Mini Movie Reviews May 2017

Solaris (2002) – 7/10.  Great visuals and a wonderful ambient score by Cliff Marinez (he used to drum for Red Hot Chilli Peppers you know!) combined to create a great atmosphere and a very enjoyable film with an intriguing plot. Moves a little too quickly in places despite being a fairly uneventful movie.

Solaris (1972) – 5/10.  I was hoping for more depth from the Russian version but despite it being almost twice as long, I didn’t feel like I took much more away from it.  It moved very slowly, unecessarily so in places and to be fair – the rating probably reflects the fact that my attention wained in the final third. I did like soundtrack composer Edward Artemiev’s various renditions of “Chorale prelude F Minor” by Johann Sebastian Bach – very haunting indeed. The first clips is a good example of the indulgent nature of the film – 4 minutes of arty imagery.

Out Of Sight – 7/10.  A decent thriller/heist movie with George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez (possibly the only movie I have ever seen her in) with a cool 70s soul and funk style soundtrack by David Holmes.

John Wick – 7/10.  A no nonsense action movie.

Sausage Party – 3/10.  Too crass even for my low standards. It felt like they added the word FUCK to every line of dialogue to try and be edgy. I gave up before the end.

Zootropolis – 7/10.  I thought this was Pixar, such was the quality of the animation, characters and story, but it is apparently a Disney production – possibly the best 3D film I’ve seen from Disney. Better than…

The Good Dinosaur – 6/10. This one was Pixar, but I didn’t think it was on par with their usual output.