Movie mini reviews

[Roman Totale]

I thought it was decent, but went on far too long. Really enjoyed Batfleck. Didn't like Lex Luthor though, too much in the unhinged maniac mould (they may end up having the same problem Marvel has with making decent villains for film).

Something felt missing from it, put I can't put my finger on what it is. Also there was a really annoying loud breather who I could hear from 10 rows away. Nothing to do with the film, but it bugged me.

[buzzmong]

I can't fathom the rather negative critical reception of it though. It's far better than Iron Man 3.

[spoodie]

Critics gonna be critics. The rotten tomatoes shows the audience liking it much more than the critics. However there are reports of fake accounts being used to boast the score on IMDb.

[Roman Totale]

Special Correspondents

Ricky Gervais' new film on Netflix. It's rather boring to be honest. Not a particularly original story, but I could have forgiven that if it had been funny. Think it got two laughs from me throughout the entire thing.


Captain America: Civil War

Well, of course I enjoyed it. Possibly not as much as I was expecting, but it was good none the less. Highlight of the film by far (despite his appearance only being quite brief) is Spider-man - oh how am I so looking forward to him getting the Marvel treatment from now on.

As has already been pointed out by several other reviewers, the story/concept is very similar to Batman vs Superman, but it's actually enjoyable. Similar to what I said about Special Correspondents, it isn't a particularly original story (allies turning against each other), but it still manages to be fun. Again I've mentioned this before, but the DC stable of films can't seem to get away from the "gritty and brooding" atmosphere that made the Nolan Batman films so good - but even those had their moments of levity. Still, I think Suicide Squad could be good.

[Joose]

I saw Civil War over the weekend. Whilst I really liked it, I did leave wondering if it were originally intended as two films and they decided there wasnt enough to one of the films so they folded them together. There were two almost completely distinct plot threads going on, waaaay too many characters to fit comfortably in one film, two really good big chase scenes, two really good big fight scenes... The whole film ran longer than I would have liked but at the same time a lot of it felt kinda rushed and I dont think there was a single scene that I would have removed.

On the villain question: Something occurred to me that is a massive difference between how villains are handled in the comics compared to the films. In the comics bad guys are beaten and then either locked up or they flee with their plans in tatters. In the films so far the bad guys have almost invariably not lived to the credits. This means that every film needs a new bad guy, so every time the audience needs to be convinced that the bad guy is a credible threat, which means they are left with very little time to explore the bad guy beyond "this guy here, he's dead bad he is." When the comics want a bad guy they just pick one and the reader can go "oh shit, its Dr Doom!" or whatever. It means the writer has time to build up the villain over time, which means the reader can care more. It also means the writers can do more interesting things with the characters: You know that if Dr Doom shows up to give the heroes *help* then the situation has got more than normally real.

Also, if Marvel keep killing the villains then we are never going to get a Thunderbolts film (basically Marvels version of the Suicide Squad). I want this.

[Dog Pants]

Finally got round to watching Natural Born Killers. Possibly the most 90s film I've ever seen, in a good way. Glad I didn't watch it when it came out or I might have been even more of a dick as a teenager.

[Dog Pants]

Another out-of-the-blue Netflix pick, Hell and Back. I scrolled past it loads of times because it was one of those rubber-model animations and I'm not really a fan, but it also kept coming up in the crude adult comedy class, so eventually I gave it a go. And it wasn't bad actually, I thought. Felt like a similar level of crude and silly as Beavis and Butthead, although nothing like it plot-wise. Noteworthy, and exemplary of it as a whole, is a musical number about being forcibly bummed by a tree (who later turns out to be voiced by the same guy as Archer).

[Mr. Johnson]

I tried it a few months back, but never got further than 20 minutes in. It was crass in a not very funny way and the stop animation was very badly done. Maybe I should've watched it all the way through but this falls into the Seth Rogen category for me. (I can't stand Seth Rogen.)

[Dog Pants]

Yeah, maybe. More Pineapple Express than 22 Jump Street, but perhaps only because I sort of liked the former and didn't like the latter. The start isn't its strongest moment - the devil is the best character by far - but you might not have liked it anyway.

[Dog Pants]

Escape From LA

So bad it went past bad, round to good, then kept on going to mediocre. Watch drunk for nostalgia.

[Mr. Johnson]

As I am a huge Escape from New York fan I try to forget it even exists, but that surf scene is burned in my memory forever. The revamped themes were cool though, and so was Bruce Campbell's proto-splicer.

[Dog Pants]

Oh *that* was Bruce Campbell. I saw his name in the credits and then forgot about him. I liked that scene, even if the point was painfully obvious. I did like the interaction with Pam Grier's character, where Snake points out she used to be a dude (which was kind of obvious anyway) and insists on calling her Carjack for the rest of the movie, much to the annoyance of her and her gang of psychotic Vietnamese thugs. Doesn't even come close to making up for that surfing scene though. And the basketball one, to a lesser extent.

[Roman Totale]

The Hateful Eight

Really liked it. Despite being a Tarantino film (and hence high profile), I only knew the bare basics of the story when I sat down to watch so I think the unexpected added to my enjoyment. It's almost like a murder mystery film, with intrigue, deceit and suspicion prominent throughout. Two criticisms though:

1) It's too damn long! I feel like this is becoming a more and more common complaint from me. If I'd seen this in the cinema I think my appreciation of the film wouldn't have been so high. Much better to watch at home where you can pause it.

2) The unnecessary stupid flourishes that Tarantino often puts in his film. In this case it's the insertion of a narrator halfway through the film (and guess what, it's another pointless Quentin cameo!). It's really jarring and adds nothing to the film - in fact it makes me think he lacked the creativity to get that particular plot element in without having to have someone spell (read?) it out.


Drive

Good film. Well directed, well acted, and nicely understated for the most part. I liked that Ryan Gosling's character was a bit of a throwback to the laconic anti-heroes of old.

[Dog Pants]

Drive was a funny film. The main character reminds me of Leon, in that he's an utterly cold psychopath who latches onto some humanity. It made for an interesting film which came across as a little sterile to me.

[buzzmong]

Independence Day : Resurgence

I have nothing good to say about this as a film. It's just bad. Not the good kind of bad either.

CGI is acceptable. Dialogue is just terrible, the budget clearly had run out when it came to paying for decent writers. Plot has one or two potential bits that could have been really interesting if explored, but instead they were ignored or hand waved, and those bits were then swamped with a deluge of rubbish that made up the rest of it.

Oddly, it could have done with being 30 mins longer to actually explain some stuff and give meaning to *any* scene in the film.

It's not even good as a "switch brain off: lasers, aliens and explosions, fuck yeah!" film. They even managed to make that side of things boring.

Brent Spiner did put in an pretty good performance as Dr Okun though.

Don't bother watching it.

[Mr. Johnson]

Eddie the Eagle (2016)

A light hearted sports film about ski jumper Eddie the Eagle, a man I was previously unaware of but many of you probably heard of him. It presumably has the usual inaccuracies that biographical sports films have but it's hard not to be endeared by this charming feel good film. So if you like by-the-book 80's sports films than you'll also like this, it has a training montage, snooty European skiers and an 80's soundtrack. And lots of bad hair.

[buzzmong]

Ghostbusters (2016)

I rather enjoyed this, and the trailer does the film a disservice.

Compared to the originals, it's mearly an okay film. It's lacking in the cleverness in plot, plot progression and dialogue, and it's also lacking in some of the suspense and serious tones underpinning the originals, which means it does lack the gravitas. It's also doesn't really have much character progression at all.
If you go in and deliberately compare it to the originals and have the mindset it should be a modern take on them (aka, a reboot), you will be disappointed.

That all said, taken as its own film though and as a reimagining, it's actually a pretty enjoyable romp. Some of the points from above stand, plot is a bit thin, and there's a serious lack of explaination of some things, and it goes from scene to scene quickly, but it's actually really enjoyable and a different take on the main themes. What it misses from the originals, it tries and mostly succeeds in replacing with gags.
It does nick more than one plot point from the originals (especially the first 20 minutes), to the extent it's almost lacking ideas of its own. You could view it as a strong homage though. Definitely lots of nice little touches and nods. Aykroyd and Hudson have nice little cameos, Billy Murray has an actual character and actually had a role in the limited character progression of the main characters.

It does contain a lot of laughs. Geninuely laughing out loud on more than one occasion. There is slapstick in it, but only one major scene though, and interestingly that one scene which is set in an alley had some of my compatriots almost soiling themselves with laughter, while the rest of us were stone faced. I personally thought it was far too OTT.
Holtzman (Kate McKinnon) and the receptionist, Kevin (Chris Hemsworth), are standouts from the characters. They are the best by far and actually have really good dialogue, but the film does capture the team feeling between the four Ghostbusters, which is a strong plus point. They riff off each other and generally compliment each other.

It's not going to be a summer block buster, it's not going to stand the test of time and be a classic, but it is actually really fun to watch and one I think 5punkers will happily enjoy, providing you take it as its own thing.

7/10

[Dog Pants]

Yeah, I can live with that. Maybe one for Netflix, but it doesn't sound like it's going to defile my childhood.

[Roman Totale]

Saw a review on YouTube earlier (which I'll post in a bit) that said pretty much the exact same thing. He made a good point though that for most people watching the review they will have already made up their mind. The comment section is gloriously awful as you can imagine.

[Dog Pants]

Look Who's Back

Hitler reappears in 2015 and people think he's a comedian.

I really enjoyed this. The title is awful, the whole film is in German, and the message is obvious, but none of that detracted from it for me. It starts off as an odd couple comedy; Hitler is completely out of place in the modern world, and is there are some laugh-out-loud moments as he comes to terms with his situation. He's actually, and deliberately I suspect, quite a sympathetic character. As the film progresses it turns rather more political, which came as no surprise. I'm reasonably confident that it's all done in something of a Sacha Baron-Cohen style, with a written story and acting mixed in with reaction shots and interviews of real people. In today's political climate the dramatically placed scenes of anti-immigration protests and burning EU flags are particularly poignant.