GRcade

Annihilation - 2018

Hmmmmmm , I can see why this didn't get a cinema release. It thinks it's 2001 a space Odyssey, it's really not.

There is one very good scene with a creature, but that's the standout moment.

Just overly long, pretty but strange, just a weird and unfocused film.

Tbh, the only bit I like of 2001: A Space Odyssey is the Hal stuff. The beginning and end is gooseberry fool.

Godzilla wrote:Annihilation - 2018

Hmmmmmm , I can see why this didn't get a cinema release. It thinks it's 2001 a space Odyssey, it's really not.

There is one very good scene with a creature, but that's the standout moment.

Just overly long, pretty but strange, just a weird and unfocused film.

I can see why some people wouldn't like it, but it's certainly not unfocused.

The whole film is an analogy for the destruction of man, be that of mankind itself with their propensity for self-destruction on a mental level and the body's trait of destroying itself through cancerous tumours, or of the human-wrought destruction of the natural environment. Everything in the movie works to illustrate this.

So.

Annihilation 8/10

As a fan of the book it was based on I was slightly disappointed that this was pretty much an In Name Only adaptation. I've just read that when Alex Garland first wrote the screenplay only the first book of the trilogy was written so this appears to be his own interpretation of the open ended nature of that book.

I really enjoyed it. There's some stunning imagery on display and it's the most effective cinematographic depiction of a dreamlike state I've seen in a long time. The whole film, after they enter the Shimmer, is made to look like a fever dreamt hallucination and it works.

Although it delves into abstractness at times it never deviates from its central focus (mentioned above in the spoiler) which continues until the very final frame. The action that pops up is short and brutal and the mystery that forms the narrative backbone is intriguing and comes to a satisfying if ambiguous conclusion. The finale is one of the more riveting in recent cinema too.

I need some time to wrap my head around it, but it's certainly one of the best hard sci-fi films in years.

Star Trek Beyond

It was exactly as I expected. Serviceable action, some woeful CG, a couple of belly laughs and some nice references to Trek of old. It was an entertaining enough couple of hours but entirely unmemorable. Better than the last one, I guess.

6/10

Black Panther – 8/10

One of the top tier of Marvel movies, some of the action scenes were a little disappointing, but the rest of it was as solid as comic book movies get.

Godzilla wrote:Mom and Dad - 2018

Bloody awesome Nic Cage and Selma Balir film about a world wide event where parents are killing their kids.

Basically The Happening but good.

Lovely sound track too, with Chains of Love being a standout song.

Also Lance Henrikson is in it, which always makes things better.

A dark comedy with Nick Cage turning it up to 11.

But that ending!

Annihilation - 8/10

Loved it.

Existenz- what the strawberry float/10

The Godfather part 3 - 6/10

Full Metal Jacket.

There are very few movies which are completely cut in half like this one, the first half (Gunnery Sergeant Hartman) is 10/10 easy, but the second (Vietnam) is only 6/10.

Vermilion wrote:Full Metal Jacket.

There are very few movies which are completely cut in half like this one, the first half (Gunnery Sergeant Hartman) is 10/10 easy, but the second (Vietnam) is only 6/10.

Yup. You could stop watching after the toilet scene and not miss anything of value.

Lost in Translation. Love the film and it's what I needed right now. 10/10.

Every time I watch it, it seems to get more racist though.

HEAT.

9/10

Tafdolphin wrote:

Vermilion wrote:Full Metal Jacket.

There are very few movies which are completely cut in half like this one, the first half (Gunnery Sergeant Hartman) is 10/10 easy, but the second (Vietnam) is only 6/10.

Yup. You could stop watching after the toilet scene and not miss anything of value.

I think that's a bit harsh, the second half does have its moments. The sniper battle in particular sticks in my mind, bloody horrible.

Pixels. It truly is representative of something a couple of primary school children would come up with. Maybe that was the point, in which case I guess it succeeded...?

The 'humour' was terribly unfunny and cringe worthy - especially Josh Gad's character, Ludlow, who had maybe one funny scene (being a jackass on stage at the party) but that's pretty much it for me. There were also some neat visual elements here too but even the (admittedly pretty good in comparison to everything else) pacman chase fails to redeem.

2/10

Rocsteady wrote:Lost in Translation. Love the film and it's what I needed right now. 10/10.

Every time I watch it, it seems to get more racist though.

Love this film.

Not sure where you get the idea of racism from though, as i certainly don't remember there being any.

Vermilion wrote:

Rocsteady wrote:Lost in Translation. Love the film and it's what I needed right now. 10/10.

Every time I watch it, it seems to get more racist though.

Love this film.

Not sure where you get the idea of racism from though, as i certainly don't remember there being any.

I'm guessing the 'Lip my stockings' scene. I always find that leaves me a bit uncomfortable.

I don't give enough of a strawberry float to argue but loads of it was predicated on Japanese folk being oddly other and not speaking English correctly when they're in their own country - imagine roles reversed and it'd be never be made.

Creep 2 - I'm not normally a fan of 'found footage' films, but the original Creep was different and good enough that I had to watch this as soon as I saw it was on Netflix.
Without giving away any spoilers, it doesn't just do again what they already did in the first film, instead they take a slightly different approach to keep you unsure of what will happen. It was a good sequel but if the first is an 8/10 film then this is probably a 7/10.

Good Will Hunting 9/10