Rate the last film with your terrible opinions

“Okay, who brought the dog?”

Read what it was about, saw the poster and thought..nah.

That sounds right up my street

Help. (Channel 4/All4)

Brilliant, harrowing, and important.

Comer and Graham are such great actors.

9/10

Seen the Cooler? Macy was made for that role

I'm a big Paul Schrader fan (I've met him - I bought him a drink! - and I wrote my dissertation on him) so I'm probably a little biased, but if you like his other films or scripts of this ilk - of tortured existential masculinity - I can't see how you would be disappointed by The Card Counter, even if you get fed up of his recycled 'ending' (ie Pickpocket's ending).

Oscar Isaac is fucking great in it. If perhaps you are ambivalent towards the film surrounding it, his performance is worth seeing.

The critical response is pretty consistently high, btw, if I were to put any stock in Rotten Tomatoes and the like (high 80s): it's the audience scores that are lowish.

Make of that what you will and adjust your enjoyment phasers accordingly.

DUNE
I really set myself up for a disappointment on this one. I loved Arrival, and Blade Runner 2049, I've read some glowing reviews of Dune, plus being back in a cinema in front of a big screen after all this time.. I was hyped to say the least. And hype tends to ruin films.

But, this time it didn't. Denis Villeneuve, and his sfx team, delivered in spades. Apart from Aquaman making sure everyone knows he's a carboard cutout kind of actor, the cast delivered as well. But I think it was mostly the big screen and floor rattling sound that did the heaviest lifting. This is a grand spectacle, and the half way battle really delivers. So much so that the rest of the film is more of a long come down. No matter how many wall jump punches they chuck in there.  

Plot wise it's a tricky beast for me. I read the book quite a while ago, so long that I'd forgotten why I ended up hating it, but I remember thinking the first third was the best space opera ever, the middle a bit ho-hum, and the last third pure agony. The film reminded me of why I hated the book. It's a story on two tracks, there's the court intrigue, decadence, and space opera stuff, that I love. Then there's the white saviour, messiah story that get's really repetitive and whiny. 

Thankfully the film ends just when the story hones in on the shit bits. I'd personally be absolutely fine with this not getting the sequel.

I might actually manage a couple of games tonight so I'll do the deed.

More peculiar to think everyone should like what you like TBH

I think given the budgets these films get 90% of them are absolute crap

But if someone enjoys them, more power to you, they are not for me.

Kate - 6.5/10

Perfectly serviceable action flick with Mary Elizabeth Winstead (looking like a young Ripley) taking names and kicking ass. She's really good at it too. 

The film flies along at a pretty kinetic pace which I think is great. A couple of minutes of brooding and self-reflection and then on with the action. I think the action sequences are pretty good apart from that car chase. It looks like a bad PS3 render. Everything else I though was very well done. She's not indestructible either and she does take a good beating along the way to getting revenge.

A lot better than Jolt as a female lead action flick.  

'71 - 8/10

Brutal, tense, atmospheric thriller which follows a British soldier who is accidentally abandoned by his unit following a riot on the streets of Belfast. 

This film has been around for a long time but I've only just got around to watching it. It's one of the best thrillers I've seen in ages. They really manage to capture a feeling of tension, panic, fear and resentment and it also throws in a number of surprises as well. 

Well worth a watch. Director Yann Demange was offered the latest 007 film after Danny Boyle left over "creative differences". Same think happened to Yann sadly. Having seen this, I think he'd make a terrific director for a 007 film. 

Prisoners of the Ghostland - 2/10

Typical Nicholas Cage. He put is a magnificent performance in a brilliant film like Pig and then follows it up with this massive pile of pig shit. 

I really wanted to like this but I didn't. The film does have a very interesting aesthetic but that wears off really quickly. There's nothing interesting driving the narrative forward so it just becomes boring to look at. That and the director seems to reuse a lot of shots when showing the world they've created. That seems to be the main thing the film is sold on so there's not really much left.

Okay, there's wild and crazy Nicholas Cage but he never goes full Cage. There's a scene towards the end where he kind of seems to be going for it but then he reigns it in. Cage does continue his trend of having a number of scenes where he just appears in his grunderpants though and there's one really funny bit involving the bombs that are attached to him.

You really cannot tell what you're going to get with him. Sometimes you get films like Mandy and Colour Out of Space which are bonkers great. Then you get this and films like Jiu Jitsu and Willy's Wonderland. They look potentially bonkers good but turn out to be fucking shite. 







 

The Ruins (2008)
A couple of couples on holiday in Mexico hear about a ruins that isn't on any map. They decide to check it out and carnage ensues.
Pretty decent horror and different from the norm. Has some scenes that made me cringe.

7/10

Yeah I was gutted. Pretty solid film until the reveal. I know it was supposed to be batshit crazy, but it ruined it for me.

The latter. It just came across as really shit (for me anyway)I liked all the reverse shit though.

Did they walk out backwards? Because that would probably look really stupid