Every since Harry Potter ended, there's been a big scramble to take the title of 'massive teen movie franchise that makes ridiculous amounts of money regardless of quality'. Twilight is obviously the series that snatched up that crown very quickly, but they made the mistake of making the majority of the series before Harry Potter released so it was only around for a few years … [Read more...]
Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters (2013) review by That Film Guy
After the original Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief took a healthy $200m+ at the box office, the sequel moved quietly into production. … [Read more...]
Epic (2013) review by That Film Guy
"From the makers of Ice Age" blazoned the poster for Blue Sky's new animated film Epic and much like their previous global box office success, this is a mixed bag in terms of quality. Following the success of Brave, it is to no surprise that lesser quality incarnations would follow. What Epic does have going for it are its visuals. Lush, rich and mesmerising to look at, if … [Read more...]
Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) review by That Film Guy
When JJ Abrams announced that he was going to reboot the Star Trek franchise, few could have imagined just how spectacularly he would have succeeded. Taking the term 'reboot' seriously, he created an alternative timeline in which the established narrative could be bent, modified and in some cases obliterated. Star Trek Into Darkness builds upon this idea and presents a … [Read more...]
Congo (1995) review by That Film Geek
Based on a 1979 novel my Michael Crichton, Congo is to story of an expedition to the Virunga region of the Congo by a disparate group for differing reasons, all of which have a link to an ancient lost city and it's incredible diamond mines. Congo opens with an expedition to the Congo to find a specific type of diamonds to be used in a new communication satellite by high-tech … [Read more...]
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) review by The Filmologist
From Original Series' episodes like A Private Little War and A Taste of Armageddon to The Next Generation's powerful two-part Chain of Command and nigh on the entirety of Deep Space Nine, Star Trek has always been strongly political. It should therefore come as little surprise that as the original crew bow out with their final voyage in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered … [Read more...]
Jack the Giant Slayer (2013) review by That Film Guy
In the continuing trend of fairytale to film adaptations comes the Bryan Singer directed Jack the Giant Slayer. In this case it's a retelling of the English folk tale of Jack and the Giant Beanstalk, but with the location moved to a pseudo-Arthurian fantasy land. Young farmhand Jack (Nicholas Hoult) is sent to the town of Cloister by his uncle to sell an old horse and cart, but … [Read more...]
Kon-Tiki (2012, Norway) review by That Film Guy
Norway's most expensive film to date, Kon-Tiki was rewarded for its efforts with an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film at the 85th Academy Awards. Directed by Joachim Ronning (Max Manus), Kon-Tiki stunningly recreates one of Norway's most famous national narratives, namely the crossing of the Pacific by Thor Heyerdahl (Pal Sverre Hagen) on a balsawood raft in an … [Read more...]
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) review by That Film Dude
Apparently because the Star Wars prequels didn't teach him to leave the old classics alone, George Lucas decided that what Indiana Jones needed was another sequel, even after Last Crusade ended the series on just about the best possible note twenty years before. Why it was deemed necessary to resurrect such a great trilogy, and not even bother to do the new film properly, is … [Read more...]
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) review by That Film Dude
Now this is much more like it. Temple of Doom, while good overall, was a disappointment after the unadulterated brilliance of Raiders of the Lost Ark, and as such the pressure was on to try and recapture the magic for the final film of the trilogy. Last Crusade is not the equal of Raiders. It does, however, come damned close, bringing back the light-heartedness and sense of fun … [Read more...]