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Showing posts with the label dwayne johnson

GET SMART - REVIEW

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Review available on the new website .

DOC SAVAGE RETURNS? - PODCAST

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We briefly talk about Doc Savage: The Man Of Bronze and its upcoming remake on episode 3 of The Big Rewind .

BAYWATCH - REVIEW

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Loosely based on the popular 90's television series, Baywatch is a blockbuster comedy starring Dwayne Johnson and Zac Efron as lifeguards who investigate a potential drug lord suspected of conducting their business around the beach. The comedic approach to Baywatch makes sense: everyone knows how silly the show was and everyone made fun of it to a certain extent back when it was on, even if you enjoyed it. Friends celebrated its goofiness back in the 90's and there have been countless spoofs since, including a memorable cameo by David Hasselhoff in  The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie . Unfortunately, dated TV shows rarely translate all that well into big blockbusters: CHiPs (also released last year) got panned, everyone forgot there even was an A-Team movie and the  Starsky & Hutch  movie didn't exactly re-invent cinema, though it was admittedly a fun watch. With a project like this, arguably the best approach is to take a page from Airplane! 's book and play

WHY WOULD ANYONE WANT TO GO SEE JUMANJI 2?

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Some thoughts on the upcoming sequel to Jumanji .

THE FATE OF THE FURIOUS: REVIEW - PODCAST

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Jamie & I discuss The Fate Of The Furious on episode 73 of podcast The Big Rewind .

MOANA - REVIEW

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While Zootopia was the bigger non-Pixar animated hit for Disney in 2016, Moana was still a considerable success both at the box-office and with audiences who praised the stunning animation and its South Pacific setting. As the big "Disney Princess" movie of the year, complete with flashy musical numbers and cute animal sidekicks, Moana was a much more traditional Disney animated feature than Zootopia so had the latter failed to deliver, this would have no doubt been the studio's sure-fire hit. It is surprising, frankly, that the film was not given a Summer release considering its sunny, exotic setting as that might have actually given it a bit of a boost. Story-wise, the film follows Moana (voiced by Auli'i Cravalho), daughter to the chief of a small Polynesian island, who finds herself stuck with the responsibilities of being the chief's heir until she is compelled to leave the island in search of a way to stop its inexplicable curse. She encounters demigo

THE LITTLE REVIEW: THE FATE OF THE FURIOUS - PODCAST

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We review The Fate Of The Furious on podcast The Big Rewind .

THE FATE OF THE FURIOUS - REVIEW

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The Fast And The Furious franchise got its 8th instalment this year with The Fate Of The Furious , another action-packed, star-studded rollercoaster ride which promised an even bigger scale, crazier set-pieces, a new intimidating villain and some unexpected twists and turns.  The film opens with a street race, something that helped make this franchise popular early on, as Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) makes a point by racing someone in a juiced-up relic that's slowly falling apart. It's corny and completely ridiculous but it's a welcome homage to those films' relatively humble beginnings. This is as sensible as it gets in this movie, believe it or not, as the plot that soon unfolds only gets sillier and sillier. The Fast And The Furious movies have made a point to attempt to jump the shark higher and higher each time and it's somehow paid off with audiences flocking to each new instalment. Series veteran Vin Diesel plays a villain of sorts in this one as ev

THE FATE OF THE FURIOUS - VLOG 18/04/17

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I finally talk about The Furious F8.

PAIN & GAIN - REVIEW

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Well well well... Who knew that Michael Bay still had one ok film in him?! Based on a true story, Pain & Gain sees Mark Wahlberg's Daniel Lugo come up with a plan to kidnap some obnoxious rich dude and steal all his dough with the help of a couple of other bodybuilders (played by Dwayne Johnson and Anthony Mackie) and soon finding himself trying to desperately contain the damage he's caused. The film is big, dumb, bloated and completely over the top. And, you know what? That's exactly what it needed to be. After all, most of it is seen through the eyes of our main characters, slightly unhinged, not very smart fellas, so the film's overblown style does make sense. Unlike with the Transformers movies, you've got context that makes sense here. Plus Bay captures the goofy nature of 90's action movies really well. The result is basically Scarface meets Pumping Iron crossed with a little The Whole Nine Yards . I say that because the film really does pla

PAIN & GAIN - VLOG 03/09/13

FAST & FURIOUS 6 - VLOG 20/05/13

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FAST & FURIOUS 6 - REVIEW

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With a trailer promising tanks, loads more car-related shenanigans and... planes, Fast & Furious 6 certainly looked like tons of fun. And after genuinely enjoying the high-speed nonsense that was Fast Five , I was definitely looking forward to this one. Following on the "big twist" at the end of Fast Five, Michelle Rodriguez's return, this six-quel presents us with more Dwayne Johnson/Vin Diesel bromance (they don't hate each other this time), a brand new villain played by the usually reliable Luke Evans and a Michelle Rodriguez subplot which would have probably had more impact on me had I even known that her character had died in one of those sequels I failed to catch. Her disappearance is explained away in the most hilariously soap-opera way imaginable: one flashback and, I kid you not, AMNESIA. I can't wait until they introduce Vin Diesel's evil twin! Most of the action this time takes place in Spain and in London and, as relentless as the latt

THE BIG REWIND: FAST & FURIOUS 6 - PODCAST

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G.I. JOE: RETALIATION - REVIEW

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And Dwayne Johnson does it again... It's looking like The Rock has not only made a comeback but he's decided to go around stealing franchises. To some extent that's what he did with The Scorpion King and Journey 2 but as of late, with Fast Five and now   G.I. Joe: Retaliation , it looks like we'll be seeing a whole lot of him in the near future. Sadly, no word on a Southland Tales spin-off yet... This sequel to the wildly ridiculous but strangely enjoyable first G.I. Joe film, The Rise Of Cobra , follows the story some time later, not right after. Yes Jonathan Pryce's evil twin is still the President, yes Channing Tatum is still around but Dwayne Johnson's now part of the gang, everyone's following the President's crazy orders, Cobra and Destro have been captured and are now kept in glass coffins in some impossible-to-reach location, Bruce Willis is... Joe? Basically this movie is one cast member and plot thread away from being a complete reb

G.I. JOE: RETALIATION - VLOG 16/04/13

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