88. Edge of Tomorrow [7]

Really enjoyable, great action. Felt it just stumbled in the final third with a murky ending that felt very convenient. Although finishing your movie with Emily Blunt doing a stetch is no bad thing.

89. Detective Pikachu [7]
Super charming, its not as funny as it should be but I think it is really well put together for what is a video game movie. Possibly the best one? The Pokemon look and act as they should which is key.

90. The Intern [4]
I should score this lower as its really throwaway guff (kinda Devil wears Prada without any of the bite and all of the Apple advertising you can manage) but De Niro is oddly compelling. I found him very endering and charming in an otherwise piss poor movie.

I also bought a mac air, iphone and imac after watching this movie....

I binned that off after the fantastic first 20. Found it boring as hell.

43. The Woman King
Historical action based on a unit of all female warriors in early 19th Century Africa. Viola Davis is a suitably strong lead in a slightly meandering film. Probably unsurprisingly I wasn’t familiar with these warriors and it provides an interesting backdrop to inter tribal battles and the Portuguese slave traders active at the time. The downside is the plot is far from unique, employing a far fetched trope and some lazy characterisation. It’s outweighed by a strong cast and well choreographed action sequences but feels a little wasteful. [6]

44. Sonatine
Another early 90s Takeshi Kitano gangster effort. Having watched a few of these over the last year they do start to blur a little, moreso because of the nature of his characters and the offbeat vibe of the films. I found this one to be less engaging but still with enough impressive moments to find value. The surprising moments of comedy in a fairly bleak landscape are a highlight here, had me properly guffawing at one point. [6]

45. Fire of Love
Documentary about husband and wife vulcanologists whose approach to unraveling the secrets of volcanoes led to them capturing some of the most impressive footage ever seen at the time. The doc is almost entirely comprised of footage and photos taken by them, along with archive interviews with the pair. It’s an absolutely fascinating story, they clearly feel motivated to take risks in order to better understand and predict volcanic activity to avoid disasters, which leads to the inevitably sad conclusion. It beautifully brings together their personal connection and love of the work, a superb watch. [9]

46. Oppenheimer 
Bit late writing up this one but suffice to say I mostly loved it. The dual story of pre and post-bomb worked really well and it was impressive to see such a big cast all on great form. Murphy rightly dominates, maybe outshined by the technical execution of the overall film.
[9]

47. They Cloned Tyrone
I didn’t know anything about this going in but turned out to be a pretty fun ride. Foxx was the standout, clearly relishing the role even if the film didn’t quite pull off the conceit by the end. Blanking on more details but well worth a watch. [7]

48. Blue Beetle
Bit of a mess this one. Started out ok but as it went on the overriding feeling was of a pretty mediocre script that had been punched up by an actual good writer - the snappy lines and laugh out loud moments stood out a mile. The lead guy was just too bland, his story too familiar and the film can’t do anything as well as it wastes budget. Avoid even for the most hardcore DC fan. [3]

Renfield
10/10, no notes.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
Gosh, Tom sure does feel the need to run around and rescue lovely ladies from peril, eh?  I wonder if there's a "no uggos, all ladies in peril must be lovely" clause, including that random French beat cop from MI6?
[8]


Equalizer 3
Denzel reluctantly being a cold motherfucker. If you liked the first 2 this is a reliable third.
[7]

Ballerina
Korean Netflix female action revenge flick - bit of an odd one as it's firmly Korean (with the mulling on friendships etc), opening fight sets up the film and main character both as something that they aren't. Some lovely cinematography and a few decent setpiece fights - split between hyperkinectic camera mess near the start but calming down into some longer takes near the end. Lead does a decent enough job, main bad guy is pretty good as well. Seems very "off a time" and has some cool moments, but The Villainess and Kate (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) were more fun.
[5]

Gremill wrote:

53. Brian & Charles Brian is a lonely, broken inventor of ludicrous gadgets (Egg Belt. Trawler nets for shoes) who is inspired to invent a robot best friend/son from bits of junk on a remote Welsh farm. Funny, touching and genuinely strange - it's one of the oddest, uniquely British and most endearing films I've seen for a while. 8

Yep. Watched this on a flight. Endearing sums it up.  I was afraid it was going to be

54. Knock at the Cabin
I'm not 100% sure I liked this. It's a very interesting idea, with some great performances but it's quite poorly executed overall. It doesn't go anywhere as near as far as it needs to to really be a horror and Shyamalan really fucks the ending, which is quite boring for an apolcalypse. It's just missing something that even a great Dave Bautista and Ron Weasley can't elevate it above. 5

The Equalizer 3

I just fucking love these films. Love em. Denzel.

[9]

Gremill wrote:

55. Blazing Saddles The sheriff is near! Still retains the ability to shock, even more so now, with it's unflinching use of racist language. However, it also still one of the greatest satirical takedowns of the fucked up state of race relations in the USA and how the west was really won. Still hilarious, still completely and gloriously absurd and full of quotable lines and superb comic performances. They'll never make them like this anymore. 10.

Normally I mentally chalk these sorts of statements up as hyperbole, but in this case, there's actual proof that you're correct.  Here, in case you missed it, is the trailer for the Blazing Saddles remake that came out last year (at one point called Blazing Samurai, which is lazy, but still better than what they went with...)



What have we become?

margin call has a great cast who all bring their A game

Insidious ch.2

Drops the creepy atmosphere for a supernatural adventure yarn. Even has comedy relief. But I quite enjoyed the idea and story. Not what people wanted from a sequel I suspect.

57. Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022)
Not as shite as I expected it to be. Which is not exactly a compliment, but might be one if you squint a bit. Gore, gore, gore - buckets of it but very little else. It's only 84 minutes which is a bonus, but it can't stand in the shadow of the original (but what can?) and it's ultimately an empty vessel of boring carnage. 4

We Still Kill The Old Way

"Old geezers clean up the area after their leader's brother gets killed by scumbags". This could have been rather good but the tone is all over the place. There's light comedy that gets undermined by the grimness of the actions. Shallow as a paddling pool , it would have been all right had it been more balanced. Pity. Still it didn't hang around and overstay its welcome and the old faces are enjoyable in their performances.

But it also didn't give us a gratifying death of the lead scumbag who if anything is over played in his odiousness. And it had the cheek to claim lineage to The Italian Job at the end.

Harry Brown showed how this could have been done. Although both films don't know what to do with cops in the script.

58. Knowing
Nicholas Cage is some kind of professor who finds out that the world is about to end after finding a list of numbers in a time capsule from the 1950s. The numbers correspond to every major disaster across known records and the numbers are running out. Ludicrous end of the world nonsense that either redeems itself in the last 30 minutes or completely jumps the shark, or both. Absolutely fucking mental, but great fun if you just go with it's blend of conspiracy, Judeo-Christian mythology and tinfoil hat craziness. 7