Guilty Pleasures #50 - Kingsman: The Golden Circle

Last year, I reviewed Kingsman: The Secret Service. An over the top and flamboyant movie but with clever humour and dialogue, with good actors delivering it that made it all seem worthwhile. It spoofed some of the spy clichés, although it did revel in plenty of its own. But I was on board for every second of it.

A sequel is out, and it made about the same amount of money, around $410m although this had a slightly higher budget of $104m. Critically this movie was less well received, 52% on Rotten Tomatoes and an audience score 65%, with average ratings 5.3/10 and 3.6/5 respectively. But where do I stand? Let’s take a look:

Mini Review - Blade II

The original Blade was a fun time, and it was successful, so in Hollywood tradition a sequel was green-lit. Now, I’ve spotted a problem with Blade’s longevity, he is a Vampire Hunter, and as such he doesn’t have a variety of rogues like other comic book characters, generally either someone from the hierarchy of vampires or random Avengers villains. As such I worry the action can get a little stale, something I’ll come back to in the review.

Wesley Snipes and David S Goyer were both involved as star and writer respectively, with the directing this time handed to Guillermo del Toro, last seen here when I did Pacific Rim but also known for the the Oscar winning The Shape of Water. The film gathered a mixed reception with a 57% on Rotten Tomatoes, just below the Fresh threshold of 60% with the average score being 5.9/10. That said, it was successful, earning over $150m on a $55m budget and sadly ensuring the green-lighting of Blade Trinity, we will get to that.

This review was originally scheduled for back in July, but got pushed back as my DVD was skipping moments and I felt I’d be rushing to judgement.

#67 - The Emoji Movie

This little black mark in the history of pop culture was a long time coming. I promised myself I’d never pay money for this movie, so I’m going to be streaming it on Sky Cinema instead. That’s why this review has taken so long.

But here we are, here we are. The Emoji Movie was released in 2017, and still haunts the nightmares of everyone who watched it, earning an 8% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which puts it at Fant4stic levels… yeah, this is gonna be a tough one.

It did make money, $250m on a $50m budget but when you find out that Incredibles 2 broke $1bn worldwide this summer, this is relatively pathetic by comparison. Still, it’s sad this movie made money, we’re to blame people. But let’s just dive in and see how bad this is…

Netflix Retrospective - Voltron: Legendary Defender - Season 3 Episodes 4-7

We’re back, so let’s finish off season 3 of Voltron

Mini Review - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Alright, let’s start with my history with this group

Yeah, I’ve not seen any of the shows, or any of the movies, I just happened to hear all the buzz for this one, in particular an element I’ll discuss later. Released in 2014, it made nearly $500m on its $125m budget, earning a modest profit for the studios involved and enough to get a sequel, but a story for another day.

Critics were less than happy with it, it holds a 22% rating on Rotten Tomatoes with an average 4.2/10 score, audiences took to it a bit better, it holds a 51% audience rating with an average 3.3/5 score, still not fantastic by any means.

Netflix Retrospective - Voltron: Legendary Defender - Season 3 Episodes 1-3

Netflix wanted to get the show out faster, and so began splitting the planned seasons into smaller mini-seasons, the next 4 seasons are either 6 or 7 episodes long, and as such seasons 3 and 5 don’t feel entirely complete. That said, it does mean I can do season 3 in 2 retrospectives before we hit the Christmas hiatus so… Here’s season 3 of Voltron