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[LiveForTheLaunch]

Matilda: the Musical (film).

I was really disappointed in this, actually. I grew up loving the original, although I know it's the one that strays the most from the novel. I watched the Musical in London and I though that was a lot of fun as well, albeit not as good as the 1996 movie. I just found this fell a bit flat for me, maybe because I didn't find there to be a whole lot of character development for many of the characters I enjoyed in the older film. My son loved it though, and if a freshly turned three year old can tune into something for two hours, then I guess it's a win.

I'd probably give it about a 6.

 

[Nitefly]

Strange World

The recent Disney film.

It’s really not very good. The characters are incredibly generic and there is this insanely irritating tweeness to the dialogue and animation that rubbed me the wrong way. There is a scene at the start where the family are dancing to making dinner which made me want to blow my brains out because it just felt so forced ‘chirpy’ and fake. The little blue alien is quite grating but the dog… oh god, this ****ing dog.

With all of that said, the creatures are fun and it becomes far more interesting towards the final sections… but it’s a slog for the majority of the film.

5/10

 

[LiveForTheLaunch]

I watched Whiplash the other day and holy crap, how had I not heard of this film? Nothing really groundbreaking happened in it, but I could not stop myself from being tense throughout the entire thing. I love people who are passionate about what they do and I loved seeing how the main character was striving for such greatness, but it did show how there's a fine line between motivation and obsession that, once crossed, can lead to some serious consequences. Different to what I typically like in a film, but yeah, I really did enjoy it. Fantastic acting as well.

8.5/10

 

[gavin]

Plane

Hilariously bad. I haven't seen a "so bad it's good" film in ages, but this fits the bill. Terrible dialogue, ridiculous plot, awful acting, Great stuff.

 

[Niles]

Puss In Boots: The Last Wish

Ok so i had heard some good things and did not believe it, but surprisingly this is a fantastic film.

Comparing it to the first Puss film its not even close this is so much better, some of DreamWorks best work up there with shrek 2.

The story is simple but the time is put into the characters, action and humour. All of the villains are compelling in their own way, one is redeemable, one is focused and the last is insane. When it comes to the fights they are well choreographed and visually beautiful with the art style becoming snappy and fast. For a kids film the humor can be surprisingly dark but they hit as well as the more light hearted moments, either way i was giggling the way through which does not happen with most comedy films i see.

Finally emotionally its strong, i cared for some of the characters by the end, GF along with me even got teary at points.

So i would recommend this 100%, for a "kids" film its better than most films i have seen in a while, take avatar, this was way more fun and memorable.

8/10

 

[gavin]

Babylon

This was really good. It's long, but didn't drag at all. It's a bit pretentious in that "Hollywood film about Hollywood" way, but I'm interested in old Hollywood anyway, so it worked for me.

I thought it was all tied up quite cleverly. As I was watching it, I was thinking "this has elements of (certain film-no spoilers)", and by the end that all became very clear. I think the ending would still work if you hadn't seen the other film, but maybe without the same impact.

 

[Nitefly]

Puss in Boots 2: The Last Wish

So much hype around this film being an ‘sleeper hit’ and it absolutely delivered. What a cracker!

Well humoured, well thought out characters, never twee, relatable themes, a decent amount of ‘feels’ and also quite anxiety inducing to boot. Damn, considering the family audience, the villain in this is terrifying! Several children were screaming and crying at points - even I got the heebie jeebies!

The animation is superb too - borrows heavily from the style of Into the Spiderverse at times, but it didn’t feel derivative.

This deserves to be a massive success. A big recommendation from me to go and see it, but maybe leave very small children at home.

No need to see the first film. I hadn’t.

9/10 (yes, really)

 

[Howie]

65
A space explorer from another civilisation crash lands on an unchartered planet to find it overrun by terrifying alien creatures but - and here's the rub - that planet is lil' old Earth, circa about 65 million years ago and those terrifying alien creatures are in fact dinosaurs.
It's quite an interesting take on the dino-flick to be fair, kinda like a mash-up of Jurassic Park, The Martian and Planet of the Apes and me & Mrs Howie really rather enjoyed it.
Why a bloke from the other side of the universe, in a time before mankind even existed, speaks modern day English is never really explained, nor is why he appears to be carrying hiking gear straight out of JD Sports, but it's still quite an entertaining romp, even if not the the most intellectually taxing movie ever made. Solid effects and some pretty good jump-scares more than make up for it though.
And also, damning with faint praise, at least at 97 minutes it's mercifully short.