Film The Redcafe Movie review thread

Vice - I thought The Big Short succeeded in spite of Adam McKay's bullshit but Vice does not. It's clunky, shoddily edited, full of irritating fourth wall breaking nonsense and the second half is a rapid run through of the Bush years with little insight. That said, I find the history and Cheney's role in it interesting enough for this to keep my diverted for two hours.

Disappointing, thought it potentially looked great - interesting topic and Bale's always fun to watch when he transforms himself for certain roles. If it's still watchable though might try to catch it.
 
I thought she would make the girl look, as it wasn't her daughter. Especially after she said no so vehemently after her son offered. I thought it was a bit of a cop-out when she said that no one would look in the end.

Yeah, also a massive cop out.
Have ye no heart, lads? I wasn't thinking cop-out, I was just relieved! That little girl's acting in that scene melted me.

I really enjoyed it. 9/10.

Also, when will Sandra Bullock begin ageing?
 
Have ye no heart, lads? I wasn't thinking cop-out, I was just relieved! That little girl's acting in that scene melted me.

I really enjoyed it. 9/10.

Also, when will Sandra Bullock begin ageing?

But it would have really helped reinforce how dark and desperate things have become

I think once she stays out in the sun too long and her face melts.
 
Unknown
A man awakens from a coma, only to discover that someone has taken on his identity and that no one, (not even his wife), believes him. With the help of a young woman, he sets out to prove who he is. Liam Neeson action movies should be their own genre. As usual, it's a fun switch-your-brain-off movie. I wish Neeson was my dad and I wish I become a dad like Neeson 5.5/10

The Circle

A woman lands a dream job at a powerful tech company called the Circle, only to uncover an agenda that will affect the lives of all of humanity. Love Tom Hanks but didn't watch this on release due to the negative reviews. So I finally started watching it yesterday and for the first half, I was wondering why it had so many bad reviews... was really enjoying it. Then the second half completely shits the bed. The message is SO heavy handed, no subtlety at all. Emma Watson can't act in my opinion. Tom Hanks is hardly in the movie. The story turns completely silly and worst of all, the protagonist was a cnut. What a let down after a promising start 3/10
 
Redcafe convinced me to watch Bird Box after I watched the trailer and thought it looked like crap. It was excellent. A killer idea, well directed with good pacing, and the whole thing looked great. The main character felt slightly over-written but this was smoothed out somewhat by a brilliant ensemble and It managed to wring some freshness out of the old post-apocalypse siege idea.

As for it copping out, well I sort of agree. But it felt like part of a bigger problem of the movie wanting to have its cake and eat it. It exploited the bleak realist grit of something like The Road but used a palatable Hollywood optimism as an emotional crutch. Which didn't kill the thing but made it tonally uneven. I thought the reveal at the end was a little patronising too and the emotional redemption was telegraphed from early in the film.

But I can forgive it the minor gripes because it's a really well put together film and it has a sprinkle of that Shyamalan magic. I thought it was a far better film than A Quiet Place which I thought was dreck. Redcafe wins again.
 
How it ends, 2018

Forest Whitaker crosses America next to his son-in-law, to go to look for his daughter to Seattle, where there has been a super earthquake. I am usually very generous evaluating catastrophes / apocalyptic/ science fiction movies but this one is a disaster, both the story, which does not make much sense as the end.
2/10
 
Bird box ending was a bit meh. But the whole journey to it was thrilling.

Also fck you Gary.
 
Is it sci fi horror? The trailers I've seen make it seem that way, whixch puts me off. But based on your review, it sounds up my street.

There are monster-type things and a few suspense scenes involving them, but that's not the centre of the film IMO. It's much more about trying to figure out what's happening scientifically.*


*If you like your movie science to be actually realistic based on what we know of the universe, you'll probably be annoyed at the solution here.
 
Bird Box
I'm not sure which is less believable, navigating a wooden rowboat down rapids with a blindfold or giving birth at Sandra Bullock's age, but it's quite impressive.

The movie itself is quite meh. Seen it before a dozen times now. Also, not explaining anything about anything may be cool and mysterious to some, but to me it's just lazy.

John Malkovic adds at least 3 points to the score. So, erm, 6/10.
 
Bird Box
I'm not sure which is less believable, navigating a wooden rowboat down rapids with a blindfold or giving birth at Sandra Bullock's age, but it's quite impressive.

The movie itself is quite meh. Seen it before a dozen times now. Also, not explaining anything about anything may be cool and mysterious to some, but to me it's just lazy.

John Malkovic adds at least 3 points to the score. So, erm, 6/10.

She renentered the atmosphere from space even thoough she had no training to do so....I think she can handle a few rapids blindfolded.
 
The Night Eats The World
After falling asleep during a house party in Paris, a man wakes up and finds that everyone has turned into zombies so has to barricade himself in the apartment and find a way to survive. It starts off well and has a nice take on zombies that actually are silent but beyond that, this film doesn't really do anything. Most of the movie is the man scavenging for food, fighting boredom and just generally walking around. If you're gonna make a movie which 90% revolves around one dude, make damn sure the character is interesting... this guy was as boring as a cucumber sandwich. The end also does that annoying "indie" thing of cutting to black at a random point. Yawned my way through this after a cool opening 3/10
 
Roma
Set around 1970/71 in Mexico City about a young female live in house servant/nanny working for a middle class family.
Shot in black & white and has some gruesome scenes from the student riots of that period.
The loyalty and love of the servant girl to the family’s children is wonderful to watch.
Only negative for me was I thought it could do a bit more on her hopes and dreams.

Edit: just checked that Rotten Tomatoes has it at a 96% rating.
 
Bad Times at El Royale Looks good and well acted. Nothing especially groundbreaking or brilliant but a pleasant enough way to occupy an evening. 7/10

Calibre
A nice little low budget thriller/drama set in Scotland. Very tense at times even if the end doesn't perhaps quite deliver as well as the rest of the film. 7/10
 
Ghost stories - 8.5/10

If you like creepy, atmospheric, horror-films (as I do), then this British film will be right up your street. Nice little twist at the end just to finish it off.
Stars Paul Whitehouse & Martin Freeman. Can't be arsed doing a movie synopsis, so the trailer below gives you a taster of what the film's about.

 
Ghost stories - 8.5/10

If you like creepy, atmospheric, horror-films (as I do), then this British film will be right up your street. Nice little twist at the end just to finish it off.
Stars Paul Whitehouse & Martin Freeman. Can't be arsed doing a movie synopsis, so the trailer below gives you a taster of what the film's about.


The stage play of this is even better than the movie.
 
First Man - probably the best re-creation of space flight I've seen on film, or at least the most engrossing, coupled with a staid and dull family drama with Gosling playing Armstrong as a tedious numbnuts (which may be an accurate portrayal, I don't know much about Armstrong, the man). The cast is ridiculously deep and it's almost amusing watching some of the best character actors in the world utter seven words before dying.
 
First Man - probably the best re-creation of space flight I've seen on film, or at least the most engrossing, coupled with a staid and dull family drama with Gosling playing Armstrong as a tedious numbnuts (which may be an accurate portrayal, I don't know much about Armstrong, the man). The cast is ridiculously deep and it's almost amusing watching some of the best character actors in the world utter seven words before dying.

Yeah I thought the space stuff was great, the training scenes too but I was confused by the emotional tone. I was left wondering from my position of ignorance, whether the death of his child did hang over his life and the mission so absolutely, or whether the film amplified it's impact for dramatic effect. Either way I figure it was attempting to evoke a sense of poignancy but it came off to me as a superficial miserablism.

The appropriation of Whitey on the Moon felt a little cheap given the short shrift the film gave to arguments about social priorities and the value of space exploration.

A seriously talented film maker all the same. Three ultra stylish, bombastic films out of three. (Even as I question how substantial they are).

I might even go so far as to say that First Man shines brightly like the moon but rings hollow also like the moon that is actually hollow like a bell.
 
Yeah I thought the space stuff was great, the training scenes too but I was confused by the emotional tone. I was left wondering from my position of ignorance, whether the death of his child did hang over his life and the mission so absolutely, or whether the film amplified it's impact for dramatic effect. Either way I figure it was attempting to evoke a sense of poignancy but it came off to me as a superficial miserablism.

The appropriation of Whitey on the Moon felt a little cheap given the short shrift the film gave to arguments about social priorities and the value of space exploration.

A seriously talented film maker all the same. Three ultra stylish, bombastic films out of three. (Even as I question how substantial they are).

I might even go so far as to say that First Man shines brightly like the moon but rings hollow also like the moon that is actually hollow like a bell.

The film doesn't try too hard to make an argument for space travel, falling back on Kennedy's "we do things because they are hard" which is the worst reason to do anything ever.
 
Ant Man
A bit late to the party here but quite enjoyed it. Paul Rudd was really good in it as were Michael Pena and T.I. Some moments really had me laughing out loud and overall, the action sequences and story were quite good. Would liked to have seen what Edgar Wright would have bought to the table but nonetheless, it was a really enjoyable film 7.5/10

Even later than you, but agree with your review.
I enjoyed it.
 
First Man - probably the best re-creation of space flight I've seen on film, or at least the most engrossing, coupled with a staid and dull family drama with Gosling playing Armstrong as a tedious numbnuts (which may be an accurate portrayal, I don't know much about Armstrong, the man). The cast is ridiculously deep and it's almost amusing watching some of the best character actors in the world utter seven words before dying.
Leon Bridges as Gil Scott-Heron, a singer and poet.


Random.
 
Damien Chazelle: I fecking love Jazz!
You: What’s your favourite Jazz album?
Damien Chazelle: Tough one. Id have to say, the best of Jazz.
 
@pauldyson1uk and @Dirty Schwein , have you guys seen "Lavantula"?

Here is the IMDB

Caught my eye due to the 4,7 rating, which is basically a 10\10 rating for a SyFy movie.

I know Pauldy loves a disaster movie.

"With the old days of glamour long forgotten, Colton West, the once popular movie star and action hero from the 90s, is now reduced to acting in low-budget movies about horrific bugs. But when suddenly, a swarm of earthquakes hits Southern California, a string of unprecedented events, chaos and lava will give birth to a new breed of lava-breathing arachnids, forcing Colton to find his family before it's too late. Once more, this intrepid man of action will have to do what he knows best, armed only with a shotgun and the will to survive. However, what can a single man do against an endless army of monstrous Lavalantula's?"

Sounds fecking great.
 
@pauldyson1uk and @Dirty Schwein , have you guys seen "Lavantula"?

Here is the IMDB

Caught my eye due to the 4,7 rating, which is basically a 10\10 rating for a SyFy movie.

I know Pauldy loves a disaster movie.

"With the old days of glamour long forgotten, Colton West, the once popular movie star and action hero from the 90s, is now reduced to acting in low-budget movies about horrific bugs. But when suddenly, a swarm of earthquakes hits Southern California, a string of unprecedented events, chaos and lava will give birth to a new breed of lava-breathing arachnids, forcing Colton to find his family before it's too late. Once more, this intrepid man of action will have to do what he knows best, armed only with a shotgun and the will to survive. However, what can a single man do against an endless army of monstrous Lavalantula's?"

Sounds fecking great.
never heard of this but I'll search for it!
 
Bird Box was probably commissioned when two executives were railing cocaine in a hollywood nightclub and one of them said "what if we like make A Quiet Place but with a different sense" and the other said "holy shit dude, what if you die when you look at them"
 
@pauldyson1uk and @Dirty Schwein , have you guys seen "Lavantula"?

Here is the IMDB

Caught my eye due to the 4,7 rating, which is basically a 10\10 rating for a SyFy movie.

I know Pauldy loves a disaster movie.

"With the old days of glamour long forgotten, Colton West, the once popular movie star and action hero from the 90s, is now reduced to acting in low-budget movies about horrific bugs. But when suddenly, a swarm of earthquakes hits Southern California, a string of unprecedented events, chaos and lava will give birth to a new breed of lava-breathing arachnids, forcing Colton to find his family before it's too late. Once more, this intrepid man of action will have to do what he knows best, armed only with a shotgun and the will to survive. However, what can a single man do against an endless army of monstrous Lavalantula's?"

Sounds fecking great.
Never heard of it and yes I like crappy disaster films , it is d/ling as I type.
 
I watched The Latest Mission Impossible. The script takes a huge dive in quality from the previous few films and the plotting becomes a barely comprehensible mess of double-double crossings, fake-fake outs and masks over masks. But damn there are some seriously well shot action scenes in this thing. Tom Cruise is just great. And speaking of crap stories of sci-fi fantasy worship; how is it that the Marvel Universe's action scenes are so consistently shit shit shit, when Cruise constantly produces high grade spectacle. Why does he care so much about quality control and why does Marvel hate cinema so much?
 
I enjoyed Green Book and laughed out loud a fair few few times. Viggo Mortensen made it really with his portrayal of Tony Lip. The movie is quite predictable and tropey I guess but it was a great story and I came away wanting to learn more about Don Shirley after watching it.

well not really a spoiler but...

Thought it was odd that in the after credits when they were saying what each person went on to do in real life after the timelinne from the film ended, they neglected to mention that Tony Lip went on to be a famous actor. I mean he was Carmine is Sopranos FFS
 
I watched The Latest Mission Impossible. The script takes a huge dive in quality from the previous few films and the plotting becomes a barely comprehensible mess of double-double crossings, fake-fake outs and masks over masks. But damn there are some seriously well shot action scenes in this thing. Tom Cruise is just great. And speaking of crap stories of sci-fi fantasy worship; how is it that the Marvel Universe's action scenes are so consistently shit shit shit, when Cruise constantly produces high grade spectacle. Why does he care so much about quality control and why does Marvel hate cinema so much?

Considering he's a madman who loves to do his own stunts and all I get the impression Cruise gets quite invested in his films. Which obviously isn't a bad thing, in spite of how batshit mental he is.
 
The Institute
In 19th century Baltimore, a girl stricken with grief from her parents' untimely death voluntarily checks herself into the Rosewood Institute, and is subjected to bizarre and increasingly violent pseudo-scientific experiments. Crap. Boring. Bad dialogue. dog shit acting. James Franco completely miscast. The protagonist isn't likeable at all. Just a shit film. But it did have a couple of half good scenes and some tits so there's that 2/10
 
Children of men
Cast: Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, Michael Caine, Chiwetel Ejiofor

Setting: In the future women are no longer able to conceive and the world is essentially post apocalyptic bar London.

Plot: A former activists agrees to help transport a miraculously pregnant woman to a group of people who are out at sea.

Man, I can't believe I hadn't seen this movie before. I thought it was really good and definitely worth a watch if you're looking for something on Netflix.

I know it's not that best source for ratings but IMDB gives it a 7.9, and I have agree. It's a solid 8/10 movie IMO.