Darren (1599 KP) rated The Lone Ranger (2013) in Movies
Jul 25, 2019
The journey takes the two men across the wild west to expose the truth behind everything that has been going on between the outlaws and the native Americans.
Thoughts on The Lone Ranger
Characters – John Reid is a district attorney in Texas, living in the shadow of his brother, but this time he gets to go on an adventure with his brother only to be murdered and bought back to life by Tonto. He must work with Tonto to get the people behind his brother’s death. Tonto is the native American that shows John the way as his own past makes him the colourful character that does things in his own direction. Butch Cavendish is the villainous outlaw not afraid to kill anyone who gets in the way of what he desires.
Performances – Armie Hammer in this leading role is good through the film, he must play the straight-laced character and pulls this off. Johnny Depp is going on one of his stranger character missions again here and at times is fine, but at others gets annoying. William Fichtner as a villain is something we always want to see.
Story – The story follows the origin of The Lone Ranger and Tonto as they faced their first enemy together in the wild west. The story plays out nicely just how you would imagine any Disney related material to, as an unlikely hero is born, even if it does follow elements of the Pirates beginning. This does have an adventure across the west feel which is nice to see and the twists and turns do seem to be easy to see unfolding, with a villain that knows the danger the two heroes pose to him.
Action/Adventure/Western – The action sequences do come off feeling like the highlight of the movie, with an amazing opening train sequence. The adventure side of the film is written all over the idea of going across the wild west to stop the villainous characters. The western feel comes through strong too, while not the most serious we do see both sides of the law.
Settings – The settings take us all over the wild west fitting into nearly ever typical location we know about.
Special Effects – The effects are good too in the film while only being used to cover up certain moments of the film.
Scene of the Movie – Ladder trick.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – It is too long.
Final Thoughts – This is a lot of fun even if it is too long in places, the cast do a good job and this one will be a film that you can switch off and enjoy.
Overall: Enjoyable action adventure.
Darren (1599 KP) rated The Killing Death (2008) in Movies
Aug 6, 2019
The closer the detectives get to solving the case, the increased number of bodies that keep turning up, can they solve the case before it is too late.
Thoughts on The Killing Death
Characters – Frank is an aging detective that has always finished his cases, he is about to retire and now he wants to finish this last case before he goes, Jimmy is the rookie working his first case, he is learning from Frank too, proving he needs to solve the case to make it. Chicago Phil is a pizza delivery guy that has a habit of killing his clients, he is trying to make a perfect pizza along the way.
Performances – This is a hard film to criticise because of the fact it is micro budget, the problem with the acting comes from the fact that nothing feels natural in how things are delivered.
Story – The story here follows two detectives trying to solve the case of a serial killer in their town. The outside of this story seems simple and one that could be enjoyed, only for it to come up very short in delivery, the killer and weapon of choice does seem to become random, even though we have a couple of scenes where it is clear choice, the detectives seem to just be making up their own story to make the case easy to close and apart from investigating the case, they never seen to search for answers. For a micro-budget story this does do what it needs to by laying out the format, only it just doesn’t come close to becoming easy to enjoy.
Comedy/Horror – The comedy in this film does come from how awkward the two detectives are when it comes to communication, it is very hard to see these jokes coming off. The horror is only around the kills, which are meant to show a serial killer at work.
Settings – The film uses the different houses that could have a pizza delivery as the main locations, which work for the film.
Special Effects – The effects for a micro budget are the strongest part of the film, they show how certain things can work in films.
Scene of the Movie – Take it easy.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – Most of the comedy.
Final Thoughts – This is a micro budget film that does try to give us something original even though it does miss for the most part on comedy, it is a film that looks like the people behind it enjoyed making.
Overall: Sometimes you just need to enjoy what you do.
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Darren (1599 KP) rated The Little Stranger (2018) in Movies
Sep 2, 2019
Characters – Dr Faraday is a young doctor who takes a fondness of an outcasted family, he wants to help the injured brother, wants to save Caroline, while being left in the middle being able to help them or a potential supernatural presence in the house. Roderick is the injured war hero, he was left with a limp and burns to his face, which make him feel outcasted from the rest of the village and useless to his family, he is struggling with the mental side of everything too, leaving him to make rash decisions. Caroline is the daughter of the household, she is the one that they family has hope of seeing escape their impending poverty and becomes the ones that Faraday takes an interest in. she comes off unsure of what to make of her own future. Mrs Ayres is the mother of the house, she wants the best for her children and is still haunted by the one that she lost.
Performances – I don’t think any of the performances in this film are bad, Domhnall Gleeson does everything he can in the leading role, as does Will Poulter in his supporting role, Ruth Wilson and Charlotte Rampling don’t disappoint with what they try to bring to the film, the problem with most of this film, comes from the characters be so bland and the story not going anywhere.
Story – The story here follows a doctor getting close to a family that are seen as outcasts only to start to fall in love with one member of the family just as the strange events start to happen within the mansion. This is where the story just doesn’t get going, we are promised a horror element to this film which just never comes to life, which makes the story feel like more of a class position story. if that sounds confusing, well that doesn’t change from the story in full, because we have very little happening here and end up just shrugging our shoulders at the end, wondering if anything was actually meant to happen.
Horror/Mystery – The horror in this film does seem to be non-existent, where anything supernatural does seem to only be part of the mystery over anything else going on in the film.
Settings – The film is set mostly in the mansion in a village in the English countryside, it shows how the family can be seen as outcasts and how people can look out at these types of buildings hoping to be part of this society.
Special Effects – The effects in the film are down the practical additions to Will Poulter, they look great, everything else just seems basic.
Scene of the Movie – The dog attack.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – The aftermath of the dog attack.
Final Thoughts – This is a film that seems to hint at something big, only to end up feeling dull and uninspiring.
Overall: Just fails to deliver.
Darren (1599 KP) rated From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman's Daughter (2000) in Movies
Sep 2, 2019
Characters – Johnny Madrid is one of the most feared outlaws in the west, about to be executed, he is rescued and returns to his gang to continue his life of crime, he will kill some people, while protecting others, making him a morally confusing figure. Ambrose Bierce has come from America where he has survived a shooting, he wants peaceful life only to find himself in the middle of the battle. The Hangman is trying to eliminate the threats in the gang world including Johnny, mostly to protect his daughter, only it isn’t for him to choose. Esmeralda is his daughter that has been getting controlled for too long and is in love with Johnny, she goes on the run with him only to be left questioning his choices.
Performances – The performances here are poor once again, Marco Leonardi overplays is role in the film, while Michael Parks does the best he can with his role. We do end up meeting too many random characters that just seems to make everything struggle to get going in the performance side of the film.
Story – The story does return to the original format only in the western era, we have the outlaws, the victims and the authorities all ending up in the bar which is crawling with vampires and must put their difference aside to survive. This style did work first time, it doesn’t fail this time, but it is hard to become invested in the characters. the build up before the bar is a lot of filler because we do have a lot of people to learn their place and mentality which makes it hard to figure out who is the good and bad guys for the piece. We try to have a connection to the original movie with the creation of one of the vampires which better than the last time out too.
Horror/Western – The horror involved in the film is returning to the vampire outlet which again doesn’t feel scary as it could have been. The western side of the film just uses the criminal side of the last one only making it a prequel to the original.
Settings – The film is set in the western area, we do eventually hit the saloon made famous from the first film and this time we get to dive into the larger scale of the building.
Special Effects – The effects in the film are not at the best, we do get a couple of good moments only nothing that reaches the levels of the first film.
Scene of the Movie – Escape.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – To many characters.
Final Thoughts – This is a solid enough prequel, at least it does feel connected to the previous film which helps build on the legacy of the bar.
Overall: Simple prequel.
Darren (1599 KP) rated From Dusk Till Dawn: Texas Blood Money (1999) in Movies
Sep 2, 2019
Characters – Buck is a thieve that has claimed to have gone clean after his recent stint in prison, the cops do still watch him, only now he gets a chance at a new job which will see him put his crew together, he has a way to work with his men, well that is about it, his character doesn’t have much more to him, Sheriff Otis Lawson has been waiting for Buck to make a mistake for years now, using the latest former member of his crew as hope that he could catch him in the act once again. Luther is the one that brings the job to Buck, only on his way back to the crew, he ends up at the Titty Twister grabbing the attention of the vampires, looking for spread the curse to a new selection of victims. C.W. is another member of the crew and just like the rest they don’t get much to make them stand out.
Performances – Robert Patrick does try to make the most of his character only he doesn’t get anything to work with here. This is the big problem for the rest of the cast, nobody gets a chance to make anything from their characters who all end up being painful bland.
Story – The story follows a group of criminals that are looking to head to Mexico for their latest job, only to attract the attention of the vampires using the Titty Twister becoming the latest target, can they survive the night? The story here is very weak, we get five criminals with little to no character development, not making us care about what is happening. We get thrown into another direction with the story which doesn’t help because we know what is happening, while certain members of the crew don’t, this does against what we learnt about the vampires in the first film. this story just feels like a forced sequel nobody really asked for.
Crime/Horror – The crime side of this horror comes from seeing just how the crew is operating, how they plan to get the job done, the horror comes from the vampire side of the film, it does have darker moments, only it still doesn’t feel like a scarier film.
Settings – The film is set between Mexico and Texas, no location involved does make us feel like we are in iconic location the first one did.
Special Effects – The effects in the film are not at the same standard either, with most of the attacks being from bats which seem to be extreme close ups that just feel too difficult to watch.
Scene of the Movie – A helping hand?
That Moment That Annoyed Me – The lack of interest around the characters.
Final Thoughts – This is a disappoint sequel that pulls the quality level right down to just a basic sequel that just so happens to visit the same bar, having no connection to the previous film.
Overall: Bland sequel.