“Do we really need another childhood nostalgia movie?” I asked, as we wandered through the park on the way to the cinema. “Haven’t they all been done by now?”
The picture on the left is my face, 5 minutes into the movie.
It turns out that we do need more childhood nostalgia movies – or at least, more movies like Detective Pikachu. Against all the odds, against the entire track record of live-action movies about cartoon characters, Detective Pikachu is a really great film. Let’s get into it.
There are countless films with the basic premise that sometimes, dead things don’t stay dead, and that’s a problem that someone has to deal with. In this film, the “someone” is the Rest In Peace Department, or R.I.P.D.
Continue reading “R.I.P.D. (2013) – Review”
One of them is a meticulous, by-the-numbers bodyguard with only one failure on his record. The other is a happy-go-lucky, internationally-wanted assassin. Can they learn to work together? Can they deal with corrupt cops, genocidal tyrants, and their own tangled love lives? Continue reading “The Hitman’s Bodyguard (2017) – Review”
I was initially a little reluctant to watch Deadpool; he’s a character who seems to have more than the usual number of fans who don’t know when to finish conversations. I was worried that the film would be pandering, full of fan service and self-conscious edginess.
When I was finally dragged to watch it though, I was pleasantly surprised. Deadpool, due to the concept, was always going to be a difficult film to pull off, but it’s actually rather well done. Continue reading “Deadpool (2016) – Review”
The Nines was leant to me by a friend, after we discovered our mutual affection for Ryan Reynolds. We had a long conversation about his films, and found many opinions in common; we even both enjoyed Green Lantern.
Over the course of the conversation, it eventually became clear that our individual interests in the actor were, whilst similar in effect, based on different causes. I like Ryan Reynolds, as I’ve mentioned before, because he’s a likeable, idealised everyman. She likes Ryan Reynolds because he looks good shirtless. We argued, briefly, over whose reason was shared by more people.
Despite this difference, she did lend me The Nines, assuring me that it was a good film even if I didn’t harbour a secret passion for the actor. She turned out to be right – I did enjoy it. With that said, I probably would have enjoyed it more if Ryan Reynolds was my idea of Adonis. Continue reading “The Nines (2007) – Review”
I don’t like Sandra Bullock. I don’t know exactly why, but some film I watched as a child made me dislike her strongly. I can no longer remember the film, but she was brash and abrasive in it. From my biased viewpoint, this seems to be her general demeanour. She, along with Julia Roberts, is an actress who I find intensely irritating. I’m aware that it is somewhat unfair to judge an actress’character on the strength of one character she played, but this awareness does not really mitigate the dislike. Even films that I should like are ruined by her presence.
As a result, I was initially reluctant to watch The Proposal. However, two things persuaded me: I was bored, and didn’t feel like anything heavier, and it also starred Ryan Reynolds. Ryan Reynolds, to me, is the opposite of Sandra Bullock. Even truly terrible films are redeemed by him – he’s just very likable. The Green Lantern film is all kinds of rubbish – it has racist stereotypes, Info-dumps, and somehow manages to make ‘create anything’ into a boring superpower. He makes
a fist and a toy car, displaying a lamentable lack of imagination.
But I like The Green Lantern – I think it’s worth watching, and I’d happily watch it again. I think this in defiance of logic and reason, solely because Ryan Reynolds seems like a great guy. He seems almost always to play an affable straight man, but there are glimpses of range and humour in his performances.
Hopefully, that sets the scene. One eye on something else, I sat down to watch The Proposal, a film containing one actor I hate and one I like. Would I hate it because of her? Would I love it because of him? Would the two forces balance, leaving me totally neutral? It was a truly thrilling situation. Continue reading “The Proposal (Review)”
Inconsistent Pacing 