James_Johnson79 Reviews

Bullet Train (2022)

Fun and stylish action flick

[7/10 · 15 August 2022]

This movie gives you exactly what you expect: solid action movie with a touch of humor to keep things light and comedic at times.

Good acting from the all cast. I was especially positively surprised by the performance of Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Tangerine) and Brian Tyree Henry (Lemon) and the depth of their characters on screen.

However the storyline, the villain and the motives for the characters are all forgettable. Then again, you don't go into this type of movie with the expectation of a heavy drama plot with lots of twists :D

Great action movie for a Friday night evening when you are looking for something light.

Gods of Egypt (2016)

A vibrant fantasy movie with a bold style that was misunderstood

[7/10 · 28 July 2016]

Before I watched this movie, I heard about the negative reviews about it. I read that the CGI was awful and that acting was terrible.

I must say people are too quick to criticize. This movie has a unique style and that is what made a lot of people to judge very quickly.

This movie is not a realistic or historical representation of Egypt and it never tries to be. It is more of a picture of how gods would look like and with a taste of magic and dream. The fact that gods are portrayed twice the size of humans should be the first sign of this style.

The color palette chosen for the movie is beautiful focusing on yellow of gold and brown of sand. This coupled with the vibrant and warm colors of the environments and set pieces create a delightful picture to watch.

The story is interesting to follow as it unfolds right from the beginning of the movie with a clash between two brothers. As it is common in these kind of stories, the bad and the good characters are easy to see from the beginning.

The CGI is mostly good and not as bad as it is called out by some people. The creatures are nicely created and the effects are mostly good with the exception of fire/explosion effects. There were times they felt a bit cheap considering the big budget of 140 million dollars of the movie.

I really like the humorous conversations between Bek (Brenton Thwaites) and Horus(Nikolaj Coaster-Waldau), the god of sky. Brenton's character really added a much appreciated tone of fun to the movie and made me feel that familiar sense of feeling of similar movies like Prince of Persia(2010). Actually this movie has some resemblance even to the video game of Prince of Persia for example with the design of creature/guardians. Anyway Brenton Thwaites really puts a good performance and I am curious to see what he will be able to do in the upcoming Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.

Gerard Butler fulfills his familiar role of war leader very well as expected, of course he is no stranger to these roles.

Nikolaj Coaster-Waldau does a great job portraying his character Horus as well. Although it would be nicer to see a bit more of his character's background.

Overall this movie offers a fun, humorous, entertaining story in a fantasy world filled with magical powers of gods and hatred and love. This movie is bold, vibrant and fast, it's a shame some people couldn't see beyond the distinct choice of style, which I personally found interesting.

High-Rise (2015)

A very disappointing film that has a feeling of a failed modern museum art piece

[2/10 · 27 July 2016]

This is a movie that I was really excited to watch. After watching the trailers for the movie I expected something like Snowpiercer(2013) which questioned the division of social classes in our society. I thought this movie would be along those lines with a minimalist tone.

However this movie failed to tell a complete story and it was actually hard to follow or connect any of the events in the movie. It starts with introducing the main character and the environment, however it doesn't go into depth beyond the introduction. It misses the opportunity to tell potentially good stories. It doesn't even tell why they have built those high buildings in the first place.

Soon after, everything becomes getting intertwined and turns into a f*ck-fest with violence that is very hard to understand why anything is happening in the first place.

A very disappointing film that has a feeling of a failed modern museum art piece that doesn't make much sense and is all over the place.