He compared it to NerdQuest, an old horror-comedy film he starred in made by MikeJ. It had a lot of Channel Awesome producers from the UK (Guru Larry, Ashens, Ursa). I didn't think much of it, but Mathew's character was easily the most likable.
Edited by chasemaddigan on Aug 30th 2019 at 5:00:04 AM
Mathew gives his thoughts on the film adaptation of Downton Abbey, coming in as someone who's never watched the series:
Awesome, I just saw a piece on the movie on CNN International.
Main takeaways:
- You won't get much introduction to main characters (since there are loads of them here), but there isn't too much focus on backstory from the main show either, so newcomers should be able to follow along fairly well.
- Virtually the entire cast is here, and the movie is basically an extended episode of the show, which is both good (since it tells you something about the quality) but also could be seen as it's major criticism (as in, not taking full advantage of the new medium).
- Lots and lots of subplots (because we have lots and lots of main characters), which are all given roughly equal weight despite ranging from a mundane broken boiler to an assassination attempt.
- The film is clearly written like a TV episode, with rises and falls to accommodate non-existent commercial breaks.
- A film adaptation was not really necessary, since this essentially plays out like one of the longer Christmas specials. It is more a badge of honour in this case.
- Maggie Smith is, as always, the best thing about the entire movie.
- The movie focusses mostly on the downstairs characters, which is a bit of an odd choice.
- Carson is brought back as a fan favourite, but doesn't have much to do.
So, great for fans, works pretty well as an extended episode/show reunion, but wasn't really necessary as a movie.
Edited by Redmess on Sep 20th 2019 at 11:11:24 AM
Hope shines brightest in the darkest timesMathew takes a look at Knives Out, Rian Johnson's latest film that takes a stab at the whodunnit film.
Mathew's just reviewed the biographical adventure flick The Aeronauts, which is getting a limited theatrical release in the US starting today, before it gets put on Amazon Prime on the 20th.
On this episode of Projector, Mathew takes a look at Jumanji: The Next Level, the sequel to 2017's surprise hit Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.
So I assume a certain Sith Lord returning isn't a spoiler, then? Some reviews have avoided even mentioning him, even though he was clearly in one of the trailers.
I think the spirit of this movie can be summed up nicely by Kylo welding his Darth Vader helmet back together and putting it back on. That is just a great symbol of what the franchise is doing with this movie as relates to the last one.
On a tangential note, why do I keep hearing criticism to the tune of "it looks and sounds great, but the characters/plot are terrible"? Is this saying something about the state of moviemaking and -writing?
Also, a reminder that a certain Sith Lord's canonical first name is "Sheev". Sheev. It sounds like the British slang for a knife.
Edited by Redmess on Dec 20th 2019 at 1:40:01 PM
Hope shines brightest in the darkest timesMathew has the latest podcast up, this time it's a look at Cats featuring Allison Pregler as a co-host.
Just in time for Christmas, Mathew takes a look at the latest adaptation of Little Women, directed by Greta Gerwig:
Edited by Anddrix on Dec 27th 2019 at 10:52:14 AM

And his second review for this week is for Playmobil: The Movie: