#imalloutofgin

Sicario: Day Of The Soldado (2018): I would sum this up as "they had me going in the first half, not gonna lie". A scathing indictment of the American war machine. 4/5 stars.

The Raid 2 (2014): Obviously the fight choreography is amazing, but this sequel had more plot and character development than the last. Very fun and suspenseful. Loved it even more than the original. 5/5 stars.

Top Gun: Maverick (2022): It is exactly what you expect a Top Gun movie to be. Does exactly what it says on the tin. 3/5 stars.

13 Assassins (2010): I liked this a lot! I especially enjoyed the horror elements. I found myself very engrossed all the way through. 4/5 stars.

The Lego Movie (2014): This was surprisingly good. I really enjoyed it's anti-capitalist messaging and over all I just had a really fun time watching it. 3.5/5 stars.

Midsommar (2019): The imagery from this film has stuck with me for quite some time. It was quite a harrowing film, deeply unsettling, and had me gripped from start to finish. 5/5 stars.

What a fun and clever film. It feels a little strange doing a review about a film where a reviewer gets their comeuppance (among some other not so nice people), but here we are. The cast clearly enjoyed what they were making, and this film has quite the star studded line up. It was great to see Anya Taylor-Joy and Nicholas Hoult in the same film; This might be strange to say but they give me similar "weird kid" vibes. The acting from them, and from the whole cast, was superb.

I really enjoyed the plot, and the story surprised me a few times. We follow foodie, Tyler, and his date, Margot as they travel to an exclusive restaurant on a secluded island. The restaurant is owned by a world renowned chef, Julian Slowik (played by Ralph Fiennes) and is a 'farm to table' style place with the island providing the ingredients used in the restaurant. It also has a 'this kind of feels like a cult oh dear god' vibe, that works with what we see of kitchen and front of house staff in media. This means that from the moment the characters set foot on the island, you know something isn't quite right... the question is, what?

This is a film that feels very clean. It doesn't reveal too much too soon and has a cold, modern detachment as it builds the tension, which matches the feeling of the restaurant that we are in. I love the steady decent into the drama and the way everything unfolds.

Lord of War (2005): I liked this a lot. It really had me hooked. The characters were interesting and I liked the surreal elements. Also, guns, haha. 4/5 stars.

One Night In Soho (2021): Fun film, but I felt like it kind of lost it's way at the end. Maybe it tried to go a bit too big with it? Things really escalated. But I loved the story and the way the two worlds wound together. The music and the fashion had me gripped. 3.5/5 stars.

BlacKkKlansman (2018): This movie was very clever, funny, and a really good time to watch. It was also hard hitting when it needed to be and had something to say. It loses one point for potentially being copaganda. 4/5 stars.

Sorry to Bother You (2018): The lighting though! And beyond that, an interesting story told well that really gripped me. Completely off the wall in parts. An enjoyable film to watch. 4.5/5 stars.

Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (1991): How Not to Make a Film - The Movie. I really enjoyed this as someone who is trying to work in the industry. 4/5 stars.

Madoka Magica Movie 1 (2012): I am pretty sure this is the one I watched. I watched the series and then the film back to back and was a big fan. This anime has an art style like no other, and is an interesting critique of the magical girl genre - whether or not it was intended in that way I'll leave up to you to decide. 3.5/5 stars.

Perfect Blue (1997): People absolutely rave about this film and I did like it, but I think maybe it was over hyped. I love the surrealism and the animation style, and I love the visual elements and the darkness to it. A scathing view of idoldom that I feel is still relevant today. However, it ends in a way that kind of undoes some of that work and that was a bit of a let down. 3/5 stars.

Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014): Yeah, no, perhaps I've been spoiled for fight choreography recently but this didn't really do it for me. It was also very... conservative? The main guy is deffs a Torrie. Absolutely not for me. I did like the fight scene in a church though. 1.5/5 stars.

Tár (2022): I need to watch this film again to properly develop my thoughts so perhaps I'll write a long review about this later... I liked some of it, and felt like it was at least attempting to be a critique of people in positions of power... bur then it also kind of seemed to not do that. The music was really interesting and the main character unraveling was quite compelling. I'll watch it again and see what I think as we watched this at an outdoor cinema and I feel like we missed most of the movie. 3/5 stars.

You Were Never Really Here (2017): That was a lot. I loved how colourful this film was, I don't feel like you see enough of that in these kidnap/abduction movies. Brutal, visceral, intense. I cried a little bit. It's been a while since I saw it so I can't remember why I only gave it 4.5 out of 5 stars... but I do think it's not quite a 5 star film from memory, but very close. 4.5/5 stars.

***SOME MILD SPOILERS***

What a ride! I actually loved this movie. Things just kept escalating in the best possible way, and it even caused me to tear up a little bit toward the end.

This film feels like it started as an improv game. Someone said, "okay, our protagonist is going to be a *spins wheel* snatch and grab guy filling in for an assassin who is on sick leave, and our guy is going to *spins another wheel* be working on his mental health/psychological issues and is in the obnoxious phase of trying to fix or diagnose everyone he meets"... And then the writers room just fucking /rolled with that/. The characters consist of, of course, the above: and then, the twins, who are different races, one of whom is unhealthily obsessed with 'Thomas the Tank Engine'; the guy they are supposed to be protecting who is a right little shit; a spoiled brat of a girl who is actually trying to take out a mob boss but has set up a plan to get assistance to do it; and various other briefly on screen characters who all feel like they drew their character traits out a hat. And I love it.

The film is just stupid fun from start to finish. It's quippy but not /too/ full of pop culture references, and the pacing is pretty solid throughout (maybe lagged a bit getting into the third act, being how fast paced everything else is, but I do think it needed to take it's foot off the accelerator at some point). I wish we had more of the Japanese covers of western music cause that was really cool, but I liked those songs where they were used. I also really liked the colour palette (specifically the pink and blue train car was really neat).

The main thing I didn't like was the parts that were just so off the wall that they were not in any way, shape, or form, possible. I'm sorry, but you can't jump onto the outside of a bullet train and hold on. You can't break a window to get in with your bare hands. You can't do, well, anything that happens on the outside of the train, really. Often, these were CGI moments as well, and the CGI wasn't the best. I am willing to suspend my disbelief for some things (the gun thats rigged up, or one of the very hurt people surviving when they should probably be dead, or even a snake getting out of a cage by accident) but these parts where I found that I *couldn't* suspend my disbelief really took me out of the moment. But then I was sucked right back in as the next whacky thing happened. I will say that the combat was, in my uneducated opinion, pretty good, especially for something like this where they could get a little weird with it and maybe make it more unbelievable... It felt pretty grounded till they started needing to use CGI a lot.

I loved the acting because the whole film is really dumb, everyone had really good comedic timing, and I thought Brad Pitt was a perfect choice to play the lead. I feel like some people might have an issue with this movie... It might be too weird for some, or maybe they won't be expecting something so playful, but I can only give my honest opinion and I really liked it. This film, to me, is a great deconstruction of the tropes of the genre, and they do it with well timed comedy and exciting action scenes.

I found the film really fun and funny, and I recommend watching it with a group of people if you can so you can share in the chaos. :)

***SPOILERS AHEAD***, but you won't mind...

Okay, so at the best of times,I'm not so good with character names, but in this film I don't remember any of them. So I have re-named them to make this reviewing experience even remotely fun, so, here goes nothing...

Appleseed Alpha follows Tits McGee and Cyborg Bunny as they work for Grumpy-Vending-Machine. They don't like Grumpy-Vending-Machine because he's an asshole and doesn't pay them well, and they say they're going to do one last job for him, botch it, and now it's their one-last-job-take-2. Grumpy-Vending-Machine is the only character I really liked even though he's a somewhat-baddie. They go out to this place to take out some robots that keep shooting people and find More-Human-Than-Cyborg and Sickly-Victorian-Child and help them out of a bind, and almost get killed in the process. Then THE-BADDIES rock up and kidnap Sickly-Victorian-Child (who we are supposed to care about for some reason) and the rest of the film is them trying to rescue her. OH and something about a promised land, post apocalyptic safe haven... you get the idea.

I never cared about any of these characters, the plot is formulaic at best, ridiculous at worst, and I wanted to turn it off almost as soon as we started watching it but I know I should also watch bad films so *here we are*. The art style also is weird where it interacts with human faces... the robots actually look pretty cool, but all the humans are kind of stiff (I know this is 2014 but their hair doesn't even move at all really). The whole thing seems like an extended video game cut scene and I am against it.

What can I even say about Blade II?

Just a short review... This is a film that can't keep its premise straight, no better exemplified than with the moment when the vampires have to go into the sewers during the day and are worried about the daylight killing them. In the first act of the film, two vampires dressed in special suits swoop in, unhindered by the UV lights that Blade shines at them, and tell Blade they have a job for him... So why can't they just wear their suits in the later scene when they're concerned about the sun? No reason, at least, none given to the audience.

[I've been making these little banners for cohost (I post my reviews over there now as well) so I thought it might be cute to add them here too. If you have a cohost and want to add me, please do! My profile is: https://cohost.org/grey-ghost]

'The Night Comes For Us' is another film staring many of the same actors from 'The Raid: Redemption' and 'The Raid 2'. I really like the stunt work in all 3 of these films and I have been lead to believe that the group that does them is the same throughout (I'm struggling to find that info online though). I know a couple of the actors have also had stunt type roles in 'John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum', and it was great to see them in a mainstream American film. Basically, the people making these films are rad, and I am super thrilled to see them continue their craft, so I was very excited to watch this film and it did not disappoint.

The film is a real continuation of this body of work, and I can see the development of more complex story beats. I also like that we get some ladies involved in the fighting this time around, and I like how even the character of Reina, played by Asha Kenyeri Bermudez, gets to be part of the action. I did feel that some of the effects were more noticeable in this film though, and I do hope that they stick to more practical effects moving forward.

The acting was good, the action was good, but I felt like it was a bit repetitive, although I do think the gore has increased in the film (which I, personally, am a fan of). I do miss the simplicity of 'The Raid: Redemption' in this film because it is trying to do a lot, but that's not a massive complaint. This seems to be an attempt to bind action and story, and I think in the next few films, they'll get better and better about executing that. They have 2 more sequels for this one planned from what I've read.

This is an intense and gory film that I really enjoyed, but I feel like even more script development could have really made it shine. Super excited to see where they go with it in the next 2 films. Not quite as good as 'The Raid' duology, but absolutely a film you don't want to miss.