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Awix (3310 KP) rated Legend (2015) in Movies

Jun 12, 2018 (Updated Jul 12, 2019)  
Legend (2015)
Legend (2015)
2015 | Drama, Thriller
Krays-y
Yet another movie glamourising the vicious real-life gangster siblings, with the principal gimmick of Tom Hardy playing both Krays through the wonders of something-or-other. Hardy is excellent as Reggie, the merely-psychotic brains of the outfit, but way over the top as Ronnie, who is portrayed as a slightly thick criminal maniac, and arguably played for laughs too. A friend of mine came out thinking this was intended to be a black comedy; she may not have been wrong.

There's a good supporting cast and it's quite well made, but the film seems much too keen to cut the Krays some slack, presenting them as roguish anti-heroes rather than the brutal thugs they actually were. The 1990 Peter Medak telling of the Krays' story was arguably more balanced - this is an uneasy combination of a 'those quaint old Brits' period drama and a modishly violent modern gangster film.
  
Robocop  (1987)
Robocop (1987)
1987 | Action, Sci-Fi
story (2 more)
action
explosions
Cyborgpunk?
Contains spoilers, click to show
One of my favorite films. Awesome story, good actors, stunts, puppetry, models, and good Special Effects. This is Paul Verhoeven and Peter Weller's best movie. $50 million budget (in 1987!), with multiple huge explosions, with hundreds of bullets fired, and scores of stuntmen used.

A cop loses his humanity and is brought back to life, he is resurrected as a cyborg super cop who once again regains his humanity and has to learn how to navigate being robot and deal with his past human memories. ED-209 has all the fire power and is just a cool design for a robot/urban tank. The costume and the suit for RoboCop was beautifully designed. Themes include media influence, gentrification, corruption, authoritarianism, greed, privatization, capitalism, identity, dystopia, and human nature. It is a movie well deserved of it's R rating. In one scene RoboCop prevents a rape when he shoots the rapist in the dick. VIOLENT and amazingly poetic.
  
The Raid (2011)
The Raid (2011)
2011 | Action
Best Fight choreography ever (1 more)
100 minutes of non-stop action, it's beautiful in the way the violence is done. Amazing.
Nothing. (0 more)
Wow, just wow
Lots of movies get described as "an adrenaline rush, from start to finish" and rarely do they deliver. The Raid does exactly that. The best fight choreography, its more of a violent dance than fighting...stunning in its visceral display. The story is simple, yet goes deeper than just "get the bad guy". It's survival behind enemy lines, at all cost...but manages to preserve the hero's humanity as well. There are mine.t's of little action, but they are filled with nail-biting tension...and with the rate of the body count, there isn't a guarantee even the hero makes it out alive.

Sidenote: while a different movie altogether, yet with the same feel, if you like The Raid then give Dredd (with Karl Urban) a watch. Also a great film, and highly underrated.
  
Lyricist. Writer. Activist.
What a life this man has had! He had a hard start, living in one of the least affluent areas of Birmingham (UK), and running away with his mother to escape a violent father. The 1980s saw race riots, miners strikes and demonstrations against police brutality. Zephaniah and his dub poetry were at the forefront. By the 1990s he was a household name, and not just at home in the UK - he travelled and performed around the world.
I really admire this man. He hasn't had an easy life: he was in borstal as a teen, lived a life of crime for a while and decided for himself that he didn't want to live his life as a criminal where he would most certainly end up dead. HE turned his life around. He stands by his beliefs as well. A brilliant, self taught man, who sets a sterling example for all.
  
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Dean (6925 KP) rated Gamer (2009) in Movies

Sep 21, 2018 (Updated Sep 29, 2018)  
Gamer (2009)
Gamer (2009)
2009 | Action, Mystery, Sci-Fi
6
6.8 (15 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Cool ideas (1 more)
Amazing battle scenes
Another high octane, bloody, brutal action film from the guys who gave us Crank. A real mix-match of several ideas thrown in the blender together from Running Man, eXistenZ, Death Race and games like The Sims and Gears of War. So very low on originality but still a cool idea taken a step further. Two games dominate the future world where virtual reality enables the Player to control another human being. In the Society (Sims) game things take on a weird and sexual nature. In the other game Slayers, death row prisoners can earn freedom if they manage to survive 30 missions. The battle scenes are amazing and you feel like you are there right in the middle of it, not just viewing from the sidelines. Quite violent and over the top like the Crank films. If you like those types of films, games mentioned you should like this.
  
Halloween II (2009)
Halloween II (2009)
2009 | Horror
Haters gotta hate, but I liked it
After another successful "reboot", Rob Zombie tries his hand at a sequel to his version of Michael Myers.

Haunted by the death of his mother, Michael doesn't know what to do with himself other than continue his murderous rampage in pursuit of his sister, Laurie Strode.

Dr. Loomis has capitalized on his Michael encounters in penning a tell-all book which reveals all the "gory" details.

Yeah this movie is extremely violent at times and sometimes goes in various directions, but why all the negative reviews. IMDb has many, many of them. There are certainly lots of crappier horror movies out there. Maybe because expectations were high after the remake and this one went too far off the proven trail.

I was entertained mostly because I have watched all 10 Halloween movies over the last two weeks and this one I could honestly say I didn't know where it was going.

  
Near Dark (1987)
Near Dark (1987)
1987 | Horror, Mystery, Western
Vampires without vampires
The cast of Aliens (I think this movie was directed by James Cameron's former spouse lol) reunites one year later in this stylized vampire flick even though they never mention the "V" word.

A young man falls into an unusual new crowd in his small town. He finds out more about them including their hatred for sunlight. His new friends have a proclivity to bloody violence to which he does not appreciate especially when his family gets involved. His loyalties are tested when events turn violent and he has to decide who's team he's on.

Geeing Bill Paxton and Lance Henrikson together again was just fantastic; however made me miss Bill even more. He steals every scene he is in just like Aliens and is sheer joy to watch.

The film is a unique take on the traditional bloodsucking genre and very entertaining.

  
The Girl With All the Gifts (2017)
The Girl With All the Gifts (2017)
2017 | Drama
Melanie (0 more)
Slow paced (0 more)
An enjoyable watch
I stumbled across this when I was looking for a zombie fix after The Walking Dead season had ended on a cliffhanger.

I wasn't disappointed. It jumps right into the story and lets you in on the secrets as you go along. The characters are believable and Glenn Close is very good in it.

This isn't the scary, violent blood everywhere zombie film. It is creepy though and leaves you feeling a little unnerved. It's a nice twist to an old genre that until The Walking Dead I thought had been overdone and should be put out to pasture. The revival of the zombie genre has seen some very inventive challenges to The Walking Dead's crown. This is one of them.

It can be a little slow moving, it's not gore and excitement all the time. It doesn't need to be though, the story makes up for the slow paced action.
  
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Vegas (725 KP) rated the Xbox One version of Red Dead Redemption 2 in Video Games

Jul 7, 2019 (Updated Jul 8, 2019)  
Red Dead Redemption 2
Red Dead Redemption 2
2018 | Action/Adventure
The story (1 more)
The gameplay
Nothing (0 more)
Improvement on the original
The long awaited sequel (prequel) to red dead doesn't disappoint in the solo game, the story is an epic adventure travelling through the open plains to the growing towns and cities, railroads, carriages, and horseback are all ways of getting around the massive map. Build up your camp, help the gang, or rob stores and banks the choice is yours, you can even spend time fishing or hunting...

The cast of characters you meet are diverse, funny, serious, violent or just odd but whoever you meet, you do find yourself caring one way or another about the people in the game you interact with...

I will say I did struggle to get as engaged in the multi player game side of it, but that is just a personal thing as I do prefer solo gaming...

For shear enjoyment aspect and length of game, this is one of the best games of recent times.
  
Rambo: Last Blood (2019)
Rambo: Last Blood (2019)
2019 | Action, Adventure, Drama
This is certainly very different in tone to the previous films and doesn’t really feel like a traditional Rambo film. It’s more of a formulaic action revenge film that borrows heavily from ‘Taken’ and unfortunately does nothing to dispel the Trumpian stereotype of a Mexico populated solely by violent criminals. So no it’s not a brilliant film by any means but it still certainly kept me entertained for 90 minutes with plenty of switch your brain off thrills. I’m a big fan of Stallone and I enjoyed his performance here and I couldn’t help but feel for Rambo as he has the tiny bit of happiness he’d manage to find taken away and is forced back into a world of death and violence. The violence when it comes is incredibly graphic and quite satisfying especially in the finale as Rambo dispatches with the bad guys on his booby trapped ranch. All in all though one of the weaker films in the series but still an enjoyable ride.