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FatherOfTwo
8/10
Whiplash
Nightcrawler
Guardians Of The Galaxy
Birdman
Godzilla
7/10
The Lego Movie
The Babadook
Sex Tape
Interstellar
X Men: Days Of Future Past
Dawn Of Planet Of The Apes
6/10
Transcendence
Edge Of Tomorrow
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
Into The Storm
Lucy
Deliver Us From Evil
Bad Neighbours
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Noah
As Above, So Below
The Inbetweeners 2
The Maze Runner
Transformers: Age Of Extinction
5/10
The Boxtrolls
Devil's Due
Anabelle
Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones
4/10
Alien Abduction
Dumb and Dumber to
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
The Last Ship (2014)
Leave you're brain on the shoreline
Lets cut to the chase: this is not the next Breaking Bad, The Wire or The Shield. It will be forgotten about when audience attention spans run their course after another season or 2.
It is good, formulaic, mindless fun that at 40 minutes an episode doesn't outstay its welcome if you're watching on catch-up. There's usually some sort of military action in each episode (normally in the last couple minutes) through which the protagonists will always triumph no matter how outrageous the plan. There's not so much drama in each episode as there is a slow wait for the inevitable action to come and as for the overall plot of the season the most promising cat-and- mouse with the Russians didn't even last a whole season.
Forgettable performances fleshing out stereotypes makes up the majority of the cast - i don't see any of them turning up in the next Godzilla film any time soon. But like i said it's harmless fun that avoids the pitfalls of misogyny, xenophobia and racism that it could so easily fall into although there are too many flag-waving and stoic monologues for my tastes. I've seen the first season, and I'll undoubtedly start the second until boredom sets in, which it will, eventually.
A resounding "meh", 6/10
Europa Report (2013)
so-so sci fi
This is a film more about the journey than the destination, more about what happens than the why. Very much in a similar vein to Pandorum, with a musical nod to 2001: A Space Odyssey we follow the six crew of Europa One: a mission to send people to Europa to look for life. It's not really explained why its so important to send people - beyond the assumption that people are better. Fairly early in the film it transpires that one of the crew doesn't make it all the way to Europa, but such is the haphazard time-line of the film that you have to wait some time before seeing what plot excuse was thrown up to dwindle the numbers. Once on Europa it becomes more Apollo 18, moving rocks replaced with scarcely seen bioluminescence. There are 3 main issues with the film, from what I can tell. Firstly, the crew have no real personality - either individually or as a unit, and hardly any humour whatsoever. So without any empathy for the characters it's nigh on impossible for the film to generate any sort of cohesive tension. Secondly the film is far too slow, shaving a good 20 - 30 minutes off the runtime would do it the world of good. And finally a point to it all would be nice: moral platitudes about our place in the universe don't really cut it for this particular cinema viewer.
All in all it's watchable, but not one you'd go out of your way to recommend.
Seven Psychopaths (2012)
In Bruges meets Adaptation
An off-the-wall, quirky, postmodern film in which a screenwriter struggling to write a screenplay suddenly finds said screenplay playing out in front of him through his oddball associates and the comedic ways in which their lives interact. It's not as funny as In Bruges, and it's not as clever as Adaptation and the second half feels almost like its from a very different, boring, film - but if you don't mind graphic violence and wet t shirts between your laughs then this film could be for you. The ensemble cast do well to lift the lesser-written scenes (Chris Walken and Woody Harrelson are on fine form in particular) and it doesn't take itself seriously; neither should you: just sit back and laugh at the ride.
Wake Up (2010)
What's the point of it all?
No real explanation of how he affords all the travelling (does he even have a job?), no attempt to embrace any of the practises that offer him help, and a truly banal revelation that made me question seriously if the previous 90 minutes were worth it. Oh, and don't get me started on the oh-so-obvious guilt issues that command his life which he seems to be utterly oblivious to - or at least loathe to do anything about. Very little makes sense, and with massive coincidences (like his girlfriend's name) and scenes that smack of a set-up the overall feeling one gets from this is apathy, on every level. A semblance of a narrative arc would have been nice, but the story never gets out of second gear with the landscape becoming far more interesting than anything the protagonist does or says. I gave it a 5 because there's some evidence of competency in filmmaking, but with very little to engage with for the audience I can't recommend it.