Film Reviews by JR

I've watched quite a few documentaries relating to climate change so much of the information here isn't new to me, however if you haven't, this is a nicely done film with some interesting info and a more hopeful feel. It also avoids being too sensationalist, unlike many films of this type that try to shock rather than inform.

Trying to be arty and worthy but is actually really boring, feels so much longer than 90 minutes.

Movie is going for a gritty, realistic feel, but consists of overly long traveling scenes as the main character gets to his destination, either walking very slowly, or on the train staring into the distance, or vacantly staring forward while driving. A few cryptic cut scenes which I guess are supposed to give the character depth. Some mumbled dialogue with his mother and other characters. It consistently feels like the movie is in slow motion even during the action bits.

Overall there's very few thrills in this "thriller" and I suspect it mainly appeals to pretentious movie critic types because it's not a typical Hollywood style movie.

If all you look for in a film is a selection of well choreographed action set pieces then this might be right up your street. However if you feel there should be more to a movie than a bunch of vacuous action violence with a mindless excuse for a story stringing the whole thing together, then steer well clear because that is exactly what you get with John Wick 3.

It's a classic case of Hollywood having an an accidental hit, then the movie making committee and accountants take over more and more as the sequels go on. It was the same with Pirates of the Caribbean. The problem with movies made by committee like John Wick 3, is they have no soul or passion. The committee tries to assess what made the movie popular in the first place and invariably simplifies it to one thing, then they double down on their assessment for the next one.

With John Wick they thought the action sequences made the movie, unfortunately they ignored all the other great parts that made the movie a surprise hit, and sequel 3 this is what you get, a soulless empty action movie where even the action is boring because there is nothing that makes you care about why it's happening other than your memory of how cool the first movie was.

I like the movies but I was skeptical about this series, however it's actually good.

It follows a number of different characters from just before a purge, through to the end of it, building the characters stories and how their paths cross thoughout the night.

I think if you like The Purge movies then you will like this. If you haven't seen The Purge movies I would recommend watching at least the first one before checking out this series, although it's not totally necessary because there are no character crossovers that I remember.

Considering I love movies set in a dystopian future (this is dystopian-ish) I found this one surprisingly dull. The cgi visuals are excellent, there are some really good actors in it but it failed to make me care about Alita and her streetwise boyfriend. The script is average with some scenes getting pretty cheesy and cliched, and as with a lot of films a little too long. It's worth a watch if you like this kind of thing but that's about it.

Spectacular steampunk fun.

Not perfect, and it certainly has been influenced by Mad Max Fury Road (which I thought was over rated!) and towards the end Star Wars, but the critical panning it's had is completely out of proportion, especially when movies like Snowpiercer got such unjustified good reviews. If you like the idea of the movie it's well worth a watch.

Imagine the cheesiest, cliched, badly written pile of teen turd you've ever seen and that's what this is. Like Buffy the Vampire Slayer but about 100 times worse, and about 15 years too late.

Deciding to make a series around the early years of a psycho means they really have to try hard to make you like the main protagonist, and when you see him change into the psycho you are supposed to have conflicted feelings about him. Unfortunately they didn't quite manage this for me in Bates Hotel. I never really liked Norman or his mother Norma, even though they were very well acted.

From the very start, Norman always comes across as a slightly strange, bookish, kid with a manipulating mother and although this relationship is fleshed out later, I never warmed to either character. For some unknown reason Norman seems to be freakishly interesting/desirable to a number of attractive woman which wasn't at all realistic.

My favourite character and storyline turned out to be his older brother Dylan, who gets mixed up in the local towns shady dealings. For me this is the story that kept me watching, and I'd be happy for Norman's story to be a sub plot rather than the main focus.

After being spoiled with so many great Mavel based movies and series, it comes as a bit of a surprise when one is merely average.

I think one of the main problems is that Finn Jones is pretty unconvincing as Ironfist. He's a decent enough actor but you can't help thinking he's dancing instead of fighting in some of the fight scenes, and there are some fairly cringe worthy moments as well.

Overall it's an ok, fun series though, so it still worth a watch if you ever run out of other Marvel based stuff to watch!

I imagine the writer of this series saw Point Break (the original with Keanu Reeves, not the cheesy re-make) and thought it was awesome, then went about trying to write this series. Unfortunately it doesn't really hit the mark. It's not terrible, but it lacks the panache and effortless cool of the movie.

The main downfall is most of the characters are fairly unlikeable crooks, who act like big children when they're not committing crime. Even Josh, who is realitively innocent, lacks the charisma to make you care about him. So ultimately it's combination of extreme sports action (not particularly well done) crime action, and family drama that's difficult to care about.

For me it's worth 2.5 stars really, just about watchable if you've got nothing better to do.

Black Mirror is not a series in the traditional sense, it's a collection of individual stories all set in slightly different versions of the nearish future.

Each tale takes it's inspiration from a piece of technology in life now, but then moves into the future and twists it into what it could become, often with fairly horrifying consequences. All the stories are all extremely well written and acted, with the only weakness of the series being the vision of futuristic tech, next to something quite normal like current model cars.

This is the best series yet and will have you captivated and disturbed in equal measure.

This is such a typical by-the-numbers big budget movie, there is nothing original here at all. Even the sound track is the same constant dramatic classical, just like Speilberg was doing 20 years ago. I actually quite like Tom Cruise when he's given a half decent script and story to work with, but I'm afraid this is not one of those occasions.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not expecting a Fast and Furious movie to be completely realistic. The first few were silly fun for the car enthusiasts and you could ignore the unrealistic bits, but they are getting dumber and dumber. Amazingly the cast is getting better and better, but even they can not save this movie with its cartoon-like car stunts, lame cheesy dialogue, and ridiculous story. It's a movie very obviously written for it's core audience of 12 year old boys.

I was hoping that this would be the first good movie based on a video game but sadly not. It's frustrating how badly implemented it is, as the idea has real potential for a movie, it even has a decent cast.

The main problem is they spend way too much time in the "real" world rather than concentrating on the exciting medieval world of assassins and templars. Worse still, when there is action in the medieval world, the film feels the need to constantly remind you it's not "real", with regular flashback type scenes of the main character in the "real" world strapped into the animus machine. It completely breaks the immersion of the scene and is totally unnecessary.

Another incredibly annoying aspect is the amount of dialogue there is in Spanish with no subtitles. Most, if not all of the dialogue in the medieval world is in spanish and there's no subtitles at all, so you just have to guess what's being said.

I could forgive the fairly ridiculous plot, and the asthetic of the medieval world is good, but the major flaws make this one of the most disappointing movies I've seen in a long time.

I haven't read the comic books this series is based on and initially I would have given this 3 stars, but second time watching it through I'm enjoying it more than the first.

It's a strange series not fitting comfortably into any particular genre, there are definately elements of horror with some parts being surprisingly gorey. I found it slower in pace than I expected, there are some good bits of action but they are fairly spaced apart.

The dark humour is good, and stops the feeling that it's taking itself too seriously. Characters are interesting, overall I thought it was well written and acted.