October 2022


All movies I saw in the cinema for first time during the month of October 2022 ranked from worst to best.

(SPOILER WARNING FOR ALL 4 FILMS PICTURED ABOVE)

#4: Amsterdam



This was my first cinema trip of October 2022. To be perfectly honest, outside of Taylor Swift, Anya-Taylor Joy and Zoe Saldana, I had no interest or personal reason in seeing this. Hence why I replaced the poster to Taylor Swift's character on my Letterboxd account, I wish there was a poster with just them 3, that would've been amazing!

The 30% on Rotten Tomatoes definitely seemed off-putting, especially when the is just over 2 hours long too.

*

'Amsterdam' was okay. Nothing more, nothing less.

I usually don't mind Timothy Olyphant film/TV appearances (He's great in Disney+'s The Mandalorian/Book of Boba Fett) but wow, I instantly hated him in this after killing Taylor's character. Straight-up irredeemable. Thank God the film still had Anya and Zoe because I probably would've left less than halfway through.

The story itself felt a little all over the place at times but Margot, John and Christian carried the film perfectly together, especially Bale who definitely has the best performance of the entire film. Most notably, I loved the moving moment when he turned down the offer of staying with his character's wife during the Act III.

I would've gave it 3*, but Taylor got killed off insanely early. So, the 2* is just for Zoe and Anya.

3/10

#3: Lyle, Lyle Crocodile



I saw this during it's preview weekend prior to the wider October 14th release. I was drawn to see it because of Constance Wu and the film just looking pretty decent and quite a bit of fun (albeit generic and cliché).

*

'Lyle, Lyle Crocodile' was perfectly wholesome. I liked how in the trailer it shown a younger Lyle dancing on stage with Hector, bait and switch compared to the nervous/stage frightened version we got in the theatrical cut.

All performances from the actors were excellent. I obviously liked Wu's, but Javier Bardem definitely stole the show, loved the conflicted but loving persona he portrayed in this film, certainly a drastic departure from the unsettling and menacing characters he typically plays.

While I'm not a fan of the singer, Shawn Mendes, the songs he performed in this were pretty great and certainly catchy and toe-tapping.

The film was serviceable, though I feel it would've benefited more being released closer to the "joyous" Christmas period than the Halloween season.

6/10

#2: Halloween ENDS



I moderately enjoyed 'Kills' from last year (Seem to be the only one who did, going by the reviews/ratings) and I was looking forward to 'Ends'.

*

I honestly didn't mind this. I liked the ideas of one person slowly becoming into the thing Haddonfield feared due to being relentlessly compared to him (The Shape) and also showing how Laurie's life would be like before October 31st without Michael constantly on her tail.

I can understand people's dislike of this film. They wanted it to be soley Laurie v Myers or just The Shape reeking havoc from start to finish. But, to be honest, out of the 5 Halloween films I've saw ('78, H20 and the BH trilogy), excluding 'Kills', Myers doesn't show up until the final 30-40 minutes, just like 'Ends'!

The film definetley could've been 10-15 minutes shorter as I felt the 2nd Act was immensely dragged out at times.

The new Blumhouse intro looked quite excellent, showing their big name franchises like 'The Purge' and the 2018 'Halloween' reboot. They've truly become a mainstay in modern horror movies.

Decent action, not so scary jumpscares, brilliant soundtrack (Songs very reminiscent of the Ryan Gosling film 'Drive') and an okay story concludes this 44 year old franchise...until next time.

6.5/10

#1: Black Adam



This was my final new cinema trip of October 2022.

15 whole years, in the making.

When Dwayne was in talks to play the titular character of this film, he was mainly known for his role in 'The Scorpion King' and ofcourse being a quite accomplished WWE Superstar at the time. Fastforward to now, he is the quintessential big budget Hollywood actor of the current era of movies (with the likes of Jumanji, Hobbs/Shaw being massive financial successes at the Box Office) and a surefire WWE Hall of Famer.

As a fan of Dwayne, the actor and The Rock, I was certainly anticipating this film for quite sometime.

*

This was pleasantly decent, the Rotten Tomatoes critics just hate that this truly embraces the epic zany ridiculous-ness of comic book movies.

While I will admit the dialogue was a little cringey and stock at times, the action was a true spectacle. It was also good to see a CBM with solid colour and contrast grading.

Dwayne and Pierce definitely carried most of the film. The comedy by Dwayne was very funny, I particularly loved the moment he tried to say his one-liner to the sentry before dropping, the line delivery during that reminded me a lot Rock's SNL skit "The Rock-Obama".

One thing I didn't like was the over-reliance on slow-mo shots. My God, and people honestly have a go at Zack Snyder for having about 20-ish percent slow-mo shots in his 4 HOUR Justice League?! This felt like every punch/attack was in slow-motion!

I knew of Henry's return through leaks, but that did not stunt my anticipation during the early credits. While I'm not a fan of WB re-hashing the John Williams theme (they could've used 'Crew At Warpower' from ZSJL, which they LITERALLY played a rendition of during the film!) it was still great to see my favourite live-action Superman return.

Brilliant action, banger OST and good performances left me entertained and invested throughout the 2 hours.

7/10

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