Hiccup23 Posted September 18, 2017 Share Posted September 18, 2017 at the Brandybrook review Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cookie Posted September 18, 2017 Author Share Posted September 18, 2017 (edited) 50 minutes ago, Hiccup23 said: at the Brandybrook review If you were setting out to make the worst possible movie you could make you succeeded for my money. I legit stopped reading halfway through because I was about to pull my hair out and skimmed to the end just to see how the lesbian subplot wrapped up. And if any of you think that's cheating IDGAF. Edited September 18, 2017 by cookie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hiccup23 Posted September 18, 2017 Share Posted September 18, 2017 1 minute ago, cookie said: If you were setting out to make the worst possible movie you could make you succeeded for my money. I legit stopped halfway through because I was about to pull my hair out and skimmed to the end just to so see how the lesbian subplot wrapped up. And if any of you think that's cheating IDGAF. Oh the movie is made to be shit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cookie Posted September 18, 2017 Author Share Posted September 18, 2017 (edited) Airframe As a person who's watched a lot of documentaries surrounding aircraft incidents I say this is a pretty well made thriller. Foster shines in the lead role and the movie smartly focuses on her investigation without dragging it down with needless subplots. That said I wish there was more of a mystery to the proceedings, maybe some early hints as to who the bad guys were would have made the conclusion more rewarding. But it's still pretty good. B+ The Great White The first half of the movie is such a Jaws ripoff it was almost embarrassing watching it (though I still prefer it to the horrors of Brandybrook). The second half is a little bit less of a ripoff - though not by much - but ends with Dwayne Johnson fighting a shark so there's that. D+ Me and My Shadow coming later tonight. Edited September 19, 2017 by cookie 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cookie Posted September 18, 2017 Author Share Posted September 18, 2017 (edited) Me and My Shadow This was a cute little adventure. The stylistic blend of 2D and 3D animation really works in the film's favor to give a distinguished look between the human and the shadow world, and the characters while some of them a bit stock each get their funny quirks and lovable personalities. Honestly I kinda wanted to see more of Shadow Central since we never really find out what Sam's shadow does when he's not around Sam. Most of the scenes show him walking around evading the bad guys but I assume he has to be doing something off-screen if he's forced to leave his host every night. I also feel the ending is a bit rushed, but those are relatively minor complaints overall. A- Go Go GoBots I understand that the GoBots and the Transformers both basically derive from the same source, but I couldn't help but thinking of the latter while watching this. Much like Transformers the GoBots eventually get to Earth, but unlike Transformers this doesn't happen until the last third of the movie. No really, there's no point in sending the GoBots to Earth if they're going to arrive that late. Might as well have stayed in space if you weren't going to commit to that premise. Seeing some highly respected actors voice ridiculous cartoon robots is pretty amusing, but the characters are two-dimensional at the very best. If you have a kid with you he's going to have a blast seeing all the robots fight one another, but any adult will struggle to keep their interest. C+ Lucky Apparently you can convince a leprechaun army to turn back around with no effort at all. Wahlberg doesn't even offer them anything, he just says "turn back around, please" and the leprechaun army goes "okay". I guess the leprechauns either got bored invading or weren't truly committed to their cause. Why is Tom Hardy in this nonsense? D+ The Yellow Wallpaper The feature-length adaptation of the short story includes some neat visuals and great performances, as you'd expect from Darren Aronofsky, but since it doesn't do much to expand the narrative from the original source it comes off as a bit slow, even with its short running time. Still, there's more than enough psychological thrills to keep any audience member engaged. B+ Agents A very predictable spy comedy that really doesn't do anything to elevate itself above the norm. It's not even doing that much in the realm of physical comedy which means that for kids there's little to latch on to and for adults there's even less. It's harmless but I can't say anyone should rush out and go see it. C Edited September 20, 2017 by cookie 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cookie Posted September 19, 2017 Author Share Posted September 19, 2017 (edited) Apocamance The first half of this movie proceeds well with a semi-cute romance and the characters making the best of the situation they're in but as soon as Anna Kendrick shows up, hoo boy. The second half is weirdly misogynist and altogether baffling in how it manages to spiral out of control in such a spectacular fashion. JGL and Kendrick become super unlikable super fast and Slate goes cuckoo for cocoa puffs so you can't even sympathize with her by the end. What a trainwreck of a movie. C- The Curse of Monkey Island I don't think Tom Holland works as Guybrush Threepwood, much like I don't think he's going to work as Nathan Drake. He's clearly trying but he just ends up looking like a kid cosplaying as Guybrush. It just doesn't seem right. Miscasting aside, this is a pretty fun adventure, even if it doesn't make the best of Edgar Wright's abilities. The supporting cast is great, and much of the humor from the original game is present so that's nice. Giving Wright a large sandbox and budget to play with also gives the film a strong visual fleur. Put aside the miscast lead and you'll have a fun mid-summer adventure. B+ The Beckinsville Files I give it credit that unlike many other found footage horror movies you see a lot more of the monsters and it's not just idiot teenagers running around screaming in the woods all the time. The cast in this also try to do the smart thing right away by calling the cops at the first sign of trouble even if by then it's already too late. The monster roars and shrieks are also a fairly creepy effect. That said it's fairly predictable. Not enough to kill the film, but a less predictable outcome would have elevated things. B- Mile High I thought going by the title that this was going to be a stoner comedy, but whatever. It's a fairly predictable romantic comedy until suddenly TERRORISTS!!! No seriously, the last act goes completely bonkers and I don't see how the creators thought this would be funny in the current environment. And how the hell are Ryan and Molly drifting apart when they work on the same plane?! D+ Spark: Rising drops tonight @spaghetti!. Edited September 20, 2017 by cookie 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ezen Baklattan Posted September 19, 2017 Share Posted September 19, 2017 Oh shit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cookie Posted September 19, 2017 Author Share Posted September 19, 2017 10 minutes ago, spaghetti! said: Oh shit. FYI I haven't read it yet Since it's fairly long I need to set aside time for it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ezen Baklattan Posted September 19, 2017 Share Posted September 19, 2017 lol I don't blame you in the slightest. in continuing the Spark/Voltron connection, I'll review the latter tonight, along with the rest of May's releases. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cookie Posted September 19, 2017 Author Share Posted September 19, 2017 Evening got more busy than I thought, gonna have to delay Spark: Rising until tomorrow. @spaghetti! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ezen Baklattan Posted September 19, 2017 Share Posted September 19, 2017 Take your time, mate, it's a long ride. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ezen Baklattan Posted September 20, 2017 Share Posted September 20, 2017 Cookie's online now. Better get ready for that C+ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cookie Posted September 20, 2017 Author Share Posted September 20, 2017 8 minutes ago, spaghetti! said: Cookie's online now. Better get ready for that C+ I'm starting to read it now. If my review doesn't devolve into a rant I'll read a few other films as well. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ezen Baklattan Posted September 20, 2017 Share Posted September 20, 2017 Fingers crossed, lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cookie Posted September 20, 2017 Author Share Posted September 20, 2017 (edited) Spark: Rising Full disclosure before we begin: I never read the original Spark or its sequels in 2.0. I was going to read it for an animation retrospective but something happened where @spaghetti! lost the original script, thus I couldn't get to it. So there will not be any comparisons to the original, nor should there really be since this is technically a new continuity. I would just like to say there are a lot of Jupiter Ascending comparisons to be made in the film's first act. Girl with tragic backstory involving missing parents? Check. A chase involving the girl, one good alien and several bad aliens through Chicago? Check. Good alien has wolf-like qualities? Check. I sure hope no Eddie Redmayne-style performance shows up because then we'd be in big trouble. So the movie proceeds at a fairly brisk pace and- oh god, Matt Bomer is playing the leader of the Infinites and he veers dangerously close to being another Eddie Redmayne! THIS IS JUPITER ASCENDING! Quick, hide all your Terry Gilliams! ...Ahem. So the movie proceeds at a fairly brisk pace, setting up the alien worlds and the many characters Alex encounters as she learns to develop her powers. The relationship between her and Kozar is actually the strongest aspect of this first half and results in a very sweet love scene set to a cleverly chosen Crowded House song. Then comes the second half, and here's where the movie gets very frontloaded with complicated details and exposition, so much so that it honestly becomes a bit difficult to track it all. The BIG EPIC TWIST I kinda saw coming but I could see audiences be surprised by it, but the ginormous exposition dump that follows right after may prove a little much for them. I honestly think if the plot was simplified a little bit without so many pieces moving around it'd be much more palatable, plus the two characters I enjoyed the most (Kozar and Aera) get fairly limited screentime between the mid-point twist and the final battle. That said, it's still a pretty dang good sci-fi adventure, filled with creative settings, likable characters, very well-staged action sequences and more than enough gorgeous visuals to make it more than enough bang for your buck to see this on the big screen. Just remember to bring a notepad if you want to keep track of everything that's going on. B+ Edited September 20, 2017 by cookie 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ezen Baklattan Posted September 20, 2017 Share Posted September 20, 2017 That's actually great!!! Thanks! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cookie Posted September 20, 2017 Author Share Posted September 20, 2017 20 minutes ago, spaghetti! said: That's actually great!!! Thanks! I'm not really sure why you thought I'd dislike it. It's the kind of movie I'd gush over in real life (minus the overcomplicated second half as stated). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ezen Baklattan Posted September 20, 2017 Share Posted September 20, 2017 2 hours ago, cookie said: I'm not really sure why you thought I'd dislike it. It's the kind of movie I'd gush over in real life (minus the overcomplicated second half as stated). Probably my paranoia plus your Seeing Her review lol But in all seriously, if the film does well enough to have a sequel, it'll be FAR less complicated and exposition based. I think here I tried too hard to avoid leaving unanswered questions and tried to explain every detail. I figured the animated sequences might help a little, but even then it was a lot, haha. You could maybe argue that I wanted the audience to feel as overwhelmed and confused as Alex felt, but that's definitely not intentional on my part. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ethan Hunt Posted September 20, 2017 Share Posted September 20, 2017 9 minutes ago, spaghetti! said: Probably my paranoia plus your Seeing Her review lol But in all seriously, if the film does well enough to have a sequel, it'll be FAR less complicated and exposition based. I think here I tried too hard to avoid leaving unanswered questions and tried to explain every detail. I figured the animated sequences might help a little, but even then it was a lot, haha. You could maybe argue that I wanted the audience to feel as overwhelmed and confused as Alex felt, but that's definitely not intentional on my part. If? playing modest I see. (honestly after finishing it I immediately started wondering if a sequel could possibly hold up so I look forward to that when it happens) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cookie Posted September 20, 2017 Author Share Posted September 20, 2017 (edited) Dangerous Beauty I'm honestly completely lost as to what happened in this movie. Was Cassy a werewolf? Why is she suddenly killing everyone? What did Emma being a new student have to do with anything? Where's Jake T. Austin? He never shows up in the movie as far as I could tell. Oh and the gay kid dies first because of course he does. D- Hive Havoc Pretty empty of a film when you get down to it. Only thing that saves it is some decent animation and slapstick. C The Screaming Planet "A global disaster movie without all the political or soap opera bullshit." Uh... what? This movie is disaster overkill. Literally every other second a catastrophe takes place and the audience never gets the time to take a breath or get to know any of the characters. Even the shittiest disaster movies at least give each character something, even if they're stereotypes. And not-asian Emma Stone has the best luck in the world apparently. Some nice if unspectacular disaster effects save this from being a total dud, but you'll probably walk out with a headache afterwards. C-/D+ Phone I don't think a state senator is so easily going to get away with stalking and harassing a journalist after she's already exposed him, but whatever, we can bend reality a bit to get the plot going. The movie has a pretty decent setup with a few demented twists and turns before concluding in a pretty suspenseful third act, although the reveal of Jill being Isabelle's surrogate mother serves no purpose as a twist and in fact should have been something the movie was upfront about. Minor flubs like that aside it's a decent late-summer horror. B- Edited October 17, 2017 by cookie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
