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mikebrunton70
Reviews
The 100 (2014)
Can't wait for Season 3
I just binge watched Seasons 1 and 2 over the last week, and I can honestly say I'm hooked. Season 1 got off to a slow start but got better and more interesting. Season 2 was a complete blast, for the first time in ages, when the evil leader of the mountain men was killed by Lincoln at the end of series 2, I punched my fist in the air, and high fived myself. I was so rooting for the 100 to come out of there alive. Actually, out of the 100, there are only around 50 left, the rest have perished on Earth. I think the acting has gotten better, the plot twists and turns are enthralling, they are not scared to kill off major characters, so you start worrying about everyone. I don't know if Season 3 can be as good as Season 2, it was just epic. I'm really glad though Season 3 is starting next week !! Give it a try, it's a good mixture of genres.
Spectre (2015)
Boring and not very interesting
Considering this movie's budget, you would have expected a lot more, I mean a lot, lot more. It felt lacking in soul. I hope this really is Daniel Craig's last outing as bond. We really need a reboot with a new actor. I never once felt emotionally attached to any of the characters. The villain, didn't feel evil, the huge henchman was just annoying, and bond should have double tapped him in the head when he was lying unconscious on his car after the crash. But, no let him live to come back again. The opening scene was good, but the CGI explosion ruined that as well. Once again Bond is going rogue, Mission Impossible anyone? Once again, all our lives are being monitored and watched. Information is power (huge yawn). I didn't watch this movie in one sitting, I needed a 2 day break to get through it, and even 20 minutes before the end, got up had a cup of tea and a cigarette. I think that sums up this movie, very, very forgettable and will never watch it again.
The Hateful Eight (2015)
Not very good at all
This movie was 2 hours 47 minutes. Far, far too long. If it had been edited and unbloated down to 2 hours, or even better 1 and a half hours, I perhaps could have watched it all the way through. I say perhaps, because the main reason I was watching it, was because this was made by Tarantino and has a great cast and has an 8 rating on IMDb so it must be good right ? Nothing original, it reminded me of cheap horror movies, let's have the whole film set in one location, and have a small cast who all get killed off, one by one. So nothing new, nothing original, just dialogue, more dialogue, more pretentious dialogue, it wasn't funny, it wasn't saying anything about race, gender, history, it was just garbage. It got real boring for me at about 1 hour in, and I couldn't believe the movie was going to go on for another 2 hours. For all you younger readers, if you want to watch a 3 hour Spaghetti western epic, watch The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.
Something Wicked (2014)
Terrible, dumb story and plot
What was this movie ? Was it a horror film ? A thriller ? Honestly, it took me a lot of time to get to the end of this. One of those movies which by the end is so ridiculous and contrived you feel cheated. A woman who is scared by being stalked, but actually has some long involved plan to get revenge on her boyfriend, who tried to kill them and her parents, but luckily for them, just the parents die ! So she waits until they get married to finally kill him. But honestly, there was so little going on, except confusing story lines, a sister who is also neurotic, a brother or in law who is a peeping tom/obsessive, blah, blah, blah. All these weird characters do and acting like weird. This movie should be avoided by anyone who doesn't like wasting time. It is just awful. I kept hoping something would make sense, the ending is utterly ridiculous.
The Culling (2015)
Antoher low budget, low brow story
The Culling, billed as a terrifying supernatural thriller. Frankly I was bored after 30 minutes, and did see the remaining painful 1 hour. My impression was, this could have been a perfectly okay 1 hour horror story. But it's a movie right ? So the editing had to be to a normal movie length of 1 hour 30. What got me, was the usual obvious limitations of budget, so we have a tiny cast, a remote location, and terrible dialogue. We have inconsistent acting and script. One girl says the farmhouse is creepy, and then 10 minutes later changes her mind and insists the whole usual hedonistic cast stay there for dinner ! We have a lost girl, phone the police ? No !!! Take her home even though it's miles out of their route ? Yes !! Come into the house with the girl ? Check !! Change all plans and agree to stay the night in a strangers home ? Yes !! Blast a shotgun in a small room with your friend running around ? Yes !! Honestly, I used to like horror films, but the majority of movies made these days are so unoriginal and clichéd and just plain stupid that I'm going off them for life. Low budget ? Then create so damn good scripts to use ! Low budget then try something different ? How about a 15 minute pastiche of what would have happened to the cast if they hadn't been so stupid and just gone to the concert as planned ? At the end of the story - a what if story ? The usual early 20 idiots with no idea of how to act or behave, so you couldn't care less what happens when the evil eventually surfaces. Creepy young girl ? Axes slipping, strange noises, dolls !!! Dolls for god sake, they have been overdone...yes old dolls are creepy, so what ? I rate this as a must miss ! 3/10.
The Gambler (2014)
The Gambler / The Douchebag
I recently reviewed The Loft, which I didn't enjoy as the main characters were so despicable. The Gambler is similar in vein. Within 10 minutes of watching this movie, I was thinking, I think this guy is a hopeless loser, and I hope he just gets offed, and put out of his misery. He plays Blackjack, and within minutes wins $200,000, the amount he owes to the Korean/Chinese boss of the Casino, does he pay off the debt, and just leave $50,000 owing to a gangster ? No !!!!! He goes straight to the Roulette table and gambles everything on black. I've had a gambling problem in the past, but even I couldn't watch this film to it's conclusion. He treats people with contempt, his students, his mother, gangsters, etc, etc, and yet somehow everyone gives him a second chance, etc, etc. He is meant to be highly educated, yet acts like he has an IQ of 80. Another thumbs down for Hollywood. When will they learn, that painting a lead character/s with absolute no redeeming features means the viewer eventually couldn't care what happens in the movie !!!!!
The Loft (2014)
Very hard to watch
I just watched the Loft, nearly to the end - but I finally quit with 10 minutes to go. I just had enough. I had enough of the ridiculous plot twists, I had enough of all the main characters. There is one serious problem with painting everyone in a movie with a despicable side - you end up, not caring one whit what is happening and don't really care about the ending. By 1 hour into the movie I was already clock watching, hoping they would get a move on and finish it. Therein lies the problem, much has been said of the flashbacks in time, and why they were put there. Yes, I can kind of see the reason, but the movie was still way too long. It wasn't suspenseful, it wasn't a thriller, it wasn't clever, it wasn't surprising, it wasn't anything really. The wives, you couldn't care about, the husbands were a joke. The music score was way over the top. And generally the movie was as some people have said, like a crazy mishmash of previous films and ideas ,all rolled into one boring movie. Perhaps the original movie is better, but having seen this I wouldn't look out for it, to sum up, if you have an IQ of 80-100 you might be impressed, for anyone with half a brain working - you will leave feeling cheated. Disappointing, and really, really hard to like characters.