MovieWarfare

  When Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014) came out, I didn’t have huge expectations for it. After watching it though, I was completely blown away by how much I enjoyed it. However, the sequel Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017) was quite disappointed with its nonsensical plot and pacing. After countless delays due to covid, the 3rd entry in the franchise, The King’s Man (2021), finally came out. It is a prequel set during WWI about how the Kingsman formed. So is the franchise back on track or is this another disappointing entry? Firstly, the cast is great and all give great performances. Ralph Fiennes plays Orlando and is the founder of the Kingsman. He is just perfect casting and seeing him pull off some awesome fight scenes is just wonderful to watch. Gemma Arterton plays Polly Watkins who is a maid and agent to Orlando. She is an absolute joy when she is on screen thanks to her funny wit and quips. She and Ralph Fiennes surprisingly have great chemistry when on sc...

  Nightmare Alley is a psychological thriller about a con man and his greed for money. I love director, Guillermo del Toro, previous films and was looking forward to this. It’s a very stylish, noir looking movie with gorgeous cinematography that is visually great to look at. There is also a stellar cast who all give a phenomenal performance. Special praise to Bradley Cooper and Cate Blanchett whose relationship in the movie is intriguing to watch. However, the pacing in Nightmare Alley is very slow and is also drastically long at 150 minutes. The plot is predictable and having it stretched that long sadly damages the movie a bit.

  Not even a stellar cast can save this generic action movie. A forgettable plot, unmemorable action sequences, unconvincing fight choreography and bland characters. It is quite boring for an action movie. If you want a good woman led action movie then go watch Atomic Blonde or even Wonder Woman because this isn’t worth your time.

I’m a sucker for these zombie movies and shows. They always manage to pull me into watching it. Korea somehow manages to make zombies more interesting compared to western movies and shows. For example, Train to Busan was absolutely stellar. My hope was that this show was on the level of that movie. The premise is “Set in the South Korean city of Hyosan, things go berserk one day when a girl in the Hyosan High School is bitten by a rat infected by a deadly virus that turns happy humans into devastatingly ugly and ever-hungry human eating machines”. So does Korea deliver another excellent zombie action or is it a big miss? Let’s get the obvious out of the way first, the zombie action is indeed exciting to watch. There are some exciting and creative sequences in this show such as the dining hall sequence which is filmed like one shot. There are some other creative sequences s...

Belle is a modern Japanese take on the classic Beauty and the Beast story. The director Mamoru Hosoda made some wonderful anime movies such as Summer Wars, Wolf Children and Mirai which I absolutely loved. So I was no doubt going to watch Belle. I love the contrast in art and animation style between the real world and the virtual world. The real-world uses 2D fluid and dynamic animation while the virtual world uses this 3D dazzling and beautiful aesthetic. Both are amazing to look at. One of the biggest highlights though is the music which is just wonderful. The final performance is just absolutely stunning! I also enjoyed how Mamoru put a new spin on the classic tale through the use of a virtual world. It made the story feel fresh even though it goes through a lot of the same beat for beat story you have seen before. The characters are also quite lovable in their personality and I adored the character development that our main lead Suzu goes through. The story does jugg...

  I never watched or heard about the actual broadway show that this is based on. However, a story about the difficulties of creating something, in this case a musical, and turning it into an entertaining musical is to be praised. This film does a great job in getting us invested in Jonathan Larson’s creative struggle while giving us great musical numbers. Andrew Garfield gives a phenomenal performance as Jonathan and can surprisingly sing pretty good too! I also love the way the story is told with them having Jonathan doing a tick tick.. BOOM! show and having him tell the story to us the viewers. It keeps the magic feeling of it being like the actual broadway show.   tick, tick…BOOM! is a stellar musical with great, unique sounding music numbers and an engaging story. What’s not to love?