Search

Search only in certain items:

A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989)
A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989)
1989 | Horror
Sweet lord, this was a chore to sit through. The Elm Street series managed to tread a pretty solid path up until this point. Even the iffy fourth entry has some merit, but The Dream Child just gloriously falls apart. For starters, and I really try not to be cynical, but I do like when movies in general follow a set of rules. The main rule for ANOES is simply, don't fall asleep if you want to stay alive. By Part 5, it's really unclear if this still applies, and no one involved is even pretending to be making a coherent film apparently I don't expect Oscar winning screenplays from cheesy slashers, but the dialogue is especially awful. The entire cast sound like they've been given different scripts, the editing is all over the place, even Freddy (who is now in full blown quip mode) is spaffing one-liners that don't make a lick of sense. Then there's the small matter of the narrative falling off the rails in almost every aspect.
The only saving grace is the abundance of practical gore, which is pretty decent for the most part, but otherwise, fuck this entire film man.
  
40x40

Blazing Minds (92 KP) rated Wonder Woman (2017) in Movies

Nov 2, 2021 (Updated Nov 3, 2021)  
Wonder Woman (2017)
Wonder Woman (2017)
2017 | Action, Fantasy, War
With Marvel already dominating the superhero movie market, Wonder Woman steps up to the plate and knocks it out the park in DC’s new movie that takes us further towards The Justice League.

So a few years ago we had Man of Steel, which had mixed reviews and was a movie that had an extremely long and all out good vs evil battle with Superman vs General Zod over Metropolis!

Then came Batman V Superman, a movie that I personally was hoping would be a version of my favourite Batman comic book, The Dark Knight Returns, sadly this was not to be and although the extended cut is a better version the film was another in the DCEU (DC Extended Universe) that had mixed reviews and a rather long good vs evil battle, it did introduce us to Wonder Woman.

Following on was the next in the franchise, Suicide Squad, again this was another movie that didn’t really go down well with movie fans, which also had a good vs evil fight at the end (I see a pattern) it certainly looked like DC had hit three strikes! So all hope rested on Wonder Woman.
  
Pinocchio (2022)
Pinocchio (2022)
2022 | Action, Adventure, Family
3
5.4 (5 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Another day, another "live action retelling" of a Disney classic that manages to disappoint. With the exception of Maleficent and most of The Jungle Book (and I guess Aladdin wasn't completely horrible), these Disney remakes have been duds, thanks to the general air of hollow souless-ness that surrounds them. This is precisely the main detriment with Pinocchio. It's existence in the first place invites comparisons to the original, a truly beloved animation. In turn, this remake offers nothing of value. Anything new on display feels vapid, and everything familiar is far superior within the source material. You have to ask "well what was the point"? It was the same with Mulan. It was the same with Cinderella. It was the same with The Lion King, and I have no doubt that it will be the same with Hercules when that eventually arrives. Disney seem content with shitting out lifeless rehashes for a quick buck and it's probably not going to change.
Tom Hanks tries his best. Monstro looks kind of cool. Jiminy Cricket being voiced scarily accurately by Joseph Gordon Levitt is low key hilarious. Otherwise, this movie is only good for fire wood.
  
Yankee Doodle Dead
Yankee Doodle Dead
Carolyn Hart | 2024 | Mystery
7
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Retired General Shot on the 4th
Annie Darling is getting ready for the festival that Broward’s Rock is hosting for the fourth of July. Not only is her bookstore selling at a booth, but she’s on the library board, which is putting everything on, and is the benefit of the proceeds. Unfortunately, a newcomer to the island is also on the board, and making waves there and all over the island. So when someone shoots him during the fireworks, the only real question is who didn’t have a motive. Can Annie and her husband, Max, figure out what happened?

I struggled a bit with the first half of the book. It was obvious early on who the victim would be. While we were setting up suspects and motives, his antics were such an over the top cliché, it wasn’t always fun. Fortunately, things get better once Annie and Max start investigating. We get a somber yet logical climax, but we still have fun with all the series regulars along the way. I hope the victims get a little less predictable in future books, but series fans will still enjoy this one.
  
Wonder Woman (2017)
Wonder Woman (2017)
2017 | Action, Fantasy, War
Gal Gadot Rocks! (0 more)
Villains are underdeveloped, and a bit rubbish (0 more)
After a pretty lengthy drought, we finally get another decent DC movie
As the DC TV universe continues to go from strength to strength, the DC movie universe is gradually going downhill. Don’t get me wrong, I really liked Man of Steel, despite the overloaded CGI destruction at the end. I didn’t mind Batman Vs Superman either, even with Jesse Eisenberg doing his very best to try and ruin it. But, despite successfully introducing two other major DC heavyweight characters (and not so successfully introducing a few others) and picking up steam in the final act, the movie struggled. Suicide Squad then managed to take bad to a completely new level, and was just a complete train-wreck.

Batman Vs Superman was our first introduction to Wonder Woman in the DC movie universe, and she was the most entertaining and promising aspect of the whole movie. As a child of the 70s, I grew up watching and enjoying the Wonder Woman TV show, along with re-runs of the Batman 60s show and of course the Christopher Reeve Superman movies. After all these years of countless Batman and Superman movies, it was great to not only see Wonder Woman finally on the big screen, but also to see her being portrayed so well. Now, with her standalone movie coming out a few months before the mediocre looking Justice League movie, this is not only an important movie for DC but also an important first step in finally bringing strong female superheroes to the big screen. Paving the way for Captain Marvel, a Black Widow standalone movie, and more. This had to be good.

Thankfully, it is. Although there’s still a long way to go in order to reach the level that Marvel already managed to achieve many movies ago, this is indeed a serious step up for DC. Opening with a brief scene set in present day, Wonder Woman then takes us back to Themyscira. A paradise island, hidden from view from the rest of the world, where a young Diana lives peacefully among her Amazon tribe. Despite their peaceful existence though, the Amazons are constantly preparing themselves for the return of Ares, God of War. Archery and combat training is undertaken daily on the island, under the guidance of Dianas aunt, General Antiope (Robin Wright). Diana is keen to train too and her reluctant mother, Queen Hippolyta (Connie Nielsen), eventually agrees, requesting that General Antiope train her hard and make her the best. As Diana grows into a woman, training has clearly gone well and she’s even managing to give her aunt a good run for her money! Just in time too as World War 1 pilot Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) crashes through the invisible barrier cloaking the island and crash lands into the sea, closely followed by a bunch of Germans who are on his tail. Time for the Amazon women to put their training to good use, but not without some casualties…

Steve tells Diana of the great war that’s raging throughout the world and Diana believes this to be the return of Ares. She decides to leave her home and travel with Steve to put an end to Ares once and for all. So, she grabs her shield and lasso of truth and ‘borrows’ the sacred ‘God Killer’ sword from the tower it rests in and off they go. Leaving behind the bright, vibrant island of Themyscira and returning to the traditional, dark grey pallet of colours that we’re used to seeing in our DC movies as they head to war-torn London.

Steve takes over as charming tour guide as Diana enters the human world for the first time. Her innocence and curiosity of the modern world are played beautifully by Gadot, with plenty of fish-out-of-water style humour too. But she’s also never afraid to question and stand up for what she believes in and tackle those who try and oppose her, giving an interesting perspective on aspects of humanity which deserve to be questioned. Her drive to get to the front-line of war, to seek out Ares and supposedly end all war by defeating him, constantly driving her forward. Romance eventually blossoms between Diana and Steve, but it feels natural and believable and helps to hold the movie together during some of its slower moments.

When Wonder Woman manages to get to the front line and steps out into no-mans land, ignoring the advice of Steve and those around her, it’s magnificent. It heralds the first in a series of magnificent action sequences involving German soldiers as she puts her training to good use. Initially shielding herself from the onslaught of bullets before moving onto the offensive with some bad-ass combat moves, slo-mo back-flips, jumps, whip action and displays of pure power and strength. Everything we got a glimpse of in Batman Vs Superman, ramped up to the max, perfectly executed and accompanied by a rocking soundtrack!

Where Wonder Woman doesn’t work so well is in the handling of its villains. Whenever we switch to General Ludendorff and Doctor Poison, busily developing deadly gases to unleash, momentum seems to be lost. And as for Ares, when we do finally meet him he’s pretty laughable, with no clearly defined motivation or character. Following a bit of villain monologue, we get the general gist of what his beef is and then the last 20 minutes or so descend into the over the top CG destruction that we’re so used to seeing now in these movies. It’s a minor gripe, and not handled as badly as some previous movies, but along with the pacing issues it does affect the overall enjoyment of the movie somewhat.

None of this detracts from Wonder Woman herself though. Gal Gadot has truly made this role her own and displays the perfect mix of strength, beauty, brains, confidence, determination and general all-round girl power. She can more than hold her own in the DC universe and should hopefully be a prominent force in the upcoming Justice League movie and beyond.
  
    Stock Intrinsic Value

    Stock Intrinsic Value

    Finance and Utilities

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

    App

    It is generally through a stock price-earnings ratio to determine whether it is worth the purchase...