The Little Death

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes

Josh Lawson has made a really fun movie, a series of interconnected vignettes about various couples dealing with different fettishes.  While it does feel a little like some strung together skits the cast are all great and the intercuts and links keep it moving and cohesive as a whole. There's some really hilarious stuff, some slightly more disturbing elements but also some real sweetness to balance it out. A fun little movie.

The Maze Runner

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

Oh man, It's getting hard to keep up with these dystopic young adult book series adaptations. At least here they don't bother with the love triangle, much more of a guys adventures flick, focused more on the mystery and the action. Great!

I do love mazes. I love the look of the film and Wes Ball's debut feature is quite the effort. His short film Ruin was really neat and shares a lot in terms of style. The action works well, the effects are pretty good, the kids are all fine, playing their various tropes and there's a lot of fun to be had.

Unfortunately it's another film that's gonna have to wait for sequels to start getting big picture answers. Which means we cross our fingers and hope the numbers are sufficient to warrant the telling of the next book. While there is a self contained story in the film it's nearly satisfying enough for the mystery hound in me.

But it has some really great creatures. Good and creepy. And surprise Patricia Clarkson, that's always the best. Just like in Shutter Island.

I had much fun with this film, especially the first two thirds. When it became clear the film was going to end with a bit of a cliffhanger it became harder to stay invested. Now it feels like i can't judge this film on it's own, I have to wait until I've seen how it pans out before I decide if I like it or not. So I'll say, what I've seen is promising.

Witching and Bitching

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

Álex de la Iglesia's latest is a real fun time. Fast paced and filled with crazy antics. The action sequences are funny, theres some good gore and some wonderfully mad characters, from both sides, to follow through the story. And yet, if I start to think about themes that run through the film it becomes a little disturbing. Someone must have gone through a really bad relationship and written this from a very dark place. 

Outwardly though it's a fun romp, perhaps not entirely cohesive at the end but still plenty to enjoy. 

Into The Storm

IMDB

First time viewed: Yes

Current Release: Yes

Watched With: Michael, Tyler, Gemma, Chloe, Erin, Dan

It's twister lite. Okay nothing was ever going to be better than Twister for me because that movie is just the best movie, but I will say that despite the horrifically ill conceived found footage premise, this film does actually follow a more traditional disaster film structure, like the classics form the 70's. We're given multiple view points for a variety of characters, the experts, the family unit, the hillbilly comedy relief, and we're given attempts at romance, father/son drama and general platitudes about humanities perseverance in the face of disaster. 

It is in no way effective, but it tried.

The found footage conceit really does not work. It would have been much more effective as a regular film done in documentary style, perhaps like District 9. They desperately try and justify all the camera angles but want to have their big score and impossible money shots as well. It really hurts your one attempt at suspense when all you can think about is how this footage is being recorded in that much water without a waterproof camera. Perhaps if they managed some investment in the characters we might not have that problem.

Which brings me to the characters supposedly filming the show. There's really not much there either besides a few recognisable faces to stand in front of the wind machines and give the tornados scale. 

The most important thing to take from the film and what makes it really unique is that fire tornado. They promise it in all the trailers and posters and yes, death by fire tornado is the best thing in the film. 

So it has the makings of a B-grade disaster movie, complete with the cheesy dialogue and stock characters, but just doesn't pull any of it off particularly well, and the modern style of digital filmmaking is more of a hindrance than a help. Don't make me wish for Roland Emmerich guys.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

IMDB

First time viewed: Yes

Current Release: Yes

Watched With: Tyler, Michael

Much like Transformers, I have no real attachment to the source material, although I did watch the old cartoons on occasion growing up. Rewatched the pilot episode beforehand to get in the mood. It's not so great. But it tells pretty much the same story as this film, although with much less action and in 20 minutes. 

Although Michael Bay's name is on all the advertising, it's Jonathan Liebesman's film. Either way neither of them seem to know how to make a plain ol' FUN movie, but it's the closest Liebesman's gotten since Darkness Falls. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles does not need to be a serious movie. And the script here really does try to keep things fun. I don't know why they insist on adding in guns when all the characters are supposedly ninjas but apart from that the film skews much younger than I was expecting. It's not shockingly gratuitous or violent and actually feels like a film you could take younger kids to enjoy.

The turtles have that many slight variations to their origin story that one more's not going to hurt. But there are some questionable details, like Splinter teaching himself karate from a manual rather than learning it by copying his human master. And just like the recent Spiderman series, hey feel the need to reign in the extended world by making April a part of the origin story. I hate that Hollywood today feels the need to have all the major players in place from the outset, characters can't just get caught up in a new world and taken along for the ride, they have to had something to do with its inception too.

Shredder is really overblown here. A bit of a dud villain with a really boring evil plan.

These a nitpicks though. The story and action are serviceable as are the cast. Casting William Fichtner does not work as a stealth bad guy. Will Arnett comes off as creepy trying to get into April's pants. Megan Fox does well enough with the broad strokes her character is painted with. That goes for all the turtles as well. You got a science/tech nerd, the comedy relief and the angry tank and leader who always but heads. The animated movie did a much better job with the characters but I don't think they have as much screen time in this one. Probably because of how much more expensive they are. The suits in the old live action movie hold up guys, just saying.

Now, perhaps I'm just numb to expensive blockbusters because we're over saturated with them but this film felt surprisingly smaller and contained. I think the ridiculous excess of Transformers 4 left me with expectations for how horrible and overblown this would be. But it's all pretty contained within 3 or 4 locations, has a relatively small main cast and only 3 action set pieces, the snow chase being the most fun. And a glorious running time of under 2 hours. 

Brian Tyler's score jumps from action blockbuster to cartoon and I didn't really care for it. But it's the most bubbly score I can recall from him.

There should be a drinking game for every time someone says "mutagen". It's a pretty shoddy macguffin.

Serviceable is the word I keep coming back to. It's way less offensive than Transformers, a much happier film too. The origin story is questionable, as are the villains, and we dent really get that much time to know the titular characters but all that could be improved with further instalments should there be any. On its own it's a pretty forgettable but inoffensive film. 

Shrooms

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Tyler, Kate

This was a fun little horror from a few years back. Group of teens tripping out on Shrooms in the woods and there's a psycho killer with them. ad one of the girls claims to see the future. There's some nice moments throughout but a few too many times relying on the it-was-all-a-dream scenario that makes the audience not really trust anything they are watching. Unreliable narrators don't always make for good horror investment. I do enjoy the ending though.

Cube

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Kate

Hey guys, remember Cube?

Man, it's been an age since I last saw this little gem. It was an obsession back when it first came out. Vincenzo Natali made a heck of a debut with this low budget sci-fi thriller. And it looks great on bluray too.

The film really holds up, it's just how I remember it. Some of the acting seems a little broad but the fx, the sound, the score and the gore, all great. It's once of those concepts that are written from the ground up to be cheap but still filled with really cool ideas. The best. So good to refresh this one. more like it please. (And no, the sequel and the prequel don't count.)

Predestination

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

The Spierig Brothers' latest is a neat little umm... thriller? Drama/sci-fi thing? Based on the short story "-All You Zombies-" by Robert A. Heinlein. I foolishly read the synopsis for the short before seeing the film, which was a major spoiler. But even so the big twist reveal at the very end doesn't work because they spell it out quite clearly half way through. 

But putting those troubles aside this was still a well put together number and Sarah Snook gets a hell of a role. 

I do love my time travel and within the space of a month have seen 2 new Australian time travel movies. Madness. This one's central thesis is about a paradox so obviously the time travel logic is going to be a little skewiff but really everything in the film works logically. Except for the whole added conceit of this Bomber and stopping tragedies from happening. That bit doesn't make any sense re. time travel logic. Ah well, it's still a great looking film with a really odd premise that I hadn't seen explored like this before. Good fun.

If I Stay

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes

Once again, seeing an average film in Gold Class, this time with the entire cinema to myself, really makes for a much more enjoyable experience but probably coloured my appreciation of the film. It's a weepy little coming of age story of a girl trapped in limbo, remembering her life and figuring out some big decisions.

R.J. Cutler is the latest documentarian to make the jump to narrative features and he's made a pretty good looking film. The young cast make the relationship believable enough to invest in. But the jumping back and forward became a little annoying and although they resolve the biggest question of the film everything else is left unresolved. It certainly makes a statement but after a whole film of getting us to invest in these decisions and not have any of them made by the end, it's a little frustrating. There's a sequel book though, so, who knows.

It's a little wishy-washy for my tastes but certainly a great deal better than some recent young romance films.

Felony

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes

Joel Edgerton's morality cop drama is a neat little story, perhaps over stays its welcome a little but the cast are engaging and hold your attention.

Magic in the Moonlight

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

Woody Allen's latest is a light and fluffy little piece, purportedly a comedy but there's not really any funny moments. It has an alright set up for a romance but the amazing actors are stranded delivering some of the most inept dialogue I've heard from a purportedly well renowned writer in a long time. In his fright to release a movie a year Allen seems to have rushed this one and filmed a first draft, where the ideas for scenes are laid out but what actually happens in them seems to be placeholder.

My guest succinctly described this as and "unapologetic seesaw between blatant exposition and blatant statement of theme." It's bewildering and flaccid and the cast can't save it, though you can see them trying, while they all holiday in France on the films budget. 

The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes

That title's a mouthful.

This is a fun watch, kind of a Forrest Gump-esque story of an old man going on one last adventure and remembering his life. The present day story is great fun, the memories are pretty great too however within the film they have little to no relevance so it's questionable as to why they are in there at all. I think it could have benefited greatly from just being set in present day, even if it means losing the whimsical history lesson.

Deepsea Challenge 3D

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

James Cameron's raising the bar. As much as there is some cool stuff in this doco about the expedition and some nice footage (amazing data wrangling, amiright?) I have to admit the one thing that really stood out to me (besides Cameron's impressive ego) was the 3d converted footage from The Abyss. Now all I want more than anything in the world is for that film to get a 3d directors cut theatrical re-release. Oh man, someone make this happen. The Abyss. The Best.

The Lego Movie

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Craig

Write Up.

Fun times!

Cabin in the Woods

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Craig

Non-Spoiler write up here.

Slightly more in-depth write up here.

Always fun to show to someone who knows nothing about the film.