Bullets 'n' Babes

Reprisal (2018) **
Bank manager Frank Grillo and his neighbour, retired cop Bruce Willis, track down a nasty bank robber.
Not as horrible as some have made out, but yeah, they did this sort of thing better in the early 90s, where at least the action made up for a lack of sense.

Curvature (2018) **
Minor time travel thriller, nothing to get excited or angry about.

Thor: Ragnarok (2017) **½
More Marvel super-heroics with an emphasis on comedy.
Perfectly acceptable fare.

Blockers (2018) **½
Crude comedy is slightly better than many/most of its ilk.

Truth or Dare (2018) **½
A cut above the usual Blumhouse youth horror fare.

Daddy's Home 2 (2017) **½
OK, so I'm going soft... but this was actually a quite reasonable Xmas comedy.

Breaking In (2018) **½
Efficient home invasion thriller in which Gabrelle Union's capable mother determines to save her two kids from violent robbers.
Does what you expect of it.
*Edit: seems I saw the PG-13 version, which is actually still quite strong.

Chokeslam (2017) **½
A dork gets a second chance with his high school sweetheart turned pro-wrestler in amiable romcom.
Hardly hilarious, but quirky enough to stand out from the crowd.

Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) ***
Enjoyable origins tale; unattractively shot, though.

Better Watch Out (2017) **
Sharp, but unappealing horror, which frustratingly fails to show its sadistic antagonist get their much deserved comeuppance.

Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971): 3.5/5

Not one of Disney's very best, but this film is still worth a watch and holds some nostalgic value for me. Angela Lansbury is wonderful as a slightly dotty apprentice witch who uses her magic to help Britain during World War II. With it's magical plot, music and blend of live action and animation, it has a feel of Mary Poppins (1964) at times.

Fear Inc. (2016) **
"Fun" horror comedy takes its inspiration from David Fincher's The Game and is almost as risible.

The Samaritan 2/5
Samuel L. Jackson is released after 25 years inside for murdering his partner in crime and best friend - the man's son soon contacts him and wants him to assist in pulling off a "grift" ripping off crime boss Tom Wilkinson . Meantime Jackson starts an affair with a younger drug addicted woman. Watchable fare with quite a strong twist for mainstream film turns out the young girl Jackson has been shagging is his daughter

Glass 2/5
I liked Unbreakable, Split less so so this trilogy closer i had reasonably high ups for-unfortunately it ends up overlong, tame and boring with long scenes set inside a psychiatric hospital. Willis is on autopilot, McEvoy over the top, Jackson very good.

The Mummy 3/5
Decent Hammer effort with the A Team of Cushing & Lee.

We Still Steal The Old Way 1.5/5
Ian Ogilvy is the only thing worth watching in this farfetched sequel, where the old school gangsters deliberately get themselves banged up to try and break out old friend Patrick Bergin, slumming it here.

Ready Player One (2018) ***
Imaginative, colourful eye candy from an ever youthful Steven Spielberg.
I'm not mad on F/X heavy features, and this one hits overload,
but it was entertaining for what it was - if not something I'd sit thru again.

Ninja Assassin (2009) **½
Cartoon bloodshed dialled up to eleven as Korean pop star Rain slices and dices his way thru hundreds of stunt ninjas.
Insanely violent, but entertaining with it.

Harvey (1950): 4/5

Jimmy Stewart stars in this amusing story about a man whose best friend is a six foot tall rabbit, something which really annoys his family but charms others equally. Interesting to see how mental conditions were viewed back then. Stewart's character is an eccentric but basically harmless, and friendly to everyone.

grim_tales wrote: ↑17 Apr 2019, 00:45 Stewart's character is an eccentric but basically harmless, and friendly to everyone.

Sound familiar?

Fast and the Furious 8 (The Fate of the Furious) (2017) **½
Mindless action at its zenith with carnage galore, but it is fun if you switch your brain off.

Braven (2017) **½
Stripped down action thriller has logger Jason Momoa defend his snowbound log cabin from murderous drug traffickers.
Acceptably done, but Momoa doesn't have the charisma of a Stallone or a Schwarzenegger.

Ant Man and the Wasp (2018) **½
Amusing Marvel super-heroics.

Life of the Party (2018) **½
Amiable comedy vehicle for Melissa McCarthy.

Torso (Italy, 1973) [BD] - 3/5
A bit uninvolving giallo (with exceptional amounts of nudity) turns into a fantastic slasher/thriller during its final third. Worth seeing for that alone.

Halloween (USA, 2018) [DCP] - 3/5
Functional, entertaining and old fashioned sequel with very little in the way of modernizing the series - which is great. There are small things to nag about - forgettable kills, no boobs, occasional stupidity (long barrel rifle for close range combat?) but it's atmospheric, kind of interesting and fun to watch. And the score still sounds great. The Japanese release was late as usual - hit the theatres just on time for... Easter!

Lady Bird (2017) ***
Good coming of age drama featuring a great performance by Saoirse Ronan.

It Comes at Night (2017) **
Bleak chiller promises much but goes nowhere slowly.

Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse (2018): 4.5/5

Very entertaining movie featuring different incarnations of Spider-Man, excellent animation and clever dialogue, with action and humour.

The Manitou (Canada/USA, 1978) [BD] - 4/5
Completely insane premise of a woman's neck getting pregnant with the evil 400 year old Native American medicine man's reincarnated fetus is treated 100% deadly serious in William Girdler's film. It starts outrageous enough but nothing can prepare anyone for the final showdown in outer space, which even ties Native American spiritual beliefs with Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythus when the evil 400 year old Native American medicine man summons a demon referred to as a "Great Old One". A naked Susan Strasberg defeats it by shooting laser beams out of her hands.

Atomic Blonde (2017) **½
Stylish, sexy spy thriller has intrigue, violent action, 80s Euro pop...
So why didn't I like it more?
I think it may have been the lead casting.
Charlize Thereon looks the part as an icy Brit assassin, but has little character or appeal.
James MacAvoy is irritating, occasionally hammy as her contact.

A Nightmare On Elm Street 2.5/5
Hit 80's horror has dated somewhat but still has it's moments. Solid cast, a mix of veterans (John Saxon, Ronee Blakely) and newcomers (Heather Langenkamp, Johnny Depp)

A Nightmare On Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge 1.5/5
quickfire sequel starts off with one of the series best sequences but soon descends into banality with a homo-erotic tone throughout.

A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors 2.5/5
Much improved 3rd entry sees returning cast members Langenkamp & Saxon joining Craig Wasson & Patricia Arquette in the never ending battle against Freddy.

Dirty Dozen 2.5/5
60's all star war classic is of it's time and could have done with 25 minutes of it's 150 minute run time.still an enjoyable romp.

Aquaman 2.5/5
enjoyable, if overlong DC superhero romp.

The 6th Day (2000) **
Mediocre direction and performances hamper potentially interesting Schwarzenegger vehicle.
Asks some pertinent questions about the morality of cloning,
but just imagine was Paul Verhoeven could have done with this material.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) **½
More Dino action; derivative, but highly watchable.
I cared more about the Dinos than I did the human characters.
But that's maybe just me...?

High Life (UK/France/Germany/Poland/USA, 2018) [DCP] - 4/5
Robert Pattinson lectures a toddler on the taboo of coprophagia, then proceeds to toss half a dozen cryogenically forzen corpses out of a spaceship's airlock. And that's all before the opening credits. Flashbacks reveal the purpose of the mission, who those frozen corpses were and also introduce us to Juliette Binoche as a "shaman of sperm". Claire Denis' science fiction film is certainly not for everyone but it is very much for me.

The Mummy (2017) **
Disappointing reboot of The Mummy - the first - and only? - entry in Universal's Dark Universe franchise.
Tom Cruise's star power is actually a distraction here and overwhelms a muddled movie.
I'm not a fan of the previous Mummy trilogy - but at least they knew what they wanted to be.