donelson

A true masterpiece. Fabulous fun. Scary and complex. Compelling. Great direction.

What a great surprise! Generally, I hate modern boring "horror" but this was fabulous fun. Clever, complex, great direction, amazing performance from Amy Madigan, Josh Brolin and Julia Garner.

A cacophony of pointless dialogue to distract the audience from the zero content of this snoozefest. Perhaps the worst movie of the 21st century. I must have fallen asleep 20 times omfg

AVOID this utterly chaotic waste of time. The movie starts with totally unsympathetic characters, self-absorbed and selfish, and then proceeds into silly situations with MORE unpleasant people. The silliness level is apparently not enough for the producers, because then the plot moves from silly then chaotic into just plain stupid, STILL with no sympathetic characters or direction. The movie never shows an admirable person or direction, never becomes more than chaotic kung fu with bread sticks, silly and demeaning. Wow. I watched more than an hour of this tripe, then left. The fact that is so highly rated by so many people shows me exactly why America has so many terrible problems now, apparently unsolvable: Far too many Americans are total idiots (and I grew up in Memphis, now in the UK for 30 years)

Once again, a stupid kids' movie that kicks physics in the face, relies totally on cliché, treats women as idiots, and ignores actual history. What a total waste of time (not as bad as the new Matrix, though)

Suitable perhaps for 5-8 yr olds. Truly terrible in every possible way. Patty Jenkins should have her head examined and kicked out of the film industry. Clearly on another planet.

Truly astonishing filmmaking. The long take woth camera leading then following then side tracking seamlessly, fluidly brings us close to the players in a way that I've never seen before. Roger Deakins is a magician, far beyond a master. Sam Mendes vision is astounding, yet tempered by some truly intimate moments, truly poignant. Especially loved "the miracle of the milk". Oscar worthy in many ways. Must see.

Very unusual, NOT a movie for young kids. A sensitive and extraordinary way to tell this story of a young boy's realisation of the horrors of ****. Performances all around are superb, especially by young Roman Griffin Davis. Highest praise for the treatment of a very difficult subject.

Amazing performances by Dafoe and Pattinson, but truly repulsive at times. A very hard movie to like, 20 minutes too long, as well.

Well. Such high praise from so many people I know and respect. And the production, directing and acting were quite incredible. However, I found the script to be claustrophobic and unthinking, perhaps what the producers wanted. I found Sandler's character to be so intensely unlikeable, it was hard to see the movie as a whole. Yes, I was aware the entire movie how well-produced it was, how committed the actors were, especially Sandler. How difficult the cross dialogue and action was. It's a major achievement in those respects. And, sadly, there were places in the movie that I was just plain bored. I even began to look at my iPhone messages, etc. Not good. Sandler pulled off quite an incredible and difficult performance, Oscar-worthy, but yesterday I saw A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood, and in spite of disliking Tom Hanks for many years, I was astonished by the nuances of his performance, so I will be rooting for him as best actor, rather than Sandler. Sorry, Adam.

Even more shallow than the news reports during the times covered. The performances are good, but the dialogue is pretty shallow throughout most of the movie. It's entertaining, but mostly superficial, probably to avoid angering the gray eminence himself, Murdoch.

An extraordinary masterpiece, far better than previous cuts. The inclusion of the French plantation interlude completes this version of Coppola's incredible tale. How these scenes were ever cut astounds me, they provide the contrast in Captain Willard's quest, and profoundly change the whole subsequent movie. In addition, throughout the editing is now superior, the digitally restored images even more shocking and memorable, the performances alive again in our young heroes. If you haven't seen THIS version, you have not seen Apocalypse Now.

Ad Astra A pitiful reworking of Heart of Darkness up the river to Neptune. Dullest movie of the year so far, with an uninterrupted 45 mins of Brad Pitt closeups thinking meagre and whiny thoughts out loud. Terrible. Also, the most cringeworthy, stupid space physics and "science" I've ever seen in a modern sci-fi film.

An extraordinary movie. Written, directed and produced by Lynne Ramsey, and brilliantly edited by Joe Bini. This is not an "action extravaganza", and while it is violent, it is not gratuitously so. Phoenix's performance is astounding and nuanced. The camera, lighting and pacing are wonderful. Definitely not for kids or troglodytes.

Yet more recycled pablum. Disney once again chooses movie-making by committee

Terrible, by far the worst-ever spider-man. When compared to the marvellous Toby McGuire "Spider-man 2", this one fails the stupidity test, the coherence test, the romance test, the dull-fights test, the music test, ... well, it fails in every conceivable way. It can't decide if it's for 12 year olds, 20 year olds, or full adults - and caters for none. I fell asleep twice, once during the big final dull fight scene.

What a mess. Far too many "stars", disjointed editing, confused plot, absurd battles, stupid "banter". Truly awful in so many ways.

A soulless mashup of tropes and gags recycled from the 1980s without love or respect. Spielberg shows technical mastery in a dull by-the-numbers film, full of clichés. Women are presented mostly as appendages to male egos, and even the romance becomes trite. Very sad mess.

I saw this extraordinary and unusual movie last Friday. It was FANSTASTIC, even if you are not a fan of Hitchcock. During the legendary shower scene, there were 52 camera setup positions. Filming of the 45 second scene took a week, and during the editting there were 78 cuts in view. An average of about 1/2 of a second of each view, 78 times in 45 seconds. Extraordinary. This movie is about how that came about, what Hitchcock was trying to achieve, and how this scene was a breakthrough in how movies are filmed and constructed. Fabulous!

Yes, a masterpiece of canon, and style, and production. Spare and sensual, with an extraordinary central performance by Ryan Gosling, great plotting and dialogue in an examination of the nature of love, of memory and of identity. The best of science fiction in that it explores who we really are under almost inconceivable stresses. You can feel the love and effort poured into this movie in every second of film. The music evokes and expands on the original, returns us to this future we know so well from so long ago now. Remember: Science fiction has no ceiling. 10 stars. Update: I've just seen Blade Runner 2049 for the third time today. I've never done this before for any movie. Extraordinary. Wonderful. A true masterpiece. Each time I see it, it gets better, deeper, and more profound. The script, direction and performances are flawless. The gentle love scene with the hologram Joi actively blending with the real girl Mariette, matching their movements, to allow Joi to physically express her love for K is exquisite. Astonishing. The best and most extraordinary love scene I've ever experienced in the cinema. I wept. So much of this movie is so profound, so searching and wonderful. The themes of identity, memory, and love are explored with joy and respect. I will see the movie again, in a week or so.

The secret to this movie is to see it twice, preferably with at least a week between viewings... On the first viewing, you are overwhelmed by the visuals, the creativity, and the confusing plot. You come out of the cinema saying "what was that?" and then over the next week or two, bits of the movie tease you into "maybe I should see that again", much like my first viewing of The Fifth Element so many years ago. Then on the second viewing, the plot is "out of your way", and you can focus on how all the wonderful imagery, action and performances come together, especially that of Dane DeHaan as Valerian and Cara Delevingne as Laureline. They are quite charming, and the dialogue is witty without being self-concious. After the second viewing, I went away feeling far more entertained and awed by the whole concoction, and even with the feeling.... "I want to see it AGAIN" (just like The Fifth Element) !

Just saw this new Soderbergh movie. It's very complex, but honestly it's poorly directed: Confused, overly complex, dull even in its complexity. There is no sense of the pieces of the heist "coming together", driving the excitement and anticipation. It's just noir-by-the-numbers. Too bad.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Tina Fey was adequate and even likeable in this deeply offensive movie. The war in Afghanistan re-imagined as a light entertainment with some blood for "serious credentials". Ugh.

Both the book and the movie (to a lesser extent) glorify child abuse and war. The central concept of the author shows mental illness imho. I understand why Ender's Game is so popular with some people and it makes me very sad.

Straight plot, but the music is astounding! This is a straight plot, poor boy makes good, this time in a boys' choir. It's well-paced and handled, if very familiar. Where the movie shines is the choral music itself: Achingly beautiful, uplifting, like nothing I have heard before in depth. See this movie, yes just relax - it's easy. Then close your eyes and float away on the ethereal and magical choral music. Wonderful stuff. Dreyfuss is fine, Bates is good, the boy actors are fine and competent. The villain is mildly villainous, etc. The settings are good. Camera and production good, writing adequate. Again, none of this really matters. None of it's objectionable or bad. It's the music you go for.

A truly extraordinary movie, a time-capsule of the social war between hippies and straights in the late 60s and early 70s. The dialog is incredible, sharp and quite often hilarious. Bits of craziness thrown in emphasise the free-spirits, and the anal establishment. The plot is incomprehensible mostly, just like living then. If you watch and remember carefully, the 80% of red-herrings eventually drift away, the avalanche of new information becomes a kind of fireworks festival of noise and colour. Joaquin Phoenix is almost a pinball bouncing around the plot and settings. Amazing performances throughout, almost surreal. A Triumph!

An astonishing performance from Adele Exarchopoulos. In each scene, every shot, you see and feel and live her reality. The confusion of our early awakening sexuality, our search for identity and place in the world, the shock of discovery of true passion, losing oneself in another, young love and then deep love. Our identity entwined with another's, the building of balance and union, partnership and security, and endless days of joy. And from this grows a curiosity about limits, about life, about other possibilities. And then the surprise of carelessness, mistake, and tragedy. The profound pain, the agony that goes on, and never really ends. Longing and wishing and regret, which slowly dulls and is covered by busy-ness and life. And always, all your life, you remember and ache as you re-live those days, first true love, held inside, honoured but faded. And I am very lucky, for in this movie I re-lived all of this, all those memories awakened, those feelings and passions and joys, in this masterpiece of acting and writing and camera and direction. Joy and pain and love and life.