Calvary

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

Wow this is a pretty grim film. Anchored by a great lead character and always tinged with humour the story portrays a rather depressing world as seen through a character with hope and forgiveness.

John Michael McDonagh was able to create a fantastic and hilarious character study with Brendan Gleeson the first time around in The Guard. Here, his sights are much larger and the cast of fascinating characters is greater as well.

The set up is almost like an old school western. A ticking clock is set for a showdown between a goodly priest and an unknown community member. And as the days pass by the tension increases. We get a look at the town and various people/suspects in it. Each one dealing with a misery of their own, the Priest helping out as best he can, whilst also dealing with his own problem.

I found it a captivating and through provoking drama. It's pretty angry at the world but there's a light at the end of the tunnel, I think...

The Emperor's New Groove

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

Write Up.

It's fun you guys. Good fun.

Frank

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes

An odd but cute little story with a cool cast and some funny music. The story is really slight but the characters are fun. There's really not much more to it than that. But it's kinda fun.

Theatre of Blood

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

An old school Shakespearean actor takes revenge on the group of critics who gave him terrible reviews, killing them one by one using the various murders from the text as inspiration, with the help of some drunk hobos. 

There's really nothing more to the film, other than watching Vincent Price revel in getting to purposefully play a terribly hammy actor. It's very tongue in cheek and some parts are quite fun, although ultimately not that fulfilling.

22 Jump Street

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

I really loved the first film and the second time around is just as fun. They take the self-referentially up a notch, not just making a point about how sequels fail and their lack of a budget, but also at romantic comedies in general.

Whilst they make a point about them telling the exact same story again, the jokes are fresh and the pace is swift. In general it feels less fresh than the original but it was still plenty of fun. And perhaps my favourite part were the amazing end credits, which make a strong case that they don't want to do any more sequels. There's also a very short scene right at the end of the credits but you'll have to decide if it's worth it to stay through or not.

Anyone that's ever studied story structure or screenplay writing will get a kick out of how the lampoon the rules here. And for the rest of you theres still ridiculous comic action and characters to enjoy. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller have delivered their first sequel and it's very good, but hopefully they won't have to do any more, I think they've kind of exhausted the gags now.

Reality Bites

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No

I only have very vague memories of this, so the recent bluray release prompted a rematch. I can see why I forgot most of it. I do like the cast, and there's some funny lines. If i'd grown up with this one I could see why it'd illicit fond memories. But I didn't. This love triangle/coming of age in the 90's story doesn't offer much more than that and a fun soundtrack.

Noroi: The Curse

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

After exhausting all the usual ghost stories we've started seeking out the more obscure titles. This one has come up in a few lists as a forgotten gem, and as an added bonus, it's from the hey-day for J-horror. Plus it's found footage. It magically ticks all 3 boxes.

As an added bonus, part of the "found footage" is from Japanese television broadcasts, which are just inherently hilarious.

There's a cool unfolding mystery here and apart from one too many looks to camera, the found footage aspect works well. Although they don't trust the audience to pick up any of the subtle background scares so there's a lot of repetition with push ins to spooky figures in the backgrounds of scenes.

There's definitely some spooky stuff here and it held my attention. I didn't find it completely effective but it was a fun watch.

Friday the 13th

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

It's Friday the 13th AND a full moon?!?! What better way to celebrate than by watching the digitally remastered classic at the cinemas. Such fun.

It's been so long since I've watched this that it felt like watching it for the first time. There were only one or two kills I remember. And the ending of course. (Thankfully I didn't watch the trailer which pretty much spoils them all...) So all those ridiculous jump scares worked a treat, especially with the sound really cranked up at the cinema.

And being surrounded by people that had never seen the film before was great fun too. It's pretty cheesy and probably elicits more laughs than screams now. But even though it was a pretty cheap Halloween slasher rip-off it managed to spawn a whole series and had plenty of imitators of its own.

What surprised me watching the film again was just how little there is going on besides getting teens killed in the woods one by one. Pretty much nothing else happens, just scene to scene of teen murders. That in itself was pretty funny to me. And Mrs Voorhees is always a delight.

A really fun night. I'm tempted to track down that new bluray box set now. The rest of the films vary greatly in quality, they get pretty outrageous but pretty fun nonetheless.

The Rover

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes

Well, this was a very slight story. Dragged out over a feature length running time. Guy Pearce and Robert Pattinson are both watchable, underneath all that dirt. Didn't do much for me though.

Blended

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

Adam Sandler teams up with Drew Barrymore again and gets a free trip to Africa. And if you see this film you're just lining his pockets and encouraging him to keep aiming lower. Everyone involved in this film seemed to have forgotten how jokes work. And drama. And romance. It's like they've heard of movies and read about how they work from some cheap screenwriting guide and tried to best approximate what they think a story is. 

It hits all the beats its supposed to with the subtlety and grace of drunk gorilla wielding a sledgehammer. It has pretty actors in it, playing a perfect variety of age ranges and sexes to appeal to a broad demographic, without having any defining qualities of their own that might alienate prospective ticket buyers. It has pretty locations and animals to provide the backdrop for escapist entertainment. Everything is so manufactured and paint by numbers that I'm pretty sure this film was made by a committee that's perfected the art of mass appeal. Or possibly a scripting bot.

Yes it does everything it's supposed to, with as little effort as possible. It's not even stupid enough to be offensively bad. It's just the weakest effort I think I've seen from Happy Madison productions, a studio that of late has at least managed to inspire hatred and disgust from its imbecilic output. There's just nothing to this. 

Grace of Monaco

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

I'd say 50% of this film consists of extreme close ups on Nicole Kidman's teary eyes.

So I don't know much about Grace Kelly, except that she was pretty funny in Rear Window. But the film plays a get out of jail free card with its opening caption stating it's not meant to be historically accurate.

Which is a good thing because the film seems to suggest that her greatest role as an actress was that of a mother and a princess. Like they were not in any way real, that her life's work after leaving hollywood was only for show. Kind of belittling if you think about it.

Irrespective of all that, theres some interesting drama in the film and Nicole Kidman and cast all perform adequately. I can't vouch for the authenticity of Kidman's portrayal, I've really only seen Kelly in Rear Window and High Society, which I didn't care for at all.

For some reason, despite all the beautiful locations and period settings, the cinematography really bothered me. I just really dislike all that blooming over exposed glowing.

The film feels like it was shot and edited by someone from the period in which the film was set. And I don't mean that as a compliment. Very slow and more than a few odd editing choices. So many extreme close ups and the rest was very plain. But I guess people that go to see this film are only interested in the story and the princess.

Didn't do much for me.

The Two Faces of January

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

Well it's no Talented Mr. Ripley but it was still a good watch. A similar period and exotic setting, but certainly a smaller scale. It's a slow burn thriller with a lot of jealous looks, mistrust and general shady affairs.

The cast are all fine, but the script and direction were pretty standard. The music carried much of the film. It's a great throwback hitchcockian score, but it doesn't let up much. Theres some enjoyment to be had here but I don't think they got as much out of the source material as they could have.

Edge of Tomorrow

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

Write Up.

I;ve been trying to justify the ending. I think I have a way that it could make sense but it's a stretch. Anyway, still a lot of fun.

How to Train Your Dragon 2

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

This movie has all the dragons in it!

Yes it's a cash grab franchise sequel, but Dean DeBlois has a story worth telling and he makes it count. The characters have grown, as have their responsibilities. And actions have consequences, which is nice for a children's franchise. Things don't just start and return to status quo.

So being a sequel, we get some new characters, a new conflict, some new dragons and abilities and some escalated action set pieces. It's pretty neat. Just spending more time in this world is neat really, its so beautifully designed and animated. While it doesn't quite capture the warm heart of the first film there's definatly some well earned emotional beats, wether you see them coming or not.

And best of all, while they hint at future story lines the film tells a complete story and is not just a set up for another feature. That makes the whole experience tremendously satisfying.

Did I mention this movie has all the dragons in it?

Really enjoyed this one. Can't wait to see this one again!

Godzilla vs. Megalon

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: No

Randomly picked one of the remaining 20 odd Godzilla films I've yet to get through. This one's a doozy.

So the people under the sea are fed up with our surface dweller ways and send Megalon to destroy us. And coincidentally a scents has made a robot called Jet Jaguar which when threatened can think for itself. It somehow programs itself to grow large and protect us humans.

So where is Godzilla in all this? Some research reveals this was originally Jet Jaguars film but they thought a new character wouldn't sell on his own, so they made it a team up at the last minute. And sure enough Godzilla comes in to help his robot buddy out. They can somehow communicate with each other, which is hilarious to behold.

Megalons brother Gigan (who presumably was killed in a previous film) joins in and the final fight is really fun. Godzilla gets a new "flying judo kick" move. they battle it out and the good guys, i.e. Godzilla and Jet Jaguar win. Hooray!

It's really very very kiddy stuff. The music is just ridiculous and hilarious. It's very unintentionally funny though. Seeing guys in rubber suits do wrestling and martial arts moves with the occasional fire bomb thrown in is goofy fun.

There was a car chase and an annoying kid in there too. Eh, no one cars about the human stuff.