What I've watched Wednesday #01

Hello there and welcome to my first What I've watched Wednesday.
Here I am going to tell you about the movies I've watched this week and what I thought of them.

 Extracted (2012) 

It's not a horror film even though the poster looks like it

It's about a machine built to go back into your own memory to heal PTSD for example. But it can also be used to go into the memory of someone else and you can go there. It's easiest when he sleeps, and you gotta sleep too ... maybe we can plant some memory in there that isn't his to get him to sell his big cooperation to his rival ... no wait, that's Inception. But it really sounds and feels pretty similar, even though it's completely different. After the first experiment, the main character, Tom (Sasha Roiz) is trapped in the memory of a killer. I won't tell much more 'cause I don't wanna spoil the movie. 

It doesn't have a high budget and not really well known actors, but they all do a decent job. There aren't many effects but they are done good. It isn't as bad as the imdb ratings make you think, so if you like the main idea, give it a watch. I just found it on Netflix with a few friends cause we needed something short that we all haven't watched yet and it was worth the time, which is not even 90 minutes. 

The Imitation Game (2014)

Benedict Cumberbatch in his biggest role yet ... playing basically Sherlock

Sooo, since the Oscars are around the corner I of course am watching all of the best picture nominees. On Monday I already did a review of Boyhood, and on Thursday I watched two other nominees, one of which is the Imitation Game. It's about Alan Turin (Benedict Cumberbatch), a genius during WWII, who helps encoding secret messages by the Germans, who sent those via a machine called Enigma. I won't say much more about the story 'cause I think you better watch it yourself.
It is based on a true story and it's interesting to watch, but I found it a bit too long. I started checking my watch some times and at the end I was glad it was over. Of course it still was a good movie and I really enjoyed it most of the time. All the actors are good and I liked the real speeches and the real footage they showed every now and then. Even though it's a war movie, we don't see much war at all, but that's not what it's about. Watch it, if you have the time and are in the mood for a long historical movie.

Birdman (2014)

NOT Batman

As I said, I watched two best picture nominees on Thursday. I watched them in a row, first The Imitation game and then Birdman, but I don't wanna talk about Birdman just yet. My plan is to bring you a review on next Monday, because I need to write more than just two paragraphs about this movie. Soooo you gotta wait for Monday for an in depth post about this movie.

The Lincoln Lawyer (2011)

Yes, his licence plate says "NTGUILTY"

This movie is about the defense lawyer Mick Haller (Matthew McConaughey) who operates pretty much out of the backseats of his Lincoln Town Car. He seems like an asshole who does everything for money but then he gets a client that changes his life ... at least a little.
This movie was fun to watch, McConaughey is a good actor and all in all, the actors were very good. This was an early movie in the McConnaissence, one of the earliest even. I love courtroom dramas, but this has also some investigations which makes it even more fun than to just play out in a courtroom. Bryan Cranston is in this, too, but he only has a minor role because this was a little bit before the big Breaking Bad hype. If you like court room dramas or investigative stuff, you will enjoy this, I am sure.

Ouija (2014)

It's a boardgame movie... like Battleship

Before I saw it, my plan was to make a post about Ouija on FreakyFriday. I have now seen it and I don't wanna write about it much. First, the story. It starts with one girl (Shelley Hennig) using an Ouija Board and then killing herself. Her best friend (Olivia Cooke) and some other friends want to find out what's wrong and well, they do find out.

I checked IMDB: 4.4 Stars out of 10. I checked rottentomatoes: 7% out of 100. So I went into this movie thinking "This is gonna be baaaad." But it wasn't that bad. It wasn't good either. It was meh. I watched it with a friend and we pretty much predicted everything that happened. There was a little "twist" but right after it happened we knew how it would go on. It isn't as bad as people make it out to be and I had fun while at the movies. Don't think I'm going to rewatch it though.

Theatre of Fear (2014)

Also known as "The Midnight Horror Show"

I got this movie from my friend Susan for Christmas. It is a low budget horror flick that reminded me of "The Devils Rejects" by Rob Zombie. It's about a circus family who moves around the UK and has shows at midnight (the so called "Midnight Horror Shows"). Why horror? Well, they usually kill people. We have 5 weird family members: a ventriloquist whose dummy is alive, a clown with burn scars, a show girl, a magician and their father, the circus owner. They all have kind of different storylines, but then a father sends an hitman to kill them all. 

As I said, this is a low budget horror movie, and for that, it's really good. The main actors all did a great job, the gore that we see isn't bad, and the characters are fun to watch. It also had the feel of a 70s movie. With a running time of around 84 minutes it is a movie you can throw in if you are in the mood for a movie with a small budget.

Sooo that was this weeks What I've watched Wednesday. Are there any movies you think I should watch? Just leave a comment.
Hope to see you again
jolocus