Oli's Opinion on the latest films to hit the silver screen
300
You probably noticed that my review for 300 was a bit scarce and silly. So here is the proper 300 Film Review...300 is set at the times of the Persian Empire and it basically follows the corageous battle between the 300 so Spartans and the entire Persian Empire led by Xerxes. 300 is based on Frank Miller's graphic novel about the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C. - In a nut shell it is a very very good film - It's properly edge of the seat stuff. Maybe a little bit long and anything that isn't a battle scene just seems a bit dull but overall it is a fantastic film and the best thing about it is that it hasn't completely been Americanised with lots of expensive actors and special effects - It basically strong men, not wearing much, with great cinematography and one hell of a soundtrack.
Spiderman 3
I went into Spiderman 3 with very high expectations, I was hoping that the follow up to the fantastic Spiderman 2 would be just as good if not better, I was horribly mistaken. Spiderman 3 is a disaster of a film, yes it has a HUGE special effects budget and some pretty cool villians but it's just all wrong. Firstly, unlike in 2 they completely got rid of the emotional trauma Parker had been going through, in 2 he was trying to juggle being a boyfriend and a superhero as well as a journalist all at one - In 3 it just seems to all happen naturally. Then there are just way too many villians all crammed into one film with big explosions which the producers obviously hoped would wow the audience - Frankly it's just too much, the Goblin's back, Venom, Emo-Man (not actually a villian) and the Sandman - In 2, the villian was on his own and that is the way it should have stayed. Disagree with me if you will but I think Spiderman 3 STUNK!
Blades of Glory
Unlike with Spiderman, I went into Blades of Glory with pretty low expectations - From what I'd heard it was pretty awful just another knock-off comedy with Will Farrell and some other guy in. To be honest - I thought it was brilliant. Not only did I actually laugh out loud a lot and i mean a lot of times! The story wasn't just picked out of a "Generic Story Jar", it was a well thought out yet hilarious film with some fantastic performances including a cameo from Arrested Development's, Will Arnett. There is nothing really left to say about this - Just Go and see it! Right now! Get up..and go!
Magicians
This is the first feature film from TV Funny guys, Mitchell and Webb (stars of Peep Show), so I went into Magicians with pretty high hopes that it would be a very funny comedy with a structured story line. The story is simply of a double act that gets split up due to some pretty horrible circumstances then compete against each other in the Magic Shield Competition only to realise, at the end of the film the true meaning of a team (hehe). To be frank, this film is pretty awful - Throughout the film I forced myself to laugh simply because I wanted the film to be funny but unfortunatly it simply wasn't, it had a weak story which seemed as if it had been thought up in about 15 minutes, the acting is pretty bad with some really rather pointless cameo's in and a complete lack of any emotional interest throughout the entire 90 minutes or so. Before seeing this film, I glanced at The Times review of Magicians - It gave it One Star, a rating which I think was pretty generous.
Die Hard 4.0
I kicked off the summer with one of the years' big blockbusters. The final installment of the wonderful Die Hard series. This movie sees Bruce Willis back in action but this time, it's not about gold or prisoners being released it all revolves around Cyber Terrorism. Without giving too much away, a crazy geek basically shuts down the whole of the USA from inside an HGV. I wanted this film to be fantastic and it was, the idiotic reviewers in the newspapers say that Willis is too old for the job but thats just silly. Some parts are completely ridiculous as you'll find out if you go and see it but those things don't really matter, it's not a factual insight into the fragility of the USA security system..It's a Die Hard film..what do you expect! It is a perfectly brilliant film with some fantastic actors I hope to see more from, like the main villain played by Timothy Olyphant (The Girl Next Door) and Willis' sidekick, Justin Long (Jeepers Creepers). If you want to see a 100% action movie this summer, forget the silver dude on a surfboard, go and see Die Hard 4.0! Yippee Ki Yay Mothe..yeah...you get the idea.
kjygh
4 - Rise of the Silver Surfer
I said in my previous review "forget the silver dude on a surfboard", and by that I mean this. Fantastic Four 2 or "4 - ROTSS" as it's called to avoid confusion is the sequal to the fantastic Fantastic Four film, sadly I was disappointed with this one. The story meets up with our favourite four superheroes again, but this time they're confronted by the mysterious Silver Surfer who is out to destroy the world...or something. Now, the Silver Surfer is cool, maybe one of the coolest comic book characters about and this film frankly doesn't do him justice. It's a film that you watch and think that it has been rushed a little, with a pithy storyline some pretty awful product placement and dreary acting, the only good thing about this film is the immense special effects - The whole Thames flowing into one huge hole...what more could you want? I'm annoyed that this film wasn't as good as i wanted it to be, but the ending made it seem like there could be a final installment in the not so Fantastic Four franchise.
