The Quite Nerdy Blog

Ready Player One is the new Steven Spielberg film and before we get into it, I want to point out where I stood on this film before I saw it. The film is based on a book by Ernest Cline which I read and really enjoyed as the fun, reference filled romp it was. When Steven Spielberg was announced as director, that was exciting too because no one does romps like Spielberg. Hell, I'll even go to bat for The BFG, one of his less popular films recently. These factors come together to create a film I was really excited for and now sadly have to tell you is just not that good. Plenty to get through before that though, including the plot, which may sound familiar. The creator of a virtual world dies and leaves behind three secret keys that will lead to his fortune. We follow Wade Watts on a quest to find these keys and have a rocking time on the way. Impressively, the plot is actually fairly different to the book but I still knew what was going to happen at every step because the plot is

A couple of years ago, I did a list very similar to this and seeing as I have a hole in my schedule to fill (I won't lie to you if you're kind enough to read my ramblings) and I've since seen every film on the first list, now felt like the right time for an update. For those who haven't worked it out, the point of this list is basically a list of the films I most want to see but out of films that have been released (so something like Infinity War wouldn't make the list for example). To be elligible, these just have to be films I haven't seen, want to see and to have come out more than a year ago. And hey, for a little bit of fun, why not go back and read the first list and compare how much more pretentious my tastes have got in the space of three years. 7. Fruitvale Station The name of director Ryan Coogler may not mean anything to you but recently, he did this little indie film you might have heard of called Black Panther. I really enjoyed that film and

Isle of Dogs is the latest Wes Anderson film and if you know anything about his previous work, it shouldn't be a surprise to you that it is an absolute delight. The story centres around the eponymous  (Japanese) island, one that used to be home only to trash but after an outbreak of snout fever is reshaped into a home for all the infected and unwanted dogs. We follow a pack of dogs who encounter a young pilot, who has flown to the island in search of his dog. The plot can be boiled down to that but there is actually much more going on under the surface. It's not exactly a film of twists and turns but its plots and sub-plots are all fully fleshed out and like many of Anderson's other films, it ventures out beyond the compounds of story you're expecting. This is the bit where I talk about the performances in the film but honestly, it's pretty hard to do when there's a cast as embarrassingly huge as this, so I'll just list some notable people and point ou

A couple of weeks ago, a film came out called Game Night. It was a comedy with some action and intrigue mixed in, in which an elaborate game goes horribly wrong. For me, I heard this premise and thought "huh, this sounds just like The Game", a film by David Fincher, my favourite director. On the back of this and surprisingly good reviews, I checked the film out and was pleasantly surprised. Not only is the film really funny and a great time but it's also one made with real, genuine care, with actual cinematic techniques where many comedies would be flat and uninteresting. In this way, and many more, the film basically rips off the work of Fincher but honestly, it works wonderfully and makes this a comedy that works on its technical elements perhaps better than the comedic ones. In style, there's plenty of elements that are distinctly "Fincher-esque" and as a fan, getting to pick them all out was a delight. Primarilly, what I spotted was a lot of reall