OJ's TV Review - Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D season 1

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a juggernaut of a franchise; can it translate well to television?

When I first heard that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was being made I was very excited; I couldn't wait to see how they were going to do it. I think nearly everybody loved Phil Coulson in the movies and were sad to see him go during The Avengers; now we have a entire TV series with him as the main character! Even the trailer look promising but that night I sat down and saw the first episode, it was unfortunately one of the biggest disappointments of 2013. I was expecting a clever spy thriller packed with awesome sci-fi concepts and Agent Coulson being cool; instead as the series went on all it was we got was stereotypical characters, cheesy dialogue and cliche scripts. Even a Nick Fury cameo didn't cut it for me. I am a Marvel fan though so I kept with it, I held hope and eventually it payed off. That's right, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. went on a break for a while and then episode 11 aired and this thing picked up. I was interested in the story, the lines were less cheEsy, the action got good. basically from that point each episode got better a better, towards the end I'd even say it had some strong emotion. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. for me is a two-way split. First ten episodes were rocky and unentertaining shoving Avengers references down your throat like there was no tomorrow. After that it's a pretty fun ride; good fleshing out of the characters and even the ones tying into the movies didn't feel like it depended on them. After watching the whole series it is Very hard to rate it. After some thought though I'd give Marvel's first live-action television series a strong 7/10 - IT WAS OK+.

OJ's Movie Review - The Love Punch

A new British comedy starring Pierce Brosnan and Emma Thompson arrived in cinema so I went to investigate.

So I this trailer a few weeks a go and I liked what I saw, it looked funny and entertaining. The movie itself isn't too bad either; the story is basically a divorced couple have to venture to France to steal a diamond because the owner has stole all their money via his company. The premise is nice and simple, a tad boring in places as they use one or two cliche scenes that you get in these types of films; the beginning is a bit slow and some of the jokes fall  a bit flat but by the time the plot gets going it's quite enjoyable, the humor is classic British humor mixed with some modern stuff as well which makes a nice blend of funny, the characters were a amusing to watch and although I wasn't invested in their troubles I enjoyed watching them go about the heist. The shots were nice as they showed lots of France and gave the feel of it with the French music played over the scenes. All-in-all I think the older generation will get more out of it that than others but as a young person I enjoyed the majority of it. IT WAS OK+

OJ's Movie Review - The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Watch out Disney, Sony have upped their game!

In 2012 we got to see a reboot of Spider-Man's story, in my opinion it was better than the original trilogy and I love Andrew Garfield in the role. Now two years later we have a sequel and boy does it get better. First off let's talk cast; Andrew is still fantastic as Peter Parker, he also has great chemistry with Emma Stone as Gwen Stacey. Jamie Fox as Electro was an amazing thing to watch too along with the other great cast members who all do a fantastic job (even Stan Lee with his cameo). The characters in this film were actually really interesting to watch, a lot of the story focuses on Electro and his origin which is fascinating, plausible (sci-fi wise) and downright creepy, I mean creepy; this film goes to places I wasn't expecting; some of the scenes were real freaky to watch, especially Electro and certainly the Green Goblin who was nightmarish to say the least. What added to the creepy and tension had to be the music, the music in this film is phenomenal; there are so many good parts where the music goes perfectly with the beautiful shots that the movie gives you. Talking about the score itself, whenever Electro does his thing and fires electric bolts and everything they go real heavy on the dubstep, a lot, I think that adds to film though in some way, I enjoyed it. The story itself I really liked as well, the ways they went surprised me a few times but were definitely fun to watch, (I didn't see it in 3D but from the scenes I saw at the cinema it would definitely be worth it). The only negative thing I would say about the film is that there are one or unrealistic scenes where I thought "That wouldnt happen", It doesnt ruin the movie but does take you out of it for a few seconds. I would say the ending will surprise a lot, and for more than just one reason. In conclusion I want to say The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is the best Spider-Man film to date and is absolutely AWESOMENESS.

To see my review of the first movie, click here: http://bit.ly/1ihPMjU

OJ's BIT Review - The Valley of Gwangi

60s sci-fi with Cowboys vs Dinosaurs - whats not to love??


The Valley of Gwangi is an old western about about a guy, a girl, a circus and a valley. This is a film I enjoy watching, weather it's Harryhousen's special effects (this movie has some exellent stop-motion for it's time) or the cheesy acting, this film has a fun story from beginning to end. Some may say it's King Kong with a T-Rex which I see where they're comming from as it has some very similar scenes but it's different enough to enjoy without being reminded of Kong all throughout. The characters are fun to watch and give out some 60s cliche dialouge and the locations are pretty cool to see. After watching the movie you realise how many references the Jurassic Park series makes too it, I remember one or two bits where I thought 'hey, that's in Jurassic Park!' But all in all it's a brilliant pop culture film and definitly worth a watch, even if you just wanna see a Tyrannosaur fight an elephant. The Valley of Gwangi was TIME WELL SPENT.

OJ's TV Review - The Musketeers series 1

Yeah, the only reason I really watched this was because Peter Capaldi was in it.

The Musketeers is the BBC's latest gritty period drama starring mostly people I've never heard of. The trailers looked interesting though and I wanted to see some Capaldi acting before he shows up in Doctor Who later this year. To start off I really didnt like The Musketeers, I thought the first few episodes were kind of boring and Capaldi's Cardinal was by far the most intersting aspect of it; what suprised me though was about half way through the series it picked up tremendusly; episode 6 aired and I actually enjoyed it quite a bit, all the episodes after that were also really entertaining. I dont know if it was the story arc unfolding or just the singular plots in general had gotten better but the latter half of the series was far superior to the beginning. I think I was expecting it to be like the 2011 movie which I really enjoyed but The Musketeers is its own thing and in the end was pretty fun to watch. As finales go the last episode was very good and we eventually got the "All for one..." line which showed how far the characters had come since episode one. In the end IT WAS OK+.

OJ's Movie Review - Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Wow, now that's a game-changer.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier, film number 9 in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and a most relevant one at that. The directors, producers and writers all said it was the one that followed most closely to The Avengers and would go almost directly into Avengers: Age of Ultron and all-in-all a big game-changer; they weren't kidding. The movie is unlike the rest, it doesn't quite seem like a Marvel movie most of the way through but rather a really unique spy movie, which it is. The plot is extremely well done, I loved it from beginning to end, very good points that flowed the story and even some twists that pleasantly surprised me. The new characters they brought in were fantastic, the Falcon I especially enjoyed, his character was cool, comedic, and just an enjoyable person to watch; Robert Redford's political character was also on top form although the characters' traits and ambitions I have seen in other movies. Now talking of characters, the movie's subtitle the Winter Soldier was a fantastic, unique character who's life was deep and interesting to watch, the majority may know of his true identity already as Marvel haven't really done anything to cover it up as it is obvious from about 5 mins of casting research, but I felt the character wasn't used as much as I thought; his name is in the title but his story isn't the main arc, he was in less scenes than I expected. Another disappointer for me was that the climax seemed to have a lot more violence than previous ones, not as graphic as Thor: TDW, but certainly quite strong, almost distracting - although that may have been the cinema experience. In the end I thought Captain America: The Winter Soldier was one of the best of the MCU, and even Marvel movies in general. Pure AWESOMNESS.

OJ's Movie Review - Mr. Peabody & Sherman

Dreamworks' latest animation about a time-travelling dog and his adopted son - how could you resist?

So I went to see this with not much expectation at all, the one trailer I had seen didn't really grab me but I decided to see it anyway and was pleasantly surprised. Mr. Peabody is this extremely intelligent dog who can talk and his adopted son Sherman is a 7-year-old boy who is a sponge for facts but quite slow practically. They go on adventures through time to learn about history. The movie sets that up in the first 15 minutes, which by the way it was done it looked like the movie was going to be some kids documentary about history but when it actually got into the story it was really fun. The comedy made me laugh, the visuals are stunning, I wish I could've seen it in 3D, the story is quite unique but also had similar elements of other movies, I got a Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure vibe and you get some pretty generic characters that you've seen in quite a lot of animated movies but the plot was't boring; I was interested to the end. The voice acting is pretty average but the way Mr. Peabody says things do add a certain something to the film. It's my third 8/10 this year: I'D SEE IT AGAIN.