Moon is an interesting use of the living on a distant planet science fiction category. Rather than focusing on the character escaping, Sam Rockwell’s character knows he’s going to escape… until he doesn’t. Before I get into this one too much, I’m going to spoil the whole thing, so if you haven’t watched this one, definitely go onto Netflix right now and watch it, what’s two hours in this time period?

When it’s revealed that Sam Rockwell had all the clones of himself, I was captivated. This shift in the plot immediately made the film much more interesting, but it did seem slightly too early in the overall plot. Which was my problem with Moon, everything was either too predictable, or too early in the film to keep the suspense going for the entire time. That’s what I have felt on this movie for a long while, however, it did recently occur to me that that’s kind of the point. Moon isn’t meant to be like other science fiction films. This isn’t about shooting things with lasers or explosions, really, it’s about rich characters being forced to deal with one another. Being that he had to pull off so much, Sam Rockwell truly gave a brilliant performance as Sam in this movie. The interesting thing is that there are almost no other actors, Same Rockwell makes the entire movie work, and I give him props for that. I really enjoyed the first 3/4 of this movie, the pacing and the interactions all worked so well. But that last quarter is really my problem. Moon seemed like it should have had some huge twist at the end, revealing something that shook the plot of the movie, but it didn’t. Everything the majority of the movie was leading to kind of fell apart here. While there was some emotion at the end, it just wasn’t enough. I suppose I may have been putting this film up to high expectations due to how much I liked the first three acts, but the ending just didn’t work for me. Overall, I truly enjoyed the creative take this movie had, but I just couldn’t help but feel that it was missing something. 8.7/10

As Terry Gilliam finally taps into his more serious side, he makes one of the weirdest films I have ever seen, Brazil, and I flipping love it. While the film certainly has its funny points, I found interest in the deeper relevance to problems in the modern workplace. Now, that sounds like a lot for a little film like this, so I’ll explain. I love Monty Python, to the point that I’m sure I have come close to memorizing the entirety of The Holy Grail. While Brazil is a completely different film, certain elements are similar, namely, the comedy. The humour in this is a perfect mix of visual and dialogue-based humour, which is something I feel is missing in cinemas currently. The setup of Brazil is bizarre, where a fly ends up in a typewriter causing a typo leading to the wrong person being charged of an extreme crime, one thing leads to another, and I’m still not quite sure what happened. However, it is clear that this film, intentionally or not, wanted to focus on the truth of the problems in the modern workplace. That’s why the environment is so cluttered and stressed, the main character often day dreams, and the setting seems so familiar. However, all of this is covered by the dull and bland use of the camera. Almost every shot is the same, and that bothered me a little bit. None of the performances in this movie are particularly memorable either, with an exception being Michael Palin, because he’s Michael Palin. Overall, if you find that watching movies to be confusing at times, definitely skip this one, it’s my second watch of this, and I have a decent grasp, but too much of this movie goes right over your head the first time to truly be appreciated. 8.6/10

The Dark Knight was a defining moment in Christopher Nolan’s career. What I admire in Nolan is that he seems to find the perfect balance between thrilling blockbuster and a rich and full story, The Dark Knight is one of the best examples of this. The overall direction and writing of this film makes Batman, who, before these movies was still the campy 60s Batman to a lot of the public, the dark and gritty character we’re so used to today. Batman, as a character, is absolutely timeless, and Nolan recognizes this, making the topics in his movies timeless as well. We have all felt chaos in our lives, and the Joker is a great representation of that, which, compared to Christian Bale’s Batman symbolic as a man focused on justice, is an excellent contrast. While Christian Bale is fine as Batman, I did prefer his performance in Batman Begins. The performance that really makes this movie work is obviously Heath Ledger as the Joker. The way he manages to capture that character in such a menacing way is admirable. It’s a shame that he won’t be able to play the Joker again, because the simply way that he spoke is immediately recognizable. My biggest complaint would be the look of the film. I understand what Nolan was going for, but aesthetically, a lot of this film was extremely dark. It would have been nice to see Batman against a grey sky at some point. I also found that the two-face story line was extremely rushed, and should have been fleshed out in its own movie, as the character is great. I just feel like it was an underused plot-line, the character should have been set up as two face near the end. That way, the Joker would still have an effect on the story, and the story would have been more fluid. I know a few people who prefer Batman Begins, saying that the story is a lot less forgettable, yet, while parts of this story are forgettable, the characters are much more fleshed out and the story is much more compelling. This movie marked a significant change in

Following my feelings of ‘Shaun of the Dead’ and ‘Hot Fuzz,’ I was excited to see where ‘The World’s End’ would take Edgar Wright’s Cornetto trilogy. So, you can imagine my disappointment when this movie kind of ruined the entire trilogy for me. I suppose I should explain, this movie was fun, and that’s all it needed to be. It followed the Edgar Wright way of editing, which did work. However, the Edgar Wright style was a little bit too much in this one, and through that, it revealed how weak the stories are in this trilogy, and how repetitive each movie. Every single movie is about Simon Pegg and Nick Frost being buddies, when, all of the sudden, it turns out everyone is secretly a part of a conspiracy. So, they need to get to a bar and try to survive. It was kind of frustrating that this movie ruined all of that for me, because, other than that, this movie was perfectly mindless fun. As I have mentioned many times before, Edgar Wright’s fast-paced editing style allows the film to move along quickly, while allowing for great visual gags. While Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead had some excellent characters that were deep, the characters in The World’s End seemed extremely 2 dimensional and it was kind of sad to see the trilogy end on this low of a note. Overall though, if all you want is a good time, and you haven’t watched any of the other Cornetto Trilogy, I would definitely give it a watch. But, compared to ‘Hot Fuzz’ and ‘Shaun of the Dead,’ this one falls extremely flat. 5.8/10

As it came on Netflix, my interest in Social Network grew. Which is odd, I’m not on any social media platforms such as Facebook, but the story of how it came about did seem interesting. Also, Jesse Eisenberg is great in almost everything he does, so it was slightly surprising when, although I liked the movie a lot, it wasn’t for the reasons I had thought. As a start, the direction of the movie works extremely well. Simply the way it is shot conveys the story incredibly well, David Fincher, who also directed Fight Club, is definitely well fit for a project like this. Also, while I expected to enjoy Jesse Eisenberg’s experience, Andrew Garfield was the clear standout. I was shocked when I looked at this movie’s awards and found that he wasn’t even nominated for an Oscar based on his performance. My only previous experience of Andrew Garfield was the first Amazing Spider-Man, which I absolutely hated. It should also be mentioned that the music score fits quite nicely with Fincher’s director. Now, as for my critiques, I’d certainly mentioned that the story itself is a little all over the place. While it is easy to follow, I felt that the pacing of certain bits didn’t quite fit. The dialogue seemed to fit the age group, but because of that, it did seem that some of it was slightly clunky. Still, I think that the overall design of the way the movie looks and feels is, not only a great documentary, but also a great coming of age story. So, I would most likely recommend it. 8.7/10

Terry Gilliam’s ‘Time Bandits’ is an incredibly joyous kids movie that just gets more fun as you go through. This kind of time travel movie isn’t anything too original, but the way Gilliam did it makes it seem like something special. As a start, the structure of the film works extremely well. Rather than choosing where you travel to, it seemed like the method of time travel in Time Bandits worked quite well with this. So, going through different time periods in this way seemed to make more sense, and with Gilliam’s general over the top method, the chaos was certainly prominent. This was supported by the characters, while the kid is definitely different, the dwarves seemed to start out seeming to all be the same characters. However, as I went along, it started to seem that the characters were more different, which was a shame that the characters weren’t explored to their full potential until much later. While the characters may be fun, the acting was somewhat stiff. For the most part, the dwarves were okay, but the kid became annoying for me quite quickly. Part of that was due to the weak dialogue, almost every line that comes out of that kid’s mouth is some sort of dumb question. There was an entire scene that seemed to play out like a Q and A session from comic con, which was frustrating. Nevertheless, it was certainly a fun movie, and as a huge Monty Python fan, seeing numerous members pop up in various roles was fun. And the entertainment value is quite high, however, don’t expect much. 7.2/10

Putting Christopher Nolan on the map, Batman Begins is one of the best Batman movies of all time, and it isn’t hard to see why. Nolan’s style truly begins to shine in this movie, still, it’s a shame that he will likely always be known for this, as it certainly isn’t Nolan’s best. Batman Begins’ biggest strength is easily in the story, the first two acts of the film focus heavily on building the world, and there is little action. Although Superhero movies all about origin stories are almost always following the same structure, Batman Begins falls in a gray area. It came out far before this stereotypical origin story for superhero movies started, and it doesn’t even truly follow that formulaic method. That being said, the final act is weak, but it is understandable when put into context of the sequel. As mentioned, the character building is part of what makes this movie shine, still, I often felt as if certain performances were forgettable, but, what do you expect from a movie like this? Typically, I expect a lot less, but this movie is definitely one that is enjoyable. Even though a lot of it is quite abstract, the overall realism of physics (usually) and the characters bring it down to earth. This sense of realism is accompanied by the dark and gritty visuals, using the color scheme that is used, the devolution of Gotham is clearly illustrated, still, watching this on a laptop, I did squint a few times. Batman Begins is probably up there as one of the best superhero movies of all time, and it makes sense. But, truly, that’s what it is, a Superhero movie. The way that everything is paced is far from unique, a lot of this stuff had been done before, but, Christopher Nolan, single handed, reinvented Batman with this movie. Still, I did feel that some of the performances were stiff and that there were parts of it that were very generic. So, overall I give this movie a 8.1/10

Hot Fuzz is a great fish out of water story that uses Edgar Wright’s visual style very well. This time, he is parodying the cop movie genre, and it works. Taking a character that is used to high crime city life and putting him in a small town allows for some brilliant comedic bits, however, I felt that quite a few did not land. Even though I enjoyed the comedy, some jokes definitely didn’t land for me either, but that’s okay. As I mentioned, the characters in this are all brilliant and distinct, which enables the audience to come to know each character, which makes the end much better. The acting is okay, but that’s to be expected in this kind of film. All of that said, the movie is an absolute blast, even if the jokes won’t land for everyone, the action and pacing allows anyone to at least have a good time watching it, which is always a bonus. This movie truly shows Edgar Wright’s biggest strength, being able to make a scene that is usually incredibly boring one of the most exciting scenes ever. He does this through fast cuts, but allowing enough time for the audience to comprehend what’s happening. Ultimately, Hot Fuzz is probably one of my favorite Edgar Wright films, however, I would be wrong not to say that there were quite a few bits that didn’t land for me, personally. Overall, it gets a strong 7.9/10 from me.

Going into Ladybird, I had scattered expectations. My only previous exposure to Greta Gerwig was Little Women, which honestly, I didn’t care for too much. Still, after all of the good press Ladybird got, I remained optimistic, and I’m glad I did, because Ladybird is amazing. The true genius in this film comes in how real everything is. Not only does this allow comedy, but when the dramatic moments come in, the comedy simply adds to those moments. This type of style is something that I think works extremely well in film. No laughs come at the expense of the emotional ending. As someone going into college relatively soon, I really related with this movie, and the characters. And I think that literally anyone can find something to relate to in this movie, especially characters, allowing anyone to be able to feel the weight of everything. The way the film is structured makes the way time flows feel extremely natural, and honestly, most of the film doesn’t have a typical plot. Ladybird takes the typical plot structure and throws it out the window. The real plot comes within the first half hour, after that, it’s simply looking at Ladybird’s life waiting for college applications to come back. Doing this allows everything to breath, and it allows the ending to be more impactful as it feels more deserving. Of course, while I enjoy how creative the structure of this is, it did leave a few scenes feeling unnecessary. But, everything still added to how it feels to grow up. Part of the beauty is Ladybird’s growth as a character, becoming more ambitious, leads to her losing things, especially the people around her. Ladybird feels incredibly real. And while it is listed as a comedy, all jokes in the movie truly have a deep underlying dramatic meaning. All of this makes it so the faults in the characters drive the audience to gain insight into who the characters truly are as the character discovers that themselves. Overall, a truly wonderful film. I’m not sure why I ever doubted Greta Gerwig, as seeing this has made me quite excited to see what she is doing next. It’s clear it’s a good film when the emotional impact has resinated for days, that’s how Jojo Rabbit worked so well for me. Honestly, Ladybird has the same resonance. For all of that beauty and ugliness this movie presents, I give this movie 9.8/10. Highly recommended.

Going back to their roots of sketch, the final Monty Python movie is a funny movie that has moments engraved in film history. There isn’t too much to say about it. But, part of that is due to it’s simplicity in style. The Meaning of Life feels like the Pythons were thinking of their next film, and the idea of what life is all about came up. At that point, I think they just went out and made this. There are so many parts of this film that I love, yet, there are also certain bits that did NOT age well. That would truly be my only criticism. Like everything from Monty Python, it has been a huge inspiration. 8.6/10