#4 - Fyre: The Greatest Party that never happened [doc] (2019)

"A cautionary tale of how hedonistic indulgence and social media obsession can mask the nightmarish reality of inexperience"


- 7.5/10

#3 - Colette (2018)

"U-turning from whimsical saccharine to thoughtful reflection; an experience almost fully enjoyable"


- 6.5/10

#2 - The Favourite (2018)

"A lumbar puncture of humour, exuding all the chaos, confusion, and charm that yearn and desire brings"


- 8/10

#1 - Free Solo (2018) [doc]

"A dizziness forged from both literal heights and the marvel of human endurance"

- 8/10

Failure of the Project

This is a quick post to say that whilst I enjoyed the idea of my challenge set at the start of last year, the application was one that soon soured in appetite. 

The premise of an extra word per day was fun until the reviews grew to a size that felt like no restriction, instead a tired, forced expulsion of formulaic thoughts that were no longer fun to write. 

As a result I spectacularly collapsed after the first half of the year, with the latter containing only sparse updates far off my target - ending with a little over 200 entries. 

Rather than mope, I plan on continuing to post as many reviews as films I see (an attempt at daily will happen but not always occur) with only a soft restriction. The early, limited words were the most fun I had of the entire project - #2 was my favourite. So, the small restriction will be the upper limit, it will be 19 words as we're now in 2019. 

Let's see how it goes. 

Thanks to the small amount of people that read last years reviews and were supportive of the project in general.  

#211 - Final Destination 5 (2011)

"The fifth entry in what is essentially the same story just retweaked every time (other than perhaps the second), Final Destination 5 continues the latter sequels disappointing tendency to overlook actual foreboding atmospherics in favour of outlandish deaths that feels more and more dissociated from reality. 

This time the accident our characters cheat death from is a broken suspension bridge, and the film wastes no time getting us there so we can gawp at all the sliced and burnt bodies that soon litter the screen. 

Whilst the original had genuinely sinister moments built up so the personification of death felt like an actual character stalking our confused protagonists, this by the number sequel is just walking the lines of vanilla dialogue and scripting to indulge in our apparent lust for over the top cgi deaths.

 The creativity of some of these scenes are admirable, however there is no weight if we don't care, something the creators of this series seem to have forgotten since the second entry. 

The one thing elevating this film from complete mediocrity is a wonderful finale that actually resembles a good, original idea. It's fairly obvious if you pay attention, but it's still the best thing to come out of this series for four films"

- 4/10

#210 - Outlaw King (2018)

"Outlaw King follows Robert the Bruce trying to unite the clans of Scotland under one crown - his crown - to fight against the English rule and occupation of Scotland. 

As a pieces it's difficult to dissect. Certainly there are good performances (most notably the wonderfully feral Douglas) littered within more flat results, such as the titular king himself, but overall for a period piece relying so crucially on stellar acting to drive us into the world it presents there is a failure more disappointing than annoying. 

It's hard to point a finger at one particular negativer that brings everything down, more every part be it script, direction, cinematography, etc all are done to an acceptable but never brilliant level that leaves the film feeling hollow and incomplete, almost as if it were a lengthy pilot for a show never to be aired.

Perhaps the script is the weakest link in an already fragile chain; the second act feels doughy and bloated with sub plots that never really conclude satisfactorily despite the attempted efforts of all involved. 

The scenes of brutality, in particular a harrowing hanging and gutting, are sparse but effective and probably the best moments in capturing the btual essence of what was a graphically barbaric time in our history"


- 5/10