A slightly bizarre rags-to-riches documentary film. Half the film seems to be interviews with people talking about how amazing the subject, Alfie Best, is. The other half comes across like an advert for Best's residential park homes. It was interesting to hear about Best's background and the experiences of Gypsies, though given the film is billed as showing Best "tackling the biggest challenge of modern times" (housing), I would have liked to see the film tackle that topic in more depth. The film's title is potentially misleading as it seems to be from a quote by one of the interviewees that "he will be the first Gypsy billionaire", the implication being that he's not one yet. I have no criticism of Best himself -- he seems like a great person -- but I feel that this film could have done with a bit more substance.
Canaan is a sequel to a bonus scenario from Chunsoft's masterpiece visual novel, 428: Shibuya Scramble.
Aside from some shared characters, plot elements and references, the anime bears little resemblance to 428's main scenario. Indeed, some of the returning characters have rather different personalities and seem unaware of events that occurred in 428. So it's best thought of as somewhat distinct from the main scenario.
It has some interesting characters, my favourite being the ever-amusing Yun Yun. Unfortunately, the plot seems a bit all over the place, and characters lack clear motives for their actions.
In short, this series has some good points, but I probably wouldn't recommend it to anyone who isn't a fan of 428 or Nasu Kinoko / Type-Moon.
Brilliantly and grippingly thought-provoking, with incredible cinematographic flair.
Ironic title, considering this film is itself a disaster. Read the book instead. Don't watch this expecting to get an accurate idea of how The Room was made because it only vaguely represents what actually happened. Personalities and motivations deviate wildly from the source material. For instance, Tommy is depicted as far more callous and harshly than in the book, and Greg is shown to be extremely excitable and goes along with everything Tommy suggests, whereas the book shows that Greg actually tried to reason with Tommy and was quite sceptical about him, despite them being friends. Greg and a lot of the other characters seem crazy and over-the-top, which makes Tommy seem normal by comparison.
The film is also edited very strangely. For the most part the story is told chronologically. However there are a couple of times when the story jumps forward or backward very briefly. Although the original book is not told in chronological order, this film does not pull of the technique successfully as the scenes are too brief and random for it to be coherent. It just feels like an editing error. Furthermore, there's even a bit where a scene we've already watched is replayed at a completely irrelevant point in the film. Perhaps this is a homage to The Room which does something similar. But it makes far more sense in Wiseau's film, which is saying something.
Considering The Room is often considered one of the worst films ever made, it's interesting that The Disaster Artist is actually a far worse film. The Room may have its issues, but it is funny and entertaining. Which is more than can be said for this film.
The fight scenes aside, this film is incredibly dull, and the characters are not relatable. I gave up on this film after an hour.
Gripping introduction. Poor horse, though! :-(
This parody of psychological thrillers uses a lot of the tropes of the genre, but that alone does not make an interesting show. I'm not sure that it works as a comedy, especially with the serious tone.
Great performance from Clint Eastwood as an elderly horticulturalist who ends up becoming a drug mule. In a way, it reminds me of Breaking Bad in how a well-meaning ordinary person gets caught up in a serious crime operation.
Not particularly original, but this thrilling film does create a good sense of mystery.
The last in a trilogy. I haven't seen the previous films, but that wasn't really a problem. Still, although the concept is an interesting one, and there were some decent performances, some parts were just too silly and on the whole I found the film underwhelming.
It's a high quality production, and it is a serious one. There aren't a lot of laughs. Though I do appreciate what they've done, I was kinda bored for most of it. Things get a lot more interesting / exciting about two-thirds of the way through.
I suppose people who are into historical dramas or have an interest in this period in history might enjoy it a lot more than I did.
Also, based on the trailer, I expected the film to be mostly focussed on the two Queens and their relationship. And though that is quite an important aspect to the film, there's a lot of other stuff that happens in the film. In fact, the trailer seems to mostly be made up of clips from the final 10 minutes of the film.
A touching true story about journalist and writer David Sheff (who I previously only knew as the author of Game Over – the seminal book on the history of Nintendo) trying to understand the effects drug addiction are having on his son.
Stay around after the credits start rolling for what I presume is an extract from the source material.
A rather fun film about an unlikely friendship. Despite the controversial casting of Bryan Cranston (of Breaking Bad fame) as a paraplegic, I thought he did a really good job.
This film is about Dick Cheney, who was Vice President to George W. Bush.
It's from the same people who made 2015's The Big Short, which I loved. And, like that film, this one takes a relatively dry topic and presents it in an interesting and humorous fashion.
We see how Cheney got his start in politics and gradually climbed the ladder, becoming a powerful figure in Washington, then how he turned the role of Vice President from a largely symbolic one, to one with much power and responsibility.
The film doesn't take itself too seriously, and there's never a dull moment.
Vice is rather biased and is not entirely accurate, but never strays too far from reality. Also, keep watching whilst the credits are rolling for quite an entertaining scene.
Reviews have been somewhat mixed, but I absolutely loved the film. It's probably my favourite of the year so far.
This is a pretty good film about the later years of Laurel and Hardy's partnership. Though I'm not too familiar with L&H, the film does tell an interesting story about their ups and downs. Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly did a good job of recreating the comedy from their performances, I think.
A truly bizarre film about Queen Anne and those who served her that borders on the absurd to great comedic effect.
The cinematography is very slick, although the frequent use of panning shots with fisheye lenses is slightly dizzying.
The aesthetics are fitting for the period, with some interesting use of typography throughout.
There are some great performances of the rather larger-than-life characters.
It takes some time for the story to really get going, but that does present an opportunity to get to know the characters at the start before a multi-layered narrative kicks in with a number of twists and turns.
In short, The Favourite is an enjoyable film with a rather unique style.
Intriguing start to this series. Interesting setting and characters. Nice aesthetics. Slight use of iffy CG. Main character Princess Yuki is a little irritating.
I really liked Colette, which was also based on true events. It's about the French novelist Colette (Keira Knightley) who in the early 1900s was forced to write by her controlling husband, who took credit for her work.
Her journey from a humble background to being an author and so on, as well as how she changed as a person was really quite fascinating.
The Front Runner is pretty good. It's about Gary Hart (Hugh Jackman) who was the front runner for US Democratic Presidential candidate in the late '80s. So the film follows how (spoiler alert) things quickly unravelled for him and his campaign.
I found it a little confusing at first, since I'm not too familiar with the events in question, but it did get rather interesting.
Welcome to Marwen is a kinda odd film, combining live action with CG animated dolls. But it told quite an interesting true story.
I'm not exactly into Transformers, but Bumblebee was pretty awesome. Fighting 'robots' are always cool, of course. But I really liked Hailee Steinfeld's character and how things played out between her and the other characters.
The film is set in the late '80s and features music and pop culture references from that period, which was also nice.
As a fan of mystery stories, I decided to check out Holmes & Watson.
To be honest, I didn't think much of it. It's a comedy, so it relies a lot on the film's sense of humour aligning with the viewer's. Sadly, I didn't find it particularly funny. But there was a lot of laughing coming from the audience, so I suppose it works for some people.
Mary Poppins Returns was a lot of fun. I actually saw them filming it in Covent Garden a few years ago. It was nice to see the finished product.
I liked the music and choreography. And the way they combined the live action footage with 2D animation.
It was great to see London landmarks and familiar places, though I felt like the setting was perhaps a little over-emphasised.
But yeah, I think, on the whole, it captured the spirit of the original, and in some ways actually exceeded the original.
Aquaman is a bit of a mixed bag. The first half hour was awesome, but then this plot about different factions in Atlantis fighting kicked in, and I found that really boring.
The character of Aquaman himself isn't too bad – he can be kinda funny at times. But there isn't much depth to him, imo.
The best parts were those with Aquaman and Mera. The film kinda dragged out with some of the less interesting plotlines.
Buuut, I'm generally not much a fan of superhero / action films in general, so I wasn't exactly expecting to massively enjoy it anyway.
It's a Wonderful Life is a beautiful film and a true classic. It's often considered one of the best films ever made, and I am inclined to agree.
Lizzie was pretty good. Based on the true story of Lizzie Borden who was suspected of murdering her father and stepmother in Massachusetts in 1892. Much of the film is about the events that led up to the murders; the pacing can be a little slow at times, but there are some great moments. The parts about the actual murders themselves and the aftermath are fantastic, though. Some amazing performances from Chloë Sevigny, who played Lizzie, and Kristen Stewart, who played the housemaid Bridget. The film does only offer one interpretation of events – there have been a number of theories about what happened – but it tells a good story.
Despite the fact I'm not really into superhero films, I absolutely loved this film. It was great to see the various takes on the Spider-Man character, with much visual flair.
The aesthetics were nice, but this was a pretty bad film. Still, it got a tad more bearable towards the end.
The writing and some of the acting wasn't exactly the best. And it kinda dragged out in the middle. Still, I liked the concept of moving, fighting cities, and I liked the characters. I don't usually like films with so much action, but I quite enjoyed this one.
