SilentLuminary Reviews

  Genre: Horror/ Comedy Time: 3hrs Director:  Ari Aster Quick Summary : Following the sudden death of his mother, a mild-mannered but anxiety-ridden man confronts his darkest fears as he embarks on an epic, Kafkaesque odyssey back home. I'm not entirely sure how to describe this. This kinda broke my brain. Cinematography wise this was amazing. It was full of clever shots and camera pans. The use of colours and the background scenery is honestly so imaginative. I was so hooked on how visually entertaining this is. It goes all out with the scenes, maxing out how much they can fit in without overloading and it works. There is always something going on, even in the background which I really liked. The dialogue I really enjoyed too, constantly playing upon what other people's reactions are to words we don't actually hear which I found really interesting. As well the monologues were perfectly paced and I never found myself getting bored of what was being said. A good handful ...

  Genre:  Sci-fi/Action Time: 1h 53mins Director:  Luc Besson Quick Summary:  In the colourful future, a cab driver unwittingly becomes the central figure in the search for a legendary cosmic weapon to keep Evil and Mr Zorg at bay I instantly fell in love with this film, it's so full of charm and wonderfully extra. The plot is not particularly original, man has to save the world before humanity is wiped out, but there is so much that goes into this that honestly I didn't care. Since it is presented so amazingly, you forget about how simple the plot is.  The world-building in this is phenomenal, the amount of detail that went into just costumes was crazy. Each costume was personally made and each one was unique to the person. The sets were incredibly futuristic without seeming ridiculous, most of them being fully practical with digital enchantments and even if they are dated a bit now, because of how grand this film is it's easy to forgive. I love how creative an...

  Genre: Musical/ Romance Time: 2h 7mins Director:  Baz Luhrmann Quick Summary:  A poor Bohemian poet in 1890s Paris falls for a beautiful courtesan and nightclub star coveted by a jealous duke. A very loud and bombastic film, that overloads your senses in a wonderful way.  Now for a romance film, it's not the most unique. It has a very cliche love triangle which in the end is very obvious and predictable. Where this is refreshing is the characters, they're honestly so extravagant and full of life, there wasn't one character I disliked. Everyone had their own fleshed-out personality and all managed to keep their own spotlight in the manic and frantic nature of this film. Ewan McGregor is absolutely amazing in this and his singing is equally as amazing. He is charismatic and really knows how to sell anything he is doing with ease. Nicole Kidman is his equal in this, being such a fun character to watch on screen, and together they produce a wonderful on-screen romanc...

  Genre: Action/ Superhero Time: 1h 33mins Director:  Sidney J. Furie Quick Summary:  The Man of Steel crusades for nuclear disarmament and meets Lex Luthor's latest creation, Nuclear Man. The setup for this was alright, I found it really interesting. It gave a heavy handful of moral issues for Superman, showing us a more reluctant side to him. After that, the film plummets. Things that were initially set up are solved instantly so that we can move on to what this film is about, which funnily enough ruins this film. Various plot points are dropped randomly and unfinished, or they're rushed through so quickly they don't feel finished, or even they make some downright awful unbelievable reason to solve issues.  The special effects are another bad point of this film. For example, the same terrible "green screen" shot of Superman flying toward the audience is reused so many times, and it's so bad that you didn't even want to see it once. In general, the plot...

  Genre: Comedy/Family Time: 1h 16mins Director:  Clay Weiner Quick Summary:  Lovestruck, awkward teen Fred Figglehorn makes desperate attempts to make Judy fall in love with him - while also dodging the mischievous Kevin. I'm ashamed to admit I found this actually funny. I'm sure why  I found it funny, though I will say many jokes are just so stupid you can't help but laugh at them.  Aside from the constant high-pitch screaming, Fred flails about doing any task causing so much havoc and destroying stuff. Then he tries to do absolutely anything and continuously fails at it. Repetitively. At first, you laugh at him, then after he tried four times in a row,  It's really painful to watch.  As expected, the acting and dialogue are dreadful. Pixie Lot plays Fred's love interest and boy, you can tell they only got her so she could for a few scenes.  Okay, for the first half of this movie, I did find it stupidly funny. After that I became bored. It see...

  Genre: Romance/ Drama Time: 2h Director:  Andy Tennant Quick Summary:  The Brothers Grimm arrive at the home of a wealthy Grande Dame who speaks of the many legends surrounding the fable of the cinder girl before telling the "true" story of her ancestor. As a fairytale, this movie follows a predictable pattern and storyline. It is sweet, light, innocent and beautiful. This movie is most definitely not a retelling of the Cinderella story. It has aspects of that, the basic plotline, but a twist all its own. I really liked how realistic this was. Especially the landscapes, they were honestly so pretty and made this movie magical in its own way. Set in 16th-century France, is somewhat historically accurate. Obviously, it's not 100%, as why would they for a Cinderella story. One thing I really appreciated was that The prince and Cinderella actually developed a romance before the ball.  Another thing is the characters are so well written and portrayed. Everyone is give...

  Genre: Horror/Thriller Time: 1h 40mins Director:  Jeff Wadlow Quick Summary:  A harmless game of Truth or Dare among friends turns deadly when someone - or something - begins to punish those who tell a lie or refuse the dare. This isn't a terrible film at all, I was really entertained throughout this but that's only because it's so stupid it becomes funny. One of the biggest problems with this is the characters since they are all just archetypes and don't really branch out of those. The dialogue is so silly, and a lot of the time the characters just seemed to ever underreact or overreact to events. I did find it absolutely hilarious that in one character's death (who they were close friends with) they essentially were like oh man, sucks to be him and then on the next one they were screaming and crying. One thing I need to bring up is when certain characters get possessed, they have this stupid face that looks like someone was playing around with filters. It doe...

  Genre: Action/ Adventure Time: 2h 30mins Director:  James Gunn Quick Summary:  Still reeling from the loss of Gamora, Peter Quill rallies his team to defend the universe and one of their own - a mission that could mean the end of the Guardians if not successful. I cried. I'm sure you will too. This is one of the best recent Marvel films if I'm honest. It's fun and emotional, alternates between the two and blends them together fantastically. Throughout the movie, Rocket's character is at the core of the story, and his journey is one of the most interesting and impactful elements of the film. It's amazing how much emotion was put into him, being one of the most closed-off and least approachable of the group, it was nice (but so sad) to see his origins. I loved the humour, it was right on point for the tone. Nothing felt forced or cheesy, like most newer Marvel films. I'm glad James Gunn has managed to keep the charm to Guardians throughout all three movies, it...

  Genre: Fantasy/ Adventure  Time: 2h 21mins Director:  John Boorman Quick Summary:  Merlin the magician helps Arthur Pendragon unite the Britons around the Round Table of Camelot, even as dark forces conspire to tear it apart. I will start off by saying this isn't for everyone, a lot of people will get bored by this as unfortunately, it is incredibly long and disjointed with its pacing. Aesthetic-wise, this is stunning to look at. So much detail has gone into everything it's outstanding. Sadly everything else is just a mess. Jumping from one scene to another, sometimes jumping forward into the future by months or years without actually saying can make it very confusing.  Though it is hard to tell what is going on, it is so amazing to watch. It's really easy to get lost in the visual beauty of this, the set pieces and landscapes are so pretty all with a wonderful luminous filter over it giving the appearance of a time wrapped up in fantasy and magic.  I a...

  Genre: Comedy/ Action Time: 1h 43mins Director:  Nida Manzoor Quick Summary:  Ria Khan believes she must save her older sister Lena from her impending marriage. After enlisting her friends' help, she attempts to pull off the most ambitious of all wedding heists in the name of independence and sisterhood. After less than 45 minutes I was ready to leave. Then I did. It was unrealistic, so much of it I knew would not happen realistically. There were good parts but they were few and far between. The acting for me was awful, it was that or the script they were given was so poorly written they had nothing to use. Humour wise it was dreadful and over the top, but not in a good way. Everything was so over-exaggerated. It felt like it was trying way too hard to be funny, which to me made it extremely unfunny.  The characters were so unlikeable too. Some were overly whiney, some were cringy and some I just disliked how they were written. They make rash and reckless decision...

  Genre: Drama/ Psychological Thriller Time: 1h 30mins Director:  Mary Nighy Quick Summary:  A young woman trapped in an abusive relationship becomes the unwitting participant in an intervention staged by her two closest friends. This starts out really promising, the first quarter is really good at setting the scene and building us up to how this abusive relationship is. After that is nothing to this movie. It seems to go nowhere. Along with this, it's incredibly slow.  There is an entirely random side plot of a missing girl who we barely know anything about and it turns out she is not even relevant to the plot itself. I feel like they added this to fill out the "background" a bit more and focus on it for five minutes before forgetting about it.  This is not any sort of exciting thriller, there are no shocks, surprises, twists or turns to be had, which really disappointed me. Being labelled as a psychological thriller, I expected better psychological thriller ...

  Genre: Action/ Drama Time: 2h 15mins Director:  Gina Prince-Bythewood Quick Summary : A historical epic inspired by true events that took place in The Kingdom of Dahomey, one of the most powerful states of Africa in the 18th and 19th centuries. For a start, the story is engaging and the plot progression isn't bad. But something just felt missing. A lot of the side characters stood out way more than the main character, which I found annoying and every time she spoke I wanted her to just stop. To me the focus was more on the side characters, they felt more fleshed out, but then they constantly change how the characters are. One in particular who is supposed to be closed off, suddenly becomes very open and nice before snapping shut seconds after. Pretty much all of the fight scenes are so poor in how they're shot and edited. All the shots consist of our heroes swinging at someone off-screen or so visibly far away from them that it's super clear these fight scenes were no...

  Genre: Horror/ Fantasy  Time: 1h 36mins Director:  Lee Cronin Quick Summary:  A twisted tale of two estranged sisters whose reunion is cut short by the rise of flesh-possessing demons, thrusting them into a primal battle for survival as they face the most nightmarish version of family imaginable. This movie has a little bit of everything that a horror movie should have. There was a lot of gore, a lot of spooky jumpscares and moments with makeup and special effects adding to them, and it was all very tense. A great blend of CGI and practical effects still being utilized held this film up. As much as I liked the cast, we barely got to know them before all the scary demon stuff started happening, especially the woman who gets first possessed. Since she became a big part and factor in the gore and scary stuff, you don't really feel for her as much as I feel you should. Her acting was amazing though! She killed it and was actually really terrifying to watch. I did...

  Genre: Horror/ Thriller Time: 1h 25mins Director:  Chris Moore Quick Summary:  Whilst celebrating a graduation at a secluded vacation home, a group of college students find themselves targeted by a sadistic killer who forces them to play a deadly game of killing one another in order to survive. This is nothing special I will say right now. The concept is interesting. It's not something new, but it's done very well and keeps you engaged in the plot, instead of waiting for the next kill. It all becomes really repetitive. This is pretty much survival of the fittest for the slasher crowd with a mix of Saw, Scream and Battle Royale but less inventive because in the end nothing really stands out in this and is a forgettable throwaway. I did really like the kills as they were actually really brutal.  Some of the dialogue was really clunky at times, and some of the characters' decisions were really unrealistic. Normal people would not be reacting in the ways they wer...

  Genre: Horror/ Thriller Time: 1h 38mins Director:  Dario Argento Quick Summary:  A jazz pianist and a wisecracking journalist are pulled into a complex web of mystery after the former witnesses the brutal murder of a psychic. Even if you don't like this film, you won't forget it! It's absolutely full of extremely violent deaths that sadly have aged slightly due to the time this was made, but are still very squeamish and still have terrifying grossness to them. The plot is a bit all over the place, I found it hard to follow a lot of the time right up until the end which I think would confuse anyone who wasn't fully paying attention. It constantly tries to bluff you by making it seem like one person is the killer and another, until the final moments when it pulls out its last buff which honestly is more confusing than anything. Another thing was that I felt too long, a lot of scenes were dragged out. But then there are so many casual scenes of people just talking abou...

  Genre: Horror/Comedy Time: 1h 35mins Director:  Chris McKay Quick Summary:  Renfield, Dracula's henchman and inmate at the lunatic asylum for decades, longs for a life away from the Count, his various demands, and all of the bloodshed that comes with them. I found this film to be actually to be super fun and enjoyable. I mean, it isn't amazing, but it's still pretty good at the same time. It is a shame it has such a short run time as I honestly wanted more out of this. I could tell everyone involved in this was having so much fun. It's wonderfully over the top, managing to blend horror, stylized action, and comedy, but doing so in a way that is so clever and just the right amount. I loved the sharp humour as well, it flowed nicely in between everything and always delivered perfectly. To add to this, I really liked the over-the-top slapstick humour, it wasn't too much and honestly made some of the scenes much better. Initially, I was worried about the pacing as it...