Films Archive

I was looking forward to seeing this film immensely, and even managed to get an evening pass on the first day of release. I also managed to see it for free and get a free ticket for another film thanks to the projectionist starting the film early, but that’s another tale.

The tale of The Expendables goes as follows (well, from what I saw from about 10 minutes in): Sylvester Stallone leads a small group of (highly capable) mercenaries consisting of himself, Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Jet Li, Terry Crewes and Randy Couture. Sly is hired by a “friend” (after beating out another “friend” to the job) to go and take out another 80s star, Eric Roberts, who is running some scam on the (fictitious?) island of Vilena with the help of a corrupt general and Steve Austin (the MMA guy, not The Six Million Dollar man).

The first recon with Sly and Statham (who meet their contact there) goes very bad and they just about make it out, after stopping off for some serious aerial payback. Their contact refuses to go with them and goes into hiding, whilst Sly and Statham return.

After a bit of character development from Statham (basically him kicking the poop out of a guy who hit his ex-girlfriend), Sly chats to Mickey Rourke (who is very, very good in his small screen time) and decides to go back for the girl alone and probably kill Eric Roberts as well. He’s interrupted by a traitorious attempt on his life, but manages to get out of it with the aid of Jet Li, conveniently along for the ride – some humorous dialogue is exchanged during the chase, very funny.

Anyway, long story short, Sly is met at the plane by (almost) everyone on his team, they go back, and pretty much all hell breaks loose for the last 15 minutes of the film. The action is fast, frenetic, bloody (more on that later), there’s a machine shotgun, knife fights, mano-a-mano fisticuffs, almost everything you can conceive of in an 80s action film. I won’t spoil the ending as it pretty much writes itself, but there is a pleasant surprise at the end that I was pleased with.

But why only 8 / 10? Well, it’s very much Sly’s film (which is fine), but even then there didn’t seem to be lot of him or any of the other actors on screen for long. I suppose with that many big names (still), it’s hard to fit them all in. The chap who played the general (David Zayas) did a very good job, I really felt for his character and the dilemma he was in.

The fight scene between Jet Li and someone else was, unfortunately, choppily edited which is par for the course these days. However, later in the film when all hell is unleashed, the action is framed much better and there are some stand-out “wow” moments, e.g. Jason Statham’s two-shot to a soldier’s foot then face, and Sly’s extremely rapid reload-and-fire technique, which I can only assume he’s trained for.

One thing that really, really put me off was the CGI blood. Very badly done, too red, too comic book. The blood effects in the recent Rambo film were far more convincing, but maybe they hard to “cartoon it up” a bit for a 15 rating. That said, when the machine shotgun is doing it’s work, it’s awesome.

Overall, more than good film, definitely worth a watch. I personally don’t see it as throwback to the cheesy 80s action movies (Tango and Cash, anyone?) but rather a non-cheesy action movie in its own right.

Incidentally, the rather excellent UK martial artist Gary Daniels is also in it, whilst (again) he doesn’t get much screen time, he has a great fight at the end with Jet Li and a rather nasty end

Saw Inception last night, directed by Christoper Nolan (Memento, The Prestige, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight) and starring Leonardo Di Caprio, Joseph Gordon Levitt, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy and many others (even Michael Caine).

Put simply, the technology exists to join someone’s dream, and whilst in that dream, steal secrets if you’re good enough. Leonardo’s character is this best there is, but he is hired to implant an idea, rather than steal something.

To be honest, that’s as much as I’m going to say about the story, as it is something that should be allowed to unfold with you knowing as little as possible up front; we’re way beyond spoilers here

The film has been incredibly crafted, and I don’t mean the actors’ performances or the special effects, both of which are excellent. The story is layered well, and covers a very important strand of Caprio’s character’s past. No-one’s character is one dimensional (although Michael Caine is only in the film briefly, so is not given much chance to evolve). Cillian Murphy does well in the film, I really felt his emotions over the relationship with his father, but again, I don’t want to give anything away.

In short, see it, I recommend it highly with 5 stars.

A rare trip to the cinema afforded me the chance to see Kick-Ass, a film which I had been looking forward to since I first heard about it – it didn’t disappoint

Matthew Vaughn directed the film, adapted from Mark Millar’s comic book by himself and his writing partner Jayne Goldman (Mrs. Jonathan Ross) as it was being written. In fact, the film was actually finished before the comic book, as Matthew Vaughn said on a little Film4 info programme.

To the film: Dave (played excellently by Aaron Johnson) decides to become a superhero, despite not having any super powers, no dead mother to avenge, no special training (“unlike Batman”). He gets a suit, gets a name (the titular Kick-Ass), practices for a bit and gets seriously hurt on his first outing. Six months later, he’s all healed with lots of plates in him (“Like Wolverine!”) and handy nerve damage, so he doesn’t really feel pain much any more.

A series of events transpire to place him in serious harm’s way, and he is suddenly rescued by Hit Girl and Big Daddy, played respectively in a break-through role for Chloe Moretz and a career-reviving role for Nicholas Cage who is brilliant in the role. Then, frankly. all Hell breaks loose as Kick-Ass is dragged into Big Daddy’s and Hit Girl’s revenge against a mobster (Mark Strong in another, er, strong role) for past transgressions.

I am being deliberately vague in this review as the film really needs to be seen with as little knowledge beforehand, although there are some comic book in-jokes to be found. I was going to write that there are a few other story lines going on, but apart from some father-son angst, there isn’t – it’s a tightly-focused story.

Things happen in the film that I don’t think need to have happened, but fit the story. There is no “oh, come on” moment at all in the film – well, maybe one, but it’s easily forgiveable. Add to that the humour (and not even dark humour, the film itself isn’t dark), very strong characters, great acting, and Kick-Ass comes out as a must-see.

Here’s the trailer for Stallone’s homage to the 80s action flicks that, er, he actually starred in, meaning he’s in pretty good shape for a 63 year old

There are so many stars in here, it’s dizzying: Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Mickey Rourke, Terry Crewes, Steve Austin, Randy Couture, Eric Roberts, a couple of people who I vaguely recognise in cameos, etc… The trailer certainly does its job, I’m looking forward to seeing it, a good mix of action, adventure, fights, and a sly modern-day take on what could once be called cheesy lines

Do I really need to add anything else?

Although it’s embedded, I thoroughly recommend heading over to You Tube and watching in in HD – just click on the video above and select HD…

And damn, love that “suit in a briefcase” from the comics

Here’s a “green band” (e.g. suitable for everyone) trailer for Matthew Vaughn’s film adaptation of Mark Millar’s “Kick Ass”:

It looks like a lot of fun, and it’s out in April – hopefully I’ll be seeing it then, still not got round to seeing Sherlock Holmes, hmmph.

Note: here’s a “red band” trailer (suitable for adults only – e.g. blood, violence, and fruity language) starring Hit Girl, another protagonist and all-round ass-kicker – worth a watch, but be warned, blood, violence, etc…

H/T to FirstShowing.Net