NEW Grand Theft Auto 5 Trailer

In the last few hours the new Grand Theft Auto trailer was dropped. The long awaited return of the GTA universe has been an extensive one for many fans. Personally, I didn't even finish GTA4 as it bored me a little, but since Rockstar released Red Dead Redemption which is one of my favourite games. A compelling story and a creative style will be mimicked into this episode of GTA and will bring the game to a whole new level. Released on September 17th, I shall be getting it and will be hitting it hard for a few days. I'm going to leave a question to you guys, Are you guys looking forward to this and would you like gameplay videos?

ENJOY!

Brand NEW Watch Dogs Trailer from GAMESCOM

 

As many of you gaming nuts, much like myself. You will undoubtedly know about the Gamescom event in Germany and one of Ubisoft's most creative endeavours since the original Assassins Creed game. Watch Dogs is one of my top games for this year. The use of hacking is something that many people fear and is plausible to see in the not so distant future. Our lives are run by computers and we see hacking in the news on a regular basis. Mixed with the creative design that made Assassins Creed so good, hopefully a modernized world with a lone vigilante will make the story gripping and extremely tense in a world where everyone must conform. So, I shall stop talking and let you guys enjoy this new trailer! 

PS - Also a reveal about a movie but that's for another time!

2 Guns Quicky Review - SPOILERS

Sorry for the delay again! I've been real busy with a lot of other stuff. Coming up later this week we have the UK releases of both Elysium and Pain & Gain, so be looking out for them. Be sure to follow my twitter account to hear news of each completed review and a load of other crap! As much as I would like to dribble on, this will be a real quick sum up of a full review that I haven't got around to doing.

2 Guns is a buddy cop movie with a twist. These cops are undercover agents from the navy and DEA who have no idea that the person they are using to get into a Mexican cartel is also undercover but from a different agency. An unsanctioned robbery of a bank turns out to be the breaking point between the pair that ignites the second half of their relationship. A race to find the money that they stole, turns to out cause trouble with the CIA, The Mexican cartel and their own agencies who are hunting them down for the crime. With a plot twist that is handed on a plate, the story is a little simple and a bit predictable but otherwise something refreshing for the summer but could have done with a more meat on the bones.

As a tradtional action movie, you would expect it to be full of cheesy one liners and increasingly poor visual effects (Just look at Expendables, as much as I love it.) but this movie saw that and was genuinely funny and brilliant visual effects that only had a few minor issues. The comedy stands out the most and is probably one of the best examples for action movie jokes, some jokes made me well up in tears and fighting for breath while the action was truly first rate. Predominately firearm fights, you can understand that they can be a little dreary and demand a lot of explosions to capture the attention, yet 2 Guns had was more about the execution and style that many a man dreams about.

As a typical buddy cop action movie, 2 Guns turned out to be a step above the rest. With a collection of well known faces and big names, the general consensuses is that the acting was impeccable when compared to others of it's genre. Wahlberg was the comical of the pair, a brazen attitude to match his muscular physique was easy for Mark to achieve, especially as Pain & Gain was filmed prior and he is much the same in that (Review out Friday as the UK only gets it then!). It may seem like he is getting type cast for such things but each character is different and in this he is fairly lax and extremely excitable. Denzel plays something very different. I never expected him to be part of something like this as I always know him for Man on Fire, a serious actor with a flare for violence but this makes him seem exciting with a hint of danger that can be disguised by the nutty plots he develops. As a crew, the unit worked well and many of the cast acted well within their means without over dramatising.

For a movie well above the rest of its ancestors, this movie is a perfect summer hit, a good watch with a few friends and mashes up both comedy and action seemlessly. Perhaps a few more explosions and a bit more story wouldn't go a miss but I feel it deserves an 8/10 for breaking new ground in a genre thats faded over recent years.

Kickass 2 - Quicky Review & SPOILERS

This part is written solely on what I see and can tell from the trailer…Kickass is a guy dressed up as a superhero with no physical powers to fight crime. Essentially, he is a nerdy, weak and stupid version of batman in a florescent wetsuit and mask. Returning back to his world, we see that more and more people are turning into these “superheroes” since Kickass killed a mob boss in the previous movie. Since then, Red Mist (The mob bosses son) turns into “The Motherfucker” with the intent of becoming the world’s first super villain and have a collection of criminals to match the good guys and wiping kickass off the face of the earth. Aaron Taylor-Johnson decided that he wanted to beef up for this one but he still plays a character that seems inept at any sort of defense or sponging ability. Plus constantly getting his ass handed to him by Hitgirl (Chloë Grace Moretz) never makes this character look tough. I’m hoping that in this follow-up, we should see better fighting, funny jokes and an entertaining script as the previous one just seemed simple and lackluster with a lot of overly used swears. I’m hoping that the added cast of Jim Carrey and Donald Faison (Turk from Scrubs), weshall see a far stronger movie.

So, if you've been following my Twitter feed, you shall notice that I really enjoyed this follow up. Kickass 2 is one of the best sequels that I have seen in quite some time. My impression of these heroes have changed substantially since I've seen the original and its great to have a varying cast of new players with a collection of screwed up names that are borderline racist, especially in terms of the super villains. Jumping into the story, we follow on from the previous story. Kickass has retired his costume, Hitgirl is being looked after by Detective Williams and 'in' high school. It turns out that she is disappearing every day to go to an old outpost of her fathers that is heavily equipped with weaponry and training equipment that she spends everyday in. After convincing Dave (Kickass), Mindy (Hitgirl) starts to train him in the same fashion as her father. For instance, the iconic scene when he shoots her in the chest to form trust in the kevlar vest. Eventually found out, she is forced to back away and the roles switch as Dave tries to convince Mindy. While all this goes on The Motherfucker / Chris (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) kills his mother by accident and plots the death of Kickass by forming an evil army run with his fathers fortunes and Mafia goons. Since Kickass left the game, he has inspired others to do the same and fight crime. Heroes popping up everyday end up

forming a team and fighting together, the squad leader, Captain Stars and Stripes (Jim Carrey) is a reformed mob enforcer with a dislike to curse words but a fondness for comical violence. In the process of the story, The Motherfucker gets even with Kickass but still wants more and demands his death. While all of this goes on, there are sub-stories of friendship, companionship and the occasional argument between friends and this is just on Dave's side of the story. Mindy has a very different story. Forced to go back to high school, she is manipulated by the popular kids and is treated like shit to convey the reality of school life which sends a powerful message about how it affects a strong, independent girl. So, as a story it is fairly effective, a little basic but still good. With a few shock twists that really catch you out as they are so obscure, you couldn't have predicted it.

This time around, the script was a little less loud mouth Chav with Tourette's. Now it has tamed down the swearing quite substantially and I feel I know why. Jim Carrey is in very little movies with excessive swearing and violence, so he negotiated with the writers to reduced the level so his fan base would be able to attend which also helps to explain his characters dislike to swearing. The captain was quite a strong character and it was brilliant to see that at the time of his death, it sparked up fear and panic in realistic and plausible ways. You may have also heard about Jim Carrey backing away from Kickass with the recent shootings that convinced him to make a stand against it. In terms of the action and violence, it was exciting and fun. I was smiling on my way out of the cinema as it was amazing fun. Lots of blood, adrenaline filled fights with a variety of weapons and actions scenes that became badass in seconds. For instance, Dave is being beaten down at Dr. Gravity runs in blocking a blow and hell breaks loose. Its street fighter on drugs.

Acting wise, it wasn't going to be incredible but I really think Donald Faison and Jim Carrey dominated it and Dr. Gravity was Turk in a superhero costume, so he didn't venture to far from one of his best roles. A lot of weight was placed on Carrey and its a huge surprise when he is brutally murdered but they are pretty damn good at keeping the secrets and acting the scenes appropriately. Chole Moretz had to be different in this. She had to play a high school teen with issues alongside a hard girl with a dark past. Aaron Taylor-Johnson is very much the same but he has padded up substantially for this role, yet can't defend himself. This annoys me to no end. While the Motherfucker is now wearing his mothers gimp outfit swearing and throwing his money about to get more power and destroy Kickass for what he did. The multiple members that he collected were awesome. Mother Russia was massive. The most destructive of the bunch and she kept a straight face all the way through, no loss of character and a lot of focus on the Russian stereotype. The others also have borderline racist names combined with the equally racist outfit for the asian Yakuza.

I feel the whole movie deserves a 8/10. It's funny, varied, a massive improvement on the original with a great cast. I couldn't talk much more about it as 1, I'm tired. 2, work. 3, I have other things to do. Enjoy guys! 2 Guns review out later this week!

The Lone Ranger - The Not So Quicky, Quicky Review! - SPOILERS -

Another Disney movie with Johnny Depp in. Again, playing the weirdest character possible. For me, it's lost it's charm and really reflects Disney's desire to ride off of the success of Jack Sparrow in alternate realities. Within recent weeks, The Lone Ranger has suffered largely from a flop in America and critics bashing it left, right and centre. It's $220 million budget was one of the big problems that Disney has had on this project and it's expected that it may not see an actual return on the investment. With thee American results over a month ago, it is extremely unlikely that it will achieve over $190 million from the worldwide box office. Personally, I wasn't aware that The Lone Ranger was a radio show, TV show and loads more avenues. I thought it was a kids books from back in the day. Not experiencing the avenues, I don't know much about The Lone Ranger and Tonto but this movie focuses on the beginning of the pair which could mean it is an origins story with the potential for more. However, due to the sales, this is very unlikely even though Gore Verbinski directed it and is renowned for his Pirates of The Caribbean trilogy (Not the Black Beard one!)
Instead of just jumping into the story, we join the world in the 1920's (Bit of a stab in the dark!) A young boy dressed in Lone Ranger attire wanders through a Wild West carnival exhibit and stumbles across a Native Indian statue which turns out to be real. Soon we find out it's Tonto (Johnny Depp) whose grown old. From this point, he beings to reactant the story of how he and the Lone Ranger met and the story that formed the bond between them, only to be interrupted a few times in the midst of the story to clear up things that Tonto left out (presumably because of age), this could have been used to aid the plot but it felt intrusive and stopped the motion of play at certain points but really aided the ending with the explosion of a bridge by deviating before it blew and returning about 20 minutes later to finally watch it go up in flames. The overall story was one that was very simple and could have ended at multiple points. Skipping through the usual 'How our heroes came to be' we know that Tonto is a nutter and John Reid - The Lone Ranger (Armie Hammer) is a city lawyer broken apart by the death of his Texas Ranger brother. Seeking justice, the pair ride together to find Butch Cavendish (William Fichtner), an infamous posse leader who is known for eating the organs of his fallen foes, right in front of their corpse. With a mix of plot twists and turns, the story doesn't grind to a halt but it could easily have ended much sooner rather than being dragged along for a 2 1/2 hour journey.

A big budget, a collection of famous names and faces with a talented director and Disney's backing, you can see that a lot of work and dedication has gone into the movie. As a group, the writers have worked together to create something both adult and child friendly while reflecting the complexity of the situation that was happening at the time with the conflicts between Americans and the Natives

over control of the land and its natural resources. Alongside the cinematography the overall filming was stunning and the cunning use of the props was an intriguing and clever idea. The prop use that sticks out to me was when Tonto was looting the bodies of the dead rangers and was doing a traditional Indian trade when he gave him a packet of nuts that was given to him by the young child he is telling the story too. Lighting was heavily considered for certain areas. The most prominent area was the silver mine which has the brightest lighting combined with the natural light of the area, the whole area glistened white. The shots ranged from extreme close-ups to long shots that captured the landscape brilliantly and transitioned between areas extremely well. The general construction of both the settings and the costumes should be applauded as they were well manufactured and fit the area perfectly.

Out of the whole cast, the best acted character was Butch Cavendish. One - his make-up was impeccable and I didn't know it was him until I looked at the IMDB list. Two - Fichtner managed to keep in character without losing character by over exaggerating. Once again, the typical duo of Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter are gracing the screens together. Nothing new and exciting there but Helena only appears 2-3 times and doesn't really do much to warrant the huge pay check that she received, especially with the accent that didn't sound very 'western'. As usual, Depp plays a weird character that is placed out of the regular confines of modern society in a changing world. He plays the crazy characters fine, the feeding of the dead bird was entertaining and his blank stares were much the same but it's nothing that we haven't already seen and I would really like to see him in something a little more serious, perhaps Rum Diaries. Finally, we have the main hero John Reid. Arnie Hammer doesn't appear to have done a huge amount and I would hazard a guess that this is his first leading role so far and it wasn't bad. He was a little weird and points and spent most of the time being a bit of a liability with very little character development apart from his brothers death and his brothers wife who he loves... One of my problems is with the casting of Reid's nephew, why can they not cast a child who can act a little?

In typical Verbinski style, this movie is just an action movie. It is also filled with comedy and crazy shenanigans which made the Pirates series so popular. A personal favourite was the rabbits. Not just ordinary rabbits, savage mother fuckers who will quite happily feed on their dead cooked cousin while snarling at the screen bearing its teeth, bundling in with a brawl between seemingly normal animals. The rest of the comedy was the over zealous explosions, fight scenes with witty one liners, The spirit horse that appears from nowhere and the heroic duo who spend moments arguing like a married couple in Asda's drink section (Walmart to the Americans), Alongside that you have Tonto's weird behaviour coupled with that bloody crow can be funny.

So overall, the movie is fun. Not a masterpiece of cinema, or a brilliantly scripted piece that grabs you by the balls and pulls you into the dark room. There was no tension builders that could have assisted the story but in total I feel it is worth the watch, seeing as we won't be seeing a follow-up to it. 6/10 feels right to me. 7/10 on a good day.

Only God Forgives - Review - SPOILERS

After the notorious booing at the Cannes festival earlier this year by the snooty French critics, I feel they were expediently wrong. Alongside the ratings on both Rotten Tomato and IMDB, I feel they are very inaccurate. Compared to Drive, I feel the directors and writers have done far better in achieving a plausible story with a distinctive style that illustrates a new avenue of cinematic trends and personally feel that this is far better than it's predecessor.

" Bangkok. Ten years ago Julian killed a man and went on the run. Now he manages a Thai boxing club as a front for a drugs operation. Respected in the criminal underworld, deep inside, he feels empty. When Julian's brother murders an under age prostitute, the police call on retired cop Chang - the Angel of Vengeance. Chang allows the father to kill his daughter's murderer, then 'restores order' by chopping off the man's right hand. Julian's mother Crystal - the head of a powerful criminal organization - arrives in Bangkok to collect her son's body. She dispatches Julian to find his killers and 'raise hell'. Written by www.joblo.com, sourced from IMDB "

Just looking at the story summary above helps to convey the potential for a dark and gritty portrayal of Bangkok's criminal underbelly. Yet this is only a simple breakdown compared to the actual complexity of it's fleshed out components. Coupled with the filming style and small sub-stories, the film can start off a little confusing and hard to grasp but looking over the whole focus plot, it eventually pieces itself together, yet the sub-story of Julian's (Ryan Gosling) and Mai's (Yayaying Rhatha Phongam) relationship is an eerily poetic but morally indifferent. Mai - a prostitute, is the women that Julian is fixated upon. The sexual relations between them could be considered professional, yet Julian's fixation portrays it as something far more complex. Even in one scene, Julian wants her to play the role of his partner for when he goes to meet his mother. He buys her a new dress and at the end of the night, have an argument that could be considered as a marital dispute. The story doesn't just follow Julian. It jumps to the retired cop Chang (Vithaya Pansringarm) and follows his pursuit to deal with the drug enterprise and it's destructive ways.

In terms of acting, it doesn't demand much spoken intensity from the cast. Ryan Gosling only has a few lines across the 90 minute spectacle and I wouldn't be surprised to see his part of the script only being 2 pages long. This plays well into Ryan's hands, simply because I feel he is the David Beckham of the acting world. He has the looks, he can portray himself as cool and collected and then emotionally scarred by love, he has the acting ability until he speaks. His voice - much like Beckham's, can be high and squeaky making it hard to take him seriously. However, in this, it felt natural. His silence added mystery to his character which makes him such a threat.

Silently walking to a pair of men and smashing a glass into his face with one foul swoop and dragging him out by his teeth solidifies this. It's much the same for Chang, yet he performs karaoke in front of his police force and rules with his violent capabilities. Crystal (Kristin Scott Thomas) on the other hand is a loose cannon who chooses her favourite child and makes it quite clear. Vocally, she is aggressive, manipulative and psychotic. She treats Julian in ways that are inappropriate and almost sexual, making it really damn weird at points. Then suddenly, she snaps, lying and blaming others. There was one performance that I had a problem with, all of the rest were executed perfectly to fit the lines they were given and managed to keep very collected all the way through rather than losing it when it was needed the most.

Drive is notorious for it's violence, but it was a bit over zealous at points. This however is extremely plausible. Chang is obviously the most dangerous out of the group, armed with a razor sharp blade, he's cutting limbs off and slicing open a guys rib cage in one quick swipe. Slumping to the floor, we are given a shot right above his corpse, looking into his chest cavity as blood spills onto the ground. You can even see the actual ribs which made the whole cinema cringe. Minutes later, he is torturing a man with the use of various pin shaped utensils, pinning him to the chair as he screams, Chang digs a fruit blade into his eyes causing more blood curdling screens and many gasps by the viewers as we watch every minute cut with an extreme close-up of the guys faces. Finally ending him by plunging another utensil into this guys ear. Nervous chatter would erupt in the cinema with a few "Holy Shit, man!"'s coming from around the room. The vivid violence was stunning, increasingly fucked up and deeply disturbing. It easily outmatched many horror movies for its use of violence and the effect it had on the audience.

Finally we have the cinematography and the music. The music is fairly oriental with a twist from some synths and bass drops that create tension in just the right spots. The score is well composed and doesn't over power the visuals and had a brilliant collection of sounds and tempos. The framing of the scenes was always thought about when creating this. Using the natural surrounding to crop the screen is a funky idea. This is much the same with lighting. Ryan's position on screen is normally dictated by the light, especially when he is behind the carved wood wall and the light shines through illuminating small features on his face further connoting the dark and deluded mind of Julian. Colours were vivid and punchy. Neon in type, they fill the area with a seedy glow that extenuates the surrounding area and pops the wallpaper in the brothel scenes. The neon also helps to set certain scenes up with a sense of danger and so much more. When daylight comes, the light catches you out and it looks stunning when balanced with the rusty exterior of the market district.

As I stated before, this movie is brilliant but there a few little things that dragged on me. One was Chang's sword, it would appear from nowhere on his back and you could never see the sheath. Secondly was the amount of script, very little does make it feel a little empty at points but the positioning on screen and the lighting to help to maximise what happens. Thirdly, we have the story. At points it can be hard to grasp and I feel the love interest was fairly useless in the overall aspect and what the hell is with the karaoke and the ending. Why does Julian practically hand himself over to Chang. It leaves questions unanswered that should have been finished. So my overall ranking shall be an 8/10. It's a work of art and is one of Gosling's best roles to date. Catch it before it goes!

Red 2 - Quicky Review! - SPOILERS -

A follow up to Red, without Morgan Freeman!? This already seems like a mistake as he was one of the funniest characters to appear and it does leave a substantial hole in the film. Dropping into the movie, we find out that Frank (Bruce Willis) and Marvin (John Malkovich) have been put on the CIA/MI6 kill list because of a connection to an old cold war operation called "NightHawk" which is causing huge amounts of trouble between Russia, US and the UK due to its huge danger to national security. Frank, Marvin and Sarah (Mary-Louise Parker) are now on the run trying to solve the issue in the recklessly comical fashion that made the first such a wonderfully fun movie to watch.

So, you may be asking, does this movie follow the success of the last one? Personally, it's a good follow-up but it does feel weak and a little slow at points. The actual filming was very basic and relied on a lot of CGI for many of the intense action scenes that stuck out like a monkey in the insect enclosure, wildly waving it's hands about. A big budget film should at least be able to blend CGI with ease. Alongside a lack of visually extensive scenes, the cinematography was pretty terrible as it was generic and didn't give you those stunning landscapes which are good at setting the scene and conveying the emotions. Yet the comic book transitions between countries was a cool addition that adds some colour and style.

For a movie which prides itself on action, there is a large quantity of it. With a collection of action superstars, the most technically advanced would be Byung-Hun Lee yet the majority of his scenes is so far over the top, it becomes annoying. Plus his hand to hand combat was actually really weak. It felt slow to watch with hits that weren't even close to making contact. The rest of the action was interspersed with comedy one-liners that were pretty funny and got the whole crowd chuckling. The acting is also much the same, when Catherine Zeta-Jones is shot, she shows no emotion. Malkovich plays the psychotic bastard quite well, but his wardrobe makes him the highlight of the show, especially at the end with his fruit bowl hat. Bruce Willis is once again mediocre, born and raised in action does that to him I guess and finally we have Helen Mirren who is probably the best acted character.

The sound and music department should be crucified for their terrible work. Most notably is the use of a Linkin Park song which features a very strong scream that appears once in the song, so you shouldn't use it twice within seconds of each other as it doesn't mix well. Many of the other sounds were also extremely weak and obscure, the dog next door was crying in pain.

In total, I feel it is a 6/10. Its good fun, but there is a load of errors and annoyances throughout that drive you crazy. You just have to deal with mediocre acting from A list actors. Sorry again for another short review! Been very busy but got a few new things coming over the next week or so!