Reviews by filmbuilder

I probably need to watch more anime movies, but funnily enough, anime happens to be my two favourite animated movies – ‘Spirited Away’ and…this! ‘Akira’ is only my second favourite animated movie of all time, and probably one of the most violent animated films I’ve ever seen (and I’ve seen ‘South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut’ for that matter, which however is probably more violent)

The film takes place in 2019, and World War III has been taking place since 1988, due to Tokyo being blown up. There is a teenage bike gang in which Kaneda (Cam Clarke; English) tries to prevent Tetsuo (Jan Rabson; English) from releasing the imprisoned psychic Akira. It is adapted from the film’s director Katsuhiro Otomo’s manga of the same name, and proves to have intelligent plotting and a pretty scary script.

It’s a science-fiction thriller film! ‘Akira’ features some amazing animation as well, the scene in which Tetsuo blows up and traps Kaneta in his massive breathing body is pretty disgusting but also extremely well drawn. The film has some scary moments, not very long ago, I watched ‘Black Swan’ in which the main character constantly has scary intense visions. Tetsuo has a similar case, imagining that soft toys are living giants which results in floods of milk, and ultimately Tetuso stepping on a glass and getting broken glass in his feet.

‘Akira’ combines various things – motorcycling, visions, still people and lots of blood! But it does it so well! Ultimately ‘Akira’ is an animated movie masterpiece and is definitely something that everyone must see before they die, especially the biggest anime fans!

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s 86 minutes of cheap visual effects, poor action and bland acting. Probably the least super Superman movie of all time. I don’t even say yet there because I seriously doubt I will ever watch a Superman movie worse than ‘Superman IV: The Quest For Peace’

Part of this film’s failure comes from its low budget. A big budget doesn’t necessarily mean big success, but buying some better visual effects could’ve improved this film. ‘Superman IV: The Quest For Peace’ had a very poor production company, presumably due to budget cutbacks. This resulted in some cheap looking visual effects, with Superman poorly imposed against land in the distance.

The villain is just laughable, Nuclear Man (Mark Pillow) is created with a missile and the sun…?! What the hell? I’m sorry but this guy’s battles against Superman (Christopher Reeve) are just stupid as well and they made me want to yawn, even more than that of ‘Superman III’

The entire cast is terrible as well, even Christopher Reeve. Mark Pillow annoys me, and the rest of the actors including Jackie Cooper and Margot Kidder made me yawn in boredom.

This film lacked to make sense, and I say that it made no sense that it was even made, what were these actors thinking? Why was the people in charge of visual effects so lazy? They couldn’t be arsed to have a better budget to improve on visual effects! ‘Superman IV: The Quest For Peace’ is a sorry sequel to the goodness in ‘Superman’ and ‘Superman II’ (‘Superman III’ sucked too)

I’ve not seen ‘Superman IV: The Quest For Peace’, but thankfully ‘Superman Returns’ ignores the events of that and ‘Superman III’ (which I hated). ‘Superman Returns’ follows ‘Superman’ and ‘Superman II’ but does not feature Christopher Reeve in the role of Superman, due to his horse accident and death. 

‘Superman Returns’ isn’t as good as ‘Superman’ or ‘Superman II’, but it’s still a good movie, and it’s much better than ‘Superman III’. ‘Superman Returns’ stars Brandon Routh in the role of Superman, with Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor and (in a miscast role) Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane. Spacey makes a great Lex Luthor, but Bosworth was too young to play Lois.

For the role of Lois, I think Amy Adams could’ve played the role, she later went on to play the role in 2013’s ‘Man of Steel’, but she could’ve played the role here, she’s older than Bosworth and I think at this point, she would’ve been a better choice than in ‘Man of Steel’ (although I haven’t seen it)

However, despite the poor casting of Bosworth, the film is still good due to its intelligent plotting of Lois now having a family. The film masters its visual effects and Routh is good as Superman, even if Reeve will always be the best remembered Superman. It also features an amazing art direction and costume design.

Nowadays, the best superhero films seem to be based off Marvel material (The Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy), but DC Comics inspired films such as ‘The Dark Knight’. ‘Superman Returns’ would sadly not deserve a mention in this category and I think ‘Superman II’ is the best Superman movie so far, but I still like ‘Superman Returns’.

'Black Swan' is the best film of 2010, it features some incredibly disturbing moments of sex and violence

But that's irrelevant to it being great, or is it? 'Black Swan' focuses on disturbing imaginations of the main character Nina (Natalie Portman), who has visions of death and monstrosity! She is performing in Swan Lake as the White Swan but ends up turning into the Black Swan

'Black Swan' features great acting from Natalie Portman and the supporting cast including Vincent Cassel and Mila Kunis! It features an unpleasant but serious script and some intelligent directing by Darren Aronofsky!

'Ratatouille' is another Pixar masterpiece! The film focuses on a rat named Remy (Patton Osawalt) who wants to be a chef but he has to hide himself from humans with the help of a garbage boy Linguini (Lou Romano), who Remy accidentally causes to become a chef.

The plot for 'Ratatouille' sounded rather lame, you wonder how a rat could be a chef as well if rats are known to spread diseases, but it somehow worked incredibly well, constant references to the diseases rats carry are made throughout the film and yeah, I don't think I would eat anything made by a rat!

'Ratatouille' is a great film, it features intelligent plotting and likeable characters and is up there with many Pixar films!

To celebrate the release of 'Inside Out' (gosh Pixar went off last year), I'm reviewing all the Pixar movies! I like all the Pixar movies, but they're going a bit downhill with films such as 'Monsters University', 'Brave' and even 'Cars 2' (for the latter, I'm one of those who actually likes it), but in the 00's, the Pixar films were rather excellent, and this is no exception.

'Finding Nemo' is a very good animated movie! It blends in comedy and drama pretty well. It has an intense plot about a clownfish named Nemo (Alexander Gould) being kidnapped by a diver, and his dad Marlin (Albert Brooks) going to find him. 'Finding Nemo' is the second Pixar film to focus on a kidnapping, after 'Toy Story 2' with Nemo taking Woody's place, and Marlin taking Buzz's place!

The film features several likeable characters, including the forgetful but funny Dory (Ellen DeGeneres) and serious Gil (Willem Dafoe). It features some great music as well and some heartbreaking moments. The film doesn't get as tragic as 'Up', but it is quite possibly the second most heart-breaking Pixar film!

'Toy Story 2' brings back the memorable characters from 'Toy Story', including Woody (Tom Hanks), Buzz (Tim Allen), Hamm (John Ratzenberger) and Mr Potato Head (Don Rickles), and new characters like Jessie (Joan Cusack) and Stinky Pete (Kelsey Grammer). The old characters don't lose their taste and the new ones bring in new taste.

'Toy Story 2' is considered by many to be the 'Godfather: Part II' of animated movies, in other words, the best animated sequel. Aside from 'Toy Story 3' 11 years later, I would probably have to agree! With the first two 'Godfather' movies, I loved both but chose part 1 over part 2, and here I would choose 'Toy Story' over its first sequel! 'Toy Story 2' is the worst 'Toy Story' film but it's still a great film!

'Toy Story 2' focuses on Woody being kidnapped by a toy collector who intends to sell Woody to a Japanese museum, and Buzz embarks on a mission to save Woody! The plot isn't as intelligent as 'Toy Story' or 'Toy Story 3', or in fact films such as 'The Incredibles', 'Up' or 'Ratatouille' but to keep up with the two best Pixar films ('Toy Story 1 & 3') it features great music, humour and characters, and some pretty hilarious cultural references. It also features the Oscar nominated song 'When She Loved Me', even if Emily stopped loving Jessie, I will never stop loving the 'Toy Story' films!

While 'Brave' and 'Monsters University' have proved disappointing compared to several Pixar films, the late 90s and the 00s were Pixar's heyday, and this is a great example of what they do almost every year!

'Dr. No' is just the start of the very long running 'James Bond' film franchise. It starts with Sean Connery, who gives a very good performance as the main character James Bond himself. He is joined by a supporting cast including Ursula Andress and Joseph Wiseman as the titular antagonist Dr. No

'Dr. No' is something I will give credit for, in starting the iconic bleeding screenshot image and the amazing classic spy music! The film features very good acting and music and some decent action! I'm going to try and watch all the James Bond movies, of which there are many. I prefer 'Skyfall' to this one but this one is still pretty good!

'Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery' is a spoof movie, but that doesn't mean it isn't funny right? Right?

'Austin Powers' takes on various movie spoofs, mainly 'James Bond' and has inspired spoofs such as 'The Simpsons', the film gets funnier every minute of screentime, and features hilarious acting from Mike Myers. The dialogue is certainly adult orientated, and not for kids, so if your kids have to watch Myers, watch 'Shrek' (which is also very good though)

The character of Austin Powers (Mike Myers) has become a movie icon. The character delivers sexy, flirtatious dialogue and gets involved in all sorts of sex jokes! This character along with Dr. Evil, have become two popular Mike Myers characters (in addition to Shrek and Fat Bastard) and they appear in this hilarious non-stop comedy movie!

I liked 'Superman', I loved 'Superman II', but this? This one failed to interest me in any way!

'Superman III' does feature a darker performance from Christopher Reeve, but what a ludicrous script! The film features some nice visual effects, but the effects are used mainly in really boring scenes. The action in this film is just dull and the idea of Superman becoming an alcoholic is just wrong!

This film feels really inconsistent, and several plot points don't match up, Superman's random acts of vandalism don't seem right or his alcohol abuse, or the scene where he becomes two people - a selfish, evil version of Superman and a moral Clark Kent (Superman's secret identity).

Probably the worst thing about this film is the appearance of Richard Pryor, he tries to put comedy into his performance, but he fails miserably, and is also attempting comedy in the wrong movie. The 'Superman' films just don't seem right as comedies! Slapstick is only funny in cartoons as well!