Author: Mosh

A-Team review

The A-Team
The A-Team

Big, brash and silly this is a great update of a classic bit of TV trash.

The A-Team

“He’s trying to fly that tank”

Remakes and updates are dangerous territory. There’s the risk of destroying fond memories or of throwing money at a project that simply doesn’t match up to the original. A-Team manages to be a great modern version of something which, when I went back to watch it recently, was really rather crap.

With the special effects being done by WETA and several other houses, you know this is going to be just chock full of graphics, stunts and over-the-top silliness. It certainly doesn’t disappoint. Any of you who care about the laws of physics would be well recommended to take a “suspend belief” pill before settling into your seat.

The film very much acts as a “how it all began” story, sticking fairly well to the original premise. One major difference, though, is that people do get shot and killed – something that never seemed to happen in the TV series. Hannibal (Liam Neeson) is the head honcho with all the ideas, Quinton Jackson is a huge, mohawked BA Baracus, Bradley Cooper woos the ladies as Faceman and Sharlto Copley is a suitably bonkers “howling mad” Murdock.

Jackson, in honesty, is a little clunky and hard to understand at the start of the film. I’m guessing he’s an ex-wrestler or something and making a break into films due to his bulk. The rest of the cast are pretty much spot on. The banter between them is also sharp and got quite a few laughs from the Vietnamese crowd (and myself).

For some reason it still felt a little over-long and segmented, but perhaps that was down to me being ridiculously tired when I watched it. It’s definitely over-the-top, has some utterly stupid stunts (even moreso than The Losers, which is saying something) and almost certainly will lead to a sequel.

Dare I hope for as good an update for Airwolf?

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Shrek 4 – a Shrek too far?

Short answer – no. And if this is how the series goes out, then it’s on a high.

Shrek Forever After

“Do the roar”

Plot-in-a-nutshell: In a bad moment, Shrek exchanges one day of his past for a day back being a “real” ogre – but doesn’t count on the consequences.

OK, I’m in Vietnam and I’m watching western films. In my defence this one had Vietnamese subtitles. The cinema was also crammed and there was a constant undercurrent of little kids babbling and giggling. In other words, the perfect atmosphere.

It was also in 3D and from the childish “woah!”s and “oooooh”s, I’m guessing at least a few of the audience hadn’t seen a 3D film before!

Before going on about the film, something else impressed me. As I said, it was subtitled which is unusual for a kid’s film. Generally, in Thailand you get the film in English. And you get one dubbed in Thai (or whatever language elsewhere) as young children will not have time to read all the subtitles. I was amazed to hear the kids laughing at the jokes – not just the visual stuff, but the jokes. Given the ages of some of them it says a lot about their reading ability.

Anyway, the movie. Frankly I thought Shrek 3 was a bit of a disappointment. This is a return to form and a great end to the series with a couple of new characters and a great take on the existing ones. Shrek changes history with his wish and we get to see Fiona as a warrior princess, Puss as a fatty, Gingerbread Man as a gladiator and so on.

I may also say that Fiona – bar the green skin – is bloody attractive for a cartoon character. Especially in armour. I guess I’m a little weird. And, yes, I mean in ogre form. Hmm. Yes. I have issues.

Anyhoo, the laughs are frequent, the dialogue sharp, the visuals possibly the best I’ve seen so far, the story tight and the characters perfect. As ever, in my opinion, Puss steals the show with his lines, attitude and big soppy eyes.

There’s not a lot else to write without giving away the story, but if you felt let down by the last one – give this final chapter a shot.

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Blue Dragon: House 52 Shelter Appeal

Blue Dragon Children's Foundation

Here’s the deal – Blue Dragon need to raise $60,000 by the end of July or they’ll be kicked out of their current location. This is a hell of a shame as they’ve put a lot of work into making it a fantastic place for kids to drop in and be looked after. Also, if they move then it takes time for word to get out so future street children know where they can go to be safe.

Planet Wheeler have been hugely generous in agreeing to match every donation dollar for dollar – so BDCF “only” need to raise $30,000.

Please, please, please go to the following links and donate a little bit. If every friend I have on facebook donated the value of 1 beer we’d have almost $1500 to start with!

http://bdcf.org/dragon_house.html

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Two films in Thailand

Ong Bak 3
Ong Bak 3

I’ve got 3 days of spare time in Pattaya – moreso now that my diving day has been cancelled – and was quite happy to spot a cinema when I was walking around. Even happier when I realised that Wednesday was “discount day” at 80B per film – less than £2. So despite being flipping knackered, I caught two movies.

Ong Bak 3

Plot-in-a-nutshell: orphaned ass-kicker takes revenge on nasty man who made him an orphan. I think. Something like that.

Sorry for the vagueness, but OB3 continues the weirdness that kicked off about halfway through Ong Bak 2. Tony Jaa, as ever, stars – and directed, scriptwrites, produces… He’s like Peter Jackson was back in the day. Wouldn’t surprise me if he sings the theme song at the end a la Jackie Chan.

The films follows on directly from OB2 with Tien in chains and about to be executed. Ass-kicking ensues and he escapes. The girl/love interest from the first film makes a re-appearance as does the insane guy for comic relief. He’s got some good lines in this one, but his appearance is still jarring in an otherwise strait-laced movie.

We get to see the creation of the statue which is the centrepiece of the fist Ong Bak movie as well as more elephant-related fight sequences. As ever, it’s the fight scenes which stand out above all else although they’re interspersed a little too much with plot. At times, the film seems to stall as it crawls down the “arty” pathway.

Despite the excellent performance from Jaa, and the wonderful “look” of the film it’s still just a bit too weird for my liking. It’s good to see the series run full circle and hopefully come to an end. With luck this means we can expect something new and different with his next release.

The Losers

“That was supposed to be us.”

Plot-in-a-nutshell: Bad man tries to kill bunch of mercenaries who decide that, fair’s fair, they should try to kill him in return.

Despite being based on a DC Comic, this is a British creation being based (loosely) on the first six issues which were scripted by 2000AD‘s own Andy Diggle and drawn by “Jock“. Other than that, though, this is very much an American action movie.

The titular Losers are a bunch of mercenaries sent to do off-the-book dirty work. One jobin South America goes a little wrong and their boss attempts to kill them. This, surprisingly, doesn’t go down well so they set off to return the favour.

That’s about it for the plot as the film just careers through set piece after set piece. It harks back to it’s comic beginnings frequently with many shots frozen on screen or paced to look like frames on a drawn page. I liked that. It’s also big and brash in a way that comics often are, including one of the mist ridiculous finale scenes I think I’ve ever seen.

It’s a silly film, but it’s also funny, fast-paced and enjoyable. The dialogue is quite humorous in places and at no point will your brain be taxed by what happens. Despite this, one arsehole a few seats over kept telling his girlfriend what was about to happen just in case she was struggling to follow it.

If you like big guns, huge explosions and a plot you don’t need to think too hard about then this is well worth the trip to the cinema.

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Shorts – not pants

A very quick film review as I sit at Mumbai Airport. Caught this little number of the flight from Heathrow.

Shorts

“What’s wrong with you? Oh buddy where do I begin?”

Plot-in-a-nutshell: boy finds magic wishing stone and everything goes mental. Only in the wrong order.

Robert Rodriguez is a very hard director to pin down style-wise. Having done everything from Spy Kids to Sin City – horror, action and kids’ flicks. This is very much one of the kiddie ones and definitely one more aimed at them than one that’ll capture too many adults as well.

Set in a weird town owned and run by one Mr. Black, all of the adult inhabitants work for his company that make a multi-use device called the Black Box. Our protagonist Toe (Jimmy Bennett) is bullied at school by Cole’s two children, Helvetica (Jolie Vanier) and Cole (Devon Gearhart).

Toe tells us the story, but it’s done as a series of shorts presented in the wrong order. Imagine a mad kids film done in the style of Pulp Fiction and you’re kinda there. He tells us how he finds a magic wishing stone which causes all sorts of problems (we all know wishes in films never work out as they should) in a series of episodes featuring the kids and adults of the town.

As I said earlier, this film will appeal a lot to children, but not to much to accompanying adults. It’s not bad, but doesn’t have much of that humour that would go over children’s heads while making adults giggle. There are little aliens, sentient growing snot, rocket cycles and the like. In fact, the first scene into the credits features two of these and it’s pretty cool.

I kind of enjoyed it, but I’m glad I didn’t bother seeing it at the cinema. It whiled away 90 minutes on my flight, though.

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