The LEGO Batman Movie
There are big changes brewing in Gotham City, and if he wants to save the city from The Joker's hostile takeover, Batman may have to drop the lone vigilante thing, try to work with others and maybe, just maybe, learn to lighten up.
Batman saves the day, as always, but he spends his off-time pushing people away and avoiding relationships. Especially with the Joker who, in retaliation, unleashes a plot to literally tear Gotham apart. Yeah OK, the story is a little standard and clichéd, but the thing that makes it stand out is the script. Like the Lego Movie, it's packed with fast paced verbal gags, and each frame is crammed with visual ones too. I laughed consistently throughout, which is something I don't do often!
The voice cast is decent too, Arnett does a great job again as the caped crusader, but Cera steals the show as lovably eager Robin. Again the multitude of famous characters from movie history is remarkable, but still in a very original and fresh way - from King Kong to Agent Smith, each one is a great, fun addition.
All in all, it's not quite as strong a film as the first, and doesn't quite have the same spark, but it's undeniably fun! Great gags and characters, every second is immensely enjoyable with a ton of memorable moments that will stay with you for days afterwards. The predictable sentimentality towards the end was surprisingly moving too, not anywhere near as annoying or awkward as I'd dreaded. Pure joy.
Fifty Shades Darker (2017)
While Christian wrestles with his inner demons, Anastasia must confront the anger and envy of the women who came before her.
The worst film I've ever seen - While not having particularly high expectations, it must be said, I did go into this film with an open mind. However only a few minutes in and I already felt the urge to leave and fill my brain with something less awful and mind rotting.
It's not just the non-existent plot and hammy acting that let this film down, although they were major factors, the chemistry between the two leads was like watching two planks of wood getting together. None of what I saw made me believe he was an irresistible sex god with a dark side. And with Ana, let's just say biting ones lip every time something is suggested gets a bit old.
Furthermore, without wanting to spoil, is her IQ supposed to be about 50? I have to ask because she pretty much agrees to everything he says, and not in a dom/sub kind of way, more just because she doesn't seem to have the mental ability to argue. You have to wonder how she's employed in the first place.
I've seen some absolutely dire films but I can honestly say this is the worst film I've ever seen.
The Great Wall (2016)
When a mercenary warrior (Matt Damon) is imprisoned within the Great Wall, he discovers the mystery behind one of the greatest wonders of the world. As wave after wave of marauding beasts besiege the massive structure, his quest for fortune turns into a journey toward heroism as he joins a huge army of elite warriors to confront the unimaginable and seemingly unstoppable force.
This movie simply tries to do too many things at once
First of all, this movie does a lot of things right. The costume designs are great, the set designs are very convincing and the CGI is, although not cutting edge, up to modern standards in film-making. The music score could have been better but maybe the composer had a Chinese audience in mind.
The acting will not win any Oscars but we see some genuine moments of emotion and bonding and believe it or not but there are one or two scenes with a good suspense arc. Moreover, Jing Tian has a nice smile and looks really fine in uniform. That might be my own idiosyncratic standard but an attractive female lead certainly adds to the "positives".
With all that praise then, why does it fall short of being a truly great movie? As my summary indicates it is simply overloaded with too many plot devices. It's a hero/East meets West/monster/action/tale of betrayal and redemption/romance/fantasy movie loaded with Chinese symbolism capped by a rather weak, anticlimactic and hurried cookie-cutter ending. The audience never has enough time to get emotionally invested in the characters. The script tries but there simply isn't enough time to do it all and eventually the movie does too little to explore any of the plot elements and characters.
Nevertheless, it is not a bad movie and certainly not ambitious enough to deserve any of the vitriol people read into the story without ever watching the movie. I was entertained but not really awestruck.
John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017)
After returning to the criminal underworld to repay a debt, John Wick discovers that a large bounty has been put on his life.
"Tell them.... Who ever comes..... I'll kill them all"....... "Of course you will" - I have to say after seeing "John Wick" in the cinema almost 3 years ago I had high expectations on the sequel. I have watched the first part about three more times now and it never became boring. My fear for this sequel was that they couldn't get a good start into the new story. With a few similarities that chapter 2 shared with first one this could have been a huge let down. But god damn... this movie started strong and oddly enough it started in a way that I didn't even think about. I wouldn't say that the scenes were predictable just because they were so different from all the other action movies I have seen. This movie remains serious, whilst brilliantly combining dry humor with extreme graphic and violent images. If you have watched this movie you will remember this one scene... this one scene that you just can not get out of your head sheer to it's immense (and freaking awesome) brutality. "John Wick Chapter 2" is like a "Kingsman: The Secret Service" that even though being funny, manages to stay serious throughout the entire 2 hours. It doesn't seem too long nor too short and strikes a good balance between action sequences and story telling. In comparison to the first one though Chapter 2 does not seem as realistic. John Wick was a killer I thought could actually exist in real life after watching the first movie. That was the reason I and I think many other loved that film so much. Chapter 2 does lose some of it's credibility due to a few action sequences. Remember, I am not talking about a Fast and Furious like action scene here. This is criticism on a whole new level. "John Wick: Chapter 2" went beyond my expectations and is in my opinion better than the first one. Go watch this movie in the cinema if you liked the part one. If you haven't seen the prequel I would recommend you to catch up just because it's so good. Though it is not actually necessary to follow and enjoy the story of Chapter 2. I hope this review was helpful to some of you who couldn't decide whether to watch this film in the cinema or wait for the Blu-Ray and DVD release.
Fist Fight (2017)
When one school teacher gets the other fired, he is challenged to an after-school fight.
Ice Cube vs. Charlie Day is nothing but awesome.
This is a mediocre comedy that is a remake of a 1987 movie called 'Three O'clock High'. The difference here is that the after school fight is between teachers instead of some students. Charlie is a teacher on the last day of high school that gets fellow teacher Ice in trouble by snitching on him-Ice ends up loosing his job. The school is cutting their budget and firing teachers left and right so every teacher is afraid that they are next. Ice then tells Charlie that he is going to whoop his behind after school-not the actual word Ice used, there is a lot of foul language in the film. Christina is another teacher that walks around trying her best to look menacing-she carries around a switchblade knife and wants to cut someone-but she is really just walking around looking sexy. Tracy is the football coach that has no clue as to what his students are doing. Since it's the last day of school, they are pulling pranks on teachers and Tracy's football players are mowing the football field into penis shapes and boobs. FYI: This is Tracy's first movie since his car accident. If you have seen the trailers for this movie then you have seen the best parts. There are funny parts but most of it is just mediocre, at best. There are some out takes and bloopers at the end, just as the end credits start and if you stick around till the end, there is another scene with Tracy. It's rated "R" for language, drug use and sexual content-including nudity-and has a running time of 1 hour & 31 minutes.
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