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Pet Sematary (2019)
Pet Sematary (2019)
2019 | Horror
New take on the story John Lithgow Fairly paced (0 more)
Spoilers Spoilers Spoilers (I won't post here read review) (0 more)
Contains spoilers, click to show
I'm 33 and I saw the original pet semetary when I was about 10 on some cable channel like nbc or abc. Back in the 90's, tv was heavily edited. Even then it scared the shit out of me!

The 2019 just didn't give me that same vibe. Yes, I'm older and don't scare as easy. But I also get creeped out pretty easily when a movie does something right. And this movie didn't do to much right to chill me to my core.

Now that's not to say this movie was bad or awful in anyway. The pacing was very good. The twist that they showed us in the trailers was great and added to the later plot device. And even having Gage running towards the road as the truck came barreling towards Ellie made me think they were about to lose two kids. Hell even Lithgow was pretty stellar in his role. But this movie just tried too hard to top the original.

The wife's back story about Zelda should have stopped after she told what had happened to Zelda. They drug it out by giving her some PTSD bullshit that I didn't feel really fit into the story.

The guy that gets hit by a car (victor) and warns Louis about the dangers that are about to unfold was rushed and not as fleshed out as the character in the 90's film. And I don't mean to compare this to that film because it is it's own thing, but they could have tried to humanize him a little more that just a device plot.

Ellie being self aware that she had died and turning evil because of it was fucking creepy. And Everytime this girl had screen time you felt like she was back from the dead and completely changed. The scene where Ellie terrorizes Jud was pretty close to the original but with some twists and I thought that made it more enjoyable. especially since these characters seemed to think situations out better than typical horror movies.

The last twist was fantastic and I'm not going to spoil it. I didn't care for the ending. I thought it was very bleak and bland. And really didn't lead to what was going to happen now as a whole, not just Gage potentially dying.

Overall I really enjoyed the movie for what it was, a fun popcorn horror flick.

Have you seen it? What did you think of the movie?
  
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Daniel Boyd (1066 KP) rated Mile 22 (2018) in Movies

Sep 20, 2018 (Updated Sep 20, 2018)  
Mile 22 (2018)
Mile 22 (2018)
2018 | Action
Iko Uwais is awesome in everything he appears in (0 more)
Left me a bit disappointed (0 more)
The Movie Equivelant of a Shrug
I saw Mile 22 last night and when I got in my dad asked me how it was. I replied with a simple shrug and that is honestly the best way to sum up this movie. It's not bad and it's not great. The worst thing about that is that Peter Berg and Mark Wahlberg have worked together 3 times prior to this movie and all 3 times have resulted in fantastic movies, not mediocre ones like this. I was looking forward to this going in knowing that it was Berg and Wahlberg working together again and I have really liked everything else they have made together, (especially Patriot's Day,) but this is unfortunately the worst film that they have made together so far, but it's still not awful.

The best thing about this film is definitely Iko Uwais. Whenever we get to see him doing his thing on screen, it is electrifying. The issue here though is the way that Jacques Jouffret decided to shoot these sequences is choppy and incoherent at times. Why would you cast one of the best fight choreographers in the world in your movie and then every time he get to fight onscreen, you decided to shake the camera about and make 10+ jump-cuts in the space of a few minutes?

Rhonda Rousey is in the movie too and surprisingly I didn't cringe every time she spoke and instead felt that she did a pretty decent job with what she was given. Lauren Cohen was fine too, we all know that she can do a pretty solid American accent at this point because of her work on The Walking Dead. Wahlberg is perfectly serviceable here too, he has been better in other things, but he also been far worse. It is hard to waste an actor like John Malkovich in a film and yet they manage it here, literally any actor could have played his role.

The end is also pretty rubbish. There is a flimsy twist followed by a sequel tease and then the credits abruptly appear. They are clearly aiming for a sequel, but it would have been nice if they could have tied this movie up a bit better first.

Overall, this is an okay action flick with some cool stunts that doesn't live up to what it could have been and ends too abruptly. There are some cool stunts and satisfying kills in the film, but they could have been shot a lot better.
  
Jumanji: The Next Level (2019)
Jumanji: The Next Level (2019)
2019 | Action, Adventure, Comedy
Half baked
jumanji next level is like an uninteresting game cutscene thats also unskippable its dull, frustrating, overlong and makes you wish you were doing something else. I actualy quite enjoyed the first instalment I it had some genuinely good ideas, great set pieces and some really fun action so i find it sad to say the sequel is not worth your time at all. Starting in the real world here lies its fist problem: not only are all the teens really boring and generic characters they are all also played by people that just cant act which absolutely kills any attachment to the characters and makes them seem more like one dimensional npcs in a cheap videogame. This would all be fine if the film jumped quickly into the game and the action but instead we get stuck with them for so long that i was begining to get restless way before we even begin to enter the jumanji. Once we do enter the game things do pick up but not by much as what we get is essentially a long drawn out re-skin of the first movie stuffed full of repetative humour and references. Its also contains some of the worst shot/lazy action scenes i have seen this year with not only poor cgi that offers no sense of weight but also no sense of thrill or excitement either. Long unnecessary scenes also plague the film too adding nothing to the story or character development and some jokes even go on for way to long even though they muster no laughs at all. Theres definitely some fun in watching the rock, kevin heart, jack black and karen gilinham act like thier in movie real world counterparts as they do a really impressive job of imitating the teen characters better than the teen actors do them selves. Another huge problem comes from each game character having only three lives as this immediately removes all threat/peril from the movie and again kills all tension too. If i had to sum up this sequel i would say its a movie made for people that talk through movies and i garantee if you go and see it at the cinema i bet thats what people will do because it lacks anything to keep even casual movie goers engaged and focused. More like disappointing dlc that you paid for upfront than 'next level' this movie really isnt worth your time. If you own the previous movies id stay home in the warm and watch them instead save yourself an over two hour slog of bad jokes and poor action.
  
Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)
Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)
2020 | Adventure, Fantasy
Not such a wonder
Contains spoilers, click to show
There are some good scenes in WW84. The beginning scene, followed by the mall scene, both great scenes. The highway scene, the invisible jet scene, very cool. But scenes don't make a movie. Well, they do, but you know what I mean. A few good scenes doesn't make a movie good. The movie is very slow, badly paced & the story, quite frankly, stinks.
Again, Wonder Woman is pitted against a villain that is boring. He is played very well by the Mandolorian, Pedro Pascal. But the character is weak. We also have Kristen Wiig as the Cheetah, I guess. She's just an 80s chick until the very end, when she is turned into a cheetah woman & we're "treated" to a CGI fight, that is so dark & so badly directed, you'll struggle to see anything going on or get a good look at Cheetah, except for the bad make-up job on Wiig's face. Speaking of Wiig, she's okay, but nothing special.
I know I'm in the minority, but I don't find Gal Gadot a very good Wonder Woman. She's pretty, she kicks ass, but her acting is not very good. The character is dull. And I find the way her accent is there one minute & gone the next annoying. I laughed out loud when she tells the guy at the end that she likes his Auschwitz (outfit). She's easily the weakest character in the film. And like the first movie, we're spending most of the time wanting to see Wonder Woman on screen instead of Diana.
Chris Pine is great, as always & the reverse "seeing new things" scenes as he's introduced to the 80s are as great as they were in the first movie when Diana is shown new things.
But the real problem of the film is the story. Wonder Woman saves the day by asking people to give up their wishes. Nice dream, but would never happen. We know the world is full of scumbags that would never give up power, or money or anything for anyone else. WW talks to us, the audience & makes a plea that would flop just as much as this film. Throw in the 2 & a half hour runtime, far too long and I found myself bored for most of it. Not every superhero movie has to be so long. And instead of spending time on character & story development, they wasted it on scenes that did nothing to advance the plot.
Oh, stay tuned for the mid-credit scene. It's okay & worth it.
  
Men in Black International (2019)
Men in Black International (2019)
2019 | Action, Sci-Fi
A complete waste of time
Aside from Avengers Endgame, 2019 is shaping up to be pretty disappointing when it comes to blockbuster movies. Godzilla received a bit of a panning from the critics (although I personally quite liked it), then Dark Phoenix took an even bigger hit in the reviews, which I completely agree with. And now we have a sequel that nobody asked for, to a movie which has already had a couple of fairly average sequels, which has also received a wave of early bad reviews this week. To be honest, the trailer for Men In Black International certainly looked a bit....meh. A bunch of random stuff happening, no real indication of any plot, some annoying looking CGI aliens and an attempt to just coast off the back of having Thor and Valkyrie reunited on screen. I still remember how memorable the original trailer for the 1997 MIB movie was when it featured in cinemas - the shades, the guns, the aliens, the massive flying saucer crash landing in front of a cool looking Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones. This trailer had none of that wow factor, but I went in, hopeful as always that the reviews were wrong.

The movie begins in 2016, with Agent H (Chris Hemsworth) and High T (Liam Neeson) as they ascend the Eiffel Tower, interrupting a man who is about to propose to his partner, before saving the world from an incoming alien race called The Hive. Then we jump back 20 years into the past to a family who are disturbed one night by a cute little alien in their back garden. As the young daughter, Molly, hides the alien in her bedroom, she looks out of her window to see her parents as they are neuralysed by a couple of Men in Black.

Back in present day, Molly (Tessa Thompson) is now all grown up, but hasn't forgotten that eventful night. While working in a call centre, she uses her computer to connect to satellite equipment in order to track alien landings and therefore try and gain access to the Men in Black, and hopefully get a job with them. Eventually finding her way into their headquarters, she is recruited by Agent O (Emma Thompson) and sent on her first mission, where she partners up with Agent H. The pair get caught up in a mission involving an assassinated alien VIP and some kind of super weapon. And, as the title of the movie suggests, plenty of international travel, as we switch between New York, London, Paris and Marrakesh.

The problem is, whereas the original Men in Black boasted a lot of humour, along with some great visual gags and action and a great double act, in the form of Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, this movie does nothing to successfully recapture any of that. As much as I love Chris Hemsworth, I felt that he was the worst thing about this movie. Somebody simply thought they'd take the character of Thor and try to have that for the entire movie, but without making him funny, heroic or even that likeable in the process. As with Dark Phoenix recently, a great cast is let down by an awful script, with any attempts at humour or entertainment falling completely flat.

Elsewhere, the fun and wacky inventiveness behind the different alien species in the original movie is completely absent here. Apart from some interesting and formidable twin villains, there's a fairly wasted role for Rebecca Ferguson as a three armed ex lover of Agent H. Otherwise, the main alien throughout the movie is just an annoying little CGI character.

To be fair, there are a couple of fun action sequences and some nice visuals, but overall this is just a completely forgettable and unnecessary movie. Here's hoping that Toy Story 4 will finally bring us a worthy blockbuster when it opens later this week.
  
John Wick (2014)
John Wick (2014)
2014 | Action, Thriller
Keanu Reeves (4 more)
The established hitman universe
Incredible gunplay
Solid fight choreography
Decipherable cinematography during action
That poor dog (0 more)
Best Action Movie Post-Matrix
The problem with many modern action movies lies in the bullshit concept known as "shaky-cam." Perhaps well meant at first, in order to make audiences "feel" the impact of punches and gunshots, it is now so overused that you can't even tell what's going on or who is hitting who in many action movies. Enter John Wick: not a single use of "shaky-cam." Not one. All camera shots during action sequences are stable and staged at angles that allow the audience to see exactly what is going on. I used to think Jason Bourne was the best action series post-Matrix, but John Wick and its sequel changed that as fast the titular character can shoot another goon in the head. The fight choreography is sublime, the script is simple but tight, and Keanu Reeves is slicker than ever. John Wick is the best action movie since The Matrix, and it just so happens to star the same bad-ass guy we've been dreaming of being since 1999. Now I have to go review John Wick: Chapter 2!
  
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Awix (3310 KP) rated Star Trek Beyond (2016) in Movies

Feb 25, 2018 (Updated Feb 25, 2018)  
Star Trek Beyond (2016)
Star Trek Beyond (2016)
2016 | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
'You know what the problem is with this Star Trek movie script for the 50th anniversary Star Trek movie,' said the studio executives to the writers of this film. 'It's just a bit too Star Trek-y. Go away and make the new Star Trek film less like Star Trek.' Well, heaven forbid a Star Trek film should actually be Star Trek-y. One imagines that the studio was pretty happy with the finished product, as it is certainly not very Star Trek-y. It's a bit Star Wars-y and very Guardians of the Galaxy-y, to the point where you wonder why they bothered putting the Star Trek name on this at all.

Well, okay, as a knockabout sci-fi adventure it is not too bad, I suppose, but very undistinguished and really lacking in its own identity. The karaoke performances of some of the cast as the original Star Trek characters are also impressively faithful. But the fact remains that while you're watching it, the only bits which carry any kind of emotional resonance are the ones inherited from previous iterations of the franchise, and you never forget that. An indifferent tribute to the original series; as a celebration of Star Trek as a whole, really poor.
  
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LeftSideCut (3776 KP) rated Child's Play 3 (1991) in Movies

Oct 22, 2019 (Updated Nov 8, 2019)  
Child's Play 3 (1991)
Child's Play 3 (1991)
1991 | Horror, Mystery
3
6.3 (13 Ratings)
Movie Rating
The third outing for Chucky unfortunately offers nothing new.
It's simply a less fun re tread of the first two.

The setting for Child's Play 3 mainly takes place at a military academy for young people, with typical character cliches thrown in - the nerdy coward type who will clearly redeem himself by the end of the movie, the harsh drill sergeant, the jock type bullies, the badass female, and of course a whole host of people who (for the third time!) don't believe a now teenage Andy Barcley, that there's a killer doll on the loose.
It's all pretty tiresome, and tied together by a poor script.

Chucky himself is the same old, shooting off sweary one liners and being a general prick to everyone he comes across (not necessarily a bad thing).

The finale is pretty lackluster, and not a patch on the seemingly never ending abuse parade against Chucky from Child's Play 2, but it does boast some nice animatronic work and some nasty practical effects.

Child's Play 3 is ultimately a thoroughly underwhelming sequel, sat in a weird purgatory between the more horror themed elements of the first movie, and the schlockier elements of the later films.
  
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Matthew Krueger (10051 KP) rated Friday the 13th Part III (1982) in Movies

Mar 13, 2020 (Updated Mar 13, 2020)  
Friday the 13th Part III (1982)
Friday the 13th Part III (1982)
1982 | Horror
Sleepaway Camp 1982: 3D Jason
So this one is my favorite out of all them, its goes 3, 1, 4, 7, than who knows after that. The kills are fantastic, this movie is the first time you see Jason wearing the Hockey Mask. Plus its in 3D, yes thats right, 3D. Plus my second charcter Shelby. Thats right, he's my second favorite charcter, besides Jason. The loveable Shelby, fell so bad for him. Most to all of the deaths realie on the 3D espect, which is cool.

The plot: The third installment in the "Friday the 13th" series picks up on the day after the carnage with homicidal maniac Jason Voorhees (Richard Brooker) stealing some clothes and killing a local store owner. Meanwhile, Chris (Dana Kimmell) and her sometimes boyfriend, Rick (Paul Kratka), are hosting a group of teenage friends at Chris' lake house. Despite a run-in with a local biker gang, they enjoy an amiable weekend together -- that is, until Jason begins knocking off kids and bikers alike.

Part 3- takes place right after part 2, it even begins showing the ending of part II, which again is good. Plus that theme song, for this movie is epic, like a cool disco theme song.

Happy Friday The 13th Everybody.
  
Outbreak (1995)
Outbreak (1995)
1995 | Action, Drama, Mystery
This film is really, really good. Incredibly good. Maybe it's the timing of when I'm watching this (in the middle of a pandemic) or maybe it's the story or maybe it's a combination of the two, either way, this film is fantastic. My only complaint is the length. It felt really long and some parts it felt like it was moving very slowly but at the same time, I can't really think of anything that could've been cut down or shaved off - so maybe I'm just weird.

The cast was really there, on par. Anyone who reads my reviews knows that I'm normally in love with a small character - the ones with fewer lines, supporting the story, less important to the main plot, but this film is not one of those. Dustin Hoffman's Col. Sam Daniels was incredible. When he was pleading with the pilots? I was just about crying. I loved Cuba Gooding, Jr. too. I think this is one of his best films. And duh, Morgan Freeman. In what movie is Morgan Freeman a bad actor? If you can find me one, I'll give you $5.

This movie is a great watch. It keeps you on your toes and you're invested in the characters.

P.S. A young Patrick Dempsey? Mama mia.