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Reviews
Polar (2019)
Feel like two different movies, one great the other terrible!
This film could have been great if they just played it straight. All the scenes with Mads Mikkelsen as a brooding hitman are great. The shots of the snow-capped mountains and cinematography are really well done. This is all ruined by trying to give it a comic book feel by having a group of over the top, outlandish villains, hamming it up. The movie just does not flow. And the worst casting decision in history to have Matt Lucas as the Mr Big! Even if you had never seen him in his comic avatar it just doesn't work. What a waste!...avoid
Annihilation (2018)
Annihilation of Everyone's Careers
Why Natalie Portman got involved with this film is baffling. Maybe the idea sounded appealing: A mysterious 'Shimmer' appears at the site of a comet strike and everyone that gets sent in there fails to return except Natalie Portman's husband. He returns with a mystery illness and she, being a biologist is sent in to find out why. I won't say anymore about the story.
The film is just plain boring. The film makers don't seem sure whether they wanted to make a sci-fi action film or something more artsy. Instead they tried to make a combination of both, which, just doesn't work.
Normally, when films turn out bad actors claim they couldn't tell what the end product was going to look like. But Natalie Portman must have had an inkling when she was made to dance with an alien that looked like it had come from a 60s episode of Star Trek!
Look Away (2018)
Well paced psychological thriller, beautifully shot
India Eisley is amazing as a bullied teenager living with a vain and dominating plastic surgeon father played brilliantly by Jason Isaacs, and submissive mother, who suffers from depression. Her only friend is manipulative and ignores her when it suits. She is taken over by her evil twin to deliver murderous vengeance on her tormentors. Yes, the story is not original but it has been brilliantly executed. The setting and cinematography are breath taking. This is not a teen slasher movie or a Carrie wannabe. It is more atmospheric and creepy than filled with jump scares or gore.
Some parts of this film are quite disturbing and uncomfortable, especially, a creepy scene between father and daughter.
Some reviewers have said that the main character does not fit their idea of someone who would be bullied, because she is too 'pretty'. They completely misunderstand the multifaceted nature of bullying. In this case the victim is picked on because she is seen as 'weird' and introverted.
If you're into clear and well defined endings and still have sleepless nights over what was in that brief case in Pulp Fiction, then this is not for you as the ending is left somewhat to the interpretation of the audience, and it works brilliantly.
This movie is more akin to a Korean or Scandi thriller/horror. My only gripe is that Mira Sorvino has been absolutely wasted and has limited material to work with.
Overall, this is a movie that is both entertaining and engaging
Definitely one of the better films of 2018.
A Simple Favor (2018)
Brilliant, darkly comic thriller!
I went into this movie knowing very little about it and had no expectations. Boy! Was I surprised?! Some reviewers have said that this film is a parody of Gone Girl and the like but it's absolutely not. It's a light-hearted thriller that doesn't take itself too seriously. Anna Kendrick is excellent as Stephanie Smothers, a bubbly and over enthusiastic recently widowed single mother, that spends her spare time running a cookery vlog. She has no actual friends until she befriends brash PR executive Emily played by Blake Lively, whose son attends the same school as her son. It's obvious from the beginning that Stephanie is being manipulated, but she looks up to and admires Emily. The meat of the film is how after the inevitable twist Stephanie transforms into a confident sleuth and solves the mystery.
This is a fun film that is both funny and engaging.
Mandy (2018)
What utter tripe!
I'll start off this review by saying that I am not one of those people that gives out 1 star reviews lightly. But this is by far the worst, most pretentious movie I have seen in a long time. Having read many of the positive reviews on here and seen this movie included on lists of the years' best horror/action films I was expecting great things. Instead what I got was a movie consisting of characters speaking really really slowly, lots of red lighting, and blurry imagery representing the characters tripping.
The story is of a bunch of Manson wannabes that have taken a bad batch of LSD who think they are part of some kind of religious cult. Suffice to say they cross paths with Nick Cage's character setting up a revenge story line. The story sounds simple enough but the execution is torturously slow. There has been a lot of talk of the violence and action in the film but that doesn't happen until the last 30 minutes. So, you have the first one hour and 30 minutes of long drawn out scenes of characters talking really slowly and endless amounts of red lighting! Really, don't bother.