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Resident Evil (2022)
Well written series
I watched all episodes and it deserves my score of 8/10.
Spoilers a head...
Yes, the main characters had all unlikeable features. However movies don't always have to have incredible perfect characters.
The way the charachters where portraid was realistic and consistent over the episodes and time zones. When the two sisters were arguing among themselves they always told each other the very painfulf truth on how the other behaved. Jade being so self centered, using other people, pulling them all in the abyss she is creating is very well (and consistently) shown. Teenage Jade and future Jade are in synch.
The way this insane Baxter was featured was also very good. And how can you not be insane in such a zombie world... :)
Evelyn shooting her son in the end to prevent him becoming a monster is also very believable. She knows Albert is not capable of saving him despite his claims. He failed finding a cure for so long now...
All the decisions and actions of the lead roles were in line with their specific character.
The CGI was also very good. I like the monsters such as the caterpillar, spider and krokodile. The zombies themselves, they were as you see in all zombie movies.
I have seen all the Resident Evil movies and this series is the first that has a real storyline about the main characters and is not just "brain-to-zero" hero slashing monsters, saving people and some macho one liners.
Army of Thieves (2021)
Entertaining
I found it a refreshing movier. Certainly because the pace was slower and it was not just about explosions and violence for the sake of violence. It was also a parody on Ocean 11 kind of movies and you do root for the main character.
I watched the movie with pleasure and will surely watch it again in the future.
Anyone tired of the continuous super hero mindless action packed movies, this is a very good alternative.
2036 Origin Unknown (2018)
Very good movie...much depth than the mindless blockbusters
The movie was very refreshing. Based on a real theme at a slower pace so you have some time to reflect. It came just in time for I was getting tired of those action packed blockbusters were within 5 minutes everything is based around special effects and your mind has to be turned of.
The usage of more and more AI is something you see even today so the premise is certainly not farfetched.
---Spoiler---
I gave it an 8 an not a 9 for the actual reason the AI decides to destroy mankind. Because of the continuous violence and misery and apparently the only way to break it is to wipe out all life on the planet. That does not make sense at all and is used in so many movies so often. The mere fact of its existence contradicts the fact that mankind is but a succession of misery instead of continuous progress and thus the AI should never come to the 'Let's kill them all' conclusion.
The ending tries to be more mystical but could be done better or at least more integrated in the rest of the movie. But it tried to be original (The last images remind us of 2001, a Space Odyssey but OK...)
---end spoiler...
All in all a refreshing movie with decent acting and nice visual effects.
Dunkirk (2017)
Much better than expected
I took me a while to actually watch this movie due to many bad reviews but in the end bought it on Blu-Ray and am happy to have done so.
For me it was a movie about an ordinary guy (not a super hero) who only wanted to escape and technically even tried to desert when he crawled under that wooden pier hoping to get on the ship even though he was ordered not to while many many others remained. The saved soldier who in his state of terror and shell shock kills a boy that only tried to save him. No hero either
That story was well depicted. And who cares that on the beach you cannot see actually 400,000 soldiers or that the English plane did an incredible thing while he could only glide. That never bothered me.
I was very glad to see a movie about ordinary people that did not need a zillion special effects and explosions to completely overcompensate the lack of any story.
So I gave it a well deserved 9...
The Bye Bye Man (2017)
Not original...
My main issue with this movie is that there is no creativity in the movie. Everything has been done already dozens of times in the past. (I am thinking of movies like Candyman, Sinister 1 & 2, It follows and so many more...). It even uses almost the same method as Candyman for evil to appear. It made also think a few times to the Final destination franchise where the protagonists are hunted by Death (same actor as the Candyman by the way.)
What bothered me in this movie is how unbelievable certain events were. For example the librarian immediately starts actively cooperating, the brother who takes his little kid with him (can anyone be so irresponsible?)
If it would have been the first with this plot I would give it a 7 but now 6 is more than sufficient for this movie...
400 Days (2015)
Very good movie
It took a while before i looked at this movie. Mainly because of the rating on IMDb and the negative comments. Luckily I disregarded that and judged for myself.
The movie is well written and the actors are also doing a good job. Even the survivors of the Apocalyps played their role very well. It was all very believable. There was no food to be seen so what else could people do to survive but to revert to cannibalism. I particularly liked the way the lead bad guy dies. I had the sense that he was glad his ordeal was over.
Some things were not that good. When our hero, armed with a knife creeps behind the lead bad guy he grabs him by the throat and you see his arm with the knife doing nothing. That is not believable, if you are that scared (he was very scared), you just stick the knife in his back as first move. But then there wouldn't have been a battle. Also there were only 2 narrow entry points very easily to defend so there was no reason to let the enemy inside.
There were a few other such events but it did not interfere in enjoying the movie. Some people think that there is some doubt about it being a hallucination or a part of the simulation. But there is no doubt that all happened as we have seen and the end recording of Walter and the 400 days mark was just a pre-recording. Everything fit well...
The Exorcism of Molly Hartley (2015)
Good but to bad bad about the ending
I give it a 6 but until the last 15 minutes I would have given it a 7. Too bad that the end and more specifically how the main character suddenly appear to save the day.
It is a flaw not only happening in this movies but in most movies. Only in movies do the bad guys think it is wise to bring their mortal enemy to the big boss at the crucial moment...unrestrained. And in this case the doctor suddenly appears in the middle of a room to stick a bar through the evil head priest in a room (one door only) filled with people and nobody notices it...
A pity because just before that bad written ending started I kinda though that this movie will not end well for the heroes and the world. But of course for some reason a bad ending is not allowed in a movie...
But overall the movie is good to watch and not boring...
Interstellar (2014)
In one word: Boring!!
I do not know why anyone likes this movie. I have seen many SF movies and had high expectations when going to the theatre. Such a big disappointment.
Clearly the director tries to remake the Stanley Kubrick movie, "2001, a Space Oddessey". A failure however. Yeah some spectacular images of Saturn...but that is not sufficient.
Really nothing happens and the characters are not really believable. For me a waste of money and time...
I gave it a 3 for the special effects but the storyline is hardly worth a 2/10...
Gothic (1986)
Not timeless....
I did not like the movie but will not give it a rating. Why? Because I saw the movie in 2014 and I have changed since I watched horror movies in the eighties. I feel that I would have liked the movie then since it was the way they made horror movies at that time and I really liked them.
I have that with many of the eighties movies. Also with the older Vincent Price movies of which I know they were very good at their time. So it is not the movie that is bad but me who has changed. Therefor no rating even though I did not watch the movie till the end. :)
By the way I do not consider the change good or bad. It just is. Not that long ago I saw Terminator 2 (1991) again. I remember leaving the theater in '91, so impressed with the special effects that I thought that this could never get any better and now I had a feeling "pff, primitive special effects". That's change for ya...
Dead Souls (2012)
Very good horror movie
I read some negative reviews but I really liked the movie. It had some scary moments, the ghosts were well made and I finished the movie without being bored or watching my watch.
I like the fact that instead of the common cheap gore the movie actually tries to captivate its audience just by the storyline and not by blood and/or nudity. This is much more difficult to do.
The only predicable character is Emma. The way she suddenly appears in the beginning of the movie was too obvious. That could have been better.
But for the rest it is a very good movie. I will buy the Blu-Ray too...
Pacific Rim (2013)
Big disappointment...
I gave the movie a 5 only for the special effects. You saw that this was well done. But that is about the only good thing of the movie.
The storyline is weak...very weak. Almost everything is predicable. And so many ideas were stolen from other movies. At a certain moment the screen is filled with the head of one of those monsters and I thought "Hey that is the creature of Cloverfield." And that is what really irritated me the most. The obvious lack of creativity. It is as the viewer is supposed to be dumb and only interested in fast moving images....
Big disappointment...I was sorry that I spent money on it. But then if you don't look for yourselves you can review. :)
40 Days and Nights (2012)
very bad movie
Luckily I rented the movie as part of my provider's subscription so it didn't cost me anything except time.
Even the start of the movie was so bad that at first I restarted the movie because I thought I surely must have missed something.
The actors are all performing very bad, completely out of the context they are supposed to be in.
Off course a very predictable plot where all problems appear magically and then are resolved just in time. Combine the above with the fact that the special effects were also very, very bad and you understand why I found this such an awful movie. Naturally if you build an ark for the survival of the human race you use never before used engines which have very rare parts. The Ark was bigger then a aircraft carrier with a nuclear engine so I think that would have resolved their power problems...
What is worse that I was not surprised because it was a SyFy movie...They really need to do something about their quality or soon they will get extinct themselves.
Prometheus (2012)
Very good movie! Refreshing....I hope more of this is coming out
I had big expectations about the movie and I wasn't disappointed.
What I liked was that they were able to combine the modern effects and technology with the vision that was represented in the first Alien movie. You could also see how the evolution of the 'monsters' will end into the well known "Alien" creature.
Also the android was very well played and was reminded me to the bad android in the first movie.The walls and doors of the spaceship were also resembling the first movie.
So all in all I found it a prequel worthy of its name and it was also as standalone movie very good.
I also very much liked the fact that the big ET they awoke completely ignored the fact that he was talked to and remained "in character" ; namely looking down at the humans as nothing more then insects or rodents. :) It was also so refreshing to see a real SF as opposed to something like Battleship where you have to wonder if star faring species loose their intelligence in the process.
The only thing that was less is that the director sometimes overdoes it when preparing a character for some future event in the movie. When a character says that she cannot bear children you know for sure that she will get pregnant from something unspeakable. You see that in almost every movie. I do not know why, it does not add really anything to the fact that an alien is growing into you....
Skyline (2010)
Good movie
I don't understand the many negative reviews of this movie.I wonder if it is because people don't like humanity to be at the loosing end.
I really liked how the movie showed that whatever you did it ended up in catastrophe. Staying in the penthouse ended in death, trying to escape outside ended in death. The nuke did not help, humanity most advanced planes shot down...
I also really liked how the military could not stop that big monster. They could make it fall, go backwards but it always stood up and came back even after that jet crashed on it.
No unbelievable hero to save they day and destroying the credibility of the movie. (that is why a movie like battleship is terrible...) I've seen the movie now a few times and still like it.
The Darkest Hour (2011)
Better than expected
After reading some negative reviews I was skeptic about the quality but I liked the movie. The action started quick, the aliens were not the dumb amateurs of Battleship but efficient in their goal. The human characters were also believable although it is surprising that Americans seem to survive better in Moscow than Russians themselves :)
Also special effects were good and like this idea that you can only follow the aliens by looking at the lights/lamps that go on/off.
It was similar to Skyline which I also liked (also a movie with a lot of bad critics) but with a better ending (I don't mean a happy ending but the last 5 minutes of skyline were unnecessary).
So all in all a good movie.