23 Oct 2018, 21:58 | #6851 |
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Harry Potter Film Series in preparation for the new Fantastic Beasts film:
Philosophers Stone: 2.5/5 basic kiddies Christmas flick. Lots of world building and all of Harry's lines are along the lines of "What's that!" Decent enough but doesn't feel like a proper movie story... feels like they filmed every page of a book. Chamber Of Secrets: 3/5 better with a more focused plot. Numbingly long though. But better acting all round. Prisoner Of Azkaban: 4/5 a huge improvement, the first one that feels like a focused movie. Clever plot drives on rails towards the finish. Funnier, much better acting. Goblet Of Fire: 4.5/5 my favourite one of the franchise. As driven as the previous one but now with decent acting, better characters, huge action, genuine danger, and the return of you know who. Awesome stuff. Order Of The Phoenix: 3.5/5 Oh dear. Based on a long and tedious book, the film is over long and tedious. Imelda Staunton plays the part really well. Everything else is filler. Oh and Harry teaches some kids some stuff. Half point extra for the end battle but it takes soooo long to get there. Half Blood Prince: 2/5 sooooo dull. They are now films for Harry Potter fanatics with little to recommend them if you are not obsessed. Harry finds out about Horcruxes. But it takes 2 hours. Zzz Deathly Hallows Part 1:2.5/5 I actually quite like how different this film is to the rest and the lead actors are now decent enough. But not a lot happens to keep you engaged. Deathly Hallows Part 2: 4/5 finally, a fun bold emotional and thrilling conclusion to the saga. If only it went straight from Goblet Of Fire to this!!! |
24 Oct 2018, 00:40 | #6852 |
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Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them
Surprisingly good film. Benefits from being written as a film from the start and not having lots of chapters of waffle to try and film. Bouncy, fun, colourful, and engaging. My only reservation is the wimpy Eddie Redmayne who looks constantly on the verge of tears. I hear Matt Smith was also in the running and he would have been amazing. 3.5/5 |
24 Oct 2018, 00:41 | #6853 | |
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25 Oct 2018, 02:46 | #6854 |
I hope your salmon sucks!
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Bohemian Rhapsody ( 2018 )
Utterly brilliant mostly. Perhaps some iffy bits during the biopic sections but when it comes to the performances... my goodness! The recreations are simply truly, utterly spellbinding. The last 20 minutes had me with teary eyes and a constant smile on my face. A superb tribute to Freddie Mercury. 8.5/10 |
27 Oct 2018, 00:10 | #6855 |
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Halloween 2018
So, I watched it again. Without the expectation that I had watching it the first time. And I have to upgrade my score a little. 8/10 Below is a bit of a spoiler review of the movie, to tell you what I really liked about it. So, don't read unless you've seen it Openingcredits They actually ressurected Halloween at the opening credits and it was great. Same position as in the original movie but with the pumpkin being flat at the beginning to inflate and become the full pumpkin we know from the original movie. So by ressurecting the pumpkin they basically said, Halloween is not dead, we just brought it back alive! Switched and reversed If you pay attention you see refferences to Halloween in oposite order or switched from the original. Most noticable is the part of the ending where Michael throws Laurie of the roof, gets distracted, looks down to see that she has disappeared. But it's just one of many moments. Like the babysitter girl and her friend. In halloween he kills the boyfriend, pinnen on the wall and as a ghost with his white sheet he goes upstairs to kill the girl. Now it's the other way around, killing the babysitter upstairs and put her in the sheet to go downstairs and kill/pin the guy to the wall. Obviously we have the hunter becomes the hunted part, where Laurie is basically hunting Michael the way Michael did to her 40 years earlier. It's Halloween 1978 with a twist. As early explained as the granddaughter and her fiend go to the Halloween party as Bonnie and Clyde, but with a twis (boy dressed as girl, girl dressed as boy). The movie is full of it. Michael is pure evil And familie emotions have nothing to do with it. He killed the mechanic guy in the original movie, to steal his clothes and go home to start a killing spree on Halloween night. I always thought that Laurie got picked by Michael because she leaves the key under the math of the Meyers house. And the babysitter killings are just a random pick because that one girl got to Michael's house. And it made sense. He followed her after that first encounter. And they continued that way in this version. Michael is just a pure evil monster and kills whoever comes in his way. From the father and the little kid who find the bus, to the unfortunate meaningless folks in Haddonfield. In fact, Michael is not looking for Laurie, but in a way got lured to her by the new Loomis doctor, Dr Satarian. So basically Micheal gets to Laurie by accident. He is just doing what he does best. Killing everyone in his way. And by that this version of the Shape is similair to the one in the original movie. There, after 15 years, the evil has come out and is stopped after 5 kills. Now, 40 years later, the evil is out again, more vicious after the long wait, but continueing what he did 40 years earlier. Bringin Michael back to his core base. A man withouth concious and emotion, just pure evil. Cinematography and music score Both are just awsome. And both feel like the original version but upgraded. Especially the score when Allison, the granddaughter has to escape Michael after the graveyard scene. In that perpective this really feels and looks like Halloween. Nods to the other Halloween films There are many, obvious and less obvious. Most of the are nods to the original, but the ending is clearly a refferense to Halloween II, the masks the kids are wearing from Halloween 3, Alisson holding the knife at the end is a refferense to the ending of Halloween 4. The public bathroom scene at the tankstation from H20, the truck with the Ressurection text obviously points to... ressurection. And the list goes on. It's not a cage, it's a trap Loved that line for some reason. That said there are obvious things that bothered me. The boyfriend thing/break-up didn't really fit the movie. The new Loomis was too obvious the betraying party (and reason the bus crashed). some small plotholes and the ending was clearly re-shot as it felt a bit rushed and jumpy (but from what I've heard still way better than the original ending, where Michael gets shot by a bow and arrow after killing Laurie). Also, for a woman waiting for this moment for 40 years to trap and kill Michael, there were plenty stuff that made no sense. Like the mannequin dolls that just were a great oportunity for Michael to hide behind. It's just a small example. None the less, after rewatching this, I can say I liked it better now than the first time. Just because I was able to enjoy it for what it was. I still love Halloween II but now I feel this come close to that one, maybe able to grap the 2nd place eventually (although still unlikely) |
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27 Oct 2018, 19:44 | #6856 |
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Psycho 2
Surprisingly good follow up film anchored by a superb performance by Anthony Perkins. Interesting plot, mostly good acting, and nice touch of who dunnit about it. 4/5 |
28 Oct 2018, 00:51 | #6857 |
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Scream and Scream 2
Great modern (at the time) updates to classic slasher pics. An under appreciated aspect of them is the who dunnit element actually. But there is just enough character background and development and decent acting to get you bought into the people as people you want to stay alive. So many horrors films all the characters are so annoying you don't care if they die. Not so here. Fast, funny, jumpy, and fun. 4/5 each. 2.5 for Scream 3 and 3/5 for Scream 4. |
28 Oct 2018, 23:34 | #6858 |
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Scary Movie. Sorry I know I shouldn't but I love it. It's my guilty pleasure. Makes me laugh out loud then feel ashamed. 2 through 5 are all dreadful. I will give part 1 3.5/5
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28 Oct 2018, 23:37 | #6859 |
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The Omen 1975
Dated but very effective film. Quite unsettling and creepy. Good performances from the lead actors and stays with you after it finishes... always a good sign. And yet... it doesn't strike me as a classic. Very good but not brilliant. 3.5/5 |
04 Nov 2018, 23:48 | #6860 |
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Annabelle (2014)
didn't hook my attention, but had a few frights |
05 Nov 2018, 19:14 | #6861 |
You dig.
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All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. ... |
09 Nov 2018, 09:01 | #6862 |
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Halloween 2018
Difficult one to rate this for me. As always it is far superior to any of the sequels without Jamie Lee Curtis, simply because she does an extraordinary job. In fact all the actors are pretty decent by horror standards. But it feels to me like a really really good film was made and then really badly edited and hacked down to achieve a certain run time. For example, Laurie is damaged goods. We get that. But there are quite a few scenes where she turns up, bursts into tears, then leaves. No build up, no attempt at normality, no real context within the scene. There's a thing that happens with the new Loomis that makes you go wtf and not in a good way. Then a few seconds later, it's undone. It's as if the film makers suddenly realise it makes no sense and take the only option to get out of it. The ending also spends ages building up the tension very nicely but then seems a little bit rushed. A girl escapes a car crash and then inexplicably runs through some woods in apparently random directions then finds some stuff in a clearing and collapses screaming. Not sure why. It's ok though because then the film forgets about her and she turns up exactly where she needs to be some time later. Having said all that... there are some great scene and Michael Myers himself is back to being an unstoppable force of pure evil just as he should be. Some brutally efficient kills, but also a superbly creepy one. I won't spoil it but motion sensors are used to great effect. There's goose bumps when Michael gets his mask back and the scenes in the road at the Halloween party are a great modern upgrade of the original. The ending is superbly tense and creepy but is over just a little too quickly at the very end. So overall very good but I'm sure there's an even better cut out there that could make it a classic. I prefer H20. It's very of its time but it is focused, runs on rails, and is overall more coherent. So for me 3.5/5 Ranking... Halloween 1978 Halloween H20 Halloween 2018 Halloween II . . . . . . . . Halloween Resurrection |
11 Nov 2018, 06:31 | #6863 |
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The Predator (2018 )
Not sure what this was. An okay action flick but a terrible Predator movie. 5/10 |
11 Nov 2018, 12:06 | #6864 |
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Annabelle creation... a long slow slog
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13 Nov 2018, 04:09 | #6865 |
I hope your salmon sucks!
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Rest in peace Stan Lee.
I happened to watch Black Panther (2018 ) tonight for the first time. It was ok. The build up was decent. Bit CGI overkill, which made it all seem a bit Thor Ragnorok like. Probably that level of film. Never reaches the memorable highs of say Wonder Woman let alone Infinity War. The political messaging was a bit weird and clumsely dealt with I thought. Enough ideas for two movies in fact if things had been better fleshed out I reckon. 7/10 But Stan Lee's cameo in the movie... it was bloody funny! RIP to a legend who gave the world so much escapism. Can't wait for Infinity War 2 / Avengers 4. |
04 May 2019, 00:52 | #6866 |
I hope your salmon sucks!
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Avengers: Endgame.
Well the wait was not worth it. What a disappointment . The movie went into all sorts of directions I didn't want. *Spoilers*
What a disgrace overall. It's like the Avengers series is the opposite of the Star Trek original movies series. Assemble & Infinity War (1 & 3) are quite awesome - especially the latter. The even numbered ones (Ultron and Endgame) are barely watchable and have stupid titles to boot. Ultron wasn't an Age and Endgame should have been called Avengers Aftermath as this wasn't an Endgame. It was a time travel reversal that could have been done at any point because if a 5 year gap isn't a problem, they may as well have waited longer. Black Widow could have had another peanut butter sandwich. The Hulk could have had more selfies in a diner. The stakes for essence were just completely lost to me. Not an Endgame. 4/10 Last edited by AndrewG; 04 May 2019 at 01:01. |
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22 May 2019, 00:34 | #6867 |
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Avengers Endgame (2019)
I love how this is breaking, or better shattering all the box office records. Because personally I think this is the worst movie of the year... by far. 2,5 hours of Heartless, effortless crap. Nothing more, nothing less. 2/10 John Wick 3 In line with the first two, but I feel they are taking it too far. I really loved the first one. I really liked the 2nd one and I just like the third one. 7/10 |
22 May 2019, 01:17 | #6868 |
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Superman II the Richard Donner Cut
Even 'unfinished' and forced to use rehearsel footage, this one is so much better than the Richard Lester version that got released originally. This Donner cut is a continuation of Superman 1978 (the best superhero movie to date), with the same feel. Lester made it almost a slapstick movie. Too bad Donner had to use some of the Lester stuff. Anyway, Superman II 6/10 Donner's cut 7,5/10 |
25 Aug 2019, 15:26 | #6869 |
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Anabelle 3 (2019)
By far the least scary horror in the Conuring franchise. More of a teenie movie 4/10 |
06 Sep 2019, 05:25 | #6870 |
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It - Chapter 2 (2019)
First one was a major disappointment. And although this was slightly better, I don't remember seeing an ending as horrible as this one in the last decade. Totally killed the movie. Typical Hollywood dumbness. 6/10 |
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06 Sep 2019, 11:35 | #6871 |
I hope your salmon sucks!
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Geostorm (2018 )
Seems to have been made in a mental asylum. If you think Michael Bay movies are cheesy, you ain't seen nothing yet. Everything explodes for no reason. You see a car topple over, it will explode. They basically took everything good and cheesy about 2012 and Day after tomorrow and made it even more cheesy. I had no idea that was even possible. The worst type of movie making ever. The people behind it shouldn't be allowed near a camera. 1/10 |
06 Sep 2019, 12:34 | #6872 | |
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06 Sep 2019, 12:35 | #6873 |
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The Dead Don't Die (Zombie film with Bill Murray)
Long, drawn out nonsense that relies on being funny, when actually it isn't. Terrible 2/10 |
25 Sep 2019, 13:34 | #6874 |
I hope your salmon sucks!
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Rambo: Last Blood (2019)
Sly doing what he always did best with Rambo, blowing shit up and acting like a Grim Reaper for bad guys who deserve it. Superb. Great music score too. Probably the movie of the year for me amongst a near Disney CGI takeover at the cinema these days. The fact that snowflake critics are outraged over the violence in the film (Rambo was always violent even almost 40 years ago) just makes it better for me and it's something we need at the moment I reckon. 9/10 |
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27 Sep 2019, 00:33 | #6875 | |
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This movie is so far from the original First Blood, in fact there never has been a decent sequel to First Blood at all. Which is a shame. THAT was a great movie.
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