Victoria & Abdul

Quick Review:

Acting from Dench and Fazal were great and they had great chemistry with one another.

Story was fine but it was the relationship between the two leads that made it worthwhile.

I don’t know if this was true to what actually happened since a lot of this is dramatized for intrigue, but still an interesting film nonetheless.

Pacing was fine, felt a bit slow at times.

Had some good chuckle worthy moments.

Overall, nothing really exceptional outside of the two leads, but a harmless and somewhat interesting film.

7/10

The Shape of Water

This was definitely one of my most anticipated of the year. I’ve unfortunately only seen one other Guillermo Del Toro film, with it being the first Hellboy film (and it was awesome). Even though I haven’t seen any other films, his reputation and ambitiousness as a director proceeds him. Just the way he talks about some of his projects is intriguing. He is such a visionary and wants to helm so many great ideas and projects that I can’t help but respect the man. The Shape of Water is no exception. This was an interesting and fantastic film that I couldn’t help but love.

Elisa Esposito is a mute janitor who works as a cleaning lady at a top secret facility. While there, she forms a strange bond with an aquatic creature and is determined to help him no matter what.

The acting was phenomenal on all accounts. Sally Hawkins as Elisa was absolutely wonderful. The fact that she could communicate her entire performance through mostly body language is an exceptional achievement. Great ass too. She delivered such a great emotional and interesting performance that just made me absolutely love and care for her character. Doug Jones. Doug fucking Jones. Okay, where the fuck is his Oscar? WHERE IN THE FUCK IS IT? The fact he doesn’t have one at this point just proves why the Oscars for the most part are idiotic. This performance is just even more proof of how he is a man who is beyond talented. The fact he can deliver such an intriguing and emotionally gripping performance behind makeup and prosthetics is breath-taking (pun intended). He is pretty much the practical version of Andy Serkis. Arguably one of his best performances to date. The chemistry between Elisa and the creature was exceptional and pretty much unseen in romance films nowadays. It was nice to see someone get romance right, and have one that was emotionally investing. Octavia Spencer doesn’t really offer anything new that we haven’t seen from her before, but since she was such a joy to see on screen, I honestly didn’t care. Comic relief that was contrived or forced, what a concept. Marvel, take notes (kidding, kidding). Michael Shannon was a powerhouse as always and was also a really interesting villain. He did seem a bit surface level at times, as he was obviously very racist and very sexist (in the actual sense). But there was some intrigue surrounding his character that made him really interesting. His character very much reminded me of Patrick Bateman. Disguising himself with a nice family, a nice car, a nice house, and the 1950s version of the American Dream to hide his borderline psychopathic tendencies against the creature. He wants to get out of this life, but wants to show everyone how amazing his life is, and finds himself stuck with his only way out is to be a monster and sociopath. It was because of these ideals, and such an amazing performance that made him such a great villain to me. Richard Jenkins had a small role as an implied homosexual artist and is a friend to Elisa. Despite having a small role, he still left an impression on me and I very much enjoyed his character despite not doing a whole lot. Michael Stuhlbarg is a big character actor and I found his performance to be interesting here as well. Despite being a “perceived bad guy” he was a genuinely good person and wanted to do what was best for the creature. There are a bunch of other actors in bit parts and they all do an interesting and believable job.

The cinematography was beautiful, rich, and stylized. It legitimately felt like the look and tone of Bioshock had come to life. It was beautiful to look at and I could tell that every scene was made to perfection. Pacing was good. It had a few slow moments, but they were good, interesting and character driven. But my interest was kept throughout. The effects on Jones were fantastic and were very well executed.

The story was simplistic and done before, but the characters, themes, look, development, and everything else within the story is done to perfection. I normally don’t like romance films because I find them to be boring, uninteresting, and repetitive (coming from a guy who loves slasher films, THAT is saying something) but here, it was done exceptionally. Mainly because I gave a shit about the characters, and the way it told its story was incredibly interesting. It was an experience of a film. Even though the idea of a star crossed romance, hiding a creature, and a straight up psychopathic villain aren’t anything new, it is the way it handles its story, gives such care to its characters, and has exquisite emotional depth that I could not help but love this movie. The more I think about every minute detail, every character, and every second of this wonderful story and touching romance, the more I love it. It is very strange, and that might turn some people off unfortunately, I found this to be and interesting, lovely and wonderful oddity of a film. The fact that an award show like the Golden Globes can see that, just makes me think that not all of those stuffy assholes are totally brain dead.

No negatives.

Overall, an amazing experience of romance, great writing, wonderful acting, a thrilling story, with some good laughs along the way. I cannot wait to see this beautiful oddity once again.

10/10

1922

Quick Review:

Acting was stellar, story was very interesting and apparently very faithful to the original story (except for the ending), the horror was more so present in the second half and was good and pretty creepy, and the themes of guilt are present but a slow burn. Biggest pet peeve was the slowness. In the second half it picks up, but the first is very slow, however, it kept my intrigue, so I guess something worked. When it reached the second half, that build up was absolutely fantastic. I remember the music being really good too. Only negative is the slowness, it tarnished the movie slightly. Thomas Jane’s accent was a bit annoying at first, but you get used to it. Although, this movie just goes to show that he is an underrated talent.

8/10

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

After the events of The Force Awakens, Rey is on a remote island with Luke Skywalker to try and get him to help the Resistance but after his failure with Ben Solo, he wants nothing to do with them. Meanwhile, Finn, Poe, Leia, and a new character named Rose try to survive the First Order’s forces.

I’m not going to be biased with this review as a lot of other people can be when it comes to Star Wars. However, I noticed that a lot of people are being very critical of this film for rather simplistic reasons. But on to the review. I will try my best to not include spoilers but just be wary of the fact that I will be going into some plot specifics which may count as spoilers. Just to be safe, if you haven’t seen it, stop reading now. If you have seen it or just don’t care, we go on!

The acting was really, really good for the most part. I feel as if Daisy Ridley is more comfortable in the role. She’s been in more films, has had more experience with other directors/other films and is a bit rounded at this point. I thought she was quite wooden in the first one and couldn’t really convey what needed to be conveyed. However, here she is much better. John Boyega and Oscar Isaac are also very good here. Finn as a character is bit more explored here and Boyega does a great job with the more dramatic scenes. Isaac was good but didn’t really stand out to me. Kinda seemed a bit one note as a character. Adam Driver has a bit more of a personality here and his actions are very unpredictable which makes for an intriguing performance. The late Carrie Fisher in her last role does a good job. She conveys a bit more emotion here and has some great scenes that shows her acting chops while Force Awakens did not. Mark Hamill fits back into his role as Luke Skywalker like a glove and does a good but different and interesting portrayal of the character. Kelly Marie Tran was a boring character that I honestly didn’t care about at all. Nothing she did made me give a shit about what she did. Domnhall Gleeson was good despite over acting…. a lot. Laura Dern was boring and unlikable. Benicio Del Toro had no role whatsoever but was fine I guess. Kinda funny that he came back to the franchise he walked away from way back when.

The effects and CGI were hit and miss, but mostly hit. I thought it looked great and the space battles, and sabers and interesting little touches with CGI were all really good. Sometimes, something looked a bit cartoon-y but nothing awful like Jay Leno Superman.

Cinematography was beautiful, it looked great, especially during the action scenes, which are smooth an interesting to watch. Not smooth in the way like Kingsman where it uses different angles and point of views to tell its action, but, smooth in the way where it’s almost like a dance but not so well choreographed like the prequel lightsaber fights which looked too good. Here it has that gritty fighting style, but the way it was shot looked really smooth and interesting to see. Pacing was solid for the first two acts, but dipped in the third. A lot of people are saying it dragged in the second act, but I don’t think it did. But the last act certainly dragged. When I thought the film was almost over, I looked at my watch and there was still half an hour left. I feel a few minutes could’ve been shaved off a bit here and there. While I wasn’t necessarily bored, I was like, okay, come on let’s go, move a bit faster.

Action sequences, as I stated, looked great, were tension filled and overall interesting. The space battles looked awesome and the hand to hand combat looked interesting as well and I was very much engaged. Awesome combat and action.

Story, thank god, was NOT a carbon copy of Empire. Rian Johnson had his vision and stuck to it like glue. He captured the dark aspects of Star Wars but still had that fun action feel. It had a great mix of slower character moments that were engaging and interesting to watch. Then, on the other side, it had the fun space battles and the engaging lightsaber duels. The only bits I can argue that felt like Empire was our group splitting up and then coming back at the climax. The characters develop more, with maybe the exception of Poe. They tried to make his character more interesting but it kinda failed because it didn’t feel like it amounted to anything. However, everyone else was great and interesting. It had the emotional core. I cared about these characters and wanted them to make it out okay. The story with Luke was interesting and you see him as this broken down old man when the last time we saw him was this bright young Jedi Knight who defeated the Empire. I wish there was some more character stuff with him though. The stuff with the Resistance was also pretty interesting. I just wanted them to make it out okay, but it was this darker and grittier war-like setting and I appreciated that. It feels like Johnson set out to make this movie the way he wanted and he did it. I really like the story and the characters within the story. I also like the theme of “there is no good and evil” that was used throughout. There was also some unpredictable moments that made me gasp which were great. Next to nothing in this film was predictable. I also liked how Johnson didn’t rely on callbacks and references most of the time, and the ones that were, were beneficial to the story and helped move it along.

The negatives. Porgs. Fuck em. I feel like there was an attempt to not make Rey this OP character, but JJ wrote Rian into a corner with this character. Despite the fact that throughout, Rey is accused of being a nobody, an outcast in this story, she could still do these great things. As well as the fact it’s not explained why she can, she just can. While the film points out that she’s OP for no reason with various lines and action sequences, she could still do these wondrous things. Thanks JJ. Also, I felt that most of the jokes fell flat. Some of them gave me a chuckle but none were funny and had me questioning after the fact “wait, was that supposed to be funny?”. The pacing I stated dragged in the third act. Some of the characters were kind of just unnecessary like Del Toro and Dern. Served no real point to the story and could be interchanged with anyone.

Overall, while it didn’t live up to that great trailer, this was still a great film. It felt different but still felt like a Star Wars film. It had this grittier war like style (similar to Rogue One, but done better) but still had these interesting fantastical elements that make SW great. A solid entry in the franchise.

8.5/10

Kingsman: The Golden Circle

Quickie Review:

 

– Acting was great. Edgerton, Strong, Firth, Berry, and Pascal do a pretty damn good job with the material. Bridges, Tatum, and Moore do good jobs despite their smaller roles. Wish Tatum was in it more. Supporting cast was also good.

 

– Story was fine. It looked like there was an attempt at social commentary but pretty much failed because it didn’t really have an identity outside of “drugs are bad”.

 

– The action scenes are still some of the best I’ve ever seen outside of John Wick. Smooth, clear, and a ton of fun to watch.

 

– Somewhat predictable at points, but kind of surprising at others. It didn’t help that Firth was revealed as alive in the trailers as well as the god damn ending shot.

 

– Subplots with Eggsy’s relationship with Tilde and Harry’s mental capacity don’t really go anywhere and are wrapped up in a neat little bow and don’t offer any further character depth or development.

 

Overall, fun action movie with a likable cast of characters, but not much else.

7.5/10