CBGB

IMDB

First time viewed: Yes

Current Release: Yes

I don't know much about punk rock, but I did recognise some of the names of the people here and it does seem like a pretty cool story. Alan Rickman is always reliable. And they got a pretty good cast together to play all these famous young bands. I guess if I know more about the subject or cared more about it this film would be really great. As it is, I found it interesting but not amazing.

The Monkey King

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes

Stephen Chow's Journey to the West came out here not long ago and already we have another version of the Monkey King saga, this time Donnie Yen directs and stars. It's a spectacular looking production, although some of the cg and most of the 3D is less than stellar. Much like Chow's Journey to the West, the story ends where the journey begins. Unlike Chow's Journey to the West, this version follows the story I remember. With a few embellishments too. Although, to be fair, I only really know the story from the 70's english translation of the Japanese television series.

The action in this film isn't as fun as Chow's though, instead resorting to a lot of flying around in cg sky. But there's some fun stuff.

All Is Lost

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes

Robert Redford is on the boat and then the boat has an accident and he tries to fix it but it sinks anyway and he's all like "oh no all is lost" and that's the movie.

3 Days to Kill

IMDB

First time viewed: Yes

Current Release: Yes

Luc Besson continues to pump these out. Action thriller comedy thingys. McG directed this one. Nice to see Kevin Costner with something to do. Hailee Steinfeld and Amber Heard are a little stranded in their roles but they both get a few moments. Things work best with there's action and spy stuff going down, the emotional family stuff tends to get a little clawing. It's quite a fun film overall though.

Grand Piano

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Tyler

Eugenio Mira made one of my favourite real time single location thrillers with criminally under-seen The Birthday a few years back (with Corey Feldman's best performance ever) and he's made another here, with an even more outlandish premise and a great cast too. And boy does he put ALL the direction into this movie. All of it. Brian DePalma eat your heart out. 

The limited setting is like a personal challenge and we are treated an onslaught of different camera angles and movements and cinematic tricks and techniques to keep the pace up and the storying moving forward. It's kind of dizzying. 

What lets the film down is something that might not be a problem to anyone who's never been to a concert before. But really, that's not how concerts work, that's not how pianists perform and that's not what a difficult piano recital piece would sound like. I'm sure people at NASA would watch Gravity and think very simmilar things, you have to have some suspension of disbelief to be able to tell your story, but there are some pretty big problems with this premise that they have to change things as much as they do to make it work and it does annoy the piano recitalist in me. 

And if you're going to make a story about the hardest piano piece to play, you'd better have the hardest piano piece to play or not let the audience hear it. 

However the movie is just fun enough for me to be able to overlook that. It's really flashy directing but it really suits something like this and definitely worth a look, even if it was just for that. 

Non-Stop

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Tyler

I love my close-quarter thrillers. But despite the cast, this one was pretty meh.  Liam Neeson is just an action hero now, apparently. Director Jaume Collet-Serra is supposedly working on the Akira live action adaptation. I hope to god that falls through again.

There's some suspense and actiony moments but if you think about the plot from more than a minute it all falls apart. But people that think about the plot for more than a minute are not the target audience of this film. It's dumb fun, passes the time and is entertaining enough but pretty forgettable.

Oldboy

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes

Soul crushing. Why would you do this? The Original is just stunning, it didn't need a remake. But Spike Lee tried and just took all the artistry and style out of it, tried to simplify the story but messed up the structure and pacing and added in some gore because he couldn't pull off the emotional punches. And apparently was to afraid of Sharlto Copley to tell him to tone it back. This was as infuriating as when M. Night Shyamalan thought he could turn The Last Airbender into a film. So upsetting. But at least we still have the original.

Le Week-End

IMDB

First time viewed: Yes

Current Release: Yes

Could well be the next entry in the Before Sunrise series... A funny little relationship study with Lindsay Duncan and Jim Broadbent both in fine form. Jeff Goldblum always a plus. Great character writing and some wonderful scenes. You really get a sense of the length of this relationship. I just wish there wasn't the cliched grand declaration in front of strangers at a party right at the end. But I still enjoyed the rest of it. 

Nebraska

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes

Alexander Payne made a black and white movie. It's quite funny and very bittersweet. Will Forte and Bob Odenkirk as brothers is a stroke of genius. It's a very simple and sweet little story and I found it mildly satisfying.

Knights Of Badassdom

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes

Oh man that was a little disappointing. After such a long wait and with such a fun concept and a cool cast too, 5 years on the shelf and then the film finally gets released by a studio who took the film away from the director and re-edited it. Now I can't say if they made the film worse or better, but I can say that it really does feel truncated and the end feels like it was a band-aid hastily made out of left over and repeated footage.

There's some really fun stuff here though, some great comedic and horror moments. Jimmi Simpson is especially hilarious. And there is some nice gore. Although the VFX leave something to be desired.

I did like the film, but I really hope I can one day see the directors cut. I feel like, even if it IS not as good, at least the editing would make more sense...

The Last Days On Mars

IMDB

First time viewed: Yes

Current Release: Yes

Watched With: Mum

Virus on Mars makes you go all zombie! They got some great actors in this which really just elevates everything. Plus the location work and the surprisingly well executed effects for a low budget film help sell the scenario. I guess we've seen this scenario before but the was well made enough that I really enjoyed it. 

Lone Survivor

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes

There's been a few films of late that have seemingly put spoilers directly into the title of the film. Well we kinda know that everyone in the film except for one guy is going to die. It's kinda a bummer, because are we supposed to get invested in these guys, knowing their fate? I get it's a true story. And I get Peter Berg like the army. But this one is pretty heavy handed with the patriotism. The action sequences are very well executed though.

Wolf Creek 2

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Tyler, Kate

So with the mystery explained and the introduction to our outback villain already completed in the first instalment, all that left to do in the sequel is more of the action. Once again there are a few twists and turns following various protagonists and their unfortunate run-ins with Mick Taylor but it's mostly just more of the same from the first film.

And because the mystery is gone, it's much less scary, however director Greg Mclean seems to have predicted this and has compensated by deciding to make things more fun. There are bigger action set pieces involving car chases and Mick has much more to say this time, which means more morbid Aussie humour.

There was a beautiful roadkill sequence that utilised some good fx. But their big truck explosion really showed their budget, I've seen go-pro footage used effectively in features before but there were some shots here that really had no place on the big screen, it looked like the resolution was less than standard definition, and then de-interlaced, resulting in a very pixelated image that really didn't fit in with the footage surrounding it. I can't believe they let those shots into the film.

Small gripes though, the blood flows and that's really all that matters right? Now as scary or suspenseful as the first film, but a bit more time spent with a fun character.

The Bell Witch Haunting

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes

Easily the worst found footage horror knock off I've ever seen.

Last Vegas

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes

Well the cast seem to kind of go through the motions, and just because of who they are the film is watchable but it's rather predictable. Mary Steenburgen still got it though.