review

The Meg – Film Review

~ MKW Publishing ~ Leave a comment

This was a must on my list as soon as I saw it advertised. After being traumatised by watching Jaws at a young age, I tend to lean more towards slightly different shark movies these days. Avoiding ones like The Shallows and going more for Deep Blue Sea. Haven’t quite got round to watching Sharknado yet, far more good films to get through first.

The Meg (2018) wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, I wasn’t expecting much but possibly just a bit more. Stratham was his usual self which always brings a bit of comedy, but they seem to want you to have feeling towards the characters very early in without laying any foundations. You didn’t have to wait long for some action, but for me it fell flat. I wanted the drama of Deep Blue Sea, the tension of Jaws and the beach goers but with the size of the Meg. Not that I wanted more people to fall foul of the shark, but it seemed comedy by the time they got to the beach scene. No real tension. I have a fossilised Megalodon tooth and can appreciate how big these creatures were – so my expectation of havoc and carnage was higher. Sometimes laughable (on purpose), and entertaining enough. Watching it a second time didn’t really hold my attention though.

I guess I wanted Jaws, but bigger.

The Meg.jpg

Dark City – Film Review

~ MKW Publishing ~ Leave a comment

This has been a favourite of mine for over two decades now, Dark City (1998) is everything I like in  film. It’s got a strange undertone, weird timing and characters, almost stunted dialogue – which ordinarily would put me off – but a wonderful atmosphere and story line. It’s science fiction horror with some good special effects. But its the concept that stayed with me for years after, thinking about if something like that could occur. I guess it’s the same for any fictional movie or situation, but that’s how I rate a good film to me, does it stay with me? Does it get me thinking? If all I am thinking is how I could have done it better, then I take that mostly as a #filmfail. This is not the case for this one, a random film that went under the radar a bit at the time but will always be on my favourites list.

dark city

 

The Goonies – Film Review

~ MKW Publishing ~ Leave a comment

High on my list of favourites, The Goonies (1985), is a classic and gave me a want for adventure I may not have found otherwise as a kid. It still never fails to entertain me and hold my attention (mostly) and really does have a feel good factor films don’t always capture anymore.

It came at a time in my life when I felt powerless about moving around a lot too, so potentially it hit a personal chord. But the excitement of being swept up into a thrilling plot from what appeared to be nothing but a dreary Saturday (we get them a lot in the U.K), was enthralling. I am also quite shocked if anyone tells me they don’t like The Goonies, fine say you haven’t seen it, but seen it and did not like it? Its got adventure, friendship, hardship, peril and more – what’s not to love? Then I remember that not everyone was a child when it came out, or when they saw it, so I don’t judge now until I know which it is…

Goonies

The Goonies (1985)

Lawnmower Man – Film Review

~ MKW Publishing ~ Leave a comment

How did I miss this little gem? For years this film was just a trailer to me, one of the ones at the beginning of your VHS. I got a vague gist of the plot, noted the actor, film and year it came out (which is what my brain likes to remember), but never actually got round to watching it. I don’t think I ever saw it randomly in the TV guide or at Christmas either, so if a film dropped off the radar it was gone and your chance was missed.

So, when my husband mentioned The Lawnmower Man (1992) the other day during a conversation we were having about virtual reality, I thought why not. In this current age of access to any film at any time through various mediums, I found it on one of my subscriptions and finally got to watch it.

It’s not fancy, or over scripted and lays the premise out well in the early part of them film. Now and again, I actually forgot I was watching a movie from the 90’s, to me it has held up well. The graphics were really cool and reminiscent of Tron (quite refreshing after the amount of CGI I have been subjected to in films recently where possibly only 20% of the film is real), and I liked where the story went and it was at a good pace – it does go a bit crazy and out there towards the end which was hilarious and I could tell which bits they ‘borrowed’ from Stephen King’s short story of the same title. Also there was something about the main characters early persona that seemed very similar to a certain Simple Jack in Tropic Thunder – definitely something there, although Fahey didn’t quite go ‘full retard’ like Ben Stiller did for that role. Also it was interesting to see a projection (however fictional) of something that is now becoming mainstream and is marked as the future. Virtual reality is the next big money maker apparently and after films like this and Ready Player One, it does make me question further whether our sometimes fragile minds will be able to take it…

I thoroughly enjoyed this film, might not be the greatest, but very watchable to me.

Lawnmower Man

Film Reviews…

~ MKW Publishing ~ Leave a comment

Films have been my thing for over 30 years now and I usually refrain from doing reviews. I can usually talk until the cows come home about films, so why not see if I can convert that into written word. I have recently seen some awful ones and think maybe it’s time to share my opinion on these films and throw in the great ones too for good measure. I’m not one for spoilers or giving you a plot run down or character names etc, I will say what I thought of the film.

It’s funny how the most recent ones that have made the grade have been films I seem to have missed when they came out an age ago or just never got round to watching. We didn’t have the luxury of recording everything or having constant film channels, if you didn’t see it at the cinema, rent the video from Blockbuster or see it on the TV you didn’t get to watch it. Film lending among friends wasn’t very common, they were expensive and people were prone to not returning things! Now we have access to pretty much any film from any time, technically my dream come true. I used to say to myself (because no-one else was interested), I wish I could have access to a virtual blockbuster video store through the TV, then I wouldn’t have to be disappointed that the film I wanted wasn’t available. And now two decades later we are here, and can I think of anything to watch most days? Of course not. Too much choice now, but that is another story…

Films

 

 

Flatliners – Film Review (Remake)

~ MKW Publishing ~ Leave a comment

I don’t often get round to doing movie reviews, not in writing anyway, but thought I would make more of an effort given how much I enjoy them.

So, Flatliners. Not one to discount a film because it’s a remake (turns out most films are), I was interested in this one because I hold the original in such high regard and affection. It was a film of my youth and the subject matter was right up my street as you would say.

I wasn’t impressed with the remake, it seemed to try to hard to be scary, when the original didn’t really have to, it just was. But in a creeping sinister way, it left some of the thinking up to you, some of the wondering about what was going on.

The remake didn’t really give me any depth of character, they just gave me lots of character information, they are not the same. They made it jumpy too quickly and lost my attention. I watched until the end so I could see where they were going with it all, but haven’t re watched it. Yet the original, I could still watch that one at the drop of a hat…