Movie Reviews 2.0

[London Geezer]

And I saw Project Almanac. The story of a group of high school boys and girls who create a time machine and use it to... do stuff. Such as creating holes in the very thin plot.

I don't think I've ever watched a film with so many WTF moments, but all for the wrong reasons.

 

[Deleted member 86764]

I saw Mad Max over the weekend and it is indeed as good as everyone's been saying. Awesome, non-stop action from start to finish.

It's absolutely relentless from the very first minute of the film right through to the end. I loved every minute of it. When I came out of the cinema I heard someone say "there's not much of a plot is there?" which kind of made me chuckle, I seriously don't think that's the point of it

I was a big fan of the first two films (especially Road Warrior) and Fury Road is a big departure to those films. In a good way too.

 

[pjbliverpool]

I seriously don't think that's the point of it

Yep they really did miss the point there!

 

[Sxotty]

The book is actually pretty good (though Orson Scott Card, the author, is a bit of a shit). The movie did dumb it down a great deal.

It is asking a lot for a child actor to carry that weight. And the kids did not do it. It was a good book though

 

[Phil]

Watched John Wick. I love myself a straight forward revenge movie. If it's a well choreographed one like John Wick unquestionably is, then that's all the better. Still didn't really do it for me. I loved the first major action set piece at the night club, but then the film sort of petered out. The scene was never matched, let alone exceeded. Basically every action set-piece was another take on John Wick surgically dishing out head-shots on an ever decreasing scale. At first he did it in awe-inspiring, borderline balletic fashion, then in a more and more by-the-numbers approach as the film progressed. John Wick basically regressed from the Matrix's Neo to a Call of Duty grunt, pop-and-shoot mechanics and all. Overall the experience was just rather anti-climactic. After a while the whole thing basically felt like it was going through its slickly choreographed motions because there were still 30 minutes of film left in the can. In good old 80s action movie fashion, the narrative tissue holding the thing together was kept at a bare minumum obviously. Usually that's something I very much welcome, but it only works as long as the action stays inventive from start to finish and remains tight as a drum. A feat that is probably a lot harder to pull off than snooty film critics would have you believe. That I watched the exhausting Mad Max not too long ago didn't help matters of course. Heck, I thought the rowdy Everly pulled it off a lot better as well.

The perfect summary of John Wick IMO. Exactly how I felt about it too. Doesn't change though that I couldn't disagree more with your take on Nolan movies (and Interstellar)!

 

[Sigfried1977]

Hey, I do like some Nolan movies. Most of them actually. I just didn't like Interstellar and - albeit to a lesser extent - the Dark Knight rises. I thought both had "star director with way too much authority who surrounds himself with an inner circle of fan(boy)s of his own works exclusively" written all over them. Waiting for the moment when he finally goes full Tarantino and casts himself in one of his own movies. (Tarantino was awful in Django)

I also think he's not a good action director.

 

[Mariner]

Hey, I do like some Nolan movies. Most of them actually. I just didn't like Interstellar and - albeit to a lesser extent - the Dark Knight rises. I thought both had "star director with way too much authority who surrounds himself with an inner circle of fan(boy)s of his own works exclusively" written all over them.

Pretty much my feelings about Nolan.

I thought Inception was very good, as were the first two Batman movies. Checking out IMDB, I didn't realise that he wrote Memento which was another clever and good film. Insomnia was pretty good as well.

If he can resist the urge to disappear up his own wazoo, Nolan will make many more good movies in the future.

 

[Malo]

Have the same feelings for Nolan. He's made some fantastic movies but Dark Knight Rises and Interstellar were just very poor in comparison.

 

[Sigfried1977]

I thought The Prestige was a damn good film too.

 

[Mariner]

Never seen it. Always planned to, but never quite got there! I remember it received good reviews when initially released.

 

[tuna]

I totally respect Nolan for making his movies with as much practical effects and location shots that he does. But I do not think we share political views.....

 

[Deleted member 86764]

I watched Jurassic World over the weekend and I have to say that I didn’t really enjoy it. The leading section of the film (i.e., before the action starts) seems far too long, then when the action does finally start the two kids seem totally blasé about what’s happening to them.

Spoiler

When they’re being chased by the giant raptor (oh please) and they’re stood at the top of the waterfall, looking behind, they look excited and not scared at all, then it’s all high-fives when they get to the bottom

The original film had what appeared to be genuinely scared looking people. And you would be if you had a dinosaur chasing you. Now everyone’s acting all “kickass” like these creatures are motivation to look cool in front of girls, or their friends. Then it gets all clichéd; the main guy poses and flexes his muscles and the main female character opens her shirt, gets all sweaty and does a load of slow-motion running.

One of the comments in the film was “She’s British, she’s a perfect nanny” or something to that effect, made me want to vomit. Really?? Stereotypes too?

Special effects were lovely, but the rest of the film? You’ve seen it all before.

 

[Arwin]

This was my main problem with the movie as well - it was too referential to the old film. There were some classy references, but there were also scenes that played out like a weak versions of the old one, even though there was a great opportunity there for some ballsy off the wall fun (people who seen it will know what I mean). There also was too little proper appreciation of looking at actual dinosaurs. Also couldn't shake the feeling that despite everything, the Spinosaur from the third would have kicked Indominus' pale behind, and should probably have been the base design for it rather than the T-Rex. The mosasaur was also a bit oversized - they found one about two years ago again here - but very cool to see it nonetheless.

Disagree about the looking scared bit though, lots of very scared people in this. Still, I wouldn't mind if they kept making these at all. And of course, they were partly doing a Nintendo - a new young audience was ready to see these.

 

[London Geezer]

I saw Jurassic Park 4 World too and Chris Pratt I thought it was much Chris Pratt better than I expected Chris Pratt. The whole feeling of Chris Pratt the films has very much been Chris Pratt diluted from completely terrifying in the first, to Chris Pratt big spectacle, big family lovey lovey moments Chris Pratt and completely outlandish ways to move the plot forward Chris Pratt when it almost feels like they were making it Chris Pratt up as they went along Chris Pratt Chris Pratt Chris Pratt.

I have no idea what happened to him but he is pure and utter beauty made human. The main guy, what's his name?

 

[Rurouni]

^ I don't know. I thought his name was Chris Pratt.
Anyway, it was a fun movie. A bit more action with some suspense and that is fine, because you've got Chris Pratt acting as himself in the movie. I heard there is going to be a 2nd (5th?) one, thus more Chris Pratt, which again, fine with me. Maybe change the title to Chris Pratt the Jurassic adventure or something like that. Hopefully with less (no) children because those 2 just get in the way of Chris Pratt screen time.

 

[London Geezer]

^ I don't know. I thought his name was Chris Pratt.
Anyway, it was a fun movie. A bit more action with some suspense and that is fine, because you've got Chris Pratt acting as himself in the movie. I heard there is going to be a 2nd (5th?) one, thus more Chris Pratt, which again, fine with me. Maybe change the title to Chris Pratt the Jurassic adventure or something like that. Hopefully with less (no) children because those 2 just get in the way of Chris Pratt screen time.

I'd be happy with Chris Pratt just being there and talk, walk around and make jokes. No dinosaurs, no special effects or other actors needed. Heck, no clothes needed either. Save the budget for more Chris Pratt and make it a trilogy! 9 hours of Chris Pratt.
Chris Pratt: The Movie.

 

[Grall]

(though Orson Scott Card, the author, is a bit of a shit).

Slight understatement. He's white, male, republican, and a raging homophobe, and gods know what else in addition to that.

Haven't seen any new movies lately, but rather have been busy watching old(ish) ones; specifically Michael Bay's atrocious Transformers suite. Right now I'm on reel three, and it's like with each movie he's deliberately outdoing himself to make it even stupider than the previous, just to see where the boundary of Maximum Stupid lies (and no, he hasn't hit it yet; not for lack of trying though!) Like he's testing people to see how stupid it's possible to make a movie and still have people lining up to see it.

And, he succeeds! The stupid in Dark Moon is just unbelievably monumental, it dwarfs the five highest mountains on Earth (including that one in Equador which is the tallest if counting from the center of the planet) all stacked up on top of each other. Frankly, I've never witnessed anything so stupid which had that much money spent making it in my entire life, and hopefully I never will either. ...Except, there's a fourth one of these too, so who knows, eh! Maybe I'll get surprised!

And jesus frigging hell, dark side of the moon?! It's the one facing away from the SUN, not the one facing away from us! It's unbelievable people still screw this up; just look up at the goddamn sky, the dark side faces us once a month for frig's sakes.

...Well, it is a stupid movie, what can one expect?

 

[Laa-Yosh]

Whatever Card may be, the first Ender's Game book was incredibly good, and some of the later ones (haven't read all...) were good too, particularly Speaker for the Dead. It's just impossible to match the spirit of those novels with the author sometimes.

 

[Bludd]

Sorry, london-boy, but Chris Pratt doesn't exist. That character in Jurassic World is entirely CGI.

 

[London Geezer]

Sorry, london-boy, but Chris Pratt doesn't exist. That character in Jurassic World is entirely CGI.