chloemichelleashby Reviews

A Man Called Otto (2022)

Worth a watch for an emotional rides and funny moments.

[7/10 · 12 February 2023]

If you like Tom Hanks then I'd suggest you give this a chance in the cinema. I'm not surprised this is doing better than Avatar at the moment, given this film has better writing and story. It has ups and downs, lots of emotions and interesting supporting characters alongside Hanks. Yes he's the star of the show but I think the new neighbours particularly the mother, did a great job. I haven't seen her in anything else nor the other characters so I was a little bit wary of this film at first when thinking to book the tickets, mainly going to see it for the grump Hanks but they all did a good job.

Hanks plays a grieving husband who goes through a journey of healing with the help of connection which was well done with the flash backs of times with his late wife. He is going through a lot of pain and because of that, is anything but nice to those around him whether that's other neighbours or random people. I have to mention that yes I did cry in the cinema while watching this, I'm a sensitive person so perhaps take that as you will but in my opinion the emotional bits were done to hit your sensitive side. There were a few laughs as well, depending on your sense of humour. If you like watching a man being rude to people and calling people stupid then you may not it, I do like that kind of sense of humour and there one of two things said that made me laugh, unfortunately it was quickly followed by sad parts bur I found it so funny that I accidentally carried on laughing during the car scene (oops!).

There's no major plot twists or surprises in this film which is perhaps a criticism but I don't think the writers or directors intentions were to shock us but rather make us feel for Hanks and following him along with discovering the new purpose for his life, it's a drama/comedy so I'm not so critical of the lack of surprises. Some people would say it was perhaps bland or boring but I found there was enough funny things being said to keep the film light hearted, it didn't take itself too seriously even though it's tactical a serious subject such as grieving and suicide.

Another issue I had with this movie was again, Hollywood trying to push trans into films. I'm guessing to show diversity. I'm not against it if it adds something to the story but I felt this part and the character who played this was in fact pointless and in my opinion, they only added this in for brownie points with that community (LGBT) or with Hollywood, I feel it's being forced onto viewers with no substance behind it. Another reason I voted it a 7 rather than higher.

Funny 7/10 Story 8/10 Character development 8/10 Script 8/10

I am quite fussy with films so when I say I recommend you watch it, you should give it a go. I've watched some terrible movies in the cinema (such as tenet) and this isn't one of them. Yes it could have been a 10/10 but I rate on rewatch ability also and I wouldn't choose to watch this film more than twice so I think 7/10 is fair, would have given it a 7.5 if I could! It exceeded my expectations!

Tenet (2020)

Did the high raters review the wrong film?

[1/10 · 28 September 2020]

After watching this film, I was surprised to find how many positive reviews it had. I'm not hugely critical of films usually but I expect a plot, or at least a decent meaning behind what is happening... A beginning, middle and an end would be a start particularly when we paid over £30 for the pressure, if you can call it that. With this film, you get none of that. Was I watching the same film as these reviewers that rated it 8/9 or 10 out of 10??What you get is thrown right into it, with little too no explanation for what is going on or why. Do they explain the purpose of anything? Not really. You should apparently care about the protagonist which he himself says that's what he is numerous times through out the movie because apparently the audience will forget after 20 minutes. The other characters are either good or bad with no inbetween with cliché lines that you start to wonder if the writer wrote the script when drunk or in a state of extreme constipation as the lines become so rushed that even when a legend such as Michael Cane appears, it becomes rebottic with no life. I wonder why he gave this film any time of day, perhaps he knew this film would be an easy payday. The script in general is just a bunch of rambling, in places it's hard to hear what is being said but all of that doesn't matter because everything that's being said makes no sense. The extreme music which for some reason happens when Nothing is happening, seems to give the impression that something amazing will happen but does it? No. The only purpose the poor choice of music serves is to distract the viewer from the terrible film they're watching. The music was so loud at one point, I was wondering if I accidently went to a rave instead of the cinema. The fight scenes were so robotic and anti climatic that it might as well of been two grannies fighting in a retirement home, I don't understand why other reviews mention good action scenes... They must have been watching another film. The soldier scene had a lot of shooting but barely any enemies, it looked like they were just shooting at empty windows... One soldier looked like he was taking a lifetime to take a clip from his pocket, I guess most scenes they just did one take and didn't bother to try it again. The 'bad guy' was boring and had no reason behind his character, I guess without character development it's hard to care or understand his reasons. In most scenes, he went from one extreme to the other with no reason or motivation. The 'good guy' was also boring and I didn't care if he lived or died. He suddenly cares about the bad guys woman, why? We don't know, the chemistry between all of the characters including the 'good guy' and this woman are either forced or non existant. Robert Patterson looked sauve at first but ended up being another character with poor lines and by the end, was the cheesiest of them all...miscast in my opinion. Perhaps the only redeeming factor is the special effects but will I be amazed by this alone? No. Just because you can use special effects, does not mean that you should over look other key elements needed to make a film good and just because you can use certain effects, doesn't mean you should. The time travel plot has been done before and in a much more effective way, with better acting. In my opinion, I would rather have a good script and plot than an empty shell with a lot of special effects... I was so bored that I didn't care about backwards bullets, by that point I was already looking at my partner sitting next to me and whispering 'do you know what's going on?' Of which he replied 'No I have no clue.' If anything we found this film to be a comedy and had more fun laughing at the ridiculous scenes where even the actors didn't seem to know what was going on. The amount of oxymoron lines used in this film gave me a good laugh.

It felt like the cast did this film just for a easy pay check, can you blame them? No, after all it seems the standard of films has lowered so much over the past 10 years that there could be a film with just a black screen and there would still be fans... A black screen would have been better than this film. I found the previews more interesting, if only I watched one of those films instead. I was so bored 20 minutes in, that I fell asleep for about 10 minutes and unfortunately got woken up because of the over the top music that could have blown my ear drums. If you have sensitive hearing, I would not recommend this film. Actually, I wouldn't recommend this film to anyone. Save your money for something with a purpose or meaning, as this film has none. Possibly the worst film I've seen in cinema.

Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret (2014)

You can tell who's a meat eater and who's not by the review rating.

[6/10 · 21 November 2018]

I'm going to review the actual documentary and not push my believes into it unlike a lot of the reviews I've read. I'm not vegan but I did find this documentary interesting, how it was filmed made created an invisible rope to pull me in and I sat through the majority of it without being bored (the last 20 minutes felt like it dragged though!).

The main guy of the show Kip Andersen seemed very passionate about the subject, making me feel like he wasn't just doing the documentary to pass time or for the sake of it but to actually raise questions on the subject. Judging by the other reviews, it did spark a debate among people which in my opinion, shows this documentary to be a success in the sense that a documentary should start conversation and debate, if it doesn't then it's a failure. Touching on a subject that a lot of people are very black and white about, either agreeing or disagreeing.

I'll mention why I've rated it a 6 instead of a glowing 10. The main part about this doc that got me was the very bold statements they made with out-there stats and shocking one liners (most likely to get the viewers attention) but for me, there was a lack of evidence supporting this. Don't get me wrong, I'm not arguing the stats are wrong but I'd just like to see where they have come from. A doc should always dig deeper in my view, delving in to the evidence and showing how it reaches a conclusion but with this, it feels like one study or article surfaces and all of a sudden these stats come up on my screen and I'm suppose to believe everything I watch? Hmm I don't know. I know that they interviewed advocates on both sides and in that sense, did make it sort of balanced which I like but the last 15 minutes did feel like they were preaching slightly on veganism and there was one thing said by one of the people that raised my eyebrow which was basically, that if you arent a fully pledged vegan then you can't be an animal lover (he said it differently but that's basically what he meant) and I found that quite extreme. I don't like hypocrisy just like the next person but with that logic from that guy, he also shouldn't drive or do anything else that could effect the planet because yes even with the 51% of damage being done by farming and eating meat, there's still another 49% that could be prevented. So let's say the person is fully vegan but still drives a car, flies on a plane twice a year and throws plastic away; aren't they also being a hypocrite? That's why I didn't like that strong statement because it was trying to guilt trip the viewers for their purpose.

Other than that, I found the rest of it interesting and thought provoking. This might make me sound uneducated but I had no idea that farming contributed to the crisis of the planet and it was nice that I watched this doc with a lack of knowledge of what it was going to be about, I know it's an old doc (2014) but I hadn't heard much about it at all.

I'd suggest to anyone who's come here looking for an opinion before watching it, have an open mind and take the doc for what it is. If you passionately hate vegans then you probably won't lild this documentary (lmao) but if you're like me and just want a doc to pass the time and won't take a person insult from it, then I'd say you most likely will enjoy it! I'd say the doc time of 1 hr 30 could have been shortened down to an hour but the majority has good details and interviews.

6/10

Tomb Raider (2018)

Weak and drags on.

[3/10 · 14 November 2018]

Is this suppose to be a Lara Croft film or a damsel in distress cliche film? I prefer the older one, at least she could handle herself. They really have weakened this Lara to the point that it's annoying. It takes an hour for her to kill anyone and when she does, she cries about it. Give me a break.

It also falls very flat and slow around 1 hour 5 minutes in which is when I decided to write this review and call it a day on this film, which is sad as it did start off with promise. The bicycle chase was entertaining.

The Haunting of Hill House (2018)

Immersive, clever and jumpy.

[8/10 · 15 October 2018]

I wasn't expecting much from this series on Netflix, I had read it was scary from click bait posts on Facebook and saw it advertised in an email from Netflix and thought it might just be another badly acted Netflix Original. Oh how wrong I was!

This had me glued two episodes in, next thing I knew I had watched seven episodes in one sitting and felt I should take a break and come back to it the next day! I must admit, there were one or two episodes that had me feeling a little bit 'zzz', such as episode 6. I don't know why but it seemed to drag on to me. The same can be said for the finale episode 10, I know most people that enjoyed this series will disagree with me on this but I felt the last episode was weak and dragged out. I felt the long conversersations between the dad and mum really dragged on. I understand that they must of been concentrating on the story instead of just the scare factor which I like but surely there's a better balance rather than 90% story and 10% scare? I did feel like I preferred the first 5 episodes over the last 5, I'm not sure why.

I'd still recommend people give this a go and I will suggest my mother watch this also as she shares my Netflix account.

The characters and story are intriguing and intense at times, I like how complex the family dynamics are due to the past. I must say that the mother and father in the series (sorry can't remember their real names) did a great job and can tell that they really tried their hardest in their role and brought it to life.

8/10

I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House (2016)

I feel like I wasted an hour and half of my life.

[2/10 · 29 September 2018]

I like clever psychological thrillers/horrors but there's one catch to that, I feel like it has to be clever and secondly, be a tad scary. This film did neither for me. It just so happens that I'm writing this review while I'm watching it, it's 1:07 in and I'm already writing this review... there may be an explosive and impressive ending, if so then I'll adapt my review accordingly but so far, this film has been more boring then watching paint dry. I understand that the writers and director must have had the clear aim of making the film be more of a drama thriller without cheap jump scares and a slow story with an intriguing dialogue that tells us a story within a story based on book. I have a huge issue with how this idea was conveyed early on with the main character, who was scared at everything but the only thing weird and scary in the film was in fact her, which made it a bizarre watch; not scary or clever but bizarre. Straight away I noticed how colour of everything was rather dull, I'm assuming they did this for effect to try to empathise a coldness of the house but it didn't do anything for me, I felt it just made a boring film even more boring. I did tell myself around 20 minutes in that if nothing interesting happens soon then I should turn it off, unfortunately I didn't stick to my own advice. Nothing has happened yet apart from the ghost of a woman floating about (who I'm assuming is the ghost of the woman from the story who was murdered but I could be incorrect as my concentration might have gone from the lack of interest). I'm still working out what is actually happening in this film because I feel it might just be as simple as the main character discovering a body, could be wrong as I haven't finished watching it yet but if so, this film has built up for nothing. A great way of describing this film is the slowness of when she found the letters /notes in that box in the closet, you expect something is going to happen but all you get is who scared expression and fingers moving very very very slow, you expect a big surprise or discovery but all that happens is she closes the box. That was the slowest part of my life, they might as well of done that part in slow motion. Skip forward to around the 1.10 mark, you've got the extremely loud conjuring style music and you assuming something is finally happening, erm no think again; ghost disappears, screen goes black and it's back to the middle of the day. It's so frustrating! What's the point of that kind of build up with only 16 minutes left and nothing comes of it? The main character has all this weird stuff happen and it's like it didn't happen the next day? And the old lady who she's suppose to be caring for is only in perhaps 20% of the film, you'd think she'd be around more as she never leaves the house but nope. You just get a bunch of random shots of the house with a story narration as if the writers are trying to send us to sleep. When the man knocks on the door peering through the net curtain, we get the main character standing on the stairs staring at him for the best part of 5 minutes which seems like 2 hours and then once he's gone, she does her little walk about, doing slow stares around corners (presumably to build up suspense but all of it seems for one purpose, to waste time because of the lack of substance.

I'm 1.19 in and now bodies have been discovered and taken away by an ambulance. Do I care? Not really. I feel as though, this film wastes the viewers time by doing nothing and expects to shock by the tiniest of moments. I'm not impressed by it. Don't get me wrong, to a certain kind of viewer, this film might even be interesting or a good watch but I just found it stretched out with zero content and the story could have been a lot more interesting. I gave it a 2/10 instead of a 1 just because I respect the storytelling from the main character but other than that, this film has little going for it. I wouldn't recommend watching this film not unless you have nothing better to do.

(Oh and I'm sure the director was trying to do a Stephen King style film but I would rather watch Stephen king over this.)

Film is under Thrillers, Psychological Thrillers section on Netflix but there's nothing 'thrilling' about it.

Adrift (I) (2018)

Average stuck out at sea movie.

[5/10 · 18 August 2018]

When the movie started with screaming and craziness at the beginning I thought to myself 'oh god here we go, another over dramatised film with no story.' After a while though, I had realised I was in fact wrong and they were about to skip backwards and forwards to fill in any gaps we have so we feel like we know these people, who are acting on behalf of a true story. It was nice that they did take a lot of time showing us their relationship, beginning too end so we can understand who, why and how. My opinion on the two lead roles is surprising, for the first half of the film I thought the female had only been cast for her looks to be honest but again, I was wrong. She did a decent job and surpassed my expectations. The main lead, hmm he was very bluh but this might of been mainly due to the script. I don't know if he died in the film or survived, that's how much I cared for his character and after watching his fiancée cry in a boat alone at the end, I had come to the conclusion he was in fact dead. I'll be honest, the film didn't make that clear enough to me in the sense that one minute he was there and the next he was not. I just struggled to care.

The issue with these kinds of films is how they have to space out the little they do on the boat in the runtime of an hour and half/two hours, it can be a challenge. So film makers in this genre fill it in with little substance, which is a problem with a film where not much happens. In the case of this film, they did a decent job with trying to fill those spaces with guitar solos, sardines and beer. They had the option of doing this as the boat had these resources, other wise it would have been a lot more of an Open Water style where you literally just see the water and two people for the best part of an hour (I didn't mind Open Water) but it's nice that in this film they try to show survival and what the body and mind goes through when struggling at the worst conditions imaginable. They show the female lead fighting to stay alive, honestly made me feel like I'd hate to be in that situation.

I've rated it so low for a number of reasons, one of which I've aleady mention; the long repeated scenes with not much happening. I can't rate any film high that nearly sends me to sleep, disliked Gravity for this same reason.

I like stuck out at sea films, don't get me wrong but I believe this isn't ground breaking stuff and can be easily repeated by following directors. I would like it if they did a film based on the true story of one of these big ships that went missing with loads of people on it, bermuda triangle style? I don't know if this would work but I'm putting it out there.

So yes this film wasn't terrible, if you like your sea films then it's worth a watch to pass the time but I don't think I'll be rewatching it any time soon.

5/10

The Circle (I) (2017)

Late review, just seen The Circle on Netflix!

[3/10 · 11 August 2018]

I randomly decided to watch this as it contains Emma Watson and Tom Hanks so I said to myself 'How bad can it be? Then again if I want to watch a film with Emma Watson maybe I should just stick with an Harry Potter film.' After finishing watching this film I've come too two conclusions, firstly that it can be very bad and secondly, I should have just stuck with the safe option of Harry Potter for anything to do with Emma Watson. At first it had potential, I thought it was going to be a dramatic story of a girl taking down a company but for the majority of the film, it's quite the opposite which had me confused and kind of wondering where the film was going. I wasn't keen on the cringy script and it was strange listening to Emma Watson with an American accent while her friend in the film was Scottish, does make me question why she needed to have the American accent at all but that's just how they did it. Also the chap that hated how the circle was heading and didn't agree with what it had become, what happened to him at the end? I felt he should have been more involved in whatever happened at the end but he was barely seen? There's so much I could critique about this movie but I'd be here all night. Anyway I wouldn't recommend this sloppy piece of work to anyone, I did have a feeling this was going to be a disappointment which is why I waited so long to watch it and well, I was right. It's quite understandable to feel a little disappointment watching it with the talent it has and see it failing massively. 3/10

Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2016)

Not worth the money it cost to create.

[4/10 · 3 June 2017]

**Not really much spoilers but just in case**

I do love zombie films, as long as they are done right. Unfortunately, Resident Evil: The Final Chapter did not make me change my mind about long drawn out sequels that become unoriginal and pretty cliché. They have carried on Resident Evil franchise for way to long, bending the past story lines of the previous films and pretending like none of it had happened (how the t virus was created for example). Don't get me wrong, I was a fan of the first and second films but for me personally, it went downhill from there .Plus the title is The Final Chapter but they hint at the end of more to come, are you kidding me?! No just stop. Putting into account that I was impressed with Iain Glen's acting and some of the fight scene's were entertaining, I've given this film a 4 out of 10 rating.

Please Hollywood, stop ruining good classic films to reboot them into a mess for profit.

The Human Centipede (First Sequence) (2009)

Shocking? No. Made me feel dirty? No. Disappointed? Yes!

[5/10 · 12 April 2017]

After watching this film tonight for the first time (I know, i'm late), I felt I should leave a quick and too the point review.

My summary does sum it up really. Years ago I had been warned by a few people to never watch The Human Centipede because of 'dirty messed up ideas'. Now i'm just sitting here wondering 'were these people being serious?.' For the first 20 minutes, I think this film would suit the comedy genre much better, wont give any spoilers but i'll say this, ever felt like you were hoping the two stupid people in a film would just die already? Well expect that feeling to rise back up when watching this. The acting was also not great, did improve a little as the film got on it's way to the end, once the credits started rolling. Don't get me wrong though, it wasn't the worst acting i've ever seen, unfortunately.

Now the reason why I didn't get as 'shocked' as some of the other reviewers, I assure you that i'm not one of these weirdo's who get off on torture porn/horrors with a little blood. I'm a normal 24 year old female. But as I watched A Serbian Film only a few months ago for the first time, i'm very unlikely to get shocked at this. A Serbian Film really did shock me and I personally think the shock factor was more extreme but better. So when I was watching The Human Centipede naturally comparing, I found the hype didn't live up to the name. The stretched out scenes did not add anything for me, I knew at the back of my mind I just had the thought 'Is this it?'

Plus, the script is nothing to really rave about either. So now i'm just sat here debating with myself whether to give it a 4 or a 5 rating...

I'll give it a 5 as i'm feeling generous. To be honest, think I've rated one of the Bring it On films a 6 so that really does sum it up.

Would I recommend this film? Well watch it online for FREE or on Netflix, don't pay for it because it's not worth the money. Watch it once and then watch the unedited version of A Serbian Film, then make your own mind up.

5/10

A Serbian Film (2010)

Not as bad as I was expecting....

[6/10 · 24 March 2017]

When I say 'bad' I mean 'messed up/disturbing/twisted' etc. After reading a lot of reviews about this film, maybe I was over prepared to see worse then what I did see, that it became less shocking. Of course I avoided the spoiler reviews as I don't like to know much about a film before I've watch it, all I knew that it was apparently 'disturbing'. Don't get me wrong, there were moments when I was watching it and thought 'what the f*ck am I watching?'. When it comes to the idea of it being disturbing, think only a few scene's will leave a 5 minute lasting effect. Of course, it depends on the person and how easily shocked they can be.

***SPOILERS***

When he cut her head off while having sex with her and when the family scene happened near the end, those two moments in the film seemed to add to the shock value of the film. The rest seemed like torture porn. The part with the baby being born and then raped, was probably the only bit that made me say to myself 'oh bloody hell!', that part did well to add shock value.

***END SPOILERS**

So did I find this disturbing? Think it's up there with a few other films which i've given my own title 'what did I just watch?'. Did it make me feel dirty watching it? No, because it's a film and films are suppose to at times, delve into challenging subjects that can shock people that these kind of acts can take place in the real world at the hidden end of society. In that sense, I think the film achieved what it wanted to achieve.

'Why did I rate it 6 out of 10 instead of 10 out of 10?' Simple really. 10 out of 10 ratings for me, are for the best films ever made. This film is not one of those, it's average. Average films for me, are on the 5-7 scale. I was debating on the 6 rating instead of 7 but think a 6 rating is fair. The acting was OK, the story was OK, script was OK. Everything was on par with a 6.

'Would I recommend this film?' Yes but only to those who do not get all squeamish over a minor thing. Watch it and let it take you where it' trying to go. It's worth at least a one time watch, could you re-watch it over and over? Hmm not sure. Watch it online for free and don't bother paying for the DVD version. And yes, it was the uncut with English subs that I watched. Would not recommend this for anyone under 14 years old (obviously).

6/10

Mercury Rising (1998)

Late review of Mercury Rising.

[9/10 · 19 March 2017]

I don't understand why this film has such a low rating, is it the plot or acting? To me, both were good and did exactly what it set out to achieve. Does this film scream top movie of all time? Definitely not but it's an easy to watch film with great acting from Bruce Willis, Alec Baldwin and the main child. I've seen much worse acting from other children his age and he played his part well. All of the supporting cast also did a good job and none of them were miscast in their roles. I've probably seen this film more than 50 times since it's release, just as entertaining as the first time I watched it. Won't leave any spoilers here but all I'll say is, if you haven't given this film a go by now and want a film to relax to, this film is great to pass the time.

9/10