Reviews

(Taken from my letterboxd account: http://letterboxd.com/08lc3/)

Damn.

I want this review to be the longest one I've ever written but it's one of those films that I have so much that I want to say that I'm too overcome to be able to do justice to my feelings and rating.

First of all, I love Nas' music. 'Illmatic' is probably my favourite hip-hop album. It's the only hip-hop album where I like every song on it. Sure there are better and worse ones, but they're all better than great. The tracks on Illmatic are perfect. They're all diverse and all contain various messages and social commentaries. It's a perfect inside into that lifestyle. That is exactly what the documentary encapsulates as well. It frequently contains sections about the relevance of those tracks, and the inspirations Nas found when writing them.

The stories of the inspirations for these songs are just perfect. These songs aren't soulless cash-ins, they're authentic stories on life in the hood, and what has happened to these people. It was really profound hearing about Ill Will, and everything that happened to Nas and his friends. When Jungle is looking at the picture of the hood group and going through where they all are, I just knew that everything here was just so apt and perfect.

This is one of those documentaries that only hits this hard when you have a big interest in the source material. As someone who LOVES 'Illmatic', I was bound to love this. I loved the use of each track, and how they all fit in. The editing (both sound and visually) is amazing. It knew exactly when to sync music and stop it. It worked so well.

Hearing the stories behind the songs is probably my favourite part about the documentary. Finding out that Nas' dad did the sax solo for 'Life's A Bitch' really took me aback. I loved that solo and it just came from Nas telling his dad to do whatever he felt like playing. Just fascinating.

Nas changed hip-hop. There cannot be any argument against that. He made songs that actually meant something. He was telling the world exactly what life in the hood is like. The documentary gives a good insight in the effect of that album, and what it took to make it. Everything that brought Nas to 1994.

Nas is king. Illmatic is everything hip-hop should be. This documentary tells you the incredible story of how it happened. The anecdotes are brilliant, and really hold the piece together well. This is a documentary that understands its focus, and doesn't just have famous people saying how great it is. It mainly has Nas and his peers telling the truth about how things were. It's much better than a biopic version could be.

Overall, I think I've written enough to be satisfied. It's taken me over 90 minutes to write this. This documentary perfectly says everything about one of the all-time best hip-hop albums. It tells you everything you need to know, and satisfies any fan of Nas. It's just about the defining era of Nas' career. It doesn't talk about his other albums after. It just looks at before Illmatic, during Illmatic, and then the present day aftermath of Illmatic. It's inspiring, fascinating and just magnificent. A must see for hip-hop fans. The ending to this movie was just breathtaking. I LOVED that ending scene. At first I thought it was forced but once it got going, WHOA, what a smart way to end it.

*deep sigh of relief*

The following review is taken from MY LetterboXD account (http://letterboxd.com/08lc3/):

The UK. Ah, what an annoying place for movie releases. We tend to get things a lot later than the US. Films like John Wick and Big Hero 6 haven't even been released yet!

Thankfully, every once in a while, we do get something of note before everyone else. I got the chance to see Ex Machina earlier today. I'll cut to the chase, it was pretty good. Great some would say.

It's a very original and interesting film based around the realism of artificial intelligence. A lot of the dialogue in the film is very interesting and thought provoking. It really is great to see a film that explores where we could go with technology.

Going into this, I didn't expect a whole lot but I knew of Alex Garland's strong involvement. This is his directorial debut and he also wrote it. He's an amazing writer in my opinion. He wrote 28 Days Later, Sunshine, Never Let Me Go. All three have solid scripts full of originality. I knew then that this film would be very smart and rock solid. And, it was.

The film was full of innovative looks at the near future and all the components behind AI. It was the most fascinating dialogue I've heard in a while. That and Oscar Isaac were the best parts about it.

Along with the realistic and intelligent discussions of technology, the film's script was full of actual things people say. Isaac's character was very sarcastic in a normal sense. I haven't seen such normal responses in a long time. He was funny due to his reactions to what Gleeson would say.

The film's story progresses very well and certainly doesn't waste any time. I couldn't predict what was going to happen and it was definitely engaging. Due to its current limited release across the world, I don't want to say too much.

I think it was very enjoyable but somewhat tonally inconsistent. It sometimes felt like Black Mirror to give a comparison. I think the way it ended was fantastic. I am glad to see that films still have balls.

Garland is king and Isaac is God.

Catch it when you can, foreigners. It feels good to be one of the first citizen voices on a movie.

Wow. Just wow. This movie didn't surprise me with its' quality due to the fact that I am a big Joe Carnahan fan. His work over the years has always impressed me. Even recently I knew he still had it with the amazing TV show The Blacklist. His style of blending humour and drama works really well and it comes into play spectacularly here.

The narration of Patrick Wilson's character is both humorous and amazing to listen to. It gives extra layers to this character and makes him all the more enjoyable as the lead. His whacky adventure makes this film whole and truly a fun and entertaining movie. There are many different movies which have a similar kind of narrative structure to this but very few have Carnahan's skilled execution and delivery. Every moment just hits the right note from start to finish. There are a couple of truly amazing cameos in the film which are both perfect and hilarious.

My only nag with the film I guess is that it was somewhat predictable. But, you don't see the film for this really; so it didn't matter a whole lot. It coasted by very well with its' witty script, great soundtrack and stellar acting. Carnahan has served up another home run. A must see for fans of his work. Go in with an open mind if this is your first. Either way, you shall not be disappointed.

Going into The Railway Man, I expected a mediocre Oscar-bait biopic however, I was more than delighted to be wrong. While it has many of the run of the mill true story drama conventions, it is superior to most of them and feels very subversive to such a dry and boring sub-genre. The Railway Man follows two timelines, one of an English group of POWs trying to survive in Japan during World War 2, and another set decades later following the psychological fallout from the trauma the soldiers endured. To me, this story is much stronger than typical true stories and it worked really well. It fits in themes of forgiveness and overcoming tragedy really well. It delivers a very strong performance from its lead Colin Firth (which is great to see after the dreadful Gambit) and equally great performances from Hiroyuki Sanada and Jeremy Irvine. The film's greatest strength probably lies is the brilliant performances on offer, however Nicole Kidman slightly missed the mark. After War Horse left a bad taste in my mouth, I have steered clear of cheesy Oscar-bait films and of Jeremy Irvine, however this movie gives me hope that both of those things are not always bad. The run time of these kinds of films tend to be too long and they drag on a lot, however; The Railway Man fits quite well with its 115 minute run time. I didn't have much of a problem with its length, nor its pacing; bar having a couple of time checks throughout. It is also shot very well with sets that really help to capture the intended environment and time setting, particularly the great dreary 80's English seaside environment. In regards to the intended target audience, this film predominantly aims for elderly people as they will understand the jargon and context of the film better than any other demographic. As a teenager in a screening surrounded by elderly people, I could tell the film was hitting its mark well as they understand and laughed at things I didn't; but thankfully this ignorance didn't hinder my viewing experience. Overall, The Railway Man more than succeeds on what it is trying to accomplish and is definitely compelling viewing. It is great for mature audiences and feels like a standout in a boring and tired sub-genre. However, if you truly dislike biopic/true story films then this will probably not be for you and the same goes for people strongly uninterested in the second World War.