Casual Person

The Predator is a cool antagonist, but the movies that this character is put into do not it any favours. Danny Glover was good in the lead role and I appreciated the change of scenery.

That being said, the direction felt very tone deaf, switching from a cop movie to a post apocalyptic movie to a sci-fi/action movie to a horror movie. Also, Alan Silvestri came back to compose this movie and once again, his score completely takes away any tension a scene could have built because the music never feels as if it fits this kind of movie. The most tense moments from this movie and the previous movie have been those did not feature a background score.

Casual Person

If you were ever going to tell me that a cartoon set in a world where humans and animal-people exist in the same world, includes wacky and absurd concepts and yet manages to be a dark, complex and nuanced show that tackles real life issues in an effective way, I would have thought you were crazy.

BoJack Horseman is, in my opinion, the best show on Netflix. The balance between comedy and drama is virtually seamless, it always astonishes me how this show is able to balance the two genres.

Here are some things this show is great at: Satirising modern society, creating a world inhabited by humans and animals and that feels real and well rounded, creates absurdist concepts that still feel like part of this world, tackles issues and handle them with care and complexity and every season manages to teach an important life lesson in the most intelligent way possible.

But what would a show be without its characters? And this show has brilliantly written characters that are always worth watching. BoJack has to deal with pain and addiction, and manages to have his comedic moments and serious moments in the right place that make him relatable. Todd and Mr. Peanutbutter work as comedic relief characters, but also have a lot to them. Diane also has a lot to her that made her very identifiable.

It manages to get better with every season and I would even say that this is the most realistic and down-to-earth show there is, and let me remind you it is a cartoon set in a world where humans and animals co-exist.

Casual Person

So this didn't really work for me. The Predator is a cool character on its own, but is not strong enough to support the rest of the movie. I did not care for really any of the characters; there was not a lot about them to get invested in. I was slightly invested in the character Mac, and the main character Butch, but only because of the charisma Arnold Schwarzenegger brings to the role. The biggest problem I have with this movie is the Alan Silvestri score because it does not match the tone of this movie and takes away any tension that the movie is trying to build.

Casual Person

Avengers: Infinity War was one of the most anticipated movies of all time, so it had a lot to achieve, and does so. For this movie to truly work on the level that it does, it needed a lot of time to earn it, and with 10 years and 18 movies to set up every single character, all of the mythology, as well as the stakes and what is at hand, it more than earns it.

Infinity War manages to incorporate a cast of over 25 actors into a two and a half hour movie, and while the movie can feel bloated at points, they are incorporated very well. Just about all of them have chemistry and work off each other incredibly well. There is a balance of comedy and drama, whilst also creating memorable action set pieces and every single character is given a moment to shine and never feels wasted.

The production team has put a lot of care and effort into this movie and it all pays off in the end. I think the majority of this movie are VFX shots, and every single visual effect is perfect. And probably the most jaw-dropping and emotionally shattering ending since... ever.

Casual Person

Despite some good performances, The Happytime Murders was extremely disappointing. The concepts that should be creative are completely undermined by its approach to the raunchy humour, the methods of trying to further the story made little sense, it felt really long despite being 90 minutes and has probably one of the most anticlimactic third acts in movie history.

Side note: At the screening I watched this in, a couple left 40 minutes into the movie and never came back.

Casual Person

If you asked me what I thought the most underrated movie of all time was, I would say Prisoners. This is one of my all time favourite movies, but not as many people pay attention to this movie as they should. I have watched this movie three times, and it gets better with every rewatch.

This is a geniusly plotted mystery, with a great script and taut direction from Denis Villeneuve. There are so many subtle clues and clever uses of foreshadowing and with every rewatch, my appreciation for this movie grows. The cinematography by Roger Deakins is fantastic. The score by the late Jóhann Jóhannsson is haunting, yet beautiful.

The acting from every cast member is great, they all make their characters feel real, but the performances from Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal are the stand outs of this movie. What makes this movie so engrossing is that despite its bleak appearance, there is a heart beating within its core.

The first time many people came across the name Denis Villeneuve was probably with Arrival or Blade Runner 2049, but for me it was Prisoners. When I found out he was directing Blade Runner 2049, I knew it was in safe hands. He is also directing an adaption of Dune, and I cannot wait for that. Definitely think he is becoming one of the best directors of our time. If you have never seen this movie, I urge you to go watch it.

Casual Person

Of all the movies that have attempted to adapt a video game and failed, Super Mario Bros has got to be the biggest failure of them all. The more and more I watched of this movie, the more I felt my childhood being destroyed.

This movie fails on every single frontier an adaptation could possibly fail on. Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo are completely miscast (apparently they were drunk while filming), the bright and colourful world of the games are replaced with a dark, ugly Blade Runner style city, I resented virtually every single character, the direction is flat and devoid of a shred of creativity, it has one of the worst scripts of all time, I cringed at every single attempt this movie made to create mythology in its world and the attempts at trying to reference the games (cough Yoshi, cough Toad) almost broke me. No joke!

Avoid this movie at all costs! It is not worth the time.

Casual Person

Musicals have never been my movie forte, but La La Land is absolutely incredible, if not one of my favourite movies. Every aspect of film making is on point. Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone have great chemistry together, and give great performances themselves. The directing is some of the best ever, the cinematography is colourful and vibrant, and the musical sequences and choreography are all fantastic.

Casual Person

There are many things that I would regard Hot Fuzz as: My favourite comedy movie of all time, my favourite action/comedy of all time, my favourite cop movie, my favourite Edgar Wright movie and my favourite spoof movie.

I think I have watched this movie over ten times by now and it feels fresh with every single rewatch. Just about every time I watch this movie, I notice something new I had not seen in an earlier watch. There is not a single joke that falls flat, they land every single time. And has one of the best third acts of all time.

I have always loved how the movie is directed to appear as a gritty cop movie, and how random everyday occurrences are edited to look like an action sequence, and the mystery is genuinely engaging. Not to be overlooked is Simon Pegg’s performance, he acts like a tough policeman, but makes the character likeable and relatable. Nick Frost is funny as his partner, and the supporting cast is great as well.

This movie manages to simultaneously feel like a gritty cop movie, but always manages to maintain its light hearted comedic feel so that it can work as a comedy, a mystery, an cop action movie and a spoof movie all in one.

Casual Person

I never really watched the original TV show, but looking at this movie on its own, it is pretty bland and boring. There is rarely a moment in which I laughed as most of the jokes fell flat. The cast is not awful, but they lack a dynamic and are not given much to work with.

Casual Person

Norm of the North is just something for children to look at for an hour and a half. That is really just it. Nothing about this movie felt like it had any devotion put into it. The animation is very mediocre, the direction is uninspired, the writing has no effort put into it and the voice acting has no sense of conviction whatsoever. Overall, not worth any time, whether it is an adult or child watching.

Casual Person

A hilarious and entertaining movie, that is sadly overlooked, which is a shame. This movie is brought to life through a well written screenplay filled with charm and wit, and really good performances from Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling, who play likeable characters and have great chemistry together. But there is also an investing mystery at the centre, as well as having the feel of the 1970s. Would recommend if you have not seen it.

Casual Person

Deadpool is a movie I liked, but I do not love it as much as others do. I can appreciate this movie for being a comic book movie aimed at adults. Without question, Ryan Reynolds was born to play Deadpool; he plays the character perfectly, and has chemistry with just about every single character. That being said, this movie does have a lot of problems: For one, despite its comedic nature, the movie has a lot of serious moments, and they always fall completely flat, and some serious moments felt kinda preachy. Also, not every joke lands. Plus, the cinematography was kinda bland. However, the comedy that does work, works extremely well, and Deadpool is such a funny main character, that the movie easily overcomes its flaws and is fun to watch, despite the problems I had.

Casual Person

Deadpool 1 was a movie that I liked, but admittedly did not put it on the same pedestal as others did; Ryan Reynolds was great as Deadpool and the cast worked well together, but I felt the cinematography was kinda bland and the serious moments never really worked. Deadpool 2 however, whilst still having some flaws, improves on the first film quite a bit. The jokes land on almost every occasion, the action is very well choreographed and engaging, the visual style has a lot more flare to it, the characters whether old or new are worked into the movie very well, there are more twists and surprises than the first film, and the serious moments, while not always effective, work a lot more in this movie.

Casual Person

An engaging storyline with dialogue that near perfectly balances dark comedy with hard-hitting drama and is brought to life through characters worth investing in and performances by every single cast member, but the star of this movie is Frances McDormand who gives the best performance I have seen in a long time.

Casual Person

Thor: Ragnarok is up there as one of my favourites in the MCU. This is one of the funniest movies in the MCU, and despite being the 17th movie in the series, it shows no signs of getting old. This is a fun adventure, with great visuals and a blend of action and comedy to keep you invested. This movie also introduces new characters who are now in my favourite characters of the franchise, specifically Valkyrie, Korg and the Grandmaster.

Casual Person

Lego Marvel Superheroes is a fun game to play. With a large quantity of characters, the game is able to balance their screen time really well and manages to give each of them the right moments to shine, as well as give them creative things to do. The game manages to understand their powers perfectly. My favourite aspect of this game is the open-world environment and the details the player gets to explore. That being said, the game does include a lot of cheesy, comedic one-liners that fall flat a lot of the time.

Casual Person

Lego The Lord of the Rings includes the dialogue, which I have never been a huge fan of, but the rest of the game makes up for that completely. The developers manage to recreate Middle Earth very well and was fun to explore each aspect of it, there are creative abilities and powers given to the characters and the levels were engaging and exciting.

Casual Person

Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues completely stands on its own from its predecessor, as well as many other Lego games. The game offers an open-world environment for each of the four movies (including three for Crystal Skull) and each of them include exciting levels, albeit short ones, and fun additional missions to complete in the different open-world environments. But the aspect of the game that is the best is the creator section that allows players to create their own levels. I have had many fun hours designing my own levels.

Casual Person

Lego Indiana Jones has always been a fun Lego game to play. This game manages to recreate the fun and excitement of the first three Indiana Jones movie, all while incorporating investing gameplay and nice abilities given to its characters.

Casual Person