Reviews

So, first off, yes, this is a game. Yes, there is combat. And yes, there are puzzles and things to figure out. (There are games with BETTER combat but this is not bad. I can name some games that are really bad. And the puzzles... there are some clever puzzle-elements in Hellblade that I found rather unique and interesting.)

But this isn't so much a "game" as it is an interactive-feature-film. This is Cinema. There is creative photography, stunning visuals, and brilliant concept art. Fantastic soundscapes and voice-acting that invokes just what is needed in the mind of the player. And, while it is a game, the acting is also great when matched with talented motion-capture. All of this comes together and is presented as an immersive story. One that, by the final scenes, you aren't ready to see end.

You aren't going to replay this game to see different endings or try different strategies. You will replay this game in the same way that you will re-watch a movie that you enjoyed. Sure, you know the story and how it ends, but you will want to see the imagery again, be disturbed by the ideas, and go on that journey once more.

Hellblade has better writing and production value than many theater-level movies out there.

This is GOOD.

So, yes, there's some BS in here.

It's not a GREAT movie, but it is a really GOOD movie.

I keep coming back to this one for some of the sweetest scenes on film. There's something naively fantastic here. As in, a fantasy where things shouldn't work out, but do, even if just for a time. And maybe that's it: the transience.

First off: Do not, under any circumstances, take this movie seriously. It's NOT a comedy, but it almost wants to be one because it heard that comedians get free drinks and chicks. ...and it really wants the free drinks.

The whole thing is gratuitous. All of it. The situation (no plot at all, don't look for one, it's not important), the wet tshirts and bouncing flesh, the slasher crazies, the horrible deaths... ALL gratuitous. You will never learn HOW or WHY any of it is happening, but it's okay. Sshhhhhh.... It's okay. It will all be horribly, brutally alright. (Well, until there's a sequel. I'd watch the HELL out of a sequel.)

But I keep coming back for the writing, the banter. The lines are just fun. Lachlan Buchanan sets precisely the right tone with every line: complete drunken disregard of reality. THAT is what this whole thing is about. (The house get's a credit at the end... for brilliantly playing itself I suppose. Drunken disregard.)

Is it a great flick? No. It's really not. But it is fun...in the right mood.. ...And I keep watching it.

This flick was surprisingly good. Good characters, good acting, and subtle, tasteful special effects. I could name fifty movies that should have been good, but the special effects ruined everything. You can too. You know it. But that's not the case here! Special effects are the salt, and this is a good meal.

Other than that, it's a heist movie, with good themes of future-dystopia, and classism. The bad-guy is worth hating, the good-guys-gone-bad are worth hoping for. A good dash of super-powers and not at all comic-booky.

Pop some corn and give it a try,. It's worth a watch.

This is a pretty good flick!

Now, let me be clear, I am a long-time fan of the "man with a unique set of skills, and a mighty will, who comes out of retirement to get a job done and to f'k-sh't-up" genre. (Can I call that a genre by now? I hope so. C'mon, they should make it a category at the Academy Awards.) But it's an action flick. Don't look for a complex plot. That's not the goal here.

The first Rambo is one of my favorite movies. The sequels, not so much. The actor, Stallone, is mighty. He will be mighty on his goon-dwamed death-bed. The character, Rambo, is a Certified Bad-Ass from the bleedin' days-of-yore. And bad-asses do not fade away, they explode like a six-year-old's C4-birthday cake.

This movie is a good run. It is not John Wick level, though others have tried to make that connection. There is mayhem. There is gratuitous violence and brutality. It's the kind of flick where you watch every move of the bad-guys and think to yourself "You are SO screwed, you cannot avoid it... I personally think it ramps-up a touch slow. And they clearly worked to give Rambo, a classically disconnected character, a little-bit of humanizing real-world attachments. But just when you think it IS moving too slow, it get's one step darker, and DOES explode like that aforementioned weaponized confection, delivering some top-shelf, hard-core, DIY, Home-Alone-style whoop-ass to wrap things up.

I don't think I'm giving anything away. These things are not spoilers, they are reassurances. You knew what you were getting into with this one. I gave it a 7/10 not because it's bad, but because there is better out there. This one is still good. I liked it.

"Something's wrong." Jack says. No kidding? Creepy, stylistic, bizarre, strange, disturbing,...

One of the most terrifying things was the laugh-track. But hey, I'm from the sitcom generation of the 80's.

What really sold me was the Lovecraftian monstrosity speaking from behind the mundane emptiness of everyday. but hey, that's just me. We've all got our buttons to push.

The problem seems to be that some people can't handle the delightful subtlety of some of King's work. Light on plot, sure, but that's not the point. There's a single POINT of plot and everything else is only there to frame it and illustrate it. King thrives in a terrible sense of wrong. Disjointed, twisted, tied-in-knots, all of it ...wrong-but-real. Especially in the short-stories and novellas, King hyper-focuses on a POINT of something terrible and wraps detail around it.

Some adaptations are better than others. This one is really not bad. It's pretty good. The sense of wrong is prevalent, but not insistent. I love the concept of knotted, non-linear time. But even that isn't all of it. (And if you want to look, there ARE sub-plots in the relationships between the characters. But they aren't the point!)

I'm a country-boy. I grew up in farm country. And not even truly LARGE farms, by national standards! As a kid with wide freedom to roam, (free-range, as they say) there was a fear, a wariness of things like the wide corn fields. They are so huge, so endless. Half-way through you start to wonder if you are lost, how you might get out; the doubts begin to creep-in and fear takes root. Things turn sinister as the leaves of the corn give you sharp, paper-cut-like pain, drawing blood as you run through it. ...And that's in the day-time. Try it at night... and the Unknown can grow to fill the edges of the whole world. I know it. I loved it. And I carried a cheap samurai sword everytime I went out to the woods or the fields after dark.

There's some of that in this movie. And with an actor that makes a really good bad-guy. And special effects that do very well to portray a terrible, amorphous, unnameable concept.

This is a well done move. Salute to the director, who took a short novella of treacherous ideas and made a decent 90+ minutes.

I'm going to compose a list, and this one will be on it. I'm learning German and so I am exploring the world of German cinema. I also have a fondness for thriller/horror/fantasy/ and the like. I've waded through all kinds of b-grade horror and paltry thriller material, ...and this one comes through a a gem.

The acting is great. The language is clear and exquisite. If the subject (thriller/murder mystery/dark) is to your liking, this is a GREAT choice for working on your German.

This one definitely goes on my "keeper" list.

This is a really good flick. Some truly heart-felt acting. Very good SFX. ...and one of the most devastating endings I have ever seen. Brilliantly staged and executed.

i just keep coming back to this one!

At least once, every season, this show does something completely different. The entire format of the shows direction is radically different. Film noir, sitcom, ...something. It's ALWAYS entertaining and fantastically realized. This one is no different. This feature is one of the very best parts of this really great series.

Well. Done.

Look, I'll be the first to admit that physics get's a royal boning in this flick. Just... just forget about that. It's a super-hero-flavored movie with fantastic action, Nightwatch/Daywatch style cinematography, cool characters and great scenes... This is a good flick! I put it on a similar level with Fight Club for a " Society" vibe.

Pop some corn and watch it.

Maybe I'm in a somewhat... special... situation. I'm teaching myself German and during an extended (and somewhat indiscriminate) search for German-language media, I came across this movie (no pun intended, that would be indelicate). I am also a fan of B-grade horror. So this was almost perfect. --- I must say: I laughed. But, more importantly, I learned some delightful vocabulary and some amusing grammar.

This movie does not, in any way, take itself seriously, and that makes for some decent comedic horror. Language learning works better when it's fun!

I came to this show as a student of German. I was looking for shows to practice and learn with. What a find! I get so wrapped up in the story and I forget to go look up that word, or that phrase, or that interesting piece of grammar... I'm going to have to watch this all again and soon.

This show is so good. It is convoluted, and knotted around itself. Complexity! The acting is fantastic, the writing is solid. They found actors that actually look like they might be older/younger versions of themselves... there is attention to detail! It's brilliant.

Maybe it all falls apart in Season 3, maybe they've written themselves into a corner, how do you wrap any of this up? But I can't wait to find out and I have high hopes for the continuation of this one.

This is a fun flick. Go ahead, sit back, suspend your disbelief for a bit, and enjoy it. It has fun writing, amusing action, over-the-top sci-fi, and cool actors. Some of the line delivery is just pleasurable to watch/hear. I keep coming back to this one. Make some popcorn and give it a go. It's fun.

DC is extremely dubious with their titles. Just not great. C'mon, be honest, you know this. No surprises there. And it's understandable! They have REALLY stiff competition. Marvel is on a serious roll, lots of momentum. You can count on one hand DC's good movies...

I am totally not a fan of the character, never did like DC comics. And so I was extremely doubtful on this one, But this... is actually a fun flick! The writing is fun, and the comedy is not stupidly over-the-top (as I completely expected it to be). The banter is well delivered. The special effects are pretty. I liked the bad guy...

Give this one a try. It's worth a couple of bucks to check it out. I found myself laughing and enjoying when I completely expected nothing but groaners.

Give it a chance and check your "taking-things-too-seriously" at the door for a couple of hours. It's fun.