Review of Lawless

'Lawless' is a 2012 gangster film directed by John Hillcoat, it is based off Matt Bondurant's The Wettest County in the World about his grandfather and great-uncles in Prohibition-era Franklin County, Virginia. The novel was adapted into a screenplay by Nick Cave. The film stars Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, Mia Wasikowska, Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke and Guy Pearce.

I am going to start by saying this. This film is really interesting. If you know your history then you will find it more interesting than the average person. Now lets talk about what is good about this film. Th cast: Tom Hardy was definitely the strongest actor in this movie. You may struggle to understand him at first because the accent he uses for this film is very strong, but if you've seen 'The Dark Knight Rises' then you'll have no trouble understanding him. Hardy's character (Forest Bondurant) is instantly likeable, he's funny (not as in he's a comedian in it, just the way he acts and speaks is funny) and brutal, whenever he gets into a brawl, he kicks ass. Shia LaBeouf is also pretty good, but at first his character is really annoying, and it does take a while to get to like him. Other strong performances were Guy Pearce's (he is one of the most evil looking people I've ever seen in a movie) and Dane DeHaan (the kid from 'Chronicle'). I was disappointed to see that Gary Oldman has a very small part. I mean he's important; he's a really influential character to Jack Bondurant (LaBeouf), but he has very little screen time. I would also have like to have seen more of Jason Clarke (as Howard Bondurant).

The story is also pretty good. It's simple, but effective. It takes us through the lives of the Bondurant brothers and they storm through life as bootleggers, constantly having to adapt to new prohibition laws and being hunted by Special Agent Charlie Rakes (Pearce). What I really love about this movie is how brutal it is. At every opportunity when there's some scrapes, it's brutal, we are guaranteed blood and snapping noises. It's brilliant! There are some really good scenes, and some incredibly moving ones too. I love films based on true events, obviously with the story coming from a novel I have no idea how accurate these events are, but what they have done really well in this film is slot it in with American history. Obviously it fits in with Prohibition and how gangsters flourished because of it, but it also includes topics like segregation (I noticed little things like a water fountain that had a sign saying 'White' attached to it), which was a major problem during this period. It also looks at equality, by that I mean the lack of equality between men and women; about how women are seen as objects by many men. It also very briefly glances at the difference between how white women were treated and how black women were treated. Basically if you are interested in history, you'll notice a lot more of the underlining factors than the average person, making the film more interesting for you. 

Now the only other thing that I think was bad about this film, apart from what I've already mentioned about the cast, is the pacing. The film is very slow, it picks up for short amounts of time, but then slows back down again. It isn't a film that is driven by action, rather it is driven by personal performances and stories. So I think people will go to this movie expecting an action flick, but will be disappointed.

In conclusion, it is by no means a bad movie, I really enjoyed it, it has great performances, an interesting story set in an interesting period in American history. It is just a bit slow for my liking. I would still recommend going to see it, and I imagine that one day this film will be played in history lessons when learning about Prohibition and gangsters alongside 'The Untouchables'. I am going to give 'Lawless' an 8.5/10.

Some News Type Thing (06/09/12) No Time Travel In Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes, A Metal Gear Solid Movie, Michael Keaton Joins Robocop and a S.H.I.E.L.D. TV Series!

This week on Some News Type Thing we have some new on 'Dawn Of The Planet Of the Apes and a

No Time Travel In Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes
As any fan of the franchise knows, as a way to save the film after the appalling 'Beneath The Planet Of The Apes' they pulled the old time travel trick, sending three intelligent speaking apes back in time to to the late twentieth century as a way of reviving the film with a form of origins story. Well in a recent interview with Total Film, Screenwriter Rick Jaffa addressed the issue of time travel: "I don't foresee that. But it's interesting you should ask that, because it's the one big elements that we made a conscious decision not to explore in the first one, and we were worried there might be some backlash in the science fiction community because of it. When the story first came  together we were very, very excited, and yet before we pitched it, I thought, 'The one thing missing though is time travel. But it's not necessary for this particular telling'. And I don't really foresee it, to tell you the truth".

To me this is good, time travel has become very cliche in the world of science fiction, and this way means that they are rebuilding the whole origins story, almost making 'Escape From The Planet Of The Apes', 'Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes' and Battle For The Planet Of The Apes' irrelevant. It gives them freedom to do what they want whilst still respecting the best film in the franchise, the original, 'Planet Of The Apes'.

'Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes' comes out May 23rd 2014.

A Metal Gear Solid Movie
Sony has announced that it is bringing 'Metal Gear Solid to the big screens and it is being produced by Avi Arad, who also produced 'The Amazing Spiderman', 'Iron Man' and 'The Incredible Hulk'. If done right, this movie could be incredible.

Michael Keaton Joins Robocop
Some casting news from the set of the 'Robocop' remake, it was rumoured before that Hugh Laurie was cast to play the villain in the film, but now it has been revealed that he has backed down from the role (or never accepted it to begin with) and Michael Keaton has now been cast. I'm happy with this news, Keaton is a brilliant actor, and I think he will bring a lot to the table and to be honest, this is the first good news we've heard about the remake in a while (at least so far the cast is awesome).

S.H.I.E.L.D Gets A TV Series
We all know S.H.I.E.L.D. from the popular Marvel comics and movies, well it looks like Marvel is expanding its current extended universe into the realm of television. S.H.I.E.L.D. is getting its own television series and in even better news, Joss Whedon has agreed to both write and direct the series along with his brother Ged Whedon. I just hope he isn't just directing the pilot episode. I love Marvel, so more is good!

That's all the news I have this week, I'm sure next week there will be even more great movie news. I hope soon we'll have a trailer for 'Lincoln', the movie comes out in three months and we've only recently gotten the poster.

Quote Of The Week 05/09/12

This weeks quote of the week comes from Quentin Tarantino's 1994 'Pulp Fiction'.

Vincent: "Oh man, I shot Marvin in the face"

Movie Recommendation Of The Week: Star Trek (2009)

With the release of 'Dredd 3D' on Friday I was thinking of recommending the original 1995 film 'Judge Dredd' starring Sylvester Stallone, but then I though to myself, overall that is a pretty awful movie. I mean I like it, I enjoy the action sequences, but it just feels like your typical Stallone movie. So I looked at the man who is the new Dredd, Karl Urban. I looked at Urban's film history and realised that, he has been in some pretty awesome movies. Some examples being 'Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers' and 'The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King'. But my favourite performance by his was when he played Dr Leonard "Bones" McCoy in J.J. Abrams 'Star Trek'.

'Star Trek' was released in 2009 and was a reboot of the Star Trek franchise. Urban stars alongside Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto and Eric Bana. The film reinvented the Star Trek world, making it much more appealing to new audiences whom previously were not fans of Star Trek. The also includes a cameo by Leonard Nimoy as Spock. The film is brilliant, it has a compelling story, some amazing space action sequences, some hand to hand combat sequences along with some nice little references to the original series and films. McCoy was originally played by DeForest Kelley and his incarnation is fairly iconic within the Star Trek universe. Urban's incarnation of the character may not get a lot of screen time compared to other members of the cast, but he clearly defines himself as his own character, he has some of the perks that come with the character, but he also makes McCoy his own. I can't wait until next year for the sequel, because the first one was so good and the cast was flawless.

Even if you aren't a fan of the franchise, I would highly recommend giving this film a try, it would a lot of people over to science fiction back in 2009. Even if you just like a good action flick, then this film is the one for you. I'm giving 'Star Trek' a 9.5/10. It was missing something, something tiny, I'm not even sure what it is. It is nearly the perfect movie.

Review of The Possession

'The Possession' is a 2012 supernatural horror film directed by Ole Bornedal and co-produced by Sam Raimi. The story is based on the allegedly haunted Dybbuk box. Bornedal cited films like 'The Exorcist' as an inspiration, praising their subtlety. The films stars Natasha Calis, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Kyra Sedgwick and Madison Davenport.

I'm going to start by saying that this isn't the best horror I've seen. I'm useless when it comes to watching horrors int he cinema, I can watch them fine when they're on the TV, but as soon as I'm in the cinema, I'm jumping at every shadow. This film constantly builds up with tension, but then most of the time, nothing comes of it. At first the effect where we see some development, then it drastically changes to another scene works really well, but after seeing it over and over again it starts to get old.

Hats off to Jeffrey Dean Morgan, he carries the first hour of the film, he's a good actor, and in this film he is provided with some decent, sometimes witty, dialogue which keeps us interested in the character. The rest of the cast is pretty average, Natasha Calis who plays the young girl who gets possessed has a lot of good moments, but there are some parts where you can't help but think, wow, that was terrible. Then the rest of the cast we hardly see, there's no character development outside of the two main characters played by Morgan and Calis. The last half an hour or so of this movie is actually quite good, it starts to get really interesting. We finally start seeing what we've been waiting for for nearly an hour. If I based this review on just the last section of the film, it would get a really high score, but unfortunately I review to review the film as a whole. If they sorted out the pacing of the film, they could have made it better, it's just far too slow. I understand that it is apparently based on a true story so they have to stay as true to that as possible, but it is also a movie and that means that changes can be made to make it work better on screen. One thing that is consistant throughout is the special effects. All the way through the film they look really good and very creepy.

One critic brought something to my attention, why do we never see any evidence? Like maybe during the end credits why don't we see pictures or real footage? There's a specific scene with a CT Scan (this isn't a spoiler because it is in the trailer) where we see the demon inside of the little girl. We see it on the monitor. Surely if this was a true story, there would be records of this, footage from the monitor, pictures, something! It destroys any sense of belief the film tries to create.

So all in all it is a very average film. It starts off really slowly and we rely on one very good actor to keep us interested.  It prepares us for scares that never happen (leaving people like me embarrassed because they look terrified during the build up), but ends on a high with a very entertaining final twenty minutes. I am going to give 'The Possession' a 6.5/10. If you enjoy horrors, give it a shot, you might like it. It has some pretty cool visuals.

Weekly Blu Ray Review: Starship Troopers: Invasion

This week (starting the 27th August 2012)I indulged into the special features of one particular blu ray. That blu ray, is 'Starship Troopers: Invasion'.

Starship Troopers: Invasion (2012)
An above average film but a very high quality blu ray. Animated films have a high percentage of fantastic picture quality, this one is definitely a part of that percentage. The picture is top notch, and the sound is also pretty darn good. The best looking parts of this film has to be the action sequences. Nothing looks better than when the bugs are getting turned into Swish cheese. Now we get to the best part, the special features. I am going to start with the best bit, the seven part making of the movie, honestly this is great! It goes through everything from the influences from the novel and the past films, to the animation, the score, the motion capture acting (they actually used motion capture for an animated film, then adjusted the movements slightly to represent the battle armer), it is really extensive and very interesting to watch. You also find out a lot about the original movie, and why certain decision were made that took the story away from the source material of the novel (e.g. the power suits). The seven part feature is built up of interviews, filming footage and computer generated examples (like a sort of before and after of a certain part of the film). On top of that we have commentaries, a gag reel (which is quite funny, it shows some examples of when the actors messed up their lines when voicing over a scene) and a concept art gallery. Possibly the weakest part of the special features is the deleted scenes. There are two deleted scenes, and both of them aren't completed scenes (they were cut before the animation was finished).

It is a very good blu ray, I just feel like they could have put in a few more special features, once you get past the making of part of it, there isn't anything else that is really interesting, but it definitely perfect for any blu ray collection. I am going to give 'Starship Troopers: Invasion' a 9/10.

The Subspace: Movie Review: Total Recall (2012)

The Subspace: Movie Review: Total Recall (2012): 'What is real and what is Recall?' It's safe to say that Summer 2012 at the cinema box office has been a real good time, providing us ...