Guardians of the Galaxy

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: Yes

Write Up.

Bluray Commentary time. Wow James Gunn comes off as really insecure, always talking about how all the actors and extras in the film are his best friends and assuring us that they are buddies off screen and he has a fun time with everyone. It's pretty funny. Apart from that not too much was gleamed from the commentary. But there's some okay extra features.

Final Destination 2

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

This sequel might be my favourite of the bunch. Although I'll need to rematch the other to be sure. But this one doesn't have to bother with much exposition and already starts to play with the pattern set up by the first film.

The opening sequence here is the stuff of legend. Easily the best set piece of the whole franchise and it's harrowing and expertly executed. It accomplishes so much leg work for the rest of the film and immediately puts the audience on edge, shattering the conventions of the previous film. And then just keeps on doing it.

There's some nice ideas that are introduced in this one. But really the most fun parts are of course the amazing deaths. This time around there's a wonderfully eclectic group of strangers that are in this journey together which makes for some slightly more interesting drama. Perhaps more importantly, the bloodshed in this one is glorious and gooby.

It's an absolutely fantastic sequel. Bring on the rest!

Exodus: Gods and Kings

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

Do you know the story of Moses? Have you ever seen The 10 Commandments? Or even Prince of Egypt? Well this is that but it cost more.

You really have to question why this was made. Love it or hate it, at least Noah tried to interpret the bible story in an interesting way, fleshing out characters and adding to the drama. And some really crazy visual ideas. Ridley Scott's bible epic has great visuals, as you'd expect. And shooting it natively in 3D is pretty stunning. But there is nothing really new or interesting about the telling here. It is the most straightforward and common version I can imagine being made today. When I left the cinema, all I could think of was, "yep, that was the Exodus story I remember."

They don't add anything to these characters. These great, although perhaps distractingly miscast, actors all do what they can but there's nothing really here for them to flesh out. The visual ideas they do interpret, like depicting the word of God, the Nile flowing red, the passover or the parting of the Red Sea, they were done in very simple ways. The rest of the story was done very literally.

As usual, technically it's a marvel. Great score, amazing cinematography, a lot of VFX. So many frogs. As I said before, the 3D is great. In the battle scenes the shots are held one or two beats of action more than we're used to seeing today so the 3D isn't jarring. Obviously it's been well thought out. I just wish they thought about a more exciting way to tell this story.

There's is one small line Moses says to Jesse from Breaking Bad after the Red Sea incident that can be read into a lot and was probably the only interesting idea the film brought up but as soon as it's uttered it's forgotten about and not really dealt with in any way.

If you don't know the story, or really love it, this is a great way to see it told on the big screen. But don't expect any interesting ideas or in depth characters here. This is the safest film they could have possibly made.

22 Jump Street

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

Write Up.

Silly, but such fun.

Repo Man

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

I'd been meaning to check out this cult classic for a long time. What an odd film.

The Mule

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

What fun. Angus Sampson's film is yet another Australian Crime thriller, but this one has a wonderful black comic streak in it and a great cast to boot. Based on a true story? Crazy.

They really manage to pull this one off. From the set up alone, you'd think it's a pretty straight forward film but there's enough twists and turns, great characters and some good writing to keep you engaged the whole time.

Definitely worth a look, if you have the stomach. (PUN!)

Big Bad Wolves

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes

A crime thriller/comedy? There's some good stuff, it's certainly well put together and has some very interesting moments, I'm just not sure it all comes together at the end.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: Yes

Write Up.

Listening to Directors commentary on the bluray. Some cool extra features, but the commentary just repeats info from them and tells us what's happening on screen. Well at least the film is great.

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

IMDB

First time viewed: Yes

Current Release: Yes

Watched With: Kate

A Disney kids film. I'm obviously not the target demographic here, but it's alright. Amiable and predictable and a few parts are admittedly pretty amusing. 

Men, Women & Children

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes

That teaser trailer looks pretty good. None of the character open their mouths though. The more annoying full trailer gives you more of an idea of what to expect (pretty much the whole film), a bunch of characters going through various ups and downs and occasionally texting someone about it. I thought the film would have more to say about social media but I really believe all these stories could have been told without needing that connection and it would have made little difference.

Unexpectedly the film opens orbiting Jupiter. There's some really cool space imagery done here. Emma Thompson reprises her role of the narrator from Stranger than Fiction. And then we get one of those multiple narrative dramas with a big ensemble cast and it's okay but nothing amazing or new. I guess I wanted more from Jason Reitman other than some nicely designed texting graphical displays.

Nightcrawler

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

Write Up.

Such fun.

Serena

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes

It didn't take long to figure out this was adapted from a book. And not very successfully. The opening courtship between the two leads is only a fraction slower than in that trailer for the film. And the scenes continue to unfold like that for the rest of the running time. Just scene after scene of "what happens next" racing to get through a bunch of plot points in under two hours with not enough attention paid to actually making them matter in any meaningful way. Instead of a sweeping epic romantic tragedy we get a brief and cold telling of the general gist of it.

I don't know if this is from the editing or in the adaptation of the screenplay, or perhaps it's the original book. But I found this film pretty boring, despite the great cast that was assembled, that do there best to make these scenes matter.

I joked that the trailer made the film look like a miniseries television event from the early 80's. Now I've seen it I think that would have been a far more preferable way of telling the story. There's just no time here. If you're going to make a film with under a two hour running time, best to cut extraneous characters and focus the story, boil it down to the central characters and make them work, rather than trying to cram everything in.

This one's problematic, didn't work for me.

Dressed to Kill

IMDB

First time viewed: Yes

Current Release: No

Watched With: Tyler

The latest fashion in murder. HAH.

Brushing up on some classic Brian De Palma. You know you're in good hands with such well though out shot choices building the tension. Very Hitchcock, but with nudity he could have only dreamed of. A slow and steady build and plenty of questionable political correctness issues by todays standards. Great fun.

Final Destination

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

I really like this one, such nostalgic memories. And an unexpected franchise creator. It's such an odd teen horror series because the big evil hunting down the group of teens one by one is actually death itself and ultimately there's no escape for anyone in the whole series. Once your time's up, it's up. And eventually death will come up with some overly complicated Rube Goldberg style scenario engineered to take them out.

Of course this first film is a little more serious than the latter films where they just become excuses to kill stock characters off in ridiculously creative ways. There's a bit more thought behind the core group here. And it's more dramatic than fun. That comes later. But it does all the important ground work that the other films coasted on for a decade.

Just seeing that Dimension Films logo at the start makes me reminisce. And that cast. It's another film I learnt a lot from listening to the commentary as a kid.

Hopefully we'll get through the rest of the series soon. This really is the most unapologetic excuse for teen slaughter and great fun.

Parts Per Billion

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes

Not gonna lie, I wanted to see this for the apocalyptic viral outbreak scenario. But that's pretty much an afterthought. This is an arty, non-linear study of heterosexual couples in various stages of their relationships with the end of the world being used as a trigger for drama. So it wasn't exactly satisfying. There's a great cast and some alright writing (and some really obvious stuff) but I didn't find it very interesting personally.