May 20, 2013

Five Things I want To See Happen In “Man Of Steel”

Filed under: Film - General,Opinion — Rodney Twelftree @ 12:01 am

5-Things-I-Want-To-See-In-Man-Of-Steel-Logo

Expectations for Zack Snyder’s Superman reboot, Man Of Steel, are reaching fever pitch across the blogosphere – with each and every trailer, TV spot or featurette, anticipation grows exponentially, thanks largely to a reverential yet explosive take on the legendary superhero finally giving us something to care about. Like most, I was disappointed by Superman Returns (I can understand the reason we needed that film – to finally erase the visage of Christopher Reeve as the definitive screen Superman - but I still find it cloying and boring years later), and news of another Superman film so soon afterwards wasn’t exactly filling me with excitement. Marvel had done something similar with the Hulk – Ang Lee’s Hulk bored most people to death, while Leterrier’s Incredible Hulk manged to amp up the action and excitement and make itself at least a decent film – so one had to hope that Warners knew what they were doing.

Having Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan producing the film was the first step to putting the doubters on notice. Nolan’s pedigree was met with near universal acclaim, coming off the back of The Dark Knight trilogy’s success. Troubling, however, was the attachment of Zack Snyder to the director’s chair: Snyder’s polarizing take on Watchmen, his failure with Sucker Punch, and the waning glory from 300 and Dawn of The Dead meant his association with the film wasn’t exactly met with fanboy excitement. On the plus side, even if the film was a disaster, it would at the very least look amazing.

Click to read what I want to see in Man Of Steel….

May 19, 2013

From The Editor – May 19th 2013

Filed under: From the Editor,Website Update — Rodney Twelftree @ 12:01 am

May-19-2013

Morning folks! Hope you enjoyed our Star Trek Into Darkness review last week, and even if you’ve not seen the film yet, we promise the early part of our review doesn’t spoil it for you! As always, we try and be as accommodating as we can here at Fernby Films. If you haven’t read it yet, don’t fear…. scroll your mouse down a bit and there it will be, right beneath this very article!

Regular readers will be aware that we normally publish articles twice-weekly, on Mondays and Thursdays. Kicking off this week, we’re going to ramp up our schedule to publish 3 times a week! We’ve been sitting on a backlog of reviews for a while now, and at the pace we’re watching new films, it’s going to take an eternity to bring our thoughts on them to you! So, rather than maintain the regular 2-per-week schedule, we’re lifting that to 3 a week, for the foreseeable future. Hopefully we’ll be able to use this schedule to play catch-up on stuff we’ve reviewed aaaages ago! So check out our new articles, now on Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays!! What a way to keep yourself entertained!!

Some of the great movies we’re reviewing over the coming months include The Cabin In the Woods (look for this review on Wednesday!), Looper, Dredd, The Raid: Redemption, and a whole slew of current and back-catalog films (including our Man Of Steel review, which comes out in June!) for your edification. We kick things off on Monday, however, with an article I wrote detailing some of the things I’d love to see happen in Man Of Steel. The Five Things I Want To See will set tongues wagging, hopefully. Check it out, right here tomorrow!

Rodney T – EIC, fernbyfilms.com

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May 15, 2013

Movie Review – Star Trek Into Darkness

Filed under: Movie Review,Star Trek — Rodney Twelftree @ 8:37 pm

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- Summary -

Director :   JJ Abrams
Year Of Release :   2013
Principal Cast :  Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Benedict Cumberbatch, Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg, Karl Urban, Alice Eve, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, Bruce Greenwood, Peter Weller, Noel Clarke.
Approx Running Time : 133 Minutes
Synopsis:  A rogue Starfleet agent must be brought to justice by Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise.
What we think :   Action-packed sequel to 2009′s Star Trek doesn’t quite go boldly where no-one has gone before; Into Darkness spends a lot of time cribbing from the franchise’s pre-reboot history, a factor which ultimately makes this entire film ring somewhat hollow. Some of the plot and logic doesn’t make sense, Abrams seems reluctant to really pull the trigger on pushing the boundaries at times, and occasionally the film strays into overly silly confrontational moments that have little-to-no payoff. And there’s two crucial problems with the film that, while not ruining the experience for me, made me ponder whether Abrams is the right man to take Star Wars forward. Still, the action’s awesome, the film moves at a breakneck pace, and the visual effects will delight even the most cynical – but there’s too many nods to the fans in this one that overwhelmed any creativity I might have enjoyed.

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To Boldly Retread A Legendary Story.

When the planet Vulcan was destroyed in 2009′s Star Trek, JJ Abrams set the bar for what he was prepared to do to make his revised Trekiverse different from the previous thirty years of the franchise. He wasn’t afraid to shake things up, it seemed. It’s a pity, then, that the shaking up of the Trek universe seems to have stopped with that installment, because Into Darkness doesn’t seem to want to shake things up at all. Oh sure, it looks flashy, and superficially does some narrative barn-dancing, but Into Darkness has a number of crucial errors that stop it being as brazen, as daring, as outright arrogant as the ’09 film was. They’re heavily spoilery, so with that in mind, I’ll be dishing out this review’s official spoiler warning when you need to stop reading – especially if you haven’t seen the film, and actually want to.

Driving lessons weren't going quite to plan....

Driving lessons weren’t going quite to plan….

For those seeking a non-spoiler review, let me say this as plainly as possible. Into Darkness is as commercially swish, sharply filmed, glitteringly entertaining and, at times, jaw dropping, as its immediate predecessor. JJ Abrams taps into the zeitgeist once again with his alternative timeline Trek delivering all the explosive excitement, heart-pounding action sequences and superficially exciting narrative moments you could ask for. While I’d say it’s not really as good a film as Star Trek was back in ’09, Into Darkness takes us on yet another journey into the heart of space where danger lurks around every corner, and shadows aren’t always as accommodating as they appear to be. The film’s cracking pace, the hip-savvy dialogue and refusal to buckle to Trek conventions make Into Darkness one of the most approachable Trek films to date, and as far as sequels go it’s definitely as entertaining as the previous film – a film which retooled the ailing franchise for the millennial generation. This doesn’t mean it’s a perfect film – more on this down below – but as far as sheer popcorn-schnuffling enjoyment goes, they don’t come much bigger, badder and thrilling than Star Trek Into Darkness. And it’s definitely a film worth seeing on the Big Screen.

Henceforth, this review will be discussing key elements of Star Trek Into Darkness that involves plot and character spoilers. Reading further may spoil many of the surprises that await you when you watch this movie.

Click here for spoilers!!!

May 13, 2013

Movie Review – Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Filed under: Movie Review — Rodney Twelftree @ 12:01 am

- Summary -

Director :  Timur Bekmambetov
Year Of Release :   2012
Principal Cast : Benjamin Walker, Dominic Cooper, Anthony Mackie, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Jimmi Simpson, Marton Csokas, Rufus Sewell, Alan Tudyk.
Approx Running Time :  105 Minutes
Synopsis:  The story of Abraham Lincoln’s journey from a boy to a man, and eventually to the US Presidency, with vampires.
What we think : Sheer ludicrousness aside, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is everything the Twilight saga is not. It’s a fun, stylish, terribly inane romp in the very truest sense of the word, with a cast having a ball and a director at the top of his game. While I doubt Abe himself would look to kindly on the casual massacring of anybody, be they vamp or human, his core values and morals hold firm even in the face of demons from the dark. This is a film with little to bring to history, but a lot to enjoy about how it slots into it.

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Four score and eleven kills ago….

Four score and about a hundred and fifty years ago, Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, began slaughtering vampires. Betcha didn’t know that bit of history, didya? Okay, so that’s probably not true, but Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is a cavalier historical alternative which sets one of American’s greatest ever leaders against one of the world’s most feared and reviled monsters. The title alone evokes a hazy image of Honest Abe striding through the corridors of the White House, brandishing his hefty weapon of choice, dealing out death to the undead whilst still wearing that famous tall black hat. Sadly, that image isn’t represented in this film, but plenty of great ones are: in particular, Abraham Lincoln battling the vampire enemy aboard a steam train crossing a burning rail bridge. There’s a casual flamboyance to this film, a sense of adventure mixed with tinges of horror – there’s plenty of blood and gore, although considering the saturation level to which vampires have risen in pop-culture these days, I doubt that’ll put many folks off seeing it. Vampire Hunter is, if I can use the term, a genuine Bebmambetov film: flashy, visually gorgeous and stunningly mounted, although typically lacking in depth and emotive cohesion. Still, it’s a nice little film that never once tries to convince you of it being in any way legitimate.

Click to go hunting!!

May 9, 2013

Movie Review – Contraband

Filed under: Movie Review — Rodney Twelftree @ 12:01 am

- Summary -

Director :  Batlasar Kormakur
Year Of Release :   2012
Principal Cast :  Mark Wahlberg, Kate Beckinsale, Ben Foster, Giovanni Ribisi, Lukas Haas, Caleb Landry Jones, JK Simmons, Robert Wahlberg, David O’Hara, Diego Luna.
Approx Running Time :   110 Minutes
Synopsis:   Ex smuggler Chris Faraday must return to a life he left behind on order to stop his wife’s brother being killed after a drug run goes wrong. While he’s travelling to Panama to secure a job large enough to erase the debt, his wife and children remain in danger from a local criminal and his henchmen.
What we think :   Violent, nearly-awesome action/thriller plays more like a drama than an outright genre film, giving itself to the audience only in fits and spurts; the action is lackluster, the plot twists shocking (although perhaps not unexpected) and the production shrouded in darkness for much of its screen time. Contraband is an opaque look into the seedy underworld of smuggling between South America and the USA, although through the lens of Mark Wahlberg’s rather bland characterization of Chris Faraday’s stand-up criminal. While moments in this film are well made, there’s plenty of dull spots between them, resulting in a film which attains “so-so” status, not the exciting greatness the trailers would aspire to.

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If Jason Statham is the go-to guy for dependable b-movies in England, then Mark Wahlberg must surely be his American equivalent. Wahlberg, who cut his teeth in action films on The Big Hit, Three Kings and The Perfect Storm, has managed to carve a fairly dependable CV from his time in Hollywood; he’s not what you’d consider a frontrunner for an action movie, but when he does transition from dramatic roles such as The Fighter to outright action, he does a commendable job. Wahlberg is an actor I normally consider “vanilla”; not quite as rough as a Bruce Willis or a Stallone, nor as slick as Statham’s brooding, menacing approach, but a softly-softly style that sets him apart from the majority of his film-making brethren. He lacks the raw intensity of other action stars, yet doesn’t seem to let that stop him giving it a red hot go. I don’t always enjoy a Wahlberg performance, but I give the dude props for always trying to step out of his comfort zone. So what of Contraband, an action/thriller set against the backdrop of New Orleans and the Panama smuggling trade? Does Contraband bring back the glory days of The Big Hit, or is it actually a Big Miss?

Click for Contraband!

May 6, 2013

Movie Review – Immortals

Filed under: Movie Review — Rodney Twelftree @ 12:01 am

- Summary -

Director :  Tarsem Singh
Year Of Release :   2011
Principal Cast :  Henry Cavill, Freida Pinto, Mickey Rourke, Luke Evans, Steve Byers, Kellan Lutz, Stephen Dorff, Joseph Morgan, Isabel Lucas, Corey Sevier, John Hurt.
Approx Running Time :  110 Minutes
Synopsis:  Theseus, the bastard son of a raped woman living in Ancient Greece’s Hellenus region, takes up arms against the warring King Hyperion, who plans to unleash the imprisoned Titan’s from Mount Tartarus and take on the Gods themselves.
What we think :  This bizarre mix of 300, Wrath of The Titans and a perfume commercial, Immortals rates as one of the confused films I’ve had the pleasure of watching in the last 12 months. Featuring an overabundance of story material, a lack of focus against the backdrop of impending war, and the depressing landscape of 10th Century BC Greece, Immortals strives for capturing the myth and can’t. Stylishly told, sure, and featuring an impressive cast, but undone by Tarsem’s singular drive to make everything look like a postcard, I was more impressed with what they achieved in this film than the film itself, leaving me cold to the story and to the characters.

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In recent times, audiences have had their fill of the world of Ancient Greece – from the Titans franchise starring Sam Worthington and that damned Kraken, to 300 and Gerard Butler’s Spartan warcry, the life and times of the ancient Mediterranean has been well pillaged on cinema screens of late, and Immortals is no different. While the marketing material for this film screams about how the producers also made 300, the disappointing thing about the film is that it comes across as a diet cola version of that masterpiece. There’s blood, gore and battles galore, as well as eerie creatures of pain and agony, while Gods lounge about on Mt Olympus like a family on holiday from life; visually the film is terrific, but it’s the story and the overall….. tone of the movie that just seems clumsily handled. Immortals isn’t badly made, not in the least, it’s just that it feels too convoluted and too produced for its own good.

Click here for more Immortal action!

May 2, 2013

Movie Review – Total Recall: Director’s Cut (2012)

Filed under: Movie Review — Rodney Twelftree @ 12:01 am

- Summary -

Director :  Len Wiseman
Year Of Release :   2012
Principal Cast: Colin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale,Jessica Biel, Bryan Cranston, Bokeem Woodbine, Bill Nighy, John Cho.
Approx Running Time :   130 Minutes  (Director’s Extended Version)
Synopsis:   Doug Quaid finds himself the potential savior of mankind when he learns his memory has been wiped, in order to infiltrate the resistance group leading a battle against a ruthless government.
What we think :   If you can disassociate yourself from the 1990 Arnold Schwarzenegger original, this modern update of Total Recall isn’t actually too bad. Sure, it cribs from Arnie’s version, and steals certain elements of that sci-fi classic (as well as a bunch of others), but in its defense it does deviate considerably in terms of plot, characters and motivation: here, the quest is not simply for air on Mars, but peace on Earth. While it lacks real grunt in the story department, this edition of Total Recall more than makes up for it with effects, a pulsating soundtrack, and two eminently watchable female actresses tearing into each other. It’s never going to surpass the classic tone of the original (and how on Earth could it ever?) but it does offer modern audiences a slick, effective action thrill-ride that brings a new audience to Philip K Dick’s classic story.

**********************

Total Recall: people born after 1990 may have hazy memories of this film being an early Arnie sci-fi classic, but here, in the second decade of the new millennium, we’re given a shiny new edition to play with. While I’m not against remakes overall, I admit to a little lethargy getting excited every time a Hollywood mogul decides he’s got a better vision for a classic film than the classic film had for itself. After all, those classic films need remaking, right? That’s what the kids want, right? Okay, perhaps not, but there might be a time and a place to remake an older story, and Philip K Dick’s novella, We Can Remember It For You Wholesale, seems ripe for a modern twist thanks to state-of-the-art visual effects and cinematic sensibilities. Paul Verhoeven might be somewhere dark right now, gnashing his teeth at the cheek Columbia Pictures had for green-lighting this remake, considering his film from 1990 is rightly considered a bona fide classic of the genre, but you look back on Total Recall from 1990 and think of how that story could be improved, the visuals could be updated, and the character given broader scope in which to play, and you’ll probably see the same tantalizing sense of promise I did when I first heard this film was coming down the line. But what is the end result of this effort from director Len Wiseman: is 2012′s Total Recall a trip down memory lane, a sullying of the glory of Verhoeven’s memory, or in itself a classic science fiction opus sure to remain in the mind’s eye of a new generation when they think about three-breasted women?

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April 29, 2013

Movie Review – The Bourne Legacy

Filed under: Movie Review — Rodney Twelftree @ 12:01 am

- Summary -

Director :  Tony Gilroy
Year Of Release :   2012
Principal Cast :   Jeremy Renner, Rachel Weisz, Edward Norton, Joan Allen, David Strathairn, Albert Finney, Scott Glenn, Louis Ozawa Changchien, Oscar Isaac, Donna Murphy, Zeljko Ivanek, Elizabeth Marvel, Shane Jacobsen.
Approx Running Time :   125 Minutes
Synopsis:   Alex Cross, one of the operatives from the Treadstone experiment, goes up against those who created him alongside scientist Marta Shearing, outrunning the constant pursuit and engagement be other agency plants.
What we think :  This slight change of pace for the Bourne franchise is well filmed, well acted but ultimately a case of being something of a stepping stone between Ultimatum and whatever the next film is going to be. While the narrative runs concurrently with events in The Bourne Ultimatum, and features a lot of the same cast in their respective roles, Tony Gilroy’s solid direction can’t quite seem to lift the veil of “so what” that surrounds this film, because Alex Cross isn’t (yet) a character we care about. An attention-diverting entry into what has been until now a pretty dependable franchise, The Bourne Legacy seems to be the first misstep in this saga’s potential.

**********************

Bourne again…. only without Bourne himself.

With the end of The Bourne Ultimatum, you kinda got the sense that the story told with Matt Damon in the driver’s seat had run its course; the plot threads were wrapped up, the characters all concluded and the three-film narrative arrived at what was its seemingly natural three-act conclusion. The story of The Bourne Legacy, which gives us a new central “hero” to invest in, feels more like a profit making exercise than a genuinely involving continuation of the franchise, a franchise that, I might add, was exceptionally well built from the first installment, and continued under the stylish eye of director Paul Greengrass. While much of the same plot devices from the previous films make their way into this one, and the listing between on-the-run fugitives and in-a-bunker-with-screens CIA surveillance sequences continues unabated, The Bourne Legacy tries to reach the heights of what has come before, and doesn’t quite make it. It’s not bad – it’s just not that great by comparison, either. So what is it about The Bourne Legacy that misfires? Is it the casting? The story? Or the fact that this film doesn’t include Jason Bourne?

Click here to read more about this Legacy!

April 26, 2013

Movie Review – Underworld: Awakening

Filed under: Movie Review — Rodney Twelftree @ 12:01 am

- Summary -

Director :   Mans Marlind & Bjorn Stein
Year Of Release :   2012
Principal Cast :  Kate Beckinsale, India Eisly, Michael Ealy, Theo James, Stephen Rea, Kris Holden-Reid, Charles Dance, Sandrine Holt.
Approx Running Time :  88 Minutes
Synopsis:  Selene returns after 12 years in stasis, to discover she has a daughter and the Lycan’s have begun to resurface after the humans tried to wipe them out. Basically, more of the same.
What we think :  This uninspiring sequel delivers everything fans of the Underworld saga have no doubt been clamoring for, although for the life of me I can’t understand what that might be. Awakening never really goes for the jugular, content instead to remain a middling, flashy-yet-passionless story of a mother and her daughter that just simpers along, devoid of any sense of fun and unable to really make any kind of point. As vacuous entertainment goes, I guess if you’re interested in seeing Beckinsale firing guns every two minutes, and a secondary cast that just does nothing but stand around complaining, then Awakening is the film for you. A meandering, squandered opportunity to return Selene (and Beckinsale) to her rightful place as one of the top female franchise stars of the modern era.

**********************

A Vamp Flick With Limited Bite

After a disjointed threequel that never really added to the Underworld legacy, and was missing the central cog that made the franchise work – Beckinsale in a tight black costume – the fourth installment of the not-quite-True-Blood-but-better-than-Twilight vampire saga ekes out tentative entertainment that more often than not, misses the mark completely. Underworld: Awakening ties into the events of the previous Beckinsale episode, Evolution, but never really feels part of the same world, if that makes sense. It’s a lackluster affair, the kind of sequel that is now almost entirely riding on the goodwill of the viewing public without trying to generate any of its own – the film can’t stand on its own as a complete story, nor does it really add anything of import to the franchise overall other than to give Selene a daughter and reduce Scott Speedman’s character (he declined to appear in this film) to a series of flashbacks and poorly executed digital facial doubles. Fans of this saga will no doubt howl with protest at my assessment of this film, because it is basically a carbon copy of the two original films and I guess in that frame of mind this film is absolutely terrific, but as its own entity it remains a missable, unfinished effort that lacks both resolution and coherence.

Click here to go further into Awakening!

April 24, 2013

Movie Review – A Lonely Place To Die

Filed under: Movie Review — Rodney Twelftree @ 12:01 am

- Summary -

Director :  Julian Gilbey
Year Of Release :   2011
Principal Cast :   Melissa George, Ed Speelers, Eamonn Walker, Sean Harris, Alec Newman, Karel Rodan, Kate Magowen, Stephen McCole, Garry Sweeny.
Approx Running Time :   99 Minutes
Synopsis:   Four mountain climbers in Scotland stumble across a girl buried in a box. That’s all you need.
What we think :  A pinch of Cliffhanger, a little bit of Ransom, and a whole heap of pretty tense film-making – A Lonely Place To Die delivers a solid, entertaining premise in a tense, exciting way. About the only problem with this film is Melissa George’s accent, but don’t let that hold you back from checking out this unseen gem. A terrific, surprising film.

**********************

For those moments you want to become more “outdoors-y”….

I’m not sure which terrifies me more: mountain climbing, Cliffhanger style, or being stuck underground in a box with only a small tube for air to come in. I know, here’s an idea: combine both those elements and make a film about it. A Lonely Place To Die, c-written and directed by Julian Gilbey, is shot in and around the highlands of Scotland, a country we see far too little of in these survival thriller films, and the landscape is truly evocative of the very title of the film. Indeed, the craggy outcrops and vast wilderness are eerily terrifying for somebody afraid of being lost in a place like that. With a premise as simple as it is terrifying, coupled with an unforgiving landscape and some brutal, really scary Bad Guys, A Lonely Place To Die is a surprising tension package that delivers great thrills, some nice death sequences, and some brilliant photography of Scotland.

Warning: No Spoilers Ahead.

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