Monthly Archives: March 2018

Mar 31 2018

Opinion Battles Results – Favourite Steven Spielberg Movie

Opinion Battles Results

 

This round we have had an excellent selection of Steven Spielberg Movies but just which one was the most popular?

2nd

Choice – A.I Artificial Intelligence

Players – Gill

Points – 3

1st

Choices – Raiders or the Lost Ark & Jurassic Park

Players – Darren, Milo, Drew, Rachel, Tom

Points – 9

If you want to take part in the next round, we are looking at Least favourite Oscar Winning Actress in a Lead or Supporting Role

send you choices to moviereviews101@yahoo.co.uk.

Closing Date – Friday 6th April 2018

Here is the table, (Drew – Drew’s Movie Reviews, Kim – Tranquil Dreams, Cinema Parrot Disco, Rob – Movie Rob, Damien Riley – Riley Film Reviews, Emma – Emma Explains It All, S.G. Liput – Rhyme and Reason, Rachel – 54 Disney Reviews, Tom – Plain Simple Tom Reviews, Gill – Realweegiemidget Reviews, John – Johnrieber.com, Diana – DB Movie Blog, Milo – Stuff and That) can anyone take this league by storm like last year?

 

Mar 31 2018

Christopher Walken Weekend – The Anderson Tapes (1971)

Director: Sidney Lumet

Writer: Frank Pierson (Screenplay) Lawrence Sanders (Novel)

Starring: Sean Connery, Dyan Cannon, Martin Balsam, Ralph Meeker, Alan King, Christopher Walken, Val Avery, Dick Williams

 

Plot: After Duke Anderson is released from prison after ten years for taking the rap for a scion of a Mafia family, he cashes in a debt of honor with the mob to bankroll a caper.

 

There may be spoilers the rest of the review

 

Verdict: Easy to Watch Crime Thriller

 

Story: The Anderson Tapes starts with Duke Anderson (Connery) being released from prison after his 10-year stretch, he meets his former employees and heads back to his old girlfriend Ingrid (Cannon).

Duke wants to make a score to make up for his time in prison by pulling off his own score with his new team Tommy Haskins (Balsam), The Kid (Walken) and Spencer (Williams) but little does he know that he is being watched by the law, waiting for him and his associates to make a mistake.

 

Thoughts on The Anderson Tapes

 

Characters – Duke Anderson is a safe cracking thief that has done his time in prison, released he wants to use his connections to pull off an honour job with his former employers and uses all the skills he has to put the job together. Ingrid is the girlfriend of Anderson whose flat becomes the base for most of the job. Tommy Haskins is one of the team members, he is the one Anderson trusts the most and can landscape a place instantly for potential. The Kid is another member of the team and the youngest member of it at that, he has the connection but could but he loose cannon of the team.

Performance – Sean Connery is good in the leading role of the team of thieves, we get the first screen role for Christopher Walken here as he shows how he can play character that is always different to the rest of the cast. We also have a good supporting cast that all give us good performance through the film.

Story – The story follows a former prisoner head out of jail looking to claim what he believes is his. The story shows the team being put together for this job from different backgrounds and the different loopholes to get the green light from the mob to do this job but we also see how the police would be tackling such a crime with the early surveillance technology.

Action/Crime – The action is pretty tame because most of it is an odd punch but most of the film is about the slickness of the heist going on, we follow everything unfold as the crime gets committed.

Settings – A large amount of this movie is set inside the apartment building which shows how planned out the heist is, outside of this the film is New York streets.

Scene of the Movie – Planning the crime, building visit.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – The technology noise.

Final Thoughts – This is an easy to watch heist film, it follows the ideas of most very well and puts together a clever way to make the crime happen.

 

Overall: Easy to watch crime thriller with a slick heist.

Rating

 

 

Mar 30 2018

Movie Reviews 101 Midnight Horror – Featdotcom (2002)

Director: William Malone

Writer: Josephine Coyle (Screenplay) Moshe Diamant (Story)

Starring: Stephen Dorff, Natascha McElhone, Stephen Rea, Udo Kier, Amelia Curtis, Jeffrey Combs

 

Plot: A New York City detective investigates mysterious deaths occurring 48 hours after users log onto a site named feardotcom.

 

There may be spoilers the rest of the review

 

Verdict: Fear Dot Wrong

 

Story: Feardotcom starts as New York detective Mike (Dorff) teams up with environmental health officer Terry (McElhone) to investigate a string of death which look like a viral outbreak but could just be murders, the first investigation takes them into a German metal couple fans that seem to have died mysteriously but soon the cases become more significate.

With three different victims, with three unrelated backgrounds the crime seems all unrelated until they look deeper into the computer history and that all three have visited a website called ‘feardotcom.com’ that blasts horrific images into the viewers face leaving the viewer 48 hours to live, but there is also a connection to serial killer Dr Alistair Pratt (Rea).

 

Thoughts on Feardotcom

 

Characters – Detective Mike is haunted by his failure to capture a serial killer, this doesn’t make him bad at his job but does show how he never gives up but he also can’t follow simple instructions. Terry, I believe worked for the environmental health and is called into be sure there isn’t a viral outbreak happening, she does seem to be the one that puts the pieces together within the puzzle. Dr Alistair Pratt is the serial killer Mike was never able to capture, he is still active tracking down new victims but just how much of a connection does he have to everything going on. In all honesty, the characters are written to be as dumb as they come, we have a lady working with the police who visits the site and just hides what has happened, and the main two characters both warn the other not to view the site and both run off within moments and watch the site.

Performance – Stephen Dorff is fine in this but he can’t do much with the character written, Natascha McElhone is also fine in this role and handles what she has better than the rest, Stephen Rea does pull of psychopathic well but we just don’t see us enough. Most of the performances are just ok without really doing anything special.

Story – The story follows detectives needing to solve a mystery about a haunted website or a serial killer, I am not sure which as things just seem to get caught between the two. The idea of having the cops fail miserably to solve this or act rational only confuses things for the story, I could understand if it was a reporter like we had in The Ring but now this does just seem to be trying to rip that idea off using the internet over a video.

Crime/Horror – People are dying I guess that does offer up the crime mystery side of this story but in the end the that part turns into horror which is mostly just throwing images at the camera while shaking it a lot.

Settings – The settings are mixed, we have the idea of New York having a serial killer so we get mixed cultures but otherwise we just have typical dark locations.

Special Effects – The special effects do just feel like a lot of shaky cams being used to throw us around the horror happening. We do also have moments of dated CGI that don’t help.

Scene of the Movie – Dr Alistair’s first appearance because it adds the horror needed and is the only truly scary moment in this film.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – Decision making from the police officer characters.

Final Thoughts – This is a messy, hard to watch film that tries to capture the magic of horror that The Ring did, it grabbed itself 3 respected lead actors and tried to give us an investigation film but misses on nearly every single level.

 

Overall: Disappointing Horror Mystery.

Rating

 

 

Mar 30 2018

Lies We Tell (2017)

Lies We Tell is released on Digital 2nd April 2018 and will be Exclusively at ASDA on 16th April 2016

 

DVD Extras including

·        Deleted Scenes

·        Cast & Crew Interviews

·        Behind the Scenes Footage

·        Raindance Premiere Footage

 

Director: Mitu Misra

Writer: Ewen Glass, Andy McDermott (Screenplay) Mitu Misra (Story)

Starring: Gabriel Byrne, Sibylla Deen, Harvey Keitel, Mark Addy, Jan Uddin, Reece Ritchie, Gina McKee, Nicholas Farrell, Emily Atack

 

Plot: A trusted driver must deal with his dead boss’ Muslim mistress, her dark past pulling him into a life-and-death showdown with her notorious gangster cousin/ex-husband.


Tagline – The only men who get caught are those who don’t love their wives enough..

Runtime: 1 Hour 49 Minutes

 

There may be spoilers the rest of the review

 

Verdict: Powerful Character Piece

 

Story: Lies We Tell starts with loyal chauffer Donald (Byrne) taking his boss Demi (Keitel) to his secret rendezvous with his mistress, with the busy done, he ends up dying leaving Donald with one last request, clean up the evidence of the mistress.

The mistress Amber (Deen) a Muslim lawyer from Bradford, that has a past of her own which has seen cousin KD (Uddin) become a notorious gangster in Bradford. Amber turns to Donald to help her through the problems she is facing from the streets.

 

Thoughts on Lies We Tell

 

Characters – Donald is the quiet chauffer for a billionaire, he is in the middle of a divorce while dealing with his own personal problems. He is asked to cover up the mistress of his boss only to get drawn into the world of gangsters and Muslim beliefs. Amber is the mistress and lawyer in the city, about to have a big career move, only for her past to come back and cause her problems when it comes to the traditions of her own religion. KD is the cousin of Amber, he has a past that plays darker than you would think, while his part as a gangster is generic, it is his belief in his religion which would cause the darkest side of his character.

Performances – Gabriel Byrne is good in his role, he makes his character feel withdrawn from early on and this is needed for the character he is playing. Sibylla Deen is the unknown of the main cast, she is the star of the film, she balances the characters problems so well through each and every scene. Jan Uddin gives us a villainous gangster figure which is something needed, but his aggressive moments are the best for him.

Story – This a movie that has a story that doesn’t go in any direction you are expecting, there is a lot more going on when it comes to looking at Muslin marriages that you will be prepared for. While Donald is a man that comes protect and guide Amber, he doesn’t need to turn to violence for this. We are seeing how Amber is trying break from religion and the struggles a woman has to achieve this over a man that can do anything.

Crime/Romance – The crime world is only scratched on through the surfaces of this movie, we have a gangster that believe he can get what he wants, but from what we can tell Donald and his boss are all legal with their actions. The romance isn’t on the same levels as what you would think, we look at arranged marriages, affairs and lost love over most other things in this film.

Settings – The main setting for this film is Bradford, this is fresh from just giving us London again, we have the gangs and the traditions that are felt by some and not others on display showing us that they could be anywhere in your own neighbourhood.


Scene of the Movie – Graveyard driving.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – The wedding side of things didn’t seem to make sense by the end. Not because of the tradition, but location.

Final Thoughts – This is a crime movie that turns to the characters on the highest level of the film, watching what Amber and Donald go through are the driving force and make this different to what you are expecting.

 

Overall: Something different to what you are expecting.

Rating