Bria Lou Reviews

  I heard about this film ages ago, and added it to my to-watch list. But I don't remember hearing about it since, and so I forgot about it. However, it recently came on the Sky Premiere channel, so I finally got the chance to watch it. Police deputy Norman Young (Brenton Thwaites) covers up a murder committed by his brother, only for things to become complicated when Norman falls in love with the victim's sister. After I watched the movie, the first review I saw said something along the lines of 'Everyone watched this movie for the cast, not the plot'. I watched it for Claire Holt, who plays Abbey, so that review is definitely true for me! This isn't a great film at all. For a start, it assumes that we care about these characters, but it gives us nothing to care about. The characters, the story, there's not really anything there. None of these characters feel like real people. It's not that the premise of the story is particularly far-fetched, but that ever...

  I hadn't heard a single thing about this film before watching it, but the premise looked really interesting, so I thought I'd give it a go. A couple on holiday in Thailand wake up one morning to discover a video of one of them killing the other, but can they discover the truth behind the video before it's too late?   Now, for me, the film has a really interesting premise. It could have gone in so many different directions, with so many different explanations. Our main characters, Christine (Maggie Q) and Neil (Luke Hemsworth) feel realistic. This is both nice and unusual for a story that's so unrealistic and over-the-top. Speaking of the story, it gets more unrealistic and confusing the more you watch. It's the kind of film that throws things at the audience for shock factor without explaining them. However, even when things are confusing, you're still interested to see how it ends. We want that explanation. There were many ways that a concept like this could ...

  I'm trying not to give my thoughts away in my intro, but to be honest I wasn't sure when to upload this because I don't really want to talk about it, in the current climate or otherwise. But I saw it, I wrote some notes, and it won an Oscar. So I thought that I might as well share my thoughts before everyone forgets about it. This is the story of a black man who gets stuck in a time-loop that involves a confrontation with a white police officer that results in his death.  If my intro wasn't that clear, I didn't like this short film. In fact, if it had been a feature-length film, I would never have watched it. But because it was only half an hour, I thought I could probably handle it. Now what I will say is that I enjoyed this take on the time-loop premise. I've reviewed a few time-loop movies recently, and it's a concept I like when it's done in an original way, and this was original. I also really liked the protagonist, Carter James, played by Joey Ba...

  I've really enjoyed doing this post for the last two months, and as April has gone so quickly, it's nice to take the time to look back at March. The Map of Tiny Perfect Things | Film Review - This was my first review of March. I liked the idea of the film, but wasn't in love with the end result. I Care a Lot | Film Review - I went into this film with low expectations and was pleasantly surprised. I recently watched it again and it's definitely as good as I thought it was! Shook | Film Review - This is a Shudder original horror movie. I didn't love the film, but I appreciated the unique premise. Review #83: Still Me by Jojo Moyes - I spent the best part of February reading this book, so I was happy to finally review it. I didn't love it, but I was happy to get to the end of Lou Clark's story. Anything For Jackson | Film Review - This is another Shudder original. And again, while I liked it more than Shook, I liked the premise more than the execution. Y...

  When I watched ' The Map of Tiny Perfect Things ', so many of the comments went something like this: 'it's fine, but not as good as Palm Springs'. I had no idea what Palm Springs was, and after researching, I loved the premise (which was very similar to 'The Map...'), so I was really glad to hear that it was coming out on Amazon Prime Video. Nyles (Andy Samberg) and Sarah (Cristin Milioti) meet at a wedding. After a series of events, they wake up the next morning trapped in a time loop that they can't escape. As they try to navigate the loop, and their newfound feelings for each other, will they ever escape this day? I loved this film. I've heard such good things about it, and it really lives up to the reputation. I took an instant liking to the character of Nyles, who is the first protagonist we're introduced to. But both of the protagonists are such great characters. They're both really well-written, and they had the perfect personalities...

  This year's Oscars is taking place this Sunday, 26th April. The Oscars is one of my favourite times of year, without a doubt. I love the preceding weeks where I get to see all of the films, and then I love that night where I stay up until 4 in the morning seeing who won. I've been really lucky to not be traumatically affected by the Pandemic, but one of the ways that I have been affected is the fact that cinemas have been closed, meaning that many films have either had to release on streaming platforms, or not at all. Because of the way that these films have (or haven't) come out, there's no way that I can get involved with the Oscars this year. And I hate that because I've watched religiously since 2016.  Of course, I'll still be reviewing the films when they come out, and I'll try to see as many as possible, but there's no way I could see them all before the ceremony. Speaking of the way that films have been being released, I enjoy the fact that a lo...

  I watched this late one Friday night just after this came out. It sounded like a lot of movies I've seen before, but I still wanted to see if it would be offering anything new. When married sports agent Derrick (Michael Ealy) has a one-night stand with Valerie (Hilary Swank), he soon finds that his life has been turned upside down. I kept the description vague so as not to spoil anything, but to be honest this story isn't that different to the 100 other movies with similar plots. Yes, there are more unique plot twists, but ultimately it's the same story. I found that the film didn't spend enough time with Derrick's wife, Tracie (Damaris Lewis). We never really know her, so it's harder to sympathise with her. And in a similar vein, there are many times when the film puts emphasis on the wrong things. Either it shows too much of Derrick's business and not enough of his relationship(s), or it sets things up that then aren't mentioned again. The pacing was...

I had no interest in watching this show when it first came out. I didn't know what it was about, I had other shows to watch, and it never really appealed to me. However, I was recommended it by a co-worker, who completely raved about it, so I thought I'd see what it was all about. Beth Harmon (Anya Taylor-Joy) is a Chess prodigy who aspires to be the best player in the world - despite her dark past and harrowing addictions. I went back and forth with this show. There were some episodes I loved, and others that I couldn't get into. But as I really liked the vast majority of the (7) episodes, I'm gonna say that I really enjoyed the overall show. For a start, it does this really interesting thing of making sure that the viewer doesn't need to be interested in Chess, but also forcing the viewer to be interested in Chess. Before this show, I had no interest in Chess, but I actually found myself trying to learn more about it. I found the show really compelling from the fi...