Great show, but not very stable in its quality.
What a fantastic albeit bittersweet movie. Chung Keun-sup both wrote and directed this by himself. And it results in an almost Villeneuve-style movie. Although the constraints of the genre and probably the lack of experience of the director sometimes show in certain aspects. Needless to say he did a great job in creating a captivating story and film. Such a shame that I could not find any more work from him, bc he looks like a promising and talented director.
The camerawork and editing is of high quality, and in the writing of the story there is great attention to detail. Even though the story in itself looks not that remarkable on the surface, what was done with it in 'Montage' shows an understanding of the craft of movie making well.
A high quality political action thriller with several twists and turns. From the very first scene it got me hooked, and even though it does not manage to continuously serve that same high tension, it kept me locked to my screen. Definitely worth the watch.
The actors brought their A level, writing is decent to good (except maybe some loose ends in the last episode that are rushed) and the choreography is well done.
My two main points of criticisms concern (mostly) the last episode. The first being the very last twist at the end with Nadia being a bad guy after all. And secondly that mental health problems are too much downplayed. They are more being used as a plot device, while not giving character development or consequences. The threat of (untreated) mental health problems is more of an external threat than one that affects the character(s). Like how in the last scene, as soon as the protagonist sees a therapist, everything will be fine (like -hinted- his relationship with his wife will be totally ok too.)
Amazing for the beautiful music, as a documentary however it is not so great. Treat it as a live-coverage of the concert with background stories and 'behind the scenes' material.
I recommend this show, if you can withstand some a lot of cynicism.
Quality varies heavily per episode, some are written poorly and just do not feel 'finished', while others manage to get original, thought-provoking and almost feel like a full movie. The view on the future is sometimes/often so pessimistic (especially with the amount of bad endings) it can break immersion. Acting and cinematography is (usually) above average. They managed to create an enticing universe through seemingly unconnected stories, and all things considered it is definitely a unique world they try and often manage to create.
A more adult & futuristic version of 'Ruby Sparks'
Love the ratings for 1 and 10 on trakt :D
Great movie, lacked a bit of common sense here and there but it took it's time for setting up every story aspect nicely. This made it a bit predictable but it didn't bother me for a change.
Also: I deducted 1 point for the story being a too obvious Hunger Games concept copy.
I hope the Silver Surfer movie that is rumoured is going to be of the quality of this movie.
Watched it for the first time. A very strong movie.
Unfortunately, after so many years of people praising it into heaven every time the name 'Schindler' is said, it could not live up to it's legendary reputation. It is one of the best films in its genre but not THE best.
2nd movie of Zack Snyder I really liked, and his best work so far. Great visuals, dark interesting story with lots of deeper gloomy psychological themes. Man Of Steel did a better job on the story, but I prefer this movie in every other aspect.
And really, that soundtrack! Wauw.
This series succesfully shows the exact opposite of blockbuster movies: Create a great story with mediocre special effects and lesser known actors.
The writers behind this show do an amazing job creating one wonderfull Fairy tale adaptation after another. I did not like their previous work, but I think the writing is getting more mature (but they still make some errors that are frustrating.) But mostly they are not afraid to change major aspects of the fairy tales if necessary.
The creaters of this show also worked on 'Lost' and the 'TRON: Legacy' movie.
I really love how Rumpelstiltskin plays the evil maniac, especially during the first season. But there are more noteworthy roles in there, like the evil queen, her mother, Belle, Hook or Peter Pan. Emma Swan is pretty well played, but compared to the extreme characteristics of the fictional characters she is a bit bland.
The things I dislike most are probably some repeated main themes (family feuds/bad parent-child relations) and that they copy the characters of fairy tales a bit too literal from the Disney franchise from time to time.
Overall I think it is on of the best non-comedy shows of the past few years.
PS. I am glad Lady Gaga never replied on the invite to play the Blue Fairy.
Note: This review was written after watching the first 2 seasons.
With all the great reviews I suspected a hidden jewel, and it kinda was. However it annoyed me a lot.
Especially the dialog was extremely hectic and kind of retarded in the first 30 minutes. It got a bit better after that, but never really good. The actions and decisions were of people that just did not think, something that doesn't fit in a movie with a smart setting like multiverses. imho it only fits with comedy and some exceptions here and there, but that's just me.
One of the flaws that showed itself a couple of times was the time flow. Time is not really consequent throughout the whole movie. In 1 scene someone drinks up a bottle of wine within a minute, and on a few occasions people were gone for a longer period of time (10-20min) while in the house itself no more than 5 minutes were passed at best. This could be explained by the major plot twist in the end, but it would be nice if there were made 1 or 2 remarks about it if that was the case.
The movie is also not giving the viewer time to make their own construction of the situation but making a few emotional scenes right after an info-dump and repeating this process.
And when the characters finally start to understand how complex the situation could be, they decide to pop open the alcohol and get wasted.... seriously?
It brings the movie to a dramatic impasse that is completely unnecessarily and just slows down the mystery.
Luckily the movie manages to get some points in after that. More focusing on story development, having some very interesting plot twists and using the mystery to its benefit in stead of for the drama.
Those last 15 minutes are a good home run, and the movie sets up a completely other pace and setting. Suddenly moving from a group of people with no clue what's going on, to one main character with an objective.
Maybe they should've done this from the beginning to make it more interesting. The girl (Emily?) who took on this role was from the beginning one of the few actors I did not have many complains about, and was doing a good job.
Usually I am a big fan of the 'quantum multiverse' theory worked into a movie, and the concept in this one is very nicely done. But even though they tried (and to be fair the creators have a good grasp on the subject) it kinda failed with the overly dramatic setting and insulting the viewer by letting characters make dumb decisions.
Since it is a low budget movie, I decided not to be too harsh on the rating itself (it really is a movie that can match itself with the high budget ones) and I definitely would upvote for a remake with some better scriptwriting for dialog and some actions. Because I think that this flick could be even better.
"In the moment when I truly understand my enemy, understand him well enough to defeat him, then in that very moment I also love him."
Ender's Game is a movie with many flaws, but many qualities as well. Keep in mind that it is hard to just categorize it as a good or bad movie because of that.
No real spoilers ahead.
Story:
Like someone pointed out here before me, the reason why kids are necessary and why that's humanities only hope is left completely unexplained. The lack of other commanders, besides the one in training school, is pretty odd to say the least as well. In 50 years not 1 trainee from the academy passed the test. So what happened to all those failed kids? Especially the ones that did get to the final test. They know a secret that cannot be known to society (about the hero commander.)
There was no real character development in this movie at all except for the main character, and his development was very thin. The 2 friends he made do not have much in common with him, nor do they have any reason to like him. Especially the girl, since she is in a winning team for a while. After Ender's 'problem' with the Salamander leader, he feels bad about it. But as soon this part is over he never seems to look back at it or takes any lesson from it.
On the brightside, the massive plottwist in the end was surprising. After watching a movie with a rather unsurprising (but not boring) story development, I did not expect that. They could've singled out the emotional/psychological aspect after this part a bit more to make up for some lacking character development earlier.
Visuals:
Special Effects were lovely. A real sci-fi feel with great spacey environments that didn't feel unrealistic or cheap. The funniest thing was how they could've had computer games with about the same graphics we have now :P
I really loved how they did the battle scenes between plains and fighters, both in air as in space. You really got sucked into the battle field, and lost the feeling you were watching at a screen like happens so often with big battle scenes with lots of SFX.
Music:
This has to be adressed. I think this was probably the best part about this movie. Steve Jablonksy was the one who composed it. He also composed the music for the game Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, where he surprisingly managed to not dissapoint after stopping Frank Klepacki's monopoly for the franchise. And that's while Klepacki set the stakes very high for him. And in mainstream modern movies he is probably best known for doing some music for the Transformer movies, too bad those movies suck too much.
He did an amazing job on the score for Ender's Game. Bombastic, classical and majestic music that made every scene way bigger and impressive. Something you could easily listen to and enjoy without looking to the film, but just play really loud on your speakers.
Acting:
This is always something that falls a bit short when kids are the main characters in a movie. Remember the golden rule: Never work with children or pets when you are making a movie.
Not that it was bad, I was actually positively surprised with the acting job most of the younger characters delivered. The worst acting came from the adults xD But even so, the acting was not something award-worthy. Just don't expect big personal acting extravaganzas and you will be just fine.
Enjoyment/Overall:
I really had a lot of fun watching this movie, therefore the end(er) ordeal from me falls into the category good movie. It has enough speed, nice visuals, great music and it is just fun to watch.
Great Miyazaki film with a lovely fairy tale storyline. If only the kids voices weren't so screamish. This made my overal enjoyment of the movie drop :(
What an amazing movie. This movie lacks a lot of media attention probably because of its subject. Chess doesn't get a lot of attention these days because a lot of people find it boring. Calling this movie boring would be the biggest lie of 2015 though.
It is one of the best performances, if not the best, from Tobey Maguire I have seen so far. And he has a phenomenal adversary in Liev Schreiber. The movie did not get very creative in its story, but chose a more literal setup from the actual events. This makes for a straight on drama movie without any melodramatic or emotional depth exaggerating the facts, but that is certainly for the best.
It's funny how the actor called Finn does not play the part of Finn in this film. :P
All kidding aside, this was a highly addictive film that surprised me a lot. When I jumped in I expected a bad plot based on outrages decision making and nonsense. And even though there are still points of critique in that matter left, overall this does not affect the film in a way it aggravates the viewer.
The plot setup is basic but not clichéd, and from there on it uses every scene carefully to set up a plot with some unexpected twists. You can see the creators jumped in this project and seemingly were dedicated to what they were creating. Since (almost) every scene has it's value and is worked out very detailed (IMDB only has 1 goof on the movie so far. Yes it is an indie movie, so it won't have as much engagement as others, but still.)
Any plot that has to do with time travel and the like is hard to set up without having paradoxes, and there are few films who manage to handle them correctly. This one isn't perfect, but it does a nice job in keeping them very limited.
The first thing that got me thrilled was the music used in the movie. I am already a big fan of electronic music, but it is hard to use in film since it is more often than not disruptive in its presence. Not here, it balances some hard-trance scenes with more subtle spheric suspension building sounds. It backs the claustrophobic experience of the small set, and magnifies the surrealism of science fiction in a sublime way.
As the film progresses you get sucked in more and more into the story, especially after the 2nd act where the character development of the main persona is getting really interesting. This 3rd part of the film is by far the best part, with the biggest twists and captivating ordeals the characters have to face. I won't say much about the ending to prevent spoilers, but it left me hungry for a sequel, which will most likely never come. I am still not sure if that feeling was a good or bad thing.
I will be rating it at a 7(+) for now, but I am going to watch it a second time, because it is definitely worth it.
The 3h sit was a long one. Even though it wasn't the movie I was expecting it did not feel like a waste of time at all.
Even with a 3h film, there are still questions left to be answered. The movies maintains a slow pace overall, but fast forwards a few times to not make the movie too boring. This results in some characters getting rushed out of the story, and some not having much impact. The ending is implied as well, but I am very happy with it and wouldn't suggest changing it. It is most of all a coming of age story with some slice-of-life elements, and it is way too easy to fall for the clichés hiding in those genres. And they hardly did.
They could've sacrificed some unnecessary (long) scenes, but I doubt it would be the same film without them. It gives the movie a unique pace in which you don't really want them to hury up with the story, and just 'live in the now' with Adele (not particularly refering to the sex scenes.)
Besides the long and graphic sex scenes, which this movie will probably and sadly be most rememberd for, there are a multitude of shots and transitions that really hit me. The acting is of a very high quality too. They even threw in a lot of philosophy but were smart to make the main character not care for it (or understand it.) This prevents a pretentiousness without losing such material.
After all a very intriguing movie.
Intriguing mini series. Tennant shows his top notch acting is more than just Doctor Who, and the other actors are decent as well.
Storywise pretty well written, but unfortunately not very ambitious. Still there are some interesting situations.
This was an interesting and good movie, but it could have been a masterpiece.
The thing that kept it from becoming that was mainly the story line and build up.
The biggest plot twist (and imho the biggest climax of the movie) happens way too early, and it makes the endgame feel like an outro rather than the moment you have been waiting for the whole movie.
From the moment the big plot twist is revealed, the movie gets very predictable.
The acting, setting, visuals, potential, music are all pretty much top notch, but in the end it was the writing that will probably put this movie in 'Oblivion' itself.
It sure is a big fanservice teaser there at the end, but as a lover of Voyager I had a genuine Holy S.... moment!
Oh I am so gonna miss Bill Murray when he is gone. But for now we can still enjoy his amazing performances on screen!
I do wish Chris O'Dowd had some more screentime. I could possibly enjoy a whole movie about that teacher character.
Great work of sci-fi, lacks a bit of an original plottwist or story development. But maybe I am too harsh on it since it is already over 15 years old. It does show a very realistic image of a genetically enginered future, with discrimination in a new form. The hero needs to beat the odds.
I'm not a big fan of War movies, but this one was pretty interesting.
And don't forget to watch the other part, the American view: 'Flags of our Fathers'
'Raya and the Last Dragon' is a story that mirrors reality and some of the problems we face currently. It brings a positive story about coming together in a time of turmoil and polarization, in the face of a (not so subtle real world metaphor) imminent threat. With the best technical visuals an animated movie can probably bring us today, likeable characters and a good balance between serious and lighter tones, this is a perfect movie to watch with your kids or just alone on a big screen.
'Raya and the Last Dragon' is once again a new frontier in (3D) animated film. The absolutely stunning animation is rich in color and with a lot of attention to detail. The lightning, water, facial expressions and movements are of a level rarely seen before. Disney once again proves to be at the utmost forefront of technical capabilities in (3D) animated film.
One of the most noticeable issues in the movie is the editing. Pacing and tone are never actually bad, but events happen fairly quickly one after another, which makes the journey not feel like much of a challenge to overcome. There are also some tonal issues between moments when the dragon is on screen, and the main characters conflict. Considering the primary focus group for Disney is kids, this is not something I would call as too problematic.
The cutting is too fast for my taste though. A bit more time to be able appreciate the beautiful shots of landscapes or other scenes would have been nice. And where the editing mostly starts to fall apart is when fast paced scenes (like fighting scenes) happen. The cutting is too often and too fast, which can trigger a feeling of dizziness at times.
Again, as a movie primarily aimed at kids, I do not expect depths to the likes of 'Mulholland Drive', 'Se7en' or even 'Spirited Away', so the following is not a major complaint. The characters are decent, sometimes original, and well rounded, world building is done well (although I personally thought the exposition could have been a bit better integrated) and the dialogue does not feel forced and has a good flow.
At the end of the movie I do feel the characters and story are a bit lacking in depth. I think that even without making the characters or story more complicated, this could have been improved by giving a but more time for the characters (and viewer) to grasp the situation they are in. To let them contemplate the situation, and give them some time to breath.
Because of the clear message the movie is giving off, the story is fairly predictable. And even while the message of trust can be a bit in your face at times, this does not detract of the enjoyment I had while watching.
With beautiful animation, good world building, a nice sounding score and rather original characters and the general fast pace, this is a movie that is a feast to watch (especially with kids.) The decent but predictable story is good enough to carry it's message properly, without it getting annoying. Overall 'Raya and the Last Dragon' is a good new addition to the Disney animated movie collection.
A (very) dark/black comedy about war and the deterministic and powerless situations soldiers can find themselves in, doing (arguably) useless things. Even as a viewer your hopes for a win will get thwarted every time.
Even though this all does not sound like good entertainment, it somehow proofs to be the opposite. To find the humor in the world this mini-series creates, proofs the acting and writing skills involved with this show are not just average, nor an afterthought. It (at least) tries to depict a (semi-)realistic world, and does not venture into intentional offensive comedy just for a shock effect.
I would not recommend to everyone, but it is definitely worth the watch if you are ok with a less than regular style of comedy and can enjoy or dealt with a (largely) lack of positivity in a story.
Enjoyable movie that does not overstays it's welcome.
I recognized the story while watching (maybe I saw the National Geographic episode that was dedicated to this, or through some YouTube channel) and I felt like it was done well without getting too unfaithful to the original story (I have not done my research on this though, so don't take me word on it.)
The aim was clearly to go for a more realistic experience, and try not to overly sensationalize the plot or visuals. And at times the movies leans more toward a (visually more darker) 'The Great Escape' rather than a 'Shawshank Redemption'. Although 'Escape From Pretoria' does not reach the heights of either of those aforementioned prison classics, the movie is worth the watch and can stand on it's own well enough.
PS. I had no issue with the 'Harry Potter effect' that is mentioned in some of the other comments. I think the reason for that might be that it has been a while since I saw any of the HP films, while at the same time I saw several other movies of Radcliffe. To the others I would recommend to try watch him in some of his totally different roles, like the absurd 'Swiss Army Man' and the more recent 'Guns Akimbo'. The humour might be a bit odd, so I can't give any guarantee you like it. Or you can try 'Imperium'. I did not see that one, but it had decent reviews and is a lot more serious.
From Tropic Thunder:
Kirk Lazarus: Everybody knows you never go full retard.
Tugg Speedman: What do you mean?
Kirk Lazarus: Check it out. Dustin Hoffman, 'Rain Man,' look retarded, act retarded, not retarded. Counted toothpicks, cheated cards. Autistic, sho'. Not retarded. You know Tom Hanks, 'Forrest Gump.' Slow, yes. Retarded, maybe. Braces on his legs. But he charmed the pants off Nixon and won a ping-pong competition. That ain't retarded. Peter Sellers, "Being There." Infantile, yes. Retarded, no. You went full retard, man. Never go full retard. You don't buy that? Ask Sean Penn, 2001, "I Am Sam." Remember? Went full retard, went home empty handed...
This is a great movie though.
'Let's Be Cops' a.k.a. New Girl tribute episode to 'The Other Guys' with Nick and Coach.
A pretty fun movie, even though it is written with not enough room left over for the actors to work with for more improvisation (or so it seems.) There are also a lot of scenes that are just not necessary and kinda over the top (the dancing of coach being a perfect example of it) for a movie like this. It makes for a few good smiles, but it also feels a bit forced into the film.
However, Jake and Damon are having a good chemistry on screen since they have been working together for a while with New Girl now, and this makes the movie highly enjoyable. The physical humor especially is worked out great. Adding Rob Riggle (as the backing 2nd 'straight man') makes them stand out even better.
This movie is not it's best in making you laugh out loud with witty comments or crazy jokes, but it definitely makes you light-hearted and kind of happy throughout and after the movie from watching these two 'silly smart guys' save the day.
The worst is the soundtrack of the film though. In the opening scene it is still funny to hear the guilty pleasure song from Backstreet Boys, but soon you'll discover that the whole movie is drenched in bad trap meets hiphop (I expected 'Beez in the trap" during almost every scene xD) and this bothered me a lot. Couldn't they use some more neutral les disturbing tracks if they didn't want to get cliché songs?
Anyway, the movie will not disappoint most of its viewers and even though it won't go to the top of the comedic genre either. It is great for some nice entertainment for (almost) everyone.
This one surprised me positively. I suspected a meager story with some lousy science background, but it turned out to be a story with more depth than I ever suspected.
The characters are very well written, and even some of the smaller side characters (the best friend, uncle D or Rupert) are very interesting and worked out to a detail you don't often see with such characters. Oh, and they are very well translated to the screen by their respective actors too!
I think the performance of Harry Hadden-Paton as Rupert was award worthy, and I enjoyed Bill Nighy a lot too of course, since he is awesome! :P
There is probably not enough material for a series, but I'd wish for some more screentime and background on some of the roles. Especially the sister Kit Kat intrigued me bigtime.
It is a very sentimental movie, but I couldn't really call it a love story. The relation between Mary and Tim was not the main theme of this movie for me. It felt more like the main character was trying to obtain something, but discovered something more important along the way.
By this it holds a philosophic message, but it does not confind that message in a closed subjective or life lesson. It rather sets you up to think about certain aspects of life, and makes you aware of the possibilities and choices you can make. Only to leave the choice to you in the end.
