Search

Search only in certain items:

Ghost in the Shell (2017)
Ghost in the Shell (2017)
2017 | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
Visuals, action, acting and Beat Takeshi!! (0 more)
Whitewashing (0 more)
Live action anime that's full of action
Potentially unpopular review starting in 3,2,1...I think this is a better watch than the anime. Now I love anime and I've seen the original but do I love it? No - it's good but not great. Now this live action version delivers on all fronts. Visually its stunning and all the action sequences are great. Now my review is not the place to get into the issue that is whitewashing. Scarlett Johansson does a brilliant job and gets all the mannerisms right - even her walk BUT could an Asian actress have done the job? Of course. Speaking of Asian actors Best Takeshi is awesome as usual and steals every scene he is in. Well worth a watch.
  
The Island (2005)
The Island (2005)
2005 | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
If Logan's Run and The Hunger Games had a baby...
From Michael Bay, the director of every crappy movie over the last 10 years, comes a really good one!

Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson have surprising chemistry as they try and figure out what's going on in their "perfect" society which ends of having a few surprises. When he begins to question his sterile existance and the "Kool-Aid" they have all been told, he begins to figure out what is actually going on behind the scenes.

A surprising good action movie develops with some interesting twists and turns. Say what you want about Bay. He can certainly orchestrate a good action sequence when he wants to and doesn't have 27 robots fighting each other at the same time.

I highly recommend checking this one out.
  
40x40

Lou Grande (148 KP) May 27, 2018

I love Ewan McGregor and I like Scarlett Johannson, but their chemistry in this was just awful.

Jojo Rabbit (2019)
Jojo Rabbit (2019)
2019 | Comedy, Drama, War
I was not expecting to love Jojo Rabbit as much as I did. I would argue that it's one of the best films of 2019!
The subject of Nazis and Hitler is a touchy one to say the least, but it's also a subject that is ripe for satire, and one of the many aspects that stands out here, is how Taika Waititi has managed to craft a film that is absolutely hilarious, but never undermines how horrible this part of history was.
I laughed (a lot) before being slapped with a reminder of how bleak war is.
The main plot revolves around Jojo (Roman Griffin Davis), a 10 year old boy who looks up to Hitler, and is part of the Nazi Youth. He finds out that his mother Rosie (Scarlett Johansson) is hiding a Jewish girl, Elsa (Thomasin McKenzie) in the attic of their house. Initially hostile, they begin to form a friendship as the Nazi regime begins to crumble.
Underneath all the goofiness, this main narrative is radiating in both warmth and sadness. I legit had a bit of a cry at one point.

The cast are brilliant. Roman Griffin Davis is one of the most likable protagonists in recent memory. His innocence and blind devotion to the war is humorous, and weirdly sweet. Thomasin McKenzie is great alongside him as well.
As well as directing, Taika Waititi also plays a version of Hitler, sort of like Jojo's imaginary friend, and he's honestly just the best, and provides the majority of the films comedy.
Elsewhere, Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell, Alfie Allen, and Stephen Merchant all make up a pretty rock solid cast.
Screw it, I even liked Rebel Wilson (she usually makes me want to play in traffic.)

Jojo Rabbit is a truly wonderful experience. It evokes a whole range of emotions effortlessly, looks incredible throughout, and deserves all the praise thrown it's way.
  
Ghost in the Shell (2017)
Ghost in the Shell (2017)
2017 | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
Great SFX, little elsewhere
The Ghost in the Shell refers to the emerging technology of being able to put a human brain/soul (the ghost) inside an artificial body (the shell). In a world where everyone is getting cybernetic enhancements added to their bodies, Scarlett Johansson plays Major, the first such fully artificial creation, as she awakes to find herself inside a body she is unfamiliar with. From there her career as a soldier begins, looking to root out the growing threat of brain hacking in the city.
I feel like the plot has been done so many times before that as soon as the phrase "the first of her kind" was uttered I knew most of what was to follow. While the SFX were quite special, as with Ready Player One, I felt they were a little overdone and possibly just thrown in to distract from the clichéd plot and sparse action scenes.
  
Lost In Translation (2003)
Lost In Translation (2003)
2003 | Comedy, Drama, Romance

"It seems to me that Sofia Coppola is incapable of producing an ugly frame; it’s just completely beautiful, from astonishing first shot to the final whisper. I think that Scarlett Johansson can be just fabulous, and in that she’s just fabulous, plainly beautiful all the way through. She was great in Match Point too, so very good. She gives that dreadful feeling of somebody that will weigh you down forever. And on top of that it’s a genuinely funny film, its got those fantastic bits, particularly the bit where [Bill Murray] is recording the ads, and it really is a comedy. And yet Bill Murray is so melancholy; so sad. After spending all my life in comedy, where you’re aware of all the grief and melancholy that accompanies being thought of as a charming and amusing person, I think it’s an almost perfect film, I think I’d put that in my top ten favourite films of all time. I love that film."

Source