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Reviews
The Passenger (2023)
Echoes of Falling Down
I loved this film! The beginning is brilliantly set up, we're not sure who the antagonist or protagonist is going to be. But soon enough, we find out in a brutally executed way.
It reminded me a lot of Falling Down (which I also love). It's a character driven thriller which has moments of dark humour and moments of sadness, but it all leads to a fitting final act.
Definitely worth a watch for those who love psychological thrillers. It's cleverly written and superbly acted. The whole cast are fantastic here.
I've rated it so highly because 1 it deserves it, but 2 I'm fed up with franchise movies selling us the same crap with 0 creativity. Here's a film worthy of your time and we need more like them.
There's Something Wrong with the Children (2023)
The first half is great
This movie (like so many others) had so much potential. The first half of the movie is excellent. It introduces us to our characters and develops them really well.
The premise - although not original - creates some fantastic suspense. The main character Ben knows something is up or rather WRONG with the kids, but nobody else can see it. That was so well done and allowed for some really inventive suspenseful moments.
Then the writers went and threw it all away with rushing into a third act full of the usual horror tropes. The ending was a huge let down.
Imagine if in The Shining we didn't see much of the build up of Jack beginning to lose his sanity, and instead it rushed straight to him trying to kill his family with an axe. That's kind of like what this film does, which is a shame.
I gave this film a 6/10 because I enjoyed the first half a lot. But with better writing and allowing the suspense to continue, this could have been so much better.
Beast (2022)
Not realistic, but very entertaining
I felt compelled to write a review, because people are slamming this movie because of the unrealistic nature of the lion and situations in the movie. So what?
Have you seen the rubbish Marvel keep producing? And yet people keep praising it. There's no realism or continuity with any of the characters or plot points in any of the films. How does Hawkeye fight aliens or monsters like Thor in the Avengers when he has no powers? How does captain America seem to have the same strength as Iron Man.
Then there's illogical decisions. Yes, Beast does have them, but so does Godzilla movies and other monster movies. But people seem to look past that with those movies.
This movie is thrilling and exciting and I loved it for what it was, a survival creature feature. It reminded a lot of The Grey, which I loved. People slammed that film too because of the wolves behaviour. I would love more of these kind of movies to be made, instead of cash-grab franchise movies like Terminator or Jurassic world. Look at that, another movie with dumb decisions.
The acting is good. The CGI is pretty good too. The cinematography was great. I like some of the shots where the camera follows Idris around, it feels like we see things at the moment he does, and it also means we get less cuts, which is always welcome when I watch a movie.
My only criticism of the film is the internal conflict of the main character. Where as The Grey succeeded with the internal conflict of his wife's illness, Beast didn't.
But if you like survival movies, with a dangerous predator, then you will like Beast.
An Unknown Compelling Force (2021)
Fantastic Documentary on a compelling mystery
I have been fascinated with the Dyatlov pass incident for many years now. I have watched various documentaries or films on the tragedy, but I don't remember them to be as in depth as this one.
I really enjoyed this detailed account of the incident. Some great interviews and photos to help analyse all the evidence. I did learn a lot of new facts in regards to the case. These facts may be available on websites and such, but its great that they are put together in this way, to allow us to draw our own conclusions on what actually could have happened.
The only slight disappointment, is the theory that they suggest towards the end, (although it is probably the most likely scenario that took place) it's still not definitive on what happened, but without new evidence, I don't think it ever will be.
I hope people give this a try, this documentary is head and shoulders above Netflix docs which drag stuff out over 6 episodes when it could have been done in just 1.
My rating is 10/10.