Upgrade (Leigh Whannell, 2018)

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tenia
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Re: Upgrade (Leigh Whannell, 2018)

#26 Post by tenia » Sun Feb 03, 2019 8:01 am

I found Upgrade quite frustrating. It certainly isn't bad at all, but it feels far from being great. It seems fresh at first but only builds up to something quite predictable in the end. The fight scenes are very well shot and edited, but there only are a handful of short ones in the whole movie. The casting isn't too bad but isn't too good either. Marshall-Green is OK but Gabriel (the detective) and Gilbertson (Keen) are both quite awful. Keen especially reminded me of some kind of sub- Caleb Landry Jones in Antiviral.
In the end, the movie is quite good, but I felt frustrated by all these not-so-good things. I also thought it's not especially well paced. It's not overly long (100 minutes), but I still found it a bit tedious at time.

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Re: Upgrade (Leigh Whannell, 2018)

#27 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Sun Feb 03, 2019 3:22 pm

I liked the guy who played Fisk, he was an effective heavy despite looking like Napoleon Dynamite's brother.

I'll throw in that I thought the opening credits, while looking impressive and setting up some of the dread to come later, didn't really have much of a point beyond that in terms of the narrarive.

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dda1996a
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Re: Upgrade (Leigh Whannell, 2018)

#28 Post by dda1996a » Sun Feb 03, 2019 5:20 pm

Dunno I found it a blast. The only things I was bothered with was the really obvious story (except the end) and after the necessary but not very great start the film really turns into a fun B-movie. That first fight had me laughing quite a bit.
Heard this is how Venom plays just worst, which is funny because the main actor is a dead ringer for Hardy as well.
Anyway, it has it's faults but this is the kind of B pictures that need to be made more.

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tenia
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Re: Upgrade (Leigh Whannell, 2018)

#29 Post by tenia » Sun Feb 03, 2019 6:45 pm

It certainly felt better than tons of B-movies (hell, even better than many A-movies), but I just think it has many things that still doesn't play very smoothly. I scored it 7 out of 10, which is about right to me.

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Re: Upgrade (Leigh Whannell, 2018)

#30 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Thu Feb 14, 2019 6:17 pm

While nowhere near as stunning, it's reminiscent to me of Under The Skin, especially towards the end
SpoilerShow
The real psychological horror of that film is the complete lack of any emotional response to their surroundings (the beach scene in particular), and it's echoed here a little once STEM takes control of our hero's brain, and walks out at the end with a completely dead look in his eyes.

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Swift
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Re: Upgrade (Leigh Whannell, 2018)

#31 Post by Swift » Sun Feb 24, 2019 11:16 am

For the first half of this film, I was thoroughly on board in believing it was one of the best sci-fi movies to come along in years. I loved the world it created, the production design, the score and then it got kinda goofy and began to fall apart. The scene with his mother cleaning and shaving him and him breaking down crying had me believing I was watching something with a level of seriousness above your usual B movie revenge thriller, but then the first (admittedly fun) fight scene happened and suddenly he's cracking jokes and quips from there on out. That tonal change disappointed me greatly and what once was promising became just decently entertaining.

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JamesF
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Re: Upgrade (Leigh Whannell, 2018)

#32 Post by JamesF » Mon Feb 25, 2019 8:05 am

I was very excited to see this after watching the red-band trailer, and enjoyed it well enough once I finally did (it took a few months to get to the UK), but after months of anticipation it turned out all the best bits were in the trailer. Still, it's a shame that its lack of box office performance has precluded the likelihood of a more expansive, Body Hammer-style sequel (Upgrades?).

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domino harvey
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Re: Upgrade (Leigh Whannell, 2018)

#33 Post by domino harvey » Fri Aug 30, 2019 8:05 pm

Special edition coming in November from Second Sight:

Image
Not Action. Not Sci-Fi. More: A new interview with Director Leigh Whannell
Permission Granted: A new interview with Producer Kylie Du Fresne
Future Noir: A new interview with Cinematographer Stefan Duscio
Hacking Upgrade: A new interview with Editor Andy Canny
The Art of Fighting Without Fighting: A new interview with Fight Choreographer Chris Weir
Optional English Subtitles for the Hard of Hearing

Limited Edition Contents

Rigid slipcase featuring new artwork by Adam Stothard
Poster featuring the new artwork
40-page soft cover book with new essays by Jon Towlson and Scott Harrison

STREET DATE: NOVEMBER 18.

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