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GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2 - REVIEW

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With the surprise success of 2014's  Guardians Of The Galaxy at the box-office, Marvel quickly confirmed a sequel and fans were overjoyed. A bit of a dark horse in that it felt like a possible one-off flop on paper before its release, the charm of the characters and the colourful galactic setting made these Guardians such a likeable bunch that seeing more of them was kind of a must. And so here we have Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 , which continues the heroes-for-hire's ongoing adventures, without worrying too much about how everything will fit into the next Avengers movies, surprisingly. The film opens with an action sequence where the Guardians are attempting to take down a giant octopus-like monster except most of the time we're watching the adorable Baby Groot dance and wrestle around with tiny creatures. This sets the tone for another light and playful outing for the gang, with the cartoonishness of it all enhanced somewhat. All the familiar characters are stil

ALIEN: COVENANT - VLOG 01/06/17

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I talk a bit about Alien: Covenant . 

WALL-E - REVIEW

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Following  Ratatouille , Pixar tackled the science-fiction genre with WALL-E , the story of a big-eyed little robot stuck all by himself in the middle of a post-apocalyptic Earth until he meets an unexpected visitor. This was Pixar's boldest concept since Toy Story as a good portion of the film is basically silent save for music and sound effects. The human characters don't show up until much later and when they do, they never steal the focus from WALL-E or his modern robot love interest EVE who is sent to Earth, we soon find out, to look for any source of vegetation. The world the film depicts is one overcome by garbage due to the environment having crumbled under the weight of industry and commercialism. Incidentally, the weakest aspect of WALL-E is probably its environmental message, which isn't exactly subtle, but it is admittedly done quite well in that it gives the characters something to fight for and presents a uniquely comfortable yet lazy and ultimately grim

NOTHING BUT TROUBLE - REVIEW

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The only film directed by Dan Aykroyd to date, Nothing But Trouble was a dark comedy from 1991 which starred Chevy Chase as a businessman who is arrested for speeding then put on trial in the trash and weirdo-filled little town of Valkenvania, just off the New Jersey Turnpike. With a cast that includes John Candy, Demi Moore, Taylor Negron and Dan Aykroyd himself, Nothing But Trouble looked like a safe bet and its goofy plot had lots of potential. Unfortunately, the film was a massive flop, gathering only about $8M against a healthy budget of $40M, and the critics did not go easy on it. Nothing But Trouble was panned by everyone back in the day, including Chevy Chase himself, it was nominated for several Razzie awards and Dan Aykroyd would never dare direct a film again afterwards. Looking back, the movie's failure at the box-office is hardly surprising: sinking this much money into a story this bizarre was never going to deliver. The film itself, on the other hand, isn't

INFERNO - REVIEW

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Despite the lukewarm reception of both The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons , this year saw Ron Howard bring us yet another instalment based on Dan Brown's popular series of novels. Inferno continues Robert Langdon's (Tom Hanks) quest to save the world through running around museums and solving obscure historical puzzles. We first meet Langdon as he wakes up in hospital following some kind of accident he can't remember. His vision blurred and memory fuzzy due to head trauma, he is led out of the hospital by Dr. Sienna Brooks (Felicity Jones) who sees an assassin heading her patient's way. Strange, apocalyptic dreams and a hidden item lead Langdon and Brooks to slowly uncover the truth behind a mystery linked to Dante's Inferno. The real challenge for Robert Langdon this time is having to try and stop a potential terrorist plot despite not knowing who to trust because of partial amnesia. This being a Ron Howard film, it is competently made: the tense hosp

THE BIG REWIND: THE BIG REBOOT - PODCAST

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I n this 73rd episode of  The Big Rewind , we review   Alien: Covenant ,   talk about  Ghost In The Shell and play Ridley's Believe It Or Not . CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE EPISODE Email us here if you have any questions, requests or contributions:  bigrewindpodcast@gmail.com Or simply comment below :) Oh and you can also find us on  iTunes ,  Stitcher ,  Soundcloud  and  Player FM  where you can subscribe to the podcast and download every episode thusfar! @TheRetroCritic #TheBigRewind retrocriticblog.blogspot.com thebigrewind.blogspot.com youtube.com/TheRetroCritic youtube.com/Cablogula

ALIEN: COVENANT - REVIEW

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Ridley Scott's long-awaited return to the science-fiction genre was met with both praise and cynicism as Alien prequel (of sorts) Prometheus delivered in the stylistic department but failed to convince those more demanding fans of the franchise who perhaps expected something slightly different. Alien: Covenant is very much a direct sequel to Prometheus with Michael Fassbender returning as dodgy robot David and the story picking up some time after he and Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) departed for the Engineers' planet in the alien ship. Initially, however, we focus on new ship The Covenant and its crew who are travelling with thousands of human colonists and embryos in order to start a new life in a specific planet. Following a destructive accident in space which kills its Captain (an odd James Franco cameo), new robot Walter (also Fassbender) wakes up the crew and the new Captain decides to follow a radio transmission down to a nearby unknown world despite the fact it is

TASTIN'... CAPT'N ELI'S BLUEBERRY POP

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I explore Capt'n Eli's Pop. Whatever that means.

TASTIN'... THUMBS UP!

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I try a mysteriously optimistic drink.

记忆大师 BATTLE OF MEMORIES - VLOG 03/05/17

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I talk about Chinese science-fiction film Battle Of Memories .