The King (2019)

Movie Name/Year: The King (2019)

Genre: Biography, Drama, History

Length: 140 minutes

Rating: R

Production/Distribution: Netflix, Plan B Entertainment, Porchlight Films, Blue-Tongue Films, Pioneer Stilking Films, Yoki

Director: David Michôd

Writers: David Michôd, Joel Edgerton

Actors: Timothée Chalamet, Joel Edgerton, Ben Mendelsohn, Sean Harris, Robert Pattinson, Lily-Rose Depp, Dean-Charles Chapman, Andrew Havill, Thomasin McKenzie, Steven Elder, Edward Ashley, Stephen Fewell, Tom Lawrence, Ivan Kaye, Philip Rosch, Lucas Hansen, Tara Fitzgerald

Blurb from IMDb: Hal, wayward prince and heir to the English throne, is crowned King Henry V after his tyrannical father dies. Now the young king must navigate palace politics, the war his father left behind, and the emotional strings of his past life.

Cat’s Point of View:

I feel I must admit upfront that Shakespeare’s play of Henry V is not one that I’m well versed in. I do, however, generally remember the bullet points about the period and events that lend The King its setting and story. This is my disclaimer that I didn’t factor a comparison to such in my opinion of this movie.

That being said, let’s forge ahead.

The King was solid and generally watchable. I did find it a little on the slow side, though. It’s possible that the pacing was set in that manner to give certain points more weight, but it resulted in a film stretching over two hours. I’m not opposed to long movies. Braveheart (1995) is one of my favorite movies of all time, after all, and it is nearly 3 hours long. There are key differences between the two that impacted how I resonated with the film. Braveheart’s memorable score and its pacing helped the time fly just as much as the engaging story. The King’s soundtrack wasn’t as memorable in the background of this slower-paced endeavor.

All-around, the cast’s performances were generally on-point. I have no complaints there. Scenes flowed smoothly, even if it did feel like molasses at times. I also have great respect for the battle scenes that were created for the film.

The King is a good movie for its genre. I will likely watch it at least once more. I just doubt that I would be interested in any more than that. Even so, I wouldn’t hesitate to give it a recommendation to anyone that wouldn’t be put off by the length. 

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 71%

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 85%

Metascore – 61%

Metacritic User Score –  7.9/10

IMDB Score – 7.3/10

CinemaScore – None

Trust the Dice: Cat’s Rating – 3/5

  

Movie Trailer:

Meltdown: Days of Destruction (2006)

Number Rolled: 59

Movie Name/Year: Meltdown: Days of Destruction (2006)

Genre: Sci Fi & Fantasy

Length: 94 minutes

Rating: R

Production Companies: Front Street Pictures, PorchLight Entertainment

Executive Producer: Harvey Kahn

Director: J.P. Howell

Writer: Rick Drew

Actors: Casper Van Dien, Vincent Gale, Stefanie von Pfetten, Venus Terzo, Amanda Crew, Ryan McDonell, Greg Anderson, Bill Dow, Philip Granger, Dee Jay Jackson, Floyd Faircrest

Tom is a cop and a good one at that. When an asteroid knocks Earth off its axis, though, he is faced with more looting and crime than he can manage. The only thing he can do is try and get his family to safety.

Selina’s Point of View:

The Sci-Fi Channel is listed as a distributor for this film, but it’s worth noting that The Asylum is NOT credited in Meltdown: Days of Destruction.

That being said, I only had some issues with this film.

The production value wasn’t bad at all for this kind of film. It’ll never be considered a blockbuster, but for a B-movie the graphics and sets weren’t too bad. The problem was the actual video. It broke in spots. For you people out there who are old like me, you’d recognize it as a VHS tape that’s been overplayed.

Aside from that, the script was a little lackluster and there was less real action than you’d expect in an apocalyptic film.

Story-wise, it was ok. It reminded me of a similar setting to what you see in the second book of The Maze Runner series. There were crazies that reminded me of the cranks, too. It’s a basic trope of this kind of story.

Casper Van Dien (Fire Twister, Sleeping Beauty, Mortal Kombat TV Series) is underrated. He’s definitely my favorite B-movie actor, and the whole reason this film wound up on the list to begin with. Truth is, none of the actors were terrible in Meltdown: Days of Destruction. Sure, the enemies reminded me of acting in 80s action flicks, but I’m a child of the 80s. I totally get it.

This is not a movie I would have watched without this blog in play, but I’m not upset I had to.

Cat’s Point of View:

You never know what to expect when watching one of these Sci-Fi B-movies that tend to run on the SYFY network. I don’t remember seeing this one before, but then I might have just changed the channel.

I just couldn’t seem to suspend disbelief with this one. Not even a little bit.

An asteroid chunk skipping off of the earth’s atmosphere as a result of a botched experiment shoves the earth out of orbit and closer to the sun. Okay, so far that wasn’t horrible – sketchy, maybe. Temperatures across the globe start rising and civilization devolves into chaos in less than a day. Really?

Add to that some teen angst, a love triangle, and ‘your ex con boyfriend isn’t good enough because reasons.’ This movie really tried to take itself seriously, and I just couldn’t.

No one on the ‘good guy team’ got sunburn, while the rest of the population seemed to be blistering. Everyone was wearing heavy long-sleeved clothing, and only showing a modicum of sweat. Even their hair stayed nice.

Cars are exploding but planes at the airport with more volatile fuel were going to be ok? By the end of the movie, I was both glad it was over and wondered what in the world I’d just watched.

I get that this was supposed to be an action thriller, but it both lacked good action or thrills for me. Not even Casper Van Dien (Starship Troopers, Noobz, 500 MPH Storm) could save this one.

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – None

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 23%

Netflix’s Prediction for Selina – 1.7/5

Selina’s Trust-the-Dice Score – 2/5

Netflix’s Prediction for Cat – 1.5/5

Cat’s Trust-the-Dice Score – 1/5

P.S. There are scenes during the credits.

P.P.S. When looking at Casper Van Dien’s IMDB page, The Random Review came across the information that he’s going to be in 16 movies/TV shows in 2015. One of those movies is called Sharktopus vs. Whalewolf. We just felt like sharing that.

Movie Trailer: