MovieMuse
T
he MovieMuse Reviews (MovieViews) database is a searchable collection of films that the team have watched, providing a comprehensive guide on what to watch and what to avoid. It provides a link to an in-depth review or a short opinion on the film and a rating, as well as a link to the film’s poster or DVD cover. For more recent entries we are also including a link to the film’s IMDb page and a trailer from YouTube.
You can search and sort the list by individual film names, genre, reviewer, score and other variables to inform you on whether a film is worth your time, or to inspire you for your next movie night.
We will also use the database to create periodic lists of the recommended films in all sorts of categories. These lists will be shared on the website and some will even come with a video.
| Poster | Movie | Year | Genre | Comments | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Halloween II | 1981 | Horror | All the subtlety of the original is discarded in favour of more gore and an elevated body count, making this no better than the films the first one inspired. That said, it is still watchable with some great cinematography and an even creepier score. | 3 |
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Fear Street Part Three: 1666 | 2021 | Horror, Thriller | Serving as both an origin story and a conclusion to the first film, the move away from slasher movie to occult horror makes this less fun for the first half, but the twist is well done and the finale nicely wraps up an inventive and well made trilogy. | 3.5 |
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Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers | 1988 | Horror | Pretty standard slasher movie fare for the era, with limited gore to satisfy the censors, this is about as good as any of the other Halloween sequels as Michael Myers pursues his niece who is well played by young Danielle Harris. | 3 |
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Explorers | 1985 | Adventure, Fantasy, SciFi | Probably wouldn't have existed if it weren't for E.T. and The Goonies, and the final act is a bit of a damp squib, but still has decent effects and enough charm to sit comfortably in the second tier of 80s adventure movies. | 3 |
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Guns Akimbo | 2019 | Action, Comedy, Thriller | Daniel Radcliffe and Samara Weaving put on a great show as unwitting opponents in a real-life deathmatch, and while the plot is simplistic and predictable but the gratuitous video game styled violence and biting satire mean it's never dull. | 3.5 |
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Godzilla vs Kong | 2021 | Action, SciFi, Thriller | An overly convoluted plot and one dimensional characters just get in the way of the inevitable clash of the titans. Once it gets underway it's a visually impressive CGI-fest but otherwise quite forgettable. | 2.5 |
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Bad Education | 2019 | Crime, Drama | Hugh Jackman is excellent in this true story about corruption in the American school system. It's not the most interesting story to trun into a movie but good acting and a little dramatic license helps make it relatively gripping. | 3 |
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Escape from Pretoria | 2020 | Drama, Thriller | Wastes very little time on back story or character interaction, focusing almost entirely on the intricacies of the prison break. As a result it seems a little sterile, but the escape sequence offers plenty of nail-biting tension. | 3 |
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Forrest Gump | 1994 | Comedy, Drama, Romance | The first half is cringeworthy at times and some of the special effects shots have aged badly, but once it settles into the core story it's impossible not to get engrossed in this touching and thought-provoking American fable. | 3.5 |
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Coming 2 America | 2021 | Comedy, Romance | Relying heavily on scenes and themes from the original film, this sequel adds an abundance of black cultural empowerment and entertaining cameos, but while it is watchable, it isn't especially funny. | 3 |
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Palm Springs | 2020 | Comedy, Romance, SciFi | This 21st century take on Groundhog Day doesn't really break any new ground in the time-loop romantic comedy stakes, but the acting is good and it strikes a nice balance between irreverent and heartwarming, with some decent laughs to boot. | 3.5 |
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The Lie | 2018 | Drama, Thriller | When a girl confesses to killing her friend, her parents try to cover it up in about the most inept way possible, making this more amusing than it was probably meant to be. The inevitable twist at the end was more surprising than expected though. | 2.5 |
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Willy's Wonderland | 2021 | Action, Horror | Demonic animatronic animals torment Nicolas Cage, whose completely dialogue-free performance is certainly interesting. Story-wise it is fairly generic and the supporting actors are average at best, but the visuals and soundtrack are well done. | 3 |
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The Losers | 2010 | Action, Thriller | Crams plenty of action into its short running time and the cast is good aside from a poor performance from Idris Elba, but the balance between action and comedy isn't quite right and the ending is odd, blatantly setting up a sequel that never happened. | 3 |
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The Ice Road | 2021 | Action, Thriller | Highly improbable and formulaic from beginning to end, but there are enough perilous action sequences to keep it entertaining and kudos to the producers for letting Liam Neeson use his real accent. | 2.5 |
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Antebellum | 2020 | Mystery, Thriller | An impressive, lengthy single-shot opening sets the tone for some great cinematography, but the story fails to deliver at the right time and comes across as a muddled Shyamalan-wannabe, which is no compliment given some of that director's work! | 2.5 |
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Cocoon | 1985 | Drama, SciFi | As heartwarming as it is seeing a bunch of senior citizens recapturing their youth, the story is flimsy and so little of significance happens that a number of scenes seem to be there just to pad out the running time. | 3 |
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Brothers in Arms (AKA Semper Fi) | 2019 | Crime, Drama, Thriller | Testosterone-fueled nonsense permeates the opening act and the Iraq war scenes have virtually no relevance, but the gripping, well orchestrated prison break sequence that closes out the movie makes it worth sitting throught the mediocre first half. | 3 |
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Anna | 2019 | Action, Thriller | Good acting, more twists than you can keep track of and a seriously sexy lead actress make for a decent action film that is somewhat spoiled by the annoying use of technology that never existed in the era it was set. | 3 |
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Masterminds | 2016 | Comedy, Crime | Hardly the career highlight of any of the actors involved and there are a number of cringeworthy gross-out scenes that lower the tone, but the verbal and physical comedy isn't bad and the fact it's based on a true story helps. | 2.5 |
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Ready or Not | 2019 | Horror, Thriller | Another variation on the theme of an unexpectedly resourceful female character fighting off a group of assailants, this has a great mix of black comedy and gruesome violence and while it doesn't really do anything new, it’s a lot of fun. | 3.5 |
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Timecop | 1994 | Action, SciFi | The cheesy dialogue, over-acting and gratuitious nudity place it very much in the 90s, but despite those shortcomings, the time travel story is well written and the action sequences are good. | 3 |
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The Man Who Killed Hitler and then the Bigfoot | 2018 | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy | Sam Elliott is his usual engimatic self in this film that takes a bizarre story and plays it dead straight, providing funny moments as a result. There's also some surprisingly heartfelt drama as the main character's back story is revealed via flashbacks. | 3.5 |
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Alpha | 2018 | Adventure | A brave idea, set in prehistoric times and using a fictional language, and while some of the CGI is below-par, the landscapes are spectacular and the story of how wolves theoretically began their journey to become domestic dogs is interesting. | 3.5 |
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Dead Poets Society | 1989 | Drama | Not the kind of film I would ever choose to watch myself, but Robin Williams is brilliant as the teacher inspiring his students to think outside the box. It's just a shame the downbeat ending makes it a far less uplifting story than it could have been. | 3.5 |