Tag Archives: Tom Holland

Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

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Avengers: Infinity War
Director: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo
Writer: Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely
Based on: the comics by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Sequel to: The Avengers, Avengers: Age of Ultron
Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany, Don Cheadle, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Holland, Chadwick Boseman, Zoe Saldana, Karen Gillan, Tom Hiddleston, Sebastian Stan, Danai Gurira, Peter Dinklage, Benedict Wong, Pom Klementieff, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Gwyneth Paltrow, Benicio Del Toro, Josh Brolin, Chris Pratt, Sean Gunn, William Hurt, Letitia Wright, Carrie Coon, Winston Duke, Florence Kasumba, Anthony Mackie, Idris Elba, Samuel L. Jackson, Stan Lee
Part of: Marvel movies
Seen on: 2.5.2018

Plot:
Thanos (Josh Brolin) has reached the final stages of his plan: he will collect all of the Infinity Stones and with their power reshape the universe after his own ideas. The hunt for the stones makes him cross paths with the Avengers on Earth, as well as the Guardians and the Asgardian refugees in space, leading to them coming together in a desperate effort to stop him and his plans.

Avengers: Infinity War is the culmination of more than a decade of films. That alone makes it a momentous, if not to say monumental film. And it’s not bad per se, but it does feel like a step down from the recent absolute highlights that were Black Panther and Thor: Ragnarok.

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Child’s Play (1988)

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Child’s Play
Director: Tom Holland
Writer: Don Mancini, John Lafia, Tom Holland
Cast: Catherine Hicks, Chris Sarandon, Alex Vincent, Brad Dourif, Dinah Manoff, Tommy Swerdlow
Seen on: 3.9.2017
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Plot:
Charles Lee Ray (Brad Dourif) is being chased by the police, particularly Detective Mike Norris (Chris Sarandon). He flees into a toystore where he’s shot. But Charles is versed in voodoo – and manages to transfer his soul into one of the Good Guy dolls on sale. Through some twists of fate, the doll ends up with Karen Barclay (Catherine Hicks) who got the doll for her son Andy (Alex Vincent). Just because he lives in a doll, though, Charles hasn’t left behind his murderous ways – and he needs an actual human body soon, before he turns into the doll he possesses.

When it was announced that they would show the latest “Chucky” film at the /slash Filmfestival this year, I knew I had to get started on closing that particular gap in my horror movie knowledge. Child’s Play, then, wasn’t bad, though the reason for the cult status of the series didn’t become apparent to me.

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Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

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Spider-Man: Homecoming
Director: Jon Watts
Writer: Jonathan Goldstein, John Francis Daley, Jon Watts, Christopher Ford, Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers
Based on: Stan Lee and Steve Ditko‘s comic
Cast: Tom Holland, Michael Keaton, Robert Downey Jr., Marisa Tomei, Jon Favreau, Gwyneth Paltrow, Zendaya, Donald Glover, Jacob Batalon, Laura Harrier, Tony Revolori, Hannibal Buress, Angourie Rice, Martin Starr, Michael Chernus, Logan Marshall-Green, Jennifer Connelly, Chris Evans
Part of: Marvel movies
Seen on: 18.7.2017
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Plot:
Peter (Tom Holland) is excited about the new superpowers he has gained and wants to become a proper superhero, like Iron Man/Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) who recruited him not too long ago. But now Tony is keeping him at arm’s length and Peter is supposed to keep a low profile and go to high school, when he just wants to be properly heroic Spider-Man. When a new villain makes an appearance, Peter can’t keep still, though. Something needs to be done. And if nobody else does it, he will.

Spider-Man: Homecoming is entertaining and fun and has its fair share of problems. I enjoyed it, but not without reservations.

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Captain America: Civil War (2016)

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Captain America: Civil War
Director: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo
Writer: Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely
Based on: the comic by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby
Sequel to: Captain America: The First Avenger, Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Cast: Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Sebastian Stan, Scarlett Johansson, Anthony Mackie, Don Cheadle, Jeremy Renner, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Rudd, Emily VanCamp, Tom Holland, Daniel Brühl, Frank Grillo, Martin Freeman, William Hurt, Marisa Tomei, John Kani, John Slattery, Hope Davis, Alfre Woodard, Stan Lee
Part of: Marvel movies
Seen on: 1.5.2016

Plot:
After the recent events surrounding the Avengers, the UN feels it necessary to institute some kind of regulation for the action of superheroes. Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) who feels guilty about all the damage, destruction and death that happened on his watch and due to his decisions, thinks that’s a very good idea, while Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) fears that they will cease to be an effective task force, bogged down by bureaucracy, if they have to wait for approval by somebody else. And who’s to say that that somebody will make the right decisions and work for the right things? This disagreement causes a schism in the Avengers – a schism that only gets broader when Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) is accused of planting a bomb in the UN meeting where the regulation is to be discussed and Steve wants to protect him at all cost.

I like the Marvel Cinematic Universe. So far, the films were always entertaining, even if varying in quality. With Avengers: Age of Ultron, [or with Guardians of the Galaxy although that isn’t that closely connected] they started to stumble, though and those smaller missteps are starting to get more notable the longer the series goes on. Civil War proves that: while it was far from awful and delivered on many counts, I felt more unsatisfied with it than with most of the earlier MCU films.

captainamericacivilwar

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In the Heart of the Sea (2015)

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In the Heart of the Sea
Director: Ron Howard
Writer: Charles Leavitt
Based on: Nathaniel Philbrick‘s book In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex
Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Benjamin Walker, Cillian Murphy, Brendan Gleeson, Ben Whishaw, Michelle Fairley, Tom Holland, Paul Anderson, Frank Dillane, Joseph Mawle, Jordi Mollà
Seen on: 9.12.2015

Plot:
Herman Melville (Ben Whishaw) finds the last survivor of the Whaleship Essex, Thomas Nickerson (Brendan Gleeson) and interviews him about what happened out there. Nickerson tells him how Owen Chase (Chris Hemsworth), who was promised a capitaincy by the whaling company, gets sidelined in favor of George Pollard (Benjamin Walker), an inexperienced young captain who brings the right pedigree to the table. Chase is pressured into being Pollard’s first mate and despite strong tension between the two men, they set out to go whale hunting. But pretty much everything that can go wrong on the whaling trip, does.

When I saw the first trailer for In the Heart of the Sea, I thought that it was actually a prequel movie for Moby Dick. Turns out, that’s not true: instead it’s the fictionalized story of the real life ship wreck that to some extent inspired Melville to write Moby Dick. And while I don’t care much for Moby Dick itself, so I have the suspicion that I wouldn’t have liked a prequel story better. At least if it was a boring reiteration of a story we’ve seen a million times alread like this film turned out to be.

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Locke (2013)

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Locke
Director: Steven Knight
Writer: Steven Knight
Cast: Tom Hardy, Olivia Colman, Ruth Wilson, Andrew Scott, Ben Daniels, Tom Holland

Plot:
Ivan Locke (Tom Hardy) is a construction manager and loving father who prides himself in being absolutely reliable. Nevertheless he gets into his car after he receives a call one night and drives away from the biggest challenge his company ever faced and from his family.

Locke is an amazing film that proves once again how little you actually need to tell a compelling story. Despite the fact that all you see is Tom Hardy driving, I was glued to the screen for the entire time.

locke

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Hatchet II (2010)

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Hatchet II
Director: Adam Green
Writer: Adam Green
Sequel to: Hatchet
Cast: Danielle Harris, Tony Todd, Kane Hodder, Parry Shen, Tom Holland, AJ Bowen, Mercedes McNab, Joleigh Fioravanti, Shawn Ashmore (for about 3 seconds before getting his face sliced off)

Plot [with Spoilers for Hatchet]:
Marybeth (Danielle Harris) just barely escaped Victor Crowley (Kane Hodder) and she’s the only one from her group. She returns into town to ask Reverend Zombie (Tony Todd) for help. Zombie agrees and gets together a band of mercenaries for support. But there is more to his agreement to help than pure altruism and Victor Crowley is far from dealt with.

Hatchet II is a decent continuation of the series. It concentrates more on the gore and less on the sexism, which I appreciated. But it also rehashes a bit and makes the ending of the first movie worse in hindsight.

Hatchet-II

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Lo imposible [The Impossible] (2012)

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Lo imposible
Director: Juan Antonio Bayona
Writer: Sergio G. Sánchez
Based on: María Belón’s story
Cast: Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor, Tom Holland, Samuel Joslin, Oaklee Pendergast, Sönke Möhring, Geraldine Chaplin

Plot:
Maria (Naomi Watts) and Henry (Ewan McGregor) and their three sons Lucas (Tom Holland), Thomas (Samuel Joslin) and Simon (Oaklee Pendergast) are flying to Thailand for their Christmas holidays. Everything is as they had planned – that is until a tsunami hits and splits the entire family up. Lucas and Maria find each other floating close to each other, but Maria is gravely injured. A few natives find them and bring them to the hospital but their adventure is far from over. At the same time, Henry who has found Thomas and Simon sends them to a shelter on their own while he continues his search for Maria and Lucas.

The Impossible is an absolute tear-jerker, and a completely effective one. It’s also perfectly acted and well-paced with a soundtrack that plays on your emotions as much as on their instruments.

The-Impossible

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Fright Night (1985)

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Fright Night is Tom Holland‘s first movie, starring William Ragsdale, Chris Sarandon, Amanda Bearse, Roddy McDowall and Stephen Geoffreys.

Plot:
Charley (William Ragsdale) is a pretty normal teenager, who’s into the Fright Night TV show with Peter Vincent (Roddy McDowall), which mostly concerns itself with hunting vampires. So, it’s no surprise that Charley immediately assumes that the new neighbour – the charismatic Jerry Dandridge (Chris Sarandon) – is a vampire. What does come as a surprise, though, is when this assumption turns out to be true.

I had never actually seen Fright Night, even though it’s such a classic. Now that it’s being remade (with an awesome cast), I just had to close this gap in my cinematic education.
Anyway, it’s funny, decently acted and has a good script. It’s not as brilliant as I expected it to be, but it’s entertaining. If you expect scary, you”ll be disappointed though.

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