Another week and another batch of films opening. What’s on the big screen this week?

THE RAID 2

I was a big fan of the first Raid film. It was a small, contained showcase of action, martial arts and creative violence. Sure, there was barely any plot to be had, but no one really minded. While that was a showcase, The Raid 2 is more of an actual film with a sprawling world and story and time to breath between the carnage.

It takes everything you loved of the original and dials it up to 11 with the most brutal, inventive and just plain fun violence I have ever witnessed on screen. This is a big call from a guy who grew up in the action film heyday of the 80’s and 90’s like myself. It’s one of the best ever. It also sports one of my all time favourite car chase sequences ever to boot.

It’s bloody, violent and breathtaking.

It’s only showing at Hoyts Carousel here in WA so make sure you go out of your way to catch it while it’s here.

NOAH

Acclaimed director of Black Swan, Darren Aronofsky takes the age old bible story of Noah’s Ark and turns it into a big screen action disaster film. Does this ship float? Not really.

No need to dig out your bibles as Aronofsky has taken many liberties with the story. Fallen angels trapped on Earth as some manner of rock monster? Sure. An epic battle at the foot of the Ark as the horde tries to board the Ark? Why not?.

A lot of leaps of faith and suspensions of belief are needed throughout Noah, which is probably apt for something based off of a bible story. There’s a lot of deus ex machina, weird leaps of logic and just plain head scratching semantics to consider for the duration.

It’s one of those films where you find yourself laughing at odd moments and those around you at other moments. Yet it isn’t a comedy by any stretch of the imagination.

On the plus side Noah isn’t as outrageously filled with religion as you’d think. Heck, we get acknowledgment of the big bang and evolution. While being set in our past Noah could easily exist in our far flung future with the science fiction and post apocalyptic vibe the world has pre-flood.

Not enough to save this one, however.

MR PEABODY & SHERMAN

With only a vague recollection of the original show and a couple of junior reviewers in tow I went along to Mr Peabody unsure what to expect. I came out pleasantly surprised with two very happy wee ones.

For those who don’t recall, Mr Peabody is the story of a genius dog and his adopted son travelling through time in educational adventures. It was on Rocky and Bullwinkle way back when.

The gap between the really good and bad animated films seems to be quite high in recent years. It’s either one extreme or the other. This one hits the upper middle for myself as an adult. Decent but not spectacular. I was entertained and snickered at the jokes going above the kids’ heads and wasn’t constantly checking my watch. To be fair the steady stream of terrible puns was always going to win my favour.

More importantly though, the two young lads with me had thoroughly enjoyed it in every sense. They raved about it the whole drive home and I was hearing about it a week later. Really this is the ideal type of film in that sense. The kids loved it and I didn’t want to shoot myself during it. Great success!