Film Brain

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

Which one?

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

Playmobil got a movie? I guess it was only a matter of time.

Now that would have been an interesting way to introduce the little sister playing at the end of the LEGO movie.

He just posted a review of The Current War

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

Last night he uploaded a re-edit of his Bad Movie Beatdown of The Hangover Part II:

And he just released a projector review of The Informer.

Edited by Anddrix on Oct 16th 2019 at 11:06:25 AM

Review of The Informer:

Halloween episode (Teapot of Horror) of The Film Brain Podcast, with guest Ryan Hollinger looking at recently released bad horror films Eli, Wounds and Countdown:

And his Projector review of Terminator: Dark Fate:

He just posted a Projector on Doctor Sleep:

He just reviewed Ford V Ferrari or as it's been retitled for the UK Le Mans 66:

Mathew takes a look at Knives Out, Rian Johnson's latest film that takes a stab at the whodunnit film.

Seems like an interesting film, but I can't find a DVD release yet.

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.

Yes, and that limited release is the main thing hurting the movie, because it has been cropped for television.

Also, saying that people with vertigo would not like this movie seems a bit silly, since at these heights, everyone ought to be getting vertigo.

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.

And he's just released a review of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

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

Mathew has the latest podcast up, this time it's a look at Cats featuring Allison Pregler as a co-host.

The "reveal" happens in the first two minutes. If you don't wanna spoil that, you might as well not talk about the movie. >.>

I know, but... this just feels like it should be a spoiler. It should have been a big twist, with some major build-up. Instead it's just thrown out there right away.

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