Interesting documentary and it was great to learn about how the whole GME thing started and to see the people behind it. I think it would have been good if the filmmakers would have spent a few minimum explaining what Shorting actually is and how that fits within the whole realm of what was happening.
There was some near behind the scenes stuff plus archival footage. But, there was also a lot of fluff. This could have easily been 30 minutes long.
“Do you know the difference between justice and punishment?”
This sequel was entertaining enough, but it wasn't really needed. I found myself looking at my watch a couple of times during the movie as it gets quite slow in the midsection. It is nice that they changed things up a bit in the film and introduced some new mechanics to the Jumanji game. The action was lackluster and borderline boring. Jack Black and Kevin Hart are the best things in the film. I am not sure who Dwayne Johnson was trying to do an impression of but it definitely was not Danny DeVito. It was nice to see Awkwafina in the film, she does great with what she is given. The mid-credits scene hints at where the next film will go, but I really hope they just leave it with this film.
I started watching because Cobie Smulders was in the film. I couldn't finish this one, it wasn't good.
There's nothing like watching people reading from screens as a riveting suspenseful ending to a film (please see sarcasm). Alec Baldwin continues to be the best Jack Ryan. I never bought into the idea that Liev Schreiber as John Clark.
The twist was nice, but this film reallly felt like they took a 43 minute TV pilot and stretched it unsuccessfully into a 90 minute film.
The problem with The Spy Who Dumped Me is that it feels very disjoint -- it feels like two different films were shot and then they tried to edit them together without much success. There is a mediocre comedy that works some of the time and there is the mediocre action film that gets quite dark. Mixing these two mediocre elements together only dilutes each other.
The Replacements is a guilty pleasure.
If I had to pick one word to describe this film, it would be "lazy". I understand we're deep into summer movie session at this point and Skyscraper is made to be a summer popcorn flick -- I love summer popcorn flicks. But, the film is just so lazy in everything it does that it is no fun. Not even Dwayne Johnson's charisma can save this one. At some point Johnson's character remarks, "This is stupid" and I couldn't agree more.
Just bad enough to be good. I love the sound design in this film.
Fun and entertaining movie that left me with a smile. Anne Hathaway absolutely knocks it out of the park in the film and is the best thing in the film. This movie makes for a good addition to the Ocean's franchise.
This film works on only one level: B-film Summer Mindless Popcorn Flick. Walk in with any sort of expectations other than that and you will be disappointed. The film moves at a surprisingly quick pace and the action is paced just right that there aren't many slow spots in the film. The special effects were quite good for the film. The battle in Chicago was a visual effects beast (Pun? Maybe.)
Dwayne Johnson is Dwayne Johnson in the film, he carries the film well and I don't think the movie would have worked without him being in it. Naomie Harris was good also in the film, but not given enough to work with. The real star of the film is Jeffrey Dean Morgan who's cowboy-like Agent Russell is fantastic -- Morgan chews through each scene he's in and he was so much fun to watch that when he wasn't onscreen, I wished that he was. The only person that feels completely out of place in the film is Jake Lacy, who I can see as the comedic relief, but he hams it up so badly that it does not work and becomes quite annoying.
Go into the film without much expectations other than to be entertained via a quick-paced, visual effects laden action film and you'll walk out with a smile on your face. This movie is fun.
Equal parts hilarious and sentimental. It's nice that the teens are the rational ones. John Cena is awesome.
For the most part, I liked Ready Player One. The film is entertaining and imaginative, but it never seems to reach the potential that it has. It feels like it squanders some good material in a quest to be a parable about the dangers of virtual reality.
I finished reading the book a few days before the film's release (today) and I have the book's story fresh in my mind to compare with the film.
The film, co-written by the book's author Ernest Cline only has the very basics from the book. There were some deep structural changes made the the film's story and characters some for the better and some for the worse.
The changes to the way the keys were found and used, that was a good change. The book's version was dull and drawn out, the film's version is more dynamic, quicker to the point and in general more exciting -- a good example is the first key, in the book it was a dungeon quest that ends with Parzival playing an arcade game. In the movie, it is a race that is visually stunning. The research and Halliday journal are compressed into a museum of sorts and that helps a lot.
One of the changes that was for the worse was the way the characters met. Having Parzival meet Art3mis so early and having Art3mis be the one that initiates the meeting was a bad choice. The chemistry between the two never really works onscreen and the "love" that they feel for each other feels forced and too quick. Aech, who has a larger part and backstory in the book, is reduced to basically a driver. The Japanese kid who dies in the book lives in the movie, which takes away from the evilness of Sorento. Also, having the kids be together in the real world and working together is a bad change as it takes away from the competition. I can see why Spielberg would want this change to happen -- it follows in the same footsteps as his other films that feature kids as the protagonists.
Speaking of Spielberg, the man has two sides. There is Serious Spielberg (The Post) and there is Fun Spielberg (Ready Player One). Lately, Fun Spielberg hasn't had much fun -- his last few "fun" films being The BFG, The Adventures of Tintin and that Indiana Jones film everyone chooses not to remember. Gone are the days of Jurassic Park or Raiders of the Lost Ark "Fun" Spielberg. It almost seems like Spielberg is trying too hard with Ready Player One to try to recapture the magic of "Fun" Spielberg. For the most part, he does.
The score by Alan Silvestri is perfect for the film as he remixes some of his best themes into the film that has... well, some of the movies that he scored for.
The leads were decent. Olivia Cooke stands out in the film and is most memorable. Ben Mendelson is also memorable with his mix of the sneering Krennic with a little bit of cowardly goofball -- it sounds weird, but it works. T.J. Miller's I-R0k is a character that was not in the book, but added to the movie -- and I really liked this addition. I-R0k was very memorable and hilarious.
The movie banks on nostalgia and shoves quite a bit of it visually in every frame. It will take multiple viewings to catch everything that Spielberg and team put into the film.
I am a huge fan of the inventive yet simple first film. It is a guilty pleasure of a film that includes giant robots and monsters, but has enough development of characters that I have something to latch onto. It also helps that Del Toro's imagination helps build not only some fantastic beasts, but a great world to have the action focus on.
This sequel, while almost stand alone, doesn't have as much in any of those departments. The characters are pretty flat. The relationships between the characters are barely developed (like between Pentecost and Lambert, or Pentecost and Amara). The film lacks any heart or soul to it. Yes, there is lots of action, lots of Jaegers fighting Kaiju, but it almost feels rote. While the fight scenes in the original film are masked in night and rain, the fight scenes in Uprising take place mostly in the bright day light. I figured that would make for something exciting, but the action mostly falls flat. Maybe, it's because there aren't any memorable touches in the fight scenes like the original such as the Newton's Cradle or the funny items falling out of cargo containers used as weapons.
Even with this said, I did enjoy the film for what it is, a film that aims high, but falls quite short of its original. The film is carried by John Boyega whose charisma makes the film very watchable. The casting of newcomer Cailee Spaeney was also great, she has a future ahead of her. I didn't much care for Scott Eastwood who doesn't emote anything other than "stern" or "annoyed".
The story for the film was pretty thin, except for the twist which sets off the big fight in the third act. I actually thought the twist of flipping Newt to be the bad guy was brilliant since Newt is the last guy I would think could be a bad guy.
I do wonder what happened to some of the other characters that survived the original film. What happened to Raleigh Becket? How come he's not with Mako Mori who shows up in this film? How come Herc Hansen is not leading the Shatterdome? And where in the hell is Hannibal Chau? The script doesn't bother to fill us in on these interesting characters from the first film.
The score was taken over by Lorne Balfe and was fairly forgettable until he uses Ramin Djawadi's original Pacific Rim theme in the third act.
Entertaining film, especially when the film gets to the island. Whoever cast Alicia Vikander as Lara Croft is a genius, she's perfect for the role. Walton Goggins chews scenery every time he is onscreen and is a joy to watch.
Death Wish is a boring low-rent geriatric Punisher with no bite and terrible timing given today's gun control climate.
Was it as bad as the internet said? Not really. It's just a bit boring and a lot of derivative. The monster aspect of the film seemed a bit bolted on.
I can't remember much of the first two films in this series. I actually can't remember why I even watched the first. But, it was nice to see the series finish up on the big screen, having I watched the first two on video.
The one thing this film has going for it is a constant sense of moment and urgency. And this is a great thing because the running time of the film is so long. The opening train sequence was Fast and Furious-like and worked very well. There are other action sequences spread throughout the film, they are fairly generic, but well-done. The special effects in the film were also impressive.
There are no Oscar-worthy performances in the film, but the actors all do give it all they have and it shows.
Overall, I am glad this this series got a big screen finale -- unlike the YA series that I begrudgingly watched and didn't get a finale, Divergent. This film is well put together, exciting and was worth watching on the big screen.
The ghost of Kevin Spacey will forever hang over this film.
This film has everything going for it. Beautiful cinematography by Dariusz Wolski. An engrossing score by Daniel Pemberton. Some wonderful performances from Michelle Williams, Romain Duris, Christopher Plummer and Charlie Plummer. But, the film just does not work. It feels shiny without any soul. It is a kidnapping film without thrill. It explores greed without substance. It is long, overbearing and in the end serviceable as a film, but not very entertaining. Mark Wahlberg is horribly miscast in his role and Scott could have done better there.
As for the Kevin Spacey thing, if I had not known about the history of the production of this film, I would not have even suspected the late recasting of his role to Christopher Plummer.
Antonio Banderas enters his late life Liam Neeson action star era. This film is a B-film through and through. For what it is though, it is a damned entertaining film.
The premise is simple: Die Hard in a Mall. Antonio is most entertaining to watch and some of the action sequences he takes place in are reminiscent of his role in El Mariachi. The story was simple and enjoyable. Ben Kingsley chews through each scene he is in. The action, on what must have been a shoe-string budget, was well-done and memorable.
Well worth a watch.
What a sad excuse of a sequel to John Woo's Hard Target -- still Van Damme's best. As an action film, it is quite a snooze fest. The action in the film is bland and unmemorable -- there isn't a single standout action sequence in the whole film. The ending was particularly ridiculous.
Notes about the film: Doves/Pigeons? Seriously? Roel Reiné, you're not John Woo. There is an overuse of slow motion in the film in all the wrong places. And just because you can use a drone to film something doesn't mean that you should.
I'm guessing Robert Knepper, Temuera Morrison and Rhona Mitra really needed a paycheck. I am not sure how they ended up in this stinker.
The movie was absolutely exhilarating during the action sequences, especially the car chases. But, the second the action sequences stop, the movie grinds to a halt with stereotypical writing and characters. What also doesn't help is the self-conscious need to be cool that the film has. Some would call it style, I would call it distracting.
One last job? Seen it before. And the characters in the film are cardboard cutouts. The worst of the bunch is Jamie Foxx's character Bats. Bats is a homicidal maniac who is hired by Spacey's Doc for a two jobs. Doc seems to be a very careful man who plans meticulously. Why Doc would pick an unhinged impulsive person like Bats to do a job is beyond me. The whole thing reminds me of the same flaw in Michael Mann's otherwise excellent heist film Heat where De Niro's McCauley hires a similarly homicidal and impulsive Waingro onto his team.
Did I like the film? Kind of. Yes, for the action sequences that are fantastically shot by Bill Pope and edited by Jonathon Amos and Paul Machliss. No, for pretty much everything else.
Dear Michael Bay, please stop. I mean, stop making movies altogether.
