Search

Search only in certain items:

40x40

Andy K (10821 KP) rated First Blood (1982) in Movies

Jun 23, 2018 (Updated Jun 23, 2018)  
First Blood (1982)
First Blood (1982)
1982 | Action
They drew First Blood, not me!
Sylvester Stallone will probably always be best remembered for his portrayal of boxer Rocky Balboa, but a close second is his role and character of troubled Vietnam War veteran John Rambo.

All he wanted to do was stop and settle in a small, rural town, but the local sheriff would have none of that. Rambo, the drifter, was arrested and booked for just wanting to have a hot meal somewhere. Thus, this is when the ordeal began. Rambo quickly escaped his captors as well as the police station and set forth a sequence of events, like a game of cat and mouse, whereas the authorities try to bring him back into custody.

After their initial attempt are unsuccessful they even try bringing in his former commanding officer, Colonel Trautman, to try and talk him in.

Stallone's portrayal of Rambo in First Blood shows real depth and emotion. Subsequent Rambo sequels show him as more of a huklish, strongman, badass, one man army, but First Blood shows his emotional scars come to the surface several times. You feel empathy for him and realize his actions were defensive and only used because of his intense training.

It's one of the great chase movies ever made.
  
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2016)
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2016)
2016 | Family, Sci-Fi
8
7.4 (48 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Unique characters (2 more)
Great cast
Another great tim burton style
Predicatable (0 more)
Great movie, rather unique
This was a great Tim Burton movie. I do believe it is underrated, I've heard many bad things about this movie mainly being told it's boring but its far from it.

Each character is very unique and sometimes kinda creepy and there were some very interesting parts of the story I found very very interested, more specific the loops.

The cast was great but was surprised not to see Helana Boham Carter playing the lead. I've not heard anything about a sequel but I really hope it happens with the cast returning and maybe add a few new characters (I'm yet to read the books).

It was shot really well, you can see Tim Burton all over it and the CGI was pretty good. I loved the design of the monsters. I would have loved more and it is missing something that I can't quite put my finger on.

However, I could see myself going back and watching this again and that is the sign of a good movie. It was predictable and it's not going on my list of the greatest movies ever but it did not disappoint me.
  
Ready Player One (2018)
Ready Player One (2018)
2018 | Sci-Fi
So many references to games and movies (2 more)
Great story
Visually beautiful
Perfect movie for gamers and movie buffs!
I want to start off by saying I've never read the book so I can't make comparisons like so many have. For the movie it's self it's incredible.

Visually it's beautiful. So much action and set pieces. It felt like a video game most times but as it kept going back to the real world, the CGI ended up being a little distracting at times but it never put me off. They did an amazing job with it. It was probably even intended to keep reminding you it wasn't real. To differentiate between was was real and what was not.

So much references and it's fun to spot them. I saw the back to the future delorian, iron giant, tracer from overwatch, master chief.....I can keep going. I was quite surprised at a lot of them though, especially of the shining.

The cast is great, the plot was great, the environments were great. It makes you want this world to be real.

I really hope a sequel is considered. I'd be happy with the same cast as long as the story is right. I had a lot of fun with this movie.
  
Tau (2018)
Tau (2018)
2018 | Sci-Fi, Thriller
I had heard little whispers about this movie before it came out, comparing it to Upgrade (2018), only less gory. First of all, it was nothing like that, but it was very good. The premise is interesting--a young woman is kidnapped and held for experimentation by a sociopathic computer genius, who has created an AI named Tau to run his house. Only he's kept Tau in the dark about a lot of stuff. Like that there's more than just the house and other humans exist. I think lately, movies have skewed more towards negative depictions of AI, but Tau is actually rather positive. Without revealing anything, both Julia (the kidnapee) and Tau learn things about themselves and each other. The whole film brings up the question of what it is to be a person, how much empathy we can grant to non-human sentience, and what it means to be a prisoner.

Very good, and visually appealing as well. I loved the way Tau "looked," but there were times when the CG got a little shaky. Nothing unexpected for a movie with this kind of budget. If you enjoyed Dean Koontz's "Demon Seed" or the film adaptation, I think you'll like this.
  
Cheap Thrills (2014)
Cheap Thrills (2014)
2014 | Comedy, Mystery
8
7.5 (2 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Great cast (2 more)
Some extreme moments
Unpredictable
How far would you go when your desperate?
This was a fun movie, it reminded me a lot of that movie called Nerve. You do more and more dangerous dates for more money. It does beg the question "How far would you go when your desperate for money?"

This resulted in some extreme moments which I never saw coming. It was written well with an excellent cast. I can never take David Koechner seriously in anyovie he does but he does have a certain creep factor about him.

I like how contained it was. It was mainly set inside 1 house. It didn't go too crazy or extreme with too much money on the line. It went far enough with a believable amount of $250,000 overall. I feel the less money being offered, the more it felt desperate and extreme. It does make me think there may be some rich people out there who get off on this kind of thing.

There are definitely some "look away" moments which is good for this kind of movie and there was a decent amount of gore.

Definitely worth a watch and this was 1 of those movies that I only paid £1 for the blu ray. Can't argue with that.
  
Prom Night (2008)
Prom Night (2008)
2008 | Horror
Good cast (0 more)
Boring plot (2 more)
Characters were not well developed
Tried to rely on bad jump scares
All the clichés, none of the fun
So this was a pretty bad movie and I quite like this genre mostly.

The plot was way too boring and predictable. It's something you have seen hundreds of movies like this. It's a typical slasher movie. You knew everything that was gonna happen pretty much.

Too bad they try to move things along way too quickly so no characters were fleshed out. They just ended up boring but given enough time they could have gone into backstory about why this is happening and it would have made the characters a lot more interesting. Don't get me wrong I did like the cast, they had good actors. It was just the writing that was not good.

It was not at all scary and tried to rely on jump scares alone which were not actually scary. The deaths could have been entertaining but were just boring and the ending was expected.

I cannot recommend this. It's not a good movie. Not sure what else I can say but if you read the plot, it's basically what it says it is. You can guess the rest.
  
Total Recall (1990)
Total Recall (1990)
1990 | Action, Sci-Fi
Arnold is great in it (2 more)
Sharon Stone looks great
Great are they or aren’t they plot
Bit dated now (0 more)
One of Arnie’s best
By 1990 Schwarzenegger was in full stride and could do no wrong. He even tried his hand in comedy (Twins) with Danny De Vito and won audiences. Futuristic sci fi is where Schwarzenegger’s real strength is (The Running Man, Terminator Franchise, Eraser, Predator..) and the perfect example of this (other than Terminator 2) is Total Recall. It has everything from very quotable lines to an intriguing story which raises the bar on previous Schwarzenegger entries (originally a Philip K Dick story). The basic story line is a construction worker call Doug Quaid dreams of going to Mars but when he finally gets the chance things might not all be what they seem. Is he a secret agent? Is he on Mars? Did he get a divorce? And will those people get air? Sure it looks dated now but this was considered one of the most expensive movies made at the time and the dated graphics can be sidelined for seeing what happens to Schwarzenegger’s Quaid. If you buy the special edition dvd, you’re in for a treat also as Schwarzenegger provides his take on what a commentary is. Check it out.
  
Treasure Planet (2002)
Treasure Planet (2002)
2002 | Action, Animation, Family
Great characters (3 more)
An awesome soundtrack by John Rezenik lead singer of the goo goo dolls
Awesome action scenes
The subtle Easter eggs to it's source material
Basically if you read the story of treasure island you'll notice there's bound to be some changes or cuts and know that it's pretty much the same story (1 more)
It's a product of it's time. You'll definitely know that the film hasn't aged well which isn't the movies fault. Example A. The bad CG animation at the time was great but today's standards.... probably not so great
Treasure planet is good
An underrated Disney classic treasure planet deserves the praise it gets. The movie is swashbuckling fun and a pretty good movie as well. Now let's see just how good it is well...the movie for starters has a great cast of characters from our main character Jim to the awesome John silver. Also the soundtrack is awesome too with songs like I'm still here being the favorite out of the bunch. Also the movie has some pretty intense moments as well as some humor as well.

If I had to pick one bad about the movie is that it's a pretty generic plot and the story is pretty much more or less the same plot of treasure island
  
40x40

David McK (3175 KP) rated The Martian in Books

Jan 28, 2019  
The Martian
The Martian
Andy Weir | 2014 | Science Fiction/Fantasy
8
8.9 (50 Ratings)
Book Rating
OK ... I'll admit it: I wasn't sure whether I would like this book or not.

I've been burned in the past with books that have been turned into movies where (IMO) the source material just wasn't really all that great.

I also have to make clear - I haven't actually seen the film yet, so can't compare the two, but I did wonder how interesting a story told almost entirely from one person's perspective - with that person also entirely on his own, kinda like a modern-day/near future Robinson Crusoe could be.

Now that I have read it, I must admit: i did find this a gripping read, even if there are passages that just seem to drag on a bit. The story, for anyone who doesn't know, is about astronaut Mark Watney, who has been left behind on the planet Mars by his crew-mates, who believe he has died, and the efforts he goes to to survive, while NASA do their best to formulate a rescue plan (as do his crew-mates when they discover he is still alive, and now the only man on the planet for an entire 2 years or so).

The ending, though, is also a bit anti-climactic: what happens next??
  
Way of the Dragon (1972)
Way of the Dragon (1972)
1972 | Action, International
8
8.5 (2 Ratings)
Movie Rating
This film is a bit more lighthearted in comparison to other Bruce Lee films as there is a lot more humor and silliness than I expected during my first viewing. That's not necessarily a bad thing either. Most Bruce Lee movies have that 70s action movie cheese anyway and the weird thing is that it feels like that cheesiness is used to its maximum potential in any film Lee's a part of. Lee also doesn't actually fight in this film until about thirty minutes in, but it makes that first fight sequence and everything after so much better since you have to wait a bit for it. The payoff really doesn't get any sweeter than in this film either. Chuck Norris and Bruce Lee squaring off against each other to the death. Stop reading here if you want to avoid spoilers, but from the information gathered online Chuck Norris has only played a villain two times in his career and this is the only time his character has died. Besides where would the world be without Chuck Norris jokes? The man can blow bubbles with beef jerky, but we're getting off-topic. The Way of the Dragon is definitely worth seeing and/or owning for Bruce Lee and martial arts film fans.