[Spoiler Alert] Film reviews and ratings

Boiling Point. 8/10. Stephen Graham as a head chef, all shot in one take (apparently). I can relate to this film as someone who works in kitchens

 

The new matrix film.

Was absolutely gash, some bits were okish but others it looked as though they had blown the budget before getting to that scene.

Didn't feel matrixy at all, * poor cast.

 

Don't like switching films off but it had to be done during this pile of pish.

 

Edge of Tomorrow. Thought it was one of Tom Cruise's better films.

 

Ordet (1955).

Bit of an exploration around loss of faith, sectarianism, and morality among other things. A slow burner, but deeply profound and enjoyable.

4/5

 

Nightmare Alley 4/10

Had seen some good reviews of it but couldn't get into it at all. Decent cast as well, but wasn't my cup of tea. Fell asleep towards the end as well.

 

BELFAST is up for 2 OSCARS at the moment ,,Original Screenplay,,,, Ciaran Hinds for supporting role.

I thought it was a brilliant film all shot in Belfast,,,, well worth a watch folks

It has another nomination OSCAR for original song " Down to Joy ""

Its up for Best Director also Best Picture .

The film is up a among the big heavies Dune < King Richard >West Side Story

Its up for 5 Oscars at the moment

 

Finally got round to watching Halloween Kills, it's pish.

 

Huge horror fan, but gave up half way through. Will watch the rest of it at some point but not in any rush. Halloween and Friday 13 were classics but they booted the baws right out them, easy a dozen movies in each series.

 

Went to see Jackass forever, really enjoyed it and always good for a giggle.

 

I watched it , i will not spoil it for anyone wanting to watch it ,,,put it this way , i never turned it off i watched it .rite to the end

 

Seeing it super bowl today , there is a great film called ,,,, American Underdog ,,,, its a true story , well worth the watch 9 /10 for me

 

Watched this last night after buying it a few weeks ago. The movie effectively runs both Resi 1 and 2 simultaneously (which i guessed from the trailer). In hindsight I reckon they could have made a movie out of each but it was fine. The story mostly stayed quite close to the games with some weird changes (Lisa Trevor being friends with Clare?) and some of the CGI is quite poor. The casting was off in parts (i could've sworn the guy who played Leon was supposed to be Carlos) but I could live with it.

I definitely didn't hate it, but its probably a hard pass if you weren't into the games. Some nice attention to detail in terms of the mansion layout and room design (same goes for the police station).

5.5/10 but still 1000000x better than the Milla Jovovich * from the 00/10s.

 

Have sat through 8 of the 10 Oscar Best Picture noms - all except CODA & Drive My Car.

Belfast is the one that resonated most with me on a personal level, not least of which is the 'there, but for the grace of *, go I' about it for my family and I - not exactly obviously, but there are a number of points and can't help to feel those beats, however will it have that same resonance with the Academy voters, I don't know. It's well made but I don't know if I am being completely objective with this, and allowing that sort of personal connection overshadowing being completely objective here.

Don't Look Up I actually enjoyed the most - the writing is the stand out and the cast were clearly having fun with it all, but as neither director Adam McKay or any of the cast were nominated can pretty much rule this out as a contender, as no film has done this in 90 years* - and as much as I enjoyed it, I can't see the Academy voting for it.

* - There have been occasions where the director has been nominated but the cast snubbed - most recently Parasite or Slumdog Millionaire - and some where at least one of the 4 acting catagories nominated but not the director - most recently in Green Book or Argo - but the last time a Best Picture Winner had neither the director nor any of the cast being at least nominated was 1932's Grand Hotel

Dune had a lot of positives, and deservedly was praised because of it, especially on some of the technicals (the sound and soundscaping is a major case in point), and it is also the only one of the 10 films that cracked US$40m (which really is a pretty low benchmark) at the box office (Nth America was about US$107M & global of about US$400M), which kind of underlines where this year has been in terms of quality of nominees v publicly popular. Not that that means much in terms of Oscars, but worth noting none the less. My biggest criticism of this movie is that it is literally only half a movie.

Even each of the LOTR film were a self contained book, not a half of one, but do get the feeling that they are positioning this like how they did with the LOTR trilogy, trickle a couple of tech awards but save the big ones for the next one - fair or unfair, get that sense with Dune.

The Power of the Dog is perhaps the most classical 'Oscarbait' of this years nominees. Strong direction, solid performances, pretty well written, and can only imagine that the set design, costume, cinematography are on point also - same as Dune. Can appreciate most of that, but it wasn't really my cup of tea and founf it a bit drag to get to the end. Apparently I am alone in not really rating Benedict Cumberbatch's performance here compared to other things he has done.

West Side Story was fine. I don't have a major problem with the remake - apart from the need for it to exist in the first place - but that they did remake it, and it was done pretty well. Even still it isn't brilliant, revolutionary or truly remarkable. Don't know if anyone in years to come when WSS is brought up, will immediately be thinking of this over the original 1961 version though, and with all due respect, I wouldn't even put this in Spielberg's top 10 movies, so it would be perverse for this to be a Oscar Best Picture winner over so many of his classics, and WSS is nowhere near as on par with his other Best Picture winner - Schindler's List.

Nightmare Alley is decent, without being special. I had really high hopes and expectations for this movie, but it doesn't need a 2 1/2hr runtime to tell the story, as it was pretty much all telegraphed well ahead of time, so really lacks a pay off and leads to pacing issues. Having sat through it twice on each occasion have had the same feeling of it having so much potential and yet ultimately underwhelming. and in actual fact prefer the original version from the 1940's with Tyrone Power, despite the star power, it feels more gritty and more of a true noir.

King Richard - This is all Will Smith and his latest Oscarbait effort - the difference being it may pay off for him personally because that just seems to be the trend with some of the acting nods as it often seems to be as much about paying dues to a career rather than what was actually the best performance of any given year (IMO. Joaquin Phoenix in C'mon C'mon was best, but not even nom'd)... but as a film.... not as much. Think it's pretty clear this movie started life as being focused on the Williams sisters, but as soon as Smith got attached to the project it was completely retrofitted so that it puts him & his character at the centre of everything, and admittedly Smith's performance does carry the movie, apart from that there isn't really anything more than a standard sports biopic and certainly nothing that makes it exceptional piece of film making as a whole that would justify it being the best movie of the year, no matter how weak the year is.

Licorice Pizza - I like Paul Thomas Anderson's movies (esp Boogie Nights, Punch Drunk Love, The Master, Magnolia etc) but this one I just could not get into at all. I get that it is referential to real people (with changed names etc) - nothing Hollywood loves more than being in love with itself - but this one did nothing for me at all. There are far more interesting coming of age drama/romance, with all too few moments of levity, but movies that are self reverential like this that would infinitely prefer to revisit, than this.

The point is, in years to come and people look back on 2021, think the impression is that it has been a pretty lacklustre year if these really are the best of the best to choose from, and even with the ones that I do like, they are probably outsiders in the field.

I really hope that CODA or Drive My Car are better than a lot of these. Have heard good things of both, but neither got a theatrical release at the cinema I frequent and not forking out for any more streaming services so will just have to be patient and wait to get to check them out in due course.

 

Finally watched Django last night , was actually quite good but the end was just ridiculous !

 

Was good not great though.

However DiCaprio's acting was absolute stunning and shame he never got an Oscar for it,was robbed.

The scene were he actually smashed his hand into a glass and bled like *...to then stay in character and bring it into the scene was phenomenal stuff.

Waltz was fantastic to as was Jackson (the most racist character in it lol)

I rewatched The Hateful 8 again and loved it the second time round few nights back.

 

Someone was raving about Coda on here a while ago I’m sure.

I’ve not seen any of them yet but I’d put money on Drive My Car being the best film by quite a bit followed by Dune.

Asian cinema is where it’s at.

 

There’s so many good Asian films I’ve been introduced to through my wife, quite a few of them in English too. A shame they don’t get distributed as much over here.

 

It’s unreal the amount of quality films that get simply no hype or attention over here or the US.

Obviously not the only reason but do wonder how much of it is simply down to companies thinking people are too ignorant to sit through a film with subtitles. Bong Joon-Ho’s comments on subtitles were perfect. People are and have been missing out on truly brilliant films because of it.

Hopefully the like of Squid Game becoming so popular makes it easier for their films to be accessed over here and the states with people being more open to watching them.