Why So Blu?

This flick is so underrated! It's one of the better "found footage" films out there.

asianxcore

When I used to write for reviews for a Horror Movie Website (and Group) here in Northern California, it came up a lot among our Found Footage Aficionados.

Not sure why it had taken me so long to see it. I definitely enjoyed it!

Angel Has Fallen (2019)

I honestly keep returning to these films for Gerard Butler and its commitment to ridiculous action set-pieces.

It's wafer-thin when it comes to character development and its plot should sound pretty familiar to anyone who has watched an Action film or two. The film also Type-Casts pretty hard and because of this audiences will predict events even before they occur.

Nick Nolte, though used sparingly, was incredibly refreshing in this film.

asianxcore

Candy Corn (2019)

Director/Writer Josh Hasty's debut feature does quite a handful of things right, such as solid Cinematography, a great performance from Pancho Moler and a commitment to world-building (visual) aesthetics.

Unfortunately, everything else about the film is incredibly flat and will ultimately be thrown on the current pile of films that feel merely like 80s Horror Tributes.

asianxcore

The Report (2019)

Fantastic performance from Adam Driver inside a dark & ugly time in American History.

JeffTheAlpaca

More sun than rain in this movie

JeffTheAlpaca

In the minority but this is better than any and all the MI movies combined.


Probably the last Tom Cruise movie I liked and Collateral which came a year before this.

JeffTheAlpaca

Olivia Cooke from Bates Motel was in this forgettable movie.

JeffTheAlpaca

Strange but a good watch on a rainy day

TheMovieman

Ready or Not (2019) — Fun little horror-thriller-(dark)comedy that was entertaining enough and features a great performance from Samara Weaving, who has similar command of the scene like her dad. Story-wise, not groundbreaking but as someone who generally doesn't enjoy dark comedies, this one worked for me. 3.5/5

Should mark off points for not using Fugee's "Ready or Not" song.

JeffTheAlpaca

Forgettable though Tika Sumpter is smoking

rogerrobert69

Godzilla Raids Again (1955)

Follow up to superb Gojira is mostly a dud. The monster big G fights off is lame, the sfx are trerrible and the plot is just silly. Fortunately there were better ones (all being relative of course) to come in the next decade!

rogerrobert69

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

I'm very partial to Wes Anderson and this is a delight to rewatch. I showed it to some teenagers in a school I work in occasionally. They seemed to have enjoyed it. As far as I could tell with non-expressive teenagers!

rogerrobert69

Revolver (1973)

Italian suspense with badboy of English cinema Oliver Reed in a usual mean-bullying character. Not great nor awful. Typical of 70s italian cop films I guess.

rogerrobert69

The Irishman (2019)

Saw this at the cinema on its limited run. All are in fine form but I found the raving critics are not deserved. Not the best Scorsese by far. Feels reheated at times. The Jimmy Hoffa part of the film should have been it, the rest I found less interesting and superfluous. Still, worth a 100 lame Hollywood blockbusters.

rogerrobert69

No Direction Home: Bob Dylan (2005)

3 1/2 hours documentary on Dylan by Scorsese. Even at that lenght it's totally incomplete (which was intented I guess). First half concentrates on his folk acoustic years and second half on his going electric that shocked the folk world and establishment. Nothing after that!
And that second part relies heavily on footage from D.A. Pennebaker's film Don't Look Back about his first disastrous electric tour of England. Watchable but since Dylan is his usual unsympathetical self it's not for everyone. At least you get everyone else from the period - Baez, Van Ronk, Seeger, Kooper, etc - talking profusely about Dylan.

Goonies85

Transformers - Just as shitty as I remembered. I thought it was about time I gave this Michael Bay movie another chance. And? It was horrible. Just awful. Like, I usually hate everything Stephen Sommers does, but I actually thought that G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra was an excellent adaptation of the cartoon. He didn't lose the inherent silliness of the cartoon, and he made the characters unique and somewhat memorable. Also, I felt the characters were distinguishable. In Bay's Transformers movie, the robots all look the same; just a mass of machinery. I assume that was to make the movie look "realistic", but that's not the point of the Transformers. He should've kept it more cartoonish. And while I've grown to like LaBeouf, he was awful in this (that said, a lot of that has to do with the script/lines he was given). Megan Fox was nice to look at but didn't really add anything. Turturro obviously took this one for the paycheque. By the end fight scene, I could've cared less what would happen. I never felt that any of the humans were threatened, and the CGI was just super obvious and distracting. With the right script (and a proper director), I think this could've been great. I own the next two in the series and might watch them just to see if anything improves...but I'm not holding my breath...Just a horrible movie that really only made money because of inherent hype around the property, and the fact that Bay's target audience were children...

King Kong - The Peter Jackson version (I viewed the Extended Edition). I was never a giant fan of the Lord of the Rings movies, so keep that in mind. I did NOT like this one. Way, way too f**king long. Way, way too reliant on CGI. Every scene where the various characters are running around being chased by various creatures were so obviously green-screened this might as well have been a cartoon. I don't understand why Jackson gets so much acclaim when so much of his movies are completely computer-generated (BUT, I loved The Frighteners, because the CGI wasn't overdone, and what was done fit the movie; The Lovely Bones is also a bit underrated, and I appreciated what he did with that movie). I did somewhat like the ending and was impressed with Naomi Watts, but really the movie made no sense and Jack Black was pretty bad in this (I like him in certain things, like High Fidelity and School of Rock). And again, if you never really feel like the main characters are in any sort of peril, then those constant attacks by creatures on the island just seem redundant (why do the special effects in Jurassic Park look way better and more realistic than the crap in this movie? Well, cause they used a combination of CGI and animatronics, so it didn't look completely fake). Don't intend on revisiting this one again, although I might check out the Special Features...that's what I liked the most about the Lord of the Rings movies...

Star Trek: Insurrection - Loved First Contact. I remember seeing that in the theatre and thinking it was fantastic. Never saw this one until the other day (mainly due to the other topic in the forum). Piss-poor movie. Weak villains. Lack of suspense. Horrible attempts at humour (mainly involving Data, who I wish would just remain an android and not have the stupid "emotion chip" or whatever the hell it is implanted in him). Brent Spiner just annoys me when he makes clear and obvious attempts at being funny...Sometimes just being emotionless Data is funnier in the long run...

Star Trek: Nemesis - Never a giant fan of the Romulans as villains (much preferred the Klingons or the Borg...or Khan, of course). While better than its predecessor, this was ultimately pretty weak. I thought the direction was okay, but the cast really deserved to be sent off on a better note...It was interesting seeing Tom Hardy in this, though...Not to say he really impressed, but it's always interesting to see actors of his caliber and what some of their first roles were...Obviously he went on to much, MUCH better things (one of the top actors working today, IMO)...

The Irishman - Very good Scorsese movie, but I'm not so sure about it being worthy of Best Movie of the Year. Not nearly as compelling as Goodfellas, Casino, Mean Streets, or even other non-Mob related Scorsese movies like The Wolf of Wall Street, Taxi Driver, or Raging Bull...Loved seeing the cast. Thought Pesci was the standout, but a large part of that is because we haven't seen him in so long...Wasn't too distracted by the "de-aging CGI", like a lot of folks...Just felt it was a little anti-climatic towards the end,



Overall a solid movie but I'm not sure it had to be three and a half hours...And I'm still amazed that it ended up costing somewhere north of $175 million dollars...That just seems insane to me when you view the movie...

TheMovieman

Mary (2019) — I have no clue why someone like Gary Oldman would sign up for a movie like this unless the premise, which was interesting I suppose, was enough and either he hadn't read the script or something happened in post because this supernatural horror-thriller had poor pacing and the only reason I stuck around, even though it has a short 85-minute running time, was because of Oldman who was fine but hardly great.

Pretty disappointing though learning that Nicolas Cage at one point was attached to star makes a certain amount of sense given the crap he's been in, although how they wrangled Oldman is baffling. 2.0/5

Why So Blu?

Forgettable movie? Shit, this was on my top-10 of the year that year. I thought it was fantastic.

3nthebag

The Irishman. I was not that impressed. Seemed to me that Marty could have left 45 minutes on the cutting room floor.

JeffTheAlpaca

ScarJo has never been hotter. She should try to look like this all the time


Another movie with Brie Larson though this time in a silent role with few lines just looking at her cellphone throughout the movie.

JeffTheAlpaca

It was not bad for a weeknight viewing

TheMovieman

It: Chapter Two (2019) — Wasn't a huge fan of the first but did like the young cast but the scares were non-existent. This sequel had a couple okay moments and I did like the characters as adults, but Bill Hader easily was the standout. Still wasn't very scary yet even with the lengthy running time never felt like it dragged. One day I may try watching the two back to back, but between the two, not overly impressive. 3.5/5

3nthebag

Angel Has Fallen. Wasn't expecting much but was pleasantly surprised with the story, action and execution. Some of the stunt and camera shots were amazing.

TheMovieman

Hustlers (2019) — Surprisingly lifeless crime-drama that never really takes off despite some respectable performances from Jennifer Lopez and Constance Wi, but otherwise never felt anything (either way) for the characters or the story. 2.5/5

asianxcore

QT8: The First Eight (2019)

Fairly light & well-paced Documentary on Director Quentin Tarantino.

Enjoyed the anecdotes. Could have done without Film Critic Louis Black.