“Nobody ever wins the Games. Period. There are survivors. There’s no winners.”
Far better than I was expecting after the disappointing first instalment, J-Law is great in this — what a difference a director makes.
★★★★✩
movies
After Earth
“Fear is not real. The only place that fear can exist is in our thoughts of the future.”
Yikes, what a stinker — Will Smith orchestrated this film as a vehicle for his son and it shows: it’s empty, dull (for what is arguably an interesting premise), and to top it all, Jaden Smith displays the charisma and acting talent of a baked potato.
★✩✩✩✩
The Virgin Suicides
“We knew that they knew everything about us, and that we couldn’t fathom them at all.”
Sophia Coppola‘s first film, the title gives away the big plot point, and so fills the entire movie with a sense of dread and impending doom that’s hard to shake; it’s a haunting film that tries to deal with grief and absence, and really makes you feel the impotence in understanding someone else’s depression and the confusion surrounding a suicide — great all round but with a beautifully subtle performance by James Woods.
★★★★✩
The Gunman
“When a firefighter saves you from a fire, there is a debt.”
Very much in the same vein as Taken, but I’m shocked it got such bad reviews — maybe I just have a soft spot for Sean Penn (or his fiancée) — this is a clichéd but fun romp.
★★★✩✩
Skyfall
“Think on your sins”
There’s a lot to like here but it’s mired in shit — more stylish than ever, more suave than ever, more depth to the character(s), more complex and subtle storylines, and shot better than ever, but it gets lost somewhat amidst the glad-handing, nodding, and winking — the minutia of this film undoes a lot of it in the name of exposition and cop-out storytelling, and despite the thorough grounding of the rest of the film (including the removal of gadgets) the villain, Javier Bardem, is campy and convenient — overall worth watching but not without reservations.
★★★✩✩