Saturday 27 October 2018

Ready Player One (2018)

Clunky and tacky, and it has the gall to lecture us at the end about not getting lost in pop culture.
Rating: Awful

Friday 19 October 2018

Coco (2017)

Very enjoyable if a little shallow. I could see the plot twists and developments a mile off, but it's all presented nicely enough that it was still fun getting there.
Rating: Good

Train to Busan (2016)

Exciting and inventive. By the end of it I was totally invested and my heart was pounding. Also comes up with a couple of nice additions to zombie lore, even if it does use fast zombies...
Rating: Great

Moana (2016)

This film really gets going once Moai properly shows up, but that's after over half an hour in! A lot of the songs feel very poppy and American, a very post Let It Go feel, even as they try to reflect Maori culture, and in fact there is a tangible tug of war between standard Disney storytelling and the Maori stuff. Having said that, it is refreshing to see stuff like the tattoos and mythology being put at the forefront and on the whole treated respectfully. Plus, You're Welcome and Shiny are great songs, full of character.
If this film were 20 minutes shorter and stepped out of the Disney comfort zone a little more, I would have loved it. As it is, I simply enjoyed it a lot.
Rating: Good

Thursday 18 October 2018

The Disaster Artist (2017)

Very enjoyable, funny and touching. Suffers a little from the premise - it's too narrow to achieve Ed Wood greatness, yet based on a true story and so unable to spin out to the wildness of This Is The End or Superbad - but effectively captures the film The Room and the experience of watching it.
Rating: Good