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Awix (3310 KP) rated La Mala Educacion (Bad Education) (2004) in Movies
Sep 18, 2019 (Updated Sep 18, 2019)
Another striking movie from Almodóvar's late 90s-early 2000s imperial phase. The complex plot resists easy summary, but concerns the makers of a film adapted from a story based on a (fictional) case of child molestation by Catholic priests - but not everything is quite as it initially appears to be. Flashbacks and the film-within-the-film echo and repeat each other; the line between them eventually blurs and vanishes.
Brilliant performances again, especially from Gael Garcia Bernal, and a fiendishly convoluted and clever script that never loses track of the seriousness of the issues involved: not for the first time, Almodóvar seems to be channelling Hitchcock in a very warped way. Less humane and optimistic than his other films, with a more ambiguous ending, but still a hugely impressive piece of cinema.
Brilliant performances again, especially from Gael Garcia Bernal, and a fiendishly convoluted and clever script that never loses track of the seriousness of the issues involved: not for the first time, Almodóvar seems to be channelling Hitchcock in a very warped way. Less humane and optimistic than his other films, with a more ambiguous ending, but still a hugely impressive piece of cinema.
David McK (3425 KP) rated In the Line of Fire (1993) in Movies
Jan 16, 2022
Early 90s political thriller starring the ever-reliable Clint Eastwood (in, I feel, a rare non-Western role) as the lone still-in-service Secret Service Agent who was on duty when JFK got shot, and who gets pulled into a game of cat and mouse when the current President's life is threatened during his re-election campaign by a psychopath, brilliantly (and creepily) played by John Malkovich, despite and over the advice of that President's chief of staff (who doesn't believe there to be any danger).
This takes a while to get going, and there are more than a few cliches along the way - "I'm going to quit tomorrow' being the most egregious - with the film largely relying on the charisma of its leading actors. Thankfully, they are - mostly - up to the task.
This takes a while to get going, and there are more than a few cliches along the way - "I'm going to quit tomorrow' being the most egregious - with the film largely relying on the charisma of its leading actors. Thankfully, they are - mostly - up to the task.
David McK (3425 KP) rated Moonfall (2022) in Movies
Aug 16, 2022
Peter Capaldi, Dr Who, 'Kill the moon'
Arthur C Clarke, 'Rendezvous with Rama'
2001: A Space Odyssey.
Any number of Roland Emmerich's own disaster movies.
It might seem odd talking about all those, bit throw them in a blender and the result might be something like this!
I was expecting a traditional end of the world disaster movie - like 2012, say, or Deep Impact, or something along that vein - which the movie does start as, with the moon mysteriously knocked out of it orbit and hence causing all kinds of chaos on good old planet Earth. Roughly about 2/3rds of the way in, though, it completely changes tack, becoming more of a sci-fi spectacle than anything, and closer - perhaps - to one of Emmerich's own most successful films of the mid 90s ...
Arthur C Clarke, 'Rendezvous with Rama'
2001: A Space Odyssey.
Any number of Roland Emmerich's own disaster movies.
It might seem odd talking about all those, bit throw them in a blender and the result might be something like this!
I was expecting a traditional end of the world disaster movie - like 2012, say, or Deep Impact, or something along that vein - which the movie does start as, with the moon mysteriously knocked out of it orbit and hence causing all kinds of chaos on good old planet Earth. Roughly about 2/3rds of the way in, though, it completely changes tack, becoming more of a sci-fi spectacle than anything, and closer - perhaps - to one of Emmerich's own most successful films of the mid 90s ...
Becky
Book
It’s peak 90s London. Shoulder pads are out, crimped hair is in, supermodels are known by their...
Historical fiction Retellings
Adam Green recommended Leave Home by John Davis in Music (curated)
Neon's Nerd Nexus (360 KP) rated Angel Has Fallen (2019) in Movies
Aug 21, 2019
My attention span has fallen
Angel Has Fallen is a dumb, exhausting, joyless & over long experience that proves old isn't always bold. When this first started I won't lie I felt engaged, it felt like the team behind this series had finally matured/evolved past the blatant racism, painful dialog, woeful storytelling & overall silliness of the last movies. Essssh was I wrong. First thing on this downward spiral was Gerard Buttler not only is his accent always halfway between Scottish & American but theres something distracting about his face & how he constantly seems like he's chewing on something he's not enjoying most of the film (maybe the apauling script). Second they seemed to blow all the budget on these big slow motion action scenes at the start as my god do the production values take a complete nose dive half way in. Green screen & cgi go from quite cool/believable to worse than sharknado quality, its ghastly, distracting & im shocked this film got a cinema release looking how it does. I get the film is going for 90s nostalgia but honestly it fails on almost every level ending on such a cliched boss fight that is so unexciting & half arsed its plain embarrassing (I mean who wants to watch two old men fumble around on a boring roof looking more like they are about kiss than stab each other to death). One big brain dead mess & its stupidity/constant Trump praising became tiresome very quickly. Not even so good its bad its just plain lazy film making at its best & it only caters to people that need their movie plots spelt out in spaghetti shapes for them. Pure childish crap that rips parts from all the great action movies of the 90s & destroys your good memories of them. Avoid at all costs.
Watson Lamb (14 KP) rated Alita: Battle Angel (2019) in Movies
Apr 3, 2019
Contains spoilers, click to show
I have to say, this movie would have been amazing in the 90s early 2000s. While the action is thrilling and quite entertaining, the story is played out and the acting is ok, given what they had to work with. Everything was predictable and the ending is a cliffhanger with no resolution to the story arch whatsoever. It almost felt like they were doing a Romeo and Juliet where Romeo kills himself and Juliet goes out for vengeance rather than ending it to be with her Romeo. Making this into multiple films was unnecessary or at least I don't see how they can make the story more compelling from here. All in all, it is ok, if you like some great action sequences, but don't go if you are looking for a compelling story.
Ross (3284 KP) rated Quantum Leap in TV
Feb 14, 2018
Possibly the best TV show ever
Technically sci-fi (Sam is sent back through time into the body of people whose lives went wrong to try and stop certain events from happening) but each episode was a mini-drama in itself with a sci-fi overlay. Whether Sam became a pregnant woman, a struggling aging baseball player or a young man with down's syndrome, Scott Bakula's character had to work out who they were (starting with the standard "Oh boy" in the mirror), and with the help of his hologram assistant Al (Dean Stockwell) what events they would be trying to avoid. Once the task was complete, Sam would "leap" out, each time hoping the next leap would be the leap home.
Truly brilliant and I have nice warm fuzzy memories of watching with my family throughout the early 90s.
Truly brilliant and I have nice warm fuzzy memories of watching with my family throughout the early 90s.
David McK (3425 KP) rated Men in Black (1997) in Movies
Dec 23, 2019
"Protecting the earth from the scum of the universe"
The second of the mid-to-late 90s of Will Smit's one-two rapid ascension to movie super stardom (following Independence Day), which sees him recruited by Tommy Lee Jones to join the Men in Black: a top-secret government organisation set up to monitor alien presence on earth.
While we're now up to four entries in the series as a whole following this summer's (2019) by-all-account-disappointing Men in Black: International, it's easy to forget just how well this movie still holds together, alongside some classic exchanges such as:
"Why the big secret? People are smart"
"A person is smart. People are dumb panicky dangerous animals and you know it"
"You do know Elvis is dead, right?"
"No, Elvis is not dead. He just went home"
The second of the mid-to-late 90s of Will Smit's one-two rapid ascension to movie super stardom (following Independence Day), which sees him recruited by Tommy Lee Jones to join the Men in Black: a top-secret government organisation set up to monitor alien presence on earth.
While we're now up to four entries in the series as a whole following this summer's (2019) by-all-account-disappointing Men in Black: International, it's easy to forget just how well this movie still holds together, alongside some classic exchanges such as:
"Why the big secret? People are smart"
"A person is smart. People are dumb panicky dangerous animals and you know it"
"You do know Elvis is dead, right?"
"No, Elvis is not dead. He just went home"
David McK (3425 KP) rated Spider-Man: Hostile Takeover in Books
Jul 21, 2019
Mention the words Spider-man, and I'm sure the first thing most people think of is the Marvel comics.
Maybe closely followed by the 70s TV series or 90s cartoon, and the more recent big-screen outings.
What I'm pretty sure is not commonly thought of, however, is a Spider-Man prose novel, which is exactly what this is, alongside being a prequel tie-in to the really-rather-enjoyable 2018 PS4 game.
That game - and, by extension - this novel, sees Peter Parker roughly already 7 or 8 years into his career as Spider-man, with the novel serving to set up the entry levels into the game in which (no spoilers) Spider-Man takes on Wilson Fisk aka The Kingpin of Crime, and showing how he got to have his contact in the police force Yuri Wattanabe (sp?)
Maybe closely followed by the 70s TV series or 90s cartoon, and the more recent big-screen outings.
What I'm pretty sure is not commonly thought of, however, is a Spider-Man prose novel, which is exactly what this is, alongside being a prequel tie-in to the really-rather-enjoyable 2018 PS4 game.
That game - and, by extension - this novel, sees Peter Parker roughly already 7 or 8 years into his career as Spider-man, with the novel serving to set up the entry levels into the game in which (no spoilers) Spider-Man takes on Wilson Fisk aka The Kingpin of Crime, and showing how he got to have his contact in the police force Yuri Wattanabe (sp?)