The Ballard of Buster Scruggs

There are some interesting themes and visuals in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, and of course a lot of great actors, but overall, it's just not my thing.

The Coen Brothers are hit or miss with me, and The Ballard of Buster Scruggs falls squarely in the category of "meh."

Assassin's Creed

I wound up not 100% paying attention to Assassin’s Creed, but the general feeling I got was that it’s not that good. It’s a little hollow, and there are some weird plot and editing choices. It does look pretty good, though.

I’m kind of fond of the Assassin’s Creed games, even though I’ve never played them. But I’ve seen them played through at least partially and they look cool. And I like Michael Fassbender, so I wanted to see this even though the reviews weren’t good. I wound up not really being able to pay attention to it, but I think I can tell it wasn’t good enough to be worth watching again.

It did look cool, for the most part. Not cool enough that I regret not seeing it in the theater, though. I liked the character design for the past. The clothes and tattoos were cool. They did seem to be doing a lot of superhuman stuff for no reason. I was like wow, people’s abilities were a lot different in the past. I kind of missed what they were talking about with how the assassins first got created. That might have been interesting to know.

The Secret of Kells

The Secret of Kells has an interesting feel to it, but I wasn't into the animation style overall, and the story didn't really go anywhere.

I liked Song of the Sea, so my friend thought I might also like The Secret of Kells, but I didn't think it was as good. The animation was still interesting, although I've always been bothered by those Samurai Jack-style square fingers. And the cat and the wolf had spiky points for feet, which was really weird. And the cat's "X with a circle around it denotes the nose and mouth" bothered me, too. And I didn't like the linework on a lot of people's faces, like how the same line for Aidan's beard turned into his ear. Okay, maybe I really wasn't into the animation on this one.

Safe House

Safe House: Reynolds and Washington both give great performances, but that didn't quite make the movie for me. The whole "chase" theme got old after a while, and the ending was just bizarre.

Safe House is yet another movie that was vaguely on my to-see list, then shelved, then revived by a Roeper review. Reynolds and Washington both give great performances here, but that didn't quite make the movie for me.  The whole "chase" theme got old after a while, and the ending was just bizarre.

At first, everything was really fast, and I had no idea what was going on. Then I got into it, and it was pretty interesting. Then towards the middle-end, I just got really sick of the action. I was like, "Okay, alright, chase, we get it! Chase chase chase, they should've just named it 'Neverending Chase Movie.'"

There are some good action sequences, and some good car chases. 

In Bruges

Collin Farrell's eyebrows are the star of this movie. The first half is witty and amusing, but the movie loses some of its enjoyability when it turns serious, and the ending is too ambiguous for my taste.