The Sci-Fi Slob's Movie Reviews

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Chappie

Directed by Neill Blomkamp






Year Of Release
2015

Director/s
Neill Blomkamp

Producer/s
Neill Blomkamp

Writer/s
Neill Blomkamp, Terri Tatchell

Cast
Sharlto Copley, Dev Patel, Ninja, Yo-Landi Visser, Jose Pablo Cantillo, Hugh Jackman , Sigourney Weaver,Michelle Bradley



It was a good idea directed badly. For most of the film I kept asking myself if it was all a joke or if I was hallucinating. Surely no one could have intentionally created characters as ridiculous and a script so lame as this. And so the plot goes: Dev 'Slumdog' Patel plays a scientist who has created a robot police force which has cut crime in Johannesburg by 90%. Hugh Jackman plays his rival in the same robotics company who is himself looking for approval to deploy his own much larger robot. It's just like the plot of Robocop, but instead of having Clarence Boddicker and his gang to deal with, the robot police have a collection of unlikely and brightly coloured villains who look like characters from 90's video games.

After an accident, one robot in the factory is due to be scrapped, but Dev Patel saves him and implants his new breakthrough artificial intelligence software into the droid's memory. The mindless automaton becomes self aware but has the mind of a child, at which point the young scientist is kidnapped by a gang of criminals, who intend to use 'Chappie' the newly conscience robot, to pull off a daring heist. Now most of the film is wasted with the attempts of the inept and quite frankly ridiculous looking criminals to teach Chappie how to be a criminal. These bad ass gangsters have an affinity for brightly coloured things, crap haircuts, and even worse tattoos. That, and the acting from the trio of crims leaves a lot to be desired. Hugh Jackman, who looks just as silly as the criminals in this weird film - looking like a cross between Indiana Jones and Steve Irwin - eventually turns bad, and tries to kill everyone in sight with his huge battle robot called 'The Moose'.

If it weren't for the battle scenes I'd have 2-starred this film. The entertaining and impressive special effects during such scenes was just what I was expecting from Blomkamp, it's just a shame that he didn't pay as much attention to the rest of the film. It could have been the new Short Circuit (or a least a very violent Short Circuit.) I liked the ending, which leaves you wondering about a possible sequel. All in all, a bit of a misfire from Blomkamp who, as he proved with District 9, is capable of a lot better.



Good to see you updating this thread, Slob. Too bad you disliked most of what you've seen lately.

Dead Snow sounds like a lot of fun. I remember reading about it a few years ago and meaning to seek it out, but I had pretty much forgotten about it until Swan recently watched it.

Lucy is one of the dumbest movies I've ever seen.

I don't think I've even seen a trailer or anything for The Quiet Ones, but it sounds like every other PG-13 horror that comes along nowadays. No interest for me.

Despite your scathing response, I'm still somewhat interested in The Gambler.

Personally, I think Seth Rogen's hilarious, but the jokes in Neighbors mostly missed the mark for me. I certainly didn't hate it like you did, but I thought it was a middling disappointment. I remember watching The Notebook with my ex at the time, back when it first came out. Everyone with a vagina used to be obsessed with that movie.

I only skimmed over your review for Oculus, since you started giving away more than I wanted to know. Like The Babadook, the trailer looked pretty lame, but a lot of people seem to really dig it.

Aliens is awesome.

Admittedly, the idea of a "very violent Short Circuit" sounds pretty cool, so it's disappointing that Chappie seems to be such a mess. I'm still looking forward to watching it at some point, but my expectations have plummeted after reading all the negative feedback.
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I just saw the trailer for Chappie a couple days ago and thought it looked promising. Unfortunately, it looks like you're not the only one who doesn't care for it.



Get Hard

Directed by Eten Cohen






Year Of Release
2015

Director/s
Eten Cohen

Producer/s
Eten Cohen

Writer/s
Jay Martel, Ian Roberts, Etan Cohen, Adam McKay

Cast
Will Ferrell, Kevin Hart, Craig T. Nelson, Alison Brie, Edwina Findley Dickerson, Ariana Neal



It's films like this that are ensuring the demise of the comedy.To start with, I don't think Will Ferrell is funny at all. He is one of the new breed of American comedians whose sense of humour and comedic style seems to completely escape me. The new style I'm talking about is present in most American sit-coms, The Big Bang Theory is a perfect example. Obliviously Americans and Brits have differing sense of humour, because our TV show have always been different, but as far as films go there used to be really funny America films; the 80's and 90's where the golden years, and produced some real classics.

This new breed of comedy films are badly scripted and the humour is completely reliant upon completely contrived and extremely unlikely scenarios; everything has to be taken to the extreme just to produce a reaction. I want to go back to the eighties style, with a well-scripted, subtle, and altogether more effective style of comedy - the films of the late John Hughes are a perfect example.

As far a Get Hard is concerned, Will Ferrell is just annoying throughout and the plot is ridiculous. As a millionaire banker who is accused of fraud, he has been given 10 years in prison, and 30 days to prepare before he goes to the slammer. So, he employs the services of a car washer who works in the basement of his office building. The basis for which is the usual racial stereotypes that are strew throughout the film. He transforms his mansion into a prison and learns how to fight... And under the presumption that he will be sexually assaulted in prison, he goes to a gay bar and asks a man if he can suck his appendage. The subsequent toilet scene is just sickening rubbish, typical of these kinds of comedies. Most of the film is the same old ridiculous scenarios and extreme reactions to practically nothing. There are a few laughs along the way, but not many, and I think this will be the last Will Farrell film I will watch. This tripe has put me off watching comedies altogether to be honest.



I see you've changed the layout format at the top of each of your reviews.


Looks very familiar, can't think for the life of me where I've seen it before though



Master of My Domain
The director's name sounds awfully familiar if you pronounce it wrongly.



I see you've changed the layout format at the top of each of your reviews.


Looks very familiar, can't think for the life of me where I've seen it before though
It's a mystery..;



"""" Hulk Smashhhh."""
I think I'll like Get Hard. I love will Farrel and I tend to like silly comedy's.
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I also believe the 80's were the best time for comedies, but I still find the occasional one I love. I do want to try this one because I like Will Farrell. I think he's been in a lot of crap movies, but Old School buys him a lot of leeway with me.



I think that Get Hard movie sounds good from that review.......

But, the humor absolutely could suck a lot. I've seen some really awful Will Ferrell movies where the humor is just strange and non-existent. But the setup to this movie sounds funny IN THEORY (turning a mansion into a prison to prepare for the real thing).



And under the presumption that he will be sexually assaulted in prison, he goes to a gay bar and asks a man if he can suck his appendage.
That actually sounds pretty funny to me.

Usually the trailer will feature the only funny parts in a movie, but even the trailers and TV spots for Get Hard have been terrible. It looks like a movie that was cobbled together quickly without much thought or creativity, like producers just wanted to take advantage of Kevin Hart's current popularity by teaming him up with Will Ferrell. Don't worry about a script or premise. Just throw them on screen together and hope that hilarity ensues.

I generally like Will Ferrell. He was brilliant on Saturday Night Live and I love Talladega Nights. He's funny, but a lot of times his comedies become overly obnoxious and idiotic, like with Anchorman.



"""" Hulk Smashhhh."""
I love Step Brothers and that's pretty crap . I seen that bathroom scene on the trailer and found it funny. Doesn't he try to do a eskimo blow job haha.



Persona

Directed by Ingmar Bergman






Year Of Release
1966

Director/s
Ingmar Bergman

Producer/s
Ingmar Bergman

Writer/s
Ingmar Bergman

Cast
Bibi Andersson, Liv Ullmann, Margaretha Krook, Gunnar Björnstrand



This was more of an experience then a film. If you take all the emotion you ever felt from the viewing of any film and multiply it by a thousand, then you get close to what I just felt watching Persona. The first five minutes of fast, flashing, introduction of surrealist imagery, which subsequently creates the basis for the plot, are the most unsettling and stomach churning I've seen in a film.

The only way I can explain what this film made me feel is like being trapped in someone else's depressed mind (if that makes sense.) The viewer becomes immediately enveloped in the ever increasing feeling of unease and tension as the nurse and her silent patience's minds become melded in a chaos of self-examination, reverse psychology and dependency. Everything in this film is measured to perfection: the sound effects and camera work are amazing, and I especially liked the kind of intermission crafted from sharp sounds and images used to signal a breaking point in the relationship of the two women.

Toward the end of the film, when the truth is revealed about the silent actresses past and cause of her silence, every scene is amazingly tense, powerful and brilliantly filmed. The drip-drop sound effect, which reappeared throughout the film, is eerily effective and cuts right straight through you. Obviously, I have a lot of unanswered questions, which isn't surprising for a film this complex, which has been studied for years, and will require multiple re-viewings to interpret, (Which I'm looking forward to). At first, I was a little dubious before watching the film, as I thought it might be a little too complex for it's own good (and mine.) But instead it has quenched my thirst for this kind of cinema - a kind I watch far too little of.



Interstellar

Directed by Christopher Nolan






Year Of Release
2014

Director/s
Christopher Nolan

Producer/s
n/a

Writer/s
Christopher Nolan, Jonathan Nolan

Cast
Matthew McConaughey,Mackenzie Foy, John Lithgow, Timothée Chalamet ,David Oyelowo, Collette Wolfe, Francis X. McCarthy, Bill Irwin , Anne Hathaway, Andrew Borba, Wes Bentley,William Devane, Michael Caine



In a word: breathtaking. That's the only way I can describe Interstellar. Set in the not too distant future, the film follows a former astronaut-come farmer, Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), as he struggles to keep his crops alive on a dry, desolate and dying world. Whatever the cause, the earth is dying, soon there won't enough food to sustain the remaining population. But a last hope comes in the shape of a strange phenomenon which Cooper and his daughter discover.

Soon they find themselves imprisoned in what turns out to be a secret Nasa base, run by some of Cooper's former Nasa colleges, (an unlikely coincidence which is easily forgiveable, considering how good the rest of the film is). Professor Brand (Michael Kane) has a proposition for Cooper: he wants to take part in a mission to travel through a wormhole in search of a habitable world for mankind to start a fresh on. Cooper obviously excepts an the great quest begins. Backed up by a amazing soundtrack, the film contains elements of many different classic sci-fi books: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Contact, and The Long Earth , creating an altogether more exhilarating experience than Gravity provides - and one of the most awe-inspiring cinematic experiences of my life. The film is also packed with emotion, especially during the time dilation video conversations in which Cooper talks to his now much older children (which had me in tears).

Christopher Nolan took everything that made Inception great, perfected them, and incorporated them into Interstellar. Not just the cutting edge special effects, but the mysterious and surreal dimension crossing which seamlessly melds two styles of science fiction: the space based epics of Arthur C. Clarke and Asimov with the more psychological sci-fi Philip K. Dick. The plot pretty much unfolds in the same way as Inception did, with all the pieces of the mystery slowly coming together to create a nail-biting ending. I don't want to give too much away, but the ending is brilliant and very moving indeed.

Now, whenever a film like this comes along, sci-fi geeks like myself will ask the same question: is it as good as 2001? Well, this is the only film that has come close - so close in fact - that I may have answered yes to that question...maybe.



I love your thoughts/feelings on Persona. Such a hypnotic, mesmerizing film. I'm not going to pretend that I understand everything about the film -- although, like you, I have a strong desire to watch it many more times and take from it as much as I can -- but that doesn't stop me from loving it. Chances are it will be on my 60's list.

Not seen Interstellar yet, but that's some pretty high praise you just gave it.



Great review of Persona, you'll know that I felt very similarly. Like Spaulding I haven't seen Interstellar either, although it's probably the most popular that I missed from last year so I should sort that out. I have it ready to watch, and recent adverts/trailers and your review make me even more interested I also like these dividers you've added in to your reviews under the posters and cast list, kind of subtle but very smart.
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