Throwback : The Other Guys

Comedy is always subjective to the individual watching, so you can never really have a movie that is almost universally hilarious to everyone. For me though, The Other Guys, featuring Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg has to be one of the wittiest comedies around!

Right off the bat, the film starts off at 100%, with the high octane pursuits & action of Officers Highland & Danson, the wonderfully arrogant duo played by Samuel L Jack & Dwayne Johnson. They are the pride & joy of the department, solving crimes, winning accolades, getting all the money & women! But after their confidence gets the best of them (“Aim for the bushes”), the force is left with vast gap in their task-force. The perfect chance for some other guys to fill in that Alpha position. The other guys in this case, being disgraced cop Hoitz (Mark Wahlberg), who craves to get back into the big time after being demoted following a mishap, and his desk happy accountant partner, Gamble (Will Ferrell).

What make the film so amusing is the interactions between our two heroes. Most successful buddy cop movies require the partners to clash, be polar opposites, and it’s done perfectly here. Mark Wahlberg absolutely nails it as the constantly angry and frustrated cop, who would rather be out in the field, than stuck behind a computer. Gamble on the other hand, is more than happy to do paperwork and excel sheets, and as you can imagine, this does not go well his agitated colleague!

Some of the exchanges they have are comic genius! The ‘Lion v Tuna’ (“If I was a Lion, and you were a tuna, I would go outside my food chain to eat you!”) argument that they have will you in stitches, and of course, it ends with hot coffee being thrown, as Gamble systematically dismantles a frankly ridiculous argument of how a tuna would beat a lion in a fight! The general disdain Hoitz has for Gamble is plain to see, such as when he nonchalantly throws a gift out the car window, or his random insults like “The sound off your piss hitting the urinal……it sounds feminine!”

The supporting cast are also on form! Eva Mendes plays the role of Gamble’s surprisingly attractive wife, to the hilarious dismay of the jealous Hoitz. Not only is Gamble oblivious to the fact someone as uninteresting & dull as himself, has ended up with a stunning wife, but he also talks down to her constantly, making Marky Mark even more annoyed at the situation!

Micheal Keaton shines as the dreary precinct captain, having to hold down 2 jobs to make ends meet, his character is constantly dropping in TLC lyrics mid convo, to the amusement of the audience. The silent fight during the funeral is another gem of a scene, where out duo end up in a fist fight with a rival pair of cops, also aiming to take over as the other guys! The scene is just so stupid, but seems to work so well!! The cops even pause mid fight, as some grieving mourners walk past!

Steve Coogan features as the cowardly millionaire, who is clearly up to no good. The scene where he is consistently distracting our heroes with bribes is great, and eventually, no amount of free mineral water with cucumber can put our cops off the trial!!

The film simply has several moments that will stick to anyone who enjoys this movie. There’s the whole ‘GATOR!!!’ revelation, Gamble’s crazy hot Ex, the Toyota Pruis constantly getting roasted, the ‘desk-pop’ among other things!

The plot isn’t the most memorable or unique, cops who no one trusts or respects end up uncovering a hidden scam, end up the heroes. But it’s the presence of our two protagonists that make this such rollicking fun!

May 11, 2017 0

Sleepless Will Make You Zzzz

There’s been lull at the cinemas recently, with the behemoth that is Guardians dominating the box office, the releases around this time of year have been pretty low profile. One movie that has ducked under the radar is Sleepless, which is in fact a remake of the well acclaimed French movie Sleepless Night.

Sleepless sees our hero, Vincent Down (Jamie Foxx), working for the Las Vegas PD, working undercover to expose a drug cartel. After an operation goes wrong with his partner (T.I), Vincent ends up upsetting the wrong people, who in retaliation kidnap his son. The deal is simple, return their drugs, we return your son. But with Internal Affairs officer Bryant (Michelle Monaghan) on his case, not everything goes to plan!

Sleepless has not received the best of receptions critically, 22% & 33% are its scores on Rotten Tomatoes & Metacritic respectively. So expectations were not high going into this! It is fair to say though, while the movie may not be utterly dreadful, it is ridiculously dull. Considering the movie has corrupt cops, drug dealers, casinos and gangsters, it’s disappointing to see how tepid it ends up.

Foxx is by far the brightest light in the film, his role may be that of a generic undercover cop (his been undercover for 2 years you know!! He never stops mentioning it!) Who has to shun his family for the greater good, but he puts in a dedicated effort to bring some vigour to the movie. The film tries to put him at a disadvantage early on, with a stab wound, which was a great way to immobilize our protagonist. But it’s so inconsistent; the wound never acts up when his in a confrontation, but always magically flares up when he is being pursued. Fighting viciously in the kitchen? That’s fine, running down the stairs, wound says no!

The film also does a slick job with the filming, the Las Vegas sky line offers the film several moments to capture the scenery, and it’s something Collateral did very well in, a film that Foxx also starred in! Director Baron bo Odar deserves credit in that regards, creating a visually vivid production.

But that’s pretty much all there is regarding the positives, the rest of the cast and plot is dire. Bryant, who is supposed to be the foil to Down, spends most of the movie annoyed or standing around clueless in the Casino foyer! Monaghan just spends the movie dreary eyed looking lost half the time! It’s hard to take her character seriously when she can’t even suspect her colleague, who is pretty much the ‘most obvious corrupt cop ever ® ’, for being involved. Working in I.A should give her some knack of noticing suspicious behaviour! Also, she just isn’t a very good officer, even one of the staff in the casino call her out on it. Rather that giving a description of who she is looking for, she just barges in yelling! Great police work there!

The action to say the least feels like a low budget version of John Wick or as mentioned before, The Equalizer. They even have a club scene, which Collateral & John Wick executed in a far stylish way. The son, whose hand gets crippled, runs around the place like it’s all fine. A young kid who had his hand pretty much mangled should be in severe agony, but I suppose he does hold it every now and again, to show it’s injured!

The finale gets pretty nonsensical, after the mother, who is a nurse, just happens to join in with the gun toting shoot-out, which seemed so horribly out of place and rather comedic.

Scoot McNairy, as Novak, is adequate as the crazed son of a drug lord, who will torture even his own family if the situation arose, but our formulaic drug dealing casino boss Stanley Rubino, is so clichéd, you don’t care at all about what happens to him. Neither villains really stand out, and not once, feel like a real threat to our hero. The plot of the movie is so straight forwards. Summed up in ‘Where are my drugs?!’, literally that is all that happens here.

Sleepless could have worked, if the villains were fleshed out more, and the cast was given more to work with. You’re only really bothered about Jamie Foxx, and his journey throughout the film, every time it cuts away to another character, the film drastically drops any momentum it has. It’s in no ways the worst film to come out this year, but it feels like a movie that could have been released straight to DVD or Netflix!

May 10, 2017 0

Guardians Vol. 2, Good, Not Great

Back in 2014, when Guardians of the Galaxy dropped into cinemas, there was little expectation and much skepticism. Compared to established heroes like Ironman, Thor and Captain America, GOTG was a very niche franchise. With a small fan base, and Chris Pratt, who up until then, was mostly known for his comedic shenanigans in the sit-com Parks & Recs, taking the lead role in a Hollywood blockbuster. The film was a huge risk, were Marvel getting too arrogant? Well they proved the doubters wrong, GOTG proved to be a resounding success, the film brought a new level of humour and fun not seen in previous MCU entries, and it stands 5^th in the list of box office takings for all Marvel releases. Can the sequel, titled GOTG :Volume 2 match the magic and charm that the original encapsulated so well?

GuardiansVol25897cc290546d.0 — Avengers……Assemble!

Volume 2, takes place soon after our heroes first adventure, as we re-join the antics of Peter Quill AKA Starlord (Chris Pratt), the feisty Gamara (Zoe Saldana), the wise cracking Rocket (Bradley Cooper), deadpan Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista) and the adorable Baby Groot (Vin Diesel)! With their new found fame, the team are offered more high profile missions & with increasing rewards, but after being caught attempting to hustle one of their clients, the team end up on the run, only to be saved by a mysterious man, named Ego (Kurt Russell) who claims to be the long lost father of Quill, and help him fulfill his true potential.

Where the first movie excelled in was the chemistry between the members of our ragtag team, and it’s great to say that the same level of cohesion remains with our squad. If anything, the jokes and quips are even better than the first, and the film definitely has more laughs (Trash Panda!) than the first movie! The bickering between Quill & Rocket is constantly dropping zingers, and the writers have used the traits of Drax in order to write in several well placed jokes!

The introduction of Baby Groot was a wonderful addiction, not only is he an adorable member of the group, Baby Groot also has several moments where he is involved in key parts of the story, he’s not only there for selling merchandise!

In my opinion, the most enjoyable aspect of Volume 2 is the development of the bonds between certain characters; there are several relationships that are strengthened over the course of their adventure. You have the central arc of Peter reacquainting himself with his father, Ego. But there are several characters who get a lot more depth to their persona. The aggressive vendetta that Nebula (Karen Gilan) has with her sister, Gamora is given some more time, and Nebula comes across somewhat sympathetic, with the audience having a reason to see why she is so spiteful.

a18s1282441493542604 — Yondu shines bright in Volume 2

Yondu (Micheal Rooker), also returns, but now is a disgraced member of the Ravagers, after he is exiled. He and Rocket share plenty of screen time together, and create a great camaraderie with each other, in turn, they learn that they may not be so different after all. Yondu has the most development here, and his progression as a character is really padded out, he is probably the stand out character in the flick!

Unfortunately, the movie, when compared to Volume 1, is not anywhere near as great. The story-line regarding Peter & Ego does seem to go on for a bit too long. It is pretty predictable where it will all end up, as the signs are seen pretty early on. Although the story line does wrap up Peter’s origin. It still feels pretty underwhelming to say the least. The majority of the movie takes place on Ego’s planet, where a bit of space travel would have been more interesting to see.

The secondary villain, Ayesha (Elizabeth Debicki) the snobby leader of the people of Sovereign, a race of beings with a huge superiority complex. First appears to be a real threat. But she disappears for most of the movie, only to show up again near the finale. It’s a shame we didn’t see more of her and her people, as their disdainful nature was good fun to watch!

null — Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2..Drax (Dave Bautista)..Ph: Film Frame..©Marvel Studios 2017

Drax is also left on the sidelines , his sheer strength is never fully utilised. He is probably the best when it comes to the one liners, but regarding the action, he rarely has any scenes, apart from the opening credits. Drax is a mountain of muscle, but he spends most of the movie in conversation with Ego’s assistant, Mantis.

Volume 2 may not be as strong as Volume 1, and it does have a few flaws to contend with. But it’s another solid entry into the ever-expanding MCU. The film does go a lot more into our characters and their pasts, which give the movie an emotional attachment. It’s also just as hilarious as the original, which fans will savior! Oh, and make sure to hang back for FOUR post credit scenes! Their spoiling us now…..

May 2, 2017 0

Retro Rewind : Commando (1985)

There are always gems hidden away on Netflix, and browsing through it the other day, I came across one of my favourite movies from way back in the days! Commando was the very definition of prime Schwarzenegger!! The one man army, the puns, the cheesy dialogue, Commando had it all! At only 90 minutes, it’s a fun way to pass some time!

commando121 — This is how the film starts!

The plot is so very simple. Retired special ops agent John Matrix (Arnold) is living the quite life out in the forests, with his daughter Jenny (A young Alyssa Milano!). The intro to the movie is a serene, joyful sequence, showing the loving father & daughter living the good life, spending quality family time together, having ice cream etc. Maybe this was done intentionally, as the rest of the film is anything but like this! It does raise a chuckle knowing what lies ahead! It’s not long until their cosy life is interrupted by a figure from Matrix’s’ past. It appears that all of his members from his old team are being murdered, and he is the last one left. Even with the warning, this doesn’t stop the villain, a ridiculously over the top, pantomime bad guy, Bennett from kidnapping Jenny, and blackmailing our hero to carry out an assassination mission for them. Matrix manages to escape the plane he is forced to board for his mission, and it’s a race against time to find his daughter before the plane arrives on the other side!

maxresdefault (1) — Not the smartest of moves…….

So as mentioned earlier, this film is as ‘Arnold’ as you can get! This came out around the time he hit his box office prime, with successes such as The Running Man, Predator, Total Recall and of course, The Terminator. Commando is known for 2 things among its cult fan base. The one man army troupe and the one liner. So many one-liners!!

patrick-kelly — *You’re a funny guy Sully……….*

The film is crammed full with memorable lines that fans still quote today! Where do you start? There’s the “Please don’t disturb my friend, he is dead tired’’ after nonchalantly snapping the neck of his guard on the plane. We can’t forget the infamous combo of “You’re a funny guy Sully, I like you, that’s why I’ll kill you last’’, followed later on with “Remember when I said I would kill you last? I lied” the deadpan delivery, with the fact he makes such remarks after killing someone is just comedic! And we cannot forget the final one-liner in the movie, after he inevitably wins at the end……..’’Let off some steam Bennett’, after casually impaling him with a pole in the boiler room! It’s all done tongue in cheek, so the lines never really ruin the movie, only adding to the spectacle!

Don’t be expecting any intricate story lines or stellar acting performances here! Cindy, our female accomplice for Matrix, is far too casual and mellow about being dragged into something as dangerous as this, and goes from ‘help, I’ve been kidnapped’ to ‘OK, I’ll help you take down a militia” rather too easily! Sully, the creepy & annoying henchmen is brilliantly irritating, and when you see his eventual demise, it’s great! As said, the acting is pretty much what you expect for an Arnold movie! In one scene, he crashes the car he is driving in pursuit of Sully into a tree. Literally right after the crash, he immediately checks on Cindy. There is literally no reaction from him to the crash at all! It’s so bad, it’s good! You would at least expect a brief moment of shock, but nope! Nothing here!

The final 3^rd of the movie is pretty much The Expendables, with one guy, though that guy is 1980s Schwarzenegger, so, more than enough firepower! In all reality, he wouldn’t even get past the first guards he encounters, but here, in Commando, he is taking an entire army, on his own, without a sweat! With any other actor, even back then, would seem improbable, but with Schwarzenegger, it feels perfect! This was his gimmick, a gimmick only he (and probably Stallone) could pull off flawlessly. There’s a video on Youtube that tallies up his kill count, and it’s defiantly worth a check! (102 kills, according to this!)

Nowadays, a film like this, would rarely succeed, though movies such as John Wick could compare well to this, one man, on a mission, kills EVERYONE! If you love a mindless action movie, with the star power of Arnold is his absolute peak then watch this! If you already have, watch it again! 😀 This is always one of those movies I could always go back to watching! I’ll be back, Bennett……………….

April 27, 2017 0

Podcast – Episode 14!

Here’s the podcast for the latest episode, you can listen to it on the player below. We hope to have this all up on iTunes soon as well! On the agenda this show, Fast 8 storms to the top, the controversial Ghost in the Shell, and another Disney behemoth, Beauty & The Beast.

April 25, 2017 0

Episode 14 is out!

It’s a box office bonanza this episode! We look at two of the biggest grossing films of the year so far, Disney’s Beauty & The Beast has already broken the magical $1 billion mark, and Fast 8 is well on course to follow it. We also cross examine one of the most controversial movies of the year, Ghost In The Shell.

April 23, 2017 0

The Art of the Brick : DC Super Heroes

The posters have been up around London for a while now, regarding the The Art of the Brick : DC Super Heroes, an exhibition at Southbank in its own pop up DC themed tent! The exhibition showcases the work of Nathan Sawaya, a Lego artist, who does works wonders with the little bricks! As a fan of Comics and Movies, this was definitely worth checking out, and I finally got round to popping by yesterday!

The creations are simply gorgeous, most works contain around 20-30k bricks, with the monstrous Bat-mobile replica taking almost a whopping half a million bricks to assemble!!

All your favorite DC heroes have their time to shine, and you can easily spend an hour or so exploring and taking pictures. An adult ticket at the door was £16, which is reasonable enough, considering the works of wonder you get to see! See below for some lovely pictures taken from the exhibition, which runs till September, so there’s still plenty of time to visit, but make sure you don’t forget! 😀

Justice League Unite!

Let’s forget all about his movie…..

500k bricks!

Not a pose….

The Iconic first issue…in Lego form!

FLASH!

April 15, 2017 0

Fast 8 : Copy & Paste

‘Original Films’ pops up on screen during the opening credits, which raises a chuckle, considering the irony of producing a series which is pretty much the same every movie! We’ve now arrived at the 8^th chapter of the highly successful ‘Fast’ universe, a film that is guaranteed to be a success from a box office perspective regardless of reviews, but how does it compare to the previous 3 movies in the rebooted series?

As the trailers have already revealed, the whole angle of this film is that ‘family man’ Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) has betrayed his team, and now working for a shady criminal syndicate. It’s down to his former team to pursue our rogue hero and bring him in, their greatest challenge yet.

Due to the loss of Paul Walker, and the plotline removing Dom from the team, the film has to add a few more faces to our crew in order to hunt down their former team leader. This leads to Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) & Shaw (Jason Statham) who aren’t on the best of terms to say the least after Fast 7, having to team up and help hunt down Dom. These two are by far the best parts of the film, when their not trying to beat each other to a pulp, their exchanging constant verbal putdowns! The chemistry between the two is excellent, and hopefully we can see more of the two as more central figures in the future! Statham is clearly having a blast here, and the producers must have seen his hilarious performance in Spy, and let him loose with his comedic talents! Though the story really doesn’t go into the previous history between Shaw and our crew, he has killed one of their friends, and tried to kill another with a bomb, thought the team show initial resistance on working with the guy, their pretty much OK with it a few scenes later!

The rest of the team seem like their suffering from series fatigue, and the lack of Brian (Paul Walker) definitely hurts the teams’ dynamics. The addition of a new character is a clear attempt at trying to replace him, but it’s a generic character with no real likable qualities. Members such as Tej (Chris ‘Ludacris’ Bridges) & Roman (Tyrese Gibson) are charming as always, and their interactions always raise have the audience laughing, but it feels like the same thing from past movies, with Roman constantly dropping one-liners and really adding nothing at all to the plot anymore, and it’s a real surprise he hasn’t died from all his misdemeanours that he causes.. Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel) who is supposed to be one of the top hackers in the world, barely features, and spends most of the movie looking clueless; an odd decision considering the main villain of the movie is a hacker! You would think she would take centre stage in a situation like this, not play second fiddle to tech guy Tej! Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) really offers nothing here, apart from being able to take a level of physical punishment that she really shouldn’t be able too! Her story arc had finished a while ago, and really should be dropped when Fast 9 comes around.

Then again, the core of this movie isn’t the characters, but the action! This is where it delivers the outrageous stunts that’s the series is well known for! The climax of the movie is a totally stupid showdown vs a nuclear submarine, on ice! Pretty much Die Another Day on a much more insane level! Only the Fast franchise could make something like that look believable! The set piece in Manhattan is also wonderfully done, and while it’s visually amazing to see hoards of cars being used as a stampede, it also taps into the fear of what can be hacked nowadays. You also have the sheer over the top street race in which Dom, in a car on fire, beating the fastest car in Cuba, but hey, we don’t expect anything less!

The Prison break scene is thoroughly enjoyable, once again, with Hobbs & Shaw stealing the spotlight. As intense as the action is, is feels abit formulaic, and nowhere near as unique as scenes in Fast 7, such as the cars flying through skyscrapers in Dubai! The movie does all the things it does well in, comedy, action, a slick presentation and comic book characters, but really does not offer anything new at all.

Toretto is also ridiculously overpowered here, sure he has the main character shield, but he manages to escape every scenario and win every battle, he isn’t a soldier or a spy, his just a normal guy. This isn’t Vin Diesel playing Xander Cage, but Dom, a retired aging criminal. The film also doesn’t explain why these guys are the best to take down Dom, any half decent special ops team could do a better job, but we get to see an orange Lamborghini!

The editing of the movie is odd to say the least, there is one scene, where the crew are planning their mission, and appear to turn towards the camera in response to a door opening, and it then cuts to Cipher walking on her plane. For a moment you think Cipher has walked in on the team, before realising it was cutting to a totally different scene! It’s just something that stuck out to me!

Unlike prior movies, Fast 8 does get very dark, especially with the scenes between Dom, and our cyber hacker antagonist, Cipher (Charlize Theron). These scenes seem very out of place though, in a movie which is pretty much ‘popcorn action’. Without going too much into spoilers, Cipher does well in showing why Dom turns, but at the same time, feels like a totally different movie. Theron is great as the ice cold, calculating villain, and is a stellar addition to the ever growing list of characters to the lore! The film also has a few cameos from faces from past movies, which is a wonderful fan service, and Helen Mirren is a riot as the mother of Shaw in the few scenes she appears in!

If you’re a fan of the franchise, this movie is another welcome addition to the juggernaut that this series has become. But it does feel like that there has to be some changes in the formula, especially with the main crew, if the films want to avoid getting stale. They would do well to move the spotlight off Vin Diesel and his inner conflicts, and more towards Hobbs & Shaw!

April 13, 2017 0

A Silent Voice Is A Silent Hit

Following the resounding success of Your Name, British viewers have been treated with again with another cinematic release of a Japanese animation. The film has got a limited run and a select few cinemas, so may be under the radar to some folk. A Silent Voice is the story of a boy, who as a kid, bullied a fellow student, who now looks to make amends for his actions.

Based on the manga of the same name, the plot focuses on Shoya Ishida, a young boy in elementary school, who along with his friends doesn’t take too kindly to the new transfer student, Shoko Nishimiya. Shoko happens to be deaf, which makes her a target of practical jokes and bullying from Shoya and several others. It all gets too much for Shoko, and her parents take her out the school, leaving Shoya to feel the brunt of his schoolmates as they ostracize him from their group and the entire school.

Fast forward a couple of years and Shoya is on the on edge with suicidal tendencies, and it’s not until a chance meeting with Shoko, that he realises that they are both alone due to their circumstances, and he needs to atone for his part in what happened in the past.

On the face of things, this is another high school teen love story, but there are several other aspects that the movie manages to deal with, such as depression, bullying, disabilities, social anxiety and suicide. The film deals with these very well, especially with the addition of crosses across the faces of everyone Shoya does not feel comfortable talking it. As he gets more confident, and more mature, the crosses gradually drop off, a fine way to display such an issue.

It’s the relationship between our two that keeps the movie together, as both our protagonist struggle to explain their feelings for one another, and the lengths that Shoya goes to, in order to apologise for what he had done, felt right. Though Shoko has to live with a disability, her progress to accepting her hearing aids rather than hiding them is something that is captured well, as is her struggle to get across her true feelings which are hampered by her speech impediment and their obvious difficulties in communicating.

The supporting cast are a mixed bag, Nagatsuka, the first real friend Shoya makes in a long time is great comic relief, and is someone the audience can really warm towards. Whereas the others, don’t really have much to add. Yuzuru, Shoko’s overprotective little sister is good fun, and has her own personal trials, but the rest, of the clan, are pretty one dimensional. A run time of 2 hours is massively bloated, and the pacing is rather slow at times. Which does make the film feel like it is dragging along to a conclusion most can pretty much assume.

As always, with these high budget animations, the film is simply wonderful to watch, any scene involving trees, water and cherry blossoms are done so well, and credit must be given to the animation team for putting out such wonderful work.

For some people, the film may feel it’s going on for a while. But the various aspects of life that the movie deals with combined with a compelling relationship. Makes A Silent Voice an impressive feat. The film may be difficult to find at a local cinema, but if you can, it’s most certainly worth a viewing!

April 5, 2017 5

Episode 13 + Podcast!

Another weekend, another show!

This episode we take a look back at the space horror Life, the 90s throwback Power Rangers and the surprise hit of 2017, Get Out!

It’s also available on podcast, see below for the stream 🙂

April 3, 2017 0

Review : Ghost In The Shell

The sour taste of Dragonball Evolution still lingers in the mouth of Anime fans, a frankly, horrible live action adaptation of the much loved show. Ghost in the Shell is the latest Hollywood attempt to bring anime to the big screen.

Based off the 1995 cyberpunk masterpiece, GITS is the story of Major (Scarlett Johansson), one of the first successful attempts at fusing the human brain with an entirely artificial body. Major works for Section 9, a public security firm, who work for the government. Our team is drawn into an investigation is which a hacker is targeting & murdering several member of Hanka Robotics. It’s a case that unveils the Major’s past and follows her internal struggles in identifying who she is.

The film was never going to match the ’95 original in terms of complex themes and storyline, and it would have been foolish to try and even attempt that. In this version, things are tweaked here and there. We have a new villain, Kuze, our hacker, though he follows a similar arc to The Puppet Master from the original, his motivations are different. Hanka Robotics, the company Kuze is targeting, are responsible for the creation of Major, also do not feature in the first film.

The movie is gorgeous to look at; the movie does a stellar job in capturing the neo-Tokyo (even though it’s never stated to be Tokyo!) feels. Every scene where we follow our heroes through the city is filled with vivid colour of neon lights, and the hustle of activity all over the streets. It’s also shot in a very stylish way, especially the opening scene with the geisha robots, overall, visually; it’s a very polished film.

But the looks can only get a movie so far, where the film stumbles is in the sheer simplicity of the movie, whereas the original left it to the audience to fill in the details, with subtle hints, here, the movie is very much dumbed-down to a straightforward narrative. It’s made clear from the opening few scenes the movie will be easy to follow, “your mind, or ghost, in now in a new body, a shell” explains Dr Ouelet (Juliette Binoche) to our hero. Just in case no one could figure out what the title meant, it’s all explained in the first scene! No need for the audience to put things together! The key scene regarding the Majors past is pretty obvious where it was all going, but the movie kept trying to remind us about the twist, as if the audience wouldn’t be able to figure it out.

The movie has two antagonists, Kuze as mentioned already, and another, who simply turns out to be the typical ‘evil boss of a corporation’ villain. The film was never going to go into the intricate monologue at the end of the original, but it’s a shame that they replaced it with a carbon copy villain instead.

What fans can be pleased about, are the big screen representation of all the cast. As controversial as it was, Scarlett Johansson does perfectly fine in both looking like the Major, and being able to perform the various action set pieces. Batou, the wisecracking, burly partner of the Major played by Pilou Asbæk, is also another credible interpretation. His story may have gone abit off track, but physically he looks the part. One of the main criticisms of failures like Dragonball was the fact the actors looked very little like the characters they were playing. You have to give GITS some credit for sticking honourably to their source material. ‘Beat’ Takeshi Kitano also brings his unique charisma as Section 9 leader, Aramaki. It’s a shame Togusa, one of the other prominent characters from the series doesn’t get as much screen time, as his presence is quite an important factor to the identity crisis Major has, hopefully we may see more of him in the future.

The movie drops enough fan service to keep the hard core fans onside. You have to original shelling sequence at the start (it was a pity that the original haunting score from Kenji Kawai wasn’t used here, but it does feature at the end!), the Major building jumps with camouflage, the chase scene through the city backstreets, and the infamous spider tank scene. Its things like these that long term fans will appreciate.

Regarding the controversy to cast Scarlett Johansson as the Major, amongst the entire whitewashing furore. The decision was made purely down to financial reasons; the studio most likely wanted a huge name attached to the project, especially as its being marketed to the West. The Major here is never addressed as Motoko, her name in the anime/manga, and the movie at least gives an explanation to why she is Caucasian. There are talented Japanese actresses over in Hollywood, such as Rinko Kikuchi, but lack the star power of Johansson. Even people back in Japan were none to fussed, the film is being promoted over here, and the actress does bare resemblance to the role she’s playing.

Overall, the movie is pretty forgettable, although the film does have some very complex themes; it never delves deep enough to make it engaging. The plot develops into a run of the mill evil corporate CEO cliché, a trap it could have avoided, if it chose to stay with the original villain throughout. If you’re a fan, you will enjoy the fan service, and the simple fact they didn’t butcher the movie, as previous films have suffered. If you follow GITS, you’ll be more likely to remember it than someone who isn’t a fan.

If you truly want to see GITS as it should, I would highly recommend you watch the 1995 classic, but the 2017 cut does at least make a respectable effort, and introduces these characters over to a new audience.

April 3, 2017 0

Introducing, our Podcast!

As we have grown, we’ve been looking for more ways to reach new crowds, we’ve expanded across all sorts of social media, and now, we’ve decided to also record the audio off our shows onto a podcast. So you can listen to it whenever you want! We will soon have it on iTunes as well, but until then, listen to it via the Soundcloud link below!

We’ll make every future episode a podcast too 🙂

March 30, 2017 0