Guardians Of The Galaxy Volume 2. Another damn solid piece of entertainment from Marvel. Man they know how to craft a movie. Funny, emotional, action packed, gorgeous to look at (cast and design wise). Could someone maybe let Warner brothers and DC know how to do it please?

Can't really fault it to be honest. 5/5.

Spies Like Us (1986)

Chevy Chase at his peak in this funny spy movie.

I saw this in the theater as a kid. Bought the DVD about a decade ago and finally watched it again in HD on the big screen. Long time since I laughed this much at a movie. Chase's comedy timing is just perfect. Besides, seeing it on a big moviescreen did bring back fond memories.

Sure it has flaws but it made me laugh so much I can only give this a great rating.

8.5/10

Couldn't have said it better myself ;)

also fantastic use of Fleetwood Mac

Oh yeah forgot to mention another great soundtrack.

First Blood (1982)

For some reason I prefer those classic 80's movies (must be my childhood) over today blockbusters like the Fast and Wreckless 12, or the Avenging Marvel Bunch 8 etc. There are excptions, obviously, but overall it seems like those old movies (even the bad ones) have more Heart in them than many of today's CGI and Superhero flicks.

I guess I'm getting old and grumpy :lol:

Anyway, First Blood:
7,5/10

Back to the future (1985)

Still as awesome as it ever was.
Until the 4K Blu Ray comes out the Blu Ray is the ultimate version. The 10-15 minutes at the end is the perfect work out for any new AV equipment. Like being there.

Whenever I watch it I still think Marty isn't going to make it back as Doc Brown is farting around with the cables on the clock tower.
The editing is sublime at the end. The thunder effects, short bursts of lightning and rousing music are all perfect.

Will always be my perfect #1 movie. Probably seen it about 50 times, if not more.
11/10

Green Mile (1999)

Frank Darabont's 2nd Stephen King adaptation, after the Shawshank Redemption.
Well this one is not as good as Shawshank (one of my fav movies of all time) but it is a great movie nonetheless.

8/10

Final Destination 2. Love it :) Damn near as good as the first one and some very inventive kills. Decent acting all round.

4/5

David Brent: Life on the Road (2016)

More painful than funny. More sentimental than funny.

5/10

Final Destination 3

Surprisingly good for a third part of a trilogy. A better follow up than Scream 3 for example. Not quite as good as the first two but a worthy effort nonetheless.

3/5

The Final Destination (Final Destination 4)

Oh dear. What a drop off in quality. Oddly enough had a much bigger budget which they spent on a lot of cheap cgi. I'd rather have less but better. The acting is dreadful. Full of characters you don't care about... but don't worry because they don't appear to care about each other much either. A decent enough race against time at the end aside, there's no tension, no drama, only cringe worthy humour. Not good.

2/5

I'll watch Part 5 but only for completeness sake!

Beauty ad the Beast (2017)

Well, my wife enjoyed it a lot. I didn't so much.
Not the best visual effects and not even the best acting performances. The movie never manages to enchant like the 1991 animation does.

4,5/10

Final Destination 5

Wow. A franchise low point. More money but it clearly wasn't spent on the script. Or acting classes. Decent bridge collapse although all the characters are so cliche that you don't care who lives or dies. And for the most part the rest of the deaths are lame with no element of surprise. The first two essentially amount to falling over badly ( actually that's not quite true but I won't say more for fear of spoilers).

The idea of killing someone else to extend your life is under used until the end but could have given new life to this franchise. The ending is quite good but it's a real slog to get there.

1.5/5

Guardians of the galaxy Vol2 (2017)

Best Marvel movie I've seen and pretty much the only time I've come out of a Marvel movie thinking "damn, I can't wait to see THAT again". The movie had something for everyone, so many likeable characters, wacky action, mental humour, drama and so much heart. Great seeing Stallone getting a decent part in a great sci fi movie for once. Perfect last 10-15 minutes. One of my favourite movie endings ever.
9/10

The Spy Who Loved Me

A tribute to the legend that is, and always shall be, Roger Moore. It amazed me to think that this film is 40 years old this year! And ok compared to modern films the action is smaller scale and obviously with 100% less cgi! But this is classic Bond at its absolute best. Gorgeous locations, beautiful women, decent action throughout but especially at the end (the command centre attack that Bond leads is brilliantly staged), and a smart script that gives Bond and XXX a much more real relationship than with any previous film apart from On Her Majesty Secret Service.

And of course our Rog on absolutely top form as Bond. He looks his best in this one, gets plenty of action (of the fighting and bedroom types), some cracking one liners, and also delivers the more serious parts and meatier dialogue perfectly.

Remember when Bond films used to be fun?

5/5

It also has my favourite Bond theme in 'Nobody Does It Better' as well. Although I always laugh when Jaws peels back the roof of the truck like a tin can before even trying the doors 🙈😂

Life (2017)

Sort of a mix between Alien and Gravity. The surprise ending was a bit predictable but overall a decent sci-fi Horror movie.

7,5/10

Alien Covenant (2017)

Not sure what Ridley Scott was thinking. But this wasn't really good and looks more like a sequel to Prometheus.

5/10

Bunch of dumb ass script writers killed Ripley off in 3 and really wrote themselves into a corner I always think.
Having said that James Cameron has done the same with Sigourney Weaver and she will still appear in the 1 million Avatar sequels. :|

Btw Alien 1 & Aliens (2) really proved I think Hollywood was never really that sexist and why we didn't need dumb ass female Ghostbusters. Why people perceived Ghostbusters about nerdy scientist guys wanting to go into business for themselves as the pinnacle of misogynist movies I will never understand. That was never an action movie. The girl licking her gun (gun??!) in the trailer for the female version really proves Paul Feig never understood or liked the original Ghostbusters. Alien & Aliens saw a woman take on pretty much the most dangerous and scariest thing ever encountered by humans pretty much.

Other than The Martian Ridley Scott seems similar to George Lucas, totally not getting why their original stuff was so good. It seems many movie critics understand these guys better than themselves, certainly their work. I like how they talk themselves out of. They really are kidding themselves on. Especially Lucas claiming he knows what audiences would like but stylistically he wanted to do another thing. Right. That's why he destroyed the myth of Jedi "training" which I'm pretty sure everyone took as something magical that anyone could learn as to be a physical academy on a planet along with the terrible midiclorians idea in the prequels??! Because of "Style". Right George, whatever. Obviously the restrictedness he had making the original Star Wars movies actually made the original movies good and certainly not "unfinished". Ridley Scott is probably having the same issue with Alien. The original was very cleverly done and looked so real and scary. Now he can get computers to do all his work and the magic is thus gone.

I think it is too late to save the Alien franchise with the amount of mess or at least "meh" movies that has been put out. Terminator is another franchise that seems dead, but rumours of a James Cameron produced spin off recently are going around. :? Imagine the anticipation if 3 was now on its way and we didn't have all those meh sequels after Judgement Day. Holy cow, that would have been THE part 3 to go and see after all these years.
Glad Star Wars was saved and Back to The Future was left as is.
Ghostbusters is totally ruined. Not sure what Bill Murray's problem was. He never wanted to do 3 but then he has no problem appearing in a terrible spin off version that destroys the mythology of the original stuff with his buddies. And the movie I really think pisses all over Harold Ramis' grave.

The eighties were awesome for movies it seems. So many good and fresh ideas that became franchises came from that time or just before it (Alien & A New Hope), even Superman and Rocky I would put into this category really. Now they are really struggling making those franchises work (except for Star Wars, Rocky I would argue and the Nolan Batman movies).

Will they mess up Indiana Jones 5 too?

</random late night movie thoughts>

Actually, in my opinion there are only 2 good Alien movies. The original and Alien3. I don't understand the hype for Aliens. Which is merely a rip-off of the first, but with really 1 dimensional characters and standard Hollywood stupidity. In a way Alien Covenant reminds me of Aliens as all characters seem incapable of doing what they were trained for.

Alien 4 was a mess not too mention again.

I hoped Scott would be able to give a new impulse to the ( his) Alien franchise. Unfortunately he walked the same path as the failing sequels. After Alien and Alien3 this one can fight it out with Cameron's overrated sequel for third place. (I slightly prefer Aliens over Covenant atm)

John Wick 2 (2017)

2nd time I watched this. One of the better movie sequels. No-nonsense action

8/10

John Wick

Not quite as much fun as taken but a very decent action film and Keanu is on superb form. 4/5

Cell.

Really pedestrian version of a pretty decent Stephen king book. John Cusack looks scarily like he is using Nic Cage's wig supplier at points and in other shots a bit like the little doll in Saw. Don't bother.

1.5/5

Well, they are completely different movies in a complete different genre. Where Taken is more of a thriller, John Wick is pure action ;)

Agree on Cell. The book was almost a movie screenplay, yet they managed to screw that up with bad casting and bad story changes (like that horrible ending)

Seven. Terrific stuff. Great turns from Brad Pitt and the always excellent Morgan Freeman. Cameo from Kevin Spacey is also hugely effective. This is a dark and grungy thriller from a time before movie studios decided that's what all films must be because of the Dark Knight. And it turns it into a virtue. Compelling stuff.

5/5

Odd Thomas.

Well it's odd actually. The book is terrific and has a long slow build of gradually ramping up tension building to a huge and devastating finale. The film seems to take the plot and pick up on the quirky nature of the setting and characters and does it's own quirky thing with them. Some might say it misses the point of the book. But I don't think it does. I think it just presents a fresh and quirky spin on it. Sometimes it's much more interesting than just seeing a literal page by page adaptation. Hello Dan Brown.

Overall though I think this is one of those rare films that could do with being much longer, and slower, and gradually ratchet up the tension to unbearable levels.

So it's fun and With fine turns from the cast, but I would like to see a proper horror version of it.

2.5/5

Mindhorn (2017)

Not half as funny as they claim it would be.
Very boring and very predictable (not just the plot, but also the comedy)

4,5/10

raiders of the lost ark... still brilliant

It is a superb film but my dad pointed out something I never thought of before the other day that I thought I'd share... Indiana Jones makes no real difference to proceedings whatsoever. If he didn't get involved the Nazis would probably not have found the ark and just gone away somewhere else. Or in the unlikely event that they did find it, they would have opened it and all died just the same 😃

Your Dad watches Big Bang Theory lol

Dammit lol I knew it seemed a bit suspicious...

but, if Indy hadn't found the ark, then it wouldn't have been eventually recovered by "the powers that be" and placed in secret storage. And as was explained early on, no one knows what powers the ark has, so whichever army were to hold the ark in their possession could be all powerful... and that's why Indy, getting the ark, was so important.. just not necessarily to the story :p

If Indy hadn't gone on the adventure to find the Ark with Marion Ravenwood they probably would never have teamed up for the Crystal Skull storyline and perhaps some of the swinging monkeys would have made off with the alien spaceship! :shock:

She could sing a bit, too

Wings Of The Dove with Helena Bonham Carter ;) xx

Nightbeasts (2010)

I love a good B-monstermovie (Tremors, Lake Placid, Deep Rising, to name a few) and I found this title on IMDB. Had a 7.8 rating. So I figured to check it out.

Starring Zack Gallifan (Billy from Gremlins) about a father and son on a hunting trip in the mountains. They stumble upon an ancient horror that have them fight for their lives.

Sounds good but the monsters look like they came from an old Doctor Who episode with Tom Baker (and so was the dialogue and acting). All in all it's one of the worst movies I've seen in a while.

2,5/10

Pirates Of the Caribbean Salazar's Revenge

I was in a really bad mood due to work when I saw this so that probably didn't help.

I think it was better than the last two but not as good as the first two. There was humour but I miss the almost cartoon style of the early films. Interestingly by the end of the film everything is moved back into place for any follow up to get back to business as usual.

I'm going to give it 3/5 for now but that might change once I see it at home on Blu Ray.

Silence of the lamb, I know its a old movie but I saw it fot the first time and I have to say that was amazing, one of the best movies I ever seen.

Wonder Woman.

Pretty awesome.
8/10

DC movies are getting better. Marvel movies (with the exception of Guardians) are getting worse.

Guardians of the Galaxy 2 (2017)

With all the recent Marvel crap that is released, this movie looks better than it actually is. Still very entertaining but not nearly as good as the first one.

7,5/10

Wonder Woman (2017)

I don't like it if they make a movie extra long by dragging things. That is what this movie did. Instead of the ridiculous 140 minutes this could well have been way under the 2 hour mark without losing anything meaningful. Apart from that it was decent enough but it never really made an impact on me.

6.5/10

Jurassic World

Dumb. Dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb. And dumb in a way that robs of it of a lot of the fun. Sometimes, really dumb films can be really fun. Con Air for example. Face/Off. Broken Arrow. The Rock. Expendables 2. This film is SO dumb that my disbelief gets suspended too often and starts to interrupt my enjoyment of the film.

The plot basically boils down to "the park is up and running, and a big dinosaur escapes". Now who doesn't want to see that? I love the original, enjoy the second one, and tolerate the third, and I have been hoping for 15+ years to see the park up and running and one of the big ones escaping.

But then so many dumb things happen that it is fumbled really badly. I want to avoid spoilers just in case, but at a high level this is all the dumb stuff that happens:

The park is up and running and reasonably successful without us ever seeing any of the effort, investment, or initial excitement or wow factor. Means we are not invested in the characters trying to keep it going. Also, as most of the characters are so dismissive of dinosaurs, so are the viewers. If they don't care why would we? E.g. the lead older boy and even Dr Henry Wu. Fudges the pitch basically right from the start. Make us wow. Make us care.

One way they try to make us care? The "script writing 101" plot device of making the boys parents be going through a divorce. Seems to make no difference at all to the boys. Or the parents. Right up until a point in the movie where they seem to realise - oh there should be a reason for all the whining and whinging. And then hey presto the younger one starts blubbing. Ugh. The kids in the original film were also irritating. But in a largely endearing kind of a way. Not so now.

The dinosaur that escapes is presented as way too clever.
- scratching the wall as a distraction - I see the idea but it should have been presented as "has been trying to escape every day at different times testing the walls" or something. Then when the dumb humans go look at the scratches, the dino seizes the opportunity. They do not plan out strategies.
- ripping out the enormous beeping tracking sensor as a trap. No. Ripping it out because it is enormous and beeps all the time and maybe has got infected and hurts, which coincidentally means the humans can't track it, fine. Using it as bait for the humans? Stop it.

Almost all the humans are presented as way too dumb.
- no decent containment systems at the paddock. I mean, the dinosaur escapes by running out of the door. That's it? That's the containment strategy after all the problems of the original park? Unbelievable.
- a reasonably well trained response team. But only 1. So when they fail, the entire containment strategy fails.
- no huge impenetrable wall / barrier / canyon between where they breed the dinosaurs and the park itself. Just not credible.
- the emergency strategy for the people in the park is to... all group up in one place, like a dino buffet! No. That's just, you know, dumb. There would be fast, well rehearsed, emergency evac procedures. There just would.
- the sphere things can just be driven anywhere with no "return to base" command that cannot be over-ridden? NO!

The raptor training bit is quite cool but then the way they pick sides? No.

Now, at a very base, popcorn thrill level, it is reasonable fun. But it could, and should, have been so much more.

Yes, of course all of the safety and human protocols have to fail, otherwise there is no film. But the dinosaurs shouldn't be the ones with all the plans. They should be able to wreak havoc despite the very best efforts of intelligent, diligent, well rehearsed people. Not because there aren't any.

Sorry, but it's a lazy, dumb script, that robs the movie of any sense of wonder or investment in the characters and therefore only delivers a fleetingly entertaining chase B/C movie.

It could have been so much more.

2.5/5

I thought a few scenes were pretty cartoonish, like the incident with the bank, and the guillotine scene.

Purely from a visual standpoint, I thought the effects were pretty cool, especially since I saw it in 3-D initially.

The Mummy (2017)

Tom Cruise is so out of place in this one... Bad screenplay and boring dialogue didn't help either.

4/10

Shame. From some articles I have seen they adapted the movie into a Tom Cruise vehicle rather than Tom changing his performance to suit the movie. A wasted opportunity for Tom to show some range and for the movie to do something new.

Pity because it looked quite promising.

I have to say I like the recent ish Mummy and Mummy Returns so I'll stick to them instead. Fun b movie nonsense films.

Spider-Man Homecoming; if you like Marvel or Joh Hughes films you're gonna love it

Can't wait to see it :)

John Wick 2

Loved it. Still mental and thinly plotted. But damn Keanu is cool. As is Lovejoy. The movie flew by and I was both sad that it ended and looking forward to seeing what happens next. Those are two pretty important boxes ticked right there.

4/5

Logan second viewing but at home this time.

Still very very nearly as good as I remember it being the first time around. Well written, great acting, and genuinely something bold and new for the franchise. Minor niggles that occurred this time? Well I love Richard E Grant but he seemed a bit out of place. Just a tiny whiff of ham in an otherwise very serious (but not humourless) film. Also, looking at it again it's a shame that the person who fights Logan and ends up besting him looked so similar. Yes I get why that was the case and they used it well emotionally. I just wonder if it would have been better with someone completely different. However, these are extremely minor niggles in an otherwise superb film.

4.5/5

Kong Skull Island

Much better than I expected actually. A slight twist on the familiar tale and setting it in 70s Vietnam War times gives it some interesting moments. I mean mainly I think it was because they wanted to sell tonnes of soundtrack albums like with Guardians Of The Galaxy. That won't happen. But it is quite a funky soundtrack and an interesting setting.

Most of the characters are fairly interchangeable so you don't invest that heavily in them. When they die it doesn't generally have much emotional impact. And I'm sorry but Tom Hiddleston sounds way too plummy and posh to fit in with the rest of the cast.

Having said all that it's a fun creature feature with some imaginative creatures and reasonable fun.

Am I desperate to see the follow up or rewatch this? Well no but it passed the time enjoyably enough.

3/5

Crocodile Dundee 1 and 2.

These movies have an easy charm about them and there is always a happy ending. The first one is basically just a "visit Australia" ad. The easy charisma Paul Hogan has just about carries the films. But not a lot really happens.

2.5/5

Once upon a time in Venice (2017)

Action/Comedy/Crime with Bruce Willis. Last Willis movie I saw were the RED movies (which I liked a lot). This one is not in the same league and quite boring at times.

5,5/10

Romancing The Stone and Jewel Of The Nile

Great fun adventure rom com films with a good sense of humour about them. Predictable but very entertaining and brought to life by excellent star turns from Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner. Jewel is actually a much better follow up than I thought. It's a surprise and a shame that they never did a follow up but I guess a lot of that is due to Kathleen's health problems.

Stone 3.5/5
Jewel 3/5

Spiderman Homecoming

I actually wasn't blown away by this one. Tom Holland is outstanding as Spiderman and Michael Keaton is on top form. It's also not the same old origin story which is good. There's a nice amount of humour throughout and the film shows the challenges of balancing high school and super heroism nicely.

But the plot seems a little unambitious... good motivation but really the villian's dastardly evil plan basically amounts to wanting to steal some junk. And the ending is yet again our hero fighting a guy in a metal suit.

Better than the last 2 Spiderman films but I still think the Sam Raimi / Toby Maguire films remain the best, especially Spiderman 2.

3/5

War Of The Roses

An odd film really which doesn't seem to know exactly what tone to go for or what the main characters want from their relationship at all times. But brilliant performances from all 3 leads really bring it home.

I liked it but didn't love it. So 2.5/5

Lego Batman Movie

Lots of chuckles, light on guffaws. Looks great and makes the most of the Lego connection. Wears its message of the importance of hate as love and family and over coming your fears etc etc well without being over bearing. Overall entertaining but not one I'm desperate to watch again.

3/5

The Great Wall (2017)

Although nothing to do with it, this suffers a bit from the Marvel/DC Universe disease. It's all cgi/sfx, thin storyline, but most of all it lacks the Heart and spirit.

6/10

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006)

This comedy is filled with great funny moments. Not a Will Ferrel fan, but this is one of his best. So much scenes that still make me laugh.

8/10

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.

*spolilers*

Awful. Should have spent the evening in the lobby or in a nearby restaurant instead.

The story felt like it was one of the bad ones from the Star Trek movies, like Insurrection or so.

Awful nasally lead male character who calls himself handsome and is supposed to be the Chris Pratt here but it totally fails. Cara Delavigne or whatever her name is was a bit better bit still unlikeable for most of the "film". Rihanna wasn't too bad but her main scene would have made for a more interesting music video for her than a worthwhile scene in a blockbuster where her character ultimately is totally irrelevant or totally forgotten by the end.

Riri is conveniently written out of the story in case there are other cheap ass sequels I guess and they can't afford her OR because I guess the real revealed character of her is so weird it is not "convenient" to have her around for long. Her purple form looks like Grimace from the McDonald's characters. Also her quick random death was such a bad way to write her out. Yuk.

The two human generals look exactly like each other so it is difficult to tell them apart. You also totally don't care about them or what they want and why.

You feel the movie constantly throws distractions your way after a somewhat interesting beginning. Frustrating story telling. It isn't until the last 20-30 minutes we actually understand what the fate of the pearl species is/was and the story finally wraps up. But its conclusion comes too late and is just not satisfying or interesting.

Just throwing visuals together inspired by Star Trek / Star Wars / Avatar / Fifth Element / Total Recall does not make a good movie automatically and this is exactly proof. Even worse than the Star Wars prequels in many places.

Weak ass story, totally no motivation of the characters, nor do you feel they are really ever in danger or that the events will really affect them, totally no point. They are also very inconsistent in places. Main character has no problem smacking the hell out of a general to only 2 minutes later say to the main girl "I can't possibly do that, I am a soldier and need to follow orders". What the eff?! You totally don't feel involved because of all this. Not a single chuckle from the audience during 2hrs and 15 minutes where the movie constantly tries to throw distracting gags. It is like a cheap Guardians of the Galaxy rip off (mention of a music playlist - totally falls flat) made by that US Asylum crap rip off movie company.

Waste of time.

On par with the worst movies I have seen in the cinema over the last 10 years: Godzilla / The Lego Movie / Ghost Rider 2 / Transformers 2 / John Carter (the latter probably best example of what this movie is exactly like).

4/10

Stupid projection problems at the beginning of the screening I was at didn't help. £18 a month isn't worth this crap from Cineworld. Guess I can't blame the staff too much. You pay them crap, you get crap. Weird the problems are always isolated to the same screen of the cinema I frequent most. Will avoid screen 3 there forever. Have never understood why movie theatres cannot make a more interesting experience for everyone whilst so much is at their disposal. Why no movie soundtracks before the trailers/ads over the audio system? Why in the hell would you aim spotlights onto the screen that are left on during the preshow so the front 10-15 rows cannot see crap. If I were an ad sponsor I would demand my money back and pull the ads from the cinema chain. Odeon and Cineworld both suck. Shame we hardly have independent theatres left in the UK that could give them a run for their money. Was going to go and see Terminator 2 in 3D on the 20 anniversary of Judgement Day later this month but instead I will put the Blu Ray on and watch it in my own movie room, turn the volume up, sit back and enjoy.

Star Wars Prequel Trilogy (1999-2005)

I actually forgot how incredible bad these movies are.

The first time I saw them I thought that Revenge of the Sith was actually okay-ish. But that has everything to do with how horrible Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones are. Because seeing it again, Sith is also a terrible film.

It's not just that the movies don't share any of the Star Wars Universe feeling, but the poor storyline, the dragging scenes and the bad script for all 3 movies overshadow the special effects that these movies are filled with.

Which is another problem. To start with, the sfx are already very outdated and look poor, but because the movies are basically just SFX, they lack the Heart and passion that is clearly visible in the original Trilogy and even the Force Awakens.

As I think of it, I can't think of anything good that concerns these movies. They are, and always shall be, a total waste.

2/10

So I figure you never saw Jurassic World in the cinema then :-P:twisted::lol:

As you might know I actually liked that one. Valerian was borderline unwatchable. Jurassic World had me interested but of course it's never as good as Spielberg's master original. If I had been on my own at Valerian I would have left the cinema as some people did. At all the bad movies I mentioned I did or I wanted to do that. Jurassic World was nowhere near that bad imo but sure there were cheesy moments I would have preferred to have seen done differently. Still thought it was better than Lost World & JP3.

Tonight's movie:
The Dark Knight

Masterclass movie making. DC Comics movies might not be as consistent as Marvel but when it's good it's the best imo alongside Superman from '78. Always stunning soundtracks too.
10/10

Agree on Superman. That's about it though :lol:

Silver Bullet (1985)

Typical cheesy 80's movie. Not the best Werewolf movie (I think that title belongs to American Werewolf in London) but something I can enjoy from time to time.

It's time they are going to do decent remakes on some of the Stephen King movies from the past.

7/10

Annabelle Creation (2017)

The Annabelle movies are a spin off from the Conjuring movies. but they just aren't in the same league as those films.

I wasn't impressed by the first Annabelle movie and this one, although perhaps slightly better than it's predecessor, was also very underwhelmong.

I guess a few scares for the regular crowd, but that's it.

6,5/10

Dunkirk.
Seb would like it. 😉

Demonic (2015)

Produced by James Wang (director of the Conjuring) and that was the reason we gave this a shot.

Very predictable, never scary horror/mystery

4/10

CHIPS (2017)

Nothing like the tv show. Mostly sexual orientated humor. I don't think I laughed once during the movie and the plot was non existing. I think they targeted 15yr old boys. Horrible!

2,5/10

Unacknowledged (2017)
Utter piece of tosh.
I don't believe in aliens (not the landing in the spaceship ones), nor do I think UFOs are alien space craft. However I am open to theories, always.
But this piece of crap nonsense really takes the biscuit. If you think those with opposite political views might be weird / uninformed or stupid or whatever this seriously is on a WHOLE OTHER LEVEL.
According to the film makers everything is a complete conspiracy and alleged random quotes that people mumbled on their death bed are supposedly solid evidence for the absolutely insane claims they make.
Only the narration from the chicken KFC drug leader Gus Fringe from Breaking Bad made this watchable but a damn shame he was wasting his time on this. Better Call Saul should have just been about Gus Fringe I think. Far more compelling than the weasel lawyer with his irritating brother. At least BCS isn't as bad as this moronic "documentary".
2/10

Prescription Thugs (2015)
Good, heart felt documentary critiquing the prescription drug problem in mostly the USA. It is a big problem and such a shame so many innocent people are getting caught up in this. Big pharma should be dealt a decisive blow. Big shame both presidential candidates didn't have this on either agenda (although Trump did mention the lobbying -
but will anything really be done?!!). The Clintons made the problem worse it seems. :-(
7/10

Split (2017)
Excellent movie! M. Night Shyamalan is back. Really enjoyed it. Great soundtrack that really comes to life towards the end of the film. Great start to my long weekend watching this for the first time.
8/10

Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

Tobe Hooper (RIP) made a quite disturbing movie. And even today this movie delivers.

A true classic
8/10

Gravity (2013)
Stunning audio visual feast in a home theatre.
Loved watching it more this time than when I saw it in the cinema.
Very well done movie. Far superior than the likes of Interstellar in my opinion.
9/10

Kong: Skull Island (2017)
Juvenile tosh. Almost beats Valareian to worst movie of the year.
Incredibly badly done. Zero character development. Zero background story you could care about in the slightest. Idiotic events. Terrible dialogue and a handful of bad actors.
Samuel L Jackson is becoming like Nicholas Cage and only showing up in bad movies these days.
I'm astonished at how bad this was. By far the worst movie I've watched at home in my home cinema setup.
Waste of a rental. Yuk.
3/10

Despicable Me 3 (2017)

They should have stopped after the first one (which was great fun)

Now it's just getting boring.

5/10

Dunkirk

Christopher Nolan is a superb film maker. His Dark Knight trilogy transformed super hero films and frankly blockbuster films as a whole. The Dark Knight is a tiny bit over rated and The Dark Knight Rises is a bit under rated but whatever. Inception is awesome. I love The Prestige. His early work is gripping and Interstellar is enthralling if baffling. His films always appear to be crafted by intelligent people at the top of their game and they don't assume the audience is all stupid as so many films do now. I also love that he has tried lots of different styles of film. I'm a big fan of James Bond and if, as rumoured, he directs the first film after Daniel Craig leaves I will be excited beyond measure.

So that's all his films reviewed apart from the one I've just seen.

Dunkirk is an extraordinary film. Minimal dialogue. No actual plot or specific heroes as such. Just... here's what it was like at Dunkirk. It was loud, terrifying, sometimes claustrophobic, lethal and bewildering. And through it all, there was bravery and solid determination to either get home or help others get home. It's pretty much as close to the real thing as I can imagine we will ever see. The cast are uniformly excellent and yes that includes Harry Styles. The sound effects are stunning. The film grips you from end to end.

Was it entertaining? No but then I'm not sure it was supposed to be. It was engrossing, powerful, moving, and at times unbearable.

And a triumph.

5/5

Not a movie. But great news. Colin Trevormore, the guy that made a total mess of Jurassic World, has been fired from Star Wars ep 9.

Jurassic World was an awful movie. No doubt. Bad screenplay and dialogue. But Colin made it horrible by his way of directing. It never got funny or scary because he had no feeling for it. The movie did good at the box office but it was clear that Disney gave him the job because of the financial succes, ignoring his incapability to make a movie interesting. I am happy this guy did another movie (the book of Henry) so there is no denying at how terrible this director is.

Disney fixed their mistake. Jurassic World was easily the worst blockbuster of it's year an one of the worst of this century. JJ Abrahams gave Star Wars back to the fans. How sad would it have been if Colin was allowed to destroy the entire trilogy.

Happy!

Doubt you can go by JW what Star Wars with Trevorrow could/would have been.

I hated Gareth Edwards' Godzilla. One of the worst monster movies I've ever seen and almost worst movie in the cinema I'd seen till then I'd say. Very Michael Bay-esque (in a bad way). Dumb, stupid, zero character development and very boring. Far worse than JP 3 surely. JW to me was much better than both these monster movies (Godzilla and JP3). To me JW was probably in line with JP2 but more fun and rounded.

However Edwards did an awesome job with Rogue One I thought, proving a director can surely make a movie you do like even if you hated his previous one.
Just sayin'....

I also think it is somewhat bad style to sign someone on for 2 years and then to drop them when production is about to start.

Abrahms should just be doing all 3 in my opinion. Way better than his Star Trek stuff.
TFA was his best movie so far and it was indeed what Star Wars needed.

Signing these directors on so early and tagging production on all so quickly in my opinion isn't necessary.
The franchise easily could have done with the classic 3 years between main movies approach to make it all breathe a bit more and prevent the exhaustion we are seeing with the super hero carry on.

During the mental 10 super hero battle in Civil War at the airport I really thought it was exceptionally childish and I cannot see how more super heroes in one movie can ever be good or worthwhile.

I also don't believe Trevorrow would have done a worse job than George Lucas did himself with the green screen walking & talking, green screen sitting and talking, fart jokes, a bad acting child screaming "it's working, it's working" approaches in the prequels. Think he is getting a lot of hate for no reason of his own. If people really have read his script then maybe I'm wrong, but I doubt it.

I hope Disney at least uses the Trevorrow departure as an excuse to postpone the release of IX till Christmas 2019. 1 1/2 yrs in between really is too soon in my opinion. 2 is bad enough.

BTW a crowd interview with Mark Hamill and his thoughts on TFA actually made me think a little bit different on TFA. He thought it would have been good if the light saber force pulling out of the snow would have revealed Luke Skywalker, who then fights with Kylo Ren. To me that would have actually have been more interesting. Obviously the ending would have had to be a bit different then (I'm thinking Skywalker defeats Kylo Ren but Kylo isn't dead - since this trilogy seems to be about his redemption possibly - Skywalker looks at Rey who is on the other side of the snow because of the starkiller base breaking apart and then looks he disappears with Rey simply saying "Luke" and trying to reach out. You could still then have the map and finding Skywalker's home carry on to some extent. But Hamill's idea was a good point and would have made more sense rather than Rey teaching herself the force so easily. In that regard TFA treats the force as a little bit lame I reckon. But at least not as bad as the prequels with the insane mediclorians stuff. Don't know what Lucas was smoking at that point! Turning the whole Jedi / the force into something physical was disappointing and the Jesus/Anakin born to a virgin mother thing was borderline insane.

It (2017). Loved it. Good changes but still remained so faithful to the book. The subtle reference to the book, the 1990 series, and the King universe were superb (for those It fans, keep an eye on Ben's T-Shirts). It took me back to how much I enjoyed Stand By Me. The young actors did a great job. Bill Skarsgård is a fantastic and terrifying Pennywise.

4.5/5.

There clearly is a differense between a bad script and a bad director. In all honesty Edwards' directing in Godzilla and RO are not that different. You just didn't like the fact that Godzilla was the kind of movie that it was.

Sure JW suffered from a bad script,poor dialogue and underpar acting. But Trevorrow clearly has a certain style in directing that made the movie even worse. Bad directing choises made it a mixture of failed suspense and poor timed humor.
The only real diferense between JW and any Syfy monster movie is the amount of money they spend on sfx and cgi. His directing took away any tense scenes and destroyed the comic factor. It made the movie even more predictable and by that also quite boring to watch. And it is his style. So for me he would have ruined ep 9, no matter how good or bad that storyline is going to be.

And again, Thank the Maker as JJ Abrahams is going to do it now.


btw I love your apreciation for JW. I will never understand it though. ;)

Edward ScissorHands

What a great film! Some Tim Burton films leave me absolutely cold. This one was a superb film, well acted, interestingly directed, and with a lovely story. Some plots elements you know exactly what is going to happen next. But just because the story is obvious doesn't mean it's wrong.

4/5

Blade Runner. The final version.

Dull as teeth. Can't understand what all the fuss is about. Good cat and mouse bit with Harrison Ford and Rutger Hauer aside, there is no drama, no tension, no sense of urgency, and absolutely nothing happens. The soundtrack makes it sound like a really bad episode of Doctor Who and the special effects are dreadful. People say "ah" but was Decker a replicant? I don't care. At all.

A grudging 2/5 as Harrison and Rutger are both good.

IT (2017)

As a major King fan I can only say that this movie disapointed me a lot. I don't really understand the hype as the movie wasn't really scary and Pennywise never made an impact.

Kids did a great job though.

6,5/10

IT (1990)

About 2/3 good. The kids are almost uniformly excellent. The adults are almost uniformly dreadful. The end is also dreadful. The big bad turns into a tiny ant and puts up no fight at all. They just kick it!

Plus points... The kids are genuinely good and the scared are pretty decent in the first half. The build up and investment in the characters is excellent and effective although sadly wasted by the adults later.

And of course Tim Curry. While not exactly terrifying he is effectively creepy and free wheeling bonkers. With a lesser performance it would have ruined the whole thing.

Really good in parts then but ruined by the adults and the ending. I can see why they remade it.

3/5

Been off work for the last month with back problems, so pretty much finished Netflix and Amazon Prime (at least watched deverything I think is worth watching anyway)

Honourable mentions to Hacksaw Ridge, Lincoln, Birdman (bizarre storyline but great acting), The Theory of Everything, The Accountant, Split and Gone Girl.

I'm not even going to mention the dross.

Jaws

A good film with great tension and great acting on the whole. Nice simple plot and real if slightly cliche characters.

3.5/5

Thor The Dark World

Average follow up to the nicely humorous original. I feel sorry for Stellan Skarsgard. He's much better than this. The villains motives are so basic that you don't really buy into their motivation or care if they are stopped. Anthony Hopkins, Chris Hemsworth, and Tom Hiddlestone are great, as is Natalie. Not sure about Christopher Ecclestone. He's clearly a very powerful actor. But I never feel like the actor disappears so that all you see is the character. If anything he's a bit too intense. Volume turned up to 11.

2.5/5

Spectre

Weirdly "empty" and unimpactful film. Was more entertained by it 3rd time round but really once Blofeld comes centre stage it grinds to a halt. It feels a little like Bond by numbers all the way through. For example car chases through Rome... which is weirdly deserted so only one joke car in the chase and no risk of collateral damage to buildings or people. A train fight, because they can't hope to replicate the brilliance of the casino royale train scene. But again the train suddenly clears and no one tries to intervene or stop the train. Bond's master plan to escape the villains lair is to... um walk out. And you know, shoot people. An enormous explosion follows but they don't really seem to notice. Or have any urgency to escape. And the end chase is yet another ending that doesn't really belong in a Bond film.

But the real killer for me is the most stupid family connection plot line in the history of cinema. Blofeld reduced from an evil secret mastermind, to a whiny vengeful school boy. Utterly idiotic.

And PLEASE can we have Bond on an actual mission for her majesty next time and not yet ANOTHER official standing down. Enough already! It was shocking in Licence To Kill because it was the first time it happened in over 25 years. It's not shocking when it happens every bloody film.

Positives? Love the pre credits. Daniel Craig is excellent in the first half. Mr White is excellent. The main girl is pretty decent. The thing with the mouse and earlier the sofa is funny.

Overall not that great.

2/5

Wonder Woman

Good stuff. An understandable and plausible plot. Time spent developing characters. Effects used where required to tell the story rather than in place of a story. And best of all, superb acting from all the lead characters. Chris Pine is always terrific anyway and here he is matched brilliantly by Gal Gadot. Great chemistry. It's also nice to watch a movie from a sprawling empire that seems relatively self contained.

4/5

The Dark Tower (2017)

Ugh. That was kind of terrible...

3.5/10

Going in Style (2017)

Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine and Alan Arkin, made this a joyful movie to watch. A feel good movie about 3 guys in their 70's who decide to rob a bank after their pension gets cancelled.

7/10

Gerald's Game (2017)

Stephen King is hot at the cinema. Two major theater movies, but it is this Netflix movie that steals the price.
Where the Dark Tower was just terrible and IT never scary, this movie (almost) captures the tense tale of the book.
I must say that I love the book. And I always wondered how they would be able to bring it to the screen. Well this is how and it is pretty decent.

Loved the book, enjoyed the movie.

7/10

Flash Gordon

Hmm. I know it's intentionally naff. I'm not sure that makes it actually funny. The best parts are the actors who take it extremely seriously, i.e. Max Van Sydow, Peter Wyngarde, and of course Timothy Dalton.

I think too many superhero films are too dark these days, and or mistake being humourless for being dark, not realising there's plenty of wit and humour in The Dark Knight trilogy without having blatant comedy.

I get that this is essentially a spoof or comedy homage. It just didn't do it for me.

1/5

The Mummy 2017

Actually somewhat better than I was expecting without ever being especially gripping. Seemed to be a fairly generic action movie that just happened to have a Mummy in it rather than being a Mummy movie with action, if that makes sense. I thought Tom Cruise was actually very good and the ending is refreshingly different to the usual happy ending. Overall though I prefer the fun and spirit of the 1999 version.

3/5

The Mist 2007

Utterly superb film. Small but pretty much perfectly formed. Well acted, tense, with a hero to root for, great cast and a stunning and heart breaking ending. One of the best King adaptations.

4.5/5

Cult of Chucky (2017)

That was... confusingly bad.

2,5/10

Amityville - The Awakening (2017)

Wife liked it. Good enough for me.

6/10

1922 (2017)

Another King tale. Okay-ish adaptation. Never scary though.

5,5/10

OK so my excuse for the following list of films is that we had my 6 year old nephew staying!

Moana... Not top class Disney, it's a little bit simple for that, and the tunes don't really stick with you. But interesting to see a legend from a different culture explored. Lush visuals and a very amusing chicken. Actually the chicken is a very good way to help illustrate the difference between this film and top class Disney. Timon and Pumba... Hilarious charismatic and essential to the plot. Hey hey the chicken... Stupid and falls over a lot. 3.5/5

Wreck It Ralph... Original and heartfelt, well acted and imaginative. 4/5.

Lego Ninjango. Modestly amusing, well acted but predictable. Doesn't stick in the memory long. 2.5/5

Transformers The Last Knight
Over complicated, over long, and over cooked. Bonus points for a hilarious Anthony Hopkins but not much else. There's no one to root for and no one you can relate to. I really like the first film, and liked the 3rd largely because Leonard Nimoy and the whole moon landing thing. Watching this I was bewildered, exhausted, and only fleetingly entertained. 2/5

So it is Halloween and we watched

Trick 'r Treat(2007)
5 short tales on Halloween night, that are somehow connected.

6/10

The Fun House Massacre (2016)
Real killers take over the roles of actors in a halloween haunted fun house...

6/10

Halloween (1978 )
It just gets better by the year... My favorite horror movie

9/10

Halloween II (1980)
A worthy sequel.

8/10

Blade Runner 2049

It continue the same issues as Blade Runner.

The movie was beautiful and all of the stages was well made. I was wondering was one of the place (the filmed) really exist or built up.

Some may think the film is boring and with slow tempo but in my opinion it worked well. Cinematography made the world look dreary.

4/5

Spiderman Homecoming



Watching it at home I figured out why it didn't quite grab me as much as I thought it would.

It feels like a training wheels mission.

Everyone in it is superb, and Tom Holland is an amazing find. Michael Keaton is great and I love the emotional connections and differing degrees of loyalty displayed. But overall the mission feels small so I give it 3.5/5. Hugely looking forward to the next appearance of this Spiderman whatever film it might be in.

Love Actually
Richard Curtis is a genius and I love all of his films. This and Notting Hill are the best though I also loved About Time. Anyway this is a feel good Christmas Rom Com at their absolute best. Cheesy and heartwarming with plenty of surprises on the way and superb performances throughout. 5/5


Hairspray the Musical
Love it. Twisted demented fun with brilliant tunes and top notch performances throughout. Also a good message delivered clearly without preaching. 5/5

Jeepers Creepers 3

For a second I thought Colin Trevorrow directed this movie. :shock:

Yes, it is that bad.

3/10

Ghost House (2017)

American couple in Thailand get tricked by some guys and the girl gets possessed by a ghost. No the boyfriend needs to trick another couple so the ghost will leave his girlfriend for another host.

We've seen it all before and it is never scary.

2/10