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Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)
2019 | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Great cast (0 more)
Way too long (2 more)
Painfully slow
A bit pointless
Disappointing
There will always be a lot of hype for a new Tarantino film. After seeing a trailer for a peek of Hollywood in '69 this looked interesting. It has a large ensemble talented cast playing many of the stars of the era.
Unfortunately there doesn't appear much point to this film until the last 15 minutes. Up to then it's very slow and overly long at nearly 2 hours 40 minutes long. It jumps from scenes of characters to others with little connecting them. I thought this was going to be a fairly accurate account of events that took place at the time... But it's far from that. It has its good elements but overall it was a bit of a dissapointment.
  
Show all 3 comments.
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Dean (6921 KP) Jan 9, 2020

Yes it did seem a somewhat odd film overall.

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The Marinated Meeple (1848 KP) Jan 10, 2020

I liked Brad Pitts performance.... but Oscar buzz? I'm not seeing why....

The Avengers (2012)
The Avengers (2012)
2012 | Action, Sci-Fi
Great first collaboration. Good view at each heroes backstory. A hint at what the MCU will become. (0 more)
Great first collaboration movie
The Avengers first go at the group ensemble is a win in my books. Who knew all those years ago what the MCU would become. This movie combined all the heroes, and their beginning backstories, together well. The heroes must come together to go against Loki and his intergalactic strike team. The team comes together after a brief hiccup of inner fighting, to save New York from the Chitauri and more importantly, Thanos. We get our first glimpse at the purple faced titan and what is to come from him and his army. Loki and the Tesseract play center stage in this first Avengers movie, but I don't think it will be the last time Loki plays center stage.
  
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Richard Linklater recommended Nashville (1975) in Movies (curated)

 
Nashville (1975)
Nashville (1975)
1975 | Classics, Drama, Musical
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"It’s the ultimate, sprawling ensemble Altman film — the way each character has their own story to such a degree, and he pulls it all together. It has these thrilling moments, these funny moments. The music is both very moving and satirical, funny and beautiful too. Keith Carradine’s song, “I’m Easy,” is a beautiful song, and some of the other songs like “200 Years” by Henry Gibson is hilarious. It’s just ridiculous. So, that you could have all of this go into one big collage where you have realism, satire, romance — it’s all there — is quite a feat. And I actually saw this when I was a teenager — fourteen or fifteen — and I was bored. I didn’t really understand what I was watching, but I saw it a little bit later, and it kicked off something else in me."

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The Cranes Are Flying (1957)
The Cranes Are Flying (1957)
1957 | Drama, Romance, War
(0 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"A vanguard film (again). 1957. A great love story. But mostly a work of overimpressive technical virtuosity. Breathtaking crane shots, hair-raising forest sequences (with a memorable rotating low-angle shot of trees dissolving into one another), an amazing and very swift traveling shot (captured from a tram in movement) in which the lead actress dives into a crowd, looking for the man she loves. We follow her, and once she is stopped by a fence, we tilt up fluidly, and end the scene with a great ensemble shot. Superb art direction, superb lighting, with curtains flying in the wind, hiding the face of the actress, partially lit with lightning flashes. A true work of art. Tatyana Samojlova, who won an award at Cannes for this role, is brilliant and touching, and delivers a rather minimalist performance for its time."

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Bad Times at the El Royale (2018)
Bad Times at the El Royale (2018)
2018 | Thriller
Great cast (1 more)
Cool 60's soundtrack
A classy Thriller
Finally got to see this on Sky cinema as I missed it at the cinema. This is a very good thriller. It has a very strong ensemble cast line up, Jeff Bridges stands out. A bi-state Motel, which has long seen better days, is the backdrop as a group of strangers check in, all with something to hide.
The Motel set adds a cool and quirky location and the soundtrack is great. As the reasons for each of them being there unfold we get a slick, stylish thriller with a slight noir touch to it. You don't even notice the long run time, which is always a good sign the story has you hooked in. The ending maybe stopped it from being a classic for me but it's still a highly enjoyable film.
  
Baby Driver (2017)
Baby Driver (2017)
2017 | Action, Comedy
Car chase scenes (2 more)
Killer Ensemble casr
Amazing Soundtrack
Damn that kid can Drive!!!!
I'm not a huge action fan. I usually only watch horror films. But when one of my favorite directors suggests a movie. I check it out. And Joe Lynch, you didn't disappoint.
Baby Driver had me, quite literally biting my nails and sitting on the edge of my seat.
The cast put forward an effort that can not be denied. It was cool to see Jon Hamm play a real mother fucker of a bad guy. Going balls deep into a performance that had me begging for his demise.
Kevin Spacey was asking as always.
And Ansol Elgort played the title roll with so much emotion that you could completely feel what he was feeling on screen.
And besides all those facts. The soundtrack kicked total ass.
Watch it fellow Smashbombers... it will not disappoint.
  
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Saoirse Ronan recommended Taxi Driver (1976) in Movies (curated)

 
Taxi Driver (1976)
Taxi Driver (1976)
1976 | Thriller

"[Taxi Driver is] a film that really kind of struck me on an emotional level and as somebody who works and can kind of appreciate how films are made. I remember when I saw Taxi Driver for the first time, and I saw the creativity and the imagination that went into the shots that Scorsese chose, and to really kind of capture a very particular kind of New York. I thought it was really wonderful. You know, you can watch certain films and there are certain things that will stick out for you. It can be a great character or a performance or an ensemble performance or whatever, but when everything seems to come into play, it’s always really impressive, I think, when every single cast member is very strong. So I felt like with this film, cinematically, it just kind of ticked all those boxes for me."

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Dean (6921 KP) rated Widows (2018) in Movies

Oct 4, 2019  
Widows (2018)
Widows (2018)
2018 | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Great cast (0 more)
Not much of a heist (0 more)
A heist film that doesn't quite payoff
A film that's based on an early 80's TV series of the same name. After seeing the cast line up and directed by Steve McQueen I was looking forward to this. It does have a great ensemble cast although the main plot is quite simple and a bit predictable. There are many layers to this film, with plenty of social comments on many themes. Something you expect from Steve McQueen. As a result though the actual heist almost plays second fiddle to all the other subplots and insights. I really thought the heist part would be very clever and elaborate. Instead it pales in comparison to many others of a similar genre. See it for the performances, story and not for the action of the heist itself. This way you'll enjoy the film a lot more.
  
Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol (2011)
Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol (2011)
2011 | Action, Mystery
8
7.8 (28 Ratings)
Movie Rating
The fourth chapter in the phenomenally popular Mission Impossible series has arrived in theaters and jump starts the franchise with a dynamic ensemble cast and a bold mix of action and adventure with a touch of comedy thrown in.
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol opens with a daring escape from a Russian prison followed shortly thereafter by an infiltration of the Kremlin and subsequent explosion on the famed Russian landmark.

Tom Cruise returns as agent Ethan Hunt and is joined by Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, and Paula Patton. Shortly after the explosion at the Kremlin, tensions between the United States and Russia are at an all-time high. As a result, the president initiates Ghost Protocol, which effectively shuts down the Impossible Mission Force and eliminates many of their resources. As a result, Ethan and his team must take on an unsanctioned mission that will take them from Russia to Dubai to Mumbai in a race against time to not only clear the IMF from being blamed for the bombing, but to stop a deranged criminal from using stolen Russian launch codes to unleash a nuclear strike upon America.

Ethan and his team bring all manner of weapons and technology to bear against the enemy and while the action sequences are intense and the best in the series to date, they don’t overshadow the human element of the film as each character has a back story which helped endear them to the audience. Unlike previous films in the series, the plot is not as convoluted and hard to follow and director Brad Bird, making his live-action directing debut, does a fantastic job of pacing the film, never once letting it drag or become boring.

Pegg and Renner are fantastic additions to the series as Renner brings a sense of humanity to his role as analyst Brandt. Pegg gets a share of comedic lines and moments but is not there simply to provide comic relief, convincingly deadly serious when the action becomes hot and heavy. Patton holds her own with the guys and proves she is more than just a pretty face as her fight scene in a high-rise with an assassin is as intense as any action fan could want with a fantastic finale.

Cruise goes all-out in his performance and performs many of the film’s stunts himself, quite a few of them shriek-inducing, judging by the reaction of the ladies in the audience. While Ethan spends a lot of time running in the film, he also spends a lot of time fighting and it was very nice to see him share some of the responsibility for the film’s action scenes with his ensemble cast. I believe that the ensemble works so well that the studio should keep this team together for future installments in the series. The team has a winning formula that reinvigorates the series giving us what I believe is the best film in the series to date.
  
The Death Of Stalin (2017)
The Death Of Stalin (2017)
2017 | Comedy
Needs more Jason Isaacs
This film has one of the best ensemble casts I've seen in a long time. There are some fantastic actors in this from both sides of the pond, and there isn't a single one that I'd criticise. The film itself isn't hilarious, but it is pretty funny and raises quite a few laughs. Its an ingeniously satirical take on the death of Stalin, and I'd love to see similar historical events re-enacted in the same manner, as it'd make them a lot more entertaining. It flits from scene to scene very quickly & it can be a little difficult to follow what's going on, but I don't think that really matters. For me though, the best thing about this film was Jason Isaacs. His general with a Yorkshire accent was absolutely hilarious, and I just wish he'd been in this film a lot more, as I probably would've rated it higher if he was.
  
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Erika (17788 KP) Feb 10, 2019

My favorite scene was Jason Isaacs' intro scene when he threw off his coat. He was definitely the best part.