MovieRankingReviews

  Sisu 2 is a huge setup from the first film! Firstly, the pacing is significantly better as it doesn’t take as long to get into the action. Secondly, the antagonist is more enjoyable with them being played by the wonderful Stephen Lang. Lastly, the film leans even more into the insane, nonsensical and bonkers action! There is a wonderful Mad Max Fury Road style chase sequence and an incredibly entertaining last act. A great sequel!

  Sisu is another action film involving the trope of the bad guys “pissing off the wrong guy”. What this film has going for it, is how ridiculous, nonsensical and absurd the film is. The main character survives the most ludicrous scenarios! You really got to suspend your disbelief a lot. If you’re coming in looking for a mindless, short 90-minute action film, Sisu absolutely delivers. Don’t go in expecting anything more than that.

  The ensemble cast is terrific. Henry Cavill is incredibly charismatic, Alan Ritchson is funny and badass while Eiza Gonzales is surprisingly very charming. It was clear that a lot of the cast was having a lot of fun. The action scenes are also stunning and I especially love the hand-to-hand combat. Alan Ritchson even goes full Rambo with the bow and arrow in one of them. Unfortunately, there isn’t much depth to any of the characters and you will barely remember any of their names. The second act and parts of the final act are incredibly dull and the pacing is just too slow. The movie could easily cut out 10-20 minutes of runtime to improve the pacing. Overall, it was a fun movie from Guy Ritchie even if it feels like a less interesting Inglorious Basterds.

  Godzilla Minus One is a standalone Godzilla movie from Japan. It brings the franchise back to its roots where Godzilla is a monstrous force of nature, an allegory of war. While I do love the Western Monsterverse franchise, it is mostly for seeing Godzilla or Kong fight another giant monster. The writing and characters have never been a highlight in that universe. Does Godzilla Minus One deliver more than the Monsterverse? Firstly, Godzilla’s design is spectacularly frightening, his roar is menacing and his heat rays are some of the best and most impactful blasts I’ve seen from Godzilla. Every Godzilla action set piece is terrifying and tense. I love how these sequences are filmed from a human perspective, so we get to truly see the scale and how dangerous Godzilla is. The music score by Naoki Sato is phenomenal! His subtle orchestral score compliments the scene and illustrates the pain and struggles that Japanese people in WW2 went through. He then uses a strong pow...

  What interested me most about watching this film was that it was WWI, which we don’t see as much in films compared to WWII, and the fact it was from the German side instead. What stands out the most is the amazing production value. The set design, the costumes and the setpieces are all phenomenal. They perfectly portray the horrific, dirty and brutal nature of the war. The actors are all great in their roles as well. Felix Kammerer plays the main character, Paul Bäumer, and he gives a terrific performance in showing Paul’s gradual loss of idealism throughout the movie. The cinematography by James Friend is oddly beautiful with some gorgeous wide shots that contrast the closeup shots of the War with its grimness. The music score by Volker Bertelmann is quite odd as well with its sudden thumping horns but they work in elevating the tension by foreboding what’s coming. My only complaint is that the film is quite predictable. It goes through every trope you would expec...

  This movie is still incredibly enjoyable even after rewatching. It’s genuinely impressive that this story is actually based on a real person! The first act is a bit cliche and overly melodramatic. It has the really bland romance, the violent drunk dad, the clumsy dialogue that you seen dozens of times. However, once you get to the second half with the military training is when the story really shines. The conflict between his morals of not wanting to hold a gun due to religious belief vs the army leads to some proper moving storytelling. All of this builds up to the final act, the war, and this is just absolutely exhilarating! The movie delivers on horrific and tense war scenes that blow a lot of other WWII movies out the water. Mel Gibson delivered a phenomenal WWII movie with great battle scenes and Andrew Garfield gives a terrific performance as Desmond Doss. Hacksaw Ridge is still one of the must-watch WWII films.

  When Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014) came out, I didn’t have huge expectations for it. After watching it though, I was completely blown away by how much I enjoyed it. However, the sequel Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017) was quite disappointed with its nonsensical plot and pacing. After countless delays due to covid, the 3rd entry in the franchise, The King’s Man (2021), finally came out. It is a prequel set during WWI about how the Kingsman formed. So is the franchise back on track or is this another disappointing entry? Firstly, the cast is great and all give great performances. Ralph Fiennes plays Orlando and is the founder of the Kingsman. He is just perfect casting and seeing him pull off some awesome fight scenes is just wonderful to watch. Gemma Arterton plays Polly Watkins who is a maid and agent to Orlando. She is an absolute joy when she is on screen thanks to her funny wit and quips. She and Ralph Fiennes surprisingly have great chemistry when on sc...

  Jojo Rabbit is definitely a really weird film but it is something you would expect from Taika Waititi. The film is pretty much 100 minutes of hilarious Nazi mocking satire with some genuinely serious moments. It mostly revolves around a 10 year old kid who has been brainwashed into being a Nazi fanatic but after an unexpected encounter, he slowly starts to see that being a Nazi sucks. That is my summary of this film anyway. First of all, I have to praise the story/screenplay as despite delving into the topic that has been done to death in film and TV; it still manages to handle it in a rather creative and unique way. It does this by being a dark feel good movie  which is just so weird for a movie about Nazi Germany. He portrays the absurdity of war through the perspective of a child lending to some wacky moments. However, Taika manages to balance this goofy comedy with the grim cruelty of the Nazi’s which is what makes this movie exceptionally unique and enjoyab...

  People call this film “The Birdman of WWI” and to be fair that is a justified assessment. This entire film is filmed like it is one camera shot and it is AWESOME!    I think one of the most impressive thing apart from the one looking shot is the AMAZING CINEMATOGRAPHY. This shouldn’t be no surprising since it is the legend himself Roger Deakins (Blade Runner 2049 Cinematographer). Every scene feels like a painting and it is absolutely stunning. There is a scene at night where the lighting was done in such a creative way that heighten the tension of the scene. On that note there must also be praise for the score by Thomas Newman who somehow manages to make a score that somehow manages toe elevate every scene and help tell the story. There is also some amazing sound design that manages to make the War actually scary with moments that give horror movie jump scares a run for its money. Additionally, the props and set design should also get praise for creating s...