3/10 - Jupiter Ascending has some of the most beautiful space sequences in any film I have ever seen. Tragically, it is like that hot girl who can barely string together a coherent sentence. It gets a 3 for the beauty, but everything else is irreparably bad. The CGI orgy on the screen every five seconds made it look like a Michael Bay film and the subject matter reminded me of Star Wars if they removed everything that made those films good. The dialogue is cringeworthy throughout and absolutely brain dead moronic. The acting is somehow worse than the dialogue with Eddie Redmayne truly stealing the show. Wow was he horrific. He was the conductor of this massive train crash and he went full speed ahead on that crazy train. What may be the worst feature of the film is that it is two hours yet feels like it was ten hours. It was never truly slow, but just dragged on and on and never seemed to end. An incredibly stupid film that should have been killed humanely before it ever had $175 million spent on its production, Jupiter Ascending is impressively bad.



7/10 - Insidious does a fantastic job creating a terrifying atmosphere and then utilizing that atmosphere to scare the living hell out of the viewer. Certainly one of the scarier films I have seen, Insidious got me really good more than a couple of times. Director James Wan really knows his way around a horror movie and it shows here. The cast, led by Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne, is also really good. However, where Insidious falters is in the very far-fetched final act. Horror movies are obviously typically unbelievable, but good ones ere on the edge of possibility. Insidious goes completely off the reservation and gets lost out there. While it does not undo the terrifying first two acts, the third act could have been significantly better without trying to outsmart itself.



3/10 - Brick is the type of movie to really piss me off. It feels so self-important and, honestly, gives off an air of being better than everybody else. This comes through loud-and-clear in the dialogue as it just feels like an immature and juvenile film that was made by some obnoxious film school student. Tragically, I do like Rian Johnson and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, but this film annoyed the living hell out of me. The plot is aimless and stupid and when it all comes together at the end, it somehow becomes dumber. A film made on a shoestring budget, it certainly shows a lot of directorial promise for Johnson (that was certainly fulfilled with Looper), but man oh man was I let down by this. Brick is the film equivalent of an annoying teenager who thinks he's smarter than everybody else.



8/10 - There are far scarier films out there than The Ring, but that does not mean it did not scare me at times. There are some truly terrifying moments to be found in The Ring, but really, where it succeeds is a non-reliance on those scares. Through a truly creepy atmosphere set by director Gore Verbinski and composer Hans Zimmer, The Ring keeps you on edge without having to terrify you. In this way, The Ring is far more thriller than horror film, rather it is a thriller with horror elements. The way it adds to this with a great mystery/detective component as they try to figure out the backstory to the tape is captivating and truly engaging. I know it is a remake, but it still felt very refreshing in that way. Naomi Watts is great in this one, as are David Dorfman and Brian Cox. There may be scarier horror-type films out there, but not many as well crafted and put together as The Ring. What it lacks in scares, it more than makes up for with great direction, music, acting, and a killer story.



8/10 - Let the Right One In is not so much scary, as it is unsettling. An at times truly disturbing film, Let the Right One In also manages to be very emotionally impactful as you watch this relationship blossom between a lonely 12-year-old boy and a vampire girl. Very well-written, Let the Right One In treats both its subjects with incredible respect and extends the same respect to vampires and the genre it sits in. It may not be the scariest horror movie ever, but it definitely is a horror movie that has a deep respect for the genre. Tomas Alfredson does a fantastic job with the direction of this one, crafting a film that rides on atmosphere and tension when it does create scares, but he also shows a great non-reliance on scaring his audience outright. Rather, he is willing let you into the world's of the protagonists and see them for the disturbing (yet innocent) individuals they truly are. For a vampire movie, it also managed to not be very gory, which I appreciate. There is some blood obviously and some pretty gruesome scenes, but they are minimal and do not last long. Finally, the cinematography and imagery here are impeccable. Truly a beautiful made film that shows a mastery of the art, Let the Right One In is a horror film of the highest order.



8/10 - A bloody good time, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is a stellar musical. The score is phenomenal and the musical numbers are entirely enthralling and brilliantly done. They are so good, in fact, you almost forget you are watching a film about a barber who slits peoples throats. The acting and singing from the entire cast is very good and this is truly a role only Johnny Depp could play. Brilliantly shot and designed, the film is simply beautiful to look at with some seriously killer costumes to be found here. Tim Burton really hits a home run with the direction of this film, managing the extreme gore with the emotional element at the center of the story, as well as not overdoing it with the musical numbers. The ones that are here are exceptionally well done, but luckily it never feels like overkill. Above all though, I fell in love with the look and feel of the film. Truly, it was really beautiful. Overall, Sweeney Todd is a winner.



7/10 - Centurion is a mixed bag, but there is far more good than bad. However, let's focus in on the bad. For one, it is far too violent. After a certain point, it becomes numbing and the CGI blood just becomes a major nuisance. You do not have to slit everyone's throat or show blood spurting from every wound for me to understand that war is bloody. Like, I got it. In addition, the character development is incredibly poor. Other than a few main characters, the names of these people really just slipped my mind immediately after I heard them. In war films, characters often remain largely anonymous due to a focus on action. Centurion is no different as I could not tell you who any of these people are. In saying this, however, there are many positives. For one, the film is breathtakingly gorgeous at times. The cinematography is stellar. The fight choreography is also brilliantly done, which goes hand-in-hand with the excellent action sequences. There are a good number of them, but they are all edge of your seat exciting and perfectly sequenced. The direction from Neil Marshall is not fantastic, but it gets the job done. The film feels coherent and is extremely well-paced, to the point that it feels shorter even with an already short run time. Finally, the acting from Michael Fassbender and Dominic West is great. Olga Kurylenko even does well with zero lines of dialogue. She did a great job capturing the terror instilled by her character even without uttering a single word. Overall, Centurion is a good action film that will be too violent for some, but if you can deal with that element of it, you are in for a surprise.



10/10 - It Follows is truly a brilliant film. An edge-of-your seat master class effort of horror, It Follows scares from the very beginning due to the absolutely phenomenal use of sound. The sound in this film is what convinces me this film is a truly brilliant work. Yes, it is a great horror film on its own and is truly terrifying. The concept is fantastic and wonderously executed. Director David Robert Mitchell knows how to truly scare you and he does it with pure glee and abandon by keeping you on edge from the get go. The acting from Maika Monroe is great. The cinematography is also fantastic. However, none of this would be enough to make it as good as I believe it to be. Rather, the sound is what sets it above all other horror films that do everything else I mentioned very well. The sound is unsettling, creepy, terrifying, awe-inspiring, atmospheric, and other adjectives, to describe its true brilliance. It Follows is the best film of 2015. I do not need to see anything else from this year to know this.



8/10 - Insomnia is largely by-the-numbers when it comes to detective films, but that does not stop it from having truly great things that sets it above other thrillers of this ilk. First off, Al Pacino and Robin Williams are phenomenal. I love comedians doing roles that are completely against their type and boy oh boy did Williams do that here. He was phenomenal, creepy and unsettling all wrapped into one and he nails the role. Director Christopher Nolan shows incredible talent here as he manages to creepy a truly unsettling atmosphere that never scares you to be sure, but certainly keeps you on edge. The script is very good and the characters are very well done, to the point that you are never truly sure who is good and who is truly bad. Overall, Insomnia is a good, but not great thriller that is not Nolan's best work, but that certainly does not mean it is ever bad.



8/10 - Crimson Peak is a hard film to identify. Yes, it is a gothic romance, but with it blending so many different genres on top of that, it is certainly hard to fit into any circle. That being said, I am more than happy to let it be on its own and just sit back and enjoy. Thanks to truly beautiful visuals, Crimson Peak absolutely soars and confirms my love of Guillermo del Toro's films. It can be truly violent a couple of times and does manage to scare on a couple of occasions, but its usage of ghosts in a non-scary role is truly brilliant. The design of the supernatural elements is great and they are certainly metaphorical of something, but I am personally having trouble placing my finger on what. Though it is not scary, the film manages to still be deeply unsettling thanks to the great performance of Jessica Chastain. Mia Wasikowska and Tom Hiddleston were also particularly strong here. There are numerous things that stand out to me beside these things, including the symbolic usage of bugs, the brilliant costume design, and the fantastic production design. The whole lore of the mansion, the explanation of the name, and my God the visuals. I know I mentioned the visuals, but the cinematography and visual effects were absolutely phenomenal. Those alone are worth the price of admission. Crimson Peak will ultimately be looked down upon for not being scary thanks to a horrific marketing campaign, even though its intent is not to scare you, which is truly tragic because it is a wonderful film that is masterfully directed by del Toro and has a powerhouse performance from Chastain.



7/10 - Many will think Bridge of Spies is boring, but to me, it was anything but. It may have been slow, but still the pace never was an issue. Instead, we got to focus in on a fascinating story that features a fantastic performance from Tom Hanks at the very center of it. A captivating story from the Cold War, Hanks plays a man who is keenly aware of the situation around him, but does not let it cloud his humanitarian beliefs, which is truly noble. He knocks this role out of the park and his talent is only matched by a terrific performance from Mark Rylance. The direction from Steven Spielberg is also very good and he reminds us of just how talented he truly is. The Coen brothers script is also very good as expected and really shows how good of a writing team they are, though I obviously love when they're in the director's chair too. However, what holds Bridge of Spies back is that though I find it truly captivating, it is a true story. As such, no matter how captivating, it is held back a bit by the constraints of that and its dedication to accuracy. As such, it winds up not being quite as good of a film as it tries to cover so much pertinent information and, as such, winds up being a little longer than needed. That being said, Bridge of Spies is still a good film that is a great combo of great acting from Hanks and direction from Spielberg.