Lucy

Round 2 and Graham was quite keen to see this one.. Didn't quite pan out as he hoped..

I've seen Scarlett Johansen in all sorts of roles lately and this started off in typical fashion.. She plays the title character Lucy and we initially find her in Hong Kong being coerced in to delivering a case to a Mr Yan by her 'boyfriend'. One thing leads to another and she ends up a drugs mule along with 4 other guys. After an altercation the package bursts releasing some of its contents into her system.. Turns out it's not your average drug and before we know it she's developing a particular set of skills (if you know what I mean). Along the way Morgan Freeman turns up to explain the science bit and it turns into a European chase movie (kind of).
Scarlett Johansen once again proves she's the goto girl for tough action heroines or weird ones... Or both.
The film romps along at a reasonable pace but, for me goes a bit too sci-fi for my liking (too sci-fi?). If they'd kept it a bit more grounded in reality I think it would have worked better for me.
That being said it was still fun. Another ***1/2 movie for today..


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The Keeper Of Lost Causes.

First of today's double bill and it was a toss up between this and 'Lets be Cops'.. I think I made the right choice..

This ones in a similar vein to 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo' (the original version) in that it's Swedish and noir.
A grizzled cop, following the death and crippling of two of his colleagues, finds himself 'reassigned' to department Q. A newly developed department where previously closed cases are analysed and filed. He then focuses on one particular case and decides to re investigate it along with a new assistant Amman.
I enjoyed this one. It was gritty and atmospheric with a general 'grey' tone.. The main leads were very good and the suspense built up well at the end..
Overall ***1/2


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Into The Storm

Got to Cardiff in time to catch a film so I thought I'd try this one out.

 We start off at a school graduation ceremony and then along comes the storm. Throw in a couple of hill billies, some storm chasers and various found footage and basically it's 'Twister' for today's generation. Script and acting are below par and what you have is a TV movie. Granted, a TV movie with some excellent effects but not much else.. 

**1/2 movie..

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Expendables 3

Just came out of this one with Graham and it was as expected.
I won't even bother with a plot synopsis because... well really? The Expendable franchise is not known for its complex and engaging plots..

Sly and 'the Staith' reprise their roles as Barney and Christmas. Along with Randy Couture, Terry Cruze and Dolph Lundren. Into this cacophony we have Arnie, Harrison Ford (replacing Bruce Willis as the CIA contact) and Mel Gibson as the baddy. It's what you'd expect... 

Cheesy one liners.. Check!

Macho muscle flexing... Check!

Outrageous over the top bad guy... Check!

To be fair, Mel Gibsons probably the best thing in this film. It's an entertaing romp and I enjoyed it to a degree. Unfortunately the 12a rating has dampened some of the fun the previous 2 films had..

Rating ***
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Guardians Of The Galaxy (2nd viewing)

Wasn't expecting to catch a film today but as luck would have it, we made it to Cardiff and into town with time to kill..
I think this was better second time round.. Still not 'The Avengers' but then what is..?
Still a ***1/2 movie if ever I saw one (nearly ****)..

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Hercules

This is the second 'Hercules' film I've seen this year... but we don't talk about the other one..

This is Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnsons take on the legend.  Here we find our hero a mercenary accompanied by a band of merry 'men'.  He's called apon by various kings and landowners to deal with pirates and bandits and, using his legendary status (with the aid of Lolaus, a story teller played by Reece Richie) manages to instill fear into his foes.. 

He's then called apon by Lord Cotys (the ever reliable John Hurt) to dispose of Rhesus, a Centaur who's band of horse/bandits are causing carnage throughout the land.. as y'do..

My suspicions where arroused when Peter Mullan appeared as Sitacles, Lord Cotys first in command.. 

Not that he's typecast or anything but..

Anyway, you know the rest of the plot.. 

It's a testament to how much I enjoyed this film in that I completely forgot it was a Bret Ratnor movie. It didn't take itself too seriously and, along with the help of Ian Mcshane, Rufus Sewell and Joseph Fiennes was an entertaining 98 mins.

Overall ***1/2

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Guardians Of The Galaxy (3D)

I was really looking forward to this one.. 

This is Marvels 'space opera'. It starts off with Peter 'Star Lord' Quill (Chris Pratt) as a small child being abducted by aliens after his mother has just died.. Cut to 26 years later and he's on a planet about to steal a mysterious orb. He escapes the clutches of Ronan (Lee Pace's) hoodlums lead by Korath (Djimon Hounsou) and heads off to some planet to sell it. 

Along comes Rocket (a raccoon voiced by Bradly Cooper), his side kick Groot (a tree voiced by Vin Diesel) and Gamora (a green alien played by Zoe Salander). There's some shenanigans and they all end up in prison..  Where they bump into the fith member of the Guardians, Drax (a meat head played by Dave Bautista). To say anymore would be plot spoilers but needless to say they break out..

The problem with this film was that I was expecting this years Avengers.... And it wasn't.. That's not to say it didn't have it's appeal. It was funny, the action set pieces were very good and the CGi was as good as expected for a movie of this budget.. 

Overall a ***1/2 star movie

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