THOUGHTS?
Hughes Reviews are quick, bite sized thoughts on the enjoyment level of a movie or television show. These are not thoughts about the quality of work but instead, they’re purely about enjoyment level and feeling.
The scale ranges between having a horrible time on one end of the spectrum to truly loving something on the other, up to 5 stars.
If you’re interested in viewing thoughts in a little more extensive way, including the ability to search, please visit my Letterboxd Profile.
What about you? How did these make you feel?
Q2: April - June
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Rewatched
This is a movie that sticks with me, far beyond what a movie usually does at this enjoyment level. I can’t explain that other than to guess that there’s so much potential with the idea of the town. Yes, the finale is pretty spectacular but for me it’s all about that rigged town. I want more of that. There so much potential for more creepiness, dread and scares with that setup. The movie gives it a good amount of attention but it’s an itch I want scratched more.
⭐️⭐️
It’s what I could call slightly fun and has very familiar feeling with hard nods to other science fiction alien movies you’ve come to love. I wanted more of something but I’m not sure what to be honest, it felt reserved, and they could have done much more with the material. I’ll remember it but wouldn’t watch again.
⭐️⭐️
Rewatched
A little too much coincidence sprinkled throughout and the third act goes off the rails. I remember this being better and it was too easy to pick apart this time.
I never for one moment believed Hackman was actually the president so that also makes for a rocky foundation. Ed Harris on the other hand had good chemistry with Eastwood. I like the idea of Eastwood as a professional thief though, it could have potentially been a series.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
What an amazing movie, and it’s my favorite I’ve seen so far this year. I was completely grabbed by the throat from the first frames and it never let go. The initial scene was captivating, heartbreaking and I don’t know exactly how Peele accomplished so much so quickly. That’s just the first scene.
The layers of complexity at play are mind blowing. Without question the concept of spectacle is front and center, along with asking questions about miracles and these themes effortlessly surface again and again. It’s an alien movie that has so much to say, and it feels so refreshing and special as a result.
I’ve watched quite a few video essays about the movie, I was driven to seek them out after watching Nope and I find the very fact that there are so many essays existing out there as a simple gauge of its impact.
I bought this on UHD, look forward to watching it again, and can’t recommend it enough. I’ve considered writing something much more in depth but I want to watch it yet again before doing so.
⭐️⭐️
I had a lot of hope here considering the talent behind this but it just didn’t hit me the way I wanted. It all floated a little too much, nothing really sunk its teeth into me and I so wanted something to do that.
⭐️⭐️
I do my best to avoid knocking things too much, all my reviews are based on personal enjoyment levels and not about the quality of work. This series has lost all magic to me. It was unfocused nonsense but at least a tad better than F9.
It's not about jumping the shark, I'm fully onboard if something is exciting and meaningful but we have a ton of characters with nothing to do, a plot that doesn't mean anything and action that doesn't look grounded and doesn't look right. I was bored through a lot of it and it's just nonsense.
The truth, I’ll still go watch part 11 though.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Very engaging, I remember thinking the world of him when I was younger. Heck, he was all over the place at a very impressionable age. The only critique I have is that I wish I learned new things, a lot of what was covered where things I already knew but it was super interesting and refreshing to see him so heavily involved in the telling of his story. It’s a high recommend, just don’t expect a lot of new information.
⭐️
While I enjoyed the gore, the issue I had was the script and it’s ability to generate exactly zero characters I didn’t find incredibly annoying. It was clear they were setup just to get killed and there was nobody to connect with. The story was flimsy and connections between this and the original were handled poorly. Again, the gore was decent but it was frustrating to watch.
⭐️⭐️
I liked Crowe’s character and the setup was decent but I wasn’t a fan of some of the casting though and I wanted the movie to be scary which it very much wasn’t. I also wasn’t expecting this to become a CGI monster fight, thereby losing all of the potential tension and terror by the end. I really liked Overlord but this effort didn’t land the way that one did.
⭐️⭐️⭐️
What is unclear to me is why I didn’t like this more because there was so much to love. My guess is that I wasn’t in the right mental space so I’ll have to give it another shot in the future. There’s a lot of great material here, make no mistake. It’s funny and fun with great characters and really entertaining scenes so I think the issue is on my end.
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Calling this goofy fun shouldn’t be taken as an insult or something negative. I had fun and overall yeah, it’s a little goofy but in all the good ways possible. This unexpectedly violent movie was more than I was expecting and it’s hard to argue that it’s not a good time.
The team also accomplished something amazing here, regardless of the destructive action it was always possible to tell what was going on and who was where. There was no hyperkinetic cutting and shots were allowed to stay on screen for you long enough to digest what you were seeing. It was a breath of fresh air so thank you for that.
The attempted humor is its biggest downfall and was enough to take me out of the movie on more than one occasion. That’s unfortunate in what was otherwise a good time.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I genuinely had a lot of fun with this and I give enormous props to both the overall look and especially the audio mixing. It’s been a while since I heard such an aggressive Atmos mix and it almost makes me want to buy it on UHD as sample material. The look also was top notch, from directing all the way to production design and cinematography. It looks gorgeous.
Not everything landed for me though and I felt the movie was truly at its best when it wasn’t trying to be Evil Dead. I could have gone without all the references and would have preferred it trying to be its own thing. All that being said though, the major issues I had just rolled off my back because I was having so much fun.
⭐️
I miss what I consider to be classic Guy Ritchie and based on the trailers I was hoping to get that again here but unfortunately, no. This was a real struggle to get through and just about everything fell completely flat to me. I think casting was way off, along with the humor, story and action. I was truly disappointed.
⭐️⭐️
I like the concept but it feels like 20 minutes is missing from this movie to make it coherent, but at the same time I didn’t want it to be longer. There’s some great casting and violence here, but I never though though that their full potential was realized. I would have preferred just the Dracula / Renfield story without the cop / mob drama. That last part didn’t flow well with the first.
⭐️⭐️
Rewatched
I watched this again in preparation for Evil Dead Rise and I don’t know if it’s the directing, editing or sound mixing but something kept taking me out of the movie and I don’t know what it is, maybe a combination of the three.
As a side point, it would benefit from more setting up of items and the environment. There’s a lot that seems to appear out of nowhere which didn’t help matters much for me. Funny enough, it’s also not as violent as I remember it being in the theaters.
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Rewatched
It’s fun and has some good stuff in it but I’m struggling to think of much more to say. The humor is a lead balloon though and I wish it wasn’t there.
⭐️
Rewatched
This was a super rough struggle to get through, it’s just not for me at all. I remember thinking it was better but I was wrong.
⭐️
Well, there was death and there was a ship so the title checks out but this was brutal to get through and I expected more from an 80s horror movie.
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Rewatched
I enjoyed it less this second time around, it dragged more to me and the ramp up near the end was shorter than I remembered. It’s still closer to the Guy Ritchie style I enjoy so much, much more than his recent efforts but it is a little too slow.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Exceptional at being exactly what it is. Almost everything is at an 11. It’s insane, ridiculous, and over the top. The cherry on top is when you realize how terrible he really is at his job.
⭐️⭐️
Rewatched
Some of this scratched a nostalgia itch because I remember originally watching it on LaserDisc but it didn’t age well. Is it a rat? Bat? Rat bat? Bat rat?
⭐️⭐️⭐️
What an odd movie, there was so much I liked about this movie but it never really grabbed me in a meaningful way and I really didn’t like how it ended. Performances were great though and the main characters were all sympathetic in their own way. There were a ton of different styles and director influences on display here, like a bunch of different movies in one but its grandiose presence felt a little forced.
⭐️⭐️
I don’t want to hate on this, I just didn’t find it funny or amusing. There’s something about the story, pacing, directing and editing (in particular) that made it feel off to me. The one scene with the ambulance chase generated a smile but that was it.
⭐️⭐️
Rewatched
It’s a bad sign that I forgot I had seen this already, I didn’t realize it until half way through. That hardly ever happens. I would have liked something more explosive with these two starring.
⭐️⭐️⭐️
This ended up being a Steve Johnson double feature and while there’s so much in this movie that didn’t work for me, there was enough to keep me genuinely entertained. Some moments actually made me smile and laugh out loud so I give it a lot of credit for that even with its annoying faults. I haven’t seen anything quite like this.
⭐️
Rewatched
I saw this in the theater when it released and remembered nothing of it. That being said, I vaguely remember not liking it and this time around it just felt increasingly cheap, poorly made and not in a way I found fun. Steve Johnson has some great practical effects work in it though, as he usually does.
⭐️⭐️⭐️
If you saw the real twist coming around the halfway point, I don’t think you’re being honest. It was an expected Orphan-like movie until it wasn’t.
⭐️⭐️⭐️
This one was on the watch list for a long time and I finally pulled the trigger. Maybe it had been built up too much for me and while it certainly wasn’t bad, it didn’t grab me the way I was expecting. It all felt very familiar to me and I didn’t connect with the characters much but there was a lot to still like.
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Rewatched
There are cool ideas at play here, I love what the room is capable of projecting and it’s a solid piece of fun. What I remember the most is the ocean and snow segments, it’s when it’s doing things like this that it shines.
Q1: January - March
⭐️⭐️
Rewatched
It was good until it wasn’t. Trying to piece together what actually happened is headache inducing and the ending took away any credit the movie had built up for itself. I also forgot that I had seen it before on DVD and that’s a bad sign.
⭐️⭐️
Rewatched
I understand why people like this movie, but it feels cheap and silly to me.
⭐️⭐️
What an interesting find, I stumbled across this while looking for movies like the Thing and success, it’s a lot like The Thing. There are some amazing sequences in this movie and some wonderful practical effects but it’s missing some of humanity I felt was needed and I imagine a lot was lost in the dubbing from Russia because some things came across a little silly. I really wanted to like this more but it’s worth seeing for what it has going for it.
I keep thinking about this movie though, I so wish it hit me harder.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
If you like U2 it’s an easy recommend. It feels too much like an ad for their Songs of Surrender album release, but I didn’t mind, it’s still good to see Bono and The Edge interviewed and play.
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Rewatched
I liked this a lot more in a second viewing even though I have the same criticisms. It’s just not what Scream means to me.
⭐️⭐️
It’s violent beyond what we’ve seen in previous Scream movies and that something I’m holding against it. We’ve lost all sight of what made Scream, Scream and we are heading in a completely new direction. Some sequences are genuinely tense, but it all gets washed away with an eye rolling reveal at the end and people seem superhuman. I think the Scream I love is dead.
⭐️⭐️⭐️
A pleasant surprise! I watched the unrated version and I recommend you do the same if you have the opportunity. I thought it would be a Child’s Play knockoff but it’s not quite that at all and at its core has some excellent messaging about an unhealthy reliance on tech.
⭐️⭐️⭐️
A fun find and a complete whirlwind of a movie. Excessively graphic violence is fun but that’s not enough to recommend and ultimately, I didn’t end up liking it by the time it was over.
⭐️⭐️⭐️
I would have liked this more if I hadn’t seen the trailer, it spoiled way too much. Effective and I wished I saw more smiles from affected people.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Rewatched
Wonderful acting, story, cinematography and music. It’s pretty special.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Rewatched
This is a movie I put on as a background movie every once in a while. The general premise speaks to me and hits me at my core. I can’t stop imagining what I could be capable if I just got control of my head like the premise. As a result, I find it inspiring in all kinds of weird ways. I’d absolutely take those pills.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
She does look like the new Lara Croft in that poster.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Completely fun and funny, I had such a good time. I don’t think it completely stuck the landing, but I don’t care.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This fully deserves the positive attention it’s been receiving. It’s a very complex movie, full of incredible performances and characters that you just love watching. I’ve seen many a video essays on the movie and I won’t go into those additional thoughts here, but I agree that it’s deeper than what it appears in the surface and if you liked it, I encourage you to do the same.
⭐️⭐️
There was a lot of potential here and while Bale was great, I’m struggling to remember much of it.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I went into this blind and am so glad I did. What an odd movie yet it totally works, and I ate it up.
⭐️⭐️
This lives in the shadow of Knives Out and I admit was really disappointed. I didn’t like the characters at all except for Craig’s work and I so wanted to like this a lot more but… I don’t think it was written well, sorry.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Rewatched
Still amazing.