[thatonenoob]

Okay wow.  Just watched the new bourne movie - 7.5/10.
 
Very impressed - certainly no masterpiece, but damn is it an action story done right!  At least it makes sense and keeps you on the edge of your seat.  More than I can say for most of the long-drawn nonsense that passes for movies these days (hmm....how about Batman vs. Superman). For the whole time I was wondering if Bourne was going to fall into the CIA trap, and the ending was simply great.  Too bad the initial camera shake gave me a slight a headache.  Also +1 for Alicia Vikander.

 

[Hutnicks]

Jason Bourne (2016) 6.5/10
 
 
  I really like the Bourne series and think Damon did quite well in the role. He's looking quite aged in this one and there is no real given timeline so we don't know how long he has been out there.
 
  The plotting could have been much better on this one. There are a few very trite contemporary devices used and some of the set ups are very obvious and can be seen a mile away. That is pretty slack writing for a Bourne film (The Jeremy Renner fiasco notwithstanding, I cannot count that as part of the series).  It seems the action components were used here to cover the plotting missteps. On that note a very original variation on the car chase occurs here and is worth the watch alone.
 
 Unlike the above reviewer I think Vikander was a very bad choice for this film. The writing lets her down considerably with sub plots that don't materialize and wind up painting her as somewhat of a fool. This makes the ending a little too unbelievable after all is said and done. It almost comes across as they attempted to combine Nicky Parsons and Pam Landy into a new "rebooted" character and Vikander really is not the best choice for that.
 
 All in all a great actioner that is by far the weakest link in the quadrology now. Still worth the watch as it has more smarts than most crap out there of the genre, but you could easily be forgiven for waiting for the DVD rather than beating a path to the theatre to see it.

 

[keepitsimple]

the good the bad and the ugly-classic 8,25

 

[WraithApe]

Film marathon yesterday with a couple of friends. Saw some pretty good stuff but nothing I would call classic (and so beg to differ with prevailing opinion in one or two instances).
 
I can't rate Mr. Nobody because turning it off half way through was a unanimous decision. Slushy romantic crap (poorly) disguised as something more interesting; an idiots' guide to the butterfly effect, courtesy of Hollywood. As for the rest...
 
The Eel - 3/10
 
Hard to see why this won a Palme d'Or at Cannes - but then that's so often the case. Dull, meandering and unfocused, with a tortured central metaphor. I didn't even think it was particularly well shot.
 
Wake In Fright - 6/10
 
A rural school teacher goes native in the Australian outback for summer break. A raw, bleak film about the vicissitudes of life in a downward spiral; in this case, a little town called Yabba, where hard drinking is the order of the day. Shades of Peckinpah and more obviously, Roeg's Walkabout. The kangeroo scene is a tough watch though.
 
Shoot 'Em Up - 6/10
 
Proved to be the perfect antidote to Mr. Nobody. Low on brains but high on carrot-munching, gloriously non-PC carnage.
 
Le Samourai - 7/10
 
Effortlessly stylish French Noir. A meditation on loneliness and isolation through the eyes of a modern-day wandering ronin whose code of honour is his life. It's a slow burner - probably too slow for some - but I soaked in the atmosphere of 60s Paris, even if there was a lingering feeling of style over substance.
 
Timecrimes - 7/10
 
The one film I had seen before, but my enthusiasm for it wasn't diminished by a second viewing. It does the causality paradox thing well, without resorting to showy special effects. Unconventional lead too - the kind you'd never see in Hollywood. This is still one I'd recommend if you like time travel / puzzle films but found it a bit difficult keeping track of nine intersecting time lines in Primer!
 
The Cabin in the Woods - 7/10
 
A friend of mine described it as (Evil Dead + Lost)^horror and he's a maths teacher so who am I to argue? 

 

 

[DLeeWebb]

"Concussion" [8.4/10]: I enjoyed this film a good deal. I have not been a spectator sports fan for quite awhile and I only followed this story as it developed as a news story. The story was engaging and was consistent with what I have learned about the NFL concussion controversy. This story focused on Dr. Bennett Omalu played by Will Smith. Smith did an excellent job. He definitely "channeled" Omalu. I was hardly conscious that the part was being played by Smith; a very subtle, skillful performance. The story of an underdog, a crusader with right, science and justice fighting an institution with money, power, and the masses who demand to be entertained. Has anything really changed...?

 

[metalsonata]

Jason Bourne (2016): 6/10
 
Liked it, but there's no denying that the Bourne formula feels very played out.

 

[WraithApe]

 
Black Mass - 7/10
 
It's difficult to find fault with this movie, but equally hard to find too much to get wildly enthused about either. It's just been done so many times before: criminal biopic, well acted with stately direction, wrapped up by a series of stills telling you what happened to each of the main protagonists. It's very watchable but the main draw, that elevates it beyond the ordinary, is obvious really: Johnny Depp. He's almost unrecognizable here behind a mask of prosthetics and plays the blazing blue-eyed Bulger to perfection. Wound tight like a coiled spring; almost consumed by the seething hatred that drives him, and which only finds temporary release in sporadic, shocking acts of violence.

 

[Hutnicks]

Might have to give Black Mass a look now. Depp, from one of my favourite actors seemed to me to be on some kind of death spiral with script choices. Dork Shadows marking the beginning of the end for me. Mass might be just the ticket to see if he still has some taste and ability left as a performer.
 
Meanwhile I am still stuck in anime land. Catchup time and the "When they cry" OVA Outbreak provided a much needed relief to the live action stuff of late. 7/10 for that one and probably add in a point five to that for the how'd I miss this one factor.

 

[WraithApe]

  Might have to give Black Mass a look now. Depp, from one of my favourite actors seemed to me to be on some kind of death spiral with script choices. Dork Shadows marking the beginning of the end for me. Mass might be just the ticket to see if he still has some taste and ability left as a performer.

 
From the point of view of his bank balance, I guess he can't be accused of making bad career choices but there was a time when he seemed like he might go down the Daniel Day Lewis route of only working on projects he was truly invested in. I'd rate Whitey Bulger as his best performance since he played Hunter S in Fear and Loathing + The Rum Diary.

 

[Hutnicks]

   
From the point of view of his bank balance, I guess he can't be accused of making bad career choices but there was a time when he seemed like he might go down the Daniel Day Lewis route of only working on projects he was truly invested in. I'd rate Whitey Bulger as his best performance since he played Hunter S in Fear and Loathing + The Rum Diary.

Exactly. I think Tim Burton has too much a hold on him for some reason. Still that being said I cannot help but think that the stinker Planet of the Apes might have been a little more palatable with him instead of Marky Mark
 
Fear and Loathing was a magnificent performance. Queuing up Mass for a watch this week.
 
Need to set my brain free from trying to figure out whether the 2 film live action adaptation of Gantz is the best live action ever transcribed or the worst or both. I am bipolar on this as the first film lacked a lot but the second was a spot on interpretation. It's leaving me as perplexed as the series itself did but for different reasons. Hard to recomend as you actually need to watch both films and the weakensses in the first one are really apparent, yet they are all pretty much fixed in the second. Befuddled I am.

 

[mutabor]

The Wrap: Suicide Squad is not really a movie
 

  Security camera footage isn’t a movie. A football game you watch on TV isn’t a movie. A sex tape isn’t a movie. A movie trailer isn’t a movie.

And “Suicide Squad” isn’t a movie.

“Suicide Squad” doesn’t speak cinema. It knows some of the words but has no grasp of the grammar and can’t form even the simplest of complete sentences.

The reason “Suicide Squad” isn’t just a bad movie is because a side effect of that lack of understand of the language is a lack of understanding of that basic function of movies. It doesn’t fail in its attempt to tell a coherent story — it doesn’t know what a story is, what a movie is, how scenes work or what characters are.

 
I would have answered to this "reviewer" that every Marvel film is not a movie.

 

[WraithApe]

 
Digging Up The Marrow - 5/10
 
I kinda liked the premise of this: a documentary about a guy who claims monsters are real that starts off as a bit of a joke but gradually becomes a reality. The execution falls some way short though. On the face of it, the strangest choice is using a well known actor in Ray Wise to be the crackpot monster hunter who contacts Adam Green (playing himself) with a story about a place under the earth he calls The Marrow, where society's freaks go to live. I guess the whole thing is so stupid you could never make it work as anything other than a parody of found footage. Is that really what it is though? I'm not entirely convinced it's that smart. One thing's for sure, the film never passes up an opportunity for a bit of product placement: Frozen posters, Hatchet T-Shirts, Victor Crowley dolls - you're certainly in no doubt by the end of the film who Adam Green is!

 

[Zojokkeli]

Suicide Squad
5/10
Would have worked better as a mindless action flick. At its best it was fairly entertaining, but the writing was so bad that I ended up wishing everyone would keep their mouths shut. Will Smith's role was way too big and clearly written just for him to please his ego, Joker was awful, and pacing of the movie was all over the place. Margot Robbie did a fine role as Harley Quinn, even though the love story subplot between her and Joker was painful to watch.

Can't really compare to Batman v Superman, as I fell asleep an hour into the movie.

 

[WraithApe]

  The Wrap: Suicide Squad is not really a movie
 
 
I would have answered to this "reviewer" that every Marvel film is not a movie.

 
Suicide Squad is DC, not Marvel. Just goes to show how interchangeable these movies are becoming I guess.

 

[mutik67]

Finding Dory - Suprisingly good, for a children's movie. Of course, it was unbearably cheesy at points, but it was quick and snappy, with enough action to keep the audience's attention, and a sufficient amount of moral education threaded through it so that you came away from it feeling you've gained a little more perspective on life. 9/10.