Category: Movies

Movie Review – Arrival

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Arrival, directed by Denis Villeneuve, is a 2016 science fiction film based on the short story “Story of Your Life” by Ted Chiang. The film stars Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, and Forest Whitaker. Twelve extraterrestrial spacecraft appear in seemingly random places across the globe. Louise Banks (Adams), a linguist, is asked by US Army Colonel Weber (Whitaker) to join a team at the site of a craft’s landing in the middle of rural Montana to determine what it is these alien beings want. Accompanied by theoretical physicist Ian Donnelly (Renner), Louise makes contact with two of the beings on their ship and begins the arduous task of deciphering their written language.Read More »

Movie Review – Doctor Strange

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Doctor Strange is the latest film produced by Marvel Studios, directed by Scott Derrickson and starring Benedict Cumberbatch. The film follows Dr. Stephen Strange, a supremely talented surgeon who permanently injures his hands in a car accident, effectively ending his career. After trying everything that modern medicine has to offer, exhausting his fortune in the process, he turns to more mystical sources after meeting a man with a permanent spine injury who miraculously regained the ability to walk. He directs Strange to seek a place called Kamar-Taj in Kathmandu, Nepal, where he begins training in the mystical arts under the Ancient One (Tilda Swinton). Through her tutelage he begins learning how to magically travel great distances, cast spells, and manipulate reality.Read More »

Why Didn’t I Like The Witch?

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As is traditional around Halloween, I’ve been watching a lot more horror movies in celebration of the season. One I’d been looking forward to seeing for quite a while was The Witch, the 2015 film directed by Robert Eggers. After watching it, I thought it was very good indeed. It’s finely crafted with good atmosphere, interesting characters, and genuinely creepy moments set in a wonderfully gloomy historical setting. What I’ve been trying to wrap my head around, despite all this and more, is the fact that I didn’t really like watching it.Read More »

Movie Review – Don’t Breathe

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IMDB Summary

Rocky, a young woman wanting to start a better life for her and her sister, agrees to take part in the robbery of a house owned by a wealthy blind man with her boyfriend Money and their friend Alex. But when the blind man turns out to be a more ruthless adversary than he seems, the group must find a way to escape his home before they become his newest victims.

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Directed by Fede Alvarez and starring Jane Levy, Stephen Lang, Dylan Minnette and Danial Zovatto, Don’t Breathe is an American horror thriller film released on August 26, 2016.

Before I knew anything about the film I noticed its unassuming poster at the theatre. It caught my eye, but otherwise seemed to be generic horror movie fare. As can uncannily happen, however, soon afterwards I started to hear a lot of the buzz that the movie started generating. This got my butt into a theatre seat and I am very happy with how things turned out.Read More »

Movie Review – Batman: The Killing Joke

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IMDB Summary

As Batman hunts for the escaped Joker, the Clown Prince of Crime attacks the Gordon family to prove a diabolical point mirroring his own fall into madness.

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Batman: The Killing Joke is the highly anticipated animated adaptation of the famous 1988 one-shot graphic novel of the same name. Originally written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Brian Bolland, the story tells what many consider to be the definitive origin of The Joker, exploring the character’s psychology and drawing upon the similarities between him and Batman. This adaptation is written by Brian Azzarello and directed by Sam Liu.Read More »

Movie Review – Suicide Squad

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IMDB summary:

A secret government agency recruits a group of imprisoned supervillains to execute dangerous black ops missions in exchange for clemency, which inevitably leads to chaos.

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Suicide Squad, directed by David Ayer, is the latest installment in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) of films, following Batman v. Superman which released earlier this year. There is a very apparent divide in the reception of this film, with a lot of critics receiving it poorly while fans seem to love it and believe critics are being unfair. For my part, I liked it, but it had a lot of problems.Read More »

Movie Review – Captain America: Civil War

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Captain America: Civil War, directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, is the third film in the Captain America series and the latest addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Disagreement over the Sokovia Accords, which would have the Avengers controlled and overseen by a United Nations panel, fractures the team to two opposing sides, one led by Steve Rogers and the other by Tony Stark. When Steve’s old friend Bucky, the Winter Soldier, resurfaces as public enemy number one, he must fight against these new restrictions in order to protect his friend.Read More »

Movie Review – Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

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Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, directed by Zack Snyder, is the highly anticipated follow-up to 2013’s Man of Steel. Starring Ben Affleck as Batman and Henry Cavill as Superman, the movie deals with the consequences of Superman becoming an active presence as a hero in the world. Following the events of the previous film, many view him as a bastion of hope — a saviour — while others are wary and fearful of him. Batman in particular, who has had a long vigilante career in Gotham City, blames Superman for the massive casualties in Metropolis during Man of Steel and does not trust that the world is safe from his power.Read More »

Movie Review – Deadpool

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Deadpool is a 2016 comedy superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name, starring Ryan Reynolds and directed by Tim Miller. A former special forces operative working as a mercenary in New York City, Wade Wilson is diagnosed with terminal cancer. Unwilling to put his fiancé Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) through the pain of watching him waste away, Wade undergoes torturous experimentation provided by a shadowy organization in an attempt to awaken any dormant mutant abilities in his genetics. The experiments work, giving him a healing ability that makes him nearly immortal, but he is hideously disfigured in the process. Left for dead after the destruction of the lab, Wade becomes Deadpool, his costumed alter-ego. He begins a crusade to track down those responsible for his hideous transformation so that he can reverse the effects and reunite with his beloved once again.Read More »

Movie Review – The Forest

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The Forest is an American supernatural horror film directed by Jason Zada, starring Natalie Dormer and Taylor Kinney. Much of the story is set in and around the Aokigahara Forest in Japan, also known as the “Suicide Forest” or “Sea of Trees,” located at the northwest base of Mount Fuji. Sara Price (Dormer), an American woman, receives a call from Japanese authorities who are concerned that her troubled twin sister Jess is dead, having last been seen entering this forest. Despite the protests of her husband, Sara travels to Japan to search for her missing sister, whom she adamantly believes is still alive.Read More »