RoccoCille

How often do I give a movie 10/10? Almost never, I don’t think I ever have on here before that’s for sure. This is quite simply Nolan’s masterpiece, it is a highly complex, multi layered sci-fi story that handles complexities like time, gravity and dimensions, and our increasingly perilous fate on Earth and where that might lead. It weaves all of it into a tale of love and family, and about humanity. There is no point trying to outline the plot: it requires watching multiple times to truly understand it and appreciate this movie. The first time I watched it, I thought it was good. Now on third watch I understand why it has come to be regarded as one of the best movies ever made by many.

This movie is a modern rarity, because it is a completely old school classically produced film, which is real action and character focused above all else. It pays respectful homage to the origin story, and beautifully interlinks many characters to the current one. This is actually better than the original, it’s more subtle, but has some fantastic dynamics on so many different levels. One of the best movies I have seen produced by Hollywood in years, without any gross politics trying to be shoved into it, just a pure story with realistic characters and a well developed story arc across the board. I also liked that Maverick is represented as flawed, now aging, but still the incredible talent that adds value to the younger generation of pilots. Highly recommended, this is definitely a movie I will watch many times.

Time is a great judge of whether a movie stands the test of time and is truly good or bad. Manny a Hollywood "classic" turns out to be trash only rated up by the paid critics, but it's really the audience score over a period of years that tells the true story. The universal acclaim for Dredd is that answer: in 2012 it received criticism for the level of violence and it lacking the "humour" of the 2000AD comic books. That's not the case: Dredd is the nearest depiction of the dystopian, authoritarian, human rights infringing future depicted in the comics. Every aspect of the movie is well put together, and it ends up being a genuinely great sci-fi movie that does the source material justice. My recommendation is to give Dredd a go, you'll be surprised by how enjoyable it is and it's only a shame the whiny critics stopped this from being more of a commercial success at the box office when it was release a decade ago.

The Martian benefits from being the product of Andy Weir's truly excellent novel, which in itself was the product of years of research to ensure the story was as scientifically plausible as possible. That really shows in the movie, as believable problems continue to arise and the creativity of people works to come up with solutions to the situation of how to safely bring home a single man stranded on Mars with scant resources. Easily one of the best Ridley Scott movies, this movie delivers a beautiful blend of wonderful Mars vistas and an excellent score, with lots of humour from the main character, Mark Watney, who is ideally played by Matt Damon with a stoic continuous sense of humour throughout the challenges as he breaks the wall and talks to the audience throughout in the for of video diary entries. Gripping, lots of really excellent supporting cast with developed characters. I have found myself coming back to re-watch The Martian countless times in the years since its release. I think that's because the story is uplifting and positive, combined with an inspirational glimpse into the potential near future of Mankind as we step forward to becoming a multi-planetary species. If you love a good sci-fi movie, look no further than The Martian, it's in the top 5 of the last decade in my opinion, and crafted by a legendary director.

The premise of the movie is quite simple: a group of school friends end up camping in a wood, they're mostly couples and have their own distinctive personalities and dramas. Then they wake up to find bomb vests trapped to them with a countdown, and it descends into an amusing horror-comedy with plenty of gore as they commence a survival slaughter of one another. Provided you don't want a movie which is realistic or subtle, this is quite an entertaining way to pass a couple of hours. I enjoyed it and would watch it again, it's no master piece but the acting and production is generally solid enough to earn is a middle of the road 5 stars.

This is just a really, really bad movie that should never have been made. The original two Bill & Ted movies are free flowing, funny classics that were full of amusing jokes and insane situations. By contrast the third feels stale, forced, with a meandering plot that doesn't actually entertain with only a couple of laugh out loud moments the entire movie. It spends far more time with Bill & Ted meeting depressing versions of themselves as total failures, and facing up to being useless nobodies. That's not great comedy. I finished it feeling like I had wasted 2hrs of my time, and really wishing I hadn't bothered.

This is an informative, entertaining and highly thought provoking look into the recent culture of censorship and intolerance to diversity of opinion that is a fundamental threat to western concepts of freedom of speech. Carolla in particular provides his usual acerbic wit and dry humour to really get to the nub of the issues and illustrate the contradictions from a future where somebody, somewhere being "offended" is the only requirement to determine what is acceptable. A must watch.

This is a fascinating, complex character piece assessing a deeply psychologically troubled but long time favourite villain, and his history and development. Phoenix's performance is amazing throughout, with great support and characters. Ignore the pointless critics - they're getting more and more detached from reality and audience opinion. This is a must see.

This was a very disappointing movie for me. It could have examined this highly controversial area impartially, both positive and negative, to allow viewers to make their own informed minds up. There was no mention of the very, very high level of depression and suicide in those who change gender, or examination of the impact of this on young children. No proper examination of the science behind this, instead it is rather more aligned with the very (one sidededly) political agenda arguably driving much of all this. In summation this would be better named "W.O.K.E. - The Movie" because while it does examine a powerful story, it does a poor job of impartially examining all sides of this, and chooses to just focus on the transgender rights component, which is a subset of a much bigger debate ongoing.

DC really have schooled Marvel/Disney by showing them how to do great movie with strong female lead in Wonder Woman, versus this absolute dirge.

What do the stuck up critics expect from a movie like this? It's a nostalgic, tongue-in-cheek look at an old school crime of epic proportions by an old school generation. The result is a movie with a plenty of humour probably missed by them, it's subtle British humour embedded in the dialogue and the thieve's decript state, best shown by their recollections of driving around in high end performance car heists in the 60's and now turning up to a shed in a Vauxhall Astra estate. If you don't get that, you won't get and appreciate the humour of the movie. Fine actors nearing the end of their career's mostly, a fascinating real life story that blew the minds of the world and especially a complacent London jewellery trade. I found the movie great fun, a laugh at age and how you can stick two fingers up at stereotypes relating to it and do something incredible (if also criminal). It's in some ways an inspiring movie in that sense, as well as hard to not root for them as anti-heroes because although you know you shouldn't, they're sympathetically portrayed. Overall it's a thumbs up as an proper London heist movie with fun characters. Ignore the snobbish critics claiming it's "boring".. try listening to dialogue and watching character development and pay off, not expecting it all instantly. You're the same idiots that gave the dire "The Last Jedi" a near perfect score. Recommended.

Disclaimer: I enjoyed Force Awakens as a fine reboot (but too derivative), I loved Rogue One, brilliantly made but a depressing storyline. I hated Last Jedi and thought it badly written, full of glaring plot holes, politically motivated and a sad way to kill of key characters. Now enter Solo, a movie I had very low expectations of after Last Jedi and some average reviews. Personally I think this is a great Star Wars movie, no political crap thrown in, no plot holes just a solid movie that back fills the story of Han Solo's rise to become a smuggler and meeting some characters we know well from other movies. It has all the ingredients I needed for a good Star Wars movie, without ever elevating to becoming a true great like Empire. However it's not that kind of movie, it repairs some (only some) of the damage that Last Jedi did to the franchise. Keep up the good work guys, I would be very happy to see Solo turn into a trilogy or beyond.

Yes I know the plot is horribly derivative of the original Star Wars (come on, ANOTHER death star equivalent, that's all you could come up with?), but I watched it spell bound, and relived some of my favourite childhood moments again with this movie. Above all, JJ Abrams did a fine job of rebooting the Star Wars universe, it captured the feel and essence of the original trilogy, which was not an easy thing. It introduced many new and interesting characters, and started to build out their development and story arcs - it connected well with old ones and used them (mostly) well. It was respectful of most aspects of the Star Wars universe in not being too absurd, and it set me up to spend the next 2yrs in anticipation of the (sadly awful) sequel. That's a good Star Wars movie in my books, one that you enjoy repeatedly - there's a lot to love about this film, it gets a 7.5 from me and only not higher because the core plot wasn't imaginative enough.

I'm saying what needs keep being said loudly about The Last Jedi which is that it is an all round terrible movie. I'm taking the time to do this so that eventually Disney learn the only way they care - financially - that we Star Wars fans will not continue to blindly pay up for rubbish like this. I didn't go to see this multiple times at the cinema or buy it on blu-ray, unlike The Force Awakens. That's them down already about £40 on last time from me. Ensuring we real users give this movie its correct score on Metacritic is very important so everybody should continue posting reviews - we're not paid up professional 'critics' who conveniently score massive commercial films like this ridiculously highly regardless of the reality. Numerous other reviews point to the glaring plot holes all over this so I don't need to, but they are absurd to the point the film can't be taken seriously enough to review. I was a fan of The Force Awakens, I gave it a 7/10. Sure, it was far too plot derivative and obvious and didn't make nearly enough of some key characters, but is introduced a whole new beginning and some potentially interesting characters and storylines that had Star Wars fans discussing and buzzing with excitement for two years while we waited. It did the job, it got us off and started with something potentially great. It's fair to say that Rhian Johnson, the director, has NO idea about character development, or crafting a coherent, well thought through storyline that is cohesive to the laws of the Star Wars universe.. doing so would have ensured there are no really glaring, stupid plot holes. The Last Jedi has so many it can only have been put together by a fool who thinks that "not being obvious" is always the right approach. Questioning Rey's heritage? That's actually quite a good 'surprise' to not play up to fan theories, but to make it not necessarily some huge deal (without going into the plot). But what about the capability of characters to survive absolute zero in space and fly around and come back from the dead? Or Luke's appalling treatment after no role in the first movie as some bad tempered old hermit who has an evil side and shows no traits whatsoever of the wisdom of a Jedi Master - which he is. Not to mention the end of movie decision.. "let the past die" or whatever BS phrase they used. That for me was unforgiveable and why it gets a 1 not even a 2 or 3. It's not clever, it didn't make for a good movie. It made it a really, really bad. Good movies have payback for time invested and give the audience what they want (in whatever capacity that might be) eventually - example being seeing Luke as the final unfold at the end of The Force Awakens. All fans wanted Luke to have a central role in this movie - it wasn't 'clever' or 'bold' not doing so, it would be like a band going on and playing a couple of their minor hits then indulging themselves playing new songs to the audience all night who have come to hear their greatest hits. That would piss off any audience, that's what Rhian did here. How about the poor, new characters crafted by JJ Abrams? They also got scant development in this movie. Rey's character development stopped as she continued her apparent ability to use the most advanced Force powers with zero training in almost no time whatsoever (remember this movie followed straight on from the last). Poe? Pointless, mutinous and comes across as "the aggressive little hot headed man" rather than the all action hero he was of the first movie. Then there's a whole raft of really bad side plots and characters. It's a shame to say that Finn now seems completely pointless too as a character. In short, whereas I left The Force Awakens really curious for more and wanting to see what happened with all these characters. Now I'm just like Mark Hamill - I don't care anymore beyond writing this. While Star Wars is in the hands of those pursuing making current socio-political statements within a sci-fi world, these aren't movies I will be going to see anymore. Starting with Solo - I'll check it out on blu-ray perhaps, if somebody else I know picks up a copy. I won't be giving Disney a dime or introducing my kids to anything but the originals until they get the message and fire Kennedy and remove this horrific idea of Johnson doing an entire trilogy more of Star Wars films. Hit them where it matters fans - at the box office with the future movies. Help us fans, you're our only hope.