Fast & Furious 7 Competition

When the seventh installment of the franchise was released this year the fans flocked to say their final farewell to one of the most loved characters in modern film history, Brian O’Connor.

We all got to see Paul Walker’s final film and we all shed a tear by the end of this one, but now you can watch this emotional chapter in the series anywhere you want to by entering this competition to win your own digital download copy of the film.

To enter answer the simple question,

Which British Hard Man Joined the Franchise as Deckard Shaw?

A) Vinnie Jones
B) Jason Statham
C) Danny Dyer
D) Sean Bean

To enter email your answer to moviereviews101@yahoo.co.uk by 27^th September 2015. This competition is only open to people in the UK and ROI (Sorry to the people outside these locations)

Director: Josh Trank

Writer: Simon Kinberg, Jeremy Slater, Josh Trank (Screenplay) Stan Lee, Jack Kirby (Characters)

Starring: Miles Teller, Michael B Jordan, Kate Mara, Jamie Bell, Toby Kebbell, Reg E Cathey, Tim Blake Nelson

Plot: Four young outsiders teleport to an alternate and dangerous universe which alters their physical form in shocking ways. The four must learn to harness their new abilities and work together to save Earth from a former friend turned enemy.

There may be spoilers the rest of the review

Verdict: Dark Origin Story Stuck Behind the Established Heroes

Story: Fantastic Four starts with a young Reed Richards dreaming of being the first person to teleport people. We continue to meet the young Fantastic Four with Ben Grimm also inside in Reed’s class who is from a dysfunctional family whoo helps Reed with his teleporter. Move forward 7 years and Reed (Teller) and Ben (Bell) have been working on improving the teleporter looking to improve upon the design.

Reed and Ben impress enough to get a full scholarship to the Baxter academy under Dr Franklin Storm (Cathey) where they meet his daughter Sue (Mara). Franklin calls to his former mastermind who started the idea Victor Von Doom (Kebbell) who would need to work with Reed to make this teleporter work. Franklin also has a son Johnny (Jordan) who has been pushing away from the idea. We know have the Fantastic Five, wait that isn’t the name of the film.

When the invention works Reed, Ben, Johnny and Victor decide to use the device on themselves with only Sue running the controls, what the boys discover could be the biggest discovery in history but disaster strikes when Victor gets killed with the imploding planetary discovery.

The four surviving members of the team come back the learn they have new abilities, Reed gains stretching abilities, Sue can become invisible, Johnny becomes a human torch and Ben becomes the Thing. While Reed escapes the remaining members are used by the military as they look to learn more about the planet they visited.

When the team return to the planet they find Victor still alive but evolved into Dr Doom who decides to make the battle against the human race personal as they keep invading his own world and it is up to the Fantastic Four to save the say.

Fantastic Four is a film that all I have heard was bad things about but as I know nothing about the comic books and skip the first couple of outings the film tried I decided to give it a go. I was surprised that I actually enjoyed the most part of the film, I liked how the story was darker than the most of the Marvel Universe. With the start of the positive I will have to look at the negative too, I do feel like the ending was rushed and from what I understand Dr Doom is meant to be one of the big villains who got beaten way too easily. In the end this was an origin story to the next chapter of their story that has issues but isn’t as bad as it is being made out to be. (6/10)

Actor Review

Miles Teller: Reed Richards is the mastermind who gets the final details to teleportation down leading to him getting a chance to work for an institute. He stays loyal to his best friend but when he tests his own machine with his newly formed team he gains a new ability he can stretch. Miles gave a performance that could be talked about for years in Whiplash but this just feels very average from the young starlet. (5/10)

Michael B Jordan: Johnny Storm is the brash son of the man giving the men a chance to work on the teleportation devices, he ends up working with his engineering skills, but after going on the trip he turns into the human fireball. Michael gives a solid performance but he just doesn’t get the screen time he needed. (6/10)

Kate Mara: Sue Storm is working on the teleportation idea but doesn’t go on the mission into the teleporter, but she still gets effected by the consequences when she gains the ability to become invisible. Kate gives an average performance but I feel they make her character very plain giving her little to work with. (5/10)

Jamie Bell: Ben Grimm/The Thing is the engineer best friend from childhood of Reed who helps working on the teleporter but after the experiment he ends up becoming the Thing when the rocks become part of his structure. Jamie does a solid job but we don’t learn enough about him even though he is in the story from the very start. (6/10)

Toby Kebbell: Victor Von Doom/Dr Doom as Victor he works with the rest on the teleporter, but when he gets killed on the mission it isn’t the end of his story as he returns only to have evolved to, but he is a killing machine hell bent on revenge against the human race. Toby is fast turning into the go to guy for villains in franchises and I liked his version of Dr Doom, but we don’t see enough of it. (6/10)

Support Cast: Fantastic Four has a very comic book central military supporting cast that is easily forgettable.

Director Review: Josh Trank – Josh gives us a good build but too quick of a finish, but with all the talk about the troubles it is hard to give him a rating. (NA/10)

Action: Fantastic Four really doesn’t have much action until final fight which mostly feels rushed. (5/10)

Sci-Fi: Fantastic Four has a lot of technical talk which mostly goes over the head but it does work for the fields the characters are in. (7/10)

Settings: Fantastic Four has pretty much only a couple of settings, the lab and the random planet they end up going too, these actually work for how the film unfolds. (7/10)
Special Effects: Fantastic Four does improve on the special effects from the original, well the clips I have seen, the stand out here has to be The Thing creation looking very good. (7/10)

Suggestion: Fantastic Four is one for the comic book fans to try, as I am getting tired of the superhero genre it was nice seeing a dark film. (Comic Book Fans Try)

Best Part: It feels darker than most superhero films around.

Worst Part: Ends to quick.

Believability: No (0/10)

Chances of Tears: No (0/10)

Chances of Sequel: Left open for one but people have been slamming the film.

Post Credits Scene: No

Oscar Chances: No

Runtime: 1 Hour 40 Minutes

Tagline: Change is coming.

Overall: Solid Comic Book Film That is Darker than Marvel.

Rating

Best Animé

When it comes to animé we have had some of the most beautiful animated movies of all time, usually coming Japan we have decided to pick the our favourites from the amazing cinema that just doesn’t get the praise or chance in mainstream cinema.

So far we have only ever done Best of films but for the next Opinion battles we are going to pick Worst Sequel, if you want to take part email moviereviews101@yahoo.co.uk by 20^th September 2015

Darren – Movie Reviews 101

The Castle of Cagliostro (1979)

I have to pick this one because even though I do feel certain films could be more complete films but this one could easily be the most fun I have had watching an animated movie. The action adventure side is so perfect for animation while the comedy is nailed down brilliantly. To further my case for this to win I give you the fact that Steven Spielberg himself called the film one of the greatest adventure movies of all time.

Tim – Filmfunkel

Princess Mononoke (1997)

Princess Mononoke is a visually gorgeous spectacle with a commanding – mythologically Shakespearean – story that doesn’t clearly take sides. All parties have a reasonable agenda that’s in conflict with everyone else’s.  

It’s a time when man and gods shared the planet and the gods, eventually, had to give way citing the origin of demons and many modern beliefs. Wonderfully rich, complex, and mesmerizing – a quilt work of enthralling fantasy. 

The production resonates like something ancient and somehow true. Few anime attempt such a monumental narrative scope. Even fewer with such visual brilliance. And none like this with the legendary hand of Hayao Miyazaki’s genius. 

Kim – Tranquil Dream

My Neighbor Totoro

Emma

Spirited Away – 2001

Khalid – The Blazing Reel

Grave of the Fireflies (1988)

There are two things you should know about me (1) I don’t cry and (2) I don’t like anime. I’ve seen a lot of movies but never has a film impacted me so much that it made me cry. That was until I saw Grave of the Fireflies and the movie just left me in tears. Isao Tahakata’s masterful anti-war masterpiece is just such an emotionally affecting film that it doesn’t matter if you are a fan of anime or not, it will affect you. Resonant and utterly incredibly powerful, this movie holds up today just as well as it did twenty-seven years ago.

Movie Rob

The Girl Who Leapt through Time (2006)

I have chosen this one for best anime movie two reasons:

1)      I love time travel movies and it was really interesting seeing how this one played out.

2)      I have only seen 2 anime movies in my life and this was the better of the two.  Hopefully, comparatively this is a very good one, but we shall see if I end up getting any votes for this.  Maybe one day, I’ll end up trying out some more J

Flick Chicks

My Neighbour Toroto

Technically, this is the only Anime that I could choose as it’s the only Anime that I have seen.  I don’t even have an awareness of any others to establish if I would potentially like them better but this film really hit home for me so I can imagine it will always be high on my list. These children and in the middle of dealing with the possibility of losing their mother.  There lives could be downtrodden and miserable and they could spend day after day crying and missing out on so much of their childhood but no.  Their Father (although works a lot) spends his time with his children, making them laugh and telling them magical stories that their imaginations bring to life in the Totoro, Soot Sprites and the cat bus.  There coping mechanism for this very scary and real situation is to be children and jump in puddles, get dirty and imagine a magical world where they can forget the ‘grown up stuff’ for a while.  My Mother was ill for most of my childhood but it was never sad, I never even realised what was happening, my childhood was filled with laughter, parties, mud pies, cake making, singing, shopping trips, face paints, dancing, Happy Meals, play houses and tooth fairies.  

Maybe there is a lesson here but for the grown ups rather than the kids 🙂

S.G. Liput – Rhyme and Reason

Whisper of the Heart (1995)

I thought about nominating Spirited Away or Princess Mononoke or My Neighbor Totoro (one of which will probably win this round), but none of them touched me personally like Whisper of the Heart. Somewhat of an outsider among Studio Ghibli films,Whisper of the Heart still bears the studio’s trademarks of marvelous animation and endearing characters but stays far closer to the real world than its more fantastical brethren. The only film directed by Yoshifumi Kondō (and also written by Hayao Miyazaki), it follows the experiences of a schoolgirl named Shizuku, an avid reader who becomes intrigued by Seiji Amasawa, a boy who has previously checked out all her library books. Through her everyday interactions at school and at home, we watch her relationships grow and her goals mature. I readily identify with her dreams of being a writer and her fear of criticism, and the encouragements given her have likewise inspired me. I especially admire how the story follows the typical “follow-your-heart” message while prudently adding that, if things go south, “you’ll only have yourself to blame,” a practical caveat that so many other films ignore. Realistic and gentle, Whisper of the Heart is an incredibly underrated gem that also makes brilliant use of one of my favorite songs, John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads.” It may not appeal as strongly to everyone else, but this is my personal favorite anime film.

Drew

Summer Wars (2009)

There are plenty of classic anime films to choose to choose for this category, but I’m going to mix it up and pick something fairly recent: Summer Wars. The premise is pretty simple: Every network in Japan, personal, business, security, etc., runs through a type of virtual reality and social network called OZ. A rogue program seeks to take over OZ and begins causing mayhem all over Japan and it’s up to math genius Kenji to fix it.  My favorite thing about this movie is there is a distinct style for both the real world and the computer world of OZ.  The real world style is more subdued and flat colors, whereas OZ is vibrant.  There is a lot of action in the film but family is at the heart and center of the movie as well.  Summer Wars is unique and enjoyable and gives a great social commentary about where our world seems to be heading in the digital age, making it one of my more recent favorite anime.

James – Back to the Viewer

When Chihiro and her parents venture into a seemingly abandoned town their journey is plagued by more than gluttony and greed. After her parents are transformed into pigs by the witch Yubaba, Chihiro seeks the help of Haku to return her parents to human form and escape the spirit world. With wonderful characters, beautiful animation and stunning set pieces each exploring different themes and Japanese culture Spirited Away is a true celluloid delight that is more enjoyable in its subtitled form than a poor english dubbing.