It is well known that the ending of a movie is what establishes whether or not we would want to see a sequel if it were to be made. A lot of the time for me the ending is what sells the film to me. So this is my spoiler free Top Ten film endings, this one has to be spoiler free because I don't wanna go ruining some great films for you.
So here's my spoiler free Top Ten Movie Endings:
10. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
9. Back to the Future Part 2 (1989)
8. Batman Begins (2005)
7. Terminator 2 (1991)
6. The Thing (1982)
5. Planet of the Apes (1968)
4. Pulp Fiction (1994)
3. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1971)
2. The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
1. Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes (2001)
There we have it, my Top Ten Movie Endings, at some point in the recent future I will redo this post where I explain what happens in the endings, and what makes them do good (so a spoiler version of this post).
Comment on here, Facebook, where ever! Let me know what your Top Ten Movie Endings are.
Tuesday, 5 June 2012
Monday, 4 June 2012
Review of Outcasted (Short film)
'Outcasted' is a 2011 short film by Premek Rak, the film is about a group of post-apocalyptic survivors hiding in the underground, led by their leader Duncan, the group's elder, who struggles to supply them with enough food. Lady Morven, a religious fundamentalist, sees his failing as an opportunity to take over leadership and force her indoctrination upon the group. It is a post-apocalyptic project based on Shakespeare's play Macbeth.
I like the concept of this film, but it isn't the best short film I've seen, the acting is pretty bad, so camerawork isn't great and the sets are very average compared to some post-apocalyptic films I've seen. One thing that is really good though, is the soundtrack by Brendan Perry, it is easily the best thing about this film. It's an alright watch, but it's nothing special.
The link for 'Outcasted' is below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mL7xIaYYS7I
I'm going to give 'Outcasted' a 4/10.
I like the concept of this film, but it isn't the best short film I've seen, the acting is pretty bad, so camerawork isn't great and the sets are very average compared to some post-apocalyptic films I've seen. One thing that is really good though, is the soundtrack by Brendan Perry, it is easily the best thing about this film. It's an alright watch, but it's nothing special.
The link for 'Outcasted' is below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mL7xIaYYS7I
I'm going to give 'Outcasted' a 4/10.
Review of Connected (Short Film)
'Connected' is a 2010 short film by Jonas Drotner Mouritsen and Jens Raunkjaer Christensen. The films is set in the distant future, and is a story about survival and greed with a post apocalyptic wasteland as its backdrop. Survivors of an unknown disaster shuffle through a desolate landscape, it quickly becomes clear that nobody has the strength to survive. Each survivor relies on the helmets they where to provide breathable air.
I like the concept of this film, its all about greed and desperation, the theme of connection is apparent throughout, with the first two characters we see having their respirators connected in order to stay alive, and a the next single character, with his own respirator which is running out. He wants the joint respirator to stay alive. The whole look of the wasteland reminds me of the Xbox 360 game called RAGE, and I really like how this plays out, it gives off a very western theme around the middle of the film. Granted the film begins quite slow, but they clearly map out the type of situations that survivors of this unknown disaster would probably have to deal with everyday. The ideas good, the musics good, the costumes are good, all in all, a very good watch.
The link for 'Connected' is below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mL7xIaYYS7I
I'm going to give 'Connected' a 8.5/10, for story and atmosphere.
I like the concept of this film, its all about greed and desperation, the theme of connection is apparent throughout, with the first two characters we see having their respirators connected in order to stay alive, and a the next single character, with his own respirator which is running out. He wants the joint respirator to stay alive. The whole look of the wasteland reminds me of the Xbox 360 game called RAGE, and I really like how this plays out, it gives off a very western theme around the middle of the film. Granted the film begins quite slow, but they clearly map out the type of situations that survivors of this unknown disaster would probably have to deal with everyday. The ideas good, the musics good, the costumes are good, all in all, a very good watch.
The link for 'Connected' is below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mL7xIaYYS7I
I'm going to give 'Connected' a 8.5/10, for story and atmosphere.
Sunday, 3 June 2012
Review of Outpost: Black Sun
'Outpost: Black Sun' is a 2012 British action horror film directed and written by Steve Barker (also co-written with Rae Brunton), it is a sequel to the 2008 film 'Outpost'. It stars Catherine Steadman, Richard Coyle and Ali Craig. The film continues where the first film left off, with the new special task forced discovering the WWII bunker. The whole plot revolves around the undead Nazis expanding their territory because somehow they've managed to expand the magnetic field generated by the machine that keeps them alive. Meanwhile Lena (Steadman) is searching for the Nazi war criminal Klausener. She and Wallace (Coyle) venture to try and stop Kausener and defeat the undead army, on the way they run into a special ops team who are under orders to destroy the device, but someone has a hidden secret.
I really like the first movie, it was a great treat by the world of British film, but this one is nowhere near as good. The story is alright, its very generic, its similar to nearly every Nazi zombie movie out there (and there are a few), it's very similar to the 2011 film 'War of the Dead', which was based off 'Outpost' in the first place. They also randomly throw in new Nazi characters, some are relevant, and some seem to just be there to keep it interesting, it's very stupid. It's basically the first film on a slightly bigger scale. The acting is also pretty terrible, pretty darn terrible. Very few of the performances are believable, the most believable performances were the Nazis, and they don't speak. Also they effects are bad, they were alright in the first film, but the first film mostly takes place in the bunker, in this one we see more of the surrounding area, but where ever they decide to use explosions, it just looks bad. There's a scene where they're walking down the road and there's loads of abandoned luggage, the smoke in the background in this scene looks appalling, and when ever you see electricity in this movie (like when an EMP goes off for example), just look away, we shouldn't be seeing effects that bad in this day and age).
The only thing that can salvage this film, is that there's some decent action in it. We see lots of shooting, a few good wise crack lines, and an alright hand to hand knife fight. That's the only reason why I would watch this film again, but even then, it's not that special.
I was surprised to hear that a second sequel went into production back in April. It goes by the name of 'Outpost: Rise of the Spetsnaz'. I doubt I'll be watching that one. I'm going to give 'Outpost: Black Sun' a 4.5/10 and I'm being really generous there, easily one of the worst sequels I've seen.
I really like the first movie, it was a great treat by the world of British film, but this one is nowhere near as good. The story is alright, its very generic, its similar to nearly every Nazi zombie movie out there (and there are a few), it's very similar to the 2011 film 'War of the Dead', which was based off 'Outpost' in the first place. They also randomly throw in new Nazi characters, some are relevant, and some seem to just be there to keep it interesting, it's very stupid. It's basically the first film on a slightly bigger scale. The acting is also pretty terrible, pretty darn terrible. Very few of the performances are believable, the most believable performances were the Nazis, and they don't speak. Also they effects are bad, they were alright in the first film, but the first film mostly takes place in the bunker, in this one we see more of the surrounding area, but where ever they decide to use explosions, it just looks bad. There's a scene where they're walking down the road and there's loads of abandoned luggage, the smoke in the background in this scene looks appalling, and when ever you see electricity in this movie (like when an EMP goes off for example), just look away, we shouldn't be seeing effects that bad in this day and age).
The only thing that can salvage this film, is that there's some decent action in it. We see lots of shooting, a few good wise crack lines, and an alright hand to hand knife fight. That's the only reason why I would watch this film again, but even then, it's not that special.
I was surprised to hear that a second sequel went into production back in April. It goes by the name of 'Outpost: Rise of the Spetsnaz'. I doubt I'll be watching that one. I'm going to give 'Outpost: Black Sun' a 4.5/10 and I'm being really generous there, easily one of the worst sequels I've seen.
Review of the original 'District 9' (Short Film)
'District 9' is a 2006 short film by Neill Blomkamp, which the movie 'District 9' was based off. Blomkamp was originally set to produce the Halo movie, which is now on hold indefinitely.
The film is set out like a documentary, very much like how part of the feature film is done, and you can clearly see the elements that were used in the feature film. I really like this short film, the effects aren't the best (the aliens looks awful, their equipment looks worse) but it's a very original concept, and I like the way it is set out like a documentary to give it that sense of realism. I also like how they show peoples reactions to the aliens arriving, I think it is quite an accurate interpretation of how some countries may react. The score is also really good, just like in the feature film. My only real complaints like I've already mentioned, is the effects, short films never have a huge budget, so it's forgivable. It successfully tells the story in just under six minutes, which the feature film spread out to at least twenty minutes and was the basis for the rest of their story.
I'm going to give the original 'District 9' an 8/10.
Weekly Blu Ray Review: Warrior, Iron Sky, Predator, Predator 2, Toy Story and Tarzan
Continuing the new weekly blog post I started last week, again I will be reviewing all of the blu rays I have watched throughout week. Again the numerical rating is not to with the quality of the film itself but of the quality of the blu ray. Also if I have reviewed a film on a previous weekly blog post and then watched it again, I won't review it again on another post, that would be wasting both your time and mine.
Here's an overview of the blu rays I've watched this week:
Warrior (2011)
This was easily one of the best films released last year, Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton are brilliant in it. The blu ray release of this is almost of great as the film itself, especially during the fight scenes, you can clearly see every emotion, every bead of sweat, it looks really good, the only thing that lets it is that when there's a dark scene, like one set at night, there are a few sections that a bit fuzzy, a bit grated, it kind of lets it down. Overall it's really good, it's just disappointing that the quality isn't consistent throughout. 8/10.
Iron Sky (2012)
For a non-mainstream film, it looks really good. Even though the films quite dark in places, the quality stays the same throughout, I've noticed that with a few blu rays, when it gets darker, it tends to get fuzzy, this one doesn't fall into that trap. The one thing that looks really good is the actors faces, you can see every detail, every emotion. The only place where the quality falls is with some of the scenes on the Moon, which may also be due to some bad visual effects. The film even comes with a digital copy, although as usual it is in standard definition, but for a non-mainstream film I can forgive them for that. Altogether it is definitely worth getting on blu ray, check out full review of 'Iron Sky' posted on 30th May. For blu ray quality, I'd give this film 9/10.
Predator (1987) Ultimate Edition
This film is a classic, one of Schwarzenegger's best films, when I saw this blu ray on special offer, my debit card slipped and it was bought, along with 'Predator 2'. The blu ray does the film justice, everything looks really good, I was worried because trees and bushes are the most common things that are lazily brushed over, they tend to come out fuzzy, but not with this one, everything is crystal clear. The only complaints I have are with how the Predator in its active camouflage looks, but that only looks bad because the films 25 years old. I mean the effects don't look bad, just a bit dated, and the blu ray brings that out. Also the sound quality isn't that much different from the DVD, it also comes with the same special features as the DVD. The special features are also quite good, with interview from the cast, an introduction to the Predator and its design and a look into the special effects. So I'd give 'Predator' on blu ray an 8/10, mostly because there wasn't a single blurry moment throughout the whole film.
Predator 2 (1990)
Danny Glover stars in the sequel to Schwarzenegger's classic 'Predator', which, as I mentioned above looks really good on blu ray, and I can confirm that this one does too. It's looks and sounds about the same as 'Predator', but there are a few minor moments where it's blurry, it's hardly noticeable to be quite honest. Some of the special effects look really good too, with the exception of a few (the film is 22 years old so we must bare that in mind) including the plasma blaster, but that is a result of the change in design, it looks more like he's shooting a rocket at them. Again the sound could have been better, but it still sounds pretty good. The special features are really good, they take you through all of the complicated scenes where the Predator is in camouflage and explained to us how they achieved the final result. There's also a section that explains how different the Predator is from one in the first movie, and they go through its equipment, talking about how they work differently in the film, and how they're designed and made differently so that they're more practical fr the actor to use. I'm going to give 'Predator 2' a 7.5/10, a really good blu ray for the collection.
Toy Story (1995)
This is one of my favourite childhood movies, I was watching it on Thursday and all I could think about was how much I still love it, and this is possibly the best blu ray I've seen so far. Everything is sharp and bright, and it sounds great! For a movie with such a good soundtrack, they really went to town on it. There's also a decent amount of special features on it, it's the first animated film I've watched on blu ray, and I'm really impressed. Not much more I can say about it, nothing bad least, so I'm going to give 'Toy Story' 10/10.
Tarzan (1999)
This blu ray is such a disappointment! I love the movie, but you know they've been lazy when the main menu is in better definition than the actual movie. I'm being serious, the menu looks great, all defined, and bright and colourful, but the film just looks like a DVD rip. They've wasted an opportunity with the sound as well, because that sounds like it's straight off the DVD too, which is a real shame because the soundtrack by Phil Collins is one of them best soundtracks in Disney's collection (in my opinion). It says its supposed to have the same picture quality as 'Toy Story', but it really doesn't, and just looking at the description, you can see the difference in the effort that the converters of 'Toy Story' have put into the sound on their blu ray compared to whoever did it for 'Tarzan'. It doesn't even come with a decent amount of special features.So overall, it's a wasted opportunity and a lazy piece of work, it gets a 2/10 (and I'm being generous).
Here's an overview of the blu rays I've watched this week:
Warrior (2011)
This was easily one of the best films released last year, Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton are brilliant in it. The blu ray release of this is almost of great as the film itself, especially during the fight scenes, you can clearly see every emotion, every bead of sweat, it looks really good, the only thing that lets it is that when there's a dark scene, like one set at night, there are a few sections that a bit fuzzy, a bit grated, it kind of lets it down. Overall it's really good, it's just disappointing that the quality isn't consistent throughout. 8/10.
Iron Sky (2012)
For a non-mainstream film, it looks really good. Even though the films quite dark in places, the quality stays the same throughout, I've noticed that with a few blu rays, when it gets darker, it tends to get fuzzy, this one doesn't fall into that trap. The one thing that looks really good is the actors faces, you can see every detail, every emotion. The only place where the quality falls is with some of the scenes on the Moon, which may also be due to some bad visual effects. The film even comes with a digital copy, although as usual it is in standard definition, but for a non-mainstream film I can forgive them for that. Altogether it is definitely worth getting on blu ray, check out full review of 'Iron Sky' posted on 30th May. For blu ray quality, I'd give this film 9/10.
Predator (1987) Ultimate Edition
This film is a classic, one of Schwarzenegger's best films, when I saw this blu ray on special offer, my debit card slipped and it was bought, along with 'Predator 2'. The blu ray does the film justice, everything looks really good, I was worried because trees and bushes are the most common things that are lazily brushed over, they tend to come out fuzzy, but not with this one, everything is crystal clear. The only complaints I have are with how the Predator in its active camouflage looks, but that only looks bad because the films 25 years old. I mean the effects don't look bad, just a bit dated, and the blu ray brings that out. Also the sound quality isn't that much different from the DVD, it also comes with the same special features as the DVD. The special features are also quite good, with interview from the cast, an introduction to the Predator and its design and a look into the special effects. So I'd give 'Predator' on blu ray an 8/10, mostly because there wasn't a single blurry moment throughout the whole film.
Predator 2 (1990)
Danny Glover stars in the sequel to Schwarzenegger's classic 'Predator', which, as I mentioned above looks really good on blu ray, and I can confirm that this one does too. It's looks and sounds about the same as 'Predator', but there are a few minor moments where it's blurry, it's hardly noticeable to be quite honest. Some of the special effects look really good too, with the exception of a few (the film is 22 years old so we must bare that in mind) including the plasma blaster, but that is a result of the change in design, it looks more like he's shooting a rocket at them. Again the sound could have been better, but it still sounds pretty good. The special features are really good, they take you through all of the complicated scenes where the Predator is in camouflage and explained to us how they achieved the final result. There's also a section that explains how different the Predator is from one in the first movie, and they go through its equipment, talking about how they work differently in the film, and how they're designed and made differently so that they're more practical fr the actor to use. I'm going to give 'Predator 2' a 7.5/10, a really good blu ray for the collection.
Toy Story (1995)
This is one of my favourite childhood movies, I was watching it on Thursday and all I could think about was how much I still love it, and this is possibly the best blu ray I've seen so far. Everything is sharp and bright, and it sounds great! For a movie with such a good soundtrack, they really went to town on it. There's also a decent amount of special features on it, it's the first animated film I've watched on blu ray, and I'm really impressed. Not much more I can say about it, nothing bad least, so I'm going to give 'Toy Story' 10/10.
Tarzan (1999)
This blu ray is such a disappointment! I love the movie, but you know they've been lazy when the main menu is in better definition than the actual movie. I'm being serious, the menu looks great, all defined, and bright and colourful, but the film just looks like a DVD rip. They've wasted an opportunity with the sound as well, because that sounds like it's straight off the DVD too, which is a real shame because the soundtrack by Phil Collins is one of them best soundtracks in Disney's collection (in my opinion). It says its supposed to have the same picture quality as 'Toy Story', but it really doesn't, and just looking at the description, you can see the difference in the effort that the converters of 'Toy Story' have put into the sound on their blu ray compared to whoever did it for 'Tarzan'. It doesn't even come with a decent amount of special features.So overall, it's a wasted opportunity and a lazy piece of work, it gets a 2/10 (and I'm being generous).
Saturday, 2 June 2012
Review of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (Short Film)
'S.T.A.L.K.E.R.' is a 2011 short film by Brett Driver and Clinton Jones. The films revolves around a soldier who awakens in an abandoned apartment building with nothing but his weapon. He encounters two men in white radiation suits who appear to be scanning the area. He follows them, attempting to find out more about where he is, only to discover a greater evil.
I love short films like this one, it's only just over 6 minutes long, but it still manages to grab the audiences interest. The whole thing looks like the opening sequence to a small budget action horror film. It's quite well done. The music is done by Trevor Sather, who has done a good job with it and interestingly, apparently 90% of what we hear in this short film is fake.
I'd definitely give this one a watch, it doesn't take up much time. I will post the link below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmp2gchZEao&feature=fvwrel
I'm going to give 'S.T.A.L.K.E.R.' a 6.5/10.
I love short films like this one, it's only just over 6 minutes long, but it still manages to grab the audiences interest. The whole thing looks like the opening sequence to a small budget action horror film. It's quite well done. The music is done by Trevor Sather, who has done a good job with it and interestingly, apparently 90% of what we hear in this short film is fake.
I'd definitely give this one a watch, it doesn't take up much time. I will post the link below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmp2gchZEao&feature=fvwrel
I'm going to give 'S.T.A.L.K.E.R.' a 6.5/10.
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