JonMason.NET - the ONLY official Jon Mason website - reviews

10 quick movie reviews

administrator — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 11:50:13 -0600

As it's been a long time since I posted, here's a big list of some of the movies I've seen in the last couple of months:

Beowulf: Saw it this weekend in IMAX 3D. The movie is pretty decent, much better than the trailers made it look, but the IMAX 3D made the actual experience absolutely amazing. It made a 7/10 movie a 9/10 movie - on a normal screen, or at home on DVD it would have been nowhere near as much fun.
Deck The Halls: Is a big pile of poo. Would be poor for a direct to TV movie, how this thing ever made it into theatres I don't know. Avoid like the plague.

Fantastic Four : Rise of the Silver Surfer

administrator — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 13:59:03 -0500

Finally got around to watching this recently, as indifferent reviews at the time of release had put me off. Well, they were right.

If ever a film was simply 'going through the motions', this is it. It's fine, disposable, fun with a few good action beats and a couple of good laughs, but completely missing any nuance either from the actors, script and director. It reminded me of Ghost Rider, in that had a similar feeling of getting some decent visual effects on the screen, having a more-or-less faithful version of the comics story/characters but ultimately leaving you feeling like... oh, that's it. You never care about the characters or the jeopardy they are facing.

Gun for Xbox 360

administrator — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 09:46:56 -0500

I don't know if it's just me, but recently a lot of games I have played seem to be missing something. Fun. Technically they look awesome and there's a lot to do, but I just haven't felt the need to sit in front of them for hours and try to complete them. Enter Gun.

I had read some pretty good reviews, and being an older game I knew I could pick it up pretty cheap and I'm glad I did. This is what I wish more games were like. A story to keep you hooked, but not so full of details and backstory to bore you. A variety of missions, but it's not too long to get tedious. It's challenging in places, but not so hard to make you give up.

Finally some good films...

administrator — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 21:40:24 -0500

Breach - a great CIA thriller, a very slow, small scale drama, but with great performances and there's just something interesting about it.

Shooter - a good start makes you think it might be something other than a run of the mill thriller, but that's exactly what it ends up being - but that's not a bad thing, apart from a really poor last 10 minutes, it's very watchable.

I have also watched some bad ones:
Vacancy & Next - both have an OK first 30 minutes and then completely fall apart). Premonition I am watching at the moment, which doesn't look like it's going to be much good...

Spider-Man 3 : Oh what a tangled web they wove...

administrator — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 17:09:17 -0500

If you read my review of Pirates 3 - nearly all of that applies to Spider-Man 3 aswell. Too many plot elements struggling to coexist, interesting situations and characters introduced and then discarded (Gwen Stacy?).

Its a sad state of affairs when the cartoon version did the story so much better, but the whole black suit > angry Spider-Man > Venom arc is so rushed and wastes the potential of the original story, it is a real shame. The black suit should be like steroids, making Peter stronger and faster, at first he is scared of it, but gradually becomes reliant on it, even addicted to the power it gives him, before he realises he is abusing the power - it is changing him and he tries to get rid of the suit.

Pirates of the Caribbean : At World's End

administrator — Wed, 30 May 2007 07:43:46 -0500

(No spoilers ahead)
Oh dear. For some reason this film, and the progression of the three films reminds me of the similar progressions that comedians go through. It happens to both UK and US comedians, Smith & Jones, Robin Williams, French & Saunders, Steve Martin - they start off being edgy, original and entertaining, but as their career progresses and they become successful they get so much power and influence that instead of being reined in, they are free to do whatever they want - disaster nearly always ensues.

It was the same with Peter Jackson's King Kong and George Lucas's Star Wars prequels, both directors previous movies had done so well that there was nobody to put on the brakes and say "stop - this bit is stupid, the movies too long, this character wouldnt do this" etc. And so Pirates 3 suffers a similar fate - there are 20 plots, but no story. If it was the first film in a series, the studio would have took the scissors to it and cut it down from nearly 3 hours to less than two, but as the previous films have done so well the filmmakers/actors have been left to run amok.

The Departed

administrator — Sat, 19 May 2007 19:20:39 -0500

Wow. Been meaning to watch this for a long time, heard a lot of good things about it, figured it wouldn't live up to all the hype. It does. It's the 2nd best film I've seen this year (the best is Alpha Dog, planning to review soon).

Apparently a remake of the Hong Kong film The Killer, I haven't seen it but plan to check it out - if this is anything to go by it must be pretty awesome. With a huge cast of star names - Nicholson, DiCaprio, Damon, Sheen, Wahlberg... all of whom do stellar work. It's a little over the top at times, with some gratuitous language and violence (not something I'd normally complain about, but there are some moments where it seems excessive).

Casino Royale

administrator — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 20:52:12 -0500

Wow. Finally, an action film that works. It has character, a good script (and more importantly a coherent plot), good lines, good acting and some great action set-pieces (without becoming over the top and cartoon like).

Casino Royale follows James Bond's first mission as a 007, as he investigates not a tyrant bent on world domination, or a madman with a nuclear bomb, but a banker who is helping terrorists invest their money. Not an obvious plot for an action movie, but the journey that the mission sends Bond on manages to be completely fresh and interesting, while still feeling inherently Bond-like.

Borat

administrator — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 20:30:44 -0500

How did this happen? How did a vaguely amusing, but generally stupid, crass movie (that for much of the running time simply doesn't work and isn't funny) manage to have people hailing it as "FUNNIEST MOVIE EVER MADE." I really am at a loss to explain how this happened.

After seeing the trailers and having seen Sacha Cohen on TV as Borat and Ali G, doing some pretty hard hitting humor/satire, poking fun at ridiculous people I had high hopes - but, coming as it does at the end of several years of Cohen doing his in-character interviews it seems he has run out of targets who actually deserve it, so instead of real satire or humor we get a complete retread: He talks to feminists (already done on Ali G with the same jokes), gangsters (ditto), makes an intentional dick of himself at a dinner party (done on TV as Borat).

TMNT - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

administrator — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 20:13:34 -0500

Yes, I went to see the new Turtles movie. No, I didn't pay, I got free tickets.

As a Turtles film goes, its pretty much what you would expect, and in a good way - some nice action, enough funny bits to keep you amused and a morale lesson or two to give it some heart.

Where the film lives or dies is in the CGI. And, to keep mixing my metaphors, it is a bit hit and miss. The first part of the film gave me a sinking feeling, with a voiceover and a flashback to "ancient times" the CGI wasnt great, and it really looked like a boring videogame intro. But somewhere along the line, you realise the CGI is actually pretty decent - the high point being a rooftop battle in the pouring rain that manages to do "battle in the rain" better than Attack of the Clones did, and for a lowish budget kids CG film, that is quite an achievement.