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Showing posts with the label sequel

POLTERGEIST III - VLOG REVIEW

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I take a look at diminishing returns in  Poltergeist III .

POLTERGEIST II: THE OTHER SIDE - VLOG REVIEW

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The first Poltergeist sequel gets a review.

CHRISTOPHER ROBIN - REVIEW

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Review available on the new website .

ESCAPE PLAN 2: HADES - REVIEW

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Review available on the new website .

GLASS - REVIEW

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Review available on the new website .

JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM - REVIEW

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Review available on the new website .

ATLANTIS: MILO'S RETURN - REVIEW

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Review available on the new website .

PACIFIC RIM: UPRISING - REVIEW

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Guillermo Del Toro's Pacific Rim was something of a breath of fresh air back in 2013. The increasingly tedious Transformers franchise was still going strong so finally seeing a genuinely fun and well made movie about giant robots fighting was hugely satisfying. For all its flaws, Pacific Rim was exactly what it sought out to be: a modern yet proudly cheesy version of Robot Jox crossed with a deadpan Japanese Kaiju movie. This was a thoroughly entertaining visual treat with some memorable city-set fight scenes and one delightfully over-the-top Idris Elba speech. Pacific Rim: Uprising takes place some years later as we meet Elba's character's son Jake Pentecost (John Boyega), a former Jaeger pilot turned thief who sells Jaeger parts on the black market. When he encounters Amara (Cailee Spaeny), a street-smart young orphan who has managed to make her own Jaeger, they are both caught by the Defense Corps and put to work as new recruits. As China's Shao Corporation g

THOR: RAGNAROK - REVIEW

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As the Justice League gets ready to finally unite in DC's latest crossover, Marvel delivers its third Thor movie: a neon-lit campy roller-coaster ride through the galaxy that sees the God of Thunder lose his beloved Mjolnir hammer and much more. The trailer for Thor: Ragnarok promised a colourful Flash Gordon -style fantasy epic with tons of over-the-top action, larger-than-life characters and a rocking soundtrack. Taking a page out of Guardians Of The Galaxy , this was set to be the inter-galactic adventure we wanted to see from Day 1. The good news is that Marvel wasn't lying and we got exactly what we expected: a ridiculously fun, action-packed comic-book sci-fi romp which should please the fans and effortlessly entertain everyone else. Chris Hemsworth has a lot of fun (perhaps too much fun?) as Thor and, even though he's much more bumbling than he probably should have been, he remains charming and likeable throughout. The plot sees Hela (Cate Blanchett), the Godde

BLADE RUNNER 2049 - LIKES & DISLIKES

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Behold! My latest lengthy Blade Runner 2049 rant!

BLADE RUNNER 2049 - REVIEW

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Set 30 years after the events of Ridley Scott's cult classic sci-fi noir  Blade Runner , Denis Villeneuve's Blade Runner 2049 aims to expand the world established by the original while also continuing the story of replicant hunter Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford). Our lead this time is K (Ryan Gosling), an advanced, more obedient type of replicant who also works as a Blade Runner, hunting down older models who are hiding all over Los Angeles. After taking down one of them, a farmer played by a criminally underused Dave Bautista, K finds the remains of another replicant buried nearby and an investigation is opened. This new development piques the interest of the mysterious Niander Wallace (Jared Leto), the creator of all new replicants. The investigation leads us back to Rick Deckard, who turns out to be the key to this whole mess. Meanwhile, K's relationship with hologram girlfriend Joi (Ana de Armas) goes weird places and a prostitute is tasked by someone to place a trac

WHY WOULD ANYONE WANT TO GO SEE JUMANJI 2?

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Some thoughts on the upcoming sequel to Jumanji .

WHY ARE YOU EXCITED ABOUT BLADE RUNNER 2049?

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Some thoughts on the upcoming Blade Runner 2049 .

HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 2 - REVIEW

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Hotel Transylvania being the box-office success that it was, a sequel was pretty much inevitable. The first film was your typical Romeo & Juliet type of scenario except silly and... about a human and a vampire. This sequel continues the story as Mavis and Jonathan welcome their first child. Once again, plot-wise this isn't exactly the most original thing out there but it works as Count Dracula (Adam Sandler) tries to encourage his grandson to become a monster just so his daughter will have to stay at the hotel instead of starting a new life somewhere else. When animated sequels start to bring babies into the mix, you know it's probably the end of that franchise being good ( Shrek Forever After , Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs ) but Hotel Transylvania 2 actually does a decent job at keeping afloat. The animation is, once again, fantastic with all the larger-than-life Tex Avery-style characters constantly doing something random and funny, the voice cast clearly havin

FINDING DORY - REVIEW

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Pixar's big 2016 release was Finding Dory , yet another sequel to another one of their most popular movies. This time, it's forgetful Dory's turn to be found (figuratively speaking) somewhere beyond the sea, as she sets out to reconnect with her estranged parents. Initially, a follow-up to Finding Nemo sounded like little more than another Cars -style cash-in but, watching the film, you quickly realise that its core plot actually does have potential. The idea that someone could forget their own parents is a heartbreaking one so Dory's journey does have some emotional weight to it. Dory being kind of a one joke character in the original film, it makes sense for this sequel to show the negative impact her short term memory loss has had on her life rather than constantly make light of it. Against all odds, this movie makes us care about Dory (Ellen DeGeneres) and her journey into the unknown. The action takes us to a Seaworld-style setting where our fish heroes are w

TRANSFORMERS: THE LAST KNIGHT - REVIEW

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Michael Bay returns to direct yet another Transformers sequel as the popular yet also critically reviled franchise again promises a darker, more emotional film packed with big, bombastic action scenes and a post-apocalyptic setting. Transformers: The Last Knight opens on a perplexing note as we're thrown into a full-on battle involving the 12 Knights of the Round Table including Merlin the Wizard (not kidding): a Stanley Tucci in full Monty Python mode. As it turns out, Merlin's magical powers were lent to him by early Transformers who allowed him to unleash dragons and such. Somehow, this has an impact on present day where Transformers are outlawed because they are blamed for reducing parts of Chicago to dust. Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg) is given a talisman by a dying Transformer Knight and he becomes the titular "last knight" as he is supposedly chosen to help defeat evil. With Optimus Prime busy floating in space and talking to octopus-haired robot villaine

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES - REVIEW

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Whether you like it or not, Disney is hell-bent on continuing the Pirates Of The Caribbean franchise no matter what. And so here we have Dead Men Tell No Tales , a fifth instalment attempting to reconnect the series to some familiar, once discarded characters in an original way. Not so much a Jack Sparrow spin-off this time, the film sees Henry Turner (Brenton Thwaites), Will Turner's (Orlando Bloom) son, set out on a lifelong quest to find the Trident Of Poseidon in order to break his father's curse. With the help of a down-and-out Jack Sparrow and accused "witch" Carina Smyth (Kaya Scodelario), an expert in astronomy and horology, he sets sail for the Devil's Triangle but the undead and frankly pissed-off Captain Salazar (Javier Bardem) is on their trail as he attempts to capture and kill Jack Sparrow, who once cursed him to sail the seas forever like a zombie ghost. Story-wise, this isn't too far off from the last movie which was about three different

JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 2 - REVIEW

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It's a fine line between a good thriller and a silly one but the first John Wick movie walked that line effortlessly delivering a tongue-in-cheek action flick with the perfect balance of cool and goofy. The film gave Keanu Reeves the comeback he deserved and a sequel soon followed. John Wick: Chapter 2 picks up roughly where the last film left off with John Wick facing the Russian mob in order to retrieve his beloved black Mustang. Of course, this leads to a big fight scene where John Wick goes around punching, kicking and shooting anything that moves in a parking garage before calling it even with Peter Stormare's mob boss. There's a short cameo from John Leguizamo, who played Wick's mechanic friend in the first movie, and the plot finally kicks in. This time, John Wick is forced to pay back his debt to an ex-assassin colleague when the latter blows up his entire house after Wick initially refuses to help. Pissed off but looking to quickly end this, Wick promptl

DAVID BRENT: LIFE ON THE ROAD - REVIEW

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David Brent, Ricky Gervais' entertainingly pathetic creation from cult series The Office , finally gets his own spin-off movie as the boss-turned-sales rep attempts to make his rock star dreams come true on a misguided UK tour. David Brent: Life On The Road first introduces us to Brent's new life as a sales rep for a bathroom supply firm and, this time, his co-workers aren't all that willing to politely play along with his ebullient cluelessness even if a couple of them do genuinely like him. The film is shot in the same mockumentary style as The Office with Brent and his bandmates talking to the camera throughout their journey. The tour is obviously a disaster from the get-go as the band members are instantly put off by Brent's blatant desperation, awful songwriting and bad sense of humour. The gigs are one catastrophe after another between Brent's naively offensive songs, no-one coming to see the band play and countless mishaps. Fans of awkward humour should

POLICE ACADEMY 4: CITIZENS ON PATROL - REVIEW

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The Police Academy trilogy being the resounding success that it was, there really was no reason for studios to stop making them. And stop they didn't so Police Academy 4: Citizens On Patrol was released in 1987 and pretty much all the main cast returned. Critics may not have been huge fans of Police Academy 3: Back In Training but this sequel was when they started truly getting tired of the franchise as it didn't perform as well at the box-office and it even scored a Razzie nomination. The plot is pretty much exactly the same as in the third movie so right there it's obvious the writers got lazy and a lot of the predictable jokes reflect that. Bobcat Goldthwait is back as the unintelligible Zed and good old G. W. Bailey shows up again for the first time since the original movie as Captain Harris. David Spade and Sharon Stone both get small roles that, frankly, could have easily been cut out of the film entirely. Apart from the fact it's almost completely a retre