Johnny-the-Film-Sentinel-2187
Joined Oct 2010
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Reviews778
Johnny-the-Film-Sentinel-2187's rating
Sinners ticks off all the boxes 'original film nuts' can possibly crave: an original screenplay populated by strong characters and stylistically strong imagery, good music and some great action sprinkled with geo-mythical-and-social commentary packed throughout its runtime.
For a 'horror movie', it's selling the film short by labelling it under that genre alone: it's also a thriller-musical and some psychologically driven stuff too; but it is most definitely a Gothic fantasy film taking place in the 1930s, centring on twin brothers who happen to be World War One veterans living in a very bitter Jim-Crow-era America.
Ryan Coogler was known for Creed and Black Panther before this one, and Sinners was shot on IMAX-65mm and Ultra Panavision 65mm film cameras. So Coogler's joined the IMAX-65mm ranks of Christopher Nolan, Damien Chazelle, Jordan Peele and even Michael Bay. It's nice seeing modern Hollywood talents still utilising 70mm celluloid in an increasingly homogenised industry honing in on mostly digital cameras and projection. Honestly more filmmakers should be utilising BOTH digital and analogue film cameras. Regardless, Sinners is an achievement of genre fusion and a technical treasure too, thanks to it be in an inevitable IMAX-darling for future re-releases.
It's not all that often where a great director gets to sign off on a passion project that's NOT based off any iconic books or IP, and considering Sinners cost near $100-million to make, it's heartwarming to know the film's also become a hit and might become something of a 'four-quadrant' film in the years to come. The whole 'we want original films' cry so many audience members make to Hollywood isn't just hyperbole: Sinners shows that when done right, it's like an overdue reward for something we didn't know we wanted in the first place.
Sinners gets 4.5/5 stars. 9/10 IMDbs. Easily one of the year's strongest films.
For a 'horror movie', it's selling the film short by labelling it under that genre alone: it's also a thriller-musical and some psychologically driven stuff too; but it is most definitely a Gothic fantasy film taking place in the 1930s, centring on twin brothers who happen to be World War One veterans living in a very bitter Jim-Crow-era America.
Ryan Coogler was known for Creed and Black Panther before this one, and Sinners was shot on IMAX-65mm and Ultra Panavision 65mm film cameras. So Coogler's joined the IMAX-65mm ranks of Christopher Nolan, Damien Chazelle, Jordan Peele and even Michael Bay. It's nice seeing modern Hollywood talents still utilising 70mm celluloid in an increasingly homogenised industry honing in on mostly digital cameras and projection. Honestly more filmmakers should be utilising BOTH digital and analogue film cameras. Regardless, Sinners is an achievement of genre fusion and a technical treasure too, thanks to it be in an inevitable IMAX-darling for future re-releases.
It's not all that often where a great director gets to sign off on a passion project that's NOT based off any iconic books or IP, and considering Sinners cost near $100-million to make, it's heartwarming to know the film's also become a hit and might become something of a 'four-quadrant' film in the years to come. The whole 'we want original films' cry so many audience members make to Hollywood isn't just hyperbole: Sinners shows that when done right, it's like an overdue reward for something we didn't know we wanted in the first place.
Sinners gets 4.5/5 stars. 9/10 IMDbs. Easily one of the year's strongest films.
Blake's 7 is good fun, in spite of the shoestring budget and effects making classic Star Trek effects look like 2001: A Space Odyssey or Star Wars, and the writing was groundbreaking in making space adventures feel like stakes-driven dramas that the BBC could finally explore outside Doctor Who. In the years since its 1978 debut, Blake's 7 is still a cult classic and a showcase of British science fiction television.
The reviews for this show have basically been somewhere between honest reactions of viewers and lite history lessons on the show's somewhat mixed response initially; some loved it (Doctor Who devotees), some hated it (like Clive James' infamous "classically awful" critique of the show), and some wrote it off as 'discount Star Trek (or) Star Wars'. I think these reactions were fun to learn about even if some of them didn't reflect my liking this show very much.
Also, Blake's 7 inspired the likes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Babylon 5, and may have even influenced the Battlestar Galactica reboot. So this underdog space opera certainly left its mark on sci-fi television as a whole.
Blake's 7 gets 9/10 IMDbs. 4.5/5 stars. It's BBC sci-fi at its best and most ambitious. And like classic Doctor Who there's a lot of endearing qualities in it too.
The reviews for this show have basically been somewhere between honest reactions of viewers and lite history lessons on the show's somewhat mixed response initially; some loved it (Doctor Who devotees), some hated it (like Clive James' infamous "classically awful" critique of the show), and some wrote it off as 'discount Star Trek (or) Star Wars'. I think these reactions were fun to learn about even if some of them didn't reflect my liking this show very much.
Also, Blake's 7 inspired the likes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Babylon 5, and may have even influenced the Battlestar Galactica reboot. So this underdog space opera certainly left its mark on sci-fi television as a whole.
Blake's 7 gets 9/10 IMDbs. 4.5/5 stars. It's BBC sci-fi at its best and most ambitious. And like classic Doctor Who there's a lot of endearing qualities in it too.
Thunderbolts is the ideal distillation of what we've come to expect of the most entertaining Marvel movies: a nice balance of action, humour and character synergy that builds in the foundations of shared universes feeling alive and bigger than single characters.
With many of the other entries, it's easy to say 'oh, things have gotten too overblown and farcical since Avengers: Endgame' and 'all the movies are the same', and so on; Thunderbolts is a nice shot in the arm for a somewhat worn-out franchise like the MCU (any massive film franchise can attest to this), and the more personal story instead of 'the multiverse is collapsing' stuff was also a good creative choice for the buddy-action-comedy formula.
If anything this was more like an 'Earthbound' Guardians of the Galaxy. And the dashes of espionage fiction and evil-Superman-shenanigans made the buddy chemistry of the main characters feel genuine and fresh.
Thunderbolts gets 8/10 IMDbs. 4/5 stars. Hopefully Fantastic Four will also be a similarly good time at the movies.
With many of the other entries, it's easy to say 'oh, things have gotten too overblown and farcical since Avengers: Endgame' and 'all the movies are the same', and so on; Thunderbolts is a nice shot in the arm for a somewhat worn-out franchise like the MCU (any massive film franchise can attest to this), and the more personal story instead of 'the multiverse is collapsing' stuff was also a good creative choice for the buddy-action-comedy formula.
If anything this was more like an 'Earthbound' Guardians of the Galaxy. And the dashes of espionage fiction and evil-Superman-shenanigans made the buddy chemistry of the main characters feel genuine and fresh.
Thunderbolts gets 8/10 IMDbs. 4/5 stars. Hopefully Fantastic Four will also be a similarly good time at the movies.