THE HANGOVER PART III MOVIE REVIEW

The Hangover has now spawned a trilogy following the exploits of 4 friends on a drunken rampage with the first film taking them on a wild trip through Las Vegas and the second film based in Bangkok, the series ends with the "epic conclusion" to one of the biggest grossing comedies of all time. I personally loved the first Hangover film as it was unique and different to many other drunken party type of films, and it was hilarious! I didn't like the second film as I felt it wasn't as funny as the first and felt like a exact copy of the first film and was a little bit darker in tone than the first. I am pleased to say that this film is a lot better than the second instalment however I'm glad that this franchise has ended.

This film doesn't actually feature any "hangover", there's no blacking out segments and they don't have to find a missing member of the "wolf pack", they do however still end up on a crazy journey which in the later stages takes them back to Las Vegas, where it all began. The main plot of this film, in brief, is that Alan (Zach Galifanakis) after the death of his father is approached by concerned family and friends in an attempt to form an intervention, telling him that his outlandish behaviour needs to stop So they propose to him a place away with his fellow wolf pack members in order to straighten him out, he reluctantly agrees. However on the way there they are drove off the road and kidnapped by a group of masked men, and their boss Marshall (John Goodman). Marshall is a gangster who was ripped off by Leslie Chow (many of you who have seen the previous hangover films will know this guy) and so he tells the wolf pack to find Chow and bring him to Marshall or he will kill their friend Douglas, who they take as an "insurance policy". The rest of the film then follows the trio of Alan, Phil (Bradley Cooper) and Stuart (Ed Helms) trying to find Mr Chow and as usual the journey takes some crazy turns including Stuart's reunion with his former stripper ex Jade (Heather Graham).

Zach Galifanakis steals the show once again as the hilarious man-child Alan. Like the first film, some of his dialogue had me laughing out loud on more than one occasion. His constant bickering with Stuart I found entertaining as well. As shown in part in the trailer,the funeral scene to me was the funniest scene in the entire film, was brilliant! Leslie Chow was a major part of the film, obviously, as the main plot centred around him, and while he is a funny guy and his friendship with Alan showcases some of the trilogy's best moments, his voice to me personally started to grate on me after a while. I liked John Goodman as Mitchell and would have liked to have seen him more in the film as I felt he was good in every scene he was in, blending between being funny and serious in quick succession. Similar to the second film, Phil and Stuart aren't in as many funny scenes and seem to take a back seat again which is a shame but they played their parts well. The film also seemed to be more dramatic and more of a thriller than a comedy at times which personally I liked as there was a genuine and proper story instead of the original heavy night drinking and blackout element.

The Hangover part III is an enjoyable comedy that ties together the previous two films very well with some good flashbacks and shoutouts scenes while still progressing the story and giving the fans a satisfying conclusion to the series. There are a couple of memorable scenes in this one unlike the previous film, one in particular with Alan and a young woman in a cash for gold store {the woman is played by Melissa McCarthy} that had me laughing hard!

If you are a fan of the hangover series then you will enjoy this film, it's maybe not as not as funny as the original it's still a solid comedy, however if you cannot stand these kind of films then I don't think this will change your opinion.

My Rating - 7/10

Positives - Alan, Mr Chow, John Goodman, good stunt work, tied in well with previous films.

Negatives - Not as funny as first film, one scene with Alan and baby Carlos made me feel uncomfortable, Phil and Stuart not used much, Chow's voice, would have liked to see more of John Goodman.

Thanks again guys for reading my review hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to leave a comment below let me know what you thought of the film if you have seen it, what is your favourite film of the series? Which is your favourite Alan scene ever? Whatever you want to share about this film let me know! If you enjoyed it don't forget to +1 it, share it with others, follow me on Twitter @MARRAMD or share via Google+.

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IRON MAN 3 : THE MANDARIN CONTROVERSY

 

Now before I start discussing this tender topic, this is not a review of the film itself, as I already have reviewed the film which you can view in the side bar of my past reviews. Iron Man 3 was without doubt the first big summer blockbuster of 2013 and had a worldwide release only a few weeks ago and generally the film has had positive response from the media and filmgoers alike, however the topic on everyone's lips regarding Iron Man 3 is the portrayal of Tony Stark's arch nemesis, The Mandarin played by the highly talented Ben Kingsley. Now i myself am not a huge comic book fan but going into this film I was aware of The Mandarin's existence and how is portrayed in comic book law, couple that with the marketing behind The Mandarin as a huge threat to Tony Stark and indeed the world, a global terrorist intend of global domination. However in the film it takes a HUGE U-Turn and it is revealed that he is indeed an actor, and no such man exists as it was a make-believe creation of Aldrich Killian {Guy Pearce}, and instantly upon seeing this when I was in the cinema, it took me a fair while to get back into the film. Nobody saw it coming, it was a well kept secret but no doubt it has caused a huge stir amongst fans of the comics. Some see it as a master stroke by director Shane Black, and there is no denying Ben Kingsley's performance was v funny and one of the stand out parts of the entire film, but in my opinion it didn't work all too well and it seemed they took all the build up for that character to be a super villain and turned him into a laughing stock. Don't get me wrong, I loved Iron Man 3, it was a brilliant action film, but I felt this twist was a misstep, but without doubt it was a very brave and bold direction to take as they knew they would face an extreme backlash from a lot of die hard comic book fans of the marvel classic series. Maybe it's just me, but i felt The Mandarin could have gone down as one of the best villains in an action film if done in it's "proper" fashion.

 

 

So i want to know, what do you guys think of the whole thing? Did you enjoy the different creative direction they went with The Mandarin? Did you hate it? Did it take you out of the film completely or just for the moment? Let me know!

 

Also, if you enjoyed this please leave a comment below {you must sign up to Google+ to leave a comment please}, share this review and indeed spread the word of this blog page if you like it! Thanks again guys and take care! :}





MY FAVOURITE FILMS - MRS DOUBTFIRE

Now I know lots of you have seen this 90s classic comedy starring the hilarious Robin Williams, Pierce Brosnan and Sally Fields, but seeing as this is one of my favourite comedies ever made, I thought a classic review was in order!

The story centres upon Daniel (Williams) a middle aged man who is struggling to hold jobs, couple that with the strain of his marriage to Miranda (Fields) to which they have 3 children. The couples relationship breaks down and after Daniel goes too far organising his sons' "surprise" birthday party, turning the house into a pig sty, a heated row insues and Miranda demands a divorce after telling him shed fallen out of love with him. The court then rules that Miranda have sole custody of the children, leaving Daniel homeless and jobless. Due to the court ruling he is given 3 months to find accomadate on and hold down a job so he can see his kids more often. After Miranda advertises for a housekeeper, she is wowed by a "woman" named Euphegenia Doubtfire. Daniel then seeks out his brother who is a make-up and prosthetics designer who transforms Daniel into Mrs Doubtfire. 

Daniel manages to pull the wool over Mirandas eyes and although the children initially don't take to Mrs Doubtfire, they warm to her eventually unaware that their bond with her is stronger than they think. Even though she has a few close shaves (no pun intended) her true identity is kept intact until eventually the truth is revealed in one particularly funny scene at a "family" dinner. Without telling too much about the plot, this film has a good blend between the great comedy elements it presents, along with a strong message about the problems and stress that divorce can have upon a family.  Robin Williams steals the show, as he usually does in many of his roles. His range of voice talent is fantastic and showed in spades in this film. Sally Fields plays a good supporting role as Daniel's wife Miranda and also has some funny exchanges, mainly with Williams. Pierce Brosnan also plays a great part as the smarmy businessman Stuart Dunmire who gets romantically involved with Miranda and her exchanges with the obviously disgruntled Daniel/Mrs Doubtfire make for entertaining viewing. This is without doubt one of those comedies that never gets old, yet ages well as it wouldn't look out of place if released in 2013. 

The soundtrack and musical score is well done and sets the scene very well and the famous " Dude look like a lady" song is used in one particularly funny scene. The score, especially in the more dramatic and sombre scenes adds tension and sadness to certain elements of the film. The end scene itself in particular has some music that makes me personally close to tears every time. 

I could personally spend all day talking about this wonderful film but I think I've covered the basics here. If for some unknown reason, you have never seen this classic, watch it, on DVD, Netflix, love film, any way you can this is a timeless classic that you will find yourself watching time and time again. 

My Rating 10/10 

Positives - {where to start?!} Make-up effects, Robin Williams, Sally Fields, Pierce Brosnan, very funny, dramatic when it needs to be, good musical score and soundtrack.

Negatives - If you're not a Robin Williams fan you probably won't like this, cross dressing not for everybody!

Thanks again for reading my review guys :} hope you enjoyed it, please leave a comment below let me know how you feel about this film, if you like it what was your favourite scene? What is your favourite Robin Williams film? Whatever you want to let me know, let me know!

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Thanks again guys I will upload another review in the next 48 hours highlighting one of my worst films that I have ever seen, should be entertaining!

Take care :}

BIRDEMIC : SHOCK & TERROR MOVIE REVIEW

WORST MOVIE EVER MADE!

As some of you who have me on Facebook know, I "stumbled across" this "film" a few weeks ago for the first time after seeing a Youtube reviewer react to the film saying it is the worst movie ever made, I saw this as a challenge and didn't believe it could be that bad, then I saw the trailer, oh dear god.

But I still thought it might be a silly B movie horror cult classic, then I watched the film, and now I believe that death cannot come soon enough! This is without doubt the worst, poorly acted, worst use of special effects, lighting, and camera angles I have ever seen in my life and the only horrific thing about this, is that it's now being released {U.S Import} on DVD and Blu Ray! WHY??!!

The film starts on a brilliant note with without doubt the most annoying opening title song ever produced and a pointless 5 minute shot of our main character Rod, in his car, just driving, with the camera constantly shaking, yes indeed the song playing still makes my skin crawl every time I hear it! So who is Rod? A young software salesman who one day while in his local coffee shop spots a attractive young woman he went to high school with, called Natalie, and can I also say these two are the worst actors I've ever seen in my life, they look gormless throughout their terribly written dialogue scenes. A couple weeks go by and in some of the worst news channel studio effects ever made news breaks out about hundreds of birds and seagulls being found dead in Silicone Valley beach, again with some terrible acting to boot. After Rod and Natalie spend a "romantic evening together" in a local motel, they are "attacked" by dozens of birds, now I know this film is heavily influenced by Alfred Hitchcock's classic film The Birds but at least in that film the birds were genuinely creepy, the only way I could possibly describe how bad the birds look is if I were to tell you they look fresh off Microsoft Paint, at best! These are without doubt the worst special effects I have ever seen in my life and if the visuals don't make you cringe, along with the terrible acting, the HUGE delay between them being attacked and when they try to hit the birds, then the sound effects of the birds will have you tearing you're hair out! It's torture!

One of the other huge problems with this film is the dialogue scenes where both main characters are in different locations, you see Rod on his phone talking to Natalie to meet him for a date at a Asian restaurant, there is a good 2/3 second gap when the camera pans to the responding person and it is so obvious anybody can see it! It is laugh out loud bad at times, as well as all the other things I've listed about this tragedy of a film. Rod and Natalie come across a gas station where next to a abandoned car they find a little girl who is crying about the birds killing her mother, then as if they were psychic they automatically know, without asking the girl if she had any siblings, where the girls little brother was locked in the boot of the car! It doesn't make any sense, but then again, nothing in this film does, it really has to be seen to be believed! One more thing, after rescuing the kids from the gas station and stumbling across more bad actors, I mean "survivors" they are attacked by a large flock of the killer birds, but I reckon Stevie Wonder must have taught them how to shoot a gun as nearly every shot is way off where the birds are, yet they hit them perfectly, again with the worst CGI blood effects you will ever see. This may sound like a rant more than a review but with as many good films I have seen in my life, there is many, many bad ones and this is the very top of the crap pile I'm sorry to say. The budget for this is obviously very small so some things such as special effects can be forgiven, slightly, however the acting is cringe worthy, especially the now infamous "Boardroom" scene. Would I recommend this film, no, but it is on Lovefilm/Netflix or online wherever and even the full film is available on YouTube so even if you're slightly curious, and you enjoy torturing yourself, or your friends, then check it out, and you will be left open mouthed at how bad this actually is, my review doesn't do it justice, and I feel I've covered a lot of this!

My Rating - 1/10

Positives - There's fun to be had but only at how bad the film is!

Negatives - Acting, Lighting, Music, Score, CGI Effects, Sound Effects, Huge delays in dialogue scenes, The main message of the film is global warming and how the birds aren't the evil ones, humans are! {and they bash you over the head with this message over, and over, and over again}

Yes the message of Global Warming is very important I know that, but the way they blatantly force this topic down your throat for the whole film feels pathetic in my opinion and very self centred.

Thanks for reading my review guys, the next big film I will be reviewing will be Hangover 3 which is in 10 days so I will be doing one more bad film review, and then two of my favourite films ever, leading up to the Hangover film review :}

Feel free to comment below if you have seen this piece of "art", or even better, have you seen a film worse than this? God help you if you have but I want to know what was it? and why was is so bad? If you like this review you can +1 this, subscribe to my blogs so you don't miss any of them, leave a comment below about anything you may want to ask or know, share with other people either on Google+ or other blog sites, whatever you want! :}

Take care! 



 

 

21 & OVER MOVIE REVIEW

 

21 & Over is a comedy centered around 3 friends, Casey, Miller and the main character Jeff Chang. Jeff is a 20 year old student preparing for his doctor exams that are fast approaching and is put under immense pressure by his strict father to not let him and pass these life changing exams. However when he is visited by his friends {Casey and Miller} they tell him that as he is fast approaching 21 that he should go on a wild night out to celebrate. After initially being hesistant, he agrees to go out with thm and that's where the zany "adventures" begin. Now i will say to you right now, look at that trailer above, funny isn't it? Well watch that and be thankful that you just saw the best parts of the film, for free, you're welcome. It's made by the same producers of the very popular Hangover series, and this is basically Hangover 2, and not alot of people like Hangover 2. This film tries so hard to be new and fresh and funny, but fails on near enough every level.

 

If you have seen Superbad, then this film is the B movie version of that, minus alot of the humour. We have Casey and Miller who are the Jonah Hill and Michael Cera of the group but not nearly as funny, but Miller is twice as annoying as Hill. I did find myself liking Jeff Chang the most, which is what the film ios aiming to make you do, and even then his "craziest" scenes are very few and far between. Honestly guys, the best parts are in thee trailer, this style of comedy has been done to detah recently in the last few years and this does nothing different in my opinion. Ny funniest characters were a group of jocks that the group run into half way through thr film and their lines were the funniest in the film, although that isn't saying alot.

 

The soundtrack is very good though, as you would expect for a party themed roadtrip kind of film, plenty of dance and hip hop tunes along with a little bit of dubstep. I found myself enjoying the side plot involving Casey and a young woman named Nicole, a college girl who is the girlfriend of one of the main college jocks, their "romantic" side plot was far better than the boring overly done to death "funny" scenes in this film.

 

So is this film terrible? No, honestly it's not it's just boring for the most part and offers nothing different to an already bled dry comedy style. There is a couple of laughss in here, but you have to wait a long time to get them. If you completely love these kind of films you won't dislike this either, it's more of what you have come to expect, and while i didn't like Hangover 2, i'd suggest waiting untill Hangover 3 comes out instead of this very short, not very funny Superbad ripoff.

 

My Rating 5/10

 

Positives - Jeff Chang, Nicole and Casey's story, couple of good funny scenes, good soundtrack

Negatives - Not original, Miller is annoying as hell, They repeat Jeff Changs name far too much, best scenes spoiled in the trailer.

 

Thanks again guys for reading my review, hope it was of some help to you, leave a comment below let me know what you thought of this film if you have been to see it yet, did you like it or not? Was it what you expected? Let me know whatever you want!

 

You can rate the review if you like, comment, +1 it, share this review with others if you liked it!

 

Take care :}

 





 

 

OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN MOVIE REVIEW

 

Olympus Has Fallen stars Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart and Morgan Freeman. When i first saw this films trailer i instantly thought "Die Hard 5 starring Gerard Butler" instead of Bruce Willis and i just want to say now, this film is a hell of a lot better than Die Hard 5.

 

Butler character is Mike Banning, a former Secret Serviceman who following a tragedy involving a fatal car crash at the beginning of the film {no spoilers} leaves the front line kind of work and gets a desk job in the U.S government, however suffering from flashbacks from that fateful night. However, when the whitehouse is attacked by Korean terrorists and the president is taken hostage following a meeting with South Korea's prime minister, it's left up to Branning to save the president and find his son, as well as eliminating the threat lead by chief commander in charge Kang Yeonsak. There are a few mild twists and turns in the story which are pretty easy to spot i must admit. This is though a very solid action film with A LOT of deaths, the koreans don't mess around here!

 

Morgan Freeman plays Alan Trumball, the speaker in the white house who is temporarily placed as acting president when the original leader is kidnapped and held hostage. Kang plays a very good part as the films villian and he and his men take the president and his cabinet hostage in order to obtain the codes needed for the nuclear missiles programme that will initiate a catastrophic series of bombings that will destroy the U.S.

 

The special effects in this films are, in my opinion, very mixed. Sometimes they would look very impressive and visually stunning, but in other scenes {most notably the plane scenes and fighter jet scenes} it looks extremely fake and although we know its not going to be too realistic it can take you out of the film for a while. Gerrard Butler steals the show though and in this role goes back to doing what he is good at, being the tough guy action hero {not doing rom-com's with Jennifer Aniston}, although he does need to work harder on that american accent, i know he's scottish but you can tell how bad in some scenes his accent, or lack there of, is. Is the film corny in places? Of course it is, the film knows what it's trying to achieve and does it well for the most part, it's aim was to be a good action film that isn't exactly going to be nominated for an oscar anytime soon, but it has done what Die Hard 5 should have done, been  a fun short {2 hours} popcorn style film that delivered in not just the violence, but the tension and acting. The music score created some genuinely tense moments that were needed to set the scenes in various places.

 

Is it realistic? No, but it's not trying to be. Like i said, it's trying to be better than Die Hard 5 and in my opinion, is way better and if you like mindless action with a simple enough plot to follow then i say check Olympus Has Fallen out!

 

My Rating - 8/10

 

Positives - Action packed, Gerrard Butler was good, as was Morgan Freeman & Aaron Eckhart, Good special effects in most scenes, never got boring.

 

Negatives - Too much dodgy looking CGI in places, Kang's lips sometimes don't match what hes saying so looks audio dubbed in, Butlers american accent!

 

Thanks alot for reading my review guys i appreciate every view i can get, if you havent checked any of my other reviews out there on this page in the sidebar. If you have seen this film what did you think of it? Should Gerrard Butler stick to action films or do you like his other work? Did you think this was better than Die Hard 5? Comment below let me know whatever you want!

 

Take care :}