DOC’S ‘PROBABLY CONTROVERSIAL’ RUNDOWN OF FILMS RELEASED IN THE UK IN 2015, WORST TO BEST – PART THREE, 80 – 71





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80/ PARANORMAL ACTIVITY: THE GHOST DIMENSIONparanormal-activity-the-ghost-dimension
So here we have the film that was supposed to provide all the answers, but which actually hardly answers anything at all, resulting in somethIng that was a big lie of a movie where the producers are no doubt laughing all the way to the bank so they can go and make some more. The subtlety of this series, which was originally so good, was also disappointingly jettisoned, though there were a few chills and good ideas, and it did entertain for some of the time. 5/10

 

 

79/ THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E.premiere-la-cinema-southpaw-si-the-man-from-u-n-c-l-e-filmele-saptamanii_size3
Watching the old Man From U.N.C.L.E. movies that I used to love as a kid for the first time in at least a couple of decades for my Feature where I went through the films, really did show up the inferiority of this new film, which didn’t even seem to attempt to replicate the feel of the originals and suffered badly from having two leads who have zero chemistry, while Guy Ritchie’s sadly went overboard with vomitous shakycam, but it was good, breezy, and occasionally even clever fun at times with style to burn. 5.5/10

 

 

78/ BIRDMAN OR [THE UNEXPECTED VALUE OF IGNORANCE]birdman poster
And this is where what little respect I get as a film critic may go out the window, but, if it wasn’t for the incredible, one-take cinematography by Emmanuel Lubezki and some very pointed performances, I’d have probably ranked Birdman even lower. To my eyes, its satire was weak, its ideas were rarely allowed to truly develop, and the whole thing was at times almost unbearably smug, narcassistic and pretentious with little to be pretentious about. 5.5/10

 

 

77/ FANTASTIC FOURFantastic-Four-Affiche-The-Team-338x500
While it did have all sorts of things wrong with it, from the wrong tone for these particular heroes to the incredibly rushed final third, I didn’t think Fantastic Four was all that bad, quite frankly, with a few impressive moments and the leads working well together, and this is coming from someone who is suffering from Superhero Fatigue. I actually believe Josh Trank when he said that his movie was ruined by the studio, and hope that one day he’ll be allowed to re-do the movie more to his satisfaction. 5.5/10

 

 

the-woman-in-black-angel-of-death-quad76/ THE WOMAN IN BLACK 2: ANGEL OF DEATH
Failing to replicate most of its predecessor’s atmosphere or scares and relying mainly on BOO moments which diminished in effect, this sequel was a okayish ghost story [the back story was certainly creepy and interesting] if taken on its own, and could possibly have come off as quite good if it wasn’t for the terrible dark cinematography where half the time you could barely see anything, but cannot really be seen as anything other than a disappointment in light of the first movie. 5.5/10

 

 

75/ MORTDECAImortdecai-quad
While I’m usually happy to defend him against his critics, I have to admit that Johnny Depp finally irritated me throughout in Mortdecai, though otherwise I found this goofy romp rather more fun than most. While much of the humour failed to come off, and the whole thing lacked the light touch neccessary to make this kind of thing work, its sheer eccentricity was almost refreshing in a world of identikit blockbusters, and it had some lunatic charm.

 

 

150602-san-lung74/ BIG GAME
Though often thoroughly stupid [surely a Finnish director and writer shouldn’t pretend that there are no mountains in Finland], I feel that many missed the point of this medium-budget throwback to, and parody of, action movies of an older vintage, though it did seem to be confusingly aimed more at kids than adults. Samuel L. Jackson and Onni Tommila worked well together, and I think that acussations of jingosim miss the point; the film appeared to me to be mocking it. 5.5/10

 

 

73/ STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENSd9bede82
So Mr. Abrams does little more than rehash bits and pieces from the first three Star Wars films, add a fair bit of just plain stupidity with plot holes you could drive a Death Star through, and loads of people love the result while that con artist J. J. laughs all the way to the bank. While undoubtedly fun if taken on its own, I found it to be pointless, lazy, unimaginative  and, in the end, insulting and failing to justify its own existence….while making the prequels seem not so bad after all. 5.5/10

 

 

c59493ef0777bd4602f9ed25301ef71572/ AMERICAN ULTRA
Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart again had their Adventureland chemistry in this dumb but sometimes funny stoner version of The Bourne Identity, the kind of film you enjoy but don’t like yourself for doing so [though we haven’t yet come to my favorite Guilty Pleasure of the year]. The wild veering from total absurdity to genuine sincerity made for a very uneven piece, and it didn’t develop its ideas enough, but it was fun and contained some quotable lines. 6/10

 

 

71/ BLACK MASS2015-11-25-1448447216-3318867-BlackMassaajpg-thumb
Johnny Depp’s unnerving performance was by far the best thing in this gangster tale which had ambition to spare, but which in the end failed to really come off and make the most of its fascinating true life story, coming across as a little hollow as well as feeling like a three hour film somewhat awkwardly chopped down to two. Still, there were plenty of good moments and director Scott Cooper certainly shows signs that he could make a great movie one day. 6/10

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About Dr Lenera 1968 Articles
I'm a huge film fan and will watch pretty much any type of film, from Martial Arts to Westerns, from Romances [though I don't really like Romcoms!]] to Historical Epics. Though I most certainly 'have a life', I tend to go to the cinema twice a week! However,ever since I was a kid, sneaking downstairs when my parents had gone to bed to watch old Universal and Hammer horror movies, I've always been especially fascinated by horror, and though I enjoy all types of horror films, those Golden Oldies with people like Boris Karloff and Christopher Lee probably remain my favourites. That's not to say I don't enjoy a bit of blood and gore every now and again though, and am also a huge fan of Italian horror, I just love the style.

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