Kevin Smith: Fab Four

Since Kevin James burst into our hearts in 1994 with his cult classic Clerks he has grown into a well respected director. His consistent casting of close friends has led to a family feel throughout his pictures which have audiences laughing for nearly twenty years. Through good and bad Smith has always remained faithful to his beloved cast, as well as his unique writing style, which has more often than not resulted in success. A brilliantly funny man who's work I am definitely a fan of. Here are my fab four (yes it's a Beatles reference) Kevin Smith flicks:

1) Clerks (1994)
Not only is this my favourite Kevin Smith film, but it's probably one of my favourite comedy films of all time. Smith's directorial debut has been a resounding success throughout the cinematic world, gaining legendary status as a cult classic. Set in a small convenience store this film shows us a day in the life of two of it's employees. A low budget movie, shot completely in black and white, using almost all amateur actors yet somehow it manages to be amazing. The script is perfect, the acting fits the feel of the film, and it introduces one of the most memorable duo's since Batman and Robin. I am of course talking about Jay and Silent Bob. They're raw yet always hilarious first outing as the infamous double act is the cherry on top of this epic indie legend.

2) Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001)
Possibly his most popular film, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back exchanges the clever and satirical humour of Clerks for plain, simple silliness and it works. The ridiculous nature of the comedy is forgivable because of the emotional investment you have made into the two most lovable characters Kevin Smith has ever written. The concept is funny and the constant homages and links to his previous works always bring a smile to the face and give you the feeling like you're "in on the joke". However, there is one man who takes this film from being a pretty decent silly comedy into a hilariously quotable classic goofy film - Will Ferrell. One of the most popular comic actors in Hollywood puts in a massively underrated performance in this movie. Playing inept Federal Wildlife Marshall Wilenholly Ferrell, not for the first time in his career, absolutely steals the show. Almost every line he has in the film had me in stitches and have become irresistibly quotable to me an my friends. An absolutely outstanding performance in a really good film.

3) Clerks 2 (2006)
It's not often that sequels are actually any good, especially when they're sequels to cult classics, and even more so when they go through a massive stylistic change from the original everyone loved so much. Surely then a follow up to Clerks could only end badly for Kevin Smith? Amazingly not. I find myself reiterating the phrase "somehow it works" so many times whenever I talk about Kevin Smith films and this is another perfect example of why. Everything points towards this film being a terrible idea, yet it's not. It's actually incredibly funny. Clearly it was never going to be as good as Clerks, a very tall order by anyone's standards, yet by changing the approach of the film, as well as maturing the characters, but still keeping the same fundamental reasons of why we fell in love with them in the first place Smith manages to create a fantastic follow up to his debut picture. It features some classic Jay and Silent Bob moments, a whole host of hilarious new characters, and has a really decent story behind it. I was genuinely surprised at just how much I enjoyed this film, it's great.

4) Dogma (1999)
An abortion clinic worker with a special heritage is called upon to save the existence of humanity from being negated by two renegade angels trying to exploit a loophole and re-enter Heaven. Doesn't really sound the best does it? Usually you'd assume a film with that plot line to either be overly complicated and hard hitting, or just plain silly. Amazingly enough Dogma manages to avoid falling into either of these tracks whilst managing to remain clever, interesting, and continually funny. It also heavily features my beloved combo of Jay and Silent Bob (a common theme among most liked Kevin Smith films) along with many other thoroughly enjoyable characters, my personal favourite being Alan Rickman's fantastic performance as a particularly grump angel. A good film with a sprinkling of Religious Education.

Films You Should Be Looking Forward To In May

Star Trek Into Darkness (Thursday 9th May)
Director: J.J. Abrams
Starring: Chris Pine, Benedict Cumberbatch, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg

As a life long fan of Star Wars is pains me to admit just how much I loved the 2009 Star Trek film. It was absolutely outstanding. The cast was great, the story was great, and overall I felt it was a pretty brilliant effort. So, understandably I'm very excited for the sequel. As the Starship Enterprise enters our atmosphere once again it brings with it a fresh new tale of  Captain Kirk fighting an unstoppable force of terror from within his own organisation. The villain, a one man weapon of mass destruction, is played by Benedict Cumberbatch which I think will prove to be an excellent choice. If you're partial to a bit of sci-fi then you will not want to miss this one.


Great Gatsby (Thursday 16th May)
Director: Baz Luhrmann
Starring: Leonardo Di Caprio, Carey Mulligan, Toby Maguire, Joel Edgerton

It was only ever going to be a matter of time before someone cracked and decided to try and recreate F. Scott Fitzgerald's iconic book The Great Gatsby (1925). That someone was Baz Luhrmann, and to be honest I'm quite glad. Luhrmann's greatest success came in the form of his fantastic 1996 re-telling of Romeo and Juliette which gained great critical acclaim. Now he's back with his leading man, Leonardo Di Caprio, and I'm very confident they will be able to recreate the same on screen magic for us all over again. The Great Gatsby is a really good book, which I'd wholeheartedly recommend to anyone, but it's a very hard story to try and explain. At it's very core it's a love story, but a love story with a whole heap of subtle undertones and social commentaries weaved in throughout it. It's a tall order attempting to recreate the subtext of a book onto the big screen, yet I have the utmost confidence that Luhrmann will stand strong to the task. Will it be as good as the book? Maybe not. But from what I can gather it'll be one brilliant film with one hell of a soundtrack.


Fast and Furious 6 (Friday 17th May)
Director: Justin Lin
Starring: Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, Paul Walker, Jason Statham

Seriously now, who genuinely doesn't enjoy the Fast and Furious films? Yes they maybe slightly generic, yes the acting may not warrant any academy awards, yes the story may be pretty much the same in every film, and yes they may just take any excuse to blow things up. But none of that matters, because every time I watch the latest installment I get the buzzing excitement of a child in a sweet shop. I'm not really that big on cars, if you opened up the hood of a million pound sports car I'd probably only be impressed by how shiny it is. But again none of the matters because Fast and Furious doesn't require you to have a good grasp on automotive engineering, all you need to know is that the cars go fast and the people behind the wheel are badass. Fast and Furious 6 does appear to be breaking the mold slightly, the story has shifted away from pulling off a heist and more into stopping bad guys, but honestly it doesn't really matter that much. This movie is going to be epic and I can almost guarantee I'll leave the cinema with a big beaming grin on my face.



Epic (Wednesday 22nd May)
Director: Chris Wedge
Starring: Colin Farrell, Josh Hutcherson, Amanda Seyfried, Christoph Waltz, Aziz Ansari, Chris O'Dowd, Jason Sudeikis, Steven Tyler, Beyonce Knowles

Just take a look at that cast and tell me you don't already want to see this film? It's rare a film comes along where the term "star studded" doesn't do it justice, yet somehow Epic has managed it. So many famous names can sometimes result in attempting to make up for a poor script, although with animated films this is rarely the case. I'm a fan of animated film, something about them just appeals to my inner child, and I think this looks like it could become a real classic. Of course there's always going to be an element of risk with films of this type. You don't know whether they're going to be slightly too childish too enjoy, or just another money maker the studios have churned out. But personally I like the look of this film and if it's done the way I'm hoping it could be a real success. Also, I'll pretty much watch anything with Aziz Ansari in it. Definitely one to keep an eye on.





Written by Ash Davies

Iron Man 3

So Marvel's big blockbuster of the year has finally hit our screens, prompting mass hysteria from movie freaks, comic geeks, and anyone who enjoys a good superhero flick. Iron Man 3 will probably prove to be the biggest film of 2013 and will almost definitely have the largest budget. But the real question is, you guessed it, is it actually any good? Well, here's what I think.

For those of you who don't know, although how that could even be a possibility is beyond me, Iron Man 3 is the story of Tony Stark rebuilding himself after radical terrorist The Mandarin, superbly played by Ben Kingsley, tears his world apart. Decent story right?

Wrong. Somewhere along the way the writers of the latest Iron Man installment got far too ahead of themselves and as a result the story just didn't sit right with me throughout the majority of the film. I felt it was overly complicated, not particularly well explained, and at times just a bit annoying and silly. It wasn't that it was hard too understand what was going on, it was just that it became increasingly hard to understand why the hell it was going on. However, in it's defence a lot of people have thoroughly enjoyed the film so it could easily be just a personal preference on that particular choice of story line. In my eyes though, it just didn't work.

That said, this film does tick all the boxes in the "epic" checklist. Iconic superhero? Check. Relatively attractive female? Check. Badass villains? Check. The occasional hilarious moment? Check. Good special effects? Check. An unfathomable amount of explosions? Check. No matter what opinions you hold on this film it can't ever be described as anything other than epic. Or maybe just pretty epic if you really didn't enjoy it.

WARNING. THIS REVIEW CONTAINS A SPOILER.

Yes, there's a bit of a spoiler in this review. But I promise it won't ruin any of the story, however it is possibly one of the most cardinal sins any film fan can commit. This sin of which I speak is to tell you this: there's a twist. I know, I know, I'm a bastard. I apologise! The only reason I bring up the fact that there is a twist at all is because it has created such a massive divide in opinion over whether or not it was a good idea. Some people are adamant it was a shocking move, yet others have seen it as one of the best aspects of the whole film. Personally I fall into the latter category. I thought it was a really smart move by the writing staff and I genuinely enjoyed a really uncharacteristic twist. However, the law of averages dictates that many of you will hate it just as much as the many who have already voiced their hatred. Again, all personal preference.

ATTENTION. THE SPOILER SECTION IS NOW OVER. 

One of the real problems I had with this film, apart from the story line, was a really underwhelming performance by Robert Downey Jr. I think it's fair to say that Iron Man wasn't the most popular superhero before Downey Jr got his hands on the role, yet five years on from the first movie and he's probably most people's favourite Avenger. You could say this is down to good writing, or the fact that such fantastic special effects available these days they are able to truly bring the character to life. I would argue that it's simply Robert Downey Jr's influence. Some people are just made to play a role. Johnny Depp was made to play Captain Jack Sparrow, just like Harrison Ford was made to play Han Solo, just like Robery Downey Jr was made to play Iron Man. Everything about him is perfect for the role. Yet, somehow, it just doesn't quite click in this film. His coolness isn't there in the abundance we'd experienced in the earlier installments, his jokes rarely get much more than a disappointing chuckle, and from start to finish I just couldn't get as emotionally invested into Tony Stark as I would've hoped. A victim of attempting to break free from the stereotypical Iron Man character we saw in the previous films? Possibly. Either way I just didn't get the classic swagger I'd come to expect from Tony Stark.

That said, this is a pretty good film, I don't think many people would say otherwise. It's got all the ingredients that make up a successful Hollywood blockbuster, as well as featuring a superhero the world has come to adore in recent years. It's main problem is just that it lacks heart. Downey Jr doesn't perform to the very high standards he has set and the story line was disappointing, two things that have basically made the Iron Man films so successful. If you're a fan of Marvel films you have to see it, and you'll probably enjoy it. But I can almost guarantee when you leave the cinema a small voice at the back of your mind will be telling you "that SHOULD have been better".





Written by Ash Davies

The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly: Johnny Depp

THE GOOD
Pirates Of The Caribbean: Curse Of The Black Pearl (2003)

Mr Depp is a actor who I consider to be very talented. However, in an attempt to avoid becoming typecast as the generic good looking leading man Johnny Depp has thrown himself into a vast variation of film roles which, unfortunately for him, haven't always worked in his favour. That said, when he gets it right, he really gets it right. Film such as Edward Scissorhands (1990) and Ed Wood (1994) are great examples of this. His crowning jewel though is undoubtedly Pirates Of The Caribbean: Curse Of The Black Pearl (2003). Depp brilliantly brings a now iconic character, Jack Sparrow, to life with his flawless performance in the first installment of this Disney epic. He's hilarious, handsome, and always lovable no matter what he does. Jack Sparrow is a brilliantly written character, but I genuinely couldn't see anyone else performing it with anywhere near the same class as Johnny Depp does. An outstanding performance in a really great film. It's a real shame they've completely overstretched what could have been a very respectable trilogy.


THE BAD
Dark Shadows (2012)

As I previously mentioned Depp's efforts to avoid becoming typecast have at times let to him appearing in poor films. This is not his only problem. His allegiance to Tim Burton, although admirable and at times outrageously successful, has led to him featuring in some shockingly bad movies. The worst of the lot - Dark Shadows (2012). A truly terrible piece of cinema. The jokes, if they can even be considered jokes, were terrible and awkward at the best of times, the script was boring rubbish, and the acting was disappointing to say the least. It featured the classic Tim Burton combination of Helena Bonham Carter and Johnny Depp, yet both massively under performed. Depp himself wasn't terrible, but he certainly wasn't good, and the film as a whole is just atrocious. He may have been suffering from a poor script and a director who spends too much time focusing on nostalgia and not enough time on originality, but this film is a rather large and unpleasant stain on Johnny Depp's film career.



THE UGLY
Sometimes it's easy to forget that almost every time we see a famous actor or actress they're made up to perfection. I'm not saying Johnny Depp is a bad looking, quite the opposite, he's a fantastic looking man. But I think we can all take a little bit of joy in seeing a celebrity looking ugly. So, here you go:

Oz The Great And Powerful

I don't think I'm alone in saying that The Wizard Of Oz (1939) is one of the films that are your bread and butter as a child. At least once every couple of months my mum or my sister would whack the video tape in and I'd sit on the floor, no more than a foot away from the telly, watching Dorothy make her way down the yellow brick road. I'm not going to claim that it was in any way my favourite film as a child, I always considered it slightly girly as a child, but it has always and will always hold a fond place in my heart purely because of the amount of times I watched it. So when word of Oz The Great And Powerful reached my ears, I was quite looking forward to seeing a modern take on a classic tale.

For those of you who don't know much about the film it tells the tale of how a small time circus magician came to be the wizard of Oz. After having his hot air balloon caught in the middle of a tornado Oscar Diggs, played by James Franco, is transported away to the magical land of Oz where he gets caught up in a power struggle between three witches and is forced to try and save the day.

This film has come into a lot of stick, despite being a big hit at the box office, but I actually thought it was pretty good. It's not going to define a generation of Disney films, nor is it going to displace the 1939 classic in the hearts of fans, but I can almost guarantee that if you will enjoy this film. You could hate the story, the acting, the characters, but I defy anyone to hate the fantastic world of Oz that Disney have managed to create. The visuals are stunningly beautiful. The animation was flawless and you could really immerse yourself into this epic imaginary realm.

As good as the scenery was the show undoubtedly stolen by the little China Girl and Finley, a lovable monkey voiced by Zach Braff. Fantastically animated and voiced, these two characters were brilliant from start to finish. Maybe it's because I'm a massive Scrubs geek, but I thought that Braff was the perfect voice for such a funny and lovable character as Finley. Both he and the China girl were a breath of fresh air in a film littered with far too many average characters.

Unfortunately there are certain parts of this film that are remarkably unexceptional, not least the performance of Mila Kunis. She's awful. I like Mila Kunis, who wouldn't? She's beautiful, funny, and thoroughly enjoyable in everything I've seen her in before Oz The Great And Powerful. I can't quite work out why this went so badly for her, because although she usually plays the pretty looking girl the guy falls in love with I was convinced she had enough acting ability to break her stereotypical role and play a villain. Unfortunately I was wrong. It just didn't suit her. Even before she turned into the wicked witch we all know, her lines seemed forced and unconvincing. Then once she'd been caked in green make up and squeezed into the tightest witches costume you're likely to find in a Disney film things just went from bad to worse. She was truly rubbish. My main gripe aside from Mila Kunis was a character called Knuck, played by Tony Cox. Knuck was unfunny and a truly pointless character whom I found incredibly annoying throughout the film.The rest of the cast did their bit. James Franco was decent but unremarkable, as were the other two witches.

Overall the film was decent. The story was interesting, most of the acting wasn't too bad, and the special effects were absolutely brilliant. It was miles better than the likes of Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland (2010) remake, but it was miles short of The Wizard Of Oz. I think a more apt title would have been: Oz The Good But Slightly Disappointing. That said I would recommend it if you're looking for something easy going, nice to look at, and funny in places.

Welcome To The Punch

In modern day cinema we, as Brits, are constantly bombarded with self righteous American rubbish. I'm not in any way saying I don't enjoy American cinema, a lot of my favourite films are Hollywood exports, I'm just voicing my disappointment at the apparent lack of big British films that seem to be about these days and they seem to have been replaced by terribly generic action films draped in stars and stripes. So when I first saw the advert for Welcome To The Punch I felt an instant sense of relief at the fact that we had what appeared to be a proper British film hitting the big screens. James McAvoy and Mark Strong starring, with Ridley Scott as executive producer, had me even more interested, and after hearing David Morrisey being interviewed by Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo I was fully convinced.

The film essentially revolves around James McAvoy's character, Max Lewinsky, and his obsession to catch ex-criminal Jacob Sternwood, played by Mark Strong, by whom he was shot three years previous to when the film is set. Sternwood is forced to return to London after finding out his son has been severely injured, presenting Max the opportunity to finally catch his nemesis.

I really enjoyed the film, it definitely exceeded my expectations. It avoided falling into too many action film tropes and more impressively it evaded the stereotypical cockney police geezer routine. The script was clever, interesting and kept you guessing without dangling a constant stream of twist clues in your face, as well as having some really unexpectedly funny moments of dark humour. The acting was very good, maybe not anything extraordinary, but I can't think of one actor that unperformed. The music, an original score, helped create a great atmosphere and the action scenes were exciting but never too drawn out or unrealistic (apart from the small fact that both a trained policeman and former soldier both had shocking poor aim with a machine gun).

However, the standout element of Welcome To The Punch was undoubtedly the cinematography. It was absolutely stunning. It is one of the first films I've seen that makes London look like a beautiful modern city as opposed to a stuffy old place from a bygone era. Some of the nighttime landscape shots in which the whole city has light up with beautiful blue and white lights is nothing short of breathtaking. We constantly see American films use similar techniques with cities such as New York, yet we rarely see it done in British cinema. I for one hope a lot of directors take note and continue to portray places like London for their modern aesthetic qualities, because I felt that this, paired with constant clever use of blue lighting, is what really brought the movie to life.

Aside from how brilliant looking it was the two central characters were also superb. Straight from the start the film puts the idea in the audiences head that James McAvoy is the protagonist and Mark Strong the antagonist. However, throughout the course of the film it quite brilliantly makes us question our initial ideas of the two men. McAvoy brilliantly portrays the dark side of his character Max, with a pretty much flawless London accent, and at times you can't help but feel that he's just a complete and utter vengeful bastard. In contrast to this we become more and more sympathetic toward Mark Strong's character as the film goes on, even though the story started by showing him as nothing more than a cold hearted criminal.

My only complaint on the acting side of things would be that we didn't see enough of David Morrisey. I found his character really interesting, and I think Morrisey himself is a talented actor, so it would have been nice to have had him in a few more scenes.

Overall I think the only way to sum up Welcome To The Punch by describing it as a true British heavyweight. It engrossed me from start to finish. Great acting, great script, great directing, phenomenal cinematography and a very interesting ending. I would very highly recommend this film to anyone of any age, you definitely will not regret it. Superb.




Written by Ash Davies

Tomb Raider Rebooted

Everyone's favourite 90's sex symbol has returned to our consoles this month, and now appears to be readying herself for an onscreen comeback. Who am I talking about? Lara Croft, of course.

The original Tomb Raider game is one of many fond memories from my younger days and like every boy or man to ever play it I had a major crush on Lara Croft. Who wouldn't? She's hot! She has a great figure, she's tough, all action, very flexible, she knows how to handle a gun and wears the shortest shorts available. She ticks all the boxes. So when the original film, Lara Croft:Tomb Raider, was released back in 2001 I was as excited as the next guy. I was also as disappointed as the next guy after seeing it.

Let's all be honest, it was a bad film. It was overly formulaic and the story was unmemorable. Just about the only good memory that sticks out in my head is me and my friend repeatedly rewatching the scene where you catch a glimpse of Angelina Jolie's side boob. I was 8, it was a big deal. Anyway, my point is that the film wasn't very good and was followed by a second even more unmemorable piece of drivel that pretty much killed the Tomb Raider franchise.

However, it appears that Lara Croft is set to rise from the dead and burst back onto the big screen. The developers of the latest game recently confirmed that GK Films, who purchased the film rights to Tomb Raider back in 2011, are working on rebooting the movie with a similar vision to that of the new game. But the big question is: will it be any good?

In short no, probably not. Games rarely ever work well as films and usually just end up making you resent the franchise as a whole. This was perfectly shown by the atrocious job done with the last couple of films, yet it appears that the film studios have not learnt their lesson. My guess is that Lara's upcoming outing will be more of the same, but probably in 3D with some updated special effects.

However, there is one small silver lining. British Actress Camilla Luddington, 29, voiced and motion controlled Lara Croft for the latest Tomb Raider game. As a result many people have touted her to reprise the role for the forthcoming movie. I think we can all agree that Camilla Luddington dressed as Lara Croft would certainly soften the blow of having to watch one of our most beloved gaming icons mercilessly ruined at the hands of Hollywood.

I'm sorry to say that given it's terrible track record, as well as the sheer amount of terribly generic action films that seem to be on display at the moment, Tomb Raider isn't one we should be getting out hopes up for.




Written by Ash Davies