Chase and Status - No More Idols

Chase and Status

Chase and Status are becoming one of the best acts on the DubStep scene and have been around since 2003 however they rose to the forefront of the music industry when they released their debut album, “More Than Alot”, which I haven’t been able to listen to yet, so unfortunately I won’t be comparing the album against the one I am about to review.

So Chase and Status are back with their new album “No More Idols”. Right from the start you know why they are the best at what they do, they are one of those bands whose songs are all over TV commercials but you don’t know who sings the music, so when every new song is on you will be saying to yourself “I know this song”, songs like “Blind Faith”, “Brixton Briefcase”, “Hitz” and “No Problem”.

If you look at the back of the album the first thing you will notice is the sheer amount of names that they have collaborated and not because they have collaborated with someone on every song but some of the names, “Tinie Tempah”, “Cee-Lo Green”, “Delilah”, “Tempa T” and “Maverick Sabre” to just name a few. This really helps to sell the album because there are so many household names endorsing this album.

A couple of my favourite songs include, the chill out sensation “Blind Faith”, the jungle bound “No Problems” and finally “Hitz” with the lyrical genius “Tinie Tempah”. I really enjoyed this album, it makes you want to get upon your feet and jump around like a loon which is definitely a good look in a club, possibly on your own but definitely not with your grandparents.

I would definitely recommend this album to, club goers and DubStep lovers. I have a feeling that over the next couple of years they will be absolutely massive in the club scene even if they are a large part of it already.

"No More Idols" Album Cover

No More Idols Track Listing:

1. No Problem
2. Fire In Your Eyes (Ft Maverick Sabre)
3. Let You Go (ft Mali)
4. Blind Faith (ft Liam Bailey)
5. Fool Yourself (ft Plan B & Rage)
6. Hypest Hype (ft Tempa T)
7. Hitz (ft Tinie Tempah)
8. Heavy (vs Dizzee Rascal)
9. Brixton Briefcase (ft CeeLo Green)
10. Hocus Pocus
11. Flashing Lights (ft Sub Focus & Takura)
12. Embrace (ft White Lies)
13. Time (ft Delilah)
14. Midnight Caller (ft Clare Maguire)
15. End Credits (ft Plan B)

Rating: 8/10

Bad Teacher

Bad Teacher Poster

So after watching the other two films, I wasn’t expecting much past a normal comedy, however clearly my expectations were clearly too high, and here’s why.

Right from the start, in films like these the main character should be likeable maybe even loveable not damn right annoying like Cameron Diaz in this, rather idiotic film with some characters being realistic and others being down right stupid, in my opinion, if a film isn’t a serious one then all the characters should be, slightly sarcastic and not take each other too seriously, however this film seems to do the complete opposite, which is unfortunate because it could have been a good film with the right casting and the right script and less serious characters.

As I said Cameron Diaz’s character is very annoying, and as she tries so hard to be sexy, it just gets a bit boring and distasteful especially as none of the situations which come to fruition, I am talking from experience as quite a few of my teachers at my school were unfortunately stupid enough to do silly things in school time, however none of the situations posed in this film would go that far.

So let’s move on to Justin Timberlake’s character, well this film gets worse, especially as I have heard a lot of good things about his other roles in films, such as “Alpha Dog”, unfortunately he doesn’t live up to the expectations, now don’t get me wrong I’m not expecting a acting master class on a comedy film, but I don’t expect to cringe every time he reads his lines out in the film.

Before I completely put you off of watching this film I had better explain to you what the film is actually about, well basically, Cameron Diaz plays a teacher whose only objective in life is too get rich, within the first 5 minutes her husband to be dumps her because he knows all she wants is money, so basically she leaves the school that she works in and then she gets dumped by this millionaire. She is then reemployed by the school thus sets the objective of saving up for a boob job, and by now you have probably just realised that you’re so glad that you didn’t waste your time on this, and I hear you say “Is that it, is that all the story is about?” and my reply is “Yes, yes it is” she then proceeds to do many stupid scams to try and save up for this augmentation.

Although this is a short review, I feel that this is all I can do to offer you a fair review on this film; I think if I was to go any further I would truly rip into this sad excuse for Cameron Diaz to get her kit off, which is no more exciting than watching paint dry.

Characters: 2/10

Storyline: 1/10

Soundtrack: N/E (Non-Existent)

Overall: 2/10

Retreat



Retreat Movie Poster

I watched this film directly after “Set-Up” and I am sure you have all seen that review (if not head over there to read it), so back to this film. Now I don’t want to give too much away about this film, another “Straight to DVD” job, Like “Set-Up” I had great expectations for this film and I wasn’t let down in the slightest. Starring Thandie Newton (Run Fat Boy Run and L’Oreal Adverts) as “Kate” Cillian Murphy (28 Days Later and Sunshine) as “Martin” and Jamie Bell (Billy Elliot and Deathwatch) as “Pvt Jack”, this in my personal opinion but I believe that the people they chose for the roles were absolutely spot even if Thandie Newton is slightly whiney throughout.

So to the storyline you say, well it’s as the front covers explains its “Straw Dogs meets 28 Days Later”, apart from the cast, this is the other thing that attracted me (“28 Days Later” being my favourite horror film of all time). The acting is absolutely first class in this film, although it starts off extremely slow by the end of it “you can cut the tension with a knife” as they say.

Basically, “Kate” and “Martin” go away for what they seem to envisage as a couple days away on idyllic island alone, or are they. Well basically as the audience you can tell that they are going through a few personal problems of their own and this is elaborated on throughout the film as the couple struggle coming to terms with what news “Jack” brings with him. Eventually after a few problems with the generator they lose contact with the mainland and “Doug” the boat driver who visits the island solely to help them.

On stumbles Jamie Bell’s character “Jack”.  He knocked out by landing his boat in the rocks of the island; fortunately he gets taken in by “Martin” and “Kate”. When he comes-too, he tells “Martin” that he has some bad news and that the mainland has been taken by a deadly virus that involved people basically spewing their guts up and then dying, if contracted it will kill you within minutes or hours, “Jack” explains that there are people that will try and take the house for their own and so he forcefully sets the rules that no one is to enter the house and leave once he has sealed it up.

The combining friction of the relationship between “Martin” and “Kate”, ”Kate” and “Jack” and Finally “Martin” and “Jack” is unbelievable, you can’t help but feel sorry for “Martin” and “Kate” as “Jack has some amazing secrets and revelations to share with them. Should they live with this maniac or should they run, try and get away from the virus that has “ravaged” the mainland.

This is where I will leave the storyline as I don’t want to give too much away, like I said at the beginning of this review. This film is excellent in every department, the character development is excellent, you get adequate time to get to know the characters. The soundtrack is dramatic yet suits the storyline, towards the end it gets extremely dramatic being orchestral music, I did wonder why they used such music however it explains the situation well and helps the emotional side of the film.

Jamie Bell in particular puts in a tour de force of acting class and many young actors should look to him for inspiration, for such a low budget it certainly is an achievement to make such a hidden gem, how this didn’t get released in the cinemas I do not know. Cillian and Thandie both offer excellent performances and really help the tension and to portray their grievances well on the big screen (well little screen). Ultimately I was worried about who or what “Pvt Jack” was, his character is written particularly well.

I cannot praise this film enough, it totally reverses the situation of being in a big city with a virus, this sticks the audience in the middle of nowhere with no options but to sit and wait it out, that’s even if “Jack” is telling the truth, but why wouldn’t he?? Well you will have to find out.

Quite simply a diamond in the rough and certainly one for the DVD collection. A must have!

Characters: 8.5/10

Storyline: 8/10

Soundtrack: 9/10

Overall: 8.5/10

Set-Up

Set-Up Poster

Another straight to DVD film which has great promise with a decent cast of Ryan Phillipe (The Lincoln Lawyer), Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson (Get Rich or Die Trying and his Musical Career), and finally the ever brilliant Bruce Willis who doesn’t need explaining, however he will need to explain as to why he starred in this, somewhat, inexcusable failure of a film.

I really genuinely thought that I would be in for treat when this film came up on my screen with a decent budget (I know the production companies had a cool package of $200 Million), however I can tell how good a film is going to be with how the credits are shot (Font Size, Colour, Style), these were quite “punchy” yet, something felt like it was missing. So I continued watching, and right from the outset of the film you can tell that the script and possibly the actors were extremely wooden, which is extremely unfortunate also, as the premise for this film is quite good, typical revenge storyline with a hint of redemption.

Ryan Phillipe and Curtis Jackson are thieves but they have a likeable factor about them and aren’t your typical bad guys however they have been given this job to steal a suitcase from a Spanish or Italian (this is how impressed I was with the acting) delegate visiting the U.S on “business”. Cut a long story short, Ryan Phillipe’s character ends up shooting the delegate and this doesn’t bode well with his 2 other colleagues, so he ends up shooting Curtis Jackson and this other dude, whose acting is as good as a Large plank of wood, well he could call himself a plank of wood he is that interesting. (My fiancée chose this film in blockbuster and she was losing interest by this point and so was I). Turns out Ryan Phillipe has a deal with a local gang, “Fiddy” ends up getting taken under the wing of Bruce Willis’s character who is also a mob boss but for him to be accepted into this family he has to steal something for him to show his trust to Bruce Willis’s character.

My Fiancée turns to me and says:

“Are you really gonna make me watch this”

My reply:

“What you don’t wanna see the end”

And by now I am sure you can work out her reply, so as she descended upon “sleepyland” I carried on watching until I realised…………..(DARKNESS)…….and at that point my body had decided it had had enough of watching the utter pile of rubbish which was Ryan Phillipe, 50 Cent’s and Bruce Willis’s acting.

Obviously a lot of people are going to say “you can’t write an honest review if you haven’t seen all of it”, however the exception to this, is this film because I have never turned off a film before for being so awful, but in my old age I have begun to be less patient with time wasters, especially this film, so this film will get one award from me and that is “the best film to turn off half way through” award.

By all means watch this film for yourself, but be warned you will not be impressed by the acting, the only thing I remotely enjoyed about this film were the camera views, they were very good and you could see they were using a different filter to normal films (very MIAMI VICE, the Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx one). All I can say is I dare you to find a worse film this year and let me know if you do find one.

Characters: 2/10

Storyline: 5/10

Soundtrack: 3/10

Overall: 3/10

The Green Lantern

Ryan Reynold's In His Comical Suit!

I was undecided whether or not to put this in “Wet Wednesday’s” or the newer film’s section, I think entirely based on the whole film, it might have to be put into “wet wednesday’s” locked up and the key thrown away.

So, I hear your wondering why it’s so awful, well Ryan Reynolds (as much as I love the guy for his roles in other films, but I am really unconvinced he can play a super hero after his outing in X-men) plays Hal Jordan, an over-confident American Air Force Pilot who gets chosen by the ring of the guardians to be a “Green Lantern”. While most of the other “green lanterns” have no belief in Hal’s abilities, he has other ideas, he has his eyes set on the Biggest (Literally) Baddest (Not so much) CGI’ed (Definitely) foe going in the Comic/Film genre (Parallax), along the way Hal has his geekishly male best friend (Taika Waititi) and stunning childhood sweetheart (Blake Lively).

The film is flawed to say the least; the CGI is probably some of the worst I have seen on a $200,000,000 budget, when I first started to watch this film, I thought to myself:

“Is this a kid’s film?!!?!?!” (Yes it is that awful)

The acting is okay, but nothing fantastic and extremely cheesy, it’s like grabbing a slab of Blue Cheese and just biting straight out of it, that’s how cheesy it is.

The ending feels like its just the beginning but in the same token it feels like the film has dragged on forever, and how they gave it a 12 rating I would love to know, maybe it’s the massive green fist that Ryan Reynolds imagines when he wants to hit people.

There is not really much else I can say , apart from ignore, run do what ever you have to do to get away from this shambolic excuse for a super-hero film.

Characters:7/10

Storyline:3/10

Effects: 2/10

Overall:  4/10