Trying to get through the fast and furious 7. I like cars but there is so much bad here. Has The Rock ever been good in any movie? I am just amazed he still find parts.
It's hard to believe he's now one of the highest paid actors in Hollywood.
I liked him in "San Andres" actually and I know a lot of people hated that movie. I actually liked it a lot!
PS in an unrelated note I would rather see a movie like "Independence Day 2" over any of the new Star movies any day. Too bad the new Star wars movies are worse than anything in even the Fast and Furious franchise.
They're not even a fun popcorn flick but a painful bore to sit through.
I'm not sure if any single intelligent thought went into the script of any of the last 2 star wars movies. It's just old recycled ideas over any over.
It's hard to believe he's now one of the highest paid actors in Hollywood.
I liked him in "San Andres" actually and I know a lot of people hated that movie. I actually liked it a lot!
PS in an unrelated note I would rather see a movie like "Independence Day 2" over any of the new Star movies any day. Too bad the new Star wars movies are worse than anything in even the Fast and Furious franchise.
They're not even a fun popcorn flick but a painful bore to sit through.
I'm not sure if any single intelligent thought went into the script of any of the last 2 star wars movies. It's just old recycled ideas over any over.
I will give you the recycled idea point but I did actually enjoy Rogue One. The other thing was like a Lada of the 80's. It looked like a Fiat but somehow you could tell the same folks did not put it together
We get the same crap in literature. Ludlum only ever wrote 3 Bourne novels, and rather than exploring their depths fully we get stand in writers generating new ideas of material they really have little knowledge of.
SW is the same only worse. Lucas planned 6 films right from the start but went stale on himself before getting to the last 3. Now we have a new generation writing them and it is kind of like that 70's retro boutique round the corner. Once again the superficial look is the same but the substance and quality reflect mass market mass production dollar first fast food mentality.
I have a vision of Lucas sitting in a rocker somewhere telling some school kid. "Sonny in the 70's I wrote Star Wars before you was even borne and folk lined up overnight to see it open." Gee Mr Lucas, those days sure have gone.
This is one of those movies where its nothing really new, but takes everything that's been done and executes just really well. It has something for everyone, zombie mob, gore that is cleanly done (this is gore that is as classy as it gets), motley crew (big dude and his wife were fun to watch) that goes from eight to eighty, rich to poor, big to small, man vs "beast" creativity and problem solving, and smart pacing (but not without a few hiccups at the start) and set changes that keep things fresh, its even fun in the not too horrific sense that people who don't normally like horror movies can probably enjoy this one. Heck, and even some heart, but not too much, which feels right.
Yep, got the same rating from me. It's difficult even to create a decent movie in this over-saturated genre, so to produce something so enjoyable, polished and yet fresh-feeling was quite a feat. Only the existence of The Wailing stopped it taking #1 Korean horror of the year for me. The zombie mass pile-up in the train station was a brilliant set piece!
The only slight negative I had was the borderline sentimentality at the end, but it felt like it'd banked enough good will by that point to get away with it. As you say, it just felt right too.
Don't be shy. Giving out low ratings is a right. For most I have to assume they work from a 5 and up so the 5 is what I would give a 1 for.
There have been a spate of miserable SciFiers of late and the lower the rating the better for people to avoid them. I am actually considering not rating some and just leaving the commend "just avoid this one" as a few I have turned off after 5 or 10 minutes and really there is nothing there to review in a traditional sense.
Second this. For me, a 5 is actually an OK film. Why have the 1-5 range if you're not going to use it? There are shades of bad, and it may be literal minded, but 5 out of 10 is bang average numerically and critically in my book. I never understand these reviews that basically slate a film then give it something like 6.5.
Ha. Well hollywood concocts swill, people eat it, it perpetuates. Much in the way fast food took off.
That said.
Harmony (2015) Anime 8/10
Visually stunning Scifier takes more than a few tropes and bends them round into new shapes. Avoid the reviews and trailers that outline the plot as they detract from the exposition. If there is a problem with this film it is having two directors and that shows through in spots and mires the flow a little. That said, if you at all like GITS Innocence, or Psyco Pass this may be right up your alley. As good as the former and better than the latter. Posits some very interesting ideas on where society could go and the repercussions that could ensue. This is dark territory and hits on some very current hotspots and issues that sends North American filmakers screaming. You can bet there were no "Focus Groups" or pre release test screenings for this one. It goes head first into the territory and does not sway. Much in the way LeCarre went with Constant Gardener.
I really wanted to give this a 9 or better but am tempering my rating due to the few weak spots in this one and perhaps more than a little of burned out on dreck so may be overly enthusiastic about something with meat on its bones.
One of the very Few Anime's I can see myself rewatching after I brush up on some reading.
I eagerly await the Hollyboob live action remake which will no doubt re unite the cast of "Friends" under the expert direction of McG
PS. Anyone else out there as overjoyed as I am at Scarletts "Ghost of a Film" being on track to lose 50 to 100 million? Yea no sequels! Perhaps her rate will get negotiated downward now.
Couldn't stand GITS Innocence personally - I thought it was one of the most overblown, pretentious animes I've ever watched. Constantly flaunting its literary credentials with little or no cause and virtually static in terms of pacing. Psycho Pass was decent though, so may give this a shot.
Couldn't stand GITS Innocence personally - I thought it was one of the most overblown, pretentious animes I've ever watched. Constantly flaunting its literary credentials with little or no cause and virtually static in terms of pacing. Psycho Pass was decent though, so may give this a shot.
Yeah, I knew Innocence irked you immensily. This one while pretentious has a somewhat confounding counterpioint, almost like a Finnish Symphony. I suggest two bottles of Happy Budda beer for you before entering the exercise. It says it enlightens right on the label
Right now I am busy being netrpaped for the novels as when a film intrigues me I cannot help but go back to the source.
Yep, got the same rating from me. It's difficult even to create a decent movie in this over-saturated genre, so to produce something so enjoyable, polished and yet fresh-feeling was quite a feat. Only the existence of The Wailing stopped it taking #1 Korean horror of the year for me. The zombie mass pile-up in the train station was a brilliant set piece!
The only slight negative I had was the borderline sentimentality at the end, but it felt like it'd banked enough good will by that point to get away with it. As you say, it just felt right too.
It's hard to believe he's now one of the highest paid actors in Hollywood.
I liked him in "San Andres" actually and I know a lot of people hated that movie. I actually liked it a lot!
PS in an unrelated note I would rather see a movie like "Independence Day 2" over any of the new Star movies any day. Too bad the new Star wars movies are worse than anything in even the Fast and Furious franchise.
They're not even a fun popcorn flick but a painful bore to sit through.
I'm not sure if any single intelligent thought went into the script of any of the last 2 star wars movies. It's just old recycled ideas over any over.
San Andreas is the Rocks worst appearance so far and I am one of the haters
I haven´t seen independence 2 should I? What Disney is doing with Star Wars is quite predictable. They already have good scripts and don´t have to spend a lot of time and resources to create new ones. That would be tough since they want to release Star Wars movies every day to get back the billions quick. I am half impressed that they aren´t that bad they are just not original.
I rather take a recycled good script over a fresh horrible script.
Donald M. Jones goes the extra mile here making "Schoolgirls In Chains" superior in every way to the kidnapping exploitation film competition of the era. The sub-genre has never had a better made movie. Amazingly free of gore and with (almost) minimal violence, this masterpiece draws it's magic from a well acted plot and script, reminding the viewer just how different a well made, but cheap movie could be.
Be it the remastered disk-edition, or the strangely twisted music complete with "psychotic-in-your-head" voices and singing, we are emotionally confronted with the reality of mental illness. The use of special wide angle lens effects, shows the creativity and imagination of the era, in the end making this disturbing slice of shoddiness my favorite film so far seen this year.
From the opening shot of this shamble around in the company of a couple of luckless junkies, it's clear it's a film about life on the margins of society. After a hit, presumably, Adam (Mark O' Halloran, also the writer) and Paul (Tom Murphy) blearily come to in an edge-of-city wasteland, with a view of Dublin's Poolbeg chimneys in the background. Adam has been glued by some prankster to the old mattress he was sleeping on and wakes up with parts of it attached to his coat, where they are destined to remain for the duration of the movie - it's also the setup for a gag whose pay off doesn't come until about half an hour later! This vignette sets the tone as the film continues to find grim humour in the pair's abject state. There is no over-arching plot as such (though some amusing sub-plots); the camera just follows them on their aimless journey around the the city, day-in-the-life style. Made in the economic boom time of the early Noughties, O'Halloran and director Lenny Abrahamson wanted to shed a light on those for whom the Celtic tiger has passed by, like so much flotsam. There's a great overhead shot at one point where Adam and Paul are seen ambling down the central reservation of a busy ring road; shuffling along, while cars fly by them on either side - a snapshot of their disenfranchisement.
It's not hard to see why comparisons have been drawn with Beckett's Waiting For Godot, as Adam and Paul fit the boots of Vladimir and Estragon quite nicely. They even stand around waiting at one point, "just waiting to see if 'what's his name' is around". The absurdist comedy abounds early on as the pair lurch from one desperately funny situation to the next. As the film wears on though, it gives way to tragedy and it becomes harder to find any humour in their bleak cycle of dependency. There's also a touching co-dependency between the two characters, but in the end it's nothing compared to their chemical dependency and the twisted logic of addition. The final scene is a real sucker punch.
They're not always the most sympathetic characters, but the acting is excellent all around - even minor characters - and it's a good example of how an indie, with next to no budget, can shine when it gets the fundamentals right.
This is one of those Scifier's floating around on cable thesedays that I was mentioning before. Hard to rate as the set up and acting is so horrid from the get go 5 minutes of this one is the human tolerance threshold. Looks like it was a failed pilot for some network with a viewership of 40. You know it's bad when the supersolders uniform 300 years in the future is a Bikers leather suit bought at the local goodwill shop.
So really if we have Palme d'or's Oscars, sunnys and what not as awards, should there not be an equivalent fine system for letting this crud loose on an unsuspecting public. You know something like for every dollar short of budget you don't make back you have to pay a hundred to some fund or film school scholarship somewhere.
Think Repulsion spliced with Amélie set in small town USA and you're a long way to getting a feel for what's on offer in May. Lucky McKee's first full feature (he did make a student prototype of All Cheerleaders Die the year before) is a curious melange of horror and comedy. Far and away the best thing about this movie is Angela Bettis in the central role; she hovers between off-beat cuteness and malignity, and as with the best screen monsters, she's as sympathetic as she is repellent. Like Carrie, hers is the story of the outsider - an intriguing personality, who draws people in, but is ultimately just too weird to find her place in life; 'weird' is only embraced up to a point and as exemplified by the other characters in the film, it's usually only superficial. "I like weird" Adam tells her, but he only really likes it at a safe distance, not baring its teeth at the foot of his bed.
The main problem with the film is the tone; it doesn't seem sure whether to go for black humour or full on darkness and ends up being an uneasy combination of the two. In keeping with the Frankenstein theme, it also feels a bit stitched together, like a bunch of ideas for short sketches shoe-horned into a feature-length screenplay. It's not a bad watch but for something in a similar vein, I'd rate both American Mary and Excision above this.
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