This blog is about movies and covers three different genres explained by each of us.
Each blog post will have an overview of a different movie and gives a review of the movie, often comparing it to its current ratings.
This gives you an insight of more personal movie reviews from individuals instead of the standards set by most movie critics.
Welcome to our final blog for you guys to get pumped about. This time we have done something different. We have created a video blog, broadcasting live our opinions and wanting to get our viewers help on which movie we should review next.
Liz wants to review 'Happy Feet', Alex wants to review 'Lucy' and Ben wants to review 'Johnny English'.
Please watch our video blog below and comment your decision on the next movie to review.
A special thanks is given to Ben for his editing skills, Liz and Alex for their creativeness of planning the structure and concept of the video.
Death at a Funeral is a good British comedy that draws its humour from the satire nature of the events that play out during the film. It was made in 2007, although an American spin off was made in 2010(but let's not talk about that flop).
The main character, Daniel, is organising the funeral for his father, and several other family members and friends are initially shown as they drive to the house where it is taking place. At the beginning we start to see the personalities of the main characters, and as the film progresses more ridiculous events unfold. Overall the funeral starts to become a disaster as several problems keep arising and the stress gets to Daniel.
The comedy in this film is dry and fits the setting very well, there aren't any forced laughs or moments where you cringe at the would be joke; for me that's what makes British humour more enjoyable than American.
Death at a Funeral scored a 7.4/10 from IMDb, 61% from Rotten Tomatoes and 67% from Metacritic, which I feel is somewhat reasonable, as although the film is indeed humorous and well executed, it's not necessarily a 'must see'. I would give it a 7/10.
As this is our last movie review to be posted, we would like to thank you for checking out our reviews.
Keep in tune in the next week or so where we will post a video with us in it.
Now here is a movie that has racoon, skunk, turtle, daughter and dad possum, a family of porcupines and a squirrel. They have been hibernating for the winter and then wake up to search for more food for the next hibernating season. As they go searching for food, they come across a hedge who they call "Steve". The hedge belongs to an estate of houses and where they live is the last plot of forrest.
The movie came out in 2006, and has been a good favourite for people, as it is a movie that can keep being watched again. The whole plot of the movie is clever as the animals are starting to turn into scavengers for the food thrown out in the houses than searching for the food in the forrest.
Come check out the trailer:
This movie is very funny, especially with the squirrel. Overall I would give it a 7/10 as it was a very good movie but not a movie that could reach my top 10 rating. In comparison to IMBd, their rating was 6.8/10, similar to mine as it was a movie with adventure, comedy and animation.
Let me hear you opinion on the movie in the comments below as I would love to get some other perspectives.
The 'Incredible Hulk' was a second attempt at giving the Marvel character/superhero a solo film after Ang Lee's 'The Hulk' released in 2003. Neither were much of a success, however Marvel's 'Avengers' (2012) film featuring Hulk was. While Ang Lee's Hulk looked cartoonish and very large, The Incredible Hulk (2008) was a more defined, menacing looking version of the Hulk. That being said I wasn't pleased with the Incredible Hulk's feats compared to those of Ang Lee's or the Marvel's 'Avengers' films' Hulk as they were relatively weak and underwhelming.
There were three actual Hulk fight scenes in the film, two of those being with practically ordinary people (yes they were armed and trained but that doesn't make much of a difference) and the last being the showdown between the Hulk and the power hungry Emil Blonsky, a special ops unit who becomes the Abomination. I was expecting a bit more from the final fight as they fought for about two or three minutes before Hulk choked him out which was a disappointing way to end the fight. I don't understand what they did with the Abomination as the Hulk didn't kill him and after seeing what the Abomination did to Ross' Soldiers there is no way they can contain him on their own. So that didn't make much sense to me and the ending was a setup for the 'Avengers' film which was later released in 2012.
The film scored 6.8/10 from IMDb and 56% Rotten Tomatoes, which is fair enough considering it was quite a mediocre film with some decent action scenes but didn't properly portray the strength of the Hulk. I'd give it a 6/10 hopefully the next solo film for Hulk which seems likely (Planet Hulk) will do a better job at showing what Hulk is capable of.
Now this one is a good classic movie created in 1994, before I was even born. It has singing and dancing and has been one of the best animated films ever made. The film is adapted from Shakespeare’s play of Hamlet and it about a young lion growing up and becoming a king to the whole jungle.
The reason why I love this movie so much, is that I am a sucker for musicals and combing musicals with children movies just makes it so much better. Simba (the young lion) learning how to become a king with his friends Timon the meerkat and Pumbaa the warthog.
Have a quick look at the trailer:
Aren’t you just excited to watch the movie now after seeing the trailer?
The songs are what makes the movie amazing, ‘I just can’t wait to be king’, ‘Hakuna Matata’ and ‘Can you feel the love tonight’ are just some of my favourite songs in this film. As I enjoy this movie so much, I would rate it 10/10 which is rare but looking at IMBd their rating is only 8.5/10.
No need to listen to the critics as they criticise everything, so I suggest you should free your night up and watch the lion king as you won’t regret watching it.
The Austin Powers trilogy is another classic comedy and always a good laugh; Mike Myers' put on British persona is hilarious and memorable. The series began with "International Man of Mystery" in 1997, with "The Spy Who Shagged Me" following shortly after in 1999, then the series comes to an end with "Goldmember" in 2002.
The whole series is a spoof of well known James Bond films, with several characters from them having comedic twists and alterations for the hell of it. Mike Myers himself plays numerous characters in the film, the protagonist Austin Powers, the antagonist Dr. Evil, and one of Dr. Evils' henchmen, Fat Bastard.
The first film is probably the best to review due to it being the most original, since it was just a spoof to start with, before it became more popular and they figured they'd make it into a whole series.
It got a 7/10 from IMDb and 70% from Rotten Tomatoes, but strangely got an average score of 51% from Metacritic. I would give it an 8/10 due to the memorable quotes and laughs it brings. Some of the one-liners from the series we make reference to frequently without even being aware of it, so i'd say its a series worthy of praise.
Saw this one in the cinemas a couple weeks back, while It wasn't amazing I don't understand the harsh criticism it was slammed with, getting ratings of 27% from Rotten Tomatoes and 44% from Metacritic. However it received a decent 7.1/10 from IMDb which is the rating that matters. There was a lot of controversy over Ben Affleck as the new, rebooted Batman, personally I thought he pulled it off (better than Clooney's at least).
The title of the film I find misleading as there is roughly two minutes of action in the Batman v Superman feud before it is resolved after discovering their mum's share the same name (Martha). The rest of the film consists of the horribly casted Lex Luthor unleashing 'Doomsday' who is to be defeated by the freshly formed allies Batman and Superman. Then Snyder thought he'd throw Wonderwoman in there too just for the hell of it.
So Batman v Superman is basically a setup for the Justice League which is not going to be able to compete with the Marvel's 'Avengers' so give it up Snyder. Despite all that It's action scenes were superb especially the fight with the antagonist Doomsday (enjoyed seeing Superman being nuked) and I did actually like Ben Affleck's performance as Batman and for that I give it a 7/10.
This movie is a classic, taking the crime genre and playing you the other side of the card by having it focus on two detectives who just work at a desk rather than doing field work. Following the death of the duo that usually run the show, Allen Gamble (Will Ferrell) and Terry Hoitz (Mark Wahlberg) attempt to take their place and lead a series of investigations.
Once again for me personally the thing that sells it for me is the acting of Will Ferrell, although Mark Wahlbergs character is well done too. It does a good job of making a spoof of typical cop films, and has plenty of humorous dialogue and acting.
The Other Guys scored a 6.6/10 from IMDb and a 78% from Rotten Tomatoes, which is interesting since usually Rotten Tomatoes gives everything a fairly harsh rating. For this movie I enjoyed it thoroughly and would watch it many more times, and give it an 8/10.
Yes the movie is Cars released in 2006. Cars is an enjoyable movie and targets mainly the boys with the theme of cars.
The plot is about Lightning McQueen, a race car needing to travel to the next race to win the championships but ends up being lost and found in Radiator Springs off Route 66.
Here is a trailer of the movie:
The movie is very funny and a great family movie. The movie also conveys a message to the children that winning isn’t everything and shouldn’t judge people by their brand of car.
Overall IMDb gave the rating for the movie a 7.2/10 which is very good, but in my opinion I would give the movie a 6.5. The reason being, I didn’t quite like the movie as I expected more. The whole concept was really well done but it lacked the spark that makes Pixar and Disney good movies.
The Matrix is a very unique film and even more so during the time in which it was released. The Matrix is a film based on the idea of human existence being dominated by AI and living in a very sophisticated virtual reality that is known as the Matrix.
With almost no one knowing of the false reality they are living in there is seemingly little hope for humanity, that is until a group of rebels who know of the Matrix and can enter in and out of it discover Neo who is the 'chosen one.'
Neo having lived all his life in the Matrix as a computer hacker has always had the thought in the back of his mind that something is a bit off. After being recruited by this gang of rebels he undergoes rigorous training in the hopes to defeat the Matrix and save humanity.
Neo now aware that the Matrix is not reality has unlocked abilities that do not obey real-world physics and laws allowing for some neat action scenes and special effects.
The movie received very high ratings, 8.7/10 from IMDb, 87% Rotten Tomatoes, putting it in the top 20 movies off all time (ranked 18th). For its unique style and plot that strays from all the generic films of its time I give it a 9/10.
Here is a less conventional kind of film and one that gave me a lot of laughs: Bad Grandpa.
For those of you aware of the antics of the 'Jackass' crew, this film bears striking similarity to it in format, due to it being made by the same people.
In this film, Jackass member Johnny Knoxville puts on his old man disguise under the name of "Irving Zisman" and goes about his usual pranks. However this time it's quite different, as the stunts he pulls off throughout the film aren't just randomly done in segments like they are in the Jackass films, but they decided to make it have a plot.
Zisman heads cross-country around the United States with his 'grandson' and performs a variety of pranks and stunts in public while trying to bring the boy to his father to live with him. At the end of the film however, he forms a strange kind of bonding with him through the nefarious pranks they pull off together, and he changes his mind.
The film got mixed reviews, which is fairly understandable due to its crude humour and offensive behaviour; it got 6.6/10 from IMDb and 60% from Rotten Tomatoes, which criticized it for not being as funny as it tries to be.
Personally I would give it a 7/10, due to the sheer hilarity of Knoxville's behaviour and the legitimate reactions that come from the people on camera.
The movie was very interesting, following an adventure around the South American wilderness. The movie was like all children movies, start off with a sad beginning but finish in a happy mood. The movie was very imaginative by having a house fly with balloons, talking dogs. Adding in the companion of Dug (dog) helped the movie showing children the benefits of dogs and they are an animal everyone loves.
Here is a trailer of the movie:
The rating of the movie from IMDb has 8.3/10 showing it is a very good movie for the family to watch. In my opinion I would give the movie a 8/10 as yes it was interesting and creative but was just missing the extra spark to re-watch again.
Captain America: Civil War was released on the 28th of April and has been very popular and scored some impressive ratings; 93% Rotten Tomatoes (98% at one point), 85% Metacritic, and a solid 8.5/10 from IMDb.
This film got straight into it with some top-tier action and introducing the villain Crossbones who was a brilliant but short-lived antagonist (however there are sources hinting of his return in the next sequence of the Marvel's 'Civil War').
However Bucky the notorious Winter Soldier is what made the movie for me. A truly remarkable character with some of the best and brutal action scenes of any Marvel movie, wreaking havoc with his robotic arm and elite fighting skills.
This movie incorporated a range of all the relevant superheroes (Spiderman, Ant-man, Falcon, Black Panther, War Machine etc) which was probably the reason for it success. The film had a nice twist to the end that confirms another sequence of Marvel's 'Civil War.'
Captain America: Civil War trailer:
I thought this film was brilliant and am eager for the release of the next 'Civil War' instalment, I personally give it a 9/10.
Here's another good one.
Tropic Thunder is a great example of a film that takes the piss of things. The whole point of it is to show how ridiculous some movies can be, and even pokes fun at the stereotypes of actors these days(drug addiction, over-acting, going to extreme measures just to play their role in a film).
It was made in 2008 and the main four protagonists are played by Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr., Jack Black and less well known Brandon T. Jackson. The plot is about four actors playing the part of what was originally a generic Vietnam war action movie, before the director is convinced to make it more realistic and gritty by taking them to Vietnam itself and cutting out all the fancy special effects and pampering they were getting before. Things get ugly and it becomes more real than they thought it would, where they get discovered by local militia.
The interaction between the characters and over the top behaviour is what makes this film shine, as it shows how silly some films make themselves seem when they try too hard to be serious.
It received fairly good reviews; 83% from Rotten Tomatoes, 7/10 from IMDb and 71% from Metacritic. Personally I would give it a solid 8/10.
Now a true good classic favourite is Finding Nemo which came out in 2003. This movie was very good and has become a favourite for a lot of people.
My favourite character in Finding Nemo, will be a blue reef fish named Dory played by Ellen DeGeneres. The reason why Dory was a favourite as she made you laugh and entertained us in the movie. Her character of forgetting where she was going and her jingles of “Just keep swimming” made her character very loveable.
Here is a trailer of Finding Nemo, if you haven’t seen it before.
As a result, I would give this movie a 9.5/10 rating as it was the best family movie of all time. This movie is very enjoyable and creates a fun movie for children to watch. Looking at IMDb, their critics rating is 8.1/10 which is pretty high. This shows that Finding Nemo is a movie to watch, if you have not seen it before and to re-watch again and again as you would never get bored.
More to come from me soon.
Hint: Next movie is with Carl Fredricksen, Russell, Kevin the bird and Dug the dog.
Watchmen is based on the comic series of 'the Watchmen' and has a much darker, sinister setting and theme compared to all other DC and Marvel films. The Watchmen are essentially a group of 'superheroes' just without superpowers excluding Dr. Manhattan who is an omnipotent being and arguably one of DC's strongest characters making Superman seem like a child in comparison. However the rest being without supernatural abilities does not take anything away from them as they are all extremely dangerous, powerful and intelligent individuals with feats such as catching a bullet.
Rorschach being my favourite character in the movie and of all vigilantes and anti-heroes is a troubled individual who despises society, "Beneath me, this awful city... The accumulated filth of all their sex and murder will foam up...and all the whores and politicians will look up and shout 'save us!' and I'll look down and whisper 'no.'" Rorschach is no ordinary vigilante that goes out to stop criminals and bring them to justice, no he straight up murders them, a very graphic scene from the film showed him butchering a rapist/murderer to a bloody pulp with a cleaver. Rorschach not surprisingly doesn't get a happy ending as he is consumed of the mind by the society's cruel nature and is literally imploded by Dr. Manhattan.
The film is set in 1985 in America and as for the rest of the Watchmen the have been in 'retirement' as President Nixon passed a legislation prohibiting 'superhero' activity after their actions in years previously. However that didn't stop Rorschach from fulfilling his 'duties' to the world. Another favourite character of mine was the 'Comedian' who was quite a sick unit as he'd raped a member of his own 'Watchmen' group, but despite that he got shit done, unfortunately we didn't see much of him as he was killed off early into the film.
Below is Comedian's last fight with Ozymandias, the World's smartest man and 2nd strongest Watchman. Despite having no superpowers you can see from this fight scene that they are far from your ordinary person.
As for ratings its scored an admirable 7.6/10 from IMDb but other rating sites such as Rotten Tomatoes whose ratings in my opinion don't mean a fucking thing as it is a community site in which any random joe can contribute to it gave 'Watchmen' 65%. I give it a 8/10 for the interesting and great characters, hopefully one day a solo movie for Rorschach will be made focusing on his earlier life and the formation of the Watchmen.
Step Brothers is another immature type of comedy film and another one of my favourites. You guessed right, that's Will Ferrell again. He always takes part in these kinds of films and it just tends to work.
It was released in 2008, and is about two grown men (Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly) who behave like children and are forced to live together as their originally divorced parents start a relationship with each other.
The childish antics from the two and classic acting by them is what sells it for me; it is another one of those films where the plot is only made for the sake of the few jokes thrown in along the way.
It scored some average reviews by critics, with a 6.9/10 from IMDb, and a 55% from Rotten Tomatoes.
I can see the criticism for the film due to its immature manner and lacking of depth, but once again the comedy was too rich for me at the time and I still view it with rose tinted glasses, so I would give it a solid 8/10.
Hi everyone, I'm Liz and this blog is for all the people who enjoy the children's movies. Who doesn't enjoy these movies, they are always funny and very entertaining.
My movie today is Zooptopia, starring Jason Bateman, Ginnifer Goodwin. Zootopia just came out in the cinemas in March and I went to watch with my brother. The movie was very interesting and had a great plot.
Here is a quick trailer, to give you insight into the movie.
The critics are also happy with the film saying, "The last thing you'd expect from a new Disney animated marshmallow is balls. But, hot damn, Zootopia comes ready to party hard." (Rolling Stone).The critics gave the film overall 8.3/10 (IMDb).
The film has it all and I would give it a rating 9/10, as I was entertained, sad, scared, and laughing throughout the whole movie. My brother enjoyed it as well and therefore shows that everyone would enjoy this movie. It would be a perfect movie to watch as a family.
Hey I'm Alex and for today's daily blog post I will be reviewing the movie; Transformers: Age of Extinction, directed by Michael Bay. Transformers: Age of Extinction is the fourth instalment of the transformer saga and was released in late June 2014.
I watched this film in the Imax cinema shortly after it was released for the enhanced viewing experience and further enjoy the special effects, sounds effects, cgi and action. The Transformer films are centred around action as the plot of the movies' is mediocre and quite weak for this one especially. But I doubt anyone watches these films for the plot or story, but simply for the action and fight scenes that are undeniably the reason of this series' success.
However that being said this movie went for just too long in my opinion, it was roughly 3 hours (2 hours 45 minutes) of non stop action, excessive and inane dialogue and in general just a mess. Yet still making it as their 'least terrible' instalment of the series' in the eyes of some.
Things I liked about this movie; the antagonist 'Lockdown' was really the only thing in the movie I liked and I regard as their best villain to date and was a refreshing change from the recycled 'Megatron' who was still technically in the film but re-introduced as the changed character 'Galvatron.' Unfortunately it does not look like Lockdown will be making another appearance in the likely chance of a 5th Transformers film due to him being defeated by the overpowered character 'Optimus Prime.'
Transformers: Age of Extinction had too much senseless action and began introducing pointless characters past the 2 hour mark. I remember being relieved when the film did finally come to an end after excessive hours of explosions and robot dinosaurs. I am not the only one dissatisfied with this movie as it was smashed with 18% by Rotten Tomatoes and 32% by Metacritic. I give it 6/10 mostly for the half-decent antagonist (Lockdown) introduction that was the superior scene of the film.
Hey there, Ben here, and I'm going to start us off with a review on on a great comedy movie and a favourite of mine, known by many; "Anchorman".
Anchorman is a fairly old movie, from back in 2004, but an absolute classic. Everyone knows of the character Ron Burgundy and his antics with the ol' Channel 4 crew.
For me personally, I find Will Ferrell a hysterical actor, and find this movie to be his best.
Here's a brief trailer for those of you who have never seen the film or want a refresher on what content it carries with it:
Obviously the humour is somewhat crude to some, however I, along with many others, find Will Ferrell's overreacting and one-liners to make me laugh every time.
Some critics have given the film a fairly average rating, such as 66% from Rotten Tomatoes and 63% from Metacritic, however they still point out many of the positives the film has.
In my eyes, the films humour is spot on and at a time was my favourite film, and as a result I would rate it a solid 90% or 9/10.
Over the next few weeks, our team will be posting blogs of movies that we have watched recently giving our opinion of the movie, compared to critics review of the movie. There will be a variety of the movies reviewed and hopefully you will enjoy them too.
Here is out team:
Liz - Hi I'm Liz and excited to be sharing with you reviews of children movies. I just love watching them as they are always good and hilarious. Join me with the love of children movies.
Alex - Hello, I'm Alex, I will be reviewing sci fi/action movies and attempt to criticise, rate and point out any flaws in the movie alike the popular youtube channel Cinemasins. -Update I will also be reviewing Comic related movies e.g. Marvel, DC films.
Ben - Hey I'm Ben, lets have a laugh at some good comedies ay lads. Whip out the popcorn and bring the boys round, let's have a good sesh!
