madmandonna

Wow, just wow. For the Dark Knight Rises to meet my expectations was going to be unbelievably hard, near impossible even, but it succeeded. Its a beautifully shot, awe inspiring epic film making at its best. The new characters mix in brilliantly to the verse and Alfred gives The Dark Knight Rises the depth it so desperately needs. Though the Joker is missed for his anarchy and sheer surprise, its something that just cannot be dwelled on, Heath Ledger died along with the Nolan Joker. Bane is a great and very different villain, he is a ferocious and brutal adversary, Tom Hardy fills his shoes very well and portrays a rather surprising amount of emotion just through his eyes. Anne Hathaway is a scene stealer with her cheeky Selina Kyle, a very different take on Catwoman from Michelle Pfeiffer's. She's playful, fun and above all sexy, something that Anne Hathaway hasn't really portrayed before. But kudos go to Christian Bale who gives it all he has as Batman/Bruce Wayne, he makes the character so fleshed out and above all human and his return to the action in the film is one of the highlights. What Dark Knight Rises manages to do is keep its long running time light on its feet, with a plot that is both engaging and interesting. It all ties together and comes full circle which is exactly what you want from a third film. The cinematography and set pieces are just unbelievable, the choice not to use 3D benefits this film, it can stand on its own without this irritating gimmick and hopefully Dark Knight Rises will signal the reemergence of non 3D films and films shot in IMAX instead. All in all Dark Knight Rises is a must see for fans of the last two film and anyone that likes quality film making. It gave me goosebumps on around six separate occasions, you know it's a good thing when that happens. This trilogy has been nothing short of epic and will live on well past its run at the cinemas.

Well when Prometheus was announced some time ago I was more than a little excited, one because Alien is one of my all time favourite movies, and two Ridley Scott was directing. All these added together was more than enough to send my anticipation into a frenzy, then the first trailer came out. Oh my lord, that was it, I had to see this film at all costs. Then something happened, another trailer was released, then another, then another. Then viral videos, then behind the scenes stuff, then more trailers. Then I kinda guessed the storyline and the outcome of the film, and now I've seen it, I was by and large correct. The marketing over load on this film, may have been overkill. Such a shame because the teaser trailer was so promising, but I did still go and watch it and I did still enjoy the film despite guessing the storyline. Without giving too much away the film is set a few years before the original Alien film and explores the origin of mankind to the far reaches of space, but what they found may not be what they were expecting. One thing that did baffle me slightly was the technology used in the film, it made the future technology seem redundant, as the past seems far better equipped than the future, odd. But then this is both a positive and a negative, the positive being the film looks absolutely stunning, the set pieces are beautiful and detailed, the CGI is fabulous and photo realistic and virtually everything - down to the nearest speck of dust - looks good. The cast is a nice mix, but character development is missing on most of the crew. The vast majority of them are totally forgettable, so you feel very little for them, something that is usually fatal in a "horror" film. But the main guys are great in their roles; Noomi Repace is well cast, though not a scratch on the Ellen Ripley character. Charlize Theron is fine in her cold commanding officer role, but is totally under utilised. But Michael Fassbender is on terrific form and completely steals the show, as the synthetic David. Where my main issue with Prometheus lies is in its similarity with Alien, its more of remake than a prequel in a way. Thats not to say its exactly the same as Alien, but it feels oddly familiar and strangely lacking in originality despite trying its best to be original. The idea of the crew of Prometheus searching for mankind is very interesting, but in the end comes off as redundant and kinda lame. It tries to steer the film down a certain path, but it comes off more as ridiculous than ingenious. In the end you know what's going to happen which is another problem, and there is no real payoff at the end of the film. Not only that the film seriously lacks scares, the music is too loud and in your face. There is no gentle creeping and no silence to keep you on edge. The film therefore comes across more as a bad action film, than a good horror. The trouble is Prometheus tried to distance itself from Alien and in doing so made itself less believable and predictable. But in a weird way I did like how they did it, could it have been better, hell yes, but did I ultimately enjoy the film, hell yes. Prometheus isn't the masterpiece it set out to be. Its not as creepy and horrific as Alien and not as thrilling as Aliens, though it does have its own merits away from the franchise. If a sequel is made I won't be queueing round the block to see it, but I do want to come back for more. So despite a bit of mixed bag, I would still highly recommend Prometheus.

OK so when Jim had sex with a pie in the original American Pie, it was the most cringe worthy, most funny moment I'd had with a teen comedy up to that point. Up till this point though the only teen comedies around were Clueless, Ferris Bueller and a few unworthy imitations. Since American Pie dazzled with its gross out and sexually charged humour, other teen films have come in to take up the mantle. Napoleon Dynamite, Mean Girls and Easy A have stolen American Pie's thunder in teen comedy and Bridesmaids and The Hangover have stolen it in gross out. But can American Pie reclaim its prior glory. Well firstly the leads are a little old to come under teen comedy, despite them harking back to the old days, the characters have moved on a bit. The moving on is superficial and to be honest only Jim and Stiflers story lines have any impact whatsoever, so no it won't be taking the crown back. The film was unbelievably predictable, you could see the ending right from the beginning, but the ride was still enjoyable. There were some very funny moments, the opening scenes have always been among the funniest in the series and this one really did make me giggle. Its all crude stuff and you know it's going to be, of course Stifler takes crude to a new level and always has, but that's what makes his character so lovable. American Pie Reunion doesn't quite have the ingenuity that Horrible Bosses has, nor the surprise that The Hangover has, nor the wit of Easy A or even the believable friendships that Bridesmaids has. What it does have is nostalgia, and it works by reminding the audience of what has gone before it. Yes it is funny, but with the characters ageing ten years the style of comedy could have been a little more inventive. But then again is this what the audience wants or is that just me? One thing that stood out to me as rather annoying, is making the gay people in the film the butt of the joke. In this day and age, with American's finally coming round to equality to homosexuality, it's so backwards to see gay people used in this way. In the end it all works out though. I like the American Pie series and my expectations were low, but you know what it actually exceeded my expectations. Yes there's no real storyline, little character development and predictable jokes, but the film intention was to make me laugh and it did just that.

The Avengers is not as good as The Dark Knight, I'm just going to say that from the off, the storyline is escapism and it has some genuinely funny moments in it, but it doesn't have the deep characters or visual spectacle. Joss Whedon's script keeps the film going, and lets be honest, this film could have been a train wreck. What makes The Avengers tick is the relationships that each of the characters have with one another. This is where the film really takes flight, when all the characters are in a pressure cooker together, it gives the film weight and suspense especially with Mark Ruffalo's Hulk. Joss Whedon should be given a lot of credit for crafting such a cohesive and well thought out script. The film script is what keeps it above board, visuals have never been Joss Whedon's strong suit, but I did notice a wink to his first feature film Serenity in a zoom shot near the finale. The film doesn't look bad by any means it just has the same sheen that the other Marvel films seem to sport, but it had to be this way to fit all the heroes together. But lack of visual flair is sometimes what makes me dislike these movies, they look too clean and have a sheen that makes it look too cartoony for my personal taste. The Xmen films and Burton and Nolan's Batman films seem to not have these "sheens" to them, which make them visually more appealing to me. I've also never been a fan of 3D even when it works superbly like in Avatar, its just a gimmick to make more money most of the time. So I'd recommend watching Avengers in 2D, as it doesn't add anything to the film being in that third dimension. Its very difficult to score this film as it is by and large a fantastic superhero film, thats enjoyable from beginning to end. Is it as all engrossing and goose-bump inducing as The Dark Knight, well no. Is it better than Spiderman, well yes, but I was never a fan of Sam Raimi's Spiderman anyway. Is it better than Thor, enjoyment wise its about the same. With no back stories to get through in The Avengers the time certainly flies by, it is great summer film. Is it anything more than that, sorry Joss, no its not.

W.E. is one of three biopics I have seen this year, after The Iron Lady and J Edgar. Of the three I think W.E. is probably the best, but all three tread the path of the mediocre. What W.E. gets right is Wallis Simpson, Riseborough is fantastic in the lead role and has great chemistry with James D'Arcy. The biggest problem with the film is the the second tier of the romance with Abbie Cornish's Wally Winthrop, though the romance picks up momentum around the one hour mark, it slows down the pace of the Wallis Simpson segments. The script has high and low notes, the romance at times is reduced sappiness, but these are forgivable even when they are at there worst. What is probably the biggest weakness in W.E. is the often close up hand held camera shots. The occasional one works nicely, but these shots are put in far too often and take you out of the story. In most cases the camera work could have been more simplistic, it too often feels erratic which isn't good in the more tender moments of the film. The music in W.E. is beautiful and the addition of "Masterpiece" in the credits is a lovely song to go side by side with the film. However sometimes the music is a little over powering, once again just a case of less is more. The much discussed and derided scene with Wallis dancing the Charleston with a tribesman to The Sex Pistols "pretty Vacant", I really liked. I felt the scene was a good way to show how frivolous the character could be, using the modern day Wally's imagination to keep the scene from feeling alien. Undoubtedly the best part of W.E. is the costume and lighting. The attention to detail in this department is incredible. Every costume looks stunning and is meticulously put together down to the nearest diamond, and the lighting makes the landscapes almost feel like paintings it really is stunning. All in all W.E. is a great attempt from Madonna to craft a stunning looking film, though the storytelling can be muddled and the film takes around 40 minutes to really get going, its doesn't completely take away from the overall film. Historical inaccuracies put aside would have made this film a 7, but not exploring the **** element could have made this so much more interesting. The negative reviews of this film aren't looking at it from fair perspective and anyone with half a brain can see though not amazing, W.E. is at least half decent and for a directors second film pretty damn good.

Who could forget the first time Drew Barrymore met her end after being hunted down by ghost face in the original scream film some 15 years ago. Its been a decade since scream underwhelmed everybody with its lacklustre third instalment and with a fourth on the way I was sceptical about how the fourth would go and how it would affect the introduction to the review I would to write about it. In my second paragraph, I can now write about how much I enjoyed the film and how I can now use my summary in that Scream 4 (or Scre4m)was "great fun and I was pleasantly surprised". I can't begin to tell you how true this statement is, the plot manages to weave a tidy little knot of a mystery that comes to a surprising and comical climax. The body count is large, making killings in this instalment come thick and fast. Though with a reduced age rating, scream 4 is far more gruesome than the previous threesome and a lot more in keeping with the current horror movie gore fest. To finish off the second paragraph of my review I will conclude that Scream manages to stick to its guns, but modernise itself not unlike the remakes it satirises. Paragraph 3 contains scenes of critical nature. Now the film is paced very well, however there are a lot of characters to get through. And despite its self aware nature the two-dimensional characters are so underplayed that its hard to feel much for them as they quickly get stabbed to death. The only characters you feel much dread for is Gale, Dewey and Sidney as familiar faces that you don't want to meet there bloody doom,however the new cast have so little characterisation that you really couldn't care less if their stabbed to death and left to dry on their parents lawns. The film also wasn't as scary as the original and despite the "kids" knowing the rules of the horror movie they were starring in they all seem to go outside to investigate a strange noise when they know they're all being hunted by a killer. Whether this is done on purpose, as to mock other horror films is a possibility, but to be honest it would make the film a lot less predictable if they didn't make there predecessors mistakes. So my conclusion is gonna be as sharp and concise as a horror movie should be. Scream 4 is entertaining, funny and thrilling. And one of the last lines of one of the survivors is bloody great.

Dear Stephanie Meyer, You Ripped off Buffy the vampire slayer and Southern Vampire Mysteries and have been far too successful with it. This films pacing is off, acting is wooden and there is no humour except for the terribly written dialogue and ugly unconvincing CGI. Bella is barely a character and more of cardboard cut out, who really isn't a very good example to young women. This girl is badly harmed after having sex with her husband, but its ok cause he didn't mean to do it. That's very reminiscent of what a lot of women in physically abusive relationships say. It may be fantasy, but teenagers and younger are heavily influenced by what they read and watch so I'm gonna ask Stephanie Meyer.... Can you either stop writing books OR have Buffy (you already stole the characters romance why not the whole character) and have an empowering woman that teens can look up to and not feel repressed by her male counter parts. Thanks Jay Johnson