The Armstrong Lie (2013) Movie review; A Psychopaths story.

I have to admit I am not a cycling fan, I would have struggled to pick this American hero out of a crowd before his scandal broke.

This documentary is good to a point that it magnifies his lies and zoom’s in on how Lance managed to hoodwink the world and cheat in a national sport, I have no love for cycling so the cheating element did not affect me emotionally, I thought I would be intrigued as to why he chose to cheat, I thought his reason’s would give an insight into a complicated mind.

My conclusion is that Lance Armstrong is a psychopath, if you look into his eyes at times I swear you can see fire, he is so convincing when lying to hundreds of journalists or as convincing when joking with friends about how ridiculous the idea of him cheating was.

I have big sympathy for the people who came runner-up to him over the years, not only have they missed out on all the financial rewards but to have their medals downgraded and hero status stolen is morally evil,

6/10

KO

Blue Jasmine ( 2013) Movie review; An elegant movie of interest!

This is the type of movie that could easily pass most people by, but as a few days have passed since I watched this film my feelings for the film are all positive, Cate Blanchett is simply outstanding, she plays a woman who chooses to live her perceived life and not her real life,  the movie does in fact pose an interesting question, if you could have all the money and luxuries in the world, would you end this relationship if you suspected your husband was cheating on you, I know what most ladies would say to that question but I know of people in my own life who live their life, like politicians, given the choice the embarrassment would not be worth finishing with their partner.

Alec Baldwin delivers a solid performance along with a surprising showing from Andrew Dice Clay.

This is my first Woody Allen film that I have watched from start to end, I will have to invest some time viewing his back catalogue, I fear I was too young to appreciate his artistic and witty mind prior to aging and observing the characters he writes about.

7/10

KO

Film facts –

Costume designer Suzy Benzinger had a budget of only $35, 000. The Hermès bag that Jasmine carries was worth more than the entire budget and was borrowed, as were most of the designer outfits.

 

Loosely based upon Tennessee Williams‘ “A Streetcar named Desire”.

 

Louis C.K. originally auditioned for the part played by Andrew Dice Clay. Woody Allen felt that C.K. was too nice to play the role and offered him another part.

 

The third Woody Allen film in which Alec Baldwin has been cast.

 

Bradley Cooper was considered for a role but he dropped out due to scheduling conflicts.

Curse of chucky (2013) Movie review; Good to see you Chucky !

I remember this franchise fondly from my childhood and early teens, a doll that kills and is witty at the same time.

I should have hated this latest installment but I think any failings the film had were given a pass just to see my scary little friend once again, that said they have improved on what was cheap horror tricks, it’s as if the director purposely went out his way to avoid all the obvious jump moment’s, and instead decided to tease you with the return of the evil one.

I would avoid the trailer as it pretty gives everything away, not that it matters, the plot is not that hard to get your head round.

6/10

KO

Nabraska (2013) Movie review; A slow journey to nowhere

The over-riding feeling of this film is… slow, the story creeps along and the characters seem more bored with the going’s on than I was, the film wasn’t a complete stinker, there were a couple of lines of dialogue that were witty and delivered with style, it’s just the other 95% of the film that comes off as trying a little too hard to win that independent weird movie of the year, good effort but no spark.

5/10

KO

Around the World in 80 Trades – TV Review – Scam Cities Conor Woodman makes good TV

I do love Conor Woodman in Scam city, the show is viewable on You tube but the show itself has been broadcast on a small network.

Now he is on a national channel and getting the exposure that he deserves, he has charm and an innocence that makes this type of show prime viewing.

Most people if they haven’t already tried making an extra income have thought about since the crash of 2008, Conor takes £25,000 of his own money after selling his flat, and decides to start making business trades around the world, the highlights to date included his buying coffee in South Africa, selling wine to China and Tea to Japan, as well as this being an interesting watch, it also open’s your mind to what is possible, and how easy and most of the time hard it is to get things moving when you have no idea what you are talking about.

I feel that this show is so much more educational than other business show’s, there’s a sense of panic and unplanned feel to each trade.

I loved each show after recently watching the series on You Tube.

8/10

KO

 

Why do I keep getting spam comments on certain posts ? – WordPress blog

Hi,

I am really frustrated with WordPress help page so I thought it best to ask my fellow bloggers, I have always got the odd spam comment since I have had this blog for the last few years but more recently the system which blocks the spam seem’s to be getting bypassed, I have deleted one post due to receiving several spam comments a day ?

Can anyone shed any light on how to battle this epidemic.

Genuine comments welcome 🙂

Old Boy (2013) Movie review; The Americanised version

The makers played a very dangerous game by remaking such a classic as ”Oldboy” every person that has an awareness of movies made outside of Hollywood knows about Oldboy, the original, it made such an impact around the world with its unique concept and sickening but entertaining scenes.

Off the bat I think they got the casting of the lead spot on, Josh Brolin is superb in a busy role, when you decide on remaking a movie I think you have to decide if you are going to be motivated by it , or just copy it,  I think there are too many changes from the original for it to have the same impact, the original was very cold and chilling, it made you ask more than once;- ”What the fuck is going on ? ”  & then ” Why am I loving this so much”

Like a comedian knowing when to leave a pause, Spike Lee missed a trick by not letting this story linger, he could have breathed life into his version by just letting a man deal with his surroundings and the drama that unfolds, I feel he tries to squeeze too much into the story for it to have the same impact as the original, you feel at one stage that you are watching a thriller in the shadow of an action movie, I felt the opposite way about the Asian version.

I love Samual L Jackson but he was too strong for this film, his personality is great for the outspoken characters but he feels like a round peg in a square hole from the second he appears on-screen, it becomes about him and not about the story.

All in all the movie is still entertaining, you can’t knock a good story, but I just think Spike could have taken the same atmosphere of the 1st movie and still added his final touches, the really shocking scenes were not included in this version, would be keen to find out if they were banned or if Spike did not have the balls to film them.

7/10

KO

Film facts –

Joe (Josh Brolin) looks at a squid swimming in a tank at a restaurant and walks away, a nod to the infamous squid scene from the original “Oldboy” film.

 

Spike Lee said that his version was 140 minute long (mostly character build-ups and interactions), but the studio heavily edited his film to 105 minutes. Josh Brolin prefers Spike Lee‘s version.

 

Cinqué Lee, Spike Lee‘s brother, plays the Bellhop pictured on the wall in the prison room and appears as a hallucination. This may be an in-joke to the Jim Jarmusch film Mystery Train (1989), where he also played a Bellhop. Spike Lee and Jarmusch are good friends and are former film students at NYU; Jarmusch also directed Lee siblings in Coffee and Cigarettes II (1989).

 

 

20 feet from Stardom (2013) Movie review; Might as well be on another planet.

This one is a strange one, parts of it are interesting, you feel like you should be rooting for these back up singers who seem to get very little credit when success hits, the only problem is I did not feel that much for them, yes they live an interesting life supporting the big bands or solo stars of several decades but I really don’t think there is enough in their stories to call for a full length movie.

The highlight for me was probably the Rolling stones need for a backing singer at 2am.

Nice enough documentary but like it’s subjects it will stand in the shadows of other feature films.

6/10

KO

Man of Tai Chi (2013) Movie review; Keanu directs his first movie, all good apart from his acting!

I enjoyed this movie on many levels, it is far from being perfect but Keanu Reeves should be proud of his first attempt behind the camera, if he had stayed behind the camera I think he might have created something special, I am sure the reason he didn’t was to cash in on all of those Matrix fans dying to see him perform some martial arts, well if they do, I think they will be disappointed.

I like Keanu the actor, when he is playing a simple-minded or goofy character he seems ever so convincing, in this film he plays a bad character, full of mystery and…. badness,  each word he delivers is very slow-paced and monotone, he gets away with it for the first 1/3 of the film, but as the film continues you start to wonder if his character suffers from some mental condition, I then changed my diagnosis half way through and presumed he was in fact playing a robot covered in skin, I waited for the reveal at the end when I presumed an eye-ball may need picking out, or he may start playing with his ripped open arm in front of a sink, but this moment never arrived, sadly the only thing that did arrive was my conclusion that Keanu is a very lucky boy, to star is so many smash movies but not have any range or  true acting ability, he portrays anger like my two-year old son express’ the signal, which means his nappy is full.

Back to the plot and this is the positive bit, I have seen most of the iconic martial art movies of yesteryear and they normally tow the same mundane line, with this film they break some new ground, to start with they explore Tai chi, secondly they actually have an original story to tell, no revenge mission for a lost brother or dad, nope this is all about an intriguing story matched with some excellent fight scenes, that is until Keanu dusts off his kicking boots and starts fighting like a pub drunk who has just wolfed down several kabab’s, luckily his fight scenes last five minutes so they don’t ruin what goes before it.

Worthy of a watch, I hope Keanu makes some more, just remember to stay behind the camera next time unless there is a part for a surfer dude or a I.T hacker.

7/10

KO

Ride Along (2014) Movie review; A sulky Cube with a happy Hart!

Kevin Hart has been compared to Eddie Murphy, as a Brit I have not seen a lot of him but after looking at snippets of his stand up and a few films here and there he does have the same type of humour that Eddie delivered but I would not class him in the same league, Don’t get me wrong, Eddie has not made a decent movie in over a decade, he hasn’t appeared on stage in over three decades, but if you are comparing the two they are apples and oranges.

Kevin is very likable, he shows no sign of an ego which allows all the classes to relate to him, one thing he misses  is the dangerous factor that Eddie and sometimes Chris Rock have in their material & more so in their performances.

This film is pretty average, the screen lights up when Hart has his time to shine but in-between these moments you have Ice Cube playing himself in a role he has played in EVERY movie he has ever appeared in, god I am bored with seeing this guy play the sulky gangsta with a heart.

Catch this movie when you can, don’t go out your way!

5/10