Review

Garden State: Totally do not get what the fuss was about. I think I fell asleep halfway through. ★★☆ The Last King of Scotland: somewhat like Blood Daimond, a struggle to get through purely because of the visceral depth of human drama on display - Africa really is a place that gets to you. Excellently acted, but surprisingly left me with little emotional impact. ★★★☆ Domino: Slick and well-paced, if a tad predictable, and the cinematography is so over the top you just want the juttering camera work to slow down and be normal for a bit. Keira kicks ass but has her default expression set to “angst”.★★★ ...

Exactly.

Double header review! Transformers: The Movie (1986) The animated cult classic! This movie was cool, man. Except when you’ve grown up, and you look back, and realise how lame it really was. Plot? What plot? Characterisation? They’re robots… that transform! Oh and there’s a goofy kid to give you the human interest story. Um. Deus Ex Machina! ★☆ Transformers (2007) Now this, this is proper summer blockbuster. CGI, stuff blowing up, not-quite-b-grade-but-not-A-grade acting talent, and to give it some credibility, it’s got multiple legs to its plot that all tie up together at the end. ...

Oh yeah, bring the Fuzz :) I totally ♥ Simon Pegg and his team of creative bastards. ★★★★★!

There are times when you want sequels to break from the format of the original - when the series is supposed to be a cohesive single plot effectively and each “sequel” is actually more like a volume of a epic, a self-contained story in each that is different, but the key plot points tying it together keep it a single story overall. This is the Bourne movies, the Pirates, what the Matrix series aspired to be. (Star Wars or LotR don’t count because they’re effectively one movie cut up for convenience) And at times, you want sequels to be munch-on-popcorn formulaic because you know what you’re in for and you know why and you’re just there to enjoy the ride, be it the Lethal Weapon or Die Hard style, or indeed the Police Academy series. These are the sequels that don’t need to sell themselves as requiring a knowledge of the original, but that knowledge helps to get you in the door. (Warning: there may be spoilers ahead. click through at your own risk) ...