I scored this a 7/10, b/c it was an interesting idea for a film, but ultimately, it fell a bit short for me. The writer/director was seemingly making a commentary on today's society and how we disseminate, ingest, then regurgitate information into misinformation and disinformation. It showed how much of what we speak on is ignorant, ill-informed, and flat out wrong, yet that doesn't stop the message from being progressed. The film showed the point at which the information originates, then the various levels of groups that pass it along, some more educated than others, yet many lacking in basic critical thinking skills. It's a disheartening message, often made worse by those directly involved in it and their responses to outward stimuli. It was an original idea, so it was worth the watch, not to mention the fact that an ensemble cast did a really nice job.
This film was lacking. First off, it was too slapstick and unserious. I realize that it was a Disney film, but they really went overboard w/ it. Second, it would've been served better had the film been about 30 minutes shorter. It really dragged at the end. Third, there was no need for Jesse Plemons character, and they should've chosen a better male lead than Dwayne Johnson. Had they written a better script and found a better male lead, they could've done something along the lines of The African Queen. Of course, it never would've measured up to that film, but it could've been done in the same vein. Unfortunately, they went in too many ridiculous directions, and the story couldn't support it.
For its time in history, it's an all right watch. However, the treatment of women was well-antiquated, as they diminished the ability of women and thought nothing of men who beat women and children, as if it were so commonplace, it was not a concern.
There really wasn't much to this story, and I felt that had a lot to do w/ the script and the way this story was filmed. I found the cinematography to be quite odd. There were a number of scenes, where they had long, open shots from a distance, and it felt strange. I also felt that they didn't really delve deep into this family's wrestling background, only scratching the surface of what they were well known for. That would've been OK had they delved deep into the familial dysfunction that led to the tragedy that struck this family's children. Any way you slice it, it was not a great effort from the filmmakers, and this was reflected in the final product.
The first season was solid, although the Billy Russo character wasn't very engaging, and they overdid it w/ the government involvement. The second season was a mess. The storyline was convoluted and uninteresting, and the choice to bring back Russo was a bad one. He was all right as a single-season antagonist, but he just wasn't enough of a well-evolved, compelling character to bring him back as a villain for a second season. And, his involvement w/ that doctor was ludicrous and served no purpose in driving the storyline forward. Additionally, the second season antagonist, the Christo-fascist mutt they brought on was boring, and midway through the season, they confused the plot w/ a senator and his family as additional antagonists. The entire season was a victim of poor storyline, poor characters, and a lack of a definitive direction for Frank Castle to go.
Hey, let's let the child molester go, b/c he didn't do anything too awful!
These shows are so formulaic and so poorly written. All you need to know about this episode is that the Punisher is being hunted by the Irish mob. They corner him, when he's taken one of their soldiers hostage. Four guys surround him, guns pointed, and Castle kills all four, plus the hostage. The next moment, the head of the mob enters w/ three other, armed soldiers. The head of the mob is unarmed and wants to tell Castle how he's surrounded. Uh, he just killed four guys that surrounded him plus the hostage. Why wouldn't he gun you down right now?!? The writing defies logic. It's painful to watch..
The writing for this show is so bad. This intro to the Punisher makes him appear weak and indecisive. There's no discernable difference between him and the dozens of faceless, nameless bikers across this four episode arc. They did a terrible job introducing him, and furthermore, the acting on this show makes it nearly unwatchable. Elden Henson was a poor actor as child, and he never got any better. Having him as a bit player is one thing, but having him as a co-star, where he's required to carry scenes is unacceptable, b/c he's incapable of doing so. Watching him act opposite Rosario Dawson was just painful, b/c he's so far out of his league opposite her. I don't find Charlie Cox to be anything special, either. He's an all right actor, but he doesn't command the presence necessary to hold this role. I also find his moralizing incredibly disingenuous and irritating.
What this episode boiled down to was, Frank Castle, the Punisher, had Matt Murdock (Daredevil) chained up on a rooftop, and he'd duct taped a gun onto his hand, so he had a choice: He could either shoot Frank, as Frank was killing one of Murdock's clients who also tied up. Murdock chose not to shoot him, instead shooting the chain to break free. He didn't shoot Frank, b/c he spent the entire episode moralizing about how it was wrong to kill anyone. Yet, moments later, after escaping, he came across a number of angry bikers. The gun is still duct taped to his hand, and he pulls the trigger, but there are no more rounds in the gun. So, the moral of the story was, it's all right to waste an episode going on about how it's bad to kill criminals, but when given a chance, it's all right to do so? The story made zero sense, and it was a giant waste of time.
I enjoyed this more than I thought I would, especially the soundtrack. I thought that the writers did a great job blending the singing w/ the dialogue. Granted, I don't watch many musicals, but I thought that they did this quite deftly. The cast did well together, and it was a sweet, somewhat childlike, story. I also appreciate that they didn't entirely make this a precursor of the 1971 film, and they went in a different direction to create their own tale.
I liked this better upon second watch. It's a compelling tale about how women are manipulated by narcissistic men. There were a number of strong performances throughout by Emily Blunt, Rebecca Ferguson, and Haley Bennett. Their work really made this film come together.
I'm not sure where to begin w/ this. This movie was as bad on every level that a movie could be bad. The script, the storyline, the dialogue, the music, the set design, the choreography, and the CGI were all terrible. There were two scenes involving death by meat grinder, and not a single drop of blood was spilled. The entire thing looked like it was CGI, and it wasn't good CGI. The story was inane, cartoonish, and unnecessarily complicated. I have no idea what such a fine cast was doing slumming in this crap. On the other hand, Taron Egerton is not a good actor. He has about a three-inch range, and he should not be helming this, or any, film. All of this was worthy of a four-out-of-10, but what drove it down to a one was the use of "Fox News." Any filmmaker who uses the American Nazi Party's propaganda arm in a film, where they get free advertising, shouldn't be making mainstream films. They should be making neo-Nazi propaganda for the Right.
It's not nearly as good as the first, especially the soundtrack, but overall, it's an enjoyable reminiscence of what made the first movie so great.
This was really disappointing. I love Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, and they're so good together, but this is what happened, when they Saturday Night Live writers, other than Ms. Fey, write films. This writer/director was responsible for some absolute garbage. The fact that he wasted the talents of Ms. Fey and Ms. Poehler were enough, but he also used Steve Martin, Greg Kinnear, and Maura Tierney incredibly poorly. Sigourney Weaver had an amusing role, but it was a singular joke that he kept revisiting throughout the film, and it felt beaten to death by the end. They should've let Ms. Fey write this, and everyone would've been better off.
This is easily one of my favorite comedies. The cast is great, and Amy Schumer is at the top of her game in this. Tilda Swinton and Vanessa Bayer are fantastic in their roles, and the whole film just smoothly sails based on fine, comedic performances of Ms. Schumer's supporting cast.
This was a really poorly told story. They tried to make much of it a comedy, but none of it was amusing. They also focused on inane happenings in the lives of the characters instead of what made this a truly historic moment in time. Yes, displaying how Steve Jobs neglected his daughter, Lisa, was necessary to show what a vile, subhuman mutt he actually was, but the rest of it was entirely unnecessary.
This was so poor. There was no reason, no reason at all, that this film should've been made. Jacob Lentz had zero business writing a movie . I wouldn't trust him to write an e-mail let alone a film. This should not have been labeled a comedy, as there wasn't a single funny or amusing thing that happened during the entirety of it. It was also about 30 minutes too long. This was a huge swing and a miss.
I haven't seen this film, yet, but I do question why they would put one of the most handsome men on the planet in this film w/ that haircut. There are people that will go see this film just b/c, Henry Cavill is in it, but I'm also willing to bet that some of them will have seen this movie poster and thought, "Nah, I'm good." What would compel a filmmaker to make a decision like that?
This really was a one of a kind, first of its kind, film and thus, the eight out of 10 rating. Much of the acting was barely passable, especially by Tyrin Turner, although Larenz Tate really stood out in his role and made this film what it was. Thankfully, there were qualified actors around Mr. Turner, so they held up the scenes well, for the most part.
There were two things that really dragged this film down for me. First was the fact that much of the acting was stiff and wooden. It was quite odd to see this in such a massive production. Second, and more importantly, this film displayed the oppression of women by men who completely dismissed them and their abilities. The actor they chose to portray Mulan, Liu Yifei, openly supported the oppression of the people of Hong Kong in their fight for freedom. It was a disgrace to have someone w/ fascistic beliefs be the lead in a film about fighting oppression.
There's something about this film that if you grew up in the 70s/80s, were a fan of this band, had anything to do w/ this scene, and/or simply followed their ongoing antics in the news, it'll likely hit a sweet spot for you. The producers did a great job of getting the look and feel right and portraying these musicians as real people, instead of some enchanted version of them that many fans tend to project upon their idols. These were real people w/ real problems that caused a good deal of harm to a lot of people but ultimately found their footing and realized that while some things we do may hurt others, there are things that can happen to us that feel just as awful. Case in point, the death of Vince Neil's daughter, Skylar, was unlike anything he'd ever experienced before, even the death of his friend, Razzle. I think that the film handled this appropriately and showed that loss happens to us all, no matter how much money or fame is accrued.
This is a gem of a film. It's one of my all-time favorite films, in fact. What I really enjoyed was that there was plausible science behind the decision-making in this film. And, as well-made as this film was, the book is even better!
I love Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, and this is my all-time favorite movie starring the two of them. I think that it's just great fun.
This was mediocre crap. First, what's w/ the multicultural gangs in this?!? Second, the LA County Sheriff's Department has a long, long history of white nationalism and neo-Nazism. In fact, they've had multiple neo-Nazi gangs in their own ranks. They're not heroes. It's a shame that they lived in the end of this film. Also, this was literally 75 minutes longer than it needed to be. What a waste of perfectly good film stock. The end just completely rips off The Usual Suspects, but this film wasn't even in the same galaxy as that masterpiece., and just to show how bad it was, the writer/director still screwed up the ending.
This film worked incredibly well on a number of levels. First, the beginning half of the film had these wonderful interactions among Katherine Langford, Hayley Law, and Charlie Plummer that showed amazing chemistry across the board. I can't think of a film in recent memory, where the cast was so well-connected to one another. Second, this film was a heartfelt metaphor on what it was like to suffer traumatic loss during our teenage years, where we weren't fully equipped to deal w/ that type of pain, yet. In our teen years, our minds hadn't been fully formed, and too many of us were required to deal w/ components of life we weren't capable of understanding. This film delved into those areas in an albeit completely new and interesting, if not somewhat comical, way. I was so impressed by Brian Duffield's script and his ability to direct this underrated gem. Katherine Langford again showed what tremendous range she had as an actor, and I very much look forward to more great roles from her.
It's amazing what liberties they had to take, and lies they had to tell, in order to make a bunch of mutt cops appear to be human. They don't give a fuck about anyone except for themselves, and they are more dangerous than any gangbanger on any street anywhere in the world.
This was a neo-noir film, but it lacked quite a bit of intrigue due to a plot w/ a number of holes and meaningless red herrings. During the first half of the film kept a nice pace, similar to David Fincher's Mindhunter series, but it tailed off quite a bit in the last half. The acting was solid, and it was great seeing Alicia Silverstone in her role, but in the end, the plot, and how it came uncovered, really made little-to-no sense. They should've thought this through a bit more, b/c it needed more polish. The glaring question mark was, if the cops were trying to solve a murder, why did the captain of the force store the vehicle the homicide detective had been searching for in the garage of his home? What kind of mindless stupidity was that?!? Also, once the car was discovered, they mainly discussed how it linked the captain to the ongoing conspiracy, rather than any sort of revelation that he was the person who raped and murdered a young woman. That reeked of nothing more than misogyny, as if the victim was a complete afterthought.
I really did enjoy this film b/c of the storyline and the subject matter, but it was surprising, coming from actual high-stakes poker players, they got some of the dialogue and sequencing incorrect.
Bad writing and direction really crippled this film. The whole idea is that Michael is supposed to be this hybrid werewolf/vampire who's stronger and more capable than any of either species. Yet, he's now spent two movies getting his head kicked in and tripping and falling over everything in sight. Genius!
This was such a poor movie. The only reason I gave this a five out of 10 was due to the cast, even though many of them seemed to mail their performances in. First off, James Wan is not a talented director or writer. He should not be allowed to helm anything other than the garbage horror films he makes or the crappy Fast & Furious franchise movies he's helmed. He effectively ruined the Aquaman franchise for DC. Also, while I like Jason Momoa, he shouldn't be writing any films. He's not exactly what I would call an intellectual, so this film came across as him playing himself. Even Nicole Kidman's performance came across as comical, and she's one of the finest actors ever.
This movie had the feel of a '90s superhero film, and much of the dialogue came across as if it was ripped directly from an '80s superhero film, and none of that was a good thing. Seriously, what was w/ Black Manta's crew and their matching uniforms?!? It was a combination of old superhero films and the worst parts of 1960s James Bond films. At one point, this delved into a Journey to the Center of the Earth-type film. It seems as if they had no plan for this, instead just winging it, and this was quite distinct in the final version. It was quite telling, even from the very beginning of the film, where they joked about what a joke this film was. What type of director does that? It's even more concerning that this was the third version of this film, since the first two versions were panned by test audiences.
It's not the best made film, as the cinematography and acting could be better, but overall, it's a really interesting story of white man raised in a Hispanic family's rise to power in a Hispanic prison gang. It's a story loosely based on the life of Joe "Pegleg" Morgan, the first non-Hispanic member of the Mexican Mafia.
