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.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1

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

Write Up.

I saw an interview with Francis Lawrence where he said they decided to put the first scene of Mockingjay Part 2 at the end of this film. Everyone that's seen the film will know there's a definite end point that would have been really annoying to leave the film hanging on. I think they made the right decision.

As Above, So Below

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

Another found footage horror, this one following a National Treasure style hunt that ends up going all Event Horizon. The Dowdle brothers have dealt with found footage before. And hell as well. There's some of the usual stuff here, shadowy hooded figures, past traumas resurfacing and my favourite is the ever evolving maze of underground tunnels. They also get the benefit of using claustrophobia and cave ins and drowning and all the other cave exploration tropes. There's some good jump scares and a few tense moments.

The whole idea of this adventure story feels like a great pitch for an Indiana Jones movie. As a horror film it's okay. I found the supernatural adventure story and the found footage style to be a bit of an odd clash though. But I guess that makes it cheaper to produce?

Some fun ideas, I don't know how seriously the movie is taking itself and I found it had to figure out how seriously I should be taking it. Fun adventure and found footage horror. Odd mix.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1

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

I don't like reviewing part 1's because it's so incomplete. The film ends just as things start to get interesting, which is pretty frustrating. Katniss spends most of the film being kept safe underground or being used as a propaganda pawn and it's not exactly the most exciting stuff because everything is kept separated and we're introduced to a whole lot of stuff that we won't get to see paid off until next year.

Liam Hemsworth finally gets some decent screen time, but still only has as many lines as he did in the other films. And I think it should stay that way, he's best when he keeps his mouth shut. Josh Hutcherson is sadly absent for the majority of the film but what we do see of him is the most interesting stuff. Did they Steve Rodgers him or is that legitimate? And having recently watched film 2, Jenna Malone was missed as well. But as a consolation we get scenes with Julianne Moore and Philip Seymour Hoffman, to whom the film is dedicated.

It effectively lays the ground work for a final show down. There's a few nice squirmishes but they are almost asides. We just get to spend a bit more time with these characters and J-Law sings a song. If the last film delivers this film will have been worth it, but it's hard for it not to feel like a bit of padding.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No

Write Up.

Listened to the commentary track and watched the extra features in preparation for the next in the series. The commentary track as a few interesting things to learn but is ultimately pretty boring. The extras were really cool though, and I didn't know about them shooting in IMAX. I don't think that film even came out here in IMAX. Or if it did, I missed it. Shame, I really like this one.

Interstellar

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

Write Up.

Went to see it again at IMAX. Man it's a frustrating experience. Because there's stuff here that I think is great but those plot points are annoying enough to derail the film for me and the drama really doesn't work for me either. It's a real shame.

Still, there's those of you that love the damn thing, so power to you people. I probably liked it more the second time, now that my expectations were levelled but I'll never be able to fully get behind this story.

Young Ones

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes

This was a really odd film. I enjoyed it, just a strange mix of genres and style. I think it's mainly the score. The music is really different to what I'd expect in this kind of movie. Interesting though. Can't decide if I liked that choice or not.

It's a gritty western family drama at heart with some apocalyptic sci-fi edges. The film has a really great cast that all do good stuff. And it's visually pretty striking too. Also the visual effects here are great.

I really did like the film, even if a few of the stylistic decisions seemed odd to me. Check it out for yourself. If nothing else, the actors and the drama works really well.