Inclined to Opine

    What would happen if you took Alien, added Gravity, and plopped some Albinoni-like soundtrack  in the background? The answer is Life (but not the universe and everything). The film feels derivative right from the start, attempting to convey the immense terrible beauty of space the same way Gravity does but with what I can only assume is a much smaller budget. The vistas, while pretty, are rushed through and the kaleidoscopic camerawork is more dizzying than dazzling.     But one could overlook the visual aspect if the people captured our full attention. Unfortunately, the characters and their interaction feel forced, too sickly sweet and clichéd to be believable. There are some respectable actors onscreen so when all the performances are lacklustre, I must look to the director and place the responsibility on them. And I found myself irritated with the insinuated love connections, as if it's inevitable that all characters must yearn for a romantic relati...

      Oh dear, where to start....      This film is so bad, so very bad! I didn't have particularly high expectations - hell, I didn't even have medium expectations! - but it still managed to be worse than what I was prepared for.     The writing is atrocious, the story bland, the action scenes forgettable, and the acting painful. Given that we have some heavy-hitters in the cast, I have to highlight the director: it isn't easy to make Tom Hardy AND Michelle Williams AND Riz Ahmed all act like cardboard cutouts but somehow Ruben Fleischer managed to do so, bravo! True, the dialogue must have been difficult to deliver with a straight face but I'm sure there were decent takes to choose from; all left on the editing floor, clearly.  Every component of the film is a cliché stacked on another cliché without a single original moment just to vary things up. I mean, it's almost impressive, to be this un-unique.     Not everything is doom an...

    Ah, what a difference a Whedon makes!     There's nothing like rewatching the MCU films over a matter of weeks for the importance of writers/directors to become glaringly obvious. While Iron Man and Iron Man 2 are quippy and funny by necessity (I mean, you can't really have Tony Stark without snark, right?), and both Thor and Captain America have enough humour to be in keeping with the overall style, The Avengers (Avengers Assemble in the UK) is the first film in the series to really pack a hilarity punch. For those of us still pining for Firefly, Whedon's humour in both his writing and directing are a much welcome addition to the Marvel movies (favourite line, anyone? Mine was Fury's frustrated "Is the sun coming up? Then put it on the left!").     The chemistry between the main actors is effortless, be it when they're at loggerheads or being friendly, making each interaction genuine and enjoyable.  Downey Jr. was born to play this role, Evans is ...

    I remember really enjoying this film when it first came out and it was one of my favourite MCU films to date. Which is why I was surprised upon rewatching it to find my mind wondering at times and even getting somewhat bored...     As usual in the MCU, the casting is spot-on. Chris Evans cleans up nicely after "nastier" roles in, say, Scott Pilgrim, and truly embodies the boy next door who happens to be a hero that the Captain needs. Hayley Atwell is good though I found her character lacking in depth; that's on you, writers. Stanley Tucci is a delight as always, Tommy Lee Jones was born to play the old curmudgeon, and Hugo Weaving never fails to deliver, particularly as a villain. However, while there is nothing wrong with his performance, I confess I'm not a fan of Bucky, though that may have more to do with the character than Sebastian Stan.     Again a staple of MCU, the special effects are top-notch, the "shrinking" of Rodgers in the first act being...

    Nothing like lockdown to finally rewatch all the MCU films. Of course, I'm still new to this review blogging reality, so I promptly forgot to write down any thoughts for Iron Man and Iron Man 2! In a nutshell, the first is awesome, the second is meh and one of the weakest MCU movies to date.     But today we're here to talk about the god of thunder himself, Thor. I was, of course, already biased going into it in the cinema way back in 2011 as it was directed by Kenneth Branagh. Having said that, while I love his acting, I think his directing competent but generally not amazing, though there are some fundamentals in his style which I very much appreciate.     Let's start with casting. I am not going to assert that the choices were solely up to Branagh, but it is very like him to make unexpected castings, giving actors the opportunity to sink their teeth into a different kind of role than what they are used to (Keanu Reeves doing Shakespeare and cast as D...

    How does one review an international phenomenon? Having only watched it now, 5 years after the musical first opened (thank you, Disney +!), it's difficult to form an opinion that isn't tainted by the weight of its success but I'll do my best. Going into it, I knew relatively little about the show (a conscious choice as I prefer to go in blind), but suspected it wouldn't be my cup of tea given my dislike of Lin-Manuel Miranda's other musical works.     First, a disclaimer of sorts. I am not particularly knowledgable about rap (though proud to be able to do all of Gangsta's Paradise by heart!), however I do enjoy particular songs and artists on occasion. But even with my limited insight into the genre, I feel I can confidently say that the majority of Hamilton isn't rap, not really. With the exception of Lafayette's solo in "Guns and Ships" (which is freaking awesome and one of the musical highlights of the show for me), most of what we are s...

    Dante's Peak was a favourite for both me and my family. I watched it countless times in my teens to the point that even today I can roughly do a play-by-play of the whole thing. So rewatching it now after so long was an interesting exercise of almost cognitive dissonance: on the one hand, I can see all it's many, many flaws; but on the other, it still warms my inner 14 year-old's heart.     Through 2020 eyes [there's a joke in there somewhere...], it's oh so very 90s: the overly dramatic acting, the painful dialogue, the sudden face zooms. And no one will accuse it of suffering from too much originality; if anything, it follows the recipe for 90s disaster movies almost perfectly, morality deaths and all. But somehow what it does, it does well, and still manages to pack a hell of an adrenaline punch.     The special effects (probably mostly practical effects) have withstood the test of time with a respectable amount of grace, and the film doesn't waste t...