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Kong: Skull Island

I loved the director's first film (Kings of Summer) so was really looking forward to this, especially with such an epic cast. I have a few minor gripes with this film in that it does feel like it is jumping from one set piece to another (which was apparently the intention) and while it kinda irked me I think it also helped the time just disappear and also sell how ridiculous the scale of the island is etc. Some of the dialogue is also a bit ropey and a lot of the characters aren't really developed. However the issues end there, it looks absolutely amazing, the visual effects are phenomenal, the scale of everything just feels impressive. It's also just a lot of fun, the set pieces are really exciting and unique. The end credits scene was interesting, more intrigued to see if the studio actually pushes that to be a thing or not.

Apparently the director really wants to make a Metal Gear Solid film and I really hope he does, he certainly makes interesting and enjoyable films.
 
Beauty and the Beast

I was equal parts excited and worried to see it since it's my favourite Disney film. I actually really liked it. It looks gorgeous, which is a given really, and had some really strong performances.

Emma Watson, though. No. Awful. The singing was passable actually, better than I was expecting, but the girl just can't act for s**t.
 
John Wick: Chapter 2
Keanu Reeves dressed in a suit shoots people in the head for 2 hours.
Best. Film. Ever!
Oh, except this one guy who he kills by shoving a pencil in his ear.

I'm a simple man of simple pleasures.
 
Done some binging the past few weeks.

Arrival
Loved it. Found it to be fantastic. With that though, I find Amy Adams extremely boring and dry, especially at the beginning. As it got into the meat of the movie, I was hooked. Great twist.

Hacksaw Ridge
Another fantastic movie, wish I would have seen it in theaters, but meh.

Keeping up with the Jones
Mindless stupidity, but enjoyable for what it was.

Logan
Was really looking forward to it, and it didn't disappoint. I feel this is how all Wolverine movies should have been.

Neighbors 2
I loved the first one, and heard this was ****, so I waited until it hit HBO. Good idea. It was trash. It lacked everything from the first one. Chloe Moritz is very meh. Did nothing for me.

Kong: Skull Island
Visually it was amazing, story wise it was lacking in parts, but I'm excited for the next chapters.

I think that's it for now.
 
Beauty and the Beast (2017)

Meh. I love the original animated film by Disney, this felt like a really poor re-creation. Some of the visual effects are fantastic and the new song Evermore was a great addition. The cast were great apart from Emma Watson and Luke Evans. Gaston is meant to be this large imposing beefcake that is just annoying and arrogant and Luke Evans doesn't pull it off in any way. I thought it was amusing that they kept making a big deal out of the "exclusive" gay moments, barely exists. I do think the Beast was done really well though. Overall it just felt... pointless. Just re-watch the animated feature.


Power Rangers

Went in expecting a big cheesy nostalgia kick and totally got that. Thoroughly enjoyed it, the cast weren't amazing and the script was rubbish in places but I would be lying if I said I didn't have the biggest smile on my face once that theme tune kicked in and was notched up to 11. I laughed and smiled throughout and I'm tempted to go see it again.
 
Free Fire

Having not really enjoyed Ben Wheatley's previous films I was surprised to find that I really enjoyed this. The dialogue is very amusing and although it drags a little in places it is fun. It's also my first feature film credit so yay.


Lost city of Z

This was an interesting film, pacing was a bit messy and the cast were ok. I thought Robert Pattinson was actually pretty good and although I like Charlie Hunnam his accent was all over the place in the first half of the film. Overall I thought it was just ok, quite intrigued by the real people and events it's based on though.
 
Beauty and the Beast
It was decent I guess. Visually it had some gorgeous moments but it lacks the charm of the original film, which has never really been one of my fave Disney films in the first place. Belle is probably the most boring Disney character with no personality whatsoever, but Emma Watson somehow manages to make her even LESS interesting.

Logan
I thought it was great. I marathonned the entire X-Men franchise in advance which I really enjoyed, and this was definitely one of my favourites in the series. I find it one of the most mature Marvel films ever made.

Kong: Skull Island
Simple good fun. Saw it in IMAX which really gave the film an overwhelming scale.

John Wick: Chapter 2
This is exactly how these kind of action films should be like. Really well done and stylish action scenes with cool locations and cheesy but fun dialogue. Much better than the first one imo.

Lego Batman
It's really fab for what it is. Plenty of laughs and quirky animation.
 
Saw a few more at the weekend.

Table 19

I liked the look of this from the trailer but apart from the odd chuckle here and there it wasn't really the film I was hoping it'd be? The casting of Craig Robinson and Lisa Kudrow as a couple was also really odd and didn't really work? It's ok if you just want something easy to watch on a lazy day at home but it's nothing special.


Get out

Was really excited about seeing this film and it was totally worth it. Really loved this film, when it was funny it was hilarious and when it wanted to be scary it made the whole audience jump. Highly recommend.


Life

I'm surprised I haven't heard much about this film (aside from the countless poster ads everwhere), I thought it was excellent. It was shot incredibly well, the creature was terrifying and the cast were excellent. What I loved was the amount of logical decisions the characters make (aside from one or two stupid ones), it's something that usually annoys me in sci-fi/horror but this felt like the peeps were actually qualified to do their jobs? Yet another film I highly recommend.
 
Another weekend, another batch of films at the cinema...

Fast and Furious 8
I love these films, they're stupid and they know it. The visuals are insane, the entire New York scene was just ludicrous. Great fun was had.

Their Finest
This was much better than I expected. It's about a group of peeps making a film during WWII to help boost morale by basing the story on something that really happened after D-Day. It's funny and sad and the cast are fantastic. Bill Nighy <3

Rules don't apply
This was ok, I like the cast and I'm interested by the weirdness of Howard Hughes. However it does slump a little and takes a bit too long to portray what is quite a simple story. Does have some amusing moments though, Steve Coogan's face in the plane scene was priceless.
 
Can't believe no one else has posted this yet but... Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

I thought this was a crazy fun film which looks stunning. I think the original is better but that could change on repeat viewings. The cast are awesome and after watching the 5 end-credit scenes I'm very excited for vol 3.
 
I thought it was great entrainment, but massively shallow. It was essentially a simple comedy. The characters have become clichéd, simplified almost parodies of themselves.

It was just a hollow film, but fast and punchy with verbal and visual one liners almost constant.

Actually. It was like Lego Batman only without the charm.

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furie said:
I thought it was great entrainment, but massively shallow. It was essentially a simple comedy. The characters have become clichéd, simplified almost parodies of themselves.

It was just a hollow film, but fast and punchy with verbal and visual one liners almost constant.
Click to expand...

I really agree with this. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but it just lacked all of the charm the original had. The music was still from the 70s and 80s, but the songs didn't fit well into their scenes. I can't recall a moment where a certain song elevated the scene like they often did in the original GotG. The story was decent, but the characters just fell flat here. In the original, they felt like people. Here, they each have one amplified problem or issue that is focused on. It felt like they were meant to sell toys. Baby Groot was "oh so cuuuuttteeee." Quill was just another Chris Pratt type without the heart he once had. Gamora was just kinda there and yelled a lot. Drax went from an interesting character who had a family he wanted to avenge to just the joke guy. He became the comic relief for the whole film for some reason when he used to have comedic moments that were fully in character. However, my biggest issue is a spoiler.
It is yet another Marvel movie where the world will end if they don't destroy the villain. Kurt Russell as the bad guy was interesting, but the film just started to fall downhill after that. I'm tired of these Marvel movies since there is really no tension. I'm well aware none of the main characters will die. That is because I already know there will be 39 more movies after this starring these same characters. I'm just starting to get bored at the end of these movies. The characters always almost die, and you always know they didn't and aren't going to.

Overall though, I did have a really good time in the theater. I laughed a lot and thought it was good fun. However, it was very shallow laughter, and the jokes weren't particularly memorable. Even after having seen it just a few hours ago, I can remember more about the original. I guess after the good reviews poured in I was wanting something as fresh and memorable as the original. Instead, it seemed like they were trying to make a Guardians of the Galaxy movie without really knowing what made the first so great.
 
I don't disagree with the two above. Is it the worst Marvel film? Not by a long shot (hello Iron Man 3 and Thor movies) but, it didn't work. It was too long, and there was no story for the first 2/3, it was basically Grown Ups with a bunch of actors chummimg it up and then they were like oh ****. We have to have a story. So there.

Also, baby groot is annoying. I was afraid it was gonna be minionesque, but thankfully it didn't.

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^I found GotG Vol 2 slightly more enjoyable than the first one... but then I didn't exactly love the first one to begin with. They're ok I guess - lively, entertaining, visually quite cool but, I dunno... somehow just instantly forgettable. I only saw it 2 days ago and I can't actually remember much about it. Mrs Howie loved it though!

Alien Covenant. Ridley Scott movies can be so frustrating sometimes. There are moments of greatness here, some sequences that demonstrate one of cinema's finest craftsmen at their very best, but sadly it's interspersed with the cheesiest work of any old B-movie hack. The first alieny scary bit - the bit where crew members start getting picked off - is a masterclass in suspense and squirmy nastiness, but it never really gets any better from there. In fact, occasionally it gets downright silly, even resorting to some Michael Bay-esque stunts and explosions towards the end, and a plot 'twist' that you can see coming a mile off.
Never boring but, like Prometheus, not quite as satisfying as it should have been.
 
I thought that there was a lot of stuff going on in Alien Covenant that kinda got drowned out by all the big flashy stuff - like the whole theme of the film (and Prometheus too) which presumably Ridley is most interested in, was kinda swamped by the scary Alien stuff - which presumably the studio/marketeers are more interested in. Anyway I did still like it though - lot of good bits (and Aliens of course), but (like in Prometheus) the characters do make some astoundingly bad decisions (come on, does no one ever go on a intergalactic risk-awareness training course these days).
 
As Howie and Dave are a saying, Alien Covenant was very much suffering from split personality.

It couldn't seem to decide if it was a dark and brooding tale of a decent into madness - telling the tale of what happened before Alien, or if it was a suspense/horror/action film.

Even there it seemed to be unsure of itself. Telling the tale didn't work because it never explained some stuff
If David launched the pathogen, why did the ship crash into the forest after it was docked and what happened to the thousands of new creatures born (David experimented on some, yes, but there must have been thousands)? Why didn't the lander see the entire city as it landed? It was walking distance from where they landed!!! None of the crew ask about the corpses or the aliens whose city they're in?

Then the Alien stuff it couldn't decide if it was remaking Alien or Aliens and just kind of tried to cherry pick the best bits from both, offering none of the excellence of them.

I never found the film to be particularly tense. It moved too fast to build suspense. The plot was telegraphed, so you already knew what was going to happen anyway, again ruining any tension.

Then the CGI was just really silly a lot of the time. In fact, the film was generally silly quite often. The "Alien Mexican wave" being a particular low point. Both Alien and Aliens worked so well because of the physical effects. If you can't give us better than Alien 3 CGI, keep to physical. Lesson not learned there Mr Scott.

As Howie says though, some of the film is utterly gorgeous. It never quite reaches the heights Scott should be reaching though. It just seemed to be badly cobbled together, ruining what should have been great moments.

I dunno, I just found it a complete mixed bag. The highlights were too few and far between and the lowlights too huge to ignore. Let's face it, can any of you remember any character? When people are being killed, were you ever going "oh, I quite liked them", rather than "Who was that one?"

Very poor effort.
 
I'm feeling glad I didn't bother with Alien this weekend, I didn't enjoy Prometheus and it sounds like this one is a bit of a mess.

I did bother with Mindhorn and Miss Sloane.
Mindhorn is the sort of low-budget British comedy that can either be a hit or miss. Unfortunately this is a bit of a miss. I think this is down to the main character just being too awful with barely any redeeming features and is surrounded by ludicrous caricatures that don't really help this situation. I did love the scene with Simon Callow, that was amusing and Russell Tovey was great. It has it's moments but I wouldn't say it's worth going to the cinema for.

However Miss Sloane I thought was thrilling, I didn't know too much going in so was delighted that it was the sort of gripping drama/thriller that I enjoy. It's quite similar in tone to The Good Wife and House of Cards but with a movie budget. The cast were awesome and there's a couple of interesting twists in there. I really enjoyed it and if you like House of cards you'll love this.
 
Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar's Revenge

I love the Pirates films, none of the sequels have come anywhere near the excellence of the first one but they're still enjoyable. This fifth film however has soooo many issues. I'll start with the good, Salazar is actually creepy and intense, just a great villain. I thought the two younger characters worked really well. However I thought it was long, the story was overstuffed with lots of unnecessary things and it wasn't really that funny, almost trying too hard. Depp's performance as Sparrow felt off, I swear at times he merged into his Mad Hatter from the Alice films. I thought the direction was really bad, I've seen the film described as being dull and I have to agree. I really wanted to like it but overall it's just not very good, bit concerned they're keeping the same writers/directors for the sixth film (apparently, according to imdb).


Also watched the new Netflix original film War Machine.

This has a fantastic cast, I couldn't get over Brad Pitt's accent though, felt so put-on. It was kinda enjoyable, the scenes with Ben Kingsley were fun. The tone of the film was a bit all over the place, some parts are almost comedy and then it tries to be serious and it doesn't really work? Overall though it's ok.
 
Wonder Woman

I really enjoyed this, and I haven't particularly enjoyed any superhero film for a long time. As with most of them these days, it's overly long, but that's probably because they're basically pushing two stories into the same film - an "origin" story and a "save the world" one. The final scene is disappointing in that after a mostly interesting film, it just turns into yet another CGI borefest. Gal Gadot is perfection.
 
Wonder Woman

I was a little hesitant about this film because the two previous DC films have been dreadful. However I really enjoyed it, Gal Gadot and Chris Pine are fantastic. I felt like a lot of the side characters had barely any screen time and I'm not sure if that was a good or bad thing. I thought the score sounded a bit Pirates of the Caribbean at times which was weird. The action was ok, a bit too much slo-mo for my liking but generally ok.
 
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