Battleship: A film review

 - Vancouver, British Columbia - I don't know if there was anybody who, when they first heard that they were making a movie based off of the board game Battleship, thought, "Wow, that's an amazing idea! I can't wait!" Every single person I know has met it with a groan, and I was one of them. I loved playing Battleship growing up; it was a lot of fun, providing that you had an honest opponent who wasn't a cheat (you know who you are!). Nevertheless, I saw the trailers when they first came out and honestly, it looked a really lame knock-off of Transformers, which is really saying something since I have not been a fan of any of the Transformers movies. But maybe this shouldn't be surprising since Hasbro is behind Transformers and Battleship as well. So with this great prejudice in mind, I decided to screen the film.

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John Carter: A film review

 - Vancouver, British Columbia - When Titanic hit the theatres in 1999 and became the highest grossing film in Hollywood history, it opened the door to a new generation of blockbuster films never seen before. Blockbusters have been around for a considerable amount of time, but huge tent pole releases were not nearly as commonplace as they became in the first decade of this new millennium. In general, most blockbuster films have been very profitable for studios, while some have been utter financial catastrophes, nearly bankrupting some of the biggest film studios in the business. This year's candidate for blockbuster failure early on was viewed to be Disney's John Carter. The film is estimated to have cost nearly $250 million, while the marketing behind it has been rumored to have cost Disney nearly an additional $100 million. Some box office analysts have been on record as stating that for John Carter to be considered a success, it will need to recoup some $700 million in box office revenues internationally. This is big money on the line for Disney, and sadly, after John Carter's first two weekends in the theatres, it looks like it will fall extremely short of that threshold and forever be remembered as one of the greatest box office bombs. But does it deserve that title? Did it get a fair shake?

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Real Steel: A film review

 - Vancouver, British Columbia - If truth be told, I'm not crazy about special effects in films today. Perhaps since I grew up in the first generation that had its life saturated by extensive computerized special effects, they fail to impress me, especially when used on such a grand scale in so many films. I do remember being a younger child and being impressed at some of the effects used in films like Jurassic Park, but they are so commonplace today, I hardly even make any note about them. Thus when I saw a special effects-laden film like Real Steel was coming to theatres, I was hardly excited as it didn't seem to provide for anything new or compelling that I hadn't already seen. I like Hugh Jackman more as a person than as an actor, as the only roles that I've really enjoyed him in were as Wolverine in the X-Men franchise, Drover in Australia, and Robert Angier in The Prestige. Besides those, his other most memorable performance came as host of the 2009 Academy Awards, which if I'm honest, landed him as holding the honour of being my favourite host of the Oscars within the past ten years. Maybe it is no surprise then why my enthusiasm for Real Steel was minimal.

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The Five Worst Blockbusters I Have Ever Seen

 - Vancouver, British Columbia - When it comes to worst movies lists, there always tend to be a lot of B-movies or something fairly obscure like that. People can read the list, chuckle at it, and remember that if they happen to bump into that movie by chance one day, they should avoid it at all costs. When it comes to small productions, there are any number of things that could go wrong, but they don't necessarily have the resources to correct the mistakes. Or the film makers are inept and that's why they are only making really low budget pictures. However, with blockbuster movies, there are certain expectations that should come with them. High profile producers invest millions and millions of dollars to get a movie that is marketable to a large audience and easy to enjoy. You would think that with an endless supply of money, nothing could go wrong. Oh, but I assure you that things certainly can. That is why I made this a separate list. You can't put a multimillion dollar picture against a tiny independent failure, it's just not fair. So, this is a chance to see movies that could have been, should have been, but very much weren't any good.

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Transformers 3: Dark Of The Moon: A film review

 - Vancouver, British Columbia - A quick bit of background here: I love the whole Transformers mythos. I was raised on the cartoon(s), played the toys to death, read the comics, and bought miscellaneous merchandise aimed at appeasing nostalgic value. When the first movie came out (the animated one from 1986), I was three or four years old and it was one of the first movies I ever saw. My Dad even bought me the soundtrack on vinyl. Fast forward to 2007, when the first live action movie came out. I was psyched! I enjoyed the movie at face value, but ultimately had to concede it was okay at best. The second movie us in 2009, and I was getting pretty pissed off at lots of missed opportunities for greatness.

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