Allegiant

The final instalment in this series and probably the worst one of the entire series (in my opinion).

Tris, Four and the others who escaped in the previous film finally make it out of the new revolution and over the fence, in to a new world. Tris is 'the chosen one' ( que star wars moment) and everyone else suffers from not being as wanted as she is. Jacob doesn't feature at all in the book but he features a lot in the film by being able to see what is going on inside the fence.

As always the main good guy- David is actually the bad guy and the entire story that they feed Tris about going and making things better is just a complete lie. You can't save everyone and you can't destroy an entire race just because some people are stronger than others. You shouldn't get to chose who lives and who dies and that is what this film is about. In a way it is a nice ending to the trilogy because Tris once again shows how useless and pathetic she is without Four there to make her better. Considering that they already changed so much of the story to accommodate Jacob, they could have just changed her character a little to make her less pathetic and someone actually worth watching but then again they were competing with 'The Hunger Games' which makes everything a lot harder.

Having watched the second and third film together I can say that I actually felt that this was the worst film and a bit of a let down. When the plot for two films is to get outside the fence, to overthrow the woman in charge completely and having done that it would have been better to leave it like that and let everyone read the book of Allegiance instead of making a film. It's a little anti-climatic in this film. So much build up towards the end of the second film for nothing to have been achieved and them to have to start almost everything again with a different enemy.

Four's mother is probably one of the worst characters in this film but I can see why they spent so much time making Jacobs role a lot bigger. Tris saves Jacob and takes him with her (even though he is a total idiot and should have died in the first or second book), even when he can't run or fight and generally is fairly useless. That sort of family relationship is what most siblings or families have but not Four and his mother. Four fights against his mother who is being a complete idiot and I really feel for this guy because his father beat him and his mother is attempting to execute people- what a family to have.

Probably one of the worst endings to a trilogy I have experienced and I definitely preferred the second film to this. The first one- Divergent, was the best and it went in order after that.

Back to the future 3

Don't take money, don't take fame. The song is back but you have to get through the entire film to hear it again!

According to popular vote this is the favourite of the Back To The Future series and it is a huge step up from the previous film. The name of this film is probably a little inaccurate as 'Back to the past' probably would have been better suited with a trip of something like 100 years in the past for Marty to find his ancestor, who is of course Michael J Fox with a ginger wig and an acceptable Irish accent.

Cowboys, horses, fights, bars and a new time machine in the form of a train- this film has everything worthy of an action film and Marty finally gets over his insane desire to fight people when they call him a coward. Every time he fights he looks at this picture of a tombstone which says 'Clint Eastwood' (being from the future he takes on the name of Clint Eastwood) and realises that he has to change something so that he doesn't die and therefore have never lived.

There are many memorable scenes- Doc dancing with his woman, Doc saving the woman from the bridge (which is altering the past) and Marty fighting the ancestor of Biff. The villain always stays the same in the same way that the plot always stays the same. Marty's family is threatened by the family of Biff and Marty has to save his family, be that his father, son or ancestors. The failure from the second film of stopping Biff meant that they had to go back in time a lot more to prevent things from happening. Once you get used to the cowboys and the music returning to 'the future' seems really weird.

So much more enjoyable than the previous film and more memorable. I can understand why this is most people's favourite film out of the three. The scenery was lovely and there is absolutely no possibility of another film. The series has ended. Michael J Fox didn't need to go on and make another hit film because he will always be known as Marty McFly.

Knight and Day

Tom Cruise is featuring a lot recently but I promise that he will not be featuring again for a while. Cameron Diaz also makes a rare appearance on this blog and I can honestly say that this film was never intended to feature on this blog because I dislike both Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz as actors.

Knight and Day plays on Cameron Diaz being a 'dumb blonde' and Tom Cruise playing himself. It is funny but sometimes her character is so stupid that it is slightly unrealistic. Tom Cruise takes the guns and the enemies and actually manages to produce some clever stunts with a relatively decent plot line but he is still just being the same guy that we have become accustomed to seeing. So why should you watch this film? It's funny, at times. The driving is ridiculous and very unrealistic but apart from that it could become a possible situation except that they would be a lot more subtle about it and if she had really panicked that much then he would have smashed her phone and left her in a different country after drugging her instead of returning her to her house.

The plot isn't entirely predictable and she does turn in to something of a cool and strong character at the end but it takes her the entire film to stop being useless and pathetic which is a lot of a let down considering the time in which this film was released. All that I can say about this film is that I did actually enjoy it and I liked the scenery, which is more than I had intended to do. I want for Tom Cruise to stop playing action characters or himself and do something a lot better and stronger with his career but that seems a little unlikely. I also wish for Cameron Diaz to go out there and do a film which is surprising and is totally different to anything that we have seen from her because she is another who plays on her looks and generally is herself from start to finish.

All that I have learnt from this film is that when federal agents come to the door and use words such as 'safe' and 'secure' it means that they are going to kill me. However, having seen so many of these films I either must have a good understanding of how secret services operate (which is highly unlikely) or I have no idea at all and just assume them to be like how they are portrayed in films which would make these key words complete and utter nonsense.

Next up is Back to the Future 3, followed by Allegiant.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar's Revenge.

The team are back but without director Jerry Bruckheimer. Instead they took a very Spanish approach to it, focusing on a Spanish Captain effectively being the equivalent of Davy Jones, with a ship that has a similar feel to it as The Flying Dutchman.

This film should have been called 'Dead Men Tell No Tales' and that probably would have been a better option than calling it 'Salazars Revenge' and that says a lot about the film. They went with the wrong name and the wrong idea for the plot. This is sort of a back story in to the character development of Jack Sparrow but it also includes the son of Will and Elizabeth and another woman. This film feels like a remake of the second film with a less terrifying and thought out enemy.

Less action and a lot less comedy. Not a bad way to end the series but they really do have to end the series because another film will kill it. They tried to make it funny but without the classic action and the classic almost 'we just let the make it up' feel that goes with the original three films there is nothing that really makes you want to watch this film.

Javier Bardem keeps up his record of playing really weird characters but he was not as good as Ian McShane in the last film. They haven't had a real enemy since Davy Jones and no one has been as good as Bill Nighy. David Whenam takes over from Jack Davenport and the character is not quite as good but he still gives it his all and can pass for a naval officer. A different part of the Caribbean, which is always nice but apart from that there is nothing to really make you want to watch this film again. If you are doing a Pirates marathon I would still be inclined to tell you to scrap the last two films and just stick to the three.

The Mummy

This is the latest release of this film and the first in part of a universe that seems to be building up to a remake of 'Van Helsing'.

The reviews of this film are not good and that generally sums up what this film is. It was boring, not as scary as it should be and the Mummy wasn't actually that bad or evil as a character. You could see the writing on the wall from the start of the film and this film just started off badly and didn't get any better.

The light in all this darkness is Russel Crowe and Dr. Jekyll/ Mr. Hyde. He is probably the best Jekyll/ Hyde ever seen in film and if 'Van Helsing' is just a remake of the film then Jekyll's inclusion in this film is probably to try and help explain the start of Van Helsing. With the next film in the universe scheduled to be one about Frankenstein it all makes sense that they are building up to Van Helsing as the inclusion of the monster is also in that film but needs to be introduced before the film so that you can truly understand how Frankenstein ended up with Dracula to start with.

There is no real plot to this film. They dragged out the end because they ran out of any plot that would make the ending work and most of us almost fell asleep and ate a lot of popcorn out of boredom. Tom Cruise is just himself again. Not really threatening and there was no real explanation to the ending of the film and why he leaves in the way that he does or even what the hell actually happens at the end. If you are familiar with Egyptian Gods then you will be able to piece the pieces together and form a possible conclusion but if you are not then you are clueless at the end.

It's expensive to see this film and not worth the money. Give it a miss.

The Man From U.N.C.L.E (2015)

Was this ever planned to be reviewed? No. In the evenings we have movie time where we just pick a random film available to us in the action category and we watch it. I wasn't in charge of the choosing this time so we ended up watching this film but it was a lot better than I had been led to believe that it would be.

Henry Cavil (Superman: Man of Steel) and Armie Hammer (The Social Network) team up as a very American CIA agent and a KGB operative. They hate each other and have contradicting styles of, well, everything which makes partnerships very difficult. This is more a comedy rather than a serious film and if I were to place it somewhere it would go in between a Roger Moore James Bond film and Spy. Not as funny as Spy but not even as serious as a Roger Moore Bond film, which unfortunately, was probably the least serious set of Bond films.

It's a lot of fun and generally entertaining but it is not a serious film and should not be taken as such. I don't want to go in to the bad bits because this film was clearly made with a sense of humour and a directing and writing team who were trying to have a laugh and make something enjoyable instead of making something serious. If anyone is familiar with 'The Saint' then this gives off a similar feel to that. Lovely scenery and even some historically somewhat relevant characters and moments. It's not rubbish, it's exactly what it is trying to be which is some entertainment for most people and good fun to make.

My only real criticism with this film is the casting of Hugh Grant. This man only ever plays himself and I am fed up with seeing him in films as I personally feel that he actually ruins films by being in them. If there is quality in acting then it all vanishes when he walks on screen. I would like to see this guy play a totally different character to himself all the time but that isn't going to happen.

The film ends with a suggestion of there being another film but I doubt somewhat that there will be many more because I don't remember it doing that well in the cinemas. Next up is 'The Mummy' and then 'Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar's Revenge'.

Wonder Woman

Tagged as the best superhero film of the year and so far they are not wrong- it is.
Try not to follow the comics or, if you are like me and you follow the comics then distance yourself from the comics when you are watching the film so that you can enjoy this film. There is only one problem with it and that is that it seems like a difficult task to make a sequel but I am sure that that wont stop them from trying and succeeding!

This film just takes you quickly through the development of Wonder Woman (Diana) from a small child on the amazon island to her introduction in to the human world during world war 2. She possesses great strength, agility, fighting abilities and the ability to stop bullets using her wrist guards but the amazons with their bows an shields are a little outnumbered and outmatched in terms of technology. Wonder Woman made her film debut in that really terrible Batman Vs Superman film which seemed to destroy Superman as Henry Cavil and was seriously rubbish. The start and end of the film link her cameo in Batman Vs Superman to this film and also continue to link her to 'Justice League' which will be one of the next DC films released. As far as DC go, this is probably one of the best that they have ever made and the best since Superman: Man of Steel.

David Thewlis reverts back to a similar type of role that I saw from him in the first film that I ever saw with him in which was called 'Dragon heart'. This time his character has more of a 'Gustav Graves' feel from 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' which is probably the biggest spoiler I could give at the this time to ruin the entire film for you. I was very impressed with him and genuinely believed that he couldn't give a performance like he did anymore.

Chris Pine did more than rely on his eyebrows, although, someone needs to point out to him that he is American, sounded American throughout the entire film and therefore should stop trying to claim to be a British spy. His character had it's strengths and its weaknesses but was a very different character to the ones normally associated with him and showed a completely different side to him. Knowing that he wont be back for another film makes it a little better as the more of a presence that he has in a franchise the more you realise how bad his acting is. In this film he was very good and I was told that he was good before I went to see it, didn't believe them and now I know that they were right. This has been the performance of his career.

Gal Gadot. If you are like me and haven't seen 'Fast Five' or any of the ones that follow then you probably wont recognise her and I certainly didn't so I treated this as her screen debut and was very impressed with it. Probably one of the best debuts seen and by far the best superhero woman ever to have been on screen. Some things looked unreal but she looked really good and as a martial artist these stunts would have been easy for her. She has made Wonder Woman her own and is the equivalent of Michelle Pfeiffer as Cat Woman. Wonder Woman is probably my favourite superhero film ever made and she is Wonder Woman.

Hitman

Jason Bourne except that he has no issues with killing anyone. All assassins are trained to kill from birth and have to wear black suits. There are currently two 'Hitman' films and they make the Jason Bourne trilogy look pathetic. 'Hitman' is a huge franchise with games and various other things coming up when you type it in to google so now I will have to play the games to compare them with the film.

Dougray Scott (Ever After, Mission Impossible 2) was the only name that I knew before watching this film and watching him play another totally different character was impressive. 'Hitman' has all the action that any action film could desire and the attention to detail. Think back to what makes you enjoy the 'James Bond' movies, for me it is the action, the somewhat stupid stunts that aren't realistic and as we move more in to the Daniel Craig era the serious stunts and car chases with the attention to detail. What 'Hitman' doesn't have is the misogynistic attitude that has become a problem for 'James Bond' moving forward.

Timothy Olyphant is one of the most convincing assassins I have seen on screen. Better than Michael Fassbender, Matt Damon, Antonio Banderas or Tom Cruise and those are all films that I have watched within the last year. The escape routes are planned, everything is planned in this film and is realistic. When he jumps out of a window in to the river we know that someone could actually do that. When he kills the other assassins using two blades we know that he could do that. The choreography is realistic and unlike that scene in Equilibrium we don't have shots randomly being fired or not reaching the target when they clearly would have. It's not the lack of hair or the bar code on the back of his head (which makes you think of the TV series Dark Angel from years ago) which makes it fantastic, it's the clarity and the logic. This is someone who knows what they are doing. Every character has a back story and that is slowly explored. The girl (Olga Kurylenko) is more than just a girl and she isn't a weakness to him but we do get to understand why she makes the decisions that she makes.

Everyone in this film was fantastic and this is probably the best action film I have watched on this years blog.

Jerry Maguire

Probably known for some of the worst on-screen romantic lines to have ever been written such as: 'you had me at hello' and 'you complete me'. Tom Cruise and Renee Zellweger team up as a sports agent and an accountant.

There have been many films on sport, how to buy in sports (Moneyball), playing for pride (Invictus) or what happens when the door seems closed to you (The cutting edge) but this is probably the best one about sports agents. In today's world agents seldom work for a company, preferring to work from home and earn more money without a company taking a percentage off the top. This is the (possibly made up) story of an agent who is works specifically for a company, is very successful, makes a lot of money and then has a breakdown, writes down what everyone is thinking but no one in the business is allowed to say and a week later gets fired. Upon being fired and loosing most of his clients he takes an accountant with him and also looses his intimate partner but he ends up married to the accountant and becoming a super agent but only after almost losing everything.

I think what this film has that makes it so good is Jerry Maguire finally understanding that he needs to get more from his client and that he needs to have those open discussions with his clients about their marriages and their lives as well. They get the best out of each and make things work. He was broke and Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr) wasn't as big as he wanted to be and wasn't happy and neither was his wife. Often we read about agents making a ridiculous amount of millions for being the agent of a footballer but this film shows how much they depend on their clients to earn them that money. If your client isn't attracting customers then you aren't going to make any money off of them so you need them just as much as they need you and no matter how good you are your career is dependent on other people entirely.

Yes, it has a happy ending and that is often what people look for in these films and yes, both are relatively attractively so it is ticking all the boxes.

Often films (**cough lego batman**) rip off this film but I personally felt like those criticisms are unfair.

Ocean's Thirteen

Loved Ocean's Eleven, used to sit there eating cake and watching it on a Friday evening regularly because of the genius of eleven men robbing a casino and actually pulling it off. Then Ocean's Twelve was released and it was fairly pathetic as far as films went and there was a lot less action and someone playing on the idea that Julia Roberts looked like Julia Roberts which was just very stupid and hardly worth the effort. In that film we met Linus' (Matt Damon) mother so what better than to meet his father in this film?

This time it isn't about revenge as such, it is because Reuben is sick. He is sick because he partners with a guy known in the casino business for being a double crosser and then he gets double crossed and loses all his money so the team come together to rob this new casino before it has even actually opened, to get it bad reviews by buying a few of the staff and treating the real inspectors like rubbish while Sol posses as an inspector. As always, the team is still the team with the same kind of skills and this seems like an impossible job but Danny has a plan. The two brothers are actually the worst type of siblings I have ever seen where almost all that they do is argue with each other, to the point of barely completing their jobs because they are arguing and don't have their heads in the right place.

If you are after the action and then typical ending sequence then you've got it. Thirteen hasn't quite captured the feeling of Eleven but it is a lot better than Twelve was. Everyone has a part to play as a con man in this film and the introduction of Eddie Izzard and Al Pacino help to keep the film rolling. Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia) is not the enemy but does try to double cross them when they run away with the diamonds, only to discover that they were expecting him to double cross them and so they made the switch before his man could rob them of the diamonds.  No one can rob a casino like these guys and it isn't even about the women this time. Making a natural disaster happen like a mini earth quake? Maybe a little unrealistic but I applaud the effort. I enjoyed this film and didn't sit there rolling my eyes or complaining about things that wouldn't happen in real life.

Forget all about the second film and just go straight to the third film.