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HELLO EVERYBODY !

I am a cinema lover and I just created a blog 1 month ago about cinema's news and about my opinions on the best movies and series ! It is my first blog and I am doing it only for pleasure and for you so I would need some comments to know how to improve it ! I would be so grateful if you could only take few minutes to have a look on it ! Here is the name of the blog : whaat2watch.blogspot.co.uk

Thank you very much, I hope you will enjoy it !



Wanna Date? Got Any Money?

Point Break 2015


If you're looking for a "remake" of Point Break, don't watch this. Utah and Bodhi are both worlds apart from their 1991 counterparts. The film takes on a whole Eco warrior/terrorist angle and eschews the originals bank robberies in favour of aforementioned angle. The stunts are awesome, I felt like I was watching an actual snowboard/moto video at times. But the plot feels rushed after about 40 minutes and the actors portraying the two main characters really made them their own, if for the better or worse I will leave up to personal judgement. Utah didn't really do too much for me in this film, and I preferred the work of the stunt men done in the name of Utah, rather than the work he did himself as the character. Keanu was eager and hungry and at times foolish, but the new guy really lacks the heart Keanu brought to the role. The new Bodhi however was actually pretty good, a decent take on one of Swayze's best roles. Overall, the acting effects the rating, but the film itself was all eye candy and I was in the mood for it, so 3 stars is generous, but taking it for what it is, I enjoyed it, this time at least.
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The Imitation Game:

A (very fictionalized) biopic of British genius Alan Turing, played fantastically by Benedict Cumberbatch. I didn't love the movie by any stretch, but it is worth watching at least once for Cumberbatch's performance. I also do like that this was a more emotional biopic than usual. It is a lot more about the personality than the events that the person is notable for, which is how every biopic should be written. It doesn't matter if I know the person, make them their own character. That said, there isn't much of a story. Turing makes a machine, it doesn't work until it does, he saves the day, the movie needs another half hour so the barely referenced subplot about his being gay becomes the focus. Not a lot happened.



Point break (2015), 6.7/10
Interesting movie it has some great scenary and nice shots, but it lacked a bit of story and some charathers seem to me quite dull. Worth a watch if you ask me.



Finished here. It's been fun.
Son of Saul
A powerful film, very much worth a viewing. I was worried that it was going to be heavy-handed and manipulative, but I thought it handled the subject matter with grace and honesty.
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The Searchers *
2nd viewing. It's not difficult to understand why many modern audiences find this one rather "dated". Ford is a very old-fashioned director, yet I can't say that bothers me. This is an incredible film, filled with much subtlety and delicate gesture. Like the moment where Ward Bond notices aunt Martha gently caress Ethan's jacket.Or how Ethan picking up Debbie towards the end, mirrors him picking her up at the very beginning of the film. Moments such as that show what a genius Ford really was. "Poet and a comedian" like Welles puts it.


Bringing out the Dead
Awful. Self-indulgent. Vile. Ugly. Shameless.
Scorsese's made masterpieces - notably After Hours and Taxi Driver. Then he makes juvenile turds like this. Something happened to Scorsese post- Casino.
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Hail Mary
One of Godard's most fascinating and controversial films. I thought that Contempt was the most visually stunning Godard film....it might actually be this. This is Godard at his most experimental, but also at his most human and tender. A fascinating film from a director that's both impressed me and disappointed me numerous times.



The End of the Tour directed by James Ponsoldt -



The End of the Tour was an unexpectedly great and morally deep surprise. It sounds really stupid to say a movie is deep, but the writing in the film does such an excellent job to capture emotional broad and saddening themes whilst still remaining true to its quirky and light-hearted nature. The acting throughout the film is phenomenal from both Jason Segal and Jesse Eisenberg, capturing accurately the people from which they were based. I'm impressed that I wasn't bored by a two hour movie of people driving around and talking, but when you do such a good job at building the right pace and using that to supplement the characters dialogue, you can't help but be enamored by how interesting the story is. I don't think I could picture myself reading Infinite Jest anytime soon, but I think to this day some of the ideas that the film and book touched on still ring true.
Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials directed by Wes Ball -



I'm really disappointed. Because despite some of the negative things I had to say about the first Maze Runner, it remains a very successful attempt at reinventing a tiring YA trend that plagues movies. Unlike its sequel, The Scorch Trials, which follows every formula of sticking a youth protagonist and his friends (one of which is probably girl love interest) in a dystoptian situation to try and overcome, which is in the end somehow the cause of an evil organization that they'll eventually have to stop with the help of a rebellion. I had hopes that Maze Runner franchise wouldn't do that, and try to tell an original and interesting story. But it just fell back into familiarity with poorly written dialogue, bad CGI, and failing to develop the characters with new ideas.
As Above, So Below directed by John Erick Dowdle -



The director, John Eric Dowdle was responsible for one of my unexpected favorites of last year, No Escape. So I had some hopes that he would create something interesting with the found-footage horror genre. Sadly, while it had a promising start, with some interesting concepts, it eventually fizzles out of that compelling atmosphere with some iffy acting and poor writing. In fact, it borrows a lot from another great horror film The Descent, almost so much that it's kinda bothersome. I try to avoid nitpicking, but I will say this film does a very poor job establishing rules for the catacombs of what can happen or even why, so you're just kinda left to watch what happens. And maybe that would be okay if you cared about the characters or the scares weren't horror film cheapshots.
The Raid: Redemption directed by Gareth Evans -



Holy crap. I'm kinda at loss for words as how to describe this movie. It's absolutely ludicrous and insane, but the skillful directing behind that chaos is astoundingly entertaining. It's like this weird mashup of martial arts and violent action, and it's blended so perfectly. My only complaints are far and few between, some iffy writing, and the motivations and characters themselves were a little thing. But the pacing and choreography was perfect and I never felt bored. I want more action movies like this, violent escapism. If you can juggle the visuals and story just right, you've got something great on your hands (ex. John Wick). Hopefully The Raid 2 lives up to the hype.
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Best of 2016 - 10 Cloverfield Lane -- Worst of 2016 - God's Not Dead 2
Best of 2015 - Mad Max: Fury Road -- Worst of 2015 - Jupiter Ascending
Best of 2014 - Nightcrawler -- Worst of 2014 - God's Not Dead



I have to return some videotapes.


There Will Be Blood

Milkshakes.

What a great character study and an amazing performance from one of the best, Daniel Day Lewis. PTA is becoming one of my favorite directors. I think the only one I have left is The Master, and I feel like i'm gonna love it even if I don't fully understand it by the end of the first watch.

+



Riddick (2013)

Even the unrated cut version of the movie couldn't save it from mediocrity, it seems.

Much like so many potentially great movies out there, Riddick was unfortunately plagued by Hollywood trappings, too spineless to burst out of its comfort zone onto new territories. The bounty hunters pit against our eponymous hero aren't even that intimidating. I mean, if they at least tread the familiar grounds of McTiernan's Predator and have badasses who actually look like they could put up a fight, it would have at least been more interesting to a degree. No, Batista-can't-act doesn't count.

I mean, there were generally interesting scenes in this movie that just got washed up by this bounty hunter crap. The first half hour or so had Riddick fighting against the native creatures of the planet. And throughout cinematic history, similar scenes devoid of dialogues such as this often seem to be fascinating for some reason. Probably because they tell more visually via the characters' actions than any amount of words could.

That said, I did kinda have a bit of a problem with the extraneous sappiness that came with Riddick's relationship with the dog. I mean, who didn't see it coming? If there's a dog in a horror or thriller movie even, you know it's bound to happen. It's so pathetically manipulative. And don't get me started with that flying-into-the-sunset-with-the-girl ending. Thank god for the alternate ending salvaging what's left of the film's dignity with some actually interesting storyline.

But it's not all terrible, of course. Even the strings of Hollywood puppetmasters and Hollywood schmaltz can't get rid of Riddick's badassery. Even if he's gone soft in this adventure.



Care for some gopher?
Bambi (David Hand, 1942) -



Ghost Busters (Ivan Reitman, 1984) -


I'm going controverse here. I don't like this movie very much. I tried it two times now, but i just don't find it particularily entertaining, let alone good.
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A Thunder of Drums (1961)

Solid Western about a cavalry outpost dealing with marauding Indian attacks, and the personalities inside the compound between attacks. This might otherwise be a standard story if it weren't for the very good performances, especially by a great Richard Boone as the Captain who treats his mean harshly but for a purpose and turns out to have reasons for his strictness. I've seen many Boone performances but this is near the top of the heap for me. Although George Hamilton does a very strong job here, Boone dominates even when he's not onscreen. There are fine supporting performances here by Arthur O'Connell, Charles Bronson, Slim Pickens, and Richard Chamberlain. Also some good action spread throughout the movie. A winner in my book.





The Drop (2014)

I'm starting to believe that there's nothing that Tom Hardy cannot do, and this movie goes a long way in advancing that belief. Hardy's character, Bob, works as a bartender at a bar run by James Gandolfini's Cousin Marv. It's Marv's bar in name only. He's a former mob member whose bar was taken over by Chechnyan mobsters. Occasionally they will make money drops at the bar for Marv to pass on. But things are messed up when the bar is robbed one night by masked gunmen and the Chechnyans expect Marv to pay the money back. Bob's life is complicated as he finds a Pit Bull pup abandoned and injured, and his neighbor, Nadia (Noomi Rapace) helps him nurse it to health, which leads to trouble with her ex-boyfriend who claims the dog is his. Bob seems to be a simple, almost-shy man, who has strength he's not showing. He knows how to handle himself and shows it when the time is right.

This is one of Hardy's best performances and it's great because it's not showy but low-key for the most part. I loved this movie and am glad I took a chance on it.





The Kid (1921)

Classic Charlie Chaplin film where his Tramp character finds an abandoned infant and takes him home and raises him as his own. When the child is about five years old, he is played by Jackie Coogan, who does a terrific job as "The Kid." The Tramp and the Kid try to make ends meet by the Kid breaking windows and the Tramp just "happening to come along" right after with glass panes to sell. Of course, the cops are on to his scam and he and the Kid run and try to avoid them. They go through different adventures all the while living in a rundown apartment. At the same time, the Kid's mother has become a famous performer and is in close proximity to the Kid and the Tramp without either side knowing it. Although I didn't love this as much as say The Gold Rush, it is still terrific entertainment and very much recommended.



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"Miss Jean Louise, Mr. Arthur Radley."



Zootopia, 4.8/5. It's the kind of film that really takes advantage of the animation currently available. On top of that, it has amazing characters and story along with some great social commentary that I think a lot of us need to see. It's a very important film in that regard. On a less serious note, it's also really funny and uses its settings to the absolute best you can. The characters relationships with one another are also perfect. If there's one thing that keeps it from being a perfect film, it's the very typical story it ends up with despite everything else about it that makes it so great. Honestly, it's gonna be difficult to make a better film than it this year, animated or otherwise.



The Raid: Redemption directed by Gareth Evans -



Holy crap. I'm kinda at loss for words as how to describe this movie. It's absolutely ludicrous and insane, but the skillful directing behind that chaos is astoundingly entertaining. It's like this weird mashup of martial arts and violent action, and it's blended so perfectly. My only complaints are far and few between, some iffy writing, and the motivations and characters themselves were a little thing. But the pacing and choreography was perfect and I never felt bored. I want more action movies like this, violent escapism. If you can juggle the visuals and story just right, you've got something great on your hands (ex. John Wick). Hopefully The Raid 2 lives up to the hype.



Watch the sequel now!! It's even better
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Justice League: The New Frontier


In the never-ending battle of Marvel vs. DC, DC has triumphed over and over again in the medium of animation and video games. With the coming of Civil War and The Dawn of Justice, it's a fine time to reexamine that comparison, and boy, did DC kick Marvel's ass.

When compared to Marvel's The Avengers, it's pretty much no competition as DC brought political plot-lines of the struggle against communism and the celebration of the American way into play, not to mention the glorious homage paid to the Golden Age of comics, something Marvel, till this day, is still struggling to accomplish (or rather, never even tried). While Marvel rehashes a boring alien invasion storyline, DC does something fresher with a grittier insight into how the cynicism against communists had affected fellow American citizens - our heroes included.

The true intrigue of this little gem is the way it blends the retro values of yesterdays with the modern values of tomorrow. The characters are reconstructed in a way that, while retaining their original design, are familiar enough for any newcomers to the DCverse that long-winded introductions are not needed. This is the way the Justice League movie should have been.

The one complaint I do have is perhaps the voice of Batman. I still believe that there can only one Batman - the Conroy himself. Oh well. It's not affecting enough to ruin the movie experience.
(Better than The Avengers, period)