redwingsm Reviews

The Hitman's Bodyguard (2017)

Netflix movin' on up!

[8/10 · 18 September 2017]

I have to say I have been pleasantly surprised by the quality of the last few Netflix films and this is no exception. Having always expected TV quality in their films it was great to see such good special effects and quality actors in this movie.

Gary Oldman brings it as the always fiercely reliable bad guy. Samuel L. Jackson & Ryan Reynolds actually make quite the pair in this buddy action movie. I may have rated it a point higher due to my surprise at the quality but it makes it no less a great feat by Netflix to continue this tradition of great actors, decent scripts and generally above average results.

7.8/10

Kill or Be Killed (2015)

"My stench will soon rise from this here field..."

[7/10 · 2 March 2016]

What we have here is a good old-fashioned Western riddled with the ringing bells of mystery. It seems a simple tale starting with a prison break heading towards a mound of ill-gotten gold. What it ends up being is a mysterious semi-horror bodyfest with Indie gold written all over it.

I'm not a fan of Westerns, with only a few exceptions. I watched this on the recommendation from a friend, and glad I did so. After the first 10 minutes I was worried I would grow bored with the movie and eventually turn it off. However, as I continued to watch I got sucked in deeper and deeper until there was no turning back.

This movie entertains throughout with rare a dull moment. The ending is quite a surprise that I'm betting not many of you will see coming. While it's not a perfect film, it is a great watch that any fan of the genre will appreciate. Good use of budget, good scenery, decent acting (for the most part) and a great story make "Kill or Be Killed" a movie worth watching, even for folks who may not be huge fans of Westerns.

11.22.63 (2016)

All I can say is WOW.

[10/10 · 1 March 2016]

Stephen King is one of my favorite authors, however his movies and TV stints have left a lot to be desired with a few exceptions (Shawshank, Green Mile). I have to say, this is his best work yet, and it's not even a movie. I get to enjoy this for a while to come and am very excited to do so.

11.22.63 is about a man who has time traveled to the 60's. And what would you do if you could time travel to the 60's? Well save JFK of course! I won't go into any detail as you have to watch it yourself.

The acting, production, direction, scenery, everything is absolutely perfect. It is one of the few shows I could not find one single flaw in, and I'm 3 episodes in!

If you have a chance, see this gem, you will be pleased.

10/10

Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015)

The Force Awakens a smile I could not put down. *spoiler free*

[9/10 · 30 December 2015]

*Spoiler Free Review*

The Force Awakens, the seventh movie in the Star Wars saga is beautiful, well acted and worth seeing more than once.

Seeing it in IMAX certainly made for a loud affair, but the feeling of being in the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon, the X-Wing and TIE Fighter make it all worth it.

The special effects are fantastic and there were times when I couldn't tell if an effect was CG or practical. Believe me, that's a good thing these days! The surround sound was used properly and in one scene in particular made me extremely glad I made the trip to see it in IMAX at the best theater in my area.

The story, while not as original as I had hoped, was good and was the only reason a star was taken away (IMDB = 9/10). There are a couple of twists that left me reeling and exhausted, but in a good way. The addition of new characters with the old was done tastefully and with flair.

The music was absolutely fantastic. It brought me right back to the feeling when I was younger and watching Star Wars for the first time. The placement was perfect, the ominous in all the right spots, the light hearted & neutral music was done so well that I felt as if I was actually IN the movie. Kudos again goes to John Williams, a man earning his paycheck well.

This is a movie that you should not be tempted by spoilers. Somehow I managed to keep my ears free from any type of spoiler 2 weeks after release and it paid off.

In conclusion, this movie is a must see in 3D (and IMAX is recommended) as you can tell it was made to be watched this way. This movie makes the fear of piracy ruining the movie experience a far lesser worry than I previously thought. Seeing this on a ripped version NOT in the theater would be a complete let-down and any reviews on this site that were made from watching that way should not be trusted.

SFX: 10 (Absolutely incredible) Story: 9 (-1 for lack of originality) Music: 10 (John Williams does it again)

Overall: 9/10

p.s. The previews for The Force Awakens are aplenty so get to your seat early enough to catch them!

Ash vs Evil Dead (2015–2018)

Review from a completely biased Ash lover.

[10/10 · 9 November 2015]

Okay so at least I'm honest, vis a vis my review title.

However, I DID wait for 2 episodes to be complete before making my review since I knew Sam Raimi would not be returning for the second episode in near the capacity as he had towards the first. I needed to ensure that someone else other than Raimi could take the Evil Dead universe and do it justice. So what's the prognosis?

Ash is back and in all honesty, better than ever! There is not one single person on this earth who could play Ash the way Bruce Campbell has. There is nobody who has embraced their cheesy, corny and downright rude role with as much ferocity as Bruce has managed to do with Ash.

The show is funny, corny, cheesy, intentionally bad in all the right places and, much to my surprise, way more gory than I would have ever thought. This show isn't for the kids folks! However, it IS for any and ALL Evil Dead fans. There should not be one single fan that is disappointed in the show, and if they are, they weren't truly fans to begin with.

Now what about people who have yet to see the 30 year old Evil Dead franchise and would like to take a gander? I say go for it! The show does a great job of NOT REQUIRING any prior knowledge of past events to be able to understand the current. If you are a fan of the horror comedy genre then this show is for you.

To sum it up, as I am a biased Bruce Campbell/Ash lover it was tough to come up with many negatives about the show. Every time I came up with one, it was easily dismissed as a purposeful act to keep the spirit of the show.

I ordered Starz just for this show. It is money well spent!

Re-Kill (2015)

Did you like Starship Troopers? If so, watch Re-Kill!

[7/10 · 23 October 2015]

As my title suggests, if you are a fan of the original Starship Troopers then this is a movie you will likely enjoy. It's a great spin on the (slowly getting tiresome) Zombie genre that had me laughing and, at times, on the edge of my seat, for the entire movie.

Without going into too much detail you get to follow along with a news reporter (yes, this means shaky-cam) as he is embedded with an elite group of zombie smashers. The story moves along at a brisk pace and the script, while atrocious at times, is mostly coherent and palatable. The gore is great, albeit overdone in some scenes. Where this movie shines is the FORMAT. Like with Starship Troopers there are cut-ins of commercials that are, at least to me, hilarious! If you can get past the shaky-cam being TOO shaky in some scenes then you just might find a movie that warrants a recommend to your friends.

The bottom line: If you loved Starship Troopers as I did, you will love this movie. If you like the Zombie genre, as I do, this is a different take on it with a few surprises. The effects aren't bad and the acting is slightly above average. Red Box it if you are a fan of the genre, you might just love it!

The Subjects (2015)

The Subjects non-studio review

[6/10 · 23 October 2015]

So I'm a little disappointed that studios feel like us IMDb users are so stupid that we would fall for reviews that are made by people who just joined IMDb and only have 1 review of said material. Please stop!

That being said, this movie wasn't too awfully bad. Yes there are a few poorly acted scenes (British guy being the worst offender) and some scenes that were unnecessary (the debate over whether to take the pill), but I still have to say that I was entertained throughout.

The movie really takes off after the first person has the first reaction to the pill (burp). While the CGI was definitely sub-par, it got the job done and I didn't laugh too much about it. We've all seen worse, believe me. Once the movie gets going it's a wild ride all the way through to the end. I do not feel anyone would be wasting their time seeing it; especially Sci-Fi/Superhero movie fans.

In conclusion, while the movie does reach the "cheesy" level quite a few times, I was left smiling and would actually recommend it to my geek friends. Totally worth a rent!

6/10

Mr. Robot (2015–2019)

Mr. Robot leaves me excited and full of promise.

[10/10 · 30 May 2015]

Did USA really just do this? They have managed to give me a combination of the best parts of Swordfish AND Fight Club and managed to make it coherent, suspenseful and a joy to watch. And Christian Slater gives yet another go at TV-Land and may have finally hit the mark!

The premise: A young man working at a security firm by day, and an elite hacker vigilante by night.

Sounds like it would be a bore-fest full of misplaced techno jargon, dry suspense (remember BlackHat?) and poor acting, right? Wrong! Not only was I amazed at how the story was presented, but I fell in love with the main cast with some spot on character development, GOOD use of technological aspects of hacking and a great use of voice over.

Color me impressed! I am a computer geek by trade and they hit the nail on the head with almost every aspect of security and defense without making grievous errors (think The Net & the worst aspects of Swordfish). This is a must see for geeks of all ages and even hits the mark for those not so tech savvy.

While the show is littered with clichés, they are all so well done and accurate that I could not find this an actual fault with the show. Try as I might, I could not find any glaring faults with the dialog, character development or even the subtle "Big Brother" aspects that they were going for.

This is a MUST continue for USA and I will be ecstatic if it gets picked up and more episodes are made (at the time of this review it appears only 1 episode has been made). Kudos for USA for taking a risk!

To sum it up; if you are a tech savvy user of the internet, smart phones or computers this is an absolute MUST see. Even for those of you not so tech savvy please give this a go!

Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014)

Exodus shines in its magnificence. Sour reviews unfounded.

[8/10 · 7 March 2015]

First, I would like to address the naysayers and 'hate' reviews I've seen for this movie for being historically inaccurate. I find this reason for a poor review to be, unfortunately, historically accurate. As nobody has firsthand experience from a story told over 4000+ years ago there is no possible way to actually make a movie based on the life of Moses and those around him, historically accurate. It is all based on a translation of documents (books) passed down through generations of re-writes and embellished stories written in a time where true knowledge was scarce and the lack of a print press meant everything was written by hand by man. The bible goads over the imperfections of man yet relies on man's interpretation (vis-à-vis; The Bible) to be factually accurate. The hypocrisy is self evident to anyone being truthful to themselves and others. This is why so many poor reviews have made it to the light of day because so many people out there take the story of Moses (from The Bible) to be a factually accurate account of his time on Earth.

Anyway, I digress. Exodus: Gods and Kings has wonderful acting and direction and should be lauded for such. Any reviews lower than 5 stars are simply false and should be ignored due to this. That being said, I found this movie to be superb in many ways that off-put many Christian moviegoers. They took an old story and made it fresh and believe it or not, somewhat believable and much easier on the stomach than its original material. Without going into detail they have taken the story of Moses and made many changes that could rightfully explain some of the more outrageous claims made by The Bible. While this made many hard nose bible thumping Christians raise their arms in disgust, this Christian applauds the effort and yearns for more.

Christian Bale does a fine job as Moses and really shows he still has it and will likely end up with the greats such as Jack Nicholson, Clint Eastwood and Robert De Niro who have stood the test of time and, in many instances, gotten better with age. While I'm not a fan of Christian Bale as a person, I am truly awed at his acting ability.

Joel Edgerton as the antagonist also does a fine job of showing the conflict within himself of having to deal with his "brother's" new- found God and people. I loved him in Warrior and he does a great job here, as well.

Unlikely TV personality turned silver screener Aaron Paul shows that he can actually do something outside of Jessie from Breaking Bad and was much better than I expected, albeit not perfect.

John Turturro, Ben Kingsley & Siqourney Weaver also have roles and each do a fantastic job with the material they were given. Sadly Ms. Weaver did not get near enough screen time and I sincerely hope there are many deleted scenes on the DVD/Blu-Ray that involve her.

In conclusion, Exodus: Gods and Kings is a great movie with a good story, great actors and superb direction. The CG is top rate with some real breathtaking scenes showing what civilization may have looked like 4000+ years ago. Just be warned, the story has been changed to reflect miracles in a different, more palatable light. Go in with an open mind and not an open Bible and you will enjoy yourself immensely.

*This review is of the NON-3D version of the film. I felt adding 3D to an historic account may have taken me out of the movie so I chose to see it in normal format. However, from what I'm hearing from others, I may have made the wrong choice. Either way, I am very pleased with my experience and would gladly recommend Exodus to others.

Moms' Night Out (2014)

Too Much Religion!!!

[2/10 · 28 September 2014]

The movie could have been a fun-filled, family-friendly movie. Instead it was a God this and God that every time you turned around. Some fun ensued but for the most part I kept asking myself...why all the God? Don't take me wrong, I am a follower but I don't like movies that 1) don't tote the fact that they are religion-based and 2) mention it every other minute. I wasn't expecting it to be this type of movie - none of the synopsis even mentioned it being a religious film but yet, I just sat through the entire movie being preached at. Not fun. The acting was sub-par and poor Sean Astin. I felt like he was stuck in the middle and probably took the part because there was nothing else being offered to him at the time.

Scorpion (2014–2018)

Ignore the bad reviews and watch this! You will not be sorry.

[7/10 · 23 September 2014]

As the title of my review states, please ignore the extremely biased poor reviews given. This show is a keeper and I hope it gets a full season and more.

First and foremost, please check reality at the door as the scenario in the pilot episode is about as likely as someone liking a peanut butter and spam sandwich. That being said, the cast was great with some well known actors you will most certainly recognize, the acting was great and the idea of the show is outstanding.

To sum it up without any spoilers, it's a show about a team of geniuses being hired by the government. In the pilot episode they need to solve a crisis that could cost thousands of lives. The way they go about solving the crisis has to be seen to be believed. The special effects were fantastic and I did not see ANY flaws upon the first viewing. At the end of the show I was left smiling and wanting more.

I consider myself a "tech geek" as my job entails fixing and repairing computers and I did not find the technical aspects of the show to be that far fetched. So again, please ignore the bad reviews and give this show a try! Most of you will not be disappointed.

Avatar (2009)

Those giving Avatar a 1 star rating are morons...

[9/10 · 6 January 2010]

This is my first review and I am proud to be giving it on such an incredible experience that is the movie Avatar. The only reason I did not give this movie 10 out of 10 stars is that it loses 1 point for lack of originality.

Unfortunately, it appears that many people feel that because of this lack of originality that it deserves a 1 star rating. Simply put, these people are MORONS.

The 3D experience in Avatar ALONE is worth 5 stars. Add in the extremely well done way they integrate new technology with an organic environment and that brings the rating to 7 stars. Add 2 more stars for the sheer beauty of the film and you have 9 stars.

Avatar (in 3D) was the most drained and excited I have ever felt after watching a film. It left me smiling, tired, worked up & brain dead all at the same time.

"There are just 5 words that I want to hear from you right now..." I'M GOING TO SEE AVATAR