August 2021

All movies I watched in the cinema for the month of August 2021 from worst to best.

This was my shortest amount of movies for one month since I began reviewing films back in late 2018/early 2019. I've always try to aim for 9 films a month, but fell 3 short of the usual amount.

(SPOILER WARNING FOR ALL FILMS PICTURED)

#6: Reminiscence

 The trailer had cool visuals of a futuristic city under water, but besides that not much else really interested me in seeing this.

*

Jackman's performance was great, especially in the 3rd act. The relentless pretentious narration and cheesy dialogue did get quite tiresome after a few minutes.

Apart from the cools visuals and cinematography, the only good part of the film was Hugh wearing a white tank top. So I could "reminisce" of better times when he was Wolverine in FOX's X-Men films. Or just being in better films in general like 'Prisoners' as this was insanely boring.

3/10

#5: G.I Joe Origins: Snake Eyes

I've never been into G.I Joe, not even saw the previous films either starring Channing Tatum and Dwayne Johnson. 

I was interested to see this because of Henry Golding and Samara Weaving.

I've read quite a few reviews panning this films, brutally.

* 

This was okay, at the very most, felt excruciatingly boring at times. The action/fight scenes were good but filled shaky close-ups. Henry Golding and Samara were great.

I did not expect former WWE superstar Mojo Rawley to show up in this film's opening fight scene. Very surprising.

The cool visuals really try to make up for the immensely convoluted story all about revenge and a powerful jewel.

4/10

#4: The Croods 2: A New Age

This did come out on various digital platforms earlier this year, February, to be exact. But I chose to neither buy/rent nor illegally stream as I just wasn't interested in it at the time and wanted to save for when cinemas returned, 3 months ago.

I saw the original years ago, the only reason I saw it was for Emma Stone, who is also the same reason I'm interested in watching the sequel too.

The first film was sorta funny, but definitely forgettable. In my opinion, it honestly did not need a sequel, it was fine on it's own.

*

I was suprised by how much I enjoyed the sequel. Such a beautiful and fun animated film. Emma's performance was great, perhaps the best in all of the cast.

I loved the 2D drawing sequences and hope more animated film creators return back to that format, at least for a few years as there is very few animated films nowadays completely in 2-Dimensions. Most, if not all modern animation is done with CGI.

'The Punch Monkey' Lair secquence was hilarious and was my favourite part of the film, showing all the different, absurd variants and how they communicate.


This was an enjoyable and quite entertaining 96 minute family film

7.4/10

#3: Free Guy

The premise for this film did seem quite decent and creative about a NPC suddenly becoming the main character in a video game.


Ryan Reynolds comedies are a little hit or miss for I loved Deadpool 2, that was great, as well as Detective Pikachu (this is coming from a non-Pokemon fan, I enjoyed it)

*

The majority was okay, but the third act was excellent, with all the franchise references.

Taika was hilarious, my favourite part of the film. Parodying popular game developers perfectly. Ryan Reynolds was great, so was Jodie. I loved Lil Rey Howery's positivity he brings to this film, brilliant role.

I got the Chris Evans cameo spoiled for me via multiple TikToks prior to watching the film, it was great. Just I wanted it to be unexpected, so I could've marked out as I am a big fan of him and his portrayal of Captain America.

Brilliant comedic moments both in the video game segments and real world.

Decent and fun film, which ended perfectly.

7.2/10

#2: Stillwater

This was my first cinema trip/film of August 2021.

After seeing the trailer to this in almost every previous screening over the past two months, I was surprisingly still intrigued to watch it.

*

This was pretty great. Powerful story and excellent performance by Matt Damon.

As someone who is not majorly keen on subtitles, I was a little suprised by the amount of them in this. But, it was a tolerable quantity which was good.

I loved the colour grading and cinematography, a few scenes/secquences felt very documentary-like. Especially when Matt Damon's character was trying to follow the killer through the football stadium, bringing the camera close-in, which gave a immensely claustrophobic feel to the scenario.

The family Bill merges himself into throught most of the runtime was great, which made the goodbye really emotional.

I went into it not expecting much, but left feeling rather moved.

Weeks after watching this, I saw 'Spotlight' for the first-time, which I feel was a far better film compared to 'Stillwater'.

7.9/10

#1: Candyman

This was my final film of August 2021.

I was initially drawn to watch this because Jordan Peele was one of the producers on the film. I love everything he does, on-screen as well as behind the camera, he's an absolutely excellent comedy actor and brilliant horror director.

I've never saw the original 1992 classic, but I know the basic gist of the character.

One of the main selling points for a horror film or any movie in general is the poster and this has a fantastic one. With nothing but a white background, Candyman is front and centre wielding his infamous hook blade. His back also facing towards the camera creates an insanely eerie and superbly ominous tone for the film and the villain.

*

Man, this was like watching a car crash in slow-motion. I wanted to look away but, woah, is it beautiful! Eerie and completely offputting in all the best possible ways.

Nia DaCosta directed the Hell out off this, amazing work.

Watching this in a big and empty screening, immensly added to the scary ambience. One of the best cinema going experiences I've had in recent memory.

Stunning film from beginning to end, I loved the opening credits sequence, capturing buildings at an odd angle made it look like the tops of the buildings were actually streets flooded with heavy fog or posionous gas (it reminded me alot of the opening level to the first Spider-Man PS1 game).

It was incredibly intense and also didn't heavily rely on jumpscares to keep me frightened and anxious, I counted about less than 5 jumpscares during the entire 100+ minute runtime. Which is something all modern horror should try to accomplish. Creepy visuals > constant jumpscares.

Loved the the paper puppets story-telling during the exposition and lore segments.

I felt the themes of police brutality and the BLM movement were brilliantly incorporated into the film, as it grounds the film in a sorta hyper-reality.

Teyonah and Yahya's performances were excellent. I loved towards the end of the film, as Teyonah's character opened a door to a dark basement, she immediately said "Nope." and closed it, that was hilarious, diverting common horror film tropes.

Great horror film by Jordan Peele and DaCosta, which ended perfectly.

8.7/10