neener3707

Yes, like everyone said, its a Die Hard clone like many action films of the 90's. While sifting through my VHS collection for something dumb to watch, I found one and dumb I got. But the funny sort of dumb that when watching with a group of friends, becomes a fun experience that creates a communal taunting of this... not horrendous... but silly film. My friends and I personally enjoyed it, out of morbid curiosity, but I have a feeling that watching it alone would make you want to put your head through a wall.

It was not an outright clone of Die Hard, same basic plot with some specific/almost exact copies that are admittedly out order. Group of "mercenaries" take over building, take hostages, ulterior motive for doing so, blah blah blah, you know the plot of Die Hard so just replace an office building with a chemical plant. What is funny though is they seem to cram in as many visually similar events to Die Hard in the first 20 minutes as they could. Shooting a rocket at police vehicle, attacking a police car to get the entire force on the scene, black officer who communicates with the inside, a quasi are shaft scene, references to John Wayne, the main villains' name even rhymes with Hans Gruber (from Die Hard).

The whole movie is just hilarious, if you look at it from the perspective. The acting is all over the place, which is truly a thing to behold. Upon discovering the dead bodies of their fellow "mercenaries", they react with an "oh jeez" with the literal inflection of an 8 year old who dropped their sandwich in the playground sand (everyone watching audibly laughed the first time). The main villains' acting is that over the top, absurd acting of John Malkovich performance as Cyrus the Virus in Con Air (you know if you know). Its all just so laughable combined with the stiff and emotionless car wreck that is Jeff Wincott.

Combine all of this with laugh out loud filmmaking misfires such as every set other than the factory looking like a student's film project, to blatantly obvious ragdoll dummies being thrown over ledges, to smaller things like Jeff killing the first merc and not taking the mercs gun and continuing the film unarmed because.... yeah we get it you can do martial arts. The dialog? Lets not go there, I'm no Hemmingway but I can spot writing so amateurish I could have done it better myself.

So in summation, if you are looking for an explosive action film to watch; don't. But if you're THAT bored and got some possibly not sober friends, its a funny watch.

Can you make an awesome Gun-Fu flick but have nobody talk? Absolutely. And who else to do it but the legendary Hong Kong Action Guru John Woo. I went into the film blind, and oddly enough I had watched John Woo's magnum opus, Hard Boiled, for the millionth time about a week ago and while thematically, it is significantly different, I still liked it. I grew up as a child watching the relentless Hong Kong classics on VHS in the 90's, and while some may soon be saying it didn't reach those heights. I don't think it was supposed to it.

This was a quite interesting experiment of combining character study and an explosive Gun-Fu action flick. I must say, it worked much better than I anticipated it would. This was a wholly unique movie in a sea of the same old boring action movies (insert 500 movies in the last 5 years). In fact, the trailers before the film were literally the stale Jason Statham, solo action hero BS that this film amazing breaks free from to provide a fun and special experience. The action was not quite Hard Boiled extremes, but it was well choreographed. The acting was good enough to convey a story with no words. Thumbs up, fun movie for a change, the movie landscape seems to be changing.

People should also remember how frequently John Woo has commented on many of things I have a feeling younger folks, or folks new to his work, will soon complain about. He acknowledges that nobody reloads their weapons because it "interrupts the flow of the action", the enemy couldn't hit water if they fell out of a boat (people shooting 2 feet away from each other and hitting nothing). There needs to be a suspension of disbelief for Woo films, and there have been for decades, just relax, and enjoy the violence.

While I am getting sick of CGI car accidents (I saw that in another different movie very recently but can't remember), and the digital blood and wish there would be a return to the classic use of practical effects. I miss the 90's and all its paper/debris flying, squib orgies, and people actually hitting each other. But this film does have the classic practical effects to a large degree and while the digital effects would be my only complaint. I REALLY liked this and would recommend.

Horror has seen a resurgence in the last several years/decade. But so has the relentless onslaught of homages to the campy, garbage 80's horror/sci-fi films. Some do it very well, some are awful, and this film is somewhere in-between. I found it fun but at the same time too drawn out and overall, hard to watch in the sense of it being bad. Being directed by the guy who made Hobo with a Shotgun, expect it to be intentionally bad, and then see that they may have tried a bit too hard to make it schlocky.

Que to clichés, foul mouth pre-teens and teens, huge house party, evil of some sort ruin it, kids band together to defeat said malevolence. The acting was good but everything else either was just below average or flat our bad. What kind of script was this? Did a foul mouthed 12 year old like the ones in the film write this. They couldn't have added more foul language if they tried. Sure we swore as kids, but this was trying to hard.

The story was horrifying, again trying way to hard to be those Prom Night, Slumber Party Massacre, The Prowler, Nightmare on Elm Street 2 type films. The social hierarchy of "cool kids and dorks" is so over done, to the point where a character literally says dorks deserve to be taken by the aliens and murdering a child because "you ruined my party". Its just too much, again, "trying too hard" would be the motto of this film.

I love Guy Ritchie films, I saw this on a whim and didn't know it was him until the opening credits. So when I saw that I knew I was in for a white knuckle action fueled ride that I would love. And while its obviously not his best, by a long shot actually, I liked it, I enjoyed it, and I recommended it to friends and family. But a masterpiece it was not.

Good thing I didn't watch the trailer because going in blind, not knowing the story that was (for the most part) spoiled in the trailer, I enjoyed the semi-done before revenge plot. But the grit, the tension, and the action is what made it all for me. Jason Statham often become his own cliché in his own movies but not this one. The whole film was dirty, it felt gritty, and I love films that don't just show nice cinematography and sets, but instead have a consistent tone that makes you feel like you're in it. And of course the action is good, we already mentioned who this is coming from, the final "heist" of sorts was very entertaining and the action was intense and well filmed.

I did find the editing weird in a couple of spots, just a couple of moments and one entire segment I felt did not really flow with the rest of the film and kind of take you out of it, It would take up some time to say which scenes but you'll know them when you see them. Oddly cut, either to quick or just in an odd fashion, and an entire segment of the film that serves as backstory for me personally, was placed it a bad spot I also loved the score, it was very simplistic yet unnerving and effective. Only added good to the gritty imagery and tone we were looking at.

All in all its a solid action thriller that is no masterpiece but still worth a watch if you like the genre.

This movie delivers on what it promised in its trailer and poster on the surface level. A legendary duel between two giants of cinema. And while yes, the action was great; the plot(s), its writing, and its characters are just plain old mediocre and actually pretty bad at times.

So lets get this plot problem out of the way first before I talk about how much I loved (for the most part) the action involved. The main plot was fine but boy was that subplot featuring Stranger Things girl and who two bumbling stooge cohorts terrible. The writing was just bad, no character depth, plus a level of cringe worthy, hackneyed quips and jokey lines that are enough to make you roll your eyes and just beg for the next action sequence to come. In fact, I don't think we even really need those characters at all. That arch of the story could have been told in a totally different way and the film would have been much better off for it. The main plot was ok in my opinion, I don't want to spoil the things not in the trailer but their origins and getting to see the homeland of the Titans was interesting enough, accented by characters who weren't as bad as the sub plot, but were nothing memorable.

No the action, loved it. The first action scene was pretty good though the true battle was pretty awesome, for the most part. Some of the camera angles were not the best for the scene, I liked most of it though including the shots from inside buildings which was a nice nod to the Gareth Evans reboot that I personally like a lot. The visuals are spectacular, it was fantastic to see them duke it out in/destroy the city the final fight takes place. Also that semi-twist in the story that, honestly, the internet saw coming a mile away, was fun for me personally because I remember it from when I was a kid. And with that "other thing" that happens, they portrayed him in a serviceable way and I think the did a pretty good job, considering how delicate it must have been designing that "creature".

All in all I'd saw get yourself a month of free HBO Max and skip through the human drama and just absorb the awesome action.

As someone who worked in retirement home for the elderly with dementia (that was hit hard) at the time these events happened and indeed the rest of this pandemic that yes, is still happening, I really wanted to see this one. I wanted to see what it was like for them on that ship and compare it to my own experience. So maybe I have some bias but I will admit, the documentary wasn't as ominous and clean cut as the trailer, it was an "ok" documentary. But considering what little footage they had to work with, I suppose it was a serviceable enough job.

There is a lot of politics surrounding this virus so hopefully people will keep that out of their reviews, I know I will.

Unfortunately a lot of it is filmed on phones so that may bug some people as I see it bug people in reviews for other documentaries. But like I said considering what little footage they probably had to work with, I'd say it was well enough put together. It was odd for me to watch personally, I myself witnessed the senior community I worked at turn into a ghost town/prison, I remember having to continue working and wondering everyday if I was going to get it, whether I was safe or if I was going to give it to someone else. So the way they portray the ghost ship was chilling, to me at least, from my opinion it was shown accurately.

Classism definitely reared its heads in this documentary. I do though wish they focused less on the passengers and more on the crew, I feel they showed more of the passengers and I found it sad they didn't put more focus on the injustice and anxiety of the crew, which they did touch on, but certainly not enough. At least I got to go home at the end of 16 hour shift, these poor people had to work in cramped conditions with little to no protection or understanding of what was happening. Again, they did touch on it, but more emphasis could have been put on those poor people, who got to watch rich Americans leave while they worked their fingers to the bone to keep those passengers alive.

I understand the passengers were bored and frustrated, but I found some of them incredible pretentious, ungrateful, and downright rude, and I did not have the sympathy for them in the way I think the documentary wanted me to. Dementia patients I worked for in the senior home complained less than these people. Its almost as if these people thought the same level of pre-Covid service they were promised would continue in a situation like this, I only really felt emotional for one of the passengers and his wife. But the rest of the portions of the passenger segments left me uninterested and kind of insulted as someone who worked during these hard time in one of the most dangerous places.

All in all it was a slightly above middle of the road documentary, not amazing but told the story the best they could with what little they had.

We've seen these kinds of plots before. Guy seems to be a simple family man, tragedy occurs, man turns back into the old version of himself as an ass kicking special forces/mercenary killing machine, the old version he was trying to leave behind. But while on paper its very hackneyed, on the big screen it was an EXTREMELY well crafted action rollercoaster/gut busting dark comedy. What we got was a very well choreographed, all-guns-blazing ride and well written dark comedy that you will NOT soon forget.

Like I said the action is nearly nonstop and its very well choreographed. It mirrors The Raid, John Wick, Die Hard. Sequences of brutal hand to hand combat that are the American versions of Hong Kong martial arts film. Brutal use of fists and blunt/sharp objects that make you wince and laugh. Not laughing because it is silly, but because its was so well shot and effective, you can't believe you just saw someone get destroyed like that. The gunplay is phenomenal as well. With several smaller engagements that are quick, fast paced, well choreographed and leave you groaning with amusement at the spectacle you are witnessing. In particular the final massacre of a firefight (the film's crescendo) at the end that will either leave you breathless of your lungs filled with air from scoffs of disbelief and saying "holy s***" every 10 seconds as you endure this ballroom dance of carnage.

The writing too is pretty darn good. Its hard to tow the line between too much comedy in your action-comedy flick but this film does a good job. Just the right amount of jokes and silliness to complement the story as well as the action itself. The jokes are usually pretty quick and are little accents on to the situation of the action and it is generally speaking good and enhances the scene. Though some of the jokes are transitions and while like I said before, most of them worked well, a couple weren't so great and left me wondering why the editor decided to go that route. But generally speaking the editing as whole is very well done along with the choreography being shown.

Round of applause for the actors well, nothing more needs to be said, every single one of them brought a unique character to the table, and while some of it is cheesy, the performances were great across the board.

All in all I say if you like action movies, go see it, if you like the more hard versions that are gorier and more brutal, go see it, if you like action comedies, go see it. It was a great film and will definitely be watching that one again.

Not quite the movie I thought it would be, I expected it to be good and it was.... good enough to moderately satisfy. People say the story of comfort women in WW2. Much like the Holocaust, when you make a movie about a tough subject you better make sure you do it right. But I wouldn't even really say this movie was about comfort women AKA sex slaves in the Japanese Military. So while I liked it, it just about did its job, it doesn't really go above and beyond.

Its a very slow and quiet (mostly) movie that tells a story of a woman attempting to hire a Japanese man in post-WW2 Malaya to make the dream garden of her younger sister who was a sex slave. Anyway, won't wrote an entire synopsis but I will speak on the film itself. Its very well shot and the story managed to hold my moderate interest. There are some twists and turns at the end and while it was interesting semi-"climax", it didn't knock my socks off like some of the other famous film shock endings. And thats possible due to the writing of the characters, one character has her motivations and we sympathize with that, but thats about it. She's missing any sort of complication or nuance, its very clear what she's thinking and what she as a character is about. The other main actor is stoic und unreadable with small moments of humanity. While his intentions and secrets are revealed, it again was not enough to knock my socks of, because I only moderately sympathized and felt with the characters.

And the acting was passable for the most part. The Brits give a passable performance and so do the Japanese soldiers and Communist insurgents. But the main lead was odd to me. It could be the cultural divide as far as the expression of emotion, vocally and with facial inflection, but I didn't really care for it. And the films tone is strong, possibly too strong, possibly trying a little bit too hard? Not really sure but I liked it an any heavy handed shots and sequences didn't bother me too much.

All in all it was ok, I liked it, and I suppose people interested in the story of Comfort Women should probably look elsewhere, but fans of your typical romance/war setting film. Give it a shot.

Such a great idea for a film, such great actors (except one, I'll talk of that later), such great visuals! But holy dang was that an incredibly amateur attempt at a horror movie. I live in Santa Cruz so I was very excited to watch it. But.... sigh.... it just wasn't very scary. Not to mention how ridiculously long certain scenes dragged on. Not sure if it was attempt at a slow-burn style film, but the slow burn was more boring that tense. We get barely any family dialog, so we dont know or care about the dynamic, which makes certain scenes totally un-effective.

As I mentioned I didn't like one actor, but rather one character. One of the "Us" speaks while the rest don't. I understand there is a reason for this (twist ending) but it just really takes you out of it. It would have been much more effective to have them all silent and grunting. They wanted her to talk so she could explain whats going on, when we don't need context. First of all you don't need an explanation to understand the story, so it made me roll my eyes and think "MOVE ON". Many masterpieces of cinema don't explain anything (just look at Kubrick) because a sense of confusion adds to the mystery of the film.

Earthshatteringly disappointing.

There was a lot of hype surrounding this one, which often results in over-expectations, and that happened to me. The scenes with Valak in the Conjuring 2 were very well done and highly effective. So I was pretty excited to see this one come out, and with the trailers, I expected a lot. But thats not to say its a 1 star film. The tone was great, kind of felt like an old Hammer film, the mood was good at the beginning but it was kind of derailed by terrible writing. I'd say out of the dozen or so scares, only 2 actually got reactions out of me, and to be fair they were not very intense reactions. Though its predecessors used many jump scares, there was just something that didn't work this time, and that was very disappointing to me.

So I did enjoy some of it, some tension and scares worked, but most didn't, unless you are 14 and new to horror, but this horror veteran was not totally impressed. Also the film didn't represent the religion well. Many of the nuns talk about feeling spirits, visions, divination, all things that are said t not exist according to the tradition Roman Catholic religion. So heres hoping the next one is better.

I've always said that Netlfix nearly constantly puts out some of the best documentaries and docu-series, and this is another accolade to be proud of. An interesting documentary in the sense that it conveys a wide range of emotions, from crying about the horror these women experience, to crying out of joy that they are strong enough to face it and still not give up. Congo has been a nasty place for a very long time, from its dozens of pre-colonial civil wars, to its horrifying compliance in the slave trade, to what we see in this documentary happening today. Congo has faced many civil wars and regular wars in recent years, with a few mass starvations and genocides, so one should understand what they are getting into when they watch this film. Its a tough one, but in a way, a beautiful one.

So for me, and likely many others, the initial draw was Iko Uwais, because I'm a big fan of the movies hes in like The Raid movies and Headshot. And don't get me wrong, I greatly enjoyed a couple of the action scenes, but for the most part it was not what I expected, I felt like I was given a false impression of the movie from the trailer. The trailer gave me the impression it would be a non-stop The Raid-style film, but it wasn't. And while, like I said, I liked a couple of sequences, much of it was generic shooting back and forth. First off, I did like some action sequences, mostly the hand to hand kung-fu and whats known as gun-fu involving Iko Uwais, which clearly had Asian influences, but the other gun play left something to be desired, mostly generic shooting back and forth, interspersed with random interruptions that kill some of the action. So all in all I'd say the action was half and half, some I liked, some not so much.

The story was very textbook, and while parts of the "twist" ending were predictable, some of it wasn't if you don't read a lot of espionage novels. My brother was much more impressed with the ending than I was. I expected some of it. Also, the framing device used is also hit and miss, sometimes there was good writing and good one-liners, but some of it was admittedly stupid, and killed my action buzz a few times.I also did like Lauren Cohan's character, who was more engaging and bad ass than Marky Mark. To avoid spoilers I won't drop names, but the seemingly premature and unnecessarily early death of a character kind of pissed my off a bit because I liked him/her. Most of the cinematography was also pretty textbook blockbuster action flick, not too much that special, not to mention the "drone vision" shots looked very unauthentic.

If you want a generic action flick sprinkled with some very cool moments, go see it.

When I saw the trailer, I just thought they were going to rip off Jaws, and while they technically didn't for the most part, it was still pretty bad. I liked a few parts but most of it was pretty bad. First of all, the attempts at humor were laughable, but not in a good way. Nearly every joke was just plain old stupid and made my roll my eyes. Everyone else was laughing, so maybe its just me, but then again I heard them all saying "this is really scary" so I have a feeling I wasn't in the smartest or seasoned theater group. While some of the action scenes were passable but many were just so terribly filmed and choreographed it didn't catch the eye or even sometimes not allowing you to have a sense of whats actually going on. That sucks because the action was the only reason I went.

The film even mentions 2 battleships, which honestly would have been awesome but the finale they chose was just kind of lame, was hoping for a Piranha 3D beach sequence, but what I got just made me say.... meh.... It was also MUCH longer that it needed to be. A very long intro combined with several false endings, meaning you think its over but its not. It ended up being another 'continually checking the time, Peter Jackson's King Kong' experience. I just wanted it to be over and go home and be upset I spent 8 dollars on this borderline piece of trash. I say skip it.

Lately we've be getting a lot of trashy and poorly made alien invasion movies, with the exception The Arrival and a few others. But I liked this one FAR MORE than the average alien schlock I often see. I'm a big fan of alien invasion films so I'm very picky, and I did enjoy this one. For once the special effects weren't terrible, they weren't spectacular but they were passable. The feel of the film was good too, which is essential for an alien invasion film. Colors, cinematography, atmosphere, its all so crucial to a movie such as this and though it doesn't hit the nail on the head, it was more than passable.

Some of the actors I'm not a fan of, but they did a serviceable job in their roles, I found the relationships between several of the characters to be believable and sort of impacting. Again, no masterpiece, but the acting could have been, and often is, much worse. The story I also found to be well structured, reminded me of many other classic alien attack films, the good ones, not Killer Clowns From Outerspace (though it is a fun movie, not well made though). So if you like alien invasion films, you might like this. But as the kids say these days, haters gonna always hate.

It wasn't perfect of course, but I almost hazard to say its the best of the series. With the last couple films, I went in not really expecting anything extraordinary, but I was very pleasantly surprised. This film wasn't an excuse to milk a franchise for money like so many other franchises that became terrible. I'm also not the biggest fan of Tom Cruise but he gets a round of applause from me for this one. Its been a while since a Mission Impossible movie impressed me so much. The actors all did a perfectly fine job, better than some previous films and the action was just awesome as heck. I don't want to give away too much but this film was definitely worth the price of admission. Better storytelling and action that a great number of action films we see in today's Hollywood machine, a machine that often produces pretty bad movies.

So it wasn't perfect, but it was much better than a lot of the tripe we see in our theaters today. This one surprised me, I say you should go see it.

I went into this expecting it to be another average or sub-par Hollywood thriller that we have been plagued with for so many years. But what I got was a truly well done, non-stop fun action, heck of a film. Once the thrills begin, they do not stop, but even when the action is broken up with story, its not done so badly like its done in so many others who shall remain nameless, it was very smooth. The Rock delivers one of his best performances, and while there were jokes, it wasn't silly and stupid like his other roles have been. And while there were a couple parts that were either fantastical (meaning they are probably not possible) or decisions that I personally would not have made, it really didn't bother me because it was so very cool.

What I liked, and clearly what others have noticed, is that it was very classic 80's and 90's action film. From the gun fights, to the one-liners, to the hair raising scenarios, it all was clearly influenced by films like Die Hard but thankfully it didn't just simply copy it, it was unique in its own right. Asking things like "how would a 90's action flick unfold with today's culture and technology"? And it did this very well. I saw this one a week later because at first I didn't think it was worth the watch. BUT IT WAS. GO SEE IT.

I went into it expecting it to be like the first, which was complete and utter pathetic garbage. But interestingly, this one was better, not amazing, but definitely not as bad as its trashy predecessor. But how is it better? I'd like to say first that while I am saying certain aspects are better, its still not a perfect film. So one of the problems with the first was that it was just plain old boring, the story simply wasn't interesting. But the story in this one was at least a little bit more engaging. Another problem with the first one was that the camera use off putting, too many big faces, but thankfully this one expands on the first's cinematography and did make it watchable. Of course there will be people who won't watch it because of how bad the first one is, but take it from this horror movie veteran, it was passable. While I didn't like it as much as other horror gems of the last few years, I didn't walk out of the theater like I expected I would.

So as you've noticed by the trailer, the film has a unique way of presentation, using the old-school aspect ratio. Its not perfectly clear whether they used real film stock, or created it digitally, but as someone who worked at a film archive, I can attest that they did a pretty darn good job. But is it scary? Is it really like the critics say, that its the best found footage film in years, being a ode to The Exorcist and Rosemary's Baby? Well no, its not anywhere close to those masterpieces, but I agree its much better than the found footage garbage we so often see. With a boat load of Hollywood found footage trash, we also get a wave of films made by anyone who has an iPhone, and the vast majority of them are terrible, and while Devil's Doorway is not amazing, its certainly to as bad as I'm used to.

But was it scary? Its hard to say yes or no, I would rather say it was hit and miss, some of it got me, some of it didn't. The atmosphere also appeared and disappeared, sometimes it was effective, sometimes it was either not there or was not as effective. Its no masterpiece, but it most definitely had some cool stuff in there. The aspect ratio adds to it, the story its based on is an interesting one (surprised it has been done to death), and some of the plot points, shocks, and scares were alright. Again, alright, not perfect. So don't go in expecting a masterpiece like some critics say, or are paid to say.

At the beginning it was your average disaster/apocalypse film, something goes horribly wrong, government either can't handle it or won't, characters take problems into their own hands. All is well for a while, special effects are fine, acting is fine, but just like in the story, something goes terribly wrong. Much like that other Netflix film that was atrocious, the "horror" film about home invasion, it appears that the creators of the film either couldn't decide on an ending, or just threw their hands up and said "screw it, I don't know how to end it, lets just pretend to be ambiguous". And its not to say films with an ambiguous end aren't always bad, but this one didn't even bother to create an ending.

As a Californian, we hold the stories dear, stories of earthquakes or other disasters ending civilized society. And for a while I was enjoying it, but somewhere around 2/3rds or half way through it, I just completely lost interest and was also disappointed in its execution. Without giving too much away, many decision made about how to execute certain parts of the film left me bamboozled, not the way I would have. All in all its good for a little while but ends up leaving you unfulfilled, so a warning, maybe just watch the first half, and don't worry, if you want to know what happens at the end, let me tell you, nothing.

So it was heavily advertised that its from some of the people behind "Big Little Lies", which was a masterful show, and its very apparent that this one is from the same people It has a very similar style, but only more sexually and violently graphic. While a couple times there was unnecessary gratuity, pornography and such, it didn't stop me from watching or make me less interested. Some will be upset much like some folks who were upset with the gratuity of The Tale. But for me it didn't turn me off too bad. So its VERY slow burn, so some people will not like it, it seems many people these days can't wait and must be instantly pleased, like people who didn't like The Witch and others like it. But personally I'm willing to see where this goes, because like "Big Little Lies", it took me a couple episodes to be fully engulfed, so I'm going to give it more time.

The trailer straight up lied, I watched it and felt like they showed the entire movie, but I was pleasantly surprised to see there were many other plot points that were not in the trailer and kept you interested. Yes the trailer lessened some of the action scenes because you already see it, but there was still plenty here to enjoy, and I enjoyed it very much. First of all, they added a completely unmentioned plot point that was very interesting and in ways kept you guessing. The trailer also makes you think that the film is about Brolin vs. Del Toro, but this could not be further from the point. I would have walked out if it was exactly like the trailer, but thankfully it was not.

And yes, its not necessarily as good as the first one, but sequels rarely stand up to their predecessor, BUT sequels also rarely are as good as this one. Most of the time we either get pitiful attempts at capturing the success of the original, or ones that god completely off the reservation and blow it. BBut this sequel still captured the feel of the first, the emotion of the first, and the great dialog of the first. I can't tell you how many times the theater all clapped and laughed at the wonderful back and forth conversations between Josh Brolin's character and his superiors. All in all this was certainly much better than I expected, and much more deserving of respect than the vast majority of sequels.

Many films like 2001: A Space Odyssey come to mind when viewing this film, but unlike those film, none of it is effective or interesting, I actually had to force myself to finish it because I was so disinterested. The idea is fine enough, especially with the advent of smart technology homes, but unfortunately it is juts not effective compared to predecessors like 2001 and certain episodes of the X-Files. The artificial intelligent being is just plain old not scary or intimidating like HAL-3000, not sure whether it was the silly voice or the way its presented, but I simply did not feel any tension. While I like some of the kills/gore, which is the reason I gave it more that 2 stars, not much else was interesting or effective. I really had many hopes for this film, but the were all quickly squashed by sub-par film making.

The acting was shocking to me, as certain actors have done well in other films, but it was all just so bad, either way over done or it was simply people just being themselves as opposed to playing a character. The use of colors was also completely ridiculous, not at all subtle, the color scheme is in your face and is not artistic in anyway in films like 2001 or The Exorcist. I really can't type more, there wasn't much to this film, and what was there was bad, not pitiful, but bad.

I don't even know where to begin with this one. When I heard that it was being made by some of the same people who worked on The Witch (which some people didn't like, but I liked it), I had high hope for this film, and boy was I not disappointed. Such a breath of fresh air for the genre in a time where Hollywood has prostituted it and released nothing but garbage. Not only was the film scary as hell, but it also had a lot to say about grief and trauma. The way the film is put together is its strongest part. The pacing, the editing, the cinematography, and the sound design all worked together to create a truly unique and hellish vision of horror. I'm a horror veteran, and rarely actually jump or feel tense, but this film made me feel like a horror virgin again, actually frightening me like no other Hollywood film can.

The acting was also superb all around and only adds to the horror being presented on screen. Each character was unique and added their own style to this modern horror masterpiece. I saw many people in the theater jumping and looking away, some being grown men. A couple people even left, and I can't imagine its because they felt it was a bad film, because it was not. I am seriously considering going and seeing it again which hasn't happened since the Evil Dead remake and The Raid. I would say this film is a must see for any horror fan or for anyone wanting to be scared out of their minds.

I am so sad to say that I did not enjoy this movie, it was just so uninteresting. I was excited because Bad Grandpa was such a unique play n the Jackass formula, putting some story in with the laughs and stunts. But unfortunately the trailer showed just about every notable moment in the film. I was waiting for something interesting that I hadn't yet seen, but it never came. Also the attempts at a heart felt start were absolutely pathetic. Normally I write two paragraphs but there is no point, not much to say about this disaster.

Though it was strong in a couple moments, for the most part I was disappointed with this, it really could ave been so much better, especially considering the immense resources of HBO. It goes back and forth between completely ridiculous to somewhat interesting. Unfortunately it is also a pale imitation to the novel its based on, only using the bare skeleton of the story, and not delving into what truly made the novel profound. Michael B. Jordan's character was so completely ridiculous and different than the novel version in the first 15 minutes that I nearly stopped watching it, but thankfully that subsides. There were many things from the book I expected to see, only to piss me off when they were either not there at all, or altered in some way for no justifiable reason. So while many of the basic plot points are there, tough some of them changed, it just didn't possess what the book did.

I did like Michael Shannon's character and his acting, and while Jordan's character is completely off-putting, it does get tolerable as the film goes on. There were a couple of meaningful discussions, but the essential meaning of the book burning is completely missed, it was to create a people void of free thought, and while that is hinted at, for the most part its nowhere near as deep and introspective as the novel, its a very basic rendering of and incredibly deep story. I for the most part was disappointed, it could have been so much better, all the had to do was pay attention to the source material, and not just scan over it. Also the re-writing of many of the characters is inconceivable to me, no idea why they would do it.

Meh... I didn't like it very much.