Star Trek - Into Darkness (2013): Like a Bond movie in space....

Critic 1

When I go to see a Star Trek movie I would like to see epic space fights, exotic new races (Klingon's at least) and hear some double minded comments from captain Kirk. What I do not want to see is a copy of the Moonraker. I wasn't overly surprised though. The plot was what I feared based on the trailers I saw. Apart of the evident lack of proper space fights the movie was really nice. Especially the visual effects were extremely good. Plot was ok but as I said I expected something else. An acceptable date movie. Even a total Star Trek n00b can appreciate the visual effects of this movie.

Critic 2

This is a next Star Trek movie in a new timeline. The movie begins about from the situation were the previous one was left. The beginning of the movie was very good and hooked the watcher. In my opinion the setting for the plot the were very interesting and movie dealt with the issues quite satisfyingly. Well, there were some holes in the plot if you think too carefully, but during the movie I didn't pay much attention to these. I think three main actors were exceptionally good. Visual effect were pretentious and nice to watch. If you liked  the the previous Star Trek movie you will probably like this one too. 

Judgement Star: Into Darkness (2013).

A Good Day to Die Hard (2013): Let the John McClane finally die....

Critic 1

 

As a die hard fan of Die Hard movies I'm appalled.  This piece of art is totally unaligned compared with the true John McClane  films. All the humour is gone and the once so fluent storytelling and greater than life goons are missing.... Now I just felt that " This is what really cheap movie looks..." And  John McLane was lamer than ever... There was a Mi-24 flying around  and John is known to have taken flying lessons. Conclusion based on the old films is obvious and highly anticipated but no.... Keep clear. Do not bother your date.

Critic 2

 

Die Hard saga continues. The idea of the movie sounded very good, John Mclane meets his son after long time. From the previous Die Hard movies I understood that the idea of movie saga was that John McClane just happens to be there in the middle of action accidentally. This time he went straight to car chase and things started to crash. Also a character development scenes could have been less obvious. In the previous Die Hard movies there were more (funny and stupid) jokes included or maybe I remember wrong. The storyline and movie felt rushed, a cheap copy of some unknown (super)agent film. I also wondered why the aspect ratio of film screen wasn't that wide as usually in movies today. I think Die Hard saga deserves far better movies than this kind.  

The Judgement Star: Very close to be a B-movie.

  

Django Unchained (2012): Beat those white sorry asses!

Critic 1

 

Tarantino's newest does not leave anybody cold. You either love it or you hate it.  Christoph Waltz makes excellent work as a German born dentists who's noted that killing people makes more money than healing them.  Jamie Foxx plays a part of an shining black knight rescuing a damsel in distress. When the plot is laid  down the movie rolls on nicely and the body count rises steadily. There is a kind of lapse during the end game but who cares. This is exactly what you would expect out of western made by Quentin Tarantino. Maybe not for the first dates though.

Critic 2

 

A new movie by Quentin Tarantino. A western about a topic rarely discussed in western movies, namely, slavery. Basic themes are familiar from previous movies by Tarantino, a lot of lively discussions and violence. But again marvellously talking is not boring and almost three hours went quickly. If you liked Tarantino's previous movies you will probably like this one too, although in my opinion this is not one of the best movies from him. The leading actors were really great again, but storyline starts to fall apart towards to the end and this is the biggest minus of the movie. 

Judgement Star: A very good movie.

   

Juoppohullun päiväkirja (2012): Hasling around without ending...

 

Critic 1

 

Usually Finnish movies are dark whining stories about hardness of life. It was very entertaining to see a movie where the hardships of everyday life were systematically bypassed and life lived with a full throttle.... With help of booze but who cares? Story itself was very mediocre and without proper ending with some very disturbing but plausible details from professional drunks life. Joonas Saartamo plays the main character extremely well, I'd say he will get some Finnish equivalent of Oscar because of the role. Take care that your date can handle bad language, vomiting and gay porn scenes.

Critic 2 

 

Movie is about a Finnish man, who is addicted to alcohol. The king named alcohol is everything to him, but then he meets a girl. An overall plot sounds like ordinary romantic movie. But this is a Finnish movie about a shabby man with an irony and without colors of roses. The movie was better than I expected, I thought it would be all mindless fiddling. There is a lot of that too, but also a plot. But there could have been a little bit more of a real plot, since the movie felt a bit too long, even the length of the movie was only about one and half hours. The ending pointed towards to sequel too clearly. But I have to admit that this movie wasn't so depressing as so many other Finnish movies.

The Judgement Star: A movie with some weak points.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) - Feels like a fairytale.

Critic 1

 

First of all I have to mention that we saw the HFR version of this movie and oh boy... It was really worth it... Picture was sharp as life it self and the annoying blurring of movement was totally gone. Some corners were cut though but not too badly. Otherwise the movie was as expected. Nothing extraordinary with the plot (if you have read the book), or with the characters. If you can survive the dish washing scene in the beginning (you'll know) this is a really good movie. Just make sure to wear a pointy hat in the theater and make sure that your date is OK with that.  

Critic 2

 

This is a movie about a novel by Tolkien. A hobbit will have a big adventure. I was surprised how well it merged in the similar world with the movies from the Lord's of the rings by the same director. The 3D effects were better than usual, a new technique seem to be promising. I liked the movie although some similar scenes with LOTR movies could have been filmed from different angles. I liked a bit slow phase of the movie and in the end after almost three hours I would have still wanted to stay in the theater and watch more.  

Judgement Star: The Hobbit is a very good movie.

Star Trek - Generations (1994): And Captain Kirk saves the day.

 

 

Critic 1

 

The first Star Trek movie with Captain Picard shows promise in the beginning but turns down to metaphysical mumbojumbo. Again the crew of the Enterprise fights mystical forces and evildoers with grater-than-life plans, a bunch of Klingons are mixed in the soup and dead Captain Kirk shows up. So it is a common day in the Star Trek universe. The visual effects are clearly better than in the previous Star Trek movies and there is even a minor space fight. As a date movie... Are you kidding? You are a Star Trek fan. You don't have a real date... 

Critic 2

 

The Star Trek saga continues with the next generation. The story stars a bit slowly, but improves later. The ideas in the storyline are diverse, but plot doesn't grab a full usage of them. Computer generated graphics are nice although not spectacular. The ending feels a bit prolonged but by thinking of a story it is justified. I got the feeling that this is a transition movie and next movie will fully focus on next generation and I will see a real space adventure. 

Judgement Star: Generations is an average movie.

 

Imaginaerum (2012): Bizarre in a good way.

 

Critic 1

 

Usually when a band has some issues with their old members they trash the issue in the popular media and downplay as much as they can. But the Nightwish made a movie... Movie itself is very unorthodox and surprising in both weird and captive ways and very touchy. There is no telling what comes next.. Unfortunately the acting is not up to standards and being "a musical" there is less music you would expect. Visually the movie was quite nice. Specially the final scenes.  If you want to see something different this is for you. 

 

Critic 2

 

The Nightwish band made a movie. Initially I thought that it would be a musical, but the movie included surprisingly few musical performances. Somehow I was hoping to see more of them. The best in the movie were music and dreamy visions, unfortunately the basic storyline was nothing new. But if the storyline would have been complicated maybe movie would have been difficult to understand. The dreams and "real" story folded together nicely. The computer effects also looked fine. Actors were actually good and I'm glad that they chose real actors in roles instead amateurs.

Judgement Star: A fair movie with some weaknesses.

Looper (2012): A ruined future indeed..

Critic 1

 

Our dear western culture teaches us that the life of a child is precious and must be protected at any cost. But is it so? In the wild weak, ill and young are the first to perish. In this movie our basic values around this topic are tested... Along with some physics laws. Besides different than usual motivation the plot of the movie is a standard seek-and-kill, bad versus even worse and so on.  In general a good movie without a special edge. A solid option as a date movie.

Critic 2

 

Looper is a science fiction movie with time traveling. But somehow time traveling theme is more intelligent than usually and also other themes in the movie as well. A cyclic nicely written plot leaves some mysteries to the watcher, but you shouldn't think them too much after the movie. During the movie you can just relax and enjoy the movie or you can start thinking all the thing related to time traveling. Luckily also the movie acknowledges this. Actors are better than usually.     

Judgement Star: Looper is a nice movie

 

 

Argo (2012): Ben Affleck's best... So far.

 

 Critic 1

 

Oh... The old times. It was allowed to smoke in the airplane and champagne was served even in the economy class... And there was a need for proper spies. And you really have to honor the bravery of these men. The story that Argo tells is not possible anymore. It's all too high tech nowadays. The plot of the movie is based on a true story and nice it is. Not too high flying to be unbelievable but tricky enough to be really captivating. Not much of action and the few computer effects were really lame. Setting these minor details aside Ben does a good job with this movie both as a leading actor and as a director. Argo is a good movie. Take your date to see it. 

 

Critic 2

 

Based on true story, this movie tells about an agent trying to save lives in the 70s. There was a revolution in Iran. Plot develops nicely and there are exciting moments, and you don't know how it will end (or maybe someone has heard the story in advance). The plot is realistic, no booming action scenes, but it doesn't matter. Couple of times I was thinking that did it really happened this way in reality, but in whole this moments didn't matter. Not a brilliant but a good movie with feeling of the 70's.    

Judgement Star: Argo is a good movie. Even with Ben Affleck.

Star Trek - The Undiscovered Country (1991): Orders... Disobey naturally.

Critic 1

 

For once the Captain Kirk has to deal with a non-epic enemy. This time he just has to deal with Klingon empire and traitors within Starfleet. And it's a good thing. For once there is a room for proper plot development and character introduction. The epic enemy and the psychedelic images of it are not stealing the show as in some of the earlier Star Trek movies. Nice computer effects in not-so-80's style and suitable amount of action and drama. But the epic space battles were still missing. As always with the classic Star Trek movies to be watched only with a special date.   

 

Critic 2

 

This movie of Star trek saga kind of reminds me of a detective story. A peace treaty lies on an uncertain ground and the crew of the Enterprise has to save the day. The story starts a bit slowly, but when it gets going it keeps watchers interest in high level all the time. Story proceeds nicely and steadily. Sadly there are not big space fights or epic visions from outer space. But it's not a bad thing that story was not left behind of special effects. 

Judgement Star: The undiscovered Country is one of the best classic Star Treks.

Transformers (2007): May the Stars and Stripes fly...

Critic 1

 

Usually in the new movies that rely heavily on the computer effects there is at least one "Lets cut some corners" moment where the effects are made with lower resolution or with less details. I just could not spot such a moment in this. A couple of maybe's perhaps. The plot follows the classic outline of the Transformers comics with an obvious "sequel coming" ending. There were some really annoying details that bugged me throughout the movie. As a living robot I would try to loose all the small bits and pieces from my body to ease the transformation. These fellows had done the opposite... Maybe the Industrial Light and Magic needed to make something extra to charge the customer... And the "USA saves us all" mentality. Aaarghhh... Whatever they say Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox did actually a fairly good job with this. Good and easygoing movie for the first dates. Remember that the "we have only one safety belt" trick does not work in ordinary cars....

Critic 2

Alien robots come to earth and meet teenagers. I presume that this movie is targeted to new audience and not to the old transformer fans, who watched animations thirty years ago. Somehow it's a simple and nice idea that living alien robots come to earth and disguise themselves as cars. Story flows nicely, but the movie is a bit too long. A couple of times I even laughed to some bad jokes. Shia LaBeouf makes one of his best roles as a confused teenager who meets a girl from his dreams. Nice visual effects and an easygoing movie, if you don't mind military aspects of the movie.

Judgement Star: Good but not very clever movie.

 

Star Trek - The Wrath of Khan (DVD): Genetically superior.

Critic 1

The ruthless run trough the Star Trek box continues... After seeing The Motion Picture expectations were not exactly high. But I was wrong. As the common wisdom within the www states this could be one of the best Star Treks (I'm not saying it yet...). William Shatner's role was not as prominent so his lack of acting skills did not bother that much. Again the special effects were extremely nice taken into account that the production year is 1982. And this time not so acidic. The plot was nice though some proper background setting would have been nice. It's kind of gruel to leave a bunch of people on a foreign planet... As before a spectacular movie and your date has to be also.   

Critic 2

Star Trek saga continues in a much more tightly written movie than the first one was. Old enemies of former captain Kirk rises from the past. This movie was perhaps not so spectacular than the previous one, but story flowed smoother. In this movie the space was not the great wilderness with wonders rather than a place where an adventure happened. The movie includes some personal details of the main characters past and heartbreaking moments.

The Judgement star: The Wrath of Khan is a OK movie.

 

Star Trek - The Motion Picture (DVD): Scotty! Gimme acting skills!

Critic 1

A movie made in a true spirit of the Star Trek. Horrible acting, teasing uniforms (yeah.. Try to make your female employee wear something like that. See you in court.) and impossible problems. Ah... Those were the days. This movie has a odd mix of terrible computer generated scenes and beautiful scale model episodes. The visual effects in general are something that LSD trip would generate... I guess. Make no mistake. This is an extraordinary movie and your date has to be too....      

Critic 2 

In the future a mankind sends spaceships to the outer space and men have encountered many alien species. Maybe the phase of the movie seems to be a bit slow for watchers today. Somehow I got the feeling that the other space movie 2001: A Space Odyssey has been a big influence for those who made this movie. The feeling that space is kinda poetic place is enhanced with long visual scenes   where you can meet strange things and get experiences beyond your senses.

Judgement Star: If just William Chatner could actually act. This would be a excellent movie.

The Bourne Legacy: Can talk the talk. Can't walk the walk.

Fresh from the movies...

Critic 1

Where is the tension? Where is the intelligence? A lot of talking and distracting flashbacks from the Bourne Ultimatum. I can see that the movie is very hard to follow for those who have not seen the previous Bournes. The few action bits were done with care and the casting had been done nicely. Solid option for a first dates. Not too much of splatter or excess violence. Be prepared to explain all the previous Bourne movies though...

Critic 2 

The movie tells another agent in a similar program as Jason Bourne was. Even not present in the movie Bourne still causes trouble to Bournes former superiors. When people on higher echelons start to act there will be collateral damages. Aaron Cross is not going to be one who will be trampled on. A beautiful science woman also tags along, but Aaron doesn't mind. Basic plot is very simple but bad guys talk about projects, processes, etc. and are trying to deceive those who watch the movie so that they would think it's difficult or clever movie. The movie is ok action movie but when it belong to Bourne series I was expecting more. It brings to you the world's best agent after Jason Bourne, seriously, this guy...    

Judgement Star: The Bourne Legacy is a good movie even without Matt Damon.