Welcome to the first results show of the season! My name is BURKE according to Voila which I stan so yeah!
Anyways, we have two situations to get past before we begin:
gumball221520 did not submit a film and is therefore disqualified #Volleyball1 was exposed as a multi and subsequently banned, to which they are disqualified as well. They did submit a film however and I chose not to view it or accept it
That means Sweeney Todd (2007) is still available to use to anyone that wishes to use it.
With that, everyone that submitted a film is SAFE! No Low placements given this round but we will have a top 3. So with that, here are the critiques:
stuartlittle16 - Pirates of the Carribean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) (Swashbuckler) - Oh man thanks to CarolinaSteele last season, I ended up watching the trilogy and man do I love this first movie. It is so entertaining and I wasn't expecting it to be. Stuff like this has never enticed me but man when you got the right talent and acting, you can do so much and Gore Verninski does so much to great affect. Johnny Depp acting half gay, half drunk and crazy is the funniest thing and I can just watch that for hours. Keira Knightly and Orlando Bloom have alot to do as well and I found it compelling. Geoffery Rush is a great complex villain and the overall set pieces and cinematography is just gorgeous! Not to mention that score. Ugh I love this movie.
imprincearthur - The Conjuring (2013) (Supernatural) - So I will never hold this movie for fault but oh my god the era this created is so awful jesus. I absolutely love this movie though. There is something about James Wan and his directing style that I will always find investing. He is able to take simple concepts and elevate them just by craftsmanship. Vera Farminga is a fucking gem and needs to be in more stuff cause she is just iconic and to me is the heart of this movie. Patrick Wilson is great too but god her facial acting is phenomenal. The scares are impactful too. Jump Scares done right can be very effective and it works for me. Even on a rewatch the never ending use of tension even with Jump Scares is really good. The hide & clap (or hide the clap I can't remember) as well as the hair pulling and the dresser scare are just so good. Overall, one of James Wan's finest films in his filmography and despite me not liking the influence this movie had as I find alot of imitators awful, this one is unmatched so pop off!
FromAWindow - Isn't It Romantic (2019) (Rom-Com) - To answer your question. Satire or parody is definitely a subgenre but I kept it Rom-Com as thats the central idea despite it being made fun of. This movie surprised me and I found it extremely entertaining! Rebel Wilson has great comedic timing here it is so much fun. Her just calling shit out made me laugh obnoxiously loud when it probably shouldn't have. Do people not like Rebel Wilson? I sometimes hear negative things but I find her funny. Anyways, the use of cliches to its advantage really worked. Particularily with cuts like the continuous cut to "the morning after" despite it never happening and continuous censoring. Im still surprised I enjoyed it as much as I did. If this is chaotic from you than I want more! Great job!
Olympia - The Grifters (1990) (Crime-Thriller) - The opening score was so unnecessarily tense for stills and credits but i'm not mad about it! I love Angelica Huston. She has such a commanding presence on screen and chews the scenery. The way she says Angeles made me cackle. The movie definitely feels like a slow burn and the first act in particular felt pretty dragging but once Myra reveals herself to Roy the movie starts getting really interesting and I was on board. I like the tension the three characters bring and while Roy is definitely the least interesting, hes the best character to share the narrative and the way it all ends honestly shocked me I was not expecting that. Overall, this is a progressively good film and im excited to see what else you'll bring
CalebDaBoss - Freaky (2020) - I am a huge fan of Christopher Landon! His work on the Paranormal Activity movies are so good and obviously Happy Death Day is a bop. This movie is no exception. I love the comedy. Vince Vaughn just kills it and its such an overall cool spin on the body switching concept. Katheryn Newton is also scary as hell but hilarious with how seriously she is compared to everyone else. I also love the representation in this movie. Its just nice to see filmmakers who understand what people wanna see and just make it alot of fun and bring that gore like damn the saw scene is insane. I love this movie and I can't wait to see what Landon will do next and what you will bring.
LaCroix - I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) (Slasher) - Oh man this movie is alot of fun! I was excited to watch it since the last time I watched it I was 11 or so. The setup for this movie is really great! By throwing a morality situation into their one dimensional personalities, it really helps flesh out their characters. I also love the way the characters have dealt with the incident and how everything has gone wrong for all of them. The movie is also pretty well shot with the style of the 90s but definitely capturing the feel of straightforward 80's slashers and why not throw a mystery in there. My main negatives with this movie is I think the roles of Helen and Julie could have been switched. I find Helen to be the more compelling character and could have really driven the narrative plus Sarah Michelle Gellar is just magnificent and was hella robbed as well as had the best scene. Jennifer Love Hewitt is great too...until she is just screaming for like 20 minutes on the boat and not doing anything. Thats where I lose interest the most. Other than that this movie is pretty solid and I enjoy it!
CallMeTheGOAT - The Other Guys (2010) (Action-Comedy) - I had no idea that Adam McKay had such a career to him! I searched him up and damn hes done alot! Good for him. This is a star studded cast and im really shook. I was not expecting Michael Keaton or Samuel L. Jackson and was like damn pop off. I do think that making the two black characters cocky and then killing them off in favour of middle aged white men is a choice but ok. I don't really know how I feel about it. Its not badly directed or anything, the concept is really interesting but I don't really like the two main characters. Comedy is something I have a hard time enjoying as I have specific humor and this movie doesn't really appeal to it. I just find the main characters mean spirited and don't really have an arc. I did like the pimp backstory that was ridiculous. Overall, I wanted to enjoy this movie but it just didn't get there for me.
austino15fffan - Prometheus (2012) - So I have this movie on blu ray and I had the absolute worst time trying to get it to play and I was so pissed off but after switching players I did it!!!! Anyways, Alien is my favourite horror movie of all time and I could gush on forever about why it is (which I would like to apologise to oswordo3 for giving you a low placement that round for it omg) and I know people either love or hate this movie. Right out of the gate, this movie looks stunningly beautiful its phenomenal what Ridley Scott is able to accomplish with cinematography oh my god. And the use of Jerry Goldsmiths original score made me so happy. I also really like the approach he took to the movie not wanting it to be like Alien and instead focusing on creation and using mythology as reference which I really like. The cast is astounding and everyone gives a top notch performance. Charlize Theron, Noomi Rapace, Idris Elba and Michael Fassbender oh my god David is awful but played so well. The movie is also disgusting visually but thats expected. That surgery scene will forever haunt me in my dreams. Ew. The one negative I constantly hear about is Vickers' death but I feel like it works with her character of not seeing the bigger picture and with how much ambiguity this movie has as well as the theories (such as Vickers being an android) it makes more sense to me so yeah! I really like this movie and i'm glad I got to rewatch it after a long ass time. Really surprised me!
paul028 - You're Next (2011) (Home Invasion) - When I first watched this movie a few years ago it was under bad circumstances so I didn't tend to enjoy the movie that much. Watching it again, I really enjoyed it! Its very well crafted and can tell its made with effort, albeit taking alot of inspiration from The Strangers but I really enjoyed the mystery part to it as well. I love Erin, she is such a badass and from the getgo is just taking care of buisness like its a daily occurence and I stan. I like the scares! There were a couple that genuinely got me. My main gripe with the movie however is some of the camerawork is unnecessarily jarring and shaky. Some of it is used to great effect and overall, the movie looks really for a 1 million dollar budget but there are some moments that really took me out of it but I understand why it was used so im not really that upset about it. Overall, this movie is hella fun, very fast and gory as hell which checks my boxes of entertainment! Im excited to see what you'll continue to bring!
Vixens - The Hater (2020) (Social Thriller) - This movie was very interesting! I have never really dived into political films or much on social media but its so crazy to see what someone can do from behind a screen. The narrative structure of Tomasz is investing because he is not a sympathetic character but you have to get on board with what hes doing for the movie to work which I find fascinating. I hate him as a character but i'm so invested in seeing what he'll do. I'm pretty surprised at how much I enjoyed the movie. I didn't have high expectations but it definitely exceeded them. Its well paced and the story is well told! Good job im excited to see what else you'll do!
And thats it for the first round! Honestly, im kind of happy getting a double elimination out of the way cause I didn't have an extra round planned anyways so iconic!
Stay tuned for the next round being posted later today!
