Reviews

Was it Godfather-level 10/10? No. Was I grinning like an idiot, saying "Wow!" out loud and fist-bumping my son throughout? YES! This is what I expect for my money- a literal bang for my buck.

SPOILERS OBVIOUSLY

Stuff I liked off the top of my head:

-Mini Kong was weird and creepy in the beginning, but I grew to love him. I couldn't believe Kong used him as a weapon!

-the fight in Egypt was incredible (poor pyramids)! The one in Brazil was almost as good.

-the multiple locations around the world made it feel like a Bond movie.

-I liked all the human characters, especially the grumpy (Scottish?) pilot and Bernie Hayes. The girl- Jia- was good as always.

-the fights were pretty brutal, starting from the first minutes of the movie.

-there are long sections of the movie where titans and other creatures are communicating without words but you understand everything they're "saying." Often reminded me of a Planet of the Apes movie.

-the music was spot-on and rocked throughout.

-not too many "talky," exposition scenes.

-this movie does ice threat well (which Ghostbusters Frozen Empire didn't quite manage).

-MOTHRA!!! (my favourite titan)

Didn't like:

-there must be thousands or hundred of thousands of people dead in Rio after the rampage there! R. I. P.

Overall, VERY happy to have seen this! Definitely catch it in theatres (although I had to stand up and tell some douchebag a few rows down from me to stop filming the movie on her phone).

Good points:

1) I thought Phoebe was the best character (she was also the highlight in Afterlife). I liked her ghost chess buddy too and their... friendship? (Was it only friendship??)

2) The opening modern day ghost chase was fun (unfortunately it went downhill from there).

3) Kumail Nanjiani was amusing. I liked his character and arc.

4) At least they had an original ghost (unlike Afterlife).

5) Paul Rudd had most of the funny lines. Quoting the song lyrics was cute.

6) Bill Murray and the other originals were okay (only Ernie Hudson looked spry though).

7) The opening scene in the early 1900's was cool. ("Cool," ha)

Didn't like so much:

1) Quite a few loooong dull, talky parts that weren't really necessary or interesting.

2) William Atherton did not need to be in this (very, very frail). Same with the chief librarian, library ghost, lion etc. Too many memberberries.

3) The evil ghost baddie was defeated too quickly/easily.

4) Podcast has grown out of his cuteness. Finn Wolfhard has grown into... something. And Lucky barely had anything to do.

5) Probably too many characters, as many reviewers have commented. Patton Oswalt and the guy who looks like Spengler from The Real Ghostbusters could have been cut.

Overall, yeah, it could have been worse. I'll probably buy the bluray eventually. Going forward it's probably a good idea to just focus on the new generation, make new stories and stop with all the nostalgia baiting.

I'm a hardened horror film fan (and producer) but there were several moments here that made me cringe (a certain fall, for example). I saw the film yesterday here in New Zealand (first screening) in 3D (the 3D doesn't add to the film at all) with a decent crowd (half full theatre). I really liked the new characters, especially Ethan and Quinn and the neighbour, but the "old" crew were pretty solid. Ghostface was, of course, coldblooded and merciless. The reveal was good and made sense (kind of... there were massive plot holes as usual) and the New York setting was a nice change. Gail Weathers didn't need to be in this (her plastic surgery distracted me more than in Scream 5). Also, people seem to be able to get stabbed in the gut several times and just brush it off like a minor scrape. Hmm. Anyway, overall I had a great time. Nice entry in the franchise!

I'm not joking.

As a "Wrong Turn" movie, this was awful. As a weird, cult-y drama (I got "Wicker Man" vibes), it was okay.

The acting was pretty bad, but the story kept me reasonably engaged throughout.

Then, during the coda, it looked like the movie was going to end a certain way and I was pissed. I was shouting at the screen: "You better not end now!! This is bull crap!!"

But it DID. The title card splashed on the screen. The credits began to roll.

I was furious. "Nooooooo!!"

BUT....

The film kept going. And something happened that changed everything.

Not gonna say what happened, but my son and I were rolling on the floor laughing.

I'm not sure that was the filmmaker's intention, but it worked for us anyway.

Maybe the best bait-and-switch I've ever seen. Was it Shakespearian? Nope. Was it brilliantly hilarious and absurd? Absolutely.

That final minute or so made the movie for me. Genius.

Okay, random spoiler-filled thoughts:

1. If Tanaka wanted zombie blood, why bother with the bank heist ruse? Just pay a team to go in and snatch a zombie (they could've used the same net trap they later used in the first few minutes after entering). He's a billionaire, right?

So money should be no option. Hell, hire a SEAL team, not a rag-tag bunch of wannabe mercenaries.

2. For some reason, the daughter is willing to risk her life and everyone else's for some random mother (who dies anyway). There relationship is in no way established so why should we believe she cares?

3. Random army dudes change into zombies immediately, but main characters take minutes/hours so they can have lengthy emotional conversations (see #13).

4. SO much out-of-focus background shots, come on Zach! I felt like I needed glasses.

5. Chambers (the only character I really liked) was a 100% Vasquez (Aliens) rip-off, even down to the bandana.

6. For that matter, Martin was Burke. C'mon, Zach, have some originality!

7. How did zombies turn Las Vegas to rubble?

8. This is not a sequel to Zach's Dawn of the Dead (which I love). Having zombies enclosed in one city was incredibly dull.

9. I did not buy for a single second that these people were zombies. Most of them looked like Cirque de Soil performers. Where were all the "normal" zombies?

10. Headshot, headshot, headshot. CGI CGI CGI. Yawn.

11. German guy locks black guy in vault sacrificing himself when he could have easily jumped inside too.

12. Nobody attempted to shoot the small group of zombies attacking Chambers and stood around, watching her get killed. And why didn't Chambers shout "Martin tried to kill me!" when she had the chance?

13. Time for 2-3 sappy, pointless father/daughter chats when there's a nuke on the way?

14. There's a nuke coming. Let's pause and have a nice "You came back!" conversation with the helicopter pilot, when in reality everyone would be clambering on that chopper and getting the hell out of there.

15. Blonde girl could have easily gotten on the chopper while holding the gun to the zombie queen's head, then tossed it as they took off.

16. How can zombies have babies? If they're dead anyway, how can the baby die? Wouldn't it still be a zombie even without its mother's head?

17. I'm really confused as to why there are refugees(?)/a quarantine center right outside a zombie city. Um, perhaps move the camp a little bit further away? You know, for safety? And everyone's getting moved anyway to avoid the nuke, why would a mother need to go into the zombie city to buy her freedom?

18. If it was a 50 million dollar heist, why go in with duffel bags? There's no way they grabbed more than a few hundred grand tops.

19. Las Vegas bank vault has lethal booby traps?

20. Lone survivor wanders through radiation zone like it's a day in the park. That can't possibly be good for him.

There's so much more, but I'll stop here. Yes, it was overlong but with the right material (Justice League) that's forgivable.

This film was just trash.

The premise was interesting enough I suppose, but here are the things I had trouble with.

-The hitman calls Mel "Fatman" (and it's the title). He's not the slightest bit fat. Did they originally intend to cast a fat actor? Or is it meant to be ironic?

-Santa flies around the world in a night on his sleigh (i.e. magic). Yet his face-off with the hitman is a gun battle. Why? Doesn't Santa have powers he can use? (apart from surviving headshots)

-The military want to use his elves. Wouldn't they be more interested in this guy's immortality? Or the fact that he has somehow discovered a mythological species?

-A single hitman kills an entire army unit? And why would he bother? He's only been paid to kill one man.

-The build-up to the face-off is slow, slow, slow. Hitman kills a lot of people. Santa moans about his finances. Yawn.

-The hitman buys Christmas presents. Because he only got a toy car as a kid? Um....okay. Oh, but he has a hamster. (??)

Was this supposed to be a comedy? I can imagine the Coen Brothers, for example, actually making it funny, but this version was laugh-free.

You know, the song that united the world in the first two movies...?

Firstly, in this movie, it's not a song. It's an instrumental at best, and basically a jam.

Secondly, they didn't write anything. Neither did the daughters... they just kinda conducted it.

Thirdly, if the daughters were responsible for the song, how come Rufus didn't visit them instead of their fathers?

Fourth, they even have the nerve to say something like "it wasn't the song, it was people playing together." So major contradiction to the first movies.

Fifth, if the key to saving the world was everyone playing together... how the hell did everyone in the world suddenly learn to play a musical instrument?

Finally, Bill and Ted suddenly become amazing guitar players after basically sucking all this time. How?

Overall, I found this film pretty unfunny and uninteresting. Basically, they go to the future a few times then play the song, the end.

Oh, and apparently you can still use your cellphone to call the future when you're dead and in hell.

I was really looking forward to this. It started well and I liked the characters for the most part. I was laughing quite a lot, which is not necessarily a good thing. By around the halfway mark I was starting to dislike it a lot, then everything went to hell (not in a good way) in the climax. What I didn't like (SPOILERS obviously:):

-the lead has no backstory/character. It's mentioned at one point she had a foster family and we get that she doesn't come from a rich family but that's it. We know nothing about her. Same for the groom. "Get Out" set up the characters much, much better.

-I kept expecting the bride to "go Rambo." The trailers seemed to imply she was gonna be a badass. How cool it would have been if she had a secret past (ex-military?) that even her fiance didn't know about. Nope. She just lucks her way through the film mostly.

-I was looking forward to seeing the rich family knocked off one-by-one. Nope. We got one kill (on purpose). Which leads me to...

-Having the entire family explode at the end? Ooookay. Kinda funny, but a huge wasted opportunity.

-Having the finance turn on her at the end was kinda of a cool idea, but the scene with the fiance and his mother made this nonsensical.

-the whole supernatural aspect made no sense. Why mention that Alex had seen the ghost(?) of the business partner if that's not going to be a pay-off. The whole backstory with the great grandfather and his partner was not set up well. So Mr. Le Bail was supposed to be the devil? Were the family aware of this?

Anyway, I usually blind buy DVDs but luckily I saw this, um, elsewhere so won't be purchasing this time (even though I'm a huge horror fan!).

I'm a huge Queen music fan, though I was never interested in their lives so much. Still, I was looking forward to this. Unfortunately, it was a letdown.

Firstly, it tells us nothing about the characters. It doesn't help that they skip one whole year after the characters meet... what happened in that time??

We never learn anything about the band or Mary as people. The film makes the mistake of tell, don't show (as opposed to "show, don't tell").

They mention that Brian May is an astrophysicist... twice. But we learn nothing about the man. Roger Taylor's a lady's man apparently (we're told three times). Who was Mary before she met Freddie? We know nothing.

Of course, you could argue that it's supposed to be Freddie's show. Okay, but I just couldn't see Rami as Freddie... it was like a celebrity impersonation... very superficial. Acting with his eyes most of the time.

Also, silly cameos like Mike Myers saying something about kids in cars banging their heads to the song (yeah, I get it!) just took me out of the picture.

I also didn't like how they gave Freddie AIDS before Live Aid when pretty much everyone knows it was much later.

Overall it came off like a made-for-TV biopic. Very by-the-numbers and not telling us anything we didn't already know.

Wow. The trailers made it look like a fun, family film. In the first 10 minutes I counted about 50 "f--k"s. No kidding. Add some neck-snapping violence and a conversation about penises/circumcision and... no thanks. I'm no prude but I was watching this with my kids and they actually asked me to turn it off (maybe they were embarrassed). Terrible film (what I saw... maybe it got better??).

I WANTED to like this film. I THINK I liked it... but I'm not sure. :( Some things were great (the smash cut to the opening credits, for instance), but some things were just... odd. So, the podcast guy is standing at the gas station and Michael just strolls past behind him in his white hospital clothes? Laurie seemed to teleport from location to location. So does Michael (how does he get into the closet, and why bother?). There's no cat-and-mouse stalking like the original... is Michael even looking for Laurie, or was that just a coincidence? Michael seems to be all over the place, with no purpose or direction, apart from killing anyone (even a kid). I loved the music and it was never boring, but I'm starting to think this was all style over substance. I need to see it again.. (I'll wait for the bluray).

Here's the whole film: Renton goes home. Everyone's angry at him. Begbie escapes from prison, tries to kill Renton. The end.

That. Is. It.

The ONLY highlights in the film are flashbacks, nods or near recreations of scenes from the original film.

Even the music is terrible. What was Danny Boyle thinking? This "movie" is so far-removed from "Trainspotting" (one of my Top 10 movies of all time) it's almost inconceivable.

I will be doing my best to expunge the memory of this film from my mind.

1 star for nostalgia factor.

Maybe I'm the wrong target audience for this film (atheist). I love a good drama (even if it's slow-paced) and have enjoyed most of Scorsese's works (including "Last Temptation"), and religious topics don't put me off (unless the film stars Kirk Cameron!) but this movie just lost me. I'm not sure if we were supposed to empathize with the missionaries and admire their faith, or to accept the futility of forcing a belief on a foreign culture. All the pain and suffering in this film basically reinforced my belief that religion does nothing but divide humanity (even the Buddhists were blood-thirsty in this!) and create the illusion that life on Earth is a mere pit-stop on the way someplace better. On the plus side, I enjoyed all of the main Japanese actors, especially the translator and the main, somewhat goofy Samurai(?). It was probably only me, but I felt the first Japanese guy (drunk) was hilarious in the way he kept flip-flopping and asking for confession. It was like a running gag. Also, wouldn't the film have been better if Garfield and Driver had had their roles reversed? I feel Driver would have brought more gravitas to the main role, and Garfield would have been better as the supporting character.