Category Archives: Film

May 12 2022
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Cinema, Film, Movie

The Hunt for Red October (1990)

John McTiernan has evidently experienced quite the few legal … issues in recent years, but for a brief period he was King of the Hollywood Blockbuster, and The Hunt for Red October (1990) his last action heroics (see what I did there?).

Alec Baldwin is the nominal protagonist but he’s more of a link between Sean Connery and Scott Glenn, the two submarine commanders spending most of the movie in a gripping cat-and-mouse underwater showdown. It does what these movies are meant to do – the claustrophobia and tension, the crew in-fighting, but it also has a geopolitical dimension which now doesn’t appear to be merely of its time.

Not bad at all.

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May 06 2022
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Art, Cinema, Film, Movie, Movies, United States

Nobody (2021). AWESOME.

Loved this. Think John Wick/The Equalizer/Death Wish rolled into a can and Saul Goodman peeking in for a whirl. It’s frankly ludicrous in bits but just so entertaining. This is action done right – it stems from the real-life scenarios we see daily in the tabloids and hope such things never happen to us (sometimes they do).

I recall the Travis Bickle’s tragic line, “Here is a man who would not take it anymore.”

But talk about fight scenes. This film demonstrates what it’s like to be punched in the face. It really hurts. Personally, I’ve always preferred a whack in the chin than the nose; with the former, you’re done. The latter, you bleed and show the wounds of battle.

This movie is hilarious and believable at the same time. It’s a 5/5. Well done, Bob Odenkirk. Top lad.

Get it seen!

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Apr 28 2022
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Cinema, Film, Movie, Uncategorized

Pitch Black (2000).

Another first viewing – I’m on a quest to get my money’s worth from Netflix.

I wasn’t expecting anything from this but I was quite disturbingly surprised by how much I liked it. I’ve never had much time for Vin Diesel, his silly fast car flicks and muscle flaunting, the daft yarns with their terrible scripts. But here I found an interesting, thoroughly likeable and complex character I wished to share the journey with. It’s a glimpse at a career that never was, and I won’t watch another film he’s in because the lad can’t possibly top Riddick.

The movie was as generic as it comes and I won’t revisit it, but the 90 mins were killed and I chuckled a wee bit.

It’s an intriguing accidental portrait of an actor at a crossroads.

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Apr 21 2022
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Art, Cinema, Film, Movie, Travel

Against the Ice (2022).

1909 and it’s Denmark’s, or more accurately Ejnar Mikkelsen’s, harrowing quest to prove that Greenland isn’t split into two. The reviews are mixed but I was really impressed with this.

It goes through all the survival movie tropes but it’s never boring. It takes you right into the action with little need for long exposition, a crime of so many of these films. I wouldn’t say there’s a single memorable shot, but it’s as captivating as anything in the genre I’ve seen since The Grey (2011).

It can make one dream of adopting a husky. And I didn’t once think of Jaime Lannister.

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Apr 09 2022
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Art, Cinema, Film, Movie, Movies Image

Nicolas Cage went full meta years ago but now it’s official.

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Mar 24 2022
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Architecture, Cinema, Film, George Orwell, Movie, Uncategorized

Equilibrium (2002) is better than the Matrix sequels.

And I don’t know why it was ever associated with those mingers. It has guns and a similar theme. Wow!

There’s nothing particularly new or groundbreaking about Equilibrium (2002). It’s just a really well-made high-concept flick from someone straight out of a movie den who’s made it their quest to put into entertainment what they’ve absorbed from staples of the genre. All the usual tropes are here: regime offering order instead of chaos, Orwellian euphemisms and doublespeak, the conflicted civil servant.

“Who will guard the guards themselves?” will always provide plenty of movie material, and this is supremely stylish and flies by. It knows it’s shite. And that’s a good thing.

And Sean Bean dies in it. Which is inevitable.

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Mar 17 2022
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Cinema, Film, Movie, Uncategorized

Boiling Point (2021) is how you make a movie.

This was intense viewing, to say the least. The best thing about it is its reality – folk having a complete nightmare on the job and juggling like fuck. And it’s all over a bit of food.

It’s not a masterpiece, but Stephen Graham is fabulous in everything and I would watch him drive a milk float for 90 minutes.

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Mar 03 2022
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Art, Cinema, Film, Movie, Uncategorized

Meet the Parents (2000) is forever hilarious.

It’s finally on Netflix, the streaming platform the excuse to watch once more what you’ve viewed 20-odd times already.

This is the ultimate comedy about Murphy’s Law, with one inane episode after another. But they are all credible and you believe every moment. It’s so well shot and edited, with the awkward reactions and expressions half of the hilarity. Moreover, it defines awkward. And there’s a seasonal quality to it, like it should be mandatory Christmas viewing.

Sadly, together with Analyze This (1999), it gave De Niro the impression he was first and foremost a comedian, and it kickstarted almost two decades of utter shite from the legend. This includes the truly horrid sequels to this masterpiece.

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Feb 24 2022
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Cinema, Film, Technology, Uncategorized

The Matrix Resurrections (2021). I turned it off.

I’ll keep this short.

I lasted 54 minutes but couldn’t take any more pain.

It’s nothing but a desperate parody of the original.

I wondered why or how Keanu Reeves was in it. It’s either blackmail material or the makers of this sorry sack of shit were in possession of another sad-with-a-sandwich meme.

It’s visually so anonymous and could be any derivative movie among a thousand.

It has nothing to say.

And every character in it I wished to flush down a toilet.

It’s pointless.

Bye for now.

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Feb 20 2022
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Art, Building, Cinema, Film, Movie

The Lighthouse (2019) is out there.

This movie defines fate and foreboding, superstition and subterfuge. It’s ostensibly about two blokes with shady pasts, but segues to a hysterical Puritan sermon on the dangers of drink, with a style which harks back to German Expressionism

It all gets a bit hardcore. You’re on a lighthouse island and with no escape, stranded with two total lunatics, the nominally quiet one and the macho man – and a descent into madness is the only outcome. It’s a gnarly movie.

And subtitles are needed for Willem Dafoe.

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