First Man (2018) – A Quick Capsule Review

First Man (2018) – A Quick Capsule Review

by Phil Hobden Quick Review

Phil’s Quick Capsule Review:
Damien Chazelle’s third feature film tackles the story of Neil Armstrong – the First Man on the moon. It’s fair to say that Chazelle directs with an experience and confidence of a filmmaker with many years more experience and had already set himself up as one of the best working directors in Hollywood with his first two films.  And First Man is no different. It’s not his best film (Whiplash for me) but the direction & style on display here is simply breathtaking and whilst the film does take a while to get to where it’s going it’s never less than a stunning journey.  Chazelle is up there with Nolan and one of the few directors whose works are must see.

Best Bit: The Moon Landing

Cinema, Stream, Avoid: Cinema

If You Liked this Try: Whiplash, La La Land, 10 Cloverfield Lane

★★★★★★★★★★

 

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The 25 Best… Films OF The Modern Era (1970’s – Now)

The 25 Best… Films OF The Modern Era (1970’s – Now)

by Phil's Quick Review Best... Other Cr*p

In our latest regular feature, coming out the first Friday of each month, Phil (of Phil’s Quick Capsule Review)  along with podcaster Josh Morris, Writer Mike Parkin, Grosse Point Geek’s Will Strong and Motion Picture Manic Jamie Robinson breakdown the 25 Best Films Of each major film decade.

 

This time out: Films OF The Modern Era (1970’s – Now)

 

The close but no cigar Films: Apollo 13,Starship Troopers,Little Miss Sunshine,Lord Of The Rings The Fellowship of The Ring,The Descent,The Warriors,Airplane,Ghostbusters,The Thing,Top Gun,Social Network,The Cabin In The Woods, The Dark Knight Rises,Tree Of Life,Whiplash

 

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The 25 Best… 2010’s to Now Movies!

The 25 Best… 2010’s to Now Movies!

by Phil's Quick Review Best... Other Cr*p

In our latest regular feature, coming out the first Friday of each month, Phil (of Phil’s Quick Capsule Review)  along with podcaster Josh Morris, Writer Mike Parkin, Grosse Point Geek’s Will Strong and Motion Picture Manic Jamie Robinson breakdown the 25 Best Films Of each major film decade.

 

This time out: The 2010’s to Now! 

 

The close but no cigar Films: Everybody Wants Some, The Final Girls, I Olga Hepnarova, No One Lives, The Jungle Book (2016), Hugo, The Guest, Zootopia, Black Swan, Dawn of The Planet of The Apes, Drive, Florentina Hubaldo CTE

 

 

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My life In Movies… (Best Film from EVERY Year I’ve Been Alive)

My life In Movies… (Best Film from EVERY Year I’ve Been Alive)

by Phil Hobden Best... Other Cr*p

A look at the BEST films, one from each of my years on this planet…. (Yes ’86 and ’84 was impossible to split!)

… And yes a few do differ from my Annual ‘Film of The Year’.  Hindsight is a wonderful thing!!!

The 70’s

1976 – The Outlaw Josey wales
1977 – Star Wars
1978 – Dawn Of The Dead
1979 – Alien

The 80’s

1980 – Empire Strikes Back
1981 – Raiders Of The Lost Ark
1982 – The Thing
1983 – The Return Of The Jedi
1984 – Ghostbusters/ Gremlins
1985 – The Goonies
1986 – Aliens/ Ferris Bueller’s Day Off/ Top Gun
1987 – The Lost Boys
1988 – Die Hard
1989 – Tango & Cash

The 90’s

1990 – Goodfellas
1991 – Terminator 2 Judgement Day
1992 – Reservoir Dogs
1993 – The Nightmare Before Christmas
1994 – Pulp Fiction
1995 – Heat
1996 – Trainspotting
1997 – Con Air
1998 – Lock Stock & Two Smoking barells
1999 – Fight Club

The 2000’s 

2000 – Snatch
2001 – Black Hawk Down
2002 – 28 days Later
2003 – Love Actually
2004 – Shaun Of The Dead
2005 – Serenity
2006 – Children of Men
2007 – Bourne Ultimatum
2008 – The Dark Knight
2009 – Slumdog Millonaire
2010 – The Social Network

The 10’s 

2011 – Hugo
2012 – Skyfall
2013 – Rush
2014 – Wolf Of Wall Street
2015 – Whiplash
2016 – The Nice Guys

Phil Hobden
Editor – Phil’s Quick Capsule Review

Phil’s Top 5… Blumhouse Productions Films

Phil’s Top 5… Blumhouse Productions Films

by Phil Hobden Other Cr*p Top 5

Each week Phil, from Phil’s Quick Capsule Review, takes a look at a different movie or TV related Top Five.  This time out: Blumhouse Movies

For more on Blumhouse check out: http://www.blumhouse.com

 

Close but no cigar: Paranormal Activity 2, The Purge Anarchy, Insidious, The Town That Dreaded Sundown

 

5 – Hush
A house.  A deaf writer and a killer on the loose.  Yup Hush is a house invasion story with a twist. It’s also tense, brutal and great fun.

4 – The Bay
A found footage film with a difference, The Bay is clever, razor sharp and brilliantly directed by it’s former near award winning A-list director.  One to look up if you missed it.

3 – Paranormal Activity
Takes The Blair Witch Project’s found footage concept and, with a little help from Spielberg, launches a whole sub-genre of films.

2 – The Purge: Election Year
The third and best of The Purge films, Election Year is a visually stunning, well paced action horror that benefits from a starring role for Frank Grillo.

1 – Whiplash
Not a tradition Blumhouse Production but regardless Whiplash sits under the same studio and follows a similar budget and high concept.  Whiplash is a great film, smart, memorable and quotable.  The best film of 2015.

 

 

La La Land – A Quick Capsule Review

La La Land – A Quick Capsule Review

by Phil Hobden Quick Review

Phil’s Quick Capsule Review:
La La Land is charming, funny, heart warming stuff.  The THIRD film by director Chazelle following up from the amazing Whiplash, is a shoe-in to win big at this years awards and rightly so.  It;’s uplifting in the way that old School Hollywood films were and staged beautifully.  It’s memorable stuff which ALMOST lives up to the hype, even if the last act isn’t quite as sharp or peppy as the two before.  So the first much watch Awards show film of 2017… 

Best Bit: The opening

Buy, Stream, Avoid: Stream

If You Liked this Try: Everyone Says I Love You, Whiplash, Birdman

IMDB Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★

 

Author: Phil Hobden

Best Film of 2015: Whiplash

Best Film of 2015: Whiplash

by Phil Hobden Best & Worst Quick Review

Phil’s Quick Capsule Review:
What a film.  Mark my words if not the film of the year Whiplash will certainly be up there on a very short list.  From top notch performances, some of the best use of editing and music I’ve seen in a long time and with a story and characters you buy into 100%, cinema doesn’t get any more enthralling than this.  Can’t recommend this enough.

Best Bit: JK Simmons

Buy, Rent, Stream, Borrow: Buy

If You Liked this Try: Birdman, Nightcrawler, Boyhood

 

IMDB Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★

 

Author: Phil Hobden

Phil’s End Of Year Awards 2015

Phil’s End Of Year Awards 2015

by Phil Hobden Quick Review Year In Review

So 2015 is almost over and it’s that time a year again where everyone reflects back on their best and worst films of the year. So we’ve covered our best and our worst films of 2015, so before we look at the films coming up in 2016 here’s my ‘Alternative’ End of Year Awards for 2015…

Alternate Film Of The Year…
Sharknado 3


Surprise of The Year…
The below average nature of the years blockbusters


Performance Of The Year…
James Cameron for his press work on Terminator Genarseshite where he sated it was a great film.  It wasn’t.


Just Fuck Off and Die Award…
Sharknado 3


Trailer Of The Year Award…
Star Wars Episode 7: The Force Awakens

 

The Emperors New Clothes Award…
Mad Max Fury Road

 

That Came Out This Year… Damn.  Totally Forgot
Blackout and Chappie.

 

The Oscars did WHAT this year?
Forgetting Joan Rivers.  And Richard Kiel. And numerous others…

 

The Poof That Award Shows Suck Award…
Oscar snub for Pride.  And Kajaki. The two best British film of last year!

 

The Poof That Award Shows DONT Suck Award…
Whiplash!


Best TV Show of 2015…
Narcos. Or Daredevil. Or Ash Vs Evil Dead. Or pretty much 100 others.

 

The WAS the Worst Film of 2015 Award After I saw it in 2014… 
He who Dares 2: Downing Street Down

 

Films That SHOULD have been on my 2014 List’s but I Hadn’t Seen…
Kajaki & Pride.

 

Next time: Phil’s Look at 2016 and a look back at my 2015 predictions… 

Phil’s 5 Best Films of 2015 (Updated)

Phil’s 5 Best Films of 2015 (Updated)

by Phil Hobden 2015: In Review Quick Review Year In Review

So 2015 is almost over and it’s that time a year again where everyone reflects back on their best and worst films of the year. So here it is: my pick of the BEST films of 2015.

Film of The Year: Whiplash 
In Brief: Lets be honest this was my No1 film of the year from the moment I watched it.  Excellent performances , superbly made and expertly edited – this was one of those once in a decade type films.  A must watch and 100% my tempo.

 

 

2. Inside Out 
In Brief:  Pixar delivers big after a few years of “meh” movies.  It made me laugh.  It made me cry.  It made me remember why I fell in love with films again.

3.  Shaun The Sheep
In Brief:I have a real soft spot for Shaun The Sheep – a funny, charming animated feature where barely a word is spoken.

4. Birdman
In Brief: For most of the year this ran a very close second to Whiplash and even now it ‘s still one of the bets film of the year.  Innovate, different yet totally captivating.

5.Star Wars The Force Awakens
In Brief: It’s Star Wars and after the horrid memory of the prequels still leaving a bitter taste so much could have gone wrong.  It didn’t.  It delivers.  It sets a high bar.

Bubbling under:
6. The Martian, 7. Sicario, 8. Kingsmen: The Secret Service , 9. Pitch Perfect 2 , 10. Unfriended , The Infinite Man,  John Wick ,  Focus,  The Theory Of Everything, Going Clear , Cinderella ,  Man Up, Son Of A Gun

 

Phil’s Quick Capsule Review & Friends FILMS TO WATCH For 2015 Part 2: The Final Girls, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, Listen To Me Marlon, Green Room, The Martian, White God

Phil’s Quick Capsule Review & Friends FILMS TO WATCH For 2015 Part 2: The Final Girls, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, Listen To Me Marlon, Green Room, The Martian, White God

by Phil Hobden Other Cr*p Quick Review Year In Review
The votes are in.  The long list has been reduced to just 12… and here they are, the Phil’s Quick Capsule Review & Guests list of the FILMS TO WATCH for 2015.

In no particular order:

 

#7: The Final Girls
A young woman grieving the loss of her mother, a famous scream queen from the 1980s, finds herself pulled into the world of her mom’s most famous movie. Reunited, the women must fight off the film’s maniacal killer.

 

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#8: Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
High schooler Greg, who spends most of his time making parodies of classic movies with his co-worker Earl, finds his outlook forever altered after befriending a classmate who has just been diagnosed with cancer.

 

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#9: Listen To Me Marlon
A documentary that utilizes hundreds of hours of audio that Marlon Brando recorded over the course of his life to tell the screen legend’s story.

 

 

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#10: Green Room
A young punk rock band find themselves trapped in a secluded venue after stumbling upon a horrific act of violence.

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#11: The Martian
During a manned mission to Mars, Astronaut Mark Watney is presumed dead after a fierce storm and left behind by his crew. But Watney has survived and finds himself stranded and alone on the hostile planet. With only meager supplies, he must draw upon his ingenuity, wit and spirit to subsist and find a way to signal to Earth that he is alive.

 


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#12: White God
Thirteen-year-old Lili fights to protect her dog Hagen. She is devastated when her father eventually sets Hagen free on the streets. Still innocently believing love can conquer any difficulty, Lili sets out to find her dog and save him.

 

 

 

Next Time: Turd Of The Year for 2016!