Why didn’t Tony Scott (rest in peace) make more films like this during his career? This is really amazing. It’s his first film and it is so creative, so aggressive, so edgy. I almost can’t believe this came from the same man who’s next film was Top Gun. They couldn’t be more different in tone and subject.

The Hunger stars David Bowie and Susan Sarandon and is a vampire story like none I’ve seen before. It’s shot very economically, only giving you pieces of the story and characters in little bursts, all the while letting a million questions fill your mind about why things are happening and what might happen next. It’s got the same kind of feel that a really good book has, always making  you want to read further to find out what happens next. The finale is particularly spectacular, turning the film into a sort of haunted house horror fest. I’m not sure it’s for everyone but I absolutely loved this.

This film rendered me speechless for quite a while. I’m still not sure what to say about it. Zardoz may be one of the most bizarre mainstream films you ever see (that is, if you’re ever in the mood to brave it). I can almost unequivocally say that 99% of people out there will hate this and believe it to be one of the worst films ever made. And yet, I find myself respecting it on some level. It’s not without some amazing artistry, countless really big ideas, and it’s staggeringly ambitious.

It stars Sean Connery (I have no idea how they got him to do this film). I still can’t believe a major studio funded this. Only in the 70’s, could cinema like this get made. This wouldn’t even get made as a low budget, Indie film today. There’s a floating statue of a god’s head, Sean Connery in a loin cloth for 2 hours, and a guy with a mustache and beard drawn on his face in magic marker. And that’s only in the first 10 minutes.

There are many scenes which are an exercise in patience but I can’t see it’s a bad film. It’s strange, ridiculous, and like nothing I’ve ever seen before. Definitely not recommended for most but if you do watch it, you’ll probably get a good laugh at how audacious it is and by the end, maybe you’ll also feel at the very least, you saw something you’d never seen before.

This is a horror film from the mid-1980’s based on a story by the horror legend H.P. Lovecraft. It’s a riff on the classic Frankenstein story with a lot of zombies thrown in for good measure. It’s pretty great although definitely not recommended for the average movie-goer. This is for horror fans only.

Although there are long stretches of boring scenes (a lot of fluff could have been cut from this), when the blood starts flowing, it’s jaw-dropping. The film could have been trimmed down by about 20 minutes and would have made the pace much smoother. That’s my one big complaint. In between the re-animation scenes (a doctor finds a way to re-animate dead tissue), there’s a lot of pretty bland dialogue scenes that feel more like a low-rent TV sitcom but the gross-outs and horror as well as the flat-out stunning finale when all hell breaks loose are more than enough to elevate Re-animator to horror classic status. The blood flows freely with gross outs including severed heads, re-animated body parts, and disturbing images. You’ve been warned (or welcomed if you are into that sort of thing).

Rumors surrounded this film that Joss Whedon was forced to make lots of concessions to Marvel corporate to accommodate Marvel’s desire for more action and set pieces. As I watched Age of Ultron, I could almost pinpoint in every scene, the stuff that Joss Whedon probably fought for and the stuff Marvel forced in. In addition, it was reported that Joss Whedon felt like the entire shoot and creation of this movie was a little “mini hell” because it was so hard to put together and balance all the characters, special effects, and storylines. Joss won’t be doing another one because he is burned out. And that’s kind of how I felt by the end of the film, a little burned out.

Some commentators have said this is “the beginning of superhero movie burn out” but I’m not so sure. In the end, all of these superhero movies are still just movies and if a movie tells a great story and engages the audience, it really doesn’t matter what genre it falls in. And to be sure, there are great moments in Avengers but the strange thing is, with one exception, almost none of those great moments involve action. There’s a scene towards the beginning of the film where the characters are enjoying a little party together and it’s easily the best scene of the movie. The one action scene that really stands out as memorable is the Hulk vs. Iron Man showdown (featured in the trailer).

Something went wrong with the CG in many of the action scenes. It’s blurred and the physics are off. Characters move more like video game avatars instead of people. That’s not very forgivable in a movie of this size and budget. And I’m still not sure why the special effects wizards can’t make Hulk look more real? In some scenes, it’s hard to suspend disbelief because he looks so ethereal and rendered.

I found myself looking at the time a lot during the film, wishing it would hurry up and get over, especially during the action scenes which all just meld together into a blur of motion, noise, and explosions. It was wearying. The other issue was that the plot seemed so “safe”. I get that Marvel can’t kill off any of the main characters but Ultron’s threat level was pretty low (although I actually liked his weirdness). The characters never seemed like they were truly threatened or vulnerable.

The Vision comes out as the best character and has some of the best scenes in the film. I still don’t know what they are doing with his powers (totally different than the comics) but he was so odd and interesting, I wished he had been in more of the film. Everything Bettany did was a scene stealer.

Some have compared this film to Iron Man 2 but I completely disagree. Iron Man 2 is a disaster. Age of Ultron is actually quite competent and enjoyable. I don’t see myself ever sitting through it again though. If Marvel had cut down on the action and given us a few more character scenes, I would have enjoyed this more. As it is, I’d recommend it as “pretty good” but lower your expectations a bit and prepare yourself for a 2-hour wall of noise and flashing lights.

I’m probably sounding more negative than I feel about Age of Ultron. I loved the romance sub-plot. I loved the witty banter. I loved the design of Ultron (with the exception of his weird posable lips). And I loved seeing the whole gang back together. I also had no problem with Thor’s side quest (which contrary to popular chatter does actually make sense in the context of the film). This is also the most “comic book-like” of any of Marvel’s films. If you’ve read a lot of Avengers comics, this is going to feel like watching a live-action issue.

In the end, I’m just glad Joss Whedon is moving on. (BTW: I don’t blame him at all for the issues in this as I trust in Joss’ writing abilities and have a hunch that Marvel had more to do with the things I disliked than Joss). I can’t wait to see what Whedon works on next. That’s probably the best thing to come out of Age of Ultron.

This is one of the few Ridley Scott films I had still not seen. There’s huge Blade Runner influence here in the production design and lighting. Unfortunately, the story isn’t as compelling. There’s about 30 minutes that could have been cut here to make a more streamlined film and keep the pace moving a bit better.

What really works is once the characters get to Japan. The fish out of water storyline with Michael Douglas trying to navigate his way in a culture he has no respect for and doesn’t understand is interesting. Also, Douglas’ character is written very well, he has a lot of flaws that really save the movie in some ways, make it way more involving. I also loved the look of late 1980’s Japan with all of the neon and steam. Also no one shoots someone smoking better than Ridley Scott.

Many consider this to be Ridley Scott’s closest type of film to his brother Tony Scott’s style and I can see why. A lot of well shot action and gritty cop hyper-realism throughout. Overall, I liked it, especially Douglas’ performance but it’s probably not everyone’s cup of tea. Recommended for Ridley Scott fans.

This is another movie I always saw on the Action/Adventure shelves at the local VHS video rental store but never got around to watching. It’s actually a lot of fun. The story of a Movie Visual FX everyman who’s framed for a murder he didn’t commit and gets caught up in the middle of a war between the police, crooked FBI agents, and the mob. He has to use his FX skills to fake out the bad guys and clear his name.

If that sounds cheesy, well, it is but it’s pretty entertaining. There’s quite a few clever FX tricks employed and the bad guys are sufficiently bombastic to keep things moving. The 2nd act suffers from some shoehorned in car chases that mostly waste screen time and don’t really move the plot or characters forward but despite that, this is a good time and one I’d recommend if you’ve never seen it.

Imagine taking the left over set designs from Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 1990 Total Recall, combining it with some B-quality special effects, and then bringing in C-list actors all to create a pretty fun low-budget sci-fi movie. This is basically a prison movie set in the future with all the standard prison tropes that most of these types of movies have but updated with futuristic technology and a creepy voyeurism.

Nearly every idea here was ripped off from countless other movies and was done better elsewhere. And yet, the synergy of the parts of this film amount to something better as a whole. It’s not high concept entertainment but there are lots of memorable scenes, the film did a lot with its limited budget, Christopher Lambert is good as the lead (although Arnold was originally cast and would have been better), and there are some nice supporting characters.

What really sets this one apart though is its social commentary on incarceration, fascism, and surveillance. A lot of the ideas explored in the film were actually incredibly ahead of their time. Fun action movie with some interesting subtext.

The first truly great movie of 2015. This is a complex, thought-provoking sci-fi tale that feels more like a next generation Twilight Zone episode than a mainstream film. And that’s a compliment. Mindless action and noise is replaced by intelligent conversations and periods of silence.

As it weaves its twisty tale (and there are some great twists), we get to see interesting characters interact with each other and the conflict develop like water on a stove until it finally hits an amazing boiling point crescendo in the third act.

The effects here are truly mind-blowing. I’m intentionally not telling much about the plot because it is best to just go in and experience it without prior knowledge. Really enjoyed this and its a film I’m sure I’ll visit again. There’s a lot of depth here and it will be fun to see what I might have missed in subsequent screenings.

What in the world went wrong here? I can’t even fathom how the same sibling team that wrote & directed The Matrix and also made the pretty brilliant Cloud Atlas came up with this. Jupiter Ascending is a disaster from the first frame.

The best way to describe the acting is that it’s just “off”… across the board. The film has a good cast who’ve all done great work in other places but not here. Mila Kunis comes out as one of the worst, horribly miscast and lacking any kind of charisma. She isn’t helped by a script that gave her character nothing to do except get saved by other characters. The absolute worst though is Eddie Redmayne who does some kind of strange whisper voice throughout (it sounds something like him when he played Hawking in the first stages of the disease). He overacts every scene, poses no threat on screen, and by the end, you can’t believe he did this in the same year that he won an Oscar for The Theory of Everything.

The heart of the problem lies in the script though. How do the Wachowski’s not know basic story telling techniques by now? Never… I mean NEVER… create a protagonist that is only acted upon and yet, that’s what they’ve done here. Jupiter goes from one crisis to the next, without making any choices that drive the plot and so as expected, you couldn’t care less about the character or the action or what was happening next.

On the plus side, the costume design, set design, unique ships, computer generated scenes, and space fights are really stellar. It appears the Wachowski’s spent all their time on the design and none with the actors and the story. For all the bad will that gets thrown at George Lucas’ Star Wars prequels, they are immensely better told stories than Jupiter Ascending. What a disappointment.