Category Archives: Movie Reviews

Movie Review – Paddington 2

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TL;DR – I don’t think I can say it as good as the first one, but what I can say is that it is full of joy, laughter and feels, and I would recommend it for everyone

Score – 5 out of 5 stars

P.S. – There is a mid-credit scene

Paddington 2. Image Credit: Studio Canal.

Review –

Ah, Paddington, I do love this film series, I saw the first film when I was a chaperone for a group of teenagers going to see it at the local drive-in theatre. I had no idea what to expect, but the first film was filled with such joy and was genially one of the funniest films I have ever seen. I found it so funny that at one point one of the teenage girls I was with yelled out “IT’S NOT THAT FUNNY BRIAN” … but it was, oh it was. So I was delighted to hear that there was a new movie coming out, but could it live up to the first film, well no, but that doesn’t mean it was not a delightful ton of fun.

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Movie Review – The Disaster Artist

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TL;DR – The Disaster Artist is … Well, it is certainly … Well um … what did I just watch?

Score – I have no right idea out of 5 stars

P.S. – There is a very odd post-credit scene

The Disaster Artist. Image Credit: A24.

Review –

Ok let’s get this out of the way right from the start, I have never watched The Room the film by Tommy Wiseau on which The Disaster Artist based on. Have I heard about it? Yes of course, whenever there is a discussion of worst films or scenes or actors or scripts or well you name it The Room is there. So while I have not watched it, I am familiar with it, but I have never felt the need to watch it all the way through. Look I know it has become a bit of a cult classic, but unlike films that have become cult classics like the Rocky Horror Picture Show or Tron, it always felt that people were more than a little mean-spirited watching something just to make fun of how bad it is. But here we are 20 odd years later and so let’s take a dive into the production of what is considered the worst film ever made by some.

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Movie Review – Olaf’s Frozen Adventure 

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TL;DR – Honestly this is stock standard children’s entertainment, it is shallow, with no stakes, has no character progression, and tries to distract you with as many songs as possible, I expected better.

Score – 2 out of 5 stars

Olaf's Frozen Adventure. Image Credit: Disney.

Review –

Ok, I might be one of the few dozens of people left on this planet that has not seen Frozen, but from my understanding, it is a more or less a charming story about the bonds of sisterhood overcoming all opposition. So when I was in watching Coco (see review) and it opened instead with a Frozen short I was like ‘sure whatever’ you know sometimes these can be really good like Lou (see review) that was on before Cars 3 earlier this year … unfortunately, this was not one of the good ones.

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Movie Review – Coco

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TL;DR – Beautifully acted, stunningly realised, with a story that will wreck you in the feels, I cannot recommend Coco enough.

Score – 5 out of 5 stars

P.S. – There is no end credit scene but you can pretend there is one if you need to compose yourself before you leave the cinemas

Coco. Image Credit: Pixar/Disney.

Review –

Oh wow, I was expecting Coco to be good, it is Pixar after all, but what I was not expecting is to have a deeply emotional experience. So today we are going to break down the many factors that contributed to the success of the film from the acting, to the visuals, the music and of course the story. Coco is one of those films where every facet of the film supports and builds upon the next and create a whole that is amazing to watch.

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Movie Review – The Killing of a Sacred Deer

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TL;DR – No matter how well it is filmed or acted, I can’t recommend it on the story alone which is a deeply disturbing slog with no real redeemable features.

Score – 1.5 out of 5 stars

The Killing of a Sacrificial Deer. Image Credit: 20th Century Fox.

Review –

Oh boy, is this is a tough film to review, and I am going to be honest right from the start that I’ll be quite negative towards the film because of its subject material. Now you might agree with this or not, but for me personally, I found this film to be deeply disturbing and frankly I completely understand why people walked out of my showing. Just a warning that there will be major spoilers in this review.

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Movie Review – Justice League

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TL;DR – Is it as good as Wonder Woman, no not by a long shot, but it is also not the steaming mess like the last two films, so there has been some improvement here.

Score – 2.5 out of 5 stars

P.S. – There is a mid and end credit scene.

Justice League. Image Credit: Warner Bros.

Review –

Ok before we start I need to say that this is actually a very hard film to review because while it shouldn’t matter, you can’t avoid not looking into the issues this film had in pre-production. Firstly, you have the disastrous reaction to both Batman v Superman (see review) and Suicide Squad (see review) hitting after production had already started, and you can see the course correction that they tried to make here. But also during production Zach Snyder’s family suffered a great tragedy and he stepped aside which meant that the reshoots and final edit was completed by Joss Whedon. So it is hard to work out where to direct criticism, but also you don’t want to heap stuff on someone who has suffered greatly. So will all this groundwork I will try my best to be objective here but you can’t help but bring outside stuff into this.

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Movie Review – Detroit

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TL;DR – Brutal, heartbreaking, and unfortunately as relevant today as it was in the 1960s

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Detroit. Image Credit: Annapurna Pictures.

Review –

Oh wow, I had no idea what to expect going into Detroit, only that it was taking a snapshot of the past event in the city. This was good in some respects because I came into the film with no preconceptions, but also I came into the film with zero preparation for what was about to come. I walked out of Detroit being completely emotionally drained, and I don’t mean that as a criticism, where so many other films like mother! (see review) have mishandled the use of tension, Detroit had me on the edge of my seat waiting for the moment when everything falls apart.

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Movie Review – Thor: Ragnarok

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TL;DR – A visual extravaganza, Taika Waititi with the cast and crew gave their all to this film, and it amazing to watch.

Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars

P.S. – There is a Mid and End Credit Scene

Thor: Ragnarok. Image Credit: Marvel/Disney

Review –

Wow, what an amazing end to a film trilogy, and one of the strongest so far for Marvel. I’ve always had a kind of indecisive feeling towards the Thor films so far. They have been a case of fantastic casting matched with just ok storylines. Now when you have Anthony Hopkins going gangbusters, then even a bad script will look good, but overall I just thought the Thor films were ok and nothing more. To be fair, I think it was a testament to the quality of Marvel’s films that while Thor might have been my least favourite Marvel films it was because they were only ok, not fantastic. However, I was honestly wondering with everyone doing their big Cinematic Universes now if superhero fatigue would set in given my relationship with the films so far, but nope this film was a riot from start to end and I highly recommend it. So today we will set the scene, and then have a look at all the factors that went into making the film work. However because of the nature of Thor Ragnarok and its story, we are going to hit spoilers much earlier than we would normally do, so to be on the safe side I am implementing a [SPOILER] warning from this point onwards.

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Movie Review – Happy Death Day

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TL;DR – A surprising solid film, even if it is just Groundhog Day with murder

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Happy Death Day. Image Credit: Blumhouse/Universal.

Review –

What if at the end of the night you were murdered, but the next day you woke up at the start of the day again, destined to live your life out, day after day after day, each night murdered by the same masked killer. Now, of course, you might be going, ‘isn’t that just Groundhog Day with murder’ and you would be correct, Happy Death Day joins a long list of films/TV Shows using the same narrative device. Now is it as good as Groundhog Day, no, it’s not even the best redo of this narrative device, that would go to the Stargate SG1 episode Window of Opportunity. However, it is still a good film, mostly because you can see some real effort has gone into the production, that plus the entertaining cast and some unexpected emotional themes make Happy Death Day a really good film.

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Movie Review – Chasing the Dragon (Zhuī Lóng, 追龍)

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TL;DR – Donnie Yen and Andy Lau are both amazing actors, and I just wish they had been given a better movie to show their talents in.

Score – 2.5 out of 5 stars

P.S. – There is a mid-credit scene

Chasing the Dragon. Image Credit; Mega-Vision Project.

Review –

I knew nothing about Chasing the Dragon before going to see it other than it was set in 1960s Hong Kong. This was a really interesting time for Hong Kong, and so I thought it would be a great setting for a film. However, to be honest right from the start I did not enjoy Chasing the Dragon at all, I mean it is not that all films have to be enjoyable, but they should at least be captivating. Now I don’t like ragging on something that people have clearly put a lot of work into, but it is a film that has a lot of flaws, unfortunately. So today we’ll look at what went wrong, but also the highpoints as there are some throughout the film.

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