Sky Movies : Deadpool 2 just as daft, sweaty and violent as the first one with Ryan Reynolds hamming things up for a second time. Christopher Robin(Disney) with Ewan McGregor and Hayley Atwell in a charming film about a grown up Christopher Robin rediscovering his youth. Sentimental but not mawkish and Disney didn't trumpet this film much which is a shame because it was well made and had the original voice of Pooh(Jim Cummings) as well as some top notch British voices.
Men In Black: International
The 4th film in the MIB franchise & it’s a very good sci-fi film following Agent H (Chris Hemsworth) & Agent M (Tessa Thompson) as they attempt to save the earth on a mission that takes them all over the world including New York, Marrakesh & London.
The special effects & action are excellent and Chris & Tessa are really good together with very good chemistry that came from them working together in the MCU and both of them are very funny as & when required
8/10
Really? The critics panned it something rotten in the papers!
SKYSCRAPER 2018(not the dire rubbish with Anna Nicole Smith made in 1986) with Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson and Neve Campbell. It stretches credibility a bit with a one-legged security advisor(ex Special Forces and Hostage Rescue) goes through an inferno to save his family from a burning, futuristic moden skyscraper - my thoughts immediately turned to 'The Towering Inferno' 1974 with Steve McQueen and Robert Redford, now that was a rollercoaster ride of a film, but it's been done to death from Die Hard to this one. Johnson is a very good actor from comedy to action(from a WWF wrestler to actor isn't hard for him) hero but there are so many action heroes around. I think he is better in the FAST & FURIOUS films, but if you want a good non-taxing action thriller to watch this is good enough - and at least the kids in this are not bratty!
Incredibles 2(Sky Disney) What a joy this was to watch, taking over from where the first film left off-if you remembered it from some years ago(I went to see this with a friend Boxing Day 2011 or 2012 I think-can't recall when it came out) the end of the film a new villain emerges Underminer(John Ratzenberger-stalwart of many Pixar/Disney films) and that's where we start this amazing non-stop switchback of a film. The cast is perfect including Brad Bird who is hilarious as Edna Mode(reputedly based on Vogue's Anna Wintour) who designed their supersuits. You get a reversal of fortunes Elastigirl(Holly Hunter) is the one who is super whilst Mr Incredible(Robert Parr) played by Craig T Nelson has the household to look after plus his superkids including the baby, Jack-Jack whom we soon discover is no ordinary baby! Samuel L Jackson is back as Frozone even sounding as cool as his character.
Visually stunning and heavily influenced by James Bond(listen to the action music by Michael Giachinno) although Brad Bird also cites The Adventures of Jonny Quest(Hanna-Barbera cartoon of the 70's) as an influence too. The sets are sumptuous and the action is relentless when needed, but it also had a human aspect that looking after kids ain't easy for parents - Bob has to deal with superfast son Dash(iel) and with daughter Violet whose boyfriend has his memory wiped and forgets who she is-cue teenage tantrums, slamming doors and angst! All in all it is a great family movie and a lot of good gags and gadgets to keep the kids amused. Watch the first one then this one. I hope we get a third.
9.5/10
The Meg(2018) Sky Monsters. No spoilers here just think JAWS on steroids! Watchable and Jason Statham as Jonas Taylor(anagram of Jason you might notice) has some fishy fun as hero and gets the girl(and her daughter) in the end...but wait, there's more before that a few twists and turns and well it is enjoyable if predictable with some pretty good stunt work although at his age, Statham needs a stunt double(he was a diver in his youth) but he still looks credible. I'd give it 8.5/10
X-Men Dark Phoenix
Fox have two goes at trying to do Dark Phoenix saga and unfortunately they haven’t it right, even the 90’s Fox X-Men Animated series did much better job of telling the story. The funny thing is Simon Kinberg wrote both X-Men Last Stand And Dark Phoenix only difference is he directed the latter movie. The movie actually starts off really well with a rescue mission but it’s after this where the movie falls apart. Remember at the end of X-Men Apocalypse where Jean Grey defeats Apocalypse using the Dark Phoenix all of sudden in this movie she gains it which makes no sense what’s so ever. Other issues is that there isn’t much action in the movie and special effects in places look weak not something you would expect for a 200 million dollar movie and some characters are barely in it especially a certain fan fav, other a people in the movie seem to be just phoning in there performance and then bam there gone especially one particular character/actress who goes off on a SJW/Feminist which you’ve all seen in clips and there one or two other moments like this in the movie which make you cringe. One of the films biggest problems is it has so many errors in the movie and previous films in the franchise another one is how Jean Grey gets blood in her clothes which when you see how it happens it makes no sense how it got there.
The villains in the movie are just bad and forgettable, totally no proper motivation as why there doing what there doing or explanation till you kinda get at the end. When you get the explanation as to why there after the Phoenix and there history with it you question why didn’t it do anything to Earth. The villains were originally going to be the Skrull but it was changed because of another certain movie if they gone with them it would have been much better. The last act of movie the train sequence was totally redone again it was going to be a epic space but changed to the train sequence because of another movie and totally let the film down.
With issues with the reshoots and the dates kept being changed the film ends with whipper instead of closure like what Logan in some way The Last Stand felt a lot more action packed and epic and that the world was in danger but we just get this and some characters doing things out of place. So your just left with a ok average movie not totally bad but not fantastic. Personally the blame lays with Fox, some of it Disney and with merger, bad writing and some people wanting it fail which is bit sad so Marvel would get it back and reboot so to me it was always and I think Days of Future Past all fantastic creates other problems with the other movies especially with the timeline issues, also what happened to the uniforms at the end of the previous movie they were great. If Days of Future Past has been the last film it would have been better. The original plan was to two part movie of the Dark Phoenix but with the merger that was soon put up bed if they had done that made it darker in tone, throw in some new characters which this never had and fleshed the other characters rather then Xavier, Raven and Magneto it would have been a hit. I think Disney will leave it for a while before rebooting it I can see them focusing on Fantastic Four before they move on the X-Men franchise.
By the way there’s no post credit scenes in the movie so you don’t need to stay behind and watch the credits well unless you wanna listen to the movie score by Hans Zimmer.
READY PLAYER ONE-Sky Sci/Horror-recorded 25th Dec, 2018. Finally got round to seeing this with my friend(we had planned to see it at the cinema) and we weren't disappointed. Dazzling, incredible, superb - well that was the graphic side of it, the CGI phenomenal and the clever use of live-action and animated characters using the latest technology. Story is pretty complicated - people escape from the reality of 2045 to a place called the Oasis, which is a bit like those online places where you can do just about anything(within reason) and the story revolves around the creator of it James Halliday, played by Mark Rylance, who probably modelled his look on Garth from Wayne's World and how he has hidden three keys somewhere in that virtual world - find those and you find a golden egg which will give the recipient control and management of the whole game. It is fun to watch not least of which all the film, television and song references which are mostly 80's - best decade. It's a rollicking, enjoyable romp through nostalgia and dazzling special effects as well as being a love story of sorts - I won't give anything away but it is also essential a tale of morality and good vs evil. I recommend this and it was well worth the wait. 10/10.
Mad Max (1979)
In a lawless, dystopian future-set Australia, a highway cop becomes increasingly unhinged during a battle with a killer motorcycle gang. Polarized upon its release, the movie today enjoys a considerable cult following. Mel Gibson is unforgettable as the rage-filled boy in not so blue. It's good to go back to the beginning and see how these successful film franchises began. 4/5
Ant-Man and the Wasp(2018) Well here we were again a second film for Marvel's least known superhero. Again some dazzling special effects and a great cast made up of Michael Douglas, Paul Rudd, Michelle Pfieffer, Evangeline Lilly, Hannah John-Kamen(who was also in Ready Player One & Game of Thrones) and others, and a pretty good storyline which carries on from the last film. Paul Rudd does a good job as Ant-Man last seen in Avengers: Endgame(not seen that yet) and there are some laugh-out-loud moments not least of which involve his cohorts in the security business(David Dalmachian(Murdoc in Macgyver)) and Michael Pena. Another enjoyable romp which also sees Stan Lee in one of his last comic cameos.
Recommended: 9/10.