the only people i felt any real sympathy for in this other than the victim was belinda's niece for being allowed to and then pressured to catfish a potential suspect in her cousin's murder USING SAID COUSIN'S FACE AND GENERAL PERSONALITY, and julio heredia's sister. and a tiny bit for jokes experiencing what had to be the most upsetting catfish reveal ever, but also not really. that's it. everyone else in this piece was either somewhat easy to empathize with if i tried or they were just downright awful.
also: this was laid out in a way that unnecessarily makes belinda being a meth addict and dealer up until the very night of her daughter's death something of a slow reveal, like she was somehow more palatable with less of this information revealed? i'm gonna say she was never palatable.
a pretty cool premise, with good leads and a story development that made sense and got me invested in the characters. the ending though is pretty weak compared to the rest, particularly in the fx department, so overall i can only recommend if you like sci-fi or you're like me and really invested in jamie dornan's existence.
not great but definitely good, probably since it's fairly well acted. joy ride traumatized me as a kid so nothing road related will ever measure up and that's certainly no fault of russell crowe.
honestly not too bad for an action thriller. the bear makes some stellar facial expressions.
overall a decent horror for its time, though there are definitely more frightening entries into the home invasion genre. mostly worth it for liv tyler's performance, and the character mike's scene, the latter of which you know what's coming but the tension is top tier regardless.
genuinely enjoyable if you go in without knowing the plot. i highly recommend it that way. even when i was ahead of the film and figured out the twist, going into it blind kept me invested even when i knew what was going on. i imagine knowing anything more about the plot than the idea of there being a loop would really take away from the experience. i do have to echo the sentiment of why tf heather is a character but other than that, i liked this a lot.
godzilla continues to be very cute in the sequel, and mothra is stunning. honestly only enjoyable for the visual effects, and millie's solid acting. i will say this movie felt a hell of a lot longer than two hours, and not in a good way.
not bad in terms of the genre at all. some super gross moments, too. all around worth the watch if you don't go in expecting a lot, but not something i'd rewatch.
standard action fare, meaning you don't really get invested in the characters. that said, i think it's really interesting that a lot of the critiques for the preceding godzilla movie complained about the amount of story and focus that was placed on the humans, only to read reviews for kong and find out that the issue is not enough development into the humans? i really don't think that they were the point of this story, at all. the ones that did intend to inspire empathy were given a little more context, and the ones that were storytelling tools served their purpose.
anyway verdict: kong is not as cute as godzilla but he's very nice and he does a good job of ripping innards out of antagonist monsters. also, the giant water buffalo was like studio ghibli come to life and i'm here for it. could've done with fewer mammoth insects.
frankly i envy anyone who says this movie is the worst movie they've ever seen because they've clearly never been traumatized by cinema before and that's an innocence i wish i could go back to. anyway godzilla is cute i love cgi.
decent entry for this type of horror subgenre. i definitely liked descent more but this wasn't bad by any means. i will say that it does what a lot of b rate horror films do, which is fuck up the ability to suspend disbelief at relatively pointless moments. in this movie's case, i had no problem suspending my disbelief that this was a plausible scenario for the paris catacombs to throw at the protagonists, but like, how am i supposed to believe that the aramaic that george reads perfectly rhymes when translated to english?? or worse, that he's just recreating the rhyming pattern on the fly in a translation of a dead language? idk maybe he was just trying to impress scarlett, that's what i'm gonna go with.
unsettling but also a little meandering. worth a watch but probably not a rewatch.
average b horror flick. acting is ok enough to stay engaged most of the time and definitely an easy watch.
revising my comment to say that it's a good idea to go and read one of the breakdowns of the differences between the original theatrical cut and this one. it reminded me a lot of the really awkward and frankly uncomfortable dialogue and the pointlessness there and makes the whole thing seem less like it's taking itself too seriously and more like it was just trying to do the storyline justice and give the characters some respect. i can appreciate a lot more about the movie after taking the time to revisit what it's improving on.
bullet points because it's been four hours and no hay brain cells aqui
• it's a watchable four hours i'll give it that. i definitely got more bored at the end of rotk and all its lil transition end scenes but then i'm also a plebe
• zack snyder is a great director but this was such a director's movie. like just a giant exercise in navel-gazing. i'm pretty sure no one can come as close to directors and musicians in terms of sheer pretension. this is a superhero film, not a work of art. the one thing the whedon cut had going for it is that it wasn't taking itself nearly as seriously as this did.
• that said this cut definitely gave the story the time it deserved. all the origins were appreciated. i wish the flash wasn't the barry allen iteration, because frankly the cw series already gets the millennial man pain on point and there's really no place for it on the big screen in 2021
• kudos to the amazonian actresses who manage to look convincingly badass and like they're actually interacting with real life objects even when the cgi around them is questionable at best
• most of the good acting comes from the minor characters which makes for such a weird sensation as a viewer
• cyborg is the best character of the group but also, can we take some cues from the movie upgrade? that's how technologically enhanced humans should behave and i refuse to be told otherwise
• god henry cavill is a work of art to look at he doesn't even need to do anything and i love him
i think this would've been more enjoyable had it been more believably edited. there were parts that seemed genuinely like decades old found footage but too much of it didnt and that made it impossible to stay fully engrossed in the storyline.
that said i'm all for heinous little spider like aliens because they reinforce my belief that eight legs are Too Many legs.
worth it basically for maggie q, who frankly deserves a hotter hemsworth for a costar. having just watched the much more disturbing third day series on hbo, i can't say this movie really adds anything to this particular sub genre. minus maggie q.
the only thing that made this worth watching was sebastian stan's face and even then the hair style was pretty upsetting
some great one liners, but otherwise was as formulaic as a slasher film can get. i know that's kind of the point, but aaron yoo deserved to live way longer than some of those assholes.
i'm the epitome of human garbage so i still haven't seen the original but i liked this. i mean i liked ryan reynold's signature sass, the beard and the amount of shirtless screen time enough to pay attention to the entire film.
probably wouldn't watch this again but the acting was great and it has the grungey 90s thriller vibe that it was going for in spades, with the addition of sharply hd imagery. this is less a movie about the hunt for a killer and more a movie about the way law enforcement can become consumed by things in cases that don't even propel them forward. rami malek did a great job making me care about the la county sheriff, that's a tall order. both protagonists are haunted, heartbreaking characters that the actors bring to life perfectly, and jared leto is finally playing someone as unbearable as he is irl so that's a great casting choice too. editing is occasionally odd but honestly with the pandemic i go into new movies expecting to suspend a little disbelief regardless of whether they filmed during 2020 or not.
all in all an enjoyable watch but still a bit forgettable even with the solid cast. last point though: did they NEED to go through the pains of talking about serious decomp only to show the victim julia with better complexion than me on a sleep deprived monday? like. just don't make a point about how disastrous the body is gonna look if it's not going to actually pan out that way.
watched on a whim because amazon prime recommended it to me, and i was pleasantly surprised. i usually go into thrillers with no expectations so i can enjoy them no matter the overall quality, and that probably benefited this one. the acting is solid, and the dynamic between the two leads is believable. it takes a plot that's been done before and gives very little backstory to either the protagonist or the antagonist aside from a dream sequence of the player's daughter and the implication that the game master does, in fact, have a son too.
a lot of movies would fail with this setup because of very little investment in either character and a sensation of having seen this sort of thing play out again, but the fact is the movie plainly tells you in the plot summary that the game master has ulterior motives to the whole "play this game and win cash from nameless faceless wealthy people" trope. you know going in the only detail that's ever been a twist in the other movies of this particular storyline which makes it more enjoyable.
i also liked that the player wises up quickly; a big pet peeve of mine in similar movies and escape room tropes is the persistent ignorance on the part of the participants that there's no possible way they've signed up for something falsely advertised. this woman was suspicious from the start and that was not only relatable but also made her easier to root for even with very little backstory to round her out as a character. this felt a little less like a full blown movie and more like an episode of a solid horror anthology, which there have been a few of lately. not necessarily a movie that gets a rewatch but definitely worth the first viewing.
this is honestly delightful. body horror, complete nonsense at times, features a cute dog, what more could i ask for? if you enjoyed the movie after midnight you'll like this indie horror too. same vibe, and the guy who made that film plays talky panda in this one!
not the greatest horror but well acted for the most part and an easy watch. also, rdj and halle have good chemistry.
time to go check the trivia on imdb to find out if i'm a complete moron or if the title of the movie just has zero relevance.
john wick but the guy is hannibal lecter and he accidentally killed his own dog and just wants to retire in peace. vanessa hudgens is honestly great in these kinds of roles and she and mads had good chemistry so the lackluster aspects of the movie were easy to forgive.
not the worst horror by a long shot but not the greatest either. to be fair i was incredibly high for most of the movie but a couple jump scares were good and i followed the plot no problem. the main issue is that i didn't really feel invested at any point in the two leads. i was way more invested in frank grillo fighting steve rogers and he was hydra and everything then, so i think it's just a matter of the character development lacking in this screenplay and not either of the actors' faults. love how the three dudes in the house all look like the hollywood versions of what the boys i actually went to high school with were aiming for i think.
i'm living for the b list ensemble cast. i recognize so many faces and i have no idea where from except for merle dixon! weirdly well-suited for the battle royale office expansion.
entertaining but definitely stronger in the beginning. the humor made for a better experience so i'm tempted to check out the original if it's more consistent throughout the entire movie.
good child actor (now just five years younger than me which is such a weird feeling) but otherwise the acting was meh and the vfx felt circa 2003 at best. very little of the movie felt believable and even a small amount of knowledge about social work will make it hard to suspend any disbelief about the circumstances of the movie. also moral of the story don't name your kid lilith if you don't want her to be a demon??
watchable but near the end the number of plot twists and jumps turned it into background noise while i scrolled through instagram. i love chris meloni but i think his time on svu means law enforcement roles are just going to feel hollow or weirdly typecast.
