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In The Grey | Film Review

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  A team of specialist operatives work together to retrieve a billion-dollar fortune. I was wary about this film, not just because the premise was quite vague, but because I don't tend to enjoy Guy Richie movies (with a couple of exceptions). But because of the cast, I wanted to give it a try. Unfortunately, but unsurprisingly, I didn't love this one. From the beginning, nothing about the film felt particularly original. The concept of the mission, and the characters, felt like amalgamations of other things that have already been seen. The voiceover was telling the audience way too much, rather than letting us figure things out by ourselves. The movie never tries to make the audience care about the mission. It does try to make us care about a select few characters, but even then this isn't particularly effective. It moves really quickly and is more than happy to leave the audience behind - it doesn't care if we catch up or not. Throughout the film some of the acting cho...
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The Tenant | 100 Movies Bucket List

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  One thing I would add to the bucket list is a lot more psychological horrors. I feel like this is a really underrated sub-genre, particularly when looking at classic movies, so even though I knew nothing about this movie, seeing it classed as a psychological horror made me excited to see it. I liked this film. The best thing about movies like this is the way everything builds. Going in blind, you don't even really know what the movie is about, so you get to fall deeper and deeper into it in the same way that the main character does. The pace is great, a lot happens in a short space of time. You're immediately invested, and the more room there is for weirder things to happen, the more interested you are. This does sometimes make the film feel longer than it is, as it packs a lot into a short time, but because you're interested in what's happening the runtime never really becomes an issue. As the audience, we feel like we're living in this apartment alongside the ch...
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How to Make a Killing | Film Review

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  Disowned by his wealthy family, Becket Redfellow (Glen Powell) will stop at nothing to get his inheritance. I didn't hear great things about this film when it first came out, but the premise sounded interesting, and I've liked Glen Powell in the few films I've seen him in, so it was added to my watchlist. I thought the film was fine - nothing special but I did enjoy it. The idea, while not the most original concept, is an interesting one that allows you to really focus on the character. The outcome of a story like this is completely dependant on what kind of character we're following. It took me a while to really understand or like the character of Becket. The voice-over didn't really work for me, and I never felt particularly interested in him, which is more about the writing than the acting as I do think Powell played him well, he was great in the role and felt suited to it. And to that end, the entire cast is great and make the story fun to watch. Sometimes the...
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Black Sunday | 100 Movies Bucket List

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The film is called 'Mask of Satan' on the bucket list poster and I actually prefer that name! I'd never heard of this film before seeing it on the bucket list, but the premise looked really interesting so I was looking forward to seeing it. I liked this film, but I feel like the idea of it was better than the execution, at least for me. Witches and witchcraft are always interesting genres for horror movies, and there's definitely not enough of them on the list. But combining that with revenge and female rage is such a great idea and makes for a satisfying watch. But this film also manages to be a vampire movie, which turns the typical witch movie on its head. I probably would have preferred it to lean further into the witch aspect but I appreciate the way these are mixed. I wanted to see a lot more of the female characters. Their stories carried the film, so I wanted to know as much about them as possible. And while we do follow them, it wasn't enough for my liking....
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Messiah of Evil | 100 Movies Bucket List

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  I hadn't heard of this film before the bucket list, and the premise was a bit vague so it felt like going in blind. Unfortunately I didn't love this one. This is a 1973/4 movie, but even for the 70s, everything feels old-fashioned. And it doesn't seem that this was a stylistic choice; it wasn't set further in the past. If I had to guess the time period I would have said much earlier. We're thrown into the story with not much context. We don't know who we're following or why, which is a positive and negative. On the one hand, we're able to understand the main character's frame of mind because she's also in a new place with no context for what the town is. But on the other hand, it makes it harder to get into the story. And for me it was hard to get into for quite a while. The film is at its best when it really leans into the horror. Sometimes subtle horror really works, but for this one in particular I would have preferred much more overt horror...
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Undertone | Film Review

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  When podcast host Evy (Nina Kiri) is sent recordings of a couple's paranormal encounters, she soon discovers that the encounters mirror her own. Horror movies have been getting great word of mouth lately, there are at least four that I've heard great things about, this being one of them, so it was immediately on the to-watch list. I liked this movie, but there are definitely some issues with it. It's really interesting to have a horror movie focused so much on sound. A lot of the atmosphere is created from what we can hear rather than what we see, which makes things incredibly unique. That being said, the shots also do a good job of creating this unsettling feeling that's present throughout the movie. Filming from afar and behind works really well for a film like this, with a single location. It means that, even though we're mostly in one room, it never feels claustrophobic or boring. The varying lighting changes also help with this. Having both a single location ...
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The Omen (1976) | 100 Movies Bucket List

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  I'd seen this film a few times before this re-watch, but it had been a good few years so I was looking forward to seeing it again. I liked this film. The cast of the film is great. Gregory Peck and Lee Remick are fantastic in their roles, but Henry Spencer Stephens is fantastic as Damien. The film rests on his performance and it really works because of how authentic he feels in the role. I loved the feel of the film. You could watch two minutes of any scene and know that it's a 70s movie. In an era where a lot of films look the same, it's great to watch older movies and see how distinct they feel to their decade. It's really well written - the way things are teased out slowly is really impactful. As the viewer, due to how iconic the movie is, even on a first watch we know exactly who and what Damien is. But the fun of the film is seeing the people around him, particularly his parents, figuring things out. The horrors are created really well. The scariest thing about t...
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