I watched the good, the bad and the ugly again on netflix... Somehow it had a 3 star rating.... unbelievable. That's a 5 star film.
I like Clint behind the camera just as much. If you haven't seen American Sniper that's a really good film. The distance of the sniper from the target doesn't distance the effect on the sniper and on his family life. The moral struggle between taking life and saving life and the impact on the sniper and his family and the families of the soldiers saved by the sniper and clearly the damage to the people at the other end of the scope. It's good because I don't think it's preachy, it's morally ambiguous and it shows how difficult it is to take a moral path in extreme situations.
If you like horror movies, I've seen a few good ones this year...
I enjoyed "Ghost Stories" for it's sinister build up to an interesting twist, "Winchester" which was well shot and well acted and has an interesting real life back story relating to the Winchester rifle company.
My off the wall pick is "The babysitter" which is a schlock teen horror, but nicely acted, nicely executed and I found it very entertaining.
I also secretly enjoyed "Passengers" about the guy who wakes up 90 years early on a spaceship. Not a big Jennifer Lawrence fan, but Chris Pratt and Michael Sheen as the android bar man are excellent. Suspend your disbelief in some of the daft science and this is actually an interesting psychological space thriller.
Hopefully this year Hollywood will stop pandering to the PC brigade and start making proper films again. Fingers crossed.