Joker

Wow we really did wait for this and what a ride it was lets just get to it. The latest movie from dc and its about one of the most popular and loved villain's of all time called the joker.

so lets get to it and talk about the movie in general.

Forever alone in a crowd, failed comedian arthur fleck seeks connection as he walks the streets of Gotham city, Arthur wears two masks- the one he paints for his day job as a clown, and the guise he projects in a futile attempt to feel like he's part of the world around him. isolated, bullied and disregarded by society, fleck begins a slow descent into madness as he transforms into the criminal mastermind known as the joker. this is not the most common origin story about the joker but it is one of the most detailed origin story you will come across.

So been on this review for over a whole year and finally going to finish it up. Dont even know where to start except the fact that a movie is always better when portrayed through the eyes of the villian. it makes for better story telling as we the audience really get to experience the full story and emotion of the villian it makes for a roller coaster ride and it is one we always up  for.

joker on its own is just a master piece and a perfection of a movie , Joaquin phoenix was perfect in this role and he just killed it , IMO this was the best joker performance i have ever seen , it was up there with heath ledgers performance and that is saying alot. 

To start with this movie was evenly paced from start to finish, there was no wasted action/sequence everything went from one scene leading into the next. the producers really came to tell a story and the story was told properly. The plot and story of the movie developed at the same time and they both interplayed with each other leading to a master piece here.

The acting was top notch, Joaquin phoenix got an oscar for this and it was thoroughly deserved and almost every actor pulled their weight in this movie. there was not much use for CGI in this movie and that helped a lot because no matter the budget DCEU just does not know what good CGI looks like and its still shocking when they do some visuals.

Directed and produced by Todd Philips who co wrote the screenplay with Scott Silver.

this is an original DC movie and its supposed to be a stand alone movie with no sequel. it should be the beginning of a new line of DC movies known as DC Black, we hope it gets a sequel because we are looking forward to seeing more of Joaquin Phoenix.

cast include

Joaquin Phoenix

Robert De Niro

Frances Conroy

This was a solid 8/10 movie and highly recommended from us here at Fca

Godzilla - King of the Monsters 2019

Members of the crypto-zoological agency called Mornach face off against a battery of god-sized monsters, including the mighty Godzilla, who collides with Mothra, Rodan, and his ultimate nemesis, the three headed king Ghidorah. when these ancient super-species thought to be mere myths -rise again, they all vie for supremacy, leaving humanity's very existence hanging in the balance.

This is a sequel to Godzilla (2014), it is the 35th film in the Godzilla franchise, the third film in the legendary monster verse, and the third Godzilla to be completely produced by a Hollywood studio.

 

This movie had no plot literally, no tone, no story, lacked pacing and very poor characters. literally this was a bust and i am still surprised that it grossed the amount it did at the box office but then good cinematography covers a lot of things but not every terrible movie can be saved by good visual effects and terrific action sequences.

This was one of the worst story lines and plot development i had seen the whole of 2019 and that is saying a whole lot, no build up to any thing in this movie, scenes did not flow from each other and they were just scattered.

The movie was so bad i did not know how i was able to stay the whole 131 minutes it lasted, recently saw it again on DVD and it was worse than the first time at the theatre, but then hopefully one day we will get a Godzilla movie that is not just about the action and cinematography but one that really builds up the characters and makes use of all elements in a movie.

Characters in this movie were so secondary that they were almost non existent and it was funny when the directors tried getting the audience to feel for some of the characters when they either had to see one of their colleagues die or sacrifice their life for the rest of them to be able to survive , overall this was a laughable script with a ramshackle narrative which rare moments of visual splendour cannot hide.

On the flip side the movie Had some of the best visuals i have seen in a long while, the cinematography was great and having seen some of the past Godzilla movies you just had to applaud the visual effects crew for great use of CGI, simply put this was CGI at its best and it was good to see.

That's basically the only good thing about this movie alongside the fight scenes which were on a monstrous level and was really spectacular.

From us at FCA this movie is rated a 5?10 and that is being very nice it really deserved less than that.so far the movie has grossed $375 million but it needs to gross at least $550-600 million to actually break even . having said all the above  a sequel is expected in march 2020 and am i hyped to finally see Godzilla and king Kong in one movie yes you heard me right it is Godzilla v Kong, you will see me at the theatre when it is out.

This is a legendary pictures movie
Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures
Directed by Michael Dougherty
Music by Bear McCreary
Cinematography by Lawrence Sher

CAST
KYLE CHANDLER
VERA FARMIGA
MILLIE BOBBY BROWN
BRADLEY WHITFORD
SALLY HAWKINS
CHARLES DANCE
THOMAS MIDDLEDITCH
AISHA HINDS
O'SHEA JACKSON JR.
DAVID STRATHAIRN
KEN WATANABE
ZHANG ZIYI

Wu assassins

An unassuming San Francisco chef becomes the latest in a long line of assassins chosen to keep the mystical Wu powers out of the wrong hands, he is to search for the powers of the ancient triad and restore balance to San Francisco thereby saving the whole world in the process.

Netflix tries out its hands at a martial art series and i don't really know how to feel about this. i am a huge Martial arts fans and the bar has been set so high by past martial arts series and thus they really had alot to live up to and did they actually get to live up to the standard set by recent Martial arts series i don't think so but they did lay the grounds for a subsequent second season.

Much was made about the trailer of this movie and it was great but trailers are always great and i have learnt that the better the trailer the more terrible the movie is and this is a fact which cant be disputed at all. that aside lets talk about this movie and what we did not like about this series Netflix really did invest money in this movie but then on the flip side of it  they now literally did not bother with giving us a good storyline or plot that was worthy of the time invested into the making of this series and this is so not like Netflix, they have gotten the reputation of being good plot and story developers and so it was really head scratching watching Wu assassins and the way it panned out.
 It was really disappointing, the story fell flat after the first two episodes and it continued like that even the season finale felt like an after thought and not worthy of being a season finale; if the intent of ending the season that way was to leave the audience at a cliff hanger they literally failed at this and i could not help but to laugh at the conclusion of the season finale.

lets just move on to the next thing which is the special effects and CGI, what was that maybe the special effects was done from a phone app and don't get me started on the CGI, this has to be the worst i have seen in a long while and that is saying a lot because i have seen quite a lot of terrible CGI and it was utterly shocking to see this in a netflix series, his was so low budget and it was utterly shocking, lot of the magical elements to the series seemed so out of place and unbelievable, did not seem like it was real in any way and seemed more like a child playing mash up, this should never be happening with a netflix original production, more is expected and more quality should be delivered.
another issue with netflix is the unpredictability of its series, audience are currently finding it hard to get really invested in new series because you honestly don't know which will be cut off after the first season or the on me that will get the 200 million push and this really makes it hard for fans to really becomes invested as nobody wants to waste time on a show that wont even be back for a second season just like Wu assassins no one even knows if there will be a second season and this unpredictability really makes some audience not to even bother with starting the movie or just rushing through it and unto the next one.

Having said almost everything that is to be said on the character development in this show but then just  little additional piece on the side characters outside the main characters, they actually had an important role to play but because  of the fact that their characters were not fleshed out enough and thus the audience cant actually understand or appreciate them in their roles. the audience could really care less about them whether they died or survived but this was not meant to be because the side characters in this show really had a great part to play they just were not invested in and thus the reaction towards them and we had some great acting from the side characters.

Casting was okay in this movie still and iko uwais is just one block buster away from being genuinely the best thing to come out of Asia , he has really come a long way and his English has greatly improved and his martial arts and stunt abilities are just off the charts. same can be said for the supporting cast but on a flip side the dialogue in this series felt drab and flat on a lot of occasions,
also the inconsistencies in the series is one too many, how is Kai supposedly protected by 10000 monk faces and h is really not that much stronger than his friends`, it just did not make sense like a lot of things in this show.

Now to the positives, this series whoops ass, i mean literally, thanks to he combined efforts of director Stephen fung, star iko uwais , fight choreographer Dan Rizzuto and an army of stunt maestros, the martial arts fantasy features some of the most dazzlingly impressive fist and feet throw downs you'll see on a screen this year big or small. luckily all the action is clear you won't get an iron fist situation here, where the editing bay had to take a katana to the footage to make it look like Finn Jones fights like a real human boy. fung was great and brought all his years of experience and brand of violence to work in this movie and it was great to watch.

Iko uwais is in a class of his own currently when it comes to martial arts, Hollywood needs to cast him more and also he has the pretty boy look which works but then there is only so much that impressive fights can cover and it obviously cant fend off a clunky script which is what Wu assassins is.

Having said all the above we at FCA rates this movie a solid 6/10 because of just the fight scenes and Iko Uwais. if there will be a second season i Will be here for the fights but just as an aside the best martial arts series are arranged as follows
AMC Into the Badlands
Cobra Kai
Warrior
Wu Assassins
and its not even debatable at all.

This an original netflix production
produced by stephen fung, chad oakes, john wirth, tony krants.
cinematography by john bartley
camera set up is single camera

CAST
IKO UWAIS
BYRON MANN
LI JUN LI
CELIA AU
LEWIS TAN
LAWRENCE KAO
TOMMY FLANNAGAN
KETHERYN WINNICK

ALADDIN

Aladdin is a lovable street urchin who meets princess jasmine, the beautiful daughter of the sultan of agrabah. while visiting her exotic palace, he gets captured by jafar and goes on a mission to retrieve a lamp for him but gets stuck inside the cave in the process becoming friends with the genie, they must embark on a dangerous mission to stop the evil sorcerer jafar from overthrowing young jasmines kingdom.
yet again another live action adaptation and this time its the 1992 classic Disney animated movie of the same name, which was based on the eponymous tale from one thousand and one nights, every single time i hear that Disney wants to do a live action remake of one of their animated movies , there is this little voice in my head that keeps whispering and asking exactly what we will get because it has always been a disappointment and so i really did not know what to actually expect upon seeing this movie but then i had to admit it was not a spectacle but neither was it a bad movie it was rather a solid movie or it was just there more likely. 

well lets get down to it basically there was nothing new about the live action animation like totally there was nothing new even the dialogues were similar. I don't know why this is always the case, just because you re doing a live action remake does not mean that you have to pander to the desire of the audience who will want a full repeat of the old story exactly the same way it was, the director and writer should be allowed some creative leeway to add some twist and turns and try something new as this will create some level of anticipation for the new movie but rather what we got in this disneys live action remake was exactly a replica of the animated movie and yes no matter how good a replica is it cant be better than the original and it will always be judged against the backdrop of the reception that the original recieved and in this particular situation it will be very unfair to judge a live animation against an animated movie but that is exactly what has happened to this movie.

my main issue with this movie was just the fact that it only appealed to the love the audience had for the animated movie, it really had nothing new to offer but on the flip side it was also a nice enough movie and one that really took back most of us to our childhood.

now talking about what i enjoyed in the movie as we know this is also a musical and they did get that part inch perfect, the singing by all the cast was great be it from will smith who is just perfect at anything and everything and its always great to see him work.

Let's just talk about the casting of this movie and disney really had some decisions to make ,who was tob casted as genie and will Smith came as the best they could have honestly done. Also were they to cast already established stars or were they going for the unknown and upcoming stars ; they went for the latter and it turned out to be the right decision.
Mena massoud was absolutely brilliant, you just find yourself rooting for him and he was perfect for the perennial street under dog role, generally they did get the cast right.

Cinematography and CGI were excellent in this movie ,the CGI was not overstated or overused but whenever it was needed it was used properly and for good effect though the genie could have been better done. All In all it was great to watch, like we always say too much CGI is never good for a movie no matter how great it is so thumbs up for this. Also on its own this movie had a great plot and character development but then the fact that there is literally nothing new about this live adaptation of the animated movie makes one not to actually appreciate how much the movie tried in this aspect.

Overall this was a solid movie and it was quite enjoyable to watch at the cinema, and so far at the box office it has been a hit ,Disney has really made a fortune from this movie

This is an original disney production
Directed by Guy Ritchie
Music by

CAST
Will Smith
Mena Massoud
Naomi Scott
Marwan kenzari
Alan Menken

Hobbs and shaw

Ever since hulking lawman hobbs a loyal servant of America's diplomatic security service, and lawless outcast Shaw a former British military elite operative, first faced off in 2015's furious7 the duo have swapped smack talk and body blows as they've tried to take down each other. But when cyber genetically enhanced anarchist brixton gains control of an insidious bio threat that could alter humanity forever and best a brilliant and fearless rogue M16 agent( the crown's Vanessa Kirby), who just happens to be Shaw's sister, these two sworn enemies will have to partner up to bring down the only guy who might be badder than themselves (the black superman).

This is the newest instalment in the fast and furious franchise albeit a spin off but we will still accept it with open arms, this movie was like the rest of all its previous instalments, action packed filled with over the top stunts and unbelievable cgi.

lets just talk about the plot of the movie and its a basic plot which we have come to expect and they did not disappoint, it's a storyline that always works and thus no need to deviate from it and it can be summed up as the good guys need to defeat the bad guy to be able to save the world from impending doom and destruction, what a basic plot and it really gets tiring after a while because there is only but so many times that plot can really appeal to the audience.
 And this was obvious in this spin off, it was really hard buying into the story or becoming invested in the movie because you knew what the endgame was going to be and that is the problem with movies that keep recycling the same plot sequel after sequel, there can only be so much twist and turns before you run out of plot twist.
 

In this very spin off try as much as they did it was just hard to be emotionally invested because we had seen every thing and we knew that they just had to save the world and it was boring after a while. moving away from the plot of the movie which is the only part of the movie that really was sub par lets talk about the dialogue in this movie and did they have a lot of it, with so much action it was really surprising that they had so much dialogue still in the movie but then also they had to make the movie last for as long as it did. Some of the dialogues were just a tad unnecessary and they made a basic plot worse than it was already was, wow and don't get me started on the dick jokes; almost every scene had one dick joke or more it was just not as funny as they thought it was unless i am wrong and comedy was not their intention with the dick jokes, if this was not then they actually did a good job of it. overall the dialogues were okay, when brixton addressed himself as the black superman that was an awesome moment in the movie.

Lets now talk about the CGI in this movie and i just have to say this , the salary for the tech guys, camera and special effects editing crew should be increased, the CGI in this movie was perfect and to be applauded too many great scenes comes to mind and it was really great to see, they left you out of breathe and almost jumping out of your sit in the cinema.
 Having said the good thing about the CGI lets talk about the bad part of it, after a point in the movie it really became unbelievable and was just too much and we experienced the principle of diminishing marginal return occurred and there was nothing that could be done about it. it was just way too much, normally we know that this franchise is all about unbelievable action and stunt but even at that this was  certainly way over the top and after a point you just get enough of the over the top action.

Now lets talk about the action sequences in this movie and damn it was great, when you have the rock, the transporter and yes the black superman what else would you expect from them if not a great action movie and that was exactly what we got.
 And it was just great a simple action movie that was an action movie no agenda, no sub message just an entertaining over the top action movie, lets not go into all the details of the contract negotiation that was leaked about the demands of all the divas who are the male characters in this movie and all their exorbitant demands but damn did they deliver on an all star cast, i think this has been among the instalment's so far the best of them when talking about the Villain even though he was not properly developed properly in this movie more on that below.

So really having a basic plot it was obvious that this movie was going to be very basic and thus would have nothing like character development and this was exactly what played out in the movie itself. Talking about the villain in this movie Brixton lore nothing about him except that we are supposed to just accept that he has a score to settle with Shaw and thus the hate ; what exactly is that or more like who writes such scripts and even as the movie progresses still nothing about getting to really understand who he is,same as the History of Hobbs and his estranged family it honestly felt rushed and would have been done better, lets not talk about the Shaw family in itself it will make this review way too long lets just say that character and plot development was not part of this movie in anyway at all.

Casting in this movie was great and the more we see Idris Elba in movies the more we still don't get why he was not cast as the next James bond he is perfect for that role and yes he is the black superman he actually called himself that, basically the key actors in this movie had wonderful chemistry and they were a joy alongside each other. this was the first time Idris elba will be cast as a villain and yes that British accent is perfect for any role who knew we all did and he is such a good actor. Kudos to Ryan Reynold he is just a clown and his humour is effortless and rings true. Nothing needs to be said about Jason Statham or dwayne Johnson, they delivered just as expected.

So basically what we got was an over the top action movie with wonderful CGI and lot of dick jokes, from us here at FCA this movie is rated 6/10 and when you want to go see this movie please keep logic at home and just go to be entertained and the movie will be fun or you.

DIRECTED                     BY          DAVID LEITCH
PRODUCED                   BY          DWAYNE JOHNSON, JASON STATHAM, CHRIS MORGAN
STORY                            BY           CHRIS MORGAN
CINEMATOGRAPHY   BY            JONATHAN SELA

CAST
DWAYNE JOHNSON
JASON STATHAM
IDRIS ELBA
VANNESSA KIRBY
 RYAN REYNOLDS
HELEN MIRREN

SWAMP THING

                                 Swamp Thing: A Tv show limited by many factors.

While looking into an epidemic in her Louisiana hometown, CDC investigator Abby Arcane discovers that the local swamps hold numerous secrets after her partner seemingly dies and transforms into Swamp Thing.

Swamp thing being another DC entertainment original tv show really offered a lot of potential going in. We expected another incredible tv show to seamlessly slot into the DC Extended tv universe that is currently being developed. Even though Swamp thing was a curious choice of character to adapt into a tv series after Titans and Doom Patrol, but it at least offered a unique premise to Base a story on. What fans and viewers didn't really expect was to tell a story devoid of flair, depth and an intriguing conflict.
In the first place, I think one of the most obvious factors that really affected the show negatively had to be the limitations that the show suffered as a result of obvious wrong choices.

The story the show runners chose to run with was limited, the setting was limited, the characters were limited and the conflict was way too limited to provide any sort of excitement. In the end, due to these limitations suffered by the show, it never really looked like we were watching a tv series adaptation of a comic, it was more or less like a scripted short drama, really poor in our opinion.
That being said, the one aspect where the show runners and the scripting team scored an A had to be with the storytelling. As poor as the story was, the narrative/ storytelling was captivating and immersive. With the way the storytelling went from pilot to finale, this would have been an amazing show if the storyline of choice hadn't been so limiting and really plain.
In fact, the story is so unexceptional that asides the pilot episode, every other episode never really delivered any high moments of any sorts. The reason for this is not too far fetched, it's simply down to the effects that the story limitations had on the overall outlook of the show, most especially the conflict elements. The show strung viewers along from the 4th episode to the finale hoping for something in the form of a relatable or at least a rivetting conflict to vibe to, and the show never delivered on that.
Even for an origin story, this show was too slow, and too devoid of content, ideas and creativity. At some point, it became not only slow and boring but borderline annoying.
It appeared as though the show did nothing in the form of developing characters at all. Just a bunch of characters thrown into a small town and forced to relate with each other. It (the characters and their relationships as well as the town of Marais) was just a messy situation, and it was totally unrelatable. 

In our opinion, the biggest negative had to be the weakness of the conflict and the dearth of creativity in presenting the characters and their developments. Perhaps the show offers more going forward, but even that was not really presented in such clear terms in the finale to make us want to really look forward to a next season.
We really have mixed feelings about this show. It is not a total fail, neither is it a mega success. If anyone chooses to sit this one out, you really won't blame them. The only reason in our opinion why viewers should sit through the show is perhaps due to the fact that there is now a larger or Extended DC universe and these characters will be falling in and falling out of several of these other shows that are incorporated in the extended universe. With talks of a Cross-Over later in the year, it may not really come as a surprise to see Swamp thing making a cameo in perhaps Central City( Very Unlikely due to how limited the characters and their stories are).

For those who are however connoisseurs of the supernatural and the terrifying, this show will offer you some moments of intrigue. With characters like Madam Xanadu and The Blue Devil, perhaps the show has barely scratched the surface of a much darker narrative brewing in Marais. Most especially with constant talk of the Darkness, and the presence that haunts Maria Sunderland. There may just be a lot that we are yet to explore and we hope that the 2nd season really delves into some incredible narrative.

Genre: Superhero, Horror, Drama
Based: on Swamp Thing by: Len Wein, Bernie Wrightson, Alan Moore
Developed by: Gary Dauberman, Mark Verheiden
Starring:
Crystal Reed
Virginia Madsen
Andy Bean
Derek Mears
Henderson Wade
Maria Sten
Jeryl Prescott
Jennifer Beals
Will Patton
Kevin Durand
Composer(s): Brian Tyler
Executive producer(s): Len Wiseman, Gary Dauberman, Mark Verheiden, James Wan, Michael Clear
Cinematography: Pedro Luque, Fernando Argüelles, Nathaniel Goodman
Peter Kowalski
Editor(s): Mark Stevens, Scott Draper, Tim Mirkovich
Hector Carrillo
Production company(s): Big Shoe Productions Inc., Atomic Monster Productions, DC Entertainment, Warner Bros. Television
Distributor: Warner Bros. Television Distribution

FCA's AppR: 7.1/10