Wednesday 26 February 2014

The Lego Movie (2014) Review


You may think a movie made entirely about Lego would be too commercial, boring or gimmicky. And rather surprisingly, you’d be wrong. Whilst the premise of the film might seem bizarre and a little ‘out there’, The Lego Movie reassures audiences with a double dose of creativity and sharp animation.




Chris Pratt stars in the leading role as Emmet, a conformist, who can’t seem to get by in life without specific instructions. No, really. This is until Emmet gets mistaken for the ‘special’, a person who is prophesized to stop Lord Business (Will Ferrell) from using a super-weapon called the ‘Kragle’. Ordinary Lego construction worker Emmet is now thrust into a world where he meets new friends in the form of WyldStyle (Banks), a creative master builder, Uni-Kitty (Brie), Benny (Charlie Day) and a wizard named Vitruvius (Morgan Freeman), who possesses the creepiest glowing eyes you’ve ever seen. Also along for the adventure are a whole heap of Lego superheroes, including Batman (Arnett), Superman (Channing Tatum), Green Lantern (Jonah Hill) and Wonder Woman (Cobie Smulders). The cast is everything you’d want and expect from a ‘Lego’ movie and Pratt doesn’t disappoint with his spot-on portrayal, whilst Banks shines.

Considering how many feature animated films can fall short in the script department due to heavy reliance on special visual effects, The Lego Movie is a whirlwind of vibrant colours and slick computer animation which rivals even the Toy Story saga. In a movie where creativity thrives and flourishes through the master builders, it would appear that the ‘master builders’ in this case are indeed the creators of this piece. The film contains an abundance of laughs, quirks and cheeky moments (everything about the quirky Vitruvius to Emmet’s easily fixable hair, and of course, Good Cop/Bad Cop) which fuel the film and will appeal to the adults watching the flick. Fear not – the amount of pop culture references will particularly resonate with any viewers watching who may have written this movie off as an unfunny commercial for toys.

The plot is fairly thought-provoking for a movie essentially about construction toys. The overall social commentary on conformity is an engaging one. But this does not detract away from the anarchic, chaotic fun that sets the film alive at its core and ignites in it an imagination amongst all ages. Visually electrifying and suitably smart, The Lego Movie does what so many movies fail to do – dazzle and engage its audience.
4 stars
This review has also been published online via Concrete, which you can check out at the following link:

http://www.concrete-online.co.uk/lego-movie-review/

Check out the trailer for this Lego-Tastic adventure below! 


Saturday 22 February 2014

Katy Perry - Dark Horse (Official Music Video) [+ Review]


Katy Perry's recent music video for her track Dark Horse, certainly has everyone talking. Cue Illuminati theorists screaming everyone. Yikes. The video is pretty typical of what you'd expect if I said 'Katy Perry' and 'Egypt'. It's pretty much a bubblegum version of some elements of Egyptian History, which is great - if you like that sort of thing. (Personally, I'm a little confused - didn't Perry say she wanted to be taken seriously, and that she was moving away from her old type of thing?) To me, this looks pretty much like California Girls Gone Wild in Egypt. There's bizarre gaudy colours, weird people in kitten-hats and a lot of people turning into dust and items that Perry wants. There's lightning, talking statues and hi-tops. Okay then. It's certainly engaging. 



If all that has enticed you enough to watch, click the link above for a full on colour trip. 
Dark Horse is Katy Patra's first promotional single from her album Prism. Perry plays an Egyptian Queen in the video (under the name Katy Patra, Queen of Memphis) and turns all her suitors into bizarre animals and objects. 

Friday 21 February 2014

Lana Del Rey - Once Upon A Dream


Possibly one of the creepiest (and simply sublime) covers of the iconic 'Once Upon A Dream' song comes courtesy of Lana Del Rey, who covers the track for the new and upcoming movie, Maleficent. This particular version however, is not so delightful, but rather more haunting than the original, and it looks set to be an eerie accompaniment to what is shaping up to be a summer smash. You can check out the official audio from Lana Del Rey's VEVO channel, below: 



Gear yourselves up folks, it looks set to be one hell of a film. Let's hope Lana's track achieves equal success. 

Nudity on TV - art or exploitation?


Also, I wrote an article in the same issue about nudity on television! Is it all for 'art' or is it exploitation? (I made several references to shows like Dexter and True Blood) Check out the article on-line via this link: 

http://www.concrete-online.co.uk/nudity-tv-art-exploitation/

The Darker Side of Sex


A wrote an article recently about the representation of sexual violence on television, and how TV is dealing with this difficult issue. If you would like to take a read of it, you can read it on-line via this link: 

http://www.concrete-online.co.uk/darker-side-sex/

Friday 7 February 2014

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014) Review


It's that time of the week (albeit 2 weeks) again, and you can check out an online review I wrote for the recent action-thriller film Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014)! Click the link below to read it online at Concrete Venue. The film stars Chris Pine in the title role along with Keira Knightley and Kenneth Branagh. 

http://www.concrete-online.co.uk/jack-ryan-shadow-recruit-review/

In case you'd like to check out the trailer for the film, you can watch it below, enjoy!