This is The End - Quicky Review -SPOILERS-

Here we are at the UK release of This Is The End has finally come.

This review here is going to have too be a quicky review for a few reasons.
1 - I didn't find it funny
2 - I don't like James Franco
3 - You can only write so much on a "Comedy"

So, This is the End is the tale of the world ending and a group of actors are fighting to survive in Franco's new mansion. It's premise is extremely simple and the focus is on the friendship between Jay Baruchel and Seth Rogen. Except of world domination, it becomes American domination and the only way to survive the world ending apocalypse is to do all the drugs possible.

For a 15, this movie is unbelievably bad. With a general audience which looked to be 13, jokes which were penis related (Which had no style) and then the constant barrage of swearing and sexual references didn't fit their target audience and was just an excuse for them to shout at each other. There was also a certain scene which c**t was used, So blatantly that it crossed the line for me. I can deal with swearing and sex jokes but they have to be done in style rather than a general attack. You will also notice something that niggles at you all the way through. Its never attacked, abused or joked about like everything else. It is Heaven and the Bible. A comedy about world destruction turns into a movie that preaches Christianity, America and how drugs are good.

Now, you would think that with such a huge cast, we would have some brilliant actors. Yet we have very little acting. The swearing and screaming doesn't constitute acting and appears to make the movie a piss about project for all of them. However, all the way through, I did feel that they were all horrible people and if that's what they were trying to portray, then they did it right.

The actors I did enjoy were Channing Tatum for his small cameo and Craig Robinson throughout. Craig seemed to be the most genuine of the bunch and had the funny moments that made you laugh

rather than just a smile.

Visually, a movie with a huge budget for actors, should have a decent sized budget for all of the demons and various other evil dwellers. Yet everything seem blurry or pixilated with little time spent on them. The only good bit of VFX was Satan's representation at the end. As much as it was phallic,
it was clear and looked quite genuine.

Overall, I didn't really like the movie, so it is getting 4/10. It was loud and obnoxious without any good jokes to make me laugh. I can understand jokes that the Ted movie uses, as it is all so silly, done with style and all around abusive to everyone, but when you compare it too this, you see that it is incredibly mediocre and dick jokes can only go so far. One of the reasons that I could stand it was the music used throughout. It was varied and even had a Backstreet Boys cameo at the end that was funny. Alongside some good cinematography, it deserves my ranking, but I find it hard to understand many of the critics that are praising it as the comedy of the year.

Hummingbird / Redemption - Review -SPOILERS-

Redemption, also known as Hummingbird in the US and Crazy Joe in France, is the tale of a man on the run from military courts, who comes across a new opportunity to rebuild his life.

Hummingbird is a gritty, dark and well formed movie. Upon entering the theatre, it was very quiet with very little people in. This got me a little cautious of the advertisings reflection upon the movie - Has the trailer been so bad that no one wants to see if?, Why is there only one showing of this movie on its release day? All of that lark, but if you have had these sorts of thoughts, I highly recommend you go see it!

We open in Afganistan; viewing the area from a UAV air drones camera. Chaos on the ground, screen static and tensions rising between each comm message. Music builds gradually, then suddenly we hear the popping of a rifle, screams from the locals and the identification process. A sudden snap to black and a snappy return of visual movement, we are no in London. Radio chatter still continues as we scour London's city scape. We've seen this sort of style before, a mix of shots from around the world, perhaps a few news stories too but this felt different. One, we end up in the UK. Two, there was a tugging feeling which caught your curiosity.

Then, dropped into a backstreet alley where some local thugs are kicking the homeless' box shelters and threatening them for rent. A brawl breaks out with a seamlessly invisible man (who we all know to be Statham) who is beaten to the ground and runs for the roofs for safety and drops into an empty
apartment. Now he uses this opportunity to reinvent himself. Involving himself with the Yakuza and a new love interest, Crazy Joe is forced to earn a living, fight PTSD and get the devout Christians love.

The development of the story falls into place quite easily but the twist on the generic disgraced soldier is what helps the story distinguish itself from the rest. A military man, killing militants with brutal means, runs from his military tribunal and ends on the streets for many years. Too come across a new start but tie loose ends before leaving is very different from the norm, especially with the ending which turns out to be a vital part in the plot.

In forms of cinematography, the movie was beautiful. With the perfect amount of lighting there was enough to compliment the gritty story with a variety of neon colours from rough clubs and the dark end of town. Angles and smooth camera movements that flow effortlessly with the focal points were unnoticeable, but also kept the focus on the mark. The framing was much the same. All of this mixed together turned a dingy alley into something far more menacing. Following this, you have the visuals. Special effects were good, apart from one incident at the end which was poorly edited and didn't look right on the background.

The characters and acting were good but some were a little too much. The main villain looked to be straight out of a Bond movie and his short time on screen didn't really fill you with hatred for the

character. Stathams performance was probably one of his best, not award winning but fairly believable and his fight scenes are executed in style and grace without being over the top *Cough* Transporter *Cough*. The rest of the cast were alright and didn't push anything to far in your face with the short amount of time they had on screen.

It's now 1:30AM and I think I should go to bed, so to end it, I shall call this movie a 7.5/10. It's story is a generic revenge thriller but with little depth to everything else that happens during Crazy Joe's reign and little exploratory investigations into the workings of his mind or the main villain. Plus, his almost instant rise into the Chinese Yakuza. A must see for all Statham fans and a must see for pretty much everyone else whose up for a bit of action with gritty details.

The Counselor Teaser Trailer!

Brad Pitt, Michael Fassbender, Javier Bardem, Cameron Diaz, Natalie Dormer and Penélope Cruz all appearing in a 1 minute teaser trailer for The Counselor by Ridley Scott looks to be a film to watch out for. When a lawyer gets himself involved with drug trafficking, then shit hits the fan and they are stuck to face the consequence. 

Without looking and IMDB, I can only presume that Brad Pitt is the main lead for the film, due to the fact he is an A list actor who can draw quite a crowd. Evidently, he finished filming for World War Z and jumped straight onto this project, which looks too be one of the best movies this year. With a huge cast, I hope it works out to be up for some awards. yet as this is a teaser, we have to consider that it has to reveal little but enough to create goosebumps!

World War Z Quicky Review! -Spoilers-

I shall let you know now, I have no idea how to review this movie. My irrational phobia of zombies made this movie had to concentrate and the fact that I watch very little horror/thriller movies, gives me little, if any understanding of the genre and style it works in. But I shall give it a stab!

As you could probably have guessed, World War Z is based on a book which depicts the rise of an infection that mutates humans and creates the walking dead. It's a simple plot, but the focus is more on the tension that can be built, alongside acting. The basic premise is the simple part.

Attention falls primarily on top of the tension builders. For instance, a scene - which is eerily reminiscent of Dead Island's hotel scenes - we are working through the tight spaces of a lab with little weaponry and at a crawl to avoid zombie attention. Music builds at the right points, silently enough that it fills the scene without being obvious and every environmental sound pricks your hair up. The perfect mix of music and scenery made the whole cinema quiet, my sweaty fists crushing my girlfriends hand as I squeeze uncontrollably.

However, there is instances where tension is diminished and can be somewhat laughable. The
dormant zombies do very little apart from repeating a movement continuously. As ominous as this sounds, a zombie bumping it's head against a wall, just looks stupid. It doesn't create a sense of mindless killer. We also come face to face with one which isn't biting but acts like a hamster or rabbit which it munches on a carrot. The performance was laugh worthy, due to it being way over the top but the make-up was unbelievably realistic.

On the topic of performance, Brad Pitt's was good; not amazing, but good. For the majority of the movie, the camera is focused on him and what he is looking at. We do also get a few variations from Brad, but we don't connect to them very well as the have no character development and very little line. The characters that do stand out are the adopted son, and the family. The adopted son, comes out of nowhere and does nothing, the youngest daughter screams continuously while the eldest chooses to ignore instructions and almost get themselves killed and finally the mother. I swear down, this women just wants her husband dead and is extremely stupid! (You will see why, if not comment and I will tell you! xD)

On a final note, the cinematography is great, framing on certain scenes cut out things that are quite sick which helps keep a low age rating, but also factors out the excessive Tarrintino blood. We also have little snapshots of what Pitt is observing, all of which are clues for him to piece together - or the audience if you can work it out before him. Another scene is one of the first zombie encounters in Korea. The lighting of the plane, mixed with heavy rain and the screeches of ensuing zombies makes the scene incredibly vivid and the whole area sticks in your mind as one of the best sets I have seen.

So, I feel that my overall rating will have to be 7/10. Its smart use of the camera and the thrill-ride of a journey which had my heart pounding and my girlfriends hand throbbing were all great bonuses, but you do feel that certain characters are an annoyance, zombies behaviour is entertaining and the story was a little sparse.

Xbox One - Updates - Microsoft follow the gamers desires!

Within the last few hours, it is safe to say that Microsoft has finally listened to their audience and have decided to scrap two of their hugely controversial plans.

1) The always on internet connection is now gone. So you will not be restricted by poor internet or the lack of it.

2) You can trade games! They have completely backtracked on this and decided to keep it the way it was and is supposed to be.

Now we have to wonder if the console will also drop in price as they remove the encroaching Kinect device. However, this is just a thought and cannot be considered fact for the moment but does lead up to believe that they had this planned from the start.

Here is the Xbox article: http://news.xbox.com/2013/06/update

Superman Man of Steel Review! -SPOILERS-

Superman: Man of Steel never looked to be a quality movie. Superman is a hard hero to convey on screen and the trailers and pictures did little to aid this notion. Going in sceptical and coming out pleased was quite the surprise, which was the exact opposite of After Earth. Directed by Zach Snyder and Produced by Christopher Nolan, we have a brilliant blend but I do feel that it wouldn't have worked out as well without Nolan hanging about. With Nolan, come Zimmer. Hans musical creations are some of the best and are incredibly distinct. In Man of Steel, Hans kicked it out of the park with this and I'm sure he will keep it up for many more years.

Man of Steel is an origin story which is executed in much better fashion than many other movies. We open the movie on the planet Krypton with a pissed off Russell Crow arguing with the planets law makers. Minutes into this argument, explosions and a few deaths happen created by General Zod (Michael Shannon). An attack provoked by the governments choice to stay on a doomed planet seemed inevitable but it also led to the complete annihilation of the planet and leaves few alive. One Being the baby Superman and the rest were General Zod's team who were banished and impressionism for high treason. 33 years later we skip straight onto a fishing vessel that is inbound to an oil rig emergency. This is when we see our hero (Henry Cavill) and how his actions define him and how much he looks like Wolverine. In classic Nolan fashion, we jump from past to present multiple times and it shows the formation of Superman's powers.

The rest is pretty simple enough to guess, so we shall move onto the visuals of the film. Superman films demand a lot of visual effects and will rely on CGI specialists to get it just right. The crew involved with the epic task did a brilliant job. The movie was visually perfect. Its lighting was just right, set pieces looked original and nothing stood out like a sore thumb. Yet there is one instance

when Clark is on fire and it doesn't look perfect but its a quick shift and is hardly noticeable. For the huge amounts of fight scenes and the excessive speeds that happen, the landscape stays clear and nothing is diminished by poor CGI.

The fight scenes are also pulse raising, aggressive and violent. Deaths were visible, the sheer violent actions by the enemy are shown and really help to convey how strong and evil these guys are. Being fairly sadistic, the smashing of faces, pile driving through skyscrapers and the occasional "eating of concrete". From fighting to acting! The acting was good and with a cast of excellent actors, you wouldn't expect much otherwise. We are also met with a few people that are a little less noticeable, who play minor roles, but do so with ease and don't try to stick out.

I have a few issues with the movie that do get on my nerves a little bit. One of them is the script. Some of the lines are really cheesy and why doesn't superman have many lines? The movie is about him and he appears to have very little lines throughout the whole thing! Secondly, how does no one know its Superman walking into the office when they all stood 10ft in front of him and why does his hair stay combed back all the way through with no effect from the window or the fact he's been thrown around the shop? It's not just lines that were cheesy though. We also have the catching of Louis Lane and the returning to the ground spinning gently around. Scenes like the death of his adopted father was also kinda cheesy and would have been easy to prevent. It's lapses in concentration and focus has led to a lot of Babybell moments, but its not Fast 6 cheese. In contrast you do have quite a few emotionally packed scenes which are touching.

After going into the movie expecting it to be terrible and watching as the crowd grows to one of the busiest that I have seen in quite a while, I came out impressed and I look forward to see a Justice League movie and the follow up with Lex. I am only speculating about Lex, simply because you see a lorry being used as a weapon against Clark which is plastered in Lex Luther's company logos. So, my total rating shall be a 7.5/10!

E3 - My favourite trailers!

Now, by the time this gets out, the whole event will most likely be over. Instead of looking at the consoles and how far Microsoft have screwed their fans, we shall be looking directly at a few games that I've been excited about over the past months that have been exhibited during the last week!

First out of the gate is Watch Dogs. Created by Ubisoft, this science fiction thriller looks to be an exciting and creative dimension on sandbox gaming. A big brother world, dominated by high grade electronics and security systems is cracked by a vigilante mastermind who fights crime much like Batman but with little remorse when it comes to his gun.

Secondly, we have the 3rd edition in the Dragon Age series "Inquisition". Forgetting the truly horrendous acts of the 2nd game, I'm excited about playing this. Clocking up almost 100 hours of game play from Origins, I hope that this instalment can equal the classic in both story and content. It does seem that Bioware pull it back in the 3rd game and lose it in the 2nd. For instance, Mass Effect 2; which was quite a change from the first but the third worked out to be one of the best games I played. Keep it up Bioware!

Now we have another new game on the scene. Ryse: Son of Rome. I know little about what this game is about but by look at the trailer, it involves swords, battles, Romans and lots of blood. All things I enjoy in a good game. So, here you go!

Fourth and finally we have Assassins Creed 4: Black Flag. Following from the triumphs of the navel missions in AC3, the creation of the game gives new light on the overall tale of the assassins order. I've posted about this multiple times already and I'm a huge fan boy of this so I shall just pop the trailer here for you guys before I ramble much further!

Thanks for reading guys! I would have put the new Battlefield and Call of Duty but they seem to be getting enough attention at the moment. These are just a few of the games that I'm looking forward too, so be sure to comment about yours!

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug TRAILER

Here we are, welcomed yesterday with the new trailer for the long awaited 2nd instalment in the trilogy. Finally we make it to the dwarven kingdom and awaken Smaug, how it ends it debatable but its nice to have the group back. Personally, I've not read the books, only little snippets and bits from games. Yet, I never remember Legolas returning to aid, but as my favourite character from the Lord of the Rings trilogy, it's great to see him back! Just looking at the trailer we begin to see that the action has stepped up and looks to be an exciting thrill-ride. Now, we have to wait for December before we get this, but seeing that the whole series was shot in one period, you would assume that it could come out earlier and we wouldn't have to wait a year for each film!

Enjoy!

Playstation 4 Revealed!

Revealed at the crack of dawn for UK viewers, we have the brand new images of the new Playstation 4. Sony entertainment was on bad ground from their earlier conference for the release of its controller, but its safe to say that since the almighty screw ups that Microsoft has done over the past few months, that we shall be seeing increased sales in PS4. Sony tore into Microsoft throughout their show and made it very clear that they are still in the gaming industry rather the TV and films.

I'm not sure what is really going on with the stylists at this moment in time. Everything seems to be going square or box like, which isn't very attractive but Sony have made this work out. Its contrasting plastics and use of lighting helps to define the areas but to also give it that futuristic look, rather than its George Foreman grill called PS3. But this isn't its final form, down below is a different angle which shows that the box has a slant to it which makes it look like a sharpened blade, which is pretty badass!

This complete event was a bust for Xbox, but Playstation pulled it out of the bag. For the full round up of detailing, go to: http://uk.gamespot.com/e3/press-conference/

For a short round up of Sony using Microsoft as a chew toy, go to: http://uk.gamespot.com/e3/ps4-e3-2013-unveiling-trollface-edition-6409752/


 A quick round up:

• Used games work on the console without charge.
• No need to be online
• Its cheaper than the Xbox at £349
• Come with Playstation Move (Which doesn't take spy on you) 

After Earth Quicky Review! -SPOILERS-

Hey guys! Sorry for the huge wait since the last post. The lack of movies and games over the past weeks has been pretty poor and this isn't going to be much better for a few weeks!

After Earth is the tale of a father and sons struggle to survive upon crashing on earth which is now a quarantined planet. A race of creatures that are tuned to sensing fear were created by an alien force that is trying to eradicate humans. Will's character has the ability called "Ghosting" which allows them to remove fear and  become undetectable by the creatures. This ability is taught to the highest of their soldiers who work to fend these things off.

Every time I saw the trailers, I lost faith in it each time and it lived up to the low opinions I had developed for it. The story lacked so much and really detracted from the overall rating for me. It felt too predictable, generic and had backlogs of questionable scenes. First of all, we didn't get an in depth explanation of what was happening to Earth and who the alien race are. We also wonder what happened to guns? You can warp travel, move across space to a new planet and you go around with a stick that changes into different tools and blades. I think a flesh creature is better killed with good old fashion bullets. As a sci-fi movie, it does lack a few sci-fi moments and won't stand a chance up against Oblivion as one of the best science fiction movies this year.

Uhhhh.....

 

Acting wise, it was very poor. The father and son combination did nothing to aid this as there was never a moment which required that. Jaden as an actor has never been good, he never feels believable and is a huge annoyance throughout the film for his antics and his lack of viable emotion. As a personal fan of Will Smith, I had real trouble getting over his performance. I understand he wasn't supposed to fear anything and become a killing machine but he had very little involvement and was putting on a rock hard face for the whole film. Contrasting him in this to the incredible performance in Seven Pounds is a real kick in the teeth for him.

My last few qualms are about the filming and set pieces. Areas that were filmed on a green screen are blatant and causes everyone to stick out like a sore thumb and it is much the same with the set pieces. Yet the CGI on the creatures and living mammals on Earth were realistic and fitted into their setting, better than anyone on the green screen.

Overall, After Earth will leave you expecting more and you will spend more time looking at your watch to see how much more forest scenery you have to go through and how many more predictable moments you will see.
I feel that the movie is really poor compared to what it could have been. So it shall be getting a 5/10.