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Sunday 30 April 2017

Doomed: The Untold Story of Roger Corman's the Fantastic Four Review


Hello there movie fans i don't usually cover documentary's at all not because there are no good ones but because i'd have no idea what to talk about but i have chosen to review this film since it's about a film that no one knows about so here is my review of Doomed: The Untold Story of Roger Corman's the Fantastic Four.


This film is about the production of the unreleased Roger Corman movie "The Fantastic Four" and what really interested me is the fact that no one involved with the movie be it cast or crew knew that this film was never going to see the light of day at least legally. This film doesn't shy away from the production issues that the movie went through from having to stop working on the movie because there was no money to the cast finding out the movie wasn't going to be released.


All of the cast and most of the crew that worked on the movie are interviewed here i can't give an exact list because i couldn't find one anywhere but from this movie i got the feeling that everyone involved had a true passion for the movie and to some degree even the characters and for me at least it's refreshing to see actors and directors and editors that have a true passion for the movie that they are working on.

This movie does something that most Marvel films won't like and that's the fact that it paints Stan Lee in a bad light in the movie one of the cast says that Stan told them this was going to be a great movie but then at a con basically says that it's not going to be a great film and this documentary does supple video proof but tho he isn't the only one that get painted in bad light as at times the cast and crew start painting Roger Corman in the same light but not for very long tho.


I'm not gonna lie the cast these days look good and as someone who has seen the trailer for the movie tons of times it's great to see how they look now and yes the above as an image of how the Sue Storm of that movie Rebecca Staab looks today i personally think that she doesn't age at all and she is meant to be in her fifties.


I loved hearing how the cast made the most of a very small budget which considering they only had $1 million dollars to make a superhero movie and from the clips that they show in the movie every penny of it shows that cast and that crew made the money last for the most part yes some of the effects today look but considering they didn't have much money to work the effects come out looking for the most part really good.

Speaking of the effects the film goes into detail about how someone who was claiming to have worked on Independence Day as the lead animator was basically giving them unfinished effects for months and months the person was pretty much just being lazy until one day when he stopped working on the movie and i have to say that person was lazy as hell anyone who works in the movie business will tell you you give each project you work on 100% and not just 1%.

  

This film at times does start to drag especially nearer the end of the movie which is when they start to wonder if the film was truly meant to be released or not and it turns out the story that we have all heard about the movie only being made so they could keep the film rights might not be true at all and they even mention that the film does exist somewhere.


Overall if your like me and are interested in seeing how what is basically a lost piece of media got made then this is the film for you but if you have no interest in the film then i would say avoid it but for me this movie is a 8 out of 10 
  


Doctor Who "Thin Ice" Review


Welcome back Doctor Who fans it is the time of the week that you all love since you get to read one of my reviews and oh yeah there was a new episode of Doctor Who so let's crack on with it shall we this is my review of "Thin Ice".


So then what is the plot of this episode i here you ask well there's lights underneath the Thames and it's up to The Doctor and Bill to find out what's going on. That's all i can say without really going into spoilers but i really did enjoy this episode since it not only gave us some great character scenes but it was also really well paced.


Now of course we have Peter , Pearl and Matt in this episode and now i can talk about Pearl i really like her she really is a different kind of companion and even tho i can see her character dividing fans for me she is great and she's great in this episode her scenes with Peter especially towards the middle of the episode were a treat to watch Peter as always does a fantastic job he has made The Doctor his own and it will be sad to him go. As for guest character we have Nicholas Burns , Asiatu Koroma and Peter Singh i have to admit the guest cast for this episode was a little on the weak side for me they weren't bad but they weren't helped by the fact that the episode was moving at a fast pace so you really couldn't connect to any of them.


From a visual standpoint this episode was stunning who ever shot this episode did a really great job and it couldn't have been easy to make the setting of this episode not only look like London but also look like it would fit in within the world of Doctor Who but tho i would say they overused the snow machine in a few scenes so i would toned that down a bit.

The CGI in this episode wasn't just TV quality for me it was movie quality it was that good i can't say which effects look the best because not only might they be considered a spoiler but also there all that good there's only one i can mention and that's the elephant that we saw at the end of last weeks episode i liked it then and i like it now so well done effects team you did a great job.


As mentioned Bill and The Doctor get alot of great character based scenes in the middle of this episode and i really liked them because they gave Bill a bit more of a character and they gave her a chance to really bond with The Doctor which until this point they havn't really done but another thing this episode did and it was something that i wasn't expecting was they touched on the racism that was rife in the century that this episode takes place and i have to give the writer credit for including that little detail.

Now then i won't mention the music not because it was bad but because i've already mentioned the music twice in a row now but i will mention that this episode is actually pretty creepy it's not going to make you run for the sofa but it will make the hair on the back of your neck stand to attention.


Overall this was a great episode from start to finish and i think most of the fan base will love it but tho for me there was issues that i have mentioned so for me this episode is an 8 out of 10

  





Tuesday 25 April 2017

Tom and Jerry: Spy Quest Review


Hello there animation lovers with a new Tom And Jerry movie out in a few months i thought i'd review the only direct to DVD Tom And Jerry movie i actually heard about and so here is my review of Tom And Jerry: Spy Quest.


So then what is the plot of this crossover movie you ask well Tom And Jerry team with the Jonny Quest team to help defeat Dr. Zin. That's really all you get when it comes to plot and to be fair it's the kind of plot you'd expect from a Jonny Quest / Tom And Jerry crossover movie however where the movie losses points is the fact that things happen so fast you don't have time to take anything in which given the fact that the movie is around 75 minuets long is to be expected.


Now the voice actor for Tom isn't listed but i'll say his yell grew to annoy me so much all he does is yell in this movie as for the rest of the cast we have Reese Hartwig as Jonny Quest , Eric Bauza as Dr. Benton Quest , Michael Hanks as Race Bannon , Arnie Pantoja as Hadji , Tia Carrere as Jezebel Jade and James Hong as Dr. Zin. In terms of the quality of the acting in this movie it's very mixed some actors are better then others i personally liked Tia Carrere as Jade i thought she did a great job considering she isn't in much of the movie and i thought that Reese Hartwig was at times good but at other times bad i do however have to give the movie credit for bringing back original Jonny Quest actor Tim Matheson tho and the fact he gets to have a few lines of dialog with his old character i thought was fun.

The action scenes in this movie while really well animated they were also dull watch and just not exciting at all and i think it's because the characters moved at such a slow pace during those scenes each punch took a good five or six seconds at least and they really weren't helped by the fact that there was no music playing during those scenes at all it was just plain silent during those scenes.


I can gladly say that the comedy in this film is easily better then the comedy in Tom And Jerry The Movie that being said however most of the jokes in this movie do not work at all there are a few good jokes that did get a smile out of me like for example there's a pretty funny running joke featuring Tom and Bandit which i won't spoil here but it's worth watching just for that. Now you'd expect the slapstick in a Tom And Jerry movie to be funny in this movie however it ranges from being slightly funny to not funny at all and for a Tom And Jerry product that's not a good thing at all.

The animation in this film i can say is actually pretty good it's not perfect but for what it is it's decent animation the characters look great and they have some good facial expressions but there are times when Tom becomes to stretchy and that takes away from the comedy and there are times when Tom And Jerry which to me takes away from how they were animated back in the 40's.


What i didn't expect this film this film was to use the classic Jonny Quest intro except this time they added in Tom And Jerry for me it was great use of both 60's animation and animation from today and if you were a fan of Jonny Quest then you would have gotten a kick out of it as well and if there are any Jonny Quest fans out there i can tell you that the characters do retain there look from the sixties TV show.


Overall while this is better then Tom And Jerry The Movie it's still not that good of a film i didn't comment on the music because there's not alot of it but the movie does start with the classic Tom And Jerry theme i give this movie a 6 out of 10 now bring on Tom And Jerry: Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory.








Sunday 23 April 2017

Doctor Who "Smile" Review


Welcome back Doctor Who fans yes it is that glorious time of the week once again and it's time for my review of series 10 episode 2 get ready because it's time to smile.


Now then what is the plot of this weeks episode i hear you ask in my TARDIS well basically The Doctor and Bill have to at first try and defeat the characters from The Emoji Movie and then they have to help them. Yeah i couldn't help but make a reference to The Emoji Movie i'm sorry but in the episodes fairness it does a good job of telling this story by throwing in alot of twists and turns which i really liked i won't spoil the biggest twist of the episode since that also forms a bit of problem for me personally.


Of course we have our three main leads Peter , Pearl and Matt but guest starring in this episode we have Kiran L. Dadlani , Mina Anwar , Kaizer Akhtar and Royale Family star Ralf Little. Actually out of all the actors who are in this episode it's Matt who gets the shortest amount of screen time he just appears in the pre-credits scene and that's it but in that one scene he does get a good joke so that was nice Pearl also did a great job this week but like i said last week i won't fully comment on her character until either next week or episode 4 Peter for me was the true standout out of the main trio and that's to be expected since he is the most experienced out of the three. For me it was Ralf who did the best job out of the guest stars he was warm when needed and scary when needed but sadly like Matt he doesn't get alot of screen time.

The "monsters" if you can call them that looked pretty good i liked how they could only speak Emoji which i thought was a nice bit of possible commentary on today's culture they also had a bit of a creepy look to them there's something just creepy about a robot that's nearly always smiling and i liked that they did do that.


For me the issues that i had with the episode apart from that kinda twist was the fact that for alot of time Peter and Pearl didn't have that extra person they could bounce of they have great chemistry but i think that for now at least they work better as a threesome rather then a twosome but who knows as the series goes on that could change. Another issue i had was that The Doctor for me came of as a bit of a d**k in he was always waiting for Bill to work out the answer to something that he had worked out long ago and it just made him look arrogant.


In terms of action there really wasn't any big set pieces which i thought was a nice refreshing change of pace the only true set piece we get is near the end of the episode which for me makes the most sense since this episode mainly focused on the story rather then the action but when you get to big set piece ready yourself that's all i'll really say on that.


Now the music in this episode was better then last weeks but tho i couldn't really hear that much of it due to all the sound effects being so loud which is a shame because the bits i could hear i really liked so if i were on the editing team for Doctor Who i would turn down the sound effects and turn up the music.

Overall i would say that while this episode does improve on some of the issues i had with last weeks episode it still has it's own problems and this isn't by far the worst in Doctor Who history it's not the best either so for me this episode is a 7 out of 10







Sunday 16 April 2017

Doctor Who "The Pilot" Review


Hello there Doctor Who fans it's been a while since we've had a full series of Doctor Who and more importantly it's been a while since you've had the honor of reading one of my reviews and now here is my review of series 10 episode 1 "The Pilot".



So then the plot of this episode is The Doctor and Nardole team up with a university student to take down the Daleks. That's pretty much the only plot line i can think of that doesn't give anything away but it is a thrilling story from start to it's emotional finish the only issue that i personally have when it comes to the story is the fact it takes a while to get going but given that they have introduce a new companion it is understandable.


This episode of course has Peter Capaldi and Matt Lucas but it also introduces Pearl Mackie as new companion Bill Potts there is also guest stars Jennifer Hennessy and Stephanie Hyam when it comes to the cast i think that both Peter and Matt were great in this episode they had some wonderful back and forth which i really loved i won't judge Pearl just yet but if you saw the three minuet preview they released then you know what to expect from her in this episode.

Possible Spoiler

This episode did something none of the new who series has done and that's introduce a gay character in the form of Bill and to be honest i;m glad they did that as it opens up new opportunities to tell different kinds of stories and it shows how far the show has progressed in over fifty years.

End Of Possible Spoiler


I have to say that this episode was pretty action packed when the story gets going it really gets going and is all the Doctor Who goodness we want i won't spoil what happens but lets just say that there's a name i've had to remove from the cast list because you'd all know who that person is playing but tho this episode had me on the edge of my seat for alot of the episode so much so that i could have fell off if i moved another inch.

I really liked the look of the monster in this episode but tho and i'm sure it's not just me but the creature looked a lot like the ones from The Waters Of Mars special so much so that i had to look up to see if they were in fact the same creature but alas i couldn't get any answers but tho what made this monster really standout was there motivation which again i won't spoil but it was something both fresh and different and i liked it.


There's alot of humor in this episode and instead of it just coming from the companion all three of the leads each get a good few funny lines in this episode we all knew from the trailer the kinds of jokes that Bill would be getting and from the christmas special we all knew the types of things that Matt Lucas would say and what Peter would say but what we didn't know was how funny those lines would be.

Of course the episode was scored by Murray Gold and honestly this wasn't his best work i think that because so much was going on within the episode itself it meant that his music wasn't allowed to flourish and be it's awesome self.


Overall this was a great way to not only introduce the new companion but to also open the series but that being said it does have it's fair share of issues that i've already mentioned so for me this episode is an 8.5 out of 10
  





Tuesday 11 April 2017

Looney Tunes: Rabbits Run Review


Hello Looney Tunes fans alot of people know about the early looney tunes movies and a lot of people know about the live action movies and maybe someone will know about the straight to DVD christmas movie but the one movie that not that many people know about is the one that's loosely based on The Looney Tunes Show and so here is my review of that very movie Looney Tunes: Rabbits Run.


So then what is the plot of this looney movie i don't here you saying well Lola Bunny invents a perfume with the adverse effect of turning people invisible sending her and cab driver Bugs Bunny on the run from the FBI while another shady group seeks the formula. I have to admit for a looney tunes movie there's quite alot going on in this movie as alot of people want what Lola has invented but for me that only adds to the overall insanity and looneyness of it all the downside is that since so much is going on at times the film gets bogged down.


From what i can gather most of the cast of The Looney Tunes Show all came back for the movie with the exception of Kristin Wigg as Lola who here is played by Rachel Ramras who does a good job in the movie but i have a feeling she was told to do a Kristin Wigg impression since the character has that same sense of humor that only Wigg could pull off she's not the only new actor in this movie tho as Jess Harnell and Rob Paulsen voice The Goofy Gophers and i have to admit it was great hearing those two actors in the same movie together and there's pretty solid in this movie as well.

Now i said at the very start of this review that it was very loosely based on The Looney Tunes Show and what i meant by that was they took the look of the show , some of the voice actors and the character designs and some of the characters personality's and dropped everything else. I have to ask what was the point in making this movie based on what was at the time a popular show if your just going to drop all of the shows storylines to me that makes no sense you could have had this movie act as a series finale.


The animation is pretty solid for a direct to DVD looney tunes movie you can tell that those involved put in alot of effort and it really does show and it helps that the director of the movie also served as animation director on both Space Jam and Back In Action as well a director on The Looney Tunes Show. There's a lot of great fluid movement from the characters and most of the characters get a lot of great and funny facial expressions which i will get more into by the way as i said the movie carried over the designs from The Looney Tunes Show so if you didn't like how they looked in the show then you won't like how they look here personally tho i think the characters look pretty good.

Now i have to agree with a certain critic of the nostalgia and say that Lola is best character not only in the show but also in this movie when i said that alot of the characters get some funny facial expressions she is one of them and my god where they great to see everytime she pulls a funny face it got a laugh out of me.


I have to mention some of the jokes in this movie not all of them are laugh out loud funny but the ones that hit hit hard like for example Yosemite Sam has a great running joke where he always tells people that he's about to rob a bank another one is the fact that Lola does a spot on impression of Sam and i won't spoil another joke but if you liked the first cartoon to feature Marvin The Martian then there's a great little nod to that cartoon in there as well.

This film is full of Looney Tunes which for me is both good and bad good because it's a Looney Tunes movie but bad because it means a lot of them get either very minor roles , a few lines or just a cameo for me the best character apart from Bugs and Daffy is Porky Pig and he only gets one line in the whole movie but he got the goldetreatment compared to Daffy who for some reason is dumbed down in this movie to the point where it's not even funny.


Overall i would say this is a pretty good Looney Tunes movie but it's not as good as it could have been if your a fan of The Looney Tunes Show then this is for you but if you weren't a fan of the show then this won't make you one but for me this movie is a 5.5 out of 10




Tuesday 4 April 2017

Teen Titans: The Judas Contract Review


Hello there comic fans and animation lovers The Judas Contract has been a film that has been promised for years well now it's here and i'm here to give you my thoughts on the new movie so here is my review of Teen Titans: The Judas Contract so let's get it on.


Ok so the plot of this movie is the Teen Titans get a new member to the team, Terra who seems to have an ulterior motive as they take on the mercenary Deathstroke and deal with the terroristic threat of Brother Blood. The plot for this 90 minuet movie does take a while to get going but when it does get going it really gets going as for the story i thought it was a great story to tell since i havn't read The Judas Contract comic book i don't know if it's faithful to the source or not but for a film it was a well told story but with pacing issues.


Reprising there roles are Stuart Allan as Damian Wayne / Robin , Taissa Farmiga as Raven , Brandon Soo Hoo as Garfield Logan / Beast Boy , Jake T. Austin as Jaime Reyes / Blue Beetle , Kari Wahlgren as Koriand'r / Starfire , Sean Maher as Dick Grayson / Nightwing and the late Miguel Ferrer as Slade Wilson / Deathstroke and added to the cast is Christina Ricci as Tara Markov / Terra and Gregg Henry as Sebastian Blood / Brother Blood. The regular cast do a great job voicing there characters which is to be expected they have been playing them for a while now altho Raven's voice still gets on my nerves she sounds like a robot only without any life in it but honestly out of the new cast the true standout for me is Christina Ricci she is so good in this movie.

Now DC animated movies don't really have that much adult humor in them that changes with this film because there is a few adult jokes in this movie and i have to admit they were really funny and i'm shocked that Warners let them include adult jokes in this movie not only that but Slade has a potty mouth he swears alot in this movie.


There isn't alot of fighting in this movie but when there is fighting it's really well animated and is really something to behold the fights to me looks like something you'd see out of the new Voltron series or in any anime series that's the type of feeling i was getting when they were on screen and they were great to see.


Like most of the Marvel live action movies the villain in this movie isn't well done i personally wouldn't even say Brother Blood is the main villain i'd say he's more of a secondary villain and that Slade is the main villain but according to the movie it's the other way round which if that is the case then they should have done a better job with Brother Blood and made him more of a threat instead of having just show up in one or two scenes.

As with the previous DC animated movies the animation is top notch the animation has sort of this anime look and feel to it which is an anime fan was something that i really liked and it looked great in the movie. I liked the look of Terra she looks cute and yet bad ass at the same time and i love the fact that they gave her dimples to me it says that she really is just a kid who doesn't know what she's doing. The animation also has a lot of fluid movements and features no animation errors which was great to see.

The score was done by Frederik Wiedmann and just by checking his Wikipedia page i can safely say he has done nothing of note and judging by this film and this film only i think that's a good think because his score was really flat and at times was down right boring to listen to.


Overall this is not the best DC animated movie out there but at the same time it's not the worst now i have included this image from The Looney Tunes Show for a reason and that's because there's a clip of the show in the movie and me being a Looney Tunes fan i really digged it and be on the look out for a cameo from a certain Fatman i give this movie a solid 7.5 out of 10.