REVscene - Vancouver Automotive Forum

6793026 · 10-08-2025, 07:19 AM

Relay - wow. what a great movie. Very simple yet interesting 'service'. It's a relay service usually for people who are deaf but the agency / people are using it to be an anonymous service to do good / bad.

It's a thriller drama which I really enjoyed. Cast was solid despite it not being 'famous', Lily James I did remember her in Baby Driver - can't say she was the best but she broke out of the cute white girl pretty roles. Then we got Riz Ahmed who I really love his work in Sound of Metal - he was the reason why this movie worked. Lastly, we also had Mr avator Sam Worthington.

The ending is good, suspense was good, the cutting of the scenes kept the pacing intense. Ending is left to be interpreted and most likely a wth weak spot. Director was famous for Hell or High Water but it was a while ago.

Solid movie which I would recommend. Reminded me of Jason Borne without any fighting or crazy action. Don't expect it to be a typical ending with everything explained which was what the director wanted it to be.

6793026 · 10-09-2025, 06:21 PM

Caught Stealing
Austin Butler is the lead and did not know he played Elvis which I loved. He has his charm in this movie; getting caught in a situation, mama's boy, baseball fan etc. Director was the guy who did 2 amazing film - The Wrestler (Mickey Rourke as wrestler) and Black Swan (portman). The film did an amazing job with the script - the writer's had his heart in novels so a lot of things were really written well.
It sort of reminds me of Guy Richie's film to say the least. WIth a run time of almost two hours, it did drag on a bit long. Yes it did solid yet fast character development. It did some trama, romance, but most important intertwine 3 antagonist together while throwing in a minor twist. It's a bit. Then it wrapped all history, trama, life, and all characters all together.

It does seem a bit much at times. The thing that kept me going was Austin, he just has a baby face and 'stuck in trama' face that you just want to keep watching. Then there was action between 3 antagonists which made it interesting.

Maybe it was unlucky, maybe it was lack of star power, but man, too bad film like this did't make money and had some poor ass perfomrances.

donk. · 10-11-2025, 09:06 PM

^ i really liked caught stealing, was not expecting to give it as high as a rating. 8.5/10

Tron: 10/10, probably the only movie in the last 5 years that i had to look up the release date multiple times.
Was not disappointed, although i wish i watched it with an excessive surround sound system to "feel" in the movie. (Watched at VIP coquitlam).
Considering it was released yesterday, im very surprized the theatre was nearly empty. Maybe im the only fanboiiii.

68style · 10-12-2025, 07:07 AM

donk loves himself some Jared Leto, pounding 30 seconds to mars all the way home

mikemhg · 10-12-2025, 10:12 AM

^He wants in on that cult

6793026 · 10-13-2025, 05:14 PM

Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale
Gosh, totally amazing. I was following the series when it first started. DID NOT think I would like it but each episode was just so nicely done.
Series - very British, very polished, extremely well written and happy go lucky type movie - not that it's always rainbows and unicorn but you go in and come out knowing the good guys will be good and bad people always lose. You just know it's light hearted yet well done. Can't explain it, there are no crazy sex, no bad negative rapey stuff. Pure positively written.

Now, each movie, and yes I have seen all. All of them have great script and so did this one. All of them have aged and every scene / character came back together ot make things work. I don't think there were ever any bad reviews on any of the movies.

It didn't quite wrap up all the previous characters or didn't do any stupid montages until the end. My wife has never seen Downton and still think it's truly enjoyable; movie had it's plot and sub plot. I am going to miss this.

Keep in mind,
2010–2015 Downton Abbey was a solid 52 episodes and it was still able to keep the movie spirit alive. Then 3 movies after.

If you want a good movie, decent outcome, nothing truly bad.. this is for you. Don't need to watch Downton to know all.

6793026 · 10-14-2025, 12:33 PM

Only reason why i watched this was because Cillian Murphy produced and starred in it. Movie is not your typical movie. It's dull, slow and ends very poorly. You have to feel the pain of someone battling with mental demons and then to appreciate it.

It was great as a promotional movie on social worker etc. I'm a teacher part time and I can understand there will forever be outcasts. Thsi is beyond the extreme.

Very VIFF / TIFF type worthy movie but not a movie you would like to watch or worthy to say the least.

mikemhg · 10-14-2025, 05:39 PM

God damn, you need to start a YT movie review channel or something, 6793026.

The rate of movies you're consuming is Siskel and Ebert level.

6793026 · 10-16-2025, 12:41 PM

Very basis script and Matthew McConaughey played well. 43 yr old bus driver that's just can't get a break. Yes marriage sucked, death in family and at a dead end job and bam, you're a bus driver in a fire.

Cool facts - it's based on a true story in 2018. They did NOT throw anyone under the bus despite you know someone was at fault (no spoilers). So at the credits it did say who and what was the cost.

Matthew's real mom played the mom in the movie but that didn't make a difference. I like the setup of the movie, just didn't have much of a setup for the dynamic. Matthew tries to be a good father but in a way, movie made him look like a douche bag employee - disregarding orders. Even though he's super courtesy addressing everyone Maam etc.

CGI is CGI and it's a script that was done the best it can. I mean how much more crazy can you do for a bus driver. It ain't Rambo and you can't make him look like The Rock tryign to rescue kids.

Surprisingly it ended well and just the script between the dispatcher (such a minor role), made it really heart felt; Ashlie Atkinson is her name and I just have no idea what movie she was in that I recognized.

6793026 · 10-17-2025, 07:58 PM

Primitive War
what a crap movie. Honestly, if it wasn't for Ari Gold - Jeremy Piven, i would have turned off the movie. He only had a few lines in the movie and I still wanted to turn it off. The cast were C line actors; the action, script were bad - who's to blame? Director and writer and happy to say, it's cause of the same guy. I think he was also the producer... what a gong show.
Don't care about the setting of dino in the 70s, but how can a dinosaur all of a sudden not see you. If it's hunting, it won't just stop and turn around. That was the only part that got me. How does any human out run a dinosaur is beyond me. Hilarious part was the chomping noise of dino sounded so weird.

Do me a favor.. skip the movie and go to bed.

CivicBlues · 10-18-2025, 06:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 6793026

One Battle after another

I thought it was a decent movie, pacing was fast and well. Cast was a bit weird. I did not like and don't understand the whole Teyana Taylor character as well as the weird quirk in the movie. It didn't jive well with some audiences but they didn't really see why it had to be put in. Then we have to mention about Sean Penn and his entire role as well as how much effort he put in. Dang, he's 65 and he's still ripped.

Movie was a solid 2 hours with an 'exciting without any explosion' car chase which was solid. I thought the entire Leo bit where it was a bit lost after the 18 years was a bit boring and dragged on too long. Yes I get that he doesn't have the passworddddddd / code name... get over it. LOL.

I can't put my name on it, i didn't think it was that worthy of a script and / or amazing to be best pictures and / or provide a recommendation. I did enjoy how it tackle the social aspect a whole lot.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikemhg

I agree with the above.

I like Teyana Taylor, she has an amazing body, but her character just didn't fit in the movie for me. I couldn't stand the bank robbery scene either, some of the characters were dressed in a way that just seemed goofy and silly.

It's as if this organized group of freedom fighters who are successfully evading the government are portrayed like a bunch of cornballs, I wished they were a little more serious, who would wear a damn colorful outfit with skirt and stiletto boots to rob a bank?

I just watched this movie and I thought it was excellent, definitely did not feel the 2:40 runtime at all. Benicio was really good in this too, they could make a spinoff sequel just with him.

I totally get how the "French 75" group at the start feels a bit off, the movie was based on a book written in 1990 set in the 80s about a group of has-been 60s radicals. They feel way more at home in that time period than modern day 2025. In fact when I first read the synopsis and saw it was a Paul Thomas Anderson movie I thought it was going to be a period film set in the 70s or something. Surprised how prescient it is tying it into ICE raids and uber-militarization of the police (pretty sure it was written and filmed before Trump 2.0) but yeah the group felt like it was something out the 60s era terrorist groups.

mikemhg · 10-19-2025, 11:02 AM

^This is a perfect synopsis.

The characters and story just didn't fit for 2025, if the film was set in the 70s or 80s the whole group as a whole would've made way more sense, and be more fitting.

That was the core problem for me. Many of these stories just don't work the same in 2025, I think that's why so many "heist" style films are always set in periods before cell phones, CCTV, GPS, etc.

CivicBlues · 10-19-2025, 12:42 PM

Leo's character would have been caught within weeks today with all the facial recognition, him playing with an iPhone 16 taking selfies - I thought that would have been his downfall for sure.

Spoiler!

mikemhg · 10-19-2025, 04:13 PM

That ending pissed me off to no end, I was like "are they back in the same down house now?!", isn't he still wanted?

6793026 · Today, 05:23 AM

Sirāt (2025) - this was shown at Tiff and it's definitely those type of movie.
Dad and son looks for lost daughter / sister that's started at a rave in Morocco. So I have to say, seeing / hearing dance music (Kangding Ray did the music) was pretty cool. There were even parts of a light show that projected in the hills / mountains / Morocco was pretty dope (maybe i'm just old).
The setup was there and you saw it coming. Dynamic of dad and son being part of the rave group looking for their lost daughter. Yes I understand the trial and slow merging being part of the group. That part I loved. We knew that was coming. How one who is lost morphs within the group.

It's towards the end which totally derails and I'm like wth. It's not because of the movie but the ending just didnt' make sense leaving the audience questioning what is going on. Did not feel the ending did justice despite a great setup. Oh well. Guess this is what happens when it's a TIFF type movie.

Music was solid and the first 30 mins was good, then it goes to toilet due to poor script.