Recently watched:
Trance. James McAvoy is an art auctioneer who has misplaced a valuable artwork during a robbery where he took a bash to his noggin. To help him remember/discover what happened he enlists the help of a hypnotherapist. I can't say much beyond the fact that this thing has more twists and turns than a twisty turny thing. And I'm not actually sure what happened in the end. It's one of those films where you're supposed to interpret it your own way, and use your own imagination. I've said it before, I'll say it again: if I settle down to watch a film it's because I want to see your imagination - not my own. My own works quite well without your prompting, thanks. Hard to score this one. On the down side I'm not certain what happened, and at a few points I was tempted to turn it off (but I stuck with it to see where it'd go). On the up side it was fun trying to work out where it was all heading, and there's a full frontal nudity scene with Rosario Dawson. All in all, though, I'm going to have to score it down for leaving me confused.
4.0Furious 6. Sixth instalment in the Fast & Furious franchise, and there's no great surprises here. If you liked it's predecessors you'll like this one; if you didn't like the first ones then there's nothing in this one to change your opinion. Personally, I like the series (apart from the utterly annoying "F&F3: Tokyo Drift"). They focus heavily on lots of suped up cars driving fast and performing outrageous stunts, while lots of scantily clad young ladies shake their booties. What's not to like? This instalment focused more on the stunts and explosions and less on the girls, unfortunately, but it's watchable - so long as you don't mind how utterly silly it is. Some of the stunts were so mind-bogglingly ridiculous I rewound and watched them again. I'll go
6.0You can't really see the context, but this is a strong contender for most ridiculously stupid stunt ever:
Stoker. Some batty tart's dad dies, and her uncle moves in, or some such bollocks. Can't say much, tbh, as I turned it off after about 20 minutes. I won't score it as I didn't watch enough to do so, but it was looking a solid 2.0 from the bit I saw...
Oblivion. Tom Cruise monitoring Earth after a devastating war against alien invaders. I believe it got criticised for having Scientologist undertones, but I think that's just people hating for the sake of it. Was definitely more Wall-E than Battlefield Earth - and that's a good thing. Decent enough sci-fi flick, with some nice effects, decent action, and a decent plot. Some of the plot twists were a bit predictable, but that's okay. I'll give it
6.5Evil Dead. Remake of the early 80's original - which I've never actually seen. (I saw the third film with Bruce Campbell - I think it was called "Medievil Dead".
(Edit - just looked it up and it was actually "Army of Darkness". Perhaps "Medievil Dead" was a subtitle or something.) That was a comedy. This definitely wasn't.) Very much enjoyed this film. Five kids (about 19/20 yo) head off to a cabin in the woods for a few days and awaken a demonic presence that possesses them and kills them off in a variety of inventive and gory methods.
7.0Side note (and possible minor spoiler) - kids doll was the strangest incarnation of evil I'd ever seen prior to last week (Chucky, in the Child's Play films) but a rapist tree now tops the leader board.
Olympus Has Fallen. One of two films released this summer centred on the White House being taken over by terrorists, resulting in a hero cop taking them all on single-handed (the other is White House Down, which I haven't watched yet). This time it's Gerard Butler, fighting his way through a couple dozen North Koreans to rescue the President who is being held hostage in his bunker. Reminded me a bit of the first Die Hard film - though not as good. If you can suspend your disbelief / turn your brain off it's a decent enough action flick (and definitely a
lot better than the 3rd and 5th Die Hard films!)
5.0
