Rim of The World (2019) – A Quick Capsule Review

Rim of The World (2019) – A Quick Capsule Review

by Phil Hobden Quick Review

Phil’s Quick Capsule Review:
I was surprised that checking online after quite enjoying Rim of The World, the reviews had been pretty brutal.  In fact it’s probably one of Netflix’s worst rated films yet… which is odd as, whilst it’s not amazing, it more than passed the time and I wasn’t bored once.  McG’s film has a certain late 80’s charm to it… a kids own adventure film set against the back drop of an alien invasion.  The kinda film that was a staple of my childhood.  Okay so it’s probably got less budget than BMX Bandits and it feels at times like an Asylum film but it for sure doesn’t deserve the panning it’s had.  Watch it, on Netflix, and make up your own mind…

Best Bit: Capsule lands!

Buy, Stream, Avoid: Stream (Netflix)

If You Liked this Try: The Goonies, Space Camp, BMX Bandits 

★★★★★★★★★★

 

Follow us on Social Media:

 

 

Brightburn (2019) – A Quick Capsule Review

Brightburn (2019) – A Quick Capsule Review

by Phil Hobden Quick Review

Phil’s Quick Capsule Review:
What if Superman arrived on Earth and rather than being good was actually evil?  Well Lawyers assemble as Brightburn tells the story of a baby boy crashing down in a small farm belt town in a spaceship to a mum and pop family who can’t have kids and soon puts on a costume to go out and show the world his superpowers. Hmmm… Jokes aside Brightburn has a better idea than execution but arriving from the Gunn family (James and brothers) it’s graphic violence, central idea and short run time mean that its flaws are often forgotten.   If you ever wanted to see Superman burn someones’ face off… this is the movie for you.  But not Superman Mr Laywer.  No. Not at all.

Best Bit: The Eye

Buy, Stream, Avoid: Stream

If You Liked this Try: Chronicle, Glass, Super

★★★★★★★★★★

 

Follow us on Social Media:

 

 

Iron Sky 2: The Coming Race (2019) – A Quick Capsule Review

Iron Sky 2: The Coming Race (2019) – A Quick Capsule Review

by Phil Hobden Quick Review Uncategorized

Phil’s Quick Capsule Review:
Iron Sky 2 is the slightly belated sequel to 2012’s bat shit mental Nazi lunar invasion film Iron Sky. The Finnish-German science fiction comedy mash up took a similar crowd funding route as its predecessor and, much like that film, manages to squeeze an incredible amount out of a very limited budget (it raised £500k USD).  Space ships, Aliens, Hidden Worlds, Hitler riding a T-Rex (I shit you not)… it has it all. Well other than a cohesive story of course.  But who cares… if you strap in and go along with the ride when Iron sky 2 get’s going it really delivers a wild, crazy, OTT ride unlike anything out there,

Best Bit: Sieg Heil Motherfuckers

Buy, Stream, Avoid: Stream

If You Liked this Try: Iron Sky, Kung Fury, Sky Captain & The World Of Tomorrow

★★★★★★★★★★

 

Follow us on Social Media:

 

 

Solo: A Star Wars Story – A Rewatched Quick Capsule Review

Solo: A Star Wars Story – A Rewatched Quick Capsule Review

by Phil Hobden Quick Review

Phil’s Quick Capsule Review:
I liked Solo.  It has issues for sure but overall it’s a thumbs up.  But it’s production issues (fired directors, massive reshoots, more reshoots) do shine through the film, especially the first and last act.  The pacing and tone suffer the most with the original directors comic stylings not sitting at ease with Howard’s more pedestrian direction.  BUT these issues can almost be forgotten when you have performances as spirited and fun as Glover and Ehrenreich who do excellently with such iconic roles, leaving you wanting much more from them.  Harrelson makes a good addition to the Star Wars universe but sadly Emilia Clarke once again fails to shine away from Game Of Thrones.  So not quite a disaster, Solo is a worthy if lesser entry to the Star Wars cannon.

Best Bit: Meet Lando

Worth a Watch:  Just

If You Liked this Try: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Star Wars Rebels

★★★★★★★★★★

 

Follow us on Social Media:

 

 

 

Star Wars: The Last Jedi – A Rewatched Quick Capsule Review

Star Wars: The Last Jedi – A Rewatched Quick Capsule Review

by Phil Hobden Quick Review

Phil’s Quick Capsule Review:
So the Last Jedi is good.  On balance it could well be the best true Star Wars film since Jedi and It’s fair to say when it delivers it knocks it out the park – The opening, Rey/Ren, The finale.  Even better watching it back on home video, the misses that bothered me first time around (The long middle section, Star Wars Casinos, the punking out of not one but two characters set up for great things but cast aside) actually made a lot more sense.  It’s still far to say that a better script could have made this up there with Empire, but even though The Last Jedi flirts with greatness it still doesn’t QUITE land it.  This all said it was a really entertaining film, with lots of surprises along the way and twists and turns you don’t quite expect that lived up to expectations and hype.  Hamill is great, Fisher gives one of her best performances and the support cast are mostly exceptional.  Where to next is anyones guess but the final film in this trilogy will have a hell of a job beating this. Recommended.

Best Bit: Finally! Lightsaber action!

Worth A Rewatch: Yes

If You Liked this Try: Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back , Rogue One : A Star Wars Story

★★★★★★★★★★

 

Follow us on Social Media:

 

 

 

 

Captive State (2019) – A Quick Capsule Review

Captive State (2019) – A Quick Capsule Review

by Phil Hobden Quick Review

Phil’s Quick Capsule Review:
Captive State was in and out of cinemas so quick you probably didn’t notice.  Which is a shame as, whilst it’s far from perfect, there’s a hell of a lot to like in this sub $30million dollar sci-fi invasion film. Apes director Rupert Wyatt does a great job building a believable world without being too obvious and the lack of aliens of the most part allows the film to focus on the more interesting human elements.  Yup it looses its way a bit in the final act, delivers some very unsurprising surprises and the lack of budget does bite after a while BUT it’s still nothing less than good fun.

Best Bit: The cold open

Buy, Stream, Avoid: Stream

If You Liked this Try: Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes, Arrival, They Live

★★★★★★★★★★

 

Follow us on Social Media:

 

 

Godzilla: King of The Monsters (2019) – A Quick Capsule Review

Godzilla: King of The Monsters (2019) – A Quick Capsule Review

by Phil Hobden Quick Review

Phil’s Quick Capsule Review:
Godzilla: King of The Monsters isn’t terrible.  It’s also just not that great.  I almost wish this had been a terrible Asylum style offering because at least that would have been entertaining.  Sadly Godzilla only manages being rather boring and average.  It’s muddy CGI monster fights muddy CGI monster (mostly in darkness) with little coherent plot or characters to care about.  Which is why I think this film would have been WAY better if they had thrown a few men in rubber suits and set them against each other WWE style.  At least then it would have been fun and held my attention longer than it did (by hour two I was starting to drift off). The cast deserve better, especially the talented Millie Bobby Brown who spends most of her time slack jawed or wide-eyed and the films odd habit of rolling out a ‘Oh it’s them’ actor cameo just gets distracting by the end (Joe Morton, David Strathairn and even the criminally underused Sally Hawkins).  So overall it’s not as good as Gareth Edward’s 2014’s Godzilla and both pail into compression with the original Japanese Godzilla films.

Best Bit: I guess the monsters doing stuff

Buy, Stream, Avoid: Stream

If You Liked this Try: Godzilla (2014), Monsters, Kong: Skull Island 

★★★★★★★★★★

 

Follow us on Social Media:

 

 

Interstellar (2014) – A Quick Capsule Review (Revisited)

Interstellar (2014) – A Quick Capsule Review (Revisited)

by Phil Hobden Quick Review

Phil’s Quick Capsule Review:
Man did the though of this film leave me cold.  A trailer that did little for me and hype that bordered on ridiculous. It felt like the 5 star reviews had already been written.  But a week or so away from the release, sitting down to watch the film I have to say- for the most part the hype was right. This is astounding filmmaking. It’s not perfect – the Nolan’s script is lacking once again with terrible on the nose dialogue and large chunks of plot dump, the ending is pure Spielberg at it’s worst and the film because of it ends up being longer than it needed to be.  HOWEVER this is a film that demands to be seen on the big screen (the biggest you can find actually) , has visual FX that create some of the most believable worlds ever seen on screen and has note perfect after note perfect performance.  Oh and the sound.  Just… wow. So overall whilst not the 5 star classic certain reviewers would have you believe, Nolan delivers probably the best 4 star movie ever and is back on form after the lacklustre Dark Knight Rises.

Best Bit: Matthew McConaughey delivers the goods once again.

Buy, Rent, Stream, Borrow: Buy

If You Liked this Try: Inception, The Dark Knight, Insomnia

 

★★★★★★★★★★

 

Follow us on Social Media:

 

 

The Silence (2019) – A Quick Capsule Review

The Silence (2019) – A Quick Capsule Review

by Phil Hobden Quick Review

Phil’s Quick Capsule Review:
The Silence boldly goes exactly where A Quiet Place and Netflix’s own Bird Box goes before it.  Okay so that’s not strictly true but for sure the three films all feature very familiar ideas, beats and execution which leads to some very obvious comparisons.  Sadly for The Silence it’s probably the weakest of the three, in part to the rather pointless voice over the film is lumbered with and whilst it throws in a couple of surprises it’s pretty predictable from start to end.  Now it’s not terrible – in fact at times it’s pretty fun and it’s 90 minute run time is much appreciated.  BUT you can’t help but think this could have been so much more!

Best Bit: Dog. Crash. Car.

Buy, Stream, Avoid: Stream (Netflix)

If You Liked this Try: A Quiet Place, Bird Box, Annihilation

★★★★★★★★★★

 

Follow us on Social Media:

 

 

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back – A Rewatched Quick Capsule Review

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back – A Rewatched Quick Capsule Review

by Phil Hobden Quick Review

Phil’s Quick Capsule Review:
The Empire Strikes Back is gritty, dark, challenging and bloody brilliant. Set after the events of A New Hope, it starts to put the pieces together that would form the core mythology at the heart of this franchise.  It’s a shame then that a LOT of those reveals have been ruined by the prequels.  Rewatching Empire the iconic ‘I Am Your Father’ moment becomes shrug rather than the fall of the chair moment it was before.  That said the film is still amazing (escape from Hoth, Cloud City, Fett and more) and even Lucas’ 90’s changes don’t ruin it too much. The Empire Strikes Back is, simply put, the best FILM of this series.

Best Bit: Hoth!

Worth A Rewatch: Yes

If You Liked this Try: Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Star Wars: Return of The Jedi, Star Wars: A New Hope

★★★★★★★★★★

 

Follow us on Social Media: