A-Z Challenge – update 3

Posted on June 20, 2020 by Craig M

Well, this is becoming quite the challenge for me personally. I’ve now reached letter S having ploughed through 7 more movies. Revisiting La La Land for L was surprising in how much I enjoyed it and appreciated the story second time around, and would now rate it higher than my existing review. For M, Mission Impossible Fallout was an easy pick as I’d brought it on Blu-ray awhile back and not got around to watching it. Yes just as good if not better on second viewing.

Reaching N … I chose another Alfred Hitchcock classic, North By Northwest … an exciting man-in-the-wrong-place mystery thriller with Cary Grant that was a lot of fun. O was one my most disappointing movie of last year, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, and although I enjoyed it a little bit more, it overall didn’t work for me and I stand by my initial review.

I recently reviewed Parasite, my letter P and was overall impressed with it, despite a somewhat far-fetched ending. Q was the mostly reviled Bond outing Quantum of Solace, a movie I still think is ok but the story is weak and unengaging even though Daniel Craig is still good and some of the action is great. Then we came to R and I chose the Spanish found-footage horror [REC] a movie I really like even if subsequent viewings do dilute the experience for me.

Now will I get the remaining 8 movies watched by June 30th? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

A-Z challenge – update 2

Posted on May 29, 2020 by Craig M

Well I’ve reached letter L, so that means six more movies under my belt. As you’ll be aware for F I went with Alfred Hitchcock forgotten classic ‘Frenzy’, and then for G I gave the original Swedish version of ‘The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo’ another watch. Damn, that’s a great story with a stand out performance from Noomi Rapace, and yes I must watch that new Dragon Tattoo movie that came out recently with Claire Foy in the lead role. Next up was H where I went with a Harry Potter movie as previously reviewed, which was er… ok. Following this for I was the brilliantly mind boggling ‘Interstellar’ from Christopher Nolan, an intricate sci-fi movie that remains a real tear-jerker for me (that scene with Matthew McConaughey watching the video messages!). Then we came to J which was the blockbuster classic and still a favourite, ‘Jurassic Park’. That music! That T-Rex attack! Still so effective.

I’ve just now for K finished watching ‘Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang’ a movie from writer/director Shane Black starring Robert Downey Jr that’s very much like Black’s other murder/mystery action comedy The Nice Guys, and whilst it’s not the easiest movie to follow plot-wise … the dialogue, likeable characters (including a super-sexy Michelle Monaghan) still made for a great time.

I have a working list I’m picking from and some titles on that list are getting swapped in and out, and yes that June 30 end date is nearing ever closer so I really need to get moving. I’ll of course, report back again soon.

Craig.

A challenge begins…

Posted on May 2, 2020 by Craig M

So last night began this fun little challenge of mine to watch one movie each in my collection of Blu-rays for each letter of the alphabet. I have devised a working list that I may swap and change as I progress, but I plan to write weekly blog posts detailing what movies I have got though in this endeavour.

So where did I begin? Well there were a few choices for A, but eventually I landed on the rather under-appreciated Studio Ghibli movie ‘Arriety’. I’ve now watched it about 3 times inclusive of last night’s viewing and stand firm on my opinion it’s one of Ghibli’s best. The take on the classic Borrowers story is well done and pretty much sticks to source material and that theme song by Cecile Corbel is utterly enchanting. I still find the sickly kid a bit annoying but everything else, the gorgeous hand-drawn animation and scenery, the characterisation, different moments (the escapade to steal a sugar cube) and sound-design are all utter class.

As you’ll now be aware I chose 80’s French drama ‘Betty Blue’ for B and have chosen to do a full review for that which I’ll leave you to check out. Now onto letter C and beyond. I’ll report back how it all goes soon!