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Reviews
Prisoners (2013)
I like this
I saw this movie with my wife in the cinema. As a movie fan who almost only watch movies in cinema and almost never watch any movies on TV, I must say that this movie is slightly soft to offer competition to other movies in 2013. However, as it turns out, it is a very good movie with a really good script and excellent performance from Gyllenhall.
The plot was good, the suspense part does work and it fits the classification of an intense thriller.
I went to the cinema this time really just to accompany my wife who really loves Jake Gyllenhall. I ended up liking it too and recommended it to my friends. I was gripped by it. In this movie, I felt so sorry for how low Jackman went. I could almost feel the desperation that he in felt in Prisoners and almost actually felt an empathy; I mean this sort of thing happens regularly all over the world, but he just desisted to take things into his own hands.
Overall a very good movie. Go watch it if you haven't.
Sabotage (2014)
I like this movie! And not becoz I like all Arnie's
I cant remember when was the last time I put an 8 in. The fact is simple, I like this movie. There is a lot of gore, a lot of unnecessary f-words, but I am OK with the subplots.
I think that Olivia Williams did very well here. I am sure I will read plenty of accolades about her in the cinematic press.
This is not the best of Arnie's movies. This is not in top 5. There aren't many memorable quotes. There is a bit too much disembowelment for my liking actually. However, the plot is cool and despite what some reviewers say, the camera-work is very decent.
Go watch this one. In the next one, Arnie will not be able to be portrayed as a an active outfield soldier operator anymore.
Paul (2011)
Shoulda watched it in the cinema!
I knew it that I should have watched this one in the cinema! I watched tons of movies around the time that Paul was released and the trailers was seductive enough to make me considered watching it the next time; but the next time becomes the next next time and so on. It is hilarious, well-scripted and the scene sequences are well-edited. Paul was given a regular weed-smoking American regular guy attitude and this is funny when you see it in a green martian-looking creature. The characters introduced during the desert chase were varied and each added to the fun. We see many movies in this genre in the past but many of them are just to add numbers to your DVD rentals so that you get a discount. By giving Paul regular human characters, the director can give him the usual jokes / lines. As an outerspace alien, many more range of ability / inability that Paul has makes the movie quite fun to watch. The only quirky idea was using two British actors. Am really sure, any regular American ones would have been much better. Paul is enjoyable, funny and deserve a 7 from me. If they show it again in cinemas, I would watch it there next time around.
Ruby and Oswald (1978)
Not Bad
I watch this movie on an early Sunday morning Bank Holidays. Being an early riser, saw this at 0700. This must be a made-for-telly one. Its not bad at all. It looked like it was made in the 70s maybe, Dennehy was so young then. It seemed to try to give a balanced view of what happened with Ruby. I used to read about The Kennedy Assassination and to my mind this Ruby guy is a bit loony and this movie I supposed portrayed it pretty well. It gave a good historical description I supposed. The acting ain't great at times but maybe people who like facts will say that it represented accurate accounts of what happened that time.
Paranormal Activity 2 (2010)
scared the bejeezes out of me
i only watched this today, just now in fact! it was just awfully frightening! i thought it would just be a blair witch lookalike and i refused to go see it in cinema thinking that i'd waste the money and went to see others instead, i have almost totally forgotten the movie.
went to tesco today, and while waiting for the wife and kids finished shopping, i picked up the title that a guy just returned to the counter, just to fill the evening's gap. wife and kids proceeded on to a dinner invitation that i lied to as being too unwell to attend, i just put the DVD in, got the surround system on and logged into my facebook..
..whoever produced was excellent that he / she used only my own expectations and stress to create suspense and more stress.
its so good i'm impressed. not gonna watch paranormal 2 or 3, i think it wont be as good and i think they're just gonna be "lookalikes"..
Battle: Los Angeles (2011)
9 out of 10
This is my highest ever vote that I gave to a movie in this forum! Excellent stuff! Exactly my kind of movie. Everything's about it is just right. It's nice for once to see that aliens have some kind of camaraderie; movies seem to forget that aliens if they are smart enough to find their way here must also have higher faculties.
The cinematography is good, the designs of crafts etc seem original and the battlefield fearsome. My wife and kids went separately and the kids kept saying it was awesome (my kids are not easily impressed..I brought them to Washington and NY and costs me thousands of pounds and they were only slightly amused..only the aircraft carrier Intrepid was "awesome").
I am planning to see it again in the cinema.
Season of the Witch (2011)
7.0/10
I watched this with my friend this morning. Its our usual early Sunday morning viewings. We both love this and would recommend to anyone, especially to those who have seen The Name of The Rose and liked it. Around twenty years different between the two but I saw TNOTR again recently and my opinion of it still unchanged, in fact, I thought it was better than when I first saw it.
SOTW was as dark as TNOTR, and tried to be as Gothic too. There is the usual fights scenes and CGIs etc, but if it was trying to be scary, well it wasn't. If was trying to be dark, well its not too dark either. TNOTR's attempt at showing how life was in the old centuries was actually more realistic and closer to what I think it would have been(many will agree, I am sure) and the Love vs religious-commitments in TNOTR is more heart-wrenching).
Well, it is not fair to compare a movie to another, but there many similarities between these two. SOTW is not bad, but a few of Cage's films are better. I love both, I don't mind seeing SOTW the second time on DVD.
Tron: Legacy (2010)
On tron
I saw Tron with my friends in our early Sunday morning cinema slots. The unfortunate thing is that I saw the first one years again, and I didn't like it much then. When I saw the Matrix etc, I started to understand Tron more. Since my childhood days therefore, I didn't fancy Tron much and I haven't watched it fully again, only bits and pieces on television etc.
This new version is not bad. I enjoyed it, but its not the usual Sc-Fi as you frequent moviegoers and I know it. I like Sci-Fi that I can relate to (how do you actually "relate" to a Sci-Fi movie? I am not too sure, but I thought I had it at sometime or other..). Maybe I'm still stuck to my thoughts of the old Tron, maybe I am not keen to accept what my friends say about it, but I still think it is not as good as many other complex Sci-Fi plot. The Running Man was complex, but I liked it a lot.
I would not watch Tron in The Cinema again, and if friends get around on weekends and somebody get the DVD out for after dinner movies and gets out Tron, I'll ask for another title. If I got voted down and had to sit thru Tron again, I'll probably chat to the guy next to me.
Der Name der Rose (1986)
The Name of The Rose
I saw this movie three times and I was really disappointed that I didn't get to see it in the cinema. It was brilliant at depicting what life was like in those old centuries. It doesn't pull any punches. Life then was more unfair and The Name of The Rose just showed it so. Conditions was vile and filthy and people were poor (from my readings etc) and The Name of The Rose brought it back to live quite well.
It was cruel, it has twists. It makes me quite sad tho'. It was a love story, but it was a sad one. The final parts were heart-breaking and tells of untold and powerful sacrifice.
I was small when I first saw it, I didn't think it was suitable for me back then. Then, I wish it ended differently. In 1994 when I saw it again, I still hoped it ended kinder and when I saw it again alone in a darkened room on my large-screen television in Nov 2010, it still breaks my heart and I still crave for a gentler end.
Beautiful Dreamer (2006)
Not bad
I woke up late as it was a Saturday and I was post on-call and was trying to recover my sleep..I woke up at 1320 just as credits from a Columbo's were going up my TV screen. Just after, my local Channel aired this Movie. So I watched with a clear and rested mind, knowing that for the next 48 hours no nurses or patients will interrupt what I do.
First thing that I'd say is that the Cinematography is excellent. I love the soft colours, the slow camera sweeps. The continuity was good and the plot, contrary to what was said by others, is quite plausible, though from a medical angle (and I think from a Psychiatrics point of view) it could have been made simpler. I like the musics.
Claire never gives up, and the the characters that she meets along to and in Harris were all common characters that we see in our daily life, and this add the ease in which one "accept" the plot as we go along watching, eg that guy Bobby (Joe/Tommy's partner), Granpa etc.
It was a tear-jerker, definitely not my genre, but it was pleasant, it doesn't disappoint me, and I am not unhappy that I spent a good Saturday afternoon watching it. Will tell wifey when she's back from her own on-call, that I watched a good movie today.
Cursed (2005)
I like this movie
I am middle-aged and do not like teen-movies. I do not like scary movies and do not appreciate gore. I totally do not like all this werewolf stuff. This movie tho is not too bad. It has a story-line that is slightly better than say Elm Street. There are several levels of complicated issues built into this movie, tho' it is quite possible that they were not designed by the team to be the main attraction. Movie-goers who love these sort of movies ie Werewolf-themed, teen gore may not appreciate the subtle genres in here, eg sibling relationship, homosexual issues etc. There several good actors here too. I ended watching it 3 times (2006 on DVD, 2007 and 2009 on TV). I watched it the first time as my wife thought it was something to do with withcraft and borrowed it from our local DVD store. 6/10 is not bad from someone who is not into it.
Mr. Destiny (1990)
Not bad
I actually like this movie even though I don't fancy James Belushi very much. In this movie, you can actually see several big names on the rise, Linda Hamilton and Courteney Cox namely; Caine's was already big of course. The plot in this movie is simple; its just like that Sliding Door movie. It however was told in a light-hearted manner and I like the comedy moments in it. It made me trying to relive my own important moments in live, eg what if I've taken that girl out for a movie, and not the other etc. It tells us that people around us could have taken different roles in our lives if some minute details were to change. It also reminds us to be careful what we wish for. Life is not always as good on the other side as we think; maybe, what we have now is the best for us, all things considered.
The Fly (1986)
Good enough for me
I grew up in the 80s and I am sure that there are not many movies at that time that can match its gory special effects. It was disgusting enough for me to have to wash away my thickening saliva with a glass of cold water so that I wouldn't get nauseated. Overall its a good movie. I would have watched it in the cinema if I had the chance that time; I was too studious then and was preparing hard for an exam.
It is actually a strange fusion of plots and genres. Its a science fiction and horror, but some moments would have had you that its a love story. Goldblum was excellent, he musta studied a lot of fly behaviours preparing for the movie. "Insect's Politics" is a good phrase too, too it hasn't caught up in the mainstream media.
Overall watchable, good enough for me to watch it the second time.
Willard (2003)
An effective movie
I actually saw Willard about a year ago, but only this time got around to write several lines about it. Much of this delay is due to the lack of spare time, work commitment etc. The fact that I still remember the movie and want to write something about it kinda tells me that Willard was effective. There are a few among us in our community, wherever we are, who can be identified, to a degree, with Willard's character. This chap Willard is of a disturbed mind, and his bizarre relationship with all those rodents in his basement is rather distasteful and makes for an uneasy viewing. This is the element that makes it effective, making you replay some scenes in your mind even after weeks of watching it. I am sure that there are readers here who have some problems with rats, and Willard would have made them remember this movie very vividly, even though they probably watched only 45 minutes of it. It is THAT effective!!
Below (2002)
6 stars out of ten
I thought it was a brilliant movie. Much of the suspense element were intact as only few glimpses of "sightings" were offered. The storyline isn't entirely plausible but the script was in order. I like the twist offered. The characters were well-created and tho' some appeared for only a short time, they were well characterized for you to remember who they were. The continuity was good and the cinematography was better than what I expected from a suspenseful movie. Was it a tad too long for its story? Another movie in this genre that is in parallel to this one is Ghost Ship. This one tho' is not as good as Below. I really wish for more movies like this. Overall, not bad and watchable.
Cloverfield (2008)
I was sea-sick!
Saw this on its opening day on this wide of the waters few weeks ago. It was great! I haven't enjoyed a movie like this for a while! Loved most things about it, the fact that they made blogs for those characters, the hand-held filming etc. Some people were disappointed that they couldn't see more of the monster. This was not that kind of movie. It was more of a love story, love-in-the-time-of-monster-attack kind of movie. Those who haven't seen much monsters yet should go to youtube and search for "Ultraman"; they'll then see monsters enough to last them a lifetime. I was sea-sick tho! I remembered at least 2 couples who had to leave the cinema, each time I could see their silhouettes with their hands holding their foreheads. An 8!! That's the best I've ever given to any movies on any websites.
Premonition (2007)
I wanted to rate it higher than 6, but I just cant!
I thought it was a great movie. I saw it with the wife, and her friend came to visit, and I just ignored her! The movie held me in my TV-throne ( I have a special soft chair just for my bum, used only when watching movies!! Do not send comments about this!!). The slowish pace, the clues tho' they weren't so subtle and the overall plot was just right for me. It was 10/10 about three quarters of the way. However, I thought the ending was a tad weak (and I am sure I would not be the only one who think so). I have stopped liking slo-mos during dramatic scenes and have started to dislike them! Just get on with it, go fast. We are not in the 80s anymore. I am sure many of our members could have suggested a better ending than this. I would have given it a 7, if only the clues left each day were less detailed.
Lady in the Water (2006)
Not the best from MNS
Maybe I was just expecting for something way off from what was delivered. I was ready to be surprised when I was watching it, the way that I was by MNS's other movies. But it didn't happen. I couldn't really point out why. Many of the elements were there, but they just didn't get to me this time. There were some fantastical-mythical angles too, which I certainly looked for in movies like this one, but they somehow failed to lift me. Ah! One more thing! I saw too much of MNS in this. Is it true what they say, that MNS's movies have become less and less gripping these days? Is it true also, that when you have made such greats like The Sixth Sense, then the only way from there is down? I am sure that someone out there would enjoy this movie, tho' I wasn't one of them.