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weallareone
Action and horror are my least favourite genres, I think life has enough gruesome harrowing stuff going on to need additional top ups of it in my entertainment!
However, stories about characters who have encountered hardship, challenges, atrocities, these when told skillfully, realistically often capture my attention.
Exploring and telling stories of humanity, how good people make bad decisions, exploring motivation of those decisions is fascinating to me. Films which explore the psychology of serial killers, and people who willingly do harm to others is equally fascinating to me.
Some of my most favourite movies of all time: Shawshank Redemption, Forrest Gump, Deadpool, Dune.
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
Passengers (2016)
Starts out as a great sci fi story
Intriguing, fascinating, inspiring us to imagine far, far into the future. I want to know all about the character, I empathise with him.
Then it slowly becomes a rom com then evolves into a typical hollywood action movie where I wait until the next plot point to pay attention.
First half of the movie I loved, second half was predictable and cliched. I liked that it was a bit different, futuristic technology was believable (at a reasonable level of fiction).
Some great visuals well created.
Would have loved to have seen more reminiscing of the characters about their lives and experiences. What was it that they loved about each other, other than they were the only other human there?
Deadpool (2016)
Brilliantly witty, entertaining and emotionally engaging. A Brilliant new way to tell tired old superhero stories.
I've heard it being talked about but only saw it last week for the first time. In terms of its genre, it's a brilliant movie, well crafted story line, brilliantly scripted. It does something different with the super hero we've never seen like this before. He's lovable, the story is heart wrenching, you (I) want him to beat the hell out of the evil villains he's fighting. I've never experienced that before about a villain in a superhero movie. Usually the villains are very stereotypical and don't evoke the passion Deadpool did for me. I really really wanted to see the horrible man squashed to smithereens for being so evil and inflicting so much pain on innocent people.
Daredevil's villain was suitably evil and cold but the characterisation didn't evoke such a strong emotional response for me.
I'm not a batman or superman fan, but I do love a bit of science fiction, and Deadpool ventures far enough into a bit of sciency reasoning for his superpowers to fascinate me. The fight scenes I'm usually just waiting for them to end so we can move onto the next story, but with Deadpool they were interesting, they weren't just bashing each other up in cool ways, they had wit and humour in them, which I loved.
Saving Mr. Banks (2013)
Let us go and fly a kite!
I've just finished watching Saving Mr. Banks, I have mascara tracks running down my cheeks, soaked from the streams of tears that flowed as I watched. I'm not sure I've ever experienced such a poignant, deeply sad, yet buoyantly beautiful film in my life. Such difficult experiences for a child to make sense of, and out of it, emerged an adult who created such joy for so many through the most wonderful Mary Poppins. It took a genius, a man who rose from his own ashes of a harsh childhood to help unlock the magic of Mary, the magic of Mrs Travers so that the world's children, and the adults who emerged from within those children could experience the wonderful joy and magic of flying a kite repaired by a previously broken father. The delicacy and power that this film tells this story is one that I've rarely seen matched.
Horns (2013)
I couldn't bear watching more than 20 minutes
Daniel Radcliffe made a great Harry Potter, unfortunately his acting has zero magic. I was left wondering what direction Daniel was given when the only way he appeared to know how to act drunk was by swaying all over the place, as if he was on a ship in a storm. The script was stilted, character development shallow, cringe-worthy obvious statements. This is not for an audience who enjoys a level on intellect which doesn't require plot points to be spelled out, and deliberately written into dialogue. I understand the desire to cast Daniel Radcliffe, because of the media coverage he'll pull in, but I do not understand it from the perspective of anyone who would want to work with good actors, and make a decent movie. I was shocked at the poor quality of this, despite several nice shots in the opening 5 minutes.
About Fifty (2011)
About Fifty, a surprisingly good movie
It started slow, one of the central characters is miserable, the other a man incapable of forming an emotional bond with a woman, I started thinking about whether I wanted to watch the whole movie or not, as I didn't particularly enjoy a 50 something chatting up and flirting with a barely 20 something.
At the end of the movie I can definitely say that it did hold my interest, the way the characters were portrayed was with depth, poignancy and humour. The movie took me on a journey with the characters, and didn't (as I read in another review) "wrap it up with a ribbon & bow", which meant it had a real life flavour.
An insight into human development and growth, and the mistakes we all make along the way.
Any Questions for Ben? (2012)
Any Questions for Ben? Yes- why didn't you get a decent editor for this movie ?
The story concept is great, really something I'd enjoy watching, I love marketing, love personal development, love romance. So a story of someone realising they're not quite doing life the way that leads to fulfillment is a good one. Love interest thrown in? You're onto a winner!
Except that it's not a good movie, it shows twice as much information than is needed to make a point in the plot.
The main character just comes across as a complete ass who has no feelings for anyone, barely himself.
The "Mentor" character is awful, seriously, why would anyone take "advice" from someone like this?
Some of the lines are just plain awful, I would class them at the level of high school kids learning how to write a screen play.
A decent editor would have helped, to stop it getting boring but it would have simply moved my rating from a 3 to a 4.5 at best.
The characters just weren't congruent/realistic, one scene where his friends fiancé supposedly is so frustrated with his attitude comes out of the blue and doesn't make any sense whatsoever..
Another point Ben is amazed that Alex can speak fluent Arabic, you'd have thought she'd just discovered the theory of relativity, or something similar that is truly amazing, rather than learned to speak the language of the country she's lived and worked in for years...
Watching movies like this makes you realise just how good really great directors and editors actually are, you don't notice their skills because it just makes the film seamless, and enjoyable, and one that you can emotionally connect and empathise with the characters.
I think the story told is a common one, avoidance of intimacy but it's done very clumsily. If I were involved in the making of this movie I would consider it a "Learning experience"...
If you want to watch a movie that could have been brilliant, but was destroyed by poor screen writing, poor direction, and poor editing, this is the movie for you!
Source Code (2011)
Fascinating Concept
An enjoyable movie to watch, thoroughly enjoyed it, excellent concept, really captures the imagination, actively engaged me emotionally with the main character. Other characters lacked depth though.
A few little "niggly" things that just didn't make sense, could have been better tied up with more attention to detail.
For example, when he returned to the loop the scene was shown of the ducks on the lake next to the train going past, he would never have seen it from that angle, nor would anyone on the train.. didn't make sense to me.
There were a few things scientifically that my mind was hooked "how?" but these questions weren't adequately answered.
Nonetheless, a good movie.
And this is probably not so much a review, but more a critical analysis of what could be improved.
Feels like it could be adapted to be the first in a series, but that might be better suited to TV..
The Social Network (2010)
Go & see this movie!
Different people like different things. How amazing would it be if you created a product that would be exactly what each individual using it wanted it to be?
How great would it be to find a uniquely common theme by which to market it AND have other people market it for you- free of charge?
That's exactly what Mark Zuckerberg has created. Genius, sorry, love or hate his personality one must acknowledge the genius of what he's created.
The Social Network is a movie about Zuckerberg's story, how Facebook was created. I would however, suggest taking the accuracy of the story line with a pinch of salt (except for Zuckerberg's clothes, he testifies to the their accuracy in a Y combinator interview!)
It is rare that I have an experience in a cinema where I am excited throughout, and at the end the audience applauded, rightly so!
If you have a vision for your business, you must go and see this movie, I dare you not to be inspired by it.
If you want to be entertained.... go and see this movie
If you want to be excited about possibilities that lie before you, lie before us all
. Go and see this movie.
If you like a good belly laugh... go and see this movie.
If you appreciate an awesomely crafted movie
go and see this movie.
To summarise
go and see this movie!