old king clancy

Review – Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

/ cinephellas / Leave a comment

by Old King Clancy

10 years ago, Marvel Studios released Iron Man. It was a funny, action-packed romp with a charismatic lead and in any other time would’ve come and gone and possibly been looked back on as a better than expected comic-book movie. But in 2008, Marvel gave us a promise, a post credit scene that nearly everyone missed talking about “The Avengers Initiative,” and with those three words, The MCU was born. 10 years and 19 films later, it has stood out as one of the biggest, possibly even the most successful franchises of all-time and while it hasn’t been perfect all the way, the highs easily outweigh the lows.

And Infinity War might just be the crowning jewel in Marvel’s crown. Continue reading →

Advertisements

Review – Annihilation (2018)

/ cinephellas / Leave a comment

by Old King Clancy

As a writer, Alex Garland has had a hand in some of the best sci-fi of the 21st Century with 28 Days Later, Sunshine, and Dredd under his belt. He continued that trend into his directorial debut, Ex_Machina, which ended up as my top film for that year. When his latest film, Annihilation, got in the news for being considering too ‘smart’ for the average audience and sent straight to Netflix everywhere except the US, Canada, and China, you couldn’t help but wonder exactly how smart Garland had made his film. Especially, when you factor in that both Garland and one of the producers refused to bow into the studio demands to dumb the movie down.

Having now finally seen it, I’m glad Garland stuck to his guns because Annihilation is one of the most unapologetic cases of Hard Sci-Fi I’ve seen for a while.

Continue reading →

Review – Black Panther (2018)

/ cinephellas / Leave a comment

by Old King Clancy

The arrival of T’Challa in Civil War was a welcome addition to the MCU and his arc provided the film with a neutral viewpoint away from the already established Captain America and Iron Man. Now with Infinity War looming, the prince of Wakanda has been given his own film to help establish himself and Wakanda into the MCU. The result is one of Marvel’s best, and possibly their most politically important movie to date.

Continue reading →

Review – The Ballad of Lefty Brown (2018)

/ cinephellas / Leave a comment

by Old King Clancy

While the Western Genre will never see the likes of Sergio Leone or John Ford again, there have been enough great modern Westerns to satisfy the fans, from critically acclaimed pieces like The Revenant and The Assassination of Jesse James to more genre focused flicks such as Bone Tomahawk and 3:10 To Yuma. The Ballad Of Lefty Brown fits more into the latter – there’s definitely an appreciation for the genre and for those more familiar with Westerns a strong execution keeps some of the more familiar elements from feeling stale.

Continue reading →

Review – Lady Bird (2017)

/ cinephellas / Leave a comment

by Old King Clancy

As divisive and overused Rotten Tomatoes has become in the recent year, it’s hard to ignore Lady Bird beating the record for most positive reviews to remain at 100% (164 positives beating Toy Story 3’s previous record of 163). While it since has dropped to 99%, it’s still only at 1 Rotten score with 213 Fresh reviews in its favor. With that level of acclaim is worth taking note of, so I figured I’d give it a shot and see what it had to offer. And while not the best film of the year, it can definitely stand out as one of 2017’s strongest offerings with career highlights from Greta Gerwig and Saoirse Ronan.

Continue reading →

Review – Star Wars : The Last Jedi (2017)

/ cinephellas / Leave a comment

by Old King Clancy

At the time of writing it’s been a day since I walked out of The Last Jedi and the on-line reaction to it has been surprisingly diverse with a lot of people either disappointed in the film or downright hating it. Which made no sense to me because I downright loved the film, and classed it as the best the franchise has been since Empire. Having had the time to think things through and read the negative reviews I think I understand to a certain degree, after The Force Awakens was criticized for basically being A Newer Hope, The Last Jedi does all it can to take some of the boldest steps ever taken in a Star Wars film and actively doesn’t try to please everyone. It is completely unexpected from a company like Disney, but they just might have made one of the bravest Star Wars films to date, and I’m definitely on board with it all.

Continue reading →

Review – Thor : Ragnarok (2017)

/ cinephellas / Leave a comment

by Old King Clancy

Since the reviews for Thor: Ragnarok came out and was praised for its humor, it’s been hard not to see people’s complaints about Marvel being too light-hearted and trying to be too funny. I haven’t felt the superhero fatigue that others have yet, but it’s not hard to see why people feel that way. I bring this up because there was talks of Thor: Ragnorok being a reinvention of the MCU leading into Infinity War, and it’s really not in fact. If you’re not on board with the Marvel Model this won’t win you over. What it is in fact, is a funny, colorful, and entertaining movie that has Led Zeppelin on the soundtrack.  Honestly, what more could you want or need?

Continue reading →