First episode of this show I actually fully enjoyed.
A movie shot over 8 days populated by newbie actors who paid to be in a workshop about acting that had instruction by Sion Sono.
Without these circumstances, this movie would not have been nearly as good and captivating as it is. All the newbie actors deliver fantastic performances that draw you in, and there are a lot of names listed below that I cannot wait to see in future films.
Hopefully this gets some easy to obtain US distribution, and hopefully I can point to this films as the start of some long and illustrious careers.
How much the killer has been dragging a half dead man around town to create these "gotch-ya" moments is so silly. Also Audrey just acts really strange this entire season, and it makes what was once an easily likable character into someone I am rooting to get gutted. The only Lakewood 6 member I actually still like at this point is Noah.
While Emma is a pretty standard dumb horror character, that sort of trope just doesn't fit with Scream as a franchise. Riley being killed literally on top of a police station is fucking stupid, Emma's decision making is beyond stupid, and the fact that Tyler, who was shown to be killed in the first episode, was still being lobbed around as the prime suspect in universe is boring .
Genuinely any other character would have been better as the protagonist so far, but I suppose we'll see since we have two season of this mess.
Surprisingly nice first episode. It's got the mood and setup down, although the teenage drama is turned up to 11.
The ending sequence is actually pretty riveting, it really points you in 6 directions and makes you curious what will happen next.
It's probably about as good as a modern sequel to a beloved film is going to get.
There was absolutely no way this would live up to The Shining, but it holds its own as a pretty fun modern fantasy film and was satisfying as a different but good sequel.
Admittedly I'm movie-only when it comes to The Shining, so I have no idea how accurate this film is to the book.
I actually liked the much-panned last half-hour of the film. While it is heavy on the references, those references really shine. The bar scene in particular will be etched in my mind just like the original.
Rebecca Ferguson steals the show for most of the movie,and Ewan McGregor does a wonderful job as he usually does.
Destruction scenes are the only real highlight in the film, and even those don't hold completely well these days.
If you want to watch this, just go look up scenes on youtube, not worth a full viewing.
I'm glad I skipped watching this in theaters when it first released.
No surprises here, pretty standard Zombie film but done well. I enjoyed the thematic book-ending even if simple. The action wasn't frequent but was satisfying, the characters were fun to follow, and it was directed fairly well.
Not reinventing the wheel, but a pretty good one.
Also might be a controversial take, but I enjoyed this more than Train to Busan.
I just could not get into the modern half of the story. It's a running problem I have with these sorts of books (and the movies they inspire). A period piece with an interesting story that is a large focus of a narrative is never enhanced by flipping forward to terribly link two stories together. If I read the book, I would have hated it in the end, and would not have watched the movie.
It also felt extremely weird how fast the plot rocketed past the traumatic Vélodrome d'Hiver event. It felt like it should have been a larger part of the run time in general, but was overall treated as a minor event.
The movie by itself is shot fine and well acted, but the source material/plot was extremely underwhelming in what should have personally been a grand slam.
This movie is genuinely a good barometer for deciding on whether to listen to someone's opinion on horror.
Also incredibly well directed/shot/acted all around with a haunting and apt score.
Felt like a jumbled mess covering too many topics at once inadequately without the signature Black Mirror dreadful dystopian grunge you've come to expect from most of the rest of the series.
Also how the fuck you going to do a weird bromance VR sex thing and make the analog for it a fake Street Fighter instead of something like an MMO. Criminal.
Better than expected, but still not necessarily good. Bit disappointing in payoff for the substantial scares. Plot was kind of interesting though, even if it isn't deep.
A muted thriller covering an interesting event. Not spectacular, and again, a bit muted in terms of pacing. Still had a good time watching it though.
A lot better than 2 or 3. It retreads the formula of the original film with a fresh coat of paint due to the setting. Low budget, but let's be honest I would rather they not have the money to keep attempting bad cgi monsters anyway. Not as good as the original, but the closest to recapturing the magic of it.
This was surprisingly interesting for what amounted to a pretty dry documentary that could be summed up as a classroom lecture with visuals. If the topic (history of English) interests you, give it a watch. Bragg certainly knows what he is talking about.
Just genuinely a really fun movie. Going to watch the rest of the series.
I think a lot of the negative reception to this film is almost entirely coming from sections of the audience coloring the film how they want to and disliking how it looks with that coloring applied. It's expectation baggage weighing the experience down. I've seen people sad this isn't a normal comic book film. I've seen people who can't separate this from the co-opting it has received ironically and unironically from negative memes. I've seen people who don't understand that protagonists are allowed to be bad people. I've seen people unable to handle bad people having sympathetic things happen to them. I've seen people who can't handle the slow burn of a character study despite it being rife with heavy important moments. I've seen people misunderstand that the "girlfriend"/early scene with Arthur on the show are delusions (which was done incredibly obviously). I've seen people criticize the movie for drawing from very apropos inspiration (Taxi Driver/King of Comedy) and calling it a ripoff like movie dna isn't borrowed in almost every film they watch to great effect like it is done here. I've seen people upset that Arthur "wins" in the end despite the fact that the character has canonically been fairly uncontested until Batman comes around and this is long before that time, and that this movie was made with the assumption that literally everyone knows that. I've seen people upset that the chaos and disorder were driven by co-opted rallies inline with their beliefs.
The movie isn't perfect, but it certain deserves the Oscar noms and attention it has received. This is a beautifully shot film with a beautiful score, with a driving marvelous performance from our lead, and some basic messaging that is a consistent problem today. It's a character study that may not be crazily innovative, but its the template done in top condition. I'm a sucker for character studies though.
If you want real comedy go take another look at some of the reviews on here and letterbox and from the "top critics" of rotton tomatoes. I find them hysterical. There's nothing wrong with disliking the film for what it is, but I feel like a lot of the hate is based on something it's not.
A fallout vault on rails.
A second act that got my adrenaline pumping in a way few action movies can.
Fantastic world building, but sadly with a few good unanswered questions.
Slightly too long ,but it does use all of the runtime effectively and fairly concisely. If anything, it could have used more scenes.
Good film, watch it.
Interesting political scifi thriller about the sacrifices made in the upkeep of convenience, safety, and consumerism/capitalist society.
Alright, let's begin with me being a fan of the books and games, and that as an adaptation I think this failed on a lot of fronts. But let's ignore that completely for this review/comment, because I can respect an adaptation trying to do it's own thing to an extent.
The show is a poorly glued together highlight real attempting to introduce and connect all of the main players in a coherent narrative. The issue is, the writers decided to display the various plotthreads out of order as different timelines which is an interesting idea on paper, but execution wise is done so poorly it's genuinely baffling how it got okayed on the editing bay as is. The payoff for doing this when everything converges in episode 7 is actually deflating instead of whatever "cool factor" they desired in seeing the opening episode replay with added context from a converging perspective. Ultimately I feel it weakens the plot and coherence of their story every step of the way until the final episode where this decision stops mattering. Add on that the world is not properly established pretty much ever relative to obvious contemporary comparisons like GoT, and you have a recipe for a majority of your audience who do not have background knowledge in the source material being utterly baffled by what is going on.
Moving on from the rough storytelling, the casting is pretty good. I was skeptical when they were announced but Cavill's Geralt, Batey's Jaskier, and Chalotra's Yen are all excellent. Shaffer as Triss feels extremely weird to me both tonally and visually. I'm fine with changes, but this one feels like it didn't amount to anything and ultimately hurts the character. Allan does fine as Ciri but the role itself has little room to shine with the writing and events of her adventure this season.
The fight scenes and CGI vary from jawdroppingly wonderful (episode 1) to abysmal and low-budget (episode 6). Its not a major enough issue most of the time, but it's lows feel incredibly jarring.
The final episode also feels like such a strange affair the entire run-time. We have the obvious end point (which was executed terribly), and the rest feels like nonsense filler given an air of importance to make it feel like a season finale worthy set-piece.
The show succeeds on reinvigorating a feeling about the Witcher that pulls me back to the books and games to experience them again, but I can't say I am very excited for season 2 or thrilled at how this season turned out. It absolutely feels like this production's success is riding on the coattails of the cultural impact the games (particularly 3) have made these past few years. Even those who don't play games often have heard the name Witcher, it's just a shame the passing curiosity from that recollection that will get people to watch this show is not going to result in people have good clear idea of the world or series because the tv series couldn't figure out how to present it properly.
Maybe the show pulls through and becomes much better now that the timeline bullshit is over and done with and we can have a focused narrative with less jumping around like a mage abusing portals. I won't hold my breath though.
The story it tells is compelling and hard to hate, but the script and editing leave a lot to be desired. The film teeters on edge of confusing a general audience from lack of context and explanation, so the story it tells gets a bit muddled. Despite the problems, the film delivers on the racing scenes, and the story even when told awkwardly is one that will always be worth telling. Matt Damon and Christian Bale do a terrific job, even if it took a while for their acting to convince me. I don't regret watching it, I would recommend it, but it could have been better.
I think this might be my new favorite Christmas movie.
It blends the line between self parody and serious sequel and I think that blend is fun, although I understand the hate it gets.
There are some pretty bad moments like the one with Anthony Anderson though that make that blend feel more rough around the edges.
Still better than Scream 3 imo.
The meta-narrative of the film killings is fun, but has been done by Craven better before. Fun watch, a little long, and definitely worse than 1 and 2.
Not as good as the first, but a solid sequel that is hard to hate.
Darby vs Havoc vs Evans was amazing.
The women's match was frankly terrible though,
A phenomenal film. Flows perfectly, is shot perfectly, a great cast with great performances, a story that is not twisting for the sake of it but still feels surprising.
I've liked Bong Joon-ho's previous films, but this one floored me in particular. Definitely worth a watch at minimum.
The Cody speaks segment was gold.
Commentary jokes and banter were hilarious all night.
Easily the worst season of the bunch. The fallout of the big finale of last season was fun to watch unfold, and the best moments of the season are directly related to that. Everything else was fairly mediocre or downright terrible. Ani is also a terrible character, a needless addition, and genuinely a drag on the entire season as she acts as a narrator.
If you're still watching at this point to get a dose of high-school melodrama that spirals out of control, you'll get it, but it's definitely lost almost all of its luster that it barely maintained in the first place from the debut season.
Also please stop stretching the season by an extra few unnecessary episodes worth of content just to get that magic #13 episode count.
While thematically interesting to an extent, the actual plot/movie is fairly boring and I found myself counting down until it ended. Tony Todd does an alright job being spooky, but he can't carry the entire movie.
