Movie Review: “The Avengers”
Lets be honest, everyone has heard about the recent Avengers movie and if not then you probably don’t deserve to see it. The previews gave me extremely high hopes, and high hopes for movies have a bad track record. However I’m pleased to say that this was one of the best movies I’ve seen in a while and I’ll get to explaining why in just a second. Firstly though, it’s advised that you see all of the related previous Marvel movies, mainly Thor, Captain America and Iron Man. If you haven’t seen much/any of Hulk then that’s ok… He’s basically a scientist who turns into a giant green monster. The reason I say this is because there’s no back story or introduction to characters, we get straight into the action with Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson) and a lot of the funniest moments are “inside jokes” from previous movies. In saying that its not as if the plot for the film is very deep, so you could still enjoy it without the background on the characters.
Now for my short summary of the movie. Essentially the Avengers initiative was formed by Nick Fury as a way to protect earth if any invasion by forces not of this world occurred, however it was never given the go ahead due to some sinister looking government people. But this all changes very quickly after Loki becomes angry at his brother Thor for stealing his rightful throne, and essentially plans to take over the world using an infinite power source known as the tesseract. Using the massive amounts of power from the tesseract it’s possible to open a wormhole to an alternate galaxy, as such Loki plans on sending an alien army to earth and becoming supreme ruler! The planets only real hope of defense rests on the shoulders of the Avengers. All of whom have their own unique super powers (aside from Scarlett Johansson, who just looks awesome). The team of superheroes is not without their issues though, as none of them really like the idea of working as a team until some dramatic events occur!
I loved this film for a lot of reasons, but rather than list them all I’d rather just say there wasn’t anything I disliked about it. The only possible negative I could think of was that the plot wasn’t very complex. But then again it didn’t need to be and I really don’t think a complex plot would add anything to the movie. There were some awesome highlights as well, you should definitely look forward to the scene directly before Hulk calls Loki a “puny god” and almost any scene with Iron Man will make you laugh. I’m looking forward to watching it again when it comes out on bluray, as I felt the 3D at the movies didn’t do the action scenes any justice. I’d recommend this to anyone looking to see a fantastic action film!
Dan’s Rating: 
(10/10)
Bo’s Rating: (10/10)
Movie Review: “American Reunion”
I found it hard to believe when I was told there was going to be yet another American Pie movie. It’s been one of the more interesting series of movies. The first was a big hit, then following on from that, America Pie 2 & American Wedding weren’t exactly big hits, and were pretty much only good for their cheap, dirty gags. After those there have been a run of 4 straight to DVD releases that have only involved one key cast member in each, with one even just including Stifler’s cousin or something like that – quite a stretch really.
So with this being the 4th major cinema release, and 8th in the full series, the producers have finally gotten the whole original cast back for their high school reunion. Outside of the full main cast, we also get favourites Jim’s dad & Stifler’s mum, as well as brief appearances by Sherman, Nadia & Jessica.
So we start off a few years after the American Wedding, and we’re shown how each of the guys lives have gone. It doesn’t take long for the sex gags to start rolling in, one of the early scenes involves a bit of Jim on Jim time which goes awfully bad when his young son walks into the bedroom – all the type of stuff you’d expect from an American Pie movie.
What I didn’t expect was that it was actually quite good. While American Pie movies mainly get their laughs from cheap sex gags, American Reunion managed to do it without being completely cheesy (refer to the straight to DVD releases), and the script was well written and acted. It finally took the series back to the caliber of the original movie, and had a lot of that feel about it.
I think they did a good job, and didn’t make a hack job of reviving the series, just don’t going in expecting something amazingly different to American Pie 1, 2 & Wedding, as once again, it’s just the characters we all know with a new story. Will be interesting to see if it goes well at the box office after being out of cinemas for so long.
Bo’s Rating: 
(7.5/10)
Dan’s Rating: (7/10)
Trailer:
Golf Club Review: “TaylorMade R11S Driver”
Since upgrading my golf clubs around a year ago I’ve been using a TaylorMade R9 driver and loving it. Then out of the blue last week, as part of a work golf day sponsored by TaylorMade, I had the opportunity to try out the very new R11S driver.
My R9 was already the old model when I got it, as the R11 was the new and current release, and this year, instead of jumping to the R13 (they seem to jump up in odd numbers), TaylorMade just made some small adjustments to the R11, and named it the R11S.
In simple terms, TaylorMade claim the R11S is “bigger, faster, more tuneable and longer” than the old R11.
The most notable change I found, and this is also compared to the R9 as well, is the addition of a bigger main weight on the bottom of the club head, as you’ll notice in the picture above.
All these weights combine to alter many parts of your swing and how the ball flies off the club face. I’m still unconvinced that these weights change a whole lot, as I pretty much hit the ball the same with this club compared to my R9.
Having said that, this club felt a lot better when hitting the ball. The club also felt lighter than the R9, but the club head seemed bigger and felt a little weird when swinging.
While the R11S is obviously one of the premier drivers going around, I’m leaning towards the opinion that unless you’re a complete pro and have your game so refined that the specific weights on this club are enough to alter your ball flights, you are better off saving the money and going for the cheaper Burner from TaylorMade, or a more middle range driver from another brand.
Movie Review: “The Hunger Games”
I hadn’t done a lot of research before going and seeing The Hunger Games. I had only watched the trailer once, and thought it looked kinda cool, but the main thing that got me was the hype surrounding it. The internet is buzzing with articles and reviews praising the film and it was a smash hit at the box office.
The film focuses on Katniss Everdeen, who looks after her young sister and mother after the death of her father. They live in District 12 where each year, a boy and girl are chosen from each district to compete in the “Hunger Games” for the entertainment of the nation. In these games each teenager competes for survival as the last one standing is the winner and only one to survive.
Katniss’ sister is unexpectedly drawn to compete, and Katniss, who is already a skilled hunter, volunteers to take the place of her sister in the games. We then go through the whole lead up to the games, and watch as Katniss takes on the other 23 contestants in the games. The storyline is fairly predictable but I won’t spoil any more.
While the story, acting etc are all really good, the one problem both Dan and I found with the film is that it was quite slow. It would of have to of been close to half way, if not further in to the film, when the Hunger Games actually start. The whole setting up of Katniss’ character and her backstory, then the preparation for the games goes on for a loooooong time.
Coming out of the movie it was quite obvious that I was wrong in thinking the film was all about the games, when its more about the character of Katniss. After I got home I read up on the books the film is based on, which are a series of three, and reading the outline of those books helps the film make a lot more sense. I think the film will seem a lot better once its put in context next to the future films in the series (the second film is already in production to be released next year, with the cast signed on for the whole series).
However having said all that, the film was still quite good. The leading actress, Jennifer Lawrence was really good (and hot! Google her!) and it was quite well written. It could have easily been a soppy, cheesy film like Twilight, but was no where near that.
Its definitely worth seeing, and after reading up on the other books in the series, I’m quite excited for the next instalments of the series.
Bo’s Rating: (7/10)
Dan’s Rating: (6.5/10)
Trailer:
Movie Review: “Project X”
The trailers for Project X were enough to spark my interest in this film and my basic understanding was that the movie was about a giant party which goes both really well and horribly wrong at the same time. The movie was shot in a way that was meant to look like “home footage”, as have about 4 other movies in the past few months. It must be a phase Hollywood is going through right now. Regardless they didn’t make the camera work over the top and annoying, in fact I found it worked really well.
In a nut shell three nerdy unpopular guys are the main characters and one of them wants to throw an epic “game changing” party for his friend, so they can hookup with the girls of their dreams. He invites everyone to the party and basically they end up with 1500+ guests, a tonne of alcohol, Ecstasy and lots and lots of naked girls. There were lots parts in the movie that were hilarious and just pure awesome (especially the moment which involves a midget punching people).
As a side note the soundtrack is also really good and I’d be keen to buy it if I didn’t have most of the songs already.
Overall I really enjoyed the movie, especially since I didn’t have very high expectations. It was funny, entertaining and had some very memorable moments.
Dan’s Rating: (8/10)
Trailer:
Movie Review: “21 Jump Street”
The modern 21 Jump Street came out recently and I was pretty keen to see it based on the previews. So I made the trek down to the local Village cinemas with Bo to see if it was any good. The movie got into gear pretty quickly compared to most recent comedy films and you were immediately laughing at Jonah Hill’s nerdy awkward character. Meanwhile Channing Tatum plays the typical dumb jock character you see in all American high school/college movies, but he does it well and there’s heaps of awesome moments throughout the film.
I won’t go into the story in too much detail, but essentially we meet two opposites at the end of their high school days, there’s the jock and the nerd (as mentioned above). After we are given a quick insight into their high school lives the story jumps to the present where both are becoming police officers, and decide to team up based on their skills. From then on hilarity ensues as the duo do their best to solve a growing drug problem at a high school. I wont spoil any of the awesome moments, but lets just say there were many!
Ice Cube plays the part of their captain and he’s bloody awesome. ’nuff said.
Overall I thought this was one of the funniest and most random movies I’ve seen for a long time and I’d happily see it again.
Dan’s Rating: (9/10)
Bo’s Rating: (9/10)
