mike453

Flight of the Phoenix is pretty good survival film. It shows just how big looks, status and personality are when establishing social dominance in a group. The limits of violence and martial ability. And how if they are to survive they must look beyond appearances. The film also shows womens deference to status throughout the film. It's based on a novel. Also the novel was written post ww2, so there is a national subtext, the american pilot and the german thinker being the most obvious.

Byzantium - Yeah it's pretty great vampire film. It does slow down a bit with the adolescent romance but understandeable for a male viewer. The interesting features of the vampires is they retain the personality or mindset they had when they became a vamp, which has interesting consequences when you live for hundreds of years. Another innovation is the origin of vampirism, which is here said to come from the spirit of a saint in a hermits cave. Which sounds dumb but is better than the origin story of other really popular vampire lore, such as it's the original curse of Caine from the bible in vampire the masquerade, it's just vanilla spirit possession from Anne Rice novels or as is popular nowadays that it's just a biological thingy.

Saw Heart of the Beast, perhaps a title ironically referring to heart of darkness. The novel, Apocalypse Now partly inspired by, where primal man is depicted as a ferocious boogeyman. In this film it strikes closer to the reality, primal man was a hunter relying on tech like fire, pear, knife to survive. Saying that this film really is only for the survival and dog film fans. It's barely a film. As basically nothing happens in it. Without Brad Pitt this barebones story wouldn't hold much of our interest. The main issue is that unlike The Martian, another one person survival story, is in this film there are no "problems" to solve, it's just one unconquerable difficulty after another, that there is no way to outhink/outmanouvre. Like predetermined fate, but at least this makes the ending more palatable, if still somewhat unsatisfying. Although an interesting angle on the story, is that the domesticated dog is basically on the same journey the man is. This is intimated somewhat when the dog and the wolf lock eyes, so the dog is trying to not descend into savagery as well. Which is pretty cool as there is a influential theory that wolves domesticated themselves by just hanging around human encampments.

The first resident evil film is alot better imo. Although this film has an innovative approach in that it tries to reproduce situations in the game, i thought it was too lazy in effort. There are alot of good set pieces but they don't pay off emotionally. The music barely registered as existing for me., virtually relies on one main actor who has no track record of headlining a film, that's just sloppy. i found his performance one note and lackluster but i blame the director/writer for most of this. i think a more proven actor would have pushed back more. The film has dumb comedic elements throughout it, which is out of place and makes no sense unless the games are supposed to be funny as well. (it's survival horror, not horror comedy), two situations with a child and baby barely registered for him or the audience. The ending was a downer. Creggers previous film Weapons was far superior. Hopefully he hands the franchise to a different director which treats it more seriously without the humour. I mean i would give it back to w.s andeson but working on the framework creggar established here, remember andersron made Event Horizon. (without Alice storyline of course)

I suspect this film was inspired by the game Jagged Alliance 2 and it's popular new sequel Jagged Alliance 3. That was one of the coolest aspects of the film. Otherwise the film lacked alot of characterization, and relied entirely on it's pretty good cast. But there is nothing to bite into in this tasty snack. The only interesting character in the film is the main one Rachel, but we are given no info on her background, training, motivation and so on. I thought Ritchie had gone totally soft with his Young Sherlock series, but apparently i was wrong as this is a traditional action film albeit with a female at it's lead, but she's quite feminine so no complaints here.

Not really a zombie film, more of a post apocalyptic gangster politics film. Writers have lost the plot. Granted historically zombie films do have a strong political subtext, but here the zombies are the subtext. Also seems quite anti-religious, without much nuance.

Yeah it is really one of the best action films ever made, saw it in cinemas recently, the time flies in this film, never a dull moment, and I'd already seen the film a few times, no doubt. It's marred somewhat by the smoking and the nigh unbelievable suggestion a pregnant woman should drink alcohol haha.

One of Finchers best films. It has a sly underlining satire aspect in much of the film (probably from the comic) which makes things alot lighter and less serious than his usually overly ponderous films. (Fight Club vibes) But also very masculine focused as it's a pure action film (new for Fincher). Great action scenes, sound, cinematography and acting by Fassbender is great, although i thought the taxi driver was pretty weak.

Worse than Glass Onion. Felt like walking out twice in the film. Too needlessly complex, denigrates Christianity which doesn't surprise me. Classic "bash the conservative" angle of hollywood. Celebrates criminal as hero. And the admittedly good cast is wasted with hardly anything to do. Even Daniel Craig falters. Immoral ending too. Not even worth watching on netflix for free.

Yeah it's ok, worth watching due to the rarity of this type of pure action film, reminds you of rambo. But i thought it was marred by weird feminist moments, the annoying lack of dialogue and characterization. (indeed our hero is basically mute as are the villains) And also some really unrealistic moments even for an action film, which is annoying as the film otherwise has a hyper realistic high level production quality to it. But seems like a good start if this becomes a franchise, as these errors can be rectified.

Yeah the film is ok but primarily marred by it's heavy political messaging which appears pro-communist. So ironically I was almost rooting for the bad guys in the end haha. The directors previous film Baby Driver wasn't nearly so heavily politicized which made it alot more watchable. Moral of the story - Never go full commie.

It's a decent action film with some impressive emotional moments. But admittedly it's not really a Predator movie, they diverge from the core aspect of the film franchise which is the predator predating on people, or the main hero being predated upon. There is also a heavy female influence albeit in android form, a far cry from the macho male characters in previous films. The Alien franchise android is also "emotional" and doesn't follow orders, which goes against the very spirit of Alien franchise androids. So enjoy the film for what it is but don't take it too seriously and let go of the past. This doesn't bode well for the Alien and Predator franchises, as they will be stripped of all their original meaning but this was inevitable with Disney now owning the properties.

It's great, but its marred by not being able to understand certain important dialogue scenes. Not sure if the microphone recording was messed up as is the norm in modern films or what they say is too complex to understand. (poetic stuff). Frankly an artist like Del Toro should make sure we understand what the eff the character is saying by rerecording their dialogue in the studio, at least just for that scene. After the movie, you wondering what the eff they said in key scenes. As for the movie, I in contrast to probably alot of others found the Victor part of the movie more interesting, as his character is more complex. It's slightly marred by Oscar Isaacs slight theatrical performance, although seems the director wanted this given the outfits in this film. (they lean towards the fashionable rather than gritty). Also was impressed alot with the female character in this film, as the moment she opens her mouth she almost rivals being as interesting as Victor and Adam. Not sure how he pulled that off, but bravo. The acting of Adam is brilliant, can't be denied. But all acting is very strong by the three major leads. Waltz I feel is a bit typecast here too familiar, he doesn't change his accent for the film unlike the other three leads, a shame. Another problem is I disliked a certain critical scene which was unrealistic in the strength Adam showed, should have made it more clear that his power varied depending on his emotional state, as it would make a couple key scenes more powerful and able to be understood.

Doesn't make any sense, but the acting and dialogue are strong, so keeps you entertained throughout.

Dissapointed at his supposed cult classic, the story is rather epic but rather a chore to get through, the remake is a better film.

Very meh. Makes superman not cool anymore. Introduces a degenerate supergirl. Luthor actually makes sense here but he's never been lamer. Lois is not very charming, same with superman. Mr Terrific is cool, as is his whole team. Overall probably the worst superman film yet. Although not surprised with Gunn at the helm.

It's a good film with hardly any violence. Tracks a family of criminals in italy. Not as stomach churning as Gomorrah film. i thought the ending made sense, (goat herding scene is critical) and it's nice that it doesn't celebrate criminality like your typical american mafia simp film.

Yeah it's a disappointment from the first 28 days later, this is more of a light zombie movie, where the zombies aren't as terrifyingly dangerous as the previous two films. The film goes off on tangents and lacks focus. But apart from that it's good.

Film made me finally figure out the dracula tale is about class, a rich old guy that preys on young married women. In this respect the ending makes alot more sense than coppolas dracula. But overall the film was neither thrilling nor scary but did remain interesting. The antics of the main female character brought to mind the effects of social media on young womens minds lol.

Decent old fashioned action flick. Can't really complain. The villains and main villains are also standouts. The main character is a bit unbelievable as a remorseless killer, but that's about it.

John Woo face/off fans will be disappointment, the main actress nathalie emmanuel charisma is the only reason the film is watchable, sure the film has directing style but it lacks substance and coherence.

Yeah the setup and plot is pretty brilliant. i saw the film because of Nathalie who I found quite impressive in previous work she's done. She doesn't disappoint and carries the film but the acting performances all round are very good. Overall worth watching if you like the premise, perhaps they could do a reboot with the same plot.

Film is nothing but boring exposition after exposition interlaced with unimaginative and impersonal fight scenes The worst MCU film so far although I haven't seen captain marvel or thor love and thunder. At least we still have deadpool 1 and 2. Borderline unwatchable