Saturday 15 October 2011

DVD Reviews

Green Lantern
Starring: Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds, Mark Strong
Director: Martin Campbell
Warner Home Video

Available from Monday 17th October
Review by Brad Harmer

The Green Lantern Corps is a brotherhood of warriors sworn to keep intergalactic order, and each Green Lantern wears a ring that grants him superpowers. But when a new enemy called Parallax threatens to destroy the balance of power in the Universe, their fate and the fate of Earth lie in the hands of their newest recruit, the first human ever selected: Hal Jordan.

Hal is a cocky test pilot, but the Green Lanterns have little respect for humans, who have never harnessed the infinite powers of the ring before. But Hal is clearly the missing piece to the puzzle, and , with the encouragement of fellow pilot Carol (Blake Lively), if Hal can quickly master his new powers and find the courage to overcome his fears, he may prove to be the key to defeating Parallax...

Green Lantern’s main problem is that it’s too much like its protagonist, Hal Jordan. It’s flashy, cocky and irritating. The first 20-30 minutes are so are given over to a flashbang of action scenes (some of which had me thinking that I was watching Top Gun, by mistake), with no regard for character development, pacing or anything of substance. After Jordan finally obtains the ring, there’s another chunk of the film dedicated purely to us watching him wank over his new powers, which is so deathly dull not even a bit-part from Geoffrey Rush can save it.

By the time Green Lantern is halfway over, you’ll be wishing that it was all the way over, as the pacing continues to be – to use an screenwriting term – fucked up all over the place. I could have forgiven some of the action-for-action’s-sake sequences if I had been able to have any interest in any of the characters. I can’t even say that the good guys were annoying. I just didn’t care. I couldn’t even say that I was rooting for the big bad cloud of villainy (that definitely was not Galactus) when it arrived to consume Earth and every living thing on it. I didn’t. I just didn’t care one way of the other.

If you’re a massive Green Lantern fan, then there’s probably some entertainment value for you here. As for the rest of us, we’ll just go and watch Iron Man again.

The Emotionally Fourteen Rating
Violence:
Frequent explosions, giant green fists hitting things, some gunfire and punch-kick.
Swearing: Very little.
Sex/Nudity: Some partial male nudity.
Summary: A sub-par superhero movie, without any real spark, personality or pacing. A real wasted opportunity. 4/10
The Guardian: Special Edition
Starring: Dwier Brown, Carey Lowell, Jenny Seagrove
Director: William Friedkin
Second Sight Films

Available from Monday 17th October
Review by Blake Harmer

When Phil and Kate have a baby boy named Jake, they hire a baby-sitter, Camilla, to look after Jake on a regular basis. However, unknown to Phil and Kate, Camilla has other plans for Jack of a more sinister nature...

The Guardian ticks all the right boxes for a good horror story, the supernatural story is refreshing and diverse from traditional ghostly horror stories, and also makes a nice change from the other slasher movies out there. I also liked that it did the violence and gore very well. Unlike more recent films which either go for over the top torture porn or more realistic violence, as The Guardian is an older movie, it opts for the over the top gore but more in making the death look quick and painful, such as being torn in half by a supernatural tree, or having loads of blood coming out of said supernatural tree when the roots are hacked off with a chainsaw.

However, the movie does suffer with some pacing issues, especially after the half way mark when you are aware of the bad guy and her plans but are still waiting for the actual main characters to cotton on to this as well. It is also this lack of plot development in places that makes the film drag and makes some scenes feel unnecessary and just added to create some scares or violent scenes.

The Emotionally Fourteen Rating
Violence:
Lots of gore caused from characters being mauled by animals or having a supernatural tree tearing them limb from limb.
Sex/Nudity: A couple of sex scenes, and you do see boobs a few times.
Swearing: Some, but nothing particularly strong.
Summary: A good tense horror film that has everything from gore, monsters and a decent story to keep you hooked. If the film was a tad shorter and had better pacing, this would have been more recommended. 7/10

SETUP GIVEAWAY


Bruce Willis (The Expendables) and 50 Cent star in this fast paced heist thriller. The heist of a lifetime for a group of friends turns deadly when one betrays another by taking off with the goods. Taking matters into his own hands, Sonny (50 Cent) seeks out retribution by teaming up with the most dangerous mob boss in town (Bruce Willis) to get back what he sees as rightfully his. When he finally comes face to face with his long time friend-turned-foe (Ryan Phillipe) he has to choose between friendship and revenge.

Thanks to our friends at Lions Gate Home Entertainment, we've got three copies of Setup on Blu-ray to give away! For your chance of winning, send your name and full postal address to emotionally14@hotmail.co.uk before midday on Saturday 22nd October, making sure to put "Setup" as the subject. The first three entries out of the electronic hat after the competition closes will receive a copy of this awesome movie!

Don't forget to put "Setup" in the subject line. Incorrectly labelled or blank entries will be discarded.

Setup is available from Monday 17th October, courtesy of Lions Gate Home Entertainment.

Entries limited to one per household. Offer open only to postal addresses in the UK and Ireland.

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