13 Assassins (2011)

Story, The evil Lord Naritsugu is set to ascend to the Shogun council where his only plans aim is set to bring insanity and war to its people. The opening scene brings a man committing Hara Kiri, this to me is all takes for the film to draw you into its grasp, why did this person commit such an act, an act of honour, or cowardliness?  The first hour of this film mainly focuses on character development as we need to find the 13 Assassins as well as develop an understanding to why these men would throw their lives up to go against Lord Naritsugu, with this hour we also learn the true fear and power of what Lord Naritsugu is capable off and the reason of why this man needs to be laid to rest so he will never ascend to the Shogun council.

The next forty fives minutes shows a truly remarkable fight scene of blood and honour and will leave many people who view this film breathless. This film also shows that you do not need a mass amount of CG to create such a masterpiece which is most likely my main enjoyment of this film. I am sure at certain points of this film I have not even noticed certain parts of this film had even used CG, it at times seemed that realistic. This film is not only about blood but the honour of the Samurai, one of the main commanders for Lord Naritsugu is fully aware that his Lord is set to commit such horrendous acts but by his code he shall follow him to his death, this shows true commitment of what the Samurai where like back in those days and that they where fully prepared to sacrifice themselves for others to live on.

Now the ending of this film is pure genius, with this ending we encounter success and failure, Lord Naritsugu shows his true colours at the end and we feel sadness but honour for the people who sacrificed themselves to defeat Lord Naritsugu. The acting is pure seriousness, some may say this could have been one downfall with this film but Takeshi Miike, the director of this film has my uttermost respect as I would say without seriousness, I would not imagine this film to do so well. The photography,camera lightning and direction of this film is purely brilliant with sets that show such pure detail in historical Japanese buildings as well as the effects off blood, gore and the layouts for the final fight scene which I would say shows true effort in the creation of this film

Out of the full cast I would say Koji Yakusho (Shinzaemon Shimada)  did the best performance in this film, been the leader of the thirteen assassins his acting ability to bring the true honour of the samurai to life shows good reason and helps hold other less well know actors together. The remaining twelve Samurai show their agility and skill which adds the more brutal side of the film which I'm sure most people would be looking forward to while viewing this historical action epic.

Overall a brutal,bloody and brilliant film all in one, a true set masterpiece that will leave feeling the need for more. Lets not commit Hara Kiri over such delight to express our honour for this film.
8.9/10

The Dark Knight (2008)

Story, the mob seems to be diminishing from Gotham been under threat by the power of a "White Knight" Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart)  but near its success comes a new threat, an unknown criminal called the Joker (Heath Ledger) who set with a game, a game to set Gotham into Chaos and has no fear off bringing insanity to the field.  We all know this film is great, simply by the structure of the story and this is all through the power of Christopher Nolan, I wonder if he himself will make some form of superhero status after the completion off the third film *crosses fingers* With his ability, the story of the Batman becomes even darker with his nemisis on the field, The Joker who would of know what chaos this film brings to the screen, but we all love it. the Joker knows the Batman, he knows what he is inside, what he fights for and will turn it against him at all cost just to play his game, a game with no ending. 

To me myself, what I love mainly about this film is the soundtrack, that's right with all of its greatness, from the acting of Heath Ledger or the acting Christian Bale its the soundtrack created by the infamous Hanz Zimmer. The soundtrack to The Dark Knight is riddled with suspense to where he creates its atmosphere and how we feel while watching this film. Its main song, titled "Why So Serious" the theme of the Joker brings nine minutes of terrifying music which will leave you at the edge of your seat through beginning to end. 

Now lets get to the acting and Heath Ledger of course who portrays the Joker, he brings the character to the joker so terrifyingly to life its almost to what it may have an effect on younger audiences or just people in general. Its rare occasion to that Heath Ledgers performers is probably one of the greatest I have ever seen, its all such a shame that such a talented actor is not with us today. Now Christian Bales Batman, he does a good job, I have no complaints but there isn't much new from him even though I do consider him to be one of my favourite actors of all time but it would have been more interesting to see some form of other emotion from at least the Bruce Wayne character.  The remaining actors, well there is quite an interesting remaining cast, the legendary Michael Cain, Morgan Freeman with there very meaningful one liners of dialogue witch help Batman to victory but to say the least, we love it. The critically acclaimed Gary Oldman, I would say stands alone from the rest of the actors which really shows his talent to the screen. Finally, Maggie Gyllenhaal does a great job of Rachel Dawes with big shoes to replace after the previous actor Katie Homes who Rachel Dawnes in Batman Begins.  

Now we all love a film with action but I'd say balances the film out perfectly, not to much action to make us brain-dead but satisfy's out needs of watchman batman succeed in his fights. Story and action in serenity is what this film utilizses perfectly which makes me appreciate the film very much more. I have already talked about actors and I thought you would think I was about to forget about Aaron Eckart who portrays Harvey Dent, now his acting is good, very "white knight" to how his character is portrayed but he also does a great job of his demise and the creation of Harvey's other side where the strive for justice soon takes its toll to something almost as similar to the Joker. 

Overall, simply an outstanding and unforgettable film, dark and disturbing it will inevitably satisfy us all. Its brings fear and worry to what will behold in the third film, will its success become greater or will it stumble down the rabbit hole, lets hope the Christopher Nolan does us well for Batman's future. 

"And... here... we... go!"

Fright Night (2011)

Story, welcome to a little world of Fright Night, where Charley Brewster (Anton Yelchin) starts to suspect his neighbour Jerry (Colin Farrell) is a vampire thanks to his old nerdy friend Ed (Christopher Mintz-Passe) who tries to convince Charley when one of their old friends and many other students at their school start to go missing. Charley at first does not believe Ed as he has mainly considered him the nerdy kid he used to hang out with when he was little, a life which he wishes he could forget so been predictable first leaves doubt to believe Ed as it might just be one of his nerdy games but the night where they check their old friends house with no one to be found which leaves an argument Charley and Ed, later the next morning he soon finds Ed to missing along the crowd as well.


Now one of the main reasons why i quite like this film is because the main character played by Anton really is not the good guy in the film, the film does not really go in to it much but you get an idea of what his life was like that he used hang around with his old nerdy but good friends but gave it all up as many do strive to be the cool kid and want to hang out with the cool kids in school/college and his character in this has actually succeeded, he got the good looking girl in college and got the friends he always wanted but of course as we all would think, at what cost? Now that I have gone through that this film in sense to me is quite believable in its odd way, as those events happen to people everyday in their everyday life’s which I think making it quite believable is great way for the audience to like the film before the action even kicks off.

Actors, well as many would say David Tennant and Colin Farrell where certainly the best performances in the film, Colin Farrell mainly showing a different side to his acting skills rather been a member of the police force or Alexander the great. David Tennant was simply David Tennant, his performance was great and he certainly is a brilliant actor but he simply played his Doctor Who character which is a positive and a negative at the same time as it would of been nice to see a different side to him for a change. Charley Brewster and the other main angst up teens do their job, to make it that almost teen horror film but thankfully the film did not consist of just gore and sex. Action, can almost come across of line where this film can be believable as many action films or sequences it happens usually in the most unbelievable circumstances but when Colin Farrell decides, well I best kill these people, it seems a very believable situation especially when he decides to attack Charley's mother rather than just the teens in the film as many horror tend to do like its their creed to the horror film industry. You get quite a bit of gore at certain points but it isn't to the but of insanity which ruins the film reputation and there is some classic vampire disintegration from sunlight which was certainly a good way to show of the effects and the technology used in the film making. 3D did have the odd good point in the film where the film did feel in the room with you but beside the point I think if there was anything unnecessary about the film would certainly be the 3D part of it.

The Vampire, throughout the many years, there has always been certain vampire look in the film industry, I think this one certainly pulled of a more classic look to what the vampire should really look like instead of throughout more recent films the vampire still remains more human in its appearance but in Fright Night, well I'll leave you decide what appearance it decides to have for a change.

Overall, a interesting believable horror film with a side order of gore which is fun and will certainly leave you wanting to see it for a second time

Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes (2011)

Story. Will Rodman (James Franco) a lead scientist of a company doing experiments on chimpanzee's to find a cure for Alzheimer's disease, after a test on a female chimpanzee which looking towards success seems to go terribly wrong, they discover a baby chimp which she was protecting and Will Rodman is given the task to either put down or look after the baby chimp, Will Rodman takes home the chimp which he names Caesar to look after and throughout the soon months and years he begins to notice that the genes from his mother has been distended down to him from the sheer intelligence of Caesar. Will Rodman decides to continue on with his research mainly due to Will's father Charles Rodman (John Lithgow) who has Alzheimer's but is he doing it for him or his company? With that question in place and years go by Will decides to inject Caesars genes into his father for when he wakes up the next day to the father he once knew and love. Back to Caesar, he has become even more intelligent since, Will has taught him sign language and is able to do very complex puzzles and games, Caesar has also become very close with Will's family and has practically become part of the family which he loves and cares about as much as any human would but as he gets older he also get curious to where has come from? where are his real family? And what is Caesars purpose? maybe Caesar is becoming to curious and this will lead Caesar/Will and their curiosity to a fate which they both would of never have thought.

My thoughts on this film are quite mixed but the main one I would go with so far is simply cool and mainly from Caesar , throughout most of the film it feels like its trying to purposely make you cry, you feel so much empathy and compassion for this character and for me it was not the ground breaking CGI of Caesar that made this film from the effects of Avatar, it was Andy Serkis performance, this truly shows a man who knows exactly what he is doing when it comes to cinema. Let downs I would say James Franco, giving his reputation lately due to 127 Hours and obviously the Spiderman series all to me that was special was his signature smile I've seem to have pick up on, he is a good actor but I was expecting much more from him in this film but perhaps a little bit too much. Frieda Pinto, David Oyelowo came across to been the other main character let downs, they did their job but their performances where very media core and sometimes it came across very unnecessary for them actually to be in the film which had me quite annoyed in some ways but thankfully I was brought back by Andy Serkis and the mythology of this film.

Action, there wasn't too much action or too much going on really in this film but neither was I complaining or unsatisfied because of this but they really did try to make the human species look stupid, especially with the scenes on the San Francisco bridge, I would at least had thought, hmm yes where going after a lot of apes, last time I checked apes like to climb a lot perhaps we should check below and up above the bridge but no lets even though these apes are obviously smarter after Caesar rides in on a horse.

The ending "Caesar Is home" was a great way to end the film but not the best, all the way through the film I had the feeling it was going to end in a way of King Kong did when James Franco spent most of the time chasing him across San Francisco, I had an idea Caesar would meet his demise upon almost reaching his freedom but where he did not succeed, the others made it so his sacrifice was not in vein and when this did not happen I was actually rather shocked, not disappointed just shocked, it seemed a perfect way to end the character Caesar seem so we spent half of the film learning Caesar and understanding the feelings of Caesar to why he had to do what he did.

I was rather happy to see John Lithgow in this, it brought back some Third Rock From The Sun moments and Dexter, it was also nice to see that he did quite a good performance and apart from some disappointment from James Franco it was still nice to see his career still going nice and strong.

Overall a very lovely and compassionate film, the human characters could have used some work but I guess this shows the apes are the smarter species.
8.4/10

The Happening (2008)

Story, unusual events start to occur in Central Park: New York, people are randomly killing themselves of after seizing up which has only seemed to have occurred in New York, speculation and news reports make it believe to be terrorists who have used an air-born chemical which effects the mind but soon after more attacks occur all around the north east coast of America to which are also situated in parks of major towns and cities, this will leave the remaining survivors to create speculation of their own which will lead to truth but perhaps to the insanity of the others themselves.

Characters Elliot Morre (Mark Wahlber) and Julian (John Leguizamo) bring the best out in the film, they do some very good performances of the average working joe to how people deal and the effects it cause if such a situation where to occur. Saying that these are probably the only ones I could say did a great performance, Zooey Deschanel who plays Elliot Morre girlfriends becomes very mediocre most of the time with this gormless face on her with no strong script to which really doesn't help hold this film together.

With all honesty I enjoyed half of the films story, it was really unusual and a new idea of how the world could end which did leave me quite gripped and willing to sit to want to know more, at first you know yourself that these attacks are not the work of terrorists but you do dwindle the thought and almost made to believe that it actually could be with the reinforced news broadcasts. I have to say as well that there was some quite uneasy moments put into the film, the memorable old lady Mrs Jones and the scene with the un-occupied swing grinding on top of the tree branch certainly left a little chill down my spine.

At about half way through the film people start to ponder the thought of nature itself to be the cause of the recent events , at first you may think this is some form of crazy unusual behaviour caused by the situation (with added odd camera angles) or perhaps by the problem itself but then you remember who the writer of this film is then at the precise moment when you realise what is going on you soon no that this story isn't going to portray out well, it slowly crumbles with only the chilling scenes as the memorable ones, the story is left floating in the wind.

The director, M. Night I'm not sure to why he makes such movies, the only one that really got to me would be the Avatar: The Last Airbender film, a film that could destroy the lovely reputation of its animated series but before I set of on that I think to me some of his ideas lately seem to becoming from childhood thoughts, dreams and games which we played when we were young, the feeling of what started to give that off would be The Lady In The Water film, it really tried to give some form of hope in that film that there was some childhood story's to which are really are real and hope to adults not to give up in hope in such things. The Happening in scenes where they are escaping the wind really reminded of a childhood game where I used to run away from the sun when I was little when it would start to shine through the clouds, an odd link for me to make between the two but that's just my analysis of M. Night.

Overall a film that starts of with great promise but like so many others it doesn't keep it.

Saw (2004)

"Rise and shine, Adam. You're probably wondering where you are. I'll tell you where you might be. You might be in the room that you die in. Up until now, you've simply sat in the shadows watching others live out their lives. But what do voyeurs see when they look into the mirror? Now I see you as a strange mix of someone angry, yet apathetic. But mostly just pathetic. So are you going to watch yourself die here today, Adam, or do something about it?"

Well first of I had to at least throw one of them into here, it wouldn't be a SAW review without a quote from the scrambled up voice of Tobin Bell, anyway onto the game that has begun. Most of us see Saw, haha seesaw as a film with quite a few undeveloped characters which it tries to overcompensate with its extreme gore and I have to say this partially is true but on other note out of the many gore films in my time I have seen this is far the most timid.

Story , Adam (Leigh Wannell) and Dr. Lawrence Gordon (Cary Elwes) wake up chained in a mysterious lavatory to where they eyes are first awoken to a corpse a gun and a lot of blood. It doesn't take long for trust and personalities to conflict, lies to arise and the truth fold into the world of Jigsaw. John/Jigsaw I know serial killer, who never really has killed anyone him but seems to find ways for them to kill themselves spends most of his time repeating the sentence "I'm sick of the disease rotting inside me" in this film, hinting and trying to show why he is doing these terrible things and is it justifiable.

This film really tries to enforce the point not take life for granted, we are all give the luxuries in life to succeed to the top of the food chain in this society, so we are told never take life for granted but in the end most of us in this world try and take one advantage or another, it's sad to say this point will never get across to some people so in a way can make the film with its whole story completely pointless.

Now In all honesty, out of all the horror series/ franchises out there, this is possibly my favourite mainly due to its never ending twist and turns throughout all the films, as well as its very brain drilling soundtrack. To the fact it went on towards eight films and pissed allot of peoples of soon dwelling towards an teenage horror flick towards the end which made me quite disappointed but I still love it. I think one of the key elements people miss in this film and its franchise as its following events happen straight after its last film or just before its predecessor to try and fill in the gaps, the questions we want answering or maybe to just string us along?

Anyway I'll leave you with that question and overall all I can say this film is a definite horror film to see, its many follow-ups perhaps not.
6.5/10

Kick-Ass (2010)

Characters and story, Dave Lizewski/Kick-Ass which is played by Aaron Johnson where by day he plays Dave, a dumb ass college student that during his time at college he likes to look at his teachers melons let say but he is looking for that one true love like all superhero's with their girl next door. By night he plays as Kick Ass who is still a dumb ass but he is looking for his way to fame as the true hero from all the comic book characters which we all know and love, funny enough he makes his claim to fame from the world of the internet, its amazing what you can do these days. Mindy Macready/Hit Girl which is played by Chloe Moretz, probably one the most influential characters to people to know and love in this film, a girl who has never had a proper childhood, a girl who would probably rather have a hand grenade for Christmas than a tangerine in her Christmas stocking. Damon Macready/Big Daddy played by Nicholas Cage, the guy who constantly is getting mistaken to Batman, a man looking for revenge for false chargers and the loss of his wife. Chris D'Amico/Red Mist who is played by Christopher Mintz Plasse who is simply another dumb ass college student who wants to follow in his fathers business which sadly Frank D'Amico (Mark Strong) is the gang lord in this town which seems his business is been run down by mask crusaders one block at a time. For all these characters in this film, they fit perfectly with the story and even the side characters fit very well into this plot which does not happen every day in films.

Acting when it comes to the serious points of the film is quite emotionally effective and you do at times feel quite sorry for the characters and understand why they are suffering.
There is a lot of comedy in this film which even though sometimes not necessary it works quite well with the story but even so every actor in this film seems to become quite a good comedian with each and every moment looking to add a sly pun which can get quite annoying sometimes. The action scenes in this film is probably some of the best I have ever scene since the Matrix, well perhaps not The Matrix but it is certainly above par, it is well done and balanced, gory but effective to realistic and to me is one of my favourite things about this film as it redefines comic book films all together which are usually mild, not to much violence and swearing to this which is completely opposite leaving it much darker than other super hero films.

This film does show one good truth of society that most people watch bad things happen to people each day on the street and do nothing about it, or even record it which seem to happen alot within the film. Overall a great film which has become one of my personal favourites in its genre, it may not have the qualities of artistic and a film that 

makes you really think about its plot and story but its there for its purpose and is done brilliantly well. 

"Fuck this shit, I'm getting the bazooka"