The Jungle Book 2016 - Movie Review!

Who's In It?


Bill Murray, Ben Kingsley, Idris Elba, Lupita Nyong'o, Scarlett Johansson, Giancarlo Esposito, Christopher Walken, and Neel Sethi

What's It About? Mowgli has been raised by wolves in the jungle, it's all he knows but when the tiger, Shere Khan declares he'll kill as many as it takes to exact his revenge on the man-cub for past wrongs, young Mowgli embarks for the man-village with Bagheera the Panther and Baloo the Bear. This Disney classic remake runs true to form. Bill Murray as Baloo - or is that Baloo as Bill Murray - you decide! Any Good? I don't think I've ever been as blown away by as film as this one. I don't hold much truck with remakes and as they go, this holds a very special place in my heart. I grew up watching The Jungle Book every Saturday with my Grandad, so I was sure it was going to be awful and quite possibly a cash in; but nostalgia was left behind almost immediately. The visuals are INCREDIBLE, just as good as IMAX/Blu-Ray Avatar's were (I actually went back and watched just it for this review), only for the colours are more muted - even more so by the 3D glasses (a bugbear of mine). The animals' lip-syncing is spot on for the entirety, and the voice acting done so well that they leave behind any worry that the characters will just be vessels for the voices. Once the first character speaks, you're right there in the jungle with them. JUST LISTEN TO IT - EPIC The soundtrack is a 10/10 for me, while there's only 2 real songs featured, the score in general was absolutely perfect. The new Bear Necessities is epic, John Debney and his orchestra did a fantastic job of making Disney's most iconic song incredibly powerful and all without lyrics. Christopher Walken singing I Wanna Be Like You was made even more charming by the fact he can't sing, but he forever changed the way I sing the song to myself and will change the way you do too ooh ooh. Speaking of Walken, I LOVED his King Louie; his infamous cadence, singing voice, and just how colossal he was. He would have stolen the show for me, if it weren't for Neel Sethi playing Mowgli. I don't usually like child actors, but he's easily the best actor so far this year and this is his first film. His mannerisms, his reactions (to green screen no less) - he's a star! Every voice pitched perfectly, especially Bill Murray as Baloo and Ben Kingsley as Bagheera. They were perfectly cast, and played off each other so well, with Bagheera keeping Baloo straight and narrow - just how I'd imagine Ben would with messer Bill in real life. I think my biggest disappointment was Scarlett Johansson not getting more time as Kaa, she was quite literally mesmerising, so apt for the hypnotic serpent. I fell in love with her voice in Her (review HERE); her dulcet tones were even better in this - Johansson is proof ASMR is a thing. I fell in love with how this newest Jungle Book was shot, there'd be gorgeous sweeping scenes of amazing CGI, landscape and animals, broken up by the totally menacing Shere Khan or even by the incredible "Red Flower"; it's a truly beautiful film. It felt Lord of the Rings-ish in scale nearer the end for me, and I think you'll know what I mean when you see King Louie. Jon Favreau made his masterpiece with this but I really think the achievement is out-shone by Neel Sethi's potential. I recommend it in 2D as we saw it in 3D and only the end credits justified the encumbrance of glasses, while it sadly darkened the rest of the film. A word of note to parents of young'uns though, there's a reason this isn't a Universal rating, little ones might just find the menacing characters a little much. It doesn't matter how old you are or if you have kids, or how many iterations of The Jungle Book you've seen to date - get out to the cinemas and be amazed by this Disney marvel. Rating:

Creed - Movie Review

Who's In It?

Tessa Thompson, Michael B. Jordan and Sylvester Stallone

What's It About?

After being adopted out of Juvie by Apollo Creed's wife, Adonis Creed becomes a boxer and persuades Rocky Balboa to train him when no one else will.

Any Good?

Right from the start I could see how similar Creed is to its Rocky predecessors. You've seen the same story over and over - kid with no parents in a detention centre starts fighting, then takes up boxing. The story isn't what makes the film though, that's all down to the incredible performances.

Michael B. Jordan is a stand out, he brings out the absolute best in an alright script and knocks it out of the park in every emotional scene. The real star of the show though is Stallone, he is PHENOMENAL as old Rocky. 

Thinking of films like The Expendables and Judge Dredd, this performance was totally out of the blue; he IS Rocky but doesn't play him as an underdog boxer character, but as an old man who's making up time with a friend he lost. After winning the Golden Globe for supporting actor, I honestly think he'll go all the way and get the Oscar to go with it.

Ryan Coogler was also great directing this, the fight scenes are some of the best I've ever seen - definitely the best boxing specific scenes. The film is shot so that you see every punch, and it doesn't make a big drama of every tap the boxers get; I wish the film was in a higher framerate for the fights because they were so quick.

Incredible acting and well choreographed fight scenes bring Creed to life, but it's not all about the fights. The emotional scenes pull no punches (sorrynotsorry)and really brought the feels - especially a certain two that you'll know immediately if you watch it. Which I really recommend you do.

Rating: 

Mad Max: Fury Road - Movie Review

Who's In It?

Nicholas Hoult, Charlize Theron, and Tom Hardy


What's It About? 

Max is kidnapped by Immortan Joe and his War Boys, and must escape by running away with Imperator Furiosa, Immortan's "Breeders" - women with healthy pregnancies - and the War Boy Nux in a giant armoured oil tanker.

Any Good?

I have never been so tired or sore after a movie, Fury Road is relentless in shooting, driving, explosions, and INCREDIBLY loud music. There is maybe a 10 minute break near the end, but even that doesn't last before it's LOUD NOISES AND DEATH again, I LOVE it.

The action is non-stop, from the first 5 minutes it's immediate punch and run, with Max escaping Immortan Joe's slave base by beating his War Boys and having serious hallucinations. The soundwork was fantastic in the film and was a real part of the action, every time the war parties were on the road there was a War Boy with a giant fire-spitting guitar shredding his heart out on a giant vehicle made of a speakers fit in perfectly - Nolan needs to learn how to do loud music from this.

Immortan Joe

This film really takes advantage of its 15A rating, having serious blood and gore as well as scenes of slaves being beaten and women being drained of milk (yep, lovely) as well as naked women, I'm surprised the American film industry didn't gimp it totally to be more family friendly. 

I haven't seen the original Mad Max films in some time, but this really felt like the 80's style they were done in, as well as the original Fury Road comics and other films like Conan the Barbarian with giant mountain bases. Australian Bane is perfect as Max, and "the feminist legion" are great, and make sense dammit. I thoroughly recommend watching this in cinemas, and in isense if you can because not only is the soundtrack amazing but it uses classic 3D where things come out of the screen! 

Rating:  

Avengers: Age of Ultron - Movie Review!

Who's In It?

Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner and James Spader


What's It About? 

While trying to create a peace keeping AI, Tony Stark creates Ultron - An AI that wants to "evolve" the human race by making them machine, a bit like The Cybermen of Doctor Who.

Any Good? 

I was never a big fan of the original Avengers film, I didn't like the Thor and Captain America ones so I just didn't pay much attention while watching it and a lot of the smart connections went over my head - but I certainly need to rewatch it after this.

One of the first things I said to Maaa after the film was that I was glad to see Hawkeye actually get a story of his own - and it not only made him more of the character he should have been, but he was even more badass.

 Don't question, just... oggle

Not only was Hawkeye's chatacter better, but everyone was. The only real complaint I have was that nearly every second word out of their mouth was a one-liner and it totally threw me off with how out of character they would be in the situation, but Maaa absolutely loved that. 

The film itself was pretty huge in scale, it took place in multiple cities around the Marvel world and had massive destruction, from Cap throwing a motorbike at a truck causing it to explode; to the Hulk being slammed through multiple buildings and collapsing a massive office block all in one fight. It also had fantastic dream sequences, from a huge Asgardian party to the one thing I wanted to see since the first Avengers film - what Tony saw inside the galaxy wormhole... 

While it's no Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers 2 was 90% huge action and 10% forgivable shoehorned in love scenes between Black Widow and the Hulk, and it was an absolute blast. The after credits scene was nothing special, it set up the third film nicely and now I can't wait for it.

Rating: 

** Momma's Take**

Being, quite possibly, more of a teenage boy than Aaron himself, I've seen every Marvel Flick that's been committed to film. I'm an avid Iron Man fan or
is that RDJ fan? The line is so blurred nowadays. As it is with Hemsworth & his Asgardian alter ego, Thor, not that I'm complaining. 

I'd put Age of Ultron firmly between Iron Man 3 and Guardians
of the Galaxy in terms of Kick Assedness. The funniest of the franchise so far and easily the largest scale Marvel we've seen. Each Avenger is larger than life with razor sharp wit to match, making this the closest we've seen to actual caricatures of themselves. A veritable real life comic book. This is Josh Whedon at his resplendent, unapologetic best. 

Hawkeye is fleshed out this time 'round, thankfully and the Black Widow is brought to the fore - both brilliant moves. We're introduced to new Avengers, each of which bring the same 'Oooh what's your party piece' excitement. The addition of James Spader as Ultron is a masterstroke, with his bot even taking on mannerisms of the man himself. Anyone that's a fan of his earlier work will know why this is a verry good thing (yeah I'm pretty glad Aar hasn't seen either Secretary or Crash). 

The one liners are relentless, the action even more so - I'd recommend you see this one in IMAX 3D (something I don't often do) but this is Marvel after all. It's big, it's bold, it's Bloody Brilliant!

Rating: 

The Woman In Black: Angel of Death - Movie Review

Who's In It? 

Helen McCrory, Oaklee Pendergast, Jeremy Irvine and Phoebe Fox


What's It About? 

Creepy mute boy with a bowl cut and draws? Check.
Old abandoned house in the country with an old nursery? Check.
Older woman doesn't believe younger woman? Check.
Prettyboy love interest being the only one who believes young woman? Check, check and CHECK.

 Any Good? 

This movie was so obviously drawn up in a boardroom of management types spouting their management spiel and horror buzzwords such as "nursery" or "synergies like creepy kid and nursery". There is absolutely ZERO heart or soul to be found and it kills the atmosphere.It's a real shame because I had some hopes going in.
 
There's nothing spooky at all about this film, it's so old and done that there just isn't a shock factor at any stage, what's a horror film without the shock factor? Kids go to old house. One kid is creepy. Kid communicates with ghost in creepy nursery. BOOM! that thought in your head? That's the entire movie.

My face THE ENTIRE TIME

It's not like there's any actual story, it's just useless exposition and faff from one lacklustre scare to the next, and I use the term scare EXTREMELY lightly. Not only does it follow horror clichés, but it follows love movie ones too - emotionally damaged soldier is the only one who believes Eve (main) and she believes she can fix him. Imagine what happens. The film doesn't even tell you who the Angel of Death is, just adds hints that aren't even interesting enough to speculate on.

I can honestly say this film has just added fuel to the belief I have that all horror movies (non-grindhouse/shlock withstanding) are the same and not worth watching. It has no story, no memorable characters (except for the painfully obvious Damien rip-off) and worst of all; it's just a bunch of old, beaten horses from TWO genres of film. I may be being a little harsh here, so if I can say one good thing about The Woman in Black: Angel of Death, it's that it's certainly a horror movie. Don't waste your time.


Rating: 

One Million Dubliners ~ Staggeringly Beautiful & On RTEPlayer Now!

We have something a little different for today's Flicks on Fridays. Instead of a review, we have a heartfelt recommendation for the stunning Irish documentary, One Million Dubliners from Aoife Kelleher. 

Narrated by cemetery guide and historian Shane Mac Thomáis, it tells the affecting tale of the 1.5 million souls buried in Glasnevin cemetery. A staggering amount considering the population of Dublin in 2013 was only 1.2 million. 

One of the most moving a pieces of film making we've ever enjoyed, if you didn't catch it as it aired on RTE last night, you can watch One Million Dubliners on RTE Player HERE for the next 21 days. We can't recommend it enough. 




Were you one of the many lovers of the documentary lastnight? We'd love to hear your thoughts? 

Check out the #onemilliondubliners tag on Twitter to see just how affecting it is. 

Interstellar ~ Movie Review!

Who's In It? 

Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Michael Caine and Matthew McConaughey

What's It About? 

All the food in the world except corn has fallen to the potato blight of the 1840's and a new planet is needed for some reason, I dunno, it's a damn space exploration movie!!

Any Good? 

After a year of r/movies circlejerking themselves raw over this movie, and Nolan in general, I reaaaally wanted this to be bad, but oh how wrong I was. The earth scenes were nonsensical, boring and really made made the film feel the full near 3 hours, but the space scenes are a complete experience.

As you can imagine, I'm a big fan of spacey, timey wimey...stuff and this movie blew me away. Even under the more-than-likely patented stupid loud music that blocks everything out, Nolan employs the silence of all space activity and it was slightly haunting - fair play 'che kicking the BWOOOOOM addiction there Chris!

The film itself is beyond beautiful, space is expansive, silent and lurking, while the worlds themselves were honestly (pun a little intended) out of this world. Even one of the planets, which seemed obviously shot in the sea was so alien it was incredible, you get a true feeling of being an explorer as they traverse the new galaxy and its planets.

As you can expect in midst of the McConnaissance, the man himself was fantastic, given a better script it would have topped his favourite performance of mine in Dallas Buyers Club. Anne Hathaway was actually pretty great, I'm usually meh towards her but she performed the, again weak, script more than admirably. But the real stand-out performance for me was Bill Irwin as the robot TARS, that beautiful soulbot had to be my favourite character.

Marvin? R2D2? Legion? Nah, TARS is the real botbro.

I really enjoyed this movie, well worth the full watch time (pee breaks at earth parts, they're baaad) and can even make you cry several times. TARS was like Marvin from Hitchhicker's Guide crossed with R2D2, he was awesome and his design may make him my favourite robot in all of cinema. If you can look past the weak script in general (ESPECIALLY in young Murph's area) like I did you'll love this just as much as I did, it's a feature length, better Doctor Who movie.

 Rating: 

Horns - Movie Review

Who's In It? 

Juno Temple, Max Minghella, Joe Anderson and Daniel Radcliffe



What's It About? 

Ig Perrish wakes up one morning after being blackout drunk to find himself wanted for the murder of his girlfriend, he then proclaims that if he did it let the Devil curse him, as luck would have it, this leads him starting to sprout horns the very next day.

Any Good? 

I could put good money in any betting establishment that this film will tank totally at the cinema, but make millions on download or DVD (What year is it?!) sales. It's a cult classic in every right, it has the premise, the great soundtrack and the effects, but most of all, it's just the mess you've come to know as a cult film.

Certainly not one for the Ophidiophobic (people afraid of snakes, i.e. common sense)

I like this movie, for all its faults (such as a gratuitous childhood flashback that meant NOTHING AT ALL) it's cool as hell. The soundtrack suits, the dialogue is hilarious in parts, and it even gets heart-hurty at times due to the horns causing people to tell their true feelings. Some scenes are totally badass and genuinely give the feel that Ig is descending into a devil, but those are for you to enjoy.

This film is like watching a game of Cluedo, where you know that literally EVERYONE is the murderer from the start; then as the guilty flashbacks start to flow you get an idea of what happened, but still everyone did it! Then, when it ends, you just sit there and think "wait, I knew that..", it just keeps you guessing at all times.

Horns is a twisty film that will have you angry when Ig doesn't just jump on the first suspect because it's so obvious, but it happens with every character and it works pretty well. I'd say if you like things like Hellboy, Scott Pilgrim or Kevin Smith movies, this is for you; otherwise it just won't interest you at all. Even if you don't go to see this for Halloween, make sure to watch it and tell me what you think, I really liked it and dear Mammy couldn't get past the first 10 minutes.

Rating? 

The Best of Me - Movie Review

Who's In It? 

Michelle Monaghan, Luke Bracey, Liana Liberato and James Marsden


What's It About? 

Two people who were together as teenagers meet and have an affair after 20 years - you know the story.

Any Good? 

Short answer? No, not at all. Long answer? This film was not only had one of the worst scripts I've ever seen, but it was downright offensive in what it portrayed. The main thing I take from any of Nicholas Sparks' work, and from this movie in particular, is that ALL women cheat on their husbands with people they knew as teenagers and the husbands deserve it because every married male is a caricature of fat-cat bankers - right down to the whiskey and golf.

The err.. new Nicholas Sparks movie - adultery intact!

The only way this disgrace was stomach-able was playing guess the script/story with Ally, which gained us many a salty look due to our spot on guesses of explosions (I know..) and James Marsdon's lines. I honestly just can't flesh out a good commentary on the acting, this is worse than one of those Lifetime movies you watch if your Sky shuts off for a day and it certainly didn't help that young Dawson (Marsdon) actually looked like an older JGL - older than both honestly.

In this huge pit of dirt and rough there was one diamond - hillbilly fights are HILARIOUS. I honestly laughed at every scene Dawson's hillbilly family was in - just YouTube it some time, do NOT give Sparks money for this absolute tripe. I shall leave you all with one question - is Nicholas Sparks the greatest con-man of our time with his ability to sell the same morally questionable story time and time again? Watch your backs Ponzi and L. Ron Hubbard, you have new competition..

NO CHERRIES FOR YOU, SPARKS, MON FRÉRE