SteveParkes’s Film Reviews

30 Films have been rated or reviewed by SteveParkes.

Fringe (TV Series) (2008): Yeah what Aro Video said.
Hanna (2011): Example of a film being good with an average script. The script is not poor, but it is fairly slight. Uses sound & vision to create one of the most entertaining films of last year. Great performances & soundtrack complete a shinny action movie.
Piranha (2010): Begins with beautiful landscapes & bodies, and continues with beautiful gore. Climax like a Normandy beech invasion (medics desperately help dismembered survivors struggling ashore). B–grade fun with good sense of humour, clever cast & 70s–horror patina.
Scott Pilgrim Vs The World (2010): Faithful movie adaptation of the comic it's based on, this works by showing an appealing merge of the formal qualities of both media. Rife with clever dialogue and visuals, it embodies 'comic' fun in both senses of the word.
Kick-Ass (2010): Affectionate superhero satire; great action; hilarious black comedy; nice coming of age story with a great message for kids about keeping things in perspective. Shame about the rating; if they put in a bit of Christian torture porn it could’ve been R16.
Sherlock Holmes (2009): Trailers looked bad, but was pretty good. The 'supernatural' tease was well handled. RDJ was likable, Strong was a good baddy, decent script, Ritchie’s directorial style suited the material. Saved me from a bitterly cold afternoon stuck in Invercargill.
Avatar (2009): Cameron can wend genre tropes into good stories & direct action well. But not here. He even rips off his ideas from earlier films (eg exo–suit from Aliens). Risible dialogue, trite message, simplistic politics, tired & badly constructed plot. And dull.
Twelve Monkeys (12 Monkeys) (1996): Classic SF thriller; the themes and suspense are ingeniously developed from the time travel plot. Gilliam’s quirky style compliments the clever, slightly surreal, but tight script. Great performances perfect the tragic, compelling story.
Fast and the Furious 3, The - Tokyo Drift (2006): Lin brings deft direction, the car races, set in an interesting cramped urban milieu, are much improved. Embracing the trashy but slick nature that such a film should, surprisingly, this is easily the best of the series. 楽しみ!
2 Fast 2 Furious (The Fast and the Furious 2) (2003): Pointless 2nd instalment moves setting, and just as Miami is a less interesting city than LA, this film is dull by comparison to the 1st. Bland performances and the excessive CG in the car races irritates. It's your old–fashioned cheap, rubbishy sequel.

Main menu

Section navigation menu

SteveParkes’s Film Reviews