Change Your Image
benzmum
Lists
An error has ocurred. Please try againAnyone can contribute to this list, but please respect my intention: some of us would REALLY prefer not to see a movie that depicts an animal being hurt or killed.
Reviews
One Day (2024)
Why mess with a good thing??
One Day came out in 2011, starring Jim Sturgess and Anne Hathaway. Both actors were great in this film. So why did they want to create the same thing again, not even a generation later? I really enjoyed the original, and I'd like anyone to find fault with it. It's the same story of two young people "spending the night together on the eve of their college graduation." The movie goes on to show them each year on the same date to see where they are in their lives. They are sometimes together, and sometimes not. It was a poignant film, based on a critically acclaimed novel, often funny and sometimes heartbreaking. I'd challenge anyone who saw the 2011 version to say they preferred the one that came out in 2024.
Suicide Squad (2016)
Margot Robbie saved the film
Otherwise it's not worth watching. For all the trailer hype, the Joker only makes a few brief appearances.
The Shack (2017)
Too simplistic
Is it really possible to let go of the murder of our child, and believe fervently that that child is in Heaven experiencing everlasting joy, with no more pain and no more tears, knowing we'll be with her one day?
Boyhood (2014)
Boyhood? eh....
I can't think what the hype's all about. Sure it's neat that the 5-yr-old is the same actor as the 18-yr-old. But that's been done by Michael Apted and his was a documentary and completely enthralling. There was something of the "documentary" to this over-long movie. The acting by the principals looked at times like it was ad-libbed - is that supposed to be good? Ellar Coltrane managed to hold his own throughout the film, demonstrating the typical feelings one would expect from a boy at a given age. But even still his performance was frequently stilted. '
Ethan Hawke was one of the few believable characters. Patricia Arquette was Patricia Arquette as directed by Woody Allen, to my mind! And I'm not a fan of Allen....
Perhaps if you're a growing boy, or a man who's gone through the process from boyhood to manhood, this would be an intriguing film. Personally I thought it was tedious and I was appalled when I saw I still had an hour and half to go at the half-way mark! "Ho hum" comes to mind when I think of this film. It really felt like a waste of three hours.
The Following (2013)
Badly directed
Nope, sorry: I can't watch this series. Tried both episode 1 and 2 and couldn't watch all the way through either of them.
The acting is too obvious - i.e., many of the actors are too self-conscious. I need to be able to get lost in the story without being distracted by the mannerisms of a character that I don't feel are real.
Some of the main characters are fine, but most of the supporting cast are not well directed. It's the director who determines how well the actors perform. When it's obvious that he/she has been told to "PRETEND you're frightened," it spoils the story line for me.
By comparison, if you want to watch a good thriller try "Whitechapel" on BBC (iTunes has the first season, or "case" as it's called).
The Haunting (1963)
A psychological thriller
I saw this film in a theatre when I was 19 and it scared the WITS out of me! In fact, a short time into the movie whenever the camera moved quickly the whole audience would scream en masse. I distinctly remember feeling like my heart was going to pound right out of my chest.
There are very few "nasty bits" in this film, but the Cinematographer Davis Boulton did such a wonderful job that he had all of us terrified in anticipation - SO much more effective and tasteful than "horror" films today. The Haunting was filmed in black and white and I don't think we see one drop of blood in it. Yet it was SO powerful. Even watching it fairly recently as a much older adult I had to marvel at the skill: how sinister something TAME could appear by virtue of the camera work alone. In addition, the special effects and the acting added to the overall creepiness of the atmosphere.
Highly recommended. In latter years I haven't been inclined to watch scary movies. But I so admired the way this film was done that I had to see it again just to see if the effects held up with time. I think they do.
Miracle Mile (1988)
Boy meets girl and then gets a surprise....
I thought after 15 minutes, "This must be a joke, right? like Rocky Horror Picture Show." But after another 15 minutes I couldn't take it anymore!! I cannot watch the whole of this movie because it really is TOO awful: the acting is bad - like when Harry's describing the phone call - and the story is over-blown and not at all credible - like when Amanda says something like "write down all the important people you can think of."
If you like B movie "thrillers" - like Godzilla - then you might have fun with this. But I didn't like it at all. True, I didn't watch it to the end, but life is short and I could not justify the time it would take to do so.