Inconceivable Reviews

First and foremost, my grading system for films is exactly the same as the one in schools.
Now let's get to the first movie I choose to review and it is....*drum roll*
Review #1: Enemy (2013)

I'm pretty sure "Enemy" is infamous for being one of the most confusing films ever, after the credits had rolled I wondered to myself "What the bloody hell did I just watch ?!", after that I immediately re-watched the film to get a better sense of what was going on, and once I did, I was immensely impressed, in fact I consider this one of my favourite films I've ever encountered.

In "Enemy", Jake Gyllenhall plays Adam a history teacher that suddenly discovers that there is a doppelgänger (Anthony) of himself, living not too far away from where he does. He has an extreme urge to meet this look-alike, and once he does, he learns that it might not have been a good idea to do so after all.

Jake Gyllenhall does a great job at showcasing his acting abilities in this film, he gets to play two different people with different personalities, traits and lives, there isn't a point where I was confused on whether he was playing the teacher or the doppelgänger, he makes sure that it is apparent who is who even when the two characters are in the same room.

Denis Villeneuve is the director, and he as well deserves some major props for his work, his directing is legendary. The score as well is phenomenal.

What I love the most about this film is that it challenges you to think and interpret what's going on, it doesn't spell everything out for you but it does scatter hints and clues all throughout the film, and when the puzzle pieces are assembled, the picture is very satisfying.

I recommend this film to any viewer who immensely adores cinema, because this is not your typical and stereotypical movie so don't be surprised if you end up not liking it.

With all of that being said I give this film an A+
It is one of my favourite films of all time, and I'm extremely glad that I got to experience it.

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I'm probably the most critical, picky and hard to please moviegoer, ever.

Review #2: The Shallows (2016)

"The Shallows" tells a story of a medical student played by Blake Lively who's attacked by a shark while swimming in a foreign beach.

What I liked the most about this film is that it never gets boring or slow, it's only 87 minutes long and there is absolutely no fat in it, and there are also quite a few scenes that keep you at the edge of your seat...only a few. I also liked Blake Lively, not so much her performance though...

There are a lot of problems in this film such as the annoying "score" which is a bunch of partying songs, Blake Lively's character is a surfer and there are a lot of slow-mo scenes of her surfing, running, walking, falling, breathing...Don't worry that won't take you out of the movie, the stupid decisions made by the characters will first !
Not to mention the extremely cringe worthy lines, I felt like I was back in the 80's.
And of course, there is a tremendous amount of CG and it's really obvious.
There are also some story lines that go no where, and it leaves you wondering...what the hell was the point of all of that ?!?!?

At the end, this is a very predictable film, with good enough acting and some thrilling scenes. If you have time to watch a forgettable but entertaining movie, then go ahead and rent it. And with that I'm gonna give this a C+

If you decide to not give this a watch, trust me...you're definitely not missing much.

Not seen either movie so i can't really comment, keep them
Coming tho.

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Thank you !

Review #3: Juno (2007)

Juno, who hasn't seen Juno ? Probably I...until yesterday.

I finally got to see the popular coming of age film "Juno", I've heard about it for so many years but I've never bothered to check it out. Juno is a film about a girl named Juno (played by Ellen Page), who got pregnant by her best friend Paulie Bleeker (played by Michael Cera). She is still in high school, therefore she feels as if she's not ready to be a mother yet and raise an infant.

Everyone in the film does a great job playing their character, and that's exactly what this film consists of, a bunch of characters that are very unrelatable (at least to me). Pretty much everyone has a very sarcastic and dry attitude while confronting the issue of teen pregnancy, the reaction of her parents is impossible, the reaction of her friends is unrealistic, the reaction of the damn dad is so....did he even have a reaction ? Nope. Even her own demeanour is inappropriate.

There's also a lack of relationship development between some of the characters, for example, Juno and Bleeker's connection is very under developed, in fact he isn't even in the movie as much as someone would believe.

Now that we got all of that out of the way, I've actually enjoyed "Juno" quite a lot. Once you understand that the film doesn't give a proper representation of what pregnancy is like, you can just dive in to this world and join in for the fun.

This had a lot of good stuff going for it, such as the humour, I found myself laughing out loud for the most part, even though it's pretty hard to get that out of me. I really enjoyed the characters and their persona, like I said before they literally were a bunch of characters, and it's pretty funny and entertaining to watch them behave. The screenplay is what made this film so enjoyable so I gotta give the writers and the director a pat on the back for that.

I'm not gonna call this a "phenomenal masterpiece", or the "funniest coming of age film eveeeeer", because it's not, it has issues, but I would definitely suggest it to anyone especially teens. So for me, this gets a B+

It is very humorous and entertaining, so go and check out "Juno" if you haven't....I doubt you didn't though, I'm probably the only one that's this late to the party.

Not seen Juno either, but my girlfriend enjoyed it.

Review #4: Casablanca (1942)


Casablanca is one of my parents favourite films of all time, therefore I grew up watching it, the amount of times I viewed it is unrealistic, in fact I'm pretty sure I've learned by heart every turn the movie takes, every piece of dialogue and every scene that grips your beating heart. How dramatic right ? Well this film well deserves it, if it's not one of the best movies of all time, then it's definitely the best romantic movie of all time.

With the coming of the Second World War, many eyes in imprisoned Europe turned hopefully or desperately toward the freedom of the Americas. Lisbon became to great embarkation point but not everybody could get to Lisbon directly, and so a torturous roundabout refugee trail sprang up. Paris to Marseilles....across the Mediterranean Oran...then by train or auto or foot across the rim of Africa...to Casablanca in French Morocco. After getting abandoned by the love of his life, Rick Blaine leaves France heartbroken and goes to Casablanca where he will own a nightclub. Years later, Ilsa Lunda the woman he still adored coincidentally enters the same pub with her husband Victor Laszlo. The couple have came to town due to the request of Ugrate who has planned to sell them letters of transit that will allow the escape to America. And what happens next are a bunch of gripping events with intense story telling, a heart touching romance and witty dialogue sprinkled all over the film.

What's so great about Casablanca is that it's central focus isn't even the romance despite it being a romantic film, in fact I felt more interested in every other interaction between the characters but the two leads, don't get me wrong I still felt very gripped by the chemistry of Ilsa and Rick and loved their relationship, but I also enjoyed even more whenever the supporting characters interacted with each other or the leads, the film at the end of the day is a character study of Rick Blaine in my eyes. And there's also a lot of focus on the war side of the events, and how chaotic things were back then, there's a lot of comedic moments such as the pickpocket scenes and the closure of Rick's café, and that's because of the outstanding screenplay, literally the whole movie is quotable. The film itself never feels convoluted, regardless of all of the happenings, and none of them take away from the romance between Ilsa and Rick or even Ilsan and Victor. Everything is very well balanced.

Humphrey Bogart's performance is legendary, it is so astonishing it will live on endlessly, and his chemistry with Ingrid Bergman who plays Ilsa is extraordinary. The supporting roles as well are played so well and are perfectly realised, I would love to see a short film about each and every single one of them and of course my second favourite character of Casablanca (the first being Rick), Louis Renault who steals every scene he's in. Rick's Café Américain is a character in itself, it is the point of intersection and the place where the characters assembled.

I can't even begin to explain how good the directing of the film is, nothing that I say can even compare to its greatness, every frame is well thought out and well shot.

I can't seem to find one critique or problem all throughout this masterpiece and trust me I tried, one thing I will say is that I didn't like Ilsa as much as others did, some of her actions quite bothered me, and I was really annoyed at how she was able to get away with them without repercussions, but that only adds to the realism of the characters and their imperfections.

This is a MUST SEE movie, It's impossible to give it the praise it deserves because it's as close to perfect as a film can be, therefore I will gladly give Casablanca an A+

Here's looking at you, kid.

Casablanca is not only a must see movie; it's a "must have on the shelf" movie. Iconic actors, never-better black and white cinematography and the urgency of a war time plot. Old-time Hollywood movies just don't get much better. It's brief and concise (in part due to war time budget restrictions), well paced and quotable. It's worth noting that a number of cast members were in fact actors who had fled from Europe from the Nazis, including Madeline LeBeau, the woman with the urgent, teary expression in Rick's, singing Le Marseilles. Hollywood legend has it that she really did tear up. It was unplanned, but a great shot, so they used it.

I would have reviewed it myself, except that Movie Forums won't let me give it 6 popcorn buckets.

I wanted to go in depth about some scenes that will absolutely stay with me for life, but I try to make my reviews as spoiler free as possible. Even if I wanted to I'll just have to state every scene in the entire film, that's how good it is.

Review #5: Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox (2013)


I'm not really a DC fan, I've only read some of their comics when I was younger, I was more into Marvel (specifically the X-Men comics). When it comes to DC, they can get it together and deliver a one hell of an animated film, unlike their recent live action movies. I loved some of their work such as The Dark Knight Returns Part 1, Under The Red Hood, Return Of The Joker...but they also produce some awful flicks such as the most recent Batman: The Killing Joke. But I've heard quite a lot about this one, that it's arguably their best out of their best....do I think the same, mhmmm....?

The film tells the story of The Flash a.k.a Barry Allen, who goes back in time to save his mother from being murdered, and with doing that he changes the future and turns it into a world that is hanging by a thread.

I liked this film a lot, but I don't know about calling it their best work ever, the animation is pretty decent, the action scenes are pretty good, I loved the story in general, and every character looked pretty cool, I w. Technically the film itself was flawless, but personally I didn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to. Maybe I'm just nit picking but I really wanted the film to go more in depth when it comes to how everything became what it is, for example why did Wonder Woman and Aquaman specifically became the bad guys ? How did they become lovers at one point ? Why was the reverse flash aware of the previous world and what it was ?...I pretty much wanted the backstory of the apocalyptic version of their world.

What I enjoyed the most is probably how dark the film was, there was a lot of violence and they definitely didn't shy away from showing it.

All in all, this is a fantastic animation, it's extremely entertaining and the story is intriguing therefore I'm gonna give The Flashpoint Paradox an A-

Review #6: Nerve (2016)


I really didn't want to write this review, but I guess you can call it a dare (pun intended).

Nerve is a film that follows Vee (played by Emma Roberts), a timid high school senior, she challenges herself to get out of her comfortable zone and play an online game called "Nerve", where you can either be a player or a watcher, a player has to complete dares for money, and if he/she quit or fail all of the money they have collected from previous dares will be revoked, meanwhile a watcher gets to watch the players and propose dares to them. While doing her first dare, she meets Ian (played by Dave Franco) and together they spend the rest of the night bonding, walking down a street half naked, riding a motor cycle blindfolded...you know, all that good stuff.

The chemistry between the two leads is easily the best part of the film, you can see that they're genuinely having fun with each other, I would of rather preferred the movie to spend more time on developing their relationship. Another thing I found appealing is the look the film has, it's beautiful dare I say.

The concept itself is very interesting, but the execution is extremely poor. For someone to even take this flick seriously, then they should take any sense they have and leave it somewhere else because the events that occur are unrealistic to say the least; there are some law breaking dares that people try in this film and there's literally nobody to stop them, for example there's a scene where a player has to climb to the top of a tower crane then dangle and hold on to metal bar....they're in New York city by the way, how is he even allowed to climb the tower, we don't know, it's like the presence of authority is eliminated.

So does that mean if you suspend disbelief the film becomes more enjoyable ? NO ! The writing in this movie is awful, and the delivery by some of the actors made things worse, trust me it's cringe worthy. There's also the usual soundtrack that comes with these kind of films, which is annoying pop music.

I was still willing to give this a pass since the middle of the film was not THAT bad, but then comes the third act where everything just falls apart! Everything becomes cartoonish and even way more ridiculous than it already was, then they tried to preach a message that I really didn't care for, and the ending felt extremely rushed and pointless, I can't even describe the finale well because it literally was a hot mess, and not in the good way.

At the end, this was a big letdown, it doesn't even work as a quick thriller to pass time, therefore I'm going to give Nerve a C

I liked The Shallows. It did B movie horror fluff extremely well.

Enjoyed your review of this film and agree with most of what you've said here.

I think I liked this film a lot more than you did...the relationship with Bleeker was underdeveloped because Bleeker was so not an issue in this story, this was Juno's story...you noticed how once she found out she was pregnant, she pretty much left Bleeker out of the whole process of what she was going to do? Because she didn't care.

I liked it as well for what it was, it did what it had to do, but I don't think it deserves a higher rating than it already has.

Even though it's Juno's story, I still feel as though they should of added at least a little more depth into their relationship, there were scenes in the film where they tried to push a bunch of "moments" between the two characters and it didn't work for me because we barely know enough about them together.

I agree with this being one of the best. This and TDKR are two of my favorites.

Review #7: Black Christmas (1974)


Black Christmas, a film that arguably has invented the slasher genre, and some other clichés that we're used to seeing now days.

Black Christmas is obviously set during the holidays, where a group of sorority girls are being harassed by a stranger who constantly keeps calling their house phone, if only they knew that the upcoming events are far more sinister than some petty threats over the phone.

This is one of my favourite horror films of all time, and what I absolutely adore about it is the creepy atmosphere it builds and keeps during the entire duration of the film. It is a low budget flick, therefore it isn't flashy with the effects or gore and I like that. The scares are very effective and creepy, even though some of them are subtle.

Bob Clark does a magnificent job as a director, the camera work is very interesting and well done, he also builds suspense excellently, it could also be debated that he was the one to influence other films in using the "killer POV" shots. Not to mention, the score is very eerie and it goes very well with the events.

The film introduces to us a kind of villain we rarely ever see in other horror movies, he calls himself "Billy" and the guy is clearly a psychopath, he keeps making disturbing noises whenever he calls the sorority girls on the phone, he also plays with his dead victims, and most importantly he remains unseen for the entirety of the movie. He is definitely one of the best parts of this Christmas tale.

Everyone in the film does their job and have a good enough performance, some shine and others...not so much. Olivia Hussey (Jess) does a great job playing her role, even though I still feel as though she over acts in a few of her scenes, but not to the point it takes you out of the movie. Margot Kitter, Marian Waldman and Douglan McGrath's characters serve as the comic relief and they are very appreciated. There are a bunch of characters that I feel as though the writers didn't know what to do with them, they tried to make them relevant at the beginning, then they just drop their significance at one point and they become a bunch of disposable mannequins.

My main issue with the film is the last confrontation; I don't mind open endings or films that leave you with more questions than answers in fact I love them, but in this case some explanation needs to be given or plotholes will be created, not to give anything away but there's a tiny "how convenient" moment at the end that left a bitter taste in my mouth.

Nonetheless, this is still a great horror film with an intriguing mystery, tasteful humour, and intense storytelling, it most definitely deserves an A-

Maybe I was in the wrong mood but Enemy was sooooo boring. I only watched the opening 15-20 minutes but it did nothing for me. Since then, I've become a fan of the director so I might get back to it soon.

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"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn"

"I need your clothes, your boots and your motorcycle"

Enemy so good.

Black Christmas so good