asianxcore

T2: Trainspotting (2017)

inri222

The Martian - 1/5

More pretty looking on the surface, empty on the inside, badly written, treat your audience like they're idiots, cliched bullshit from Sir Ridley. This makes The Counselor look like a masterpiece.

Spikedragon

asianxcore

The Void (2017)

asianxcore

The Devil's Candy (2015)

Spikedragon

asianxcore

She Kills (2016)

Spikedragon

The Secret of Kells

TheMovieman

War on Everyone - ***/*****

Cellar Door

Passengers - I liked this more than I expected to from what I read about it when it was released.

asianxcore

Trainspotting (1996)

JimRochester

I enjoyed it but the characters aren't nearly as relatable as AFA



Interesting modern day bank robbery story. I just don't think you can get that much from the drawers to make it worthwhile.



Truth be told there were numerous occasions I struggled to know what the heck was going on.

Spikedragon

Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters

OldBoy

Office Christmas Party...added nothing new and the leads seemed like the straight person. all of them. they weren't really funny. it was the other secondary characters that were better. McKinnon is great and all her of course. She should do more stuff on her own. Movie was unremarkable with a tired, worn premise and only a few chuckles from me. Watched the whole thing, but that doesn't say too much.

Jonah Hex...saw some of this sometime ago, but not whole thing. i don't know how a movie gets put out with like a 1:16 movie runtime. that is pathetic when not an animated film. this could have been done way better. i don't know what the tone was or whether Hex was good or bad. Malkovich was typical baddie. i like a good western, even with a twist, but this was just nothing.

TheMovieman

The Towering Inferno (1974) — ***¾/*****

hanshotfirst1138

Between the OCD and depression from the crisis of faith, I can barely watch anything, but here are a few things I've managed to force myself to watch with friends and family at the movies, going out trying to at least leave the bed.

Logan- Hopefully this won't be the last tenure of Stewart and Jackman as their iconic Marvel characters, but if they are, they're sure going out in style. A Bryan Singer apologist who was skeptical of Mangold after his mediocre last outing, I owe the man an apology. A blend of Marvel mythology with "aging gunslinger" western mythology, much has been been made of the film's R-rating (Fans who've been yearning to see Wolverine do his thing uncut get their wish, and then some.), but the blood is mixed with an awful lot of tears. A sad, elegiac meditation on the nature of a life violence, sacrifice, loss, live pain, and redemption, if it doesn't quite manage to do something new win the superhero genre, damned if it doesn't try. Sad, powerful, and exhilarating, it's a hell of a film in any genre. We'll miss you, Logan. But you've earned your redemption and rest.

The Magnificent Seven- Antoine Fuqua's remake of a remake isn't Sturges, and it damn sure ain't Kurosawa. But for modern day action fare, it's not half-bad. The PG-13 rating is one of the most extreme I've seen, but it does manage to curb some of his most violent excesses, and the sturdy archetypes are fun. Pizzolato gives the actors some chewy dialogue, and they're clearly having the time of their lives. Their performances go a long way towards giving some depth to thinly-sketches characters, and highly enjoyable senses of personality. A surprisingly good time.

XXX: The Return of Xander Cage- After resurrecting Fast & Furious, Vin Diesel try bring some new life his other once franchise which sputtered. Whereas Lin brought the car franchise gonzo new life, this disappointingly fails to offer much that's new; it's not only 15 years late, but 15 years out of date. Diesel has, fortunately, learned from the box office smashes (pardon) of the past couple years to give himself an ensemble, and while Tony Jaa Panom gets disappointing little to do, Hong Kong action fans longing to see Donnie Yen Ji-Dan do his thing back by a full Hollywood budget get their wish; none of the set pieces are showstoppers, but Yen gets to show off his exhilarating fighting skills in the film's more inspired moments. The ensemble idea offers potential, but the film needs a gonzo Justin Lin at the helm, someone who can reinvent things, instead of a gun for who hire who's competent but dull.

The Legend of Tarzan- Peter Jackson's Hobbit films' green screen looks like David Lean by comparison to Yates mass orgy of CGI. That said, as a modern action film, it's not too bad if you take it for what it is. It has little on its mind-the themes of running an empire with slavery are mostly just excuses for thrills-but the leads are all engaging enough to carry the film, as well as pleasant eye candy for both genders, and if they aren't the best looking, it doesn't mean the set pieces lack for entertainment value. In the age of current superhero blockbusters, it fits in fairly well. Whether that's a recommendation or besmirching of the film is up to you.

Kong: Skull Island- Long live the King. Jordan Voight-Roberts doesn't do a damn new thing with his giant monster adventure, and that's just fine. A perfectly functional modern day CGI creature-feature, it's amicably unpretentious, offering up a giant ape killing plenty of cool creatures and an A-level cast having a blast hamming it up. Loads of fun.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them- Retuning to the Wizarding World pre-Potter is a cool idea, and Yates brings along a wealth of experience from the whole second half of the franchise. Rowling has a marvelous imagination, even if the finale's Michael Bay-style chaos feels a little too much like a screenwriting 101 climax. Still, the characters are all fun and interesting and make for a great crew to spend the film with, Yates pulls out a few nice quirks, and if it's 1920s New York City is entirely green-screen from an English studio, it's a nice new setting that the filmmakers have fun playing with. Not shot on 35mm though. Assholes.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story- Oh, goody! Another Star Wars product connected to the original trilogy that Disney doesn't have any plans to release! How exciting!!! More filmmakers making their childhood fantasies of making Star Wars fan-fiction with $200 million. Gareth Edwards has his moments-seeing Donnie Yen Ji-Dan do his thing is again loads of fun, Felicity Jones makes for an engaging lead, and several cast members are relishing the chance to be in a galaxy far far away. It's a better prequel than any of the Lucas ones, but in the end, whether you like George Lucas or not, what he did in the 70s and 80s was stylistically new. Like Abrams, Edwards feels like a kid playing with his dad's toys, the cobbled-together by committee narrative jumping all over the the place and the plot much to disjointed for it's simple rebels vs. bad guys narrative. There's certainly fun to be had, but Edwards' grittier world lacks the Errol Flynn swashbuckle of the original of the original and the dark gravity of ESB. Neither terrible nor a misfire, there are moments of fun, but it all just serves to remind me of what I don't have and would kill to, and how much I miss it.

John Wick: Chapter 2- Applying the usual sequel tequila principle (If a little is good, more must be better!), this second installment occasionally overstretched itself, and is a little too long, but is still lots of fun, playing with its intricately choreographed set pieces and leaving New York for some globetrotting. Seeing Reeves and Fishburne back together is a nice treat for longtime action fans, and hopefully the setup for the final installment will make this one seem even better in retrospective. In the meantime, still fun, if overlong and overstuffed.

Ghost in the Shell- FUNimation re-released the famous 1995 anime feature for a theatrical one-night stand to hype the new live-action tie-in. Having not seen it in well over a decade and remembering primarily my high school love for its mix of cool visuals and freshman philosophy, I was surprised at how well it's stood the test of time. Production IG's glossy, if occasionally stiff animation is complimented by Oshii's attempts to balance the needs of the genre-gratuitous babes, slick visuals, cool action set pieces, mechanic designs-with his Antonioni-esque melancholy. More mature now, I can appreciate the film's quieter moments, its existential musings about mortality and the poetic visuals of the quieter scenes and Kenji Kawai's mournful score. All in all, time has been kinder to it than I'd have thought.