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Tattoo You - Add tattoos to your photos
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Trade in the tattoo machine for your iPhone and turn normal photos of yourself into tattoo riddled...
MyColorful – Coloring Book for Adults
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With My Coloring (adult coloring book), it is very easy to create masterpieces, because coloring...
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Classic Cello [100 Classical music]
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This classic cello set contains a fine collection of 100 favourite cello classics,performed by some...
Stray Cat Simulator
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Pick your favorite breed and live the life of a Stray Cat! Survive in a massive city filled with...
KidloLand: Kids Nursery Rhymes
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KidloLand is an award-winning app for kids (1-5 yrs) with 1000+ nursery rhymes, songs, games and...
Farm Charm
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Farm Charm is a charming accumulative match-3 puzzler with lots of fascinating levels! Discover...
Bob Mann (459 KP) rated Flatliners (2017) in Movies
Sep 29, 2021
The undiscovered country… which they shouldn’t have returned to.
The movies have depicted the hereafter in varied ways over the years. From the bleached white warehouses of Powell and Pressburger’s “A Matter of Life and Death” in 1946 and Warren Beatty’s “Heaven Can Wait” in 1978 to – for me – the peak of the game: Vincent Ward’s mawkish but gorgeously rendered oil-paint version of heaven in 1998’s “What Dreams May Come”. Joel Schmacher’s 1990’s “Flatliners” saw a set of “brat pack” movie names of the day (including Kevin Bacon, Julia Roberts, William Baldwin and Kiefer Sutherland) as experimenting trainee doctors, cheating death to experience the afterlife and getting more than they bargained for. The depictions of the afterlife were unmemorable: in that I don’t remember them much! (I think there was some sort of spooky tree involved, but that’s about it!)
But the concept was sufficiently enticing – who isn’t a little bit intrigued by the question of “what’s beyond”? – that Cross Creek Pictures thought it worthy of dusting off and giving it another outing in pursuit of dirty lucre. But unfortunately this offering adds little to the property’s reputation.
In this version, the lead role is headed up by Ellen Page (“Inception”) who is a great actress… too good for this stuff. Also in that category is Diego Luna, who really made an impact in “Rogue One” but here has little to work with in terms of backstory. The remaining three doctors – Nina Dobrev as “the sexy one”; James Norton (“War and Peace”) as “the posh boy” and Kiersey Clemons as the “cute but repressed one”, all have even less backstory and struggle to make a great impact.
Still struggling to get the high score on Angry Birds: from left to right Ray (Diego Luna), Sophia (Kiersey Clemons), Marlo (Nina Dobrev), Courtney (Ellen Page) and Jamie (James Norton).
Also putting in an appearance, as the one link from the original film, is Kiefer Sutherland as a senior member of the teaching staff. But he’s not playing the same character (that WOULD have been a bloody miracle!) and although Sutherland adds gravitas he really is given criminally little to do. What was director Niels Arden Oplev (“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”) thinking?
In terms of the story, it’s pretty much a re-hash of Peter Filardi’s original, with Ben Ripley (“Source Code”) adding a few minor tweaks to the screenplay to update it for the current generation. But I will levy the same criticism of this film as I levied at the recent Stephen King adaptation of “It”: for horror to work well it need to obey some decent ‘rules of physics’ and although most of the scenes work (since a lot of the “action” is sensibly based inside the character’s heads) there are the occasional linkages to the ‘real world’ that generate a “WTF???” response. A seemingly indestructible Mini car (which is also clearly untraceable by the police!) and a knife incident at the dockside are two cases in point.
Is there anything good to say about this film? Well, there are certainly a few tense moments that make the hairs on your neck at least start to stand to attention. But these are few and far between, amongst a sea of movie ‘meh’. It’s certainly not going to be the worst film I see this year, since at least I wasn’t completely bored for the two hours. But I won’t remember this one in a few weeks. As a summary in the form of a “Black Adder” quote, it’s all a bit like a broken pencil….. pointless.
But the concept was sufficiently enticing – who isn’t a little bit intrigued by the question of “what’s beyond”? – that Cross Creek Pictures thought it worthy of dusting off and giving it another outing in pursuit of dirty lucre. But unfortunately this offering adds little to the property’s reputation.
In this version, the lead role is headed up by Ellen Page (“Inception”) who is a great actress… too good for this stuff. Also in that category is Diego Luna, who really made an impact in “Rogue One” but here has little to work with in terms of backstory. The remaining three doctors – Nina Dobrev as “the sexy one”; James Norton (“War and Peace”) as “the posh boy” and Kiersey Clemons as the “cute but repressed one”, all have even less backstory and struggle to make a great impact.
Still struggling to get the high score on Angry Birds: from left to right Ray (Diego Luna), Sophia (Kiersey Clemons), Marlo (Nina Dobrev), Courtney (Ellen Page) and Jamie (James Norton).
Also putting in an appearance, as the one link from the original film, is Kiefer Sutherland as a senior member of the teaching staff. But he’s not playing the same character (that WOULD have been a bloody miracle!) and although Sutherland adds gravitas he really is given criminally little to do. What was director Niels Arden Oplev (“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”) thinking?
In terms of the story, it’s pretty much a re-hash of Peter Filardi’s original, with Ben Ripley (“Source Code”) adding a few minor tweaks to the screenplay to update it for the current generation. But I will levy the same criticism of this film as I levied at the recent Stephen King adaptation of “It”: for horror to work well it need to obey some decent ‘rules of physics’ and although most of the scenes work (since a lot of the “action” is sensibly based inside the character’s heads) there are the occasional linkages to the ‘real world’ that generate a “WTF???” response. A seemingly indestructible Mini car (which is also clearly untraceable by the police!) and a knife incident at the dockside are two cases in point.
Is there anything good to say about this film? Well, there are certainly a few tense moments that make the hairs on your neck at least start to stand to attention. But these are few and far between, amongst a sea of movie ‘meh’. It’s certainly not going to be the worst film I see this year, since at least I wasn’t completely bored for the two hours. But I won’t remember this one in a few weeks. As a summary in the form of a “Black Adder” quote, it’s all a bit like a broken pencil….. pointless.
Lee (2222 KP) rated Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2 (2018) in Movies
Dec 12, 2018
Imaginative portrayal of the internet (2 more)
Ralph and Vanellope
Good positive messages throughout
Enjoyable Sequel
I cannot believe it's been 6 years since we last saw Ralph and Vanellope! And when we join them again, they're still in the same arcade, right where we left them. By day carrying out their respective gaming duties, by night socialising with the other arcade characters and drinking together in Tappers bar. They seem happy and content with life, although Vanellope is beginning to feel that there's more to life than the same old Sugar Rush races all day every day.
In an attempt to help his friend and spice things up for her, Ralph decides to smash a new race course through the Sugar Rush landscape. But things don't go quite according to plan, resulting in a broken steering wheel on the arcade machine. Unfortunately, the company responsible for making that machine is no longer in business so parts for it aren't readily available, or too expensive to buy online, so the plug gets pulled on the machine. With the future of the game in jeopardy, and with the Sugar Rush inhabitants having to find new homes with the other arcade residents, Ralph and Vanellope decide to try and help. The arcade has just had a Wi-fi router plugged in, and they overheard one of the kids in the arcade earlier talking about the steering wheel being available online on some site called eBoy? So, they decide to go investigate this thing called the internet.
I've seen a few reviews that draw comparisons to this movie and with 'Ready Player One' from earlier this year. As we entered the Oasis of Ready Player One, we were treated to an amazing visual onslaught of wonderful imagery and instantly recognisable characters. And, as Ralph and Vanellope enter the internet, it's a similarly enjoyable experience. Recognisable brands and websites are everywhere you look, either as buildings or with their concepts imaginatively represented in some form. Twitter birds fly around, characters force suspicious looking spam adverts in your face while busy web traffic is everywhere, constantly being directed to its next destination. Ralph and Vanellope eventually find their way to eBay, where the steering wheel they need is currently being auctioned, but they don't really understand the bidding process and end up winning it for more money than they can possibly pay. They then set about finding a way to get rich quick so that they can pay for the wheel and get it shipped to the arcade before the game gets removed for scrap. Their journey takes them to an online game called 'Slaughter Race', a violent racing game featuring skilled racer Shank (voiced by Gal Gadot), a world which immediately excites racing fiend Vanellope, who feels right at home.
It's great to see the characters of Ralph and Vanellope back on our screens. Ralph is still very funny and Vanellope is still extremely cute! There are also a large number of sections of the movie which work very well and are extremely enjoyable. Aside from the initial introduction to the internet, and the whole Slaughter Race segment, probably the most enjoyable portion is the visit to Disney and the Disney princesses, which received such a big reaction when featured in the various trailers for the movie. And we don't just get the princesses either, we also get to see Marvel and Star Wars characters too! Another chance to scour the screen to try and spot background characters, and a reminder that Disney is in fact slowly taking over the world!
Towards the end of the movie I felt that things weren't so interesting and enjoyable, with a lengthy segment involving a virus and how it spreads and manifests itself, threatening the whole internet. But that's a minor negative from me in what is overall a hugely enjoyable sequel. There are also a number of very strong messages throughout, from the Disney princesses and the way they act, to the way that internet negativity is portrayed. I'm not sure of the longevity of this movie though - after all, at the speed the internet develops these days, how many of the sites or concepts featured are going to still be around or even relevant in another 6 years time?
In an attempt to help his friend and spice things up for her, Ralph decides to smash a new race course through the Sugar Rush landscape. But things don't go quite according to plan, resulting in a broken steering wheel on the arcade machine. Unfortunately, the company responsible for making that machine is no longer in business so parts for it aren't readily available, or too expensive to buy online, so the plug gets pulled on the machine. With the future of the game in jeopardy, and with the Sugar Rush inhabitants having to find new homes with the other arcade residents, Ralph and Vanellope decide to try and help. The arcade has just had a Wi-fi router plugged in, and they overheard one of the kids in the arcade earlier talking about the steering wheel being available online on some site called eBoy? So, they decide to go investigate this thing called the internet.
I've seen a few reviews that draw comparisons to this movie and with 'Ready Player One' from earlier this year. As we entered the Oasis of Ready Player One, we were treated to an amazing visual onslaught of wonderful imagery and instantly recognisable characters. And, as Ralph and Vanellope enter the internet, it's a similarly enjoyable experience. Recognisable brands and websites are everywhere you look, either as buildings or with their concepts imaginatively represented in some form. Twitter birds fly around, characters force suspicious looking spam adverts in your face while busy web traffic is everywhere, constantly being directed to its next destination. Ralph and Vanellope eventually find their way to eBay, where the steering wheel they need is currently being auctioned, but they don't really understand the bidding process and end up winning it for more money than they can possibly pay. They then set about finding a way to get rich quick so that they can pay for the wheel and get it shipped to the arcade before the game gets removed for scrap. Their journey takes them to an online game called 'Slaughter Race', a violent racing game featuring skilled racer Shank (voiced by Gal Gadot), a world which immediately excites racing fiend Vanellope, who feels right at home.
It's great to see the characters of Ralph and Vanellope back on our screens. Ralph is still very funny and Vanellope is still extremely cute! There are also a large number of sections of the movie which work very well and are extremely enjoyable. Aside from the initial introduction to the internet, and the whole Slaughter Race segment, probably the most enjoyable portion is the visit to Disney and the Disney princesses, which received such a big reaction when featured in the various trailers for the movie. And we don't just get the princesses either, we also get to see Marvel and Star Wars characters too! Another chance to scour the screen to try and spot background characters, and a reminder that Disney is in fact slowly taking over the world!
Towards the end of the movie I felt that things weren't so interesting and enjoyable, with a lengthy segment involving a virus and how it spreads and manifests itself, threatening the whole internet. But that's a minor negative from me in what is overall a hugely enjoyable sequel. There are also a number of very strong messages throughout, from the Disney princesses and the way they act, to the way that internet negativity is portrayed. I'm not sure of the longevity of this movie though - after all, at the speed the internet develops these days, how many of the sites or concepts featured are going to still be around or even relevant in another 6 years time?