Today I have four movies to review. I have been very busy lately so writing this has been delayed for a while. Today I will be reviewing "The Gift", "Fantastic Four", "Sinister 2", and "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." Before I get started, I'd like to give a shoutout to the Free Gamer's Alliance YouTube channel. Their videos cover everything from walkthroughs, glitches, easter eggs, and various amusing video game related content, all of which is delivered with some colorful commentary while they have buckets of fun doing it. Here is the link:
https://www.youtube.com/user/FreeGamersAlliance/
Lets start this off with "The Gift." Here is the trailer:
- The cast of this movie is excellent. Everyone fit their character so well. I do have to say that this is probably the performance of Jason Bateman's career.
- This movie does a really great job of making a creepy atmosphere.
- The soundtrack is excellent.
- This movie is very suspenseful and it will have you second guessing everything throughout the entire movie.
- The pacing of this movie is excellent. It feels significantly shorter than it actually is.
The Bad:
- This movie could have use a few tiny sprinkles of comic relief. This movie is very dark and a few little moments to release the tension would have been welcome.
The Verdict:
"The Gift" is one of those rare thrillers that has the audience on edge the entire time. It is smart, suspenseful, and wildly unpredictable. I absolutely recommend seeing this in theaters.
Lets move on to "Fantastic Four." Here is the trailer:
- I can't really think of anything.
The Bad:
- This cast is filled with extremely talented actors. Unfortunately, it didn't really feel like any of them wanted to be there. There are a ton of rumors about on-set tension. If these rumors are true then that would explain why everyone looks miserable the entire time.
- The villain in this movie is one of the most cartoonish I have ever seen. Every time he spoke, I would start laughing and I'm pretty sure that isn't what the filmmakers intended.
- The special effects are shockingly bad. I feel like there isn't a whole lot of improvement in this area from the "Fantastic Four" film from 2005.
- The pacing is very bad. I would argue that nothing exciting happens in the first 90% of the movie. Then you get a very bad fight sequence that lasts a few minutes and then the movie is over.
- There are so many jumps in logic and plot holes that really stand out.
- Finally, the last scene of the movie could not have been written any more poorly. It feels incredibly cheesy and it resulted in a really aggressive eye rolling on my part.
The Verdict:
"Fantastic Four" is a misfire in just about every way. It is an incredibly sloppy and boring movie and is an absolute waste of time and money.
Next up is "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." Here is the trailer:
- I absolutely loved Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer in this. I have been very tough on these two when reviewing other movies that they were in but they really worked here. They both have a lot of charisma as well as fantastic chemistry with each other.
- The action scenes in this are a lot of fun.
- I love the soundtrack. Every song fit so perfectly with the scenes in which they are used.
- This movie is very well paced.
- This movie is incredibly stylish. Everything from the way certain scenes are shot to the subtitles all have personality and it makes this movie that much more fun to watch.
- Finally, the tone really helps this movie. It doesn't take itself particularly seriously which really works for the plot. I feel like this movie would have been much less enjoyable if it tried to be gritty or dark.
The Bad:
- There are a number of things that happen in the movie that are downright ridiculous. You may find yourself really putting your suspension of disbelief in overdrive.
- The plot is very predictable
The Verdict:
While "The Man From U.N.C.L.E" doesn't reinvent this genre, it is a very stylish and fun movie that will entertain you for two hours if you are looking to shut your brain off. I absolutely recommend seeing this in theaters.
Lastly, lets talk about "Sinister 2." Here is the trailer:
- This movie does a good job of creating a creepy atmosphere.
- There are some elements of the first "Sinister" movie that fans of the first will enjoy (the use of "silent film" style death scenes for example).
The Bad:
- Most of the characters in this movie are extremely unlikeable. It is really hard to root for anyone in this scenario. On top of that, the one character that isn't unlikeable is rather underwritten.
- This may be a good or bad thing depending on the type of movie watcher you are but this movie contained a scene that is very brutal and even more difficult to watch. That scene made me so ridiculously uncomfortable. It may bother some more than others but I figured it would be a good thing to warn you all about as you will need a strong stomach to get through it.
- There are a number of jumps in logic that will make some viewers roll their eyes.
- There are a ton of bad horror movie cliches present in this movie that will make viewers roll their eyes.
- One of the biggest problems that I have with this movie is that it constantly attempts cheap jump scares that are so predictable that they just aren't scary. I think jump scares can be effective but the audience can't see them coming. Here they just come off as way too silly.The thing that makes the first "Sinister" movie work is that it used restraint. It doesn't throw jump scares out constantly or get overly gory for the sake of shocking the audience. By taking this approach, it allows the audience to freak themselves out in their head. "Sinister 2" does the exact opposite of that and as a result it isn't particularly scary or exciting.
The Verdict:
The ideas behind "Sinister 2" had a ton of potential. Unfortunately, it is executed in a way that it just feels like so many recent horror movies that fall flat by trying too hard. I loved the first "Sinister" movie and I walked out of this one feeling rather disappointed. I can't honestly say that I would recommend seeing this in theaters.
Thanks for reading everyone!! As usual feel free to leave a comment but please be advised that if you are going to read any potential comments that spoilers may be present.