Hell or High Water (2016): IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2582782/ IMDB score: 7,7 IMDB description: A divorced father and his ex-con older brother resort to a desperate scheme in order to save their family's ranch in West Texas.
My opinion: This one had been on my watchlist for a while, was actually one of the only oscar-nominated movies I really wanted to see.
This movie was exactly what I wanted it to be, I loved the acting performances, especially by the two brothers (Ben Foster, Chris Pine) and Jeff Bridges. Beside having a good plot, what this movie also does good is portraying Texas; the people, the state itself, mentality,...
I wasn't sure what to expect with the ending, but safe to say, this movie had a really good ending imo.
So you like Texas, bank robbers and a good old badass sheriff? Go watch this movie.
Movie + Year: Alien (1979) IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078748/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 IMDB score: 8.5/10 IMDB description: After a space merchant vessel perceives an unknown transmission as distress call, its landing on the source moon finds one of the crew attacked by a mysterious life-form, and they soon realize that its life cycle has merely begun.
My opinion: I realized I never actually watched some of the classic, must-see movies (Alien, Predator, Blade Runner, Matrix,...). So I started with the Alien series.
It's an old horror movie. It relies mostly on scary moments and intense creepieness, instead of plain gore. The alien only shows up a couple of times though, which makes it more scary when he DOES show up.
Most of the special effects are from the late 70's, and at times you can't help but smile at the silly computer stuff (those screens), but it's not ridiculous.
My rating: 8/10, it's a classic, with good reason.
Movie + Year: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017) IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1790809/ IMDB score: 7,2 IMDB description: Captain Jack Sparrow searches for the trident of Poseidon.
My opinion: I really disliked a lot about this movie.. First of all Johnny Depp sounds and looks like he's drunk throughout the entire movie, his accent doesn't even remotely resemble a pirate anymore. Secondly, I'm really not a fan of the kid that plays Will Turner's son, no charisma at all, looks like he and Kaya Scodelario are gonna replace Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley in the future movies, which I'm not really a fan of (although Kaya is pretty hot)
About the plot... I guess it was okay at best, sad to see that the trident only appeared for like 5 minutes though.
Javier Bardem was great as Captain Salazar.
Movie + Year: Dunkirk (2017) IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1790809/ IMDB score: 8,5 IMDB description: Allied soldiers from Belgium, the British Empire and France are surrounded by the German army and evacuated during a fierce battle in World War II.
My opinion: My expectations for this one were extremely high, not only because I'm a big Nolan fan, but also because of all the incredible ratings it has received since release. I'm gonna try to be brief here and will create another dedicated discussion topic for once you've seen the movie.
This movie throws you straight in the action, and boy is it good at that. I've NEVER felt so "inside" the action in a movie. The sound effects are loud as fuck, but I feel like this really added to the movie and felt more real and war-like.
Not going to spoil anything about the plot, but you can expect your typical Nolan plot line evolution.
The acting was superb, at first I was surprised they had cast Harry Styles from One Direction and to be honest I felt disappointed. But did I change my mind.. There are no weak actors in this movie. Tom Hardy also nails his role.
Go watch this one as soon as possible, you will be on the edge of your seat the entire movie, the movie will be over before you know it because it's so good you won't bother checking the time, or even making any form of contact to your friend/gf/..
My rating: 10/10, truly one of the best movies I've ever seen.
Movie + Year: The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2278388/?ref_=nv_sr_1 IMDB score: 8.1/10 IMDB description: The adventures of Gustave H, a legendary concierge at a famous hotel from the fictional Republic of Zubrowka between the first and second World Wars, and Zero Moustafa, the lobby boy who becomes his most trusted friend.
My opinion: This was fun to watch. Ralph Fiennes does an excellent job playing the polite, classy concierge, with the occasional bouts of severe cursing. What struck me most about this movie though, was the cinematography. It's gorgeous to look at. The cast is full with big names, but really it's just Fiennes who steals the show.
Movie + Year: The Princess Bride (1987) IMDB:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093779/?ref_=nv_sr_1 IMDB score: 8.1/10 IMDB description:While home sick in bed, a young boy's grandfather reads him a story called The Princess Bride.
My opinion: A cult classic. Lots of quotes and references are from this movie. And it was fun to watch! It has 2 plots that kinda twist together, in a good way.
Movie + Year: American Made (2017) IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3532216/ IMDB score: 7.2/10 IMDB description: The story of Barry Seal, an American pilot who became a drug-runner for the CIA in the 1980s in a clandestine operation that would be exposed as the Iran-Contra Affair.
My opinion: I really really enjoyed this movie, it's definitely one of the better movies I watched this past year (apart from 10/10 movies like Dunkirk), and Tom Cruise was a perfect choice for the protagonist.
Is this plot mind-blowingly insane? No, but it's a pretty enjoyable one. Seeing Barry Seal evolve throughout the movie to a much wealthier person is very satisfying to watch. Go watch this movie if you don't want to watch anything too serious, but also not anything too "comedy-like".
Only criticism I had was semi-spoiler
Movie + Year: Bright (2017) IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5519340/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 IMDB score: 6.5/10 IMDB description:Set in a world where fantasy creatures live side by side with humans. A human cop is forced to work with an Orc to find a weapon everyone is prepared to kill for.
My opinion: So, this was Netflix' first attempt at a blockbuster movie. They threw several millions at it, mainly to cast Will Smith and Joel Edgerton. The critics were very... critical of the movie, I think it only got 30% on RT? Quite surprising, because the public opinion was quite high.
I liked it. It wasn't a bad movie. It wasn't as groundbreaking as i thought, but I enjoyed watching it. The main critique on the internet, that I also share, is that it would be nice to hear some more background information. There are talks about "the Dark Master", without actually introducing who the fucker was, or how he was defeated. It feels as if the story is told by someone who knows the entire history of that universe, and tells the story without properly setting the context. Like you're starting in the middle of a series. Sure, you can get what's going on by the context, but not always.
As for the plot, it's fairly standard buddy cop. Grumpy old cop (Will Smith) has a young partner (Joel Edgerton), who he initially despises because of racial issues, but then shit hits the fan, and they're forced to take on a lot of gunfire and explosions, and then they end up trusting each other.
Will Smith's acting is spot on though. He nails the sarcastic, grumpy street officer.
My rating: 8/10 Fun to watch, but some more backstory would be great.
^ My brother in law liked it as well. My backlog is too big to risk "wasting" time watching a semi movie. so gonna pass for now.
Movie + Year: The Fugitive (1993) IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106977/ IMDB score: 7,8 IMDB description: Dr. Richard Kimble, unjustly accused of murdering his wife, must find the real killer while being the target of a nationwide manhunt lead by a seasoned US Marshall.
My opinion: This movie is pretty old but aged pretty well fortunately. Harrison Ford nails his role as a man wrongfully convicted as his wife's murderer. Was stuck to the edge of my seat the entire movie while Dr. Kimble was on the run. The way he thinks and finds out the real truth was well thought. From now on I can't see Ford without seeing Dr Kimble, that's how good he was in his role.
The chemistry with Tommy Lee Jones was also really fun to watch. If you like this movie, you should definitely watch it's sequel: US Marshals, also with TLJ.
Plot overall was descent, nothing crazy but still interesting and fun to watch.
Movie + Year: Black Panther (2018) IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1825683/ IMDB score: 7.7/10 IMDB description: T'Challa, after the death of his father, the King of Wakanda, returns home to the isolated, technologically advanced African nation to succeed to the throne and take his rightful place as king.
My opinion: The next chapter in the Marvel Universe. This time, it's the origin story for The Black Panther. It was a... good movie. Not great, but it was fun to watch. But it's another Marvel movie. If you're fan of the series, and follow it (like me), go see it. If not, there's no reason not to wait for the DVD release.
The plot was pretty predictable, but not badly executed. Superhero is on top of the world, all powerful and awesome, then something happens and he's cast down, and then he fights his way back up. However, here the "cast down and fight back up" was rather short, only present in the second half. T'Challa is a badass being king and The Black Panther in the first 60% of the movie, and then in the last bit a challenger appears, takes over the throne, casting T'Challa down, but forgets to actually kill him, so he can rise back up again.
There were some interesting parallels though.
The main plot point is that you can challenge and kill the king to become king yourself. Killmonger, who is originally a henchmen for Klaue (the bad guy), kills Klaue, and takes over the position of main bad guy.
Great performance by Danai Gurira though. She nails the badass general warrior part.
My rating: 7/10 Decent Marvel movie. Interesting for fans, but not much more.
Movie + Year: Annihilation (2018) IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2798920/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 IMDB score: 7.2/10 IMDB description: A biologist signs up for a dangerous, secret expedition where the laws of nature don't apply.
My opinion: This was a pretty neat movie. It didn't have any spectacular things to it, the acting was decent but not wonderful, the visuals were great, but not stunning, and the plot was interesting, but very confusing.
I liked it though, it was a good movie. The ending leaves you with more questions than it answers, but apparently this was based on a trilogy of books, or rather the first in the trilogy. So I'm guessing there's more to the story we're not told.
Small tip for people who haven't watched it: pay attention to the lower left arm of all the main characters.
Movie + Year: Avengers: Infinity War (2018) IMDB:https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4154756/ IMDB score: 9.1/10 IMDB description: The Avengers and their allies must be willing to sacrifice all in an attempt to defeat the powerful Thanos before his blitz of devastation and ruin puts an end to the universe.
My opinion: Every time I watch a Marvel movie, I am reminded of an analogy made by Egoraptor. He compares some games with food, and I think it works for movies as well. you have some intelligently crafted, high end, 3 star desserts, that finish off your meal, and leave you feeling complete and filled. And you have the bags of chips, which are tasty, but they're just made for shovelling in your mouth. Tasty, yes, but that's it. Marvel are bags of chips. They're fun to watch, but there's nothing groundbreaking or high-brow about them.
Infinity War is a amazing bag of chips though.
They have 40+ main characters on screen, so there isn't much room for growth and personal issues, but it does allow for some amazing dialogue. Thor and the Guardians are especially hilarious.
The story though, was surprising, as
basically, Thanos wins. I didn't think Disney would have the balls to kill off half of the grid of heroes.
They show a surprising amount of backstory for Thanos. He's shown as not a complete evil dickhead, but as a guy who really thinks he's doing to right thing, even if it means doing horrible things.
Audio-visually though, it is SPECTACULAR. As expected. This is the culmination of 10 years of universe building, and it fucking shows. The fights are spectacular and completely overwhelm you. There is a scene where Thanos tries to drop a fucking moon of a group of heroes, and the complete clusterfuck that happens looks awesome.
The character designs look incredible, although I have some qualms about Spider-man's new suit, but that's just nitpicking. Proxima Midnight (never named in the movie, but that's her name anyway) looks a bit too much CGI though. I'm reminded of a clip of NVidia showing off their rendering, about 5 years ago.
Overall, I enjoyed it. It was great to watch, and the story wasn't as cookie cutter as I originally feared. There were some great surprises I really didn't expect.
My rating: 9/10
I'd give it an 8/10, but the surpise LET'S KILL HALF OF 'EM ending was surpising enough to bump it to 9
Movie + Year: Robin Hood (2010) IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0955308/ IMDB score: 6.7/10 IMDB description: In 12th century England, Robin and his band of marauders confront corruption in a local village and lead an uprising against the crown that will forever alter the balance of world power.
My opinion: First of let me start by saying I love Russell Crowe and Mark Strong in this movie, I really do. Unfortunately I don't like much other stuff about this movie. The movie claims to be a "Robin Hood" movie, but if you change the names of Robin Hood and Nottingham this movie would only be a mediocre medieval war movie.. which it is. The big thing missing from this movie is adventure, the combat scenes could be reduced to 30% and make space for adventure.. sadly Ridley Scott had other things in mind. One other thing that bugged me was that Russel Crowe is a little too old to play Robin Hood, about 20 years.
Movie + Year: Deadpool 2 (2018) IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5463162/ IMDB score: 8,1/10 IMDB description: Foul-mouthed mutant mercenary Wade Wilson (AKA. Deadpool), brings together a team of fellow mutant rogues to protect a young boy with supernatural abilities from the brutal, time-traveling cyborg, Cable.
My opinion: Let me first start by saying that I'm not really a huge fan of superhero movies in general, to me most Marvel movies are all the same (I know some people would shoot me for this) However.. Deadpool 1 was the only exception for me, and now Deadpool 2 has become the second exception. The fact that this movie doesn't take itself seriously just makes it that much more entertaining and humorous. There are some really good jokes in this movie, and I also love the moments when Ryan Reynolds breaks the forth wall. Story is good but would be really boring without Ryan Reynolds and the humor approach. To me this movie was better than DP1.
What didn't I like? The kid that they cast for Firefist (Julian Dennison), seriously couldn't stand that one at all, sorry.
Movie + Year: Beverly Hills Cop (1984) IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086960/ IMDB score: 7,3/10 IMDB description: A freewheeling Detroit cop pursuing a murder investigation finds himself dealing with the very different culture of Beverly Hills.
My opinion: I watched this on a Sunday afternoon, and this movie was a perfect fit for just that.
Eddy Murphy fits so well into this role, it's really entertaining to watch him mouth off his superiors, manipulate gangsters, and hear his laugh that you will make you want to watch Shrek again (Donkey voice = Eddy).
The plot is good enough for an 80s action movie. I also really like the two major bad guys, which are actors Steven Berkoff (already knew him from the James Bond movie "Octopussy" and Jonathan Banks (Mike from Breaking Bad).
I also like that this movie is not over the top action à la Michael Bay. My rating: 7/10
Movie + Year: Coco (2017) IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2380307/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 IMDB score: 8.4/10 IMDB description: Aspiring musician Miguel, confronted with his family's ancestral ban on music, enters the Land of the Dead to find his great-great-grandfather, a legendary singer.
My opinion: Another Pixar hit. A bit predictable at times (if you don't see the plot twist coming, you must be not paying attention), but still a very enjoyable ride. Typical Pixar story line though, some messing about with family and values, a life changing journey, and a happy ending. Very feel good. But good lord is that grandma a bitch.
Movie + Year: Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1727824/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 IMDB score: 8.3/10 IMDB description: A chronicle of the years leading up to Queen's legendary appearance at the Live Aid (1985) concert.
My opinion: I made the big mistake of factchecking after I watched this movie. There are some things the movie just gets wrong, but it makes sense to do them wrong. Otherwise the movie'd have no real plot. The real plot is, in a sense, the descend of Freddy Murcury into madness, as his fame kinda runs away from him.
Now, don't get me wrong, this is not a reason this movie is bad. In fact, I very much enjoyed watching it.
The acting is superb. Rami Malek does an amazing job, and the casting from Brian May is fucking spot on. He looks just like the real May.
The soundtrack is awesome (no shit). All the famous Queen songs get some screentime, including an amazing redition of We Will Rock You.
The cinematography is incredible. It has some seriously amazing shots. The opening sequence on its own is great.
All in all, it's an incredible movie to watch, and I urge you to go watch it too.
