30 April 2018

Brawl in Cell Block 99, 2017 - ★★★★

Considering how much I liked Bone Tomahawk I was expecting a bit more from this. Once it (literally) snaps into gear it becomes quite a different film and is all the better for it. It's grim and relentless and disgustingly enjoyable. It all seems very different from the opening third and I did wonder how much more I'd have appreciated a 90 minute running time just starting at the prison.

April 30, 2018 at 09:45PM

29 April 2018

Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie, 2017 - ★★★★

Juvenilely brilliant and a complete joy to watch.

April 29, 2018 at 03:56PM

A Quiet Place, 2018 - ★★★★

A simple and surprisingly original story executed brilliantly. I did wonder how well it would stand up to too much scrutiny but if you just go along with it it works really well. The script does something amazing in appearing to be incredibly simple but is used to nearly perfectly set up everything that follows. Brilliant ending as well.

April 29, 2018 at 03:51PM

Captain America: Civil War, 2016 - ★★★★

At times it feels like it's just a series of fights and chases, and there are perhaps too many, but it's completely worth it for the airport encounter which continues to impress.

I also noticed a fair amount of dodgy CGI which is worrying (but not surprising) for a two year old film. Many of the actions scenes had badly composited humanoid figures inserted and I was left wondering why.

April 29, 2018 at 03:47PM

23 April 2018

Thoroughbreds, 2017 - ★★★★

Wonderfully dark and really enjoyable even if the ending is lacking the punch to make it truly great.

April 23, 2018 at 08:57PM

22 April 2018

A War, 2015 - ★★★★

A film of two halves and each is equally compelling yet in completely different ways.

April 22, 2018 at 09:10PM

B.O.B.'s Big Break, 2009 - ★★½

Watched on Sunday April 22, 2018.

April 22, 2018 at 04:18PM

16 April 2018

BPM, 2017 - ★★★

It quickly became apparent that I wasn't in the right mood to watch this but the problem is I'm not sure if I ever will be. When watching a film I try and forget about the real world but at the moment there just seems to be so much wrong and so much to fight for that I couldn't really handle much more.

I knew it was a long film but it felt even longer. The pacing never felt right and the switch to a more personal story in the second half came too late but also seemed to take away some of the drive.

I wish I'd loved the rest of the film even a fraction of how much I loved the completely fantastic final scene.

April 16, 2018 at 09:30PM

Funny Cow, 2017 - ★★★

Great performances, enjoyable cameos and some interesting structural choices but the Funny Cow ends up being less than the sum of the parts.
It wasn't the film I was expecting and I was surprised how little focus there was on the stand up comedy - it's almost as if she could have been doing any job. I also can see why some people may be offended by some of the choices of material, I was left wondering why one joke was used for a breakthrough moment. I think the film is only trying to reflect the sexist/racist/homophobic attitudes of the times but it treads a fine line any may be too much for some.

April 16, 2018 at 09:15PM

Hamlet, 2018

Watched on Saturday April 14, 2018.

April 16, 2018 at 09:01PM

09 April 2018

X-Men: Apocalypse, 2016 - ★★½

James Mcavoy, Michael Fassbender and Oscar Isaac are three of the best actors working today and here they are at their very worst. If these guys can't make the lines work then it really must be some terrible writing. The editing (or lack of it) is much worse, dragging every scene out far longer than necessary contributing to an excessively long running time. There are some entertaining moments, Quicksilver arriving at the mansion feels refreshingly unique, but really isn't much here to get excited about.

April 09, 2018 at 10:01PM

06 April 2018

Ready Player One, 2018 - ★★★★

It's so much geeky fun that I managed to overlook the simple plot barely made any sense.

April 06, 2018 at 01:21PM

05 April 2018

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, 2016 - ★★★

Enjoyable enough but I'm not really sure if there was much point to any of it.

April 05, 2018 at 09:29PM

03 April 2018

The Lost World, 1925 - ★★★★

Really enjoyable and aged better than some more recent effects heavy films. This was a recently restored version offering to be the most complete but if anything it could do with a few cuts - I don't know how many times anybody needs to see a Brontosaurus in the mud.

Live improvised piano by Johnny Best.

April 03, 2018 at 05:08PM

Below Zero, 1930 - ★★★

Watched on Monday April 2, 2018.

April 03, 2018 at 04:47PM

02 April 2018

The Silent Child, 2017 - ★★★★

A worthy Oscar winner, left me wanting more.

April 02, 2018 at 10:34AM

Loving Vincent, 2017 - ★★★½

Am amazing achievement in animation which is beautiful to watch (especially on the big screen) but the story is fairly basic and it's often a distraction trying to place the actor's voices and faces.

April 02, 2018 at 10:27AM

Ghost Stories, 2017 - ★★★★

I'd heard very good things about the play on which this is based and so my expectations were fairly high. I assume on stage they made use of writer/director/star Andy Nyman's background in magic to deliver impressively clever scares in real time but on film the stories don't feel that special and just come across as 'movie magic' we've all seen before.

So the individual stores may not be that great but I was always intrigued by how they were all connected and how everything would come together. I spotted an early sleight of hand which meant I had some idea that nothing was quite as it seemed but this perhaps added more rather than detract anything. Now I keep remembering things (the car reflection, the movement in the attic, the photo) which make much more sense once you know what is going on so I suspect it will be a film that stands up to repeated viewing and discoveries.

April 02, 2018 at 10:15AM

The Book of Life, 2014 - ★★★

It's start of with worryingly cheap looking animation but fortunately that stays in the real world and the stories told take place in much more beautifully animated places. It's unfair to compare this to Coco but it's also hard not to and Pixar's newer film is so much better.

April 02, 2018 at 09:59AM

Split, 2016 - ★★★½

Engaging and effective even though it did lose me a bit with the (first) ending which just seemed a bit silly. It being an M. Night Shyamalan I should have expected it would go somewhere different but I was distracted by the other thing I already knew about and didn't turn up until the final coda.

April 02, 2018 at 09:48AM