Showing posts with label Adventure. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Adventure. Show all posts

Iron Man 3, 2013 - ★★★½

Iron Man 3, 2013 - ★★★½
REVIEWED
"Failure is the fog through which we glimpse triumph."
Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce)
Stark raving hilarious 3rd solo outing for Iron Man. Tony Stark emotionally crippled and prone to anxiety attacks since his recent duty with the Avengers, has to face a nerdy cognitive scientist hell bent on creating hybrid humans to conquer the medical world and take revenge on Stark for failing to acknowledge his genius years earlier.

The basic setup is pretty standard superhero gubbins that we've seen 100s of times before... evil genius intent on making an impact on the world, kidnaps the heroes woman yada yada blah blah. So zero points for originality then, but the 3rd outing still makes for a rewarding experience because Drew Pearce & Shane Black's script plays off these familiar stereotypes so damned well, almost to the point of being more a comedy than all out actioner.

Its gonna be a long time before anyone could attempt to do Tony Stark other than Robert Downey Jr. hes made the role his own. I loved the more anxiety riddled version this time around, was a little less cocksure but still enough super ego. Gwyneth Paltrow was hot as Penny, literary. Don Cheadle was Don Cheadle... again. And Jon Favreau was in disguise as Tony Soprano. While Ben Kingsley was hilarious has hammy kangaroo villain Mandarin. And Guy Pearce putting in another solid performance as Aldrich Killian, though agreeably not the most formidable villain whose ever graced a comic based franchise.

I'll be honest I never enjoyed 'The Avengers' half as much as everyone else seemed to do (could have been a little to do with the over hype), but it just felt like a CGI video game cut scene to me. So it was a treat that 'Iron Man 3' though not the greatest superhero movie ever, was still heaps of fun.

[PRFR]
I loved Starks big bro like interactions with the fatherless kid, plus so many laugh out loud segments from suits malfunctioning to Mandarin's off camera antics.

Originally taken from Letterboxd

Aftershock, 2013 - ★½

Aftershock, 2013 - ★½
REVIEWED
"Your going to hell..."
Escaped Criminal
Having recently shat upon the world the truly shambolic web series 'Hemlock Grove', Eli Roth steps in front of the camera for the equally shambolic Chilean gore soaked disaster romp 'Aftershock'. A vacationing American and his party get caught up in an earthquake while clubbing in Chili. As well dealing with the initial destruction, the groups got to deal with the aftershock, which include a gang of escaped criminals and the threat of a tsunami.

Such an atrocious 10+ million waste of celluloid, I doubt I'll catch a worse film for its budget for the remainder of this year. I seriously hope writer & director Nicolás López, along with with the rest of the cast+crew blew their budget on quality pharmaceuticals, because it doesn't look like it went into the film. Every character is an asshole, you're only too happy to see die. The first third feels totally wasted, sort of like a goofy 'Hangover' style vacation setup, including a Chilean Zach Galifanakis wannabe only with zero the charm. Then when the laughably bad earthquake hits, the film picks up a little, but the events tensions wasted when you meet the goofy premise of escaped women hungry prisoners. On the bright side the locations are beautiful, as are various members of the fairer sex within the movie.

[PRFR]
Cheering when the dreadful dancer Russel bowed out, highly possible his cameo was some local Chilean celebrity that western viewers wouldn't get the reference. In fact to be fair, in the films credit you never know when one of the key character's is about to get wiped out, which was a tad refreshing. And the final was pretty cool, a little reminiscent of the surfer movie 'Point Break'.

Originally taken from Letterboxd

The Last Flight of Noah's Ark, 1980 - ★★★½

The Last Flight of Noah's Ark, 1980 - ★★★½
REVIEWED
"God is my co-pilot"
Bernie (Bujold)

Hugely entertaining live action family adventure from Walt Disney. In order to runaway from his debts pilot Noah Dugan (Elliott Gould) takes a job flying missionary Miss Lafleur (Geneviève Bujold) her animals and two kid stowaways to her new tropical outpost. Only they fly off course and are forced to land on a remote island inhabited by two Japanese soldiers who've been stranded since wwII, and still think the wars ongoing.

Not even the overtly Christian themes, dire repetitive theme song and teared up Ricky Schroder (this time doing his don't die champ shtick, only with his love for a yak) put me off enjoying this fun romp. If ever your stuck finding entertainment for children you could do far worse than slapping this in the old VCR. A rare treat to have such a remarkable ensemble of actors in a family movie. You expect Gould being great in everything, but its also Bujol's best performance I've seen her in, outside of her two medical shockers 'Dead Ringers' & 'Coma'.

[PRFR: Personal Reasons For Remembering]
The magnificent sight of the airplanes fuselage being turned into a sea worthy raft and rent a crier child star Schroder almost becoming shark bait.



Originally taken from Letterboxd

Na kometě, 1970 - ★★★

Na kometě, 1970 - ★★★
REVIEWED
"Its not a second sun, I think its a second Earth, but where is our continent ?"

Angelika (Magda Vasaryova)


A woman escapes a pirate ship and while swimming back to shore she chance meets a lonely soldier whose jumped from a cliff, at this point they notice that a second sun as appeared. It causes a drastic switch in global events, and everything starts to take a turn for the worse. Can the couple keep their freedom while waring factions including dinosaurs start to battle with each other.

Karel Zeman's "Na Komete" is based loosely on Jules Verne celestial journey On the Comet. Visually due to the over use of matte painted landscapes and tinted footage it does look somewhat similar to Terry Gillims animation. But the Czechoslovakian films not nearly as surreal has I'd been made to believe, in fact it plays pretty much like a children's fairy tale or old style Sunday morning matinée serial style ripping yarn. Its hard to know exactly who would love this movie, the stop motion/rubber creature feature fans will be bored senseless, its not artistic enough for the art snobs. Thats not to say its bad or anything, theres loads going on and Magda Vasaryova was mesmerizing as Angelika. Worth checking out for curiousity value.

[PRFR: Personal Reasons For Remembering]
Rubber monsters, matte overkill, tinted skylines & Magda Vasaryova.



Originally taken from Letterboxd