Showing posts with label Adventure. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Adventure. Show all posts

Monday, March 08, 2010

(Vintage Film Reviews) - Spiderman 3

Spider-Man - Up to speed.

Spider-Man is about a young nerdy student called Peter Parker, who gets bitten by a genetically modified super spider, who then inherits spider-like credentials. He has super human strength, is able to spin/form webs from his hands, stick to walls and has a 'spider-sense' that warns him from forthcoming danger.

After his Uncle dies in an attack Peter feels responsible for, he vows to use his powers for the good of mankind.



Spider-Man 1

The first film explores Peter as being a complete nerd and discovering his new powers, trying to deal with a childhood crush and dealing with his Uncle Ben's death. Moreover, with the arrival of the Green Goblin, terrorising the city and just laughing about it, Spider-Man has to find a way to deal with him along with his new powers.

With great power, comes great responsibility.



Spider-Man 2

This film explores the maturity of Peter Parker and his skills as a web-slinger and super hero. Now that Peter Parker is a hero, he also has to juggle that with education, living alone and trying to cope with everything all rolled into one, including a love for his childhood crush. With all this going on for Peter Parker, it's something he can just about bare with until he starts to loose faith in being a Hero.

The New villain this time around is one of Peter Parker's idols who accidentally merge tentacles to his back in a failed experiment that leaves him eight-limbed, crazy and a name called 'Doctor Octopus'.

Coincidently, this all happens when Spider-Man has "Retired" from being the friendly neighbourhood super hero. It is then up to Peter Parker to restore his faith, bring back the hero and save the city along with the girl in one huge swing.



Spider-Man 3

This is most likely the final from the Spider-Man films. However, in saying that.....They have managed to do a Die Hard 4 and it looks good. But you can only go so far, right?

This film has Peter loving and flourishing off the fame that spider-man has. Every man, woman and child of New York love spidey and they do a parade for him to honour his achievements. Whilst this is happening, Sandman, an escaped convict who accidentally got caught in a sand experiment, disrupts everything. Unless I wasn't paying attention, but the sand experiment was never explained in the film and seem to only serve the purpose of turning Marko Flint into a man of sand.

After battling the Sandman, Spidey becomes host to an alien symbiote which falls from the sky in which engulfs him, giving him a black suit and unleashes the darker and non-tolerant side of Peter Parker. His attitude is then flamboyant and vengeful to whomever upsets him, he would seek revenge in ways Peter Parker wouldn't have even dreamed of.

If that wasn't enough, Spidey has to deal with the New Goblin who wants Spider-Man dead and the new Alien Symbiote's host, Venom.



This film touches on a lot of things. Revenge, Love, Pain, Hate, anguish....EVERYTHING! The fighting scenes are seamless, fast and leave you in awe in anticipation on a 'how Spidey will get out of this one?' thought. However, in places, the action is slightly too fast in some places fully follow.



They had made Spider-Man 3 a more emotional story. Throughout the film a man or 12 is crying over something or the other and if that wasn't enough, there are some real cheesy bits in the film. Near the end where Spider-Man is swinging to the final few scenes and there is chaos happening and the people of New York are cheering for Spider-Man who then manages to swing and land in front of an American Flag which is basically behind him but takes up the whole background giving off this whole 'All American Hero' vibe which was so much cheddar cheese for me I thought someone was eating Wotsits or Cheetos.



All in all, Spider-Man 3 is a good watch in which, if you caught the opening Credits, you wouldn't need to see part 1 and part 2 before this as the images tell you the story so far. Fans of Venom would be slightly disappointed as his role was small in comparison to the other characters and could have easily have been edited out, for a Spider-Man 4 called Maximum Carnage. Bring in Venom and Carnage and we would have a worthy 4th film.

10 May 2007 at 06:50am

(Vintage Film Reviews) - Tom-Yum-Goong

I saw the Trailer to this recently and thought it was due to be out, but I believe they were re-releasing it under a different name.

This film is also know as 'Warrior King' over here, 'The Protector' in the US, 'Neak Prodal Junboth' in Cambodia and 'Honour of the Dragon' in the Netherlands. So don't work if you feel yourself talking about the same film with two different titles to your mate(s) as it actually has five.

For those who have seen 'Ong Bak' and hated it, then this is definitely not for you. But if you saw 'Ong bak' and liked it, this one is much, much better!


Just like 'Ong Bak' Tony 'Merkah Man' Jaa (my name for him by the time the film did finish) plays a Thai man named Kham, who is peaceful and calm until his Elephant's were stolen from his home and taken to Sydney (Australia). In Thailand, the natives respect elephants and regard them as close to family as normal people. These elephants are treated just like family. So then Kham sets out to find his Elephants.

The storyline is slightly dry, however, I do respect the values and morals behind it.
The film starts off with the friendship built between a young boy and an elephant and his father. This part of the film is dry. However, to understand why a man should receive a ‘flying knee to the face’, then this part of the film is imperative to watch.

Once the elephants go missing, that is when the action starts and when I say action, I mean, ‘kick a man in his face who is behind you and had just asked you, "have you ever received a foot in the face" and you don't even turned around to even address him’. That kind of action.

In some elements of the fighting scenes, you can see a thinner, faster and taller Jackie Chan. The guy is so nimble; there is a part where you see him slide through a 10cm slit in a fence. No effects, real.

For those who haven't see any Tony Jaa film, I’ll break it down briefly.
This guy moves fast, he is agile, and he will merk a man in one move. So in saying that, there are times in the film where it seems as if the director said "you, camera man, follow him, all you other fighters, just attack him". Because there is a part in the film where Kham runs into a building and the camera man follows him and Kham is just brucking up everyone who approaches him and there are no cut scenes at all. All in one take.

This is a superb film and I would say, if you want action with a tiny touch of comedy, like the bit where a woman is telling off her partner about buying pirate DVD’s, then you will love this film.
Otherwise, if you don't like fighting films, just watch the first couple of minutes because the rest of it is pure unadulterated one man kicks everyone’s arse throughout the whole film. And with a film like this, who needs a superb storyline?

12th December 2006 at 02:10pm