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Star Trek

Needless to say at fightrunne towers we were never that excited about this one as like most people we suffered from Trek overload with Next Gen/DS9/Voyager/Enterprise beating us into submission with their blandness and just all round boredom factor 9. So when Lost/Cloverfield writer JJ Abrams announced he was going to re-boot the franchise it was met with a “huh so what?” kind of reaction.

So this movie takes us back to the Early days of Kirk, Spock, Bones, Sulu, Uhura, Checkov and Scotty. We see the academy days and first mission of the young crew through our new fresh faced cast. Now I refuse to go into plot here as to be fair it stinks and makes little sense when you give it a second look, it would fry Spock’s logic centres. Needless to say its some malarkey involving time travel and Old Spock.

So the script and plot are weak , does anything Boldly save the grand daddy of SF from its big screen re-birth?

Yes.

That being the acting becuase the casting here is so spot on its spooke how close this young bunch nail the characters whilst bringing something new. Praise has to go first to Karl Urban as Bones McCoy whilst maybe not having the physical appearence the perfmance is uncanny and he delivers some of the films funniest moments. Next up for a mention is Anton Yelchin as Checkov and he has to be one to wactch for the future. The new Captain Kirk also hits the ground running as a womanising, drinking fighting alpha male type that we all imagined the young Kirk to be so another tip of the hat to Chris Pine. The rest of the cast like i say all fill their roles perfectly and there is no feeling of graves being tread on.

So ovrall? this is a light , fun movie and a perfect set-up for some more meaty adventures for this new crew. Ignore the terrible plot and just enjoy it for the fun ride it is

Rating – 7/10

A lightweight story saved by some great acting.

gran torrino

Inferno and I were at a loose end after having a crappy pub lunch so we decided to stuff this one in the DVD player. Its been out for a while and I thought it looked cool in the trailers, so I was rather optimistic… after all, how often is it that Clint Eastwood fails to deliver?

Grand Torrino is the story of an old Korean war vet by the name of Walter Wakowski, played by Eastwood. At the start of the film, we realise he has just said goodbye to the only thing he ever gave a damn about, his loving wife. It doesnt take him long to realise that he is surrounded by a world that has changed since the glory days of the 50’s. His family are a bunch of stuck up, self obsessed shit wipes and the local neighbourhood is running down hill faster than Steven Hawkin with a broken wheelchair. A family of Vietnamese has moved in next door to him and constantly seem to erk him by just existing. Soon however he finds himself helping the young son from next door from falling into the trap of getting involved with a gang. He “reluctantly” befriends his neighbours and finds that, for all their differences, they are more like the old ways than most white Americans these days. After his “unique” getting to know you phase, Walt actually quite takes to the young lad who he first meets as he is trying to steal Walts car, a ford Gran Torrino. He helps him find work and generally pushes him on his way to becoming a man… He also rubs the local Vietnamese gang up the wrong way when they try to take young Tao into their gang, he shoves his US Army issue M1 Grand into their faces and blurts out a stak of well thought out racist slurs and threats. The more he gets to know his new friends, the deeper he gets into this new trouble, but it all seems to make him feel more alive than he has since the glory days!

Now this wasn’t the film I was expecting… I thought it was gonna be a out and out vengence movie, with old Clint doing the Dirty Harry Shtick one more time for the road. But instead this movie is a sort of tale of how urban life has changed in the US and how some of that change is good but most however is for the worse. Walter is a symbol for the old America, failing to move with the times, but still has something to teach the new America.

There is no real action in this film at all really, but Eastwood seems to hold your attention non the less. He maybe in his 70’s now but he can still do that grizzly “you better think twice before messing with me” lines with recless abandon.

For me it was missing a sort of “Big moment” a “stand alone scene” that you will always remember… maybe that’s for the good but none the less it could have done a little more.

Verdict: 7/10

Not what I expected, there is life in the old dog yet.

X-men Origins : Wolverine

After a good year for the comic movies last year with Iron Man, Dark Knight and Incredible Hulk all showing what can be done when a comic movie sticks to the source material. We get arguably amongst you comic fan boys the most popular anti-hero getting his very own movie. Hugh Jackman made this role his own the mixed X-men trilogy playing the role right on the money so a full length feature focusing on him should get the nerves tingling. So with that the fightrunner team gathered for our weekly assualt on the Vue cinema in Aberdeen.

And on paper things look good we see the early days of wolverine and his brother sabertooth some 145 years ago and then through some intriguing shots we see them fighting in all the major conflicts of the past century until present day where they are employed by the mysterious General Stryker to join a band of mercs who also posses special abilities. During a mission in Nigeria Wolverine has a crisis of conscience and retreats to a simple life as a lumberjack in Canada living out a wholesome life with a school teacher. Sabertooth then murders his girlfriend and Wolverine agrees to take part in the Weapon X programme with Stryker to get his revenge, it is here that he gets his Adamantium skeleton and wolverine as we know and love him is born.

On paper it all sounds good and for the first 15 minutes things look promising as the band of mercs including Ryan Reynolds as one of my comic book faves Deadpool (or the character who will become him later) and Reynolds nails this role and at the start i had very high hopes but then the film goes awry. The plot just becomes a very disorganised mess punctated by some decent fight scenes and dodgy CGI. The whole movie feels rushed and the makers were 50/50 on wether to keep true to the comics or try the best please everyone route and keep clear from the source.

Point in case is the later appearance of Deadpool or what the writers have made Deadpool into and this is not Deadpool in anyway. The whole appeal of this character was the “merc with a mouth” and in the opening Reynolds hits it perfectly but at the end Deapool can’t talk. What the fuck? Its like spider-man with no webs, superman no lasers from his eyes, hulk not smashing you get the picture. Now I’m not  fan boy and will allow movie makers a little licence when bringing a comic character from the page to screen but to fundamentally change such a popular character in such a way is a crime.

Another sticking point is the very crap CGI employed at times like the scene where wolverine is checking out his new claws in a bathroom looks just shite. I have no idea why they didn’t just use prop claws as they would have done the job. But like i say there is some entertaining action and an array of marvel characters are ticked of the list but it feels like that  they are trying to satisfy the comic book spotters in the audience. But this film is way of the mark for casual and hardcore viewer alike as the plot twists that come just don’t shock or excite. But the movie gains some points with the Fightrunner team for a brief Patrick Stewart cameo.

Rating : 4/10

Not the Dogs Bollocks , just a dogs dinner.

I ended up seeing state of play on Friday night at the local cinema. It wasn’t my choice honest – I wanted to see Wolverine. Reading reviews this film was supposed to be an electrifying thriller, a rollercoaster ride of a film. Think I must have seen the other version of this film. It was dull, boring and nothing that gave this film any glimmer of hope.

Plucky report  “Cal McCaffery” played by Russell Crowe links two seemingly unrelated murders to the nations senior political figures. The film follows him as he pieces the clues together. The information is drip fed – SLOWLY. The twist at the end I guessed in the first five minutes and the hardest thing about this film was trying to stay awake.

The acting is standard, nothing worthy of oscars, or the coveted fightrunner praise. I am no fan of Ben Affleck who delivers his usual performance, as does Russell Crowe. Under utilised Helen Mirren does add a few minor comedy moments which seem to waken up the audience up as they are starting to fall asleep.

There is a rather useless hitman, who pops up from time to time in the film. Then decides to get himself killed at the end of the film which I didnt quite understand. Wheres Frank Castle when you need him.

There is more depth in a puddle than there was in the characters in this film. The characters are so one dimensional.  There was nothing that drew the audience in, nothing that I related to in the film. Just absolutely terrible.

This film is definitely one to miss. A waste of time, a waste of money and a waste of talent. This is the most boring thrillers ever made. Worse than a straight to video release.

Rating:  -1/10

Miss this at all costs – even as a sat afternoon film on five.

TAKEN

Seeing as there was no films about Zombie Nazi’s left at the old blockbuster store, Inferno and myself decided to rent a more mainstream, but still blokey film. I had only heard good things about this movie and I was pretty optimistic.

The plot: Liam Neeson plays Bryan Mills, a retired CIA agent who is trying to be closer to his daughter as she grows into a young woman. The pressures of his old lifestyle has already broken his marriage and his daughter now lives with her cunt of a mother who has shacked up with some old rich dude that keeps trying to buy her affection. Mills realises that he has to make up for all the time he was away on missions as his daughter was growing up, when she asks if she can travel in Europe for a few weeks with a friend, he is reluctant but realises that he may loose her if he doesn’t allow her to grow up.

Turns out this was a bad idea, as she is only in France a few hours when her friend and her are kidnapped by Albanian pimps. She is on the phone to her father as it happens and he talks to one of the abductors, vowing to use his CIA skills to track them down and kill them all. When he arrives in France, it doesn’t take him long to start putting clues together and soon he is on to there case. Cue the onslaught of uber violence as he beats, shoots, explodes and brutally tortures his way through the European underworld in order to locate his beloved daughter.

Neeson is outstanding in this movie. To be honest, he has made a living out of playing stony faced serious types and you know what? He does it here again… but he does it so well that you just have to love him for it. He is about 55 now, but he still comes across as a pretty fit dude. You can honestly believe that he can handle himself as you are presented with him taking on an entire crack house full of Albanian scum bags and handing them the beat down of the millennium.

The violence is pretty extreme, not overly gory, just you can see the rage inside Nessons character as he desperately tries to get his daughter back. It soon becomes apparent that he will stop at nothing to achieve this. One scene in particular conveys this, he tortures a man by ramming two 6 inch nails into his thigh bones, then attaches them to the house mains via crocodile clips…. OOCHAAA!!! Also heads get smashed in car doors, a dude gets a broken bottle stabbed into his chest, another gets a fire extinguisher rammed off his face 8 or 9 times and more people get chopped in the throat than I care to remember.

This movie is dark and violent, but I still think that most women will still enjoy it, as every moment in this film, you can see the love that Neesons character has for his daughter. You know that although he is being a brutal monster at times, it is all spawned for that love that can never be broken. Have to say it again, Neeson is unbelievably good in this!!!

Dark, broody, violent, intelegent film making, that is a relief after this years wishy washy cinema realises.

Verdict: 9/10

Let it TAKE your attention to the darker side of life.

Jaws

Even the title should be enough to sum this one up, in fact no other movie could be explained and reviewed just by mentioning the title. Here I am after managing a keeping my attention span to 10 minutes of watching “An Inconvenient Truth” (hell even Ron Jeremy would be impressed with that stamina) i decided to reach for the movie that never fails when there is fuck all else on. To say this movie is re-watch able is akin to saying “here that Jessica Alba would be worth a go” quite simply my movie watching year is incomplete without firing this shiny disc up at least 20 times a year.

So you want to know the plot do you ?

Are you serious?

You really want a synopsis for this?

What fucking planet have you yet to evolve from to not know the story of this?.

Well i might as well entertain those who suffer the huge disadvantage in life of not having seen this. Small Island of the North East Coast of USA. Hippy late night party on beach. Drunk girl and drunk guy run of for skinny dipping. Drunk girl swims off while drunk guy passes out. Drunk girl eaten alive but you never see the shark. Police chief fears shark attack. Mayor says no. Little kid chomped by shark. Shark hunt catches a shark. Wrong Shark. Another bather chomped. Crusty old seaman hired to get shark. Police Chief, Crusty Old Seaman and Biologist go out after shark. Final third of shark getting chased by trio.

Now I can wax about what makes this movie a fucking masterpiece and one of the most iconic pieces of cinema in existence. It is no known secret that in making this movie the script was incomplete and was being written as it was being filmed hence a lot of what is on the screen is improvised. The opening scene sets the tone for the movie, The young girl getting eaten by the unseen shark is primal and chilling to the core but is just one of many classic scenes. In fact every minute of this movie is a classic scene as there is no one scene that does not contribute to the overall narrative. But the standout is the Indianapolis speech delivered by Robert Shaw as Quint is a show stopper and to think it was only going to be a paragraph.

The acting is spot on as the main trio each represent a different section of society. Rob Scheider as the middle class Chief Of Police out of his depth Chief Brody, Richard Dreyfuss as the Smart upper class marine biologist over confident of his abilities Matt Hooper and the working man hard as nails also over confident of his tried and tested methods Quint. The chemistry between Dreyfuss and Shaw is lightning in a bottle stuff and given the strained relationship between the actors on set is no surprise this comes across so well on screen.

Special effects are basic and in any other movie would be laughable but because they are used so sparsely (take note George Lucas) you never notice. Instead the tension and suspense do the work for you so when the shark jumps out its still a shock even after almost 30 years. But also we have to mention the sound track and THAT theme which is now so synonymous with sharks that if you go swimming and see a fin you have expect the thump thump to accompany it.

Overall all i can say is just go and buy this on DVD. Now don’t listen to me anymore just buy it and watch it, then watch again, and again, and again, and again. For a fishy tale this never goes off or loses its bite ever. Hell even Jaws 4 still can’t dent the reputation of this now can you say the same of Star Wars and Phantom Menace?.

Rating 10/10

You don’t need a bigger boat just a durable DVD that can take the repeated viewings!

Bronson

Following on from the superlative Watchmen we have this gritty indie Brit flick about the notorious Charles Bronson dubbed ‘Britain’s most violent’ prisoner’ and the reason why this follows from Watchmen is we have a lead actor who looks spookily like the real life subject matter in hand. But this is a very difficult movie to pigeon hole as its not a biopic in the traditional sense but more select moment from the life of the notorious man. The story is simple enough as a young man Michael Peterson was a fairly normal lad but with very thuggish tendencies, after a post office robbery he is sent to prison for 7 years which due to his violent nature turns into over 30 years interrupted briefly by a 69 day stint on the outside.

Now what sets this movie apart is its style narrated by Bronson (Tom Hardy) in parts we enter Bronson’s mind via him doing monologues in a theatre to an encapsulated audience as we cut back from the narrative to Bronson in the present day. And here is the big selling point of the movie : Tom Hardy never before will you see a performance which blurs the lines between acting and reality so much. All through the piece it is impossible to say at any time this is acting, its a man embodying the role to perfection so much that like I say he just is Bronson for the running time not some one playing him. The direction is also superb here and while the pacing maybe a little slow for some it adds tension as in every scene you are just waiting for Bronson to explode into violent rage and sometimes he does and sometimes not so you never quite know which way its going to go.

For all the controversy surrounding this movie about glamorising the subject matter i for one am glad he’s still locked up as though you understand the character he is still unnerving and repulsive but always inactivating.The supporting cast is a cavalcade of British TV talent and will have you going ahh i know him he seems familiar but from where?. There is a very black humour running through this piece and the violence for me seems to have been toned down a but as i felt it would be more brutal. The only downside is for me this feels like a movie that has been tampered with, for some reason i just felt that this is not the directors true vision as for me some scenes seemed to end abrubtly one can only hope that the DVD release will have an extended director’s cut.

Also a special mention for the soundtrack which hits all the bases but this is like watchmen a perfect marriage of substance and style neither one outdoes the other and a lead role that says fuck you to those who say the Brits can’t do method acting. And if you want people to avoid prison then this gritty, grimy, funny, depressing film will do the job. After the hype and let down of the big Brit flick Eden Lake last year thank goodness there is still something original out there from these shores

(Unasahmedlu stealing Inferno’s suggestion here)

Quote of the movie: “You need a new name like movie star”

                                  “How about Charlton Heston?”

                                  “Charlton Heston? please dear the man’s a cunt!”

Verdict: 9/10 : Come on an watch this you Cunts!