It has some fun parts, and lots of decent characters, but it’s way too long.
★★★
Kind: Watches
watching a movie, television show, online video, play or other visual-based event
In a boorish future, the government sponsors a popular, but bloody, cross-country race in which points are scored by mowing down pedestrians. Five teams, each comprised of a male and female, compete using cars equipped with deadly weapons. Frankenstein, the mysterious returning champion, has become America's hero, but this time he has a passenger from the underground resistance.
This offered a lot more than I expected! To quote another reviewer: “a neat satire dealing with government, entertainment, and media.”
This predates a bunch of mainstream, dystopian features that share similar themes, like The Running Man and, much later, The Hunger Games. But the tone is much more Robocop, than either of those. Though this sits apart from all of those as much more of a B-movie “exploitation” flick.
It is quite cheesy and has a significant sprinkling of late 70s nudity. However, I reckon it’s worth a watch if you like this sort of thing.
★★★½
Although the overall tone of this movie is that of a tragedy, and does emphasise that a lot of people died for no good reason, it still takes a little too much pleasure in the violence.
I also feel it does a disservice to Shughart and Gordon. The crew of Super 64 all survived the crash, not just Durant. Knowing they were defending four men, not just one, three of whom were helpless, casts their efforts in a different light.
★★★★
The true story of Henry Hill, a half-Irish, half-Sicilian Brooklyn kid who is adopted by neighbourhood gangsters at an early age and climbs the ranks of a Mafia family under the guidance of Jimmy Conway.
It’s a great film but, honestly, I don’t much like these stories. People have these weirdly romantic notions about the Mafia. Never seemed to occur to anyone, they wrote their own history…
A young girl discovers a secret map to the dreamworld of Slumberland, and with the help of an eccentric outlaw, she traverses dreams and flees nightmares, with the hope that she will be able to see her late father again.
Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit enjoying his quiet life, is swept into an epic quest by Gandalf the Grey and thirteen dwarves who seek to reclaim their mountain home from Smaug, the dragon.
Ten years later it’s easier to look past the technical misjudgments and plot contrivances. Armitage and Freeman are both great.
★★★
After a young man's premonition of a deadly race-car crash helps saves the lives of his peers, Death sets out to collect those who evaded their end.
Having said of the last installment “where could you go wrong?”
Well, here most of the foreshadowing is replaced with premonitions and that doesn’t work as well.
Still, there are some wildly inventive fatalities and the finale does actually take it up a notch.
★★★
A college campus is plagued by a vicious serial killer murdering students in ways that correspond to various urban legends.
I had very fond memories of this but, actually, it’s pretty bad. There is a super high body count, though!
★★
On a dark and somber night, a secret cabal of monster hunters emerge from the shadows and gather at the foreboding Bloodstone Temple following the death of their leader. In a strange and macabre memorial to the leader’s life, the attendees are thrust into a mysterious and deadly competition for a powerful relic—a hunt that will ultimately bring them face to face with a dangerous monster.
Armed with only one word - Tenet - and fighting for the survival of the entire world, the Protagonist journeys through a twilight world of international espionage on a mission that will unfold in something beyond real time.
Simultaneously total 1 ⭐️ timey-wimy bollocks and a 5 ⭐️ masterpiece of such ambitious extent you’ll be mulling it over for days afterwards.
★★½