Mom and Dad - 6/10

An entertaining horror-comedy with a exceptionally gonzo performance from Nicolas Cage.

The only thing that brings it down for me is

Spoiler

the utter lack of an ending. It's like the writer wrote himself into a corner that he couldn't get out of and decided to end the movie mid scene. No conclusion, no explanation about where the transmission that made the parents go crazy came from, nothing. Just cut the movie in the middle of a line.

I didn't mind the approach as much during Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri because it felt thematically appropriate, but it feels random here.

 

Tomb Raider (2018)- 7/10

Believe the hype, the movie is pretty decent. Not bad at all.

 

The Strangers: Prey at Night.

Look, this was the first horror movie I've seen. I'm a huge wuss regarding horror. Yet, I've been a fan of the FNAF Series certain anime with horror themes, and DDLC. I'm fine with death, and even brutal ones at that. However, seeing a film where we see another human being slaughtering another human is something that has shocked me to the core. I don't really count horror films like Alien, since I find it easier to handle when you know it's a fictional tale.

Apparently, this is the second film in a series, and while I don't want to spoil anything, I believe the ending can be a hint that there's another installment. It's based on true events, which is very depressing, shocking, and worrying. It's a VERY suspenseful film, with quite a few jump scares. It's funny, as I was thinking about watching IT at the time the first trailer came out for that. However, the trailers played before this film scared me half to death. Seriously, how can people love these films?

Anyway, after that...interesting film was over, and I looked back on the film, I realized that I found a strange sense of enjoyment out of this. It's by no means a happy film, but if you'd like to know an exaggerated film based on true events, I recommend it. I will admit that I am quite paranoid now...

7/10. It's a good film, but due to my biases, I can't give it that high a rating.

 

Transformers TLK - 4/10

Even with that score I feel I am being a bit generous. What a mess. This movie seemed to be made up of almost completely random scenes with no explanation of how characters got from one point to another. Unicron is sort of introduced as a major plot point, but had zero bearing on the movie. Optimus is turned into Nemesis Prime, beats the shit out of Bumblebee, but changes back to Optimus before delivering the killing stroke because Bumblebee talked to him in his real voice? Seriously? This film was all over the place. I felt like the supporting cast of Transformers were all suffering from ADHD. They just spouted random pieces of dialogue over one another, and randomly do forward rolls and backflips while fighting. Megatron was a complete waste in this movie and just proves how ineffective a bad guy he is in the Bayverse. I really feel that five of us could sit down around a table with some beers and crunch out a better story and more realistic dialogue in about 3 hours. I am glad they are moving on...that was a train wreck.

 

Thor Ragnarok: 8.5/10: Best Thor movie of the 3. The action and story was good, even if some was borrowed from the Hulk comics. The call back to previous film jokes were all great! Hela was a great villain. Valkyrie, Loki, Korg were all great. Kinda mad i didn't get to see this in the theater.

 

Tomb Raider - 4/10

Huge fan of the 2013 reboot and Rise of The Tomb Raider. I didn't have high hopes for this movie, but it somehow managed to still be disappointing. Completely misses the point of the reboot, and has little to no character arc for Lara. Acting is fairly good all around, and I enjoyed Junkie XL's score, but as a story, it falls flat on its face.

My favorite part was

Spoiler

Walton Goggins getting punched in the d***, and he DOESN'T keel over, or do anything to signify that he got punched in the d***, other than be generally annoyed. I had a pretty good laugh at that.

 

Justice League - 8/10:

I know why people hated this film... It has a bit of camp and a bit too much forced humor. That said, it's a LOT of fun. And quite enjoyable! This is what a superhero movie is supposed to be, not the darkness of the Snyderverse. I'll admit, the tone is quite a bit different from what's come before, but a welcome change.

Murder On The Orient Express - ???/10:

Let's get right to the cast... They're utterly fantastic. Branaugh really knows how to cast a film and how to work them and man, does it show. (Side note: Daisy Ridley is gorgeous in this film. I know not everyone has the same type in terms of attraction, but all those online comments about her looking boyish and not a feminine Jedi... Those people are insane, because wow...)

Speaking of beauty, the scenery is gorgeous as well as the train set itself. The man has an undeniably good eye behind that camera.

Though, his camera work on this is questionable at best. His overhead shots grow old quick he keeps going back to them one time too many. I think it was to give a sense of scale, but it wasn't innovative or necessary. (Critics agreed.)

The characters weren't fleshed out enough, they needed more and really all we got was Poirot hamming it up for the camera, which came over a bit like vanity rather than "This is the character, behold!" The mystery more or less took care of fleshing them out some, but it was a lot of build up and none of them really lived up to what the audience is lead to believe they are.

I'd say that was the film's week spot, it wasn't quite handled as well as it could've been. I think that's the sad part. It irks you a bit because Branaugh is an excellent director and it feels like he just kind of dropped the ball here.

I guess 7/10.

 

Ferdinand: 9.5/10
Annihilation: 8.5/10

 

Thor Ragnarok for the third time. First two were in theatres, tonight was my 4K Blu Ray. I love this movie, maybe even a bit more with each viewing. The first time it was a bit off-putting because it was so funny, almost a complete departure from the first two. I laugh out loud, the effects are amazing, and I really mean the palate that is used to portray the various worlds and the universe at large. The score is great, a real Blade Runner/Stranger Things kind of vibe. Hemsworth shows he is not afraid to take shots at himself. There are some strong women in this movie, figuratively and literally. Its just good all around. Perfect? No, but for an action movie, it is pretty damned close.

9/10

 

The Dark Crystal 6.5/10
Annihilation 8/10
Godzilla 2000 8/10

 

Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising - 8.5/10

Story is essentially a retread of the original, but still delivers the laughs.

 

Pacific Rim: Uprising - 10/10

Just got back from Pacific Rim: Uprising which I found to be insane and most definitely bad ass.

I was pleased to see Chinese Actress Tian Jing star in the movie who has also been in The Great Wall and Kong: Skull Island. Looks like she is becoming quite the monster movie regular. She is very good looking and I find her very attractive indeed.

I liked the perspective shots in the movie that showed us that the monsters are big and that the people are smaller.

 

8/10 Netflix Ravenous, subtitled Canadian sort of zombie movie. Worth the time if you remotely like the genre.

 

Hans Zimmer: Live in Prague - 9.5/10

Full disclosure: I've always been a huge Hans Zimmer fan. Throughout high school, the Crimson Tide soundtrack got heavy play on my Discman (totally aging myself here). While John Williams is usually (deservedly) regarded as the GOAT movie composer, and James Horner was often the go-to guy for more "serious" projects, somehow I latched onto Zimmer's synth-laden work the most.

Make no mistake, as you will see in this concert film, Hans Zimmer is a certified musical genius. Still no signs of slowing down, and you can see his influence when he collabs with others (see: Jablonsky's TF scores). Only real knock is I would've liked to hear The Rock, especially since having Nick Glennie-Smith there was a tease.

 

I, Tonya - 8/10.

I would put this at a 7 but the acting made it an 8, really great. Story is decent, the pace was good, I enjoyed it overall.

 

Mary Magdalene.

7/10. I was raised Catholic so a movie like this will always interest me. I did shed a few tears watching it.

My only problem with it was Joaquin Phoenix as Jesus. I think he's a great actor and he was good in this but at the same time something seemed off.

I think his take on the character just didn't quite mesh with my life long perception of Jesus. Nothing wrong with his performance but I just think we're coming from different places.

 

I'd still give it a solid 7, but that's not to downplay how great is really was. It was such a unique balance of true events, drama and just some weirdly quirky comedy all spun together in a really neat way. Probably my favorite movie of the awards season contenders, in fact.

Allison Janney completely deserved all the awards she got since, as always, he f'ing nailed the role. And Margot Robbie... THIS is the movie that finally showcased that, yeah, this girl can act. She was great, and I think she deserved a bit more recognition. And to my surprise, same with Sebastian Stan. He was amazingly on point with his character portrayal.

I think the biggest thing that worked against the movie, however, was the subject: Tonya Harding. It doesn't matter how enlightening her story & life ended up being via this movie; she's just not someone most people like or remember enough to care about going to see a biopic about.

 

Sicario (2015) - 9/10

Black Panther - 10/10

Logan Lucky - 9/10

 

Live By Night - 6/10:

Done better, several times before. Performances were good, Affleck is clearly capable in all of his capacities here, but it just doesn't work in the end.

I wanted to like this film, I wanted to see something great, but it wasn't meant to be. I can see why it lost money and critics didn't like it. It feels very much like a retread, but with a subpar story to build off of.

Are we supposed to like this guy and what he does? Are we supposed to hate him? What does that say about us? It really answered none of those questions and some of the deaths were utterly pointless (yes, even in a gangster film).

Just not worth your time to own, but if you see it on TV or online via HBO (that's how I saw it), it's worth 2 hours, especially when it's free, but don't pencil it into your schedule, it's not worth it.

 

Pacific Rim - 9/10

Rewatched this last night to get hyped for Uprising and it's still a grand love letter to the classic kaiju movies and mecha even all these years.   And speaking of Uprising..

Pacific Rim Uprising - 7/10

Just saw this and I don't know how to feel about it. On one hand I like how it expanded certain bits from the last movie and a couple of twists but on the other hand it doesn't have that feel I got from the first movie. It felt more like a USA production of a giant monster/anime story whereas the first movie truly felt like a legit kaiju movie in a lot of respects but maybe that's what they were going for. not to mention certain scenes and elements I wished could've been delved into more but it's no to the point where it felt bad. Maybe I'll change my mind later on.