Film review thread

[Nexus Icon]

[M.C]

[Going]

Talking about Tom Cruise;

American Made - 7/10
Found it to be a fun film to watch. Roughly based on a true story. What would you do if you had too much money.

[Oneear]

Phase IV

70's horror type thing in the mould of The Andromeda Strain. Desert populace + conscious ants + scientists = examination of man vs nature etc. Tense.

7/10

Wind River

Jeremy Renner and some FBI girl try and solve crime in the frozen Indian reservations of Wyoming. Great cinematography, really gives a sense of place and isolation (in that respect it kind of reminded me of Insomnia). By the same bloke who did Hell and High Water, and has similar pacing - slow and deliberate mostly, which gives time for the plot to wander along, and to settle into the environment. Quite a denouement to the investigation too.

8/10

[M.C]

One Night In Turin 4.5/10 - story of the England team (back when they gave a shit) in Italia '90, told in a Guy Richie... and therefore every British crime film since style. Nothing special, I guess it gave a bit more background than sporting docs normally do.

[Pigeon]

Fray - 6/10 - 1 bottle of Malbec
Injured marine struggles in civvy street. Very slow film, limited dialogue to begin with. Probably deliberate to increase that sense of bleak isolation.
I found it easy to stick with it though, held my attention throughout.


Lion - 5/10 - 1 bottle of Merlot
I can't explain exactly why, but I just didn't care. It was based on a true story, but was often overpowering with the smultz.
Overtly Hollywood, something about having my heart strings yanked with zero subtlety, I find it has the opposite effect. I've probably stopped watching 5 in 500 movies. This was one.

[MarJay]

[Lord Percy]

Geostorm - 5/10

Plot moves too fast, no depth, nothing special, stupid premise, terrible film.

Redeemed only by the funny parts which weren't meant to be funny. Found myself laughing at how terribly unrealistic it was. Even for an action movie which has some license to fill itself with fantastical things, it really was just stupid.

[M.C]

Apex: The Story of the Hypercar 7/10 - lots of Chris Harris, really good and I'd actually rate it higher except the ending was a bit disappointing (due to outside events).

[King29]

NAILS

Wee Scottish lady Shauna Macdonald (The Descent + others), lands in hospital after a near fatal hit and run. Much malarky with evil spirits and creepy hospital staff. Shoestring budget but quite entertaining. Horror/spooky/mystery escapade. 7.5/10

[Lord Percy]

Patriot's Day - 6/10

A well-made propaganda piece.

Would rate it higher, but propaganda slant is too obvious.

God Bless America.

[Pigeon]

A Walk Among the Tombstones - 6/10 - 1 bottle of Pinot Noir
Liam Neeson, ex cop becomes a PI hunting down crazed kidnapper / murderers. By the numbers for much of it, but different enough to keep interest.
I'm not a fan of films which set off in one tone such as a thriller, but introduce comedy. It rarely works well. It doesn't here.


A Man Called Ove - 7/10 - 1 bottle of Montepulciano d'Abruzzo
Swedish film about an angry retiree who doesn't see any hope for enjoyment out of life after his wife died. Film covers the present and past of their lives.
It flirts with the smultz, but just about keeps on the right side most of the time.
Liked it.

[Hetzer]

Taken 3 0.1/10

What a load of dribbling shite. "You downloaded some stuff off the police server, I could arrest you for that." No mention of the utter carnage he wreaked on the expressway when he took over the cop car. How many people maimed and killed? Oh, that container that squashed all those cars just after they'd been smashed out of control, they'd all got out and clear?

Hollywood dreck at it's finest.
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"There's the horizon! Ride hard, ride fast and cut down all who stand in your way!"

[fatjames]

[King29]

Geostorm.

Not as bad as reviewers made out, some big names in the film; Andy Garcia and Ed Harris to name but two. Very much in the same vein as Armageddon, so not all bad. It's a film I'd watch again. 7.5/10

[M.C]

Amy 4/10 - intimate look at Amy Winehouse's life. As so much of it played out in the public eye I knew most of the story, despite never being particularly interested in her. I still don't get what was the big deal about her.

[ZX-7R]

[waffles]

Justice League - boring story, characters that I didn't care about, distractingly terrible CGI and a 'big bad' villain who was defeated quickly and without any real danger.

3 badly removed moustaches/10
____________________
Theory test - 19/8/09, CBT - 11/10/09, MOD 1 - 16/8/10, MOD 2 - 27/10/10
Past rides Yamaha XT125X, Triumph TT600, Honda XR250
Current rides Suzuki GSXR 600, Honda MSX125

[King29]

Police story lockdown.

Jackie Chan, police corruption, much kung-fu and it's all in Chinese, English subtitles. Very confusing film, good fight scenes. A movie to watch when you are 3 sheets to the wind and don't really care about a plot and you just want to see an action film. 6/10

[Lord Percy]

[Rogue_Shadow]

Robocop (Remake) 6/10

Not an awful attempt at modern day Robocop, but was largely predictable and didn't really attempt anything new. It seemed more like fan service, trying to squeeze in old references and quotes in a less successful way than Jurassic World. Good cast but not really utilised, special effects were good as were some of the action scenes. The original Robocop films were set in what was perceived to be "the future", as such all the of the technology on Robocop was cutting edge. Yet when the remake demonstrates the level or tech already available at present day in the opening scene, it feels like they are making problems to advance the plot for RobertCop.

https://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/580/702/a01.jpg

Minor spoilers / why bother moments
I couldn't stop laughing when they strip back all the armour and Alex is simply a box with his lungs and heart ... & a hand connected by nothing. Why keep that one hand? An Arm I can understand, by why one hand ! This couldn't just make a simple AI to scan through CCTV footage to detect criminals, nope definitely needed a nose, eyes and a single hand to complete this task

[Rogerborg]

[M.C]

[Jayy]

Valerian and the city of 1,000 planets - 7/10

This looked very pretty on my new projector / screen. I loved it but always appreciate the level of detail that goes in to creating entire universes and 100's of different species of creatures that didn't exist before. Similarly like John Carter because of that.

Guardians of the Galaxy 2 - 7/10

Love that Draxx guy, he's hilarious. Watched this in 4K too on the projector... much wow.

[M.C]

Four Horsemen 6/10 - economics documentary about the banking sector/capitalism etc.. The best film of its type I've seen, as they remain just the right side of tin foil hatery.
I didn't agree with parts of it, but I liked that it gave a different perspective to some opinions I hold. They'll be much further reading after this one

Thor: Ragnarok 4/10 - they've taken the humour they injected into Thor 2, and ramped it up to cretinous, it was basically this: https://youtu.be/g3auVF7jcZg?t=30s
As always with Marvel films there was required reading This time:
- Dr Strange
- Avengers