The Purge: Anarchy - 8/10 - Enjoyed this as much as the first one
A Million Ways to die in the West - 5/10 - A few funny moments but went on 20 minutes longer than it should
A double-bill of Boris Karloff eerie goodness. The former well-acknowledged, the latter more obscure. His IMDB page reveals many a lost gem. 8/10 & 7/10 respectively.
TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES - 7/10
fair few spoilers here so COWABUNGA ..... i mean beware
being a huge fan of the record breaking first movie i was intrigued to see how this would fare, given it's less than complimentary comments ..... and it was as bad as some were making it out to be!
sure it's jarring when you see them for the first time, hyper realistic human terrapin things they are ..... and even half way through i still wasn't completely sure myself ..... their personalities shine through! and they are unbelievably strong too!!!
and megan fox as april o'neil is pretty good at getting herself into trouble and being rescued (so what, the character's like that anyway :kitty: ) but let's face it ..... she does some jumps on a trampoline and that's a GOOD THING
best action sequence was definitely the escape from sack's house, and generally it's action is quite breathless!
as for shredders armour, it maybe went a teeny tiny bit overboard, but it had magnetically retractable GIANT FRIKKING BLADES :cool:
some questionable physics aside, and a script that could have done with some tightening ("time to take a BIGGER bite out of the big apple!") and the fact it went even further in april's connection with the turtles than the nickelodian CGI series, liked to have seen it's 3D too ..... and i will admit this .....
would like to see a sequel to this, not only for more turtle POWAH, but get ROCK STEADY and BE-BOP as two bumbling criminals, being chased by a vigilante CASEY JONES ..... and turn the eric sacks character into KRANG, as he has the perfect face for him to be digitally composited onto his amorphous blob body ;-)
THE GREEN HORNET - 7/10
how would a batman movie be like if batman was ten years old?
that's how this is, seth rogan manchilds it up as stupidhero green hornet, with superSUPER sidekick kato doing the heavy lifting, but it's end is exciting though ..... pity about the two hours to get there though and christoph waltz faxes in his performance ..... it really is a boring suit you know ;-)
NIGHTCRAWLER - 9/10
excellent stuff with a skin crawling jake gyllenhall inhabiting a sociopatch ambulance chaser ..... sometimes BEFORE the ambulance!
OK, technically it's not possible to have two last movies, but I'll put both up because I watched them back to back last night:
Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) 5/10. I'm completely puzzled by all the plaudits this film receives. The characters are played like gangsters rather than real estate agents and simply don't convince. David Mamet is credited with the screenplay (the film is based on his stage play) but a fair proportion of the dialogue appears to comprise the worst kind of improvisation, repetitive and often simply regurgitating what the other guy has just said. As for Al Pacino, he reprises the same cardboard cutout gangster/cop role we've seen a hundred times (ie, Rob Brydon's spot-on impersonation).
The Bad Sleep Well (1960) 9/10. Thankfully my second film was much better, and without doubt one of Kurosawa's finest. Richly developed characters and a great story. If you have the time I would recommend watching it back to back with his equally impressive High And Low.
Purge: Anarchy - boring
Memento - enjoyed
The Ususal Suspects - enjoyed most of it
Maze Runner - enjoyed more than I expected to
Before I go to sleep - was okay, expect more from a film with Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman
The other woman - enjoyable chick flic
Chef - enjoyable, lighthearted
Pretty sure I've watched some others too which I can't even remember so presumably weren't great.
WHIPLASH - 9half/10
absolute POWERHOUSE of a movie, uncompromising, unflinching and right on the button!
everyone is on point but jk simmons delivers a praying mantis, eating musicians out and spitting them out only to rebuild them, but miles teller is fantastic with all his pent up rage and THAT solo at the end and even though not a jazz fan i was getting into all the rhythms of the music
Leaving Las Vegas - Depressing tale about an unlikely friendship between a suicidal alcoholic and a prostitute. Nicolas Cage and Elisabeth Shue are really good and I loved the 16mm cinematography. I think the script could've been better though.
Lymelife(2008) Family break-up drama, quite a nice little film this, nothing that original but well made. Recomended as in you are not going to feel shortchanged after watching it. 6/10.
Comments
They Have Escaped (He ovat paenneet) (2014) 6/10
The Salvation - Cracking old school western with the fab Mads Mikkielsen 8/10
A Million Ways to die in the West - 5/10 - A few funny moments but went on 20 minutes longer than it should
7/10
A double-bill of Boris Karloff eerie goodness. The former well-acknowledged, the latter more obscure. His IMDB page reveals many a lost gem. 8/10 & 7/10 respectively.
Tom Hardy is scary as hell in this film.
fair few spoilers here so COWABUNGA ..... i mean beware
sure it's jarring when you see them for the first time, hyper realistic human terrapin things they are ..... and even half way through i still wasn't completely sure myself ..... their personalities shine through! and they are unbelievably strong too!!!
and megan fox as april o'neil is pretty good at getting herself into trouble and being rescued (so what, the character's like that anyway :kitty: ) but let's face it ..... she does some jumps on a trampoline and that's a GOOD THING
best action sequence was definitely the escape from sack's house, and generally it's action is quite breathless!
as for shredders armour, it maybe went a teeny tiny bit overboard, but it had magnetically retractable GIANT FRIKKING BLADES :cool:
some questionable physics aside, and a script that could have done with some tightening ("time to take a BIGGER bite out of the big apple!") and the fact it went even further in april's connection with the turtles than the nickelodian CGI series, liked to have seen it's 3D too ..... and i will admit this .....
would like to see a sequel to this, not only for more turtle POWAH, but get ROCK STEADY and BE-BOP as two bumbling criminals, being chased by a vigilante CASEY JONES ..... and turn the eric sacks character into KRANG, as he has the perfect face for him to be digitally composited onto his amorphous blob body ;-)
THE GREEN HORNET - 7/10
how would a batman movie be like if batman was ten years old?
that's how this is, seth rogan manchilds it up as stupidhero green hornet, with superSUPER sidekick kato doing the heavy lifting, but it's end is exciting though ..... pity about the two hours to get there though and christoph waltz faxes in his performance ..... it really is a boring suit you know ;-)
NIGHTCRAWLER - 9/10
excellent stuff with a skin crawling jake gyllenhall inhabiting a sociopatch ambulance chaser ..... sometimes BEFORE the ambulance!
Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) 5/10. I'm completely puzzled by all the plaudits this film receives. The characters are played like gangsters rather than real estate agents and simply don't convince. David Mamet is credited with the screenplay (the film is based on his stage play) but a fair proportion of the dialogue appears to comprise the worst kind of improvisation, repetitive and often simply regurgitating what the other guy has just said. As for Al Pacino, he reprises the same cardboard cutout gangster/cop role we've seen a hundred times (ie, Rob Brydon's spot-on impersonation).
The Bad Sleep Well (1960) 9/10. Thankfully my second film was much better, and without doubt one of Kurosawa's finest. Richly developed characters and a great story. If you have the time I would recommend watching it back to back with his equally impressive High And Low.
Purge: Anarchy - boring
Memento - enjoyed
The Ususal Suspects - enjoyed most of it
Maze Runner - enjoyed more than I expected to
Before I go to sleep - was okay, expect more from a film with Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman
The other woman - enjoyable chick flic
Chef - enjoyable, lighthearted
Pretty sure I've watched some others too which I can't even remember so presumably weren't great.
The Theory of Everything - Amazing performance by Eddie Redmayne. Fantastic film and not at all what I expected.
American Sniper - another excellent film
Into The Woods - hated it. Would have walked out of the cinema but I was with friends who were really enjoying it.
Enough Said - nice little love story.
The Best of Me - unimpressed. Typical Nicholas Sparks and not nearly as good as The Notebook or A Walk To Remember
absolute POWERHOUSE of a movie, uncompromising, unflinching and right on the button!
everyone is on point but jk simmons delivers a praying mantis, eating musicians out and spitting them out only to rebuild them, but miles teller is fantastic with all his pent up rage and THAT solo at the end
astonishing
and i don't say THAT very often
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this. Award hype is justified.
7/10
The Longest Summer (Hui nin yin fa dak bit doh) (1998) 8/10