Douglas

28 followers

Belo Horizonte - MG - Brasil
36

The Green Knight

Thoroughly enjoyable experience. Even though we knew beforehand we're seeing a good chunk of metaphors, by the end we're still left to reexamine and digest them.

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57 Seconds

Shout by Douglas
BlockedParent2023-10-02T01:37:27Z— updated 2023-10-04T01:44:37Z

Hmm, I guess I'll have to watch it and find out what percentage of his brain Josh Futturman uses nowadays.


It's a fun movie, no big flashy scenes but not boring either. Some parts remind me of The Brass Teapot.

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The Midnight Sky

I went in expecting it to be a disaster and was positively surprised, so maybe that's the key here.

It has a slow pacing, for sure, but by the end it fits the story perfectly, so people that just want to see action or explosions might want to sit this one out.

The one loose end that bothers me a little was the one set at the beginning, for the deliberate misdirection. Not because of said misdirection but because it just feels wrong that they'd mention "the rest of the world" and then never bring up any more details about it like what happened in the first place to precipitate the expedition, how did it get so bad within the 2 years that the expedition took place or what year is it? :sweat_smile:

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(500) Days of Summer

There's something to be said about a movie that can be funny, relatable and moving, all while being an easy watch. I probably watched it 4+ times. If it was possible I'd rate it 11 for the soundtrack.

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The Book of Eli

Good acting and visuals wasted on a weak plot.

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Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa

Obligatory to watch after the original (2003) Fullmetal Alchemist series.

It's a beautiful work that closes this story arc, even if it fails to achieve all expectations - which leads to my 9 instead of a perfect 10.

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Happily

The main leads brought me in, the rest of the cast also looked very good, but unfortunately the script isn't ambitious or interesting enough to do them justice. The secondary characters are barely even there - and when they are they don't add that much to the story.

By the end, the whole thing feels sort of like a David Lynch copycat, and even then it doesn't begin to scratch the surface of what that would actually look like.

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Fullmetal Alchemist
Trust

Opportunities to watch movies just because they're on TV are scarce these days but every now and then it'll be well worth the time. This was it for me this time.

The message is very clear and has been explored often these last 10 years or so, but this movie caught my attention for not pulling any punches. The victim struggles to even admit she's been abused. The father struggles not only to come to terms with the fact he couldn't protect her and with thoughts of vengeance but also to understand her, what she's going through. It's hard to not make it about him and to realize he's only thinking of himself and how he feels about it, not what she needs from him. And I felt I was with him all the way through, which makes the blow land that much harder. The only thing preventing this movie to reach higher was the lack of development for the mom. She gets a few scenes but that's that, so I don't feel like I understand her character that well by the end. And then, of course, the ending. Brutally realistic.

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Adam

You had me at 'Le Petit Prince'.

Good movie to watch for all purposes (alone, couples, friends, family).

I don't know much about Asperger's but Hugh Dancy's performance feels believable and endearing, which are 'musts' for me and he nailed it most of the time.

I also liked that Beth (Rose Byrne) is neither a knight coming to save poor defenseless Adam or a manic pixie dream girl with no life away from the protagonist.

Why does Peter Gallagher must always be some kind of antagonist though? Poor Sandy Cohen.

I really didn't like the ending but it's not something that takes away from the rest of it. I guess I had high hopes that Beth would be there and deliver the book in person. Oh, well...

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The Man from Earth

Amazing story! A lot of big productions could learn from such a simple, yet very good movie. The dialogues could've been better but it's still worthy of high praise.

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Surviving Confession

Credit where it's due, it manages to be funny and provocative for about 75% of it. It's a shame it pivots right to where you'd expect a movie like this would end up in the silliest cliché way possible. Had it been made in a different time and place, it's like the movie didn't make it past censorship and they had to amend a BS ending to appease them.

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The Colony

I wanted to like this more because it's a great twist on space colonization but the development of the story doesn't grab me the same way throughout and I can't quite put my finger on it like, on the other hand, I know that the ending bothers me because it shifts the focus completely back to the POV of the main character when the movie had been about us discovering that we shouldn't do that.

All in all, it's still far better than what I expected going in.

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Don't Read This on a Plane

Good quirky comedy. At times it feels like the story would have benefited from having more characters on the spotlight but in hindsight that doesn't seem like a great idea anymore. In any case, those characters seize the little screen time they end up with and make each interaction with Jovana its own thing.

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Settlers

Poignant story of sci-fi/drama (it's definitely not a thriller), though in hindsight maybe they should have focused even more on Remy's POV so that the story they were going for would seem more cohesive. I can understand why they did it like this but it's been done so many times that it didn't add much to the ol' "the enemy is us", so the heavy lifting is mostly left to the acting - and they do it the best they can, though the finished product isn't good enough to be memorable... Final thought: this makes True Grit seem like a happy family film. :laughing:

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Happiest Season

If it wasn't for the final act leaving so much unsaid and implying so many other apologies that should have been said out loud and worked through on the screen, it could have been a great movie. I guess that the allure of going the easiest way and turning it into a full feel good story at the end was too much to resist.

It's still a good start over any bullshit Hallmark puts out there, so it's a win nonetheless.

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Pure

It plays like the perfect satire/revenge to one of those recent religious movies. Anything Kirk Cameron will do if you never had the displeasure.

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Not Another Teen Movie

♫ Janie's got a gun... ♫

It's a funny movie all the way through but that part really cracks me up each time.

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Fly Away Home

Feel-good flick with adorable geese (who would've thought?).

Seeing Anna Paquin and Jeff Daniels working together after having watched them in "The Squid and the Whale" is great, though a little bit disturbing. Their quirky characters are funny and believable, which makes the movie that much better.

Seeing the younger versions of rest of the cast was also amusing but it took me a while to recognize Jeremy Ratchford.

Solid entertainment for all ages.

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Livid

It could've been a great movie. The story is very well-developed but near the ending it kind of loses its focus a bit. 8 out of 10 for me.

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Blue Like Jazz

What a shame. It could've been a great movie but the ending didn't feel real or conclusive enough. Setting, ok. Conflict, great. Climax, so-so. Resolution?

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Black Death

Surprisingly good. Had the characters been more well constructed, this could've been a top movie. Anyway, I'll always appreciate a movie that doesn't end in a cliché.

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Twixt

The atmosphere is great but Val Kilmer is completely out of his element for most of the time. It could've been better. Good movie though.

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Self Reliance
7

Shout by Douglas
BlockedParentSpoilers2024-01-23T19:00:11Z

Very good, funny most of the time, a few good emotive scenes... I'm only unsure if it should have been centered on Tommy as much as it was. Maybe they could have done something closer to Stranger Than Fiction to give us more than just questioninig what is real and make it truly great.

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Terra Formars
4

Shout by Douglas
BlockedParentSpoilers2024-01-21T04:13:13Z

Now that would have been an interesting iteration of Super Sentai/Power Rangers. :joy:

Too bad that the story itself was poor, but the concept might have worked.

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Landscape with Invisible Hand
7

Shout by Douglas
BlockedParentSpoilers2024-01-05T02:10:26Z

It has great concepts but somehow it doesn't develop them as well as it could have been.

The Marshes side story is good enough but I dunno about Hunter because he prevents us from really feeling sorry about the absurdities that they have to endure to showcase how the Campbells aren't even at the bottom. And then there's the couple, which starts off well somehow in a situation where it could have easily come off as Adam taking advantage, but then the twist didn't feel earned so I thought it was too abrupt to have Chloe give in so fast and so completely. That could have worked if this was only satire but I think they really needed us to see a loss for both of them at that point and I didn't feel that way, so the payoff wasn't that good.

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The Art of Racing in the Rain

Shout by Douglas
BlockedParentSpoilers2023-12-26T20:47:48Z

Very good overall, way above the commonplace dog story - largely because of the dog's POV actually driving the story forward, and the rest is up to Milo and the references sprinkled in thtoughout. Though a few hiccups leave it somewhere below greatness, namely the subplot with the grandparents right after one of the most overused tropes. At that point only the dog and the child have interesting reactions to offer as the rest is just meant to (successfully, in more ways than one) upset the viewer. The solution to that conflict having to be handed to Denny (since it was built to be unsurmountable) is the cherry on top. At least they finish it well enough not to leave a sour taste and Enzo's story has a nice ending.

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Terminator: Dark Fate

Pretty good action/sci-fi in its own right, and a good showing from the cast. The main thing working against it is the weight of the franchise, and even though they did a good job with the remixes, it's increasingly hard to keep on messing with timelines and get it right.

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The Call of the Wild

Great cast, lukewarm story development. They could have done much better. The CGI completely takes me out of the scene sometimes because it draws too much attention.

I really wanted this to be better, if nothing else for Cara Gee and Omar Sy, I always enjoy seeing them.

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Welcome to Willits

It looked like my kind of trashy horror B-movie with a recognizable cast, so I stuck around hoping it would eventually fall into place. Big mistake. The story just spirals.

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