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Men in Black International (2019)
Men in Black International (2019)
2019 | Action, Sci-Fi
Chris Hemsworth (2 more)
Tessa Thompson
Pawny
The two twists are visible a mile away (1 more)
No Will Smith, no Tommy Lee Jones
Not as good as the original, but still excellent
I see a lot of derogatory reviews for this one, and I don't really understand that. Is it as good as the original? No. Neither were the other two sequels. I can only think of two sequels in the history of movies that were as good or better than the original: Terminator 2 - Judgement Day and Star Wars - The Empire Strikes Back. Okay, three, I forgot about The Road Warrior. My point stands. It's an unfair expectation to put on this film, which was perfectly enjoyable and managed to move the MiB franchise outside New York City for a change.

Agent M is our protagonist, a woman who witnessed MiB in action as a girl and escaped being Neuralized. After tracking down MiB, she's sent to London and partnered with Agent H, a legend in the agency who seems to have lost what made him a competent agent. Together, they must ferret out a mole in the Men in Black....

While they're no Smith and Jones, Hemsworth and Thompson have excellent chemistry as evidenced by their repeatedly being paired with each other. Emma Thompson and Liam Neeson are incapable of failing to entertain, especially in material as bonkers as MiB, and Pawny was hilarious. The storyline is a bit cliche, and you see the twists coming miles away, but on the whole I greatly enjoyed the film. It's exactly what I expected it to be, exactly what it wanted to be. The reason for H's change in character is left a little bit ambiguous and unexplained, but should be clear enough on further consideration. I'd be down for a couple more with this cast, honestly....
  
The Thief and the Cobbler (1993)
The Thief and the Cobbler (1993)
1993 | Action, Adventure, Animation
8
6.3 (3 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Richard Williams' Aladdin Story
I will admit that when I first heard about this movie, I wasn't that interested in it because I was a little freaked out by the character designs. But, after watching this movie, I ended up enjoying it a lot more because of the creativity being put into this film! Now, I know a lot of people had complained about this movie being too similar to Disney's Aladdin, but in all honesty, the idea of this movie actually surfaced WAY before Disney's Aladdin came along (it was established in the 1960s actually)! The sad story behind it though was that the film didn't get released until the 1990s and by then, there were a lot of changes to the movie that differed heavily from the original vision (luckily, there's a recobbled version of this film out there, that I will hopefully see soon)! The voice acting was very well done in this version of the original script, especially with Jonathan Winters providing inner quips for the thief himself and I also loved the character designs, as they were quite bizarre yet creative to look at! Probably, one of my most favorite scenes in the movie was the famous chase scene between the thief and Tack as it shows just how bizarre this film can get at times!

My biggest issue with this version of the movie was that there seems to be too much narration and inner monologues with the characters in places that they don't really need to talk and that distracted me from the movie at certain points.

Overall, "The Thief and the Cobbler (Miramax Version)" is a treat to check out if you are looking for a more fun loving version of Richard Williams' original classic!
  
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ClareR (6106 KP) rated Julia in Books

Nov 23, 2025  
Julia
Julia
Sandra Newman | 2023 | Dystopia, Fiction & Poetry, Science Fiction/Fantasy
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
It’s a long time since I read George Orwell’s 1984, but it is one of those books that stays with you - and my son recently wanted to watch the film with John Hurt (which was very good, by the way!).

If you’ve ever wondered what happened what happened to Winston Smith’s girlfriend both before, during and after the original novel, then this book will answer those questions.

Julia starts off being able to navigate the world under the ideology of IngSoc and the rule of the Party, for example, she’s a member of the Anti-Sex League whilst being promiscuous at the same time: she plays their game, but leads her own life in secret. She’s good at protecting herself - right up until she encounters Winston. And then she loses her grip on her self-preservation skills.

A lot of the scenes are the same as in the original and written from Julia’s point of view, and I enjoyed reading about the backstory of Oceania and the countryside that at first didn’t seem to be effected by the Party. I don’t think Julia detracted from the original. In fact she adds to it.

1984 was written between 1946 and 1949 shortly after WW2, and Orwell was very close historically to Stalinist Russia and Nazi Germany. It was a time of geopolitical tension and fear of totalitarianism. Sandra Newman was able to write Julia at a considerable distance from these regimes. I’m not saying this is better, just different. Newman has seen the fall of both regimes and is perhaps able to write with more perspective. She can take social media into account for one thing (it gives the Two Minutes Hate a run for it’s money, that’s for sure!).

I enjoyed this. If you’re interested in the female perspective on 1984, then you’ll probably enjoy it too.
  
Flatliners (2017)
Flatliners (2017)
2017 | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
The idea of the plot (0 more)
nothing really happens and what does wasn't that great (0 more)
Nearly bored me to flatline.
Okay first off I'm pretty sure I never saw the original flatliners so I went into this like it was a newish concept for a movie.

Flatliners at its bare bones has a really interesting take on what happens to us after we die and what could happen to us if we manage to come back, I really wished they would have focused more on that aspect of the story and showed a little more of what each person went through when they "crossed over" instead of adding unnecessary love plotlines and even more unnecessary sex scenes that just ended up boring me nearly to death.


The other thing I was really hoping for was for this to venture a little more into the horror genre but sadly they wasted a really good opportunity with a few crappy jump scares that you could see coming from a mile away.


I recommend watching this if you literally have nothing else to watch or if you were a fan of the original and want to see how they updated it.
  
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Lee (2222 KP) rated Deadpool 2 (2018) in Movies

May 18, 2018  
Deadpool 2 (2018)
Deadpool 2 (2018)
2018 | Action, Comedy
Domino (0 more)
Huge improvement over the original
After a relatively slow and average start featuring a depressed Deadpool, some standard taking out of bad guys, moaning at Colossus about the X-Men etc, Deadpool 2 eventually slips into gear and doesn't let up from then on. A number of additional characters are soon introduced, and those that stick around for more than just a couple of scenes are definitely worth it. Josh Brolin brings just the right level of bad-ass threat to the movie as Cable, arriving from the future with a Terminator style mission to take care of. Zazie Beetz’s as Domino, whose superpower is simply 'luck' is just a joy to watch, and the formation of the new 'X-Force' team just takes things to a whole new level of enjoyment.

The one-liners are still there, and there are many scenes which just seem to feature one big laugh out loud moment after another. Everything about Deadpool 2 is just a huge improvement on the original - the action, the humour, the characters, the cameos and the story itself. I loved it.
  
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Lee (2222 KP) May 18, 2018

@Hany El Nokaly Did you mean to comment just using part of my review - twice?