Sherlock Holmes Review

Sherlock Holmes

C+

A Review by Frederick Cholowski

Old characters they seem to like to be brought back in its new age. While after JJ Abrams brought back Star Trek, and very well succeeded there were sure to be more to follow. Sherlock Holmes is the next attempt to bring back old characters that seem to have drifted away over the years, but does Guy Ritchie do as excellent of a job as JJ Abrams. Well sorry to say he doesn't and Sherlock Holmes falls flat on its face in multiple ways.

This movie was disappointing for multiple reasons. First let's start with the plot line that involves Sherlock Holmes(Robert Downey Jr.), who has been off the job for quite a while and is going quite insane. His ex-partner Watson(Jude Law) who Sherlock is living with is annoyed with the shenanigans that Sherlock is presenting in his house such as shooting the wall and doing multiple experiments on his dog. Also, Watson is getting engaged with a beautiful woman named Mary(Kelly Reilly) and does not want to be disturbed by Sherlock, but when an old nemesis Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong) rises from the grave, Watson and Sherlock are forced to hunt down their old nemesis and find out what evil plan he's up to.

There's couple other characters as well. Rachel McAdams plays Alder a girl who's trying to woe Sherlock but ends up failing most of the time. She also ends up being a double agent for a larger threat. And there's also a chief of police to get made fun of a lot.

Overall, the plot kind of sucks. It's your average good guy, trying to defeat the bad guy from doing evil stuff plot and doesn't really go far and enough. In other words, it's an origin story that doesn't really speak of any origins. Also, the ending sucks, it's the whole Terminator Salvation thing "oh we beaten this guy, but now there's something even bigger that we have to go destroy" it satisfies even less than Terminator.

The action could have saved this for mediocrity, but some of those scenes are just bad. There is one scene in the middle of the movie, where explosions are going off everywhere in slow-motion, and it just looks terrible and really cheesy. There are some points in this movie, where you wonder why you're even watching it. This may sound harsh, but scenes like the explosions scene does make you shake your head.

The best thing about this film and the thing that saves it is the acting. Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law are really great and have this great chemistry. It's like they've been doing these rolls together for years, and it's fun to watch them constantly yapping at each other. On the other hand, Rachel McAdams kind of sucks in this movie, and does not capture her role as I would've wanted. And then there is that police guy who gets made fun of a lot. Oh and Lord Blackwood is serviceable as well.

Sherlock Holmes is a fairly average film, which is disappointing because I expected a lot out of it. The plots to straightforward the ending sucks, and the actions cheesy and overall it just doesn't live up to expectations. Hopefully in the sequel (which is definitely coming by the way) will improve on multiple things that this one fell short of. It's not a terrible film, but Sherlock Holmes fails to meet expectations on multiple levels. And that's definitely disappointing.

District 9 Review

District 9

A+

Alright let's start on this note. In my review of Avatar I said somewhere on the lines of this film has to be really really good to knock become a contender with Avatar for film of the year. I have to say now after watching this film that I'm conflicted on what my movie of the year is.

Well to the movie now, District 9 is an interesting take on human contact with aliens. The movie starts with an alien mother ship landing over of all places Johannesburg South Africa. After a few months of the ship just sitting there the army of South Africa go in and raid the ship and see what's up. They find 1 million malnourished and unhealthy aliens. They under pressure from the rest of the world create a camp for the aliens come to stay and eat. This camp due to weapons is now heavily militarised and then as soon as you know it it's a slum. Then revolts begin to happen and before long the alien affairs group of MNU is forced to move them to a new camp. Unfortunately though all the legality is a white wash and they take advantage of the aliens who are only "Prawns" beings who are not smart and have lost there leaders.

This is the first third of the film shot mainly in a documentary style with some cinematic portions thrown in there as well. This gets the entire deep back-story of the film introduced before we jump into the last to parts of the film witch are more cinematic and less documentary.

span style="font-size:12;"> The next two thirds are about the leader of the moving the alien project Wilkus Van De Merwe (Sharlto Copley). He has a lovely wife and a good job at MNU but isn't the brightest. While evicting aliens he finds a mysterious liquid while searching through an alien's shack. He accidently sprays the liquid at himself and begins a slow, painful, and gruesome transformation into an alien. He soon is captured by his own company MNU and attempts to use his now alien arm to use weapons. After finding out he can use weapons, they use him as an experiment. He (of course) dose not like this and runs and takes refuge in district 9. He joins an alien Christopher Johnson on a campaign to get the liquid back and try to get the aliens home.

The whole story is amazing and layered with lots of stuff to soak in. This is the probably would happen if aliens landed. It proves how mean we can be and what the evil things we have done during the ages.

This is a low budget film but you won't even notice. The aliens look amazing and the action scenes are both creative and look great. There is one scene that involves a meck suit that is my personal favourite action scene all year with multiple layers to it and amazing all out skirmishes. Just the pure creativity of this film is amazing from the documentary style at the beginning to the depth and the pure awesomeness of the action scenes at the end it is just amazing.

Just a note though this movie is 14a in Canada but I do not recommend it for a younger audience at all. The violence is extremely gory and they say the f word alone 150 times (give or take 2-3 and yes I actually counted watching this my second time through). Stick with the R rating in the US because the rating in Canada in my opinion is a bit light.

Overall District 9 is an amazing film that is bursting with creativity and depth. The message is strong, the writing is great and the action scenes for 30 million dollars are amazing. Overall this is by

far one of the best of the year and a contender against Avatar for film of the year.

Best of 09 and Decade Coming soon

    We are almost at the end of 2009 and wow the decade! Which means that the best of 09 and the huge best/worst of the decade. I just have a couple movies left to watch that will probably be on my list (District 9, Lord of the rings trilogy) before I can post the Awards. Just a heads up that the smaller reviews called video views are coming as well I have a lot lined up but have been really really busy lately so they have been delayed. All those things plus reviews for the upcoming Sherlock Holmes and District 9 are coming when I get to see them witch hopes to be by the end of boxing weekend.

Christmas Cheer!!!!

Fred

Avatar Review

Avatar

A+

A review by Frederick Cholowski

 

    A quote from James Cameron from the 1998 Oscars seems to be used a lot lately. "I'm king of the world" Cameron yelled expressing all his feelings in one phrase. Man that line is being over used. Unfortunately I must use it, he was king of the world with Titanic in 1998 and now he is king of the world more than a decade later with Avatar the best of 2009 and one of the most immersive and amazing experiences of the decade.

 

    Avatar starts with Jake Sully a former marine whose scientist twin brother just died one day before he was to start his mission on the planet Pandora. Jake replaces him because he is the only other person able to activate his brother's avatar a remote control body with DNA of both humans and the natives the 10 foot Navi. He get's stuck through orders from both ends of the spectrum. One side led by military guru Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) and the other led by scientist Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver). One wants to clear the out the Navi for strip mining (and if they don't blow them up) and the other wants to recreate peace with the natives. Well after being the first human to g ain the trust of the Navi he falls in love with the land. He falls in love mostly with the native who is training him Neytiri (Zoe Saldana). This makes him sympathise for the Navi and he ends up being on there side when the epic battle ends up coming.

 

    It's nice to see an action sci-fi film with a great story and developed characters. The whole first part of the movie centers on Jake's and the human's in general relationship with the planet and the Navi. It still manages to entertain and keep you at the edge of your seat the entire time throwing some awesome chase scenes with giant animals etc. All leading up to the epicness that is the war.

 

    As performances go Stephan Lang nails his role as the awesome rough beaten up Colonel who wants nothing but to blow crap up. Worthington is great as Sully as he nails the growth of the character and the emotional parts and goes with the role to places I did not know he was capable of. Sigourney Weaver is good for what she's given. The first scene you see her she's the take no crap rough scientist then she becomes all nice and stuff. Two important character roles that I did not mention earlier but deserve great mention are Giovanni Ribisi as Parker Selfridge who is your average corporate d-bag who's in it all for the money and Michelle Rodriquez as Trudy Chacon a military pilot who dose some heroic things to help the Navi.

 

    But my favourite role goes to Zoe Saldana who dose an outstanding job of acting a very emotional character just inside a Navi body. She never makes an appearance in human form and is still dose the best job out of everybody. That to me is impressive.

 

    Well the visuals, two words can describe them. Freaking amazing!!!! The 3D is used in such a way that is not just pop out gimmicky, but it creates this atmosphere an atmosphere that is amazing. While 3D is the best way to see it this is a solid package if you watch it in 2D as well. The visual effects are again freaking amazing and I have never ever seen a more visually stunning experience

 

    Avatar is not just a movie it's an experience. One of the best of the decade. There is a strong script and character development here something that is seriously lacing from a lot of action/Sci-fi this year. The performances are great and the visuals oh the visuals. There Freaking amazing!!!!! As we wind down the year the only film I could consider that I'm going to see that could knock off Avatar from movie of the year is District 9. And even then it has to be really really good

2012 Review

2012

D

 

    This movie sucks. Plain and simple. That's right well I could go on and on about how bad this movie is in the intro to this review but well let's save the fun for the other parts of the review. So let's crank up the crap o meter and look at the pure terribleness that is 2012.

 

    Well where to start oh well I know the movie is 2 and a half hours long!!!! It's not bad enough that the main characters aren't developed at all but apparently we have to care about every body and there mom. Literally! Ok so here are the main characters there is some guy named Jackson Curtus played by Cusack and the main scientist dude named Dr. Adrian Helmsley played by little known Chiwetel Ejiofor. Why am I doing such a shoddy job with the so called "characters" because none of these characters are developed not one. This is where the movie really falls apart when they try to set up characters that you ultimately don't care about. It would be a waste of time for me to write (and you to read for that matter) who you ultimately won't care about and just die anyways.

    Props to Woody Harrelson though who plays the only interesting character in the whole movie. He plays Charlie a guy who has found out through all government conspiracy that this is going to happen. He is ultimately insane and pretty funny. Unfortunately he dies within the first hour.

 

    I swear there is no plot to this film. I bet this film took half an hour to write. It's like the writers said how can we make this film longer before we get to the next big repetitive action scene. I swear they "miraculously" escape 4 different plains/cars well the world is exploding behind them. Wow just wow. Trust me when I say this there are so many scenes that make you ask the question didn't I just see this 30 minutes ago? And god it just gets worse!

 

    I also swear that there are no characters in this film. As mentioned earlier the main characters are not developed. But the huge problem with this film is that they again make you care about characters that we see for about 10 minutes and then they die. Yay! Ya its bad.

 

    I could go on and on about how bad this film in but lets just say this. DO NOT GO SEE THIS FILM. IT SUCKS!! Evan for the special effects, there not even the best. Ya it's again that bad.

 

    

New Features

Summer is now over school is in session and I'm really busy. This also means that the movie count goes way down. With this a new feature is coming called video opinions. They are short reviews on older movies with scores of don't touch, rental, high rental, and buy. Also full reviews of all the Star Wars films are coming (just cuz) and maybe a fall preview (James Cameron's Avatar woo!). So stay tuned...

Summer Movie Awards 2009

Summer movie awards 2009

Another summer has come and gone and that means it is time to look back at the summer season and pick our favourite films from the mega season. This summer has been telling in many aspects from what people have been watching (cough cough big dumb action films) to the doping movie sales. So let’s look back on the 2009 summer series with the summer movie awards. (Note I have not scene all of the movies in the summer library including District 9 and Inglorious Bastards so do not flame me if your movie is not on the list.)

Best special effects
Winner: Transformers ROTF
Sigh Transformers 2 sigh yes it was disappointing and overall sort of bad but what saved this film from pure terribleness are the special effects. Michal Bay can do that enough said.
Runner up: G.I. Joe Rise of Cobra

Best Sci-Fi Film
Star Trek
Summer’s best Sci-fi is far and away Star Trek. The reboot needed to be great for the thinning out franchise to connect with a wide audience again and it hit the ball out of the park. Great effects, a good story that could go any where in the sequels to come and wonderful performances. Star Trek proved to be better than the Star Wars 1 and 2.
Runner Up: Terminator Salvation

Best Action Film:
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
While not close to being as good as the book it is based on (witch none of these films are) it was definitely better than all other action films of the summer. It was also the best Harry Potter Movie to date with good character development and a great middle chunk makes it far and beyond the best action movie of the summer.
Runner Up: (sigh) G.I. Joe rise of Cobra

Most overlooked/underrated film
Terminator Salvation
While not a masterpiece or even a great film Terminator did not deserve the press it got. IT GOT CRAPED ON!!!!! It was actually a good film but unfortunately no one saw it and most of the audience didn’t like it!! What!
Runner up Public Enemies

Best reboot
Star Trek
What more could be said it was a great reboot to a dead franchise. Nuff said
Runner up Terminator salvation
Best animated film
Up
No competition in this category. While not as good as last years Walle Up provided Pixar’s darkest movie ever with some really sad moments. Along with the sadness came the laughs though as UP provided also some really funny moments. Pixar is the best yet a gain and the second movie in two years to enter my top three computer animated movies of all time.

Worst film and most disappointing film
G force
Hey its guinea pigs what you expect. That’s what I was trying to tell myself well watching this film. But hey it’s Jerry Bruckheimer I have expectations!! Mind you... Anyways the movie sucks and boring and that is final.
Runner up Transformers ROTF

BEST FILM OF THE SUMMER
This is it the best of the best witch film takes top honour as best film of the summer

Nominees Public Enemies
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
Star Trek
Up

And the winner is...


Public Enemies
While not being mentioned before on this list Public Enemies is definitely the best film of the summer. I could rave on and on about the camera work the acting and how superbly engaging this film is but I’m not I’m just going to say that this is the best film of the summer and I recommend it to anyone.