Dredd 3D was everything an action fan could ask for, filled with gory, brutal violence that keeps you entertained the whole time, and an awesome soundtrack to match.
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Set in futuristic city Mega-CityOne, police have the authority to both decide a culprit’s guilt and execute their punishment. Based on the 1977 comic strip Judge Dredd, Karl Urban plays the lead character (Judge Dredd) and director Pete Travis has ensured it largely sticks to the original comic, which will please fans. Read more
Archive for October 2012
Movie Review – Dredd 3D (2012)
The Weekly Watch: Installment #29
10 films in 9 days, I’ve been catching up with 2012 releases for my end of year Top 50. I saw Get the Gringo and Ruby Sparks, and reviewed Paranormal Activity 4. I also saw 3 new releases for the week in Australia, Argo, The Intouchables and Dredd.
As for some non 2012 films, Paranormal Activity 3 was the best of the series, Terminator Salvation the worst of the Terminator films and cult hit Napoleon Dynamite was decent without being outstanding.
Read on for full thoughts!
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Napoleon Dynamite (2004) – Loved by some, disliked by others, I enjoyed this one without having any strong feelings for it. It’s quirky, some scenes had me smirking often, while others didn’t really do it for me, but I was never annoyed or bored with it. A solid ending too, I found the characters to be unique and it was something different. B Read more
Movie Review – Argo (2012)
Argo was everything you can wish for in a Drama Thriller, with tense moments
accompanied by great acting and an awesome plot. While not quite a masterpiece, it has little faults as we sit through a riveting true story.
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Set in Iran in 1980, Argo is a dramatization of the joint CIA-Canadian secret
operation to extract six fugitive American diplomats from the country. The story itself is fantastic and while many complain that the ending isn’t that good because they know what happens, I myself knew nothing so it was all new to me. Read more
Movie Review – Paranormal Activity 4 (2012)
The Paranormal Activity series is either one you really enjoy or just don’t like. Continuing the trend from the first three installments, I found the fourth to be just as creepy, jumpy and tense as the others, with the end climax proving to be one of the best yet.
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It has been five years since the disappearance of Katie and Hunter, and this time around the focus is on a suburban family. After witnessing strange events in their neighbourhood when a woman and her mysterious child move in across the road, we slowly start to see the bigger picture of the story. Read more
The Weekly Watch: Installment #28
My Letterboxd Diary has pointed out that I’ve watched a film daily for 8
consecutive days so I’m hoping to keep this streak going. Over the last week I saw three 2012 films in Taken 2, Killing Them Softly and Lawless which I reviewed.
I caught up on more classics in RoboCop, Raging Bull, Dog Day Afternoon, The Royal Tenenbaums and Die Hard: With a Vengeance. Finally, with Paranormal Activity 4 coming out this week, I watched Paranormal Activity 2, leaving me just the third one to catch up on before the new release.
Would love to hear your thoughts on which of these you liked, loved or hated!
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Taken 2 (2012) – Taken is in my Top 10 films of all time (8th), so the sequel always had lofty standards to live up to. I had heard a lot of negativity going into it, which probably lowered my expectations, but I actually didn’t mind it. Corny, a bit cliche, predictable, often silly and unrealistic. However it was very entertaining, Liam Neeson was awesome as usual and I quite enjoyed it. A guilty pleasure. B-
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Movie Review – Lawless (2012)
Lawless is unique in both style and storytelling, with some scenes gripping and tense while others are intriguing and open. However, it’s extremely slow pace proves to detract more then benefit, as the film seems to go nowhere at times.
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The cast in Lawless is a huge asset, with Tom Hardy, Jason Clarke and Shia LaBeouf playing the Bondurant brothers, a bootlegging gang, to good effect. Hardy in particular is spectacular, speaking more to the audience with a single grunt than actual words could have. His acting really shows how diverse he is, in a role nothing like his last as Bane in The Dark Knight Rises. LaBeaouf is also decent, often maligned after the Transformer films, he puts in a good performance as the youngest of the 3 brothers. Read more
The Weekly Watch: Installment #27
11 movies packed into this segment of The Weekly Watch and they are a rather awesome and diverse bunch. I watched some Kubrick classics in A Clockwork Orange and Full Metal Jacket, Edward Norton at his best in American History X and one highly rated comedy in Anchorman. I’m also up to the third Terminator movie in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.
As for new releases I managed to see 6 2012 films including two great documentaries in Searching for Sugar Man and Marley. I reviewed Looper and Arbitrage while also seeing Aussie movie Bait. Finally, I watched a real surprise hit in Pitch Perfect. Read on for all my thoughts!
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Bait (2012) – An Australian movie that has quite an interesting plot, a tsunami hits a coastal town in Queensland and causes civilians to be stuck in a flooded supermarket with a Great White Shark. While the movie is poor, with terrible CGI, horribly fake American accents and an often awful script, I actually had a bit of fun with it. It’s funny at times (especially to laugh at) and has a couple of tense scenes. Julian McMahon is great too. I wouldn’t recommend the film but it’s not my worst of the year. C+ Read more
