An American science fiction drama directed by Charlie McDowell.
A married couple who are having relationship problems vacation at an estate with a guest house. When either of them enters the guest house alone, a more compatible copy of the other is there.
This was interesting. The plot had a unique premise and held my attention through development, but the ending was too predictable. The characters had some vague back-story and having copies of both of them made that intriguing. The video effects were done marvelously. We even got copies of both people together in the same scene. The general camera-work was not so great. There were some underexposures and it seemed very stock and standard, straight forward. The audio had very clear dialogue, but the choices of music were not to my liking. Overall, an interesting plot holds the whole thing together. I rate this o.k.
An Irish crime comedy directed by John Michael McDonagh, starring Brendan Gleeson, Don Cheadle, Mark Strong, Liam Cunningham and Fionnula Flanagan.
An Irish cop gets a black, American partner and they try to catch a gang of drug dealers.
Amazing! I don't have anything bad to say about this. The plot was written very well and held my attention through two consecutive viewings before writing this. The characters were written and cast well. They were unique and colorful and made me feel like I had known them my whole life. Even the secondary characters were written and acted perfectly. The dialogue was on par with Quentin Tarantino material. Video looked more like Wes Anderson style. Everything was contrasty, over-saturated and extremely planned out. The audio was great. Everything was mixed right and I could hear the music and dialogue all very clearly. Overall, a fucking masterpiece. There is no other way to rate this than best. You must watch it!
A British American disaster adventure directed by Joe Carnahan, starring Liam Neeson and Dermot Mulroney.
A group of men are on an airplane that crashes in Alaska. They try to survive with a pack of wolves chasing them through the wilderness.
How disappointing. The plot held my attention because of the subject matter. The characters were not very developed and lacked back-story. They spent the whole time arguing and getting killed. The video all looked good. There were some very good shots of landscapes and action sequences. The audio was mixed well and I could hear everything. The soundtrack music stayed in the background and seemed appropriate. What irked me was that the rising action would almost instantaneously skip to resolutions. This was particularly true of the ending. Overall, a disappointment. I rate this poor, mostly because of the ending.
A British American science fiction directed by Edgar Wright, starring Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Eddie Marsan.
A group of friends try to visit every pub in their town at the end of school and only make it through 9. Years later, they reunite and have another go at it. This time, the town is mostly populated by alien robots.
Entertainment value was very high in this. The plot held my attention very well. The characters had relatively deep back-stories and some even changed during the duration. The video was executed well and featured over the top special effects. The robots coming apart was done convincingly, there was a walking metal sculpture and a giant fireball. The audio was mixed well, but the music was not what I would have chosen. Overall, a fun flick. I rate this awesome. Watch it!!!
A British horror directed by Colm McCarthy, starring Glenn Close.
A girl goes to class in a restraint wheelchair on a military base. It turns out that she has a lesser degree of a zombie virus and the scientist wants to make a cure from her brain and spine. The base is invaded by zombies and the girl escapes with a jerk soldier, the teacher and the scientist.
I actually liked this. The plot held my attention and differentiated itself from other zombie apocalypse films. The characters were a little deeper than standard survival horror folks. I liked the main character because she was very different from everyone else. The video was done very well. I really liked their use of selective focus. The audio was pretty good, but there was one really annoying song in the soundtrack. Overall, an entertaining and moderately unique zombie apocalypse survival horror with a good main character. I rate this adequate. You might as well watch it.
A British American science fiction directed by Danny Boyle, starring Rose Byrne, Chris Evans, Cillian Murphy, Hiroyuki Sanada and Michelle Yeoh.
A team of astronauts are piloting a bomb to rekindle the sun. When they stop to inspect the abandoned ship from the previous mission, things go awry.
This seemed like a syfy channel flick because it was all about the astronauts arguing. The plot was not all that great because of this. The characters were extremely shallow and lacked any hint of back-story. The video mostly looked good. There were some underexposures and the special effects were a little wonky. The audio was good. I could hear everything and levels were mixed correctly. Overall, it's just not that great. I rate this tolerable.
A French American science fiction directed by Duncan Jones, starring Jake Gyllenhaal.
A soldier in a military experiment is transported into the past to stop a bomber from destroying a train.
This was kind of sappy for a science fiction. The plot held my attention because of the idea of being sent back in time, into the body of a victim of a disaster and trying to stop it. The main character was developed, but the others were not at all. The video all looked professionally done and the editing was extremely seamless. Special effects when the train blows up multiple times were done quite well and convincingly. The audio sounded good to me. I could hear everything very clearly and the music was mixed very low. My beef with this is the super crap happy, sappy ending that took too long. We go from explosions, death and destruction with the main character in a strange situation to almost a romance chick flick. Whatever. I rate this o.k. because it was going so well until it went down the drain.
A British science fiction directed by Duncan Jones, starring Sam Rockwell and Kevin Spacey.
A man working on a lunar base finds out that he is a clone. The previous version crashed a vehicle and the new one finds the old one and takes him back to the base. Together, they form a plan to get one of them back to Earth and restore communications that had been blocked.
Pretty cool. The plot was interesting and held my attention. I've always wanted another me or even a few more. The world would not be the same if that happened. The characters were the copies of Sam and his robot, GERTY. I initially thought we were going into a HAL9000 scenario, but the robot turned out to be good. The video was done very well. I think that the lunar base set was very convincing because it was a complete set. The outside sequences with rovers were done with models, not CG. The audio was mostly good. There were a few bits of dialogue that were mixed low, especially on video playbacks that Sam watched. Overall, I think that the filmmakers got the '70s and '80s feel that they were going for. I rate this awesome. Even though I spoiled so much of it, watch it anyway! Tom Cullen would agree.
A German American dramatized music documentary directed by Todd Haynes, starring Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Richard Gere and Ben Whishaw.
Something about the life and career of Bob Dylan is supposed to be communicated.
Holy multiple non-linear plots, Batman! So, we've got 6 plots based on different and undefined periods in Bob Dylan's life and they are alternated through the duration. This tells me that they did not want the viewer to understand what was going on. There were so many characters that thinking or writing about them would make my head hurt. The video and audio were done quite well and it was a technically sound film. I could see and hear everything that was going on. There were some nice shots and creative visual compositions. The music was mixed well with the dialogue to the point that they were inseparable. Overall, a beautiful, but incoherent mess. It was done in such a way to make me think that this may have been intentional. I rate this adequate. Don't plan on understanding it, at least on the first viewing.
A British science fiction directed by Joe Cornish.
Aliens land in urban London and teenagers fight them.
This was really cool. The simple plot worked because it was backed up by all of the other film elements. The characters were unevenly developed and all development was in the present tense. However, the viewer is clearly supposed to like the characters. Good acting definitely played a role in this. There was a scene with rough, funny characters telling a straight character that she was swearing too much. This means good writing too. The video was done very well. I could see everything that was happening and the best part was the motorcycle/BMX/parkour chase and action scene. The audio had clearly audible dialogue in an urban London dialect and the soundtrack mainly featured rap music. Overall, it came together to form a nice little package that was fun and entertaining to watch. I rate this awesome because it went above and beyond requirements. WATCH IT!!!
An American documentary directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady.
An Evangelical children's pastor runs a religious summer camp. The pastor and some of the children speak about their beliefs.
Let's put religion aside for a moment and look at production. The interviews featured interviewees speaking about their strong beliefs and was accompanied by B-roll of the group engaged in their activities. The pastor pissed me off and I know she's stupid. A prime example is when she's talking bad about people being fat and she's over 300lbs. The video all looked like it was shot well and I could hear all of the dialogue very clearly. The editing was a little less than creative and unique, but got the point across. I don't think that the filmmakers intended any bias in their work. However, I think that it lacked direction and dynamics. Now for religion. These people have the best intentions, but they are flat out wrong. Every religion has puzzle pieces that make up the true nature of existence. The Evangelical Christians have 10 (commandments) out of a puzzle of a few thousand pieces. Their power metal is also quite epic. Unfortunately, religion is a decision and concept that I think only adults are capable of making and understanding. I say let the kids be kids while they can because they can get into religion if they want to when they are old enough to make an informed decision. Overall, a well made documentary about wrongly brainwashing children. I rate this poor because it's a complex subject matter that I don't think was covered sufficiently.
An American science fiction drama directed by Mike Cahill, starring William Mapother.
An exact copy of Earth is found in the sky. The same night, a successful female student has a car accident with a male professor, killing his family. When she gets out of jail, she applies for a space mission to the new planet and begins cleaning the house of the professor.
Well, that went nowhere. The plot was a little muddy and pointless to me. The characters were developed a little bit. The video looked awesome. One of my favorite scenes involved dust in the sunlight (image). The audio was mixed correctly. Overall, did we need all of this extra stuff just for shots of dust in sunlight? I rate this o.k.
