Reviews

Impressive performances all around and Andrew Garfield is surprisingly very effective and who the hell ever saw Spider-Man suiting up as an army medic carrying wounded soldiers overnight?.

Hacksaw Ridge's detailed gruesomeness brought the added heaviness in its story, you'll see the bombs producing a destructive force and flying legs comes with it and bullets penetrating into the skin to the flesh of its victims.

This is Mel Gibson's first movie to direct after a some sort of hiatus in movie directing after Apocalypto (2006), Hacksaw Ridge is indeed his comeback film and he definitely earned a lot of respect again. Gibson has a thing with gore, his The Passion Of The Christ (2004) also dealt with a lot of blood and pain, same thing we saw in Hacksaw Ridge, both were great films in its respected area, so I think, gore is what his signature style should be 'cause he's good at it.

The movie is a decent retelling of one of the most heartfelt and incredible stories during the WWII, the part I'm looking forward to see is Doss saying these words: "Please Lord, help me get one more. Help me get one more." and God! That was my favorite slice of the film.

Logan, the last of the Wolverine Trilogy, is actually Fox's / Marvel's answer to DC's The Dark Knight Returns written by Frank Miller.

Logan's grit, brutality, realistic cinematography, excellent writing and the actors' compelling performances which separates itself from being a comic book movie and will definitely end up being a cult classic gem.

Sadly enough, despite numerous rumors surrounding Jackman's contract extension, this will be his last appearance as Wolverine, but the good news is, we are in for a ride in the most enthralling X-Men movie to date.

I like Director James Mangold's vision of the film, and its not very often that the third movie of any franchises will come up on top, despite the Wolverine Trilogy's start was a bit shaky and full of viewer and critical backlash, Logan finally emerged from its ashes and broke the third installment curse.

Both Jackman and Stewart already established the acting efficiency, but its a great wonder to see Dafne Keen's X-23 and she's a total badass kid.

(SPOILER) Another thing Logan got right, that MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) can't do, is that they can kill their heroes. (Let's forget about the Quicksilver death in Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) because that's just plain stupid) A death of a superhero isn't a bad thing, the message is, No One Is Safe, to show us what will happen if mutants really exists. They don't need a big violet murderer in the galaxy to push them, instead this film made us realize that our biggest villain is ourselves.

I personally don't see Logan as a comic book movie but rather an interpretation of what's happening in the real world. The government's or the big companies selfish agenda for power and control for their personal gain and the few who risked their lives to save millions.

The Disappointments Room is a disappointment itself. A little interesting plot fully ruined by its lame execution, where, it seems that the actors' efforts we're put into trash.

I personally don't think that the problems entirely lies on its director, D.J. Caruso, where he's proved that he's also good at some action-thriller flicks like Eagle Eye (2008) and xXx: Return Of Xander Cage (2016 / 2017). The biggest chunk of failure in this movie is the limited budget paired with an ambitious story, a tale that could've been deeper with a more frightening house, like a Gothic-type-mansion-like and a more believable threat.

Kate Beckinsale, as we all know, is a well established actress, her skills are unquestionable and we are complacent on how the other actors performed as well, but what we can all see are wasted efforts all around.

The Disappointments Room has its good actors and potentials to be a terrifying psychological thriller but the poorly written script and dull story causes this horror a forgettable-no-scare-horror-film.

Allied is a WWII tale in which we've seen it before but with a different take, it is an ideal drama-thriller-romance story but we can just take the romance away since we can't really find a strong chemistry.

The film's nature is very close to what a World War II environment feel should be, but, its more amazing to know that not every design, especially on their clothing, are pulled out exactly as what we knew from history books. As quoted from the film's costume designer, Joanna Johnston during an interview with Fashionista: "I wanted to ground it in the time, but I also wanted to give it its own look, so you kind of pick and mix, in that regard. I think it's a very attractive period, and it looks good to our contemporary eyes at this point in time, so it's not difficult to make it look good for the film. Nothing was a straight copy, it was a whole load of different influences or parts that go into making your interpretation for the film.".

Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard both looked lavishly good, with their dresses and suits they both resemble power and class. Cotillard, notably, seemed to fit on every dresses, and no matter what you make her wear, she remains stunningly gorgeous.

Pitt and Cotillard had their share of talent throughout the film, even though the romantic charisma between the two didn't spark that bright, they were still able to carry and effectively played their role in a very compelling manner.

As the biggest revelation unravels, the couple tried their best to save their relationship by running away, but only then that they realized that their love is not just built on survival, but also by sacrifice.

Ford showcased his ambition in this gripping neo-noir thriller, plus its brilliant actors, Nocturnal Animals has its own animalistic nature in terms of being a compelling and stylish thriller-drama.

We all know that Amy Adams is the star of the film and she's definitely sexy and gorgeous and somehow slayed every outfit, but Aaron Taylor-Johnson definitely carried his character well, we know he can be badass in Kick-Ass (2010 / 2013) but he can also be a total bad guy, let's just forget about his Quicksilver role in Avengers: Age Of Ultron (2015), c'mon where do you see a speedster getting hit by a bullet?

Director Tom Ford is also a fashion designer, and that aspect of his life is very apparent in his film, the zealouslyness when it comes to beauty and style, where he uses his actors as his living mannequins with taste.

But it doesn't just end there, as the outer features only served as a basis for the story, y'see that the idea of materialism is what its primary character has been living into. Susan Morrow (Amy Adams) affection to beauty is what destroys her loyalty and love by choosing a different path following her materialistic desires.

Susan's current marriage is beginning to crumble with her cheating husband Hutton Morrow (Armie Hammer), she then received a unpublished novel from her ex-husband Edward Shefield (Jake Gyllenhaal) with an invitation for dinner, Susan envision the book as another reality where she and Edward are the protagonists, however, as the story goes dark she then remembered her life with Edward until she decided to end their relationship in exchange for a different life, and when she went to the agreed dinner to meet her ex and for a possible reconciliation, this is where her biggest realization occurred.

Nocturnal Animals is a sharp, well-acted, beautifully written thriller drama which makes the lesson of loyalty a high-end cut.

Painfully long. After his long years being a director, for me Silence is just one of Scorsese's gradually absorbing films and more of a boredom despite its promising cast, but it is indeed a heartfelt drama.

Again, don't get me wrong, watching the Silence is just like going through the hurting pits of hell, but, in a good way, as this is what the film wants us to feel as we watch these tormented Christians.

Another thing I like is when the narrator asks questions in his prayer, and especially when he questioned his prayer being sent to silence, that part, I'm sure that most of us felt that way before, the feeling of hopelessness to the point that we question the existence of God.

Liam Neeson's presence can hardly be felt in this film, but I think that's just fine, Andrew Garfield's sincere portrayal of his character brought life to a dying but a martyr priest.

Director Martin Scorsese once studied becoming a priest, however, he ended up being a friar in the cinematic world, an angel to some, thus saying, it's not really new to a Scorsese film to include any references to Christianity. Aside from this movie being about the two primary priest, it can be noticed that some stories or aspects of the Bible are being interpreted: Sinners (in this film it was the villagers protecting Christianity) being crucified ; the betrayal of Kichijiro (Yozuke Kubozuka) which is similar to Judas to Jesus ; Father Rodrigues denying Jesus similar to Peter in the Bible and many more.

Though the movie breaks every enthusiasm in you and promises no sweet conclusion, Silence is not about who's good and who's evil, it's more about creating a balance between beliefs while showing respect to each factions. Silence places one of the most important query of life: "How Far Will You Go Protecting What You Believe?". It may not have the same charisma compared to The Passion Of The Christ (2004), it still delivers its message of faith, sacrifice and trust to our creator.

One of the best coming-of-age film ever made. The Edge Of Seventeen is just the typical coping-up-with-teenage-problems story, however, it is the movie's wit and edgy humor partnered by Nadine's rough, spoiled-brat, stubbornly and a total out-of-control attitude that brings life to its piece.

This, I consider is one of Steinfeld's best performances as an actress, with her natural charm and skills she, indeed, deliver her role amazingly, where it seems that Nadine is Hailee and Hailee is Nadine. I like her scenes where she's being stubborn with her mom (Kyra Sedgwick) and older brother (Blake Jenner), its looks natural, no joke, seems like Hailee is born to be a rebel kid.

Not just Steinfeld, but also Hayden Szeto's, and their awkward friend-to-lovers story. Erwin's (Szeto) sheepish and nerdy attitude blends well with a hard-headed girl like Nadine.

This is Kelly Fremon Craig's directoral debut and she already made a marvelous job in this likable teenage-comedy-drama, where only a few can actually interpret a teenage angst on-screen, some of them are just focusing on building up a love story between their characters, whereas, Edge Of Seventeen created a wall so they can stick with their agenda, to relay the events that's happening to teenagers, in a way that parents would understand.

The Edge Of Seventeen tells about a girl, named Nadine, whose at a very young age is a total mulish up until she reached her teenage years. Then one night made the worst ever worse, she saw her older brother hooking up with her bestfriend, Krista (Haley Lu Richardson), which ruined their year-long friendship. Despite not having much of friends she's still her teacher's, Mr. Bruner (Woody Harrelson), favorite student, who, also served as her personal adviser. And then there's her crush, Nick (Alexander Calvert), that high-school badass prick, supposedly her only chance of getting happy, but only took advantage of Nadine, ending up brokenhearted and, as usual, disappointed.

Moonlight builds its main subject with substance-filled chapters, acted by brilliant and compelling actors, in a rare fascinating story while dealing with difficult issues, race and sexuality, while fighting the pressures of life.

This is Director Barry Jenkins' first Oscar Award winning piece, but before this, he's already known for his style, for he fills the silver screen with detailed masterpieces apart from it being visually captivating. He doesn't do movies for the visual pleasures, there's always a story behind every angle of his film.

Moonlight is divided into three chapters, all with the lead being performed by three different actors whom all provided a soul to their character, Chiron.

The first part is titled "Little", which entails Chiron's isolation as a kid, for different reasons like bullying and his mother being a crack addict. The second called "Chiron" where, in his adolescent years, began to question or be curious of his sexuality, and still the bullies in school that made his inner beast came to life. The third is "Black", a full grown Chiron, who is now a drug dealer, following the footsteps of his mentor Juan (Mahershala Ali).

Moonlight is so grounded in its character development, but it never went dull. Every scenes is based on the character's perspective, which is filled with searing emotions all throughout without focusing other than its subject matter.

Manchester By The Sea drives its audiences to a heartbreaking story of loss and acceptance while pretending that everything's OK.

The concept of its story is something that isn't new to our eyes, we've seen several films who dealt with something or someone they've lost, but Director Lonergan separates this film from being formulaic by maintaining its slow-paced tone instead of going for a melodramatic approach.

Affleck's shaky voice and bored eyes adds up to his convincing performance, making it look like an artless charm, a look on his face that defines all the problems he's been through, waiting to be ignited, Lee is the personification of a man lost and doesn't want to be found, a man decided to mourn his entire life.

Patrick, Lee's nephew, played by Lucas Hedges, represents the innocence and irresponsibility of most teenagers, the way of living their life in the riskiest way, their lack of understanding of other people's life, where they would think that their demands are the one to be followed.

When Lee (Casey Affleck) learned about the tragedy, just after he goes back from buying groceries, we see that he didn't cried out loud, he didn't forced his tears just because he heard the bad news, instead what we saw is an actual state of shock, reactions where you'll somehow be paralyzed, no words, just pure heartbreak. This is the film's moment and Affleck is just outstanding.

Another emotional sequence is when Lee abruptly stole one of the police's gun and tried to kill himself, and the look on his face when he realized that he didn't charge the gun yet, its a look of someone who's already decided to end everything.

Manchester By The Sea also reminds us that it's not every time that the man will overcome his sadness faster than women. As what was shown, when Lee received a call from her ex-wife Randi (Michelle Williams) about her new life, her new husband and baby, he stuttered, words gone missing, unable to respond to his past.

Now, before you brand someone as bitter, make sure you know where they are coming from, why they preferred to be isolated, why they see life different from you, because their silence speaks a thousand words, their eyes flooded with tears and their hearts are pounded into pieces and is forever lost in the abyss and only a few can get out of the trap of depression once they're imprisoned on it, doesn't matter if its the man or the woman, let's just then be considerate.

In the year 1926, a documentarian made his stop-over in New York after a global expedition to discover mythical creatures only to be involved in a bigger adventure after some of his captured beasts escaped his briefcase.

With J.K. Rowling's enchanted mentality, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them delivers a extraordinary, whimsical adventure but not with the same appeal that the Harry Potter saga brought to the silver screen since this new entry has a more mature existence and with some revelations through the end, we can expect another franchise to rise.

Eddie Redmayne is a great actor without a doubt but his sole presence is none alike what the Harry Potter trio gave us and audiences will surely appreciates if his beasts will serve more screen time in future films since we all got a hang of that Niffler who indeed stole the show with its cute and lovable attitude despite its love of stealing shiny things. (SPOILER) Another factor in the film was Johnny Depp's character, which serves a lot of chills to both fans of the actor and those just fans of the book, however the transition from Farrell to Depp is somehow misused or mistreated for the fact that Colin Farrell is more cunning or threatening and on the other hand Depp's short appearance revealed more of his pirate-ish perspective and with his star factor he even might excel on top of Redmayne.

The film is visually detailed and stunning, and I personally adored the scene where Newt brushes through the feathers of the Thunderbird. Though some aspects may seem to be familiar just as the Obscurus which looks similar to Green Lantern's Parallax (2011). And the good thing about some of this year's movies, just as X-Men Apocalypse and Doctor Strange, is that it seems that they all decided to fix these city destruction at the end of each climactic battle.

In the end, Fantastic Beast and Where to Find Them, is definitely an amusing adventure ride with all of its visual spectacles, but unable to meet all of the expectations set for it since it seems that we were all used to see its wand-waving entertainment, however, with the upcoming sequels we can still hope that this saga can redeem itself and be set with higher stakes and be able provide us more of its beasts hidden beyond the movie's greatness.

A math savant hired to investigate a financial discrepancy in a robotic company only to unravel a twisted fate of a business family and for him to make his way to survive using abilities he learned from his past.

With a couple of action-thriller clichés, Ben Affleck strategically delivers a compelling act for his character's snobbish, difficult but a captivating savant. The movie may not have the depth or that kind of drama but its disposable entertainment just makes you want more from it.

The film sets the tone in a somewhat inconsistent way as it goes through loops of autism drama to mind bending math analytics to some serious crime fighting hand to hand and even gun combat with the enthralling mystery solving play then goes to some laughable Anna Kendrick scenes where Affleck's awkward response comes in perfect shape.

The Accountant seems to be in a parallel direction with the other Affleck's notable performance as the caped crusader, Batman. Chris (Affleck) lives his everyday life with a moral code, memories of a terrible childhood who chiseled him to become an indestructible fighting machine. With his Chris's condition of being a savant makes him a good investigative accountant which is similar to Bruce Wayne's detective skills. Wolff is even reciting a rhyme that mentions Solomon Grundy: "Solomon Grundy, Born on a Monday, Christened on Tuesday, Married on Wednesday, Took ill on Thursday, Grew worse on Friday, Died on Saturday, Buried on Sunday, That was the end, Of Solomon Grundy.". Affleck's character even treasures one copy of DC's Action Comics #1 which is a reference to Superman who is in the front page.

Anna Kendrick's role as Dana Cummings served more of some sort of a comic relief at some point and she definitely blends well with Ben Affleck while her own simple charm stands out. There's some spots in the film that will definitely give you an idea on what will be one of the movie's twist with Jon Bernthal's character and he's much like his Frank Castle, much like The Punisher but in a much merciful way.

In the end, The Accountant may not be the most outstanding movie of the year but it definitely shares the same chills, suspense and hardcore action that films like the Jason Bourne franchise brought us. The Accountant has its potential to build its own franchise however with its limited scope I'm sure we will all get tired to see Ben Affleck be an accountant to every businesses only to find out its hidden secrets so it will be better to venture out other possibilities where they can use the idea of a savant in solving crimes.

Rogue One entails the story of the event that lead to the Episode IV: A New Hope as the a group of the Rebellion engaged into a suicide mission to steal the plans of the Death Star.

A genuine, heart-wrenching, action-packed and a captivating Star Wars tale worth the wait. Rogue One immersed in a promising entrance and a brutal ending which could be so discouraging but for those fans of the franchise I bet that most of them would expect a bloody ending.

Felicity Jones is an adorable additional to the already epic cast of the film and with her own appealing presence it seems that the producers has a certain formula in getting female leads just like what we've got from Daisy Ridley. But nevertheless, the surprise comeback of the princess gave the chills towards the end of the film.

Its not every time that the arrival of the antagonist will be well applauded, the presence that turns fear to excitement. Darth Vader certainly rocks his way to the movie and surprisingly there is nothing new in his looks but his mere existence in the movie deserves the attention.

Rogue One is the fresh story that the fans of the saga are all waiting to witness. Its serious, its painful, its that kind of movie designed to be a classic. Some may not be as satisfied as we are but this kind of film is the long lost foundation of the franchise we're all looking up to and its good to see some kind of a origin story every once in a while where the possibility of death is existing.

Selene once again reunites with the Vampire faction to defend their clan from the vicious Lycans.

Sleek and stylish. Sadly, the new entry for the Underworld saga doesn't have anything fresh to offer. It actually seems like you just paid for a ticket to watch a single episode of a vampire series. Built in extreme action but failed to execute a conclusion.

Kate Benckinsale is a natural born ass kicker and she gets more bad ass every time she gets into these kind of roles. Anyway, the appearance of the film's antagonist is really disturbing but that's about it, for the reason that we didn't get enough screen time for it and to be honest it seems not to be a worthy opponent for Selene especially when she returned after undergoing some kind of reincarnation and hair coloring.

But nevertheless, its pretty good to see that they've stayed faithful to the film's roots. We can't also deny the effort placed on its visuals. The saga brought us the very closest representation of what Vampires could really be, the darkness is felt and its soothing. We're just hoping that the upcoming Underworld movies can come up with some meat, some substance in it.