Bria Lou Reviews

  I had heard of this film (and the book), but I never really had an interest in seeing it. Not only did I not know what it was about, but it seemed like one of those inaccessible stories that's really hard to understand. So I can't say I wasn't a bit apprehensive when I chose this one. Thankfully, it wasn't as inaccessible as I thought it would be. In fact, I ended up enjoying it much more than I thought I would. That being said, I didn't find the plot as interesting as I wanted to. Watching people uncover a mystery is in itself quite interesting, but I was a lot more interested in the characters than I was in what the actual mystery was.  And for me this was because the mystery was locked up in a lot of lore, mostly rooted in religion and art among other things that I wasn't particularly interested in, and so the deeper we got into this background, the less I cared about the story behind the mystery. But as mentioned, I did really like the characters. I enjoye...

When Lauren goes to pick up her daughter Evie from university, she discovers that not only is Evie not there, she hasn't been there for weeks. As Lauren unravels the mystery of where Evie has gone, she soon finds herself and her family in grave danger. I'm always excited for the next T.M. Logan book. He's my favourite author, and I always pre-order his upcoming books. This one in particular had a really interesting premise so I was a bit more excited than usual. This wasn't my favourite of Logan's novels, but I enjoyed it! It was really engaging from the very beginning. A few chapters in I already really cared about the characters and felt completely invested in the mystery. You get to know the characters really quickly, and that makes everything much more interesting. However, it takes a really long time for anything substantial to happen, and even then there are a lot of red herrings that lead nowhere, which ultimately makes the book feel longer than it is. Though...

  An astronaut (Casey Affleck) struggles to maintain his grip on reality while embarking on a potentially fatal mission. This was a really random choice, as it wasn't something I heard much about before it came out, and I don't really love movies set in space. But I'm a fan of the actors involved so that was reason enough to check it out! I liked this film more than I thought I was going to, but that doesn't mean it was that good! The film kind of tells two stories, the one about what's happening in space with the crew (Affleck, Laurence Fishburne and Tomer Capone), and the past love story on Earth between John (Affleck) and Zoe (Emily Beecham). I was a lot more interested in the love story than the space story until the last maybe 30 minutes of the movie. I wanted to see so much more of it. But in saying that, whether we're focused on the love story or the space story, none of the characters had enough chemistry. And while their performances were great, you don...

  Next up was a much-anticipated re-watch! I saw this film for the first time a few years ago, and while I remember enjoying it, I couldn't really remember too many specific details about it, so I'm glad it was on the list - especially because it's one that I would have expected to be on the list last year. I also had no idea until writing this review that I actually reviewed this film back in 2019, so it was really interesting to go back and read that! The first thing that has to be pointed out is how great the acting is. Robert De Niro is obviously amazing in this role and the supporting cast are great too. But in particular, Jodie Foster, who was only 12 years old when she played her role(!) did an incredible job. And despite the controversy of the role, the character was able to have a great arc and an interesting relationship with Travis, which is part of what makes the story so interesting. And ironically, Scorsese's small cameo is one of the best-acted scenes in ...

Kraven's (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) complicated relationship with his father leads to him becoming one of the greatest, most feared hunters in the world. I heard such bad things about this film before seeing it, the reviews were horrible! So I unintentionally put off watching it for a while. But I'm glad I finally got around to it. I don't know if it's because of all the negative reviews, but I ended up having a great time. Now, that's not to say this was a great film, but I had a lot of fun watching it. For a start, I thought the story was really interesting, especially because we got to see a significant portion of Kraven's childhood before we get to present day (though the 'past' section could have been a bit shorter). At almost an hour in I had no idea where the story was going, but I was enjoying the journey. And this stayed the same the whole way through, I didn't really know what was happening but I had fun with it. I really loved seeing the way t...

  At first I thought this was a re-watch but about 40 minutes in I realised that I don't think I'd seen it before, so I'm glad it was on the list! I find disaster movies a bit hit-or-miss. There are some that I really love and will watch repeatedly, and others that I never want to see again. I didn't love this movie, but I didn't hate it either. I feel quite neutral about it. I didn't know who was in the film before watching, outside of Will Smith, so it was nice that there were a lot of familiar faces, all of whom did a great job with their characters. I also didn't remember exactly what the film was about - I thought it was more of a straight natural disaster movie than an alien invasion disaster movie.  I really liked the variety of stories and characters that we follow. We see this situation through different points of view, following different characters and each one is as interesting as the next. As someone who doesn't typically love films centred ...

New Captain America, Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), finds himself at the centre of an international disaster. But can he find the true mastermind before it's too late? I'll admit I haven't kept up with the MCU post-endgame, but with the current slate of new movies I'm really excited to get back into it.  I tried to ignore reviews and go into this film with no expectations, and I ended up liking it. For a start, the cast is great! The film stars Mackie, Danny Ramirez, Carl Lumbly, Giancarlo Esposito, Shira Haas and Harrison Ford, and they all did a great job with their characters. It was particularly great seeing Mackie, Ramirez and Lumbly reprise their roles from the 'Falcon and the Winter Soldier' TV show. Mackie and Ramirez had great chemistry, which was really fun to watch. But as good as the actors were, it would have been nice to get to know some of these characters a bit better, especially if you never saw the show. The story was genuinely an interesting one...