(film review) - Edge of Tomorrow

First and foremost, before I get into anything. Whether or not you like Tom Cruise, if you put him aside or don't even factor him in as the star, then you should love this film. I say this because I know some people who don't like him too much and I think he is cool. Maybe I am somewhat a fan and possibly, slightly bias but his films haven't all been poor to me.
I've said before that, whenever he does a film, I do not see him as the character, only Tom Cruise in a different role, but with that said, even if it is just another Tom Cruise movie, this one is good.
I'd also like to say that the marketing for this film is very poor. It is very confusing and as it seems like it is a futuristic film like Oblivion, some people actually thought this film was a sequel to that movie. No, it isn't, but I totally understand why you would think that. And I will tell you this for free. Although I liked Oblivion, it had a cool concept and the landscapes and scenery and special effects were all great, THIS film knocks that film out of the park. Let's get involved.

Major William Cage (Tom Cruise) is a member of the NATO-led United Defence Force who is summoned to London to have a meeting with General Bringham (Brendan Gleeson). When the General orders cage to cover combat for the war, things take a unexpected wrong turn in the meeting for Cage who is subsequently knocked out and wakes up at an Army Base. Not knowing where he is, disorientated and completely unaware of what is happening, Cage is enlisted by Master Sergeant Farrell (Bill Paxton) to join a bunch of reject soldiers called 'J Squad'. As the squad is used in the first wave of the attack on the beach the following day, Cage witnesses everyone dying and when he dies, he wakes up the day before the beach assault back where he started with Master Sergeant Farrell. When this happens a few times, Cage eventually saves Sergeant Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt) a highly decorated war hero who he explains his situation to. From this point, Cage and Vrataski embark on a quest to win the war which will involve a lot of dying and dying and dying and dying and dying.

We need to give credit where credit is due. The story is excellent. The premise is really cool but risky. However, Doug Liman did a very very very good job in directing this film adaption of a book of a slightly cooler name "All You Need Is Kill" and was able to pull this off without the film coming across long-winded, Repetitive and boring. Considering the main character has to Live, Die & Repeat, not once did I feel like I was watching something again I had already seen and the scene felt over used. I didn't feel like any scenes were unnecessary, tiresome or tedious. The editing was done in such a way, every scene, no matter how often you saw it, felt fresh.

Tom Cruise is a great actor. Sometimes it is the films he is in that don't do him any favours. Yes they are enjoyable, but some fall short in areas. This film on the other hand, the direction, the pace and the dialogue fit soo well. The acting was great and I could sympathise with Cruise's character's struggle as the film went on. The chemistry between him and Blunt was greatly handled. I always find Tom always "in bed" with the other female star. Always has to get the girl or save the girl. Although this is slightly the case in this film, you can only imagine, having to relive the same moment over and over again with a fit female, you would start to develop feelings. With that said, for me, this brought on a lot of the comedy elements to the film where, the trial and error moments, I found hilarious in places.

Another excellent film to add to my 2014's top 10 films of the year.

I suggest you watch it. There is absolutely no reason to feel disappointed.

(film review) - 22 Jump Street

So, I remember when my boys first told me about 21 Jump Street. They both went to the cinema to watch it and said to me, well if I can remember the exact verbatim, "Bruv, you really need to see that film, it is soooooo much jokes, too funny" and I instantly thought of the trailer and was like, "ehh" and literally replied, "It just didn't look that funny or that appealing". After they reassured me, some months later I watched the movie and boy was they right. Although I'm not sure if I find it funnier than the Other Guys or maybe the comedy was more consistently laced throughout the movie, where the Other Guys to me, has sections of hilarious comedy, I still felt that 21 Jump Street was hilarious and I would indeed need to watch the sequel when it comes out.

And right off the bat, the sequel to 21 Jump Street, 22 Jump Street is totally BEYOND HILARIOUS!!!

As the film starts, it gives you a brief outline of what the first film was about with both Morton Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Greg Jenko (Channing Tatum), then it literally pics up where the last one left off. I was not given the impression that a lot of time has passed since the last film. As I really can't be bothered to type a lot about this film and tell you bits and pieces because, 1, it is a comedy and I can potentially spoil the gags/sketches and 2, I don't want to give away the story for spoilers sake, I Just want you to know that, they have upgraded to 22 Jump Street, they have another assignment and the comedic levels have sky rocketed to more silliness, more insane stuff and just much more laughs guaranteed.

Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill are brilliant together. The chemistry is excellent and the comedic timing could not have been any better, this time around. The way they capture their characters are spot on. Especially as this is a sequel, nothing was left out in the gap from 21 to 22. Ice Cube as Captain Dickson was the same as before, but excellent and a slightly bigger role. If you are quick enough as me as I was possibly the ONLY person in the cinema who caught the Ice Cube reference in the film, this film is very cleverly written. From old school culture to pop culture and out of the box/4th wall references, this film is just intelligent. Very self aware of what it is and that is a well written comedy. The pacing was great and although some gags fell a little flat on me, majority of the films comedic elements were delivered very well.

My favourite bits from the movie that absolutely sold the film to me (Hopefully this isn't considered as a spoiler)...The Twins. The New Twins. The homosexual referencing. The Grenade. The Schmidt Fight. The Parents coming to school. The Police Update after the parents coming to school scene. The beach. damn, I think the list actually goes on. #Sigh.

Brilliant film. Go and Watch it.

(film review) - Godzilla

So, when I think of Godzilla, I think of two things; the first Godzilla film I saw which came out in 1998 directed by Roland Emmerich starring Matthew Broderick and Jean Reno; the second being Rush Hour. There is a scene where Chris Tucker mentions Godzilla to Jackie Chan. An honourable thought is, Hip-Hop group Gods'illa. The name says it all. Anyway, let's progress as I digress.

A bit of a surprising film as I didn't expect a reboot. However, if I gave it some real thought, it would have came up at some point as Hollywood seem to be running out of ideas.

So, this film is somewhat a reboot of the Godzilla film franchise and plays out as Godzilla being a terrifying force of nature. A myth of sorts.
Ford Brody (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) a U.S Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal Officer and his nurse of a wife, Elle Brody (Elizabeth Olsen) find themselves caught in the middle of a grand monster fight when Ford's father makes a discovery of the reported seismic activities which have been occurring of recent. Trying to gather info from their previous home to prove his findings, a monster wakes up and makes its way out of it's resting place underneath his home, on a mission somewhere destroying the facility and everything else around it leaving nothing but rubble in it's wake. As this monster now threatens to annihilate humanity and it seems like the humans are powerless against it, only one other monster can save the day, Godzilla.

This is a decent film to watch. If anything and going from memory, this film is better than the film which came out in 1998. Godzilla looks like Godzilla. Rather than the Tyrannosaurus looking Godzilla we had back then. Also, the special effects are great and the film comes across as very grounded as it is set in present day. The intro to the film is very clever and makes getting into the film smooth as well as the world we are now being taken to as it eases us in. However, other than the few bits of action we see and the special effects, this film is fairly poor. Well, not poor, but when you see the trailer, you expect much more. It is fairly hard to explain as it is fairly hard to understand, how they barely made this film work. The story was marginally decent with excellent acting coming from Joe Brody (Bryan Cranstan) and Dr. Ishiro Serizawa (Ken Watanabe) but other than that, everyone else's acting was weak in comparison. Not enough time was given to like or feel for the characters. Even the scenes between Ford and his father Joe were a little lacking. It's like the entire film could have been a lot better if they just pushed for a little more. A little more to the internal story between the human characters. A little more with the fighting scenes. A little more of Godzilla and a little more of basically...well, EVERYTHING. Don't get me wrong, this is a very good film to watch and chomp on some popcorn to and the ending scenes with Godzilla are beyond excellent, but I just generally feel that the film was posting it in and the director, Gareth Edwards was simply wetting the audiences appetite. If that last scenes with Godzilla didn't pan out the way it did, then the film would have been purely garbage fused with garbage.

Beautiful Visuals and Godzilla looks like and IS a BEAST!!! But other than only showing us a little action here and there and not really giving us a full Godzilla treatment and/or experience until the very end of the film, this film mails it in. I guess, this is the outcome when you add storyline to human characters who needn't be in a monster movie about monsters fighting monsters. A perfect example of where a monster film about monsters fighting monsters and where it worked would be, Pacific Rim.