Goldbeater

To the Devil a Daughter was practically the swan song of Hammer Films. It is a solid genre flick with a very impressive cast (Richard Widmark and Christopher Lee are great), although I was more entertained by its first two-thirds of the movie when they built up the dark atmosphere very well rather than the conclusion. The end of the movie feels terribly rushed and concludes quite anticlimactically. Putting some kind of memorable twist at the end would have been nice.

Warriors of the Year 2072 features absolutely charming miniatures of futuristic Rome, entertainingly bad acting performances, and enormous B-movie potential, which unfortunately was not exploited. In fact, it is also quite tiresome, and the screenplay purposely beats around the bush, and there is too much dialogue all the time to save on the action scenes that the viewer is waiting for in vain.

The King's Man is nothing more than a series of random scenes in a very vague parallel to historical events. Some scenes give the viewer enough visual enticements and WTF moments. Plus, I would rather not think about how pointless the storyline is and how it does not really make any sense. Plus, the big revelation of the bad guy, delivered as a huge twist (which the viewer had already figured out after five minutes of watching this movie), could not possibly have been something Matthew Vaughn was serious about.

The Scream franchise was bound to come back at some point even without Craven, so there is no reason this could not happen. This movie is a solid continuation of the franchise, even if it does not bring much new to the table. I was slightly shaking my head at some of the creative decisions. Plus, with one specific creative decision, I even said I might not count it as canon (and I am not going to). However, this is still a very entertaining slasher horror movie that is undeniably meta. Some of the dialogue makes you laugh, and it is entertaining with fine new characters, among which Jack Quaid clearly stands out. Plus, there is Kyle Gallner as the white trash redneck who should have been in there a damn sight more! With the next installment, the movie’s producer will just have to go down a very crazy route, so it is not the same thing over and over again, so I expect at least the return of Matthew Lillard, who probably only has minor scars on his face from the first Scream.

In my opinion, this movie is actually like last year's Mortal Kombat as it is such a "guilty pleasure", at least so far this year. As a standalone movie, the fourth Matrix movie does not stand up well, in my opinion, and few people will enjoy it without knowing certain realities and a sense of irony. Still, I was gloating in the cinema and marveled at how the studio could have greenlighted this screenplay. The way the whole thing went reminded me a bit of the third season of Twin Peaks, where David Lynch broke free from the chain and was meta in his own peculiar way. He left popular characters in hibernation for most of the time and managed to piss off half the audience to boot. It could quite possibly be summed up as follows: If you are one of those who wanted and looked forward to the fourth Matrix movie, you are probably going to be as disappointed as ever. If you are one of those who considered the original a borderline masterpiece and did not care for the sequel, you are going to get an entertaining and interesting experiment. I guess that is about all.

Across 110th Street is an interesting crime drama that does not have clear-cut good guys and bad guys, unlike many other movies. The movie's plot concerns people whose goals and ways could be said to be seen as morally suspect. Therefore, the grey area makes the characters more believable, and there's no "black and white" narrative. In my opinion, this makes the movie far more refreshing and better at critically pointing out the issues and ills in society that help turn honest people into crooks and poor people into killers.

The Judge is a virtually therapeutic family movie right on the edge of mainstream drama and audience-pleasing thriller that will satisfy most viewers thanks to its stellar cast and overall care in the making of this movie. There is little to fault it for, and I can only wonder how much different the movie would have sounded without "entertainer" Robert Downey Jr. in the lead role, so my feeling of satisfaction prevails after the first viewing. However, I could see this being a solid drama on a much smaller scale than it ultimately ended being - even though I understand that most viewers would then have not been so interested.

Primal Fear is gripping, and it is unexpectedly brutal in detail considering it is a mainstream thriller. It is a movie that is well made in every way, with the debut of Edward Norton in a supporting role, who succeeded in perfectly and totally eclipsing the star powerhouse lead that was Richard Gere and it actually fits the tone of the movie perfectly. Bravo.

Two Thumbs Up!

Maximum Overdrive is basicly Stephen King on so much coke. It is simultaneously a very bad and also very unique movie. Plus, it is fun to think about what is going on.