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Showing posts from June, 2016

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back: Moustache Trailer Reaction

My favourite literary character is returning to the big screen this October, and the first trailer has finally arrived. Jack Reacher: Never Go Back picks up with the nomadic former Military Policeman four years after the first movie. Reacher (Tom Cruise) returns to his old unit to meet the new commanding officer, Susan Turner (Cobie Smulders). On arrival he discovers he's wanted for a 16 year old homicide and Turner has been arrested for espionage. "I don't like being followed" Never Go Back is based on the novel of the same name which is the eighteenth book in the series. In the books the story is part of an arc that spans four books, Reacher first makes contact with Susan Turner in "61 Hours" (book 14); whilst investigating the murder of a police officer and protecting a witness he contacts his old unit looking for information. Speaking to Turner on the phone, Reacher decides he'd like to meet her so he begins making his way to his o

Selma: Average Guy Movie Review

Selma tells the story of Martin Luther King Jnr. and his involvement in the 1965 Selma to Montgomery voting rights marches. The movie stars David Oyelowo as Martin Luther King Jnr., Tom Wilkinson as President Lyndon B. Johnson, Common as James Bevel (the organiser of the marches), Tim Roth as Alabama Governor George Wallace and Carmen Ejogo as Coretta Scott King. Oyelowo's performance is excellent, you can really see how hard he worked to capture King's essence. Not only does Oyelowo sound like King, he brings his gravitas and the weight of his words to the screen. Unfortunately King's speeches had to be rewritten for the movie because the Martin Luther King Jnr. estate had licensed the movie rights to his Civil Rights speeches to Dreamworks and Warner Bros. for an as yet unproduced biopic. Director Ava DuVernay  wrote alternative speeches that are said to evoke the historic ones without breaching copyright. Selma has been praised for its accurate depi

Concussion: Average Guy Movie Review

  Will Smith plays Doctor Bennet Omalu, a forensic pathologist who discovered a recurring form of dementia in American Football players caused by repeated blows to the head. Doctor Omalu calls this condition Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), I don't pretend to understand it but basically the repeated blows to the head cause large accumulations of tau protein in the brain which affects mood, emotions and executive functions. When attempting to present his findings, Doctor Omalu was met with considerable pressure at the hands of the NFL who went to great lengths to avoid or dispute his work. The movie begins with Doctor Omalu's initial discovery in 2002. While working as a forensic pathologist for the Allegheny County Coroners Office in Pennsylvania he performed an autopsy on a former player for the Pittsburgh Steelers, discovering severe brain damage. Over the next few years Doctor Omalu continued to study CTE in order to create awareness, we see the effect this

13 Hours: Average Guy Movie Review

What could be called Michael Bay's Black Hawk Down has arrived on Blu-Ray and DVD (see trailer below). Based on the September 11th 2012 attack on the temporary diplomatic mission and CIA "Annex" in Benghazi, this is the story of the men assigned to protect them. "none of you have to go" Global Response Staff (GRS) are ex-military private security contractors hired by the CIA to protect Agents and Stations abroad. In Benghazi, the team was tasked with protecting a CIA station called the "Annex" and was made up of two former Navy Seals, three former US Marines and a former Army Ranger: Tyrone 'Rone' Woods (James Badge Dale) a former Navy Seal Jack Silva (John Krasinski) a former Navy Seal Mark 'Oz' Geist (Max Martini) a former US Marine John 'Tig' Tiegen (Dominic Fumusa) a former US Marine Dave 'Boon' Benton (David Denman) a former US Marine Kris 'Tanto' Paronto (Pablo Schreiber) a former US Army R

Colonel Nick Fury

The man most notably missing from Civil War wasn't Hulk or Thor, their absences were mentioned. No, it was Colonel Nick Fury who was missed the most. Probably because if present he would have slapped Secretary of State Ross and found a way to reunite the Avengers before they really split. What was so important that Fury didn't emerge from the shadows? With only two movies left on Samuel L. Jackson's contract, what is Fury's next movie? Infinity Wars? There was talk of a Nick Fury movie, I assume some form of origin story. To me this would be an interesting origin to explore, especially after hearing the Bogota story from The Winter Soldier. But there are some who are bored of origin stories, though I think that's more to do with the const ant reboots of franchises like Batman and Spider-Man. It would also mean hiring a younger actor to play young Fury. Who could play a young Samuel L. Jackson? It's plain to see that Jackson has made the role of Fury h

The Nice Guys: Average Guy Movie Review

The King of buddy comedies, Shane Black, is back. His latest movie, The Nice Guys follows Private Investigator Holland March (Ryan Gosling) and Enforcer Jackson Healy (Russell Crowe) in their attempts to find a missing girl called Amelia (Margaret Qualley), who's somehow linked to the death of porn star Misty Mountains (Murielle Telio). As with the other buddy comedies written by Black like Lethal Weapon and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, the movie is reliant on the relationship between the two leads and The Nice Guys doesn't disappoint! Crowe and Gosling work very well together, not only are they believable in the portrayal of their respective characters, their antics are also highly amusing. If you didn't know better you'd think Crowe was reprising his role of Bud White from L.A. Confidential. Oddly enough, this is the first time Crowe and Basinger have worked together since L.A. Confidential. Gosling's character shares traits with characters from Black's past p

D-Day Anniversary 2016

Today is the 72nd Anniversary of Operation Overlord - the Allied invasion of Nazi occupied France. On the night of 5th June 1944 the operation began with multiple parachute and glider drops behind Hitler's Atlantic wall all along the Normandy coastline. At 5:45 am the naval bombardment preceded waves of landing craft carrying Allied troops to the beaches codenamed: Sword (British and French) Juno (Canadian) Gold (British) Omaha (US) Utah (US) and the cliffs at Pointe du Hoc where at the top the Germans had built a large gun battery that threatened the Allied forces at Utah and Omaha beaches. In honour of those who served during World War 2 I thought it would be interesting to look back at some of my favourite movies and TV shows relating to Operation Overlord. The Longest Day The Longest Day tells the story of Operation Overlord from the perspective of the Allies and the Germans.   Based on the book of the same name by Cornelius Ryan, this was the most expensive bla