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Top Gun: Maverick

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 Released: May 27th 2022 Directed By: Joseph Kosinski Cast: Tom Cruise, Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Charles Parnell Legacy movies seem to be all the rage these days (Past massive cinematic universes that is). Some of pulled it off really well, with films like Blade Runner 2049 almost being better than the original, some not so well like independence day resurgence, some being a bit of fun to pass off as alright with Jurassic World, and some being The Force Awakens. How these movies do well is another story, now though the latest movie to try its hand at a legacy reboot is Top Gun. No matter what you think of the original it is fair to say that the cultural impact and quotability is much greater than any plot point in the originals story, with not much to go on past some manliness and jet fighters. Top Gun 2 however is a completely different story. From the get go you know the stakes are higher and actually manages to make the "fish out of water" old guard trope

Dune

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Released: October 21st 2021 Directed By: Dennis Villeneuve Cast: Timothee Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson Josh Brolin, Oscar Isaac, Dave Bautista, Javier Bardem, Sharon Duncan-Brewster Being a rampant defender of cinema lockdown was a particularly troublesome time for me. In a world where streaming only gets bigger and bigger it becomes hard to justify why spending £10 to GO to the movies to see a film is worth it. Enter Dune. Some names have become synonymous with the cinema experience, none more so than Dennis Villeneuve, and Dune is a spectacular example of this, showing the beauty of film it al its aspect. Dune is based of the book of the same name and one would hope it isn't spoiler free to mention that this is Dune part 1 of two ( or three ). Going in knowing very little about the story I was worried about whether it would get too caught up in itself and produce something that leaves me confused rather than entertained. Boy was I wrong. Dune is an absolute spectacle of a

Venom: Let there be Carnage

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  Released: October 15th 2021 Directed by: Andy Serkis Cast: Tom Hardy, Woody Harrelson, Naomi Harris, Michelle Williams, Stephen Graham Sigh. I thought Venom 1 was enough to make me depressed ( as I'm sure I'll talk about one day ), so why I even thought Venom 2 would be any different is a mystery. Perhaps an Andy Serkis directorial feature, perhaps a cooler and more recognizable villain, or perhaps even vague hope. Alas did it make much difference ? No. No it didn't. Let there be Carnage is marginally better than the first, and I mean marginally. It's a shame really, because I did put a lot of hope in Serkis to do a better job, but watching this film... Its and absolute mess. From the tone to the story and even the characters its hard to imagine how it could go so wrong.  The start of the film doesn't set it off on a great path. A very rushed origin sequence for the main villains before we are straight into the nonsense, with such a confused montage which funnily

No time to die

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  Released: 30th September 2021 BBFC rating: 12 Directed by: Cary Jojo Fukunaga Cast: Daniel Craig, Lea Seydoux, Rami Malek, Lashana Lynch, Ben Whishaw, Ralph Fiennes, Jeffery Wright After 18 months of long, hard deliberation, No time to die has finally hit the big screen. Question is, was it worth the wait ? Did all that time build up hype that couldn't be delivered ? Is this the send off we all wanted ? Answer: yes, yes it is. No time to die is an absolutely incredible end to the five film story we have gotten over the last 15 years, with plenty of action, heartbreak, callbacks and so in, even just in the opening sequence !  I think tonally you can tell this is a different Bond film, which plays really well with the character development I feel, and overall does show that something has happened throughout Spectre. I also really enjoyed the villain, I think Rami is an unnerving, psychotic and truly unpredictable antagonist for Bond, and I think over his inclusion in this plot real

Wonder Woman 1984

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Released: Dec 16th 2020 BBFC Rating: 12 Directed by: Patty Jenkins Cast: Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Kristen Wigg, Pedro Pascal, Robin Wright Taking a look back at the DCEU; there have been highs, there have been lows, and there have been your 2016's Suicide Squad's. Many would attribute ( as would I ) that the height of this series came with the 2017 hit, Wonder Woman. So surely the same character with the same director we would get another smash hit? Sadly not. WW84 seems so distant from the original in so many ways I could only come out disappointed. And look, I didn't walk into this film wanting a copy-paste of the original, but it would be nice for it to be conceivable that these were in the same universe. From the get-go it feels like these two films are completely different animals, with this one leaning way too heavily into the happy-go-lucky feeling, especially by the end of the film with some of the events that are thrown up. I think the story suffers the same problem,

Without Remorse

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Released: April 21st 2021 ( Amazon prime ) Directed by: Stefano Solima BBFC Rating: 15 Cast: Michael B. Jordan, Guy Pierce, Jamie Bell, Jadie Turner-Smith Streaming movies are all the rage these days, with all the main services itching to get out their latest blockbuster to boost subscriptions, and what better way to do it then to capitalise on a well know franchise like a book series. Without Remorse is a direct adaptation of the book by Tom Clancy of the same name and builds upon the universe set out by Amazons Jack Ryan TV series, which I absolutely loved. Without Remorse however did not impress me so. On the whole perhaps it was because I was expecting something which was somewhat the same as the TV series, but there are issues none the less. From the get-go though there are praises to be made. I think that there is some very solid acting in the film, from both Jordan and Pierce and that for the most part the action sequences of the film are very good looking. I feel however both a

The Suicide Squad review: A new page for DC ?

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Released: July 30th (U.K.) BBFC rating: 15 Directed by James Gunn Cast: Idris Elba, John Cena, Margot Robbie, Joel Kinnaman, Viola Davis, David Dastmalchian, Daniela Melchior It would be fair to say that my thoughts on the previous Suicide Squad were....... not positive but, frankly, quite fair. I have covered it a lot on this website, which for a film I really don’t like is quite surprising, but how does DC’s reattempt at its most lacklustre film compare? Well in one word: Insane. And that’s about as much you can say without spoiling it so I’m going to have to go into some territory in which you want to know nothing look away. The Suicide Squad is a completely different film – its almost shocking to think these characters could exist in the same universe. I love how this one behaves as a film; it is quite noticeably not a formulaic superhero film and from the get-go feels very out of place in the genre. It doesn’t hold your hand and overexplain, not getting caught up in re-explaining