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Quinn Blackburn (3 KP) rated True Colors (1991) in Movies
May 4, 2018
Riveting
This fascinating 1991 drama follows the friendship of Peter Burton (John Cusack) and Tim Gerrity (James Spader) from it's inception in law school to its grim finale on election night. Gerrity is that rare bird, a man from a wealthy family who simply wants to leave the world a better place than he found it. Peter comes from much more humble origins and is driven to succeed at any cost. Their unlikely friendship rises and falls around their career choices. We the viewers are left wondering if anyone as driven as Peter could ever be satisfied with the simple wholesome pleasures in life, like truth or friendship. Well paced, still highly relevant, and a well told tale.
Andy K (10821 KP) rated National Lampoon's Vacation (1983) in Movies
Jun 21, 2018
The dog went on the picnic basket!
The Griswolds!
Everyone's favorite adventurous family embarks on their inaugural journey together to go see Wallyworld in California and encounters creepy annoying relatives and all sorts of unsavory characters along the way.
I once had a long discussion with someone about which was better, the first Vacation or Christmas Vacation, this one being my favorite of the bunch. The family dynamic on the open road, for me, was slightly more entertaining than Christmas at home with the relatives which is also still a lot of fun.
Seemed like a liked the introduction of Randy Quaid, John Candy, Christy Brinkley and Imogeen Coca and just thought it was a lot of fun waiting to see what happened next.
Everyone's favorite adventurous family embarks on their inaugural journey together to go see Wallyworld in California and encounters creepy annoying relatives and all sorts of unsavory characters along the way.
I once had a long discussion with someone about which was better, the first Vacation or Christmas Vacation, this one being my favorite of the bunch. The family dynamic on the open road, for me, was slightly more entertaining than Christmas at home with the relatives which is also still a lot of fun.
Seemed like a liked the introduction of Randy Quaid, John Candy, Christy Brinkley and Imogeen Coca and just thought it was a lot of fun waiting to see what happened next.
Matthew Krueger (10051 KP) rated Bringing Out the Dead (1999) in Movies
Nov 8, 2019 (Updated Nov 9, 2019)
Bringing Out The Cage
Bring Out The Dead- is a very underrated movie with a great cast and directed by one of the all time greatest directors- Martin Scorsese.
The Plot: After a disheartening and haunting career wears him down, New York City paramedic Frank Pierce (Nicolas Cage) begins to collapse under the strain of saving lives and witnessing deaths. Through the course of a few nights, three co-workers (John Goodman, Ving Rhames, Tom Sizemore) accompany Pierce as he grasps for sanity and pushes to be fired. Before Pierce falls off the edge, he still has a hope when he forms a friendship with a victim's daughter (Patricia Arquette).
Its delusional, its paranoid, its suspenseful, its thrilling and overall its a good movie.
Highly recordmend watching this movie.
The Plot: After a disheartening and haunting career wears him down, New York City paramedic Frank Pierce (Nicolas Cage) begins to collapse under the strain of saving lives and witnessing deaths. Through the course of a few nights, three co-workers (John Goodman, Ving Rhames, Tom Sizemore) accompany Pierce as he grasps for sanity and pushes to be fired. Before Pierce falls off the edge, he still has a hope when he forms a friendship with a victim's daughter (Patricia Arquette).
Its delusional, its paranoid, its suspenseful, its thrilling and overall its a good movie.
Highly recordmend watching this movie.
Matthew Krueger (10051 KP) rated Dark Water (2005) in Movies
Oct 1, 2020
Dripping Nightmares
Dark Water- is a good movie. Note I havent seen the oringal movie. I have only seen the remake which this is. Jennifer Connelly does a excellent job in this film.
The Plot: Dahlia (Jennifer Connelly) wants to move away from her ex-husband, Kyle (Dougray Scott), and take her daughter, Ceci (Ariel Gade), with her. Relocating to a dreary tower block, Dahlia and Ceci discover eerie, dark water leaking through the ceiling of their new apartment. Dahlia petitions the supervisor (Pete Postlethwaite) and the building's owner (John C. Reilly) to fix the leak, yet it only gets worse. Now having nightmares about the dripping, Dahlia is
driven to confront the problem herself.
Like i said ive not seen the oringal only this adaptation. Its still a good movie.
The Plot: Dahlia (Jennifer Connelly) wants to move away from her ex-husband, Kyle (Dougray Scott), and take her daughter, Ceci (Ariel Gade), with her. Relocating to a dreary tower block, Dahlia and Ceci discover eerie, dark water leaking through the ceiling of their new apartment. Dahlia petitions the supervisor (Pete Postlethwaite) and the building's owner (John C. Reilly) to fix the leak, yet it only gets worse. Now having nightmares about the dripping, Dahlia is
driven to confront the problem herself.
Like i said ive not seen the oringal only this adaptation. Its still a good movie.
David McK (3251 KP) rated In the Line of Fire (1993) in Movies
Jan 16, 2022
Early 90s political thriller starring the ever-reliable Clint Eastwood (in, I feel, a rare non-Western role) as the lone still-in-service Secret Service Agent who was on duty when JFK got shot, and who gets pulled into a game of cat and mouse when the current President's life is threatened during his re-election campaign by a psychopath, brilliantly (and creepily) played by John Malkovich, despite and over the advice of that President's chief of staff (who doesn't believe there to be any danger).
This takes a while to get going, and there are more than a few cliches along the way - "I'm going to quit tomorrow' being the most egregious - with the film largely relying on the charisma of its leading actors. Thankfully, they are - mostly - up to the task.
This takes a while to get going, and there are more than a few cliches along the way - "I'm going to quit tomorrow' being the most egregious - with the film largely relying on the charisma of its leading actors. Thankfully, they are - mostly - up to the task.
Jesters_folly (230 KP) rated Jigsaw (2017) in Movies
May 1, 2021
Contains spoilers, click to show
10 Years after the events in saw 7 (the Final chapter/Saw 3D) a new 'game' has started and a new group of police officers have to try to find out what is happening and who is responsible.
Jigsaw runs to almost the same formula as the previous films , there is a game in progress and the police have to stop it but as well as the game there is still enough of a story to make the film interesting. The biggest difference is that there isn't really the back story in the same way the other films had mainly because, with the exception of John Kramer (the original Jigsaw), we have all new characters. Instead Jigsaw focuses on finding out who the new Jigsaw is or even if it is a new Jigsaw or if John has some how come back from the dead. This is where the film is cleaver, it gives us a number of possible suspects and even makes it seem it may be John.
Jigsaw doesn't seem to be as gory as the previous films, yes you still have people in a game and yes at least some of them loose but there are no intestines littering the ground or close ups on people getting cut in half. Don't get me wrong there is still gore, closeups of the dead bodies and people loosing limbs but it doesn't quite have the same feel to it.
The story aspect to the film is good , as I said, it does leave you guessing to who the killer is although, if you pay attention there are clues. The film also plays with time a bit and, as in the other films, this is used to throw the viewer off track.
Jigsaw is a good entry in to the Saw franchise, as it has a ten year gap from Saw 7 it doesn't get bogged down with the original charters and doesn't get (too) bogged down with the past timeline which was getting a bit muddled (in my opinion) but it does manage to pull from what has gone before and use it further the story.
And that's it, the end of the Saw franchise. OK not quite, at the time of writing 'Spiral, Chapters from the book of Saw' is due out at the cinema (Corona willing) in a couple of weeks and it looks to bigger and better however I probably won't get to see it for a while so, for now, it's time to move onto something new.
Jigsaw runs to almost the same formula as the previous films , there is a game in progress and the police have to stop it but as well as the game there is still enough of a story to make the film interesting. The biggest difference is that there isn't really the back story in the same way the other films had mainly because, with the exception of John Kramer (the original Jigsaw), we have all new characters. Instead Jigsaw focuses on finding out who the new Jigsaw is or even if it is a new Jigsaw or if John has some how come back from the dead. This is where the film is cleaver, it gives us a number of possible suspects and even makes it seem it may be John.
Jigsaw doesn't seem to be as gory as the previous films, yes you still have people in a game and yes at least some of them loose but there are no intestines littering the ground or close ups on people getting cut in half. Don't get me wrong there is still gore, closeups of the dead bodies and people loosing limbs but it doesn't quite have the same feel to it.
The story aspect to the film is good , as I said, it does leave you guessing to who the killer is although, if you pay attention there are clues. The film also plays with time a bit and, as in the other films, this is used to throw the viewer off track.
Jigsaw is a good entry in to the Saw franchise, as it has a ten year gap from Saw 7 it doesn't get bogged down with the original charters and doesn't get (too) bogged down with the past timeline which was getting a bit muddled (in my opinion) but it does manage to pull from what has gone before and use it further the story.
And that's it, the end of the Saw franchise. OK not quite, at the time of writing 'Spiral, Chapters from the book of Saw' is due out at the cinema (Corona willing) in a couple of weeks and it looks to bigger and better however I probably won't get to see it for a while so, for now, it's time to move onto something new.
Awix (3310 KP) rated Dark Star (1974) in Movies
May 31, 2018
Massively influential spoof of overly-solemn and pretentious 60s sci-fi movies looks like what it is - a student movie blown up to feature proportions. John Carpenter was known to comment that the world's greatest student movie would still only be a pretty unimpressive 'real' film and there is an element of truth in this, for Dark Star is often slightly primitive, especially in its visual effects.
But never mind that, just enjoy the way it deconstructs the likes of 2001 and their philosophical concerns - 'never mind all that intelligent life crap, just give me something I can blow up,' snaps the commander early on. Classical music is eschewed for a jaunty country tune, and so on.
Most significant is way the pristine interiors of other films' spacecraft are replaced by the squalid, utilitarian quarters of the Dark Star's crew - this is space bereft of novelty and glamour, it's just a boring and dangerous place to work. You can see the 'used universe' aesthetic of the late 70s SF boom and beyond being invented here. Plus this is the movie that directly led to Alien. Not the biggest or best SF movie of the 70s, but still one of the most significant in the history of the genre.
But never mind that, just enjoy the way it deconstructs the likes of 2001 and their philosophical concerns - 'never mind all that intelligent life crap, just give me something I can blow up,' snaps the commander early on. Classical music is eschewed for a jaunty country tune, and so on.
Most significant is way the pristine interiors of other films' spacecraft are replaced by the squalid, utilitarian quarters of the Dark Star's crew - this is space bereft of novelty and glamour, it's just a boring and dangerous place to work. You can see the 'used universe' aesthetic of the late 70s SF boom and beyond being invented here. Plus this is the movie that directly led to Alien. Not the biggest or best SF movie of the 70s, but still one of the most significant in the history of the genre.
Sarah (7798 KP) rated Attack the Block (2011) in Movies
Dec 30, 2018
A silly, fun British horror
When I first saw this at the cinema I absolutely loved it, but I haven’t really seen it since. On watching it again recently, I have to admit it’s not quite as good as I remembered but it’s still a very enjoyable film.
It’s a very B-movie esque horror film, with very low budget, lots of blood and a fairly unknown cast. Of course a lot of the cast have now gone on to bigger things (John Boyega, Jodie Whittaker and Luke Treadaway mainly), but they’re still very good and great to watch in this. The plot is fun and a little bit silly, and the aliens themselves are very well done. They’re creepy and pretty terrifying, without being overly complicated and there’s a lot of good physical effects thrown in here in addition to cgi. The most annoying thing about this film is the language. I completely understand why it has been set on a council estate in London, that’s part of the entertainment, however some of the slang and gang type language grates after a while. It’s difficult to understand and a little bit irritating after a while. Aside from this it’s a very enjoyable low budget horror that’s worth a watch.
It’s a very B-movie esque horror film, with very low budget, lots of blood and a fairly unknown cast. Of course a lot of the cast have now gone on to bigger things (John Boyega, Jodie Whittaker and Luke Treadaway mainly), but they’re still very good and great to watch in this. The plot is fun and a little bit silly, and the aliens themselves are very well done. They’re creepy and pretty terrifying, without being overly complicated and there’s a lot of good physical effects thrown in here in addition to cgi. The most annoying thing about this film is the language. I completely understand why it has been set on a council estate in London, that’s part of the entertainment, however some of the slang and gang type language grates after a while. It’s difficult to understand and a little bit irritating after a while. Aside from this it’s a very enjoyable low budget horror that’s worth a watch.
Jordan Binkerd (567 KP) rated The Mummy Returns (2001) in Movies
Aug 13, 2019
Brendan Fraser (6 more)
Rachel Weiss
John Hannah
Oded Fehr
Arnold Vosloo
Continuity of cast
Not as good as the first one, but still better than the next....
Introduction of concepts and elements that weren't present in the first - reincarnation, Rick's tattoo and it's significance, etc (1 more)
The Scorpion King's introduction looks like a PS2 cutscene.
A solid sequel
This is a solid sequel, even if it falls short of the mark set by it's predecessor. The entire (surviving) cast returns, which I appreciate in a franchise, and the story mostly delivers. There are a few frustrating elements, such as all of a sudden adding concepts such as reincarnation (especially given that the concurring reveal would have been relevant to the story of the first film) or Rick's tattoo that he's had since his childhood, except that he didn't have it in the first movie. Where this film really falls short, though, is a couple bad animation moments. Mostly the film is a lot like the first in terms of effects - decent animation for 2002, if occasionally dated, but a couple of sequences are jarringly bad, especially the Rock's entrance as the Scorpion King. Is it enough to keep me from watching? No. But I still cringe at that point every time.
mmb02191 (81 KP) rated Solo: A Star Wars Story - Soundtrack by John Powell in Music
Aug 16, 2018 (Updated Aug 16, 2018)
Sounded LIKE John Williams
I received a gift copy for this review.
I listened through this CD a few times, and I don't DISLIKE it. But.. it just isn't John Williams.
I will break it down to a few songs that stuck out to me. The first selection, the main theme, was full of energy and power. You are transported as soon as you begin listening to this and it takes you on a ride into the star wars universe. It definitely is not as memorable as most Star Wars' themes though. It doesn't stick with you longer than just simply listening to it.
Reminiscence Therapy just seemed like a letdown for me. Wasn't too interesting.
I really liked what he did with Marauders Arrive though. It was a very interesting choice to have the voices in there, and I really enjoyed the different style.
Adventures of Han was almost reminiscent of Indiana Jones, and I really liked that. It wasn't a carbon copy, but it still had that happiness even in the face of danger feeling.
Finally, my favorite had to be Chicken in the Pot because of the beautiful vocals in it. That woman can sing!
I listened through this CD a few times, and I don't DISLIKE it. But.. it just isn't John Williams.
I will break it down to a few songs that stuck out to me. The first selection, the main theme, was full of energy and power. You are transported as soon as you begin listening to this and it takes you on a ride into the star wars universe. It definitely is not as memorable as most Star Wars' themes though. It doesn't stick with you longer than just simply listening to it.
Reminiscence Therapy just seemed like a letdown for me. Wasn't too interesting.
I really liked what he did with Marauders Arrive though. It was a very interesting choice to have the voices in there, and I really enjoyed the different style.
Adventures of Han was almost reminiscent of Indiana Jones, and I really liked that. It wasn't a carbon copy, but it still had that happiness even in the face of danger feeling.
Finally, my favorite had to be Chicken in the Pot because of the beautiful vocals in it. That woman can sing!