walker, who I personally think portrays him excellently; he gives a really good vibe to the role and has a good energy about him. The film shows Abrahams’s rise to fame for being outspoken against slavery, thus him studying to become a lawyer and eventually president, the film very cleverly blends the two elements of this man’s life together, by day he is a lawyer, by night he is a vampire hunter. The day part, I believe is historically accurate which is another rather interesting element to the film.

Like usual I don’t really want to say too much about the film because I think people should go and see it for themselves, it is a very good film of what I saw of it anyway due to the babbling idiot.

The film has a lot of CGI through out, but it isn’t of the rubbish standard which is a good feature.

There are bits of black comedy throughout the film which is a plus, it breaks up the seriousness of the film (yes a vampire film can be serious).

Overall the film is very good and I would recommend people to go and see it.

Linkin Park - Living Things

Linkin Park - Living Things

What seems like an age since “A Thousand Suns”, finally Linkin Park have released their much awaited fifth studio album which is once again produced by the brilliant Rick Rubin and the band’s very own lyrical genius that is Mike Shinoda.

I have been alongside Linkin Park since the very first days, when they created Hybrid Theory way back in 2000, when I was only 10 (WOW that seems a lifetime ago). I have enjoyed every single one of their albums, all in different ways, because they all contribute to music in different ways, this album is absolutely no different from the rest of them, it contributes...........a lot.

This morning I woke up to a complete an utter surprise, with their album being posted through my letter box 3 days earlier than it was supposed to be released, I suppose I have HMV to thank for that. It didn’t take me too long to put it in to my CD player to see what they had created, over the past couple of weeks they have given a good account of what was to come with the early releases of “Burn It Down” and “Lies, Greed, Misery” (on Radio 1 and the new Medal of Honor trailer), both of these songs are brilliant, and gave a good account of the bands diversity, but as the old saying goes, leave the best till last and in this case they left all the talking to do with the actual album.

The name of the tracks are quite different from the other albums, denoting a certain fragility that the other albums haven’t, songs names like “Castle of Glass”, “Powerless”, “Victimized”, “Lost In The Echo” and “Tinfoil”, certainly far away from the likes of “Papercut”, “Crawling”, “Easier to Run”, “Bleed it Out”, “The Catalyst” and “Burning in the Skies” (respectively from “Hybrid Theory”, “Meteora”, “Minutes to Midnight” and “A Thousand Suns”.)

So the album opens up with “Lost In The Echo” which is by far my most favourite song of this album (apart from “Victimized”) and what you will first realise is that Mike Shinoda is heavily involved in this song, with Chester Bennington just singing the chorus, Shinoda proves once again that he has some awesome lyrics in his arsenal (“Ya’ll go hard I’ll go smart”), and it certainly helps Chester out with the rest of the song, it gives it a real flow, which is why I really like this song, it also brings back Chester’s incredibly strong “screamy” voice, which I have personally missed on the last couple of albums.

Next up is “In My Remains”, this shows Chester’s impressive vocal range , getting half way through this song makes you realise that Linkin Park have done it again and they have created another excellent album, throughout this song Chester shows his soulful side with some beautiful vocals.

“Burn It Down” is the next song on the list and I am sure a lot of people have already heard this song, due to getting quite a bit of air play on various radio stations, this is a brilliant song and definitely shows fusion between their older and newer material, with heavy synths involved through, I am sure this is going to be a hit with a wider audience.

"Choke on your lies, swallow up your greed, Suffer all alone in your misery"

Like “Burn It Down”, “Lies, Greed, Misery” also shows the fusion. Mike once again takes the reins on this song with Chester singing the chorus and the end. I personally think that this is going to have a lot of people singing along to it, the lyrics are very catchy, very fast and, yes I’m going to say it, very furious. Without doubt one of the best songs they have created in recent years.

“I’ll Be Gone”, shows yet again that Chester has an extremely large vocal range and continues to be one of the best in the business for a rock and soulful voice, some great lyrics.

“Castle of Glass”, combines both Chester and Mike’s voice which suit each other’s very well, like I said earlier you certainly get the idea of fragility from this song, very powerful and very good lyrics,  by now I’m thinking that this could be my favourite album of the year maybe even of Linkin Park’s.

"Time has come for you............VICTIMIZED"

Up next is “Victimized”, and after listening to this song it certainly makes you feel like a victim, simply because Chester just uses his voice to barrage your ears with anger and awesomeness, the only let down on this album so far, at just 1min 47secs long it is rather short, but what it doesn’t do in time it certainly gets the point across which is why this is also one of my favourite songs on the album, it certainly shows that Chester is still as good as he used to be. Brutal.

From “Victimized” you are effortlessly glided into “Roads Untraveled” which is a very nice song with Mike singing the majority of the song. Very calm and collected quite the opposite of “Victimized” but it helps to keep the equilibrium of the album, part "screamy", part melodic.

"Ash to Ashes, Dust to Dust, Skin to Bone and Steel to Rust"

“Skin to Bone”, is lyrically very simple, with the same lyrics said over again, my least favourite song but still very catchy and a very good song, sets the album up for the finale with 3 songs to go.

 

“Until It Breaks”, mostly shows Mikes ability to rap very well, lyrics that could easily be used in a rap battle, extremely good song with a good beat, also one of my favourites as it shows the whole band singing together (saw the making of the album and saw them sing together), something maybe they should think about doing more as it adds a very nice touch to the album, however like they always say “too much of a good thing is bad for you”.

Linkin Park is one of those bands that enjoys embracing the whole bands talents not just their singing ability which I really applaud, the second to last song “Tinfoil” shows Joe Hahn’s ability to create his own canvas with his own song which is shown in his previous works such as “Session” which was released in “Meteora”, so this sets it up very nicely for the finale.

“Powerless” is the finale song on Living Things and is very good ending to what is a brilliant accomplishment for the band, very slow, and extremely powerful (excuse the wording considering the song name), brilliant lyrics and beautiful voices.

And there we have it, 2 years of waiting is over, was it worth wait.................Hell Yeah! This album is awesome to say the least, I have already listened to it 3 times through and I have had it 9 hours. Brilliant addition to their stupidly good discography, the thing I would change would be the length of the songs, however they wouldn’t be the correct songs if they were longer, so in another words I wouldn’t change anything, some people may complain at the fact there isn’t an awful lot of screaming or metal, however they are going to have to accept this as Linkin Park.

Chester, Mike, Rob, Brad, Dave , Joe you have yet again created a brilliant album, Well Done, I already I cannot wait for your next album, and I am definitely looking forward to the remixed version of this album.

One question I do want to ask, do you think Linkin Park could successfully do a dubstep album?

Food for thought......

So as you may have noticed, I haven’t been posting a hell of a lot over the past 6 months, reasons for this ranging from the silly to the serious, I wont delve into to many details of my personal life, because 1. I don’t want my life splashed all over the internet and 2. Because you clearly won’t be interested.

 All I wanted to tell you was that, I will be back very soon, I am trying to get some of my creativity back, I am slowly recovering from what the last 6 months has brought me. No, I haven’t been ill and no Im not dying, I just made decisions in my life that changed my perspective and what I should do with life, writing is definitely something I have missed. Something that I will definitely carry on doing in the near future.

In other words, I am basically apologising for my absence and telling you the reader (if there are any of you out there) that I will be starting to post very soon.

Im sure your probably thinking to yourself, why did he write all that rubbish at the top, well the answer is, I need to VENT! So thanks for listening

Speak Soon!

Cabin In The Woods

Cabin in the Woods

Cabin In The Woods Poster

So, here I am again, I haven’t written in quite some time, as you have seen, with about 0 posts to my name in the last 3 months, I have been contemplating a come back for quite some time and this film without doubt is certainly worth wiping the dust off of my keyboard to start writing again.

There were a lot of perceived ideas “out there” about this film and what it is/was about? Let me set something straight first don’t read anything about this film before you go and see it, and I know you’re probably thinking to yourself, “well why are you writing a review on it if you don’t want us to read anything about it?”, well for one reason really! Its that damn good!

So I am going to do you a favour:

If you want to read on, then highlight the following text, if you don’t and you want to wait for the film to come out on DVD or go to the cinema to see it, come back when I have posted some more reviews!

Cabin In The Wood’s is literally (I cant think of any better way to put it) saying “F*CK YOU” to horror, “This is how its going to be from now on, if you don’t like go somewhere else, if you do like it then watch me”. It has literally everything in this film, Im not going to elaborate completely on this but every monster you have ever dreamt of, from “maniac clowns” to “zombies” .

It starts with 2 men at work talking about what is happening in the world and betting on certain things in last years “event” and so the beginning credits start rolling. It then moves on to a group of high school teenagers that are getting ready to go on a road trip to one of the characters cousins’ holiday home. One of the best things about this film is that it has all the stereotypes, The Jock, The Blonde, The Intelligent Male and Female that fall for each other and finally the Stoner, but always remember its purposely done this way.

So the film flicks between the 2 men and these group of teenagers for all of the film as you will quickly see they are entwined in the same story because what your about to watch is the teenagers get brutally killed by zombies who are controlled by the 2 men, but as it unfolds you start to realise they are all part of a greater plan, as this isn’t the only event that has happened like this and it isn’t the only place either.

Regardless if you have read on or not I don’t want to completely ruin the story for you and I will not delve into the ending of the story, because there is twist after twist. One of the many things I love about this film is the 2 men are called “the directors” and as soon as they are out of their seats you don’t know which way the films is going to go, because there is no direction coming from the people that caused the killings to have direction, so metaphorically there is no one controlling the outcome. Maybe Im thinking to deep, but Im some people will understand what Im “getting at” when you watch the film.

The acting is very good, not to be taken too seriously, as the film doesn’t take itself too seriously. Mr Hemsworth proves himself to be a diverse actor and a definite one to watch for the future.

The action is very good, typical teen-slasher until the end when it turns into a complete and utter blood fest, something for the real horror or gore fans.

Overall, it’s a “game-changer” as I have heard some people describe it, that is the best way to describe and you will probably come away from the cinema thinking to yourself or saying to yourself “WTF! Just happened”.

Killer Elite

Killer Elite Poster

I saw a couple of previews for this while going to the c cinema last year, and for some peculiar reason I never got round to seeing it unfortunately, I absolutely love Jason Statham, he typifies what it means to be a British hard nut. Robert De Niro is also in this film, what is there to say about him, the name is just enough. Dominic Purcell (Blade: Trinity, Prison Break) is also in there playing another tough guy Englishman. Rounding off the excellent English cast is Clive Owen who is also fit for the part in this film.

What’s it all about I hear you say? Well,  it starts with the 3 main characters “Danny” (Statham), “Hunter” (De Niro)  and “Davies” (Purcell) on a mission to assassinate a government official, when things go badly wrong for “Danny” as he kills the official, a child is also in the car, and subsequently for his hesitant stance, he is shot by a police officer, “Hunter” then manages to retrieve “Danny” and then they drive off and “Danny” telling the other two that “he wants out”.

And so the movie starts from a year on. “Danny” is out of the “game”. This is when he receives a letter saying that “Hunter” has been captured by a sheikh and he wants “Danny” to help him with a situation, thus letting “Hunter” go on completetion. “Danny” along with “Davies” is then told to kill 3 men who were responsible for killing the Sheikh’s 3 sons (with 1 remaining). What “Danny” and “Davies” don’t realise is that they must get past one hell of a man on a mission in Clive Owen’s character “Spike” who is defending his fellow SAS. This is the basic story and like my other reviews I don’t really wan t to give too much away without you seeing it.

The film is set in the 80’s and is interestingly based on a true story, which allows the audience supposedly see the lives of killers in the 80’s. so it is a very original take on this type of film, if you get what Im saying without being too confusing.

The acting is of a good standard, typical De Niro and typical Statham, make this a good film, some parts of the film are action orientated and others are slightly slow but add to the depth of the story which is nice for this genre.

Overall the film is a good one and is good at what it does, but nothing more and nothing less.

Get Watching!

Peter James - Dead Man's Grip

Peter James - Dead Man's Grip Cover

After giving up on “Stephen King’s The Stand” (500 pages out of 1500) realising that it was just pages of nonsense and pure detail, I decided to go for something a lot simpler, and the next book that I was given to read was this one.

The story is mainly about a woman named Carly, her son Tyler, and Roy Grace a Police officer just wanting his pregnant fiancée to have their baby and him solving the case of 2 brutal murders in Brighton. There are a number of peripheral characters, such as Ricky Giordino, Fernanda Revere, Tony Revere (Crime Family). However the main story is about Carly and 2 other drivers causing the death of a young student, Tony Revere, by knocking him off his bike. What they do not realise is that he was born into a massive crime family similar to the mafia in New York. They hire a Hitman to take out the people involved, its Roy and his team’s job to stop him from succeeding. When Carly realises what happens how far would you go to protect your only son?

(I have literally just looked at the book and realised that this is the seventh in the series, I feel slightly gutted knowing that this is a series, the one thing I can say is that you can just pick it up and read it. From what I have read I don’t think you need to read the other books in the series to catch on.)

So after my recent realisation, it only furthers my current thoughts on this book positively. It is an excellent thriller. Peter James certainly does well in explaining each scene to the best of his ability, and it certainly isn’t over the top like Stephen King.

Overall an excellent book and it just makes me want to read the others now. Get Reading!!

5 Websites That I Couldn’t Do Without.

So with the recent blackout of Wikipedia, I have decided to write an entry to do with websites that I couldn’t do without. Some are buying sites, some are miscellaneous, and it is also going along with things in my life, like my other articles, “10 Films that rocked my world” and “20 Songs that rocked my world”.

Play.com

Why?: Play.com is the most convenient online shop going on the internet, that I have come across, delivery is free even though now they give options for 1^st class delivery and specific day delivery. Their prices are cheaper than any other online shop that I have come across, and have never had bad service from them. I would recommend to anyone that wants to buy items for birthdays, Christmas and any other event.

When I Started Using The Site?: 2006

URL: http://www.play.com/

Wikipedia

Why?:  I think pretty much everyone was pretty gutted that Wikipedia wasn’t working on 18^th January 2012. I know the students were! Wikipedia is the largest online encyclopedia ever and it is still growing. You will even notice now that they are top of your searches on “Google” and pretty much advertise anywhere and everywhere. For anyone that has a particularly demanding job such as nursing, clinical coding and anything involving multiple amounts of information that have to be researched.

When I Started Using Site?:  2009

URL: en.wikipedia.org  

Online Banking Sites (Various)

Why?: One crucial part of everyone’s daily life is banking (unless  you’re a benefit thief, you never have to worry, unless you get caught). With the option of online banking you can literally do it anywhere. If you want to see how much balance you have before you buy an expensive item, then all you have to do is have an internet enabled phone (most phones these days) and WHAM there it is. Fantastic way of managing your finances on the go, if you have a slight touch of OCD like me or my fiancée with numbers.

When I Started Using The Site?:  2006

Pitch Side Manager

Why?: This website, is very good if your massive or even slightly interested in management football games. This is exactly like “Football Manager” accept it’s a “watered down” version without several of the features and fake player names, `but just as enjoyable and against other real world players. I have got a number of my work colleagues interested in it, even they say that its excellent. It’s a little fun to brighten up my day. Get on there now,

When I Started Using Site?:  2010

URL: www.pitchsidemanager.com

The News:

Why?: As much as I dislike living in this city sometimes, I like looking at the local news, simply to keep up to date with current affairs, and its always interesting to look at the jobs that they are putting on the site or in the newspaper. It also helps me to keep up with current affairs at my favourite football club, Portsmouth FC. BLUUUUUUE ARRRRRMY!

When I Started Using Site?: 2004

URL: www.portsmouth.co.uk

Comment Here For My Poll!

Midnight Meat Train

Midnight Meat Train Poster

I have wanted to watch this horror movie for quite some time, I think that the cast and genre were what drew me to it, with “hard-man” Vinnie Jones and “woman’s dream” Bradley Cooper. Unusually of all, is that Bradley Cooper is in a horror. This must have been one of his stepping stones towards international stardom.

Anyway, back to the films synopsis, the film is about obsessed photographer, Leon, he absolutely loves photography, however this has a detrimental effect on his current relationship with his girlfriend Maya, he takes pictures of situations in the city, while we are learning about Leon and his problems, throughout (the film) you see Vinnie Jone’s character “Mahogany”, brutally murdering people in different ways on a New York subway train.

The first thought that popped in my head when watching this film was, this is the most ridiculous, unrealistic film that I have seen. However fear not all the questions are answered in the end, i.e. what is he doing with all the bodies, how is he able to kill all these people without the conductor knowing about it.

Back to the storytelling, one night Leon gets out of bed in the middle of the night to go and get some photos he ends up breaking up a potential rape and gets a photo that makes another famous photographer intrested in his style of photography. She sets him the task of finding another 2 photographs that will really set the world alight.

He eventually finds out that the girl he saved on that fateful night, has now gone missing and so he investigates Mahogany, he was also on the same train as the young lady (who is also revealed to be a famous model, within the realm of the film.) low and behold Leon does not know what he is getting himself into and so the killing starts.

The film is certainly not for the squeamish, the CGI isn’t that great, but I am surprised that they haven’t remastered it for a 3D version, the camera angles are unique to say the least and they would work really well for a 3D version.

Clearly you can’t expect too much on the acting side of things, there are no Oscars or Golden Globes with this film, although the acting isn’t that bad it could have been better.

Overall the film is quite enjoyable, with an excellent twist at the end. Although you can see it coming, it’s definitely worth watching all the way through, maybe not worth a rent, but definitely not one you can watch over and over again.

Woodkid - Iron EP

Woodkid - Iron EP Cover

So a lot of people aren’t going to have heard of Woodkid, however may I say that the gentlemen that created this EP is on the way to stardom and in a huge way has had a massive amount of exposure.

1.       The main song of this EP, Iron, is the song featured in the Assassins Creed: Revelations advert.

2.       Woodkid (Yoann Lemoine) has worked with many well known singers already such as Katy Perry, Taylor Swift and Lana Del Ray.

This is a great step in the right direction for Yoann as an individual as it really shows his creative side, rather than help Pop song videos  for the likes of Moby.

He uses several different types of song in this EP which shows a wide range of ability, from Iron’s orchestral sounds to Baltimore Fireflie’s slow soothing sounds. It is a brilliant EP and hopefully this will give him a bigger stepping stone to go on to, to allow him to do a full blown album.

Iron is definitely one of my favourite songs this year, it is a masterpiece in song writing with excellent lyrics which almost make it look handmade for the advert of assassins creed.

Overall the album is excellent and I would recommend it to anyone that enjoys this type of music.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Poster

So, the directors of Hollywood have attempted to remake another foreign film without realising that these sorts of films are untouchable if they are foreign masterpieces (REC – Quarantine, REC – Quarantine 2). Unfortunately I cannot make this my opinion due to me not viewing the Swedish version of this film starring Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth Salamander.

This time around they have used the British lead Daniel Craig to portray the disgraced journalist Mikael Blomquist and the American starlet Rooney Mara (who I found out isn’t actually using her real name, which in actual fact is Patricia) as Lisbeth Salander. There are a couple of other big names in the film too, such as Stellan Skarsgard as Martin Vangar and Christopher Plummer as Henrik Vangar.

Let me just start out by saying that this film has a ridiculously brilliant opening credit, with CGI used throughout, and is very “James-Bond-Esque” length and feel about it, It certainly draws you in with loud music playing in the background. People are already saying that it’s worth going at the cinema just for the opening sequence. I have never said “Wow” after an opening sequence.

Anyway moving on towards the films plot. Lisbeth Salander is an extremely talented hacker and research assistant; she is given a small job at the start to research the disgraced Mikael Blomquist for a businessman Henrik Vangar (Head of Vangar Industries) who in turn wants to hire Mikael to investigate the murder of his niece Harriet Vangar. This is the basic outline of the story.

The themes in the film are highly sensitive in this film, themes such as Sexual violence, rape, love, persecution of women, hacking and torturing. So as you can see it’s quite a sensitive storyline and I will say now, some parts are not for the squeamish.

******SPOILER ******

(Highlight the text to see the spoiler)

Lisbeth has been abused throughout her life unfortunately, and due to her social status of being a recluse, people like her social worker take advantage of her sexually, it is shown through the first half of the film. In one of the scenes she is brutally raped by her acting guardian Nils Bjurman, he rapes her and in return gives her money for his entertainment because he has control over her bank accounts as she is not deemed responsible enough to look after her own accounts. The shock of this scene is quite high, and it isn’t done very tastefully (Not that rape is a tasteful subject in any instance, however I thought that this scene could have been somewhat more tasteful. It’s very raw and very emotional, I notice in the cinema that a lot of people found highly distressing, my fiancé included).

******SPOILER ENDS ******

Running along the same topic as above, there is a lot of nudity in this film, 90% of it, is completely and utterly nonsensical. Rooney Mara shows her top half about 3 or 4 times in the film, and if you were to take it out of the film it wouldn’t make any difference. Don’t get me wrong Im not one of those people that despises nudity in all films, but there certainly is a time and place for it, and unfortunately this isn’t it. And it truly hits the heights of absurdity when you see Rooney with absolutely nothing on her, right in front of Daniel Craig. People can sit there and say that it’s a metaphor of her opening up to him, when the only thing that its actually doing is showing the audience what a malnourished young lady Rooney Mara is, obviously taking into account that her character is supposed to be portrayed as malnourished individual. And YES! That was a rant.

Rooney Mara transformed into Lisbeth

Anyway, back to the story of the film, its okay, nothing new, mediocre at best. I think my opinion of this is like it because the films and books were hyped up so much that, for me it was okay at best and the two things that kept it going is because you want to know what happened to the niece of Henrik Vangar and Daniel Craig’s interesting acting skills. He is the one that keeps it together along with Rooney.

Maybe I am just being harsh about it but I just feel kinda……ripped off. Commercially it wasn’t a success with it costing just under $100 Million and it only racking in just over $100 million , so it wasn’t a particular financial success for such a large blockbuster (just a 5% return is not a lot in Hollywood) in other words this just proves that when the original is a foreign film, then Hollywood should just leave it alone, because it ruins the books and the films before its remake.

In the end it’s a little bit, “oh really, is that it”, it’s a slightly predictable ending, I guessed it with the first 30 mins and I haven’t read or seen the previous films.

The only redeeming factor about this film is that its soundtrack is nothing short of excellent, Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) and Atticus Ross (Book of Eli Soundtrack). It’s a really hard and gritty soundtrack with 1 or 2 classics remixed.

I would still recommend people to see it, due to its high amount of publicity and OTT opening sequence but other than that, you could wait for a rent.

I would really like to see people’s opinion’s on this film, I just don’t see what the fascination is with it.

Assassin's Creed Revelations

Altair & Ezio Auditore

Although this title has been out for little while, I was given this as a present for Christmas, which I extremely appreciated. So, where do I start (without ruining it for people, who haven’t played the others) well, we join our friends Ezio Auditore De Firenze and Altair. Ezio has grown since the last game “Brotherhood” he is now in his early 50’s, and a wiley old character, with some neat tricks and some new inventions (which I will get on to later on). Altair’s parts in the game, (or so far as I have seen) are bits in the game to help you link information to the current storyline and helps it to flow better.

******SPOILER ******
(HIGHLIGHT THE TEXT BELOW TO SEE THE SPOILER)

In the world outside of the animus Desmond, (our present time character) has been put in to a safe place inside the animus because, he is struggling to piece his memory together, because he has done too much damage to his mind inside of the animus, so his mind has been placed inside a piece of software called “the black room” which is where he meets “Subject 16”. “Subject 16” shows him how to piece his mind back together, thus the game starting.

******SPOILER ENDS ******

So now we no the main premise of the story, what has changed about the gameplay, graphics, soundtrack and lip-sync.

Well the gameplay itself hasn’t changed very much, Ezio is slightly slower than usual due to his oldness, however it they have designed a new weapon/way of getting round, its called the hook blade, and it is extremely useful. It allows the player to zip line around the city of Constantinople which is said to increase your speed around the city by up to 30%, which is quite an interesting statistic, I haven’t personal used it to much however, it is quite satisfying to zip line over the top of someone and then assassinate then from above, very quick, very easy. Another huge addition to the game is the craft of making bombs; there are over 150 variations of bombs you can make, ranging from The Stink Bomb (Using Skunk Oil) or a bomb that explodes like our modern day grenade with coins inside it. Its very usual in certain situations like assassinations, throw a smoke bomb into a crowd choking everyone, quickly pop into the cloud, use your eagle sense, bish bash bosh (kill your target) and get out, no one will know what has happened until they find the dead body on the floor.

As you can see massive change in graphics!

Graphics: well there are parts of the game that have been improved and parts where they haven’t, however “why fix what isn’t already broken” very much, there are little tweaks to the surroundings, and some good improvements on characters faces, you can definitely tell the difference between Desmond’s current face and “Brotherhood” face. The lip-sync has been improved excellently, still not at the level of L.A Noire but it’s a brilliant improvement.

The soundtrack throughout the game (what I have played so far) is absolutely excellent, thankfully I was given the special edition for Christmas, so I got an extra disk with the soundtrack on it, I put it straight on to my iPod, and must say that its definitely up there in some of the best soundtracks for games. If you like fast paced orchestral music amongst slow paced calm music then it’s the soundtrack for you. (Music written by Jesper Kyd).

The one thing that I has improved the game endlessly, is without doubt the multiplayer, I have spent the most time on this part of the game, simply because it is so addictive, yet so simple, the perfect combination for an online multiplayer game. Modes include: Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Assassinate, Capture the Artifact and many more. My favourite is without doubt Deathmatch which puts you up against other templar’s and you have to identify your target while being chased by another templar, it’s very good and a complete adrenaline rush. You have an extensive amount of ways to customise your character’s look and choose what type of perks you have for a kill streak and death streak and perks that you can use during the game, which changes the dynamic of the game very well. (very “Call of Duty-esque).

So far of what I have played, the game has been excellent, and I would definitely tell anyone that was thinking about getting the game, to get it. It’s a brilliant addition to the already massive Assassin’s Creed universe.

Hopefully you will enjoy the game as much as I am at the moment.

Enjoy!

Fast Five (Fast and Furious 5)

So as everyone knows about this series, there is no need for an introduction (sorry if you haven’t seen this series, I would like to take this time to say that you are a minority of people, who haven’t seen this, and WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN!)

Fast Five Poster

Anyway, now I have said my piece, this instalment is the best of the lot of them, bringing back all the characters past present and future (and your probably wondering why I just made that statement of past, present and future, well guess what? You will find out if you watch it, what I mean.)

This one stars, Vin Diesel, PaulWalker, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Jordana Brewster, Ludacris, Matt Schulze, Sung Kang, so as you can probably imagine it’s quite the cast, and this is a serious blockbuster. Forget the street racing scene, this is going to be the new branch of the “Fast & Furious” franchise. This is all about the heist and the driving of fast, exotic and old school cars alike.

So the premise of this film is that the team are on the run from the FBI after a heist goes seriously wrong to get one more payment, 3 cops are killed and they are blamed for it, even though its Rio De Janeiro’s very own mafia man who was part of it. What the team don’t realise is that they have something of the kingpins that he wants back. And so the ball game starts. In between all of the action is showing Hobb’s (the Rock) team preparing to try and catch Dominic & Co.

The storyline is excellent, with twist and turns through out, for fans of the series, like Mission Impossible, you will not be disappointed what so ever.  The action is as the title explains, Fast and Furious; there are many more fighting scenes, with some hard hitting sound effects to allow the audience to really feel the effort put into each punch, although predictable fight scenes, the choreography is pretty good.

The soundtrack is excellent, with the same beats as the original, some heavy bass from Rap and R’n’B. It gives off a good vibe for the audience as it makes you feel as if you are being chased too, this gets their heart pumping and their adrenaline running around their bodies.

Overall it’s an excellent addition to the series, and it has definitely added a new dynamic to the already excellent series. Definitely worth buying and without doubt the best in the series. I urge everyone to see it, if you’re interested in Babes, cars, Vin Diesel.

By the way, if anyone is interested about the chronological order of the films then here it is:

Fast & Furious

2 Fast 2 Furious

Fast & Furious 4

Fast Five

Fast & Furious: Tokyo Drift

This should stop the confusion surrounding some of the characters and storylines.

Enjoy!