Fast and Furious 6

Let's keep this Fast and Furious...

Did anybody call for loose ends to be tied, or rather remoulded to force a story to make sense? Probably not, but does it work here? Somewhat, yes. 

Fast and Furious 6

What started out as what seemed like a lower budget film about (under the) hood economics, or how to cash in on the hood scene, has grown into one of the biggest current film franchises. Fast and Furious 6, as the name suggests, is the sixth film in the series of fast-paced action and speed-racing. 

In this one, Toretto (Vin Diesel) and the gang team up with Hobbs (Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson) to track down and capture an English villain by the name of Shaw who is trying to steal a a chip that could shut down a country's military computer capabilities. 

We see a montage of all the other Fast and Furious films at the start of the film as well as seeing the majority of the old cast in their new habitats. Most have settled down while others are still living a fast paced "young" lifestyle. 

I do like car chases, and I love films with action; Fast and Furious 6 has both in very good proportions. The underground racing scene is not as dominant of course, as the series has matured along with the characters. What this means is less neon coloured-cars with neon under-lighting and... well just less neon all around really, but this doesn't mean it is missing completely. In fact, the underground racing scene is used to reminisce back on the series with particular characters that the story focuses on. 

The story itself is imaginative if not predictable once you get past the fact that forgotten characters are resurrected. I also like the fact that there are in jokes within the film, such as Ludacris character receiving a phone call from "Samoan Thor".

Fast and Furious 6 is the best in the series so far as it has just become so much bigger: budget, cast and location-wise. It ties up loose ends as well as starting up a whole new series of questions.

Ride or die!

:-)

Elky

The Purge

Imagine a day where laws are relaxed to the point that murder is allowed. This is the basis of "The Purge".

"Oh my gah it's Ethan Hawke" - Peter Griffin, Family Guy.

The Purge

It's a very interesting concept, it got me thinking and also discussing what the consequences of an annual cull would mean. It would mean survival of the fittest for sure; natural elimination, more natural than postponing people's deaths when they are unfit and unwell, and would also mean that the human gene pool would be less diluted with weaker individuals.

It would also mean those that could afford private security personnel, or pay for military grade home protection, bunkers or panic rooms would have a better fighting chance of a fighting chance. It would unbalance all the good (if you could call the inhumane way of killing off our fellow man) that this purge allows.

There is a message that is broadcast on the annual day that states how the new founding fathers of America have reduced crime to 1% for some measured period of time, excluding the actual day of chaos. People in support of the day put a certain species of flower on their front lawn to show their support of the day.

Ethan Hawke is James Sandin, and he sells security systems to wealthy people. His own family have profited annually and show their wealth by having the biggest home in the neighbourhood of large homes. There is a hint of jealousy from his neighbours as they wish the Sandins a safe purge night.

The film is quite well put together; there are plot twists, introduction of characters like Zoey Sandin's (Adelaide Kane) boyfriend and a stranger trying to escape from hunters taking part in the purge. We see a development of the Sandin characters via their interaction with these mentioned characters, neighbours and, the enemy in the film, a crazed purge gang of well-educated youngsters.

There are well-placed jumpy scenes where the youngsters, who are dressed in Public school uniforms and creepy white dresses complete with face masks, just suddenly appear. They want something from the Sandins, and they either want it handed to them or they will take it from them with fatal force.

So it is a creepy film, with some genuinely disturbing content to think about, but this makes it an uneasy, but enjoyable watch.

Hawke has done some films of late that seem to poke the audience into thinking while they watch, which a lot of new films do not try as hard to do any more.

Kudos. Go Purge...

:-)

Elky

Iron Man Three

Iron Man times three-hundred.

Firstly I would like to hash tag #foreveralone. Not because I was the only one in the cinema (although this was the case for this 3D showing except for one couple), it's because I'm probably the only one to say this film is actually terrible for the Iron Man franchise.

Iron Man Three 3D

As a stand-alone film for a metallic man, I'm sure it would be considered great, but continuing on from the previous two which were so good this is really disappointing. The Iron Man is a mess, the villain is laughable and it all feels like a build up to an anti-climax. Maybe the Avengers introduced something too exciting for a continuation to live up to the hype, or maybe people got lazy, but apart from the production values which are fantastic, the film falls very short.

"I'm blue daba dee daba die". This was the opening to the film; it excited me to the prospect that opening with this level of awesome would continue throughout the film. My nineties inner-self was disappointed. A New Year's Eve party is a big bang to open with and sets up the film with characters that will be linked back to later on. But it's never really as exciting as party-mode Stark.

The penned villain of the film is the Mandarin. A terrorist who targets America and the West with attacks that incinerate people. I never found his character that interesting to be honest, until later on when a twist made him much more exciting.

A character by the name of Trevor was actually the highlight of the film for me. His leer was the toast of Croydon don't you know? Trevor's character was a welcome comedic entry to an otherwise dull story, but there was always an underlying feeling in me that his character would pan out the way it did even from the start of the film.

Other bad guy characters in the film have an okay power, but are again not very exciting and are seen a mile before they're even relevant to the story. A young kid (Ty Simpkins) that Stark befriends is another comedic character that adds more interesting aspects to the film than the actual story does. If his role was bigger, it would not have been a bad thing.

This is a film about the many Iron Man suits rather than the actual Iron Man. It's fantastic seeing all the different types of suit that Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) has created, but I don't feel like this is what Iron Man is about. Stark is about quality, not quantity, and the suits feel really weak compared to what I believed they were capable of. Iron Man previously fought aliens, but Iron Men can't even fly straight.

You don't actually see much of Iron Man throughout most of the film. It's a very limited amount of time that you actually see Stark in the suit and feels like they're trying to kill off the films. You see Stark going through a mental breakdown of sorts and while Downey does a good job of making it believable, it means the majority of the film is about a normal man. If this was to be the case, maybe they should have called the film 'Tony Stark' instead.

I don't know if it was supposed to be a trilogy but this film made it feel like the Iron Man franchise should have stopped while it was on a high if this is what it was going to turn into. A okay film but no Iron Man sequel!

And if you know how marvel films end, there's usually a small clip at the end. It really wasn't worth hanging back to see. It isn't a hint at a new marvel film and it isn't really very funny. In fact it teases at what could be elsewhere with other Marvel characters.

Tony stark will return apparently, but if it's anything like this, why bother? Make a film about Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) instead!

:-)

Elky