Well I missed a chance to do a review season here didn’t I? In my defence, my new job doesn’t allow much chance for me to do a season without some planning ahead. The work shifts are too all over the place to be able to commit my evenings enough days in a row to watching a whole series of films. I will cover the Star Trek films someday though, likely split into original crew and Next Generation crew films, but I will get to them. Now, Star Trek Into Darkness eh? What’s it like? It’s… like… pretty damn decent. Click the link for the full review!!!
Many years ago I got myself coerced into watching a number of Bollywood films by some Asian work friends who, as far as I could tell, thought it was funny that I’d actually watch them. To them Bollywood films was entirely a product of their culture and, by proxy, should make no sense to a silly Englishman such as myself. Over some time I sat and watched Baazigar, Daag: The Fire and Gharwali Baharwali. All of which are damn enjoyable films and quite a good crash course in modern Bollywood movies. None of those movie hold a candle to the film I’m reviewing today though. Sholay goes beyond being a big deal in India. It played solidly in cinemas for 5 years and it still wouldn’t be too hard to find a cinema showing it today some 38 years later. When adjusted for inflation it is the highest grossing Indian film of all time. It also proves that Bollywood films aren’t just for the people of their homeland. I say this because Sholay is one of the greatest Westerns of all time. Click the link for my review.
Happy Birthday to Dump! Happy Birthday to Dump! We wish you a merry Christmas! And a happy new year!!
Yes that’s right folks! The Film Dump is 2 years old today!. Back on April 25th I published my first film review on this here blog. For some reason on April 24th I decided to listen to friends of mine that had told me to write film reviews seeing as I apparently knew so much about films. A put my words where my internet is type bet I guess. Wasn’t money where my mouth is because I had (and still have) no money to speak of. Anyway, that night I watched Mortal Kombat… for some reason… and came to the conclusion that I had enough to say about that film to write possibly the worst written review ever created. A while back I went over the few of my earliest reviews to “fix” them. Spelling and grammar being my main priorities as one Paul Acevedo of Windows Phone Central and Co-Optimus would love emailing me about my grammatical errors. Cunt. So… It’s two years later and I spent the last week trying to decide what film should be my 2 year anniversary review. Why the feck did I choose Street Fighter?
Christmas time was always fun around the Spacemonkey household back in my youth. Big dinners, cool gifts thanks in part to 80s excess and most importantly, awesome Christmas movies. Before Christmas movies turned into the continual stream of yearly blandness that we have today that is. Well, with maybe the exception of Elf. That’s actually a kind of fun film. Back then there was one film that would always be on my “to watch” list. One film that always put me in the Christmas mood. That film was, of course, Ernest Saves Christmas. I don’t own a copy of Ernest Saves Christmas, so instead, this year I’m reviewing my second favourite Christmas film of all time. The Bill Murray starring modern day adaptation of A Christmas Carol, Scrooged.
Well this is it. The end of my Bond themed journey. I’ve spent the whole of October watching and reviewing every Eon produced Bond film and now this is the end. Skyfall has just been released here in the UK and I saw it last night. After the link is my full review. Here’s my short one: This film is excellent.
Over the last few reviews I’ve mentioned multiple times the infection of the absurd that gradually wormed it’s way into the Roger Moore Bond films and also the weak characterisation, especially when it comes to the Bond girls. There is one exception though. One Roger Moore film that manages to not only play Bond with just the right amount of tongue in cheek but also has a Bond girl that’s not a total doofus. It even breaks from the last few films trend by actually being really quite good. That film is The Spy Who Loved Me, generally regarded as the best Roger Moore Bond film. Click the link to read the review.
Unfathomably, John C Reilly season continues here on The Film Dump! Somehow, through the sheer luck of the Lovefilm disc selection lottery I have managed to receive 3 John C Reilly starring films in a row. Seriously, I did nothing to manipulate this. Last week I reviewed Carnage, at the start of this week I reviewed We Need To Talk About Kevin and today I’m covering the Will Ferrell & John C Reilly starring Step Brothers. I don’t think I have any more films on my rental list with him in them though so normal service should be resumed shortly. For now, click the link for my review dum-dum.
Who likes The Goonies? Everyone right? J.J. Abrams certainly does. So much so he’s made a bit of a modern love up to that early 80s style of kids adventure movie that wasn’t afraid to be a little action packed and occasionally scary. It’s a style of kids film that has been lost over the years. These days too many kids films are full of dumb jokes that even kids struggle to find funny and usually involve some actor trying his hardest to flush his career down the pan. Does anyone honestly think any kids are gonna grow up with fond memories of films such as The Tooth Fairy or The Pacifist? What kids want to see is giant fecking robots blowing stuff up. But other than that they wanna see other kids having adventures and getting into scrapes. As much as I’m not a fan at least the Harry potter films got that sort of right. So what did I think of Super 8′s attempts to bring back this style of kids film? Click the link to find out.
This is so meta…. I’m reviewing a film that is essentially a review of the history of film. A catalogue of it’s advancements, influences and cultural shifts. The Story Of Film: An Odyssey is an epic, and believe me that term is used correctly, documentary about the history of film from the very first images ever captured in motion on film all the way up to modern films such as Avatar and Inception. It even has an epilogue that discusses the potential futures of film. Understandably this was quite an undertaking for director Mark Cousins. Click the link for my account of my journey through this story of film.
Occasionally it get cajoled into reviewing a film I probably wouldn’t have watched. I said right from the start that I don’t mind taking requests for reviews on here. Usually it pays off well, for example the films Dear Wendy, The King, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Lucky Number Slevin were all requested by people I know or from readers in the comments. Sucker Punch is one I resisted though for a while. Plenty of people had told me to watch it. I think these people hate me because Sucker Punch is terrible. Really, really terrible.
So did everyone get to see this lovely video I posted yesterday? A must see for UK entertainment retail staff. youtu.be/2rsjJctzbZ411 hours ago
@simonpegg Somewhere a grammar whore's head is exploding. The world becomes a better place. 11 hours ago
@PaulRAcevedo Oh yeah, they're barely above bottom of the barrel. Abrams and the cast elevate it though. Just watch it as a fun action flick 11 hours ago
