I thought a Princess could go anywhere? (Aladdin 2019)

239.
Aladdin

3/10

Why of why do I need to start writing reviews of remakes to Disney classics. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, or so the saying goes. So imagine my face when we found out that Aladdin was getting a remake of its own, along with Lion King, but for now, we are simply focusing on Prince Ali and the recasting of such a famous Robin Williams character. The role goes to Will Smith, who can be quite energetic and along with Naomi Scott as Jasmine, they are the only two I recognise from casting. Mena Massoud gets the role of the street thief Aladdin whilst Marwan Kenzari gets the role of the evil Jafar. As soon as I saw the trailer, the graphics looked great, the old songs gave a few goosebumps but that's as far as it went. I really wasn't feeling it and we are about to find out why I was right to feel that way. Arabian nights and all that.
The first thing that worried me was that Guy Richie was in charge. Not a massive fan and one of the last movies I watched from him was King Arthur. What a couple of hours of shit that was. All I prayed for was that we got a shot by shot of the old Aladdin, a masterpiece is there for you to follow so how hard could it be? Apparently, it's impossible. We got around 75% of the story but a lot had changed over, especially towards the end. We came to know the story of Jasmine finding love within Aladdin and choosing to marry him so they could both rule.

 This time it is all about empowerment for the female. Wanting to lead her country forward as the first female Sultan and achieving this through no male help by the end. She even chucks out her own song about it all, TWICE. It felt as if they needed to change this for the snowflakes in the audience, she doesn't need no man, she got this. What I may be trying to get to is that the characters we have come to love, have changed before our eyes. This could be as small as Iago the parrot, who is no longer a major form of comedy but is actually changed down to a minimal character. The main change though was how they used Jafar. This time, he had no interest in Jasmine to take over by marrying her. He wanted to do this by flat out power and I didn't feel it. This guy didn't feel daunting and something to fear, he seemed like a spoiled brat, was far from a big commanding figure and this was the case when he was seizing power by the end. There was no massive cobra scene and a really poor climax to his storyline.

Touching on the few good things I liked about the movie and firstly the graphics. Seeing this in real-life was an experience, the colours, the Genie scenes and escape from the tomb were pretty awesome. I had a lot of time for those efforts, along with the original songs coming back and even though some were tweaked a little, it was very minimal. Having the Genie narrate the story to his children and wife, no that he was free, was also a nice touch and even though Will Smith had a massive job on his hands and was never going to live up to the role, it wasn't the worst thing in the movie and I am a fan for him from elsewhere, even the CGI let him down. The best picture is below but wait until you seen the actual look within that scene.

 But it really isn't long until we are back into the bad features. From a dance-off in the palace, the running through the streets in an iconic escape scene from the animation, this time it was turned and sped up for some reason, exactly as Richie did in King Arthur, so strange. Where was the Aladdin of old, the charismatic young man and the storyline that kept us gripped from the original? He would be a good Pinocchio, it takes someone to seem wooden.
This is becoming nothing more than a cash grab from Disney now surely. Is there no-one in the studios with some truly original ideas or is this what we are going to get now. Lion King is up soon and as you can imagine, if that gets butchered too, Disney would just be counting the pennies. This does not go anywhere near as creating the magic from the original movie and I would suggest watching the animated version to cleanse yourself after dabbling with this one!

It's easy to fool people when they are already fooling themselves (Spider-man: Far From Home 2019)

238.
Spider-man: Far From Home

 8.5/10

After the absolute love that has come from Tom Holland being Spider-man, the homecoming being a complete success and even the relationship he had with Tony Stark in the Avengers movies, it's easy to say that people were getting excited for Far From Home. The thing is, Holland was not the only reason for this buzz going around. It is a big moment to see where we go after Endgame but more so, we are finally getting Jake Gyllenhaal in a Marvel movie. He going to be Mysterio, who after playing the Playstation games, I know he is a villain. Imagine my confusion when the movie started and he was put up to be a team member. Let's get down to it and work our way back home.
The story follows Peter as he heads off on a school trip around Europe with his school and I'm instantly immersed as I was searching for the locations that I have also travelled to. Peter just wants to get away from his super-hero persona and the fact that he is expected to carry on as normal after the death of Tony. This isn't going to last long though. Elsewhere, we bump into Fury and Maria Hill who have their first cross over with the main bad guys so far, the Elementals. This quickly leads to it being defeated by Mysterio and the story switches to Peter's side. Halfway through the trip, Peter is set upon by Nick Fury after 'Ghosting' his calls and avoiding his duties. The next elemental shows up in Venice and Peter needs to take action, his first encounter with one and with Mysterio, this then leads to their late-night meeting thanks to Fury.

 Next, they are onto Prague and another Elemental, the strongest one and they prevail, saving a couple of friends in the process but two major things happen. Tony has given Peter access to a set of glasses to control EDITH, which after a few mishaps, he's gets a little used to. Now Peter doesn't really want to fill in for Tony and after Mysterio has come from another dimension to save our Earth, surely he's the ideal guy for the job. Peter thinks so but it turns out the guy is a bit of a prick. He used to work for Tony and got sacked. Quite an invented as we later find out and goes by the name of Quentin Beck. He takes EDITH and uses it for all sorts of devilish things. The other major part of Prague is regarding MJ. She works out who Peter really is and is pretty cool with the situation. Worried, but cool enough. So as the movie progresses, we get out the first major battle between Spider-man and Mysterio, as he finally shows his true potential as he creates images that completely disorientate Spidey but blow me away. Spidey gets smashed, ends up ask Happy for help and we get a cheeky yet little cheesy rendition of him creating a new suit to the music of AC/DC, just like his mentor did. The final fight takes place in London and after a pretty decent showdown, Spider-man gets EDITH back and saves the day, gets the girl and finally can go back to being a Neighbourhood Spider.

The storyline was a really good one, plenty of twists in there and a young guy who was torn and not really in a great place after the loss of his father figure but by the end and even throughout the movie, began to grow up and even fell in love.
We have come to know most of the characters in this movie, whether they bring the seriousness, frustration or comedy to the franchise, there is no change there. Other than the growth of Peter, which I have already touched upon, how can you not love the role that Jake Gyllenhaal played? His whole plot, the lightening speed of his transition from good to evil and then onwards from there was truly brilliant. Easily the stand out performance in this movie. The standout moment from me was when he thrust Spiderman into an altered reality. We saw a giant Mysterio, cartoon-like imagery, zombie Iron-man and much, much more. It has been one of my favourite characters introduced into a stand-alone Marvel movie in a little while. With that scene taking Spidey by complete surprise, it also did the same for me, it was an interesting use of special effects and voice over that resonated and stayed with me for a while afterward. Special effects were used a lot in this movie, down to the amount of Elemental usage but I far from think there was too much on show, it worked really well and it's just the way movies are these days.

If we had to touch on some bad points, we would be nitpicking but one for me had to be that it didn't totally feel like a Spider-man movie we have come to know. This may be a good thing to switch it up but with the lack of swinging from skyscrapers, not being in New York and although it was a school trip, the lack of school time or working a real-life job, did feel somewhat strange to me. Saying that, you can still tell that I really enjoyed this latest MCU installment, just before we hit the most trialling phase coming up. There isn't a massive amount on the list that is getting me excited. Before we go anywhere, we have to talk about those after credit scenes. J Jonah Jameson is back on the hunt for Spider-man and what's that he has? A video from a Mysterio that we thought was dead and it reveals that Spider-man is Peter Parker!? Holy shit, where do we go from here?? No-where is Disney and Sony don't stop measuring their dicks, now sort that deal out and make it stick! Otherwise, try creating Night Monkey.

What kind of mother parties with Highschoolers? (Ma 2019)

237.
Ma

5/10

I have seen Octavia Spencer in a number of movies and each one, she seems to be a strong black woman so to see her in a horror as the main protagonist is a weird step to take. Weird but intriguing. The trailer was pretty self-explanatory with this one as we see Spencer play a weird woman, getting in with a group of youngsters as at first, she buys the liquor at the store and then gives them a basement to party in. Is this going to be a party we all want in on?
I think I'll end up finding an excuse not to go to this party again. It was an interesting concept for a movie by all means. The creepiness of the storyline and main character on which it was centered around was clever but I was left wondering as to whether this was an actual comedy or not. The only real character to look at is the one who wanted to be called 'Ma'. Spencer plays Sue Ann and from flashbacks galore, we find out about her history and how she was bullied in school by local kids and after becoming a lonely mother to an ill child, she quickly finds acceptance by helping out some kids that are her daughter's age.

After a couple of parties in her basement, she becomes way too attached to the group, turning up at their school, calling them constantly and the fixation takes a turn as she drugs them at one of her final parties. After a little torturing, a murder to one of the fathers and the kids escaping to freedom and Ma trying to through her own daughter into the flames that have started since the escape, the end is near. Ma walks upstairs as the house burns around her, accepting her fate and lying down next to the man she has killed. This guy is one of the fathers, a bully from her past and is played by one of only a few faces I recognise in Luke Evans. If any sort of an underlining tone, you never know what is really going on with someone. The bullying would have caused this effect and all she was after was some sort of revenge, no matter the cost to herself or her daughter.
The rest of the cast was what we usually see within a horror of this magnitude, or lack of it. Another group of young actors and actresses that we will never see again, probably have never seen before or will most likely see within this genre once more, without them being a blockbuster. To be fair, that's probably just me being a pessimist.

As I had already mentioned, a few points in the movie, I actually had a little giggle and I'm not too sure if this was ever going to be intentional from its creators. Blumhouse as producers can we very ranging with horrors, between Get Out and Happy Death Day being two examples of how little and how much comedy there seems to be in the movies. The film seemed to be a lot more of a thriller than a horror. I really need a gruesome horror with a monster or paranormal activity to get my blood going. I wasn't too impressed with this one and it was simply a filler movie than I may never watch again. It makes me feel like the target audience would be some young teens and anyone past that age would know a little better. Firstly to maybe enjoy the movie too much and to make better choices than the characters in the movie.



Long live...the King (Godzilla: King of the Monsters 2019)

236.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters

8/10

A massive creature feature is back and this time, Godzilla is hopefully going to be on the screen a bit more than his last movie. This universe is starting to take shape as we are gearing up for the lizard taking on King Kong. I'm still a little intrigued as to how and why, but only time shall tell on that part. For now, let's focus on this instalment. With a decent cast grouped together, this movie has a lot of potential to be a disaster movie crossed with a monster movie. Kyle Chandler, Vera Farminga, who I love from The Conjuring franchise, Millie Bobby Brown, fresh from the success from Stranger Things and even Charles Dance. I had a fair degree of excitement for this movie, enough so that I went to my first viewing in IMAX because it looked like it was the only way to do the visuals justice.
IMAX truly was the way forward.

I had heard a lot of reviews and snippets that the movie wasn't great, there was too much monster activity and not enough storyline. Everything else suffered because they wanted to make it look visually appealing. All of this was bullshit in my eyes. We are the moaning for the first Godzilla movie as not getting enough of the monsters and this time, we get plenty and people are still fickle. The movie looked immense visually. Some of those shots, long-range shots and look of each monster were something I would not get tired of fast and in my opinion, nothing else suffered. It really does take seeing to be believing as each monster was exposed to us, the scene and cinematography were some of the best I have witnessed in a long time. I know it's CGI but a lot of the time we can see this go very wrong, as witnessed in many other movies.

The storyline was never ever going to be Oscar-worthy and people are too critical these days. We had a broken family where the mother was a fanatic, looking to free these massive beasts in order to wipe out civilization and start again due to over-population and pollution. The daughter, played by Millie, has to fight to save her mother from making the wrong decisions, whilst her estranged father does the same. Vera's character is working with Charles Dances' to bring about the end but after some total destruction and finding out that one of these monsters isn't on Earth to help kick start the place again, they know they have made a boo-boo. Godzilla gets her proverbial arse handed to him until the gang nuke him to give him some extra power, a moth comes and heals him during the big fights and in the end, Godzilla turns into a nuke of his own as Vera's character commits and sacrifices herself to save her family and Godzilla stands upon a city of rubble with a number of other monsters bowing down to his immenseness, if that is even a description.

It was very interesting to see the switch between characters as, at first, Vera's character seemed a loving mother, trying to save these great beasts and after the first 30 minutes, she was only really in it for herself. This was the reason that Kyle's character left the family after he found out that she was trying to control these monsters with a device of their own. We are very used to seeing Vera as one of the Warrens' but this time, we didn't know what to feel, whether she was doing it for the greater good or silently evil, the audience could easily be torn. Millie Bobby Brown featured in this with it being the first thing I've seen her in and I can see the buzz about her. Great acting as she went through each emotion possible for a child. Her and her dad, played by Kyle Chandler are two characters that I think would be really good additions to the next movie. Whether they forget the timeline and bring anyone back from the Skull Island remains to be seen.
The franchise is taking a serious step in the direction of Godzilla vs Kong and the countdown is on to the big one. It'll be very interesting now to see how this is about to shape up with the size of Kong and how he's getting off the island or where the fighting takes place. With these other monsters be involved and will any of our characters make it back to the next one.

It's 'Pretty Woman' but she's Richard Gere and you're Julia Roberts! (Long Shot 2019)

235.
Long Shot
 

 

7/10
 

It has been a while since I had seen a romantic comedy and if I'm honest, it's a nice change of pace from the seriousness that I have recently watched. Seth Rogan and Charlize Theron are bringing the most unlikely couple and putting the title of the movie into realisation as we are about to see these to get together. When it comes to a rom-com, there isn't too much to say as very rarely we are left unfulfilled as the two main characters always seem to get together. Let's quickly whizz through the story and find out whether it's going to be a long shot to whether we are satisfied.
We are given two characters who couldn't be further from each other. Seth plays a guy called Fred Flarsky a controversial writer for a small newspaper. Theron plays Charlotte Field, a lady whose name sounds as important as the job she is going after. She wants to be the first female president. With Fred quitting his job, he is cheered up by his mate and taken to the same party that Charlotte is attending. They bump into each other, knowing each other from their youth as she used to babysit him and knew back then that he liked her.

It has been years since then and Fred has not changed in any way, fashion sense of her nervousness around her. She offers him a job as one of her writers, thinking that he always knew her and her morals when they were in school and maybe he could do the same again after reading some of his work. She needs some new humour mixed in with the serious and this is the perfect time for a cheeky risk. One night, under attack whilst touring the countries with her environment plan, the two get closer and finally kiss. This leads to the rest and suddenly the tour turns into a physical relationship, which her other assistants find out and the stuck up cow far from approves of.
The movie shows their secret relationship taking the next step as, in their own world, they find themselves getting serious. The main assistant knows that this is never going to work out, Fred simply isn't in a place to be with her. All this time, one of the arsehole journalists or newspaper owners has been chasing an interview with Charlotte for a while now and after finding out that Fred is in the picture, they find a leaked video of him 'sorting himself out' to one of Charlotte's speeches. He is earning big money from deforestation and with Charlotte's ideas to run for president with environmental change as her big policy, she is blackmailed to drop this idea or risk the video being released. Fred is fuming as he only agreed to work with her on her policy because she knew it was a good one and was adamant that if she switched in any way to appeal to the voters, he would walk out. This is about to happen as he doesn't care about his image but with what is in stake for her, she has to take the deal.

He leaves and the two try to move on. Fred returns to his mate, finding out that his mate had been keeping the fact that he is a Christian and Republican private because he knew Fred is so narrowminded that they would argue. This could have cost his relationship with Charlotte, who has offered the hidden passage under the White House to keep him out of the public eye. After some missed calls, Charlotte tries a date with the Canadian president for publicity but he's a weird fella. I feel that something is coming and you can tell from a movie like this that the end is near. I guessed that the bitchy assistant was going to get them back together after trying for so long to keep them apart but I was wrong on that account. Instead, as Charlotte was going to give her biggest speech and turn away from her own ideas, she thought 'fuck it' and broke the news of the video going to leak, the fact that she was going to be blackmailed and ended up riding high to find Fred. Problem is that he was watching the conference live and so headed to her. Missing each other, Fred turns home to find her in the apartment with apologies and the two reconcile, heading down the gathering audience and introducing themselves as a couple, even with the bitchy one accepting the love they were getting from the crowd. The movie draws to an end as Fred gives us a tour of the White House, his painting up on the wall with the First Ladies and how happy this couple is living together.

This movie wasn't really a far cry from a lot of other movies. We had the standard meeting, break up and make up scenes that are always part and parcel, with a couple of arguments in the middle and somehow, two unlikely characters ending up in love by the end. If this wasn't the case for a rom-com, I wouldn't really know how to feel by the end, even if it is as predictable as rain in Wales. The cast was actually really compatible. We know what we are getting from Rogan and his humour but seeing Theron as a serious lady turning into a sex-pest with a night on drugs and trying to negotiate a hostage situation only gave a lot more humour to the occasion. This was definitely the best feature of the movie. At times, it did get amazingly crude and cringe, especially the video of Rogan masturbating but the slapstick humour has been seen in some of his other movies. Everything else was a little repetitive but as already mentioned, it had been a while since I have seen a rom-com so I can forgive that. I even put a tweet up about going to watch the movie with Seth Rogan given a read of the post and dropping a like! This was a true underdog story from the male perspective and I can get on board with that.

Pika Pika? (Pokemon Detective Pikachu 2019)

234.
Pokémon Detective Pikachu

 

 

 

7.5/10
 

Now I'm not going to lie. When I found out a live-action Pokemon movie was going to be hitting the big screen, I couldn't help but bring out the childish side of myself. Watching the original animated series and animated film growing up, I always wondered what the pokemon would look like if they were real. The trailer answered that for me straight away and the answer was awesome. I was intrigued by where this story was going to go with a witty Pikachu, probably the most recognisable pokemon, voiced by Ryan Reynolds.

The storyline of a young lad, played by Justice Smith, named Tim Goodman who has grown up unliking pokemon, mainly as his dad had moved away to be a Detective with a pokemon sidekick and hadn't really cared about his own son, or so Tim thinks. When the news filters through that his dad has gone missing and is presumed dead, it's time for Tim to go to the city. We have already had a glimpse of what happened as a trapped Mewtwo escapes and shots at a car, causing it to explode off the side of a bridge. Tim just wants to get in clear the apartment and get out. It's amazing to see the ideas that the writers had regarding this city which lives side by side with pokemon. Each actually having their own jobs and co-existing in every way possible. One problem though is that Tim finds a random, dark vial in his dad's bin and upon opening it, it releases smoke, which travels outside and sends some pokemon crazy. What ensues is Tim's first encounter with Pikachu, a freak out about being able to understand each other and then a chase from the crazy pokemon.

 
 The main part of the movie is to find out what happened to the dad after all. Who is really at fault? Could it be the son of the city's creator, who has always 'apparently' hated pokemon as his own father cared more about people living alongside the beasts than with his own family. With Tim turning into a detective himself, he pairs up with a local young reporter as they try to get to the bottom of what has happened. including the attack at the beginning. On the road, they do come under attack and we watch the relationship between Tim and Pikachu grow. This comes after Pikachu takes a hit and it isn't looking good, brought back to life with the unlikely help of Mewtwo, we realise that this created pokemon is actually not a bad one. The bad guy is still to be revealed. This comes in the shape of the guy we thought was the pokemon's savior. Bill Nighy plays Howard Clifford, the father of the lad that we though would maybe be the bad guy too but instead, this guy has a dark undertone. He has an illness that is taking him and he wants to use Mewtwo, transfer himself into his body and fuse all pokemon with their owners. He believes that this will help humans reach their next level of 'evolution'. We finally have a flashback to find out what happened with Tim's father Harry. Although he helped capture Mewtwo, Harry figured out what was really going on and helped him escape. Mewtwo never shot the car, instead, he was attacking the real pokemon who were after Harry. The fight ensues on the streets as everyone is transferred to their pokemon and Tim manages to take the headset off Howard and free Mewtwo to transform everyone back into their own bodies. By the end, Mewtwo raises his hand to thank Pikachu for everything and things start to come to life and even my hidden thoughts are alive. One major thing is that we never saw the dad Harry's face. Constantly hidden in each flashback, surely this means that it is going to be Ryan Reynolds, which is true. After the crash, Mewtwo popped Harry into Pikachu, without memories, in order to save the day at a later date.

The movie ends with Mewtwo reversing this, although I have no idea where the body of Ryan Reynolds was found in the end. The main characters go full circle as Tim finally wants to spend some time in the city with his father. As we see Tim sit there, Pikachu walks onto the screen and we once again hear Reynold's voice but this time, human legs walk onto the screen and we finally have Harry is human form. Pikachu is back to saying his own name. We see another relationship repair itself as now, father and son are once again a family.
With the nostalgia of the movie and how long I have been waiting for something like this to come about, it was always going to be good viewing for me. As the camera gave us a wide-angle to start, with Pidgeys flying in as if they were simply another bird in the world, it gave me a smile on the side of my mouth. This feeling carried on through the movie as time after time another character in pokemon form was thrust onto our screen and at no point did it feel as if it was simply for the sake of it. The storyline seemed to have a bit of everything. It had the seriousness and the strain of a family, it's loss and the coming together with forgiveness. The forgiveness had to be seen twice as Tim grew closer to Pikachu, without the realisation that it was his father. Reynolds was a great addition to the movie, simply down the quick-witted humour. Humour is a big thing for this movie and whether this came from Reynolds, the actions of the pokemon or a clever play on how the pokemon are themselves. Some humour could be missed by some of the audience though, which could be a bad point and unfortunately go over the heads but I'm glad that they didn't fall on my deaf ears. The casting was god damn decent too. We know what Reynolds brought but Justice Smith, who I have only caught in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, gave a decent account as a bumbling youngster, come serious and young detective. One bad thing is that surely you would know the voice of your father? I mean he may not have seen him in a little while but even to have a little memory of recognising the voice from a pivotal figure in his life. Nighy came back with another 'bad-guy' since I've seen him as Davy Jones and once again, gave a slimy account of himself and you could always feel something was up. The big reveal meant that the actions of the characters were a quick turn around and with the audience ages, it could have come to a bigger surprise for the younger viewers. I'm very interested to see where he head next in the universe. Although we didn't get to see any gym battles, famous names in the universe or Team Rocket, we could have them for the future. I'm not hearing whispers of anything but surely it's a moneymaker?