Movie mini reviews

[Dog Pants]

I heard that Bond was always supposed to be a thug. A suave thug, but a thug none the less. I've not seen a Bond film since Goldeneye, but Craig looks the part to me.

[HereComesPete]

I very much doubt that the 'thug' Bond would be what Fleming had in mind when he described him as dull and uninteresting and I don't think blunt instrument is right either, cold ruthless and calculating with his fluidity of action/reaction based on a rather insouciant outlook captured in the sneer of a lip or a cold eyed stare. Believe it was Craig himself who said Bond was a hero but not a role model. I think he does an excellent job of portraying a flawed character, a weapon but complex with it.

[Dog Pants]

Kajaki, AKA Kilo 2 Bravo. Dramatisation of a true event, of a bunch of paras interacting with a minefield. Fucking hell, harrowing. Funny at times too, but it left me feeling pretty shocked, even though I've had training for those scenarios myself*. The guy who recommended it to me told me he had to turn it off at one point.



*Briefly, and I was shit at it.

[Dr. kitteny berk]

Sounds...

Fuck knows, downloading that shit.

[Roman Totale]

Spectre - everything I said earlier about what I liked about the new Bond films? Completely missing from this outing. Character development has disappeared, back to Bond by numbers. As an action film I suppose it isn't bad, but that's really all it is. Christoph Waltz underused, but not even one of is best performances. Who knows, maybe I'll like it in retrospect as I did with Casino Royale.

The Last Witch Hunter - average. Undoubtedly planning a franchise. Just made me want to read the Dresden Files again (and they really should make a proper go of turning that into a film or series - the previous attempt was very disappointing).

[Roman Totale]

Whiplash

Fantastic film, real breath of fresh air. I don't like jazz, and I'm clueless about drumming, but I was hooked throughout. JK Simmons phenomenal as ever.

[Dr. kitteny berk]

Kajaki, AKA Kilo 2 Bravo. Dramatisation of a true event, of a bunch of paras interacting with a minefield. Fucking hell, harrowing. Funny at times too, but it left me feeling pretty shocked, even though I've had training for those scenarios myself*. The guy who recommended it to me told me he had to turn it off at one point.

Fucking hell, this was hard work. Really fucking good, but jesus.

oh yeah. and is on netflix.

[buzzmong]

Sicario

This is an FBI vs Mexican Drug Runners thriller/drama with a dash of action. It follows an FBI agent who is brought onto a joint Department of Justice operation and discovers not everything is quite clear cut or being done by the books. The film spends quite a bit focusing on her and her dealing with it rather than the where's and the why's of it. It's also quite sudden and brutal in some places with the violence, which helps to actually vilify it.

General narrative through the film is actually questioning ethics, the reality of the world and just how far people should go down the rabbit hole in favour of the greater good.

It's not 93% as per Rotten Tomatoes, but the 8/10 on imdb isn't far off.

4/5

[Mr. Johnson]

Crimson Peak (2015)

An old-fashioned gothic horror film by Guillermo Del Toro, with all the classic trimmings that particular genre has to offer.

In a way this feels a lot like a throwback for Del Toro, since this one shares a lot with his earlier Spanish ghost film, El espinazo del diablo (including a literal visual effect). The scares are jump scares, and therefore not very scary, but I'm willing to completely disregard that because by Odin is this a beautiful film to watch. From the very creative ghosts to the impossible gothic architecture (I don't think Britain has many Gothic castles) and ditto costumes this looked far more like an early Tim Burton film than a Del Toro one, and I mean that in the best possible way. Star power is provided by Mia Wasikowska, Jessica Chastain and Tom Hiddleston, and even though Wasikowska and Chastain are by no means poor actresses they are a (little) bit overshadowed by an amazing Hiddleston.

The story isn't spectacular and has a fair few plot holes, but it's such a tremendous visual tour-de-horse I'll still give it two thumbs up.


Bone Tomahawk (2015)

Horror western about well, bone tomahawks. And some other stuff. It's a bit like The hills have eyes set in the old west.
I can at best describe this film as very minimal, it's got a minimal cast, minimal special effects, minimal soundtrack and it's set is the great outdoors. Some people might like it's slow pace but I found it a bit too slow for me, in the first hour or so barely anything happens and I often found my attention drifting elsewhere. However, by the last 45 minutes I was on the edge of my seat

Spoiler:

because there is particularly nasty scene which made me feel a bit sick, and I'm a fairly seasoned gorehound.

Also, I sometimes felt like the actors were a bit under used but the performances are pretty solid and there's nothing bad I can say about that.

Not the best thing I've seen this year, but it's still an interesting film and I would recommend it if only for Kurt Russel's amazing beard and hair combo which made me get the vapors.

[buzzmong]

What We Do in the Shadows

This is a film about a house of vampires, set in NZ. Jermaine Clement is behind it (half of Flight of the Conchords). It's brilliant, funny, witty and just all around excellent.


5/5

[Dr. kitteny berk]

I thought it was reasonably amusing, but the intentional cringeworthyness got fucking old.

Wifey hated it more than david cameron hates poor people.

[Dog Pants]

Last two films I've seen:

Super
Which looks like a doofus comedy about an average-Joe wannabe superhero, but actually turns pretty brutal towards the end. Worth a watch, even if it's a bit unsure what genre it wants to be.

and

R.I.P.D.
Action comedy about dead cops hunting ghosts. Feels a bit like Men In Black, with the old cowboy and rookie partnership. Has its funny moments but reminded me of Ghostbusters and comes off much worse in that comparison. I considered starting a 'bad in a good way' thread off the back of watching it.

Oddly enough, Kevin Bacon is the bad guy in both films. I then went on to start watching Red Dwarf again, and had more laughs in Ep 1 than in both those films combined

[HereComesPete]

Quite enjoyed Super. RIPD was pretty wank, could have been a hilarious action comedy classic, but isn't.

[Mr. Johnson]

I watched Ant-man the other day, compared to the other marvel films I thought it was pretty mediocre. Paul Rudd is a great actor and I like him but despite his best efforts he didn't really sell Ant-man to me and the villain was just plain shit.

I'm honestly starting to wonder if they're just phoning these marvel films in, because afterwards I realized that it's almost the exact same plot as The mask of Zorro.

[Dog Pants]

What We Do In The Shadows

Completely out of the blue, this one. Very funny Kiwi mockumentary about four vampire flatmates. They've taken a theme that vampires must be pretty socially maladjusted, and the mix of supernatural and utterly mundane is wonderful. Things like not being able to get into night clubs unless the bouncer invites them in, and the wonderful support-group-esque werewolves determined not to lose their tempers ("Calm down guys, we're were-wolves not swear-wolves").

[Mr. Johnson]

Incidentally I also gave that a go after Buzz recommended it a few posts ago. I'm not a huge fan of cringe humour* but sometimes it works. In this case it worked, I liked it enough to say "This is bullshit, vampires don't do dishes!" every time I do the washing up. Mrs. J still thinks that's funny. Also, the special effects are really good considering the low-budget look they went for. Kiwis seem to have an exceptional knack for special FX.


*It's quite possible that I don't like it because Ricky Gervais ruined it.

[FatherJack]

Zombeavers

Absolutely delivers exactly what you would expect, although with some nice twists in the final third.

Three stupid friends go to a cabin in the woods whereupon they are set upon by zombie beavers. Almost everything they use to defend themselves is made of of wood, so you can imagine just how well that goes.

We cannot turn against each other right now. That's exactly what the beavers would want.

[Dog Pants]

Incidentally I also gave that a go after Buzz recommended it a few posts ago. I'm not a huge fan of cringe humour* but sometimes it works. In this case it worked, I liked it enough to say "This is bullshit, vampires don't do dishes!" every time I do the washing up. Mrs. J still thinks that's funny. Also, the special effects are really good considering the low-budget look they went for. Kiwis seem to have an exceptional knack for special FX.


*It's quite possible that I don't like it because Ricky Gervais ruined it.

I completely missed Buzz's psot up there. Mind you, I've never seen Flight of the Conchords so the recommendation would have bounced off me. I did get an Office vibe from it; the uncomfortable glances at the camera and ridiculously mundane situations, but I also dislike cringe humour so I didn't make the comparison in my post. I wouldn't call it that though, more observational, like a less silly version of The Young Ones. With vampires.

[Roman Totale]

I watched Men In Black 3 because it's on Netflix. Wish I hadn't bothered. It's not even just outright shit, it's just a nothingness of a film. Rather liked Josh Brolin as a young Tommy Lee Jones, but it was a bit of a wasted opportunity to be honest. And at some point Will Smith has become to really grate on me. He's actually a good actor, but all to often he just seems to play Will Smith in full Fresh Prince mode.

[Dr. kitteny berk]

I seem to remember that movie passing a couple of hours successfully, but not a lot more (I actually had to check IMDB to be reminded of the plot)