Scott Pilgrim vs. The World - DVD Review

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World – DVD Review

You know that comic book adaptation/video game flavoured/comedy romance with a hint of Bollywood that you have been searching for? It has finally arrived! And it comes in the form of “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.” You know it’s going to be good when they turn the “Universal” opening credits into a 90’s style video game intro!

So where do I start with this masterpiece? I simply cannot get enough of it, and do not have a bad word to say against it. It is easily one of my top films of 2010, and probably one of my most played DVDs! It was an utter shame that this film had to come out in the same year as such juggernauts like “Inception” and “The Social Network” which incidentally are both awesome films (like you needed to be told that). You have to give it credit where credit’s due though, it certainly held its own against those heavy hitters. It even came 6^th in Empire Magazine’s top films of 2010. Ok, so I’ll start with an overview of what the film is about. You may find various quotes throughout this review, there are just so many classic lines! (Props for anyone who can spot them all)

22 year old Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) plays bass for the “Sex Bob-Ombs”, an average band from Toronto Canada trying to get a record deal. On the back of his huge break up with “she who shall not be named” Scott starts to date 17 year old high schooler Knives Chau (Ellen Wong). She’s Chinese. With the uniform and everything. Then one day he sees Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) the girl of his dreams, quite literally, and instantly falls in love with her. So now he has the dilemma of whether to break up with his “fake high school girlfriend” Wallace’s words, not mine, or to juggle 2 chicks. Oh, Wallace is Scott’s gay roommate played by Kieran Culkin, he’s gay.

Now if that wasn’t troubling enough for our would-be hero, to be with the girl of his dream he has got to defeat Ramona’s seven evil exes, headed up by the formidable Gideon “G-Man” Graves. Scott knows it won’t be easy, and it looks like he’s about to give up at one point, but he perseveres and fights them all! I won’t give away what happens, even if I did though it’s still worth watching!

The cast is star studded and downright amazing, and the script is very very funny. The film moves at a fast pace which only adds to the awesomeness of the Scott Pilgrim experience! In particular Anna Kendrick who plays Scott’s sister really stood out. Her character doesn’t get much screen time, but when she’s on, she owns it. This is one film that everyone has to have in their lives, and needs to be watched multiple times. Edgar Wright has delivered another masterpiece!

The DVD that I bought was from HMV, it was an exclusive version which included 2 discs and art cards of the seven evil exes. The art cards have pictures of them, along with a rating for each character. The bonus disc is packed full of extra material, such as deleted and extended scenes.

Overall it is one of the best films I have ever seen, and it’s going to be the first 5/5 I have given! Rush out to the shops and buy this now!!!

Well it was nice meeting you, tell your gay friends I said bye!

The Rite - Film Review

The Rite – Film Review

First of all, if you’re expecting anything like “The Exorcism” you will be sorely disappointed. In fact, if you were expecting anything substantial from this film, you had better carry on that search. Anyone who knows me will know that I very rarely slate a film, but I have to say I found myself quite disengaged from this one! Anthony Hopkins was really the only saving grace of it all. Of course he pulls a brilliant performance out of the bag, but unfortunately this isn’t enough to bring the film from the depths of despair. Sadly the trailer seemed to show all of the best bits and so I would suggest watching that and be done with it.

The film’s main angle is dealing with exorcisms and the demons that can possess people. It also explores atheism and the argument that not believing in something doesn’t mean it’s not real. However at the end of the film I felt myself not really knowing what issues the film had explored, or indeed what the intention was. In my opinion there wasn’t enough ceiling crawling or body contorting, but I can see why. It wasn’t intended to be that kind of film. They were trying to establish it as a serious film based on true events.

I’ll give you a brief overview of what the film is about. Michael Kovak (O’Donoghue) is an American studying to become a priest in order to run away from his family business of funeral directors. Whilst studying, he has an “absence of faith” and decides that he wants out and to return to his family. However the Father Superior is not willing to let him leave like that, and gives him an option. Due to an increase in reports of demonic possessions, the Vatican has decided to place an exorcist in every diocese. So he can either take the exorcism course in Rome, or leave his current studies and pay the tuition fees (over $100,000). Now obviously he doesn’t have this kind of money so he decides to go to Rome and embark on this exorcism course. In Rome, he meets a reporter also taking the course for an article she is working on. *Potential romance alert* It now seems that the film might be going somewhere. Alas it doesn’t. You see Kovak doubting that possessions are real, so an important person in the Vatican (didn’t quite understand who he was) sends him to an old friend, Father Lucas Trevant. Enter the Hopkins! Finally a bit of credibility to bring to the table! We then see Hopkins’ character performing various levels of exorcisms, which Kovak goes along to. Basically the story culminates in Kovak having to perform an exorcism on Father Lucas. He does this successfully after an epiphany about God which grants him the strength to exorcise the demon. I didn’t catch the name as the cinema had a power cut at this point in the film (totally lost all momentum and suspense that had built up). Father Lucas and Kovak then part as friends, with Kovak and the reporter departing as, well that wasn’t really clear.

I wanted so much more from this film, I’m just glad that I didn’t have to pay for it! Wait for the DVD to come out, that’s what I say.

:) :) 2 out of 5, not worth it.

Paul - Film Review

Paul – Film Review

Welcome along to another People’s Film Review! This time, I’ll be reviewing the new Pegg/Frost smash “Paul.”

The basic outline of the film is that an alien crash landed on Earth in 1947, more specifically on a Dog named “Paul” in Wyoming. For the past 60 years he has been under Government protection, where they have studied him and learnt all about him. Now they have learnt everything they can, the time has come to do further studies, on his brain. As you can imagine, Paul isn’t cool with this, so with the help of an inside man he escapes. Whilst on his travels he bumps into Clive and Graeme (Pegg and Frost), 2 nerds from the UK who are on a trip across America as part of the San Diego Comic-con (incidentally somewhere I would love to go!) The trip couldn’t be going any better for the geeky duo, until their wildest dreams are realised with the discovery of Paul; the foul mouthed alien from a small M class planet. Voiced by Seth Rogen, you can imagine that he won’t be your typical alien! You can see the mannerisms of Rogen in Paul, and you should as the studio used the same technology used to animate Golem in Lord of the Rings. Rogen donned the motion capture suit to bring the alien Paul to life and with that hilarity ensues.

So with their new guest, they set off on a course plotted by Paul who won’t tell them exactly where they are going. As they make their way to the mystery destination, they get themselves into all kinds of trouble, even picking up another reluctant "guest" on the way. Look out for a star studded cast, including Jason Bateman, Sigourney Weaver (can’t have an alien film without her can you?) and the voice of Steven Spielberg himself! I’m not going to spoil anymore of the happenings from the film, it’s best to go and see it for yourself.

This film will have you laughing for days after, especially some of the one liners from Paul. I will warn you, if you are sensitive to bad language then this is definitely not one for you! Pegg and Frost are truly back on form and once again created a comedy masterpiece.

Paul is out in cinemas across the nation now!

:) :) :) :)

4 out of 5!

Coming soon...

Just a quick heads up for what's coming soon to the blog!

A review of "Paul" (currently a work in progress, but should be appearing any day soon!)

With April Fool's Day not too far away, a top ten of comedies can be expected!

Reviews for the likes of "Unknown", "Sucker Punch", "I Am Number 4" and many of the other top films out.

DVD reviews! Starting with one of my favourite films of 2010, "Scott Pilgrim vs The World"

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Thanks and bye for now..