Bm93's Film Diary for 2015: March & April

Wasn't quite as enjoyable as the fifth instalment, but that was only marginally. It's actually getting quite the task to come up with anything new to say on this franchise. It is what it is. The last films are definitely an improvement over the first three films, as they've finally embraced their over-the-top nature.

It's fun. It's entertaining. It drags on a bit too long. These films doesn't need to be hours long. They should be so short that they're over before you'll start looking at the clock.
6/10

Check this list out: The Middle-Earth Saga - Ranked

Daniel Day-Lewis performance in There Will Be Blood could be considered one of the greatest acting performances ever. It's that good. It's not Daniel Day-Lewis that we see on the screen for nearly three hours. What we see is greedy, selfish and cruel oil man Daniel Plainview.

There Will Be Blood is a modern classic. A film similar to the epics from Hollywood's golden years. It's hauntingly shot, extremely well-written and masterfully put together. A film that manages to open with 15 minutes without dialogue, and yet succeeds in capturing you, is something special.
9/10

Whenever I think about Corpse Bride, my thoughts immediately try to figure out why it's not mentioned more often by people, when it comes to discussing the absolute best animated films. I'm sitting here with a feeling that Corpse Bride is being shamefully overlooked and underrated. Even by Tim Burton fans.

Tim Burton has crafted a beautiful film. A film that manages to combine Burton's typical sense for macabre fun with a lot of charm, humour, darkness and emotion. The animation is wonderfully executed and the music is mesmerizingly beautiful and haunting. One of my all time favourite film moments is Victor and Emily's piano duet. That gets me emotional.
9/10

Fast Five is the first good film in this franchise. Much thanks to the added star power of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. Seeing him go up against Vin Diesel in a fist fight is easily the most entertaining and awesome moment out of these five films so far.

It's also better because it's way more over-the-top than any of the other films. The action scenes are taken to a ludicrous level, which causes this film to much more fun and enjoyable. The pacing is, however, unfortunately uneven. There a huge chunk in the middle that could have been cut or trimmed down. As it is now, I feel that it drags on way too long.
6/10

There's no point in hiding it. Age of Ultron is Marvel's biggest disappointment. After seeing Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain America: The Winder Soldier taking Marvel into slightly different directions, it's extremely unfortunate that Joss Whedon decided to make Age of Ultron as formulaic as it possibly could be.

Don't get me wrong, it's certainly entertaining. The visuals are splendid, and there a decent amount of moments that'll have you chuckling (all though, not as many as expected), but the whole film feels like it's just playing on one note. It feels monotonous. The action gets repetitive very fast, and there are never any huge turns in the story to pull the film out of that. It feels very much like we're watching the same scene over and over again. Action - banter - action - banter. It gets stale very quickly. Particularly because there are no real tension to the action. I never got a sense of danger or threat. Most of the action is too focused on rescuing civilians as opposed to actually putting our heroes in danger. When we're constantly watching Captain America evacuating people instead of fearing for his life, it gets kinda dull.

I do however like that they fleshed out Hawkeye a lot more in this film, than what they've done previously. Causing him to almost be the star of this film, sending bigger characters a bit more to the background. It was a slightly welcome change, even if it caused the film to lose a bit humour while trying to build up emotion around Hawkeye.

Ultron was a disappointment. He never turned out to be as scary, intimidating or complex as I had hoped for. Instead he felt slightly cartoony, which was very jarring because he just got more cartoony as the film went on. He started out as being sinister, but that's just kept fading away.

Now, if you do enjoy Marvel films, you're likely to enjoy this one as well. But seeing their track record, one should expect more from their biggest film to date. They can, and should, do better.
6/10

Despite the filmmakers taking creative liberties and not being 100% factually accurate all the time, The Imitation Game is a brilliantly constructed portrait of a man who deserved much more than what he ended up with. Norwegian director Morten Tyldum's film is in many ways your typical old-fashioned biography, but it's elevated above that by its incredible story, how well-made it is and by Benedict Cumberbatch's outstanding performance as the wrongly dishonored Alan Turing.

It's a film that gives us an incredibly powerful, nuanced and emotional look at Alan Turing. The film takes place during the cracking of the Enigma code, and gives us occasionally glimpses of his younger days and his later days, when he is facing prosecution for being gay. It's a film that manages to go trough every kind of emotion, and when the final devastating minutes unfold, I was left speechless. An outstanding film.
9/10

A massive improvement over the first three films in this franchise. The action is better and the story is slightly better. But the biggest improvement lies in the acting by Paul Walker and Vin Diesel, and the dynamic chemistry between those two, causing the film to be a bit more fun and engaging to watch.

It's still not great though. There are several scenes that drags on way too long and there's not one memorable moment to be found. Instantly forgettable.
5/10

Holy shit, what an extremely effective horror film It Follows turned out to be. And what's even more impressive, it succeeded without turning to extremely cheap tricks. It's the scariest film I've seen in a while. Constantly unsettling and creepy with its wildly absurd premise. I was never comfortable while watching it. Always on the edge of my seat and actually rather nervous. Which is probably the best compliment I can give a horror film.

I also loved how technically and visually brilliant it is. The cinematography is absolutely gorgeous and the consistent use of long shots have never felt more appropriate. And when it's combined with the films energetic retro score, it creates an atmosphere that most modern horror films doesn't even come close to.

It Follows is basically a masterpiece in its genre. It's terrifying, atmospheric and it's quite likely going to get under your skin. The next time I have sex, I'm probably going to be very paranoid afterwards.
9/10

Already from the moment the title appeared on the screen, I knew this film was going to turn out to be a huge pile of garbage. And the next 90 minutes that followed absolutely proved me right. This is unfunny, not even remotely scary and completely cringe-worthy.

And Matthew Lillard. Has he ever done anything besides repeating the same kind of acting/character that he did in the Scream films?
2/10

There are some well-done action scenes here, but when the film doesn't pack those scenes into something even remotely interesting or engaging, those scenes mean absolutely nothing. There's excellent craftsmanship behind them, but awful storytelling, weak acting and no emotional connection outweighs it.

And when there's nothing to grasp or hold onto in a film, it's basically useless and just a waste of time. Which is what Tokyo Drift ultimately turns out to be. A goddamned waste of time.
2/10

A very formulaic western in the style of those good old Clint Eastwood revenge flicks. Much of it is handled pretty well, and Mads Mikkelsen is compelling in his role. The problem with The Salvation lies in its predictability and that it doesn't bring anything new to a very old, and used genre.

It's also disappointing to see that they take and actress of Eva Green's calibre and reduce her to a pretty thankless role that could have been played by basically anyone.
5/10

Found footage horror is a very tired genre, but As Above, So Below breaths some fresh air into it by setting its premise to the catacombs of Paris. It does have very The Da Vinci Code/National Treasure puzzle and treasure solving feel to it that works well with the tone of horror it establishes.

It does go a bit too much over rail towards the end, causing the film to be a bit more difficult to swallow than necessary, and it's not a particularly scary film.
5/10

In some ways a pure copy of the first film, but without Vin Diesel to add some "fun". It's also louder and dumber, and slightly less entertaining. Which means that it's not particularly entertaining at all.

I do like that they dropped Michelle Rodriguez out of it, but Eva Mendes is not really that much better, so yet again I was constantly annoyed by someone who annoys me. So annoying when that happens.
3/10

I never was a big fan of the original, and thought it to be nothing but a mediocre comedy. So I never had any major interest in this, and therefore very low expectations. Which is probably why I found it to be only slightly weaker than the original.

Now, it's not a film I particularly enjoyed. But it did have its moments. There are a few genuine chuckles to be found here, and I did appreciate that there were some subtle jokes. It's not a full-out hilarious films, and the fun jokes are far between each other. It's also overlong, and grosser than necessary.
4/10

The plot and characters are ridiculously stupid and obnoxious. Every one is painfully annoying, and Paul Walker's hair is just baffling, while Michelle Rodriguez is the worst thing ever.

It's extremely loud and dumb, and while some of the action beats works fine, most of it just seems to be forgettable. Not a good start for this franchise.
4/10

Interstellar just gets better for each viewing. See my review for it.
Ambitious and Emotionally Powerful

It's probably ten years since I saw Shrek. I remembered liking it a lot, despite not remembering too much from it. Upon revisiting it now, I've come to the conclusion that I should have let it stay in my memory. It simply didn't hold up.

I think it opens strongly, with all the various nods to different fairy tales and how it pokes fun at those tropes. But then it falls a part like a card house. The plot becomes extremely generic and tiresome, the jokes stop being funny and the film seems to have forgotten what it started out as.
5/10

The penguins were the best thing in every Madagascar film. Now they got their own film, and the result is enjoyable, but slightly disappointing. There are occasional glimpses of how brilliant these penguins can be, but very often I found the jokes to fall a little flat. But this might just be because I've gotten older. I can imagine kids loving it.

But then again, it's difficult to be harsh on Penguins of Madagascar, because it's a whole film about penguins. And I absolutely adore those cute, fluffy, wobbly creatures.
6/10

I do, to a certain degree, understand that people will dislike The Da Vinci Code. It's very long, full of exposition and its far-fetched plot might certainly alienate a lot of viewers. But I love this film. I love the pace of it. That it never feels like it's almost three hours long. I love the puzzles and theories in it. I love the mystery and conspiracy. And I think Audrey Tautou is the cutest thing in it.
9/10

An interesting idea. That's it. Everything else sucks. It's some sort of satire that is apparently trying delve into depression and everyday life, but it fails horribly at doing so.

The whole premise of the film is centred around a newly elected pope, who is freaking out at the moment when he's introduced. And the film is about his struggle to overcome something. The film never bothers with going into details about his struggle. It's just saying "he's struggling. And it's bad. And because he's struggling we can stretch this out forever and add meaningless volleyball scenes." There's literally nothing here. Nothing.
2/10

While watching To Catch a Thief I was constantly thinking that there's a really great film in here somewhere. But it's just a fine film. Solid framework. Nice premise. Solid performances by charming people that got great chemistry between each other. There's a lot of fun in just that. But that's all basically this film is. It just feels like empty banter for the most of the time.

I get that Hitchcock obviously wanted the film to be more about its two leads than the actual plot, but this caused for a slightly frustrating viewing experience. At some point you just want Hitchcock to switch his attention a little bit. To mix things up, just to avoid the plot feeling so secondary, dull and predictable.
6/10

I'll just say it; I loved this film. I absolutely adored it. A perfect blend of action, comedy, violence, drama and over-the-top silliness, sprinkled with some clever homages to other spy films. Wonderfully shot with a lot of style and flair. The characters are extremely likeable, portrayed by a solid bunch of actors delivering good performances. Colin Firth is particularly really enjoyable.

I loved the fact that it was full of surprises. That you couldn't possibly guess what would come next. The constant change of tone added to that, and ended up actually working in towards the film's advantage. But honestly, it was just so bloody entertaining. The last time I had such a pure fun time was during the first Kick-Ass. And a dollar to the one who guess the director of that film.
10/10

Mad Money is background noise. It's not a film you watch, it's one have on if you're getting tired of those laugh tracks from various sitcoms. But it's not good background noise.

It's mostly annoying. Quite often unfunny with cringe-worthy performances. I think Katie Holmes is extremely cute. This film made me questioning my sanity in that regard.
3/10

My Week with Marilyn is one of those films that look pretty, are well-acted and overall competently put together, but falls in the trap of being nothing else but a big shoulder shrug. The idea behind it is interesting, but it's taken nowhere as the film falls in an endless circle of repetition. It goes over the very same plot points a few too many times for me to become fully engrossed in what's happening on the screen.

I also believe that Eddie Redmayne's character is flat and boring to follow. I don't sense any sort of proper development in him, and I do get the feeling that he's just there for being there's sake. And seeing as it's mostly around him we get to explore Marilyn Monroe, I find it hard to connect with them, because he's so dull.

The film do have its fair share of cute, and slightly amusing moments. It's also easy enough to get through without becoming completely bored, but I do think that it's nothing more than a shoulder shrug. A big 'meh'.
5/10