Ben and Barry's Blog

Star Trek: Into Darkness IMAX 3D Movie Review

2013-05-12T12:00:00.000+01:00

JJ Abrams has done it again! Ignore the fact that this is Star Trek for a moment and this is still one of the best sic-fi films I have ever seen! They managed to keep loads of plot points and characters secret, which was a nice surprise. Loads of action, drama, huge set pieces and battles all mixed with a great story, characters and the odd dash of humour at the right points. Simply superb! The IMAX experience really immersed you in those space scenes. The 3D conversion looked good in some small parts, but mostly flat. We enjoyed this so much, that we're actually going to see this for a second time, which we very rarely do. All I can say is roll on Star Wars!!

Ben 10 out of 10
Barry 9 out of 10

http://www.startrekmovie.com

Book of Mormon London Theatre Review

2013-05-11T14:30:00.000+01:00

OK lets get the straight, this is a musical from the writers of South Park, so if you are easily offended or don't like the mickey being taken out of religion and Africa, then avoid. For everyone else come in, as its hilariously outrageous and contains too many things you really shouldn't be laughing at! With songs about Uganda, AIDs and mixing religion with Lord of the Rings and Star Wars, plus a General called Butt F**king Naked. You will laugh until your eyes water!

Ben 4.5 out of 5
Barry 4 out of 10

http://www.bookofmormonlondon.com

Iron Man 3 3D Movie Review

2013-05-05T12:00:00.000+01:00

Its here, Marvel Phase 2, starting with Iron Man 3! The background story is that terrorist, The Mandarin, is going after the President using a new bio-enhanced human, but all is not quite as it seems. Tony Stark is up to his usual short quips and one liners and tinkering with various Iron Man suits and prototypes, in fact probably a few too many suits! The story and action moves along at a nice pace, until it stalls half way in a sleepy village and they wheel in an annoying kid! Why?! Luckily it doesn't stall for long and the action carries on again. This is basically a great summer popcorn film, go see it now!

Ben 8 out of 10
Barry 8 out of 10

http://www.marvel.com/ironman3

Oblivion Movie Review

2013-04-14T12:00:00.000+01:00

A future Earth, ravaged by nuclear war with aliens. The human race has escaped and moved to Titan, one of Jupiter's moons. A few people have stayed behind in the Tetrahedron to help repair crews on the ground guard the water reclamation machines from alien scabs left behind on the planet. Or are they? Hmmmmm! This is a great film, with slowly revealing mysteries leading up to the ultimate twist. It unfortunately drops a few obvious clues too early on, and I figured out what was going on about 30 minutes in. However it still kept me watching and the action/mystery sections are well mixed keeping the film interesting. A great turn from Mr. Cruise.

Ben 8 out of 10
Barry 8 out of 10

http://www.oblivionmovie2013.com

G.I. Joe: Retaliation 3D Film Review

2013-03-30T13:00:00.000Z

Delayed for over a year to avoid Avengers and be converted into 3D this was unfortunately not really worth the wait. Even with more star power in the form of Rock and Willis and some great stunts, particularly the cliff running ninjas, it just falls into a pile of noise, bullets and explosions. A flimsy story, the president has been replaced by a shape shifter, who strangely wants the world to disarm its nuclear weapons so he can destroy it with his own, it just simply didn't keep my interest. Also the 3D looks pretty poor and certain scenes just look like cut outs, some things are also too close the camera and make you go cross eyed.

Ben 6 out of 10
Barry 6 out of 10

http://www.gijoemovie.co.uk

360 Views of City Walk and Griffith Observatory

2013-03-27T14:00:00.001Z

Click in each image, then use your mouse to scroll left to right, up and down.

Croods 3D Movie Review

2013-03-27T14:00:00.000Z

Killing time before the airport meant we plumped for Croods 3D, the latest movie from Dreamworks, and after the excellent Despicable Me and average Rio, this is them on a downward slope. The story of a family of cavemen who are afraid of everything and the dad (Cage) keeps them sealed in a cave, even when the world is ending. That is until Guy (Reynolds) shows up and shows the Croods how to live life and takes them on a journey of discovery to avoid the end of the planet. Except that the journey isn't all that enjoyable, and bits that should be funny simply aren't. This is DVD fodder at best and wait for Despicable Me 2!

Ben 6 out of 10
Barry 5 out of 10

http://www.thecroodsmovie.com

Hollywood Walk of Fame

2013-03-26T11:00:00.000Z

On our final day, we walk the Hollywood Walk of Fame and hop on board Star Tours to the Hollywood Sign, round Beverley Hills and back again.

Hollywood Sign just above Barry's head!

Olympus Has Fallen Film Review

2013-03-24T17:00:00.000Z

Basically this is a yea-hah american butt kicking movie, so what better place to see it than in an american cinema! The North Koreans basically storm the white house and take the president to the underground bunker to get nuclear codes. They achieve this through some very glaringly awful decisions on behalf of the air force/navy/secret service/acting president, which you simply have to ignore if you're gonna enjoy this film, just let them gloss over you. It also helps a great deal that every time a terrorist got shot or stabbed the american audience cheered and whooped! This is simply an all out action, guns blazing film and its actually great and very tense in parts, with action and stealth pieces in equal measure. Just ignore those plot points and enjoy when it opens in the UK in April!

Ben 8 out of 10
Barry 8 out of 10

http://olympusmovie.com

Santa Monica Take 2

2013-03-23T09:00:00.000Z

Enjoyed Santa Monica cycling/skating so much in the grey that we decided to repeat, but this time in the sun!

See all the photos here...

Universal Hollywood Take 2

2013-03-22T09:00:00.000Z

Today we headed back to Universal to complete all the rides, including the Backlot Tour...

Incredible Burt Wonderstone Movie Review

2013-03-21T17:00:00.000Z

A boy fascinated by magic, works his way up to the top of the Vegas game and lands a 10 year deal doing a daily show. After 10 years of doing the same show and audiences dwindling, along comes a new street performer who dazzles and Wonderstone (Carrel) loses his job. He then has to find his original wonderment with magic and ends up working in a care home, where he meets his childhood idol. A few chuckles along the way, this should have been much funnier, but instead is very average at best.

Ben 5 out of 10
Barry 5 out of 10

http://www.theincredibleburtwonderstone.com

Griffith Observatory

2013-03-21T12:00:00.000Z

Headed up to the Griffith Observatory today, which overlooks downtown LA and the Hollywood sign. It was a beautiful day and could see for miles. We also did two shows in the planetarium, "Water is Life" and "Centred in the Universe", both narrated live by Beverley who had the most hypnotic voice that almost sent us to sleep, but not in a bad way, because it was anything but boring, full of facts, purely her voice!

Warner VIP Tour

2013-03-20T11:00:00.000Z

Today we pre-booked the Warner VIP Studio Tour in Burbank round a live working movie studio. Unfortunately while its live, we didn't see anyone famous, only a few crew sleeping in trucks! We did however see numerous backlots, sound stages, The Mentalist set, Friends cafe, car museum and Warner museum. Fairly interesting, but a slight rip off of our $49.

See all the photos here...

Universal Studios Hollywood

2013-03-19T10:00:00.000Z

A much later start today, as Universal is literally 5 mins walk across the road and didn't open until 10am. We ran down the ridiculous number of steps to the backlot and straight onto Transformers The Ride 3D, which was absolutely A-MAZ-ING! It was so good, we did it twice right away! We then trotted onto The Mummy backwards roller coaster in the dark and bought our pack-a-macs for Jurassic Park water ride. Slowing the pace we then saw Shrek 4D and the live Waterworld stunt show. We're going to go again, as the $80 ticket it valid all year!

See all the photos here...

Disneyland

2013-03-18T09:30:00.000Z

Again we woke at the crack of dawn today, so decided to goto Disneyland in Anaheim, which is about 1 hour drive from Universal City. Disney opened at 9am, and we arrived just after, which was just as well, as it was heaving because a cheering competition was in town (bad timing). Theres actually two parks there, Disneyland and California Adventure, so we bought a hopper ticket to do both in one day. We headed straight for Soarin', one of our favourite rides, then headed into the newly extended Cars Land, based on the Pixar film, and drove round radiator springs on the fantastic new Cars ride. Great day, but shame about the crowds, plus we got tired quickly!

See all the photos here...

Jack The Giant Killer IMAX 3D Film Review

2013-03-17T17:00:00.000Z

How do you turn Jack and the Beanstalk into a million dollar earning movie, ask Brian Singer because he just did it! Jack the Giant killer is basically the same story, but with some huge set pieces, a love story and some huge CGI giants. The story keeps moving at a nice pace, with some stealthy bits invading the giants castle, and some actions bits when the giants attack. IMAX and 3D rocked, with booming sound, great 3D and literal giants on the 8 storey high screen!

Ben 7 out of 10
Barry 7 out of 10

http://jackthegiantslayer.warnerbros.com

Santa Monica to Muscle Beach and Back!

2013-03-17T08:30:00.000Z

We woke up at the crack of dawn today, so decided to head to the beach. which was a shame as the sun never burnt through the morning haze while we were there. Anyway, we hired rollerblades and a bike and skated/cycled from Santa Monica Pier to Venice Muscle Beach and back again! Was only 2.5 miles and took us 1.5 hours, with a coffee break in the middle.

Oz the Great and Powerful 3D Movie Review

2013-03-16T16:30:00.000Z

Borrowing heavily from Wicked musical storyline, where the goodies aren't who you think they are, this movie tells the story of Oz's rise to power in the Emerald Kingdom. Starting out in black and white, but strangely not 2D like the original, it tells the story of a crooked con-man Oz who gets taken by a twister to the colourful 3D land of Oz. It then tells the story of his journey to meet Glinda and save Oz from the wicked witches. The beginning unfortunately seems to drag, and the journey also takes forever, meeting a talking monkey for comedy relief and an annoying china doll on the way. The final battle is clever, an Oz continues to con the people, as he has no real wizard powers at all.

Ben 6 out of 10
Barry 7 out of 10

http://disney.go.com/thewizard/

Getting our bearings in LA

2013-03-16T11:00:00.000Z

We're staying in the Hilton Universal City, literally next door to Universal Studios Hollywood. Its the first time anywhere in USA where we have been able to walk, yes WALK, anywhere! We literally have to just go round the edge of the Hilton and cross the bridge (seen above) and then you are at the entrance to Universal Studios and City Walk. The rest of Saturday we spend shopping as usual, finishing off with a movie in City Walk and dinner in the Hard Rock Cafe.

We're off to Los Angeles

2013-03-15T11:00:00.000Z

Waiting in the Virgin Upper Class lounge for our flight. Everything is FREE!! We both start with champagne, then Barry has a choc muffin and more champagne, I have full on latte and breakfast roll! Our flight is delayed 1.5hrs, but it doesn't matter as we can go for a massage now.

See all the photos here...

The Audience Theatre Review

2013-03-09T19:30:00.000Z

Today we took Mum, for her Christmas present, to see The Audience (with the Queen) starring Helen Mirren. The show is minimal in stage set, literally a couple of backdrops and 2 chairs, but takes you through 60 years of Prime Minister meetings with the Queen, held every Tuesday at 6.30pm. Starting with Winston Churchill, right up to present day, but skipping Tony Blair (which I guess was catered for in The Queen movie). It was quite different from anything we usually see, but very interesting, and Mirren was amazing!

Ben 4 out of 5
Barry 4 out of 5

Good Day to Die Hard Movie Review

2013-02-17T12:00:00.000Z

The fifth film in the Die Hard series sees father and son end up on a mission together. While other Die Hards seem to have a good story and a bad guy with a purpose, this one just seems to concentrate on following McClane Snr. and Jnr. I missed the purpose though, as you never find out what the bad guys are really up to. There are certainly loads of stunts and spectacular effects, including a damage inducing chase in Russia. Enjoyable and loud, just needed a bit more story.

Ben 6 out of 10
Barry 7 out of 10

http://www.diehardmovie.com

Wreck-It Ralph 3D Film Review

2013-02-10T11:30:00.000Z

For some reason the UK has been waiting ages to see this, as it came out November in the USA! Anyways its finally here and its great! Loaded with nods to retro games, adding in current characters and sound effects, its a real homage to video games. Its basically the story of a bad guy who doesn't want to be the bad guy anymore, and jumps games to win a heroes medal. Eventually Ralph ends up in Sugar Rush racing game helping a glitch to un-glitch herself. So well animated, with lots of retro style animation vs. HD perfection. The story is good, the action varied, a great Disney film that could almost pass for pure Pixar! Shame the 3D sucked and wasn't very 3Dee again!

Ben 8 out of 10
Barry 7 out of 10

http://www.disney.co.uk/wreck-it-ralph/

Warm Bodies Movie Review

2013-02-09T11:30:00.000Z

A zombie rom-com sounds like a good idea, and the trailers certainly looked funny, but this is more rom than com, which is a shame as could have appealed to more people had it been a bit funnier. R voices over his life as a zombie, as obviously he's dead and can't speak, and basically falls in love with an uninfected human. Whereas the survivors are all out to blow the brains out of zombies, as you do, the girl who gets kidnapped by R eventually realises that something is affecting the zombies and slowly bringing them back to life. The story is too lovey-dovey for me and moves too slowly, with a few tweaks it could have been so much better.

Ben 6 out of 10
Barry 5 out of 10

http://warmbodiesmovie.com