liam-tully Reviews

Friday (1995)

daaaaaaamn!that is some funny s**t!

[9/10 · 14 April 2005]

This film is pure JOKES!If there is any film guaranteed to make everyone watching LOL at least once,its Friday.Its a film that takes a much more light hearted look at ''life in da hood'',but still manages to have enough serious stuff to not be just an all out spoof in the vein of Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinkin your Juice in the Hood.(also worth checking though.The humour comes from an absolutely knock out script,performed by a a great comedic cast.Chris Tucker is at his loudmouth best as Smokey,cursing,cussing and ripping his way through the film at a speed of 90 words per minute.Superb.Ice Cube demonstrates his gift for delivery doesn't stop at hip hop lyrics,with a subtle,under played performance as Craig,the much quieter and more streetwise counterpart to Smokey.But it is John Witherspoon as Mr Jones that steals the show.He has less scenes than Craig or Smokey but every scene he has,his lines are the funniest,right from the opening credits,where hes sleeping,quite obviously dreaming about his great love....no not Mrs Jones but hotsauce,''Gimme a two piece special,lots of hot sauce,and..all the fries you can give me''.LOL.The first scene see him in (not including the opening credits),the way he appears behind the fridge door,to surprise Craig with a early morning lecture is funny as.The story is quite engrossing,with enough great characters and dialogue to keep the film moving a at a good pace.Its one of those movies where you don't realise two hours or so have passed while you're watching it,which is such a rare thing.Even most of the ''classic''films have segments(tiny in some cases)that drag a bit,but Friday doesn't.The villain of the piece,Deebo,is believable and at times funny too.The story is well played out and straightforward too,but not so much so that it gets boring.I must have watched this film a 1000 times and i still laugh loud at least four times.fantastic comedy,the only adults who wont enjoy this are boring prudes who cant abide swearing and drug references(YES i DO mean YOU BBFC!!)9/10

Forrest Gump (1994)

Not as sickly sweet as it first seems-spoiler alert!

[6/10 · 14 April 2005]

OK,so straight away I've probably made a few enemies by only giving this a six.Well let me just say from the offset,I've got a lot of time for Tom Hanks,and have had since way back.Pretty much any film with him in it is sure to be of high quality and several of my all time favourites star this quality actor.I also actually like this film,its well written,well acted,well directed and the ''action''scenes are convincing.The score accompanies the drama.laughter and tears perfectly and Tom Hanks shines as the sweetly naive and childlike Forrest.Sally Field puts in a surprisingly good turn as Mrs Gump and Robin Wright Penn brings realness to the role of Jenny,and the rest of the cast are equally impressive(with perhaps the exception of Young Forrest,but i cant be harsh to the acting talents of a kid!).So i bet you're thinking,''yeah OK,so why have you scored it 6?'',well let me tell you,although the overall quality of the film is high,its the overtone of the film that bugs me.There's an undeniable right wing rhetoric running through this movie,played out through the two main and very opposite characters,Forrest and Jenny.Forrest goes through life without questioning it,he takes things very much at face value,he is told what to do by various characters throughout his life and he does it without question,and as a result he becomes a war hero,meets Presidents and makes millions.Message there?Don't question,follow orders/instructions and you will be a success in life.Then we have Jenny,shes outgoing,streetwise and lives life to the full,if not always sensibly,and what happens to her?she gets HIV and dies!So Forrest follows orders doesn't question,and gets rich.Jenny lives for fun,and gets dead.How right wing is that?!Its this subtle but definite overtone that makes me only give this otherwise classic film a 6.

Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001)

snoogans!!!

[9/10 · 13 April 2005]

''f*ck,f*ck,f*ck'' when these words are said by a two year old version of Jay before the film switches to present day Jay doing his rap(''drinkin beers beers beers,rollin fatties,etc)the tone of the film is firmly set.But did you expect anything else?The heroes of Kevin Smiths Jersey film series finally get the screen time,and sadly the send off,they deserve.This film is JOKES from start to finish,the dialogue is funny and in places very rude, especially from Jay.|The cast is full of brilliantly chosen cameos,featuring many people having a tongue in cheek pop at themselves.The Good Will Hunting 2:Hunting season section shows Ben affleck and Matt Damon can laugh at themselves,which in a film like this they would need to!Jason Mewes is on top form as is Kevin Smith,especially when Bob is finally driven to an uncharacteristic outburst of more than a few words.BOUT TIME!!!The continuity of this in relation to the previous Jay and Silent Bob outings is superb,and although it is a funnier film if you have seen Kevin Smiths other Jersey films,there are still plenty of jokes for the uninitiated.This is mostly down to a fantastic supporting cast of some great comedic performers.Will Ferrells WildLife Marshall is funny as f*ck as Jay would say!The movie is not just full of jokes at previous Jersey films expense,but it takes a few good shots at other films and even the film industry itself...could Movie Poopshoot.com be a reference to IMDb.com?who knows?.The 2 disc DVD is WELL worth getting if you like the movie,the outtakes are worth the money alone.And one particular extra ''Ham Affleck'' is worth checking,with Ben showing his real cheese skills(which he would perfected in Pearl Harbour,only that time he was trying to be serious).Also the introductions to the many deleted scenes are worth watching,with Affleck again taking some lighthearted ripping from Mewes and Smith.LOL.Rude,fun poking,loud and very very funny.....just like Jay.9/10

Moonwalker (1988)

was a good film,but in hindsight.................

[4/10 · 13 April 2005]

OK,well what can i say.If i had joined this site a few years ago i would have given this a higher rating.Ill talk about the good points of the film first.Its a wonderful piece of fantasy,the story is to be honest not great,but the film unravels like a dream,which is basically what it is,one long dream sequence,broken with some amazing musical pieces.The whole(random) sequence with Jacko going through the film studios is great.The special effects overall are pretty amazing and still look fairly convincing today(much more convincing than Jacko's defence case).This brings me to the films downfall though.It has nothing to do with the making of it,the production,the ideas,the script,nothing.It is all because it IS a Michael Jackson film that i feel i can only score this four now.I mean really,Michael Jackson coming to Earth to save the kids of the world......seems a bit raw now to say the least.I mean most of the characters are young kids.Michael allies with the young kids.HMMMM,seems a bit seedy now.Just hope the young actors and actresses had separate trailers on set,get me?I mean perhaps if people had known what they know now then,this film would never have been made. When you look back it does seem the young kids thing has always been there with Michael Jackson,and present events mean this once classic film now leaves a bad taste in your mouth.

Cool as Ice (1991)

as Cool as da man Vanilla himself! hmmmmmmmmm

[2/10 · 12 April 2005]

So you've just picked up Cool as Ice in the video store and you're thinking Vanilla Ice:The Movie...when you've stopped laughing,you'll be like that must be SOOOOOOOOO bad,and you know what?YOu would be 100% right,EXCEPT..its worse..it really is,even worse than the cover(see above)gives away.What were the movie people thinking?? You can almost imagine the conversation between the movie execs:''There's this rap guy Vanilla something,and hes had a (dubious)hit record and wants to make a movie,what can we do?'' ''I know,lets remake Rebel without a Cause,throw in some (C)rap and have Vanilla play the James Dean role'' That must have been exactly what they said because thats exactly what they did!!! This IS rebel without a cause,without the style,class,direction or charismatic leading man.The acting,plot(??)and overall quality of the film are all non existent.That said it doesn't score a big fat(''drop the'')ZERO for a couple of reasons.....1)It is VERY funny,if you've got the kind of sense of humour to find amusement in cheesy things from the past,that and the ridiculous cliff/flat top combination sported by Vanilla,with the ridiculous ''MC Hammer in a dye factory ''pants to match.Class.Also it scores points for the dialog,which is SOOO bad it is actually very funny,I'm still not sure if this was meant as a serious movie or not!LOL.But check the memorable quotes section above to see for yourself.Badly acted,badly scripted,and badly dressed,the central character is basically Vanilla Ice.Why bother giving the character or the movie a name,should have just called it Vanilla Ice.At least then you would get an idea of how bad it is!

Spice World (1997)

''spice girls forever!'' well at least until weve made enough money!

[1/10 · 12 April 2005]

Well i cant blame them.They made pop ''careers'' without beein able to sing,so i suppose it was only natural for these squawking unintentional anti feminists to assume they could make a movie without beein able to act!Bad script,worse songs and terrible acting aside,this film SUCKS on one major factor-the ridiculous ''we're all pals''image thrown in our faces by all of the girls.This movie is even worse in hindsight because now its more obvious than then that all of this was fake,the girls were a manufactured band and some of them actually hated each other.Although its not possible to score this film zero anyway,i would still score it one point for one thing,at least appearing in this crap and exposing a SEVERE lack of talent,has meant that there is no risk of Victoria Beckham being offered a movie role.Be thankful for small graces!

Thursday (1998)

OK, not THAT original,but very good none the less!

[8/10 · 12 April 2005]

OK,so this film is NOT very well known,and wasn't very well publicised.I discovered this fairly brutal gangster gone good movie by complete accident on one of Skys millions of movie channels late on some boring evening,but I'm glad i did!The opening sequence to this film is fantastically comical in a very dark way.This in fact sets what i think is the general tone for the movie.I think a lot of critics and movie fans that have actually seen this film have been a bit unfair to just write it off as a lower budget gangster movie in the Reservoir Dogs vein.OK,so there are undeniable similarities between Thursday and some other crime genre films that it has been compared to,but in all fairness,i think this film takes a much more darkly comic look at this type of film,and the end result is a engrossing,well made,funny,if not totally original film.Tom Jane is good in this,and deserves the recognition he will now hopefully get thanks to the The Punisher.His performance as the bad guy gone good is realistic,funny and just cold enough to make you believe Casey really was a bad ass before he reformed.Thats another thing that makes this film stand out for me,the characters.In Nicks gang you get the strangest trio of criminals ever assembled,a smooth,charismatic but very cold leader(Nick),a trigger happy blood loving sexually predatory bitch of a woman(Dallas)and a psychotic hill billy with brains with a penchant for torture(Billy Hill).Throw in the most bizarre police detective ever seen on screen,beautifully over played by Mickey Rourke,and you've got a recipe for...well for Thursday really.Its at times darkly comic,sometimes brutal,sometimes unoriginal,but always engrossing and worth watching.8/10

Schindler's List (1993)

Utterly beautiful and breathtakingly made.

[9/10 · 12 April 2005]

|This film is almost perfect,both in its place as a cinematic masterpiece visually,and in its sensitively handled subject matter.It is only given a nine by myself because i really don't think i will ever see a film that truly deserves a ten.The film is about a subject that affected millions,The Holocaust,but it has a very personal impact on the viewer by concentrating on a group of people that are characterised enough that the viewer relates with them so much more.If they had tried to show the wider spread effects of the Holocaust,the empathy would be diminished,because although based on harrowing events it would become just another historically based movie,with too much going on.What makes Schlindlers list so touching is that your given time to relate to the central characters in such a way that you feel you could almost imagine what they are feeling,and any film that can take you to that level of empathy is automatically a classic in my book! It is a good way to ''teach lessons''as it were because it affects anybody who watches it.Anyone harbouring fascist views should be made to sit and watch this movie repeatedly.If they can still be that way after seeing this,they must be in human,it really is that good at getting to anyone on an emotional level.This impact is heightened by the beautifully used black and white tones of the film,with significant items/parts in vibrant colours,stunning!The score is very effective too.Any one who can watch the ending without feeling moved is a robot!Fact!The film is great,granted but the cast also take this film to new heights,Liam Nesson is superb in his portrayal of a man forced to question his own values,beliefs and place in a system that is wrong,and who chooses the right path,absolutely mesmerising! Touching,informative and beautifully made.Easily one of the best films of all time,and THE best film on this subject.9/10

Leonard Part 6 (1987)

Its better than a lot of Leslie Nielsen spoofs!!

[3/10 · 12 April 2005]

OK OK,everyone knows even Bill Cosby himself thinks this movie sucked out hard,but come on,you can even see Bills disdain for the film in his acting and thats what makes this movie score at least some points,because Bill Cosby is at his funniest when hes pretending to be or is not happy about something.He wields sarcasm like an axe in this film and treats the particularly bad material with the contempt it deserves,which makes it slightly more than your average Bargain bin Fodder.And if your completely honest some of the ideas in the film would be funny if it was made better or perhaps had a bigger budget.Well worth picking up though if you happen to see it in a 2 for £1 bucket in your local video store.3/10