#100MoviesChallenge2018 – 30/100

Posted on April 12, 2018 by Dave On Film

Here’s my current list, complete with links to all the reviews where I did them either on YouTube or as a Blog Post here on my blog :

02/01/2018 1 Three Billboards…
07/01/2018 2 My Little Pony
09/01/2018 3 Downsizing
14/01/2018 4 Coco
15/01/2018 5 The Commuter
27/01/2018 6 Maze Runner : Death Cure
31/01/2018 7 The Shape Of Water
03/02/2018 8 Early Man
05/02/2018 9 Winchester
06/02/2018 10 I, Tonya
13/02/2018 11 Black Panther
13/02/2018 12 The Mercy
23/02/2018 13 The Greatest Showman : Singalong
26/02/2018 14 Game Night
02/03/2018 15 The Greatest Showman
09/03/2018 16 Red Sparrow
13/03/2018 17 Love, Simon
16/03/2018 18 Walk Like A Panther
17/03/2018 19 Peter Rabbit
22/03/2018 20 Tomb Raider
25/03/2018 21 Blockers
26/03/2018 22 Isle Of Dogs
27/03/2018 23 Unsane
29/03/2018 24 Ready Player One
03/04/2018 25 A Quiet Place
11/04/2018 26 Duck Duck Goose
12/04/2018 27 Thoroughbreds
12/04/2018 28 Rampage
12/04/2018 29 Death Wish
12/04/2018 30 Pacific Rim: Uprising

Currently trending at a 104 film hit rate for 2018….this is very do-able.

Here’s a list of ones I have flagged with their release dates upcoming:

Upcoming Date
Ghost Stories 06/04/2018
Truth Or Dare 13/04/2018
Infinity War 27/04/2018
Deadpool 2 18/05/2018
Solo 25/05/2018
Incredibles 2 15/06/2018
Jurassic World 2 22/06/2018
The First Purge 04/07/2018
Ant Man and the Wasp 06/07/2018
Skyscraper 13/07/2018
Mamma Mia 2 20/07/2018
Mission Impossible 27/07/2018
Slenderman 24/08/2018
The Nun 07/09/2018
The Predator 14/09/2018
Johnny English 3 20/09/2018
Venom 05/10/2018
Halloween 19/10/2018
X Men Dark Phoenix 02/11/2018
Fantastic Beasts 2 16/11/2018
Wreck It Ralph 2 21/11/2018
Creed 2 21/11/2018
Aquaman 14/12/2018
Mary Poppins 25/12/2018

 

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Pacific Rim Uprising – Film #30

Posted on April 12, 2018 by Dave On Film

Pacific

Jaeger-bombs all around!

Pacific Rim is back in the followup to 2013’s blockbuster in which Jaegers were deployed to battle massive Kaiju that had come through a breach into an alien dimension.

This time, it’s now 10 years since the war of the first film, and John Boyega playing Jake Pentecost, son of world-saver Stacker Pentecost from Pacific Rim, is as far away from being a pilot as possible. He meets young scrapper Amari (Cailee Spaeny), who has built herself a small Jaeger from pieces of old war tech.

At the same time, the Shao Corporation are building an army of Drone-controlled Jaegers, ready to fulfil their missions…but everything goes a little wrong and soon, the old tech is being called upon to save the world again.

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. Much like the original film, it’s great fun, but you have to completely remove your brain and suspend belief for long enough for it to have an impact.

It seemed like hard work in the early stages, as the film tries to establish characters and relationships, as well as building the threat from the Shao big-wigs. Because of this, it’s slow to get started with, and you start longing for some Jaeger-on-Kaiju action.

When the action does ramp up however, it really does turn it up to 11! We have Kaiju on a mission, all being summoned from a surprising plot twist which I won’t go into detail here. We have Jaeger pilots struggling to connect, and a whole raft of new recruits who have struggled through their training, being thrust into the fight.

In the end, it makes for a very enjoyable romp. There’s insane special effects and enough destroyed buildings to make Godzilla proud.

Enjoyed best at the cinema, this is a solid 7/10

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Deathwish – Film #29

Posted on April 12, 2018 by Dave On Film

Ah Bruce…for every Sixth Sense, there’s a Mercury Rising…and this, my friends is one of Mr Willis’s weaker moments.

It’s a story of revenge, a remake of the original Charles Bronson film, where Doctor Kersey’s wife is killed and daughter seriously injured following a robbery gone wrong.

After that, and realising the police won’t be capturing anyone for th crime, he goes vigilante in an attempt to find the people who attacked his family.

To say it’s a poor film would be a misrepresentation. It’s not overly bad, just not executed well at all. You find yourself not caring about his family, and when he does catch up with anyone, his revenge, whilst brutal, feels silly and often falls into the realms of Final Destination style gore, and at one point even channels its inner Home Alone with a Bowling Ball.

It’s not great, I wouldn’t watch it again and I wouldn’t recommend anyone to watch it either.

3/10

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Rampage – Film #28

Posted on April 12, 2018 by Dave On Film

Rampage is FUCKING AWESOME!

So I feel like I should apologise to my mother for my swearing there…but that’s the exact reaction I have coming out of Dwayne Johnson’s new film based loosely on the game of the same name.

The original arcade game had you controlling monsters that wrecked cities, avoiding military attacks.

The film takes that to a whole new level.

Dwayne Johnson has to be careful with video game movies…who can remember Doom? Yeah, me neither!

But this film rekindles me faith in adaptations.

Johnson plays David Okoye, a primatologist who has taken in an Albino Gorilla called George.

Unfortunately when a genetics experiment taking place in space goes awry, and the shuttle crashes to earth, the pathogen hits George’s compound and begins to mutate him, making him bigger, stronger and angrier than ever before. At the same time, a wolf and a crocodile have also been infected.

Sounds silly? That’s because it is..but if you suspend belief, what you get is an absolute riot of a film.

Naomi Harris plays a geneticist who thinks she has a cure and the two team up to try to stop George and his mutated counterparts from wrecking the whole of America.

This is a big, bold, loud film that is definitely worthy of IMAX 3D. It pulls no punches when it comes to the destruction and the action rarely let’s up once it begins.

We get the storyline and the connection between man and gorilla early doors before everything goes insane.

It’s an absolute thrill ride. Sure, it smacks of Godzilla and San Andreas, but that’s not a bad thing…combine them both and you get something very fun and watchable.

Dwayne is really settling into this big Hollywood action hero now. He is fun and likeable in equal measures and it’s no surprise why he is raking in the money now!

Rating 9/10

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Thoroughbreds – Film #27

Posted on April 12, 2018 by Dave On Film

Imagine if I told you a film was a cross between Heathers and American Psycho…and that’s what you get with Thoroughbreds.

It’s the story of two Upper Class teenage girls who come together following a few years apart. In that time, Lily (Anya Taylor-Joy) has lost her father and is now living with her mother and step dad whilst Amanda (Olivia Cooke) is known for her strange ways after killing her own horse.

When they come together it’s clear there’s going to be fireworks. Amanda has no emotions, something she explains very early on in the film, and finds herself copying emotions from other people as and when she needs to. This leads to her witnessing how much Lily hates her Step-Father and suggests that they should kill him.

It’s a very dark and subtle film. Long periods of hanging shots, with no dialogue, backed up by other scenes which are very dialogue heavy.

What you get is a heavy filmed which delivers in some elements but feels like it is just missing the mark on some others. Whilst it’s clear you are watching a bond grow between the girls which ultimately leads to some nastiness, I felt like I wanted more from the film throughout. I wanted the psychotic sides to the girls to push through harder than it did, but the fact it didn’t is probably the beauty of the film itself.

Anton Yelchin, in his final posthumously released film following his untimely death puts in a well chiselled performance too as Drug Dealer Tim.

Well worth a watch…but maybe not worth a Cinema trip for.

6/10

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Duck Duck Goose – Film #26

Posted on April 11, 2018 by Dave On Film

Duck-Duck-Goose-New-Film-Poster-1

When a new animated movie comes out that’s not Disney, Pixar, Illumination or Dreamworks, I worry for it’s impact.

And in this case I was right to worry.

Duck Duck Goose just isn’t good.

My three year old daughter loved it however and couldn’t stop talking about it. But in all honesty, I was falling asleep through most of the film. It was disjointed and just not well put together at all.

The story is of Peng, a goose who likes to show off and thinks he’s better than all the rest. He doesn’t want to practise for the upcoming migration and whilst messing about, he separates two ducklings from their group. They take him as their mummy and he vows to get them returned…despite having a broken wing.

Oh and there’s a really scary cat character. My little one was terrified of it.

It’s a great looking film, but its just not a great film.

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A Quiet Place – Film #25

Posted on April 2, 2018 by Dave On Film

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

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A Quiet Place is here…and it’s very, very quiet indeed.

Emily Blunt and John Krasinki (also in the directors chair) star in this quaint little tale of family life out on a farm in the middle of nowhere…………..whilst being hunted by viscous sound hunting monsters, fearing for their lives every second of the day.

Its a beautiful tale of family, love, looking out for each other and shutting the fuck up when any noise might lead to your imminent death!

From the opening scene, it’s clear that this film is going to pull no punches and one early moment literally left me with my mouth hanging open in the cinema.

It’s a great, unique story which owes a lot to an amazing score by Marco Beltrami and amazing sound design. For that, it’s 100% a cinema movie. You have to witness is in all it’s surround sound glory to really get the right impact from it.

It’s not out and out scary…but the whole film is full of tension, with enough jump scares to catch out even the most hardened horror fan. The atmosphere it creates due to it’s constant silence and edginess is strange to witness in a cinema, but it works so well.

I have a couple of discrepancies around the film. One of which is the concern as to why Emily Blunt’s character would be carrying a baby when they know about all the dangers of sound…and if that baby came into the world, what carnage would it bring upon them. My second concern is very much around the ending…but I won’t discuss that here as it would contain a fairly hefty spoiler….drop me a line if you have seen it and we can discuss!

Rating 8/10 for originality, sound and just being a genuinely good film, albeit with a couple of things I would want to have played out differently to push it to a 9 or higher.

Here’s my instant Cinema Car Park Critique filmed straight out of the cinema, followed by the trailer for the film :

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#100MoviesChallenge2018

Posted on March 30, 2018 by Dave On Film

Here’s my current list, complete with links to all the reviews where I did them either on YouTube or as a Blog Post here on my blog :

02/01/2018 1 Three Billboards…
07/01/2018 2 My Little Pony
09/01/2018 3 Downsizing
14/01/2018 4 Coco
15/01/2018 5 The Commuter
27/01/2018 6 Maze Runner : Death Cure
31/01/2018 7 The Shape Of Water
03/02/2018 8 Early Man
05/02/2018 9 Winchester
06/02/2018 10 I, Tonya
13/02/2018 11 Black Panther
13/02/2018 12 The Mercy
23/02/2018 13 The Greatest Showman : Singalong
26/02/2018 14 Game Night
02/03/2018 15 The Greatest Showman
09/03/2018 16 Red Sparrow
13/03/2018 17 Love, Simon
16/03/2018 18 Walk Like A Panther
17/03/2018 19 Peter Rabbit
22/03/2018 20 Tomb Raider
25/03/2018 21 Blockers
26/03/2018 22 Isle Of Dogs
27/03/2018 23 Unsane
29/03/2018 24 Ready Player One
03/04/2018 25 A Quiet Place

Currently trending at a 96 film hit rate for 2018….this is very do-able.

Here’s a list of ones I have flagged with their release dates upcoming…Pacific Rim Uprising is already out.

Upcoming Date
Pacific Rim Uprising 23/03/2018
A Quiet Place 06/04/2018
Ghost Stories 06/04/2018
Truth Or Dare 13/04/2018
Rampage 20/04/2018
Infinity War 27/04/2018
Deadpool 2 18/05/2018
Solo 25/05/2018
Incredibles 2 15/06/2018
Jurassic World 2 22/06/2018
The First Purge 04/07/2018
Ant Man and the Wasp 06/07/2018
Skyscraper 13/07/2018
Mamma Mia 2 20/07/2018
Mission Impossible 27/07/2018
Slenderman 24/08/2018
The Nun 07/09/2018
The Predator 14/09/2018
Johnny English 3 20/09/2018
Venom 05/10/2018
Halloween 19/10/2018
X Men Dark Phoenix 02/11/2018
Fantastic Beasts 2 16/11/2018
Wreck It Ralph 2 21/11/2018
Creed 2 21/11/2018
Aquaman 14/12/2018
Mary Poppins 25/12/2018

That’s only another 27 though….I need another 50 films from somewhere…..

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Ready Player One

Posted on March 30, 2018 by Dave On Film

#100MoviesChallenge2018 – Film #24

Ready-Player-One_Warner-1-920x584

A year ago, a work colleague suggested a book to me that he had been reading, saying I would love it. As a fan of gaming and movies, he said he know that I would be a big fan of the book. And I was. Ernest Cline’s pop culture reference compendium is a phenomenal read, touching on many historical moments from my childhood and being a real nostagia trip.

Around the time of reading it, the movie was announced. This spurred me on even more. As news began to break that Spielberg was attached, a director whose work was referenced in the book so much, it was clear that this was going to be a movie I was fully looking forward to experiencing.

I call it “experiencing” based on the fact that it is exactly how you go into a film like Ready Player One. You engulf yourself in the world, much like the characters do when they step into the Oasis themselves.

Quick plot overview…in the future, literally everyone plays in The Oasis, an online world where you can be whatever and whoever you want to be. You can do things you cannot do in the normal world and everyone plays. Its not a fad, it’s basically a second life that everyone leads. When the creator of the Oasis, James Halliday, dies, and announces that he has hidden an easter egg in the game and the first person to find it inherits his wealth and control of the Oasis, there’s a mad scramble to find it. But no-one has….for years. The leaderboard has remained blank. Then comes Wade Watts, a guy who lives in the Stacks (basically a trailer park) who has dedicated his life to finding the first key. Naturally he does and the adventure begins.

The film is a sensory and nostalgia overload. It’s epic and it’s not ashamed to drop references to literally anything and everything. So much money must’ve been ploughed into the cost of buying licenses for showing things in the film.

The CG within the Oasis is quite literally the best CG that has ever been produced. Spielberg has really gone to town and created an amazing world.

There’s camoes galore. You will literally sit there pointing out everything you spot and know. “Oh look, it’s King Kong…Hello Kitty….Sonic….THE DELOREAN!”

The adventure is fun and engaging. It’s not the most amazing script in the world, but the film is truly phenomenal. There has been a lot of changes from the book, mainly how the keys are obtained, but they needed to upgrade some of the things to make them more exciting in a movie, and for that I completely forgive the filmmakers.

Go see it in the Cinema….it’s the only way to fully appreciate this film…IMAX if possible

Rating 10/10

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Unsane – Film #23

Posted on March 27, 2018 by Dave On Film

In the words of Cartman from South Park – “That Movie has warped my fragile little mind”

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unsane.jpgUnsaneposter-203x300

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Every now and then, technological advances in cinema move things along. From 3D to IMAX, from 35mm to digital…..then we get someone using an iPhone to record an entire movie!

Unsane takes an everyday camera that millions of people have access to and makes a gripping thriller using only that to record with.

Claire Foy plays Sawyer Valentini who is convinced she is being stalked. She approaches a clinic to help and inadvertently checks herself in for a 24hr observation on the psych ward. Naturally she ends up staying longer than 24 hours, whilst constantly seeing her stalker within the facility.

The use of iPhone, and the angles in which the whole film is shot at really draw out a sense of unease in the whole situation. Shots are not framed in a traditional sense. You feel constantly on edge, drawing you into Sawyer’s world as it falls down around her.

The film starts off as intriguing and slowly devolves into disturbing. Foy is brilliant in the lead role, attempting to cope with the constant threat of being incarcerated forever as a patient strapped to a bed. Joshua Leonard, as the potential stalker she keeps seeing is truly terrifying and disturbed, and coupled with long scenes of dialogue, suspense and the irritatingly good use of the camera, you are never quite sure whether Sawyer is going to be proven correct or whether it’s all in her head.

Brilliantly shot, psychologically disturbing whilst not necessarily being scary in a “jump out of your seat” sense, but it doesn’t need to be. The suspense and edginess carry it from being good to being very good!

Rating 8/10

Here’s my “straight out of the cinema” review in the Cineworld Leeds Car Park, followed by the trailer:

Posted in 2018, Films | Tagged , , , , , , , | 9 Comments