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Ready or not - I really liked this, a great idea played out perfectly. It was funny, gory and intense. I feel like they marketed this as a horror film but I feel like that's not quite right? Feels more like a thriller/comedy with a survival element to it. The cast were awesome and just help make it work.

Ad Astra - It looks nice, Brad Pitt is fantastic but the film really plods along it's quite long runtime. There's some interesting ideas in there that make you think but there's just too many moments where it just stagnates and just becomes boring.

Don't let go - This film has a really cool premise. Detective who is close to his neiece one day finds her and her parents murdered. A few days later she phones him from a few days before the murder. He uses this to work out who killed them and to stop it from happening. I thought it was done quite well and the mystery was quite good.
 
Ad Astra last week. It's a technically "good" film, but I was really f**king bored by 20 minutes in and it didn't get any better

Joker

Absolutely brilliant. Just so, so f**king good.
 
Joker: Another contender for best movie of the year. It seamlessly blends style with story. Joaquin Phoenix was amazing as Joker and really captured his random psychotic mindset!
Final Grade: A+
 
Joker

Really ****ing good, but not best of year. Booksmart has that locked.

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Ready or Not:
Solid Horror/Comedy although the horror works better than the comedy. The film has a really fun not to serious but still bloody spooky vibe. While it might not be very orginal it is still entertaining throughout.

Light 8/10

Joker:
Wow. Loved this film. Not a huge fan of the directors work in the past (hangover, War Dogs) but this film he really steps up his craft. While people may say its too close to scorese, I belive its references were far away enough that the film never ligered on its references. The lead performance from Phoenix is outstanding. The writing, the cinematography, the cynical tone and taunting pace all make this one of the best films I have seen this year. I only have one very minor thing which bothered me a little, but that would be getting into spolier talk, which I won't do.

Strong 9/10

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Joker - Phoenix is incredible and it is shot quite nicely but I feel a bit torn by it? Like it's really good but maybe a bit overhyped? Can't quite put my finger on it yet, gonna mull it over a bit more.

As for best film of the year? No way.
 
Watched some crap over the weekend:

Child's Play

Yeah, the remake. I LOVED the original when I was a kid (the constant sequels were very hit and miss), so thought I'd try it. I started off hating it, but changed my mind as it went on. I liked that they changed the reason for the doll going apes**t to something more "realistic" (technology over demonic possession), but that meant that there was also a bit of a forced message to it. I also liked how this change leads you to feel sorry for the doll. It's not a great film (nor was the original really), but it's very watchable and not the train wreck I was expecting. For a remake, it was actually pretty decent and changed enough from the original to make it interesting.

Midsommer

Still can't make up my mind about this one. It's very clearly a "good" film, but it's not exactly enjoyable. It's one of those films that requires a bit of endurance to get through, both in terms of time (it's quite long with lots of stuff not happening for long stretches) and content, and I'm not usually a fan of that. It is very well-made and is equal parts beautiful, creepy and horrific. I think I'd recommend it, but it's not for everyone.

Crawl

Had it on in the background mostly, so didn't give it a great deal of attention. Seemed ok for what it was. Probably better than most of the "killer animal" genre.

The Lion King

Yeah, the remake. Ugh, what a f**king chore. What was the point of it? Yeah, it looked great technically, but it also looked wrong. Talking animals only work when they're redesigned to not look quite like actual animals. They need to be given bigger eyes and more expressive faces to make them more human. Because these animals are so ridiculously realistic, they're incapable of displaying any emotion. Also, there was the music, or lack thereof. Hello? Where was it? It was all cut down into snippets of songs (very, very badly performed as well) apart from The Lion Sleeps Tonight, which was performed in almost its entirety when it isn't even an original song.

HATED IT.
 
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil

Meh. Angelina and Michelle Pfeiffer were fab, but it's bit of a mess otherwise.

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Seen loads in the past week. The day shall come - The latest dark comedy from Chris Morris (Four Lions, The day today) is interesting, I really liked the characters and how they progress but the film seems to meander along the way and is a bit drawn out. It's funny in places but does go to some quite bleak and sad moments. Overall it's ok, it's not as strong as Four Lions but it's worth a watch if you like his style of comedy.

Zombieland 2: Double Tap - Loved the first one, felt so fresh and funny. So 10 years later and we get a sequel that mainly relies on the basics of the first and has some fun new characters scattered throughout. There are some excellent scenes with some very funny moments (most of which are spoiled by the trailers, yay) but in-between those great scenes it just lingers around waiting for the characters to just get to the next set piece. Overall it's ok and is fun but can't help feel a little disappointed.

Note: There are two end credit scenes, main one is a few mins into the credits and is worth watching.

Abominable - This film felt weird and I can't quite put my finger on it. The character design of the yeti is adorable, the story is a bit predictable and overall it was just ok. Meh, kids would probably get a kick out of it.

Shaun the sheep: Farmageddon - The first film was brilliant and while this one isn't quite as good it is still an absolute joy to watch and I love how it is filled with subtle gags and amusing scenarios.

Judy - I'll admit my knowledge of Judy Garland is a bit sparse so I went in not knowing too much about her life, especially towards the end. I found the film to be really sad and I really appreciated the flashbacks that help provide context for her actions. I thought Renee Zellweger was excellent in the title role.

Official Secrets - Really interesting film of a brilliant story. The ensemble cast are great but was surprised by how fantastic Keira Knightly is, she really holds the film together. Just an all-round solid film that is certainly worth a watch.

Maleficent 2: Mistress of Evil - First film was a nice surprise, something that looked rubbish but was fun. This also looked rubbish and unfortunately this time it actually was. The plot tries too hard to do too many things which ends up with a film that feels quite incohesive and boring. I like a lot of the creature designs and some are pretty adorable, they also help bring the world to life a bit. Overall though this is just a pointless sequel with nothing that interesting going on.
 
Saw that "Terminator: Dark Fat" today.
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Was actually OK. Not as **** as the trailers for it made out (and they made it out to be pretty awful I think).
 
Also saw Terminator: Dark Fate - Yeah it was ok. I enjoyed most of the action set pieces and Arnie brings some fun humour into the mix. I feel like it is riddled with plot holes though, I can usually gloss over these sort of things but I spent most of the evening afterwards thinking about how obvious they are. It is a fun addition to the franchise and certainly not the worst.
 
Paradise Hills

It's a bit of a mess. It looks good - the costumes and setting are fab - but the script is awful and there's a really, really stupid moment in it which has no bearing on the whole and is massively out of place.

And Emma Roberts. No, thank you.

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Terminator Summat or Other

Meh. Not as bad as I thought it was going to be, but really lacking in substance. The storyline was really lazy. Given that Linda Hamilton was back, I thought there'd be a lot of connections to T2. There was pretty much nothing.

The Addams Family

Nothing is going to top the '90s films with Angelica Houston, but this was a cute enough version. There's the odd joke in there for the adults, and a few decent one liners, but not enough to elevate it from just being a kids' film.

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Spirited Away: Went to Ghiblifest to see it. Words cannot describe how blown away I was, it really is one of those few perfect movies. 2D animation is something that isn't common anymore in Hollywood, however Japan shows that it's capable of carrying a story just as well as CGI, sometimes even better. I also like how every character is morally ambiguous. There are no traditional hero or villain archetypes.
Final Grade: A+

The Lighthouse: Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson play off each other really well. Like A24's other horror release Midsommar it focuses on psychologically disturbing moments rather than jump scares. It's good to see filmmakers still using black and white cinematography.
Final Grade: A+
 
Doctor Sleep - This film is quite long but I really enjoyed it. It has plenty of interesting characters and I liked how grown-up Danny deals with what happens in the Shining. I thought the cinematography was beautiful, some really cool sequences. They do really play on the nostalgia chords with the original theme coming in at times etc but it feels earned? I also jumped quite a few times because I saw it with Dolby Atmos and those jump scare sounds literally shook me. It's not a scary film though, more like a really interesting thriller with the odd jump scare.
 
3 from me!

It chapter 2 - A whole load of "does not make sense", nice effects though!

Joker: Liked it, but a bit overhyped if you ask me!

Dr Sleep - Just brilliant! one of my films of the year!
 
Parasite - Amazing film that balances many genres seamlessly with a fantastic story with a crazy twist and insane ending. 100% deserving of the Palme D'Or and the work of a filmmaker who has perfected the art. Definitely my favorite film of the year and one of my favorite movies period. 10/10
 
Another big batch of films from Sunday and last night. First up was The Aeronauts. I liked this a lot more than I thought I would. I learnt beforehand that the real story was actually a couple of men over several trips so I found the whole "lets put in a female lead for potential romantic intentions" as a bit distracting at first. However I have to admit it does work and maybe without this change it would have been a bit more dull? I liked how the film was essentially the jouney up into the sky intercut with their backstories to show why they act the way they do. It really helped the pacing of the film and stopped it from stalling for too long. So yeah overall I really liked this.

The Addams Family - Wasn't intending on seeing this but the film I wanted to see (Luce) didn't fit in with everything else and Gavin said this was alright. Yeah, it was alright. I chuckled quite a few times. Still can't get over the style of the film though, looks really weird and a bit cheap.

The Good Liar - This was interesting with some great performances from the cast. There was something a bit weird about it though and it wasn't until I watched a review that I realised why. There's like a twist to the twist and the secondary layer of the twist just feels a bit out of place and would have worked better without it. It's a film that works absolutely fine though, especially if you like a con/thriller and worth watching if you come across it while on a plane or whatever.

Midway - Pretty standard high budget flashy-cgi war film. The action sequences are extremely well shot and the score and sound design during those scenes is incredible, makes them very immersive. Everything outside the action sequences was rubbish though, just bland.

The Irishman - Was looking forward to this and I knew I had to see it at a cinema because I just can't concentrate on films at home the same way. Urgh, it was long and felt like it, probably not helped with the seating in the cinema, it's been a very long time since I've struggled to sit through a film like that. The pacing is just really slow, which at times works well but it's mostly a flaw, it's just over the line of being over-indulgent in the edit. The de-aged cg faces is weird. The effect tends to work well in the Marvel films because it's quick shots and for a short scene. Having this as a feature on several of the main actors in large portions of the film - we're just not there yet with the tech. (remembers Samuel L Jackson in Captain Marvel. Hmm) Ok so maybe there are exceptions but they look very CG in this, I found it distracting in large portions of the film. There's a lot of humour in the film which is great and Al Pacino was awesome, I think he has the best scenes. Urgh, so yeah overall I wasn't too pleased with this film, would have worked better as a mini-series on HBO but I'm sure fans of Goodfellas etc will still get a kick out of this.
 
Jojo Rabbit

It was ****ing brilliant. Only behind Booksmart as my favorite for the year.

Seeing Parasite this weekend I think.

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Doctor Sleep
Pretty good but one scene I thought was quite disturbing and not necessary. The first act was slow so that didn't help. But it all headed in a decent direction towards the end but some of it was maybe too obvious with Ewan McGregor's character. I think they should have just called this The Shining Returns so more people would have been aware of the movie (originally I had no idea what Doctor Sleep was going to be about) and perhaps CGI-ed Jack Nicholson in it as well (only a few scenes).
7.5/10

Joker
Movie of the year for me I think. Refreshing approach to super hero movies after Endgame was quite disappointing. I hope it is actually a start to a new Batman too with Phoenix in it but I believe it is a different universe which is a shame. Batman maybe set in the early 90s with Joker a bit older would have been cool. I doubt Star Wars will top Joker (even though I want it to - honestly), it looks like a mess, too short, should have been an epic 4 hours or something ?.
10/10

Will see Le Mans tomorrow probably.
 
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