Darth Wish's Reviews

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My Darth Star is in for a service
The Nice Guys 2016



The Nice Guys is an enjoyable comedy thriller with plenty of action, Crowe gets to throw a lot of punches, a cracking soundtrack and a smattering of boobs.
Gosling is a P.I. and Crowe is a sort of punisher for hire and together, after a brutal first meeting, they work together to try and find a missing girl.
The opening sequence is excellent and if you haven't seen it then go watch it.

I enjoyed it and Gosling makes being a pratt look really cool.

7.5/10



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Android Cop 2014

Michael J White, Charles Dutton, Randy Wayne



So I found this on the My5 On Demand app and thought I'd give it a go.
I wasn't expecting a masterpiece so my expectations weren't high.
It wasn't brilliant but a bit better than what I thought it would be.
It smacks of Robocop/Mad Max in plot and looks, with the Android Cop bearing more than a passing resemblance to Peter Weller's 1980s effort and the forbidden zone is full of characters that could have walked straight out of the Aussie franchise.
Michael J White does his best but the rest of the cast were average.
Storyline was OK but again does depend heavily on the two movies mentioned above.
It's not too bad a movie if you can get past its plagiarism but not one to buy for a collection.

4/10



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Hangman 2015

Jeremy Sisto, Kate Ashfield



A family go away on holiday and while they are gone their home is invaded by a unhinged psycho.
Most of this film is just the psycho watching the family on hidden cameras he set up while they were away, not particularly exciting to watch and not scary.
The story is unbelievable because four people in the house don't realise he is wandering around the house both at night and while they are in the house.
The ending was unsatisfactory and if you want my opinion on this pile of used diapers then it is don't waste your time with it you won't get the runtime back and you will be left disappointed.

0.5/10



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Eat Locals 2017

Annette Crosby, Dexter Fletcher, McKenzie Crook, Eve Myles, Freema Agyeman



Vampires against the military in this enjoyable British offering.
A great cast of Brits ham it up as a military squadron financed by the Vatican try to assassinate one of them only to find there are actually seven of them lurking in the area.
This horror comedy was a damned go slice of fun to brighten up a cold and snowy day.

My best bit was when Dexter Fletcher's character tells his wife, played by Ruth Jones, that he loves her and she replies, "F*ck Off"...you have to see it to appreciate it.

8/10



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The Lovely Bones 2009

Saoirse Ronan, Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, Stanley Tucci



I was in two minds about whether to watch this movie and after watching it I am still feeling the same.
WARNING: "Spoiler Alert" spoilers below
I was impressed with the events concerning Suzie Salmon's murder and the turmoil the family went through but the whole stuck in Limbo thing left me wondering why?
I know it is based on a book but for a film it had far too much of the afterlife stuff going on.

It's well filmed and well acted with Tucci stealing the show for me.
It is but it isn't the sort of film I like (maybe I need to do some splicing and editing with my lightsaber ).

5/10



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Reprisal 2018

Frank Grillo, Bruce Willis



Bank gets robbed, bank manager along with his ex cop neighbour run their own investigation into it.
Sounded like a plan but the scenes where they do their detecting are few and far between not giving the viewer a clue as to how they got to where they did.
Action scenes are good but lack of a story into why do the robberies, how the robber knew the layout of the places and the routes of the security van are not explained.
A complete lack of a coherent storyline and the continued scenes of police officers running out into the open when being shot at and getting killed made this a disjointed movie.
Another thing that rankled with me is the use of the same two actors as police officers in separate scenes when one had already been shot!

3/10 (for the half decent action sequences).



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Doom 2005

Karl Urban, Rosamund Pike, Dwayne Johnson



This is still as good as the first time I watched it, the Resident Evil v Alien v Predator vibe works well and a stellar cast made it a good watch.
The SFX are pretty good for the early 2000s and the action sequences not too bad at all.
Add Rosamund Pike to the mix and you have a pretty good movie to sit in front of with a selection of snacks and a drink.

You might well need to watch this in darkness as it has been shot mainly in low light settings.

7.5/10



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Scorched Earth 2018

Gina Carrano, John Hannah



Scorched Earth is available on My5 on demand in the UK at the moment so I decided to give it a go.
It's a sort of futuristic western where the Earth has finally succumbed to pollution and people struggle to breathe without filters which need silver.
I enjoyed this, it had plenty of action and the cast did a decent job with Hannah playing the voice of reason to Carrano's no fear reckless attitude.
WARNING: "SPOILER ALERT" spoilers below
It has the traditional western town running baddie and his cronies against the anti hero theme but with the occasional motor vehicle as well as horses for transport.
Polluters are criminals and the baddies like their Pick Up trucks so Bounty Hunters like Gage (Carrano) earn water purification tablets and silver for their filters by bringing in, dead or alive, the dissenters.


It's not Westworld or The Magnificent Seven but a competent and watchable 90+ minutes.

6.5/10



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Hunter Killer 2018

Gerard Butler, Gary Oldman, Michael Nyqvist



The good old US of A versus a mad Russian defence minister hellbent on starting a war.
Plenty of tension and suspense in this action thriller as Subs plunge the depths of the Barents Sea.
This one can go alongside The Hunt For Red October and Crimson Tide as a very good film based in a Submarine.
Some of the dialogue was hard to make out on a couple of occasions but I watched this via broadcast TV and not on Blu Ray.
This one will be on my to get list.

Recommended.

8.5/10



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The Little Stranger 2018

Domhnall Gleeson, Ruth Wilson, Charlotte Rampling, Will Poulter



This period drama is based in a large house that has seen better days, the family who own and live in it are financially compromised and the man of the house isn't in the best of health.
There is the occasional flashback to earlier times when the house is dominated by a daughter who died at an early age.
Things start to happen in the house and from there things get progressively more fraught.
A well acted but slow moving movie that for me lacks the ability to grip the viewers undivided attention.
I think anyone who has read the book of the same name by Sarah Waters will probably understand and enjoy this more.

4.25/10



Eat Locals 2017

Annette Crosby, Dexter Fletcher, McKenzie Crook, Eve Myles, Freema Agyeman



Vampires against the military in this enjoyable British offering.
A great cast of Brits ham it up as a military squadron financed by the Vatican try to assassinate one of them only to find there are actually seven of them lurking in the area.
This horror comedy was a damned go slice of fun to brighten up a cold and snowy day.

My best bit was when Dexter Fletcher's character tells his wife, played by Ruth Jones, that he loves her and she replies, "F*ck Off"...you have to see it to appreciate it.

8/10
weird movie title lol



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Angelica 2015

Jena Malone, Ed Stoppard, Janet McTeer



Angelica is a period piece set in London in the 19th century.
Classified as a gothic tale of love, sex and madness it has smatterings of them but
this is more about a womans neurosis concerning her daughters wellbeing and the fathers sexual frustrations.
There is some nudity, sexual content and a couple of grisly moments but it is mostly about this couples relationship as it declines into desperation and death.
The sets and costumes are excellent but they had no chance of saving this slow and tedious offering.

2/10



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The Broken 2008

Lena Headey, Richard Jenkins



If you like them weird this one will be right up your street.
Headey plays a radiologist who sees someone who looks exactly like her driving her car and follows her.
What happens next sends her into a nightmare reality after she has ended up in hospital having crashed in her car (yes the same car she saw herself in).
Scenes move from warm family gathering to stark, cold flashbacks and a sense of her going mad.
The accompanying sounds are grating to add to the suspense as the plot unfolds.
Headey does a first rate job of the lead role and is ably supported by the rest of the cast making this a top notch suspense thriller.

8/10



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Odd Thomas 2013

Anton Yelchin, Willem Dafoe, Addison Timlin



Based on the first book, of a four book series, of the same name from Dean Koontz Odd Thomas (Anton Yelchin) is a ...well...Odd guy.
He can see things others can't with only a few close friends knowing what he can do.
Death is coming to his town and he is the only one that can stop it.
Odd spends his time using his 'gift' helping the town's Police Chief (Willem Dafoe) catch the culprits of crimes when the 'gift' he has goes into overdrive and he finds himself in a race against time to stop a monumental tragedy.

This is a cracking film, the dialogue is excellent as are the SFX and acting.
There are a few humourous bits to go along with the love interest Stormy (Addison Timlin) contributing a fair amount of it.
I thoroughly recommend this movie.

8.75/10



You can't make a rainbow without a little rain.
Odd Thomas 2013

Anton Yelchin, Willem Dafoe, Addison Timlin



Based on the first book, of a four book series, of the same name from Dean Koontz Odd Thomas (Anton Yelchin) is a ...well...Odd guy.
He can see things others can't with only a few close friends knowing what he can do.
Death is coming to his town and he is the only one that can stop it.
Odd spends his time using his 'gift' helping the town's Police Chief (Willem Dafoe) catch the culprits of crimes when the 'gift' he has goes into overdrive and he finds himself in a race against time to stop a monumental tragedy.

This is a cracking film, the dialogue is excellent as are the SFX and acting.
There are a few humourous bits to go along with the love interest Stormy (Addison Timlin) contributing a fair amount of it.
I thoroughly recommend this movie.

8.75/10

Odd Thomas is a strange movie, but I liked it.
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My Darth Star is in for a service
The Devil's Double 2011

Dominic Cooper



A dramatised account of Uday Hussein's double seeing the debauched, violent and narcissistic behaviour of a spoilt manchild with too much power who takes what he wants and to hell with the consequences.
Cooper is superb in this double role as he goes from being a psycopath one minute to a man forced to be something he isn't the next.
The fact you want to see Hussein get a beating shows how good a job Cooper does being him.
The violence is shocking in some cases, the nudity blatant but in keeping with how Hussein was and the soundtrack is made up of some of the best tracks of the 1980s.
I liked it a lot and if you don't get to anal about it like Rotten Tomatoes does then you will probably enjoy it too.

8.5/10



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Blue Iguana 2018

Sam Rockwell, Phoebe Fox



As a comedy crime caper this is pretty good.
Two ex-cons (Rockwell and Schwartz)are persuaded to do a 'job' in London by a British lawyer (Phoebe Fox) and right from the start the whole thing goes t*ts up.
The whole thing becomes much more complex as they stumble from one dodgy situation to the next.
Plenty of laughs, lots of brain matter, loads of bullets and some quality OTT acting.
Others making appearances include Simon Callow and Amanda Donohue who as one of the baddies pub landlady Mum does a stand up job being a Cougar.
Good blood soaked fun with some 80s sounds added too.

7.5/10



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Stan & Ollie 2018

Steve Coogan, John C Reilly



Stan & Ollie is a delight of a film, Coogan and Reilly were the perfect choice to play the
"Worlds Greatest Double Act" in their latter years.
Very funny and at times extremely moving as Hardy comes to terms with his failing health while they trawl around the UK doing shows.
Classic scenes are re-enacted with such care and attention to the originals you can almost believe it is the real duo on screen.
It deserves all the plaudits it received as it is a masterpiece that was a joy to watch.

8/10