DC League of Superpets - Film Review

 

Hi Folks 

A quick review of DC's League of Super-pets which was actually really good and a funny movie from DC and Warner Brothers.  It had great callbacks to the DC comics and movie world.

It follows Superman's dog Krypto (played by Dwayne Johnson) as he becomes jealous of Superman (played by John Krasinski) and his relationship with Louis Lane. 

Unknown to him a genius guinea pig called Lulu (Kate McKinnon) who had been experimented on by Lex Luther is planning to use a new orange kryptonite to gain super powers.

The animals in the shelter with Lulu also gain super powers including the dog Ace (Kevin Hart) and a turtle called Merton (Natasha Lyonne).

They help Krypto find and rescue Superman and the rest of the Justice League including Batman (Keanu Reeves).

Overall - a surprisingly fun film with some good laughs and excellent CGI. Plus some great voice over work from the cast. I would love to see Keanu Reeves play an aging Batman.  Be warned there is some swearing in the film and some adult themes - which made it better.  Bel was chuckling all the way through.

Bels Score  -  10/10

My Score    -  10/10

Minions 2 - The Rise of Gru - Film Review

 

Hi Peeps

Hope you're enjoying the weather.

Before it became too hot we went to the Rex cinema in Elland for a change as I like to support smaller businesses.

Saw the new Minion film which is the fifth in the Despicable Me franchise from Illumination and really enjoyed it.  Although it wasn't the best of the franchise it had my daughter chuckling along plus it has good call backs to the original series.

It shows a young Gru in 1976 - a good year as I was born. He has just taken the Minions under his wing and creating an underground lair. 

He wants to join his heroes, the villainous Vicious 6 and become a major villain. They have recently found a magical amulet and ousted their leader Wild Knuckles.

Gru goes to join with his Minions but laughed at so he steals the amulet and the film follows his escape from their evil clutches.

Again Steve Carrell is great as young Gru. I'm glad to report that Russell Brand is back as Dr Nefario, as I missed him in Despicable Me 3.

The cast are great and include Julie Andrews, Dolph Lundgren, Michelle Yeah and Jean-Claude Van Damme. 

Overall - a fun entry into the Despicable Me franchise with great animation and a stellar cast.  There are some good laughs in this film.

Bels Score  -  10/10

My Score    -  9/10

Thor - Love and Thunder - Film Review

 

Hi film fans 

Yesterday took my geeky daughter to see the new Marvel film.  Thor 4 or Thor - Love and Thunder.

Again directed by Taika Waititi, it has his unique sense of humour that made Thor: Ragnarok so good and successful.

Sadly given the story this time around, which opens up on Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale) is struggling to keep his daughter alive and failing.  Plus the stage 4 cancer Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) is dying from, the humour needed toning down.  The film would have been better being more serious.

It is still a good film and some of the laughs are funny including a unique portrayal of Zeus by Russell Crow.

There are great visuals and action.  Chris Hemsworth is a joy to watch as Thor.  The show stealer is Christian Bale as Gorr who puts in a great performance.  You go from sympathy watching him to hating him.  Sadly he isn't on screen enough.

My main problem with the film was Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie or King Valkyrie which was a bit too far as you could never have a woman as a King.  It would make the Queen role redundant.  Plus her acting is a bit wooden. 

Overall - a good entry into the Thor franchise and already my 2nd favourite Thor film after Ragnarok. It was great seeing the gorgeous Natalie Portman again who looked great as female Thor. Again Christian Bale made this film better than it should have been,  and there was a clash of tone with his serious story and the rest of the film.

Bels Score   -  9.5/10

My Score    -  8.5/10

Harrogate Book Shopping

 Hi Folks. 

This weekend I had a day out in the lovely North Yorkshire Spa town of Harrogate.

I primarily went to visit their Waterstones, which is one of my favourite Waterstones stores.  Yet I found another great independent book shop called Imagined Things Bookshop.

So after visiting Waterstones and enjoying some cake in their cafe - see photos above!

I then stumbled into an independent book shop, which was good as nothing jumped out at me in Waterstones.

As you can see Imagined Things Bookshop is a lovely little independent shop with a good selection of books.

I found a book I think I'd like, which is something different as not all out fantasy but is a weird mystery/horror combo.

That book is Stuart Turton's The Devil and the Dark Water.

I saw Stuart at 2019's Edge-lit, on a panel on how to get published, and he told it how it is.  I think he said it was mainly luck and knowing someone who was in the publishing business and was funny and honest.  Because of this I've been wanting to try one of his novels for a while.

So if you visit Harrogate, as well as going to Waterstones also visit Imagined Things Bookshop and support local bookshops too.

Below are a few pics of Harrogate - chat soon!

Neil x

July 2022 Update

Hi Peeps

July already!  This year is flying by.  The Christmas shite will be out before we know it!

Just a quick update this month.

In General -

At the moment I've started a new role in a contact centre, which is different for me as it's faster paced than the office environment I'm used to.  This is especially true of the phones.  Before I'd handled a couple of calls a day if that.  Enjoying it so far, but will see what the next few weeks/months bring.

I'm also trying to get fit and lose weight which is harder now I'm back in a sit down role.

Reading - 

I'm still reading Valour by John Gwynne and enjoying it. Although since I've started a new job, I've slowed down due to tiredness and my brain going Kaput!

Looking at my book shelves I've so many to read so have decided not to purchase any more books until I've read one bookcase full. Of which I have three!  

May do a post about my TBR books soon.

I hope to read some small published and self published books this year with interviews with the authors but sadly this may cross over into next year - but no rush.

Writing -

I'm wanting to get back into my writing again.  I've been spurred on by attending the above online Orion publishing event on "How to become Published" which was insightful although most of the advice I'd heard before.  I was mainly there to hear Martin at Gollancz publishing.

I've also been inspired by my friend Andy who over the years has had many problems including the big C! I met him at Cleckheaton writing group and through the hardships has got his head together, sorted his writing desk out and got writing again.  His writing is great and darkly humourous.

The only problem with getting into writing is that I need a new laptop or preferably a PC, as the one I have is low on memory.  If anyone has any ideas to lower the memory that would be great.  I've uninstalled as many items as possible but unsure if a hard reboot is in order?  No money for new writing aid yet.

Well that was longer than I thought.

Hope everyone has a great July!

Neil

Lightyear - Film Review

Hi Folks

At the weekend went to see the new film by Pixar. Now Disney Pixar.  Since they started I have loved the Pixar films including the Toy Story franchise.

It's been a while since they have released anything but they have gone back to Toy Story and made a film with the popular character of Buzz Lightyear.

Do Disney Pixar mess up the characters? No. This is meant to be the film which inspired Andy to buy the Buzz Lightyear toy and is a great introduction to him.

Now voiced by Chris Evans instead of Tim Allen, which you can't tell the difference between and is meant to be a different variation of the character.

The story starts in deep space where a colony ship finds a planet which is inhabitable so wakes Buzz up to investigate. In doing so he crashes the ship so the colony have to make home there whilst they create enough fuel to make a hyperspace jump.  Buzz is the one that tests it.  Each time he does he comes back and four years have gone by.

Eventually his friends have died off so he tests it one more time and it works.  He ends up in the far future helping the grandkids of his friends fight a robot menace led by Zurg.

Overall - a great film with stunning visuals. I would say it's Pixar's best film to date.  It has good humour, plenty of action and quite sad at times.  The robot cat Sox is fun and could have been annoying and the voice cast do an excellent job especially Evans.

There is the female on female kiss which has sparked debate but you hardly notice as it's just a peck and part of the characters.

Go see it.

Bels Score  -  10/10

My Score  -  10/10

 

Jurassic World - Dominion - Film Review

 Hi Adventurers

Well here we are, it's been a long ride but the Jurassic era is now over (supposedly).

Starting with 1993's Jurassic Park and it's two sequels, then continuing with the Jurassic World trilogy, the franchise is finally over.

When Jurassic Park first came out, it was glorious to see at the cinema with then state of the art CGI, which holds up better than most films today.  It will always remain a classic.

The sequels as expected, couldn't hold up to it.  Mainly because the initial magic of seeing a dinosaur on screen for the first time had gone.  They weren't stinkers though.  Both Jurassic Park 2 and 3 had their moments. 

Yet the franchise seemed over.

Fourteen years later in 2015 a bigger sequel series came out with Jurassic World, which showed that a park was eventually opened.  That is my favourite of the franchise as it had improved graphics and action sequences.  Plus an even bigger, badder dinosaur.  It was a refreshing take on the original with a solid cast.

Then Jurassic World - Fallen Kingdom came out, which I think was a misstep. Especially as it destroys the island and most of the dinosaurs.  What is left end up on mainland America and out into the wild.

Now this is what annoys me about Jurassic World Dominion. At the end of Fallen Kingdom the dinosaurs escape to the wild, yet there doesn't seem to be many of them.  Maybe a couple of hundred at most.

Dominion opens up and now there's loads of them all over the world!  Only 4 years has past so they couldn't reproduce that quick?

Anyway the film focuses on genetic locusts which are huge, eating all the corn and food supply.  They are created using dinosaur DNA by the bad guy of the film Dr Lewis Dodgson, who is a wet lettuce and in charge of Biosyn Genetics.  The company is also using dinosaurs and their DNA to look at cures for diseases.  The locusts don't eat any Biosyn crops though.

The film has an over convoluted plot and the first hour is set up of the world and bringing the characters of World and the original Park into play.  

It is good seeing Dr Ellie (Laura Dern), Dr Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) and Dr Grant (Sam Neill) back on screen and they have aged well.  It is also good seeing them interact with new cast Owen (Chris Pratt) and Claire (Byrce Dallas Howard), who are trying to protect the clone girl from Fallen Kingdom. 

Sadly the old and new cast don't interact soon enough and only together for the final third of the movie. Similar to the recent Spiderman - No Way Home film.

Overall - a good film with great effects and cast, let down by an over convoluted plot which sees locusts more terrifying than dinosaurs like the T-Rex.  They didn't need that plot and could have simplified it so they had more screen time together.  The newer characters introduced didn't need to be in it much either.  

With some good action sequences and some horror jump scares it is a decent watch and entry to the franchise.  Yet I don't see it as a definite final film as dinosaurs still roam the world and character arcs aren't completed.  It may be me just being fussy.  I think if it makes big profit we'll see a new entry or trilogy down the road.  Maybe Jurassic Galaxy or Planet where they are wiping humanity out and it's an apocalyptic setting.

A nod to the original Jurassic Park film was good. The cream cannister the bad guy used in the film to steal embryos in, which is why the film happens, is in this film. The film bad guy Dr Dodgson has it.  Which begs the question why hasn't he made new dinosaurs before?

Anyway not the best of the franchise and not the worse.  Probably in the middle.

Bels Score  -   8/10

My Score   -   7.5/10

Blog soon folks.

Neil