#ThanksDave

The Late Show with David Letterman has had its final show and it the end of an era. Somehow and I'm not entirely sure why but I grew up watching the Late Show. It was around the mid-2000s, I was in high school and I had finally gotten a TV in my room. Around this time I was also starting to stay up a bit more and eventually I stumbled on the Late Show with David Letterman, it was on Prime which for me had terrible reception for me and was around 11:00pm or so depending on what preceded it. The Late show was my first real experience with Late Night TV, to be fair it really was the only thing worth watching at that hour and it was enjoyable enough that while I was in high school I would stay up watching Dave's Monologue and at least make it to the top 10 ,then on Fridays I could watch the entire show. Admittedly I have not really kept up with the show in recent years but whenever I found myself watching it seeing a video online it was great.

The Late Show is a tremendous show that has influenced pretty all the late night shows on the air now, you can even see the influence in some NZ TV shows. From Fun Facts, Stupid Pet Tricks to anything in the Hello Deli there was always something about it that was interesting, funny and something different than what your used to. It's odd to think about a talk show like this but when something that has gone on this long and something that you grew up with ends, it's hard to not reflect on it. The Late show was one of the shows that introduced me to late night TV and stand-up comedy and it sad to see it go.

Thanks for all the late night laughs Dave

#ThanksDave

The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water Review

Im Ready

Some 10 years after the Original Movie and around 15 years since the series' first started we have The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, not really a sequel, not really a prequel new SpongeBob movie. SpongeBob is a very unique show, on the surface it's for kids but especially the earlier seasons, its filled with jokes and references that older audiences can enjoy. Like other people I think SpongeBob kind of fell off after the first movie, later episodes have not really been the same calibre.  The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water marks the return of Stephen Hillenburg the creator and show runner for SpongeBob up to the first movie, so going into this I was cautiously optimistic that this would be like the SpongeBob of old.

Mad Max Fury Road Coming Soon

SpongeBob 2 is a bit of a mixed bag, it’s a lot like the old episodes, similar humour and absurdity but as a movie it does not really work super well. SpongeBob 2 is more alike a collection of SpongeBob episodes sewn together, I think the best comparison would be the Futurama Season 5 and its movies/episodes. Everything is kind of ties together but its also fairly self-contained as well. The live action is not super bad but it not really that good, it’s a bit out of place and it kind of feels like its just riffing on super hero movies while also needing something to justify the 3D. The animated portions which are most of the movie are by far the best. They are really well animated and have that trade mark absurd/slightly borderline adult humour. During the movie Bikini Bottom turns into a mad max post-apocalyptic war zone and its filled with some great jokes. Another big part of the movie involves SpongeBob and Plankton working together, similar to the F.U.N. episode of S1 the humour is great and the two characters work really well together. That not too say the all the animated segments are good, somethings are a bit too absurd like in the more recent episodes but overall pretty good.

While not bad looking the CG + Live Action segments are completely outdone by the animated portions of the movie

All the original cast return, not that they have gone anywhere. Antonio Banderas plays a Pirate who is sometimes pretty good sometimes pretty bad. He works for the most part but some of this jokes are drawn a bit too much they he is often quite out of place.

Definitely not as good as the first movie which is an actual movie with a 3 act structure etc. But overall pretty good SpongeBob experience. It's not much a movie, but it's like old SpongeBob so if you like that you will probably like this for the most part.

7/10

Get Hard Review

Solidus

Get hard is a comedy starring Will Farrell and Kevin Hart, and while they are very funny people the movie itself ends up being a bit of a mixed bag. For people not aware the gist of the story is that Will Farrell a successful stock trader/investment banker/financial something has been found guilty of fraud and faces hard time for his crimes. He enlists the help of Kevin hart to get himself prison ready. Not the worst premise in the world and some potential for good jokes. I feel like I have been saying this for a lot of my reviews lately but the movie does not start off strong. Before Will Farrell gets arrested and he and Kevin Hart are just living their normal lives I feel the movie is pretty weak. The jokes are pretty meh, the way will Farrell goes about his life is absurd and Kevin Harts set up is also a bit odd. Once Will Farrell gets arrested the movie gets better and then when Kevin is training will for Prison the movie gets pretty decent. The jokes become better, the banter is good and Kevin Hart and Will Farrell work pretty well together. There Will Farrell has some pretty good scenes at the beginning of his training, at one point the two have to go into the hood and that’s pretty funny and at one point during the movie there is a confrontation with neo Nazis which is really good. The finale has some decent jokes but the ending is a bit predictable. Not all the jokes are good and there are a few that could probably considered homophobic and racist though I don’t think there mean spirited. I guess I should also mention the rest of the cast, they are fine. Alison Brie is in it and I did not recognize her at the beginning, but she is in it. Her character is a lot different than Annie on community, though as usual she is pretty hot.

Overall the movie was decent and Kevin hart and Will Farrell are pretty funny in. is this their best work? defiantly not Will Farrell has been in way funnier movies and Kevin Harts stand up is also a lot better than this movie. If you're looking for a comedy to watch this movie is not too bad, but defiantly check out Will Farrell's other movies or Kevin Harts stand up if you're looking for something better.

6/10

Run all Night Review

All Night Long

"One Shot, One Kill"

Run all night is an action movie that stars Liam Neeson, it is very similar to the other action movies starring Liam Neeson in recent years, though it is more of a redemption story than a power fantasy. Liam Neeson portrays Jimmy Conlon a former hitman/enforcer. He has son Mike who is not a fan because of the whole organized crime, murder and generally being a bad father thing who lives more or less a normalish life and is a good person. The main antagonist is Ed Harris as Shawn Maguire a mob boss turned legit and Jimmy's BFF, they talk a lot about crossing lines together. Shawn also has a son who is a terrible person and more or less wants to follow in his father's footsteps before he went legit.

The movie starts off introducing from the characters, their circumstances and some of the history between those characters, it's interesting for the most part but is pretty slow and probably could have been handled better. Anyway this being a Liam Neeson movie something needs to happen so that Liam Neeson is forced to do his thing. That thing happens and spoiler alert but someone dies and Liam Neeson and co. have to Run all night. Just one thing on this incident, Liam Neeson's kid is involved and it looks like whole reason the entire movie happens is because Mike Conlon closes a door too loudly and gets himself seen. That silliness aside Neeson and co make their way through the city evading Shawn Maguire and his men until well you know the rest final confrontation, the end. Its not quite that simple but is the gist of it.

Run all night was not that bad apart from it starting slowly, the action was good the characters were good notably Neeson and Ed Harris and while it was not the most original movie in the world it was executed very well. There is one minor villain whose story is resolved at a stupid time. There is a detective who has a history with Jimmy Conlon who is a bit contrived. As I said before the movie starts slow but once the characters have to "Run all night" it gets good. The climax and final confrontation between Ed Harris and Liam Neeson is done well. The actual ending is flows a bit weird it does not really take anything away from the good 60-70% of the movie.

Overall there is not much that surprising in the movie but its executed well. Its starts pretty slow and the ending is a bit odd but the movie ramps up pretty well and most of it is good. It was Much Better than taken 3 and for the most part an enjoyable movie. 

7/10

CHAPiE Review

Artificial Intelligence 

Had fairly high hopes for this movie, I have been a fan of Neil Blomkamps work, I loved District 9 and Elysium was pretty good as well. So I was very interested to see how CHAPiE would turn out,

I didn't choose the Thug Life...

The cast was kind of a mixed bag, Dev Patel as Deon was decent and Hugh Jackman while kind of inconsistent was serviceable he is an asshole for whatever they need him to be, he's supposed to be a military person but sometimes it's his faith that’s driving him and yeah its inconsistent. Sigourney Weaver is in it and its always good seeing her in sci fi though her character is not very major. And after coming off as a fairly reasonable strong character she is turned by Hugh Jackman very quickly. There is also Die Antwood the South African rap group in the movie and I thought they were a bit hit or miss, when they were raising chappie they were good but the stuff outside that was a bit to silly also Yolandi just seems a bit too nice to be in a criminal gang. On to Chappie I quite liked the robot he takes on the characteristics  of those around him and its funny seeing the way he acts as he learns. His movement/body structure is kind of similar to the prawns of district 9 but he is different enough/becomes different enough that he is pretty memorable.

Someone really needs to talk to HR about this...

On to the movie itself, the story was decent though some Hugh Jackman's antics are really stupid. There is a scene with some pretty terrible workplace harassment right in the middle of an office and its a wonder Hugh Jackmans character does not get fired, or that nobody seems to mention it. As this is a Sony Movie there was plenty of Sony Product Placement, lots of Vaio Laptops which is funny because Sony just spun Vaio off. PlayStation 4s are featured and its funny how they end up being used, strangely enough I don't remember seeing any Xperia Phones. The Action was good, most is at the end similar to D9. Actually a lot of the movie was similar to District 9 probably to CHAPiEs detriment though as most of it was better in D9.

I tried to temper my expectations after seeing the reception and for the most part I enjoyed the movie, it definitely had its issues but was not really that bad or anything until the ending. The movie comes off as reasonable even with how crazy Die Antwood are you can suspend your disbelief because it’s a movie but the ending is just so jarring that it brings the rest of the movie down. I get what the messaging is and what the intention was for the ending but it comes in so abruptly and is not executed very well.

Overall I enjoyed the movie for the most part though it certainly had its issues. You could do a lot worse movie wise but Neil Blomkamp could do better.

6/10

Focus Review

Made for TV

This is a pretty strange movie on the surface, dark comedy with romantic and heist elements starting Will Smith and Margot Robbie, Turns out it is a bit of a strange movie. Will Smith was alright some of the movie he is quite good and the whole con man thing works well other parts not so much and in the later half he is pretty mopey. Margot Robbie is fine though her characters motivations seem al over the place. Supporting cast is ok some are better than others. Story wise it’s a bit of an odd movie in that does not really feel like a movie rather 2 or 3 episodes of a basic cable drama, something a kin to white collar or burn notice with a few episodes missing. I quite liked the heisty elements of the movie and when Will and Margot are doing that stuff it works decently. Other parts of the movie did not work as well, the humour is pretty hit or miss, mostly a miss for me and some of the details were a bit inconsistent. They make the con business out to be more of a volume thing but the bigger heist type things happen anyway.

I would say where the movie falls apart is the 2nd half without spoiler too much it happens a period of time after the first act and is kind of all over the place, the ending especially was very jarring. They tried to do some foreshadowing and I guess there was supposed to be a bit of a gotcha moment at the end but I don’t think the foreshadowing was done that well and it felt kind of random and abrupt. One other very minor thing but I saw this movie in 16:9 which did not help the whole feels like TV thing.

Overall while it had some good elements I did not find Focus to be a good movie, some people will enjoy it but there are much better things to watch. 

6/10

Gotta do something before Suicide Squad filming starts

Jupiter Ascending Review

Eye of the Storm

When I saw the initial trailer for this I was pretty hyped about Jupiter Ascending, big sci-fi movie from the Wachowskis, the world looked amazing, cast looked good and its new IP to boot. Then I had heard about the delays, not so great reviews so I tried to temper my expectations. Although the Wachowskis last movie Cloud Atlas was quite controversial I really liked it so I still had hope that this would be decent. Unfortunately that was not the case Jupiter Ascending is pretty bad it does a lot of things well but it just does not come together. The premise is interesting, the world is very imaginative, the action is pretty good for the most part but it never really works, I would say mostly because of its story. The beginning is pretty silly, a lot of stupid stuff happens, people react badly and overall a lot of stupid decisions are made by the characters whether they be good or bad.

She Just finished watching the movie

As for the parts of the movie The cast was not that bad for the most part though I don’t think Mila Kunis and Channing Tatum gelled that well. Sean bean is in it so take that for what its worth. The main villain Balem was pretty over the top though that was not really bad thing. As said before the action was pretty good, although some of it was  a bit uninspired. The rocket boots got a bit old after a while but between the very original character and creature designs, tech and weapons it was always visually interesting, and the locales, especially outside of earth were pretty cool. The best part of the movie was definitely the world it created, it was very imaginative yet familiar. My favourite part of the movie was a sequence where Jupiter was at the capital of the system and had wade through the bureaucracy, which sounds boring but it shoes off the world the Wachowskis created very well

While there are things to like about the movie that still does not change how bad the movie ends up being. A good analogy would be if you had a hamburger which is a good and chocolate which is also good but you put them and a blender, the result would be not good which is how Jupiter Ascending turns out. There might be a good movie in there somewhere but what I saw was pretty bad.

5/10

A world like this deserves a far better story

Oscar Movies Pt. 2

American Sniper

I had heard quite a bit about the whole American jingoism thing that is supposed to be going on in this movie and indeed it is there but I did not think it was as heavy handed as it was made out to be. I thought this movie was alright. Cast was fine, story was alright and was interesting enough. There are a few silly things like an enemy sniper subplot but the biggest thing I took issue with the most was everyone's motivations, which ranged from noble to terrible. Chris Kyle seems to join the war with somewhat good intentions but ends up staying for pretty bad ones. I guess the movie is supposed to be about how war affects people and you see that but it defiantly draped in an American Flag.

Overall it’s a bit of hard movie to talk about without getting too political. I see the entertainment value of the movie, I see the value in Chris Kyle Achievements and I see what its trying to get at with what returning soldiers have to deal with but as much as Clint Eastwood claims the movie is anti-war it seems like its glorifying a pretty terrible war.

6/10

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Imitation Game

I thought this movie was pretty good, The story of Alan Turing, the enigma machine and that whole operation at Bletchley place Is very interesting and defiantly deserving of being told with in a feature film with a good cast and decent budget. While enjoyed the film I feel I would have liked it more if I had not known about the Bletchley place/enigma machine/code breaking thing that went on during WWII from documentary's. The documentaries I have seen did not really touch much on the individuals but the mechanics of the enigma machine , the big "a ha" moment and the aftermath I already knew so those moments did not have as much impact.

Benedict Cumberbatch did a great job as Alan Turing walking the tight rope between crazy and brilliant. Supporting cast was pretty good, Charles Dance was menacing as always, the other code breakers were pretty good and Kiera knightly was good as well even if she looks nothing like the person she was portraying. Its not perfect there are a few too many contrived scenes and there are 1 or 2 subplots that are a bit silly. Overall it’s a solid movie, definitely worth your time.

8/10

 

Kingsman: The Secret Service Review

Kickass Spy movie

Thug Life

Initially had pretty low expectations, had seen the trailers and it looked pretty average.  After learning it was directed by Mathew Vaughn(Kick-Ass, Xmen First Class) and had an R Rating my interest was piqued though the trailers still gave my doubts. Anyway after seeing it I have to say it was pretty tremendous, it really was a Kickass Spy Movie.

Stand out of the cast was defiantly Colin Firth, being known for his dramas and romantic comedies you don’t really know what to expect but wow he was really good and had some great action scenes especially a certain one he as in a church. Rest of the cast was fine, Sam Jackson's(Richmond Valentine) accent was kind of strange but overall good villain, the protagonist "Eggsy"(Taron Egerton) was good, "Roxy"(Sophie Cookson) was decent though I wish she did more and Sofia Boutella as Gazelle, (Richmond Valentine 2IC) was really good and had some great fight scenes. Mark Hamill is also in sounding like a less crazy British version of the Joker.

Story was fairly interesting, it’s a spy movie so a few twists and turns which is to be expected but its not your usual spy movie. It brings some original stuff and is overall also solidly executed. The action was really where it was at, the action is in the same vein as Kick-Ass very violent but really really good and very creative. There isn't too much blood but its definitely there and the damage inflicted is definitely above and beyond what you will see from your usual PG13 action movie.

♫Take me to Church♫

Overall really good movie, did not expect to enjoy it as much as I did. If an action movie a notch above the usual or a spy movie that will probably be way more violent than the next Bond movie sounds good to you than go see this movie you're in for a treat.

9/10