Movie Review Special: The Last of Last Year (2017)

Hello All,

I am so sorry that these are technically late. By technically I mean they are, but what can I say, the holidays are kind of a strange time for movie reviewers. Between normal holiday festivities and the huge influx of new movies around this time I can see why some year end lists and reviews get stalled. Luckily though, after this, I can get straight into the year end lists, admittedly one of my favourite things to do. Will any of these films be on them? Let’s find out together shall we?


All the Money in the World Review.

Plot Summary - Based on the true story of the 1973 kidnapping of J. Paul Getty III, grandson of J. Paul Getty, who at the time was the richest man in the history of the world.

Pros - Addressing kind of the big elephant in the room (and admittedly the most likely reason why people know about this movie) is the fact that Christopher Plummer, the man who plays J. Paul Getty, was not only not the first choice, he wasn’t even in the movie until a short while ago. Don’t really want to get hung up on the details, look it up if you want to know, but the question is how well do these scenes of him mesh with the rest of the film? Quite well actually.

The cast is great in their respective roles, the films has this menacing look throughout that really matches the tone, and it’s quite a fascinating tale.

Cons - I knew about this story long before seeing the film, so the details didn’t surprise me. That being said, the film never really manages to grab you. All the right parts are there, but the sum of it is just never anything beyond something to watch.

Final Score - 5/10

It’s a film that whether or not you’ve ever been interested in seeing it, your opinion will probably not change.


The Greatest Showman Review

Plot Summary - Based on the true story of how P.T. Barnum (Hugh Jackman) started his circus and changed the lives of those around him.

Pros - Jackman is great as Barnum, and the supporting cast all do a great deal of good as well. The songs, while not my favourite, are still good and the choreography is actually solid.

Cons - The story itself has way too familiar plot points, and it’s also paper thin in that regard as well. There are some interesting side stories, but they mostly are either predictable or fizzle out. The plot structure is also odd as well.

Final Score - 7/10

If the story itself was better thought out, this could’ve been a lot better. I also still find it a bit puzzling that it is a musical, but in that aspect it actually could’ve been worse than it was because of it. I hope that makes sense.


The Shape of Water Review

Plot Summary - A mute woman named Elisa (Sally Hawkins), who works at a high security government facility, befriends and then tries to free, an amphibious fish creature (Doug Jones).

Pros - Hawkins is spectacular as Elisa, managing to express a lot of emotion through body language alone. Jones not only looks great as the amphibian, but also does a great job as well in his mannerisms and expressions. The supporting cast is quite varied, and that does help aid the story in a few surprising ways. The overall look and tone of the film is quite stylish, and does have a huge dark emphasis.

Cons - The film suffers from heavy handed subtlety. You have to pay very close attention to the details whenever they rarely, clearly, appear. If you’re also not a big fan of nudity in films, or are really not sure how you feel about woman and fish man love, go in with caution.

Final Score - 9/10


A fascinatingly unusual film, but can be frustrating for people who aren’t great at details.


Molly’s Game Review

Plot Summary - Based on the true story of Molly Bloom (Jessica Chastain) as she gets charged by the FBI for running a popular underground poker club.

Pros - The cast is phenomenal. Chastain is on point as Molly, Idris Elba as her lawyer has the best monologue in the film, and a brief appearance by Kevin Costner has probably the best scene in the film. The story is told in a terrific fashion, it has dozens of great moments throughout, and is overall it not only follows my most basic qualifications of a good film, but exceeds them by a great distance.

Cons - If you don’t like bio pics or Molly Bloom and what she did. I personally have no complaints about the film.

Final Score - 10/10

Another instance of saving a great film for last, definitely see it if you can.

Next: The Worst Films of 2017 - The most fun list to start off with, get your bets placed now as to who's going to win the title.

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Movie Review: Darkest Hour (2017)

Hello All,

We are beginning to catch up folks. This one actually had not only my attention, but my dad’s attention as well so I’m glad I was able to get this one done. Not much to say for the intro, so let’s just jump in shall we?

Plot Summary - During the invasions of Belgium and The netherlands in 1940, Winston Churchill (Gary Oldman) is appointed to be the new prime minister, and finds himself facing his greatest challenge: the potential invasion of England.

Pros - The cinematography is the thing about this film I simply adore the most, it has a tremendous amount of just spectacular shots and the film to me at least is worth it for that alone. Gary is fantastic as churchill, getting even the smallest of details of the man down quite well. The pacing is marvelous, and the writing is quite spot on. Also, anything that gives Lily James a chance to shine is good in my book.

Cons - If you’re looking for a more biographical story of the man, this is not the film for you. If historical dramas aren’t your forte this won’t do much for you either.

Final Score - 10/10

I’m a bit of a history buff myself, and I do believe in the importance of remembering our history. Films like this are important, so if you have any remote interest in seeing it please do.

Next: The Shape of Water - That’s going to be in at least 2 -3 days from time of writing, and I’m working on when I can see the other three films left besides it.

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Movie Review: Downsizing (2017)

Hello All,


Gonna be a quick one, got a pounding headache. Let’s try and figure out Matt Damon’s career together shall we?

Plot Summary - Paul Safranek (Matt Damon) and his wife decide to downsize to five inches to height, he begins to reassess his life and tries to gain a new perspective.

Plot - The cast is great, and strangely diverse with a tremendous number of small cameos. The story goes in a much different direction than expected, and has kind of a great core idea. It also does a great job of going lightly on the short jokes, mostly aiming for neat visuals over cheap humour.

Cons - It’s a touch on the lengthy side, and the ending is much more ambiguous than probably need be. There’s also a dramatic underuse of Christoph Waltz, but that seems to be hollywood’s forte lately.

Final Score - 8/10

Not too light and fluffy, if long and too ambiguous. Good for a an afternoon.

Next: Darkest Hour - Shape of Water has been bumped. Local showtimes haven't been posted yet so I can’t quite get confirmation, but I’m aiming for a Jan. 3rd to 7th post date for the year end reviews.

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Movie Review: Jumanji Welcome to the Jungle (2017)

Hello All,

So right now I’m sitting at six more movies that are coming out I still have to see. There’s maybe two more I can add on, but that’s entirely a time constraint thing. Today’s offering is another one of those twenty year later sequels that are always, well, a mixed bag. But this one has The Rock, and Kevin Hart, and Jack Black, and Karen Gillan, how can that go wrong? Well, let’s find out together shall we?

Plot Summary - When four kids are stuck cleaning the basement in detention, they stumble across an old video game console with the game only known, as Jumanji. When they become trapped inside the game, they must band together, overcome their fears, and free themselves from the game.

Pros - The casting is spot on for the characters in the film, even if the characters can be a bit too on the nose in the personality types they’re trying to imitate. The action scenes are fun, and the story is well told and does try to engage in actual emotion and character development.

Cons - The actual story itself is super familiar. If you’ve seen any coming of age adventure type film, you already know a lot of the story beats. While Jumanji does try to put it’s own spin on some of them, they still feel for the most part the same.

Final Score - 7/10

Definitely worth a look, it’s serviceable if under ambitious.

Next: So, these are the next six films

1. Darkest Hour
2. The Greatest Showman
3. The Shape of Water
4. Downsizing
5. All the Money in the World
6. Molly’s Game

I don’t really know what order yet, Christmas season always gets kind of busy for movie reviewers, so I’m mostly just finding them when I have the time.


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Double Movie Review: Ferdinand (2017) & Wonder Wheel (2017)

Hello All,

So the formatting is still an ongoing issue that seems to be affecting more people than just me. So apologies if it still looks weird, it could be like this for a while. Moving on, we’re doing a double today of films that on the surface don’t seem to have a lot going on in them. While that’s never exclusively a bad thing (some films do well with the less is more philosophy), how does it fair when it comes to these two? Let’s find out together shall we?

Ferdinand Review

Plot Summary - Ferdinand (John Cena) is a flower loving bull who refuses to fight. When he is stung by a bee and goes on a rampage however, he ends up being taken far from home, and is forced to face the thing he hates to do the most.

Pros - Cena as Ferdinand is the best thing about the movie. He makes the character just so damn likable and does a good job with the material being given to him. Kate McKinnon is a close second as his goat friend with her usually funny self, and the film is actually quite nice in the animation style as well.

Cons - There’s one particularly annoying scene that drags on for far too long, and is clearly the best example of padding in a film I have seen in some time. No jokes, that one scene is so tremendously annoying I wrote off three points based on that alone. Besides that, the films other biggest problem is a tremendous lack of character development for pretty much any character in the movie. Development is at best minimal and at worst people change on a whim. There’s also too many goddamn side characters, and the usual host of adult jokes that kids will never understand scattered throughout.

Final Score - 6/10

Cena’s likability carries this film above mediocrity. Otherwise parents, your kids will like it, it’s a maybe for you.

Wonder Wheel Review

Plot Summary - Ginny (Kate Winslet) is unhappily married to a carousel worker, and is having an affair with the local lifeguard. When her husband’s estranged daughter re-enters their lives and sets her eyes on the lifeguard, Ginny’s world begins to unravel.

Pros - The cast is fine, the lifeguard character is the most likable one, and it’s a really pretty film to watch.

Cons - The rest of the characters are extremely unlikable, the dialogue is repetitive and nerve grinding, and the film just never seems to do much of anything. Very few problems are resolved, and it ends on the worst kind of ambiguous ending.

Final Score - 2/10

I can’t really recommend this film to anyone except Woody Allen completionists.

Next: Jumanji Welcome to the Jungle - Before that though, we may do the first episode of the new review series. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, just keep an eye out for an upcoming Starship Troopers review, that will explain everything.



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(Spoiler Free) Movie Review: Star Wars The Last Jedi (2017)

Hello All,

Sorry this is late, I would’ve put this up last night but I got sidelined with a slight injury and couldn't type. But here we are, arguably one of the bigger films this year. So, let’s not dawdle, how good is Star Wars? Let’s find out shall we?

Plot Summary - With the first order on their tail, the rebellion must flee their base and seek out help. Meanwhile, Rey (Daisy Ridley) must try and convince Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) to return to assist them.

Pros - It’s great to see Hamill back in action, and the way he interacts with Ridley makes it truly feel like a jedi style relationship. Rey’s story is also the best part of the movie, as it deals with a lot of the mystery as to what happened with Luke and Kylo Ren. The rest of the cast is great as well, the action scenes are up to their usual Star Wars standard, and it does help that they are adding more humour and other elements to it that you typically don’t see in Star Wars, and I think most of them actually work quite well.

Cons - The second story line, Finn’s, a lot weaker. By significant margins. Without spoiling it, the main conflict is slow moving while involving a detour that more or less feels like padding. There’s a twist that feels unmotivated, yet it has huge consequences in the movie and that’s honestly the most bizarre part. To me, it feels like it more undermines the plot than anything else and that’s weird to see in a Star Wars Film.

Final Score - 8/10

I’m shocked too, but also apparently in the minority. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a pretty good film and I recommend seeing it. I like the new things they’re doing, the twists in the film (for the most part), and I’m dying to see how this all ends. I think in trying to update how these movies play out, some things got lost in translation. Nevertheless, go see this movie.

Next: Ferdinand - Make your own John Cena joke. This might be part of a double review, we’ll see what happens.


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Movie Review: The Breadwinner (2017)

Hello All,


So something in my usual process of writing these has gone screwy, so if the format looks a bit different I can assure you it’s intentional and it’s being done simply so I can keep putting these out. So with that being said, let’s talk about the breadwinner shall we?


Plot Summary - When her father is imprisoned by members of the taliban, 11 year old Parvana (Saara Chaudry) must disguise herself as a boy in order to support her family and free her father.


Pros - The animation is the standout achievement of the film. Throughout the film there are tales told and they also have different animations equally as good as the main style. The voice cast is nice and varied, and the film manages to pack a lot of story into 93 minutes.


Cons - The jumping around of story points might annoy some, and the timeframe and ending are not really defined in the film. So if that kind of stuff annoys you this probably won’t change your mind. I’m also not sure how fans of the book might take it, as I think they changed a few things for the movie.


Final Score - 8/10


A good little flick that shines some refreshing light on a part of the world in constant disarray.


Next: Star Wars The Last Jedi - Don’t know when, but it is the big one right now.


So, since I didn’t get to do this in the last review, I’ll reveal this now. If you go to this page here (http://ryanmovieblogokay.blogspot.ca/p/for-collection-film-list.html) You will see a list of films, each one numbered.


That is a list of films that I own on DVD, but I have never actually seen. Now why would I do that? Because I am a film collector, and I like taking chances on movies on DVD that I’ve never seen.


So why show you the list? Because that list (which I will update as movies are added and removed) will be the basis of the new review series: For the Collection.


The idea being basically that it’s a chance for me to review movies I might not otherwise see, and it adds some variety to the blog reviews. I recently took two films off that list. They are…


Wet Hot American Summer (2001) - 8/10


And


The Thing (1982) - 10/10


Now obviously the other reviews will be full reviews, but I wanted to mark these two specifically as an example of what to expect. So what will be the first film from this list?

Let’s choose a number between 1 and 78.


72. Starship Troopers


Hmm, I’ve heard mixed things. Well, we’ll just have to wait and see, so stay tuned.


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Until next time, I’ll see you folks at the movies.