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Edge of Tomorrow

A decent Tom Cruise vs Aliens film (this is number... 3 for him? War of the Worlds and Oblivion, have I missed any?) but let down by the meaningless title. The Manga's title - All you need is Kill - or the tagline in the poster - Live Die Repeat - would have served much better.

The short version, Tom Cruise and his exo-skeleton are fighting aliens and Tom dies within 10 minutes of the start of the battle. But in the process he's splashed with ALPHA ALIEN BLOOD which puts him in a time loop where with each death he resets to the start of the day. The middle of the movie is entertaining as he relives and learns combat skills and tries to figure out the mystery. In the end he learns how to beat the aliens just as he loses the power and now must use his last life to win.

The ending is a total let down, feeling like a happy ending tacked on for no reason. If they'd resisted temptation and followed their own damn rules it would have been a lot stronger. As is... I dunno, 3 stars? maybe 2? Not bad but other than the Exo Suits and D Day style battle is there anything to remember here?

If it “stars” Tom cruise?

That’s and automatic -40ut9u49u59u3 score.

Not it’s not logical, but neither is his appeal.

It’s a solid movie. He’s good in it and so is Emily Blunt, but Bill Paxton is fantastic. See it for him if for no one else.

The book has a much better ending, though I can see why they wanted a happier ending for the movie.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
Not bad but other than the Exo Suits and D Day style battle is there anything to remember here?

Wasn't there an Emily Blunt workout montage in that movie?

I may have dreamed it up, tbh.

We lost our human.

It was movie night in the Flinty household and daughter of 8 warms up her kids Netflix profile for some weekend frivolity. This wee gem is front and centre. Looks cute so we put it on.

Cute pets, so far so good. Reality glitch making all humans disappear. A bit deep maybe but the pets are cute and wisecracky, so no harm no foul. Multi dimensional shenanigans, whatever.

Then the cute soft toy looking characters make an appearance and it all starts to escalate dramatically. The squirrel states it wants to wear the main characters skin, happy tree friends style. Well hopefully daughter missed that in all the cuteness. Oh another dimensional shift. For the love of… so now they are zombies wanting to eat the characters brains… “daddy can we stop this. It’s kind of freaking me out”

What were they thinking!?

Oh yeah, it’s also an Interactive thing. And one of the choices is to save the cute cat main character, or save the universe. And so universe is saved and we get a lovely rendition of “it’s ok, I have had a good life and I love you, drop me and save everyone else”.


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And the meatball character that literally gets splattered across the landscape moments after being introduced.

Hopefully the post horror my little pony will be able to keep the nightmares at bay tonight.

Coco

Gave it a whirl was it reminded me of the truly wonderful Grim Fandango, a game I'm a tad proud of beating in the more or less pre-Internet days, the film is visually awesome with a few kick in the feels on par with Up, utterly worth a watch

Dark Water

I'm fairly sure I saw the original at some point and this one just seemed ahem watered down, I suspect if it wasn't for cuddlesome Jen and the much missed Pete Postelwait I would have given up, it's okay but feels like an overlong Outer Limits

I'll also 2nd Edge of Tomorrow, kind of fun and seeing wee Tommy C splattered over and over is fun, also has a local connection as the beach assault was meant to be filmed at my nearest beach but the studio changed its mind but the studio set is extended with CGI hijinks of said beach (and most of them down here was used a actual D-Day training locations)

Transformers Revenge of the Fallen

Why did I do this to myself? What an utterly wretched movie. Utterly devoid of charm, two extremely racists characters. Even Megan Fox wobbling in slow motion is scant reward for this awful mess of a movie.

I don’t think anyone is expecting Shakespeare here. I mean, it’s a Transformers movie. But it’s not even much fun. They even made Devastator lame.

Worse, having watched the first movie yesterday, I now feel obliged to watch the third one.

Third one Doc ?

But there are only 2 movies, the awesome sauce animated one and Bumblebee

It’s not good. I melted the eyes in my face holes.

Watching The Sand instead. Horror film about a carnivorous beach….

So…yeah. This alright, I guess. If like me you’ve seen Creepshow 2, and are familiar with the segment of that entitled The Raft? You’ve pretty much seen this movie. Except unlike The Sand, The Raft rattled through its premise and story in maybe 30 minutes.

I don’t dislike this movie as such, and I dare say had I’d not seen its obvious influence movie, it would be an enjoyable enough bit of hokum. It does suffer from obvious and not very good CGI, but given its low budget thats kind of understandable. The use of it is oddly uneven though. Pretty impressive in one kill, super ropey on others.

Might be one for a shonky horror movie night with friends and a few beers. Definitely one I think I’d have felt cheated if it wasn’t a free view, but something I’d specifically paid for.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
What an utterly wretched movie.

The fifth one makes this one look like Shakespeare.

I wasn't sure which thread this would fit in best.

Ok, Evil Dead the Musical.
You can find it on Youtube I think.

We watched Evil Dead the musical last night. They bashed evil dead 1 and 2 together with an army of Darknes ending. So in a way it seemed like it would be a reasonable back story for the show.
There's a song about Jake, the red neck who carries the luggage up to the cabin for 100 dollars in the movie, the man is a saint.
Running song - is look who's evil now. It's a train wreck.

The Owners

2020 horror movie, starring Maisie Williams and Sylvester “Greatest Incarnation Of The Doctor Ever” McCoy. Based on the comic book “Une nuit de pleine lune” which I can’t say I’m familiar with.

After my usual descent into utter, utter crap? This is good. Like, objectively good. Williams and McCoy are impressive in this. McCoy in particular is channeling a bit of his Doctor, without being a pastiche of that character.

Whilst billed as a horror, it’s on the psychological side of things. Heavy on creepy vibes, and you’re never quite sure where the characters stand.

I’m not gonna say much more, as I’m going to file this under “really enjoyable films you can only recommend but not explain why”. The same category Cube and let’s be honest, any decent psychological horror belongs in.

Give it a watch.


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Do you know me?

It’s another thriller! This time, the plot is kicked off by a 20 something discovering a lookalike of her as a kid on a Milk Carton.

Her friend calls the number for a laugh….and it all spirals from there.

This is….pretty enjoyable to be honest. The performances are good, and the plot isn’t too hokey, at least for my tastes. And hey, the premise is nothing if not interesting. Certainly I’m not aware of such a tale being a thriller.

Downside? I feel this could’ve been part of a Police Procedural TV show. Whilst it’s not dragging, and comes in at just under 90 minutes, I think a shorter format maybe have been to it’s benefit. I guess the crucial thing is I am not bored.




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Soldier

1998 Kurt Russell flick, direct by Paul W S Anderson.

Not a terribly well regard movie, certainly for its budget it feels a bit cheap. But. It is fun. And given its peculiar vintage, perhaps one of, if not the last sci-fi actioners made with practical effects instead of CGI.

Wiki suggests it’s a “sidequel” to Blade Runner, as they share a writer, and there are Easter Eggs. For my sins I’m just not familiar enough with Blade Runner to confirm or deny in my own opinion.

If anything, I’d say it feels very Rogue Trooper. Oh, and the vehicles in it really remind of the Votann’s wheels. Well. The Votann wheels really remind of these vehicles.

But hey. It is enough fun in itself, and one I do like to watch every now and again.

Nothing wrong with Edge of Tomorrow. I enjoyed it a lot and I absolutely agree with Kid_Kyoto about the ending.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Transformers Revenge of the Fallen

Why did I do this to myself? ...

That was exactly the question that shot through my mind when I saw the title and who posted it.

It's funny that I never watched Soldier. I think I saw more screenshots of the accompanying PC game that of the film itself.




Turnip Jedi: Funny, I'm pretty sure I saw the original Dark Water as well, but only have vague memories of it.



I have seen no films lately. Painted figures, played with figures.

Don't breath 2 - 2021.

An unnecessary sequel that turns the bad guy from the first movie into the almost hero offering him a Darth Vader style redemption at the end.

I don't know if there was any deeper meaning to this flick, not much past be nice to your dogs.
Didn't care for the ending but it's not a poorly constructed movie.

I think the first one was better or at least interesting as a concept.

Renfield- Are you a fan of the unique acting stylings of Nic Cage? Do you like old school splatterhouse fights, with buckets of blood and limbs flying everywhere?

Then this is the bizarre action comedy for you. The cast does a wonderful job. Shohreh Aghdashloo is far more frightening than Dracula, and Ben Schwartz is perfect as her bumbling son.But the real appeal for me was the ridiculously over the top violence. When you see a man's arms torn off, used to beat him and then thrown across the room to impale another dude- it's just delightfully weird. It is just a fun, blood soaked popcorn flick- kind of reminds me of the same tone as Idle Hands.

Robocop ; Prime Directives 3, Resurrection.

I bloody love Robocop, me. But this is one of the TV movies pretty much nobody even knew, let alone cared, that got made.

Didn’t realise it was part three of an ongoing series, so arresting it here to go find the others. For the brain is evil and it must be punished.

But…surely…surely they can’t be worse than Robocop 3?

Right?


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Oh god there’s not three of them. There’s four.

Oh no.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Robocop ; Prime Directives 3, Resurrection.

I bloody love Robocop, me. But this is one of the TV movies pretty much nobody even knew, let alone cared, that got made.

Didn’t realise it was part three of an ongoing series, so arresting it here to go find the others. For the brain is evil and it must be punished.

But…surely…surely they can’t be worse than Robocop 3?

Right?


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Oh god there’s not three of them. There’s four.

Oh no.

It's always a good sign when the cast is basically

Cast

Page Fletcher as Officer Alex Murphy / RoboCop
Maurice Dean Wint as Commander John T. Cable / RoboCable
Maria Del Mar as OCP Executive Sara Cable
Anthony Lemke as OCP Executive James Murphy
Leslie Hope as Ann R. Key
Geraint Wyn Davies as David Kaydick
Kevin Jubinville as OCP Executive Damian Lowe
Anthony J. Mifsud as Chuck Conflagration
Eugene Clark as Carver RH
Marni Thompson as Abby Normal
Françoise Yip as Lexx Icon

Do you want to know what is an even better sign?

Prior to being cast, Fletcher had not seen the RoboCop feature films, and no effort was made to mimic Peter Weller's original movements. Fletcher instead worked out a RoboCop movement system for himself that he felt was appropriate for where the character was, physically and emotionally.

Yeah...

So…the first one.

It’s not good. But. It’s not as outright awful as I was expecting.

It is a TV Movie, so managing expectations accordingly, the effects are…OK. Robo’s suit certainly looks the part, but the face makeup is dire.

However, it has a decent level of violence. And includes at least attempts at the satirical news inserts. They’re a bit too on the nose to work for me, but I appreciate the effort.

It’s all painfully average though. Nothing utterly awful. Nothing truly decent or above par. You can certainly tell someone gave a damn, but that most were just in it for a pay cheque or holding on to the rights.

If we were living in the pre-streaming days, I don’t think I’d consider my evening wasted if I stuck this on. But, we don’t, and so I’m afraid I’m going to bow out gracefully and stick the original on.

was that the one with the invisible truck ? One of the most wonderfully WTF moments ever

The Neon Demon

Surely it can't be as unsettling and wackdoo as Only God Forgives, okay so I was wrong, really strange and a bit like Sucker Punch I suspect the joke regarding (far too) young flesh is sort of on the viewer but without all the pop video action bits, with an ending that might top ‘The Perfection’ in its bonkers bonkerness

Avatar 2

Watched this over 2 nights with Mrs Aash now that it’s on Disney plus. We both enjoyed it a lot more than we expected to. I think it’s better than the first one, maybe because it felt like a more original story. I was always in the camp that the first one was just dances with wolves in space.

The film looks fantastic, as expected and the underwater scenes with the wildlife are really quite relaxing and serene. You could imagine David Attenborough narrating it.

Overall it was good, if overlong, and I find that I’m surprisingly looking forward to the next instalment. Considering that after seeing the original I wasn’t bothered about the prospect of a sequel.

Get Duked!

British horror comedy, in which 4 young idiots on a Duke of Edinburgh course are hunted across the Scottish Highlands by a demented upper class twit.

This is good fun. Not much in the way of gore or violence so far, with the comedy coming from the ineptitude of the main characters. And the Police’s own ineptitude.


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Dead Again

What happens when you’ve seen Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and Worlds End, and reckon you can do that? But in fact, you can’t do that?

You get this soulless knock-off cash in. No tension. No laughs. No discernible talent anywhere.

To top it off, a bloody awful “song” for the credits which has nothing to do with the theme of the film.

Avoid, avoid, avoid.

Paddington 2

This is a very charming movie about a naive, childlike bear sent to do hard time for a crime he didn’t commit. Lots of excellent use of set-up-and-pay-off blended into quirky character moments. Hugh Grant is captivatingly despicable, and also plays a good villain in the movie. Worth watching for the prison sequences alone.

Watch it!


Sharknado 5: Global Swarming

This film is the Infinity War to the next movie’s Endgame. In itself, it is less satisfying than previous entries. However, they’ve upped their comedic stunt-casting to new heights.

I watched a lot of films this weekend. No idea why.....


Across the Spider-verse
I like the style and feel of the first one alot. This one builds on that and has some good moments. Very self-referential and "mate".

However, I must have been the only idiot in the cinema that did not realize that it ended on a cliff hanger set-up for the next movie. That is bad form movie. Bad form!

Conan
The Jason Mamoa re-boot in 2010 or so.

You know, there is a reason these Sword-and-Sorcery flicks do not click. Perhaps it is the casual misogyn, the rinse-and-repeat plots, or the badly edited fight scenes. Jason Mamoa (and the other actors really) does his best and is a strong Conan, but the "plot" is so by-the-numbers that it ultimately feels stale.

Now You See Me
A group of magicians pull of some big magic tricks, with a bit of theft on the side. An FBI agent and a magic de-bunker try to chase them down. All-star cast in this one.

This movie is not half as clever as it really wants to be. They make a big mistake by explaining the first "trick" to the audience, and then so armed, it is easy for the audience to predict every move after that. At least, I thought so.

Knight and Day
Cameron Dias and Tom Cruise vehicle where Tom gets to play his manic-self and Dias gets to do her schtick too. It is exactly what you think it is as an action-comedy of the vintage. I would think it is a Mr. and Mrs. Smith knock-off, but I am not sure what came first.

This is the type of movie that Hollywood barely makes anymore, because it is a mid-budget romance/adventure flick not based on source material from a book, play, comic, etc. After watching the film, I am not sure Hollywood skipping on these types of movies anymore is a bad thing. However, it seems tailor made for modern streaming!




Despite seeing a lot of movies, I ma not sure i would really recommend any of them. <shrug>

Snow White and the Huntsman

How bad could it be? It has Thor!

Pretty dang bad. Helmsworth is completely wasted and for the life of me I cannot remember another actor in it.

What if Snow White was an action movie? And what if catapults caused explosions? And the what if the magic mirror turned into a CGI monster for the final fight?

I won't say it should be burned out of space and time but I will say skip it.

Oh my word, there's a sequel.

And I only have till June 30 to see it on Netflix!

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
Pretty dang bad. Helmsworth is completely wasted and for the life of me I cannot remember another actor in it.

You can't remember Charlize Theron, Kristen Stewart, Ian McShane, Nick Frost, Bob Hoskins or Toby Jones?...

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
Snow White and the Huntsman

How bad could it be? It has Thor!

Pretty dang bad. Helmsworth is completely wasted and for the life of me I cannot remember another actor in it.

What if Snow White was an action movie? And what if catapults caused explosions? And the what if the magic mirror turned into a CGI monster for the final fight?

I won't say it should be burned out of space and time but I will say skip it.

Oh my word, there's a sequel.

And I only have till June 30 to see it on Netflix!

If you thought the 1st was bad....

Extraction 2 - Bulletproof/10

The first Extraction was an out-of-nowhere surprise film. Not especially great, and certainly not a classic for the ages, it did distinguish itself with inventive action scenes including some exhilarating one-shot chase and fight scenes with fantastic stunt work. Seriously, look into the behind-the-scenes stuff on how they did some of the vehicle scenes, it's incredible. It was quite a bit of fun.

The sequel starts with that energy. We get the immediate aftermath of the first film (which serves to justify why the story is continuing) and we get a lot more from the main character's support team. Then we get into the movie-proper and we get an even more elaborate and well-stage action/chase sequence that has to be seen to believed. It's 21 minutes of good non-stop action, and whilst there are camera cuts using clever screen wipe background/foreground element tricks, it is put together as one continuing shot that takes us from the bowels of a prison to a tumbling cargo train fighting off helicopters.

The problem is that after that sequence, it never reaches the same height. The siege of the multi-story building is interesting, and it's nice that the bad guys both have a good plan of attack and are heavily geared up for the fight, but it's done in a conventional manner that makes it just another action sequence. The finale is similar to that, only shorter and less satisfying. Also everyone is bullet-proof, and it eventually gets rather silly when the main bad guy and the main girl both empty most of a pistol mag into one another and still aren't dead. Yes, they're wearing armour, but it's still stupid.

Overall it's better than above average simply because of the good and inventive action, and it's nice to have people talking in their natural accents/languages for the entire film, but it doesn't have he energy of the first.


The Covenant - Duty/10

The strangest thing about The Covenant is that if no one told you it was a Guy Ritchie film, you wouldn't know! It is completely devoid of his usual visual flare, none of his cross-cutting and tightly intertwined plotting, clever use of flash back and voice-over, and certainly none of his dark humour. If that sounds like a criticism, it actually isn't, both because all those flourishes would be completely out of place/inappropriate for the subject matter of this film, and because The Covenant feels like a deeply serious passion project that the director wanted to tell. It's outside of his wheelhouse, and I think that makes it a better film. He can't rely on the stuff he normally uses, because it would cheapen and worsen the film as a whole.

If you have never heard of this film before then I don't blame you. As Extraction 2 is a Netflix film, The Covenant is an Amazon film. It stars Jake Gyllan... Gillan... Jigglypuff. Jake Jigglypuff as a US army sergeant tasked with hunting down IED factories in Afghanistan (2018 I believe?). He's dissatisfied with what he's doing because he and his team are turning up empty every time. At a routine checkpoint a bomb goes off, killing a member of his team as well as their local interpreter. As a result they get a new interpreter, who is a bit of a hard-case and he doesn't really gel with Jake Wigglyworm's character. The first half of the film centres on the interpreter saving them from an ambush, and then saving Jake Gigglefits' life and dragging him by hand cross-country after his unit is wiped out. But the main part of the film is what happens after that, with Jake Wiggleroom back at home and eaten up by the guilt and the debt that he owes this man, a man who has gone into hiding from the Taliban and wasn't given the promised visas for him, his wife, and his newborn son. Eventually Mysterio decides enough is enough, and goes back himself (and with money to get some help from a private contractor group... and boy do they bring the rain!) to rescue the man and his family.

It's a very serious film with some fantastic action sequences and great character work from Jake Gyllenhaal and from Dar Salim, who plays the interpreter (and has a passing resemblance to a younger Temura Morrison). Definitely worth watching, both because of the performances, the subject matter, a very different style of film from Guy Ritche, and because I doubt we're going to get many serious Afghan war films, so this is somewhat unique.

The Chronicles of Riddick


What if Steven Seagal made a Dune movie?

This is a weird movie. It’s clearly a vanity project for Vin Diesel, but it’s also an attempted franchise and a cargo cult Sci Fi epic. It feels like it was constructed from the first book of a five part series, with half the pages torn out for time.

One area where it shines is production design. It has a specific look that makes every set, every spaceship, every costume (other than the black tank top) distinctive to the Riddickverse. It feels like Lynch’s Dune in that regard. It’s worth watching just for the sets and props.


And that’s a good thing because the acting is stiff and stilted. Even Karl Urban comes off badly in this film. Only the Lord Marshal makes the pseudo-gravitas work for him.

If you’re looking for a good movie, this isn’t it. If you’re looking for an enjoyably flawed ambitious failure, this is the film for you.

Come on now: Seagal's an awful person. Don't put that stink on Vin.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Come on now: Seagal's an awful person. Don't put that stink on Vin.

Fair point. I only meant it in the sense that he comes across as an Egomaniacal action star with a clause in his contract outlining how few punches his character may receive in a film. The first time I saw the film, I wasn’t sure whether he was genuinely oblivious or just committed to the bit. After seeing Riddick, I was sure.



Poochie would also have been a good comparison, as when he’s not on screen, everyone is asking, “Where’s Riddick?”