Search

Search only in certain items:

Sleeping with Other People (2015)
Sleeping with Other People (2015)
2015 | Comedy
7
7.0 (5 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Relationships can be a complicated and challenge for many people. Combined with the pressures of work and modern society, it is a wonder how many people still manage to find one another and make meaningful connections.

In the new film “Sleeping With Other People”, audiences are introduced to Jake (Jason Sudeikis), and Lainey (Alison Brie), who meet by chance in a dorm, and have a very memorable evening with one another.

Flash forward years later and Jake and Lainey are struggling with relationships as Jake is a womanizer and Lainey has issued with fidelity in relationships and her self-destructive nature.

The two reunite by chance and begin a friendship which as time goes on, blossoms into something more. Of course both characters have their share of demons to contend with and have people in their past and present that have to be factored in as they struggle to grasp the rules of modern life.

Sudeikis and Brie work well with one another as their relationship seems natural and forced as they are both people trying to do the right thing yet haunted by their destructive patterns when it comes to love and relationships.

Solid supporting work by Amanda Peet and Adam Scott and the talented and enjoyable ensemble cast make the film a pleasant surprise and one that you should not miss.

http://sknr.net/2015/09/18/sleeping-with-other-people/
  
Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018)
Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018)
2018 | Action, Sci-Fi
It has been ten years since humanity triumphed over the invading Kaiju in “Pacific Rim”. The world has begun rebuilding from the devastation caused by the conflict and for the most part humanity has moved on. However for Jake Pentecost (John Boyega), he exists as a hustler in a yet to be recovered zone that was heavily damaged by the conflict. Jake lives for the hustle, finding and trading one item of value for another from cookies and cereal to parts from down Jaegers.

Looting and operating parts from the former combat giants is very illegal but with the massive payout from their parts, the lure is too great for Jake to ignore. This pursuit leads him into trouble and reluctantly paired with young scrapper Amari Namani (Cailee Spaeny). Jake gets a choice of prison or returning to train Jaeger pilots as he is the son of the late hero Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba), and naturally has many unresolved issues of sharing the name of the beloved hero.

Figuring training a class beats jail, Jake agrees to teach Amara and a new class of Jaeger pilots with his former rival Nate Lambert (Scott Eastwood), and to say they still have issues with one another would be an understatement.

Despite this, training moves along as planned and Nate and Jake even work well enough to pilot a Jaeger at a ceremony that will usher in a new but controversial new age in protection for humanity.

When an unexpected threat arrives and causes mass devastation and chaos, Jake and Nate must get to the bottom of the threat. As their investigation moves along a massive threat is discovered which pits them and their untested recruits against a threat old and new which threatens to end humanity.

What follows is a FX laden finale where cities are laid waste to and massive combatants engage is a truly impressive visual spectacle

While “Pacific Rim: Uprising” does use a familiar plot threads, it does so in an engaging way. The film does have a very basic plot and does not delve too much into character development and leaves some of the threads it opened unresolved. What it does have is a good amount of action after a slower than expected buildup. The action is visually appealing and exciting and delivers a much better experience than the last few “Transformer” films did. The cast works well with one another and it was nice to see Charlie Day and others from the first film return as Day always makes his scenes engaging.

While you may have a sense of seeing much of this before in giant monster and robot films, it is done in an appealing way. There is much of the film that you can see was clearly included to make sure the film appeals to audiences in China and Japan but in the new global film market, it is vital for films to do well in those markets, and with a film based in the Asian Pacific Rim, it only makes sense to do this. Eastwood and Boyega work well with one another and the finale opens the door wide open for a third film that looks like it would extend the franchise by taking things in a new and exciting direction.

http://sknr.net/2018/03/21/pacific-rim-uprising/
  
40x40

Suswatibasu (1701 KP) rated Shot in the Dark in TV

Nov 25, 2017 (Updated Nov 26, 2017)  
Shot in the Dark
Shot in the Dark
2017 | Crime, Documentary
Great for the first few episodes
For fans of @Nightcrawler (2014), this is the real-life version following the journeys of three stringers, competing to out-shoot each other. From fires, crashes to shootings and industrial accidents, it's life and death on a daily basis, but at what cost?

Howard Raishbrook of RMG News attempts to ward off competition from his more successful counterparts Scott Lane of LoudLabs and Zak Holman of OnScene, in this cutthroat industry where morals seem sparse. While not as completely corrupt as Jake Gyllenhaal's character in Nightcrawler, Scott and Zak seem closer to his personality, with nothing off the table. In between are internal battles with Raishbrook's twin brother becoming a news story himself, the monopoly of the industry squeezing out smaller companies such as RMG, and how close each of them get to sudden death every night.

It's a great series, but after four episodes it begins to wear you down quite quickly and the images end up appearing no different to one another (I should know, we used to use stringers in the newsroom every day). As a result, it has a desensitising effect, and the series' initial lure begins to wear thin. The show could have been cut down by four episodes to remain interesting.