Day Of The Samurai 4: 13 Assassins - 2011

13 Assassins is the greatest Samurai film to have been released recently. Not only is it a brilliant hearkening back to the glory days of the genre, but it is also one of the very best films to have been released this year.

13 Assassins was not a financial success in the West, but it's reception from film buffs and critics alike was almost unanimously positive. It literally came out of nowhere and took the various film festivals by storm, I did not know what to expect when I first saw it, as Miike is well known for his unpredictable nature. But fortunately it was a very straightforward hearkening back to the Golden Age of Samurai films, as a fan of the genre, I loved it.

Blockbuster Review: Conan The Barbarian 2011

After the pleasant surprise of the last Hollywood blockbuster I watched and review, Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes, we return to yet another wholly unnecessary, entirely awful re-imagining of an 80's classic.

Conan the Barbarian was directed by Marcus Nispel, who is mainly known for a couple of reimaginings of classic horror films and the very poorly received Pathfinder. And was written by an assortments of writers, all of which have pretty terrible scripts to their names.
It stars Jason Momoa as the titular character, as well as Rose McGowan, Ron Perlman and Stephen Lang.

The original Conan The Barbarian was by no means a great film, and certainly wasn't a particularly successful one as it failed in it's aim to launch the heroic fantasy genre into mainstream cinema and only succeeded in propelling Arnold Shwarzenegger into a career full of terrible action films.

But at least that film had aims to speak of, and fulfilled a purpose of sorts (whether it was a good purpose is a matter of opinion of course), but this remake is nothing more than an enormous waste of money in the worst possible kind of way.

Blockbuster Review: Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes - 2011

The more I grow as a film buff, the further I move away from Hollywood blockbusters, which nonetheless sum up the medium for the majority of people.
I have discovered some wonderful works of cinema over the past couple of years, and yet I am still unable to completely ignore Hollywood blockbusters, I am time and time again disappointed and yet I still persist in seeing most of the major ones each year. And for once, I'm glad I did, for I have finally come across a film that sits squarely within the category of blockbuster and yet is a very good film, proving that while enormous amounts of money doesn't guarantee quality, it does not make it impossible to obtain either.

Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes is everything one could want from a blockbuster, and nothing more, it is not a great film by any means, but it is all a blockbuster should be, something that seems increasingly hard for blockbusters to deliver these days.