Illustrious Cinema

Hometown pals bringing you weekly movie reviews and updates all throughout the cinematic world

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Illustrious Cinema

Hey everyone,

Recently we as a group have decided to create our own website and slowly transition over there, in the hopes to get more traffic and to really be able to take our “Club” to the next level and provide quality movie reviews and movie information to all over our beloved followers and fans.  We appreciate you guys spreading the love as we transition over and any suggestions about the new website are greatly appreciated!  

For now, we will continue to post here and will give you an update as time passes on. 

Thanks for all your support and hope you are enjoying our posts!

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Trailer Thursday

“Gretel and Hansel” d. Oz Perkins

Releasing January 31, 2020

Starring Sophia Lillis and Jessica De Guow

A long time ago in a distant fairy tale countryside, a young girl (Sophia Lillis) leads her little brother into a dark wood in desperate search of food and work, only to stumble upon a nexus of terrifying evil.

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The Peanut Butter Falcon

Club Overall Rating: 8.7 / 10

Dale’s Analysis:

A well-crafted film that will hold up over time, "The Peanut Butter Falcon” pulls all the right strings due to its beautiful writing and cinematography.  The cast has fantastic chemistry together with the always captivating Shia LaBeouf at the helm. All in all it’s a movie that should not be ignored.  8.2 / 10  

Alex’s Review:

A great feel-good movie that embarks you on a journey between two kind souls.  The connection between Tyler and Zack is beautiful written and acted out with perfection.  A must-see for all movie lovers.  8.8 / 10

George’s Critique

New comer Zack Gottsagen combines wonderfully with Shia LaBeouf and Dakota Johnson to create a beautiful story and film.  The soundtrack is great, the cinematography is top notch, it really is hard not to fall in love with this excellent movie.  Don’t miss it.    “Friends are the family you choose”.  9.2 / 10

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Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark (2019)

Club Overall Rating: 5.4 / 10

Dale’s Review: 

A solid addition to the horror genre, “Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark” focuses on fundamentals that make up a “scary movie” with jump scares and nightmarish monsters.  Unfortunately those aspects are really the only thing the movie has going for it.  5.3 / 10

Alex’s Critique:

Amateur rating with the whole number, but the movie fell flat to me.  A few good jump scares but the plot was fairly transparent and unoriginal.  Inspirational trying to reinvent the books with the movie, and unfortunately it didn’t pay off like one would have hoped. 5.0 / 10

George’s Analysis:

The combination of jump scares, humor, and creepy stories, makes “Scary Movies To Tell In The Dark”  a solid introduction to the horror genre for young teens.  A good film to take your kids too but scary movie fans looking for something new to love won’t be too impressed.  I will say the monsters looked pretty good though, and I did enjoy the acting from these young stars. 6.0 / 10

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Trailer Tuesday 

“Ad Astra” d. James Gray

Releasing September 20th, 2019 

Starring Brad Pitt, Liv Tyler, Tommy Lee Jones

Astronaut Roy McBride (Brad Pitt) travels to the outer edges of the solar system to find his missing father (Tommy Lee Jones) and unravel a mystery that threatens the survival of humans on Earth. His journey will uncover secrets that challenge the nature of human existence and our place in the cosmos.

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Watch It Wednesday

Blue Ruin (2013) 

“I'd forgive you if you were crazy, but you're not. You're weak.”

Currently on Netflix. If you haven’t seen this, be sure to check it out.  You will not be disappointed.

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Ready Or Not (2019)

Club Overall Rating: 6.1 / 10

Dale’s Thoughts:

Ready Or Not is a relatively entertaining flick with solid performances.  Its dark humor hits its mark, although the story somehow seems predictable and a bit underwhelming.  You’ll leave the theater content as long as your exceptions are reasonable.  (5.5) 

Alex’s Analysis:

Ready Or Not is a unique film in that it incorporates aspects of many different genres.  It is essentially a thriller that has a substantial amount of comedic relief.  Surprisingly, this combination works better than expected, likely due to the disparity between the normalized personalities of the actors and the unorthodox situation they are put into.  Despite Samara Weaving putting up a stellar performance, the film’s plot falls short and doesn’t engage the viewer. (6.1)

George’s Review:

I found Ready Or Not to be fun and entertaining; a great, one time watch kind of movie.  I definitely felt some Evil Dead vibes and really enjoyed the acting, especially Samara Weaving as the lead Grace.  She really hit it out of the park with her role.  Some laughs mixed in with a little bit of gore here and there make for a solid dark comedy, and the short run time makes for a good mid-week movie night.  Check it out and let us know what you think! (6.6)

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The club is excited to see “Ready or Not” tonight, a dark comedy in which a newly-wed woman has to fight for her life as she is hunted by her in-laws, in what seems to be part of some diabolical ritual.

We think this movie looks pretty promising, and the early reviews seem to agree!

The title role, Grace, is played by Samara Weaving, is a newcomer to the box office role.  She got her start on Australian TV and then, in one of her first movie roles played along side her Uncle Hugo Weaving in “Mystery Road” (Agent Smith from The Matrix Series).

Adam Brody plays along side Samara as her brother in law Daniel Le Domas.  Adam got his big start as the beloved Seth Cohen on “The O.C.”.  He has appeared in various movies throughout the years, but this is one of his first lead roles in a while.

We look forward to sharing our thoughts about the film tomorrow, and if you have seen it, make sure to drop some comments or even your own review in our ask!

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You'll have bad times, but it'll always wake you up to the good stuff you weren't paying attention too.

Robin Williams as Sean Maguire; “Good Will Hunting” (1997)

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Sleeper Sunday

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013)

On Sundays we have decided to post movies that we think don’t get as much attention as they deserve.  Sometimes great films slip thru the cracks and we will be here to ensure you know out about them!  We kick things off with “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” starring Ben Stiller, a movie about a photographer who finally goes on the adventure he has always been day dreaming about.  Mix this journey with some gorgeous cinematography, a wonderful sound track, and some great acting, and we have ourselves a really beautiful film.  If you haven’t seen this one yet, definitely check it out and then let us know what you think!

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Score Saturday

Inception (2010)

Every Saturday we will be bringing you some of the best scores and soundtracks from movies we love! Inception is one of Dale’s favorite films, and Hans Zimmer truly delivers some masterpieces along side it.

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Flashback Friday

Point Break (1991) ⋆⋆⋆⋆

Starring Keanu Reeves, Patrick Swayze, and Gary Busey

After a string of bizarre bank robberies in Southern California, with the crooks donning masks of various former presidents, a federal agent, Johnny Utah (Keanu Reeves), infiltrates the suspected gang. But this is no ordinary group of robbers. They're surfers -- led by the charismatic Bodhi (Patrick Swayze) -- who are addicted to the rush of thievery.

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Trailer Thursday

“The Peanut Butter Falcon” is currently out on limited release, and if it is playing around you and you have a chance to see it, see it.  It is truly a beautiful film; a hidden gem really.  After escaping from an elderly home to pursue his dream to be a wrestler, a man with Downs Syndrome runs into Shia LeBeouf, and together they begin an adventure down to Florida.  Full of laughs and heart warming moments, you won’t be disappointed. 

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Once Upon A Time In Hollywood (2019)

Club Overall Rating: 7.8 / 10

Dale’s Thoughts:

Tarantino brings you back in time in a way that only he knows how; with moments of over-the-top tense, yet hilarious scenes and a fantastic character development.  Backed up by great lead performances “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood” mostly hits it’s mark even though the story line seems to be a bit juggled.

George’s Analysis:

“Once Upon A Time In Hollywood” gives you an exemplary look in on the movie industry during the late 60′s, using two of the best male leads in the business to do so.  Stimulating performances from both DiCaprio and Pitt bring out the best in the rest of the cast, making for an entertaining ride through Hollywood.  A fun film with an epic conclusion, closing out things Tarantino style.

Alex’s Review:

“Once Upon A Time In Hollywood” brings us back to late 60′s LA with an intricate and outlandish film, which seems to entrance the viewer in the nostalgic time period.  It recalls memories of outlaw behavior, and a kind of “no f**cks given” attitude that is portrayed perfectly by the acting performances of Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt.  While the film dragged in certain places and perhaps became too convoluted at times, the intense and unpredictable ending shined, becoming the highlight of the film.  Overall, a great ninth film from Tarantino. 

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The Club Perseveres

Before we bring you guys our review of “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”, we have to discuss our night yesterday, as it didn’t go as smoothly as it should have been.  

Coming into the 2nd week of the Club, we had scheduled to see the movie at 8 PM, buying tickets in advance to do so.  We had two guests joining us, James and Bryan, who were just as eager to see the film as us three.   To keep it short, we get to the theater and they cancelled our showtime without giving us any kind of notice.  The only other showtimes were at 6:15 or 9:45, and things weren’t looking good.  We were refunded and comped free tickets, which was nice, but we were all clearly pretty bummed.

We drove around for an hour, trying to fill the void of our disappointment with a bar trivia night just to keep us busy, but that just wasn’t going to cut it.  Only 5 minutes away from home, we were all trying to decide whether or not to just go back for the 9:45 showtime and see the movie, but most of us had to wake up early and the film wouldn’t have ended until around 12:30.  

And then, one of our guests Bryan, came thru making the group’s decision to go see the movie by blasting Leo’s famous line from “Wolf of Wall Street”, “I’m not fucking leaving!” in the car!  

We turned around and went back to the movies, first stopping to grab some energy drinks and snacks, to go see the film and keep the club alive and thriving.

We can’t wait to bring you all our review of “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” later today!

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Tonight the gang is going to see “Once Upon a Time In Hollywood”, Quentin Tarantino’s 9th film, and boy are we excited!  

Talk about a superb cast!  We take a brief look back on some early shots of these guys and how they have transformed thru their acting career.

Leo got his start in “Critters 3″ back in 1991.

Brad joined him that same year, premiering in “Thelma and Louise”.

And believe it or not, Margot didn’t get her start until 2013, in “About Time”, but has been killing it since then.

Can’t wait to share our thoughts about the movie with you all tomorrow.  If anyone has some comments about their experience seeing the film, be sure to send them over!

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Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

Ferris Bueller