The Kid Who Would Be King

The timing of this showing was an early one, considering I didn't finish work till 12.30, and I made it just in time..

This is Joe Cornishs take on the Arthurian legend and was predominantly a children's movie. Acted by kids, its target audience are kids and if I was a 12 year old I'd have loved it..


But I'm not.
That being said it wasn't without its merits..  The acting was good, particularly young Merlin (Angus Imrie) who managed to integrate a crazed, medieval loon into modern day secondary school with ease.. The main adult contributors consist of Rebecca Ferguson (playing evil), Patrick Stewart and a nice cameo from Joes other half Adam Buxton as a tour guide. The plot zips along at a nice pace and the special effects are up there with most of todays movies.

Overall nothing special, but an entertaining hour and a half all the same. ***1/2

Wild Rose

Tonight's Screen Unseen turned out to be Wild Rose. As IMDb would say 'A musician from Glasgow dreams of becoming a Nashville star.' 

To be fair that's grossly underplaying it. It should be 'an angry, ex-offender, negligent single mum of two .. from Glasgow dreams of becoming a Nashville star.'

When this film first started, I went along with it. First thing I'd do when I got out of prison would be straight round to the Mrs for a shag.. and THEN home to see the kids.. Obviously.. Ok, we get it, shes a bad mum..

Lands a job cleaning at a posh house.. And as soon as the owner pop's out she raids the drinks cabinet.. Ok, we get it, she's a bad employee.. So far, so cliché..

And you know how the rest of it goes.. 

Julie Walters is excellent (as usual) playing Rose-Lynn's (Jessie Buckley) mum and M/s Buckley really demonstrates her singing skills as the lead..

Did I enjoy it? It was ok. The problem is I'm getting fed up with these 'gritty, real life dramas' Odeon keeps churning out for the Unseens.. Where's the Arrivals and The Shape Of Waters? Or even Baby Driver and It Follows..?

Any way, I don't want to waste any more of my time.. 
It's a *** movie..

The Lego Movie 2

This was an earlier than usual showing for me. Normally, with the 'child friendly' films I'll wait till the novelty wears off and the screens aren't packed with bawling kids. Plus I always feel a bit uncomfortable as a 50 year old man going in to see a kids film, on my own..
Anyway, I braved the hoards and burning pitchforks and settled down for the 1.00pm showing..
I missed the first minute but basically, what I could gather was that it had been five years since everything was awesome and the citizens of Legoland are facing a huge new threat: Lego Duplo invaders from outer space, wrecking everything faster than they can rebuild (cheers IMDB)
It's a Mad Max, dystopian nightmare type scenario to stark with and Chris Pratts 'Emmett' is still cheerful and optimistic. 

Alita:Battle Angel

"An action-packed story of one young woman's journey to discover the truth of who she is and her fight to change the world.." as Twentieth Century Fox once said.

This one's set in the 26th century and comes with all the baggage you'd expect from a future 500 years from now.  You know, hover bikes, cyborgs, floating cities for the privileged , dirt etc (didn't notice any flying cars in this one though..).. Alita (Rosa Salazar) is found, (well her head and upper torso) by Dr Ido (Christoph Waltz) whilst he's out scavenging through a junk yard. He takes her back to his lab and she's re-assembled using other bits he's acquired.  Any how, it turns out she's not your basic cyborg..

I was looking forward to this one. So much so, I may have even considered a midnight showing if they'd have put one on..  As is usually the case, it wasn't as good as I'd hoped. And I don't know why ? All the ingredients where there: James Cameron producing, Robert Rodriguez directing, Cool source material (Yukito Kishiro's series of manga books) and a $200 budget (give or take)

That being said, it wasn't all bad. The special effects are superb, as is the case on most modern blockbusters.  Is it a good thing that you don't notice what's an effect and what isn't though.?

The actors were an interesting collection. All playing their part, but when you're up against CGi of this caliber you got to really chew the scenery. It was nice to see Ed Skrein (well, his face at least) playing another bad guy.  Also, am I the only one who's noticed Christoph Waltz in another film involving big eyes ?

The ending let it down in my opinion.. Too many loose ends. They've obviously set it up for the start of a franchise and hopefully, providing people ignore the current Rotten Tomato rating, that will be the case.

All in all though, it was a solid 3 1/2 star movie.  

Given time I may try and catch it again

And I have to agree with them there.