Dracula Untold

SPOILERS

Oh dear. A new angle on the Dracula story... which is that Count Vlad was really a nice guy!

I guess this could have worked out but, for me, it didn't. Mainly because as well as making Vlad basically good, almost everyone else is bad. I think only Vlad's wife, his son and the odd monk aren't essentially wicked in one way or another. He has some decent pals at the beginning but they get killed off early by the thing in the cave.

That was clearly designed to serve as a contrast, but it is so stark that nothing is believable. Also, it is just not credible that Vlad should have such a terrible past and yet be relatively undamaged by it.

There are plenty of other things wrong with the film too... and a few things that are good. Unfortunately one of the best things about it is that it's only 90 mins long.

Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes

It's amazing how convincing the ape characters are in this film. You just take it as read that apes can be more intelligent than humans after a while.

But the story doesn't really do justice to the visual effects. Aside for the moralistic tint (some apes are good, some humans are good, some apes are bad, some humans are bad) there's not much to it.

Disconnect

There are 3 films squashed together here. One looks at cyber-bullying, the second at identity theft and the final one at the sexual exploitation of young people. Two characters appear in more than one time-line, but only in minor capacities, so these are actually stand-alone stories being shown in parallel.

I think the overlapping characters don't add much to the stories. In fact, if anything, they detract from it by making the connections seem contrived...

Any one of the 3 stories could have made a decent film by itself. It is a shame that the writers didn't have the confidence to tell just one of them. By trying to tie them all together as somehow linked consequences of the internet age they fail to hit the mark with any of them.

For me the cyber-bullying story was the most compelling; the other two stories just started to feel like they were in the way after a while.

Plenty of potential in Disconnect. But it doesn't deliver.

How To Train Your Dragon 2

I guess there's a joke in here somewhere... How To Train Your Dragon 2 Do What?

Poor? Yes, a bit like the film. There are so few sequels that live up to the original; and this is yet another one. Shame, because I did really like the original a lot. So this only had to be half as good as that to still be good... but it wasn't.

And yet several people recommended this. So what did they see that I didn't? Maybe I just expected too much. Maybe it was almost OK. Dunno; I just didn't enjoy it... found it a bit boring TBH.

I'm Back

Hello again. OK, so I'm back. Turns out this is quite a good way to keep track of the films I have seen. Memory's not what it was... starting to forget.

So here's what I've seen recently. As best as I can recall...

Reconstruction - a bit odd but quite enjoyable.

Maleficent - better than I expected fairy tale.

Ender's Game - decent sci-fi story, more grown up than you'd think.

Violet & Daisy - excellent violet action, with a heart.

Hercules - not at all bad.

Calvary - great drama, starring Brendan Gleeson.

Deliver Us From Evil - don't remember much about this one.

Edge Of Tomorrow - fun romp with Cruise and Blunt.

As Above So Below - quite scary.

The Equaliser - good interpretation of the old TV series.

Sharknado 2 - very silly, lots of fun.

The Monuments Men - boring.

Lucy - awesome!

The Double - clever and thought provoking.

3 Days To Kill - predictable non-sense... OK if in right mood.

Bangkok Dangerous - the original, badass.

Lilting - lovely. Moving.

I Wish - can't remember; don't think I watched all the way through.

The Fault In Our Stars - moving and tragic. Better than I expected.

Dot The I - nice idea; didn't quite work... very dull in the middle.