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Kaz (232 KP) rated Shazam! (2019) in Movies

Jun 15, 2019 (Updated Jun 15, 2019)  
Shazam! (2019)
Shazam! (2019)
2019 | Action, Sci-Fi
Humour, Great Acting (0 more)
Not the Most Original Film, Slow at the start (0 more)
A Fun Superhero Movie
Contains spoilers, click to show
When I started watching 'Shazam' , I assumed that this was a parody of a super hero film. Afterwards I realised that this is a DC comic book character in it's own right.

I liked the acting in this film. Both children and adults in this film are believable and are very good. You could believe that the adult versions of the younger actors were actually them, because they emulated their body language and speech really well (they even looked like the children, as adults!). I really liked the interaction between adult Billy and his friend Freddy, they have some really funny scenes together. It was also nice to see a character with a disability as a main character, who wasn't portrayed as weak or someone you should feel sorry for.

There were some really funny moments in this film and there were some really heartfelt ones too.

My only criticisms of this film would be that it took a long time for this to really get going. Also, the story really isn't that original. It's basically the plot of 'Big' (I liked the scene with the giant piano, as a nod to this film) , combined with a super hero movie.

Despite these issues, I thought that this was a really funny, fun movie and I would quite happily watch a sequel of this.
  
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Fred (860 KP) rated Brightburn (2019) in Movies

Jun 22, 2019  
Brightburn (2019)
Brightburn (2019)
2019 | Horror
Don't bully Superman
A horror retelling of the Superman origin story. A child crashes on the Earth & is raised by a couple. The child has super powers. He can fly, has super speed, shoot beams from his eyes & is impervious to pain & damage. The difference is this kid is not a very good guy.

He gets messages & images from the space pod he arrived in as an infant. He's somewhat bullied & treated bad from adults all around him. Not very good for them. I'm sure you can guess where this movie goes.

I have to say the acting is damn good. Jackson Dunn, who plays the super-powered kid is excellent. He's very believable & creepy.

People were saying the movie was super-gory. I didn't find it to be the case. Sure, there were some gory parts, but nothing that would make me say it's a gory film. There were quite a few jump scares in the film, which normally I don't like, but they work here. The special effects were done very well. I loved the shots of Brandon (the kid) flying around at night, backlit by the moon.

The movie doesn't end like you would think & this is a very good thing.If I say any more, i may ruin it, so I'll just end here by saying if you're a horror fan, see it. If you're sick of all the superhero movies today, this may be a good change for you.
  
Deadpool 2 (2018)
Deadpool 2 (2018)
2018 | Action, Comedy
Deadpool 2 sits firmly and comfortably somewhere between 'good' and 'average'.
The main problem is that it's not as funny as it thinks it is. The first 30 minutes or so just seem like a constant barrage of recycled jokes from the superior first film, and a lot of the jokes don't land that well.
That being said, there are some genuinely laugh out loud moments when the film eventually finds it feet, but it does feel like the writers just threw everything toward the audience to see what would stick.

Humour is only one element of Deadpool though.
The action exceeds the first film in every way, and the movie really shines in this aspect when Cable is introduced. Josh Brolins portrayal of the badass mutant from the future is pretty engaging. His serious nature gels fantastically with Ryan Reynolds quippy Deadpool.
It's nice to see Domino turn up for the ride as well. Everyone else is (quite literally) pretty disposable, but the inclusion of X-Force gives us a fantastic blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo.

The narrative leans towards a message of accepting people for who they are, which is a nice spin in a superhero blockbuster, and of course keeps the R rating good and present with some stupidly violent moments.

Overall, Deadpool 2 is a perfect example of more not always meaning better, but is still an enjoyable ride.
  
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Eric (498 KP) rated The Boys in TV

Jul 14, 2020 (Updated Jul 14, 2020)  
The Boys
The Boys
2019 | Action, Crime, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Violence violence and more violence! Karl Urban is great (0 more)
Not for everyone, especially if youre squeamish (0 more)
The Boys is adrenaline fueled "shock" TV at its best. It is begging you to watch it, even if it sometimes makes it hard to watch. But what makes The Boys work so well is under all the drugs, sex and violence, it has a lot to say.

The show follows Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) as he recruits a team of people who have bern wronged by Superheroes. In The Boys universe, the superheroes tend to not care so much about callateral damage, and honestly, most of them are douchebags (think Captain Hammer from Dr Horrible's evil singalong blog) .

As we learn more about their word the show not only becomes an obvious satire on superhero culture, but the our society as a hole. The religion episode, is one that really stands out as not being afraid to take shots.

The effects, mostly work pretty well, and nothing was bad enough to take me out of the escapeism. The acting is a bit all over the place, but Karl Urban really commands the screen.

It should be said that this is not for everyone. It is one of the mist graphic (non horror) things I have ever seen, and if you're not used to it you may find yourself checking out early. If you can handle the violence, it's worth it
  
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
1968 | Classics, Sci-Fi
Trippy ending space stuff > HAL stuff > ape stuff > monolith stuff

Was fully ready to come out of this being like "Yeah this ain't really all it" but it was, it really fucking was all it. I've seen big budget studio movies from less than a year ago (including but not limited to a certain superhero-led murky monstrosity involving a big purple thumb villain and some exposition stones) that look demonstrably worse than this - which, for all intents and purposes, is the best looking movie of all time (considering the time, anyway). There isn't a lone shot that looks anything less than astounding, what people must have felt back in 1968 watching this doesn't even have anything remotely comparable today. I can understand why some people wouldn't gel with this; some scenes are played out way too long and much of the William Sylvester stuff is dull as a doorstop not to mention stifled by the visual gimmick - but it avoids being the easy style over substance vehicle it could have been (which for the record I still would have been all for) by actually having a truly ingenious and thought-provoking screenplay with go-to quotes out the wazoo. And I think even this film's supporters don't give it enough credit for how continually unnerving this is, either. Obviously there's nothing more constructive one can even add about the greatness of the film or its score, acting, effects, etc. It rules.
  
Project Power (2020)
Project Power (2020)
2020 | Action, Crime, Sci-Fi
Great idea, shame about the execution
Jamie Foxx and Joseph Gordon Levitt in a film about superpowers, I couldn’t have been more excited. However sadly for Project Power, the film itself doesn’t live up to it’s premise.

The cast in this are great. You can never fault Jamie Foxx or Joseph Gordon Levitt, and you definitely can’t in this. Dominique Fishback puts in a great turn too and even Rodrigo Santoro hams it up the best he can with the material he has to work with. And that’s the problem with this film, the material, plot and execution are not very good and letdown everything else. The idea behind this film, a pill that gives you superpowers is genius, and something we haven’t seen before in the superhero genre. The way they subtly show physical changes in the characters who have taken the pills on multiple occasions is very well done and the general concept and science behind the pills is pretty believable. Even the CGI is pretty well done and the reveal of Jamie Foxx’s character’s powers towards the end of the film is quite a spectacle. It’s just a massive shame that the plot itself is rather plodding and lacklustre and it’d be completely uninteresting if it wasn’t for the action and superpowers.

Overall this was a decent entertaining sci-fi and not a bad watch, it just could’ve been so much better.