Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

So after the great success of the first film, Sherlock Holmes returns with “A Game of Shadows”. Robert Downey Jnr. And Jude Law return as their characters, Sherlock and Dr Watson respectively. However is it as good as the first one? No is the simple answer, but that is why I am here to review it.

Guy Ritchie recreated the Sherlock for a younger audience with an attractive cast, brilliant action and excellent wit. Well all of the above returns, but something is missing. I can’t quite put my finger on it. I have spoken to a few other people that I know love the Sherlock films, a couple said they thought it was better than the first and some thought it was much worse than the first. I however sit in the middle.

After watching this film, the phrase “If it isn’t broken, DON’T fix it”, comes to mind. All the mechanics of the film work, the action scenes with Sherlock narrating what he is going to do with his opponent are genius and I was so glad when watching, that they had returned. The chemistry between Law and Downey Jnr. is spot on.

Mulling over it, I believe that the story could have possibly the problem, but even that wasn’t bad. Maybe it was the mystery of magic that kept the first one from being like this one. In this sequel the infamous character of Professor Moriarty (played by Jared Harris)  is introduced, it shows that he has the same intelligence and forethought as Sherlock and this makes him his ultimate adversary.

It starts with some explosive scenes with Sherlock having to try to dispose of a bomb after he follows Irene Adler (His love interest and played by Rachel McAdams). Irene escapes and it is then shown to the audience that she is in actual fact working for Professor Moriarty. She fails with her mission of trying to kill her target, thus Professor Moriarty disposes of her. (Although the audience never really finds out what fate was handed to her). So Sherlock finds out and wants revenge. This takes Sherlock and Watson to places like Paris and Switzerland.

The soundtrack, like the last, is excellent and really adds to the time period in which it is set.

So all I can do now is, tell you to go and see it as it is worth watching but whether you will find it better than the last is another question. All I can say Is I hope you enjoy as I did.

Overall, a good film, but definitely not as good as the first.

Wrecked

Wrecked Poster

One of the first things you will notice about this film is its visceral front cover of the DVD packaging. It shows Adrien Brody’s brutally battered face on the front cover and the title, which is the first thing to grab me, I was quite impressed with the cover and I really like Adrien Brody’s style of acting (The Pianist being one of my favourite films.)

Like they always say “don’t judge a book by its cover”, well this time its “don’t judge a DVD by its cover” because this film ranks among one of the worst I have ever seen, in all honesty, Adrien Brody acted it excellently even though I believe that he could have only had about 10 lines in the whole film. You will emotionally feel sorry for him in the beginning how ever 80 minutes down the line and you still have 10 minutes left of the film you just want the guy to just jump off a cliff, and you really really really don’t feel sorry for him.

So what is it about then? Well it’s basically Adrien Brody in a car crash, in the middle of no where; he doesn’t know where he is? Who he is ? or even why there is a dead body in the back seat of the car. Got you hooked? Well it had me hook, line and sinker, until I sunk to the deepest darkest ocean there is on the planet.

It is the dullest film going and I am really surprised at Adrien Brody took this project on. It must have taken all of about 20 minutes to film. The Ending just adds the icing to the cake to be honest, its an absolutely awful ending, with absolutely no thought put into it.

I promise by the end, if you get the end that is, you will feel robbed, cheated, assaulted, beaten up by the end of it.

Absolutely awful, never ever see this film.

Four Lions

"Unorthodox" Four Lions Poster

After seeing this countless times in the local “Blockbusters”, with its bright green front cover, and a crow strapped with a bomb. Now this isn’t the most orthodox style of front cover but it certainly is eye catching, unfortunately for a person with no internet, there is no explanation of what its about on the back of the case so hopefully enough people with just grab this film, because it is a diamond in the rough and definitely a laugh out loud comedy with a serious edge to it.

So the basically storyline is about 4 British Muslim (and converted Muslim) terrorists embarking on their journey towards “Jihad”. However there is a huge twist, it’s a comedy. Each of them are stereotypes of our modern day society in Britain i.e. One of them is white and macho. It is a very clever film in the respect that it tries to explain or what I perceive it to try and explain is that the bombers go about their everyday lives, just like we do in western culture. Some of them aren’t even convinced they want to be part of it.

The actors portray the parts very well, although most of the film is laugh out loud, some parts of it have a serious morel weaving through it, so this is how the actors handle it well, because they manage to keep such a sensitive subject in modern society in a balance with comedic and serious values.

Although a longish film it manages to engage you in the lives of the individuals and make you feel like your morals are being challenged because you feel that there is some other way they could live their lives. I wouldn’t say its controversial in a bad way but in a good way, because the films allows you to feel like you should approach the situation in a different as it shows their families and friends.

Its definitely worth a rental just to see what you think. I hope you’ll enjoy it just as much as I did.

Arthur Christmas

Arthur Christmas Poster

ARTHUR CHRISTMAS!!!! Yep! I went and saw Arthur Christmas at the cinema with my Fiancée she lovingly dragged me along as these women do. I had no idea what I was in for; all I knew was that it was 1. About Christmas (YAY!) and 2. It’s a KIDS film (Double YAY!). So as you can tell in the demeanour of my writing I wasn’t…….overly excited about it.

Anyway, on to the movie, well lets just say this film is a breathe of fresh air in the CGI department, and the voice acting is excellent too with the likes of James McEvoy, Jim Broadbent and Hugh Laurie bringing their talent to the fray. Its an excellent tale of what goes on around Christmas and what Santa and the elves do.

Right from the first scene you know its going to be a good film, it turns in to a “Matrix” affair, with the elves delivering all  the presents in ridiculous fashion in all sorts of manners e.g. through the toilet. Santa directs the elves around where they should be and what they should do. It has some extremely entertaining set pieces through out. It certainly sets the standards high for future releases, and its ridiculously hard not to love this film, all the characters are loveable.

The film is about “Arthur”, who is always under the shadow of his older Brother “Steve” who is also in line to become the new Santa Claus after his father gives up the reins.(Hehe Get that joke, Reins!) so after Santa has given up all the presents, Arthur realises that one of the presents hasn’t been to delivered to a particular child. He then asks “Steve “ to help him deliver it, however he sees that they cant make it in time to deliver it. So Arthur, sets out to show everyone that we should never give up and always try our hardest. It is an extremely heart-warming tale of love and life and it will not disappoint the adults or the kids going to see it.

For once there isn’t an evil character in this film, even though Hugh Laurie’s character Steve is slightly egotistical, buts it not your average kids storyline e.g. Good Vs Evil. I don’t want to give too much of it away because it is an excellent film with an excellent cast.

Trust me, go and watch this film and you will not regret it what so ever, and definitely take the kids, they will love the bright colours and get them in the Christmas mood, not they will need much pushing in that direction.

The Human Centipede 2

The Human Centipede 2 Poster

So to the people that have seen the first [Sequence] then I suggest that you realise that you have just watched the teletubbies compared this second [Sequence], named the [The Final Sequence] I can tell you now, it really isn’t, [The Final Sequence] that is, yep! There is a number 3 to which, in time will be named [The End Sequence}. Anyway back to the sequel of the cult classic. This time around, the main character (Martin Lomax) of this [Sequence] is in the same universe as the audience; I.E He watches the first film on DVD.

One of the first thing that catches you in this sequel is that it is filmed or augmented into black & white, I cant stand black & white films, however I found this chilling and disturbing in black & white and gave it a certain edge that colour wouldn’t give you. Another thing that is quite hard to describe but I will give it a try is that, the peripheral sounds are louder  than the actual sound on purpose to add vulgarity to the film, things such as the Martin licking his lips, and his pet centipede crawling around in its tank are all things that you can expect to hear. This is a clever addition to the film and certainly creeps you out along with the disgusting actor that plays the abused Martin.

He finds the first  film sexually gratifying and unfortunately shows him masturbating with a piece of sand paper in one part of the film, and yes this is the sort of stuff you can expect in this film, along with a lot of gore and a lot of hitting over the heads with a crowbar. The main premise of this film is the idea that the first movie has fallen in the hands of someone that doesn’t have their brains all in their head, this is our protagonist if you will or can call it that.

Unfortunately for the main character, his mother his old, he has a boring job, and he has an abusive neighbour, along with the hundreds of other people that go through his car park each day, so he decides to remake the human centipede, with a factory that steals from the owner by killing him. So he slowly gathers people together, including his violent neighbour and a pregnant woman, all in all he has 11 people but Martin wants 12 and he see’s no other better option than getting the lady from the middle of the first human centipede, unfortunately for her this time, its for real.

So that’s what the films about, I weirdly enjoyed it more than the first, but I wouldn’t say it was a better film content wise. However it is an extremely unique take or side step on what seems to be becoming the new SAW franchise, hopefully the 3^rd will be a cinema release rather than a straight to DVD affair. We can live in hope.

Overall it’s a sadistic film, with no light hearted entertainment, and a lot of subliminal messages. Its not for the feint hearted and I certainly wouldn’t recommend it to your grandparents, maybe your parents might enjoy it if they saw the first one like mine did.