Sisters: The Fey-Poehler Dynamic

Sisters is a comedy film directed by Jason Moore. The plot sees two sisters come together to sort through their parents’ house before it is sold. Of course the sisters are opposites to one another, Maura (Amy Poehler), is the self-disciplined scared to let lose type and Kata (Tina Fey), is the party girl who peaked in high school, both use this trip home as a means of trying to be different people and grow as individuals.

The plot is cliché and generic, this film will never win any awards for originality, but at the same time it is also very good and incredibly funny. The perhaps soul reason for this is the dynamic between the two leads and the fact that both are very humorous in their own way.

The dynamic between the two leads is definitely what makes this film so good, but it also boosted by a largely fantastic supporting cast, with the likes of Maya Rudolph and Ike Barinholtz proving to be standouts as well.

The humour worked for me and often made me laugh, though as I often say comedy is subjective so that doesn’t mean you will find it funny. As well as this the film has a lot of heart, that mostly comes off the right way. You do buy Fey and Poehler as sisters and when they face strife it is believable.

My one complaint would be that there is no reason this film is on for almost two hours as it just doesn’t need to be. It is self-indulgent and poorly paced as a result.

Pros.

Fey and Poehler

The comedy

The heart

The wider supporting cast

Cons.

It is poorly paced and on for far too long

4.5/5

Reviewed by Luke

How To Train Your Dragon 2: Hiccup The Horrible

How To Train Your Dragons 2 is an animated action and adventure film directed by Dean DeBlois. The plot sees Hiccup (Jay Baruchel), and the rest of Berk come under attack by a man who styles himself as the one true dragon master who sets his sights on taming an ancient all-powerful dragon and conquering the world.

I really enjoyed the first How To Train Your Dragons, I thought it had great emotional beats and set up a dense world. However, to me this film is a step backwards in a lot of ways. The emotional beats don’t hit as hard as they did in the first film, the death of Hiccup’s father does not make you emote as much as the almost death of Toothless in the first film, which says all you need to know.

Another thing I didn’t like about this film was the characterization of Hiccup, he goes from an unsure kid with a good heart in the first film, to a cocky, know it all, who blatantly thinks he knows better than everyone else and whose bad actions leads to terrible outcomes.

Moreover, this film makes the world feel far less big than it did in the last film, the villain and the new characters introduced in this film make the world seem to be only as big as the Viking territories. If the villain came from somewhere else entirely in the world that maybe had other fantasy beasts then they could have successfully built on the worldbuilding of the first.

Overall, this film is disappointing.

Pros.

I liked some of the new characters

It furthered the first films story

Cons.

The emotional beats weren’t as strong

The world feels very small

Hiccup is unlikable

2/5

Reviewed by Luke

You Should Have Left: Kevin Bacon The King Of Horror

You Should Have Left is a horror mystery film directed by David Koepp. The plot sees a family go to the Welsh countryside to escape from the pressures of modern life. However, the house they are staying at seems to draw in lost souls, the damned and the broken for its own evil intent.

This film proves that Kevin Bacon is still a staple of the horror genre, he feels incredibly well cast and probably has the best formed character in the film. There is a debate throughout the film as to whether Bacon’s character killed his ex-wife or not, towards the end of the film we get answers and realise that the horror that had been plaguing him in his dreams and in the house was himself all along.

The film has some genuinely scary scenes, that stayed with me long after I watched the film. I will kid you not, I had a nightmare for the first time in a long time after I watched this film. The horror is very minimalist in approach but is incredibly effective with what it does.

The one part of the film that I thought was far weaker than the rest of it was the ending. The ending doesn’t feel very satisfying, it feels very much like just another generic science fiction ending; there is no care in it.

Overall, the first two thirds of this film are really well done, genuinely scary and well written, however it all comes apart with an ending that feels incredibly underdeveloped.

Pros.

The scares

Kevin Bacon

Doing a lot with very little

Cons.

The ending

The side characters

3/5

Reviewed by Luke

King Arthur: The Legend Of The Double Edged Sword

King Arthur, Legend Of The Sword is a fantasy action film directed by Guy Ritchie. The film serves as a reimagining of classic Arthurian lore and envisions the Once and Future King as a street tough raised in a brothel destined to overthrow the evil king.

This film is a mixed bag, there was some stuff I really enjoyed and some stuff I thought was outright bad.

I enjoyed the world and the mythology this film sets up, it does not shy away from magic and shows off magical powers in quite a few sequences. Sadly the time slowing effect of when Excalibur is used in battle looks awful and like something out of a video game cut scene, so again very much hit and miss.

Moreover, Charlie Hunnam makes for a great King Arthur and has a lot of great lines and moments, his is easily the best performance in this film, but that is because pretty much everyone else isn’t trying; here’s looking at you Jude Law. I would like to see Hunnam in more of these sort of leading man roles in the future I do believe in the right hands he has a lot of potential to be explored.

This is very much a Guy Ritchie movie it has his style and fingerprints all over it, if you have ever seen one of his films before you know exactly what I mean. Very much like a lot of things in this film this too proves to be a double-edged sword. In the early parts of the film where Arthur runs a street gang it works very well and fits together, however as the story becomes more in line with the traditional depiction and more fantastical it starts to stand out for all the wrong reasons, proving to be quite out of place and jarring to watch.

Overall, a valiant effort to try something new, but only parts of it work out, incredibly hit or miss at the best of times.

Pros.

The world/ worldbuilding

Hunnam

The Ritchie tone in the first act.

Cons.

The terrible sword effects

Most of the cast are not even bothering to try

The Ritchie tone in the second and third acts

The fact that it doesn’t come together very well at all.

3/5

Reviewed by Luke

Kung Fu Panda 3: Mastering Your Craft

Kung Fu Panda 3 is an animated martial arts film directed by Alessandro Carloni and Jennifer Yuh Nelson. The plot sees ancient bad guy Kai (J.K Simmons), break free of the spirt world and return to the mortal plane hell bent on stealing the chi of every Kung Fu Master thereby destroying his old nemesis Oogway’s (Randall Duk Kim) legacy once and for all. There is only one Panda who can stop him.

I enjoyed this film quite a bit, it might have been my favourite since the first. I enjoyed the intensely personal journey at the heart of the story. Though you have all this end of the world end of kung fu stuff going on all around, the heart of the film is Po (Jack Black), coming to terms with you he is and finding his place in the world.

I think the journey that Po goes on, the inspiration for the series, is masterfully done and is a true achievement for the creatives involved. The progression feels natural and earned, when Po meets his birth dad Li (Bryan Cranston), it feels earned after all the soul searching he did in the second film. Truly his is a masterpiece of storytelling across multiple films and a beacon for how to do sequels.

I also enjoyed that the focus was not souly on Po, yes, he is the main focus, but this film gave those around him the chance to shine as well and shine they do.

Overall, this is the perfect end to the trilogy and feels like a much-deserved end, the character work and development is nothing sort of a master class and Black nails the emotion.

Pros.

The journey

The ending

The emotional heart at the core of the film

Giving the side characters a chance to shine

The voice acting

Cons

The villain is a bit weak, but it is such a minor issue.

4.5/5

Reviewed by Luke

Holmes And Watson: On The Case

Holmes and Watson is a comedy film directed by Ethan Cohen. The plot sees famous detective duo Sherlock Holmes (Will Ferrell) and Doctor Watson (John C. Reilly), have to stop a dastardly plot that threatens the life of Queen Victoria (Pam Ferris), herself.

So very much like with Artemis Fowl this might be the only positive review you will see of this film. Most people hated this film and I went in with terribly low expectations, but I have to say I ended up enjoying the film far more than I ever expected to.

The film made me laugh quite a few times, but as I always say humour is subjective, so I can’t say whether it will make you, the reader, laugh. What’s more the interplay between Ferrell and Reilly was just as strong as it has ever been if not stronger, this might be there finest on-screen performance together since Stepbrothers.

Reilly’s performance vastly upstages Ferrell’s, Reilly manages to make his character appear layered and stick around in your mind after the film. It is clear to see who is the better actor and that fact is reflected by the two men’s filmographies on of them is growing and coming into his own, the other is embarrassing himself.

There are a number of humour cameos in this film that quickly became my favourite part of the film; my personal favourite was Steve Coogan as a one-armed tattooist. However, my one issue with this film was that it did shoehorn in a romance plot line that really has no real merit or need to be in the film at all. The female leads are there to inspire some jokes, but they do little more than that and it makes you beg the question why where they written in to begin with.

Overall, I enjoyed this film far more than I thought I would and had quite the good time with it.

Pros.

The comedy

The cameos

Reilly

The interplay between Ferrell and Reilly

Cons.

A needless romance subplot that felt forced in for cheap jokes

4.5/5

Reviewed by Luke

The Ring Two: Samara Gave Up And Decided To Phone It In

The Ring Two is a horror film directed by Hideo Nakata. The plot sees Rachel (Naomi Watts) survivor of the first movie and her son Aidan (David Dorfman), once again become under attack by evil video tape girl Samara. This time she want to possess a human host.

I feel like this film undoes a lot of what made the first film so good. It fundamentally changes the mythology of the series changing it from the iconic ‘you will die in seven days’ to a bog-standard possession film, albeit it with a little more mystery involved.

Moreover we don’t see near as much of Samara as we did in the first film, which is disappointing because her physicality and her appearance are part of what makes that film so scary. Instead we get cheap predictable scares and fake outs which ultimate fail to be scary. That for me is the fundamental issue with this film, it just isn’t scary.

Watts is trying her best, but it is not enough to save this film from itself. It is a shame that the creator of Ringu the Japanese film that would go on to inspire the American Remake was at the helm for this as this must surely have left him disheartened.

Overall this film fails to leave an impression and is in no way scary.

Pros

It has good atmosphere

Naomie Watts is trying

Cons.

It is not scary

It ruins the mythology of the first film

The scares are bog standard and predictable

1/5

Reviewed by Luke

Ralph Breaks The Internet: Maturing

Ralph Breaks The Internet is an animated adventure film directed by Phil Johnstone and Rich Moore. The plot follows Ralph (John C. Reilly) and Vanellope (Sarah Silverman), as they explore the internet. To Vanellope who is bored of the same old races in her game sees the internet as a wonderland of new opportunities whereas Ralph sees it and worries about losing his friend.

I think in many ways this is a step up for the first film, with a few issues just keeping it shy of getting the perfect score.

I enjoyed the personal feel of the film and thought Ralph’s arc of questioning his place in the new internet world and seeing it as a threat to the only friendship he has ever had feels earned after the events of the first film. The character actions make sense and feel like a natural next step for the Ralph, the emotional journey is handled in a deep and mature way which I also think is to the films credit.

I think the film uses the Internet in an interesting way that feels creative and full of imagination; I particularly enjoyed the scenes with the Disney Princesses and thought that they were the standout moments of the film. The new characters introduced here also standout Shank (Gal Gadot), is the perfect mentor character to Vanellope and already feels like an ingrained part of this world.

My issues with this film comes from the way it is paced. We get the same scene/ message over and over again, yes, they’re not exactly the same, but from a character development point of view they’re unnecessary and serve no purpose. To that point there are defiantly a number of sub-plots and underdeveloped side characters in this film that are used in a blatant attempt to pad the films runtime; which at close to one hour forty minutes seems far too long.

Overall, a solid sequel that builds nicely on what the first film sets up.

Pros.

The Disney Princess scenes

Using the internet in a novel way

The character development

Feeling natural and not like a tacked-on sequel

Cons.

Pacing issues that become very noticeable.

3.5/5

Reviewed by Luke

Monsters Vs Aliens: Who Cares? Clearly Not Dreamworks

Monsters Vs Aliens is an animated action film directed by Rob Letterman and Conrad Vernon. The plot sees aliens attack Earth and the only people who can turn the tide and save the planet are a group of government sponsored monsters.

I had been looking forward to watching this film for some time, saving it if you will, but my oh my was I disappointed when I put this on. Other than the clearly 50’s inspired premise and design which I enjoyed and appreciated; I thought this film was aggressively average.

Nothing about this film stands out, the premise is played out you have seen it before and better. The character arcs are a retread of the same old tired clichés, there is nothing new to them. The cast though star studded does very little to leave an impression and the roles feel like they could be played by anyone.

Another thing that bothered me about this film was the animation. I have been watching a lot of animated films recently, so maybe I am hyper focused, but there is something off about the backgrounds in this film. They look bad unrendered or out of focus or something, I can’t quite describe it but they are noticeably bad and they really bring you out of some scenes; especially in the opening 10 minutes.

Overall, you will lose nothing if you don’t watch this film and you will gain nothing if you do, so don’t bother.

Pros.

I enjoyed the 50s theme

Cons

The cast is wasted

The jokes aren’t funny

The bad backgrounds are distracting

You have seen it before

1/5

Reviewed by Luke

Underwater: The Threat Came From Beneath The Waves

Underwater is a science fiction film directed William Eubank. The plot sees an underwater research centre become under attack by a strange unknown type of sea life.

I go back and forth on Kristen Stewart as an actress, sometimes I think she is good and worthy of all the praise she gets; other times I think she struggles with even basic emoting and can’t convince me of anything. However, I will give her praise here, she commands this film, her performance is striking and in some ways very reminiscent of Sigourney Weaver in Alien. This film would be far less good without Stewart in it.

Despite, feeling a little too overly familiar this film managed to keep me engaged throughout. It used the environment and tension to great effect and had a few great sequences that will stuck in my mind long after the film has ended. My one critique in this regard is the way some of these high-tension kinetic scenes are shot. The cinematography of these scenes makes them hard to see; which therefore makes it hard to tell what is going on. An example of my point is midway through the film one of the team is pulled out of their suit, but you don’t realise that you just see a lot of blood, you don’t realise what happened until one of the characters tells you. That is a big problem in my book.

Also T.J Miller is in this and he is every bit as grating as you are imagining. Horror/ dark science fiction films don’t need comedic relief.

Overall, a solid disaster film boosted tremendously by a great performance by Kristen Stewart.

Pros.

Stewart

The tension

Keeping me engaged in a played-out idea

Cons.

The characters outside of Stewart’s lead are one note

It is hard to tell what is going on

3.5/5

Reviewed by Luke