Movie Reviews #100%!

Ready Player One (2018) Review Hello guys and welcome back to Movie Talks with Tudor! Well, today I am reviewing one of my favorite movies of the year and one that is, at least in my opinion, up there with other great movies from Spielberg.  I read the book after I saw the movie and I can tell you that they scrapped and changed a lot from the book but I still found it satisfying, pleasing and well adapted. And I can say that I was very happy to hear that Spielberg was going back to what he does best and that is being a storyteller, putting together an adventure on the silver screen and this movie is just that, a return to his roots, sort of speak. It has excitement, love, fun, some very good humor, a ton of brilliant special and visual effects and it combines very well a kind of a coming of age story with elements of SF.  What makes this movie great is the references to pop culture and if you like those types of things, with nostalgia and everything, mainly from t...

Tomb Raider (2018) Review Hello guys and welcome back to Movie Talks with Tudor! Well, this one has been a long time coming because I have seen the movie when it came out, in March but I did not have time to do a review but I do have time and I make money out of this so, let's just dive in. To say that I enjoyed the two Angelina Jolie's Tomb Raider movies is a overstatement because I haven't. Yes, you can have fun with them but they aren't good movie, especially the second one. And the track for a good, well, at least average movie based on a game is not spectacular since the first Mortal Kombat came. This one did not deviate from that track but is not the worst. I can tell you that is better than the other two but, unfortunately, it has a very low quality origin story. And not very inspired, I might add. The good parts are the approach, which is more grounded in reality and Alicia Vikander, which holds up her part of the deal with style and commitment. What ca...

The Hurricane Heist (2018) Review Hello guys and welcome back to Movie Talks with Tudor! Well, this movie is not one of the movie that I missed but it's a movie that I wanted to see and I don't know why is that because this is just not good.  What can I say about this movie is that I liked the main idea, combining the disaster movie genre with the heist movie genre. And this is the single positive thing about this movie. Other things, which are not so positive, are as follows: the main plot does not exist or is very simplistic and, if that is the case, it makes no difference; the script is awful, with lines of dialogue that are just plain stupid and felt that it was written by a 5 year old; it's so predictable that you can guess what will happen next, so the tension and suspense are gone, which, actually, it wasn't even any suspension or tension to begin with; it offers nothing new expect for the main idea of the movie, which has some originality to it; acting ...

The Strangers: Prey at Night (2018) Review Hello again for the second time today! So, I just posted the review for the first movie and now, let's get cracking with the second one which, in my opinion, it's a pointless, useless and a to little to late sequel.  If you thought the first one had no originality, this one has even less than that, if that's possible. It has a thin written story, with characters that you don't spend a lot of time with and, ultimately, you don't care about them. It has the same genre tropes and cliches and, although the first movie had some tension and suspense, this one is full on cliched and relying more on cheap jump scares and bloody violence. It's so predictable that it's infuriating to expect and predict all the things that are going to happen and how it ends.  Overall, like I said before, it has no place, it should not exist and the only people that would enjoy this movie are the ones that liked the first one so m...

The Strangers (2008) Review Hello guys and welcome back to Movie Talks with Tudor! So, I saw the second movie a while back, which I will review also. Because of that, I thought that it's fitting to give you a review for the first one as well.  When I saw this one, for the first time, I had a pretty good opinion about it. Seeing it again, that opinion slightly changed and I will tell you why. The main reason is that, being part of the slasher genre, you would expect that, maybe, just maybe, you will get something new and fresh but you don't. It contains the same tropes and cliches of the other movies in this genre. Granted, there is some suspense and some tense scenes that you can enjoy and, being based on a real life case, it's more grounded in reality than other movies like Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street and Halloween but, like I said, it does offer anything new. Acting wise it's OK, both Liv Tyler and Scott Speadman are believable and the chemistry ...

Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018) Review Hello guys and welcome back to Movie Talks with Tudor! Well, as you know, from my review, that I really enjoyed the first movie and I was really entertained by the sheer action and special effects. With the sequel, I did not get quite the same feel but I was entertained enough to give this one a pass.  The thing that disappointed me is that it has nothing new to offer, that you haven't already seen in the first one. The story is almost similar, it boroughs stuff from other movies, like Ender's Game for example, it has the cliches specific for the genre, making it predictable and without any surprises whatsoever. The characters are cliched and typical and that means that the movie has a very big lack in originality. Except for what I just said, the movie makes up those mistakes in the action and special effects department, although you don't get a lot of kaiju vs. yager fights. Oh, and another thing that I noticed is that the ...

Pacific Rim (2013) Review Well, this one was not on my program for today but, because I am seeing for the third time it's sequel, which I am going to review tomorrow, I thought to review the first one as well and I can tell you that the first one is way better than the second one. First, because it has Del Toro in the director's chair, who know how to manage a movie that features monsters and weird creatures but it can give it a very poetic imagery but not in this case. Second, it has a good and simple story, appealing and believable characters, a good distribution and lots of action, special effects that look amazing and great fights between the robots and the monsters. That it what you want from a movie like this, to be entertained and boy you are here! It is exactly what I was expecting, even from the get go. Dumb fun that I can enjoy.  It's the type of movie where the style out measures the substance, which is fine by me. I don't need some over the top ...

Red Sparrow (2018) Review Hello guys and welcome back to Movie Talks with Tudor! So, here is another movie that I saw a couple of months back but I did not have time to do a review for it and now I got the time but barely. So, when I saw I was expecting a good, sexy and thrilling spy movie but I did not got any of that because this movie it's just all over the place. It was trying to achieve that higher note but, unfortunately, it fell short. Although Jennifer Lawrence does a very good job, it's just not enough to make this movie what it should have been. It's just average. There are characters that are very thinly written and it has a very convoluted story, which makes most of the movie to be boring and incapable of keeping you invested. Plus, it's long, to long that it should have been.  To be frank, I was expecting to see the unofficial movie with Black Widow because the backstory of the main character is very similar to that of Natascha Romanoff but, ju...

Skyscraper (2018) Review Hello guys and welcome back to Movie Talks with Tudor! Well, after The Darkest Minds and The Meg, here is another movie that borrows or uses the same elements from past movies but with a different twist and in a different package. But at it's core, it is the same story. Where The Darkest Minds borrowed from the X-Men movies and other YA adaptations and The Meg borrowed from the other shark movies that came before it, this one is mixing elements from Towering Inferno and, obviously, Die Hard. Well, I can tell you that this concept did not work for me, at least. It has some potential to be a good action/thriller movie but it kinda falls short on the action and thriller part. And, any other part, for the matter.  The casting is great, The Rock is as awesome as ever and it's very nice to see Neve Campbell in a movie again. Unfortunately, the cast in not enough to make this a solid stand out from the other movies in this particular genre. It...

The Meg (2018) Review Hello guys and welcome back to Movie Talks with Tudor! Well, today I am talking about a movie about a shark, a guy that encountered this shark and does not want to get back into the game but of course he does come back and a team that tries to kill the shark. Sound familiar? Well, it should because this movie has the same elements that any other shark or monster/creature movie has, going back to the one that started it all, Jaws. So, you can throw Jaws in here, a bit of Deep Blue Sea , some 47 Meters Down and The Shallows. There is nothing new with this movie, it's full of cliches, specific of this genre, it's predictable, most of the time, the humor is not working, the most part of the movie and some of it feels forced and unnatural, some of the situations that the characters find themselves into fall into ridicule. There is some drama but it's so over the top and pointless that you get feelings of cabin fever instead of real emotions. And so...

The Darkest Minds (2018) Review Hello again guys and here is a review that I was not planning on doing today but I said, what the hell! So, when I heard about this movie and I saw the trailer, I told myself that this is not something new, it's the same thing that I have seen in other YA adaptations like The Hunger Games, Divergent and The Maze Runner series. Then I saw that it's going to have some sort of mutant story, like an X-Men type of thing. Well, I can tell you that this is exactly what I got this movie. The same tired and unoriginal story mashed with an X-Men premise that felt like a deja-vu. It's like they borrowed things and elements from those series and put them into this because I have seen some elements from the other YA adaptations, the X-Men movies and a bit of The Walking Dead also. The characters are just the same, the interactions with other characters are rushed and brushed over, the dialog is awful, some of the lines are just illogical but the ...

Isle of Dogs (2018) Review Hello guys and welcome back to Movie Talks with Tudor! Today, I am going to talk about the latest Wes Anderson movie and, I gotta say, I very much enjoyed this movie because, from the first scene of this movie, you can tell that this is a Wes Anderson film because of the whimsy, quirky and sort of weird style that he uses in all of his movies, a style that is different, in a good way, from other directors. Which is good because whenever Wes Anderson makes a movie you are guaranteed originality in story, visuals, humor and characters. And that is exactly what we got with this one, as well. Anderson is no stranger of stop-motion animations, with the Fantastic Mr.Fox  under his belt, another astonishing and groundbreaking movie and this is as amazing as that one was. The visuals are amazing, with an animation that looks beautiful and stunning and a story that is endearing and charming. And I know that the CGI animation is amazing but this style, sto...

Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) Review Hello guys and welcome back to Movie Talks with Tudor! Well, this one is not that old, it came out just a month ago and I also saw it when it came out but did not get a chance to review it. So, after the bleak and depressing ending of Infinity War  we needed something a bit more brighter, funnier and more positive and this movie is all that and something more. I liked the first movie but this one is adding the Wasp, which is a treat seeing her in action. Also, this movie explains, a bit more in depth, why Ant-Man was missing from the Thanos menace and that for me was a very good thing because it closed a little plot hole from Infinity War . Well, it's not really a plot hole but it is a good thing that they showed us the reason.  It has a good story, amazing special and visual effects, as always plus the digital de-aging of the actors is astounding. It does not work all the time but in this one it's something else. The humor is pr...

Deadpool 2 (2018) Review Hello guys and welcome back to Movie Talks with Tudor! Today, I talk about another movie that I have seen when it came out in May but, like Infinity War , did not have time to get around and review it. So, here is my opinion for the second movie of the merk with a mouth. Although I very much enjoyed the first one, I think I like the second one a bit more because of the story, that, as expected, it is a faithful copy of the story from Logan . This is Deadpool we are talking about here. The movie is full of jokes, classic Deadpool humor and shenanigans, gruesome, graphic and bloody violence and action sequences, that are considerably higher in number than in the first movie. I am thinking that the reason was that they had more money to spend and it shows.  The classical 4th wall break is funny as always but it tends, in some points, to become superfluous but I can get past that because it's still hilarious and that is a good think in my book but ...

Avengers: Infinity War (2018) Review Hello guys and welcome back to Movie Talks with Tudor! Well, this review has been overdue for a couple of months because I have seen the movie when it came out, at the end of April but I haven't got around to do the review. Now, I can do it and here it is. I very much enjoyed this movie, it maybe one of my favorites in the MCU because it feel so different from the other Marvel movies that have come out. It has humor, of course but it also has a very dramatic feel with the stakes being higher than ever. It's full of emotions, it has the greatest line up of heroes than any other superhero movie and they were able to juggle all of them perfectly. It does not feel bloated or overstuffed, the special effects are amazing, the fact that the heroes are separated and fighting, each of them, on different plains of existence is a very good strategy to keep them all in control and keep the focus, also, on Thanos and its mission. Very well a...

Mission Impossible: Fallout (2018) Review Hello guys and welcome back to Movie Talks with Tudor! For today, I have the latest in the MI franchise which, by the way, is at it's 6th movie. Well done! A few more and you can surpass the Fast and Furious franchise. Just kidding. Love those movies and this ones, in particular, this one. I said that Ghost Protocol is my favorite but, now, I am kinda leaning to Fallout.  Let me tell you why is that. Well, it just feels different from all the other movies in this franchise. It has a sleek and stylish look to it, it's full of excellent set pieces and, you would think that, in a franchise that is jam packed with all these set pieces, action sequences and incredible special effects, the public would be saturated. Well, in this case, you'd be wrong because, not only does this movie contains a lot more action sequences, special effects and fighting choreography than the others but, it also manages to not get overly saturated and...

Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation (2015) Review Hello again guys and welcome to the review for the fifth movie in the MI series, which, believe it or not, took the bar even higher than the previous movie had. Christopher McQuarrie takes the reigns and crafts another thrilling and action pumped chapter in this franchise. What more can I say about this movie? It introduces a villain that is more suited for a Bond movie but here we are. It has some suspenseful scenes that are very well crafted, great action sequences and it contains another gripping and awesome stunt performed by Cruise, proving, once again, that he is a veritable action star. Maybe Stallone will bring him for the 4th Expendables movie? Just kidding, of course. Or am I? Who knows? Anything can happen, it's Hollywood.  On a more serious note, in all honesty, I kinda prefer Ghost Protocol a bit more than this one but, make no mistake, this is still an excellent action movie. Cannot wait for Fallout, with the...

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (2011) Review Hello guys and welcome back to Movie Talks with Tudor! Today, I continue my mission of bringing you top quality reviews of one of the best action movie franchise in the history of cinema. With the third entry, J.J.Abrams set the bar quite high but, along came Brad Bird with the fourth installment which set the bar even higher. This movie is a bloody awesome roller-coaster, filled with impressive set pieces, top notch action sequences, great special and visual effects, impressive camera work and editing and some good acting, for some good measure. The pacing of this one is extra fast but it's slows down when it has to, in order to give some time to recalibrate your state of mind. Looks very stylish, with some interesting and cool gadgets that you think you are watching a SF action spy movie.  In this one, Tom Cruise proved that he really takes his job in the most seriously way possible, doing one of the most dangerous...

Mission Impossible 3 (2006) Review Hello guys and welcome back to Movie Talks with Tudor! Well, this is what I am talking about, if you want to make a great action movie but still keep the style and panache of the original. J.J. Abrams did it. He combined, successfully I might add, the stunts and special effects with the style that made the first MI so good. It does suffer in some departments, especially the script and character development but that is just nitpicking at this point. The visual effects are awesome, the action is great and fast paced giving you the right amount of time to breathe before it chuckles you again into the action. The acting is top notch with a very good villainy performance from P.S. Hoffman. There are some twists but, sadly, are predictable and a bit similar to the one from the first movie.  However, looking past the little flaws, there is no denying that this movie was a step up, a huge step up from the previous one, setting the bar for wha...

Mission Impossible 2 (2000) Review Hello guys and welcome back to Movie Talks with Tudor! Today we continue with the MI movies and talking about the second one, which set the bar a bit down for this franchise. The second entry is the exact opposite of the first, with the former concentrating more on the thrills and suspense rather than special effects and action sequences and the latter aiming to please the hardcore fan of explosions with some eye popping special effects and action sequences, leaving the story far behind.  How good of an action movie may this be it does not feel like a MI movie. It does not have the finesse and the poise of the first movie and future entries. It tried to combine the elements which made the first one good with some blockbuster action but we ended up with, only, the second part.  And speaking of action sequences, the're done correctly and edited nicely, most of the time but, especially in the third act of the movie, it gets oversatu...