Dredd 3D review

Okay, I suppose the first thing you want to know is: is it any good? Is it better than the ‘other’ one? Is it worth your money?
The answer to all of these questions is yes.
You can forget all about the Stallone travesty. And then there’s that other thing people keep talking about… The Raid. You can forget all about that too. I have seen the Raid, and while Dredd shares a broad similarity in basic plot, they are totally different beasts.
So, if you are a fan of the comics, there are a few things you will be expecting and I am happy to say that I think you will find them all present and correct here.
Let’s start with the main character. Mega City One. The movie opens with a jaw dropping shot as we glide across the Cursed Earth, over the West Wall and into the city itself. If you are one of the people who thinks that the only thing they got right in the Stallone movie was the city, then be prepared to be amazed, because this is a lot better.
As for Karl Urban. Well, he is Dredd. I cannot fault his performance at all, and the amount of information he manages to convey with only his mouth and chin to act with is very impressive. He, like writer Alex Garland and director Peter Travis, understands the character of Dredd. So much so that, to the delight of this fan at least, he doesn’t have anything approaching an emotional journey or character arc. He’s Dredd and the beginning, middle and end. Well… that’s not strictly true… there is perhaps a hint of glacial speed movement in there… perhaps.

Which brings us to Olivia Thriby, who as Cassandra Anderson, is very much the emotional core of the movie. Thirlby plays her wonderfully, and there is real emotion in her eyes at time, especially in one early-ish scene where Dredd, as the Judge assessing her on her final exam, has her pass sentence on a criminal. It’s a powerful scene and really brings home the brutality of the job these people do. Shout out too, to the depiction of Anderson’s psychic abilities, which are also realised in a very clever fashion.
The other character I found myself having sympathy for was, surprisingly, Lena Heady’s villain – Ma-Ma Madrigal. There’s much subtlety to her performance, and Ma-Ma comes across in the end as as much a victim as everyone else in the city.
As I said above, the thing that gratified me the most was just how everyone involved seems to understand and respect the source material. To give another example. In your standard action movie, any spectacular death is usually greeted with an hilarious one liner. Not so with Dredd. When he’s killing people, he’s a man doing his job, and this resulted in what are possibly my two favourite scenes in the movie.
As I’m am sure you have figured out by now, I liked this a lot. It’s a great action movie, but more importantly, it’s a great Dredd movie and deserves to do well at the box office.
Be warned though, it is bloody, it is sweary, it is very violent. But if you know Dredd, you’ll know that already.

The Dark Knight Rises review

So, here we have it, the finale of Christopher Nolan’s epic trilogy.

After the astounding The Dark Knight, with its show stopping performance from the late Heath Ledger, could this film in any way live up to the hype?

The answer is yes. Yes it could. In fact, in places it even surpasses what Nolan et al achieved in the previous two movies.

I’m sure you all know the basic premise by now. This is set eight years after the events in The Dark Knight. Gotham is at peace, thanks to the sacrifice of Harvey Dent... but that is all about to change. A storm is approaching Gotham. A storm shaped like an unfeasibly pumped Tom Hardy as Bane.

We first meet him in the jaw dropping aerial opening scene, which was filmed here in the Highlands. But it is when he gets to Gotham that things really heat up, as he sets about his plan to dismantle the city.

While this is happening, Bruce Wayne, who has been moping about feeling sorry for himself, encounters a young lady called Selina Kyle and the shenanigans start there...

There has been a lot of talk about the running time of this movie, and it is a long one, make no mistake. However, Nolan manages to cram in a hell of a lot of plot into it. An awful lot happens. I would desperately love to tell you some of the things that take place, but I will not. I will not even hint obliquely about any of them, because there are some great surprises in here. Some I saw coming, some I did not.

I mentioned Bane and Tom Hardy earlier, and really should give him another nod here. Hardy has a hell of a task here, acting in a mask throughout the entire movie, and talking with an heavily distorted voice (which is actually not difficult to understand), but he manages to do all his acting with his eyes – projecting all his emotion through them. It is a show stopping performance.

Show stopping, but not the best in the movie. For my money, that honour goes to Michael Caine. Caine, as Alfred the butler, gets a couple of scenes early on in the movie that are very powerful. In the hands of a lesser actor they could easily have slipped from pathos into cliché and ham, but Caine is masterful in this.

In fact, every performance is brilliant. Bale, Oldman, Freeman and the rest all bring their best to the screen.

But, is this the last in the series..? Nolan and Bale both say yes, and if they are telling the truth, it is a fitting place to end things. But there are plenty of threads left hanging if they ever want to pick them up again. And I for one really hope that they do.

I went to see the movie at Eden Court, which as you know is the venue for Hi-Ex! each year.

Rather brilliantly, after the movie, the charity The Bat Protection League had a table set up. Now, from what I had just seen, I would suggest that bats are not in need of that much protection...

You can read a bit more about them here.

And go see the movie!

Avengers - new trailer!

I'm sure you've all seen this already, but still - wow!

Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption review

Now, one of my guilty pleasures (well, not guilty- there’s nothing guilty about it!) is the original Scorpion King movie. The Rock is cool, there’s just no getting around that fact. And this is coming from someone who never watched any of that wrestling stuff in his life!

I was surprised to see there was a third instalment of the story, as I wasn’t even aware that there had been a second one.

Anyway, this one seems to pick up right at the end of the second movie- we get a quick synopsis of what has went before, and are then plunged straight into the action.

Victor Webster plays warrior Mathayus with gusto but no matter how hard he tries, he is not the White Dwarf of charisma that The Rock is. Horus, king of Egypt and sometime Hellboy Ron Pearlman hires him for a job, but things go complicated and there’s a load of double crossing and stuff. And something about a magic necklace and the Book of the Dead from the original Mummy movie. To be honest, it lost me a bit, but luckily there are characters who helpfully explain the plot every few scenes.

Also in the mix is a wildly overacting Billy Zane who, to his credit, is putting a lot of effort into his role as the evil brother of Pearlman’s character.

The special effects are not quite up to the standard of the huge budget original, and neither is the acting (which isn’t, I admit, saying much!).

This is very much one of those movies you watch with your brain in neutral. It is perfect Saturday night beer and pizza fodder.

Oh, and there are elephants. And ninjas. And ninjas riding elephants. That has to be a good thing, right?

Scorpion King 3 is released on DVD by Universal on 27^th February and is available to pre-order now.

Johnny English Reborn review

Now, I have never seen the first Johnny English movie. And being as it was released in 2003, this sequel seems a bit out of the blue.

Did we really need a follow-up to a comedy spoof from almost ten years ago, albeit one that was a box office success?

The honest answer to this is, of course, No. We didn’t need this sequel.

The bigger question is: is it any good?

Ah, well, now we get into another territory altogether.

I’ll tell you what I thought of this movie.

I thought it was okay.

There are some very good things about it. First off, the cast is astounding. Atkinson is a fantastic actor, and is surrounded here by some equally incredible talent. Dominic West manages to hold in the swears as a fellow agent and he’s also joined by Gillian Anderson and Rosamund Pike.

Story-wise it is not actually half bad. Yes, the villain is obvious from the beginning, but it a well told and well directed tale with some very good direction and exciting action sequences.

But... there are a number of problems with it. While there are plenty of jokes in there, most of them, for me at least, didn’t quite work. I could not help but think while watching that a comedian and actor with the skill set that Atkinson possesses could probably have come up with better lines himself. And there is also the character of Johnny English himself. The writers can’t seem to decide what to make of him. He is in turn a bumbling fool who can’t see what’s going on right in front of him and a suave, capable, super-spy. Yes, you’ll say I’m overthinking it, but I’m a writer and that’s what I do.

Now, having said all that, I should point out that I watched this movie with my two boys. They both laughed like drains the whole way though and proclaimed it was brilliant, even pointing out the occasions where I laughed out loud.

So, perhaps I’m saying that cynical 40-something writers may not be the target audience of what was an admittedly fun movie, so perhaps you should bear that in mind when considering my opinion!

Johnny English: Reborn is released on DVD and Blu-Ray by Universal on 13^th Februay and is available for pre-order now. 

Electric Man at Hi-Ex!

" An amusing hybrid of romantic comedy and hectic chase thriller. In it's brightest moments, Electric Man captures the intended vide of The Maltese Falcon meets The IT Crowd " - Allan Hunter, Screen

" A wonderfully twisty-turny comic caper, made and played with warmth, wit and genuine affection." - All Star Superman, Batman & Robin artist, Frank Quitely

At Hi-Ex in 2009, David Barras and Scott Mackay were here selling t-shirts, prints and artwork to finance their micro budget film Electric Man. We're happy to announce that to coincide with Hi-Ex 2012, Dave and Scott are back with the finished film. BAFTA nominated for it's screenplay, the film had it's world premiere in the US in September 2010 and this will represent one of the first chances for you to see the film in Scottish cinemas.  Electric Man is a new low budget Scottish film set in the world of comic books.  Jazz and Wolf own a run down comic shop in need of cash and when the ultra rare and valuable Electric Man Issue 1 , worth a hundred grand, turns up in their shop, they think it's the answer to their prayers. But they're not the only ones who want to get their hands on it. Enter crazed American comic collector Edison Bolt, psychotic Scotsman Uncle Jimmy and the strange, mysterious and beautiful Lauren McCall. Add Wolf's ex girlfriend to the mix and you've got a twisty turner comic caper that'll keep everyone guessing until the end. 

Eden Court - 30th and 31st March - with intro from Dave and Scott and Q & A after each screening. 

Dave and Scott will also be at Hi-Ex with all new merchandise from the film. 

The Clinic review

The first shock in this movie comes at the very beginning, and it has nothing to do with the movie itself. No, it is the sight of the wonderful Andy Whitfield in the male lead role that was a bit of a jolt, and just served to bring how much he’ll be missed in the role of Spartacus.
Anyway, on with the movie!
The story starts on Christmas Eve 1979 in the Australian desert, which is another jolt for those of us used to freezing cold snow and bitter winds at that time of year. So we join a young couple as they head across country for the holidays. Stopping off at a cheap motel for the night, things start to go bad when Cameron (Whitfield) finds his pregnant fiancée Beth (Tabrett Bethell) has gone missing.

So far so horror movie. But this movie quickly sends the viewer in a different direction than the one the viewer may be expecting from the set-up. While we see some of Whitfield doing the strong husband act and trying to find out what has happened to his wife (really Australians – do you really dislike your country cousins that much? Or is every remote Australian town inhabited exclusively by sinister weirdoes?), this is very much Bethell’s movie. 

And, I should warn you, it is a grim one. She wakes up in a bath full of ice to find that her baby has been removed and we follow her as she and a group of other women who have had the same thing happen to them try to find out just what the hell has happened to them while they are being staked through the clinic by a mysterious figure...

The story itself has a nice (nice is not the word really, but you know what I mean!) old school horror story feel to it. To me it has the atmosphere of one of the novels of Richard Laymon. If you are unfamiliar with his work, I suggest you check him out, he really is one of the unsung masters of the horror genre.
To me true horror, as I am sure I have said here before, is where people are doing bad things to other people. I find supernatural horror to be much less scary than ‘real’ horror. And that is not to say that movies like Hostel, Saw 58 and the like are scary. They are not. There is a difference between meanness and gore and scaring people.
And there are scares in this. There is a touch of the Saws about it in places, but this is not a torture-porn gorefest, although there is some gore in there.
No, there is an actual story going on here, and while I was a bit annoyed at a brief flirtation with a possible supernatural element, this was explained well in a rather nice twist. Yes, the twist does require the viewer to swallow a gigantic coincidence or two, but that’s okay.

And pleasingly for a modern horror movie, after all the darkness and death and misery, it was nice to have a genre movie that ends on a note that could be interpreted as hope for a change!

The Clinic is released on DVD by Universal on 17^th October.

War Games review

No, this is not a remake of the early 1980s John Badham movie, so rest easy!

The war games in the title of this movie are altogether more literal.

So, we have a group of young people (I’m not sure of their ages, everyone between about fifteen and thirty years old looks the same to me) head off for a weekend of paint balling, when they encounter another group of folks who prefer to use real bullets…

Things begin in a way familiar to the horror movie viewer, as we are introduced to our adventurers. There’s the nice one, the rude one, the cynical one, the one who doesn’t want to be there, and so on…

Meanwhile, the Bad Guys are much more fun. How bad are they? Well, when we first meet them, we witness one of them doing something that will leave you in no doubt they are Very Bad Indeed.

Things progress exactly as one would expect them to for a while, but when the first killing comes, it is well done and even though we know it is coming, it still manages to shock.

After that we enter a game of cat and mouse as our team get picked off one by one and, armed only with a pistol with a few bullets and a load of paint balls, they go up against a team of insane gun totting crazies.

And yes, it does sound familiar. We’re firmly in Deliverance/ Southern Comfort territory here, with a dollop of The Hills have Eyes, Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Wolf Creek thrown in.

Still, this familiarity helps on the occasions that the narrative steps outside the expected lines and delivers a genuine shock or twist, which it manages to do a number of times.

The cast of unknowns (to me at least) are, for the most part, pretty good and it’s good to see them not being afraid of getting dirty, wet and downright uncomfortable for the part.

The best thing though, and the thing that impressed me about this movie, is the sound design. I suspect it may not be for everyone, but the use of feedback and white noise was very effective in communicating the isolation and desperation of the characters.

All in all, this is an entertaining piece of horror. Yes, we know more or less who is the one who will survive at the end, but as I mentioned earlier, the times where they manage to subvert the genre tropes make this worth watching.

I was going to say that War Games is good fun, but I don’t think that is the word… it’s maybe better to think of it as being like Wolf Creek with all the hope and feel good scenes removed…

War Games is released on DVD by Universal Pictures.

Super movie review

If you have seen the trailer for this movie already, you’ll no doubt have formed a pretty good idea of what you’ll be watching.

From the trailer you would be forgiven for thinking what you’re in for is a light romp, albeit a violent one, a bit like Kick-Ass only with a middle-aged man and her out of Juno.  What you do get, however, is something very far from that.

While on the surface this movie has elements of a knockabout comedy, for my money it is a much darker beast.

Rainn Wilson plays Frank, a short order cook in a restaurant whose wife leaves him for another, cooler and more interesting man. So Frank decides, through a series of visions inspired by a very funny television show, to become a superhero called The Red Bolt and hit people with a wrench.

This all sounds potentially hilarious, but what it is in fact is a rather disturbing journey as we follow one man through a mental breakdown.

Ellen Page is very good as Libby, a shop assistant in a comic book store who becomes Red Bolt’s sidekick Boltie. Her character provides the majority of the humour as she encourages the Red Bolt to beat up a boy who scratched her friends car and gets over excited as she slips further into the realms of fantasy.

Less funny is the comedy rape scene, but I suspect it is supposed to be okay because it is a woman doing it to a man…

This is not a bad movie however, it is just not the movie that the trailer makes it look like.

There are some great performances, particularly Liv Tyler, who I am not a particular fan of, but she is wonderful as the estranged wife (and also manages to get a nice little in joke for fans of her dad’s band in there too).

In a way this works better than Kick-Ass as a ‘realistic’ depiction of what real life superheroes would actually be like, and the big set piece showdown at the end is brilliantly executed. I did wonder how a short order cook suddenly got so good at fighting as he takes on a drug lord’s army of hired thugs, but never mind.

So basically- watch this by all means, but be warned – appearances are deceptive!

Super 8 - Gonna be Mint

To promote the international release of SUPER 8 Paramount Pictures International (PPI) has launched a captivating 3D experience putting you at the heart of the thrilling and emotional journey Joe Lamb and his group of filmmaking friends from Ohio embark upon in the summer of 1979. 

Over time, original content, artefacts, clips, radio broadcasts, retro games & applications unlock the amazing mystery & shocking truths behind Super 8. Be inspired to have a filmmaking adventure of your own at www.GonnaBeMint.com  

Subscribe to http://gonna-be-mint.tumblr.com/ to unravel the story in real time from all your favourite social and mobile devices.

Super 8 movie releases in the UK August 5^th

The Amazing Spider-man trailer

This was leaked online last night, as I'm sure you've seen, but now it has been released officially.

Yes, it is another origin story but honestly, if you're able to swallow DC Comics rebooting their entire universe, I think you can accept this, eh?
All in all, this looks like fun, and the trailer ends with a simply astonishing POV shot.

The Dark Knight Rises teaser trailer

It's here at last!
Not a lot to go on though- plenty of clips of the previous movies and a few seconds of the new one. Nice voiceover from Liam Neeson's Ra's Al Ghul, fueling rumours that he's making a return in this movie and adding to the whole Star Wars episode one feel, along with the "Every journey has a beginning" vibe...
What do you think?

Can't seem to embed it at the moment, but when we can we will- meantime, have a look at it HERE or on the facebook page HERE.

Electric Man trailer!

Those of you who were at the last Hi-Ex! will not have failed to see the Electric Man guys there spreading the word about their movie.

Well, now you can feast your eyes on the glory of the trailer! And we have to say- it looks brilliant. Edinburgh looks great, and there's a certain amount (read: MASSIVE amount) of fanboy excitement here at Mr Derek Dick being in it!





You can find out all the latest news on the movie by joining up at their Facebook page.

Thor: Hammer of The Gods.

Thor stands in the Asgardian battlefield awaiting the attack of his foremost enemies, the mighty Frost Giants. Take control of Thor, aiming and launching his fearful hammer Mjolnir at the attackers in order to defeat the onslaught as quickly as possible. Compete against your friends on Facebook and unlock trophies and character cards in this exciting, multi-level webgame of skill and competition.

Play it HERE.

Thor: The Interactive Guide to the Universe of Thor!

You know, this is a lot of fun!

From the deserts of New Mexico to the furthest reaches of the nine worlds of Yggdrasil, welcome to THE UNIVERSE OF THOR.  

This embeddable interactive guide invites you to explore the worlds and meet the characters of THOR, discovering extensive brand new footage and stills from the film in the process.

See if you can unlock 100% of the contents, then post it to Facebook, Twitter or another social network and invite your friends to do the same.

The Three Musketeers trailer

You know, here at HiEx, we generally like to keep things positive id we can. But sometimes, it is really difficult to do so. And this is one such occasion.
We don't like to judge by first impressions, but this trailer looks truly terrible.

Conan The Barbarian poster

Starring Jason Momoa in the title role, this new screen version of Robert E Howard's Cimmerian warrior hits the cinema in 3D in August this year.
Here's the newly revealed poster:

Battle: Los Angeles

We posted the trailer a while ago, I know, but here it is again:



Storyline goes:
For years, there have been documented cases of UFO sightings around the world – Buenos Aires, Seoul, France, Germany, China.  But in 2011, what were once just sightings will become a terrifying reality when Earth is attacked by unknown forces.  As people everywhere watch the world’s great cities fall, Los Angeles becomes the last stand for mankind in a battle no one expected. It’s up to a Marine staff sergeant (Aaron Eckhart) and his new platoon to draw a line in the sand as they take on an enemy unlike any they’ve ever encountered before. There are also a couple of rather tasty quad posters:

Everything kicks of March 11th!

The Amazing Spider-man

Sony pictures have given the comic fans of the world an extra special Valentines Day gift.
They've given the forthcoming Spider-man reboot a name: The Amazing Spider-man. Which, as I'm sure your eager to learn, meets with the HiEx seal of approval.

Here's to a sequel called The Tangled Web of Spider-man!

Oh, and they've also released this new picture, which we're sure will give those murky corners of fandom who are into such things a loads more to complain about as they explain at length how the movie is going to suck...

For the rest of us though, it looks pretty cool.

Website for the movie is HERE, but there's nothing there yet but this picture!

X-Men First Class official teaser trailer

This looks rather good!