Legendsofanus

I loved Mathew Vaughn's work on X-Men: First Class, don't remember Kickass much but I do remember seeing Stardust as a kid on TV and being intrigued by it.

Thought of it a few days ago and decided to give it a try. The first thirty minutes are the worst part, frankly if you can move past them then you are going to enjoy this movie a lot. It's a fun adventure and Mathew Vaughn's direction makes sure that even fairy predictable action scenes turn out to be exciting to play out and watch, they're fairly simple scenes too but he manages to add an edge of thrill into them even though you know the characters will eventually make out safe.

The fact that this movie is an attempt to tell a story in an old fairytale fashion is a bit annoying at the start because everything is so predictable but they're are a few twists here and there that stop the film from being completely stale and boring.

Performances add a lot too, particularly Robert De Niro as Captain Shakespeare and Michelle Pfeiffer as the main antagonist who is a witch. She's beautiful in this film

Also it's a pretty looking movie. Vast open landscapes and visuals that still look good. My dreams of seeing a proper live-action flying ship from Final Fantasy or Legend of Dragoon (or Skies of Arcadia? I forget the name for it but it's a Dreamcast turn-based RPG and you have a flying ship and it's glorious) got fulfilled and I'm happy about that lol

Overall I wasn't blown away as my nostalgia made me think I would be but I had a good time and this movie is a callback to when films were just a good time and had a proper happy ending.

Here's a question: do you like mindless action that doesn't make sense often and sorely exists to be a treat to your eyes?

Another question: do you like characters who are shown off for every heroic deed they do, who are morally the best and not only do they fight very well but also time stops whenever they're showing off?

Yet another question: Do you like grand fantastical settings but without a lick of something interesting or compelling?

This movie basically is a pump and dump action movie, the only things of note here are it's many wild action scenes and it's questioning plot decisions. Take away your ability to enjoy those visually cool action sequences and your ability to laugh at the stupid decisions characters make and then there's really nothing left for this movie to give imo.

Yes it looks great and the performances felt as overplayed and sentimental as anything Indian ever has been but there's little to no depth here. Which is perfectly okay if you enjoy these types of films, I know I enjoyed it only because I was watching with a friend

Here's the round up of scores:

Cinematography: 5/5

Storytelling: 4/5

Acting: 5/5

Entertainment: 3/5

Production Design: 4.5/5

Short review: Boasting some of the most beautiful layered landscapes caught on this side of 21st century filmmaking, The Banshees of Inshiren is seductively complex film beneath it's almost charming tale of two friends when one of them suddenly ends their friendship.

I have always enjoyed Martin McDonaugh's works, In Bruges and Three Billboards are some of my fav comedy drama-thrillers out there and while Banshees does lack a bit of dramatic flair of its predecessors (think of that one-shit sequence in Three Billboards or the final scene of In Bruges), what's here is more refined and tightly woven together, every scene says something about the characters and there's a sense of something ominous going on that's outside of the control of our main characters which adds another dimension of tension into the story that's already building sort of this gritty tense standoff that refuses to resolve itself.

I had a chance to watch the deleted scenes of the film as they were included on Disney+, more films need to do that btw, and I was surprised by how conscious some of those decisions must have been. Every deleted scene adds a new dimension to the character and you can tell that Martin maybe didn't want to show off that side of the character whether it be Padraic's (Farrel) insensitive to his sister's crying or Colm's inability to play out a tone and his frustration following that.

Anyway, I think it's a brilliant grand film. One that looks beautiful and vast while telling a very small but relatable story, all the while taking out the time to show the lives of other characters.

Lots of emotion with this one.

Right off the bat, I love Stephen King and IT is my fav book of all time. I prefer his stories to go as batshit crazy as they can and this has been delivered with books like IT and Misery and Pet Sematary but then there are his other works, like 11/22/63 and Hearts in Atlantis which seem to be much more grounded and calm because their main focus is just normal people.

So can Stephen King tell a good story when there's no undead pets or clown monsters? Absolutely. Hearts in Atlantis is a solution of five stories taking place from the 60s to '99 that are interconnected to some degree.

It would be worth it to talk about those different stories in detail but I don't wanna give away the discovery aspect of this book though I will say that I probably liked the first story most since it had that little children dealing with magic sort of charm which was very reminiscent of IT. Even had an old man wanting to give a suckjob to a kid so it was very similiar (Poor Eddie)

Other stories are more focused on Vietnam and the American war there. I'll admit, I don't know much about that part of history, I'm not from any western country and you just don't read about stuff like that in schools. I think I picked it up casually through years of just reading books

Anyways, that whole Vietnam experience is here. We get to be there, running away from the heat of fire, camping and being drunk, and then back home trying to adjust to a normal life and trying somehow to forget and be forgiven for all the bad things we did there while trying to live a normal life. It's presented very well though I will say some of the stories do get a little too smart-ass sometimes. It's not something I would take out of the book but it is a little immersion breaking when you feel a character making a pointed speech about something that reads like a statement by the author.

Overral, I gave this book a solid 4 out of 5 and I think it has honestly helped me come to terms with King's more "normal people" books. I had tried to read 11/22/63 but gave up because I was sort of expecting something more edgy but I think I'm ready to make peace with it after Hearts in Atlantis

Best Stephen King adaptation, I thought I wouldn't cry as deeply as I had on movies of terrible but loving optimism and then, that beautiful score playing and watching Red and Andy meet up again at the end....I finish the movie and went to shit and cried hard in the bathroom

I love how it explores life in a prison, showing their routines but also how prison affects you psychologically. All the scenes where men are shown to be free in spirit are accompanied by music or strife or travelling and it's kind of crazy to then realize after the movie is over that our static urban lives are not much different than prisons themselves. Just part of the experience I suppose but it's great that the movie affects you that because ultimately that's what makes it so universal.

This is a movie about hope and freedom in a man's soul and above all it's about Red and Andy's friendship.

The score is such a beautiful piece of accompaniment that perfectly showcases the emotional truth and horror of every scene, it's shot by Roger Dealings so of course it looks great as hell especially when coming to prison for the first time, seeing all those men standing down there in the ground and the camera sweeps from far over them, it still looks really good despite the age.

The thing that stands out in the movie alongside it's hopeful themes even when it refuses to sugarcoat the harsh reality of evil in men, of hypocrite characters that just want to ruin it for everybody; lies the identity of it being an adaptation of a short story written by Stephen King. It's narrated throughout and the narration fits perfectly, like a story we are being told. Morgan Freeman's sad voice of a man who has gone through so much tone and it really completes the film perfectly. His voice really makes the movie go over much more smoothly and is a very important part of it, I don't think it would remotely be the same without it.

I have always thought that King captures America's normalness and character really well and this work atleast is perfectly suited to being adapted. It's a story about a men wrongly convicted and sentenced for life and then learning to make a new life and starting over, a man who refuses to let go of the goodness of society, goodness in men and the importance of hope and friendship even in a dreary soulless place like a prison. Along the way he manages to convince even others of their own humanness and the caged canary spirit of freedom in them, and it's beautiful to see that. In a way I suppose it is the prison version of Dead Poet's Society but since I haven't seen that film yet, I can't comment on it too much.

Love how the movie makes a very compelling case study on institutionalized men who are released from prison and don't know where else to go, the story of Brooks feels believable and tragic and universal. Love when movies teach you something important while making you sob lmao

P.S: the excessive"bull queer" scenes did take me out a bit watching this movie now for the first time but I suppose it's just something that happens in prisons. I'm even glad that it's there to break the monotony of its feel-goodness

It's too sweet a game to write anything bad about.

If I had to nitpick, I would say the material is there for a great story but the plot meanders a bit. It's basically a quest to find a Macguffin, it's funny and chaotic and a lot of the charm is due to the characters interacting with one another but as for the plot itself... it's kind of boring. One thing leads to one thing then we're doing something else, it doesn't feel as tightly knit as the character dialogue in the game

Aside from a few QTE annoyances, I did enjoy a lot of the action scenes. They're very well choreographed and provide a fun and engaging experience

I don't hate any of the main characters, they're like a family and even the worst people of them have a GOTG-type vibe to them that makes it fun to keep following their stories.

Obviously it's a Telltale game so most of your choices don't impact the plot much but it was still nice to experience this game as a narrative where you can choose what to say, the added customization options were really fun too as was the last action sequence that gives you a lot of choice on how things play out

Overall, it's some of the best comedic games I have played and a great Telltale game. Definitely my fav for now as the only other one I have played is that disappointing Expanse one.

8/10 ⭐

More sensual than narrative, A Ghost Story tells or shows the visual experience of being left behind. The plot is about a couple living happily in their home when suddenly the husband dies and comes back as a ghost. Despite the film's initial setup, the movie isn't about the wife struggling to live with the death of her husband but it's about the Ghost Husband trying to connect to her in some way. And that's where things get really cool

It's a fairly slow, calm, contemplative movie with the camera steady and lingering in scenes. I really liked the way it was shot, especially with the film's sound design being acute enough to capture everything in the background: most of the shots conveyed entire story beats.

A character will come inside, bringing sounds of real life in the empty house as a ghost watches them walk past him as if he's not even there, as they leave, the sounds all die out.

Which is really cool because there's hardly any dialogue in the film. Years go by in a single cut, moments and feelings left visualized between strangers but you never get to a part of them.

I think - it amuses me to think this way - that this is how all audiences must feel at some point, we are with the ghost watching the world exist around him and we feel empty but not entirely alone, our feeble human minds wanting to make a connection: it becomes necessary to find something to love or be angry about when the capacity to love or be angry exists and you can't exercise it the way you want to.

In a way, this film must necessary feel hollow and pessimistic, atleast that's the path it's most loud moment seems to point to but it doesn't, the soundtrack's upbeat electronic music played on top of warm classic compositions and the warmer tones of colors always has that hint of nostalgia that makes the whole film a little more heartfelt.

This is a short one, at 1 hour and 32 minutes, A Ghost Story finishes off with a very well paced story and a somewhat sudden ending that I wasn't expecting.

I don't hate it but there's barely anything new and interesting here. Making the zombies into a formidable army is a cool gimmick but the characters are all weak retreads of archetypes that we have been so familiar with over the years.

Plenty of violence and action sequences but the film does not manage to shine through these bloody artistic gorefest scenes, are it's core it feels tired and derivative.

This is also a particular nuisance for me since movies that just want to have a bit of fun usually make up a cast of "bad" characters and put them through a ridiculous plot. Supposedly, it's fun to see these people die because of their awful behaviour and decisions. Unfortunately "Abigail" was not a lot of fun for me and neither was this, maybe the subgenre just doesn't work for me.

The only thing worse that Army of the Dead does than Abigail is that it pretends it's characters are actual human beings with real stories while putting them through obscenely stupid scenarios that no real human being would go through.

I like the political commentary in this movie, the subtle hints/parallelism towards racism is very interesting and cool but those hints and subtle cues go extinct as soon as the movie really starts, and from there it's just... boring.

Listened to the audiobook version narrated beautifully by Michael C. Hall, this is the first Stephen King book I have listened to and the first by this narrator.

I don't even know where I'm going to rank this book in the Stephen King canon but I know that the trademark touch of horror that leaps out of the page and whispers and settles into you is in this book. More scary and human than Misery, it does not compare to the freak of IT but somehow the rising tension of its last act reminded me of IT's similar final act.

The best thing about Pet Sematary is how how it's paced so openly, the Creed family gets to live and breath and be happy in many of its pages even when narratively it seems tiresome and boring, even when the promise of horror keeping it's eye on the family begins to dull. When the shadow of death finally falls on this family, it almost seems unlike Stephen King, it feels accidental and natural too at some point. Like the characters in the book who think at various points that these things were meant to happen, we as a reader think these events were meant to happen to these characters in exactly this slow, tragic, sad and insane way. There are no big fireworks, yes a house burns down but nothing "spectacular" happens, Louis Creed our protagonist simply pays the price for what he bought.

And the narration is amazing, the way Michael C. Hall voices not only so many diverse characters from old people to kids but what's amazing is how he consistently voices the elements of the book as well. One of my favorite examples of this is the scene where a dog is howling and the narrator doesn't just say he barks but we get the actual sound. Of course now that I think about it it might just be the sound effect or recording of a dog but either way the sounds of this audiobook are beautiful and fitting. I think part of the way the novel felt so suspenseful and dreadful is helped by the sound production

Brilliant, scary, sad and altogether humane, Pet Sematary is a very very good Stephen King novel.

First time watching a John Carpenter film and while I loved the visuals and style of the film, the music is brilliant too, I don't think I love it.

It's kinda boring for one, and too long but long in a way where you wish like they should have done more instead of focusing on the things they did. The practical effects and the bodywork on the car is absolutely brilliant and worth watching for that alone but that is if you had wanted a reason to watch it.

The acting is fine and I loved the interactions between Dennis and Arnie, they seemed such chill friends and Dennis cared so much about him.

Maybe part of the reason why this movie didn't work for me so much is because I grew up with Tarzan: The Wonder Car which is like an Indian adaptation for this film. That movie was much longer but to pay for that it also had a more fuller character arc and motivations for every character including the car, not saying a monster car needs a motivation but what we see in the film lacked for me. And Tarzan had more destructions and death than this film and in much more creative manner as well.

I have been thinking about this film since I watched it, trying to figure out why it is that I don't find anything wrong with it but still wouldn't feel compelled to watch it again but that's just how it is sometimes. If anything, it is a good 80s movie with 80s vibe if that's what you like

The Martian Chronicles is a roughly connected collection of short stories written at various times by Ray Bradbury that were about humans going to Mars. They don't really have a coherent story but some of the characters and events cross over and it beats having to read 50 stories separately but is it worth reading them at all?

Where Fahrenheit 451 showed the sci-fi side of Ray Bradbury, The Martian Chronicles shows his poetic side.

In many ways it is more ambitious than 451, indeed many of the themes that Ray had to connect with the thread of storytelling show themselves off beautifully here with short stories exploring colonialism, religion, need of belonging, blowing ourselves to bits (something that doesn't sound as far-fetched considering the events we are all going through) and he creates a wonderful mythology about Mars one that is more fantastical than realistic for sure but feels lived in.

Although even when talking about hardcore science-fiction books this little collection of stories manages to achieve something that I have seen very few stories do right, namely that it shows how weird and magical and utterly incomprehensible that other lifeform (be it Martians or otherwise) can be.

Ultimately this is a book about people and their stories, experiencing it brought out a lot of emotions and I was ultimately left amazed by how well the whole was written.

Highly highly recommended if you're into short stories

I mean yeah, I'm going to be honest about not being able to come up with a better title. This movie was just that much underwhelming.

Since it's not super popular or anything, Abigail is the story of five criminals with various singular quirks who happen to kind the wrong little girl from her home. They decide to hold up in an abandoned house and wait for the morning to call for ransom but then something goes wrong...

At least the cast is colorful, Dan Stevens is so colorful in this movie like he's really playing it up and the rest of the "bad guys" really lean into their respective quirks that it kind of becomes entertainment in itself to watch them react but the characters themselves, well atleast most of them, are just there to die so the movie doesn't really spend time developing except a few. The kid who plays the titular Abigail was awesome too and really was able to put with some of the scripts more mature and angry moments. Really enjoyed Melissa Barrera too maybe cuz she just had so much material to work with in this film, it's really her story that we are following

That's not my issue with the film, my issue is that it's too much of a generic film. It's so fucking long for something that is meant to be a fun death trip in a house movie and it doesn't justify that length at all in my opinion. Some of the dialogues and characterizations seemed super forced too, I mean I can't really buy people talking goofy when they are supposed to be really bad people who have done a lot of bad shit before despite the movie's attempts to have a humorous side to them

I wish I could say something about the set design and setting but it's basically like an abandoned gothic mansion, it feels like the movie which is set in modern times would do something cool with it and there's some visually fun areas we see but the characters just move on and go back to the same old "hub" areas

Although it comes close, there genuinely wasn't one scene that I could have been excited about and spent the whole movie going "meh". There was one moment where it gets really chaotic that I started being excited but then the momentum just got shut down :(