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Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979)
Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979)
1979 | Comedy

"The only film I’ve seen more is The Empire Strikes Back. This is Python’s best movie. Holy Grail has its moments, but this has many more funny scenes. A parody of the life of Christ, it is neither blasphemous (Christ actually appears in it, as a genuine prophet) nor cruel. It mocks humans more than anything else. Michael Palin’s Pontius Pilate with a lisp is hilarious, Terry Jones as Brian’s mum is extremely funny—it may be the movie I quote (annoyingly) the most. I ask you, “What have the Romans ever done for us?!” Watched over 150 times."

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Transformers (2007)
Transformers (2007)
2007 | Action, Sci-Fi
Megan fox (0 more)
Watched yesterday on paramount plus finally got them long enough anyway the film my favourite of the Michael Bay transformers films the quality of the sequels go down hill after the second one but for me who watched the orignal cartoon in the 80s I was looking forward to when it first came it has everything a transformers fan loves automotive of course led by optimus prime has voiced by Peter Cullen from the orignal cartoon in my opinion the best optimus prime voice I will get to to the sequels soon on paramount plus including my favourite of the sequels
  
Halloween: Resurrection (2002)
Halloween: Resurrection (2002)
2002 | Horror
Fair play, Halloween Resurrection is not an easy watch for a whole fistful of reasons. Terrible dialogue, boderline-offensive quick edits, a ill advised attempt and mixing in found footage, the forced nature of pretty much every plot point, the bizarre cold open where Laurie fucking KISSES Michael before being unceremoniously knifed out of the remaining 80 minutes. Honestly, Busta Rhymes roundhouse kicking Michael in the face whilst making innapropriate "Kung Fu" noises is probably the best bit.
The movie threatens to become entertaining for approximately 40 seconds following the excruciatingly annoying characters realisation that they're in danger, and the obligatory final-girl chase is ok, but that's ruined by Mr Rhymes returning to save the day whilst shitting out terrible one liners. Did Busta fund this thing or something?

Rick Rosenthal's return to the series is a far cry from the far superior Halloween II. Just an abhorrently crap film all round.
  
R
Revenge
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
180 of 235
Book
Revenge
By Martina Cole
⭐️⭐️⭐️

He thought he was invincible. He was wrong.

REVENGE by the 'undisputed queen of crime writing' (Guardian) and Sunday Times No.1 bestseller Martina Cole is an unflinching novel that exposes a world that many would rather ignore...

Michael Flynn is untouchable. He's the boss of a dangerous empire, the biggest the criminal world has ever seen. No one crosses him, no one gets in his way, and everyone does what he says - including the law.

But you don't get to where Michael is without making enemies. Someone is out for revenge. And it's best served when least expected.

I liked this but it wasn’t my favourite of hers I found some of it too similar to some of her other stories and yes I know she has a type and way of writing but this wasn’t as good as those she’s written before. Although it was brutal and possibly more so than others.
  
Dead Simple (Roy Grace book 1)
Dead Simple (Roy Grace book 1)
Peter James | 2006 | Crime
8
8.6 (5 Ratings)
Book Rating
66 of 235
Book
Dead Simple ( Roy Grace 1)
By Peter James
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

It was meant to be a harmless stag night prank. A few hours later four of his best friends are dead, and Michael Harrison has disappeared. With only three days to the wedding, Detective Superintendent Grace - a man haunted by the shadow of his own missing wife - is contacted by Michael's beautiful, distraught fiancee, Ashley Harper. Grace discovers that the one man who ought to know Michael Harrison's whereabouts is saying nothing. But then he has a lot to gain - more than anyone realizes. For one man's disaster is another man's fortune ...

I really enjoyed this and didn’t take long at all! A gritty crime and a few bits that had me feeling claustrophobic! Grace is an easy character to like too!
It may have been a bit to easy to work out the who done it though.
  
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Sharpie0499 (114 KP) rated Assassin's Creed (2016) in Movies

Jul 9, 2018 (Updated Jul 9, 2018)  
Assassin's Creed (2016)
Assassin's Creed (2016)
2016 | Action
6
5.8 (33 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Excellent fight choreography (1 more)
Good casting choices
Terrible plotline (1 more)
Bad scriptwriting
Pretty Decent Adaptation
The best element of the Assassin's Creed film adaptation has to be the fight choreography. It was so skilfully done to the best of the choreographers', stunt doubles', and actors' abilities, and it paid off. The casting choices were also commendable as Michael Fassbender was the perfect choice for the leading role of Cal and I am unable to picture anyone else playing that role. But I have to admit, the plotline and the writing weren't up to modern film standards; meaning they completely fell through. I love this film, but if it was written better with a much better plotline, it would not go into the 'bad film adaptation' pile. Overall, I wouldn't call this an award-winning film, but it is very entertaining to watch and the fight scenes are incredible.
  
Antikörper (Antibodies) (2007)
Antikörper (Antibodies) (2007)
2007 | Drama, Horror, Mystery
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Movie Rating
A serial killer named Gabriel Engel (André Hennicke, Pandorum) that the police have been after for months has finally been captured. This is where most stories would end happily ever after, but instead this is how Antibodies begins. Michael Martens (Wotan Wilke Möhring, Valkyrie), a cop from a small, rural town had an unsolved case from a year ago concerning a 12-year-old girl named Lucia Flieder and Michael intends to interrogate Gabriel in hopes of a confession for her murder.

Gabriel already admitted to being in the area around the time of Lucia’s death, but her murder doesn’t entirely fit his M.O. But Michael plays right into Gabriel’s hands and becomes the pawn in his sick, psychological game as he’s able to get into Michael’s head from the moment they meet and remains there until the credits roll. The question isn’t, “Will Michael be able to find what he’s looking for?” but is instead, “Will Michael be able to survive the cerebral hedge maze Gabriel has thrown him into?”

Written and directed by Christian Alvart (Case 39, Pandorum), Antibodies is a German crime drama thriller that is worth seeing for André Hennicke’s performance alone. His portrayal of Gabriel is psychotic, disturbing, and extraordinarily mesmerizing as he steals nearly every scene he’s in. Hennicke embodies Gabriel and brings the character to life in all of his monstrously disquieting glory. There’s a brief sequence where Gabriel is drawing in his cell and he slowly starts pulling out his hair. There’s no dialogue, but Hennicke is able to pull it off with such terrifying elegance that it is incredible to witness.

Wotan Wilke Möhring is also quite impressive as Michael Martens. Michael struggles with the mental obstacles Gabriel throws at him throughout the film. Möhring is fantastically efficient at portraying a man who devoted his life to being an abiding citizen that is also committed to his religion. He cares deeply about his family and is now slowly losing his grip on his so-called perfect life. The interrogation scenes between Michael and Gabriel seem to simultaneously be homage to The Silence of the Lambs while also offering something different with its complete mastery of tension and Gabriel’s ulterior motives ring loudly upon the audience yet fall on deaf ears to a gullible Michael.

The religious parallels are incredibly interesting and deserve recognition, as well. The film has a tendency to not only reveal these parallels, but dives into them in a way that is easy to understand for the audience; the similarities between Michael and the archangel Gabriel are uncanny. The ending involving the test Gabriel gives Michael is all a part of a twisted game Gabriel plays and the web he’s spun has managed to get Michael tangled up in it. The film makes you think you know where it’s headed before it takes an unexpected detour and ends up going in the opposite direction.

Perhaps the most unusual aspect of the film is the involvement of Norman Reedus. The Wikipedia entry for Antibodies is still so bare, but apparently Reedus did his part in the film for free. Before The Walking Dead came along, Reedus was known best for his roles in The Boondock Saints, 8MM, Blade II, and the John Carpenter directed Masters of Horror episode, “Cigarette Burns.” Reedus has always taken part in projects that are unusual, but typically turn out to be fairly awesome. It was a great change of pace to see him show up and speak a few lines of German without a crossbow or a motorcycle.

Antibodies isn’t without its flaws as its script is often juvenile with the way it references sex and pleasuring yourself way more often than it should. The German thriller is still able to capitalize on a wonderfully tense and magnificently unsettling atmosphere with two incredibly strong leads that make the whole journey worthwhile. The story is riveting despite a few hiccups, the cast is top notch, the cinematography is excellent, and its unpredictable outcome is brilliant.

Antibodies is currently streaming on Amazon Video and Vudu for $2.99. The 2-disc special edition DVD is available for $24.98 on Amazon while the standard DVD is between $19.99 and $43.41. The film is available on DVD for various prices on eBay with the best offers being a pre-owned version of the single disc edition for $5.39 (10% off its normal $5.99 price) and the two-disc edition for $18.24; both have free shipping.
  
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Chris Sawin (602 KP) rated Halloween (2007) in Movies

Jun 19, 2019 (Updated Jun 21, 2019)  
Halloween (2007)
Halloween (2007)
2007 | Horror
You probably already know the story of Michael Myers and the horror that took place in Haddonfield, Illinois on Halloween night. How Michael Myers became one of the biggest slasher icons in horror movie history. Now we get to hear the story told by Rob Zombie, the man who brought us House of 1,000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects. He gives us some insight as to why Michael Myers is the way he is by showing us some of his childhood, the environment he grew up in, and how his family was. After he's institutionalized, we see how his progress continues to deteriorate as Dr. Samuel Loomis tries to do everything he can to save this young boy. Fifteen years go by when Loomis finally throws in the towel and Myers escapes Smith's Grove. Now on his way back to Haddonfield, Myers seeks his sister, Laurie, to finish what he started almost two decades ago.

There seems to be a huge debate amongst horror fans about whether this film was good or not. The results seemed to be pretty one-sided in favor of the original horror film from 1978, but now it seems the remake has almost just as many fans. I wouldn't say it was a 50/50 ratio, but 60/40 (60% of horror fans either hate the remake or prefer the original, 40% like the remake or prefer it over the original) seems about right these days. I managed to see the work print a few years ago and I wasn't impressed. With the release of Halloween 2 at the end of this month though, I promised myself I would give this film another shot. So that time has finally come and I can honestly say that the film isn't as bad as I remembered.

A few aspects of the film are actually quite good. Tyler Mane is a great Michael Myers. He's almost seven feet tall and is built like a giant. He's a total monster and the destruction and mayhem he causes is believable given his size. The adult version of Michael Myers is spot-on for a re-imagining of the film. Malcolm McDowell also does a good job as Dr. Loomis. He's no Donald Pleasance, but McDowell's take on the character isn't bad. Scout Taylor-Compton is also a worthy mention. She slips into the shoes of a modern day Laurie Strode rather flawlessly. Moving on from the acting though, the film is pretty solid from the time Michael gets his iconic mask through the finale. The way Michael made so many masks while he was in Smith's Grove was an interesting idea and the scene where you see his room fifteen years later with nothing but masks on every wall is one of the best in the film. The cinematography is also something that is often overlooked, which is a shame since it's actually pretty exceptional. It seemed to stand out most during the scenes where Michael was stalking Laurie, especially in the abandoned Myers house at the end. There's a scene right after Michael gets out of Smith's Grove where he goes to a truck stop and winds up getting the jumpsuit we're all familiar with. While there, he runs into Big Joe Grizzly in the bathroom stall and is banging Grizzly's hand, which is holding a knife, against the bathroom stall wall. As he's doing this though, the bathroom stall is just getting demolished but with every smashing blow, the camera violently shakes. The camera just always seemed to have a knack for giving a good perspective of what the character was going through, whether it was Michael or Laurie.

The disappointing part of this is pretty much everything leading up to Michael getting his mask back after his escape is pretty terrible. The dialogue, especially in the first ten to fifteen minutes of the film, is horrendous. Everything that's said between Deborah Myers and Ronnie White is just awful. The white trash upbringing just doesn't seem worthy for a horror icon like Michael Myers. It's just hard to believe that Michael Myers is the way he is because his mom was a stripper and his older sister was a whore. Logic seems to just be thrown by the way side as the film progresses. After Michael escapes from Smith's Grove, he returns to his old house where his mask and knife that he used to kill his family happen to just be lying under the floorboards. So did the police just pick up the bodies without searching the house or what? So he got his jumpsuit by stealing it from a guy taking a dump at a truck stop? Really? Hearing some of the original music return from John Carpenter's version of the film was a bit bittersweet. On one hand, it was great hearing it again. On the other, however, it just didn't seem to fit. Made me miss the original film more than anything. Giving Michael Myers a specific origin was probably Zombie's biggest mistake. The most terrifying thing about Michael Myers was that he was The Shape and had a bit of mystery to him. You knew he was going after Laurie, but other than that you had Loomis' word to fall back on. Michael was the human incarnation of pure evil. That's it. That's all you need. Humanizing the character and introducing us to his childhood only watered down the Michael Myers character.

There's a scene with Michael Myers and Dr. Loomis in Smith's Grove Sanitarium where Michael has made a mask that he's colored completely black. When Loomis asks him why it's black, Michael says that it's his favorite color. Loomis goes into an explanation about the color spectrum. Black is on one end and is the absence of color while white is at the opposite end and is every color. That's actually a great explanation of the differences between the original film and the remake. The original film would be the black segment of the spectrum. Carpenter's version leaves more to the viewer's imagination as the only explanation for Michael Myers is that he is "pure evil." While the remake would be the white segment of the spectrum as it goes into full detail why Michael Myers is the way he is and it shows every little violent and vulgar detail. Some people would say that having a little bit of mystery would be a good thing when it comes to a film like this while others like having everything laid out for them. It all depends on the viewer and which end of the spectrum they prefer. In my opinion though, that's the biggest mistake Rob Zombie made. There's no mystery left with the Michael Myers character. He's no longer The Shape, but is a psychopathic killer because he was raised by a white trash family, liked to torture animals, and whose sister didn't take him trick or treating.

The best thing Zombie can do is distance himself from the original film(s) as much as possible. To do something original with these characters. He looks like he'll do just that when Halloween 2 hits theaters on August 28th. One thing re-watching the remake accomplished was that it made me look forward to the sequel. The trailer looks really good (but to be fair, so did the trailer for the original film) and I was on the fence about it until I saw this again. The only problem I have is that Zombie seems to be telling the same story with the same initial cast with all of his films. House of 1,000 Corpses, The Devil's Rejects, and Halloween (first half of the film) are all way too similar. Zombie needs something new to add to his resume. Will Halloween 2 deliver that? Probably not, but a guy can hope.
  
The Blind Side (2009)
The Blind Side (2009)
2009 | Comedy, Drama, Sport
“The Blind Side” tells the unique story of Leigh Anne Touhy (Sandra Bullock) a rich sassy southern mother who makes a snap decision to take in Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron), a destitute high school student who is failing his classes. As Michael struggles to overcome his past, Leigh Anne becomes increasingly aware of the world around her. Even with differing backgrounds Leigh Anne and Michael connect through the sport they both love.

Based primarily on one of the two stories within the book, The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game by Micheal Lewis, “The Blind Side” is a football infused feel good story offering something for everyone. Sports fans will like the football terminology and game history. And sentimental hearts will enjoy this tale of overcoming obstacles and beating the odds.

Undeniably representing southern charm, Bullock pulls off one of her best performances ever. Similarly Aaron’s portrayal of Michael brings instant likeability and depth to the character. The other notable performances such as Leigh Anne’s extremely hip son, S.J. Touhy (Jae Head), and Michael’s one of a kind tutor Miss Sue (Kathy Bates), fill the film with equal parts of comedy and heart.

While a it is a film for the whole family, “The Blind Side” directly tackles the issues faced by people who come from different backgrounds, races, and even political parties. Funny, honest, and more willing than most to take a stand on the unspoken racial and class tensions “The Blind Side” takes an honest look at the world we live in.

A funny heartfelt southern tale about family, differences, and football “The Blind Side” is a touchdown.
  
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Vicki Gleave D'Aunay (12 KP) Aug 8, 2019

Lovely film

The War of the Roses (1989)
The War of the Roses (1989)
1989 | Comedy
Love Hurts
The War of the Roses- is a funny drama. Micheal Douglas, Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito are all excellent in this.

The plot: After 17 years of marriage, Barbara (Kathleen Turner) and Oliver Rose (Michael Douglas) want out. The trouble is, neither one wants to part with their opulent home. So begins a long war between husband and wife, reaching farcical heights that leave much of the house -- not to mention their lives -- in shambles. The couple's children (Sean Astin, Heather Fairfield) watch in horror while lawyer Gavin D'Amato (Danny DeVito) tries his best to stem the bloodshed.

Its a good film.