Review: Jobs

Jobs

Love him or hate him, Steve Jobs seems like he’d be an interesting guy. A college drop out that rose to the top of the tech world seemingly by uncompromising vision and sheer force of will. He was a perfectionist and quick to temper but by all accounts an inspiring leader and in his lifetime changed a great many things about the way we now think of computers.

There’s a lot of potential for a great movie there. This movie is not that movie though.

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Review: Elysium

Elysium

Neill Blompkamp burst on the scene a few years back with District 9, a movie fresh new SciFi action film concerning a group of displaced aliens living in a massive ghetto in Johannesburg South Africa. The film was born out of Blompkamp and Peter Jackson’s attempts to put together a _Halo_ movie and when that fell apart those resources when to expanding Blompkamp’s short film _Alive in Joburg_ into a full fledged movie. The result was a fantastic film with an original approach, story, characters and clear allegory to social and political issues facing us today. I’m not going to spoil it, just go watch it.

I mention this because the follow up, _Elysium_, is another SciFi action film with an interesting and unique approach and some clear allegories to social and political issues of our time. So how does it stack up? Not bad, actually.

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Review: The Wolverine

The Wolverine

Outside of the Marvel Cinematic Universe the X-Men universe maintained by 20th Century Fox is tied for longest, and is probably the next best in terms of continuity, but over all the films have been incredibly hit or miss. We’ve had two truly great movies in _X-Men: First Class_ and _X2: X-Men United_, a good movie in _X-Men_ and two pretty terrible films in _X-Men 3: the Last Stand_ and _X-Men Origins: Wolverine_.

So how does the latest entry stack up? Pretty good actually. Or mostly, anyway.

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Review: The World’s End

The-Worlds-End-poster

*The World’s End has been released in the UK a full month before North America, so here’s a review from our UK office to get you suitably excited!*

You know that time in your life when you just left school? Do you remember when alcohol was something to be celebrated and experimented with, as were sex, drugs and music? It felt like you could do anything, right? Well Gary King can remember that time all too well, and while the rest of his friends may have moved on to have jobs, wives and families, he finds himself striving for those halcyon days. And so he decides to get his gang back together to undertake a legendary pub crawl in their childhood town. 12 pubs. 12 pints. What could possibly go wrong?

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Review: Pacific Rim

Pacific Rim

You don’t need to read this. I’d like you to but there’s no need. Pacific Rim is _awesome_ and you should go see it. I’ll tell you why but it really doesn’t matter, just go enjoy it because it’s the best big budget action movie of the summer so far, this year so far, and the most fun I’ve had at the movies in what must be years.

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Review: The Lone Ranger

THE LONE RANGER

The Lone Ranger hasn’t been on screen in more than 30 years. I remember watching reruns of the 60s tv series when I was a kid, watching the masked man fight for truth and justice with his partner Tonto with the William Tell Overture playing in the background. This was a time when heroes could be heroes without being complicated.

So how does that translate into the current times of dark, gritty, rebooted superheroes? Meh.

It’s been a whole since I had such mixed feelings about a movie.

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Review: White House Down

White House Down

A few months ago there was a movie about a [paramilitary group attacking the White House](https://awesomefriday.ca/2013/03/matt-watches-bad-movies-olympus-has-fallen/). It was a terrible, cliche ridden film which took itself far too seriously to be good.

Naturally, since these things come in twos, White House Down features a paramilitary group attacking the white house. Is it better than it’s predecessor? Yes, absolutely. Is it good? Weeelllllllllll…….

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Review: This Is The End

This Is The End

It’s strange to think that _This Is The End_ is the funniest movie of the year so far. At first glance it looks like a vanity project where Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg just wanted to work with all their friends and then setting that idea against the biblical end of the world. It really feels like it shouldn’t work at all but you know what? It really really does.

To put it succinctly: I haven’t laughed that hard all year.

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Review: Man of Steel

Man of Steel

I feel like somewhere here there was a great movie waiting to happen. That’s not to immediately say that Man of Steel is _bad_, but I do very much feel that it could have been quite a bit better than it is. There are a lot of things to like here but the film is hampered by its writing, both in terms of dialogue and pacing.

Should you see it? Yeah, it’s fucking gorgeous to watch. Will you enjoy it? I’m not really sure, and here’s why.

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Review: After Earth

After Earth

If you’d asked me a few hours ago what I expected to write here I probably would have said something like “Well, After Earth _looks_ like it might be cool but M. Night Shyamalan directed it so I’m worried it’s going to suck.”

To be fair, M. Night Shyamalan’s track record of late isn’t exactly stellar. Signs and Unbreakable were middling. Lady in the Water and The Village were terrible. The Last Airbender was atrocious. It seems that every subsequent film has gotten worse and worse. My fears were unfounded though because I thought that the movie would be bad because he’d throw in some ridiculous twist that would make me groan at having to sit through the movie to get to it. Turns out it’s bad just because it’s just a pretty straightforward bad movie.

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Review: Upstream Color

Upstream Color

Upstream Color is much anticipated follow up to 2004s Primer, a brilliant experimental sciece fiction film from Shane Carruth. Like Primer it’s experimental, like Primer it’s thought provoking and original, and like Primer there’s basically nothing else I can say about why I like this movie without saying something about the movie that I feel would spoil the experience of seeing it for the first time.

That’s not to say that I’ll be spoiling the plot if you keep reading, but there’s aspects of this film other than the plot that I need to talk about to tell you why I like the film so much and I truly feel that going in as blind as possible is the best way to see it.

So let’s get this out of the way: I love this film and I recommend you see it. Stop reading now and go watch it and then come back and we’ll talk.

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Review: Behind the Candelabra

Behind The Candelabra

It’s a little strange to me that Behind the Candelabra came out on HBO rather than in theatres. It’s a little strange to me that none of the studios in North America have picked the movie up for distribution. It’s a little strange to me that after all the progress we’ve made in the world the story of Liberace is still too gay for America, even though there’s nothing much there that you haven’t already seen in Brokeback Mountain and others.

It’s a shame too because Behind the Candelabra is a great movie, and this way you might not get a chance to see it.

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