Watched four movies last week while off work sick:

Tomorrowland - 7/10

Wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be (based on reviews), and actually quite enjoyed it.  I didn't know anything about it other than the single trailer I saw last year.  It's a mix of nostalgic futurism and morality tale about the bleak future we face.  There's a good scene with Hugh Laurie's character in the final act which could almost have been a direct-to-camera speech about how the world has got so screwed up, and it did make me stop and think.  Any film which makes you think, even momentarily, has something going for it.  It might be overly simplistic, but it's a family-friendly film, not a TED talk.  I thought it did a good job overall.

Fantastic Four (2015) - -2/10

What an absolute turd of a film.  I vaguely recall the earlier film with Ioan Grufford, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans and Michael Chiklis, and recall thinking that it was barely passable (and since well surpassed by "modern" superhero storytelling).  This entry by Josh Trank, as so many others have opined, has to be one of the worst films ever made.  I'm always keen to give the benefit of the doubt, even when reviews are bad, because people can see things differently.  But in this case the reviews were right.  I can't think of a single good thing about this film, and I feel angry with myself that I watched it all the way through.  I think it's because I'm a completist, and if I don't finish watching I'll always wonder if it got better.  But it didn't.  None of the characters were remotely interesting or redeemable, the plot was boring and pointless, the effects were unremarkable.  I felt like demanding that United Video refund me the $1 I paid to rent the film, and then compensate for the lost time and suffering I endured... ;)

R.I.P.D - 1/10

I must be some sort of masochist.  Not only did I put myself through FF, I also watched this almost-as-bad film featuring Ryan Reynolds and Jeff Bridges.  Both are perfectly likeable actors; I actually quite enjoy Ryan Reynolds and have seen plenty of his work, and Jeff Bridges has done some pretty good films too.  But R.I.P.D is a piece of rubbish which even Ryan Reynolds managed to make completely humourless.  For reference, I think I enjoyed Green Lantern more than this (but not much more...)  The plot is a budget ripoff of Men in Black.  The characters are paper thin and a waste of space.  It has the feel of a studio fulfilling some contract obligation and churning something out to tick a box.  The actors look almost pained as they limp through the script which at 95 minutes long is about twice as long as it needs to be.  I suspect they needed those 95 minutes for it to qualify as a "feature film."

The Big Short - 7.5/10

I cleansed my soul by watching The Big Short after R.I.P.D, and proving that there are still good films out there.  It's a little technical in places, focussing on the financial scam that was the sub-prime mortgages scandal in the US that started the GFC in 2008 (similar in some respects to Margin Call featuring Kevin Spacey and Zachary Quinto).  The film had a neat gimmick of breaking the fourth wall every now and then to explain tricky concepts by the judicial application of celebrity asides.  So we had Margot Robbie sipping champagne in a bubble bath explaining what a sub-prime mortgage is, and Anthony Bourdain explaining what is a CDO (Collateralised Debt Obligation).  I definitely felt more informed after.  I also felt appalled and sick about the level of fraud it showed.  While I knew the basics of the GFC, it's not something I've ever read a lot about.  Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign made a lot more sense after watching this (not that it didn't make sense before - it just joined up a few dots).  This is a movie, not a documentary, but it managed to balance the information side of things with the entertainment needed to tell the story.  The cast was great - Christian Bale, Steve Carrell, Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt, and the pacing and timing worked well.  It's not the kind of thing I would re-watch, but I'm glad I saw it.