benjaminmoleb10 Reviews

It (I) (2017)

A fun movie, but nothing special

[6/10 · 7 September 2017]

(I'll be playing fast and loose with spoilers here)

I generally enjoyed this movie but there were a whole lot of really odd things that irked me. Characters in this movie generally make good decisions, something you don't often see in horror movies, so it felt really odd when one character was assaulted with a knife and they don't take him to hospital or even tell the police; they just steal some cotton balls and... patch him up? Another point, I know in American movies the bullies are always cartoonishly evil but come on, they carve letters into some kids chest with a switchblade. That's an actual crime. But heck, perhaps it's just set in the most anomalously amoral town in the world, because the adults are all evil too. From the rapist dad, to the insulting librarian, to the 50-somthing pharmacist flirting with a 15 year old. I wouldn't mind but the movie explains none of this, it spends the whole time talking about something that happened long ago, and alluding to a curse and goes nowhere because (surprise surprise) this is IT: Chapter One, of however many chapters will stop making money i guess.

With all this said, i didn't actually hate the movie. As child actors go, they got some good ones (the main 2 or 3 especially); and the creature is fantastic. Some of the vfx were a bit unconvincing but most of the effects were great, i loved pennywise who was brilliantly acted and choreographed, and the score was really brilliant.

Unfortunately i didn't find it scary; mostly relying on cheap jumpstartles. There was a scene or 2 that were scary (and one that was actually very scary to me at least) but mostly the scares were pretty telegraphed. I recommend a watch, but only really for the villain. 6/10

Life (I) (2017)

No movie has ever made me more uncomfortable. Amazing

[6/10 · 5 April 2017]

This review will contain spoilers I've been watching horror all my life. I love to be scared and tense and uncomfortable, and boy did this movie deliver. I'm trying not to spoil too much because I wholeheartedly recommend this movie but some of the scenes in this movie were just stomach turning, and i mean that in the best way possible. The claustrophobia of a space station combined with a critter that is intelligent and primal make this the anxiety attack Dead Space wishes it was. The atmosphere in this movie is insane. Constant paranoia with just enough lulls to let you catch your breath and not a jump startle to be seen (ok there were 2 or 3 but this movie really earned them with the atmosphere building). And oh my god is it refreshing to see characters in a horror movie who make sensible decisions befitting of their level of intelligence, so big ups there. Watch this movie if you liked Alien or The Thing, cant recommend enough.

Heck, looking at the Alien: Covenant trailer this may end up being a better sequel than that. 10/10

Ghost in the Shell (2017)

I have never been more insulted by a movie in my life

[2/10 · 31 March 2017]

Big ol spoiler warning for this review, cos there's loads of them.

I hated this movie down to my very bones. I went into this movie assuming that i would be getting an original story within the GITS universe. Nope. This movie doesn't seem to have an original thought in it's head. It opens with the shelling sequence and the Major jumping off a building; OK, that's cool, nod to the original then depart, i'm on board. But then there's another scene from the original, and then one from Innocence, and then a plot point from SAC, and what we ended up with was a frankenstinian mishmash of bits and pieces from the rest of the chronology trying to be a coherent movie apparently unaware that all the previous GITS have been slightly separate from all the others. Get ready for some of your favourite, iconic scenes like you wish you'd never seen them before. As bad fan service.

The big issue is that the movie simultaneously (SPOILER WARNING!! HOOT HOOT PUT IT ON MUTE) tries to be in all the GITS franchises at once, but also tries to distance itself from them. First she's the Major, but she isn't Motoko, then she is in the end, and Batou has human eyes then he doesn't, then he gets new ones; so is this the same Batou from the original or not? was he a ranger or what? Why is the Major constantly talked up as some incredible, advanced weapon of anti terrorism but also continually beaten up by people with tasers? Why does she walk like a badly programmed AI with faulty navmeshing? Why does she consistently do stupid things that no one with her level of authority would reasonably do? Why are the techs at the Hanko company dress like the Section 9 techs from the first movie? Why is the beagle still a theme when that wasn't actually relevant in the first place, it was just Oshii liked beagles? Why is Ishikawa coming on a raid? Why is all the game changing stuff that happens to 1995 Motoko happening to a different character? Just kidding, I know that one, It's so we can have a SEQUEL. The movie tries to make new rules in-universe but doesn't stray far enough for me to know which rules still apply from the others.

The really depressing part is that if they gave all the characters moustaches and different names and called the movie something like, i dunno, MINDHACKERS or something, then i would have had a lot of fun. It would have been a 7/10 easy. But nope, you just had to take something i love and ruin it. You had to take the ambiguity and deep philosophical roots of the series and push it through the Hollywood filter of 'No dumdum left behind' until you infinitely cheapen the message and mindset of the previous works and hack out the same clichéd movie that's been done a thousand times. Bad guy was just misunderstood? check. CEO of shady corporation was the real bad guy? check. Clearly telegraphed twists? check. Happy ending? big ol check. Badly edited, hard to follow, CUT CUT CUT CUT CUT fight scenes? check. Romance subplot shoehorned in? Didn't have this one. Credit where it's due I suppose.

In fairness it wasn't totally awful, for one thing the aesthetic and visual design is excellent; absolutely nailed it, and the music was quite good. I also found myself liking the secondary characters quite a bit more than i thought i would. That's not to say i came in to this with low expectations, i just liked them a lot, which wasn't too hard when they stood next to Scarlett. Now hold on, let me explain, i actually quite like Scarlett as an actress, so I don't know if this is her or just lousy direction but i think at some point in development someone said to her "your character is a robot" and she went "ill just act totally robotic then" and no one decided to tell her that actually her character has a human brain, so you can still act a bit human, and less like a bad walk cycle in a (frankly dope) bomber jacket.

If you've never seen or read or played any other GITS materials then go see it. It's a good looking, fun beat em up movie to kill an arvo. If you enjoy the GITS series, then i cannot recommend. 3/10

The Hunt (II) (2015)

Somehow a cut above the usual

[10/10 · 3 October 2016]

I grew up watching documentaries; Life of Birds, the Living Edens, Blue Planet. I've seen loads of documentaries in the last 20 years and own a lot of the BBC nature docos on BLu ray.

So don't take it lightly when i tell you this is on another level. Everything about this series is a cut above. The narration is emotional and compelling, the score is moving and inspiring and the footage is simply breathtaking. The footage in this show is astounding in a way i never could have expected. Shots of animals doing things that you'd only read about.

I want to personally shake the hand of everyone who worked on this show for bringing me such joy, with some sections moving me to tears. I highly, HIGHLY recommend this show

Ghostbusters: Answer the Call (2016)

The movie so bad I actually found it offensive

[1/10 · 31 July 2016]

teeny spoiler in this review

I went into this movie optimistic. I heard that this movie was geared in a feminist way and hell yeah, It's about time. But it does start to alienate me when literally every man in the movie is portrayed as either; a dick, a creepy loser, or a moron. At one point Chris Hemsworths character literally reaches for a phone shaped decoration in fishtank by repeatedly hitting his hand against the glass like some kind of forcefeild. On the flipside, the female characters are these genius heroines here to save the day and deliver overblown technojargon at every turn with the exception of Leslie Jones' character, who was here to play the token black character who spouts lines like SHIIIEEETTT! or AW HELL NAW!

The pacing was terrible, most of the fight scenes are spent standing around delivering awful one liners.

There are occasional jokes that made me laugh but that doesn't excuse the other thousand terrible jokes, including a tastefully delivered queef joke that rode in on the coattails of a fart joke.

TLDR Vaguely racist, overtly sexist, downright badly written trash. skip it

Oculus (2013)

Loved this movie, very atmospheric

[6/10 · 4 November 2014]

I've just finished watching this movie.

I'm currently home alone and it's close to 1 in the morning, I'm scared to go to bed because of the mirror in my room and the crushing sense of dread that this movie instilled in me.

And I couldn't be happier.

It's been a while since I watched a horror movie alone and wanted something more psychological to watch. This movie did not disappoint.

It's relatively low on blood and gore, making the parts that do contain blood stand out more. And it constantly wrong foots you about what's going on, at times this makes it hard to track, but it didn't really bother me.

I took a star off because the ending felt slightly predictable and I would have wanted it to end differently but this leaves it open(ish) for sequels and I'm OK with that.

The point is that you should watch this movie, totally watch it. Alone in the dark with the sound up

The Hunger Games (2012)

Shameless ripoff of Battle Royale. Fairly transparent anyway

[3/10 · 7 September 2014]

I didn't read the book but a movie should be able to stand up on its own. But there were things that you obviously had to read the book to understand. This is a fairly boring movie about a lump of wet newspaper named Katniss who volunteers to be thrown into an arena with a bunch of other children to murder each other for the amusement of the upper class citizens. This movie doesn't rip off Battle Royale so much as it murders it and attempts to wear its skin.

Crazy government act making people fight? Check.

Young innocent character thrown into arena to kill for their life? Check.

Hazards that require characters to keep moving to live? Check.

But this is of course a movie for teenage girls, so it at least drew a nice face on the skin suit so it would scare anyone.

Long story short, a bland movie full of exposition and cliché that should be able to stand on its own and doesn't.