Tuesday 21 August 2012

Movie review of Total Recall


Total Recall - 4/10
Directed by Lens Wiseman
Cast - Colin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale, Jennifer Biel,Bryan Cranston

Plot Summary
A factory worker, Douglas Quaid, begins to suspect that he is a spy after visiting Rekall - a company that provides its clients with implanted fake memories of a life they would like to have led - goes wrong and he finds himself on the run.

Review
When I first found out that Hollywood was doing a remake on the cult classic, Total Recall which had Arnold Schwarzenegger in it, I knew it was gonna be a bad idea.Even after watching the trailers, I wasn't convinced and true enough the remake was disappointing. There were so many elements and key characters intentionally taken off from the original and to me those were the main reasons why Total Recall the remake failed. In the original you had four villains. Sharon Stone as the evil wife, Michael Ironside as the guy going after the hero. It did not make any sense to me when you morph two main characters into one character which is played by Kate Beckinsale. One moment, she does the Sharon Stone crazy psycho wife and then chasing Farrell's character like Michael Ironside. First, Beckinsale is horrible as a crazy psycho wife and second she does not have the menacing glare which Michael Ironside has. All she does is talk shit, kick and jump around and look at you angrily with her face down and she doesnt seem to fucking die which became a tad bit annoying. As much as I love Bryan Cranston in Breaking Bad, as Cohaagen, he was pretty normal.There wasn't anything interesting in his acting at all. And for the fourth villain, WHERE THE FUCK WAS BENNY? They totally ignored the character, Benny from the original and he played such a vital role. That was one of the things that pissed me off about the remake.Also no Quarto and no Johnny the cab driver. It's all these zany characters that made the original Total Recall a cult classic and when you take out all these elements,all you get is the same old Hollywood boring ass movie about someone being chased all over the fuck place.All the writers and director did was ripped the balls off the original and made a pussy version of it.
The only scene I liked in this movie was the small tribute they did at the airport immigration scene. Colin Farrell will use a disguise to sneak in and you will see the original lady as the disguise in the original version just before him and she will say the same lines she did before.That was nice. Oh yeah and the three tits woman bit was cool.
Apart from that,this was sadly a disappointing movie and I wouldn't recommend anyone watching this at the cinemas. Just wait for it to be on TV.

Best Quotes
Three-Breasted Woman: You're going to wish you had three hands.

Recommended movies done by the director
Underworld
Live free Die Hard

Tuesday 7 August 2012

Movie review of Dark Knight Rises


The Dark Knight Rises - 7/10
Directed by Christopher Nolan
Cast - Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Gary Oldman,Marion Coutillard, Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Plot Summary
Despite his tarnished reputation after the events of The Dark Knight, in which he took the rap for Dent's crimes, Batman feels compelled to intervene to assist the city and its police force which is struggling to cope with Bane's plans to destroy the city.

Review
Definitely one of the most highly anticipated movie to watch this year. The final part of Nolan's Batman trilogy. Was it up to exceeded expectations? Did it disappoint? Yes and Yes. Why? Cause there were good and bad points in this movie. I will start with the good ones first.
Production for TDR is simply amazing.The camera works was awesome even the footages shot in IMAX.The introduction of Bane scene was interestingly shot.Using stuntmen to do that scene was intense and exciting to watch. Direction was good.Nolan did a great job. I did like his take on Batman and this was a good end for the Dark Knight trilogy. From what I read, minimal CGI and effects were used. So all those scenes with tonnes of people (the wall street scene and the stadium) were actual extras and not CGI.Which I thought was pretty cool a la old school kinda way to film grand scale movies.
Casting for the movie was pretty good aside from the usual gang like Christian Bale, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine and Gary Oldman. you have new actors like Joseph Gordon Levitt as Blake, Anne Hathaway as Catwoman and Tom Hardy as Bane. I've always enjoyed watching JGL's acting. He definitely has matured over the years from the kid in third rock from the sun to cobra commander in GI Joe to well... Blake in Dark Knight Rises. For awhile the only actress that could pull off catwoman was Michelle Pfeiffer in Burton's Batman 2.But Anne Hathaway did a fantastic job as Catwoman and I have to say, that ass!!! Tom Hardy was indeed perfect for Bane. This is one actor I have been looking out for ever since I watched Bronson and after this performance I will continue to look out for his next movie.The two actors that stood out for me in DKR was Tom Hardy and the ever wonderful Michael Caine.For Hardy it was his take on Bane. It was a different kind of evil he presented unlike Heath Ledger's Joker.This was pure brute evil.The training he did to get the physique was hardcore and that weird gypsy accent he did was fucking brilliant even though you cant hear some of the shit he says properly, it still was pretty awesome. Oh yeah and zero cardio, you never see Bane running. hahaha. My favourite Alfred scenes were the talk he and Bruce Wayne were having at the staircase and at the graveyard.Simply Michael Caine at his best.
Now for the bad points. One of the WORST editing ever done. Especially for the first hour alone, I was wondering who the fuck edited this movie? cuts were so abrupt and at all the wrong parts. If this was done to cut down the timing to 2 hours and 45mins, they did it all wrong. I sincerely hope that is the reason though. Also this movie should have a higher rating cause I don't get to see much blood despite shitloads of people dying and every fucking time Bane kills someone, the camera will zoom all the way out which pissed me off. You need to see him kill in close up cause thats how terrifying he is supposed to be.
The scene where Foley (Matthew Modine) is shooting a handheld gun then cuts away to Miranda (Marion Coutillard) going in the tumbler then you see Foley again with a machine gun??? cut to Miranda ordering the driver to kill everyone and then you see Foley lying down dead. What the fuck that was about? you may as well put BLAM! KAPOW! SMACK! like the Adam West's Batman series instead.Fucking stupid. And what the fuck is with the sparklers??? you will see it first when Bane has his first fight with Batman. Batman getting his shit kicked in, takes something out of his utility belt (which a friend of mine says is just there to hold his pants) and throws at Bane.Sparklers....Cause I cant figure out what else it was supposed to be other than sparklers and it didn't do jack shit either. You will get to see the sparklers again this time on the road when the policemen are rushing towards Bane's henchmen.Apparently that was supposed to be gunfire. It was cheap and stupid. You will also see a henchman spraying bullets at the policemen who are about 50 meters from him with a sub machine gun.And only ONE policeman falls down. I understand its not easy filming a scene which has a lot of extras but COME ON!!! that was fucking ridiculous! Last one was Bane getting a "Boba Fett death". For those who have never watched Star Wars ( I might have to slap you for that), Boba Fett dies without closure and has a sudden silly death. Hence a "Boba Fett death" means a character either died suddenly or in a silly way and without closure.And for such an awesome character like Bane to receive that is just sad.
Despite all these obvious mistakes, I still enjoyed the movie.Production wise it was brilliant and I did like the story and the final twist even the ending as well.Comic purists might not like it for sure.
I guess among the trilogy, Dark Knight Rises would be my second favorite after all. Still worth a weekend ticket to watch it.

Best quotes
Bruce Wayne: Why didn't you just... kill me?
Bane: You don't fear death... You welcome it. Your punishment must be more severe.
Bruce Wayne: Torture?
Bane: Yes. But not of your body... Of your soul.
Bruce Wayne: Where am I?
Bane: Home, where I learned the truth about despair, as will you. There's a reason why this prison is the worst hell on earth... Hope. Every man who has ventured here over the centuries has looked up to the light and imagined climbing to freedom. So easy... So simple... Many have died trying. I learned here that there can be no true despair without hope. So, as I terrorize Gotham, I will feed its people hope to poison their souls. I will let them believe they can survive so that you can watch them clamoring over each other to "stay in the sun." You can watch me torture an entire city and when you have truly understood the depth of your failure, we will fulfill Ra's al Ghul's destiny... We will destroy Gotham and then, when it is done and Gotham is ashes, then you have my permission to die

Bane: Not as serious as yours, I'm afraid... Mister Wayne.

Bane: You fight like a younger man, with nothing held back. Admirable... but mistaken.

Catwoman: About that whole no guns thing... Turns out I'm not as committed to it as you are.

Bane: [Listening to the national anthem before the Gotham Knights football game] What a lovely, lovely voice.
[Song ends and football game begins]
Bane: Let the games begin!
[hits detonator and bombs go off across Gotham and the football field crumbles]

Roland Daggett: I paid you a small fortune...
Bane: And you think this gives you power over me?

Batman: [on a rooftop, Batman turns away from Catwoman, then turns back and realises she has gone] So that's what that feels like.

Recommended movies done by the director
Dark Knight
Prestige
Inception
Memento
Batman Begins