Baywatch (2017)

Okay action comedy. Maybe a bit long with a running time of over 2 hours.

6,5/10

Now You see Me 2 (2016)

Atrocious. Horrible movie making. Full of plot holes. Constant pay offs without build up (unlike The Last Jedi that had constant build ups without pay offs). The Four horsemen are all awful. Another Mary Sue nonsense woman thrown in the mix. A trick card throwing scene that goes on forever. After 3 - 4 pass overs I get it, I don't need to see 30. Bizarre this got through the editing room the way it was done. It would be like showing the Star Wars opening crawl at 10% of the speed. So boring. The movie would have been much better had it focused on the Mark Ruffalo character solely. At least he had some character arc, we know something about him. Maybe a James Bond type of character with magic tricks would have made for a more interesting movie. You don't give a crap about the four horsemen. WTF was the Woody Harrelson twin brother crap all about? Seriously who writes this crap and gets near $100 million to put this on screen?

Worst movie I've seen Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine in. If you compare this to the 3 excellent Dark Knight movies you wonder how they could ever sign up to this horrible pile of dung. Movie goes on for far too long too. There is not enough plot to justify that. Daniel Radcliffe is Michael Caine's son? Yeah if he was born with a step ladder maybe.

Pure tripe. Avoid.

3/10

Hologram for the king (2016)

Quite decent and intriguing and I had no idea where the story was going to go. Funny in places. Definitely had that Cloud Atlas vibe about it in places when we hear Tom Hanks read out his emails in the voice over.
A bit like Lost in Translation; alienation in another culture. But this film is not quite as good as that. Can feel a bit slow.
It is well made however and not too long. Nothing hugely dramatic happens but this seems to be quite a realistic story of an American IT professional temporarily working in Saudi Arabia with some fantasy liberties thrown in.

7/10

Netflix ratings are all over the place it seems. This gets 3 out of 5 along with James Cameron's excellent The Abyss (!!!) whilst Now you see me 2 tripe gets 5/5. Imbecilic system.

Saw Darkest Hour earlier in the week.

Won't spoil the ending, but Gary Oldman is incredible as Churchill. A great powerful film. Best I've seen this year

Salem's Lot (2004)

Forgot how bad this is compared to Hoopers version. Although a bit more true to the novel by Stephen King

4/10

Interstellar 4k

Once again visionary film making from Mr Nolan. Emotional, epic, largely plausible within its own extraordinary parameters, superbly acted, and slightly mind boggling. Made a lot more sense the 2nd time around!

Looks and sounds stunning in 4k with hdr.

5/5

The Maze Runner

Very decent post apocalyptic teen dystopia action horror drama thing. Well cast, smartly acted, intriguing premise, and an ending that leaves you wanting to know what happens next.

4/5

Murder on the Orient Express (2017)

I've seen so many versions and still prefer the 1974 one. But it's entertaining with some great visuals.

6,5/10

Actually 3.5 is a fairer score.

Saw The Post last week, another great film Tom Hanks rarely disappoints, although not completely sold on Meryl Streep's performance.

7/8

Hanks is good in almost anything.

Streep on the other hand I think is the most overrated actress ever. :roll:
Only liked her in "Death becomes her" because she got whacked over the head with a shovel by Goldie Hawn. :twisted:

The Maze Runner Scorch Trials

Interesting follow on from the first film. The cast is still excellent and it is surprisingly unflinching. A little less of an interesting setup this time around though and a little easier to predict.

3/5

The Possession of Michael King (2014)

Decent horror flick. Not your usual possession flick, not really scary but a nice POV tale.

6,5/10

The Cloverfield Paradox (2018)

Least interesting of the Cloverfield movies so far. It looked good, acting was okay, but the plot was just a bit dull and never really clever or catchy or whatever. Just another average scifi movie.

6/10

House On Haunted Hill 1959

So a group of really bad actors stay in a house overnight with Vincent Price. A series of not especially frightening or even mildly surprising events happen turning a young woman into a screaming wreck. Mercifully it is at least only 1 hr 15.

The saving grace is of course Vincent Price, who has more screen presence and skill than the rest of the cast combined and plays the character exactly right... you're never quite sure if he's innocent or lying.

The film really only deserves a 2 but gets a 3 purely on the strength of Mr Price.

3/5

Jaws 2

Well it was snowing and it was on Amazon Prime. Actually though, although it wasn't as good as the original, it was actually a decent attempt at a follow up with a largely plausible character based plot. The Chief is still watching out for the locals... the only one who is, it would seem... and starting to see sharks where there are none. This culminates in an incident at the beach where shots are fired and panic ensues, putting off the ever present and somewhat undefined investors the mayor is always showing around.

Anyhow it's not too big a spoiler to say while that time it wasn't a shark, one has been swimming around the bay nibbling people. Despite photographic evidence the town council fire the chief. Then a whale gets bitten by a shark. Then some kids get eaten. And off goes the ex chief to the rescue. His eventual method is somewhat ingenious actually and very ballsy.

Unfortunately to get there you have to put up with a lot of 70s hysterical screaming and the ludicrous sight of a shark attacking a helicopter. And winning.

So in many ways a very good follow up but with one or two elements that make it slightly hard work. Decent effort overall though.

I read the synopsis of the next 2 films. I won't be watching them.

3/5

Blade Runner 2049
Moves at a glacial pace just like the original but it was actually a very well done follow up and not just a quick cash in sequel. Continues the story nicely. Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford are both superb. Nice visuals. Some interesting questions about the nature of reality. But I think it could easily have been 40 mins shorter.

3.5/5

Kingsman Golden Circle

Entertaining enough sequel although to be honest the joke is wearing a little bit thin. Julianne Moore is excellent but very unusually Colin Firth seems to be phoning it in. The Statesmen are under used.

It's a bit like the difference between The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker. All the same elements but none of them work quite as well second time around.

3/5

The Greatest Showman

I like musicals. There. I said it. I love music that stretches a singer and that's packed full of drama and or emotion. And that's what good musicals provide. And to bee honest I'd been put off seeing this one largely due to the clips of soundtrack I'd heard.

Well I'm pleased to say I was largely wrong.

The film really zips by. In fact it's one of those rare films where you wish it went on a little bit longer so you could feel the impact of some of the events more fully.

It's an interesting story though with a few (admittedly very predictable) twists and turns.

Some pleasant modern messaging about diversity and equality which happily isn't too heavily rammed down your throat.

Some of the songs are actually very catchy and likable and the cast sing them well and with a whole heap of enthusiasm.

Criticisms? Well it's all a little bit safe and predictable. The songs are very good but don't wow.

The best part of the film by miles is Hugh Jackman. He lights up and owns the screen with old school movie star charisma and superb emotive acting which makes you root for him 100%.

Would have been 3/5 with a lesser star. Hugh (oh plus a little bit of Zac) bumps it up to 4.

Mission Impossible 1 to 5

What a franchise. With the possible exception of part 2 each one is better than the last. Tom Cruise is awesome. Shame Anthony Hopkins didn't stick around. Thandi Newton is hot.

Scores

MI1 4/5 the original gets things off to a cracking quality start. Remember when John Voight was in good things?

MI2 3/5 Dougray Scott is school play bad and the John Woo trademarks have dated badly but it's still fun at least. A bit too heavy on Tom Cruise teeth shots.

MI3 ace villain and frantic energy. Big step up in acting by the Cruise. 4/5


MI4 full of energy and amazing action. In places downright hilarious. Just about stays the right side of ludicrous. Just about. 4/

MI5 best of the lot so far. A quality film with cracking action, great twists, smart banter. A better Bond film than Spectre by far. 4.5/5

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

I guess you'd have to call this a murder mystery but it's an adult one with lots of surprising twists and turns. Cracking cast, which has great fun playing a smart and snappy script. Written and directed by the legend that is Shane Black, so it is of course set around Christmas! Doesn't quite engage emotionally but it is an entertaining way of passing 2 hours.

3.5/5

Murder On The Orient Express 2017

Here's a thing. I never liked the 1974 version of this. It is too 70s for my liking. And Albert Finney just shouts all the time.

But I loved the David Suchet version. He IS Poirot, just as Joan Hickson IS Miss Marple.

But I love a good detective story and was very excited by the cast. But I did wonder what would be new about it.

The sad truth is, very little. The prologue with the priests is excellent and combines an amusing introduction with a great demonstration of the genius of Poirot. There are even a couple of shades of Sherlock about his initial meeting with Daisy Ridley. And you end up thinking it's going to be a fun ride.

But then the tone changes significantly once the murder happens. You can tell that they've switched back to the book. But the biggest crime committed is that the astonishing cast is largely waste. Johnny Depp is excellent as is Michelle Pfeiffer. Josh Gad was surprisingly good too. But most of the rest of the cast are just interview number x of 10 as Poirot just goes and talks to them one by one.

Yes I know that's the book. But that's been done already. It's a shame that it wasn't a braver adaptation that shook things up a bit more.

Kenneth Brannagh plays Poirot's emotional journey and dilemma superbly but ends up reminding me a little of Geraldine McEwan's Miss Marple. Sharp, witty, capable of genuine emotion, but ultimately not quite what you think of as the character.

And the much talked about moustache? Well it is magnificent. But it's a little symptomatic of the film itself... oooh look at the shiny train. Oooh look at the amazing cast list. Oooh look at the superb moustache. Oooh look at Kenneth Brannagh. But don't look beyond that because there's not much else that's new.

I know that all sounds very critical. Don't get me wrong I did enjoy the film. It does what it sets out to do well. I just think it could have done so much more.

3/5

Thor Ragnarok

I think I still prefer the first Thor film but this is leagues better than the second one and is very funny. It's well played by all the cast and Jeff Goldblum is on maximum awesome.

Kudos for having some beautiful scenes that magically look like some of the classic paintings of Gods and valkyries.

Only thing is... the overall plot seems a bit... samey....

Thor 1 - Loki tries to take over Asgard
Thor 2 - Christopher Ecclestone tries to take over Earth
Thor 3 - Thor's sister tries to take over Asgard

Bold ending, some great acting, and lots of humour. Another solid 4/5 film.

Veronica (2017 )

It's a Spanish movie about the oldest of 4 children that gets possessed. We watched it because of the 100%rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Unfortunately it's never scary, clever or original. Another predictable possession movie that is mostly boring. (or we watched too many of these films already)

4/10

LOL They are Marvel movies. Do they have more than one plot? :twisted: