Movie Reviews in Five Dotpoints of Less - Part II

Gone Baby Gone (2007)

7.7/10 on IMDb
94% on Rotten Tomatoes

Ben Affleck's directorial debut starring his very own brother Casey Affleck (yes, apparently Casey is a male name now?)

Based off the novel by Dennis Lehane, it tells the story of two private investigators looking into the case of a missing girl

Really well written and a great job for Ben Affleck's first directing job

Very intense and highly recommended

Some crazy plot twists in there


Rescue Dawn (2006)

7.4/10 on IMDb
91% on Rotten Tomatoes

Christian Bale portrays an American pilot who gets gunned down during the Vietnam War, taken as prisoner, and becomes the only American to have successfully escaped from a POW camp in the war

Christian Bale is so amazingly method! Throughout the course of the film you can see him visibly getting thinner and thinner until his face is just skin on bone, and he even eats worms and a snake for this!

The other actors are method too, losing a whole ton of weight to portray malnutritioned and deprived prisoners of war

An interesting film but, be warned, it looks like it's filmed on a video camera or something; the quality is not the best and the DVD I rented didn't have a subtitles option so it was really hard to hear what they were saying half the time

"Empty what is full. Fill what is empty. Scratch what itches."


Karate Kid (1984)

7.2/10 on IMDb
90% on Rotten Tomatoes

Another classic film - do I even need to describe it?

Wax on, wax off

There's really not much to say - it's a classic film that combines karate, child-labour (under the guise of training), humour, and puberty (but you already knew all that)


Troy (2004)

7.2/10 on IMDb
54% on Rotten Tomatoes

Brad Pitt stars as Achilles, the legendary soldier that fights in the Trojan War

After studying Greek Mythology in Uni, I think this does a pretty good job of adapting a Greek myth (because, let's face it, they're all extremely bizarre) into a sellable Hollywood action film (and, of course, they did do some changes to the original myth)

While the actors were great (and it's always great looking at Orlando Bloom's face), the film was really really long (a bit over 2.5 hours), so enjoyment kind of wanes over time

So, it is enjoyable, but not a must-see or anything


Mr. Holmes (2015)

7.5/10 on IMDb
86% on Rotten Tomatoes

Sir Ian McKellen: the man, the legend; first, Magneto; then, Gandalf; now, Mr. Holmes

Although, it's an aged, retired, Sherlock Holmes, but still Sherlock Holmes nonetheless

Unfortunately, Ian McKellen's amazing acting can't save this film

An extremely slow-paced movie that does not do any justice to the amazing skills of Sherlock Holmes means this movie is definitely not worth the watch