Blade 2 (2002)

The second outing for Wesley Snipes as Daywalker, Blade. This time sees Blade have to rescue Whistler again played by Kris Kirstofferson and while in this he is approached by the very people he hunts, to help them as there is a new predator. This sees Blade working with vampires including Leonor Varela, Danny John Jules and Ron Pearlman as a wise cracking violent member of the Bloodpack.


While trying to continue from the original and there are a few references to what has happened in this film it tries to also move the world on and take the story in a new direction. It also explores the Blade world of vampires and the divisions within them. It actually put me a lot in mind of the Underworld Vampires and the set up within that franchise. Snipes is violent and an awesome as Blade and he can handle the violence and the wise cracking.


Overall this is an okay film, it is not brilliant and will certainly not win any awards but overall it is enjoyable fayre with enough fights, cool deaths and enjoyment to see you thought the running time. This film falls in the middle the production values take it above average so 7 out of 10.

Primal Force (1999)

Made such an impact on me I had forgotten what it was called, this is a made for the SyFy channel spectacular starring Hellboy himself Ron Pearlman. This and the fact that it is about an Island of killer Baboons was the draw to make me watch it. It really is the typical SyFy guff with overacting dodgy effects and a really poor story that sees a plane crash on an island with an heiress on and the only person that has been to the Island is Ron Pearlman but he does not want to go. It is essentially a similar story to Jurassic Park 3 with less budget and Baboons instead of Dinosaurs. 


I insist on watching these films as one day I will find a gem amongst the rubbish however this is not the film I am looking for. You really do not care about any of the characters and the effects are so poor it really is surprising based upon what they can do these days that anyone thinks these would be acceptable. The only interesting thing is the fact there is a very similar link to Jurassic Park 3 I wonder if there is any connection but to be honest there is not enough to make me actually look anything up. 


Another pile of guff and 90 minutes of my life I will not get back, a 1 star avoid from me. 

Outlander (2008)

Film of 2012 #62


Picked up this film as it starred Jim Caviezel and I have always liked him, also it was indicated as a Sci-Fi film so thought it would be worth a look. Jim Caviezel is Kainan, an alien that is chasing a "Dragon" and ends up on crashed on Earth in the time of the Vikings, he is captured by a tribe and taken prisoner. John Hurt plays Hrothgar the Cheiften and his Daughter Freya played by Sophia Myles who is promised to the next leader Wulfric played by Jack Huston and you have your obvious set up. Kainin comes in and Freya is keen as he is different, Wulfric does not like him because he is different and Hrothgar thinks a differnet type of leader. They have an ongoing battle with Gunnar played by Ron Pearlman's tribe and when the "Dragon" rears it's head you have the coming together of the tribes to fight a common enemy.

This film is nothing special, there is the usual fish out of water trying to learn and understand a culture he does not know, but as an alien he is not that different from the tribesmen other than his technology which he soon loses. You have the love triangle between Kainan, Freya and Wulfric, you have Wulfric not liking Kainan but coming to a trust him after they play shields and he sees what a Warrior he is. It follows the basic trope where the Dragon which is actually an Alien creature attacks the village and they have to battle it to win and he comes to respect him more.


To be honest I was not surprised by anything that happens in this film and there is nothing that special about it. Saying that within the scope it was aiming for it was pretty servicable, the acting and effects are not mind blowing but adequate overall this is a 2 star film, not worth seeking out but not a total waste of time if you are doing something while it is on in the background.

Conan The Barbarian (2011)

So I went to see Conan the Barbarian the remake of the Arnold Schwarzenegger 1982 sword and sorcery epic character. Now as I have stated many times before I am not a fan of remakes I am very much why cannot we get some new ideas? However they might not be very good but at least they will be original. It does make me want to see the original films in the series and there is an element in the originals looking back that it is Arnold therefore they were great, which is not always the case. But I think that going back to those films Arnold's muscles are a character within the film and they are not present in the remake.

So I have the problem I mentioned when I looked at the trailer, my thoughts you can see here. I cannot remember the original films that well so I am not that sure with the remake if they are ripping off the original or just taking the characters on a new story, I will look at that when I re-watch the originals. Now to the film, it is terrible, the acting was okay but the film and story was totally dull and pointless. They seem to have so much to fit in that it jumps all over the place, from the fact that in one scene it jumps from night to day with no real transition of time and the fact that I notice it shows me that I was not that enthralled with the film, also the fact that I wanted to see what time it was, showed me how  dull it was. And why should it be dull, big swords lots of blood and lots of boobs and still I did not care about it.

So the only good thing about this is that I am going to revisit the originals and see if they are better than the mess that I sat through in the cinema. This film is totally not worth viewing from the lead actress being really brave but screaming an awful lot to Conan being big but not Arnold a 1 star film that should be avoided, did not miss it being 2D rather than 3D would probably have been more annoying in 3D.

Conan The Barbarian (2011) Trailer

I get confused between the Arnold versions of the Barbarian and the Destroyer and cannot remember which film is which but I know that I enjoyed them both and when they decided to remake Conan the barbarian I was unsure how I felt about it as it is not one of my all time favourite films but I do enjoy them and I do think that they are taking remakes to far.

So the trailer shows us that there will be lots of sword and sorcery and this appeals to me however and this is good from the trailer you do not get to much of the story so when you get there it will be a pleasant surprise that is presuming that there is a story, hopefully they will just make their own story and we will not keep getting references to the original but it will be more based upon the comic book which I have never read rather than the films from the 80's.

I am actually going to see this film this afternoon at the cinema going to see it in 2D as to me 3D is totally dead and there are very few films I want to see in 3D any more.

UK Release Date - 24th August 2011

Season of the Witch (2011)

So I saw this film on a Sunday afternoon when the GF was working, what a serious disappointment, I saw the trailer afterwards so went in thinking, Girl suspected of being a witch, everybody wants her dead, along comes Nic Cage and sees the good in her. Well if you saw the trailer it destroys that illusion straight away and half way through the film without the trailer you know something is going on.

It is a really simple story that has 10 minutes of violent set up that does nothing to develop the lead roles and it is a total church bashing without any redemption for the main characters in defence of what they do. There are couple of interesting points in the story but based on how the film was sold to me the way the film went made no sense whatsoever. I came away from the film thinking, really what was the point.

Nicholas Cage seems to have decided he is going to do as many films as possible just to get paid, he phoned this performance in and was nothing special the whole film is not worth seeing so a 1 star stay away from this piece of nonsense.