thejohnscott Reviews

In the Heights (2021)

Is there a chorus in the house?

[7/10 · 26 June 2021]

I'm glad to see musicals are not dead, it warms me to see new brilliant artists and singers getting music out there and identifying with modern culture.

My favourite musicals I love to sing along with, every time I hear the songs it builds rapport. There are sing and dance alongs with these sort of films, they capture and enchant. This film fails in this respect. Very poorly.

If you've seen the film just hum a tune from it in your head. Prove me wrong. See?

It's a brilliantly produced film that lacks musical cohesiveness. Forgettable as run of the mill pop song, which is highly disappointing as the performances were absolutely amazing. It could have been so much more

Watch it, enjoy it, try and remember it, if you can.

The Magic Roundabout (2005)

Fun animation that will appeal to the young of heart

[7/10 · 10 April 2021]

I'm surprised to see the heavy negative reviews for this film as I enjoyed watching it thoroughly. It was light hearted and entertaining throughout, visually pleasing and full of magic and wonder. Plenty of humour and gags to go around, and the human like weaknesses and strengths of the characters are far more life like than other 2 dimensional cartoon feature characters.

Not only is the animation exemplary but the voice acting is excellent as well. The creators have gone out of their way to create something unique.

People who went into this film expecting it to be the same same as a 1960's tv show forgot to check the calendar before sitting down. Same as people who expected US made politically correct and dim witted children's tale. There's no objective to attain any moral high ground, it's just a fun story of "ordinary" toys overcoming great odds.

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (2020)

Beating of a dead horse.

[2/10 · 8 April 2021]

After the first Borat being hilarious I really wanted to like this. The issue is though that everyone knows who Borat is now, compared to some weird dude causing chaos like back in the day. It just wasn't to be, Borat pulled a fan club almost everywhere he went and the subtlety of the gags in the places he wasn't recognised were pretty slim.

The political agenda was disappointing as well. I wish everything wasn't about politics during the last presidency term, I'm so glad that nonsense is over. This film is another victim of that mania.

Sure I had a few laughs, it wasn't a lost cause, but I won't be watching it again. I rate it mediocre at best. I understand why Sascha has said he won't be doing any impersonation films in the future, the party is over.

Black Sheep (2006)

Excellent trash.

[8/10 · 30 March 2021]

Black Sheep starts with a ridiculous premise and quickly slips downhill from there, the result being a lighthearted sillyfest full of laughs and memorable moments. It's clearly not a "good" movie, but it is highly entertaining to watch and kept me interested and smiling the whole way through. I wish there were more films like this that didn't take themselves so seriously and aimed purely for entertainment value.

Great Kiwi film, glad I found it.

Monsters (2010)

So dreary and slow, junior school grade script.

[3/10 · 1 March 2021]

I had pretty high hopes for this film, but the high rating is is indicative of the low expectations of modern theatre goers. Like all music sounds the same these days, this movie is another movie that is just the same. It lacks depth and and originality and relies on cliche situations and encounters.

I suffered through an hour of this film before turning it off, hoping that suddenly the director was going to take control and make it do something... but it didn't. I already knew exactly what was going to happen in the last 30 minutes. I confirmed my suspicion with someone else who had seen it and I was totally right.

Although redeemed somewhat by the good cinematography and decent performances the poor artists didn't have a lot to work with, they did a good job but could not make the film anything more than what it was planned to be.

Cookie cutter crap for the feeble minded.

Apocalypto (2006)

Brutal and enthralling tale of loss and survival

[10/10 · 20 March 2020]

This was another one of those films that sat there unwatched for more than a decade that I knew nothing about, only the title, and then I decided to put it on whilst on LSD.

Straight off the bat I was shocked and affronted. A couple of times I almost turned it off, it was so intense. But the beautiful characters and their journey sucked me it. It was obvious it was far more than than just a gory snuff flick so I persevered. And I was so rewarded. It was an amazing journey of brutality and survival and light historical contexts thrown in to make it all the more believable. I had no idea it was a big budget film for quite a while, the actors and scenes are so believable in setting. It was like they had villagers help with a story. As the movie progressed and got more fantastic I was even more impressed and it became apparent it was more than just a local movie from a small group of people. Subtle nuances were great in the film. The attention to detail is exceptional. More than it appears at first sight.

The content is a lot darker than what I would normally recommend for a tripping movie, but the whole thing was stunningly beautiful as well as shockingly gritty. Worth the pain for the reward. Highly recommended. I was truly amazed.

Enter the Void (2009)

Watched this film whilst on LSD.... oh my.

[9/10 · 1 December 2016]

This film was a most unexpected experience for me. One night after everyone else had gone to bed I sat pondering the meaning of life the universe and everything. Sometimes this can get quite intense, as occasionally I do this on acid. Yes it's an unusual practice for a "professional", but still. I decided to watch a film and started digging through my unwatched films, I found Enter the Void. I didn't know I had it, where it came from or anything about it. I just put it on.

The intro credits had my eye's watering and holding onto the couch, already it was starting to mess with my mind. I was then fired into a dark world with a 1st person view of this tragic and violent story. The glorious visuals and shocking dark nature the film kept me mesmerised, whilst much of me wanted to scream and run away for large parts of the film.

The DMT scene totally messed with me and projected 3D imagery into the room. It was absolutely amazing. It really is like it has been designed for people who are taking hallucinogens. I still had no idea at this stage the horror that was to follow.

The plot although sinister and as macabre as can be remains within the bounds of reality. If it was a "fantasy" type picture it would have been more easily assimilated when I watched it. But no, everything that happens could indeed happen. It is a true horror picture even though it is using a strange mode to convey the story. Towards the end of the film I had to take breaks and walk away for some minutes. The content is deeply unsettling. It made me feel genuinely uneasy and wishing for it to end, whilst raptly watching every moment of it. This is not a film for the young of heart or those with delicate sensibilities. It is brutal and emotionally disturbing and covers many topics that are rarely seen in film in such an honestly vulgar portrayal.

I watched it again some weeks after the first time to try to get some contrast against my state of mind during the first viewing. To be honest it was much better on LSD. I don't know if it was just that I knew what was going to happen the second time I viewed it or that I honestly didn't feel like putting myself through it again.

I would definitely recommend this film for buffs and more darkly eccentric people. It has amazing visual effects, a highly unusual format and a little told story that will leave you thinking about it for some days afterwards.

Sausage Party (2016)

Tedious and uninspired profanity.

[2/10 · 29 November 2016]

When I first saw this film advertised I really looked forward to it. Within minutes of it starting I thought, "Yeah, oh well... let's give it a chance". Pretty much everything from that moment is lost time I will never re-coup.

Maybe if the plot was good I could give it more stars, maybe if the jokes were funny I could give it more stars, maybe if the scenes were engaging, maybe, maybe maybe. But none of that was to be. The only reason I gave it 2 was that the animation was pretty good, but that's hardly a redeeming quality to overcome the the vacuous and childish premise of the whole film.

I like swearing just as much as the next red blooded Australian. But only 10 year old's would find the way it was used in this film more than slightly amusing. Along with that and the infantile sex jokes, the whole thing took me right back to primary school... except we weren't subject to such crass stupidity from adults then. We were kids and made it up for ourselves. It was a very short lived phase of childhood. I find it hard to believe there's people out there that didn't mature past that point.

Gladly I can say that I didn't watch the whole thing, neither will I waste my time writing much more about it. You can save yourself further disappointment now, too. It's not too late.

Avoid.

CSI: Cyber (2015–2016)

Terribly flawed, mindless and untalented junk.

[1/10 · 4 March 2015]

I'm actually at a loss on where to begin with the terrible first episode I watched last night. At first I thought I'd just give it a chance, being the first episode and all, but it just went from low to brand new lows with every scene. Some of the main features you can expect from this series.

* pathetic stilted acting * unbelievable characters * illogical plot * terrible storyline * below par music and atmosphere * preposterous make believe computer science * illogical cyber jargon galore

Even the last scene had me verbally insulting the TV and wishing I'd watched Teletubbies with the kids instead, for it's superior content and production.

This is a new low point in the whole CSI series. I am actually amazed that they found the funding to produce this tripe. It isn't even so bad it's funny... it's just plain bad. 45 minutes of my life has been taken and left me with nothing but the urge to write this review. On the bright side the whole thing makes me feel a little better about myself, seeing others fail so miserably.