philamental

Bio: My rankings reflect how much I personally enjoy a film and how likely I will want to re-watch them. This is why some films that I can admit as being 'classics' will get low scores as I just didn't enjoy them and I don't feel a need to try and critique them objectively here.
Recent Ratings
Check out philamental's...
61 39% | The Outfit (2022) - Mar 13, 2023
"Very much like watching a play with all but the main character constantly entering and exiting a single location. Rylance is the thread holding the entire movie together as unfortunately the rest of the cast are shabby in comparison. The terrifically tense in parts, The Outfit attempts to weave an intricate plot that unfortunately twists itself too much to the point where it has begun to unravel quite noticeably by the end."
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73 65% | Croupier (1998) - Mar 13, 2023
"Solid psychological drama with Owen shining and carrying the film as a writer who struggles to separate the casino world he is using for his writing from his own life. Voice over narration isn't something I'm generally fond of, but for the most part Croupier gets away with the frequent and heavy usage. Feels like a movie I'd have to see again to put together some of the pieces as there are a few plot points which seem to be deliberately ambiguous and open to interpretation."
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65 46% | Hacksaw Ridge (2016) - Jan 31, 2023
"Mel Gibson decided it was a good idea to turn the Forrest Gump in Vietnam section into a two and a half hour movie! First hour is very 'tv movie' weak melodrama stuff, but once they get to Hacksaw Ridge the gloves come off and the action is brutal. I don't know how historically accurate this all is, but from what is depicted here Desmond Doss' feats were simply and genuinely incredible."
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43 13% | Smile (2022) - Jan 23, 2023
"It's hard to top the 'Shit Follows' mini review from guy piranha but here's some thoughts anyway. I'm starting to think I don't like horror movies as much as I thought I did as with Malignant, Barbarian and now Smile, all were heralded as great modern horrors and save for a few scenes/moments/ideas I thought all of them were dog shit. Smile is probably the best of those three, but that's not saying much."
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53 23% | Black Adam (2022) - Jan 23, 2023
"There's almost nothing that memorably stands out in Black Adam, with almost everything shown, said and done having already been seen, said and done in the multitude of other superhero movies over the past 15 years. This makes BA feel like a made by committee box checking effort and the fact that recent DC changes are likely to mean a sequel isn't going to happen comes as no shock or loss."
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60 36% | Rollerball (1975) - Jan 23, 2023
"It's fine but quite slow and the dystopian future stuff has been done better by others."
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45 14% | The Banshees of Inisherin (2022) - Jan 23, 2023
"An extremely well made film with fantastic performances (Farrell and Keoghan in particular) but I just found it an utterly depressing experience. Normally I enjoy black comedy but the excessively bleak tale of rural irish loneliness and futility is maybe one that I've had too much second hand experience growing up with to see the funny side."
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50 19% | Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022) - Jan 23, 2023
"While I wasn't a big fan of Knives Out, it was still good fun for the most part. However it seems that Rian Johnson took the positive reaction to KO as a sign he should lean even heavier into his instincts to subvert every possible genre expectation and this leads to a film that tries to be too clever and smug for it's own good, and in doing so strangles most of the fun out of itself."
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76 72% | King of New York (1990) - Jan 23, 2023
"Enjoyable gritty New York Gangster Crime Drama. Walken is excellent as is the supporting cast. I much prefer this to Scarface as an 'of its time' american gangster story."
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60 36% | Escape from Alcatraz (1979) - Jan 23, 2023
"I was a bit surprised at the deliberate slow pace and lack of the usual levels of drama you'd expect from a prison flick but this was explained to me by the acknowledgement that this was based on a true story in the closing credits. I probably would have viewed things a little differently had I known that beforehand but this is still a solid effort."
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