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Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024)
An incredible cold hearted mess
So many characters to keep track of and most are totally unnecessary to move the plot along. None of the characters really seem that likeable either, there is almost zero heart. Having the family live in the firehouse I think is an enormous mistake and will hamper any potential sequels also - please, no more. It just doesn't work. The mother is neither a convincing Ghostbuster, nor a convincing mother for example. The brother isn't necessary either. McKenna Grace and Paul Rudd are the only Ghostbuster additions I think that should have been kept into this film. Add in Aykroyd and Hudson and you have 4. That's enough!
But no, everyone can be a Ghostbuster, right? That is sort of what the movie appears to say. Very much forgetting its simple "let's start an exterminator business, work at it, fail and fail some more and then succeed" roots and "who you gonna call?" from the first film. Now all you need is a proton pack and be an adult.
Should have limited the number of Ghostbusters and simplified the ideas in this. Reveal the bad guy much sooner and arrive at the threat to New York much earlier also.
The movie somehow does go over many of the same tropes of the original film but with much less humour.
The only new interesting aspects: the bad guy and the threat to New York. Pretty decent actually. The rest of the movie just goes over familiar ground in a very messy way.
Should have left the "franchise" with Afterlife I'm sorry to say. It had a lot of heart and some magic at least. This one will leave you cold like its title.
Late Night with the Devil (2023)
Pretty decent found footage movie
I enjoyed this found footage horror movie quite a bit.
The 70s TV Talk Show atmosphere is very well re-created making this quite a decent watch. Beyond that atmosphere, what I liked most is not really knowing where things were headed towards the end.
There is a good balance between paranormal scepticism and unexplained events and eventually the movie heads into pure devilish craziness. A lot of inspiration is drawn from The Exorcist which is fine. Obviously other found footage movies have inspired this film as well.
The characters are interesting and the actors do a great job making them believable. The show host and the paranormal sceptic are both very theatrical and help sell the entire story. Great job.
The film is by no means perfect, perhaps a few minutes of exposition could have been added and making the reason for the behind the scenes footage existing more realistic (and better aged - maybe a student making a documentary about the TV show in 16mm footage thing or whatever).
I think there is perhaps room for sequels; maybe set the next in the 80s and a third in the 90s and so on... I think setting horror movies in certain eras and working hard on creating that atmosphere works pretty well in fact (see The Black Phone / The Conjuring 2).
The actual biggest annoyance I had when watching this in the cinema, was with the ridiculous amount of animated film company logos at the beginning, the audience was becoming exasperated by the end of these. I counted about 10! This really is completely over the top. Family Guy made a very funny critique about this and indeed this is the real life embodiment of that ridiculousness. I sincerely hope this trend stops now that we are headed into an era in which we have far more indie movie companies clubbing together making movies rather than big budget single Hollywood studio productions.
Gojira -1.0 (2023)
Excellent, thrilling and heartfelt
If you like Jaws, Jurassic Park and Top Gun Maverick, then Godzilla Minus One is probably right up your alley.
Godzilla is more of a background catalyst to tell a good story here and that story is heartfelt with interesting and relatable characters who come to live through comradery, regret and love.
That last thing, love, is especially something Hollywood pretty much forgot to inject in almost all their movies this year.
Luckily a Japanese studio has been hard at work to present something truly exceptional.
The film has excellent character development, great callbacks and a superb post World War 2 Japan setting.
Great effects despite the tiny budget used compared to what Hollywood does.
But what is more important, is how the film makes you feel and how you can relate to the events and characters. An incredibly intriguing watch.
The scene in which Noriko rescues Koichi from the incredible fallout of the massive Godzilla nuclear breath blast and instead appears to die herself was superb. Very dramatic.
Koichi's struggle with PTSD was heartbreaking to watch and I absolutely adore the fact he was eventually encouraged to live on by everyone by the end, which thankfully is a very a happy one. This whole interplay between death (before the end of World War 2) and live was so well told. A simple, but effective message.
Despite the happy ending, of course something tells us there may be more of Godzilla...
Masterfully executed.
Probably my favourite foreign movie of all time and I've sat through quite a few of those in my time.
I can't wait to see it again.
Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé (2023)
Not good if you're not a die hard fan
I'm pretty open minded when it comes to music so went into this with no expectations. I do know some of Beyonce's older music with Destiny's Child and the likes of her big hits Halo and Single Ladies.
The first 10 minutes seemed fine. It is pretty much the start of one of Beyonce's concerts and her excellent vocals are on form. I thought I will enjoy this if the entire near 3 hour film is like this. The only thing I noticed what I thought was weird was the different takes of the same songs edited together, this is clear from the changing of day to night time setting but above all Beyonce's constant wardrobe changes. Fine, I could up with that niggle but it definitely became irritating later on.
However then the haphazardness starts. We constantly switch between 10 or so minutes of concert footage and either backstage rehearsal footage or Beyonce reflecting on where she is in her private life (even whilst flying on a private jet - ugh) etc. It does not interest me anywhere near as much as watching what an artist can do best. Maybe as some extra footage on a Blu Ray or a separate documentary this would have been great but intertwining this with concert footage, I'm not sure is a good idea. It didn't work for me. Seeing Beyonce's backstage stuff could be interesting. Maybe as a 10-15 minute intro and after that just present an entire single concert
I wanted to get back to the concert every time the backstage / private footage parts were shown...
However, that turned out to be disappointing as well. The music became exceptionally monotonous, as if you are in a club all evening. Almost every song appeared to be about sex / I'm a strong female, included twerking and had no live band (I think I saw them on stage for about 5 songs). So we are reduced to listening to samples, many voice intro tracks and I guess a tape for music. I recognised two songs: Partition (not exactly a good song) and probably her biggest early solo hit: Crazy in Love. This is astonishing considering Beyonce's large early back catalogue. But I guess it has been left in the past. Which is a shame.
There is also some time spent on a concert power malfunction. Maybe interesting to some but I'm not sure it's relevant.
Bringing her 11 year old daughter on stage I think is bizarre considering the quite adult subject matter of Beyonce's music during most of the show. But it's up to her. Just weird seeing her daughter's mother near naked riding (both literally and figurative speaking) a tank like vehicle in the background.
Maybe Beyonce feels the need to stay relevant with only doing modern club music and pushing sexual boundaries that she has done for over 20 years. It seems somewhat tiring to me to watch for so long.
Now some of the visuals and props are excellent, there is no denying. There is a spectacular show there somewhere. However if it is not firstly and mostly about good music, I simply lose interest and I don't care what spectacle you bring to the table.
The music is pretty drab and lacks different textures to say the least.
Like where Beyonce is currently at, I had little knowledge of Taylor Swift's recent music as well a few months ago, but I thought her Eras concert film was far more digestible for an average music enthusiast and in fact I ended up watching it several times at the cinema. I also added some of Swift's songs to my music playlists. It says enough. Thus when Beyonce's film came around I thought I'd give it a shot too. But it's very, very different, and not in a good way.
I doubt I could sit through Renaissance again. Even the first time felt like too much.
I thus cannot recommend this film at all but to the die hard Beyonce fans who like her recent music. They will probably like this a lot, sure.
Missing (2023)
Excellent modern unpredictable thriller
This is a very gripping, tense thriller in the same style of "Searching" which is classed as a screenlife movie.
So if you have seen that, you know what you are in for.
Through surveillance cameras, video communication apps and laptop screens the entire movie is told.
I had no idea where things were headed from probably about 10-15 minutes in onwards. The movie takes turns I totally did not expect, which is quite rare in cinema these days. I had some vague idea at times but there were still surprises and good ideas.
In fact I would argue this movie is somewhat better than the likes of the much appreciated blockbusters Oppenheimer and Killers of The Flower Moon. Both, very serious movies with I would argue not enough heart to be entertaining to say the least.
Missing has it all in the right departments; heart, gripping, convincing acting, an unpredictable story, good music/use of sounds and it most certainly should be awarded for an Oscar for best editing in front of the before mentioned two 2023 blockbuster films.
This also demonstrates what can be achieved with a limited budget rather than a 100-300 million dollar bonanza.
Kudos to the film makers and Storm Reid (great actress) for delivering a tight 1 hour 45 minute thriller. This is a good thriller run time. Totally not bloated with repetition (unlike Killers of The Flower Moon).
Along with Talk To Me, this for me, was one of the best low budget surprises of 2023 so far.
Highly recommended.
The Last of Us (2023)
Pretty good but left a lot of potential on the table
This is a pretty good video game adaptation I would say. What is presented here is mostly an accurate retelling of the video game's story, with some things changed here and there. Why some things are changed I am not entirely sure, perhaps budget considerations mostly.
What I liked mostly was the look of the surroundings and atmosphere created. This was incredibly convincing. The zombie apocalypse environment is extremely well presented. The music is also great as it is from the same composer as the video game.
Bella Ramsey is ok as Ellie and does grow into the part as the series progresses. Pedro Pascal is closer to the video game character from episode 1 onwards.
Unfortunately I think the series rushes through things a bit too much and most zombie encounter scenes are even completely removed. I understand this is a series and not a 20 hour video game but I thin too much was removed. Bill is given an entire episode with a couple of Tess & Joel flashbacks thrown in, but we never see Bill meet Ellie or Bill even help the main two characters on their journey for example. This is a great shame I reckon. Bill could have lived on after Frank's death and show him as a bit bitter and initially apprehensive to help.
Spores are completely removed, so this means there are no masks and that interesting "the zombie are probably coming" anxiety threat you constantly feel in the game is completely removed. It is also a shame that this will remove some of the fantastic story points further down the line (for example in part 2 where Ellie gives Dina the mask and Dina says no and thus Ellie's immunity to the virus is revealed to her).
What is a shame is that when the series follows the game more precisely pace wise, and embellishes on it, things actually get VERY good I think but this doesn't happen often enough.
A good example of this is the sniper sequence, when a truck crashes into a house and a sinkhole opens and tonnes of zombies run out along with the only bloater we see in the entire series. Absolute mayhem kicks off and this is just an absolutely superb part but we don't get enough of it.
Zombies are in fact completely removed from the last two episodes (except for 1 zombie in the Ellie mother flashback). If you started to watch the series from either of these two episodes onwards you would almost be thinking that the zombie outbreak has been completely dealt with in the past.
Episodes in general run too short. Far more dialogue and exploration with Ellie and Joel could have been included to make this feel more of an epic story / journey and for us to grow closer to the main characters. Ellie not being able to swim is hammered into your head in the game (Joel needing to move here about on the makeshift rafts etc), but only briefly mentioned in the series in the knee deep water scene. The pay off of her then actually swimming in a possible season 2 is thus not going to be as effective as it is in the game I think.
The last episode I think should easily have been a 150 minute epic episode (like the last episode of Stranger Things season 4 was). We needed far more Ellie Joel dialogue, the inclusion of the awesome tunnel sequence with the zombies and Ellie nearly drowning whilst trying to rescue Joel out of the bus and of course a massively extended Joel rescue attempt shoot out sequence in the hospital etc. Personally I would have cut in some very brief flashes of what Joel had to endure to get there (losing Sarah, meeting Ellie, losing Tess, his journey with Ellie etc). This could have given his terminator style determination even more conviction and urgency.
Even leaving the hospital with Ellie is rushed through so quickly. The flashlights hunting Joel part and the music swelling is so memorable, it is a shame this is not even attempted at all here.
Like I said it is good but just not great. This could have been far more epic and possibly Stranger Things beating for me. But unfortunately it is not. Hopefully season 2 will take its time far more rather than rush through the game story points so quickly.
Whitney (2018)
Superb documentary about one of the best singers ever
This is quite an eye opening documentary into the life of Whitney Houston. It is very well put together, clever edited and doesn't linger on any part of her life too long and is never boring as some documentaries that are spliced from many interviews often become.
Quite a large part of the footage is made up from rare backstage material and does allow the director to connect some dots to accusations and rumours it seems. I don't think these parts really show Whitney in a bad light as some seem to suggest. They humanise her more mostly I believe.
Whitney Houston formed an important part of my personal musical soundtrack whilst I was growing up, as I am sure she did for millions of others around the world.
I Wanna Dance With Somebody remains one of the most pivotal 80s pop songs ever, pretty much summarising an entire era of music in a single song with one of the best vocal performances to ever appear on such a song.
The director knows this as when we see Whitney's meteoric rise to stardom after its release, in the film, it is accompanied by a part vocal only version of the song. To me this sequence was spine tingling and extremely well edited.
What is further mesmerising is the High Definition footage of the original Wanna Dance music video that is intertwined also (even a 4K version is available on Whitney's YouTube channel, that makes the music video seem like it was filmed recently).
The sound design and editing of the documentary is mostly flawless it has to be said.
It is very sad Whitney Houston was addicted to drugs for so long (or at least using them for most of her life), which I didn't quite know. She didn't really seem to stand a chance with how this was intertwined with her family, the people she employed around her and thus her career. And when rehab might have helped to prevent an untimely death, the resources to continue with that were no longer available.
The documentary isn't really subjective, there is no narrator, and it will leave you to draw your own conclusions but some of the blame for what happened can easily be spotted.
If there is anything I can criticise here, it is perhaps the fact the part where Whitney marries and becomes pregnant is placed before the section about The Bodyguard. I'm not sure why as this obviously makes no sense from a chronological perspective.
Kevin Costner does appear in the documentary but only very briefly. I do wonder if also most of his interview footage was left on the cutting floor. I think a bit more about The Bodyguard's casting, the song choice and perhaps even Costner reflecting more on her life should have been present as the movie formed such an important part of her career in the 90s. On the other hand perhaps we are just going over old ground with that.
But other than that, this seems quite a definitive piece of work and I would recommend anyone who is curious about Whitney's life to watch it.
Blue Beetle (2023)
Worst movie I've seen in the cinema this year
I had low expectations of this film.
I don't ask for much with movies, just for them to be mildly entertaining at minimum and have some heart. All the talk about bad CGI in the likes of The Flash I don't care about so much. I thought that particular movie was fine. Fun, had decent heart and some likeable characters scattered about who are at least trying to do things to move the story forwards.
Blue Beetle however, is as bad as things can become I think when it comes to superhero movies. We have seen some terrible entries in the Marvel space recently as well with Thor 4, Dr Strange 2 and Black Panther 2 being very poor. Strange story choices, terrible villains and bad resolutions. In all 3 of those films the main super heroes are almost just background characters and no longer the focus.
Blue Beetle is on that terrible level and this film makes even less sense I have to say and again the main superhero is relegated to be less important than he ought to be for some reason.
Every character seems so unlikeable, except for the father. The sister talks about taking a big dump at her cleaning job after we first hear how the family struggles financially. Charming. The grandma ends up with a higher kill count than the super hero. The uncle is a computer wizard who drives a big truck but still can't help the family keep their home.
This whole family, who can't make end's meet but who can do everything else when it suits the story just doesn't work in a superhero film. It is not convincing. Story wise I think it is fine/good if they can be there for support and guidance. But to physically take over I think is a crazy approach that doesn't land well at all, especially when the best person out of that bunch is the one who dies before all that takes off.
After the father's death the family straight away uses all the abandoned (supposedly) Blue Beetle related gear as in a sort of kitted out ready to go endless Batcave supply. But then we also find out the original Blue Beetle host who that all belong to is still alive in the mid credits scene? Why are we doing any of this? It is all so dumb and never focuses on what the current Blue Beetle superhero could do for humanity.
Susan Sarandon, as the baddie, phones in her performance to make things worse. An utterly pointless villain who has some vague mission to make her robot army more of a robot army with the Blue Beetle scarab thing.
Furthermore, early on, we find out that the Blue Beetle suit / scarab that gets fused with our hero's body can actually run on auto pilot. So what is the reason to keep the host conscious in that case? The suit seems to make better decisions early on whilst the host succeeds in convincing it to stop it from killing baddies, who then when still alive cause his father's heart attack and death.
Compare that badly thought out drivel to the excellent story in the original Superman movie where Superman can't save his father from a heart attack death. He has all these powers but couldn't do that. Reality sinks in and it makes him more determined. There is no such character arc here at all.
I didn't like any of what was presented in Blue Beetle story wise or character wise. There isn't 1 thing I can tell you I liked.
There have been far better small budget movies this year that should have enjoyed more popularity over this endless superhero nonsense in which we constantly have to put up with lower quality story telling and horrible characters. Some good films I saw recently this year that may have gone unnoticed are: Talk to Me & Sisu. If you're after a big movie go see Gran Turismo.
Look for those and give this tripe a miss.
It has not been a bad year for movies I think and this hopefully is as low as it can go cinema wise.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)
Could have been much better
Loved the Rocket Raccoon backstory but I think it would have worked far better as a 10 minute intro all joined together before the opening credits, rather than scattered about throughout the movie.
Then seeing Lylla in Rocket's near death experience dream towards the end would have had far more impact as you are reliving it as a long memory from the start of the film, similar to Rocket in a way.
The High Evolutionary was an excellent villain to be fair. Probably the most convincing in the 3 movies although his motivation seemed a bit fuzzy and not as believable as say Thanos'.
But to break up the band at the end? Why? Mantis is going to have her own adventures and Starlord will be looking for his grandpa but will back? Gamora still isn't the same Gamora from the old time line. So she is still too much of a smart ass and rather wants to join the Ravagers than hang around in this movie, with a totally wasted Sylvester Stallone again doing nothing in this film. This is not what I wanted to see at all. Why are we doing all this nonsense? All this stuff comes out of the blue and just doesn't seem right.
The Guardians should have stayed together till the end.
I wanted them to play and dance along to Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance With Somebody". An obvious song that was overlooked from the mostly great soundtracks so far. That should have been the closer with the Guardians looking at each other and just being happy. Maybe a guardian making a remark about "how long will it all last?" and an answer "no idea, but for now I'm happy because I'm with you guys". Focus in on Rocket who sheds a small tear, reminiscent of the opening shot. Then a wide shot of Knowhere with the music thundering into black exit screen with the Guardians 3 logo and credits roll. It seems so obvious what to do, no?!
Hollywood just cannot seem to give us such simple nice endings anymore and either seems to have to fill in the blanks all the time and/or end up with some awful nihilistic vision of beloved heroes (see Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and indeed here some of the Guardians now who are gone and will never be back), which is totally unnecessary and not satisfying to me.
Shame. I enjoyed some of it but it was nowhere near as satisfying as the first part and even part 2 at least had a nice ending with a nice family message. A simple few adjustments could have made the trilogy legendary rather than a 3rd part seeming to limp behind with an awkward conclusion.
It always seems these sequels are pushed out in a rush rather than cleverly thought out.
It's probably the best Marvel has been since Infinity War I reckon but it still doesn't come close to IW's greatness and its big heart.
Oppenheimer (2023)
Well done but I just can't enjoy it.
Great acting, extremely well made and constantly questions about the dangers of inventing nuclear weapons as you would expect.
However, it's mostly talking, name dropping, politics and becomes very boring to me as a result. It is also very disjointed, constantly jumping between timelines and locations.
Weirdly the exact thing I wanted to see (how the bomb was made and what Oppenheimer contributed) is not addressed so much!
Christopher Nolan apparently doesn't use much ADR and it might be the reason the dialogue mix has been pretty poor in most of his recent movies. When there IS so much talking this becomes quite a chore to have to put up with I have to say, especially for 3 hours. Swelling of sounds and music when people are talking is just irritating. I know this is done for dramatic effect at times but it's just annoying.
There is very little footage outside of court rooms and offices in this movie, thus I don't see the hype for Imax at all, but Nolan is able to achieve this exact thing for some reason. However I think he is living of past glory here with the awesome Dark Knight setpieces which were great in that format.
Just not a movie for me at all. I love Nolan's Batman movies but everything else he does is just a type of cinema I can't really enjoy.
I'm glad others have a better experience with his movies.
Your mileage may thus vary.
Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)
Entertaining but seems a bit over hyped.
The first hour of the third Spider Man solo film with Tom Holland (and number 8 in total if we count all Spider Man movies) is extremely hectic as Spiderman's identity is revealed. I probably would have wanted a bit more desperation here rather than the MIT rejections to be considered as a showstopper for Peter Parker's identity reveal. It seems a bit "first world problems" to me to be honest. Maybe all 3 characters would not have gotten into MIT even without the identity reveal. Did the characters ever think about that? This question is not really explored which seems a bit silly. Sure this is just a movie but since all 3 characters have for years been involved with saving mankind is a ticket into MIT really such a big deal?
Spiderman and Doctor Strange basically being the complete cause of all the chaos in this movie is not so satisfying either. I was very worried when I saw the trailer that this was going to be the case. And it is, although perhaps not AS BAS as I thought it might be. But still sort of stupid.
The initial interaction on the highway with Otto Octavius is pretty damn good and some of the best action on display, but why Peter Parker is casually walking down the road during a traffic jam makes the start of that scene pretty unbelievable and weird.
Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin is pretty excellent and a decent final foe, but Jamie Foxx's Electro character not so much and does not appear all that threatening and too busy thinking about what he wants or not, but he does seem to improve as the movie goes on.
When we finally get to what we have all been waiting for and was heavily hinted at (I think) by the trailer with Octavius saying "You're not Peter Parker" and we see the 3 recent Spider Man actors all together everything seems to grind to a halt. We have jokes that don't seem to land and the pacing seems too slow somehow. The fact the iconic meeting each other scene happens in Ned Leeds' mum (or whoever she is) home doesn't help. His mother (or whoever) seems like a major distraction here with the change in language also. I know this is for comedic effect but for me it just didn't work which is a shame. It was great seeing Garfield and Maguire but I think this sort of multi universe meet up deserved a better story and a better purpose. The purpose just being to redeem some bad guys and have Aunt May die in that process (oh well) seems a bit bizarre in the end.
The Maguire to Garfield line "but you are Amazing, no really, you are amazing" line was probably the best joke in the film. Good stuff. Maybe needed a bit more of this.
Peter Parker 1's final battle with the Green Goblin is good but too short. I wanted more of that. Also the other Peter Parker getting stabbed and it turns out to be nothing seemed a bit unsatisfying.
Overall I think this movie mostly suffers from inconsistent pacing and some unsatisfying plot points. I would have wanted the hectic start to be slowed down a bit more whilst exploring Spiderman's identity reveal more and not just have the MIT rejections be a catalyst for seeking out the Dr Strange spell. A lawyer (also a superhero?) showing up and saying don't worry about all the problems with the authorities just mentioned seemed a bit lame (the tell and don't show sin). The MIT rejection part should have been scrapped in favour for a more dark with any of Peter's friends / family / love interest ending up in serious trouble rather than just needing to look for another university. Also have the Spidermen meeting up together be a bit faster and fun with jokes landing better (see when The Guardians of The Galaxy meet Thor in Infinity War, there was a great connection there and straight away you bought the Thor teaming up with Rocket and Groot, not so much here -it's even mentioned!). Maybe it's just me but if felt like there were sort of awkward silences at this point too.
The whole amnesia stuff at the end to fix things I think is probably necessary but it came across as a bit lame and possibly not earned. I do like the fact Peter sort of let his friend and MJ "go" as in they are probably better off without knowing him but this part sort of seemed unsatisfactory with Peter not being able to communicate that intention to anyone and even the audience particularly well. Maybe if we had heard some sort of memory line at this point it would have helped. Perhaps something that he could have said to Doctor Strange during the initial spell "never mind, MJ and Ned not knowing my identity is only better for them, and will keep them safe." Again toying with the route to darkness knowing Spider-man's identity early on in the film would have made this all far more satisfying and wholesome.
For me this movie is a 7.5 out of 10. Good but not great. Infinity War to me remains the truly great Marvel movie so far. The threats seemed serious and earned and the jokes were all satisfying. It all comes close here but just doesn't get to the landing.
There was a slightly better film possible here. With some re-writes and more critical thought it could have gotten there.
Perhaps that better Spiderman 8 movie does exist somewhere, in the multiverse.
The Post (2017)
Slow and boring
Could only take about 40 minutes of this. I usually have a lot of patience for movies and wait for things to develop but this just felt ultra slow and nothing was really developing much. The story didn't seem that interesting to me.
I remember watching the McNamara' documentary The Fog of War in the cinema and that was better than this.
Has to be the worst Spielberg film since 1941.
Disappointing.
I must admit I enjoy B movies more than this sort of stuff.
It Chapter Two (2019)
Utter nonsense
Started off ok but quickly loses its way once the characters are drawn back to Derry. Pennywise takes ridiculous forms to the point we see so much CGI it just becomes laughable and not scary.
The characters also seem not to have learned anything from their childhood trauma and just walk into more traps and are even more stupid than their childhood versions in the first movie. Characters hear voices come from somewhere and the first thing they do is go there and fall for Pennywise's tricks. Not even an ounce of hesitation to think "hey I've seen this trick before, I'm going to ignore it." There is a mixture between what is happening "now" and more childhood trap scenes too, just to make it really, really long I guess.
Adult Bev teleports around where necessary. The characters seem to be doing nothing in Derry in fact except for walking into traps. It is really dumb. No plan. Just walking around. There were actors, sets, and crew available here to probably tell an interesting story. But that is certainly not present here. The slight sprinkles of hints about Pennywise's origin are more interesting than the mayhem that is going on for most of the movie.
Stephen King's cameo seems utterly pointless. A quick line addition when McAvoy leaves the shop with the bike such as "damn writers, what are they good for anyway?!" would have fixed that and made it fun. Then leave out the humour from all the scary bits.
There is no subtlety here at all, overlong and too much for no reason. Everything is just thrown at you; humour / sadness / fear / anger all at the same time, you don't know what to think. Eventually I switched it off with about 40 mins to go probably. I had enough. Glad I didn't bother going to the cinema for this one when it was released. Utter tripe. No direction, just a bunch of scenes you'd expect in an It type horror movie with too much CGI all randomly thrown at you after each other. See the brilliant "Us" instead. That one's a superb horror movie from start to finish.
Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021)
Superb, gets better with each rewatch.
There are not many super hero movies where I keep thinking about its story, character arcs, deeper meanings and from which I'm humming its music for days, heck weeks after seeing it. There have been a few over the last 4 decades, notably Superman The Movie, The Dark Knight trilogy, The Guardians of The Galaxy movies, Wonder Woman and Infinity War. Most other super hero movies I've seen have often been quite meh/forgettable to frustrating ("Iron Man 3", "Endgame", "Age of Ultron") to near unwatchable ("Ghost Rider 2", "Ant Man and The Wasp").
Zack Snyder's Justice League can now be added to that first love affair list.
It is quite incredible how different it is to the first version by Joss Whedon. There is far more context, far better pacing, far less nonsense humour, far more cool humour, far more story, far more heart. Obviously some of this is down to the running time but it isn't just that. There is a far greater balance of the 6 super heroes on display. They get treated equally and all play an important part in the story. It really bothered me how awful the newly shot Joss Whedon scenes were in 2017 when I saw Justice League then (the moustache nonsense, the nonsense Superman vs Flash race at the end and the stupid "Do you bleed" scenes). The whole resurrection of Superman seemed very Frankenstein-esque. It seems to play out quite differently here somehow even though many of the same scenes are used. The atmosphere is just very different and gains far more of my appreciation.
Cutting the excellent Flash rescue scene (brought me near tears) and so much of Cyborg's story seems insane and also somewhat racist. To top that off with the moustache thing I get the impression Warner Brothers were far more concerned with movie deadlines and probably afraid of Marvel rather than focusing on making a good sold film. They obviously should have waited on Snyder to be able to return and at least Cavill IF you are going to do any reshoots.
Regardless, in this version the music is also absolutely stellar (sorry, far better than the likes of Elfman and Silvestri are now doing and I have been a huge fan of their earlier works) and probably my favourite score in a super hero movie since the John Williams Superman and Hans Zimmer Dark Knight days.
The new Superman theme when Superman is protecting Cyborg ("immovable") is absolute perfection. There is a good use of drums and dynamics and memorable themes scattered around where needed. Perhaps there is a little too much overuse of the Wonder Woman vocal every time we see her. It probably should have been alternated with her electric cello theme more. Other than that the music was great for the entire 4 hour runtime.
To me Zack Snyder's DC movies have gotten better after each one. I wasn't a huge fan of Man of Steel at first at all, but I did really like Batman vs Superman, especially the longer version. It seemed to humanise Superman far more, and we also really understand Batman's drive to create the Justice League after his first obsession with killing Superman, it is his redemption he must see through regardless of what the cost. It plays out well here. What is it with Warner Brothers not wanting Snyder to tell his entire story every time? It seems to work so much better when Snyder can do what he wants with less studio interference.
Regardless, I found after Justice League I wanted to go back and I have indeed watched MoS and BvsS again and explore more of the backstories and setup (little details such as the Joker card make you wonder just how much Snyder and/or his writers had planned - intriguing). Next I will give Wonder Woman and Aquaman probably another spin. I love it when a sequel can in fact make previous instalments grow on you. Much to Snyder's credit for achieving that here.
After seeing Endgame (a huge letdown for me) and Zack Snyder's Justice League I am far more intrigued to know what (could) have happened next with the DC heroes. It seems to me the Justice League are far more unified than the Avengers and there are just so many more stories to tell. It is a huge disappointment the studio will not continue with this series of events and with these exact character incarnations. I would have liked to have seen another 2 Man of Steel movies with Cavill, a Ben Affleck Batman trilogy and at least one stand alone movie for Cyborg and one for Flash. It is perhaps too late for most of that to happen now.
Rounding the Justice League off with another 2 super long Zack Snyder sequels telling us about the dystopian Darkseid future and of course its inevitable resolution would have been epic.
A shame this will not happen.
At least here we have a good movie that can be enjoyed over and over again and sometimes it's best to leave things open. Telling stories that people are mostly dreaming of sometimes does not work out THAT well (see the Star Wars prequels and sequels).
The only downside I can think of is the 4:3 aspect ratio and perhaps the somewhat over-stretching of the end, but I appreciate the Batman dream scene is a final look into the Snyderverse, so it's best we have it than not. A cinema version most likely would have had to have been cut down and indeed leave the original Luthor scene as a postcredit one. But as a producer / movie executive I really would have used an upper limit of say 200 minutes after seeing ALL this material. Quite stellar. To leave almost 50% on the cutting room floor as they did seems insane.
Definitely a movie I'll be ordering on Blu Ray and will treasure forever.
9/10.
The Invisible Man (2020)
Really bad
The casting of the lead actress seems to be one of the main problems. She simply doesn't look the part to me. Doesn't come across as a likely billionaire's wife and her actions are constantly too stupid. The motivation of the main villain is not convincing.
A movie about the apparently teleporting dog that was in this storyline would have been more interesting.
One of the worst movies of the year for sure.
Constant tell not show. The faking of the main villain's death we literally see in a newspaper clipping. Ridiculous.
Movies such as Hollow Man and Terminator have done all this sort of stuff we are presented with before and far better. Can't believe the director of this tripe is getting a crack at bringing Snake Plissken back. He should be removed from Hollywood after making this garbage, with force if necessary.
Onward (2020)
Superb movie, uplifting messages
Really great movie.
Ridiculously good story telling and the title making sense once you've seen the movie.
Bizarre things actually work well once things are wrapped up.
Perfect Pixar craftsmanship which we have come to expect.
A very positive movie promoting the family unit, the likes of which we really need right now.
Another Pixar gem.
Tenet (2020)
Disappointing, which is what I was expecting.
Awful like all of Nolan's non Dark Knight movies (which in contrast I think are spectacular and probably the only reason why I keep giving Nolan a chance).
Muffled dialogue. Intentionally obscure I reckon and too much of the whole tell but don't show stuff most of the time.
Zombie female characters acting with that sort of annoying attitude as if they have seen everything that has possibly happened all before so they don't care and constantly have an advantage over the male characters but at the same time being physically useless mostly. Old fashioned in that sense. Female main character is only concerned about one thing whilst the world is ending and her motive is the constant tell but don't show approach which doesn't work in movies to make you feel even remotely invested.
No sensible motive for the main "villain", who sort of appears out of nowhere 1 hour into the movie. By then it's almost too late to even care what you are watching. Far too loud music at times, like Dark Knight without the essence of threat or stakes being raised. Nonsense "plot". Nonsense MacGuffins which make totally no sense. People screamed from roof tops when there were a few MacGuffins in Star Wars. Here we have inverting machines located at weird locations, an algorithm that looks like a nuclear bomb spread all over. These things are used to explain some major reasons for things happening (Well you go into this machine / revolving chamber so... just forget everything we told you earlier too btw, hmmm why?)
Why was the revolving chamber at the airport, near the fake painting storage facility? Why if the female character could heal from a gunshot wound by being inverted could the main character not get rid of his cancer and just invert himself to a healthy 20 year old? What is the limitation of the inversion? It is not well explained. How was the villain going to achieve WWIII exactly? It is all so vague to be honest. A sci fi movie works best if you set the stage and set some boundaries of the reality you create. Whenever you break those boundaries too much or don't set them clearly you've lost me, as a story writer can then just get away with doing anything (See the likes of Endgame introducing a second time travelling device which I think is an example of very disappointing or lazy story telling too).
On the plus side this movie has some good looking effects and good Imax cinematography. Maybe Nolan should have been a cinematographer for a better story teller director or something. His Dunkirk I thought was bizarre and emotionless, his Interstellar is the most boring non fun and pretentious Sci Fi movie I've seen in the cinema. Movies can be serious but even Schindler's List had a few jokes in it to keep you captivated and entertained and more importantly see that there is light even in the darkest of times in human history.
Don't bother unless you are a Nolan superfan. You will no doubt think this is another "masterpiece" as almost every second review states here.
To me it's mindless nonsense wrapped in a shroud of ambiguity to pretend it's clever somehow.
Tenet might be the only 2020 movie I will see in the cinema as the mask wearing is just not a pleasant experience for near 3 solid hours with trailers. I wanted Nolan to make it worthwhile but I just don't think he pulled it off.
The movie will find an audience I guess but I don't think personally I'll bother with another Nolan movie again.
Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga (2020)
Captures the heart, spirit, fun, cheese and most importantly the craziness of the Eurovision song contest perfectly.
If you are going to do a movie about the craziest and biggest song contest in the world you better do it right. That's exactly what everyone involved seemed to have done.
Made by Will Ferrell's production company and the actual organisation behind Eurovision (The European Broadcast Union) so the research into the song contest came from the right place and everything seems very accurately executed and this is not something what you normally get from music related movies I find. There are indeed recently a few exceptions along with this film such as Bohemian Rhapsody which had a show-stopping perfect executed finale. Distributed by Netflix which sadly means there will not be a physical copy of the one movie that I think many big Eurovision fans will be passionate about.
The movie has a really decent background story (with a few iffy bizarre moments to be fair - but it is Will Ferrell movie after all). However the film seems to move along exactly at the speed required and hits all the beats that it needs to leave you satisfied at the end.
The movie has the unrequited love stuff, the trying to impress a parent thing, the missing of another parent, the inspiration of those who came before (mostly the Abba part at the start), the shock of a big event changing the stakes for the protagonists, the everything seems lost scenarios (several times), the help from a surprising source and the perfect wrap up and back to normality but with the prize in the protagonists' hearts and a bright future ahead + a new start. Good ingredients!
The quiet Icelandic fishing town setting, which is perfect, is the furthest one could get away from a show such as Eurovision. The stark contrast can be seen in both audio and visual beats. The shots of Iceland are beautiful. The atmosphere of Eurovision is convincing. When Will Ferrell is back in Iceland as time is running out before the Eurovision finale that contrast works particular well making you feel frustrated inside. Iceland is a country that still has to win the Eurovision song contest (although they've managed to get to second place twice) so it was a good choice.
Tonnes of appearances of Eurovision winners and contestants as you would expect and it is great fun spotting them in the middle musical mash up. The movie didn't come across as patronising at explaining who is who at all which is what a Hollywood movie would probably do.
Will Ferrell, Rachel McAdams and Pierce Brosnan all do a great job in their roles. Special mention to the extremely passionate and aggressive "Ja Ja Ding Dong" fan. Exactly the craziness that a movie like this needs. Executed perfectly. Graham Norton gave the movie some extra gravitas and authority and as a British Eurovision fan I wouldn't have wanted that any other way.
The film has a real feel good factor about it and it is very reminiscent of (and perhaps musically in a one place also inspired by) The Greatest Showman
If you are a fan of the song contest this movie will probably be on your repeat list for a while I would have thought. I can't wait to watch the entire thing again. A good lengthy production for this type of movie I should add.
The music is of quite a high production value and the songs really capture the beats one would expect from Eurovision. We have the craziness, the extreme cheese from Russia's entry executed really well by Dan Stevens and more heartfelt songs. It all seemed convincing. There is thankfully also that one show stopping moment/song towards the end that a movie of this type needed to sell itself. Ironically it harkens exactly back to where the protagonists came from in the first place rather than where they thought they wanted to be. Yes, the movie is more clever if you think about all that a bit deeper indeed.
A really enjoyable movie, simply a top job from everyone I reckon, all-round excellent entertainment and escapism.
For me the best thing Will Ferrell has been in and since he produced this himself (after he has been in love with the Eurovision song contest for 20 years) I have to say hats off to him, really (this coming from a Eurovision song contest fan for over 30 years).
In my book this would be an Oscar contender for best movie like The Greatest Showman should have been along with classic feel good movie winners such as Chicago, Slumdog Millionaire and The Artist. But those days sadly seem over. Ironically these are the movies that the world desperately needs right now. Hopefully this will still snatch best song Oscar for Husavik next year but I'm not counting on it.
If you like Eurovision, you cannot afford to miss this, especially this year. It has totally made up for the lack of a proper song contest show... but even more so I'd say.
Frozen II (2019)
Atrocious, became like torture watching it.
One incoherent nonsense mess that felt like the story was being made up as it went along. The end credits with about 6-8 different writers perhaps explained the reason for that.
Nothing like the first movie based on Hans Christian Anderson's Snow Queen. No charm and characters such as Olaf were simply irritating and I couldn't care if any of them would have lived or died except for Kristoff. When the movie was trying to produce drama and characters were crying I felt nothing.
Kristoff's song "Lost in the woods" and sequence were pretty good, the rest of the movie consisted of completely irritating songs that lacked rhyming where necessary. A character will start singing and I was thinking "oh no, not another song". How long is this going on for?
Gets a 2 from me, literally one point above minimum for Kristoff's song.
Totally doesn't deserve the success it's had. Patronising nonsense. 6 years in the making and this is just a complete disgrace.
Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
Really great. Go see it with an open mind and don't worry about what people say.
I've had half a day to digest this movie and it is still on my mind. I've rewatched the trailers and can't wait to see it again. I think that is what a good Star Wars movie should do.
In no means is the story perfect. I would have liked to have seen some different things in the sequel trilogy for sure; how the first order was formed from the ashes of the Empire and perhaps Starkiller base could have been a continuous threat throughout the trilogy rather than the simply New Hope retelling in 7. So disable the thing by the end of 7, it's getting repairs in 8, it's a threat again in 9 and then it's taken out for good. Something like that. And more training from Luke and a more heroic Luke should have been in here. Episode 8 dropped the ball and we got the likes of Holdo which is frustrating to (re)watch.
With the impossible task that Rian Johnson left behind I think JJ Abrams did a great job. I was incredibly worried with the leaks I had heard and the initial two trailers I saw didn't do a hell of a lot for me at the time. The music seemed the best part of the final trailer. Then I saw the last footage that dropped last week of Kylo going to meet the emperor at the start with the voices and my mood shifted to more hopeful but I still had low expectations.
So the movie itself:
The atmosphere surrounding the emperor is just great and very menacing. On par with Return of the Jedi that. Quite scary. Loved the mysterious audience touch.
The First half hour is relentless (maybe a bit much) but a lot happens and it is mostly a lot of fun and well done. The characters have grown and the actors really suit their parts now. A time jump was needed here and we got it. 8 should have had one as well at the start.
Leia's scenes work eerily well. I cannot complain. I thought it was going to be too obvious that it was pieced together afterwards but it's really quite good.
BB-8 is really good. C3PO is fine. DIO was a nice addition. Maybe not enough of R2D2 here but the droids were mostly handled ok.
Some new characters introduced. I admit it is very late but it wasn't too bad.
The Han Solo part really surprised me. I thought it was great but I admit there are quite a few Star Wars story telling conventions broken in the sequel trilogy (flashbacks & non force ghost memories that people see) But I think this movie needed that scene since Carrie Fischer was gone.
The ending credits rumbling orchestra music before the main theme returns is used to signify the resistance armada's arrival at the end and that part of the music has never been used during a Star Wars movie I believe but was perfect I thought. I wanted to jump out in joy in the cinema. The music was in fact stellar. Poe seemed desperate and it almost became heart breaking. It was well pieced together I thought.
I think it's the best of the Disney Star Wars movies - on par with Rogue One and better than Force Awakens - and I'd rather watch this again than the prequels which are overshadowed by dodgy/too much CGI and not very good acting and too much faffing about.
All in all, I REALLY enjoyed it. I want to watch it again and thus I have to be honest. I wanted to rate it an 8 but I have to go with my heart like I did with Infinity War (for me this is the best movie since that with Joker and Once Upon A Time In Hollywood as notable mentions during the last 1 1/2 years too). It's just really, really great. So just scraping a 9 from me.
Doctor Sleep (2019)
Great sequel to the Shining but I almost wanted to leave....
Great movie. Meanders a bit too much at first I think and I didn't know where things were headed (hadn't seen any trailers) so for me the murder of baseball boy was quite disturbing to be honest. Almost wanted to leave the cinema. (Hope murdering young white boys isn't going to be the norm in Hollywood? - Terminator Dark Fate had the same, released in the same week). But after all that things got much better. Once back at Overlook this movie got really good and I enjoyed it. The soundtrack helped a lot there.
McGregor great. Really hated the Rebecca Ferguson character so she probably did her job well as the main villain. Supporting cast all good as was the lead young actress.
Worthy sequel to The Shining but it can never be quite as good as some of the isolated atmosphere just isn't there, it gets very close though.
Mike Flanagan is a good horror story teller (loved the House on Haunted Hill series) but maybe drop the disturbing stuff with kids I think and his stuff would be timeless.
Fractured (2019)
Pretty good but....
I thought the movie was really good. Most made for Netflix movies I've watched have barely been watchable and I've often regretted even switching these on but this was a stellar production I have to say and the first good movie I've seen Sam Worthington in Since Avatar (10 years ago!).
The ending however I thought wasn't good here.
There were two possibilities:
1) The hospital is a massive organ transplant conspiracy
2) Ray Monroe is mad and a lot of what we saw was just in his mind.
They went with 2 which I guess is ok (I was rooting for Ray so found the ending a bit sad to be honest).
I think the ending they went with would have worked much better if you just saw there was no one in the backseat and he keeps talking and singing and he drives off. Showing all the "real" flashbacks I thought was a big mistake. So all this could have been fixed with a bit of editing and I probably would have given this a 9. I think the full ending we saw should have been an alternate ending on a Blu Ray or something (not that this will get a physical release I guess - also a shame actually). Sometimes what we don't see is just more intriguing. Shutter Island was a lot more intriguing in that respect.
Other than that however I thought it was pretty good and almost that sort of Shutter Island / The Game quality.
A worthy watch for sure.
Joker (2019)
Excellent
Excellent dark, convincing potential background story for the Joker. Very believable. Slow paced in some places but that is necessary for the story to unfold leading to a perfect climax. The atmosphere in the entire movie is just stunning. The soundtrack worked really well too. You aren't always sure what is going on in the Joker's mind but it is a bit more straightforward than what I thought this movie would be liked. It sticks to 70s and 80s movie telling conventions.
Phoenix obviously did a sterling job which has rightfully been pointed out many times.
I'd actually like this to be a fresh start to a new Batman reboot and another meet up with Superman too but I've heard that is very unlikely to happen.
I do hope, if we get more superhero movies churned out, they are more in this style than the CGI style we have had too much off. Maybe some CGI companies will go out of business but we would get far better cinema and more creators behind the camera rather than copy cats.
I loved every minute.
For me the best movie of the year. I cannot see another Disney Abramsified Star Wars movie beating it.
Westworld (2016)
Depressing mess without charm
Thought this was a really bad show from the get go. There is very little time spent showing why people go to Westworld. We see some extreme violence and sex for a few seconds here and there that humans are involved in, but don't engage with any living characters visiting Westworld to appreciate what a theme park with countless human like robots could be like. We do not see any wonder and excitement. We are quickly drawn into very narrow minded scenarios because there is always someone around who has been here before and done it. Far too much time is spent on robots and their history or what they are thinking. Really? It is a very strange approach to me. It's as if we are missing a first season here.
Straight away things go wrong from episode 1 and robots are constantly brought in to be examined. They are constantly shot and mutilated making it all seem very unrealistic this theme park could operate and generate a profit.
Verisimilitude of what Westworld could be like is nowhere to be found. I never once got the impression this could all be happening in the future.
What bothers me is that every second word in each screenplay is an f bomb. People constantly swear for no reason it seems to me. The people behind the scenes speak badly of the customers, their jobs and what they are doing. I don't get it. Surely Westworld was supposed to be a fantastic place striving for excellence? Things eventually went wrong, we know that from the first movie sure, but it all seems so haphazard to me. There is no subtlety to grow this.
I do not understand the high score because this series has no charm whatsoever and midway through season 1 I just had to give up.
Quite terrible compared to the original Crichton movie.
Another JJ Abrams failure to bring back a classic. How many chances is he going to get to do that after Star Trek, Star Wars and now signing a massive Warner Brothers deal. All these franchises he has been involved with never sank lower before he was involved. To me Abrams' work is leaving bad tastes in the mouth thinking of all these franchises now. I don't get why he is allowed to get such budgets and deliver very polarising products constantly. And because he is over-stretching himself he seems to deliver even more subpar movies and now tv series.
All of Abrams' work constantly involves familiarity but there is no doubt the originals he is borrowing from are always better, have more fun and are still far more re-watchable. Hollywood is in a sad state (only super heroes or sequels) and it is depressing seeing that Abrams effect spill over into the TV world which has far better things to offer where he is not involved with (Breaking Bad / Chernobyl / House on Haunted Hill). His name in the credits now seems to be an indication for me to probably best avoid movies or tv series.
Toy Story 4 (2019)
Unnecessary
I think this movie has a lot of problems. It gets very messy in the middle with introducing a lot of characters and almost became unwatchable for me for a few minutes. It does recover and ends decently but it is not a patch on the original 3 movies which were all about the characters doing everything in their powers to stay together. Most of the favourites are absent for a long time and Buzz is too much of a moron at times.
I think Disney are going overboard with milking their properties. Don't think it is going to end well for a lot of their franchises at this rate. In the end Toy Story 4 was not necessary at all after a stunning 3rd instalment which had a perfect, unbeatable ending.
Great visuals but that doesn't really matter.