Month: July 2016

TV Review: Geeking Out (Comic-Con Special)

Reviews

Excited hosts Kevin Smith and Greg Grunberg helm AMC’s new Pop Culture late night talk show. Boy are they excited, they show plenty of energy/enthusiasm, I’m used to seeing Kevin Smith being this excited, but seeing how excited Greg gets, I’m not sure if he’s trying match Kevin’s energy or if he really is this excitable dude – he is always so straight faced when he’s in television roles and films.

Okay so we’re told this episode is the San Diego Comic Con Special, not your typical episode of Geeking Out. I am more or less going to break down each segment and give you my brief opinion on each of the segments.

First Segment – Star Trek Beyond. Greg’s on the red carpet of the outdoor premier at Comic Con, it looks like an amazing experience! Greg’s energy is high – to the point when he’s talking shop with Simon Peg and refers to the film as Star Wars instead of Star Trek – Geek faux pas! The cast and crew seemed pleased to see him, J.J. Abrams joking about Greg and his camera crew being to Keeping Up with the Kardashians.

The boys cut to Comic Con where they interview the likes of the Preacher crew (Gareth Ennis, Seth Rogen, and Evan Goldberg) and Dominic Cooper reflecting on their thoughts of the season. Then we get Greg delivering a nice on the spot interview talking with artist Jim Lee and what he needed to do to protect his million dollar hands! Segment finishes with Greg talking with Luke Cage executive producer Cheo Hodari Coker about how epic Luke Cage will be – I’m still not convinced.

Tiffany Smith is introduced, showing off her Lord of the Rings ink – they fire her off to Comic Con to cover the cosplayers – the imagination and the creativity is always outstanding, although I could empathise with some of the blank expressions of knowledge or interest in what the cosplayers beavering over.

Cut to Kevin Smith being reunited with Matt Damon for a miniature interview/Jason Bourne plug. Having Kevin feed Matt lines from DC characters that could possibly play across from Affleck’s Batman in the future. Damon reading lines as Death stroke, Captain Marvel and in particular Green Arrow is particularly well acted.

Kevin and Greg finish with a joint interview with Charlie Hunnam to promote the new Guy Ritchie movie; King Arthur: Legend of the Sword. Hunnams stories of working under Ritchie’s direction were amusing. Kevin brings up the film Excalibur which brings around of awkward high fives between the threesome. The interview ends with the trailer being show, I was surprised to see that it seemed more entertaining than I imagined, it’s got the Guy Ritchie Lock, Stock charm to it whilst looking like something as uninteresting as Dracula Untold and hey it’s got famous people in it too!

As the credits roll we’re given a little sizzle reel of what to expect when the show properly starts in august, Kevin directing The Flash, interviewing J.J. Abram and even the director from Training Day!

Bonus EP – Stoo Talks W/ Andy (Gods of Egypt, Secret Life of Pets, The Jungle Book)

Podcast

00:00:54 – 00:04:15 – Lucy

00:05:37 – 00:07:48 – Zoolander No.2

00:07:48 – 00:11:55 – Krampus

00:11:55 – 00:14:07 – Sing & Childrens Films

00:14:07 – 00:16:35 – Shia Le Bouf

00:16:35 – 00:22:45 – Deliverance

00:22:45 – 00:29:12 – Gods of Egypt

00:29:30 – 00:35:54 – Secret Life of Pets

00:35:54 – 00:42:00 – Jungle Book

00:42:00 – 00:46:00 – The Power Rangers Movie

 

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DVD Review – Police Story: Lockdown (2013)

Reviews

Captain Zhong (Jackie Chan) is miserable and his life is in tatters – the film opens with him slumped in a drunken stooper in the back of a taxi heading to a mysterious nightclub. What’s someone his age doing at a nightclub? It’s Christmas and he has received an invitation from his distant daughter, Miao Miao (Tian Jing) offering him an olive branch.

Clearly out of his element in the industrial hipster bar, Miao actually brought him here to introduce him to her boyfriend – the club owner; Wu Jiang (Ye Liu). Not impressed and left arguing with Miao, Zhong is ready to high tail it back to the taxi – but he’s suddenly struck down by masked Santa Claus!

It turns out that Wu Jiang has something a little more sinister planned for Captain Zhong and his daughter this Christmas.

From Little Big Soldier writer and director Ding Sheng, he delivers a decent thriller with minimal relation to the original Police Story franchise that Jackie Chan shot to fame with back in the 80’s. But, I will admit they definitely earned the subtitled LOCKDOWN, Wu’s nightclub does go on full lockdown when the masterplan is revealed in the story.

When it comes to acting chops Ye Liu steals the show, his quiet intensity shows him well as a cool, calculated villain – sure, we’re show glances into his Muay Thai background, but his brains seem to be as fatal as his brawn. Tian Jing doesn’t have a lot to work with, it’s mostly crying for her father as he’s put in further peril. For Jackies acting chops, he has adapted to these darker thrillers where he’s needing relay more on his acting rather than his lightning fast reflexes, he has come a long way since his other dramas, the likes of The Shinjuku Incident etc.

Whilst I did overall enjoy the film, I did find the double-take/fast-forward sequences from Zhongs perspective happen far too often and became annoying when you mistake a surprising twist for just another daydream. Director Ding Sheng did use this technique previously in Little Big Soldier when Jackie Chans character was sparing with his co-star and accidentally kills him with a blade – which had some excellent comedic timing to it, but it didn’t work for me this time.

Kaleidoscope Home Entertainment were kind enough to supply us with a final copy of the UK DVD for this review. Here’s our thoughts on the Special Features included:

Behind The Scenes (5 minutes) as you can expect focusses on the big action and stunt sequences peppered together some of Jackie Chans cheeky chappy nature, snapping photos of sleeping costars, throwing the thumbs up when something goes right and of course – recycling.

The disc also includes several Interviews with the Director and the primary cast. Ding Sheng (4 minutes) explains the differences between his film and the previous instalments in the PS franchise. He continues by going into detail on his thoughts on the leading cast and how well they worked together. Tricking Jackie Chan into the role by teasing it wasn’t a physically demanding role, that is until he reached the set and asked him throw the occasional extra punch etc.

Liu Ye (6 minutes) gave us his impression on playing a villain; the inclusion of Muay Thai into his characters skill set and his worries of having to fight with Jackie and being encouraged to “hit harder!” Jing Tian (6 minutes) talks fondly of getting to film in the Beijing subway in the early hours of the morning and learning to cry on cue. As well as the unforgettable experience of working with Jackie Chan, the energy and knowledge he brought to set.

Overall, it’s a good thriller, certainly worth watching once – Jackie and Liu Ye were excellent, adding them together with Wu’s elaborate plot and the story behind it.

Film: 3.5/5

DVD: 3/5

Police Story: Lockdown is available on DVD & Blu-Ray from Monday 25th July 2016 and for download from Monday 18th July 2016.

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EP 107 – Nightcrawler (2014)

Podcast

The name of my podcast is Films and Swearing: A Movie Podcast, we’re a professional movie-discussing podcast. That’s how it should be read and that’s how it should be said. Aye! Stoo and Andy spoil the f**k out of Dan Gilroy’s 2014 Oscar Nominated thriller; NIGHTCRAWLER. We talk up Bill Paxton, Twister, The American Dream Dusty Rhodes, Knock Knock, Blonde Girls & Brown Eyes and more!

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DVD Review – The Trust (2016)

Reviews

Set in the shadows of the Las Vegas Strip, The Trust follows the story of two LVPD cops Stone (Nicolas Cage) and Waters (Elijah Wood). They aren’t the most conventional cops, Waters is slacker and Stone frustrated by being overlooked by his peers. Stone makes an interesting discovery when he’s sent a menial task, this discovery could lead him and Waters to a lot of money. But, are they smart enough to pull of this off without getting caught or worse, killed?

Nic Cage and Elijah Wood, team up to provide the star power to give directors the Brewer brothers enough recognition in their debut feature film. How was it? Decent.

It’s not the strongest story, the premise is great, but the eventual payoff comes across a little wobbly. The discovery and the planning of their ‘heist’ is fun, seeing Cage infiltrate and become a kitchen porter delivered in a nice little montage sequence.

I can imagine Cage reading the script to this and relishing the thought of character being slightly unhinged, a bit zany – the real overly positive figure. It’s only right to have Wood play the uncertain and questionable opposite to Cage. The acting is what you can imagine with these juggernaut leads, Cage being crazed is a doddle and Wood playing a man on the verge of a breakdown is brought with ease.

Other notable faces that pop up in this feature include Ethan Suplee (American History X) as a crooked detective with a unhealthy obsession with Russian roulette. Cinema veteran Jerry Lewis (The Nutty Professor) stars as the father of Nic Cages character Stone – a former and more credible detective. In the latter half of the film this sausage party is broken up with the introduction of mystery woman played by Sky Ferreira (The Green Inferno).

The end of the film was a little more surprising that I originally expected, without spoiling it, I would have little the ending to have been fleshed out a little bit more – just to see what we were dealing with.

We were lucky enough to have been provided a copy of the DVD release of The Trust – the sole special feature on this disc is a 12 minute Behind the Scenes feature. We get some interviews with the primary cast and the crew talking highly of the story and their experiences working on set and their experiences with Nic Cage and Elijah Wood. It’s a decent feature, but it’s unfortunate that this is the sole feature.

DVD 2/5

Movie: 3/5

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