Rub’s February 2015 micro reviews

Ruben Llibre

Published in

Applaudience

6 min readFeb 28, 2015

or how to try and make up for all the Oscar movies you missed

Recommended to watch:

First up, out of the 16 movies seen in Feb, this ones i recommend watching just cause:

Theory of Everything
Birdman
The imitation game
Wild Tales (Relatos Salvajes)
John Wick
Nightcrawler

Recommended from other months: 2014, January 2015, February 2015, March 2015

micro-reviews:

Disclaimer and Legend:
* Movie name links to imdb when possible. IMDb/Rotten Tomato scores are from when i wrote the review so they might differ when you read.
* Stars are granted on a 5-star scale and are not meant to be compared universally but (perhaps) with equally themed movies. 5 stars for a romantic comedy doesn’tcompare to 5 stars on a action movie; genre and purpose matter.
* A “+” in a star scale means it’s better than equally starred movies it may contend with. Ratings are based on my opinion at the moment and may change cause reasons.

Justice League: Throne of Atlantis (2014) — 72 min (1h 12m) -Animation, Action,
Adventure

As Most recent DC Animated movies, this one does faith to all characters. Worth it if you like DC animated movies.

Good if you like: DC, Animated superheroes, Aquaman.

My Rating:★★★✰✰+

imdb: 6.5 /10 ;

Nightcrawler (2014) — 117 min (1h 57m) — Crime, Drama, Thriller

It achieves every note it aims for brilliantly.I’ve always considered making the viewer (REALLY) hate or despise a character a high achievement that, if anything else, deserves respect. I Respect you nightcrawler. Also, excelent night shooting in this movie!

Good if you like: will-stop-at-nothing-to-suceed movies, night shots, LA movies, how-a-sausage-factory-works movies

My Rating:★★★★✰

imdb: 8.0 /10 RT: 95 /100

Grounded: Making the last of us (2013) — Documentary

Pretty standard documentary, only enjoyable if you played the game (spoilers inside) and really enjoyed it (i did). If you haven’t played it, you should!

Good if you like: Last of us game, videogame documentaries

My Rating:★★✰✰✰+ imdb: 8.5 /10 RT: N/A /100

Big hero 6 (2014) — 102 min (1h 42m) — Animation, Action,
Adventure

Disney, as expected, makes great animated movies when it intends to. Interesting superhero origin story which isnt afraid to refer to genre tropes or work around them. Awesome city/character designs, a bit of a predictable plot, but it works. Adorable robot!

Good if you like: animated movies, superhero animated movies, cute robots, tokyo/sanfrancisco

My Rating:★★★✰✰+ imdb: 8.0 /10 RT: 89 /100

John Wick (2014) -101 min (1h 41m) — Action, Thriller

Excelent action movie, could’ve been 20 minutes shorter. Im tired of retirement/revenge action movies, but this one works. Watch if you like good action.Nigh

Good if you like: Action, shooting, retired-badass

My Rating:★★★✰✰+ imdb: 7.2 /10 RT: 83 /100

Theory of everything (2014) — 123 min (2h 3m) — Biography, Drama,
Romance

Incredible acting by oscar winner Eddie Redmayne, worth it if only for that, it’s also a very pretty movie.

Good if you like: Scientist-life stories, stephen hawkings

My Rating:★★★✰✰+ imdb: 7.8 /10 RT: 80 /100

jupiter ascending (2015) — 127 min (2h 7m) — Action, Adventure,
Sci-Fi

Typical Wachowski fare i guess, great ideas about scifi wasted on a weird execution and mood, it doesnt seem to know what kind of movie it wants to be, pass unless you really wanna see scifi

Good if you like: scifi, channing tatum, mila kunis cleaning toilets

My Rating:★✰✰✰✰+ imdb: 6.0 /10 RT: N/A /100

The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2013) — 137 min (2h 17m) — Animation, Drama, Fantasy

A japanese folktale taken to animation, beautiful animation style, but the story and message wasn’t that great. watch if you wanna see a unique take on animation.

Good if you like: japanese folktales, odd animation movies

My Rating:★✰✰✰✰+ imdb: 8.2 /10 RT: 100 /100

boyhood(2014) — 165 min (2h 45m) — Drama

Took 12 years to film, so i guess the team is dedicated… this one doesn’t have much more plot than whatever life provides to a person in life: growth, pain, love, changes, etc. Worth a look and very interesting to see the characters grow (literally) and get old (literally!), not much in way of conventional plot though.

Good if you like: european “slice of life” style movies

My Rating:★★✰✰✰+ imdb: 8.2 /10 RT: 98 /100

Obvious child(2014) — 84 min (1h 24m) — Comedy, Drama

A modern take on the “one night oops” genre. There’s better stuff out there, the humor didnt hit the spot for me.

Good if you like: modern takes on romcom topics

My Rating:★★✰✰✰+ imdb: 6.8 /10 RT: 90 /100

Birdman: Or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)(2014) (RE)— 12 min (0h 12m) — Comedy, Drama

Breath-taking pacing enforced by a never resting camera, beautiful cinematography, in your face dialogue, excellent acting. AND you get a gentleman’s critique on current Hollywood trends? What’s not to recommend.. Watch it.

Good if you like: good movie making, michael keaton, life imitates art imitates life, magical realism

My Rating:★★★★✰+ imdb: 8.0 /10 RT: N/A /100

Selma(2014) — 128 min (2h 8m) — Biography, Drama,
History

The only thing i found interesting from this movie is that it made me remember MLK was a human being before, during and after being a historic force of change.

Good if you like: socio-political movies, historic events movies

My Rating:★✰✰✰✰ imdb: 7.7 /10 RT: 98 /100