Abranth-d Reviews

Black Mirror: Bandersnatch (2018)

You play god

[9/10 · 30 December 2020]

Here's my review of Bandersnatch. That's right "my" review of Bandersnatch cause there's a high chance you clicked on end credits without seeing all the endings. This movie's been on my watchlist since Friday or " To do" list to be more accurate. The story is about a game developer who has an existential crisis on controlling his actions and accepting destiny over free will. I'm not new to the whole "choose your adventure thing" and I've played enough mass effect and telltale games to know how it works , but what surprised me really is how the video game being developed in this movie is of the same genre of this movie, I thought that was a nice nod to the fourth wall. The bad guy in this movie is just really cool , he's the best villain Netflix shows have to offer and it's you. cause you're the one playing god in this game but you don't know it till the halfway mark. I also liked how they let you replay crucial decisions and their outcomes , but give you a time jump to that part so you don't exit to credits . In the end Bandersnatch is an event of it's time , a virtual acid trip with fast phased editing , that 80s tone Netflix's been digging since Stranger things and sci fi which doesn't depend on paradoxes and time travel . In short it's the Truman show meets Donnie Darko with a touch of choose your own adventure. It's one of the smartest works of sci fi in recent years right beside Arrival.

Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)

2 and a half hour long CW episode with wonder woman

[6/10 · 24 December 2020]

Here's my review of Wonder woman 1984 . So WW84 as it's stylized title says and what internet hashtags call it is the sequel to the Patty Jenkins directed blockbuster solo outing 'Wonder Woman' from 2015. The movie stars Gal Gadot as Wonder woman and she kicks some serious ass in this movie and at this point knows how to play the part really well , like all actors doing franchise themed roles , it takes them a few movies to know how to play the character just right . Tom cruise I think discovered how to play Ethan hunt only after the 4th movie and Johnny Depp completely forgot how to play Jack Sparrow after the 3rd movie , but not Gal Gadot , she's flying as high as a Phoenix without burning any of her wings.

The movie takes place in 1984 which personally is my favorite era of movies , cause that's when pop culture really started from what I believe ( Die hard , karate kid ...and the list goes on ) and the movie uses the aesthetic of the 80s really well , it's very vibrant and has everything from newly emerging malls to spin class , it even helps wonder woman look great in her armor and helped her shed her skin off the brooding Snyder armor we were introduced to her in. But the movie only uses the 80s as a backdrop and not as anything else , and by that I mean , there's 80s stuff going on , but no side character or just anyone has a personality , they're like NPCs in a video game just there to drive the plot . And despite being set in the 80s , the movie doesn't have a single song from that era as a part of its soundtrack despite Blue Monday being heavily used in all the promotions and trailers.

And speaking of trailers , the majority of this movie was heavily ruined for me by trailers . You see three action setpieces in the trailer . A mall heist , a convoy chase / fight sequence in some middle East country and the golden armor battle with cheetah , all of whose best sequences got spoiled in the trailer. A lot of other great one liners too were spoiled in the trailer and so was the entire plot !

From the trailer , what I could tell about the plot was : " there's wonder woman in the 80s waay before Batman and Superman were even born , so no plotholes that way , Chris Pine's back and that has something to do with a mcguffin that Pedro Pascals character owns and then there's Kirsten wiig's cheetah " my only questions for the movie were how does that mcguffin work ? And that they solved with lazy writing of course .

So the story is exactly that , Diana prince is working as an archaeologist in 1984 and doing hero work in her meantime and spends the rest of the time brooding about Steve Trevor . Kristen wiig is her insecure co-worker Barbara and Pedro Pascal ( Maxwell Lord ) is this guy on tv. Chris Pine's back from the dead somehow and insecure Barbara gets superpowers , and it all ties to Max Lord somehow.

Now aside from Gal Gadot as Wonder woman , I really liked Pedro Pascal as Maxwell Lord , and talk about range . This guy was stoic af and was still conveying emotions in last week's season finale of the Mandalorian through a helmet and now he's this eccentric less annoying Donald Trump esque tv person with shades of Saul Goodman in a movie set in the 80s . Now that's range . Kiirsten Wig as Cheetah though ... I was a bit skeptical at first ( I mean , come on .. the voice of Lola Bunny from Looney Tunes ?? ) But I guess she was alright , wasn't annoying or anything , just that it wasn't iconic in any way. But what they did with her character though , taking this crazy insecure person . obsessing / idolizing the superhero and then somehow getting powers of their own and going rogue is something which has failed twice with Jim Carrey's Riddler in Batman Forever and Jamie Foxx's Electro in the amazing Spider-Man 2 , and Kiirsten Wiigs cheetah was no different . It would've been fine if max Lord was the only bad guy though , cause I felt cheetah was there only to put up a physical fight with Wonder woman cause Max Lord is only human.

What I know about the character of Cheetah is mostly from the Justice league doom movie and the legion of Doom episodes from the JL : animated series and what I could make out was that she's this human - cheetah hybrid and is wonder woman's arch nemesis . Also , Chris Pine's back in this movie as Steve Trevor himself and he was great , what I really liked about that was how they did a reverse fish out of water with him and by that I mean , Diana was the fish out of water in man's world in the first movie and Steve Trevor showed her the ropes here , and now Diana's doing the same for him now and that made for some nice little one liners and jokes , most of them , if not all got spoiled by the trailers.

Another thing I really liked about the movie was some of the lore and abilities of Wonder woman that were introduced . There's the invisible jet , her newly found flying ability , her golden armor ( which I would totally buy a hot toy collectible of ) and much more. Then again I felt those scenes were set up just to introduce them and had nothing to do with the plot.

Now all these writing problems I've been mentioning mostly comes from Geoff Johns who co wrote this movie , DC and Warner bros have changed their plan for their DC slate of movies to be family friendly entertainers which are less brooding and that worked for Shazam and Aquaman .Both of those movies were origin stories that required a Geoff Johns treatment , and for those of you who don't know , John's is one of the Giants at DC comics and has written some iconic stories like Flashpoint and Shazam. But not everything comic book exactly translates well into a movie and part of that has to do with how comic book lore is larger and spans hundreds of issues while movies have to compress them into 3 hours or less. John's writing is something I've noticed a pattern with and that includes him involving time travel spells , wizards , ancient amulets , ancient stones , prophecyy and whatnot as per his convenience to drive the plot and that sort of fantasy / tomb raider element works really well for Wonder woman , but the problem is how this movie is a sequel to the Zack Snyder written wonder woman ( 2015 ) so Geoff Johns' writing feels out of place . And writing has to stay consistent in movies no matter who's directing , the avengers movies had the same writers for all four of them despite having different directors and that's why the story and the character motivations add up. This movie had all the Geoff Johns' cliches from magic mcguffin stone to getting a legacy armor ( pretty much like the Aquaman movie ) and much more. But the story does have a lot of heart to it , call it cheesey but it really does , it just doesn't get time to shine as the plot moves fast is all.

And speaking of cheesey . Like I said earlier about how DCs going for a whole family entertainer than character driven darker stories , it's fine to do that , but there's a line to taking it really old school . You know that scene in Batman & Robin where commissioner Gordon shows up on the little tv monitor in the batmobile and never does anything and let's Batman do everything , that's what this movie does , there's no cops , just nothing . It's like the whole movies world was built for wonder woman to play in , there's just no consequences . It comes off as something along the lines of an Adam West Batman show with some heavier storytelling . The stakes are really high and to quote Mysterio himself " an avengers level threat " but the tone of the movie and the events prior make you too optimistic that everythings gonna be alright , there is no " will she or won't she save the day " and I tried putting up with that as the movie progressed , but there was this one scene ....two kids are playing football on the road in Egypt when military convoys are battling it out mad Max style with wonder woman , they don't even bother to stop playing and they just wait for wonder woman to save em or something. It's like that kid from that carnival scene in Spiderman 1 where he just stands as the stage is about to fall on him and Spider-Man yells " move it kid " and finally goes there to save him . There were also massive cgi errors , you could tell it was cgj . And some of them were really standing out for a movie this huge . The ending fight with cheetah was shot in the dark to get away with bad cgi reveals and I thought that was lazy on the studios part . The production too took the cheese of the 80s for granted at times and made the oval office look like a sitcom set ffs. But the overall production wasn't like that , the opening scene in themyscira was truly breathtaking but never really tied into the rest of the movie in any way other than calling back a line and mostly was there for spectacle purposes.

Hans Zimmer composed the music for this movie and it works were it has to , still.. I felt an 80s soundtrack as a whole would've really worked with the aesthetic of the movie .

There is a tiny message pointed at hope and change towards the end of the movie and it wouldn't have resonated with people more if it had come out on December 2019 as originally planned , just works well after a year of 2020 wholesomeness.

In the end , Wonder woman 1984 is bright , vibrant , fun , optimistic and is pretty much Spiderman 3. It's got good stuff and bad stuff , but it never fails to entertain . In a nutshell , it's a 2 and a half hour CW show with a lot of heart disguised as a blockbuster movie. I never type this much normally , then again I love all things Superhero , so I went all in. So if you read this much , thank you !

Mank (2020)

Not Fincher

[6/10 · 5 December 2020]

Here's my review of Mank. So Mank is the new straight to Netflix movie directed by David Fincher from a script written by his late father Jack Fincher . The movie is a biopic about the late Herman J Mankiewicz who is best known for writing the movie , Citizen Kane , which is considered one of the greatest movies ever made. Herman or " Mank " as he's referred to in the movie is played masterfully by Gary Oldman who's performance is aided to from the cinematography of the movie being all film strip esque and 1930s ish and will no doubt be a serious contender at the Oscars. Amanda Seyfried was also great in this movie. Despite the top notch production and great talent though , I felt this movie was boring and I'm someone who actually enjoys arthouse movies. Now the story is set in 1930s Hollywood where Herman is in isolation writing the script for citizen kane for Orson Welles aided by someone to dictate to and a german nurse . Then there are flashbacks to before his isolation where he meets producers , Gambles , drinks and all Hollywood - ish stuff. But its very hard to keep up with the characters cause you don't know anything about them other than that they are either studio heads , politicians or both . And since you're not familiar with any of them , it just doesn't work . If you've seen the popular HBO show Entourage or even the netflix show Bojack Horseman , you know how great shows set in Hollywood are . There's agents , writers , directors , scandals , crisis management , PR teams and so much more things there to set up drama , and the one other thing common to both shows is how they use current politicians , current actors with cameos , pop culture references and a whole lot of stuff we could relate to . This movie is pretty much Entourage in the 30s without an Entourage for Mank . Mank meets people , has smart stuff to say , brokers deals with production houses and that's just about it. Mostly it has to do with the fact like I said before that we dont know this world , in Entourage someone says " James Cameron's directing Aquaman " and we didn't need the show telling us who he was and in Bojack Horseman when someone says " this movie is going to cannes " we didn't need the show explaining what it was , cause we just know things from pop culture. This movie on the other hand needed to tell us that for us to know the world , what's at stake and who the characters are , instead it just doesn't and I think Jack Fincher didn't feel the need to do that since he wrote this script at a time when 30s pop culture was common knowledge , atleast among film critics. Now David Fincher is one of my favorite directors working today and I'm a huge fan of his movies for the different themes in them and how perfectly crafted the movies look and are acted . Speaking of themes , Fight club was about anti consumerism , Gone girl was about pretending to be someone else and all that . Now this movie doesn't really have a theme , or maybe it does and I didn't notice said theme , which only means its subtle. Now David Fincher has made few masterclass movies in his long career as a director and that's cause he's worked with different writers such as Gyllian Flynn , Steve Zailian , Andrew Kevin Walker and Aaron Sorkin , despite working with different writers , he's made his movies with his own vision in mind and you'd distinctly know each one of them as his own movie , but his father I don't think is someone who Fincher would collaborate with if he was not his father , cause I wouldn't have guessed this movie to be directed by him had I not known about it previously . In the end , Mank definitely doesn't look like something Fincher would've made unless he was paying homage to his late father , nevertheless the movie doesn't dissapoint you completely cause of its great acting and quality of production .

The Old Guard (2020)

Comic book lore meets Netflix action movie.

[7/10 · 17 July 2020]

Here's my review of 'The Old Guard'. So 'Old Guard' is the latest straight to Netflix movie starring Charlize Theron as the leader of a squad of contract killers who have a healing ability like the Wolverine's. These guys have lived through centuries cause of this ability and the oldest of them dating back to the age of Kings is Charlize Theron aka " Andy ". The plot sounds straight out of a comic book , doesn't it ? I just googled it , and it turns out , it is. So a previous contractor of theirs who is also ex CIA played by Chiwetel Ejiofor ( Mordo from Dr strange ) teams up with this Norman Osbornish Dude who runs an Oscorpish pharma company to capture these guys and experiment on them . Now a movie like this looks and feels like a Netflix movie and I could see that as an emerging pattern , movies like this , Extraction and 6 underground all have brooding , lone wolf protagonists with fluid action scenes and gorgeous cinematography followed by a mainstream plot with a sequel tease ending. I'm not saying it's wrong , I'm only sensing a pattern here. This movie has some neat action sequences with great hand to hand combat and no shaky cam , which was really fun to watch. But what I really dug about this movie was not the action scenes but the exposition and the conversations . Cause I was intrigued by the dialogue where they spoke to each other about the losses they had to go through despite being immortal , there was this one line " just because we're immortal , doesn't mean it'll stop hurting " that human element along with what they know by living through history made this a good movie than an other straight to Netflix action movie. Charlize Theron's character is very similar to her previous "She - John wick" attempts in Aeon Flux and Atomic Blonde , tough but doesn't scream " girl power " nor is it over the top. Other characters were there but you don't really root for them , and there's this rookie chick who has just discovered her ability in this movie , it was as if someone was holding a board to her showing her lines , cause she very well couldn't act. An other thing I enjoyed was how they kept the motivations straight , everyone's motivation is simply justified and you know where it's coming from . I say this , cause you can go the generic " evil Corp wants to make you a lab rat " versus "children of wolverine" fight fest ! but they managed to give clear motivations and add enough to their own lore. With that being said , my problems with this movie were less , there were a couple of odd pop songs in the movie , other than that I thought it was a pretty decent action flick with a lot of comic book lore and a potential for a sequel.

Honey Boy (2019)

You will never look at Even Stevens the same way again.

[10/10 · 14 July 2020]

Here's my review of Honey Boy. So Honey boy is directed by Alma Hal'er and is written by Shia labeouf . The movie is loosely based off of Labeouf's life as a child actor. The story takes place while labeouf is in rehab while calling back to his childhood through flashbacks. Now what this movie is about , is the relationship between Shia Labeouf and his Father. And the best part about it is , Labeouf plays his father in the movie , and I thought that was brilliant ! Cause Labeouf plays this abusive , eccentric , unpredictable and distant father of his , so when you feel terrified for the kid playing younger Shia over his father's actions , you realise that the man who's playing his father was the kid himself , that just made this movie much more layered . The kid who played younger Shia was also really good and had great chemistry with his onscreen dad . The majority of Shia's childhood flashbacks are during his early years on the sets of Even Stevens. For those of you who don't know , Even Stevens was a popular Disney Channel Sitcom in the early 2000s and Shia Labeouf starred in it as a child star and then rose to fame. So yeah , the flashbacks show Shia's father as his chaufer who drives him around from the tv set to a little motel where they stay. If you were someone who watched Even Stevens growing up , you might never look at that show the same way again , cause you might've imagined all these Disney kids having great lives outside their sitcoms , and most of them really did , but not Labeouf . This guy was troubled and all he wanted was to connect with his cold and distant father and there are scenes of Shia rehearsing is lines and the way his father helps him through it is heartbreaking . The movie is shot like and pretty much is an Indie movie , and that got me thinking , how great would a Shia Labeouf biopic be , if it was a mainstream Hollywood blockbuster like the wolf of Wall Street. And then I read somewhere online that the director said this movie is "definitely not a biopic" , and it makes perfect sense. Cause if it was a biopic , it would overshadow the father and son relationship , which again is the heart of this movie. My only gripes were how the music wasn't amplified to suit certain scenes in the movie , and that's just about it. Other than that , I thought HoneyBoy was a simple story with complex characters , Shia's amazing yet layered performance and the most realistic behind the scenes Disney Channel Could not offer.

Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)

Was a lot of pg 13 fun !

[7/10 · 28 February 2020]

Here's my review of Sonic the hedgehog . So unless you've been living under a rock or if you don't use the internet to scroll past memes on Facebook ( yes , it's a meme platform than a social media now ) then you very well know about the initial reactions for the Sonic trailer. When the first trailer for Sonic came out an year ago , the design for Sonic was criticized heavily cause he looked more like a hedgehog if he was in that God awful cats movie. So the makers postponed the release just cause the internet wasn't happy about it , which I thought was really great about them , cause the movie was meant for the fans. And an year later Sonic's better than ever. I've played a couple of Sonic games growing up and I liked how they were able to build a story around a very small lore that the game had , like in the game , Sonic's going around collecting these rings and in the movie they are portals , also the map from the game is his place of origin here , they even made a little origin to his red shoes and a lot else that I really liked. The story is set in this little town where Sonic is living among humans out of sight in his crib which looks like bugs bunnys . He's lived without interaction from people for a very long time . He runs too fast one day and causes a blackout which brings in Dr robotnik played masterfully by Jim Carrey while balancing the fine line between comedically evil and eccentric to go after Sonic. So Sonic teams up with James Marsden ( aka cyclops from x men ) and goes on a buddy road trip with him while having a bro bonding involving bromance , some neat dialogue and a lot of kids movie fun ! . The cgi is used very well in this movie and had shades of the Quicksilver slo mo scene from days of Future past. The movie was fast phased , had witty dialogue , a cool soundtrack , pop cultural references and jokes which land. In the end Sonic the edgehog is a kids movie which also strikes nostalgia for retro gamers and aims at being something rewatchble without having such a huge story to tell , like space jam and Spy kids.

Jojo Rabbit (2019)

Home alone meets Diary of a wimpy kid set amidst world war 2

[10/10 · 31 January 2020]

Here's my review of JoJo Rabbit . So JoJo Rabbit is directed by Taika Waititi , the genius with an Ace Ventura persona who gave us Thor frickin Ragnarok ! which was one of my favorite movies of 2017 and that made me look back at his old films and the one thing common among them is that they're really funny but with a lot of human connection . Taika's humour is a unique brand that only he can land and that's what makes this movie work so well. The movie stars this pre drug use McCauley Culkin lookalike kid who's just brilliant in this movie ! The story is set in Germany amidst world war 2 where JoJo , a wannabe boy scout and Hitler fanatic comes across a Jew girl in hiding and becomes skeptical over his priorities . Taika Waititi himself , like in all his movies plays an extended cameo of JoJo's imaginary version of Adlof Hitler and he was bloody brilliant as well , Scarlett Johannson plays JoJo's Mom and she's on a roll with this and last year's ' Marriage story ' some damn good acting right there. Other supporting characters which includes Sam Rockwell as Captain k was hilarious ! All other characters were written brilliantly and had the right screen space. The movie takes you in for a satire on war and turns into something much more amazing as it progresses. In the end JoJo Rabbit is heartwarming , heartbreaking , funny , and is pretty much home alone meets Diary of a wimpy kid set amidst world war 2.

1917 (2019)

Roger Deakins is God

[9/10 · 19 January 2020]

Here's my review of 1917. So 1917 is directed by Sam Mendes , and I've been looking forward to this movie ever since the trailer dropped cause it's from the minds behind The war movie Jarhead which was also directed by Mendes and shot by frequent collaborator Roger Deakins. And I wasn't disappointed. In fact, I was blown away ! . The story is set amidst world war 1 and it's about these two soldiers who have to get through a lot of German territory and notify their camp to stop the planned attack for the next day. The journey to the camp is filmed to look like a one shot with no edits like how birdman was shot. And the man who shot it was Roger frickin Deakins , the man who shot the Shawshank Redemption , Blade runner 2049 and pretty much every movie which is worthy of being your desktop wallpaper , and this movie is no exception. The way it's shot makes you feel claustrophobic and also like you're watching a first person shooter game. The score by Thomas Newman was great and added a lot of weight to the story. The gripes I had with this movie was that you don't really care much for the characters cause you don't know much about them and since it's a warzone it's no surprise if anyone dies really, and the dialogue felt very bland in b/w convos , but I guess that's how people really talk at a time of crisis and quotable dialogue would've made it seem more fictional. In the end 1917 is more of an experience than a movie and to sum it up , it's the Revenant meets Dunkirk .

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019)

Mr Rogers will live on in our memories.

[6/10 · 18 January 2020]

Here's my review of ' A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood ' . So "ABDITN" stars Tom Hanks as Mr Rogers . For those of you who don't know , Mr Rogers was a television host who ran a popular kids show in the 80s where he spoke about the troubles that children would and were going through and solutions for them . Now I went for this movie after watching a documentary last year about Mr Rogers and his show , what I learnt from that was how Fred Rogers was just a nice guy in general without any baggage and people found it odd . Now this movie is about an investigative reporter with Daddy issues working on an article about Mr Rogers himself , since he's an investigative reporter he doubts how someone like Rogers can be so nice without a single loose end or blackmark , I liked the scenes where he would ask direct qns to Mr Rogers and Rogers would shy away , but I was really more interested to see an attempt at unmasking or dive deep into the psyche of Mr Rogers but instead the movie made Mr Rogers like a therapist to the interviewer helping him settle out Daddy issues and gave him more screen time than Rogers . I also saw a lot of positive articles online and that made me understand that nostalgia plays a huge role in a movie like this and it's one of the reasons why it didn't relate with me in a much deeper level. However I did feel the warmth from Hank's portrayal of Mr Rogers despite being in an air conditioned theatre. In the end the movie who's name is too long to type was warm , had great acting , simple dialogue and a gentle reminder to be nice to people.

Dolittle (2020)

A soulless cgi blunder that tries too hard to be pirates of the Caribbean

[4/10 · 18 January 2020]

Here's my review of Dolittle or what I'd like to call Disney's attempt at recreating pirates of the Caribbean . The movie stars Robert Downey Jr as Dr Dolittle who forcefully tries to do a Jack sparrow with a Scottish accent cause he was paid a lot to do so. If you know the og Dr Dolittle movies , you very well know that he can talk to animals. And I liked some of the cgi animals and their voice acting , esp the dog voiced by Tom Holland and the polar bear voiced by John Cena . And they were funny at times . But the overall humour in this movie is just bad ! It's just forced too much from fart jokes to weird imitations. There's a kid in this movie who wants to be Dolittle's assistant and he looks like and probably is the same age as Tom Holland , then why didn't the studio cast him as the apprentice and let someone else be the dog ??! , they could've atleast gained a larger audience with the Spidey - iron Man chemistry , but nope ! They had to make him voice the dog. A lot of the side characters are annoying and it's shot like a direct to TV movie. In the end Dolittle is a cgi blunder of a reboot that tries too hard to be a fun swashbuckler .

Marriage Story (2019)

When reality hits ...

[10/10 · 14 December 2019]

Here's my review of ' Marriage story ' . So marriage story is directed by Noah baumbach known for his intense family dramas and frequent writing collaborations with Wes Anderson himself. The movie stars Adam Driver and Scarlett Johannson and it's about this couple going through a divorce . That's just about it. Sounds like a simple indie movie with a lot of crying and Keith urban in the background right ? Nope. This movie is very human and tries to tell a story which hits you with reality on every level , and the last time a movie did that was ' the pursuit of happiness ' . All the actors in this movie were great ! And added so much depth to the characters they played. Now the audience are like little kids not knowing whose side to take during the divorce cause both of them have strong points on their side that you don't know who to root for. The courtroom scenes and the lawyer's entry into this mutual consent makes it very intense at times. I should have said this earlier but Adam driver and Scarlett Johannson were amazing in this movie to the point that you don't know whether they're acting or not and I'm not even exaggerating . The dialogue feels very real and so does the overall environment . It's also masterfully shot and beautifully scored and it's one of the best movies I've seen this year which isn't part of a franchise or an adaptation of a comic book or video game. In the end 'Marriage story' Is a hard hitting tale with powerful acting , life like dialogue , an engaging narrative and proof that when reality hits , it hits hard.

6 Underground (2019)

You know it's Michael Bay when ...

[6/10 · 14 December 2019]

Here's my review of 6 underground . So you know how you ask your parents for something as a kid and they won't buy it for you , and then your cool uncle buys it for you . That cool uncle of Hollywood rn is Netflix . Martin Scorcesse makes his movies till the 3 hour mark cause studios won't let him make em any longer , uncle netlflix came and said "whatever you want " and boom ! You have 'the Irishman' which is almost 4 hours long. And 6 underground is Michael Bay freed of his studio shackles by Netlflix . So before I talk about the movie i'd like to about the man , the myth , the legend , Michael Bay himself. Bay has a style and people can't notice said style unless it's distinguishable . Michael Bay is that one kid who could never get enough of GI JOE , and every single one of his movies glorifies the military which can give call of duty a run for it's money. That's not the only thing he can't get enough of , he can't stand women without makeup . All his movies , even if someone's on their deathbed , they're all heavy on lip gloss and makeup . And you can't be a part of a Michael Bay movie unless you look sexy in every shot , even the sweating needs to make you look cool. Now that's attention to detail . Michael Bay started out making ad films and you can see their influence as his movies are a mix of sports car commercials , lingerie ads and high octane stunts from mountain dew commercials followed by heavy product placement . Bay also has this awkward humour which ranges from racial stereotypes to mispronouncing other movie lines . And last but not least his trademark , explosions ! Bay loves blowing stuff up and makes it look cool by using slo mo shots and music . He also loves his neon colours and uses them whenever he can , even when it's a super secure ghost op. And finally ends his movies with inspirational music followed by montage shots and rolls the credits starting with his name right as the music hits the drop.

Now 6 underground is pretty much Batman without the costume and a no kill rule recruiting people around the world to put down a dictatorship . The Bruce Wayne like dude is played by Ryan Reynolds and his crew is played by a couple of Nickelodeon sitcom rejects with the exception of Melanie Laurent , the theatre chick from Inglorious bastards. The movie has no cgi , has three explosive set pieces set in the streets of Florence , a highrise in some Dubai like place and a yacht . That's just about it . But Michael Bay is that hormonal teenager who never grew up , he likes his action and his cool shots , his testosterone and adrenaline flowing . Cause "teen" us didn't want drama or romance either , we wanted to see stuff explode and understand one liners and that's just what this movie is , and Michael Bay knows that and so does Ryan Reynolds from all the promotion for this movie , which means that all the Michael bayisms in this movie are completely intentional. All sarcasm apart 6 underground is a bad movie , but a bad - good movie , everyone knows it's bad but it delivers high octane action and that's what we were promised so if you need something to roast on, you have it . so if you know your Bay movies you will have fun picking out all the stupid stuff he does or you just watch it for the action anyway . In the end 6 underground is explosive , blindingly neon , has a lot of slo mo shots , tons of product placement and Linkin park's castle of glass music video summed up into one movie. Seriously though, I never thought I'd type this much for a Michael Bay movie .To quote Steve jobs himself " You just can't ignore the crazy ones ".

Jumanji: The Next Level (2019)

Wild ride !

[8/10 · 13 December 2019]

Here's my review of Jumanji : the next level. So Jumanji : the next level is directed by Joe kaplan and stars everyone from the first one along with Danny devito as Spencer's grandpa. So Spencer for some reason goes back into the game and the gang go back in as well , to save him ofc. Only this time , Spencer's grandpa and his friend also get stuck . Unlike last time they don't get to choose their avatars and so fridge becomes Jack black , Devito's friend becomes Kevin Hart and Devito himself becomes the Rock ! , All these actors trying to imitate another one , especially Jack Black as Fridge was hilarious and made place for a lot of running gags and one liners which landed.in the end , Jumanji the next level is fun , adrenaline fueled and has the best cue and montage for " welcome to the jungle " by gun's and roses.

The Irishman (2019)

He's back

[8/10 · 2 December 2019]

Here's my super late review of the Irishman . So 'The Irishman' is directed by Martin Scorcesse and it's out right after his comments against marvel and popcorn movies in general , and he shuts people up with this movie alone. The movie stars Scorcesse's homeboys De Niro , Pacino and Pesci . The movie is his forte , almost like a revival of Goodfellas , it's about mobsters , and no one knows better about that than Scorcesse cause he's lived it . The ensemble and legendary cast were amazing despite the trash prosthetics and deaging cgi . The story once again is like Goodfellas , but more in line with the association between the Teamster's Union and the mafia. It has all the Scorcesse trademarks from rise to power , leaving your wife for an other woman , abusing power , drugs , fancy restaurant meetings , betrayal , sugar , spice and everything nice . The movie is produced by Netflix and is 3 and a half hours long giving the Lord of the rings a run for it's runtime. Since it's produced by Netflix the movie is free of strict censorship and works more in line with the directors vision , the cinematography is gorgeous and has neatly written and quotable dialogue followed by rich production design. Now I saw a lot of articles and reviews online calling it a boring movie , but it's not and I'm not gonna say it's a " slow burn" or anything , in fact it's fast phased film for its runtime , if you keep up with it by googling for technical terms like ' truckers union ' and stuff you will be caught up with the movie and you'll be hooked , I can guarantee that. The internet also calls it an epic , but even though the story is an epic , stoic characters despite being great don't support it . In the end , the Irishman is a modern day reboot of Goodfellas with a stellar cast , gorgeous production design , all of Scorcesse's tricks and one big brush to paint your houses.

Knives Out (2019)

Instant classic

[9/10 · 2 December 2019]

Here's my review of ' Knives out ' . So knives out is directed by Rian Johnson, the guy who directed the infamous Last Jedi , but the movie I know him from his ' Looper ' which is quite awesome and made me look forward to this movie as well . The story is about the death of a mystery writer followed by a real time cluedo game with his family. If you've read enough Agatha Christie and Harry Potter you're gonna put the pieces in a matter of seconds , for those of you didn't , you'll have fun . What I loved about it was how they revealed the mystery a few mins into the movie and yet spun a tight web around it . The movie stars an ensemble cast of Daniel craig , Chris Evans , Michael Shannon , Ana de Armas and many more , the huge cast wasn't a marketing stunt and every character had a purpose followed by proper screen time , they were like the pilot episode of a great sitcom, being likeable characters at first sight . The movie is also beautifully shot and masterfully edited and I bet it's getting nominated for an academy for any of those . I also liked how the movie was able to tonally shift seemlessly from one part murder mystery parody to one part black comedy to one part thriller , and Rian Johnson handles that like a pro . My only gripes with this movie was Daniel Craig's Foghorn Leghorn like accent which turned out to be intentional and pointed out towards the end . So with great characters , edge of the seat edits , masterful shots , one liners which land and one literal cluedo game , Knives out is an instant classic and Rian Johnson's biggest apology letter for the last Jedi .

Ford v Ferrari (2019)

Woah

[9/10 · 18 November 2019]

Here's my review of Ford v Ferrari . So F v F is the true story of how Ford established a name in racing over a feud with Ferrari while also being a Ken Miles biopic , and James Mangold does both like a master and knocks it out of the park. Christian bale got down to his og English accent and absolutely kills it as Ken Miles with his method acting , Matt Damon too was really good as Carrol Shelby and so were the rest of the cast . The story is an underdog tale about Ford , a company which makes cars for the common man , teaming up with former racer Shelby and his Man behind the wheel , Ken Miles. None of their pasts are revealed or even hinted at and yet you care for these characters , the movie makes you realise that by throwing in a will he die / won't he die based on reaching the rpm limit throughout the entire second act . Also , this movie is masterfully shot by Phedon Papamichael known for walk the line and Ides of March and he makes every frame look gorgeous , which is aided by sleek editing , music and sound design. In the end , Ford v Ferrari is a well directed , masterfully shot , brilliantly acted biopic with neat dialogue , powerful characters , passion towards a goal , a rush of adrenaline , one chameleon called Christian Bale and Ford's marketing strategy ironically said through tons and tons of coca cola product placement.

Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)

Fails to maintain the legacy of T2

[4/10 · 4 November 2019]

Here's my review of Terminator : Dark Fate. So ' dark fate ' which ironically is the fate of this movie is directed by Tim Miller , the director of Deadpool and written as well as produced by James Cameron himself. Cameron said in an interview that Dark Fate is the true sequel to T2: Judgement day , is it though ? NO ! . Cause this movie is nothing but a cashgrab which tries to make itself work by recreating judgement day with little nods of nostalgia to that movie . The story takes place after the events of Judgement day , which as you know is stopped from happening , but even then young John Conner is killed and twenty years later there's another AI called Legion in place of skynet and they've sent a Terminator to kill this Mexican chick , and an Android is sent back in time to stop that from happening . Linda Hamilton is caught up in this mix and she's the only thing good about this movie , Arnold's in the second act of this movie and felt completely wasted , atleast a few hasta la vistas would've been good , but nope. The Terminator in this movie does exactly what the T-1000 did , the liquid metal thing . Only difference is that the metal alloy looks like the symbiote from Spider-Man and it has the ability to replicate leaving it's exoskeleton behind. The action was okaayish cause you can't see most of it due to sloppy editing and the majority of it (with the exception of a highway chase) happening in dim light , like Batman v Superman level dim light. You can't see in that. The cgi wasn't revealing but wasn't impressive either , it was like that neo v agent Smith(s) scene from matrix revolutions , almost like a PlayStation 2 cutscene at times. In the end, Dark fate is an other failed attempt on softly rebooting the franchise but turning out to be a cashgrab using nostalgia.

El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (2019)

The Epilogue we deserve

[8/10 · 11 October 2019]

Here's my review of El Camino . So Breaking Bad ended on a cliffhanger note , especially when it came to Jesse's arc. The dude was broken after the countless bad that happened to him throughout the show . And this movie picks up right where the show left off , Jesse driving into the night in a car ( An El Camino) , the rest of the story deals with Jesse covering up the little loose ends , making peace with himself and getting a new life elsewhere. First of all , this movie is shot very well , it looks amazing . It's written and directed by Vince Gilligan , the Creator and showrunner of the show and you can notice his touch on it , it's nailbiting at times , with intense convos and a little bit of black comedy , just like the best epsiodes in the show , which were written and directed by Gilligan . Some of the recurring characters are Badger , Skinny Pete , Jesse's parents , The " get you a new identity guy " and Todd ( god , I hate that guy ! ) , With little flashback cameos from Walt , Jesse , and Mike. Now this movie , despite being rated R is 100% pg 13 , they probably went for it , cause they knew how most kids watched the show and also since it's simultaneously being screened in theatres alongside Netflix . The only gripes I had were that Todd was a little fat in this movie , so seeing him in flashbacks wasn't very convincing , Also I wanted to see how Walt's family were dealing with things , even though it's clearly Jesse's movie . Except for that I thought this movie was amazing ! In the end , it has strong acting , great convos , nailbiting standoffs and the perfect epilogue to breaking bad and a happy ending for Jesse Pinkman. Okay , so maybe the " happy ending " was a spoiler ,but come on, you saw it coming biatch !

Joker (I) (2019)

Taxidriver 2

[8/10 · 2 October 2019]

Here's my review of Joker , or Taxidriver 2 if I'm being honest . So " Joker " is directed by Todd Philips , who's best known for directing the hangover trilogy , due date and war dogs. I thought he was an oddball choice when it was first announced but I get why . The movie stars Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck , a guy who is constantly tormented by society , and he was great ! .... As Arthur Fleck , but as the joker ? Well that's for you to decide . For me personally I thought he was good , definitely better than Leto's , but in b/w Ledger and Nicholson. The character of joker has has had many origins over his comic book and media appearances . From ' Gotham's ' Jerome valeska ' to Jack Napier , to the mobster from mask of the Phantasm. But the most popular ones are him falling into a pit of acid and the other one about him being a failed stand up comedian which then leads to the acid fall according to ' The killing Joke' by Alan Moore. This movie takes the failed stand up comedian thing from that , drops the acid thing and then sets up it's story , Which I thought was a really nod cause Joker's mainstream origin is now as familiar as Batman's origin. They also set up Batman's origin indirectly to the Joker's which I thought was personally brilliant . This movie justifies Joker's maniacal forced laugh as a medical condition and at one point brings in the question of whether it's legit or if he's faking it . Unlike other iterations the joker is more sane than other people , like from this scene at a comedy club where he's the only guy laughing at the good jokes and everyone else is laughing at the inappropriate ones , so he writes that fact down. This movie borrows a lot of themes from fight club such as the whole " only when you lose everything are you free to do anything " and many more. It's also very similar to Nightcrawler in terms of being an underdog story and in making us root for the underdog even though he's a cold blooded merciless. Which is funny because Nightcrawler was a modern take on Taxidriver and this movie is like 80% Taxidriver with the whole experimenting with your gun without a shirt on , the one liners , the philosophical talks , the gun on your temple gesture and lots more . The movie even has frickin Robert De Niro as a late night show host if you want more proof , which is ironic since De Niro plays a failed comedian who gets insulted by a show host in ' the king of comedy ' directed by scorcesse who also directed Taxidriver . God ! My head hurts. Yeah , so I did some googling and it turns out scorcesse helped out with the script . So it all makes sense now . I also liked how Joaquin Phoenix was able to go back and forth between his actual laugh and his medical condition laugh which is similar yet you can spot the difference from how the latter is soulless. That's some brilliant stuff there. I also liked how Phoenix was able make us hope he doesn't get beat up by people in a public train to hoping he doesn't kill that guy. The only gripes I had with this movie was that the soundtrack wasn't powerful enough when it needed to be and that in the third act in a TV studio set , Phoenix was overdoing it. In the end ' Joker ' isn't the best origin for the character , it's a movie which uses the characters label to gain hype for a Taxidriver spinoff which is amazing ! All that stuff I said about the movie being close to Taxidriver is not a critique. Because this movie is brilliant . So it's a great attempt to dive into the psyche of an anarchist and make you wonder .... Chaos is just order yet undeciphered.

Ready or Not (I) (2019)

Didn't see that coming .

[7/10 · 13 September 2019]

Here's my review of 'Ready or not' . So 'ready or not stars Samara weaving who happens to be a Margot Robbie lookalike . The movie's about a girl who marries into a super rich family who have a tradition of playing a game , one of which involves playing hide and seek but the other members of the family have to kill her before Dawn . That's just about it. It's a neatly directed claustrophobic horror movie which has elements of black comedy in and out. That's something I loved about this movie. The tonal shift from funny to scary to weird is so fast in this movie and yet doesn't feel odd anywhere. The music was also gripping and helped with the setup for most jumpscares. I don't usually talk film school , but the lighting in this movie was gorgeous . The only gripes I had were with the use of shaky cam in certain scenes . Other than that , it was a pretty good b grade flick with gore , action and thrills. The ending however ... That was unexpected .

Batman: Hush (2019 Video)

Not the adaptation we hoped for.

[6/10 · 20 July 2019]

Here's my review of Batman: Hush. So 'Hush' is the new addition in the DC animated universe or whatever it's called these days. People say that Hush is one of the greatest Batman stories ever told . I strongly disagree. Hush is one of the greatest stories ever told . But did this adaptation get it right ? NOPE. Why ? Because it's not an adaptation like it was marketed to be. For those of you who've been following the animated Batman movies in the dcau, you know that the movies take inspiration from the source material but don't adapt them entirely unlike standalone movies such as Under the red hood and dark Knight returns which adapt the books entirely . For example one of this movies prequels 'Batman v Robin' borrowed heavily from Scott Snyder's book 'Court of Owls' . This movie does the same but unlike 'Batman v Robin' it was marketed as an adaptation of Hush when it was just another movie in the Batman continuity of the dcau . However there were a lot of things I liked in this movie , like the animation which is very fluid for something handdrawn , been a fan of it since Son of Batman. Jason o Mara reprises his role as the voice of Batman and I've been a fan of the voice since the first one . Selina Kyle voiced by Cameron from House Md was great. Never been a fan of the older incarnations of the animated Catwoman , but this one was great and had amazing chemistry with Batman as well. Speaking of animated incarnations , the joker in this movie has the worst art design ever ! And I was really dissapointed , because ever since they started adapting the new 52 artstyle for animation I was always looking forward to how the Joker was going to look and they screwed it up . He even sounds Scottish in this movie , they could've gotten Mark Hamill's or at least Troy Baker or John DiMaggio for the part to save the character. In the end , Hush is not the adaptation it was marketed to be , and if you're someone who hasn't read the book and has been following the animated DC movies , you might actually enjoy it !

Power Rangers (2017)

Nostalgic

[7/10 · 19 July 2019]

Here's my review of power rangers. So if you're a fan of the original TV show , then you're in for a treat as this movie is filled with references and also , the characters have the same names as their television counterparts . All the actors are new faces except Bryan Cranston and surprisingly they did a great job. The action sequences were well choreographed without revealing CGI . The problem with this movie is that the action scenes have very little screen time and gives more room for character development and also the zord fights have more screen time than the normal fights and the megazord wasn't too impressive , it looks like optimus prime from a Michael bay movie. The best character in this movie is billy the blue ranger and putting everything aside , Bryan Tyler composed a great music score and even remastered the original theme song. So in the end , power rangers is not wearing tights and posing at explosions , it's a perfect summer movie which brings back memories and revives your childhood. Oh and don't forget to stop by at krispy kreme .

The Post (2017)

Bland

[6/10 · 19 July 2019]

Here's my review of the post. If you're wondering about the title then let me assure you that this isn't a literal post it's a story about the Washington 'post' newspaper . The movie is directed by Spielberg and from this he's working his way through making political movies like his last bridge of spies. The story is about a cat and mouse game between leading newspaper companies in the 60s and them releasing and withholding govt secrets about the Vietnam war. The characters in this movie were set up as the story went along and that made the phasing not drag down. There were no unwanted characters in this movie and everyone played their part right. Tom hanks was simply the best , he played a role similar to Jameson from spiderman 1 and Meryl Streep played something close to her miranda priesley role. It's a good movie but not really a popcorn flick . In the end I had fun ,it was a solid movie with great characters , an interesting plotline and a roast at the White House. If you have nothing to do and if you're a fan of Spielberg , then go watch it . Or you can just wait for it to come on Netflix or Hulu.

Annihilation (I) (2018)

Strange yet inspiring

[7/10 · 19 July 2019]

Here's my review of Annihilation. So if you're wondering why you haven't heard about this , that's cause the distributors pulled it down from the theaters last week cause it wasn't doing well there. And hence it's on Netflix now. This is a movie I've been looking forward to especially since it's directed by Alex Garland , the guy who gave us ex machina. The movie stars Natalie Portman and oscaar Isaac and it's about a small biome causing changes in nature. And getting closer to what's causing it and why ?. makes this slow movie interesting. This movie had some great acting and screenplay. This movie has a couple of monsters prowling around and has very predictable jump scare moments and some scenes gave off the vibe of a b grade horror movie , they should've worked on that. Depsite being creepy , dark and weird. This movie is nothing less than ex machina and a really good mindbender right beside arrival . In the end it's Natalie Portman in an other weirdo movie right after Black swan with great writing , intense characters and taking one step closer to annihilation.

Inhumans (2017)

Nope

[5/10 · 19 July 2019]

Here's my review of Inhumans. For those of you who don't know , inhumans is a TV series and the first two episodes are compiled into a movie , but its on the big screen cause its shot using imax cameras . First of all , this series "visually" looks great , probably due to being shot on imax . The editing is good and the story isn't draggy . However none of the actors are great and the bad guy has better motivation than the heroes , so you don't actually root for anyone . The CGI Is not that great as its a television show despite being shot on imax. In the end , inhumans is a great show with an interesting and addictive plot and I would definitely watch the whole run , once it comes out for domestic television . Well , should you blow your money on a two part pilot ? . yes. If you're dumb like me or if you're mark zuckerbergs cousin.