REVIEW: ‘Wrath of the Titans’

Do you know what kind of movie I would have preferred to Wrath of the Titans? One that tells the story of the frustrated actors who have to run around a greenscreen set, imagining fireballs and monsters flying past, as they try to shoot a movie. Why? For all the impact the CGI has in Wrath, we might as well be watching a movie without it.

That’s not all we’re subjected to in Wrath of the Titans, sequel to 2010’s Clash of the Titans. We’re bombarded by a godlike fury of pointless imagery, vapid dialogue and incomprehensible action.  Whereas Clash was playful with its interpretation of Greek myth, Wrath treats its source material like the helpless soldiers smashed under Kronos’ fist. The first film might have been an entertaining trifle, but this sequel is so lazily made that it’s not worth the time of even the most forgiving viewer.

REVIEW: Republic of Doyle – “Con, Steal, Love”

At first blush, I thought this week’s Republic of Doyle was headed down an all-too-familiar road. It looked like the show would employ its usual multitude of plotlines, which has led to overstuffed, incoherent episodes and lacklustre characters in the past.

I was pleasantly surprised when “Con, Steal, Love” managed to keep all of its parallel stories on an even footing. While it sometimes felt like the “main” case took the backseat to Malachy’s investigation or even Tinny and Des’ adventure, the episode did a good job of constantly pushing its characters towards next week’s finale. For the first time in a while, I’m curious to see what happens on next week’s Doyle.

Is It The End of Moviegoing As We Know It?

I was horrified when I stumbled across a new survey by The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday. Among other stats, the publication found that a majority of 18-34-year-olds believe using social media while watching a movie in a theatre would add to their experience.

I read this figure and started to wonder:  is this the state of our moviegoing habits? Are we so over-stimulated by technology that we can no longer sit in silence and appreciate a movie? And what will this mean for theatre owners? How long until theatre chains are encouraging their patrons to whip out their phones to text, check Facebook and tweet during a show? Quite simply, what is wrong with us?!

REVIEW: Republic of Doyle – “Live Wire”

I try to go into episodes of Republic of Doyle as open-minded as I can. Even when a previous episode let me down, I hope that the show can power through it and make me a least laugh a bit about my old home province. Even so, I started watching this week’s episode “Live Wire” knowing that I’d probably end up with mixed feelings.

And I was right. “Live Wire” had some really good material. We saw Des Courtney being refreshingly serious as he explored his relationship with his father. There were some genuinely funny scenes with Des’ father Jody showing all the eccentric traits as his son. But the episode was bogged down by the same problem that has crippled too many episodes of the show – fragmentary side stories. Just when a story thread is getting good, we “check in” with someone like Kathleen Doyle, and it kills the energy.

YouTuber Spotlight: Alex Day

Ever since I started this column on my favourite YouTubers, most of the people I’ve covered have been from the U.S. and Canada. I did focus on French YouTuber trudbol a while back, but I noticed today that I’ve yet to feature someone from the U.K. So I thought, “Who better to represent that country’s YouTube stars than Alex Day?”

Also known by his channel name ‘nerimon’, Day is a musician and vlogger with more than 500,000 subscribers and 74 million collective views. While most of his videos take the form of vlogs, he also posts occasional music videos and sketches. Perhaps his biggest hit was the series “Alex Reads Twilight”, a set of videos where he reads and ridicules Stephanie Meyer’s first novel for his viewers. Read on for more about why Alex Day is a dependable addition to your YouTube subscriptions!

REVIEW: Republic of Doyle – “One Angry Jake”

I love homages to classic movies. They’re meant to honour great cinematic achievements, to prove that a film is still as relevant as the day it was released. So when I saw the title and synopsis for this week’s Republic of Doyle, I got excited. “One Angry Jake” is an homage to 12 Angry Men, the 1957 Sidney Lumet film that showed 12 jurors working through a murder case, with one of the jurors trying to corrupt the rest into giving a “guilty” verdict.

Unfortunately, this week’s Doyle started with that great idea and lost the thread in the first 10 minutes. It devolved into another tangle of secondary characters, implausible scenarios and far too much plot. It’s always a shame when good ideas go sour, but in the case of “One Angry Jake”, I’m sentencing the episode to be promptly forgotten.  

REVIEW: ‘John Carter’

For me, this review of John Carter has been a long time coming. I’d argue that unlike a lot of people just discovering the property this weekend, I’m far more familiar with the project. Being an obsessive follower of movie production news, I’ve known about director Andrew Stanton’s live-action debut for a few years, and it’s very interesting to see it finally play out after years of troubled development.

I’m happy to report that John Carter is one of the more entertaining sci-fi actioners I’ve seen. Even though I’ve never read the original novels by Tarzan creator Edgar Rice Burroughs, I already feel immersed in the mythology of Burroughs’ vision of the planet Mars. It’s not a perfect movie, and in a way, I liked it better because of that.