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Civil War (2024)
Masterpiece, a dark and intense ride into war journalism
When I first saw the trailer for Civil War, it looked interesting but It did not look great; the fact is though, that the trailers do not do the film justice!
The film is hell of an intense ride, Its pure edge of your seat stuff, It made me jump a number of times. Its a great story, brilliantly shot, and it's full of the authentic sounds of war and the machinery of war
All performances were amazing and the tension just builds and builds. The action seems so real its almost like you are watching real footage from a war zone and your never sure who in the cast will survive; it seems anything can happened at any time and you are always expecting something.
Andor: One Way Out (2022)
As good a 40min in Star Wars world as we will ever see
No spoilers but the Andor series has been getting better and better. Toby Haynes, the Director, and all writers deserve a huge credit, and the cast delivered their vision with passion.
There has never been a single episode in a series that can match episode 10, for the first time in Star Wars we are finding out why the empire are so bad, and why there was a fight against them.
The cast deliver superb passionate performances that are very believable, you feel for the characters
Genevive O'Reilly as Mom is superb and the scene with Tay, (Ben Miles) and Davo (Richard Dillane) is tense and a little creepy with Davo telling Mom "a drop of discomfort maybe the price of doing business"
Having Andy Serkis and Diego Luna in the same scenes in any story was always going to be great and as good as they are together, episode 10 saves the best scene till last
Luthen (Stella Skarsgard), meeting with Lonni (Robert Emms) , ends with the greatest monologue from any Star Wars film with Luthens "what have I sacrificed"
No spoilers , for anyone who watches Andor from episode 1, stay with it, the series gets going from ep 3 and just gets better and better, and there is a reason episode 10 scores 9.5 on IMDB..i'm just puzzled why the score is not 10!
Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)
Dreadful and a waste of Christian Bales talent and character
Marvel meets Sesame Street .. I am a huge Marvel fan and they have produced some of the best made films in history...this is not one of them.
This was made for young school kids...and very young! A few minutes into the film and you think Christian Bales character has potential...but as soon as he comes into contact with the first of the easily forgettable other characters, that's it...after the first few minutes you have seen the best of the film!
From then on the dreadful script tries desperatly to be funny but serves up humour that would be better served in a cheap xmas cracker and the so called story goes from bad to worse...even the Guardians of the Galaxy can't save this and they should be thankful that they only had a brief appearance.
In short, this will be 2 hours of you life wasted!
Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
Throw the critics into the pit of Sarlacc
Ignore the low score reviews, it seems impossible to make a Star Wars film and keep everyone happy. If the film makers go along with the regular plot of bigger Death Stars being destroyed at the last minute they are slaughtered for lack of originality so they have gone for a simpler but very strong story
I have seen this 4 x now, regular screen, twice in the Imax and once in 4Dx 3d, this films look incredible in 3d . The planets where the action takes place are varied and all look visually stunning, the battles in space are great and look incredible in 3d, I think this film was made to be viewed in 3d
Gone are all the silly jokes from the Last Jedi, the humour is still there in the movie but delivered well . Daisy Ridley , John Boyega and Oscar Isaac up thier game and deliver great performances as a band of resistance fighters trying to defeat the evil empire, you can feel the love they have for each other.
I've always liked Adam Driver as Kylo Ren and for me he delivers again, I cant say to much without a spoiler alert
Ignore the Critics reviews , I am a genuine Star Wars fan and have been so from A New Hope to the present day , along the way we have a couple of stinkers with Jar Jar and co and the Solo film and recently the dreadful attempts at humour especially with the droids has driven me insane . There is a new droid in this, which I was dreading, but there is no need to panic he's ok. This film is a great ending to this trilogy ..watch it
Doctor Sleep (2019)
Mike Flanagan you exceeded all my expectations ...
When I first saw the trailers for Dr Sleep, I didn't think Ewan McGregor looked a great choice to play the role and I expected it was going to be awful, how does anyone follow Kubriks masterpiece, which I saw again at the the cinema 4 days earlie ? Well Mike Flanagan, hats off to you, you did it and Ewan produced a superb performance (oscar nominee?) . Just to get the slightly negative bits out out the way, the bits I didn't like and I think many others have said this, are scenes invlolving the new young Danny (thankfully few); though it really highlighted what an amazing performance Danny Lloyd gave in the original film. The bits with Jack in were always going to be difficult for any actor following in the steps of the mighty Jack Nicholson and the same for Wendy, Shelly Duvall was outstanding in the original, anyone portraying either of those charachters were never going to be popular. Back to the film, no spoilers here, the bad guys are beliveable, they genuinly look like the people there portaying and the story gets very dark. Rebecca Ferguson superbly leads the band of bad guys and for the first time ever had me genuinly scared whilst watching a film. Ewan McGregor delivers a great role, I am a big fan of his movies and to me this is his greatest performance since Trainspotting. The movie is 2.5 hours and and apart from maybe a couple of early scenes had me gripped thoughout, my advice to anyone would be to go and see it..though make sure you have seen the Shinning first!
Joker (2019)
Incredible performance from Joaquin Phoenix..can not fault this film at all , absolute Masterpiece
I have seen this film 4 times in less than a week; The trailers had me wanting to see this from over a month ago and sometimes when a film is hyped up, it falls flat as you expect too much. On this occaision Joaquin Phoenix delivers an acting masterclass and one the greatest performances of all time. The film is very dark and worth watching even if you are not into the typical Batman/Joker Genre. One fantastic aspect of this film is trying to work out how how much of the film is "real" or just Arthur's imagination 1, Obviously Arthurs initial interactions with Sophie & No 2 , his inital interaction with Murray Franklin whilst in the audience..the rest is speculative 3 his interaction with a young Bruce at the Wayne family Home, 4 his meeting with Thomas Wayne at the theatre, 5 His appearance on the Murray Franklin show 6, The incident in the Police car after its hit by the ambulence.7, killing his mother in hopital (not one of the machines connected to her sounds an alarm that she is dead) did he smother her at home?..in fact was most of this film from Arthurs imagination whilst he is in the Asylum ...either way 10/10 and Joaquin Phoenix, amazing the Best Actor Oscar is yours
Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)
Disney will be the death of Star Wars as we know and love it
I took my son who is 14 and he liked it, for me No, it did get better as it went on and improved after that truly awful robot died...who btw is far worse than the Jar Jar character, if they hadn't shot it in the film ..I would have walked out of the cinema, it was that bad! I've read a few reviews on here and to many people comparing current cast against the original cast members This is grossly unfair considering one of those we are talking about is a Star Wars "God" in Harrison Ford. The film itself is forgettable though it contains some nice shots of the Falcon and I thought Dryden was a good character. One "Droid" ruined this film for me and is the reason I would never buy it on DVD, I have every other film, L-3 I think was the name, like JAR JAR before it, it wasn't funny and is a huge reason the film wont be liked
Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017)
Calm down, stop looking too deeply into everything and enjoy it for what it is
As a massive Star Wars fan, I, like many other waited with such great anticipation for this film, I loved the trailers and saw the film at midnight on the opening day, my initial reaction was OMG IMDB 1/10. I think the problem is all fans had an idea of where the story should go and it let many down simply because it didn't follow their own expectations. Lets get the negatives out the way, the "casino scene" dare I say, is the worst scene from any SW film in history (and that saying something with Jar Jar) ..the bit where BB8 fires the coins ..omg what were they thinking, like many dreadful BB8 scenes, trying to make it far to comical. The second worst scene in SW history is also in this film with Leia flying though space back to her ship! But enough of the criticism, what was good? Ive seen it 7 times now at the cinema, its grown on me to a point where I love it...why? This is a sci-fi film, there is no basis for faulting on whats possible or not as a Jedi, or on real science, in one of the last scenes when the Falcon is battling TIE fighters above a planet surface, the G forces on Rey would knock her out!, nor should you criticise characters actions, like Luke's reaction to Ben turning to the dark side and what followed...if you sit back and enjoy it for what it is and stop looking to deeply into everything you will like it....virtually ever film can be taken to pieces (apart from Alien). For me this film was made by Adam Driver's performance as Kylo Ren, which is just brilliant, climaxing with his battle with "Luke", aided by a great music score. Mark Hamill's performance comes good in that scene, you get the feeling his heart wasn't in the island scenes. Driver's stunning performance is what makes this film though, his Jedi counterpart Rey is likeable and Daisy Ridley's shone in a few scenes, but she doesn't have Driver's intensity, Finn and Poe both play good parts (sometimes with poor scripts and to many silly jokes) There has been a lot of nonsense spoke of the female characters , Carrie Fisher xx we love you and you will always be "the princess", Laura Dern as Vice Admiral was tremendous, I can understand the criticism with the Rose character though but given the script/scenes she had, even Liz Taylor would had struggled ! I don't get Phasma this is political correctness gone mad, why out of all the "male" storm troopers, Phasma is a "female" captain, where did she come from lol (she wasn't helped by her lines)...Anyway watch it again, sit back, enjoy and STOP looking so deeply into everything
Rogue One (2016)
Star Wars at its best
Very few spoilers..When I first saw the initial trailers for Rogue One I wasn't looking forward to the movie release but this is a great film, arguably the best Star Wars film ever made. I'm a mad Star Wars fan, love them all (maybe the Jar Jar one not so much) I saw this 4 times at the cinema in the first week of release It is superbly directed and acted with believable characters and a great link to "A New Hope". I think its very important that characters are believable in who they are playing (If you've seen Alien Covenant, try telling me any of the crew were believable, did the bumbling captain look like a leader lol) Rogue One is quite a dark film with characters being killed off almost as quick as they are introduced but it moves at a great pace, and it pulls it off as it is very well cast, hats off again to the casting crew, I thought Forest Whitaker was excellent as Saw, the whole cast were, especially Jyn, Cassian, Galen, Krennic and Chirrut & Baze and of course the droid K-2SO, for me the biggest surprise, how could they ever eclipse C3PO and R2D2, well they have. As most of the cast don't appear in a New Hope I'm very surprised by any criticism of how quickly they are killed off. Visually the film is stunning with great locations, if I was a storm trooper, I would want to be stationed on Scariff. The Death Star looks super menacing as it comes into view, I'm not sure given its size it would cause an eclipse but it makes it look twice as menacing. This film is what Star Wars fans have been crying out for, a darker version, with stunning locations and great fighting sequences on land and in space (If you are not keen on some of the CGI of Tarkin And Leigh...its nit-picking) The final scene when it switches from Jyn & Cassian on Scariff to Vaders ships as the Rebels try to jump back into hyperspace is incredible and ties the film superbly to "A New Hope"
Alien: Covenant (2017)
The downfall of Alien
Well I am a big Alien fan, the original films were fab, I even quite like Prometheus. Alien Covenant though is dire from start to finish. Not to many spoilers, the story starts with the crew on their way to colonise a planet, which they have been planning for years, but get woken up from hyper-sleep and suddenly think they have found a better place to colonise, lol...are you serious? this would take some planning to colonise a planet, and suddenly they phone home and say they have found a closer one :-) As usual their is a transmission from the planet, they don't understand where it has come from so virtually the whole crew go down, armed to the back teeth (aliens may not think they've come in peace). Where they land is 8km from this transmission, don't know why so far, maybe they felt like a hike, they park up on a lake and start walking lol...their is lush vegetation and fresh water..but one of the crew points out...no animals anywhere!! For a bunch of colonist you would think that would be a bad sign that things are not quite what they seem, but they carry on...leaving one girl behind to carry out tests, with a single guard :-)...if there had been a secret army come out of the forests to attack them I'm not sure what good he would do. The film descends into farce with an incompetent crew not even following basic quarantine procedures...and once they've discovered there's nasty Alien creatures down there, the remaining crew seem to insist on going off by themselves into dark lonely areas of the old city, one of them "to freshen up" lol Enough ...watch it, make up your own mind, but Alien was a much better story when we all thought they were just a nasty little creature we had just stumbled across in the galaxy...they are ruining the story (btw, why don't the aliens attack David???)
Hacksaw Ridge (2016)
Expected so much...over-hyped
Where do I begin, can not believe the IMDb score this film has achieved so far, its a good story poorly told, directed and acted. The fighting scenes on the island with the Japenese will please many but for me they are the only reason I didn't rate this film any lower. The characters were not believable, I mean had the US army stopped demanding short hair cuts in ww2m because we have a main character with an Elvis hair style going up against the Japanese...come on now, give him a guitar and we have an Elvis film and Vince Vaughan...whoever cast him should quit casting. I love Vince Vaughan films ...especiall The Watch ..but he was poor in this....but is that down to the Director not getting the best out of him?? Very disappointed ...I expected so much; Having said all that my utmost respect the the very brave man this film was based on..no spoilers but what he achieved on that island was a miracle x
Spectre (2015)
So eagerly awaited..but so disappointed
I am a big bond fan and I think Daniel Craig makes a great Bond but after a great opening score by Sam Smith this falls a long way short of what I expected.
There is so many lines stolen from other very recent bond films, are we going to hear Bond telling Q to make him "disappear" in every bond film from now on...he is a "secret" agent right??
I was intrigued about Christoph Waltz's role as I didn't see him as a Bond villain, he is a fine actor and he has made some great films but I don't think we saw his true potential here as I don't think he was given a great script to work with. (A wee bit of advice to Oberhauser..the device which your strapped Bond down too looked expensive and I know you are the criminal genius here but..it would have done the job if you hadn't programmed it to put Bonds hands so far behind his back that his hands could touch and set his watch off)
Anyway we ended up with a film that was too long and completely lacking in originality..even the scene at the end with the 3 minute countdown was just so predictable.
The IMDb score tells it all, I think it at started at 7.9 which is not good as those initially voting are the fans who want to see it first so you would expect higher score. It is now down to 7.6..it will go lower as more and people see it and vote (if this is Daniel Craig's last outing as 007 ..its sad it finished this way)
Gag (2006)
Don't waste your time watching this...there are better things to do
Truly dreadful film, the worst I have seen in a long time, luckily for me I fell asleep after an hour. Where to start, marks out of 10, Acting 0/10 Effects 0/10, story 0/10...I could go on buy you get the idea. Two thieves Dumb and Dumber break into a house looking to rob a safe, there's someone almost dead tied to a bed who looks like they have been tortured, our robbers think they may be taking part in a sex game lol and furthermore that they may know the combination to the safe despite being nearly dead..lol One of our robbers wants to get out of the house but the other is insistent on cracking the safe for the money and shouts at the nearly dead individual tied to the bed for the combination, it doesn't get any better.
Prometheus (2012)
Sit back and enjoy, don't look at this to deeply
Massive Alien fan, seen the films 100's of time's love them all, eagerly awaited this since seeing the trailer.
I have seen a few negative comments on here and if you take this movie apart most of them you would agree with.
This is a billion dollar mission and to a planet we no nothing about and they don't even take a crack squad of Marines for protection. When they arrive at the planet they immediately find the alien base and drive straight to it taking their helmets off when they arrive, no one was concerned there were no signs of life on this planet they have been compelled to travel to. I would be a little worried on approaching an Alien base on a planet that seems devoid of life to have no protection, would you no wonder what had happened to the locals.
All that aside enjoy the movie for what it is, I loved it and have seen it a few time's and would recommend it to anyone. To everyone who pulled it apart, your looking at this to deeply, what do you want them to do send a team of robots at first just in case of any danger, but that wouldn't make a good movie...would it! Some great scenes loved the one where she has to get the alien out of her and staples herself up, really well acted, thought she played a great part.
Looking forward to the sequel..there has to be one the story can not end like this, need to link it directly to the start of Alien Enjoy, will definitely be getting the DVD when it is out