Django Unchained A Dirty Robots review

Django Unchained

To say that Quentin Tarantino is a filmmaking genius would be quite the understatement in his recent flick: Django Unchained. While we saw western-like scenes in Kill Bill, Django Unchained is a straight up spaghetti western movie and as always Tarantino gives us a brilliantly crafted flick proving once again that he is able to push the boundaries of filmmaking.

The plot is about Dr King Schultz who turns a timid black slave named: Django into a bloodthirsty bounty hunter. He does not answer to anyone but himself all the while trying to find his wife who is being held against her free will by Calvin Candie.

It’s hard to pick a favourite moment for me when it comes to this film because most of this film is crammed full of moments that made me laugh and some that made me have a sense of excitement and adrenaline while watching.

As usual Quentin Tarantino puts out material that normally filmmakers and writers would tend to avoid he sells it with ease. He makes the characters believable and does a solid job when it comes to this particular film.

At times even though Django is questionable in the way of gaining back his wife, killing people in cold blood, we can understand the pain he is going through and why he hates the slave traders when he becomes a bounty hunter and you really do feel for Django on what he’ll do to get her back.

The biggest show stealers for me would be Christoph Waltz as Dr King Schulz and Leonardo DiCaprio as Calvin Candie along with Samuel L Jackson as Calvin’s assistant Stephan. They all have the best lines in the movie as well as making their characters quite memorable and completely nail their performances giving quite a lasting impression.

But unfortunately all good movies have their flaws and Django Unchained is no exception. Quentin Tarantino really does have a bad habit of making his movies extremely long which he still hasn’t noticed, however this could just be me. learnt how to shorten his movies but that could just be me.

While the soundtrack is provided by legendary composer of western films: Ennio Morricone who for the most part of this movie gives a great atmospheric feel to the film, the inclusions of rap songs I felt were a bit out of place and kind of took me by surprise. Though I will admit as weird as having songs from rappers like Tupac they do in a way suit the scenes.

I wouldn’t rank this better than Pulp Fiction or Kill Bill but it’s defiantly a movie you’d go back to watch and it’s a sweet take on Spaghetti westerns, so more power to Quentin Tarantino for making this one a smashing success.

8/10

Pulp Fiction | A Dirty Robots review

Pulp Fiction

To celebrate the release of Django Unchained in cinemas for the UK, I decided to take the time and review a movie related to Quentin Tarantino who some people refer to as a “God send” in terms of the movies he makes and on that note they’re right. Quentin Tarantino has made some of the most ground breaking movies of all time further pushing the boundaries of what you can and can’t do in a movie and one of those ground breaking films we are going to look at today is Pulp Fiction.

Pulp Fiction to this day is considered one of the most recognizable films of the 90s, and is the one film that put Tarantino’s career for the big screen on the map.

The story is all centred on a mob boss named: 

Marsellus Wallace

 and the people who are connected with him. It’s a tale of sex, drugs and glock n roll and even an ageing boxer’s wristwatch that’s been passed down for many generations. The film itself is split into non-linear segments each telling their side of the story. And what makes this film interesting is that the segments are set in no order and it has a very stylish feel, leaving some viewers to try and piece together how everything in the story works.

People keep telling me that it’s an overly gory movie, I mean yeah some parts of the movie are just that but I wouldn't really say it’s blood spilling. What really makes this film unique is the dialogue which helps the plot and at times the dialogue feels quite realistic and doesn't feel like it’s overbearing to the viewers and the characters a fair amount of what needs to be said. As V said to Evey in V for Vendetta: “Words will always retain their power” and no film illustrates dialogue more superbly than Pulp Fiction.

There were some stunning performances from Uma Thurman, Bruce Willis and Ving Rhames respectably but the real show stealers for me would have to be Samuel L Jackson and John Travolta. They literally have the best lines in the entire movie in particular the confrontation with Brett is absolutely hilarious and by far one of my favourite scenes in not just this movie but in cinema history as well.

Though everywhere the dialogue is brilliant and the scenes with Butch Hartman and his wife feel rather slow paced and less interesting but really that’s more of a nitpick on my part.

For those who haven’t seen Pulp Fiction yet, do so it’s a marvellous flick. When it comes down to it, Pulp Fiction is an adrenaline rush of a movie and I commend Quentin Tarantino for making such a masterpiece.

9/10

The Last Stand trailer

Well, Arnie is back in The Last Stand. All the oldies are making a come back and showing the newbies how it's done.

Django Unchained trailer

Django Unchained is gonna be in cinemas this Friday for the UK, check out the trailer..

The Amazing Spiderman

The Amazing Spider Man review

Poor Spiderman, the recent years have not been kind to him at all. His comic book series has spiralled downhill, the recent cartoon series Ultimate Spider Man has made him into a complete rip off of Deadpool and because of Spider man 3 he has now got a reboot film under the name of The Amazing Spider Man. This movie once again tells us the origin story of the web-slinging hero but with a more darker tone very similar to the Chris Nolan Batman films but there’s more to the dark, gritty tone of the film than you think. Was a reboot worth restarting the Spider Man film series? Or was Spidey better off without it? Let’s find out.

For those of you who are familiar with the comic books, the story of course needs no introduction a teenaged boy named Peter Parker who’s considered the nerdy kid in his school but is bitten by a radioactive spider, gained superpowers and becomes the costumed superhero Spiderman. But unlike the Sam Rami Spider Man movies that came before Amazing Spider Man actually revolves around a Gwen Stacy and Peter Parker relationship like in the comics instead of Mary Jane Watson. The movie’s main plot focuses on Peter’s parents and with the involvement of Dr Connors A.K.A The Lizard. Gwen’s father Captain Stacy believes Spiderman is a wanted criminal and issues a warrant arrest on him which gives Peter the difficult dilemma of being with Gwen and not being arrested by her father or be killed by The Lizard.

The Amazing Spider Man features a new actor to play the main lead of Peter Parker and his alter ego enter newcomer Andrew Garfield who I have to say is a much better Spiderman than Tobey Maguire. Spiderman was known as a jokey superhero who used humour to hide his real feelings. While Tobey Maguire nailed the part of Peter Parker to a tee but as Spiderman it was a different story. At times when he tried to sound funny he just came off as half asleep but Andrew Garfield’s take on Spidey in this film really blew him out of the water and after spending 5 minutes with him as Spiderman it’s clear he was meant to be the web-slinger. The jokes, immaturity and “in your face” sort of attitude felt genuine and very real. Most of the scenes when he’s Spiderman were very funny to watch especially the scene where Spiderman is sitting on a bed made of his own webbing in the sewers playing on his Iphone.

The chemistry between Gwen Stacy and Peter Parker felt more believable compared to Peter’s relationship with Mary Jane which got boring, stale and quite wooden as the Sam Rami movies progressed. Gwen was clearly an independent woman who is in control and was a relatable character and kind of a change of pace from the usual damsel in distress character that we’ve seen a little too often in superhero movies. The supporting roles all fit nicely. Martin Sheen as Uncle Ben was a pretty spot-on portrayal. He was a stern but loving father figure towards Peter who tragically lost his life when Peter was going through the ups and downs of his life and that in turn is what makes Peter stronger and makes him a better hero. The Lizard was not half bad either. His descent to madness reminded me so much of Dr Octopus in Spider Man 2. The person who put on a surprising performance was Denis Leary as Captain Stacy. I feel that he was the “J Jonah Jameson” character of this movie needed without relying on Mr Jameson so much to tell us what his view on Spider Man is. I loved the moments before Peter Parker was Spider Man because it provided the best jokes in the movie. Mainly how Peter deals with coming to terms with his new super powers and actually learning to be careful in situations that require him to use his powers which I thought was far funnier and showed Peter knowing his limitations rather than standing in the mirror and noticing his abs like Tobey Maguire did as Spiderman.

But where the movie falls flat is that it tries so hard to be like other superhero movies like The Dark Knight Trilogy, Iron Man and even things like X-men Origins Wolverine not to mention the movie even skips plot elements in offer of something different. Like the unresolved scenario where Peter tries to track down his uncle’s killer but instead it’s left as an after thought and he goes after The Lizard instead whose attacking the bridge at that point. Another area of the plot that went nowhere was the inclusions of “Lizard people” roaming the streets of New York we see them mutate but never see them do anything and ultimately get changed back. They wasted what could’ve been interesting content for the movie but they end turning it into pointless filer. But the biggest plot point they don’t flesh out entirely for me was Peter’s parents, the whole point of the movie is that Peter is learning the truth about his past but they just have the parents in one flashback sequence that’s in the beginning movie and never touch upon that aspect until much later on in the movie but are only briefly mentioned by Aunt May and Uncle Ben.

The movie because of it’s dark tone is trying so hard to mimic the Chris Nolan’s Batman films. It’s not outright copying those movies but some areas of the movie did feel a bit overkill to me and as a result incorporate elements into Spiderman which aren’t really needed. Some things like having 500 men pursue Spider Man I thought belonged in things like Batman or The Hulk. And the fact that Spidey gets beaten up a lot bothered me because we never really see Spiderman get beaten up in terms of a character and it reminded way too much of the one scene from The Dark Knight where Batman has no limits.

But the one scene that utterly disgusted me was the scene with the Lizard mouse. It was literally thrown in there just for the sake of the dark tone of the movie and I really didn’t think we needed to see the mouse mutated and it would’ve been better if we just saw the damaged cage it came from rather see the changed mouse altogether.

The Lizard as a main villain felt forgettable and lacklustre as a character. As much as he was a good villain to start the reboot I felt he couldn’t hold together a whole movie on his own. Granted throughout the movie we are given glimpses and foreshadowing of Norman Osborn but I think starting out this new series of Spiderman movies would be redundant. I feel they should’ve at least given Dr Connors at least some depth to his character like maybe see him with his family just to show us that he’s not just a scientist and would’ve developed as a character more.

The Amazing Spider Man was a surprisingly good reboot for the series but it felt more like it wanted to be a Batman movie rather than a Spiderman movie and relied too heavily on the dark tone it had. Despite that it has some great and intense action sequences, likeable characters and follows if not a little bit more closely to the comic books itself.

7/10

Directed by Marc Webb

Budget: $230 million

Box office: $752,216,557

Profit: $522,216,557

Pixar's Brave

Brave review

Ah Pixar, the once proud king of animation has now taken quite a downfall ever since Cars 2 with it’s generic spy plot, and whole cast of bland and boring characters which is a very rare thing considering Pixar have made movies like WALL.E, The Incredibles, The Toy Story trilogy and Finding Nemo in the past. But now Pixar has brought us something original, something that’s not a sequel to an already existing film. Will they go back to their roots with Brave? Or did Cars 2 really taken it’s toll with Pixar? Well let’s find out.

The movie is about a high spirited princess named Merida who is forced into marriage by her mother Queen Elinor who wishes to make her daughter act like a proper princess but Merida is having none of that so she decides to change her fate and do whatever she pleases. Unfortunately Pixar have not learned their lesson from Cars 2 and have opted to go for the traditional fairy-tale type plot. But the set up for this movie starts out reasonably good, as usual the animation from Pixar is beautiful to look at but you start to like the characters and the theme of the film and it doesn’t talk down to it’s audience until the second half and completely destroys the mood of the movie.

It ultimately goes for the whole Brother Bear plotline in the second half and you feel like you’ve been sucker punched into watching a different movie. I find it really distracting that they set up Brave as a serious Pixar movie but then decides to go the cutesy route just because it’s a kids film. The thing with Pixar was that they were all about taking risks but here the plot seems wasted despite the amount of potential it has. And the fact that Brave is taking elements from other Disney movies just seems like a cheap move on Pixar’s part. The prime example why the movie is considered cutesy in my eyes is the comic relief characters in the form of Merida’s little triplet brothers who’s main gimmick is to eat everything in sight which got really annoying and the fact they get turned into bears was pointless. I felt the movie would’ve been better off without them there at all because they offered nothing towards the plot and were just there for the sake of being comic relief characters. On the other side of the comedic spectrum, King Fergus, Merida’s father played by Billy Connolly would have to be the best character in the movie because he actually did make me laugh and did have some of the best moments by far. I’d say the reason why this film eventually starts being cutesy is because Brave has no villain to work with. Before Merida changes her mother into a bear she comes across a witch played by Julie Walters and you’d think that she would be the main antagonist but she only appears in one scene and we never see her again. I feel that the Witch would’ve made the story more interesting as if they made her the villain instead of the bear that King Fergus and the other lords go hunting for in the movie.

And finally we come to the main protagonist herself: Merida. To be honest, I found her very uninteresting in terms of a main heroine. She’s essentially the tomboyish like character who loves to do archery, rock climbing, sword fighting and horseback riding. Because of her rebellious nature and not going along with her mother’s wishes she comes across annoying as a character and has to pin the blame on others when in reality it’s her fault for messing up things with Queen Elinor.

With a company like Pixar you’d expect more from this movie and have high expectations but it doesn't feel like something they would produce. I don’t mind that they’re going with a fairy-tale feel but I really do feel that it’s delivery could be better.

Brave may not be a great movie or one Pixar’s best but it is a lot better than Cars 2. The problem with Brave is that it’s too clichéd, it’s rushed and the story is not really anything new. I will say that a few of the characters were ok, the animation was stunning but that’s all I can really say about this. It’s a great movie to take your kids to see but it won’t appeal to adults in general.

6/10

The Dark Knight Rises - The snooze continues..