Cast – Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, Ben Mendelsohn, T.J. Miller, Simon Pegg & Mark Rylance

Director – Steven Spielberg

Genre – Thriller film/Fantasy

Running Time – 2h 20m

The Plot

In the year 2045, people can escape their harsh reality in the OASIS, an immersive virtual world where you can go anywhere, do anything, be anyone-the only limits are your own imagination. OASIS creator James Halliday left his immense fortune and control of the Oasis to the winner of a contest designed to find a worthy heir. When unlikely hero Wade Watts conquers the first challenge of the reality-bending treasure hunt, he and his friends-known as the High Five-are hurled into a fantastical universe of discovery and danger to save the OASIS and their world.

Ready Player One is a brilliant conceptual movie that will no doubt lend itself well to most movie fans especially sci-fi, gaming, comic book and general movie watchers with a keen eye for special effects. Mostly shot in a virtual world setting, this movie is visually spectacular and if given the chance to I would strongly recommend watching it in a 3D setting…trust you won’t regret it.

This is every much “a gamers dream movie” with most of it being carried out in a gamified environment. At times, when watching, you can’t help but feel that you are playing an adventure videogame…at least that’s how I felt. Its full of various ideas and elements that I found quite interesting with some clever connotations sprinkled across and a little bit of humour to boot.    

I have watched quite a few sci-fi and virtually based movies before, but I can’t say I have seen anything quite like Ready Player One, and that’s a good thing. What sets it apart is the level of thinking and effort put into it. But even with that said, I wasn’t particularly blown away by it. I can’t quite say why exactly but the impression I had after watching was it’s a cool and fun movie. One is for sure, it’s one I would strongly recommend to my gaming and sci-fi friends.

Ready Player One presents a fantastic idea complete with amazing visual effects that will endear itself to many especially gaming and sci-fi fans. It’s a great flick to go out and enjoy by yourself, family or with a couple of friends. In a 3D, IMAX or B-Box setting, it would be an experience and a half. Officially releasing this week, this flick gets a solid 7 out of 10 rating from me.

Special thanks to Ster Kinekor for the exclusive pre-screening.

Going a step further, the guys at Rotten Tomatoes describe Dunkirk as being a movie that “serves up emotionally satisfying spectacle, delivered by a writer-director in full command of his craft and brought to life by a gifted ensemble cast that honors the fact-based story.”

Quite an intro that and with all that said, bias was always going to be a danger in properly critiquing this particular movie. I can assure you though that I safely and successfully put the massive fan in me behind, and let the reviewer instead to take the front seat.

So, is this movie special? And if so, just how special is it? Is it another masterpiece that will go down in history as being a classic?

Cast – Fionn Whitehead, Tom Glynn-Carney, Jack Lowden, Harry Styles, Aneurin Barnard, James D’Arcy, Barry Keoghan, Kenneth Branagh, Cillian Murphy, Mark Rylance & Tom Hardy

Director – Christopher Nolan

Genre – Drama film/Thriller

Running Time – 2 hours

The Plot

In May 1940, Germany advanced into France, trapping Allied troops on the beaches of Dunkirk. Under air and ground cover from British and French forces, troops were slowly and methodically evacuated from the beach using every serviceable naval and civilian vessel that could be found. At the end of this heroic mission, 330,000 French, British, Belgian and Dutch soldiers were safely evacuated.

OK, so the plot might not be enough to excite one too much however a classic movie fan knows that that’s sometimes not enough to properly gauge the potential of any given movie. If indeed that wasn’t enough to convince you, maybe the below will:

Dunkirk is the type of movie which we haven’t seen in a good while, it’s unlike anything that has come out of late. The cinematography of it is amazing and something that we need to see more of I reckon. That’s something you can associate with every Nolan movie, it’s unexplainable but he always gets it right with the perfect blend between the content and visuals. And no, I’m not saying this out of bias or anything like that, it’s a point that many agree on. If you don’t believe me then be sure to do some research on the man, his movies and what’s been said about them. Dunkirk is another representation of his brilliance and firmly affirms why he is one of the great storytellers of our generation.

Despite all of that though, a part of me feels like Dunkirk won’t be for everyone. It takes a certain type of individual to watch a movie like that from start to finish uninterrupted. It’s very intense and has the ability of literally making one feel what it was like to be a soldier in the 1940s. The nonstop intensity might be too much for some to endure. There’s also no need to mention one particular standout performer in the movie as it’s set up in such a manner that no one really is the main focus, another great thing that’s rarely seen in most movies nowadays. All the performances are fantastic throughout the cast.

There’s so much more one could say about it but it’s probably better to make up your mind instead. To me it’s not quite a classic but is a special movie that will be remembered for the right reasons when mentioned. Definitely ranks highly in my list of top movies for the year, and that’s why Dunkirk gets a fantastic 4.4 out 5 rating from me. It’s out in cinemas today, go watch it!

Huge thanks to the guys at Fortress of Solitude for the invite to a great screening!