Movie Review – The Night Before

TL;DR – This movie is trying to be a lot of things, but never really succeeds at any of them

Score – 2 out of 5 stars

The Night Before. Image Credit: Sony.

Review

So we have hit December and that means that Christmas movies are upon us, and the first cab off the rank this year is The Night Before, so how is it, well, meh. To try and explain this film, imagine taking the comedic sensibilities of a usual Seth Rogan production (see Bad Neighbours, This is the End & The Interview) and smash it together with the iconography and themes of traditional Christmas movie. This is an interesting concept, but in practice, we get a slapdash amalgamation of the two rather than an interesting hybrid.

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Movie Review – The Martian

TL;DR – A movie with tension, humour and humanity, go watch it

Score – 5 out of 5 stars

The Martian. Image Credit: 20th Century Fox.

Review

The Martian is a film about adversity and challenge in an environment that will kill you, which would make a very interesting film, now take that environment and put it on another planet and then leave your protagonist alone as everything crumbles around them.

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Movie Review – Inside Out

TL;DR – Pixar at its best

Score5 out of 5 stars

Inside/Out. Image Credit: Disney/Pixar.
Inside/Out. Image Credit: Disney/Pixar.

Review

In my younger years, Pixar was a company that could do no wrong, every film they put out was a masterpiece or at the very least amazing. Also, they were risk takers, dealing with issues such as mortality and death in children’s films. To this day the first 20 minutes of Up are some of the most heart-wrenching moments in cinema, but also a masterclass in how to tell a story with minimal dialogue. Then something went wrong, Brave, while interesting was more good than great, then Cars 2 streamed in, and Monsters University, and it looked like Pixar had burnt through all its good ideas.  Well if Inside Out proves anything, it proves that Pixar still has it.

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Movie Review – Ted 2

TL;DR – There are some interesting ideas here, but the sum of its parts don’t quite add up.

Score – 2 out of 5 stars

Ted 2. Image Credit: Universal Pictures.

Review

Well this is a difficult film to review because there truly are a couple of really remarkable things that the movie does which really stand out, and I would be lying if I said I didn’t laugh, but ultimately I just left feeling that it’s just a bit meh.

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Movie Review – Spy

TL;DR – It is a film that does not know if it wants to be a PG family action film, or an R raunchy exercise, and ends up being neither

Score – 2 out 5 Stars

Spy. Image Credit: 20th Century Fox.

Review

In the end, my feeling on this film are quite mixed, some aspects of it really worked and others just really didn’t. I would describe this movie as a collage, where the writer/director Paul Feig has taken ideas from a number of movies and melded it all together into this film, and not always successfully. To explain what I mean, I going to break down the different components of the film, and yes this is about to get spoilery (You have been warned).

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Movie Review – Pitch Perfect 2

TL;DR – A great sequel to a great film, really enjoyable to watch, even if Rebel Wilson is starting to wear a bit thin.

Score – 4 out of 5 Stars

Pitch Perfect 2. Image Credit: Universal.

Review

This is how you do a comedy sequel correctly, you take everything that worked from the first movie, you then drop/retool the things that didn’t and then you up the stakes.

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Movie Review – Paul Blart Mall Cop 2

TL;DR – A waste of time for all involved, especially the audience

Score – 1 out of 5 stars

Paul Blart Mall Cop 2. Image Credit: Sony.

Review

So I walked into the movies and saw this and thought “I think I remember the first film, and as I recall I think I liked it” and hey it is cheap movie day what is there to lose, well 90 minutes of your life for one.

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Movie Review – The Interview

TL;DR – Fascinating but not really shocking, classic Rogen/Franco film

Score – 3 out of 5 stars

The Interview. Image Credit: Sony.

Review

Ok where to begin, this is a very surreal film, and honestly would have been but a footnote in the careers of the two leads had the controversy with North Korea and Sony not occurred.

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