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Resurrection (2022)
What a waste
This movie was heading for an 8/10 from me with literally any semi-credible pedestrian ending so what we got instead felt like a real slap in the face.
The acting from the 2 leads was phenomenal and the building tension was expertly ratcheted up. I was captivated right to the end and then... nonsense.
The hardest part of crafting a story like this is landing the ending so to cop out of it in such spectacular fashion and not even attempt to make it make sense is such a disppointment.
When I see a film I want to be fed a whole story. I don't want to have to make up my own ending. Did she become delusional? Was it all a dream? Did reality cease to be coherent anymore? This was such a lazy, cowardly way to end what could have been a great movie.
Vanilla Sky (2001)
Pretty engrossing
There is an ambitious, original story here (at least there was in the film this was a remake of) which is unfortunately rare these days and the acting was good enough to get it's emotional hooks in me. It also kept me interested in the mystery throughout right up until the finale (which was refreshingly completely out of left field) when everything is explained. The only thing that left me cold was that this explanation gave me a deep sense of existential dread when the tone the movie seemed to be shooting for was one of freedom and excitement.
Prey (2022)
Better than I thought it would be
This movie is very well made, it looks great (cgi animals aside), the action is good and so is the tone and the acting.
It is however held back by it's setting/story. I don't understand how it got greenlit. I can't imagine how anyone thought that the best new Predator script would involve fighting against people armed with bows and muskets. And as much as I would like to see more female action heroes did the one in this movie really need to be an inexperienced teenage girl who had never been on a hunt before (it wouldn't have been any less ridiculous if one of the teenage boys had killed him but making this way gives people the option of complaining about it being too woke instead of it just being moronic). The predator in this movie should have died of shame at being outmatched by her long before she killed him (technically she made him kill himself for which I just have no words).
Scream (2022)
Well made slasher
Generally I don't like slasher/serial killer movies (I just don't find them at all scary) and I never really liked the original Scream movies all that much. I pretty much just watched it because I wanted to see what Courtney Cox looked like these days and was pleasantly surprised (by the film). It's well made, pretty well acted, fast paced, tongue in cheek (without being over the top) and never boring.
The Watch (2012)
I wish this had been better.
On paper this should be a film I would love. I like Ben Stiller comedies, I love Richard Ayoade and I really like the sci-fi idea of the plot. Unfortunately this whole movie feels lazy. The jokes are tired, the actors are clearly just going through the motions, everything is just really meh. Disappointing.
Kill Command (2016)
Good special effects bad film
For a low budget film the special effects were pretty impressive and certainly didn't hold the movie back. Unfortunately the story was slow, obvious, cliched and poorly paced.
Changeling (2008)
Well made but by the numbers
The acting is good as it the production but the story lacks anything special and the the pacing is very slow. I was never bored but never gripped by this film either.
Men (2022)
Starts off compelling and devolves into nonsense
This is clearly made by talented people and has some great acting (Rory Kinnear is phenomenal). Unfortunately the plot is a mess. Despite being intriguing to begin with, it gets more and more outlandish to the point where you cannot see how it can ever be explained and then... they don't even try to.
Presumably it's all about metaphors and meaning and commenting on society, etc... but when I see a film I want to see a rational story played out not just a collection of loosely linked visual ideas slapped together.
Ex Machina (2014)
Great acting, ending is a disappointment
The setup for the movie is very good and the acting is superb (I didn't actually realize it was Oscar Isaac in this till halfway through when I googled the cast, he is outstanding in this). There is a great tense atmostphere and it builds all the way to the finale. I was therefore disappointed that the ending was so formulaic. They went for the most obvious resolution possible and this was a big letdown considering the quality of the rest of the film.
The Gift (2000)
Well acted thriller with an average story
The movie has an all star cast who lift it to a higher level than the run of the mill thriller murder story deserves. There is a twist but it's so obvious I hesitate to call it that. Very watchable but hardly remarkable.
You Are Not My Mother (2021)
Slow, predictable and the payoff isn't worth waiting for
This movie had some promise in that the main character was good and it had a decent atmosphere but the story was incredibly predictable (has been done a million times over) and moved at a glacial pace. There was also no real satisfaction to be had at the climax. A lot of that was probably because the fact that the film probably had no budget but it felt muddled and clumsy in it's attempt to have a supernatural ending without being able to afford to show more than a few seconds of a lady in the dark in a mask.
All My Friends Hate Me (2021)
Well made film
I was pretty captivated by this film throughout it's entire length. Partly because I wanted to see what was happening in the story next and partly because the cast was so good. Critically I think it was a very good film. However I can't really say I necessarily enjoyed watching it as a lot of it made me quite uncomfortable in a second hand embarrassment kind of way (I get that that is the intention but it's not really my kind of thing).
Predestination (2014)
Pretty good
I watched this a long time ago and remember thinking it was great. On second viewing I think that the film is merely good and I gave it more credit than I should have the first time round because I was expecting nothing from a low budget Ethan Hawke movie.
The direction, action, cinematography is all pretty pedestrian and what you would expect from a low budget movie. The main draw here is the plot (based on a Heinlein short story) which is definitely interesting and worth paying attention to, even if it does force some very unlikely situations to make the logic puzzle fit. I found the ending to be a little disappointing in the way it played out (the only original part of the story) because I think it could have been done a lot more convincingly given what the character is set up to do after the end of the film.
The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008)
Mind numbingly boring
I saw this and despite the realtively low reviews I thought, Keanu Reeves... big budget...sci-fi, how bad can it really be? Apparently it can be really, really, really bad.
The story is terrible. It is awful, truly stupid and preachy. I cannot imagine how anyone could make a movie based on it's plot points even vaguely entertaining. Everything else in the movie is just normal levels of bad: acting...bad, action sequences...bad, direction...bad, CGI...bad, etc.....
So just to be clear: everything in this move is bad but it's really the story that kills the possibility of enjoyment on any level.
Transcendence (2014)
Poor execution
I like a good AI themed sci-fi movie so I wanted to like this but it was told in the most boring, suspenseless way possible. It also didn't help at all that it felt like Johnny Deep was sleepwalking his way through this.
Emergency (2022)
So basically nothing happens
Stupid, implausible desicion at the beginning of the film aside there was some potential here. The actors were great, there was a decent sense of tension and I was wondering which way the story was going to go, what terrible thing was going to happen and then.... nothing. In the end everything turns out ok for everyone* which made we question why I had bothered watching this at all.
*apart from the fact the main character is traumatised from having a gun pointed at him by the police and while I agree the way black people are often treated by the police is appalling and agree that this has terrible lasting consequences for individuals and society (which seemed to be the point the film was trying to make). The fact that the character was reported as having kidnapped a girl who was not breathing in his car which had just led the police on a high speed chase means the police weren't at fault here at all, so it seemed a really strange situation to try and make the point with.
Coherence (2013)
Intriguing at first but then a bit meh
If you can get past the low budget feel and the slow start the film does get interesting towards the middle of it's runtime. It unfortunately then gets a little over complicated and the ending is a bit flat given all the possibilities. I actually already saw this a few years ago but it took me quite a long time to realize that, which doesn't say good things about this film's memorability.
Looper (2012)
Disappointing
This is a big budget sci-fi with A list actors and as such I was looking forward to this and really wanted to like it. Unfortunately there is just not much to like. There isn't really any palpable sense of suspense/excitement and when the story is fully revealed you realize there are a lot of plot holes. In fact if you stop for a minute to think about what is actually going on, none of it makes sense.
The King's Man (2021)
Fascinatingly bad
There is a obviously a lot of money and a lot of talent behind this (technical and acting) but whoever wrote this should never be allowed to hold a pen again. The plot is incredibly disjointed, silly (not in a fun way), somehow also boring and painfully stupid. The fist movie in this series showed some promise, the second was not good, this third film is terrible.
Kimi (2022)
Not terrible
So this was pretty dumb. After I watched it I couldn't help thinking this could easily have been a B movie from the 90s and given the director is who he is I'm not entirely sure he's not trolling the audience. It started incredibly slowly. I didn't buy Zoe Kravitz' portrayal of someone with agoraphobia (or even anxiety) at all. It devolved in the end into a series of stupid desicions from everyone involved and the only reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 2 is that she put an extra round into the bad guys' heads in the end instead of waiting for them to get up and attack her again after she thinks she's safe (like the heroine always does in every other movie).
The Adam Project (2022)
Mindless, inoffensive, mediocre
I'm not sure what the target demographic for the film is but If I was 12 or younger I would probably love this. As an adult though it feels pretty basic. The plot/science is barely sketched out and the whole thing just hangs itself on Ryan Reynolds' charisma which is fine but it doesn't feel like the film makers are even aiming for anything more ambitious than that. Also for such a big-budget flashy movie with spaceships and soldiers it managed to feel incredibly small which I did not like at all (goes back to things not being fleshed out sufficiently).
Escape Room: Tournament of Champions (2021)
This is a bad movie
I vaguely remembered the last one of these wasn't terrible so I thought this might be worth a shot. I almost turned it off after 20 mins but persevered through to the end and I wish I hadn't bothered. It follows directly from the previous movie (which isn't great if you didn't find it particularly memorable) and a lot of the movie concerns what is happening behind the escape rooms none of which is interesting. The escape rooms themselves are pretty boring and since non of the characters are properly fleshed out you won't care what happens to them anyway.
28 Weeks Later (2007)
Not as good as I remember
I watched this when it first came out and remember it being pretty decent so rewatching it 15 years later was disappointing (I'm not sure if my expectations used to be a lot lower or if movies have just gotten better in the meantime, probably a little of both).
I liked the setup. I liked the actors. I thought the handheld shots were overdone but generally I liked the tone. My main problem with the movie was that there is basically no decent use of any of the above. The first 40 mins of the film are a slow build up to the outbreak getting into the safe area and then there is a whole hour where the main characters are doing nothing but running to the chopper. There is no wider view, no twists and turns (bar the post credit scene which is too little too late) it's just one long, simple, boring chase sequence. There was also a lot in the film that was preposterous but I struggle to care about that given the movie had failed to draw me in anyway.
All the Old Knives (2022)
Slowburn, flashback filled decent spy whodunnit
The film is slow but interesting, pretty if a little shallow and generally a pretty enjoyable watch. My only real complaint is the ending was pretty far-fetched and didn't ring true for me.
Svart krabba (2022)
Kind of OK
The fact that nothing is explained in the movie (what the war is, who is fighting, what's at stake, what the larger situation is, why basically anything is happening) isn't a deal breaker but a little exposition would have gone a long way to making it more interesting.
The acting is good and so is the production but the main characters complete 180 towards the end of the movie didn't at all ring true to me and the only way it makes sense is if she is incredibly selfish (i.e. Only happy to follow orders kill the human race if her daughter is safe) which makes it really hard to care much what happens to her in the end.