Movies on alex ink

Troll, 2022 ★★★★

Sun, 11 Oct 2026 10:50:51 -0400

We decided to catch up on one or two shows, on Netflix last night, and chose the movie, Troll (no, not the kiddies animated version). And, I have to say, I’m glad we went with a silly fantasy because, it was ridiculously good fun. Putting aside whether we believe in trolls or not. It doesn’t matter. They gave their existence plausibility in this amusing Norwegian romp through the countryside.

Genuine and heartfelt in places, whimsical in others, it was all the scifi references and throw away lines that made this all the more enjoyable. And yes, before you ask, we will be watching Troll II at some point and will probably enjoy it just as much.

Great fun from beginning to end.

Knives Out: Wake Up Dead Man, 2025 ★★½

Fri, 09 Oct 2026 14:12:43 -0400

At nearly two and a half hours long, this third instalment of the Knives Out franchise, Wake Up Dead Man, was 45 minutes too long. At least, in my humble opinion. I started to watch this Wednesday evening and, got as far as Msgr. Wick’ confession to Father Jud outside the church and, gave up due to the trite and childish need to appeal to an audience of 12 year old boys. I didn’t actually finish the movie till yesterday afternoon.

Sadly, my opinion didn’t change much about the characters and, by the sordid end, hoped they would all end up dead. The only light in this whole hot mess was Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc. He lifted this morass but still, in the end, couldn’t save it from itself.

Save yourself the trouble, go watch something else.

Mini Movie Reviews

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 09:00:00 -0400

In the spirit of the Mini Book Review trending about the web, I thought to write my own (rather sarcastic, or it that, scathing?) mini movie reviews. You’ve been warned, there are …

SPOILERS AHEAD.

Murder on the Orient Express — A movie in which twelve suspects of varying social status have three minutes of screen time to convince Kenneth Branagh—er, I mean, Poirot—that they are not the killer of Johnny Depp’s despicable character and the obvious bad guy.

With a waveringly bad accent, the heroic Hercule Poirot confronts the suspects—who are artfully arranged at a table in the mouth of the train tunnel to look like Da Vinci’s Last Super—and recounts a series of events in flashback to solve the mystery.

And … they all did it.

3 Billboards outside Ebbings, Missouri — A foul-mouth red-neck woman hurls abuse at the town’s Sheriff and his inept, racist department for not finding her daughter’s killer. In a last ditch effort to get the dying Sheriff to find a clue, she rents three billboards to get her message across. More swearing and ultra violence ensues before the Sheriff blows his brains out, and a disgraced deputy miraculously over-hears someone bragging in a bar of his rape conquest.

Disgraced deputy and foul-mouthed woman team up, and go on a road-trip to murder the bragging rapist.

Lady Bird — A dull, coming of-age movie in which the two central characters of a mother and daughter hurl derogatory abuse at one another. Where the character of Christine ‘Lady Bird,’ a senior at Catholic high school about to graduate and go to college, acts like a self-centred spoilt child in a series of lack-lustre vignettes. The two best of which are wasted in the trailer for the movie to make you think this is a comedy. It isn’t.

Dunkirk — A long, slow, and violent look at the evacuation of 400,000 Allied troops from the beaches at Dunkirk, via three interwoven threads, confusingly mixed at random. With a total lack of regard to any continuity, we see disturbing images of men drowning, men being blown up, men running along a beach. Men waiting in long lines out in the open, waiting to be shot at by the enemy. Men screaming and jumping off sinking ships, and drowning in long drawn out sequences to heroic, and very jarring music.

There is little or no credible dialogue, as there are few speaking parts. One of which is Kenneth Branagh as a Naval Officer stood on a pier looking heroically out to sea, or to the sky, for deliverance. There is none … for him, or for us.

And there you have it, of course, this is all just my opinion. No popcorn was harm in the writing of these scathing reviews.

The Gorge, 2025 ★★★½

Wed, 07 Oct 2026 11:38:17 -0400

In total contrast to how bored we were watching Reptile the other night, we were fully engaged with the horror-tinged action thriller, The Gorge. The premise is comic-book to be sure, and the whole section they were actually in the Gorge was memorable. But only because we both sat there having a good laugh at the really bad monsters.

But what made this fun and watchable were the two main characters, perfectly acted by Miles Teller and Anya Taylor Joy. It felt like they had good chemistry onscreen and the banter was fun and lightweight. While the action didn’t overwhelm the duo’s dynamics.

Grab a bag of popcorn and just enjoy this one for what it is, implausible fun.

Reptile, 2026 ★★

Sun, 04 Oct 2026 09:30:00 -0400

Last night we watched the overly long movie, Reptile over on Netflix. At 2 hours plus this felt like it could have been 90 minutes and it would still have felt like it was too long. Why? An overly meandering storyline that, quite frankly, failed dismally to go anywhere. The conclusion stilted to the point it was left hanging in midair, unresolved. And the final scene? Bizarre by anyone’s standards of out there weird. That’s two hours of my life gone.

If I were you, I would slither on over to find something better, elsewhere.

The Mitchells vs the Machines, 2026 ★★★★

Tue, 04 Aug 2026 09:00:00 -0400

So Sunday evening, at a loss as to what to watch given we were camped out on the couch, huddled under a blanket, staring out the window at the rain coming down in veritable sheets. I said to the OH pick something funny, silly, and quirky, thinking they’d find a decent enough comedy on Netflix but wasn’t quite ready for what they chose: The Mitchells vs the Machines!

As it turned out, The Mitchells vs the Machines was an absolute blast. I found myself smirking, then giggling then finally laughing so hard we had to stop play at various places, scroll back a frame or two, to catch a missed joke.

This film is hilarious. The in and out jokes never stop coming. It really is one laugh a minute, action-packed, family-friendly, chaos-induction, popcorn chomping, coming of age adventure.

If you haven’t already seen this then get sat down, grab a bag of your favourite snacks, and enjoy the laughs.

War Machine, 2026 ★★½

Sat, 01 Aug 2026 09:00:00 -0400

This movie was one long testosterone fuelled promo advert for the US Army Rangers, what with all the machismo and chest thumping, gruff voices, and lone-wolf attitudes I felt like I needed a shower afterwards. Over baked and undercooked, this one lacked enough ingredients to make it thoughtful, or even interesting.

Lots of big bangs and explosions and not much else.

Borderlands, 2024 ★★★½

Wed, 31 Dec 2025 22:30:00 -0400

Well, I don’t care what anyone else says, we watched Borderlands on DVD last night and, I have to say, it was pure unadulterated fun. I should also add noisy, colourful, crazy, madcap, seriously demented fun. Kudos to both Kate Blanchet and Jamie Lee Curtis for knocking it out of the ballpark. Seriously, Jamie Lee gets better every film I see her in. Also, Kate was excellent as Lilith, she nailed the character.