Hi all, this tumblr mainly exists as a way of tracking all the movies I've been watching and some of the initial thoughts, and general feelings, I've had about them.
5/5 - Fantastic movies; movies which need to be seen and enjoyed by everyone.
4/5 - Movies which are very good but don’t have that spark which compels you to make others watch them as well.
3/5 - Average movies; watchable and enjoyable, but nothing which elevates them higher. The baseline all movies are given before watching.
2/5 - Can be watched but really bland and forgettable.
1/5 - Minimal to no reason to watch these films. It may have some redeeming factors e.g. it’s so bad it’s good or there’s one character that’s awesome enough to make it not a total waste of time.
0/5- Total waste of time. Nothing redeemable about these films.
As with every review blog/site, this is all my own personal opinion so feel free to take everything with a grain of salt.
Also I'm Scottish so all reviews will be in UK English. Get used to theatre, colour and words ending in -ised.
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
#500/#51 The Sum of All Fears
Tensions are high between the Russians and the Americans when a new supposedly hardliner president comes to power in the USSR. When a lost Israeli nuclear bomb is also thrown into the mix by a third party trying to cause war between the factions, it is up to CIA analyst Jack Ryan (Ben Affleck) to try and find who is responsible for what before somebody makes an irreversible decision.
Affleck is the weakest of all the actors to portray Jack Ryan. He’s not bad in the role, he just leaves the least impression after viewing. There wasn’t anything about him which makes him stand out from any generic action star in the way both Baldwin and Ford did. Maybe if he’d had another movie within which to grow the character he might have brought something to the part (like Ford managed) but as it is there is no great loss from this movie failing to revitalise the franchise.
Although this version of Ryan might be a bit of a dud, the story of Fears is probably the closest to recapturing the feel of Red October. Patriot Games was an action film and Clear and Present Danger was a political subterfuge but Fears is back to being a Cold War thriller. Like Danger though, it also does well in setting up a strong story only for it to not really deliver after the big “Oh Shit” moment. The action is still strong but it all gets a little silly after a point.
Ciaran Hinds and James Cromwell both do well as the Russian and American Presidents respectively. They both come across as likeable and strong people but they can also be clearly motivated by their emotions and events into making weighty decisions rashly. This made for a good sparing match when tensions are ramped up and really made it felt like it could go either way. Morgan Freeman was also good, filling much the same role as James Earl Jones in the previous movies, but didn’t really make that much of an impact on the story.
In the end I think the Sum of All Fears makes for a fairly enjoyable action flick but it’s not a particularity great Jack Ryan movie. I’m interested to see now if the second rebooting of the series later this year, with Chris Pine in the role, will be able to bring the franchise back or if it would be better just to let it die. 2/5
#349/#66 I, Robot
(Rewatch)
In the near future robots have become such a common place thing that nobody really thinks about them anymore. That is except for Detective Del Spooner (Will Smith) who still carries a chip on his shoulder from something a robot did in his past. So when the inventor of the robots (James Cromwell) seemingly commits suicide shortly after calling Spooner, he suspects one of the robots is actually behind the attack and begins to follow the clues to a much bigger conspiracy.
I’ve heard this film basically takes nothing of the original source material, other than the title name and the three laws of robotics, but that doesn’t really bother me. Having never read the Isaac Asimov short stories I’m able to just enjoy it as an interesting mystery sci-fi adventure.
Will Smith is his usual cool funny self so if you’re a fan of his then you’re probably going to enjoy his performance in this. It’s less jokey than say MIB and more akin to his roles in Enemy of the State or I Am Legend. From the rest of the cast Cromwell doesn’t get a lot to do, being dead even from the outset of the film, but the little he does works well as a mentor/scientist figure. Bridget Moynahan is also a good fit as the logical scientist who learns you’ve also got to be able to listen to your gut/heart every once and awhile and Alan Tudyk is just pitch perfect as the robot suspect Sonny. He has just the right blend of robotic, creepy and earnestness to keep you wondering about his allegiance right up until the end.
It’s nothing too complicated and the murderer/villain of the whole piece isn’t that hard to figure out but there are some good action scenes and the CGI/motion capture for the robots still looks really good even 8 years later. If you’re a fan of either Will Smith, sci-fi or mystery films then you’ll probably enjoy this one as well. 4/5
