movie thoughts

A teenager uses her wits & survival skills to fight for her life, and help those around her against a group of terrorists : Don’t you just love it when you discover a new film that you haven’t seen any promotional material for, not even a poster or trailer? Kyle Rankin’s RUN HIDE FIGHT really got under my skin, from it’s creepy protagonist and alarming relativity to the film’s dark and twisted narrative, realising that this could happen to you or your loved ones really gave this Die Hard-esque action movie one helluva kick : I love the way Rankin sets the tone early with Isabel May’s Zoe going all Nic Cage on a deer whilst out on a hunt with her dad played by Thomas Jane, the film’s backstory is given an early gut punch too as we get to discover more about Zoe’s state of mind and those touching scenes that involve Radha Mitchell who plays Zoe’s mum are quite sublime : loved the small roles from some of my favorite actors of yester-year including Barbara Crampton who plays Mrs Crawford and Treat Williams turn as the Sheriff, Rankin’s story is tight and ramped with tension and hats off to debutant Olly Sholotan who’s superb in an eye catching turn as Zoe’s bestie Lewis : overall Run Hide Fight is a gritty, disturbing and violent action movie that tackles the ugly reality of domestic terrorism in an ever so slighlty unrealistic movie sort of way : EXCELLENT ★★★★

Pixie (2020) : Movie Thoughts

Posted by absolutebadasses on January 8, 2021

Posted in: Movie Reviews, Reviews. Tagged: Alec Baldwin, Ben Hardy, cinephile, Daryl McCormack, film blog, films, heist caper, heist movie, ireland, irish films, John de Borman, like, love, movie thoughts, Ned Dennehy, northern ireland, olivia cooke, pixie, pixie 2020, pixie movie, with Colm Meaney. Leave a comment

A woman and two men find themselves on the run in the Irish countryside after a heist gone wrong : OK in this incredibly pc world of ours if your offended by two young English actors in Olivia Cooke and Ben Hardy playing the lead roles in an Irish dark humored heist movie then get over it, Barnaby Thompson’s rollocking new movie is a low budget gem that not only showcases the beauty of Ireland but entertains and will definitely give you a giggle or two : PIXIE is my kinda movie jam, from it’s quirky characters including the typical and not so in Colm Meaney playing the typical Dermot O’Brien and Alec Baldwin who plays the not so typical Father Hector McGrath, both actors look like they had a blast with their small yet pivotel roles and THAT church shootout scene is totally and utterly box office : Ready Player One’s Olivia Cooke plays Pixie the clever manipulative lead in the story who’s out for revenge, cause a little chaos and hopefully nab a ticket to San Francisco in the run in, the fun she has with the two lads Frank & Harland played by Ben Hardy and Daryl McCormack is superb and the scene with the gas attendent is downright hilarious and cute to boot : so if like me you love a good IRISH film, with some gorgeous scenery filmed by John de Borman, a dark & humor filled script by Preston Thompson and yet another devilishly good turn by Ned Dennehy who plays an Irish hitman then you’ll wana check this one out : THUMBS UP from this crazy cat ★★★★

It’s Chicago in 1927 and tension’s are rising as Ma Rainey and her band are about to record a song at a a recording session : Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is a sublime character study that delves deep into our history and follows a group of black recording artists and their struggles with religion, race and exploitation : Viola Davis once again shows us why she’s regarded as one of the modern greats, and although the wonderful Maxayn Lewis lends her moaning vocals for Ma Rainey it’s Viola’s appearance and mannerisms that gives life to the Mother of Blues, she truly steals the show with her swagger and those big eye’s staring at those around her, she’s a strong woman and those scenes that involve an altercation with a police officer outside the recording studio, Ma demanding that Sylvester gets paid on his own and that Coca-Cola moment before continuing with her set is testiment to her character and belief : the picture is also a poignant reminder of the immense talent of Chadwick Boseman, his turn as troubled trumpet player Levee Green leaves you cold, a chilling virtuoso that has you pondering what could have been, it’s not really a surprise to anybody that knew Chadwick that he actually mastered the trumpet for his part and what a superb performance he turns in, that moment he tells the rest of the band what happened to his mother is so fierce you could hear a pin drop : the rest of Ma Rainey’s band are not too shabby either, Glynn Turman, Colman Domingo and Michael Potts who’s roles as Toledo, Cutler and Slow Drag respectively add so much depth and balance to the film’s storytelling and along with it’s fine tuned script written by Ruben Santiago-Hudson, costume & set design that adds authenticity and it’s searing renditions of Ma’s songs will make your toes tap & heart sing : overall George C. Wolfe’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is a wonderful picture that doesn’t drag it’s heels with unnecessary narrative yet delivers it’s message and gives us the gift of two incredible performances and a small sample of Ma Rainey’s wonderful tunes ★★★★½

Peter, like most teenagers LOVES his bedroom so when his Grandpa (Robert De Niro) comes to stay he’s kicked to the curb, booted out of his room and moved into the family attic, not happy with this arrangement Peter decides to declare war in an attempt to win his room back : I really like filmmaker Tim Hill he’s has this knack of making me smile and his latest War with Grandpa is arguably his best work (that’s hell of a statement as I’m still a huge fan of Muppets from Space what a classic) : I know some people (boring farts maybe) would say that this type of movie is two a penny & predictable BUT when made well there’s nothing like a good old tug at your heart-strings and laugh till your sides ache family fun movie and War with Grandpa is certainly that : the humor is spot on especially when pitting young versus old, it’s not the story it’s the characters in the movie that win your hearts : the three oldies Robert De Niro’s Grandpa and his two mates Danny & Jerry played gamefully well by Cheech Marin & Christopher Walken are terrific and look in their elements having a good time being friends, kicking about in dodgeball with the kids and looking at young women’s backsides during their walk-about in the park, Walken especially is soooooo funny the faces he pulls is priceless : I also found Uma Thurman & Laura Marano totally awesome and so so watchable, the shenanigans between Mum, Daughter and Russell who plays the boyfriend had me laughing so much throughout : I also found the chemistry between De Niro’s Grandpa and Peter played by the gifted Oakes Fegley who also starred in the wonderful Pete’s Dragon remake back in 2016 to be the backbone of the movie, their screentime was full of hilarity and the lengths they would go to creating havok in their path and get revenge on the other was downright brilliant : also watching Peter’s life in school with his friends was a blast from the past and had me thinking back to my childhood that contained similar senario’s : Overall if your a fan of family comedy with a slice of nostalgia and the chance to watch De Niro & Walken reunite some old magic then WAR WITH GRANDPA is definately for you ★★★★

Joe a trucker who’s pretty down on his luck meets a mother who can contact spirits whilst suffocating – NICOLAS CAGE is the most charasmatic, entertaining actor out there, he loves dipping his toes in the odd blockbuster but equally the guy loves to star in low budget thrillers that pay the bills, keeps him busy and helps young interesting filmmakers get their films seen by a bigger audience – the latest of these is Maria Pulera’s BETWEEN WORLDS a rather Lynch-esque thriller that’s weird yet engaging and has elements of the supernatural and is strangely erotic whilst showcasing the infamous Cage meltdown that’s still bloody great to watch – I loved the film’s story and little homages to Twin Peaks & David Lynch in general and it’s cast including the exciting German actress Franka Potente & the sexy Aussie Penelope Mitchell give exciting performances alongside the outrageous and at times out of control Nicolas Cage – Overall Between Worlds is certainly worth a watch, especially if like me you love the genre, the trashy at times low budget feel and of course CAGE who in my eye’s is always worth 90mins of ones time ★★★½

Ford V Ferrari (2019) – Movie Thoughts

Posted by absolutebadasses on November 26, 2019

Posted in: Movie Reviews, Reviews. Tagged: 310 to yuma, blog, box office, christian bale, cop land, director, film, film geek, filmmaker, films, films new, ford v ferrari, france, henry ford, james mangold, le mans, like, love, matt damon, movie, movie thoughts, movie website, nerd, new movies, phedon papamichael, poster, racing car, the wolverine. Leave a comment

Cop Land, 3:10 to Yuma, The Wolverine, Logan and now FORD v FERRARI James Mangold’s thrill ride, a 7,000 RPM adrenaline fueled, pulsating ENERGY packed racing movie that sees Matt Damon deliver a career best, Christian Bale in infectious form, Caitriona Balfe delivering one of the film’s best moments and the race scenes WOW their pure dynamite – for me 2019 is the best year of the decade for cinematic treasures and this film continues the trend in leaving me speechless and rather emotional as I left my seat at the big screen – obviously the Le Mans track has changed through the years since the 60s so how on earth did James Mangold and his team recreate the movies focal point? it’s just mind boggling, the camera work by the Greek cinematographer Phedon Papamichael is sublime, his work in creating that claustrophobic yet thrilling car racing scenes is pure brilliance but for me the main reason this movie succeeds is it’s cast who are simply magnetic – what a movie and a ride you don’t wana miss on the big screen ★★★★★

So last week I was luck enough to revisit one of my favorite horror movies of all time Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece The Shining on the big screen and today I visited my local cinema to watch Doctor Sleep and let me tell you something IT is nothing short of EXCEPTIONAL !! This is director Mike Flanagan’s love letter to the Torrance family & all things that shine, how he managed to recreate such iconic sets such as the spine chilling blood from the elevator scene, Danny exploring the hotel on his tricycle, the room to room interior of the Overlook, those scary twins and of course the overheard camera following Danny’s car up towards the Overlook accompanied by that haunting score God Only Knows – Ewan McGregor is terrific as Danny Torrence, Rebecca Ferguson’s Rose the Hat & her power draining cult known as the True Knot are so bloody scary, reminding me slightly of the roaming blood suckers in Bigelow’s Near Dark – some of their scenes especially the one that involved No.19 the young baseball player scared the hell out of me whilst the incredible Alex Essoe literally sent shivers down my spine with her remarkable performance as Wendy Torrence – Overall Doctor Sleep is a cinematic triumph that pays homage to it’s predecessor whilst creating a creepy atmosphere & super scary horror of it’s own !! ★★★★★

Aquaman (2018) – Movie Thoughts

Posted by absolutebadasses on December 13, 2018

Posted in: Movie Reviews, Reviews. Tagged: 3D, Amber Heard, aquaman, aquaman movie, atlantis, australia, beautiful, black manta, comicbook, comics, fan of the movies, film blog, film night, hollywood, imax, imax movie, insane, james wan, Jason Momoa, love films, mera, movie thoughts, nicole kidman, ocean master, orm, Patrick Wilson, queen of atlantis, underwater, yahya abdul. Leave a comment

Having raved these last few years to anyone and everyone over James Wan and his ability to scare one half to death with his sublime horror movies The Conjuring, Insidious and Saw it’s actually quite satisfying to see him take on a huge comicbook adapation and completely and utterly destroy it – So I’ve just come out of AQUAMAN on Imax 3D and the first thing I have to say is what an incredible ride the movie is, it’s 143mins of mouth watering, adrenaline fueled action that’s looks totally insane on the big screen – If you take splashes of Pirates of the Caribbean, little drops of Phantom Menace and a tidle wave of Raiders of the Lost Ark then you get a comicbook adaption unlike anything you will have ever seen. I really dug the casting too from Amber Heard’s kickass warrior Mera who has an absolute ball alongside Jason Momoa’s hero, Nicole Kidman is great in everything and her role as the Queen of Atlantis was sublime, Patrick Wilson reuniting once more with Wan for a villanous turn as Orm the half-brother of Aquaman and I really enjoyed watching Yahya Abdul get his teeth into the role of Black Manta and boy doesn’t he do a great job. It never ceases to amaze me what they can produce in movies these days and James Wan’s Aquaman has so many WOW HOLY SHIT how on EARTH did they do THAT moments so do yourself a favour and grab a ticket as this movie REQUIRES some serious BIG SCREEN viewing….. ★★★★½

Apostle (2018) – Movie Thoughts

Posted by absolutebadasses on October 14, 2018

Posted in: Movie Reviews, Reviews. Tagged: apostle 2018, apostle movie, apostle netflic, apostle review, cinema, cult, Dan Stevens, film blog, film geek, films, gareth evans, gareth evans apostle, kidnap, like, love, Lucy Boynton, margam film shoot, margam park, Matt Flannery, Michael Sheen, movie nerd, movie thoughts, movies, the raid, the raid movies. Leave a comment

APOSTLE : Gareth Evans
Dan Stevens, Michael Sheen, Lucy Boynton

Gareth Evans mostly known for his breakneck action movies The Raid and it’s sequel has just released his latest APOSTLE and it’s a horror movie…. here’s the synopsis “In 1905, a drifter on a dangerous mission to rescue his kidnapped sister tangles with a sinister religious cult on an isolated island” – Only a handful of movies have blown my mind this year and Gareth Evans APOSTLE has just become one of them – the film is an exciting cocktail of twisted storytelling alongside a revenge thriller that’s relentless in it’s brutality – Matt Flannery’s cinematography is a joy to behold, his ability to balance the varied location, dark underground shots along with the action scenes is heart-stopping – So if your a fan of the revenge style genre and love your movies with slices of brutality, great narrative and stunning photography then APOSTLE is most definitely the film for you ★★★★½

THE PREDATOR : Shane Black
Boyd Holbrook, Sterling K Brown, Olivia Munn, Trevante Rhodes & Jacob Tremblay

In 1987 John McTiernan and Arnold Schwarzenegger joined forces to deliver one of the films of the decade Predator – the film is not only an effective action movie but it drips with suspense, has likeable characters that you actuals care for and most importantly it’s a well shot, humorous scifi that actually delivers for it’s audience – so when it was announced that Shane Black (Hawkins from the original movie) was actually shooting a new film I was pretty sceptical, but as the cast was announced and a few stills dropped I actual thought ummmmm this could actually work – sadly after just watching the movie on the big screen I can honestly say what a nauseating, unbelievably bad Predator movie Shane Black has given us, it’s so bad that I can’t even remember how half the protagonists met their demise (and that was like 20mins ago) – sadly you can’t dress the movie up with some of the original iconic score and then give us a horrible story including a laughable 11ft Predator and his pack hounds, bad almost comical at times acting and that includes the usually reliable Sterling K Brown who should stay well away from villainous roles as he gives a stinker, some mediocre CGI (and for an $80 million budget there’s no excuse) and a whole bunch of unlikeable throwaway characters – Overall Shane Black’s The Predator is one ugly mother-f@cker of a movie and one that I don’t expect to revisit ★★½

“after a team of soldiers enter and don’t return five women scientists enter what is known as The Shimmer essentially a wall between our world and the infected area in hope of discovering what happened to those men and the truth behind this anomaly”

24hrs on and I can’t stop thinking of Alex Garland’s latest Annihilation – firstly it’s nowhere near as as complicated a story as people make out, yes it’s slow, brooding and set to a surreal back drop but when all is said and done it’s quite simply an alien invasion movie and a blooming good one too – music is used sparingly throughout the movie but when used it’s to eerie effect, the strumming of a guitar, a haunting melody really does up the tension and you just can’t help but think something bad is gona happen and soon – along with it’s exciting young cast there’s a certain likeness in Garland’s Annihilation to classic scifi of yesteryear such as The Thing and Alien, there is so much greatness and so many talking points throughout it’s rather short 115 min runtime, those scenes when Anya played by Gina Rodriguez decides to take matters into her own hands by tying the team to their chairs, attempts to interrogate and what happens next is edge of the seat brilliance and lets not forget the aligator attack, that bear like creature and Lena’s own discovery towards the pictures epic finale – if your over thinking about watching this movie then please stop what your doing take a breather and let your movie indulgence be enhanced by Garland’s Annihilation a modern scifi gem that will have you chomping at the bit for a rewatch seconds after it’s conclusion ★★★★½

Mississippi Grind – A Badass Watch

Posted by absolutebadasses on June 10, 2016

Posted in: Movie Reviews, Reviews. Tagged: Analeigh Tipton, Anna Boden, badass watch, Ben Mendelsohn, blog, cinema, film, film blog, film review, gambling, mississipi grind movie, movie thoughts, new movies, road trip, Robin Weigert, Ryan Fleck, ryan reynolds, sienna miller, world of movies. Leave a comment

Ted 2 (2015) – Movie Thoughts

Posted by absolutebadasses on July 12, 2015

Posted in: Movie Reviews, Reviews. Tagged: big screen, blog, comedies, film blog, film fan, film geek, film stills, films, funny movies, liam nesson, like, love comedy, love films, Mark Wahlberg, movie fan, movie thoughts, movies, new movies, photos, planet movies in 30 characters, series, seth macfarlane, ted 2, trailers, tv. Leave a comment

Movie Legends – Some Thoughts

Posted by absolutebadasses on June 29, 2015

Posted in: Views. Tagged: al pacino, blog, character actors, film geek, film stars, film website, filmmaker, films, godfather, instafilms, Joe Pesci, love films, love movies, martin scorsese, martin scorsese films, movie blog, movie news, movie thoughts, movie time, movie world, movies, Robert De Niro, scarface, the irishman. Leave a comment

We’re all guilty of it, shamelessly looking at an actors body of working and criticizing them for not living up to their high standards of yesteryear – recently I compared the careers of movie legends Al Pacino with Robert De Niro, in their hay day their movies were sublime and their performances staggering yet in the last 12-15yrs both actors have lost their way, both have failed to ignite the screen with the same level of passion, intensity & quality – remember when Pacino was shouting “Say hello to my little friend” in De Palma’s classic Scarface and De Niro was cracking a baseball bat over someone’s skull in the wonderful Untouchables – they were the days, both starred in so many amazing films so I wonder why it is that these 2 stars are now settling for pretty average roles in lets face it pretty average movies? Maybe the great roles of today (of which there are few) are now falling to a younger generation of movie talent such as DiCaprio and Bale? Or maybe their happy with their lot, they’re still regarded as 2 of the greatest living actors so why not do roles as a favor for a friend or simply for the bigger payout? Whatever the reason, good news could be around the corner – the pair could soon reunite on Martin Scorsese’s gangster thriller The Irishman and with veteran Joe Pesci rumored to be on board this will have any film fan worth their salt purring like a cat in heat – so although the last 15yrs have been a mixed bag for Pacino and De Niro, I’m sure you will agree the movie world is still a brighter place with these two legends of our screen in it….