CinemaShafiq

For this year, I am going to start posting my top 10 films list of every film year, probably dating back to 1990. All these lists are available at my Letterboxd profile. Let me start with 2014 first, as this was the year that I started to get into watching films seriously, instead of a casual leisure. 2014 is noted for the good number of films coming out this year, and 3 out of 4 Marvel movies released this year were really good. 10. The Theory of Everything  7/10 9. Chef  8/10 8. Dawn of The Planet of The Apes  8/10 7. Godzilla  8/10 6. Guardians of The Galaxy  8/10 5. The Raid 2 8/10 4. X-Men: Days of Future Past  8/10 3. Captain America: The Winter Soldier  8/10 2. Whiplash 9/10 1. Interstellar  9/10

  Steve Jobs is hands down one of the greatest film of all time; about a selfish visionary man who would stop at nothing to achieve his goals; and history proved that he's right. Great af screenplay. This film made me wanna drop everything right now and go out to get the latest iPhone. 8/10

  Cult classic. Got to love the part when Matt Salinger's Captain America made a thumbs up to the President with that weird smile with his tongue out. 3/10

  There are bad movies that are so bad they become fun to watch. At least they're fun and campy. And Hulk was a bad movie that's bad and boring. The first 45 minutes can be trimmed way shorter and the whole movie was just draggy. This version of Hulk was also the fattest and most childish one. I prefer 2008's The Incredible Hulk way more. 4/10

  Another one of Marvel's bad movies of the 00s. Well, at least the pacing wasn't slow and it feels like a B-film action movie. And you got Jennifer Garner in hot red costume so yeah. But still, the special effects, the extra characters, man.. it's just bad. 4/10 

  Just wow. I am going through a movie marathon; a movie a day, for Quentin Tarantino's films, and I purposely left Reservoir Dogs and Kill Bill to be watched at a later stage of my movie adventure even though I've become a movie lover for quite a while because as far as I've heard, these films are masterpieces. Now, I've watched Reservoir Dogs and I think it is, but after watching Kill Bill: Vol.1, man, I was just blown away. If Reservoir Dogs was the film that kick-started Tarantino's impressive directing career, then Kill Bill was his pinnacle of success. The story and the characters, which were set in their own Tarantino's movie logics were absolutely great and fun, and that iconic yellow jumpsuit was just, instant pop culture material. In fact, I think Kill Bill made it's way to the hall of "movies that shaped the pop culture", in the same league as Star Wars, Indiana Jones and The Dark Knight. And of course, how can I not talk about Uma Thurm...

  Cult classic campy cheesy movie.  The worst movie ever made. George Lucas made this. The FIRST Marvel movie. So many attributes to this movie and it's so bad that it's so good is what making this as one of the movies you gotta watch before you die. p/s: Now that the multiverse is established in MCU, this is technically the first Marvel movie to be canon or adjacent to the MCU, and not Spider-Man . 3/10

It's not as bad as the critics make it to be. Actually Eternals was probably the most unique and freshest installment in the MCU yet, with the whole film feels like a Zack Snyder film instead of another MCU film.  I respect and like the fact that the story, the tone, characterisation, and underlying moral and philosophy questions are different than what we used to get from a MCU movie. Plus, this being a film from Chloe Zhao, the cinematography and the visual effects were fresh and outstanding. With that being said, the fact that it's being the most challenging and ambitious MCU film is also the reason for it's flaws. The pacings were off at times and the story got messy on the second and third parts. And to be honest, I think the Eternals line up is just too many. It will be better if they only focus on 5 or 6 Eternals instead of 10. Still, I respect the different route that it takes and the fact that at least it makes me feel that there could be new things to anticipate f...

  It might seems like it's not that of a massive scale or it can cause important consequences in MCU like Loki or Falcon & Winter Soldier , but I like Hawkeye for it's heartwarming Christmas story and the fact that it served as a good Kate Bishop's origin story. But at this point, it already felt like there's just a bit too many releases of MCU content in 2021 that one may wonder do we even need this. 6/10

  What a disappointment. I appreciate the meta jokes and subtle commentary on modern Hollywood and endless reboot/sequel, but this film lacked that true reasoning for this franchise to come back. Halfway through, I keep wondering is this film necessary? A big Matrix fan here but a pointless sequel is just.. pointless.  Should've spent my money for second rewatch for No Way Home. One more thing, there were two films released in 2021 that heavily relied on nostalgia of their previous films and they did it right - Ghostbusters: Afterlife and No Way Home. Watch these films, Warner Bros. 5/10

  The end of an era. The quintessential Bond film, even with it flaws. It's not until the last 20 mins of this film that it truly hit me that Daniel Craig had been Bond since 2006 (much earlier than RDJ as Iron Man) and that he's basically the Bond that I grew up with; and this is his last outing. It stays with me even after the film ends, that it's finally the end of an era, just as Logan did for Jackman's Wolverine and Endgame did for RDJ's Tony Stark. As his last and the send-off film, I think the film worked well in delivering that and it is also one of the good Craig's Bond films. Definitely miles better than Spectre. But still far compared to Casino Royale or Skyfall. NTTD feels fresh with great action sequences in the early parts of the film - exciting action scenes since Casino Royale. Also, it's fresh because this is the first film in Craig era that we get to see James Bond as a normal guy, with quippy banters and romantic side to him. Overall, the ...

  Stupid, contrived and messy. A film about the hardships faced by modern day women is a good premise for a film, but the executions that this film did was just plain and cringe-ly bad. Forced characterisations, and the expected simple generalisation of males in this universe. A film in which the central theme of its story is the hardship of the daily lives faced by it's main character(s) is akin alike Roma , Hidden Figures or even as back as Spielberg's 1985's  The Color Purple - and big budget or star power was not the strength of these films, but their good writing. And that is definitely what this film lack.  4/10

  The King Caesar Rises. The Last Temptation of Caesar. Wow, a perfect threequel to close probably the most underrated trilogy in the modern cinema thanks to being drowned in the sea of other superhero and massive sci-fi blockbusters. The best element of this film was probably its cinematography and the visual effects. The CGI oh wow, they all seems so real that you will sometimes forgot that you're actually watching a movie based on a premise that a CGI ape on a horse is leading a revolution against mankind to succeed planet Earth; which, if such premise is on the hands of different persons/studios, would end up as a horrendous silly B-movie. With that being said, hard to believe that everything that happened in this film's universe was thanks to James Franco. If Caesar was Jesus, so he's God... I guess?  8/10

  Good effort for a directorial debut by Hairul Azreen and his team. Technically, the film was excellent, it had good cinematography and the scores were on point. But it got a lot of flaws especially on actings, and the story itself.  Zahiril Adzim's acting carried the whole movie by himself while the acting by other actors were either weak or non-existent. The plot and the twist may be "smart" for a local film but it actually has been done a lot of times and not groundbreaking really. Still, it's a watchable film and you can watch it on Disney+ Hotstar in Malaysia. 4/10

  A well-crafted, well-performed, and well- directed film. Another entry of a good landmark film for local cinema. Namron and Amerul Affendi brought their masterclass performance in this film, and this duo cannot be anymore better.  The film felt like a well-directed stage play, geared by strong script and performances, with some bits of satire/dark humor throughout on love, relationship and social criticism. I like that some of the satirical or dark humor bits felt like something out of a Coen brothers' film. The 4 years wait for the film to be released is worth it, it's like savoring a damn good wine and Mencari Rahmat is probably the best local film to come out this year, and definitely one of the best to come out in recent years. 7/10 

  I am glad that I have finally watched this film after holding it on my to-watch-list for so long. A good directing debut from Aaron Sorkin and while I was watching it I can't help but feeling that it was like a blend of Gone Girl (cinematography and vibes), The Wolf of Wall Street (a biopic film of a hustler narrated from start to finish) and Casino (a narrated film on gambling and card games); and I meant this in a good way. I think this was Jessica Chastain's best performance so far, she played the character very well and tbh her physical attractiveness add a lot to the role. 8/10 

  A good female-lead assassin revenge thriller. Probably one of the few of decent Netflix films. Mary Elizabeth Winstead was amazing, and at least this film got a heartfelt story and beautiful cinematography unlike other numerous cliche modern female badass movies. This is how you make a good, badass female lead film; not with random preachy scenes or bland action scenes (Enola Holmes, The Old Guard), but with a strong front character with a good story and deep characterisation. I would be excited if there's a sequel. 6/10

  A classic film back in 1967 which was a fresh, rebellious and raunchy; marking the debut of one of great filmmakers who'll propel Hollywood out of its classic era.  This film was also the debut of Harvey Keitel An examination on toxic masculinity as well as criticism on religion hypocrisy, this debut by Martin Scorsese might unable to rival his latter works, but it was still a good picture, especially in the context of late 60s. 6/10

  I am at the moment is in a marathon, 1 film per night - to finally watch all of the films directed by great filmmakers - Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Ridley Scott and Stanley Kubrick. I purposely hold myself off from watching a lot of their films as I planned to watch them after I have been through this long film-watching passion that I started back in 2014. It's as if I am savoring the best for the last. With that being said, the first director that I will finish first is Scorsese. And I have watched his other popular works like Goodfellas, The King of Comedy and Shutter Island, but Kundun is one of the ones that I have not watched. So, was it good? And thus, Scorsese remains my no. 1 film director and the dude can not only do crime movies, but religion too. Not only Catholic, but Buddhism as well. I love The Last Temptation of Christ and Silence, and while Kundun might not be as good as these two, I still think this film is so underrated. 8/10 

  I watched Bird Box the other day and many reviews said that it's reminiscent of  The Happening. I watched it and oh man I hate this movie to the core. It's so terrible, there's no aspect in which this film was redeemable and even Mark Wahlberg himself hated it. Shyamalan has no right to cover his failure by saying that he intended to make it as a high-budgeted B-movie. Nope. Bird Box was better than this. 3/10