Tag: 2017

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Movie Review

Stratton (2017) Movie Review

Stratton – Movie Review

Stratton

Director: Simon West

Writer: Warren Davis II (Screenplay)

Writer: Duncan Falconer (Novel)

Cast

Plot: A British Special Boat Service commando tracks down an international terrorist cell.

Runtime: 1 Hour 34 Minutes 

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Stratton Starts as British Special Service Commando John Stratton (Cooper) loses his partner on his latest job. His team weren’t preparing for a certain twist in the operation. However, the danger isn’t cleared and John gets a new partner Hank (Stowell), as they look to track down a dangerous terrorist.

They must work together to figure out what the target is and stop the release of a deadly weapon. Meanwhile, the terrorist in question, Grigory Barovsky (Kretschmann) has his own plan to get what he wants.

Verdict on Stratton

Stratton is an action thriller following an elite commando and his team trying to stop a deadly terrorist. It sees them needing to overcome different problems as the threat level keeps rising.

This does fall into the category of many action movies. We have seen the elite soldiers coming together on a mission before, it offers very little new to this. There are twists and turns along the way as they look to solve the situation. However, by the end, it goes completely how you expect.

The action is entertaining but as previously mentioned, it doesn’t leave too much to the imagination. In the performances, we have a solid cast that all take their role well throughout the film.

Final Thoughts – Stratton is a by the book action movie that offers little original material.

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Movie Review

Trendy (2017) Movie Review

Trendy – Movie Review

Trendy

Director: Louis Lagayette

Writer: Louis Lagayette (Screenplay)

Cast

Plot: Richard, a 30 year-old teacher, moves to East London, where he discovers gentrification: hipsters meet cockneys and immigrants in a tense environment. Richard is looking for a fresh start. He explores the East End: its nights, its drugs, its people – But the big city is not a welcoming place. Faced with rejection and abuse, Richard’s past demons resurface and let loose his violent instincts.

Runtime: 1 Hour 40 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Trendy starts when school teacher Richard (Nieboer) accepts a role in East London. It is his first time inside the big city and he struggles to connect with the locals. He finds the locals don’t want to communicate and the only person that does hold a conversation with him is a party animal pushing into a drug world.

As Richard navigates the streets, he finds himself feeling emptier than he could ever imagine. This leads him down a dangerous path of trying to fit in despite the people around him sending his life down a dangerous path. However, his personal life is coming back to haunt him.

Verdict on Trendy

Trendy is a drama following a young teacher trying to adapt to life in London. However, it ends up becoming a lot more difficult than he imagined, as he deals with the criminal underworld in the area. All leading him down a dangerous path that could ruin his career or even life.

This is a drama that shows how life can change extremely quickly for people. It shows one man struggling to escape his past while falling down a dangerous path of crime in London. This highlights how easily people can become corrupted by power and objects outside of their control. Lachlan Nieboer is fantastic in the leading role, he shows his character by watching the world flash past him. Without his mesmerising performance, this could end up falling into a film we have seen before.

Final Thoughts – Trendy is a fantastic drama showing the world falling apart around a young teacher.

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Movie Review

Please Stand By (2017) Movie Review

Please Stand By – Movie Review

Please Stand By

Director: Ben Lewin

Writer: Michael Golamco (Screenplay)

Cast

Plot: A young autistic woman runs away from her caregiver in an attempt to submit her 500-page manuscript to a “Star Trek” writing competition at Paramount Pictures.

Runtime: 1 Hour 33 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Please Stand By starts when we meet a young autistic woman Wendy (Fanning). She lives in a support home where she is trying to kick-start her life and adapt to her situation. Wendy has a job, and a daily routine, and she has been working on a Star Trek writing competition in her free time.

However, when her sister Audrey (Eve) is moving away with her husband, Wendy’s caregiver Scottie (Collette) needs to plan her new challenges. Wendy struggles with the changes and lack of support and decides to run away to Paramount Pictures to give in her script. This leads to her loved ones panicking and needing to search for her.

Verdict on Please Stand By

Please Stand By is a comedy-drama following a young autistic woman who runs away from her support home to submit a Star Trek script. She finds her journey more difficult than she imagined as she is unaware of the challenges that face her. However, along the way, she starts to learn more about life.

This is a coming-of-age tale for a young autistic woman learning about adult life. We see that her support system isn’t as strong as she thought, but her naïve nature leads her down a dangerous path. There is also a spotlight on the family and support system that isn’t prepared for what to do next. However, they must learn how to deal with changes in her life. Although, there is a glaring hole in the situation, where neither one of the carers or family members remotely even checks the bus stations. The performances are great with Dakota Fanning shining in the leading role.

Final Thoughts –Please Stand By is a great coming-of-tale.

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Movie Review

iBoy (2017) Movie Review

iBoy – Movie Review

Get ready for an adrenaline-pumping experience with iBoy - an action movie about a teenager who gains superpowers after a traumatic event.

ABC Film Challenge – Action – I

Director: Adam Randall (I See You)

Writer: Joe Barton, Mark Denton, Jonny Stockwood (Screenplay)

Writer: Kevin Brooks (Novel)

Cast

Plot: After being shot, Tom awakens from a coma to discover that fragments of his smartphone have been embedded in his head–and worse, that returning to normal teenage life is impossible because he has developed a strange set of superpowers.

Runtime: 1 Hour 30 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: iBoy starts when troubled schoolboy Tom (Milner) gets shot while visiting a friend Lucy (Williams). However, the bullet sends fragments of his phone into his brain. As Tom starts to recover, he picks up digital signals and learns to process them.

Tom decides to use his new gift to help the people in the neighbourhood, taking on the gangs, including the one that injured him. It sees changes happening and the gangs becoming more aggressive as they try to regain control.

Verdict on iBoy

iBoy is an action sci-fi movie following a teenager who gains an unlikely power after being shot. He can connect with technology after fragments of his phone connected to his brain. It sees him using his new gift to try and clean up the local neighbourhood of the gang’s causing chaos.

This film shows how gangs can cause chaos in London estates dragging innocent people into their crimes and causing pain to them. It uses the superpower origin concept to create an environment where someone fights back for the good. All in all, we get a movie of an unlikely vigilante fighting back against criminals and how much it ends up costing him.

Where to Watch

JustWatch

Final Thoughts – iBoy is an entertaining vigilante story.

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Movie Review

Death House (2017) Movie Review

Death House – Movie Review

Discover the thrilling world of Death House: a gripping horror movie with ruthless inmates, supernatural horrors, and a fight for survival.

Director: B. Harrison Smith (Camp Dread)

Writer: B. Harrison Smith (Screenplay)

Writer: Gunnar Hansen (Story)

Cast

Plot: Two guards fighting through a power breakdown inside the secret ‘Death House’ prison must fight to survive ruthless inmates and even supernatural horrors.

Runtime: 1 Hour 35 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Death House starts when two agents Toria Boon (Palm) and Jae Novak (Longo) get welcomed to a specialist prison. It is the home of the worst of the worst who are kept sedated. Dr Fletcher (Wallace) runs the instate, where Dr Redmane (Crampton) keeps the prisoners contained.

The pair learn about the five deadliest prisoners, Giger (Moseley), Balthoria (Hartley), Crau (Berryman), Thile (Ward) and Nela (Wells).  They are kept in the deepest parts of the prison. As the tour continues, Novak and Boon meet even more of the darkest figures in history. However, when a breach leads to the facility losing power, it becomes a race to prevent the deadliest prisoners from escaping, with Boon and Novak leading to charge to protect lives.

Verdict on Death House

Death House is an action horror following two new agents learning the ins and outs of a high-tech security prison. However, their tour takes a deadly turn when the power goes down and the inmates are free. They must rush to find the best way out before the most notorious killers escape too.

This is a movie that was branded the Expendables of horror movies. It is one of the biggest casts in any horror movie, with genre icons appearing throughout. We have a massive concept for a story, which feels like not everything gets unleashed. This creates a chaotic environment but suffers by having too many characters. None of them get enough time to be fully flushed out or as dangerous as the reputation suggested. It also spends a lot longer explaining what is going on, unlike the quick introduction ‘Con-Air’ gave us to the inmates on a plane.

Where to Watch

JustWatch

Final Thoughts – Death House is a big ambitious concept waiting to be explored more.

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Movie Review

Curvature (2017) Movie Review

Curvature – Movie Review

Curvature

Director: Diego Hallivis

Writer: Brian DeLeeuw (Screenplay)

Cast

Plot: An engineer travels back in time to stop herself from committing a murder.

Runtime: 1 Hour 30 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Curvature starts when Helen (Fonseca) is dealing with losing her husband Wells (Bean). She has returned to work, where Florence (Hamilton) makes sure she can continue her creative mindset. However, when Helen falls asleep and wakes a week later, she finds herself being chased.

Helen discovers there is another version of her in the world. One that has been doing different criminal activities. However, this could help understand what happened to her husband.

Verdict on Curvature

Curvature is a sci-fi mystery following a widow who learns that she might be in danger because of the information her husband left her. However, as she looks to explore, she finds out the truth and looks to solve the problems.

This is a clever idea because it plays into the idea that you could travel in time, but in a limited capacity. It puts together rules that show us how changing things could be used to solve crimes, rather than fix them. Even if we could learn a lot more about the bigger picture, we see everything kept held back here. This ends up being an interesting idea that could have been even bigger.

Final Thoughts –Curvature is an interesting idea on how to detail time travel.

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Movie Review

A Gift for Christmas (2017) Movie Review

A Gift for Christmas – Movie Review

Gift for Christmas

Director: Kevin Fair

Writer: Dean Orion, Topher Payne (Screenplay)

Writer: Melissa Hill (Novel)

Cast

Plot: A handsome stranger develops amnesia after a bibliophile crashes into him on her bicycle.

Runtime: 1 Hour 29 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: A Gift for Christmas starts as bookshop employee Darcy Archer (Liebert) has been struggling to find love. One day she crashes her bike into handsome stranger Aiden Harris (Porte). Darcy finds herself needing to look after his dog Bailey as she tries to help him remember who he really is.

The two start spending a lot of time together, Darcy is trying to find a way to get out of taking over the bookshop. Meanwhile, she continues to hunt for Aiden’s true identity despite starting to fall for him herself.

Verdict on A Gift for Christmas

A Gift for Christmas is a Christmas comedy following a bookshop worker who finds love in an unexpected place. However, he doesn’t remember his own life and could have almost anything happening in his world.

This is the typical sort of romantic comedy you expect to see over Christmas. It follows an unexpected couple meeting in strange circumstances. This gives us the charm of everything you expect without giving too much outside the previous festive films. The performances are fun too, with everyone getting something out of what they have to do in the film.

Final Thoughts – A Gift for Christmas is an easy-to-watch Christmas movie.

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Movie Review

A Crooked Somebody (2017) Movie Review

A Crooked Somebody – Movie Review

Crooked Somebody

Director: Trevor White

Writer: Andrew Zilch (Screenplay)

Starring: Ed Harris, Amanda Crew, Joanne Froggatt, Clifton Collins Jr, Michael Mosely, Amy Madigan, Rich Sommer

Plot: An attention-seeking psychic is kidnapped and tries to use the situation to boost his popularity.

Runtime: 1 Hour 42 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: A Crooked Somebody starts as a travelling attention-seeking psychic Michael Vaughn (Sommer). Finds himself kidnapped by Nathan (Collins Jr.). Only to learn that he committed the murder of a missing man, wanting help to deal with involvement in it.

As Michael looks to survive, he talks Nathan into showing him the body was, turning this into a chance to make himself famous, unwittingly getting involved in a bigger problem in life to exposing psychics.

Thoughts on A Crooked Somebody

A Crooked Somebody is a crime thriller that looks to show a psychic trying to make a name for himself. Using the discovery of a murder victim that has the community working together in the past to support the surviving relative. The story will look to show how psychics can work, taking advantage of people for their own gain. While covering up some sort of murder will only make him one of the most wanted people in the same town.

Michael Vaughn will become a character we don’t like quickly, a conman that wants to help people even if not everything he does it correct. The performances are strong in the film, but if you are checking in for Ed Harris. He is in a supporting role, one that isn’t going to get as much scene time as we would want to see from him.

Final Thoughts – A Crooked Somebody is a thriller with plenty of edge, twists and turns.

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Movie Review

Wilson (2017) Movie Review

Wilson – ABC Film Challenge – Comic Book/Graphic Novel – W – Wilson – Movie Review

Wilson

Director: Craig Johnson

Writer: Daniel Clowes (Screenplay)

Writer: Daniel Clowes (Graphic Novel)

Cast

Plot: A lonely, neurotic, and hilariously honest middle-aged man reunites with his estranged wife, and meets his teenage daughter for the first time.

Runtime: 1 Hour 34 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Wilson starts as a lonely neurotic and brutally honest middle-aged man Wilson (Harrelson) looks to face his own reality. His father is seriously ill, and he decides to go in search of his ex-wife Pippi (Dern).

Once Wilson finds Pippi he learns that Pippi ended up having their daughter and gave her up for adoption. Wilson needs to figure out what is important in his life if he is to move forward with the changes he is facing.

Verdict on Wilson

Wilson is a comedy-drama following a middle-aged man that learns he could have had a different life. It sees him looking to reconnect with a daughter he never knew he had and the consequences of getting too close to her.

This is a nice movie about finding out about a life you could have had. It shows how much it means to Wilson and how much he wants to make up for the errors along the way. However, this doesn’t seem to add too much to the overused storytelling process, it just seems to click things together well. Woody Harrelson is great here getting to unleash his wild side along the way.

Final Thoughts – Wilson is a nice enjoyable comedy drama.