Watched it last night on TV. Wide screens and fantastic quality made it very present in my sitting room. One of the most terrifying films I've ever seen but I was glued to it. The technology was brilliant and the fear and terror tangible. Space looked massive and so real, and suddenly the most dangerous place to be. I did wonder if they filmed it in the International Space Station, but dismissed it of course. Lets just say 'I couldn't see the joins' ...and the Entity (lets call it) was terrifying. Imagine a massive muscular rabid, ravenous, snarling, mouth foaming Rottweiler galloping in your direction with one thought in its mind (not love that's for sure) with few places to be safe, and you can't run as fast, as it barrels towards you. Total PANIC! It has a brain and can work out how to get to you! You can't beat it though you must. You and your crew begin to realise that you are outnumbered by just One. Its intelligence is superior and yours is collective and inadequate, unless you can beat it at every point of contact. Your only hope is to get it out and to keep it out. It has abilities though, way beyond those of mere humans. What was it another film reminded us..... BE AFRAID.... BE VERY AFRAID... and I was!
Reviews
19 Reviews
Ana
(II) (2020)
Surprising and Uplifting
18 October 2020
One of the best things I've seen Andy Garcia do and it proves how versatile an actor he is. A great story about two people - one older and out of luck on many levels, and the other young and smarter than her years but alone and desperate for human contact. Each at odds with their circumstances, they come together thanks to the fearless young girl, and they bounce off each other like oil and vinegar. "Ana" (Dafne Keen) who's inexperienced view of life flips from one crazy notion to another makes you want to hug her and slap her in equal proportions. Rafa (Andy Garcia) suffering from bouts of Angina, does his best but his health is an issue and he keeps getting bested by the girl's erratic and irrepressible moods and actions. At times exasperating, her off the wall spontaneity throws him frequent curves. He goes from one sharp intake of breath to another as he tries to cope with her behaviour. He owes his bookie a deal of cash which puts extra stress on his dodgy heart adding pressure he can well do without! Sooner of later the issue must be faced with an outcome which could affect them both. There is an uneasy bond between them but for Rafa time is running out and his desperation to avoid his loan shark's threats is somewhat hopeless.....
Contagion
(2011)
Wow talk about close to today's pandemic issues!
17 March 2020
When this film was made there wasn't much to compare it to, yet here and now, we have just the same situation and the parallels are unparalleled. Well worth watching baring in mind how relevant it is to today. Can't say more except watch it!
Lost in Space
(1998)
Damn the Cuddly Toy
12 October 2019
I quite enjoyed this film with a stellar cast, except for one thing... the cuddly toy (...creature or whatever) which was way too schmaltzy and nauseatingly cartoon like. It just didn't work or add anything and ruined the look of the film! I guess it was there to in some way distract the kids in the audience. Why I have no idea. I'd have thought they'd be lapping it up. I liked the time elements which are always interesting, trying to figure out if they hold up. Still it had good tense moments and surprises so not bad.
Solo: A Star Wars Story
(2018)
Riposte to the Fan Boy Haters
25 September 2018
Lets face it, trying to recreate the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (Sistine Chapel 2 - This Time Its Personal) is a pointless exercise. You have to move on and try new stuff. Well Lucas tried several new ideas with every incarnation of the Franchise and got it wrong a few times that we'd all like to forget, "Meesa thinking yousa talk about me, okiday?" However this was a pre-prequal with a clean slate to produce a whole new back story image we could slot into our already slightly muddled collection of "Back to the Future" Star Wars episodic sequels. Now despite the allegedly poor box office receipts - I think the title didn't help, which was a bit "fairy story" and lacking imagination - I suspect it might do well in the long run with word of mouth. I for one was a teen when they launched the original which was new, different and very exciting offering a whole new level to the imagination. That time has long since passed and with CGI, nothing is left to the imagination today. So the special effects are special but the story is the thing and I was both surprised and enthralled by the young Solo and his girlfriend and the speed at which the action took off. I always wondered about Solo's beginnings. It was fast, filled with danger and desperation and speed as it kicked off at a pace never slowed giving us action which lasted for a long time with breath taking imagery and cliff hanging suspense. Ron Howard had to let up a couple of times to allow us to regroup but there were some great twists and turns and lots of complex looking technology. Don't be put off by the fanatical Sheldon Cooper like Fan Boys. Kids for sure will love it though they may wriggle a bit at the bits with detailed dialogue, but it is necessary to the plot line. There is loads of breath taking action, near misses, weird and wonderful aliens and characters. I loved every minute of it. Woody Harrelson gave his usual good performance and so did Alden Ehrenreich who played Solo. Lovely Emilia Clarke who played Qi'ra (without a Dragon in sight) showed her romantic & devious side. Donald Glover was a hot handsome, treacherous Lando Calrissian. I loved best how Chewbacca played by Joonas Suotamo came into the saga and it made a change to have no R2D2 or C3PO but plenty of other automated furniture! Yep it kept me enthralled which I hadn't expected, which I believe was down to great direction by Ron Howard and sharp editing! I will watch it again!
Independence Day
(1996)
Tiresome and frustrating
1 January 2016
This was a good idea ruined by a dreadful script and clichéd performances and production. I must award Will Smith, 5 "John Waynes" for gung ho acting with Harry Connick a close runner up. This movie is over schmaltzed to a degree that had me install a bucket by my side just in case. Randy Quaid must cringe at his over the top drunk "...hello boys, I'm Baa-aack!" Whoever came up with the sound effect for the alien fighters needs to stop visiting the zoo for his inspiration. The Neeeeaaaww scream of the passing enemy fighters was cringe making in its corniness. Add to that the cigar symbolism, wielded by Smith and Connick and used as a phallic emblem of masculine power was also cringe making. Its just an over the top unbelievable film I don't need to see more than once a decade and then only to remind me how awful it was!
Zodiac: Signs of the Apocalypse
(2014 TV Movie)
Total Cliché Fest
9 April 2015
Worst special effects ever and most clichés in the book. OK so its a made for TV movie but there are some standards worth adhering to like plausibility for example yes even in a fantasy. You immediately feel sorry for Neil Martin (Joel Gretsch) that he's the father of the dumbest most self satisfied... (My University professor dad is so stupid) ...half wit in the land. A boy, Colin Martin (Reilly Dolman) with so little intuition or empathy, not to mention an annoying smirk of self satisfaction that right the first moment you are hoping he gets struck by lightening. Also this thing of the characters watching as a disaster rolls towards them when you are screaming "Run, run you dumb... 'chappie, fellows...' (you know what I mean)" is so insulting to the intelligence. Yes I can understand people freezing and dying on the spot but not almost dying because they are just too dumb to move, especially as one is a professor, "Ooh look Cleetus, duh there's a big bolder coming down from duh sky and its going to hit us if we don't duh move!" The boy rubbishes the father's every theory and suggestion. He needs a good slap!. This kid was serving coffee from a stall at the beginning of the movie with no apparent understanding of science. "Plausibility?" You'd think that the father would have had a smarter son, unless of course he was doing booze and smoking grass in his younger child creating days or at least mom was. Meanwhile they've acquired a girl called Sophie (Andrea Brooks) also a scientist... kind of, and during a chase scene, between her and the boy, they run through a gamut of hysterical physical emotions that would take most movies two hours to justify. Anyway the plot rumbles on using every cliché in the book, narrow escapes, implausibly long fights and a member of the CIA in a helicopter so small he could only just fit next to the pilot. The CIA running out of cash? Perhaps the production company was. Just what Christopher Lloyd is doing in this movie is anybody's guess, still I did enjoy his ten minutes (or thereabouts). My favourite scene in the whole thing is the very last scene, the tying up of loose ends where Joel Gretsch makes a speech to camera meanwhile behind him, his son and the girl who have shown virtually no interest in each other, suddenly make meaningful eye contact - if you know what I mean - and go into an immediate embrace behind him thrusting their tongues down each other's throats. THAT had me rolling in the aisles. Truth be told, it was a lousy script and a tight budget that did for this movie..... in my opinion.
Wolf Hall
(2015)
Fantastic but might throw "Raiders of the Lost Ark and Star Wars fans"
18 February 2015
The first episode was hard going at first. These days I'm so used to the Lucas/Spielberg technique of "Screw the plot lets get to the action in the first 5 minutes..." way of movie making. Back in the day there were films like The Hot Rock with Redford or The Getaway with Steve McQueen etc. I was used to watching the intent of the film gradually unfold. Woolf Hall however was different again. Great periods of stillness and silence, deep thought and gradual revelation. At first I was impatient but gradually I found it hypnotic and so pleasurable I experienced a kind of euphoria brought on by my own "slowing down" of mental pace, just listening to the silences. After all, they lived in a time when things were slower and unhurried. The production is lavish, and rich in a time period which would have been quite drab for commoners, but was the opposite for the Royal courtiers and the wealthy, whose complex clothes were bedecked with jewels and colour, which at the time would have cost King's ransom, and which can be seen in portraits of the time. Inspired, I was looking at a portrait of Henry VIII by Holbein the other day and really took note for the first time, the sumptuous rugs which were clearly imported and must have been very expensive. Just examining his clothes was revealing. They were so lavish and valuable but hard to clean as they didn't have "dry cleaning" so they all must rather ponged despite being doused with scents and carrying pomanders, though they did have under garments that were regularly washed. I would love there to be a second series. I urge anyone with an ounce of focus to persevere and if it doesn't make much sense, to bull up on Tudor history a bit. It might help make sense of it. I wonder if there is a Tudor History for Dummies. Anyway it reels you (well me at least) in and I can't wait for the continuation.
The Interview
(II) (2014)
Thank You and Goodnight!
1 January 2015
Apart from a funny little girl singing a song at the beginning of the film about how much she wanted the USA to die horribly, using a variety of expletives - in Korean of course with subtitles - it didn't press any buttons. I must say that full marks goes to whoever pulled off the publicity coup (Rogan I bet) but I found the film one of those "Buddy" scripts filled with private gags seeking the approval from a clique of over paid pals in the current brat pack that exists in Hollywood and can be seen in another Rogan pal-fest, This Is The End. It looks like the main ingredient in the writing was "cocaine". I know it was supposed to be a high camp fast moving comedy not even loosely based on reality and that's OK but, well I just wish I'd done something else with the time because after 5 minutes it was obvious how it was going to progress and that sort of thing only appealed to me when I was 11. There weren't many laughs in it and it was too implausible to be a drama or something else. Someone took a risk with the script and should have lost their shirt except for the very clever publicity stunt getting it supposedly banned which would immediately make idiots like me want to see it. Well done Barack O'B for ratcheting up the PR machine.
The November Man
(2014)
Brosnan takes it to a new level
24 December 2014
Pierce Brosnan puts his James Bond persona to bed with this film. I've been off Brosnan in the last couple of years since Bond, though he's a brave actor and has tried various roles. This one puts him firmly back in the action mould. His character Devereaux could take Bond with one arm behind his back - well not perhaps not Daniel Craig but he'd give him a run for his money. It was as gritty a performance as I have ever seen from Brosnan and ranks alongside the current Bond and Bourne for tension and is not far behind for action. His character is cold and dangerous and utterly ruthless. The plot too is clever with twists and turns and betrayals. I was engrossed from start to finish. The action is fast and graphic. Go see it. Its a fun ride.
A Million Ways to Die Watching a Movie
29 September 2014
I watched half an hour of this film. I couldn't go without laughing any longer. Luckily a sheep walking into the side of a house made me smile but after that I lost the will to live. Much as I like MacFarlane, and Ribisi is always good value - he's a chameleon - I just couldn't take any more. Charlize Theron looked gorgeous and Liam Neeson - what I saw of him - must have been there to buy in his fan base. If there was any real humour it must have been behind the camera because it sure as heck wasn't in front of it. Look, Blazing Saddles by comparison is comedy gold and 70s western god John Wayne, a comic genius. If you're going to construct sex gags, they've got to be done well. You cant toss them in like sketches on SNL with all the subtlety of a brick between the eyes... oh and they have to be new gags! You know, the sperm on the hookers face... been done before. If it was aimed at 14 year old boys, I understand. So why aim the advertising at an older audience. The plot seemed flimsy and trite. For the half hour that I watched of the film, the break up of a relationship and an old man farting wasn't enough. The set was good...... and I'd have liked to see how the sheep turned out.... but it wasn't enough, sorry.
Noah
(2014)
Oh Dear
10 August 2014
I watched the film diligently right to the end, at which point I couldn't stop myself from saying, "What a load of tosh!" Russell Crowe is always good value and so too Ray Winstone, but both would have been better occupied learning how to crochet instead. Anthony Hopkins was doing it for the money I guess and Emma Watson was, I felt, miscast. Logan Lerman was decorative as I suspect he was meant to be. I found the whole thing unmemorable despite the amount of money which was undoubtedly lavished on CGI and as I sit here writing about it, there are huge chunks of it I just can't remember. Best performances came from the Watchers which is ironic given that so many actors performances today can be compared to stone. I would say therefore, don't waste your time. Go bowling!
Only God Forgives
(2013)
Yawnerama
5 July 2014
I have to say how much I admire those who sat through this whole film. Having lost fifteen minutes of my life to it I gave up. One of the positive things about the movie is that the long silences and staring into space shots allow the viewer to pop down to the theatre foyer to order and get a full three course meal with wine and a bathroom break before the next long blank staring silence. All I could hear was a voice in my head shouting "Get on with it!!!!" I therefore can say no more, though having looked at a couple of other reviews here, it would seem I made the right decision to go home and return to my study of the gripping local phone book.
The Way Way Back
(2013)
Painful Adolescence
5 January 2014
An excellent film which for me had the same appeal as Stand By Me. The writing is thoughtful and poignant. From the outset I had a lot of sympathy for the adolescent boy, Duncan. He is awkward, out of his depth and miserable and hasn't yet found his place in the world, beautifully played by Liam James. His mother, the excellent Toni Collette had a vulnerability and desperation in her relationship with her new moody man (Steve Carrell), great to see him in a serious role playing a selfish and somewhat callous lover. The film reeled me in and I quickly warmed to it. There's something about holiday homes on the beach and summer heat that is very appealing. Anyway the boy looks for an escape from the group of boozy out of control adults and mum's boyfriend with whom he cannot connect, and finds it at a local water park and also a zany park attendant (Sam Rockwell) who has a detachment from authority that really appeals to Duncan. He also gets to know the girl living in the house next door (AnnaSophia Robb) who is as reluctant as he is to be there with her loud perpetually soused mother (Allison Janney) and little brother. The film is sad, sometimes tense but also funny and uplifting, it has it all. A really enjoyable movie with a great cast that I will watch again. The directors/writers, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash did a great job weaving an uplifting drama and both make notable cameo appearances. I saw Jim Rash recently in an episode of According to Jim in which he made an hilarious cameo appearance as a video store clerk. He brings the same dead pan humour to this. Anyway I loved the film and recommend it to anyone looking for a change from Rom Coms and SciFi beat em ups. You'll enjoy it.
The Watch
(I) (2012)
Somebody Kill Me!
3 December 2012
I got about 20 minutes into this... this dreadful, tiresome, mind numbing, "comedy" and that was all I could take. I tried to find humour in Ben Stiller's performance but I'm sorry, I'm not 10 years old and don't do dope or take drugs of any kind. I just don't find Ben Stiller funny in any of his films though I bet there are any number of people behind the camera laughing at his every wide eyed attempt at ironic humour, his manager, his agent, his psychiatrist etc. Frankly, I don't think even he gets it. His idea of comedy died with the Three Stooges. Only Phil Silvers can carry off being Phil Silvers (even Steve Martin must be aware of that by now) know what I mean. Be original! The first rule of comedy is IT HAS TO BE FUNNY! It wasn't. I'd like to see Stiller in a dramatic gritty role for a change. I bet he'd make a great action actor with say Bruce Willis; he'd nail it. I have yet to see a subtle comic performance from him. Those eyes and expressions of his have been done to death. The only one who made me remotely smile was Richard Ayoade a man who through his hit UK sitcom The IT Crowd, which made the absurd brilliantly hysterical, has a genuine feel for absurd throw away dialogue. Jonah Hill can be very very funny and anarchic but in this he was miscast, sorry Jonah. Vince Vaughn "If-I-shout-loud-enough-it'll-be-funny" brand of comedy just annoyed me. It was insulting. They were all doing their own bit but none of them seemed to be relating to the others. Yes if that was the point, it didn't work. Anyone one of their characters in reality would have walked away from the others. Comedy comes out of real situations. None of that had any sense of reality about it. It was like a low budget remake of The Burbs (kind of) but without the class and black humour. My advice is don't watch it. Go and paint your car or knit yourself a suit of armour or something. You'd be better employed.
A little boy lost...
18 March 2012
From the moment I saw the opening credits I got a deep uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach, the same feeling I got the first time I saw images of "The Falling Man" after 9/11. I'm not good with height and I'm not good watching someone go through the last few moments of their life which in this case was abstract. It brought back those terrible brutal images. My imagination goes into overdrive trying to put myself into "their" shoes. What goes through their minds in the final moments; how crazed with fear must you be to jump from a skyscraper or was it a rational decision about the inevitability of their situation; how long does it take to fall; what are they thinking during those last moments. The boy - Oskar - played by Thomas Horn seems to feel all of that and more in the grief of losing his beloved father as he pieces together the last minutes of his father's life and his own involvement on the periphery. His character verges on the autistic, his passion and intensity incredibly moving as he strives to discover the secret of a key he believes his father left him - an element to a game they played constantly with each other which relied on clues and solutions. The key leads him on a journey of both discovery and the labyrinth of his own mind and emotions. For a first performance - or even as a seasoned performer - it is remarkable. His apparent comprehension of the nuances of mood and emotion was breathtaking. I got the same tingle from his performance as I did watching Haley Joel Osment in Sixth Sense perhaps even more so. Ironically this movie has the same "Watch Again" appeal. Max Von Sydow gives a wonderfully moving performance as a mysterious and slightly creepy mute lodger who lives at Oskar's grand mother's apartment across the street and who communicates through note pad and felt tip pen. He speaks not one word throughout but he tells us so much through a moving understated performance. I can watch just about anything with Tom Hanks. But this movie isn't really about his character as much as the boy's. The role didn't seem to warrant his stellar presence as much as it did Von Sydow's. Casting Sydow was a brilliant move. I imagine Tom Hanks was needed to get the movie some attention but for what it's worth, he slides seamlessly into the role of adoring parent. Sandra Bullock as the painfully dignified grieving wife and mother rounds out a great cast which featured some touching vignettes including the always great value John Goodman as a doorman with whom Oskar exchanges insults, touching performances too by Viola Davis and Jeffery Wright and Zoe Caldwell as the grandmother - best known for her appearances on Broadway. From the moment the movie starts you are absorbed by the painful frustrations of Oskar's obsessive determination to find answers, and his coming to terms with the loss of his father. You may be emotionally drained at the end but believe me, it will worth it.
RED
(2010)
I kept on Laughing.... and Ducking
17 September 2011
The first few minutes of this movie are blissfully misleading. You could at this point be forgiven for thinking this movie was about to be another Sleepless in Seattle. But then three guys in homeland security fancy dress costumes pump lead into the fixtures and fittings of Bruce Willis' house. Next thing you see is Willis tossing a handful of ammo into a frying pan and leaving it on a roaring stove. After that it all gets hot and messy as a load more guys give the house a lead makeover. There after, the action never stops. The plot moves quickly and turns right angles throughout. And it's funny. It's a non stop giggle even though the violence is pleasantly graphic. Nice cameo performances from Ernest Borgnine and Richard Dreyfuss - always good value. Karl Urban plays cold steel - he was riveting in The Bourne Supremacy as Kiril the Russian Treadstone assassin - and does action well. He's focused and smart and dangerous. He's a guy to watch. Willis is as ever Willis, clinical, whimsical etc. always watchable. Great action and physically punishing. Marie Louise-Parker, civilian and Willis' love interest seemed to get used to being shot at too easily. I know I could never get used to it as a civilian. That aside she got my sympathy. Helen Mirren and Brian Cox, stalwart quality performances. John Malkovich though was matchless. His character, ex CIA and somewhat unhinged by years of acid abuse and paranoia just kept me laughing. An actor who often plays malevolence - and nobody does that better - playing an almost homicidal nut job who's so paranoid he believes everybody is out to get him.... and they are! And yet he is a ruthless killer too. I don't know, he just made me laugh the whole way through. A great performance like the Muppets character "Animal" in human form. Good film, lots of laughs, action and destruction. Not a cerebral experience but then that isn't what I watched it for. I watched it for fun - and it was!
Bad Boys
(1995)
Wow this is bad!
18 July 2011
This is a great movie for the deaf. If you like a movie where the principal actors spend most of the time shouting - and I mean shouting - at each other about issues outside the plot, then this is the movie for you. I love Will Smith but what was he thinking? Clearly this is a movie for Will and Martin Lawrence, not for an audience. Lawrence is atrocious and so convinced of his prowess as a comic actor that he spends the entire movie stammering (at full volume) in what he presumes to be funny self deprecating and witty confusion. Well it's not. Its so tedious in fact that I thank god for the mute button. There is barely any actual conversation, just shouting. Sadly Wills character is barely removed from the Fresh Prince and in order to wear his clothes and "look cool" the writers invented a device that has him inherit money so he can buy himself a Porche and a cool apartment whilst enjoying being lead fodder for criminals. Will is a better actor than that. I can suspend disbelief so far, but come on! All I can say is thank goodness it was on TV and that I didn't pay to see it.
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