Syan Rican Vs Movies: Ant-Man

  Ever since Marvel announced plans to make an Avengers movie, the question in fans' mind has always been about how Ant-Man and Wasp would fit in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Fast forward to two Avengers movies and Ant-Man had yet to make his MCU debut. Ultron, the creation of Hank Pym in the comics has already appeared in this Universe but his "father" had yet to grace out screens. But Marvel didn't sit on their laurels for long, the story of Hank Pym and the Pym Particles had yet to be told. Enter the last film of Marvel's Cinematic Phase Two: Ant-Man.

"So.. We're calling the Avengers, right?" 

Syan Vs Movies: Terminator Genisys

He said he’d be back.  He said “Hasta la vista, baby,” and la vista es ahora, bebe! The Terminator franchise has a new installment and its Genisys has begun in this sequel-reboot. Time-travel shenanigans to the max!     

This is the face the audience makes
when Pops is on the screen

Terminator: Genisys tells us the story of Kyle Reese being sent back in time to protect Sarah Connor, the mother of the leader of the resistance, from being killed by a murderous robot known as a Terminator.  …wait, that sounds super familiar, isn’t that the plot of the original Terminator?  I meant what I said about time-travel shenanigans.  Genisys is a sequel and a reboot simultaneously, showing that each step back in time fractures reality somewhat, creating multiple different timelines.  This explains why Judgment Day has moved from 1997 to 2017, and all sorts of dates in between. 

Syan Vs Movies: Spy

 Spy is the newest Melissa McCarthy-led comedy film to come out after she burst into stardom with Bridesmaids and her television series Mike and Molly.  McCarthy’s manic motor-mouth delivery has kept her in high demand for work in Hollywood, but a lot of people held reservations about this new film after the disasters of Tammy and Identity Thief made many believe her to be played out and a one-trick pony.  Thankfully, Spy is much more like her buddy comedy The Heat than either of those other two comedies.

Best spy action since Kingsman
played Freebird

Spy stars McCarthy as Susan Cooper, an FBI agent acting as the desk support to a high-level agent, Bradley Fine, played by Jude Law.  Cooper is nervous and awkwardly flirtatious with Fine, but he is oblivious to her feelings.  After a deadly villain, Rayna Boyanov, played by Rose Byrne, reveals she has data on all the active FBI agents, Cooper steps up to volunteer for the mission, as she had passed all of her field duty exams… with flying colors. 

Syan Vs Movies: Jurassic World

22 years after the release of Jurassic Park, we get the fourth installment in the series, Jurassic World.  Now, I will fully admit that I was never the biggest fan of the original, even as a kid I thought it was too silly and that Tim was annoying.  It had dinosaurs, though, and felt like they were just huge animals. Sure, the Tyrannosaurus Rex was a hungry killer, but he was hunting for food.  The Raptors used their pack to surprise and corner people (Clever girl!) and their intelligence to slowly adapt to their surroundings, like when they learned how to open doors.  Jurassic World chose to forgo any semblance of making a movie about the terrifying power of nature and instead made a monster movie using basic horror themes and then tries to become a kaiju tokusatsu at the end. 

It looks pretty bad, but she gets it SO much worse than you expect.
Like ridiculously over-the-top

We open the movie with a shot of an egg having a claw burst out and a sinister reptilian eye peeking out, showing that this movie’s focus is on horror movie tropes, rather than human character development.  It then shifts to Gray (Ty Simpkins) and Zach (Nick Robinson), two brothers who are both as infuriating as Tim was in the original. Gray is precocious motormouth who wildly runs about, while Zach is an angsty teen who just wants to stare at girls and rebel against authority.  A rushed and unresolved plot of their parents’ potential divorce is introduced before they are shipped off to Jurassic World for a vacation with their Aunt Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard), who runs the day-to-day business of the theme park and is regimented and firm in following a planned agenda.  Last we meet the two opposite ends of the military training spectrum, Hoskins (Vincent D’Onofrio) who has a need to mention he wants to use dinosaurs in military operations every time he opens his mouth, and Owen (Chris Pratt) our hero who trains velociraptors.

The Ride is Over: Entourage the Movie Review

  Being mildly interested in the show for a better part of the last decade, I've enjoyed my on and off relationship with the Entourage series. Chronicling  the acting career of Vincent Chase and his childhood friends: Eric "E" Murphy, Salvatore "Turtle" Asante, Johnny "Drama" Chase from New York, and their agent Ari Gold as they navigate the unfamiliar terrain of Los Angeles, California. The series, in fact, mimics Mark Wahlberg's experiences with his friends as an up and coming star in Hollywood in the late 90s. 

Syan Vs Movies: San Andreas

San Andreas is the most recent disaster movie that Hollywood has churned out. Dwayne Johnson (we don’t still need to call him the Rock, do we?) stars as Ray Gaines, a Los Angeles Fire Department helicopter rescue pilot.  Ray is celebrated as being one of the most outstanding rescue operators with over 200 successful operations. We find out that Ray is in the process of divorcing his wife Emma (Carla Gugino) who has begun a new relationship with a wealthy architect named Daniel (Ioan Gruffudd).  Ray and Emma remain in Los Angeles while their daughter, Blake (Alexandra Daddario), goes to San Francisco with Daniel.  Blake meets a pair of kind brothers named Ben (Hugo Johnstone-Burt) and Ollie (Art Parkinson) while in Daniel’s San Francisco office.

The effects used for this movie are gorgeous.
Who knew destruction could be beautiful?
Deidara?

While they all go about their lives, a seismologist professor named Lawrence (Paul Giamatti) discovers a trend of magnetic spikes before earthquakes which allows him to predict the occurrences, but not before the Hoover Dam collapses in a huge earthquake. Lawrence then warns that California will be hit by huge earthquakes along the San Andreas Fault.  And so the stage is set for the action of San Andreas.

Syan Vs Movies: The Tale of Princess Kaguya

A.k.a. “It Was Better In Okami”

In Okami, both characters were likeable

Based on a thousand year old folktale, “The Tale of Princess Kaguya” tells the story of a tiny child found in the woods by a Bamboo Cutter who is raised up to become a princess before she returns to her mysterious home.

This is the illustrious Studio Ghibli’s 19^th feature film and the 12^th film directed by one of its founders, Isao Takahata.  While a visionary director in his own right, Takahata has long been overshadowed by his more successful peer in Hayao Miyazaki. So now, with Miyazaki having already released his final film “The Wind Rises,” Takahata has an opportunity to show himself as a preeminent director of animation.

Syan Vs Movies: Pitch Perfect 2

The dirtier but funnier version of Glee is back, but is it as good as the first?  Beca (Anna Kendrick), Chloe (Brittany Snow), Fat Amy (Rebel Wilson) and the rest return as the Barden Bellas who are the reigning a capella nationals champions for the last three years, however, they have a disastrous accident occur during a huge performance and are stripped of their right to perform and will be disbanded unless they win the world championship.

The Bellas get the kiss-off from singing if they can't win

Along with getting ready for the world title, they gain a new member Emily (Hailee Steinfeld) who wants to become a songwriter, Beca works at her internship to plan for her future, and Fat Amy looks into her relationship with Bumper.

Syan Vs Movies- Mad Max: Fury Road

After 30 years Max Rockatansky has returned the big screen and the action does not stop for a moment. Hop into the War Rig and ride through this dangerous Fury Road. With Tom Hardy in the titular role, replacing Mel Gibson, and Charlize Theron acting in the lead role as Imperator Furiosa, this is a hit.  Oh, what a ride, what a lovely ride.

Immortan Joe is Sweet Tooth's descendant

With a longer hiatus than Doctor Who, Mad Max had a lot to do in order to reintroduce himself to modern audience. The choice to go with a movie that is light on plot and heavy on action worked heavily to its benefit. Mad Max: Fury Road can have its entire storyline boiled down to “Max joins up with a group of women on the run from a crazed dictator.” It’s that simple. It’s not a big character study, it’s an action-packed run and the movie industry NEEDS those from time to time.

The One With The Live Studio Audience: Avengers- Age of Ultron review

Another new episode of the Syan & Rican Podcast is now available!

We review Avengers: Age of Ultron and look into the potential future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, especially what could happen when Civil War hits the big screen or when Thanos finally enters the fray.

Five babyfaces, two tweeners, and a heel

The One With The Live Studio Audience

Give it a listen and post your thoughts either here or on the Syan & Rican PodOMatic homepage!

Don't forget to hit the subscribe button so you never miss an episode!

I can't be the only one who wants to buy this statue, right?

You can also catch our episodes on our iTunes Syan & Rican page!

And you can follow us on Twitter @syanofflame and @StrawHatRican, so ask any questions or give any comments you'd like!

Thanks!

Syan Vs Movies: Ex Machina

As this is my first movie review here in the No Kayfabe Zone, I want to preface that, unless I note otherwise within a review, I never give out any real spoilers for a film, just set up and character moments that are interesting. I also do not like to give score ratings for movies, a la 3/5 stars or B+, because I would rather describe how I feel about the movie at the end and note if I would rewatch it.

Caleb, Ava, and Nathan
Who do you trust?

Any movie that has a principle cast of only three characters has a huge hurdle to jump as far as keeping the audience entertained. All of the actors need to captivate and own their screen time. Some of the best performances people have given are under these circumstances, such as Sandra Bullock in Gravity, Ryan Reynolds in Buried, and James Franco in 127 Hours.  There are also some of the most boring films if the actors aren’t given much to do, such as the terrible Open Water. Luckily, Ex Machina is amazingly well-acted.