Super (2010) - Blu-ray Review

Review:

*Originally written March 16th, 2016*

2010's Super is a bizarre little film that was sadly over shadowed and mostly forgotten due its release so close to Kick-Ass, a film with a similar premise and ultra-violence. The comparisons are there and while I feel Super is definitely the weaker of the two films, it still holds up on its own and has its own unique feel and quirk to it.

After losing his wife to a drug dealer played by Kevin Bacon, Rainn Wilson takes up the misguided journey of winning her back by becoming a vigilante called the 'Crimson Bolt', he eventually is joined by Ellen Page's kid sidekick 'Boltie'.

The tones all over the place, it jumps from drama to pitch black comedy mostly very well, but there were a few moments that did not sit well with me at all. The rape scene in particular just felt off to me. Some of the jarring violence also just didn't sit with me either. While being a comedy, the violence is so graphic and gory, like way more than Kick-Ass, which went for more cartoony and over the top. Super on the other hand feels far more grounded with its portrayal of violence, you see people get killed in such brutal and low-key ways that it just felt disgusting. We're meant to root for this guy, but at one point he smashes a guy and woman's heads in with a wrench purely for butting in line, it really drew the line for me in whether I should be rooting for the "hero" of the story.

Rainn Wilson's character Frank is clearly a disturbed guy who justifies his violence and sees his mission as a sort of calling from god, which he sees in his own delusions. So the guy is clearly mentally ill, something I wish was explored a lot more. Wilson's performance was excellent though, I can't imagine anyone else in this role, he goes from pathetic, to sympathetic, to bad-ass over the course of 90 minutes and it felt right.

Ellen Page was also great as the sidekick, although her character was grating at times, she started off as really annoying, but her character grew on me as it went on and she delivers some of the best lines of the whole film. Her character's end is also extremely shocking and unexpected. 

I do appreciate James Gunn's use of practical gore, it truly is horrific and disgusting at times, which I'm sure is the intention. I do sound like I'm being negative about it, but I do really like Super, I like the idea of a more grounded normal man as a superhero film, despite the shortcomings. I don't believe this deserved to flop or be forgotten as much as it did either, but I'm glad Gunn managed to move on and get a gig directing Guardians of the Galaxy, which he did an amazing job with. 

I also really like how it subverted expectations with some of the twists. Involving a subplot with a police officer which comes to an unexpected and abrupt end, and the same with Ellen Page's character who goes down during the final battle.

One of my biggest problems is just how cheap this looks too. It feels very televisual, which is due to the low budget, but it does look ugly despite a nice colour scheme. Some of the editing is also really weird, I didn't like the use of '60s style Batman cartoon fonts popping up either, it just felt weird. 

There was a surprising heart at the centre of it all too, all thanks to Wilson's performance. You really do care for Frank most of the time and at moments it is really touching. Helped by Tyler Bates excellent score which delivers some genuinely nice tracks like "Two Perfect Moments", which I have loved since ever since the films release. 


Super is an angrier and more nasty relative of Kick-Ass, but it still holds its own thanks to Rainn Wilson's performance, Gunn's writing and direction and some nice gore, you just need to look past the bitter taste and the insane tonal shifts.

7/10 Dans

Super is out now on Blu-ray and DVD in the UK
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Predators (2010) - 4K Review

Review:

*Original written August 29th, 2018*

I remember being extremely excited by Predators when it was released, but disappointed I wasn't old enough to see it at cinemas. I'd always thought this was a huge improvement over Predator 2 and a big step down from the first, and it still is. I mean it's fine, there's a lot to love here and it's a huge step in the right direction after those awful AVP films, but it's still a bit of mess.

There's a cool idea at the centre of this and it shoves you right into it from opening second. A random group of dangerous humans from Earth are dropped onto an alien planet that the Predators are using as a hunting ground. It goes back to the simplistic jungle setting of the first and carries the tone right, there's a lot of homages to the original (One of the cast even carries a minigun). 

It's just one of those films that gets worse and worse as it goes on. It starts off extremely strong and eventually falls apart by the end. There's a bigger variety of Predators this time around and creatures they use as part of their hunt. I always remember this film looking quite ugly and digital, it might be the 4K transfer, but I really liked the look of it this time, the colours are a bit washed out, but the jungle looks gorgeous and the creature effects hold up pretty well, even the dog things looked way better than I remember.

My biggest problems with Predators are some of the casting. Adrien Brody is a fine actor, but he really doesn't work as an action hero. He tries to channel the ruthless hero with a gruff, Christian Bale doing Batman voice, but it just comes off as a bit shit. Plus the fact he did some silly method acting stuff for a role in a film like this. Then there's Laurence Fishburne who continues to just be the worst part of every genre film he's been in for the past decade, just brutally over the top pantomime acting that feels like its from a different film. He's the worst.

There is a decent mystery at the centre of this. You slowly learn more and more about the characters, leading to some effective reveals. Topher Grace's character in particular has the creepiest arc that makes more sense of rewatches. It's just a shame that this was clearly meant to be the start of a new chapter in the franchise and for whatever reason, starts a story that will never get finished. I'm not entirely sure why, as this got decent reviews and was financially successful. 

Most of the cast are much like the first film, one note, but kinda memorable. There are complete cannon fodder, but play their parts exactly how you'd expect. Walton Goggins is the racist hillbilly (When is he not) and Danny Trejo is the gruff Mexican. I know I'm not here for a character study piece, but maybe spending a bit more time with characters before slaughtering them could have helped. Stretching the run-time a little more could have helped.


Predators doesn't live up to the original, but it's a big improvement over the second. It could do with a lot of fixing up, but for the most part, Predators is a pretty fun 100 minutes and a decent little stop before what turns out to be a hopefully excellent Predator reboot/sequel from Shane Black.

6/10 Dans

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Iron Man 2 (2010) - Film Review

Review:

*Originally written January 1st, 2016*

Well, it certainly isn't as good as the first Iron Man, or most of the other Marvel films for that matter. I remember this sucking, but I actually liked it more than I remember. Don't get me wrong, it's quite messy and arguably bland, but at the same time pretty entertaining.

This time around, Tony Stark must deal with his failing health and a crazy Russian guy who wants to kill him while the government want their hands on his Iron Man technology. 

It deals with Tony's alcoholism laughably and there is some awful drunk acting here, not that Robert Downey Jr's performance was bad (He was once again excellent), it just portrayed alcoholism in just a terrible and unrealistic way and led to some of the worst moments of the film like the dance fight. That said, I did love the arc of Tony dealing with the fact he might die due to his arc reactor poisoning him, it was nice to see Stark genuinely scared for once.

Mickey Rourke pops up as the villain this time around as a Russian who wants revenge on Tony for what his father did to his father years ago. I don't know how much to criticise a hammy comic-book accent, because Rourke's Russian accent was laughably terrible and so many of his lines were incomprehensible. He did get some solid action scenes, the race track fight is really awesome and I loved the design of his character with the electric whips that look like a weapon from the Ratchet and Clank games. I was severely disappointed at how the ending turned out, it was far too similar to the first, the bad guy gets his own Iron Man suit and must fight him......

Sam Rockwell is also a side villain here, who is funny and I love Rockwell, but he didn't make for a convincing or compelling villain for one second. Brody (Recast by Don Cheadle) is also given a much more significant role this time too, getting to don (eh?) the War Machine armour and actually help in the final set-piece.

We get to meet Natasha Romonoff/Black Widow for the first time and she wasn't given much to do bar an awesome action scene towards the end. She just didn't seem like the same Black Widow from the later Marvel films at all. Odd. 

There was quite a bit of world building here. I think that's what a lot of people took issue with when this first came out, it spent too much time hinting at something greater. Samuel L Jackson was excellent here as Nick Fury in his first proper role outside a post-credits cameo, he seemed much more Samuel L Jackson than I remember him being in the later films. He is essentially here to try and recruit Tony into the Avengers Initiative despite his out of control behaviour and recklessness. We also got a post-credits stinger of Thor's hammer leading into the next film Marvel has to offer. 

I will mention I did find it a lot funnier than the first, the court scene at the beginning was well written and hilarious, easily the best moment of the film, it's just a shame they couldn't keep up to the quality of that scene. 


It has its moments and is a breezy, entertaining watch and contains lots of elements that made the first film so great, but Iron Man 2 is a huge step down from the last film in the series and is one of Marvel's weakest films to date.

6/10 Dans

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Saw: The Final Chapter (2010) - Film Review

Review:

*Originally written September 16th, 2017*

"No. I don't want to play you're fucking game"

This was more an obligation than a watch. An obligation to finishing franchises before the release of the latest instalment (This one being the sequel/reboot of the Saw franchise that releases on October 27th, which is also my birthday. Yay for me...)

Anyway, this GARBAGE heap of a "Final Chapter" might just be the worst of the entire franchise. I try my best to defend the horror genre, but I have to admit, for the most part.... it's pretty shit. For every good horror film I'd say you get maybe one or two serviceable sequels, then about 5 to 8 pieces of shit.

Saw: The Final Chapter is pathetic as a film. It's cheap, ugly, lazy and uninspired. It's clear from lifeless and direct to DVD cinematography that no one involved in this piece of shit cared. The LAME 3D gimmick really took away from the potential impact the film could have had thanks to the cringey use of shit flying towards the screen.

Despite being a Saw film, a series known for it's sadistic gore and torture. This is as lazy and uninspired as it comes. They obviously were too bored by this point to even consider practical effects as everything looks like shoddy CGI (Also, why was all the blood pink?!). Even the worst horror films like this I can usually say "Meh, at least there was some cool gore". Not here in this piece of shit.

Saw is also a series known for its outrageous plot-twists, but even this pushed the point of absurdity for me. A character from an earlier film is brought back near the end in an escalating series of embarrassing and lame twists to try and tie this whole series together (But also leaving the door open for future films, obviously). 

By the time the credits rolled, it was 5am and I had finally lost all my faith in humanity. I just let out a sigh and said "Fuck you" to my laptop screen. It's taken 7 years for me to finish this series, but I've finally done it and I'm not proud. Garbage horror films like this are part of the death of cinema. 


I could go on, but this piece of shit film has just left me depressed and at this point it's just futile. Learn from my mistakes, don't finish a film series you started to hate because of a new entry coming out and a misguided sense of obligation. Just see something you know you'll probably like, go outside and play. Make something, be creative. Write a script (It'll be better than this one, trust me). Do something that makes you happy. Have a black coffee and a cigarette. Go to the store and browse. Start a family. Just do anything but this.

1/10 Dans

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Kick-Ass (2010) - Film Review

Review:

*Originally written September 4th, 2015*

"Show's over, motherfuckers"

Anyone who knows me will be surprised it took me 413 films to get to Kick-Ass. I watched the inferior, but still OK sequel at the beginning of the year, but I held off on re-watching this. Back when I was 13 in 2010, this film was all the rage and I fell in love with it, because I wasn't old enough to see it at the cinema and I wanted to see it so badly, I learned how to use torrents to see it. For some reason there was a DVD quality download back when it was in cinemas? Weird. I made my friends watch this film several times till they hated it, which was my fault, but ah well. This film was my life through my teens.

This was my favourite film for years, before getting dethroned by Fight Club, but guess fucking what. After watching it again, Kick-Ass has re earned its place as my number one of all-time. I thought the law of diminishing returns would take effect on this film after watching it nearly 30 times it must be by now? Easily over 20, but I still get the same joy and I did from watching it for the first time, apart from some iffy special effects due to the low budget and the CGI blood, everything in Kick-Ass is beautiful. 

Matthew Vaughn's style is colourful and gorgeous, his action scenes pack an emotional and artistic punch. That Strobe scene is still my favourite scene in any film ever and while most grown men have the thumbs up in the lava scene from Terminator 2, I have Kick-Ass's strobe scene. It is a thing of beauty, it packed an insane emotional punch that I never thought could be possible from a film like this. John Murphy's remix of Surface of the Sun from Danny Boyle's Sunshine is utterly gorgeous and fits the scene perfectly.

The performances are all excellent, Nicolas Cage gives his best performance in the past 15 years as the Batman wannabe vigilante father that impersonates Adam West's Batman, but becomes him own thing in an awesome action scene set in a warehouse. Aaron-Taylor Johnson who is pretty bland in everything else but this also gives a great performance, brilliantly capturing that every day geek who tries to become a realistic superhero, but fails miserably.

You all know who the real stand-out is of Kick-Ass though, I don't want to hyperbole here, but Chloe Grace Moretz gives what might be the best child performance ever in film history as the scene stealing Hit-Girl. The 12 year old is responsible for the body-count of about 50 people in the run-time and each action scene in memorable and insanely enjoyable. The father daughter relationship between Hit-Girl and Nicolas Cage's Big-Daddy is one of the most endearing and heartbreaking things I've ever seen. I don't usually relate emotionally to any film, but here just meshes together perfectly for me.


I'm completely biased about Kick-Ass, but I'm not even going to pretend i don't love everything about it and after a tiny bit of thinking, I would only be lying to myself if I didn't say this was my favourite film ever. I've seen and loved it dozens of times and I'm going to watch and love it dozens of times more.

10/10 Dans

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Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (2010) - Film Review

Review:

*Originally written June 16th, 2017*

"An Epic of Epic Epicness" 

Edgar Wright's Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is a film I've seen countless times, and I still enjoy with each watch, but despite the bigger budget and scale, Scott Pilgrim feels like a step backwards from Wright's Cornetto trilogy of smaller, British comedies.

This might be due to the fact, Scott Pilgrim is aimed much more at teenagers, who grew up with Nintendo and stuff, which is fine, but it lacks what made Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and The World's End so special. I just feel like a maybe growing out of this film a little, which is a shame, because this is a film I've been watching fairly consistently for the past 7 years (Fuck me, this is 7 years old).

After rewatching the Cornetto Trilogy then this, it feels a lot less mature, filled with weaker and easier jokes. Not to say Scott Pilgrim isn't funny, there are a hell of a lot of gags that land, but quite a few are just a bit.... shit. I remember liking a lot of the comic-book and video-game influences that come off the screen like the "Pee bar", but again, now, it's just a bit shit.

To be more positive, Scott Pilgrim truly does feel like an Edgar Wright film. It's fast-paced, well edited and filled with beautifully chereographed action. Each of the battles with the "Evil Ex's" each have their own unique style and feel, making each fight different and exciting.

Michael Cera was born to play Scott Pilgrim, the loveable nerd and slacker who has to fight his way through the love of his life's 7 evil ex's in order to win her heart. It's not out of the way of most Cera roles, but he slips effortlessy into the role, giving us a loveable protagonist to root for.

Like all Wright films, the supporting cast are all fantastically memorable, such as Keiran Culkin as Scott's gay roommate, Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Scott's love interest Ramona. Then there's the evil ex's, each of which are great. The standout being Chris Evan's as an egotistical action film star who is ultimately defeated by his own ego.

The soundtrack is great too, with mostly original songs from the film's fictional band 'Sex Bob-omb', a garage rock band delivering surprisingly good music for what they're meant to be. Brie Larson's cover of Black Sheep is also excellent in of the film's more memorable musical pieces.

I do really appreciate how unique and different Scott Pilgrim is. It really has its own distinct style that was a really hard sell for a mainstream audience, leading to it being a huge flop and only making half its budget, despite strong reviews. As much as it doesn't hold up like I'd want it to, there's no denying there's no other film like this.

Scott Pilgrim is Edgar Wright's weakest work, but is still a great comic-book film, a fast, fun and unique ride that's unlike anything you've ever seen. A stylish rush of pure hipster adrenaline.

8/10 Dans

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World is out now on Blu-ray and DVD in the UK
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Robin Hood (2010) - Film Review

Review:

*Originally written May 29th, 2017*

I'm not sure if Robin Hood every needed a "gritty" and "realistic" adaptation, but here we have it. Starring Russell Crowe as he once again continues to be fightin' round the world and directed by Ridley Scott. It's similar to Gladiator in a lot of ways, mostly due to the style and aesthetic, but it's never as good.

The only other exposure to Robin Hood I've had is with the brilliant Disney animated film and the severely underrated BBC show that 12 year old Dan loved. I'm sure the BBC series is probably campy Saturday night viewing garbage that I'll probably find terrible now (Much like Doctor Who *Shudders*), but for a 12 year old it's good shit.

This is a darker and more violent take on Robin Hood and it doesn't really work. It was an okay film for the most part, it's a little bloated and goes through a lot of stretches that are quite boring, but the action scenes are actually quite great and well realized. There's an impressive level of work put into the set-design, everything looks practical and real, the final battle at the end is awesome.

Russell Crowe Fightin' Round the World

I think my biggest complaint is that it really isn't a fun film, it's dark and brooding, but never really fun. I've always seen Robin Hood as a light-hearted and fun character with humour, here it's just kinda bland. Russell Crowe does a fine job, but it's a shame that we never once see him really "Stealing from the rich and giving to the poor", instead we have a more or less historical war film with English folklore thrown in to the mix.

I don't really have a lot to say about Robin Hood really. I enjoyed more than I remember, but it's far from a great film. It's concept just doesn't make for a really gritty film. It reminds me a little of 2017's Power Rangers film, but this is way better than that disaster, but suffers from some of same problems.

Robin Hood and his Merry Men

The biggest shame of Robin Hood is that it had the potential to be, say, as good as Gladiator, but Ridley Scott is not the director he's used to be. He peaked in the '70s and '80s, but merely makes mediocrity these days (With The Martian being a huge exception). I guess I'm trying to say I miss good Ridley Scott.

There's also a hint of a sequel at the end, which unsurprisingly never happened, and to be honest, I'm not really bothered by that. Robin Hood is merely an okay film with some excellent technical aspects and action, but mostly fails as a franchise starter. Meh.

6/10 Dans

Robin Hood is out now on Blu-ray and DVD in the UK
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The Expendables (2010) - Film Review

Review:

I remember being excited to see The Expendables in 2010, as a 13 year old boy who was raised on '80s and '90s action films on VHS would have been. It came out and I loved it. I grew up a little, I enjoyed the sequels, but upon revisiting the first, I've got to be honest, this is a piece of shit.

The concept is sound, mixing up and making an ensemble film of your favourite action stars of the '80s and '90s and some from the modern day. You have Stallone, Statham, Terry Crews, Arnie, Willis, Jet Li, Mickey Rourke and Dolph Lundgren. Plus some crappy wrestling stars who do straight-to-DVD action films like Stone Cold Steve Austin....

This should have a sure-fire masterpiece, a tribute to the '80s and '90s, a time where action cinema was at its best. Instead what we have is a complete mess of a film. The action is so boring and lifeless, which is incredible, as this was directed by Stallone, who just 2 prior to this, delivered the incredibly violent and visceral final Rambo installment.

In The Expendables however, the action is all drowned out by the poor and dark lighting that gave me Vietnam style flashbacks to watching Alien Vs Predator: Requiem. It is just such a waste of all the talent involved. There are the odd moment of decent action, Terry Crews with the AA-12 shotgun was pretty gory, as was the opening scene with a grenade launcher.

What hurts The Expendables so much too is the poor CGI. Not just the odd off looking explosion, but every single drop of blood looks terrible. I'm convinced not a single blood squib was used, which is just an insult to everything this film tries to stand for. If you're going to try and recreate the '80s/'90s, then use blood squibs, then look so much better, and everyone knows it.

Terry Crews and Sylvester Stallone

I was never expecting much in the story department with this film, but I was hoping for something more compelling than this, and a better villain than... Eric Roberts? Yeah, he's in this as some rogue ex-CIA agent. He leaves next to no impact. The script makes no sense. There was obviously going to be cheesy one-liners, but nothing this pathetic and lazy. The character-arc of Dolph Lundgren's character is one of the most inane things I've ever seen.

I never felt I got to know or even care about any of The Expendables either. We learn so little about any of these characters, aside from the fact Stallone is the leader, Statham uses knives, Jet Li knows martial arts and Terry Crews likes shotguns, oh, and he has a cutthroat razor with his name spelt wrong on it. It's just a monumental waste of everyone involved and no one has a chance to really shine. The main focus is Stallone and Statham, with no one else getting much chance for screentime.

The Expendables is a failure on almost every level. It has a cool idea with its cast, but beyond that, it's a piss poor action film that feels like it easily could have gone straight-to-DVD.

3/10 Dans

The Expendables is out now on Blu-ray and DVD in the UK
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