Movie review: Bad Times at the El Royale (2018)

[Post published by Liviu, on Liviu's [Personal] Blog]

Nota bene: for other movie reviews, click for the dedicated page with movie reviews.

Bad Times at the El Royale (2018)

[IMDB; en.wikipedia]

Everything is great up to Billy Lee's (played by Chris Hemsworth) arrival at the El Royale:

• Entertaining movie, keeping the audience focused on the story at all times
• Coherent & Consistent storyline
• Really smart storyline with a few twists and turns
• Great acting
• Great post processing

...and then Billy Lee (Chris Hemsworth) arrives (accompanied by a cheap / second hand gang :D) at the El Royale:

• Everything breaks and
• The story stops making sense, drags, turns unnecessarily violent etc.

Look, I can understand (I really do!) the story has reached a deadlock and they really need another character at this point in order to push things forward… but they should have done it differently!

... but God is there watching - this joke regards the characters of Father Daniel Flynn (i.e. Jeff Bridges playing a fake priest), respectively Miles Miller (Lewis Pullman) looking for redemption :D - and He wants this to get very close to a great movie, so He makes the scriptwriters kill Billy Lee (Chris Hemsworth) - hooray! :) - and the story is back on track :) and everything ends beautifully and they all succeed in making a almost great movie :))

Reminds me to some extent of Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight (2015) with respect to the story style and story telling style, characters and acting, post processing etc.

Conclusions

Almost a great movie. Worth watching. It would have been even better if it wasn't for Billy Lee (Chris Hemsworth)! :))

Movie review: Mile 22

[Post published by Liviu, on Liviu's [Personal] Blog]

Nota bene: for other movie reviews, click for the dedicated page with movie reviews.

Mile 22 (2018)

[IMDB; en.wikipedia]

Awesome.
Entertaining.

Coherent & Consistent storyline.
Smart.
Many twists and turns - more than enough to please me :)

Lots of action. Lots.

Indeed, average special effects... However, I do understand all they do is shoot weapons (and these special effects are cheap and have become boring by now :D), but they do get it right, i.e. it all does feel real, so I'm pleased about it.

Fast paced. Really fast paced.
That's how you do an action movie! Congratulations!

Great acting. All actors work really well together, there's like this lucky chemistry between them.

This whole great combination (story, action, acting, cinematography, post processing etc.) keeps the viewer focused at all times.

Why do critics rate it so poorly? Dunno. Don't care. I guess we have to agree to disagree just like regarding the overhyped La La Land (2016) :)


As a side note, it reminds me of 16 Blocks (2006) [IMDB].

Conclusions

Awesome movie with respect to story, action, acting etc. Definitely worth watching. I totally recommend it.