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Films watched in 2022


Daniel
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5 hours ago, Bumper8 said:

No review for Michael Flatley's Magnum Opus "Blackbird" yet?

I would oblige but it would mean having to watch the film.

I had the misfortune of hearing a soundbite of it on the radio.

 

It seems to be the product of what happens when you have a lot of money lying around and nothing to spend it on. 

Fair play to him, but he could have at least kept it for his own private collection and not public consumption. :D

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On 9/17/2022 at 7:39 PM, Brasco said:

I had the misfortune of hearing a soundbite of it on the radio.

 

It seems to be the product of what happens when you have a lot of money lying around and nothing to spend it on. 

Fair play to him, but he could have at least kept it for his own private collection and not public consumption. :D

Check out Mark Kermode's review on Youtube (Kermode & Mayo).

Very funny!

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DAY SHIFT (2022)

1.5/5 (No Spoilers)

Not much to say really. It was s***e. Wasn't funny at all; the jokes just fell flat and they were clearly desperate to make us laugh. It was pretty cringey. Dave Franco is pretty annoying and Jamie Foxx can do so much better than this whilst the villain was totally forgettable like a 'discount' Salma Hayek. And Snoop Dogg, OMG; he makes a total embarrassment of himself - it reminded me of Ice-T in the God-awful action flick 3000 MILES TO GRACELAND (2000) where he also played this super bad-ass cool loner mercenary but just ended up looking ridiculous. The vampires' fighting-style is very MCU-inspired and not what you expect of the undead and the whole 'secret underground vampire-slayers for hire' thing reminded me of JOHN WICK (2015) . I fell asleep briefly after the first 25 mins.

Edited by nicky
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ELVIS (2022)

2.5/5 (No spoilers)

I think I might've liked this film more if it wasn't directed by Baz Lurhmann - he brings to it his usual flamboyance and flashy editing like he did with MOULIN ROUGE! (2001) and ROMEO + JULIET (1996). I wanted ELVIS to be a serious, entertaining and dramatic bio-pic like BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY (2018) but instead it was a disappointment that focused on the singer's relationship with his manager played by Tom Hanks.

The most interesting scene to me was when he first sings to an audience and the girls go crazy - everything else was just fluff. I still don't know why Elvis started popping pills or how his marriage broke-down or why he was so devoted to the stage. And why the hell was modern hip-hop music used in the film???!! Even the title of the film was unimaginative and lazy.

Baz isn't really a great story-teller, at least not when you have serious character-driven stuff at hand - he should stick to romantic musicals and other poncy films that your gay best friends love. I fell asleep briefly halfway.

Edited by nicky
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  • 2 weeks later...

Halloween Ends (or Halloween 11 if you prefer - excluding Rob Zombie's remakes) was an interesting sequel with a bit of difference to the other Halloween sequels. Still not hugely original but should have enough to satisfy fans of the franchise.

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HALLOWEEN ENDS (2022)

2.5/5 (No spoilers)

This is the most unsatisfying conclusion to a trilogy since THE RISE OF SKYWALKER (2019) - HALLOWEEN ENDS isn't even a continuation of the previous instalments and had no connecting plot-points. It's as if the writer's desperately wanted to do something different so made-up this half-arsed rushed love story and tried to fuse it with a 'post-modern' slasher film. 

The first few minutes are surprisingly fresh but what follows is just clumsy, goofy and rushed (the radio station, dancing on the floor, the bullies, unrealistic romance, Laurie's line about her grand-daughter getting her titties out). It's also boring largely because so much time is focused on characters we don't care about - we want to see Laurie Vs Michael Myers and their big final showdown, THAT's what was promised in the last two films but what we get is something that just doesn't belong. This storyline would've been more suited to a stand-alone HALLOWEEN sequel and NOT the end to this particular trilogy...but even then it would still be crud. 

Micheal has a connection with the lead character much like Freddy and (sort of) Jason did in one of their films but they did it far better. Here its just stupid and compromises Micheal's whole existence in the film. Furthermore, Micheal's role is...I won't say but  it's easy to see what the problem is and I think from this massive flaw it's evident that this trilogy wasn't fully mapped-out from the start and instead was just made-up as they went along. I can't believe they had this in mind for the end of the trilogy back in 2017.

Edited by nicky
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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was quite good. It wasn't as good as the first but it had good effects and was visually impressive. Also some interesting political issues. If you are a fan franchise you'll probably enjoy it.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Matilda - The Musical (the film adaptation of the stage play) was an entertaining film and faithful adaptation of the play. It was much weaker than the original film and the book but had some good performances and music. If you are a fan of the book or play you won't be disappointed.

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The movie She Said was a very good well acted true life drama. It was definitely a story that needed to be told. Not something to watch if you are looking for something easy and light hearted to watch but certainly an interesting film I would recommend seeing.

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WEIRD: THE AL YANKOVIC STORY (2022)

2.5/5 (No spoilers)

Who asked for a movie about this guy?! OK maybe he was huge in the USA but in the UK I seem to recall only 3 one-off novelty music videos and his cameo in THE NAKED GUN 33/3rd (1994). Of course I wouldn't mind if the movie was good but it sucked, never-mind weird.

The core message of the film is, "just be yourself and do what makes you happy - even if you're weird" but it's not done very well - there isn't even an interesting story here let alone one of struggle like other biopics. There's heavy emphasis on Weird Al's longing for his dad's acceptance but its hard to take seriously when the film is a comedy - what's worse though is it isn't even funny. The film isn't really a biopic because it shoots off on massive tangents with so many events that you know obviously DIDN'T happen (Eg. the origins of 'Eat It', the Pablo Escabar incident). 

Evan Rachel Wood is good as Madonna and Jack Black makes a great appearance as Wolfman Jack. Radcliff is fine but does he have to be ripped to play Weird Al??!! I get that he chooses these low-key/lo-fi films and plays odd characters (like Johnny Depp does) to get away as far as possible from his Harry Potter image but in this one he just ends up looking like a Scouse - I just kept waiting for him to say, "Alriiight, alriight, cam down, cam down!!"

 

Edited by nicky
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BARBARIAN (2022)

4/5 (No Spoilers)

The less you know about this film, the better - I didn't watch the trailer, I just knew it was about an Airbnb house where one tenant (Georgina Campbell) arrives to find someone else (Bill Skarsgard) already in it. It's very original, surprising, tense, scary and filled with suspense - it's what every horror film should be without relying on gore, cheap shocks or a nasty villain to do the work. It's solid horror ruined only by its plot-holes and an annoyingly unsatisfying ending.

Director Zach Cregger does an excellent job keeping you on edge and maintaining mystery through-out but the writing suffers not only due to plot-holes but also redundant character backstories. It's fine to have backstories but it often feels like they're only there to pad-out the 100 mins runtime despite how great Justin Long is in the film. I really wanted to know more about the antagonists and their backstories and why this s*** was going on because what we are told is just a bit weak. Also as ever with mystery-suspense thrillers, once you know everything it takes the enjoyment out of future viewings and gets boring very quickly with each watch.

DON'T BREATHE (2016), THE PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS (1991) and even RESIDENT EVIL VII (the game) are other trapped-in-a creepy-house stories that reminded me of BARBARIAN but unlike them this film puts much more emphasis on mystery which it excels at - it had me guessing all the way through just who was the villain (is it Bill Skarsgard or not?) and what was happening. I'm hoping for a prequel. 

Edited by nicky
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  • 3 weeks later...

As is tradition as the years comes to an end. What films did you see? List all the movies released in 2022 below in order of best (or at least films you remember seeing). I'll start:

 

1. Elvis
2. Scream 
3. Jurassic World: Dominion
4. The Batman
5. I Wanna Dance With Somebody
6. She Said
7. Weird: The Al Yankovic Story
8. Thor: Love & Thunder
9. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
10. Avatar: The Way of the Water
11. Top Gun: Maverick
12. Where the Crawdads Sing
13. Moonfall
14. X
15. Halloween Ends
16. Smile
17. About Fate
18. Save the Cinema
19. Ticket to Paradise
20. Tall Girl 2
21. Thirteen Minutes
22. Morbius
23. Everything Everywhere All At Once
24. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
25. Violent Night
26. Purple Hearts
27. Nope
28. Matilda: The Musical
29. Mona Lisa & The Blood Moon
30. 355
31. Ambulance
32. Kimi
33. Operation Mincemeat
34. Pinocchio (Disney +)
35. Marry Me
36. The Hating Game
37. Do Revenge
38. Blonde 
39. Senior Year
40. Orphan: First Kill
41. Texas Chainsaw Massacre
41. The In Between
43. Cheaper by the Dozen
44. The Lost City
45. Me Time
46. Dying For a Good Grade
47. Crimes of the Future
48. Father of the Bride
49. Through My Window
50. Lightyear
51. The Immaculate Room
52. The Wrong Place
53. Belfast
54. The Survivor
55. Choose or Die
56. Cursed Friends
57. Munich: The Edge of War
58. Disenchanted 
59. Sonic The Hedgehog 2
60. After Ever Happy
61. The Devil's Light
62. Bodies Bodies Bodies
63. Hocus Pocus 2
64. Wickensburg
65. Firestarter
66. Behind Closed Doors
67. Metal Lords
68. Downton Abbey: A New Era
69. Fresh
70. Lies Between Friends
71. Last Survivors
72. A Perfect Pairing
73. Nightmare Alley
74.The Northman
75. The Accursed

Edited by Daniel
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A poor year me watching films at the cinema. And have to say of the 2 films i saw both were disappointing if being generous, and of being completely honest a waste of time and money.

The Batman, I know it has its fans. But sorry i found it dull, tedious and just dragged. In fact I'm not sorry, I just didn't find anything to like about this film

And then we come to Thor. Love and Thunder. Wow just wow, everything good about Thor they built up in Ragnarok/Infinity War, was thrown out and ignored.

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I Wanna Dance With Somebody was brilliant. It was long but it didn't seem to be which is always a good sign. It was an accurate yet respectable account of Whitney Houston's life. A worthy edition to the recent biopics.

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A little late to the game but Avatar: The Way of the Water was a great and hugely impressive film. It was longer than it needed to be and didn't match the original but had enough exciting scenes to make it worth watching.

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