I Scene't It

Reviews of movies I done seen't. I recently signed up for an unlimited movie pass so I thought I'd share my opinions.

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Winchester

SPOILERS AHEAD

This film had a lot of promise going into it with the story being based on the real and genuinely terrifying Winchester house. Sadly that promise soon melted away at the sight of the computer rendered house that looks like it was designed using The Sims. Ignoring the horrendous cgi house the story starts slow and does have potential from the start, however it then descends to the usual attempts to just scare you which I don't even feel fits in with the film and doesn't really tie into he story properly. The main bulk of the story centres are the spirits that were killed by the Winchester Rifle and are therefore returning to haunt the owner of the company as revenge. I don't think the house is utilised fully in the film and the whole concept of 'spirits design the rooms is massively flawed. The ending really annoyed be becasue of the spirit was seeking revenge for being killed by the rifle, how is the only way to get rid of him to shoot him with the same rifle again!? Surely this just creates a demon that's now twice as pissed off? My recommendation would be to steer clear of this film.

Pros:

+ Acting is half decent

Cons:

- House from the Sims, story was garbage

Rating: 1.5 out of 5

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Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

SPOILERS AHEAD

All I knew about this film was that it was likely to be nominated for an Oscar, therefore it fell into those films that I really should watch but probably never will, however it was recommended I watch it so I thought why not? For a film with a title that's way too long, you quickly learn the meaning behind the title. A reference to the billboards rented by the mother of a murdered daughter whose killer is never caught. The billboards are aimed at the police department for doing a shit job at finding the killer. Right away I loved Mildred. She doesn't take any shit from anyone and is an all round bad ass. It's a great performance and is a really unique story as there is no real conclusion to it other than learning the darker and more twisted road Mildred heads down looking for justice. It's a gritty film with some great performances in and I like how I was made to like the main character even though she turns out to be murderer, arsonist nut job. I would recommend to anyone looking for something a little different.

Pros:

+ Unique story, great acting, unpredictable

Cons:

- Long title, no real conclusion

Rating: 4 out of 5

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Coco

SPOILERS AHEAD

I've always been a fan of Pixar movies like pretty much everyone in existence, and although most are top notch there are a few exceptions (mostly the cars/planes movies) but I'm happy to say Coco is up there with the best. The film may be about death and the afterlife and do the usual Disney "hit you in the feels", but it's filled with enough colour and catchy songs that it overcomes the morbid theme. As always with Pixar the animation is second to none and has incredible detail, I'm pretty sure I could see each individual bone marrow cell. Since it is aimed at families it does have a deeper meaning and manages to deliver it very well, so much that children everywhere will never forget their deceased relatives for fear they will die a second time. One thing that did get to me was that when Coco dies at the end she came back as skeleton version of her old self, but everyone else in the afterlife was middle aged? Does no one in Mexico live passed 40? Overall it was a fun and enjoyable film and while it doesn't beat the likes of Toy Story and Monsters Inc for best Pixar installment it's definitely pushing the top of that list. Highly recommend.

Pros:

+ Classic Pixar animation, catchy songs even if you don't speak Spanish, Dante.

Cons:

- Predictable story

Rating: 4 out of 5

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Insidious 4: The Last Key

SPOILERS AHEAD

So I went into this film having seen only the first two in the series, however I didn’t really think this would hinder my understanding of the not so complex Insidious films. The film itself was pretty poor standard, even for a mainstream horror movie, as usual it was a basic story of demon in a house, jump scare, try to fight the demon, few more jump scares, fail to fight the demon, learn some part of the characters past that was obvious, final fight with demon. Given that the final boss fight is supposed to be the highlight of the film, it basically built up to an old woman on the floor desperately reaching for a whistle, then said whistle being used to summon her mother to swing a lantern into the demon and that somehow kills it. I’m not sure why the mother was waiting for the whistle and why she coudn’t just charge in with her swingy lantern to save the day 15 minutes earlier but who knows. Oh and don’t forget the randomly shoehorned bit where they open the wrong door just so they could link the series round to the first film again. Its like they forgot to include it in the script and so just added it in post production. Overall, not worth watching.

Pros: 

+ Some slightly funny parts, side characters better than the protagonist.

Cons:

- Same old horror script, bad guy was boring, story didn’t make much sense, most dramatic part involved a whistle.

SCORE: 1.5 out of 5