Island-Girl5 Reviews

Broken Vows (2014)

Two words...

[7/10 · 25 January 2021]

...Wes Bentley. That's all I need to say.

(Actually, IMDB is making me add this sentence as my review was too short.)

Melancholia (2011)

A powerful metaphor

[8/10 · 10 August 2020]

You'll ever love or hate this movie. If you've never experienced deep depression, you'll likely see this movie as slow, boring, pointless, etc. I'm in the other camp. Meloncholia is a beautiful, accurate depiction of the overwhelming weight and despair of major depression. It shows how, even when you want to and should be happy, it's impossible to throw off the blanket of dejection. Justine's (Kirsten Dunst's) line, "I'm trudging through this grey, woolly yarn. It's clinging to my legs. It's really heavy to drag along" is the perfect description of depression!

Justine's acceptance of Melancholia's path to collision with Earth is like the seductive pull of the depressed person's desire to have it all just be over with. If you didn't "get" this movie, thank you lucky stars (pun intended) that you've never felt that way. For those of us who have, this movie is achingly relatable and poignant.

1984 (1984)

A disappointing adaptation

[5/10 · 2 August 2020]

Watching a movie that's based upon a book is always hit or miss for me. I already have an idea in my head how the characters/scenes look, so the movie version might be completely different from what I had imagined. In that respect, "1984" actually does a pretty good job. The bleakness and grittiness of life in Oceania is depicted really well. My complaint is that so much from the book is left out of the movie. I understand that it's not possible to fit a nearly 300-page story into an under 2-hours film, but there were key pieces missing. Had I not read the novel, a lot of the dialogue and "newspeak" wouldn't have made any sense. They needed to include at least a little more explanation for the uninitiated viewer.

Midsommar (2019)

How does this have a 7.2 rating?!

[2/10 · 1 February 2020]

Aside from the beautiful cinematography, this film has nothing going for it. It's long, slow, boring, sometimes graphic, and just plain bad. I wish I could get those 2+ hours of my life back.

Law Abiding Citizen (2009)

Gerard Butler was fantastic!!....but the ending sucked.

[9/10 · 7 July 2019]

Wow! I'm not sure why I never heard of this movie. The story was engrossing, and Gerard Butler played the grieving, justice-seeking father (Clyde) perfectly! The pain in his eyes over the loss of his family was so real, you forget he's just acting. And the courtroom scene where Clyde almost walks on bail but then rages at the judge for her hypocrisy is mesmerizing! I think it was the best scene in the movie. My ONLY criticism is that....SPOILER ALERT....Clyde shouldn't have died in the end. Or, if he did, it should have been after he killed Jamie Foxx's (Nick's) family. Clyde's family was brutally murdered, and Nick (the prosecutor) let the killer plead out to a nominal sentence. It was Nick's choice to let that happen. Even though Clyde was able to kill most everyone else involved in his family's case, he wasn't able to take out Nick or his family. To me, it would have been justice for Nick to lose his family the way Clyde did. I hate that they all got to live. Had the ending been different, I would have given the full 10/10 stars.

Aquaman (2018)

10/10

[10/10 · 27 April 2019]

I don't give 10s easily, but this movie was fantastic!! Jason Momoa was the perfect choice to play Aquaman! I wasn't crazy about Amber Heard, Patrick Wilson, or even Nicole Kidman, but the movie was so good that I can overlook that. The CGI was awesome and the story interesting. I don't understand all the negative reviews. My only regret is not seeing this on the big screen. I bet it would have been amazing!

The Mule (2018)

Wow!

[10/10 · 1 April 2019]

What a fantastic movie! Clint Eastwood is a legend.

Wildlife (2018)

I hated this movie!

[2/10 · 10 February 2019]

Horrible, horrible, horrible movie. I'm a huge Jake Gyllenhaal fan. He's the sole reason I watched this drivel. It was slow and excruciating to sit through. The actor who played the son was just annoying to watch. The wife/mother was an awful, cold, self-absorbed, witch (with a capital B.) I hated her character so much. I wanted to turn the movie off halfway through. I only suffered through to the end to see Gyllenhaal come back from fighting the fire and see what he did when he found out what'd been happening while he was away. His performance is the only reason I even gave this piece of crap film two stars.

Solace (II) (2015)

Great movie!

[9/10 · 15 January 2019]

I just watched this movie for the third time, and I loved it just as much as the first two times. It's not your typical who-dun-it story. It really makes you think about the line between morality and mercy. Anthony Hopkins was phenomenal, as always. Colin Farrell and Jeffrey Dean Morgan were fantastic in their roles as well. Plus, having them both in the same movie is just serious eye candy! ;) The only negative for me was the female FBI agent. The actress just wasn't that good.

Ask the Dust (2006)

I gave up halfway through

[2/10 · 9 January 2019]

I'm usually a person who watches a movie (or reads a book) all the way to the end, no matter how bad simply because I invested my time into it. Not here. I'm a huge fan of Colin Farrell, but even he wasn't enough to keep me from turning the movie off halfway through. (He IS the reason I gave it two stars instead of one, though.) The characters just don't give any reason to be invested in them. They're both jerks whom I couldn't care less about. I'm sorry I wasted an hour on this movie.

Before I Fall (2017)

A cross between Groundhog Day and Mean Girls

[2/10 · 2 January 2019]

So, I knew going in that this was like a modern-day version of Groundhog Day. What I didn't realize was that it was also mixed with Mean Girls. Teen girls can be such witches with a capital "B." I couldn't stand the awful attitudes of the 4 girlfriends. I'm sure that the main character found redemption during the movie and changed her ways, but I wasn't in the mood to wait for that to happen. I only made it through the first 14 minutes before I turned the movie off.

Bad Times at the El Royale (2018)

A must see!

[9/10 · 24 December 2018]

What a great movie! I love the depiction of The El Royale. I can just imagine how happening it would've been in its heyday. The characters' stories become intertwined in a beautiful, but tragic way. The ensemble cast was amazing.. This was my first introduction to Cynthia Erivo, who played Darlene Sweet. Man, can that woman sing! She's a great actress as well. Jeff Bridges is fantastic in every movie he's in. The kid who played Miles Miller was lovable. His back story surprised me, but then the drug use all made sense. He was trying desperately to escape the pain of his "sins." Chris Hemsworth was awesome as the sexy, charismatic cult leader. It's easy to see how Rose became so totally captivated by him. Billy Lee is still scum, but he's easy on the eyes. On behalf of all women, thank you, Drew Goddard, for having Chris bare chested for 90% of the film! LOL

Because I Said So (2007)

Diane Keaton is so annoying!

[3/10 · 18 December 2018]

I wanted to like this movie. I really did. The cast is amazing, but Diane Keaton's neurotic, overbearing, never-shuts-up character is so annoying! I would have to divorce my mother if she were like that. I pushed through to the end of this movie, but Keaton's character really grated on my nerves. I definitely do NOT recommend it.

The Congress (2013)

The first half was good....

[3/10 · 10 December 2018]

This movie had real potential. The storyline intrigued me. The idea of studios buying the rights to an actor/actress in perpetuity is something that isn't too hard to imagine would happen in the future. However, I only enjoyed the first half. When Robin Wright entered the animated zone, the movie went downhill quickly. There was no point to all that. Yet I sat through it all just to get to a mediocre ending. I definitely don't recommend this movie.

The Keeping Hours (2017)

This is NOT a horror movie. But it IS a great movie!

[8/10 · 23 September 2018]

This is not a horror movie. If you go into it expecting it to be, then yes, you would be disappointed on that aspect. However, what it is is a beautiful story about love, loss, and reconnecting. The lead actors did a great job portraying the gamut of emotions required of the story, and Sander Thomas was awesome as little Jacob. Don't listen to the naysayers here. I'd definitely recommend this movie!

A Quiet Place (2018)

More than meets the eye

[9/10 · 28 August 2018]

I thought this movie was awesome! Films that have such little dialogue can be hard to pull off, but this movie keeps you engaged the whole time. It's not just about survival from these sound-tracking aliens, it's about the connection between the members of this family. The end scene with the father made me teary-eyed and definitely tugged at my heartstrings.

My only "problem" with the plot was why would the couple get pregnant knowing how dangerous any sound is? I get that they had a plan in place for the crying baby, but that was only going to work for so long.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, and I can't say that about most of what Hollywood puts out these days. I'd definitely recommend it.

Logan Lucky (2017)

Better than I expected

[7/10 · 5 February 2018]

I watched this movie on a lazy Sunday afternoon. I really wasn't expecting much from the plot, but the cast drew me in. Mostly, I wanted to see how Daniel Craig played out Joe Bang. He did not disappoint! Channing Tatum and Adam Driver were fantastic in their roles, too. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this movie. I'd definitely recommend as a fun way to pass a couple of hours.

The Neon Demon (2016)

One of the worst movies I've ever seen!

[1/10 · 20 January 2018]

This movie was so slow. I kept fast forwarding to get to the next scene. Luckily, this somewhat shortened the time that I was stuck watching this mess. Throughout the entire movie, I kept thinking, "This is stupid." I don't know why I forced myself to watch the whole thing. This was truly one of the worst movies I've ever seen.

Chris Stapleton: Fire Away (2016 Music Video)

Powerful and moving

[10/10 · 10 September 2017]

This video makes me cry every time I watch it. It's such a sad but beautiful depiction of life with a mental illness. Not only does the illness affect the person suffering, but those who love him/her as well. This video does an excellent job at showing that. Major kudos to Chris Stapleton, Ben Foster, Margarita Levieva, and everyone involved for bringing light to mental illness and suicide.

Life (I) (2017)

I've been waiting to watch this! It did not disappoint!

[10/10 · 2 July 2017]

Fantastic movie!! The cinematography was beautiful. The technicality was amazing. And the reality that something like this could happen? Totally believable. We humans are so arrogant that we think we know everything and need to conquer everything. I can absolutely see this piece of fiction becoming a reality one day. And that ending!!

I don't understand those who have submitted negative reviews. This movie is not Alien. It's not the same story, so stop saying that Alien was so much better. Independence Day, E.T., Men in Black, Prometheus, and Signs are all alien movies, but those aren't chronically compared to Alien. As for saying some of the actions are implausible, are you going to tell me the actions in all the other alien movies are likely?

This is a great movie! Don't go in biased by other reviews. Just watch it with an open mind and form your own opinion. Happy watching!

Beauty and the Beast (I) (2017)

Great movie!

[9/10 · 30 June 2017]

I loved this movie!! It was very well done, and I really enjoyed watching it. The scenes were brilliantly filmed, and everything was beautiful. SPOILER: I don't understand why there was such an uproar about having a gay character in a Disney movie. I think those people are missing the whole point of Beauty and the Beast!! It's about loving someone for who they are on the inside, in their heart. The outward appearances (and in this case, sexuality) don't matter.

The Resurrection of Gavin Stone (2017)

A story of redemption for the modern world.

[8/10 · 30 June 2017]

Really great movie!! It's a Christian story that's easily relatable in today's society. The story of redemption is predictable, but that doesn't detract from the movie at all! The characters are easy to love, and the message is genuine. It's nice to see a movie that the entire family can watch together.