Popcorn Bites! Movie & TV Series Reviews

Popcorn Bites!​

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Om nom nom. What's a Television & Movie board without its own review thread, huh!? ​

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Information

Why hello there, weary viewer! (You've been binge watching your favourite TV show, haven't you?) Are you itching to watch a new TV show or movie? Bored of the same old re-runs airing on TV? Well, why not grab a chair (unless you're already seated), put up those feet, aim yer peepers at this here thread and let the good people of Lake Valor throw out in the depths of our dearest lake some prime pieces of eye-goggling visual entertainment.

Constructed with the much appreciated assistance of @[member="sohrob101"] , this thread will endeavor to provide you with some in-depth reviews of the latest TV Shows & movies, which will be posted exclusively on LakeValor! Woohoo! Bearing the spirit of community in mind, anyone, and I mean anyone can go ahead and submit a review, be it a TV series (taking into account the show as a whole, rather than individual episodes) or a movie. Buuuuut. There is one teeny tiny caveat; anyone submitting a review must have made at least 10 posts (just so we know you're not a random passerby. Sorry~)

Submissions
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So then. How will we handle the posting of reviews? Well, unfortunately, I've elected to keep our dear review thread locked at all times. This is done so as to prevent random posts and comments from disrupting the flow of hopefully plentiful reviews. Fret not, however; if all goes well, a "Movie/TV Show Review Discussion & Suggestions" thread will appear soon enough. As for the reviews themselves, we'd like to see an array of fairly content-heavy reviews, following a specific format, which will be posted further down in this entry. In the meantime, here are some rules that we'd like you to pay attention to;​

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RULES
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Spoiler

• Reviews are restricted to two per person per month. You can review two movies OR two (finished) TV Shows OR one of each.
• Keep any potential spoilers or important twists 'n' turns in your film/show of choice in spoiler tags (which are well deserving of their name in this context!)
• Rather than giving the media you are to review x out of five stars or a score ranging from 1 to 10, we would prefer if you instead give a 'see it in theaters', 'buy it' or 'rent it' summation (note that this might be revised in the future).
• Properties that we'd like to be reviewed must stem from what's currently in theatres or available to rent/buy. We'd love if every movie/tv show in all of existence was legally available for viewing, but sometimes this is not the case. We will of course consider some golden oldies for review, but we will restrict this. As such, you are only permitted to submit a review of a movie older than five years once a month. TV shows are an exception to this, but any TV Show with a 1st episode airdate predating 1990 is not allowed to be reviewed.
• Any completed TV show (whose run has finished and new episodes have ceased airing) can be reviewed, on the condition that they have not been cancelled, as such shows might act as an deterrent for some viewers and may also contain cliffhangers never since resolved.
• Try not to be biased in your review. Yes, we're human, we're gonna dislike certain aspects of whatever the heck we're looking at. But please, do not use your review as a platform upon which you'll launch into a tirade about something.
• 'Bad' films, which have achieved a weighted '25%' or less 'rotten' rating over on RottenTomatoes can be reviewed, but please only carry out a review of one if you are truly stuck for something to review
• The minimum word count for a review is 550 words. You must also have good grammar and sentence structure in your review, using appropriate punctuation and layout, and Not Capitalist The First Letter Of Every Word. We're looking for the best of the best here, folks! Maximum word count should settle in around the 1,500 - 2,000 word bracket, realistically aiming for the lower end. (We'd love detail, but at the same time we'd like quality over quantity!)
• Any movies or TV shows that you'd like to review must first be suggested to either Sohrob101 or myself (for the time being) first. This is to prevent duplicate reviews, amongst other reasons. Then, once you've completed your review, please send it on to either of us so that we may glance over it before we'll allow you to post it.
• Staff will, naturally, have the final say on whether a review can be posted or not.
• Reviews must be your own work; plagiarizing of someone else's work is forbidden and could result in an infraction. Citations for certain points you wish to make are allowed, and are in fact encouraged.

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Woo, that's a lot to digest, huh! Aside from those rules, here are some points we would like you to consider;
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• Be mindful of age ratings. Movies/TV shows that have been given a 12A/PG-13 (or equivalent rating in your country) are allowed without limits, but anything rated 15+ or above must be discussed with Sohrob101, myself or another member of staff.

In relation to movie sequels, if someone decides to review one entry, them and only them can then go on to review the rest of the movie series.

Aaaaannnnddddd here's a handy template we'd like your review to follow;

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NAME

POSTER

BLURB

CAST

REVIEWED BY

REVIEW (at least three, solid paragraphs)

FINAL WORDS (???)

VERDICT ('see it in theaters', 'buy it' or 'rent it')

TRAILER (optional)

WHERE TO WATCH (optional)

Now, hopefully you're still with me. *sweats* To show our appreciation for receiving any reviews, those whose work manages to find its way into a post in this thread will earn themselves a whooping 1,000 PokéPoints, ain't that sweet!?

Thank you for reading! (and if you happen to have any questions, feel free to PM me!)​

 

CHAPPiE​

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CAST​

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Spoiler

Sharlto Copley - Chappie​

Dev Patel - Deon Wilson
Ninja Ninja - Ninja
Yo-Landi Visser - Yolandi
Jose Pablo Cantillo - Yankie (Amerika)
Hugh Jackman - Vincent Moore
Sigourney Weaver - Michelle Bradley
Brandon Auret - Hippo

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REVIEWED BY: Reckless​

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REVIEW:​

Ahhh. Robots and mildly dystopian themes. Some of my favourite features to see represented in film, games and novels. I love me some good ol' futuristic storytelling, and I had wanted to check out this lil' gem from director Neill Blomkamp (Elysium, District 9) for quite a while. Originally based on Blomkamp's 2004 short film Tetra Vaal, this feature is set in south Africa in 2016 and centres around one engineer's dream of creating an artificial intelligence. Said engineer, Deon Wilson (Dev Partel), was already the poster boy for a weapons manufacture (whose name, 'Tetravaal', comes from Blomkamp's aforementioned short!) having being the sole creator of a squadron of battle-ready police robots. Mr. Wilson inevitably succeeds in conceiving an artificial intelligence and, despite facing opposition from his superiors, pilfers a recently written off police robot along with the tools and software needed to implement his dream.​

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Thus, enter Chappie, a lovable bucket of bolts who can bolster his repertoire of words and abilities by route learning, going from the mindset of a child to a fully functional being in less than a week. Whilst I was really taken by the film's titular character, some critics have, rather unfavorably, likened him to Star Wars' Jar Jar Binks, so I suppose that's worth keeping in mind if you'd like to check out this film. Brought into being in the company of gangsters, one of the many aspects concerning dear Chappie that I really liked was the way he would adopt the mannerisms of his surrogate parents. So! Picture a robot trying to strut like a hardy gangster, and you wouldn't be far off! Plus, the way his ears/antennae twitched and moved in relation to his 'mood' and feelings gave the ol' robot a humbling aspect. That, and well, some amount of soul searching and talk of 'the next place' certainly helped to stress the 'this is no ordinary robot' line. ​

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But what's a robot without enemies? That's where Vincent Moore (Hugh Jackman) comes into the picture. An ex-soldier turned engineer (*sigh* movie clichés, how are you...), Mr. Moore had been spearheading his own robotics project, codenamed MOOSE (unless that's an acronym for something...I'm not getting why it was called that). His project has dwelt...somewhat in the shadows of Mr. Wilson's robots, whom the local police have decided to go with rather than Moore's huge monstrosity. Now, in my opinion the best way I could describe 'MOOSE' to you is if you'd think of Metal Gear Solid's REX, in that MOOSE is also a Nuclear-armed bipedal tank, only rather than being controlled by an on-board pilot, MOOSE is controlled remotely via...some heavily-VR-inspired tech...Yay for sci-fi filmssss.....Whilst Jackman's character gives off small hints of him being a god-fearing purist, vaguely prattling on about a 'day of reckoning,' I thought it was nice to see him play a villain, for once. Whilst I did prefer his roles in other movies that included robots a great deal more, such as Real Steel and X-Men: Days Of Future Past, he still gave a good show in this somewhat off-the-cuff feature.​

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It would be silly not to talk about a film without giving a shout out to its vistas and background imagery. Don't expect to see fancy villas or astounding architecture; you'll be primary shown where the dregs of society make their commodes, and observe what they go to get by. The city of Johannesburg is painted in an imperfect light, full of stark greys and grungy locales, where fauna blooms in the wreckage of crumbling ruins, which really comes to a head near the close of the film when anarchy breaks out in the streets, and yet still hope persists. They were times when the rich clashed with the poor (including a very humourous section where Chappie was instructed to hijack cars), and debates of morality, as Chappie tries for himself to determine what is right from what is wrong. Yes, even when the narrative takes a few harsh turns, our dear Chappie and his rough-and-tumble surrogate family keep it together as they continue onward, no matter how good or how bad things look. ​

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FINAL WORDS; Whilst the supporting characters may not get you as invested as the shuriken hurling, naive little robot's plight in an unforgiving world, the journey of Chappie is one that any movie-goer (or Blomkamp's, for that matter) should at least consider checking out. If anything, it's certainly one of the best sci-fi film offerings released this year.​

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Verdict: Rent it! ​

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TRAILER​

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7lBDHaY4M0​

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WHERE TO WATCH;​

Available on demand, to rent and buy right now!​