Movie Reviews | The Regular Moviegoer

Idris Elba as Roland Deschain and Tom Taylor as Jake Chambers in The Dark Tower

‘The Dark Tower’ review: As a person who didn’t read the books, I enjoyed it

Post author:JL
Post published:August 12, 2017
Post category:Movie Reviews Books to Film Show Business

Stephen King's magnum opus, The Dark Tower, a long book series with a sprawling mythology and epic battle of good against evil, has finally been made into a movie. I've heard it being talked about for years as this practically unfilmable book series -- kind of like The Lord of the Rings -- that Hollywood has been trying so hard to adapt for at least the last decade, but hasn't been able to succeed until now.

Ansel Elgort (Baby), Jamie Foxx (Bats), Eiza González (Darling) and Jon Hamm (Buddy) in Baby Driver

‘Baby Driver’ review: Visionary

Post author:JL
Post published:July 28, 2017
Post category:Movie Reviews

Baby Driver is a film that I said I wasn't sure I would watch in my "Movies Coming Soon" post at the beginning of this month. It stars a cast that I'm not wild over, especially Ansel Elgort, who looks kind of wimpy for a leading man (an impression I can't get over from his cowardly role in the Divergent series), though I don't mind the rest of the actors. This is a movie that is built around the soundtrack, and as I'm not such a huge music lover, that didn't appeal to me either.

Dane DeHaan as Valerian and Cara Delevingne as Laureline in Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

‘Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets’ review: Gorgeous and intricately designed

Post author:JL
Post published:July 23, 2017
Post category:Movie Reviews

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is out this week along with Dunkirk (which I've watched and reviewed in my previous post) and Baby Driver (which I'm watching tomorrow). It's a pretty crowded week for films to open in, and one which Valerian has the disadvantage of not being as wonderfully reviewed as the latter two films.

Kenneth Branagh (Commander Bolton) and James D'Arcy (Colonel Winnant) in Dunkirk

‘Dunkirk’ review: I… do not know how I feel about this film

Post author:JL
Post published:July 21, 2017
Post category:Movie Reviews

I do not know how I feel about Dunkirk. I'm going to try and sort out my feelings as I'm writing this post.

Tom Holland as Peter Parker/Spider-Man in Spider-Man: Homecoming

‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ trivia and more reactions

Post author:JL
Post published:July 16, 2017
Post category:Movie Reviews

Continuing on from my review in the previous post, here are the fun stuff I noticed in Spider-Man: Homecoming, and more of my reactions to the plot.

Tom Holland as Peter Parker/Spider-Man in Spider-Man: Homecoming

‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ review: Spidey comes Home

Post author:JL
Post published:July 12, 2017
Post category:Movie Reviews

Spidey has finally come home to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I know we've already seen him in Captain America: Civil War, but with so many characters in that movie, his appearance was more of a side note than anything. But now, we have a movie which focuses on him and his teenage problems while being part of the superhero universe he belongs to, and interacting with his older superhero siblings. We've never seen a Spider-Man movie that does the latter before, because Sony has always hoarded the rights to Spider-Man... until now.

Gabriel Bateman as Martin and Teresa Palmer as Rebecca in Lights Out

‘Lights Out’ review (of sorts): Scary even without sound

Post author:JL
Post published:June 27, 2017
Post category:Movie Reviews

I generally avoid horror movies like the plague, but I happened to watch Lights Out on the plane on my recent trip to the UK, and thought was really good. The person diagonal to my front left was watching it with English subtitles, and I could not help but catch glimpses of it through the armrest gap of the seats.

From left: Yondu (Michael Rooker), Nebula (Karen Gillan), Peter Quill (Chris Pratt), Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Mantis (Pom Klementieff), Drax (Dave Bautista), Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper) and Baby Groot (Vin Diesel) in Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2

‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2’ review: Darker and more emotional

Post author:JL
Post published:June 27, 2017
Post category:Movie Reviews

The general consensus among critics seems to be that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 isn't as good as the first one. I'm not so sure about that. The first movie was the oddball, weird kooky cousin of the other Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, and I did like it, but not as fondly as say, Thor or Ant-Man, or even Doctor Strange. Vol. 2 feels darker and more emotional than the first, though it still retains its quirkiness. If not for the underlying sinister tones of the film, I would have preferred it to the first. As it is, their pros and cons balance them out for me.

Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp

Shows I watched on my New York/Toronto holiday… two years ago

Post author:JL
Post published:June 26, 2017
Post category:Me and the Movies Movie Reviews Movies and the Real World TV Reviews

While looking through my many drafts, I found this post from almost two years ago. I never got around to polishing it, or by the time I did, it was already two months after the fact, which made me embarrassed to show how long I had procrastinated, so I just left it there. Though a bit outdated, I still have the same sentiments, so might as well let it see the light of day now.

Emma Stone as Mia and Ryan Gosling as Sebastian in La La Land

‘La La Land’ review: A movie I have a love-hate relationship with

Post author:JL
Post published:June 25, 2017
Post category:Awards Season Me and the Movies Movie Reviews

Today is as good a day as any other to talk about La La Land, a movie that inspires mixed feelings in me. (Also known as the film which lost Best Picture to Moonlight in the most public Oscars flub ever.)