Reviews

They used all the tropes in the book for this one. I don't want to spoil anything, but if you are a regular to horrors you know them already. The drama felt theatrical and fake. None of it was believable enough. Too produced and derivative. Some of the main story points were good though - well thought through and well timed. Made it difficult to discern exactly what happened and who were responsible for what. There were also some good horror scenes.

If you can stomach the cringe and all the classic tropes, there are some good moments to extract from this, making it a somewhat watchable horror.

The Last Duel is a drama, make no mistake. It is "slow" and dialogue heavy.

As a drama, then, it is really well done. Excellent performances all over the board from Damon, Driver and Comer. Affleck does a great interpretation and Lawther as the king, likewise. Every scene was gripping, and the layout of the interpretations of the characters interesting.

What ruins it is the tilt toward modern feminism and me too movement. It tells the viewer who to sympathize with, adds untrue events to bolster that, and ruins the conclusion. Even silencing the real main female character in order to achieve the goal. All men and society bad and unjust, woman benign and virtuous. You know the message. It's unfortunate that they have to poison every nuance and interesting event with bitterness and low level, simplistic interpretation to further a modern goal. Making every story into a shallow sense morality.

Without it, this movie would go down as one of the greats of our time. Instead, we have a really good movie at the core, with a disney touch on top.

Dark, grim and methodical was both our hero and the movie itself.

Not quite the pace we've come to learn from Nolan, but interesting enough most of the time.

The scenes were a bit uneven, as were the performances. Robert did well for the most part, but lacked the ability to summon Bruce's charm when needed. The double sided nature of Batman and Bruce got lost a bit here. His chemistry with Batwoman wasn't up to par either.

Zoe played the Selina part well, but the character itself was totally uninteresting. Her racist remark about white people didn't help. You just know they have to put them in there in every single movie from Hollywood these days though. Having a teenage looking girl running for mayor was another decision they made, in the same vein.

Paul Dano's Riddler on the other hand truly stole the show. Just what we expect from a good Batman villain. Excellent and unique performance. The portrayal made me change my mind on the riddler as a character.

John Turturro's Carmine was great as well. Together with a few great scenes, the two of them raised the film to what it is.

And it is a good one, but overrated.

Go in there expecting a 7, and you'll have a good time.

I want to give my opinion on the relatively low vote average. To be sure - this movie is not for everyone. To be honest, I can't really say it's for me. My sympathy with the low-voters lies in the expectation of a movie and the emotions you want to extract from it. When I watch horror movies I want to get scared, and have a nightmare or two because of it. Ghostland doesn't offer that. Instead, it offers something much more chilling and to the core gut wrench-disgusting. I have seen every horror movie in the catalogue and this one stands out as unique. My bet is this: the average low voting stems from the fact that people didn't go to bed that night scared, but emotionally disturbed.

Ghostland is at it's core a drama, that, in a brilliant turn of events, turns into a fully-fledged horrorshow. This turning point is really well timed and combines the drama and horror wonderfully. It's not there as a filler or headscratcher but as a catalyst of the remaining brutal events and the emotions they bring. It's not a spoiler but something you sense from the beginning, that you can't quite figure out. The cast is unexpectedly good. Normally a horrorcast is just strong enough to hold up whatever evil is in it, but sisters Beth and Vera (played by Crystal Reed and Anastasia Phillips) together with the great story are excelling.

Don't watch this movie for the sake of watching a horror movie. Watch it because it might take you somewhere no other movie has. For the sake of experience as such, not for the sake of a preferred experience.

I thoroughly enjoyed all iterations of Pirates of the Caribbean. I have mixed feelings about this one, however. First thing's first - the plot.

The story is fairly complex, especially if you haven't watched any of the previous ones. The two famed pirates we know from before, Cpt Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) and Cpt Hector Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), find their paths intertwined with Henry Turner (Brenton Thwaites) and Carina Smyth (Kaya Scodelario). They all come to seek the trident of Poseidon. Needless to say obtaining it is easier said than done. One of the factors stalling their progress is Captain Salazar, brilliantly interpreted by Javier Bardem.

The movie shifts from being an uncomfortable teenage romantic movie, to a bad sitcom and then to a fascinating fable with jaw-dropping special effects. The two former spoils the experience for me, the latter pulls me right back in. The typical Hollywood script of boy meets girl and girls body gets highlighted in various camera angles and talked about throughout the movie is there. Together with not-very-fun punchlines in almost every scene. The serious story and scenes of significance that Jack Sparrow and his ludicrous crew normally are supposed to bounce on are too few here. The ones that are there, though, are really intriguing. This is where Captain Salazar shines and reminds us of the magical, unforgiving and endless universe that is Pirates of the Caribbean.

The movie as a whole is still good, and if you're a fan of the previous ones - worth your time.

At the very least your top villain of all time list will get a little longer

First off I have to come clean with the fact that I usually love Tim Burton's movies. I like the art, adventures and believe they bring something unique and fantastical to the otherwise bland Hollywood scene when it comes to fables directed to audiences above 10 years old.

I expected a flop because of the low score, but Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children doesn't disappoint one bit. Because of this I find it meaningful to include the most prevalent critiques mentioned from reviews as I give you my own 2 cents. The criticism I've read thus far point toward 1.Sloppy/confusing second half 2.Bad acting and 3.Shallow character building/different from the original book.

The story is complex and engaging from beginning til the end, revealing only a little bit time to time as it goes on. The mystique thus continues throughout the movie and gives the viewer a better chance to identify with the main character Jake (Asa Butterfield) as he unravels the secrets. The story is really interesting, the characters in it are fascinating and even the romance is working and enhances the plot. It is obvious in ways that should be obvious and complex in ways that should be complex. There are subtleties and meaning in the relationships and they are well thought through (for being a movie of it's kind). Sure the movie picks up and gets more action oriented towards the later half, but I feel it is well timed and well executed.

As for criticism regarding the acting I just totally disagree. While Asa Butterfield doesn't shine as the main character, Eva Green, Samuel L. Jackson and Ella Purnell all do. Eva's interpretation of the caring and controlling Miss Peregrine is spot on. Her facial expressions themselves tell everything about the character. Samuel L. Jackson is perfect for the role, and Ella creates the needed link between the peculiar world and the normal. I'm otherwise easily put off by bad acting.

Tim Burton makes his followers proud with this one. He sparks our imagination and gives us another reason to continue watching kids movies. I'm so grateful to directors like him and we need them when so much of the storytelling these days are pre-written with an algorithm to draw the most people in.

I'll jump the plot for Thor as the short one provided by IMDb is more than sufficient to spoil half the movie.

Chris Hemsworth seems at home with his interpretation of the young and naive Thor, although abit ludicrous and not strong enough to carry the heavy crown of a superhero in Hollywood. That's not measured in muscles by the way. Hopkins, Portman and Skarsgård do what they can with the script they are handed. Tom Hiddleston on the other hand steals the show in my opinion and brings some character to the otherwise weak dialogues and shallow story. The mandatory romance is unexpectedly uncomfortable with Natalie's character Jane Foster playing out almost as an under aged groupie to the rock star Thor.

The visuals are good as you would expect, but nothing jaw dropping. The many backgrounds have great detail but I never felt any mystique or ancient power hidden in the pixels.

There are some goodies to extract from the movie don't get me wrong. Agent Coulson reveals his connections with Iron Man and perhaps hints about the upcoming The Avengers set to be released in 2012.

If you are still not sure whether or not to watch Thor, I'm sad to say if you've seen any marvel-movie from Hollywood, you've already seen Thor.

I'll skip the plot entirely for this review as the one given by IMDb is more than enough. That is to say you can describe it all with a few words and still risk spoiling the whole experience.

Not all true though. Behind the quite predictable storyline lies some pretty good scenes and amazingly good acting from our main character Nina played by Natalie Portman. She makes the story believable at least subjectively, told from inside her own perspective. If you can manage the cheesy character of her producer, Thomas Leroy, the rest of the cast does a good job.

For you out there interested in a mysterious thriller have something to look forward to in Black Swan, because even if you figure out how the story will end around 20 minutes in you will still feel the thrill of every scene. There's something cosy about occasionally getting your heart rate up and having total focus on the screen. The Silence of the Lambs and Gothika comes to mind here as a combination for a fitting comparison. Only lacking the true mystery behind an intelligent MS and being predictable hinders Black Swan from becoming a real blockbuster. What I like then is that it doesn't seem to be produced to bring good sales only, but rather to be a meaningful experience within the genre.

If you get a blanket for the youngest this is a movie for the whole family. Good acting, good story and a good soundtrack to go with it

Final verdict. Acting: 8 Soundtrack: 8 Story: 7 Production: 9

Not that I felt the same thrill Thierry must have gotten while roaming the streets with street artists, I however admit to downloading the movie via torrent (yes its illegal), and so watched it in my own living room for anyone interested in the circumstances of the review.

Viewers should be reminded that Exit Through the Gift Shop is a documentary rather than a movie, but at the same time plays out more like an adventure movie than an educational one about street artists. Albeit being more down to earth, a fitting comparison could be Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.

Thierry Guetta is our main character and camera guy at the same time. While lurking behind the camera he tells us his intriguing story when his life took a sudden and distinct turn. He had became known as "the guy with the camera" - developing some kind of compulsive disorder after his mother passed. His argument that everything should be recorded or else abruptly might get lost at any point in life seems reasonable but his thousands of tapes, that nobody would ever watch, piled up in his basement confirms the maladaptive nature of his behavior.

His compulsive filming became a useful tool first when he met a street artist that he began to follow - filming every event of the artists creative process. He sank deeper and deeper into the world of street artists and that became sort of an addiction to Thierry. He seemed to almost forget about his wife and kids. Exit Through the Gift Shop tells us as much about street artisting as it does about Thierry himself. Despite being, as he himself points out, "a ghost behind the camera", his character truly steals the show. This is by no means a problem but rather enrich the story with a greater purpose. Thierrys meeting with Banksy and the following episodes poses a lot of interesting questions about what art really is, what it means to humans, what talent is made of and even about complex group behavior.

Despite being directed by a street artist and evidently put together from thousands of different tapes, Exit Through the Gift Shop is amazingly well directed. It doesn't feel hyped, it doesn't seem to lie or exaggerate the happenings and the fact that an interesting, motivated and special character gets to portrait everything from an outside view is fascinating to watch. My text is hardly enough to summarize it so the only tip i can give you is WATCH IT!

Saw it in cinemas a week after opening night or so. I couldn't keep off the 8 vote though i feel its a bit high.

Short about the movie before i review it. Cobb - the main character, played by Leonardo Di Caprio, is a former architect and accused for throwing his wife out the window - literally, is trying to clean his record with the police by doing a job for a powerful acquaintance(Ken Watanabe - Saito) that involves dreamexorcism and the like. While struggling with the mystic relationship with his former wife he puts together a team of specialists to handle the job. Ellen Page plays Ariadne, the gifted young architect. Tom Hardy plays Eames, the 'impersonator' if you will. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Arthur, in charge of the technical aspects. They are all there to trick Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy) big time. By taking him through three levels of dreaming they hope to alter the very core of his motivation and change his future plans as a result. You will have the rest explained to you, don't worry about that.

I've heard people saying they have to watch the movie 3-4 times before understanding the story in full. In my opinion you have almost everything explained to you just as it happens. This comes through in discussions among the characters or with the camera itself. To clarify, if you have to think about something for a moment because you didn't understand it fully the characters in the movie interrupts your thought process by explaining exactly what just happened. I don't mean to sound arrogant at all but I have this problem with movies that tries to reach out to everyone at once. If the aim is to include every watcher they obviously have to explain things over and over in different ways. I totally get that but it doesn't fit well with a movie like this one, it takes all the thought provocation and mysticism out.

I don't know if it was the overall Hollywood-humorous-mood of the movie that made it difficult for me to take the characters seriously or if it was just poor portraiting from the actors. It seemed more of a kindergarten with Leonardo, the grownup, running around trying to calm down the kids - Ellen and Joseph. More of a Harry Potter cast feeling to it Im afraid. Im also disappointed to say that Leo had his worst performance in a long time, if not ever. I'd think the manuscript was aiming for a very emotionally moving struggle for the main character. However Cobbs little misadventures wasn't moving me one inch. Leos acting felt empty and almost fake.

Nolan tries to feed the watcher with a bit of everything, romance, humour, action, sci-fi and psychology all at the same time but falls short in every area. The actionscenes and animations are great though, in line with almost all new movies from Hollywood these days. This to me unfortunately makes Inception more of a hardcore actionmovie than the thought provoking masterpiece I was hoping for.

Now if you are one not particularly annoyed by areas discussed above you wont be disappointed with Inception, you wont be anyway. The ideas behind it are new, very interesting and thought provoking. I think people will start investigating and experimenting with their dreams just a bit more after seeing Inception.

I know I do, and I like it :)

I watched this movie in the cinemas since i wanted the full effect and to be horrified like never before as the youtubevideos suggests. The movie was so hyped i hoped it to be that scary movie I've been waiting for since my experience with Rec.

The setup is a house, two people in it and a camera. Starts off promising with fairly good acting. It almost seems they are a couple in real life, that would be my guess. Micah(Micah) does what you would expect from a boyfriend after his girlfriend tells him she hears noises and sees things after midnight - he sets up a camera in the house and starts taunting. As texts in the middle of the screen shows the process, day1..day12 etc. things escalates from day to day. People in the audience are getting nervous and i feel the tension rising and building up my expectations. However the movie is never really kicking off and nothing is ever happening, its like Scream without the guy with the knife. Its like your lover giving you a lapdance and leaving in the middle of the show. Its like i pay 15bucks to get scared but i get angry instead. The whole movie felt like the first 30 minutes of a good horror movie, then all the sudden texts start running down the screen and the cinema is lit up - the movie is actually ending after 30 min? oh well my clock tells me I've been sitting here for 1½ hours.

Taking the budget into consideration i would say its a great horror movie. I guess i was just expecting something more frightening. Want to know how the audience was reacting? They reacted like me, laughing and complaining when walking out.

I could almost promise you the hype is mostly made up and the videos you can watch online are promotion and bullshit. I cant imagine anyone leaving the cinema or getting freaked out. OK, maybe if they are bored and leave or angry and freaked out.

Ill try to somehow review this in short although im one of the persons who is mindblowed by this movie.

Sure im biased to like Chan-wook Parks movies since i could laugh at about any scene with his simple but spot on dialogues and tiny hints of humor. I'm a cyborg, but that's OK is however very different from Oldboy or any of the sympathy trilogy movies. It has what Hollywood lacks, no clues and great depth as opposed to a great deal of clues with no depth. To make a long story short, if the maincharacter needs to take a pee, she doesn't first consult with the camera so that the viewer is sure to understand what is going on. Now this to some can be a big drawback, why i believe the overall score on IMDb is relatively low. So beware if you aren't interested in any of the psychological, spiritual or philosophical thoughts that the movie is offering, because it is packed full.

Cha Young-goon, the main character played by Su-jeong Lim is experiencing a big trauma in her youth and - perhaps - copes by 'becoming' a cyborg (You could guess her inspiration comes from her grandma - the rat) and with it comes some guidelines, the Sins. sympathy, feeling guilty and useless daydreaming are some of them. These becomes her obstacles in her path to rid the earth of the whiteuns - her caretakers on the mental hospital. There you have it. Now you do get clues as to why she wants to go on a killing spree but i wont include spoilers here.

The soundtrack is well-timed and good. The acting from just about any in the cast are great. They don't have easy characters to portrait and you would think they had many pointers and clues as how to interpret them because they feel very authentic. The patients all have some kind of psychological disorder, everything from only being able to walk backwards to having the ability to steal peoples characteristics. Therein lies much of the humor. From outside they look disoriented and in chaos, but Chan-wook takes us on a fascinating journey inside their heads. The patients all seem to understand each other on another level than the caretakers do and it is beautiful to watch. The movie jumps from being funny to deep to emotional over and over again and im left totally drained out at the end of the movie. It doesn't matter that the ending is abrupt, if you feel like me, you want to watch it again and again to pick up on things you missed and to go through the emotions all over again.

I will have to be bold and say that although Oldboy is not far behind, this is the best from Chan-wook Park and hence one of the best movies period.