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Shaun of the Dead (2004)
Shaun of the Dead (2004)
2004 | Comedy, Horror
Good Fun
With the help of a close friend, Shaun (Simon Pegg) sets out to his rescue his mum during a zombie apocalypse and hole up at their favorite pub The Winchester.

Acting: 10
Pegg delivers a strong performance in his role as Shaun. You can’t decide whether Shaun is just a plain loser or if he’s just oblivious to the people around them and their feelings, particularly his girlfriend Liz (Kate Ashfield). Pegg has a way of keeping you guessing from one scene to the next. Just when you think you can figure his character out, he evolves just a little bit, enough to remain interesting. The entirety of the cast breathes life into this comedy horror film.

Beginning: 3

Characters: 10

Cinematography/Visuals: 10
The film is shot in a very unique way that helps to drive the narrative. It has the feel of a horror movie, but you’re never really frightened. It’s just as gory and in-your-face as any zombie movie I’ve seen, but sometimes those same scenes will have you cracking up. It was very cool how they capture the graduation of the first twenty-four hours. It started with a couple of one-off strange incidents. Before long, the streets were swarming and things were out of control. Very well-done.

Conflict: 10
Zombie films/shows should never be about the zombies, but about survival and the reality of the human spirit. You wanna find out who you really are? Get thrown into the middle of an apocalypse. Shaun of the Dead takes the nature of the human spirit and fleshes it out over the course of the film. Some people see tragedy and they run from it while others, like Shaun, take the bull by the horns and go right at it. The conflict succeeds in the group not just taking on the zombies but handling their internal squabbles as well.

Genre: 6

Memorability: 7
There were a number of funny, memorable events that stick out. I won’t ruin them, but my personal favorite was the car scene where seven survivors had to squeeze into a little sedan. The hilarity that ensues as they move from Point A to B is pretty awesome. There is also a touching moment within that same scene that adds emotional power to the movie. There are a number of scenes like this here, scenes that can make you laugh and make you feel at the same time.

Pace: 10

Plot: 10

Resolution: 7

Overall: 83
Shaun of the Dead is one of those movies where you fall in love with it more and more the more times you revisit it. I wasn’t a fan my first viewing, but noticed a lot of things the second time around that made sense and added to the overall strength of the movie in a subtle way. Good watch.
  
Mongol (2008)
Mongol (2008)
2008 | Classics, Drama
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Mongul tells the story of Temudjin, the boy who grows up and eventually becomes Genghis Khan. At the age of nine, Temudjin's father(Esugei), the khan at the time, shows him how to pick a wife. After doing so, the plan is for them to get married in five years. After Esugei is poisoned however, he dies and the Mongols he was travelling with take matters into their own hands. Pillaging and doing whatever they see fit. Temudjin becomes a slave and sets out to find his brother, Jamukha, who he feels is the only one who can help him. A few years pass. Temudjin, now a man, sets off to claim his wife. He winds up going through a lot of hardships in the process, but what doesn't kill you will only make you stronger. It is said that all Mongols are afraid of thunder, but what if they don't have a place to hide? They become one of the greatest Mongols in history and greatness comes to those who take it.

This movie is shot beautifully. Every shot is filled with vibrant colors and seems to be shot in a unique way. There are quite a few first person perspectives during battle sequences that are quite stunning. Seeing the blood splatter all over the camera is always a plus, in my eyes. The battle scenes are where the film truly shines. The way they're shot make you feel like you're in the middle of it all. The perspective on a lot of the angles during not only the battle sequences, but in the movie as a whole, are impressive in their own right. The music also lends a helping hand in making this movie incredible. While some of it wasn't to my liking, the majority of it fit the film like a glove and only enhanced what was going on in the film and what the characters were going through.

The main reason I checked out this movie was because of Tadanobu Asano. I've mentioned my admiration of his acting in the past, but I had heard that this was possibly the most physical role he ever had. That peaked my interest. Well that and the fact that he was headlining the film. He definitely doesn't disappoint in this and he only seems to impress me more with each film I see that he's involved with.

Mongol may not be as action packed as the trailer leads you to believe. There are a handful of really impressive action scenes, but there's a lot of character development in this as well. The acting is top notch and as I mentioned, the visuals will have your eyes glued to the screen the entire time. I think the last twenty minutes or so make this film worth seeing alone. While it isn't action packed for two hours straight, I like to think that if you're a fan of movies like 300 then you'll probably enjoy this. This is just a bit more story driven.
  
Yesterday (2019)
Yesterday (2019)
2019 | Comedy, Fantasy, Music
Rocky For the Win
Yesterday can be quite the uneven movie at times, however its good ultimately outweighs its bad when it’s all said and done. When a struggling singer-songwriter gets hit by a bus, he awakens to a world where people have no knowledge of The Beatles. He uses their songs to become famous, but soon realizes that that fame comes at a cost.

Acting: 10
Himesh Patel delivers a strong performance as singer-songwriter Jack Malik. He was definitely overshadowed at times by even stronger performances from the likes of Joel Fry who plays his Road Manager Rocky and Kate McKinnon as Debra Hammer, a woman who latches on to Jack’s fame and runs with it. Even Ed Sheeran came through with a solid performance as himself.

Beginning: 9

Characters: 10
To expand on the above, I loved what the supporting characters brought to the table. Ed Sheeran’s caricature of himself is pretty hilarious and it’s refreshing to see a celebrity not taking himself too seriously. Rocky is all over the place and constantly screwing things up, but even his screwups have a certain endearing quality that brings you closer into his world. Meanwhile Debra Hammer is just a fireball, adding spice to every single scene she is in. She is one of those characters you can’t help but laugh at.

Cinematography/Visuals: 10
As Jack’s popularity start to increase so does his fanbase and reach. He starts to travel the world and we’re graced with beautiful shots from all over the globe and across the UK. Different venues and swelling crowds keep the scenes fresh and advance the story in a smooth fashion.

Conflict: 5
The major conflict appears to be between Jack and his friend Ellie (Lily James). They both seem to have a thing for each other but Jack’s newfound fame throws a bit of a monkey wrench into the advancement of their relationship. I had trouble buying into the conflict a bit, however, as I never suspected the truth would be found out about Jack nor did I think at any point that him and Ellie wouldn’t end up together. Despite knowing this, the movie was still enjoyable. I just wish more feasible obstacles were put in place to advance the story properly.

Entertainment Value: 8
The movie is ultimately heartfelt and sweet which makes for enhancing its entertainment value. it was a treat watching someone who struggled for so long finally make it and live his dream. I also enjoyed watching Jack develop as a character and change his perspective on what he considered success.

Memorability: 8

Pace: 7

Plot: 10

Resolution: 5

Overall: 82
I have to say, this was one of the most fun movie experiences I had all year. To hear these crowds succumb to all The Beatles music sung from the mouth of someone else is vastly unique. Although it does stumble at bit at the end, I highly recommend Yesterday.
  
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Lee (2222 KP) rated Venom (2018) in Movies

Oct 5, 2018 (Updated Oct 16, 2018)  
Venom (2018)
Venom (2018)
2018 | Action, Sci-Fi
A bit rough around the edges, but pretty enjoyable overall
Contains spoilers, click to show
The run up to seeing Venom has followed what seems to be a bit of a growing trend for me recently - tickets go on sale for a movie that I'm very excited to see and despite the slightly average trailers, I grab a ticket and hope for the best. Then in the days beforehand, a load of negative reviews appear online and I really hope that they're all wrong, like they all were with Hereditary. Recently we've had The Nun, then The Predator, and now Venom. I was really hoping this wasn't going to be three in a row!

A space probe is returning to Earth. We hear the astronauts communicating with a team back home. They're talking about some 'specimens' that they're bringing back, and then something goes wrong onboard and the rocket crashes to Earth, landing somewhere in Malaysia. The probe belongs to bio-engineering company Life Foundation, and the specimens they're carrying are symbiotic lifeforms. Life Foundation are all over the crash site, with only one of the astronauts surviving, barely. Meanwhile, CEO Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed) is very excited by the symbiotes and returns them to the lab, becoming obsessed with assimilating them into animals. Obviously he has plans to eventually (as quickly as possible) try this out on humans. Apparently, it's all for the good of the planet or some guff like that.

Meanwhile, we're introduced to investigative journalist Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) and his girlfriend Anne (Michelle Williams). He's basically the most unconvincing journalist I've ever seen in a movie, but the montage of clips seems determined to tell us otherwise. He has his own TV show! It's great! He's helped to uncover injustice, righted wrongs, and is apparently a nice down to earth guy. When he secures an interview with Carlton Drake from Life Foundation, he's ready to uncover some dirt, but his boss warns him not to overstep the mark. Of course, he doesn't listen, stepping over the line and getting himself fired. He also manages to lose girlfriend Anne in the process.

The next chunk of the movie is just Tom Hardy moping around, and it's not that great. I don't know if it's the script, the acting, or both. It's interspersed occasionally with scenes involving Carlton Drake looking to expose the symbiotes to human subjects - the homeless, the poor or the just plain stupid - and you start wishing they'd just hurry up and bring Venom and Eddie together, in the hopes that things will pick up a bit. Luckily, once that does happen things do pick up considerably and Tom Hardy is so much better suited as the crazy man who's feeling a little bit unwell than the sad, boring journalist. There's a good level of humour from that point on too, along with some fairly decent action.

Unfortunately though, Venom suffers from some of the same dreadful editing that The Predator did. Scenes that seem to just prematurely end suddenly and successions of rapid cuts during some of the action, making it difficult to see just what the hell is going on. Overall it's a bit rough around the edges, and definitely not as slick as your standard Marvel movie (this one is just 'in association with Marvel'). That being said, this was in no way the car crash movie that many of the reviews had lead me to believe, and on the whole I actually really enjoyed it.

A decent mid credits scene sets up some exciting potential for a further movie, but I feel they really need to tighten things up a bit in order to make another one worth seeing.
  
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David McK (3562 KP) rated 300 in Books

Jan 28, 2019  
3
300
6
6.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
As with most comics/graphic novels-into-movies I've read, I'll admit that I saw the movie (quite a few years back) before reading this.

Essentially a comic-book-brought-to-screen, the movie iteself was incredibly violent (but enjoyable), with ridiculous amoutns of blood and body parts splattered across the screen, and with more nudity than I was expecting alongside the whole sub-plot of King Leonidas wife getting the Spartans to march.

An entire sub-plot that is not in the source material at all.

I also have to say that the violence in this - while still there - is actually toned down quite a bit from what I was expecting, with several of the panels virtually lifted from the pages and put on to the screen.

The story, for anyone who doesn't already know, is centred around King Leonidas' view of Thermopylae - or 'The Hot Gates' - , a narrow pass defended by the 300 Spartans of the title (plus miscellaneous other Greeks, although you'd be forgive for thinking they weren't there the way this, and the legend, is told!) to the death, and which was immortalised by the poet Simodides as follows on an epigram placed on theri burial mound:

"Go tell the Spartans, you who passeth by,
That here, obedient to their laws, we lie."

(see: http://www.poetryatlas.com/poetry/poem/1458/go-tell-the-spartans.html)
  
Road Trip (2000)
Road Trip (2000)
2000 | Comedy
Deplorable, only a few meager steps above the likes of shit hall-of-famer 𝘋𝘦𝘶𝘤𝘦 𝘉𝘪𝘨𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘸: 𝘔𝘢𝘭𝘦 𝘎𝘪𝘨𝘰𝘭𝘰. Bargain bin 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘗𝘪𝘦 meets injudicious 𝘍𝘦𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘴 𝘉𝘶𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘳'𝘴 𝘋𝘢𝘺 𝘖𝘧𝘧 mixed with elements that we'd later see Phillips use to his benefit in better films like 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘏𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳 and 𝘋𝘶𝘦 𝘋𝘢𝘵𝘦 - but are 0% amusing here. I challenge you to find a more stagnant road trip movie than this, why even cast Tom Green at the peak of his fame (who, along with DJ Qualls, are the only perfect performances) if you're only going to have him do a couple outrageous things? Like yeah don't overdo it but come on you can do better than this. I mean hell even similarly awful 30 𝘔𝘪𝘯𝘶𝘵𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘳 𝘓𝘦𝘴𝘴 did at least fifty times more with Fred Ward. Also worth noting how much this films hates women. The entire plot of this movie hinges on the Meyer (who is worse than terrible in this) character rightfully being in danger of his girlfriend finding out he undisguisedly cheated on her but we're supposed to not want that to happen because him and his noxious jackass friends are funny... but they aren't? Some of the ugliest aesthetics and soundtrack offerings of the crime of good taste that was the late 90s/early 2000s style. I'm usually a Todd defender but this is just wretched. 𝘙𝘰𝘢𝘥 𝘛𝘳𝘪𝘱𝘦.
  
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Beatriz (17 KP) rated 1408 (2007) in Movies

Feb 22, 2019  
1408 (2007)
1408 (2007)
2007 | Horror, Mystery
1408
1408 is a 2007 American psychological horror film based on Stephen King's 1999 short story of the same name.

It tells the story about a man that specialises in going to places with paranormal events and longs to find something that actually scares him. So he goes to the room 1408 in the Dolphin Hotel.
Its a genious psycological horror .

Here are some facts i found about the film ...

-The bottle that Gerald Olin offers Mike Enslin is named "Les Cinquant Sept Décès". In French, it means literally
 "The fifty seven deaths". And just after that we learn that in the room 1408 there were 56 deaths. So we could have guessed that Mike's fate was "written".

-When the clock starts counting down from 60:00, the movie ends exactly one hour later.

-There are many references to the number "13" throughout the movie. The room is numbered "1408", add each number together equals 13. The room is on the 14th floor,
 and the Hotel skips the 13th floor, so the room is technically on the 13th floor. The room's key lock also has "6214" etched into it, which adds up to 13.
 And the first death was in the year 1912, which adds to 13.

- It has two alternative endings
  
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Dutch (59 KP) Feb 22, 2019

A really, really good movie

The Evil Dead (1981)
The Evil Dead (1981)
1981 | Horror
The Book of the Dead
The evil dead- is a dark, horrorfying, hack and slash. Comedic, phenomal, excellent, twisted horror film. This is sam ramini debut of directing films. He went on to direct "the spider-man triolgy and drag me to hell".

The evil dead as has bruce campbell as ash williams. He is the best part of this movie and this franchise as a whole. In this film, Ash is portrayed as being cowardly and incapable of dealing with the horrors presented to him. Over the course of the film, Ash gradually overcomes his fears and manages to fight off his possessed friends. Also, he is shown to take his predicament very seriously in the first film, rather than in a comedic manner, as in the subsequent films.

The plot: Ashley "Ash" Williams (Bruce Campbell), his girlfriend and three pals hike into the woods to a cabin for a fun night away. There they find an old book, the Necronomicon, whose text reawakens the dead when it's read aloud. The friends inadvertently release a flood of evil and must fight for their lives or become one of the evil dead. Ash watches his friends become possessed, and must make a difficult decision before daybreak to save his own life in this, the first of Sam Raimi's trilogy.

The evil dead- is one of the best horror movies of all time. I would highly reccordmend it if you havent seen it. And also watch the other ones as well.
  
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Lee (2222 KP) rated Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) in Movies

May 31, 2019 (Updated May 31, 2019)  
Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)
Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)
2019 | Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Monster fights! (0 more)
Boring humans (0 more)
Well, I liked it!
Before heading into Godzilla: King of the Monsters, I saw a lot of wildly mixed reviews online. People were either hating it or loving it, with nobody really feeling anything in-between. Even those cinema goers who were fully prepared for nothing more than a bunch of big monsters fighting alongside insignificant human bystanders were coming away from it fuming. Well, I’m happy to say that I’m putting myself firmly in the ‘loved it’ category, although I do understand and appreciate a lot of the issues that the haters have with it.

Since his appearance in the 2014 movie, and his involvement in the destruction of San Francisco, Godzilla has been keeping a fairly low profile beneath the ocean. He is now closely monitored by monster organisation Monarch, who were introduced to us previously, most notably in the movie Kong: Skull Island. They have a number of outposts dotted around the globe, where they are also tracking various other ‘titans’, most of which are lying dormant. Monarch is currently involved in a conflict with the military, who would rather see the titans wiped out than try and co-exist with them in the way our ancestors did.

In a Chinese outpost, we meet Dr Emma Russell (Vera Farmiga), who is working on a device called ORCA, something which will hopefully allow us to communicate with and control the titans. She’s there with daughter Madison (Millie Bobby Brown) as they test out ORCA on newly hatched titan larva Mothra. Emma’s estranged husband Mark (Kyle Chandler), who helped develop the ORCA device with her, is currently leading a much simpler life, photographing wolves out in the wild having completely distanced himself from Monarch and the titans.

Things start to go wrong though when eco-terrorist Jonah Alan (Charles Dance) kidnaps Emma and Madison, along with the ORCA device. He wants to use ORCA to wake up the remaining titans and there’s a lot of talk about cleansing the earth, restoring balance etc, something which continues to be the motivational theme throughout the movie.

Jonah and his team, with help from Emma, break free a three-headed monster called Ghidorah from within the Antarctic ice, and that’s when things really kick off. Ghidorah assumes the position of King of the Monsters and he and the other titans begin wreaking havoc on planet Earth. When word reaches Mark that his wife and daughter are in danger, not to mention the rest of the world, he returns to work with Monarch. Meanwhile, Godzilla has resurfaced and is en route to Ghidorah, looking for a fight. At the same time Mothra takes herself off to a waterfall, cocooning herself so that she can gloriously emerge a bit later on in the movie.

Godzilla takes a bit of a pounding from Ghidorah, sustaining some serious damage and leaving the fate of the world in jeopardy. But, the fact that the title of this movie declares Godzilla to be the King of Monsters, along with the promotional material for next years ‘Godzilla Vs Kong’ movie that has begun emerging online, should give you a pretty good idea as to whether or not he makes a comeback.

Unfortunately, a lot of the action takes place in murky, rainy darkness, which is disappointing considering all of the marketing artwork that depicts the monsters and their battles in bright, vibrant colour. At times, far too many quick cuts make things difficult to follow – zipping between the action, the destruction and the humans that are in danger because of it. Cutting to the human cast does help to give us a sense of scale and panic but, at this point, they’ve all just become a little irrelevant. A lot of time is spent early on in the movie, introducing us to a lot of characters, with even more to come later on, but the majority of them just have very little to do or be concerned about when the monster fighting begins.

On the flip-side to all of that though, there are more than enough occasions where we find a downtrodden and seriously pissed off Godzilla handing out a satisfying series of beatings to the pretenders to his throne. I became fully invested in the huge scale of it all and what was at stake for the world. Overall I just found the whole thing really enjoyable.