An absolute hammer to the face of a film. No setup, no time wasting, just straight in, high stakes action right from the start with no letup to the end. Probably the most violent film I've ever seen, too.
When Kermode and Mayo reviewed Top Gun Maverick, they remarked that the action sequences were "coherent" - you could really follow what was going on. Western action went through a phase of really lacking this quality, and I've become quite allergic…
Still one of the all time greats. It's hard to imagine now just how much The Matrix turned films upside down at the time, but when this hit the cinema it felt like everything changed. I think that today the film feels just as vital as it ever has. It's still unbelievably stylish and I just love it.
I can never get over how Hackers was 1995 and this was 1999. They feel at least 10 years apart.
I was 13 when this came out, and it is an 18 certificate, so it must have been one of those movies I wasn't allowed to see but heard about a lot. Somehow I did, somewhere along the way, so I think this was my "first" Alien movie in that I got to experience the hype of it all. I remember loving it and it holds a special place in my heart for that, but I'm sorry to report that…
Deeply creepy, some of the scariest stuff I've seen on film. Unfortunately I think it has two problems: firstly, I don't like the pace of Pulse - it's just not quite right - and secondly, its overall plot just doesn't quite work out. The minute to minute scenes are truly excellent, but the synopsis is just... A bit weird?
That said, ah, the loneliness. The internet. Gosh.
Double bill this with We're All Going To The World's Fair. These two movies dovetail together so beautifully. We went onto the internet looking to make friends, and instead we sat alone in our bedrooms.
I wish I loved this. It's got some wonderful universe building that really worked, but also it just doesn't hang together. The finale is just a bit weird, and there's a ton of janky CGI that can't have looked good when it first came out and really looks terrible against the backdrop of the first two.
It's also very clearly the end of the series. Absolutely the end. Definitely shouldn't be more alien movies after this.
This does win points for its world building obviously influencing some of the games I have loved.
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Saw 2. I remember the series dropping off after the first but Saw 2 is, in fact, quite a well rounded little puzzle. While it isn't as clever as the original, it does manage to hit its notes, I think, and ends up being a gripping story. What it lacks is likeable characters inside the game - I didn't care about any of them.
A Story of how the ruling class have complete power over the workers, keeping them trapped in a rat race, pitting them against each other for their own amusement.
It's a beautiful film, going all out in every scene - even the bits that aren't action set pieces are in ludicrous locations. The opulence is staggering. It feels too long, but I'm not really sure what you could lose to make it shorter without losing something very important.
My favourite…
I don't really understand how you start out writing a story and end up with this. What creative process does that? I don't mean that it's bad, I loved the concept, I just don't understand how a brain managed to think of it.
A truly bizarre film that subverts expectations in some quite impressive ways. I just somehow felt like it didn't all pay off - it has a lot of ideas but never manages to flesh any of them…
We just finished watching Andor and followed on with this. I'm programmed to enjoy anything that features obvious Star Wars riffs and this does that extremely well.