Tag: movies
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Avatar (2009 review)
4 out of 5 After a more than a decade, James Cameron returns to fiction filmmaking with Avatar. There is the inevitable comparison to Aliens because it’s a Cameron film about marines vs. aliens, but that’s unfair because Aliens is one of the greatest goddamn movies of all time and Avatar . . . isn’t. …
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Five Nights at Freddy’s 2
2 outta 5 Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is a limp entry in the film adaptation of the videogame series. Both films are overtly mopey emo slogs in a series that really should be more concerned about animatronic carnage. It is a sequel to the 2023 film but even in a sequel there should be…
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Wake Up Dead Man
5 outta 5 With the third Knives Out Mystery, writer/director Rian Johnson once again jumps genres, defies expectations, and has a great mystery with Wake Up Dead Man. While the 2nd film, Glass Onion, went full bonkers comedy, this is more of a gothic horror film with ruminations upon faith and control. But there is…
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Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (’22 review)
5 outta 5 Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is a fantastic sequel to the fantastic original movie, Knives Out. This doesn’t simply repeat the murder mystery formula of the first film, this murder mystery has a unique tone and structure. With a lot of Rian Johnson’s output, like The Last Jedi or Looper, he…
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Knives Out (’19 review)
5 outta 5 Writer and director Rian Johnson (Brick, The Last Jedi) returns with the peppy and hilarious murder mystery Knives Out. Like all his work, this takes a few genre conventions and then twists them on its head unexpectedly, sometimes doing exactly what a murder mystery would do and then swerving. It is sold…
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Sisu: Road to Revenge
4 outta 5 Sisu: Road to Revenge is fun theatrical counter-programing to Wicked for Good. It is probably accurate that Sisu features more bloody mutilations and gunfire. Sisu: Road to Revenge isn’t a film with much depth as this is basically just action and mayhem hung together. But the first Sisu film was basically that…
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The Running Man
4 outta 5 The Running Man is the 2nd adaptation of a Stephen King novel about a dystopian game released in the last few months, the first being The Long Walk, and both novels were published under King’s Richard Bachman pseudonym. Running Man was famously adapted as an ‘80s action movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger that…
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Predator: Badlands
4 outta 5 Predator films have been going through many installments, with the latest Predator: Badlands taking the series into the future and featuring some light crossover with the Alien franchise. It actually takes one of the meanest villains in sci-fi and makes him a likeable protagonist, which is probably helped by giving him a…
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Ballad of a Small Player
3 outta 5 Ballad of a Small Player seems to be about a degenerate gambler, lost in a nation that isn’t his own but then it starts throwing out ghosts and so forth. But another fantastic performance by Colin Farrell makes the odd turns endurable. It is like Farrell’s performance as the Penguin as he…
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Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc
5 outta 5 Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc is basically season 2 of the Chainsaw Man anime series but it works great as a single film experience. Reze Arc doesn’t rely much at all on the previous season continuity, one of Season 1’s best characters is sidelined but it doesn’t matter because this…
BigAl Reviews 