Ever see a movie and you suddenly realize your IQ is dropping? That's this movie. I seriously cannot believe this movie got made, or that anyone in charge of the budget signed off on it. It's horribly dull, just scene after scene of people dancing and partying. These four "ladies" go on "spraang braaaake" and bad stuff happens. I kept waiting for the point, but really, the movie has nothing to say other than "look at these ladies in their bikinis." I guess the "moral" is that you shouldn't do bad things or bad things might happen to you? Maybe?
My least favorite part was the constant repetition of lines. I feel like the "writers" couldn't come up with good dialogue, so when they found something they liked, they repeated it. At one point, the girls get arrested, and they keep saying "it wasn't supposed to be like this" over and over. I'm not kidding, I think they said it six or seven times. The film is visually stunning, if I'm being positive. They spent a LOT of money on neon lights and fake guns...and swimsuits. SO MANY swimsuits, and so many closeups of women in swimsuits. I kinda feel like the director graduated from "Girls Gone Wild" to artsy films, but this need more plot, character arcs, and less of James Franco's teeth. If you want to hear people say "spraang braaaake forevvvvvahhh" many MANY times, go for it.
Wow. Not sure what people are thinking, calling this a modern classic? Nope. If you want that, see "Nightcrawler." Hell, "Baby Driver" is a better "getaway driver" movie and at least brings something inventive to the table. I watched this with much anticipation, having heard it was a great movie. Not really. Let's watch the two main characters stare at each other for long, soundless scenes, populate the film with ZERO interesting characters, and then top it of by having a main character with the emotional range of a toothpick (see what I did there). It's too bad - Gosling's a great actor (but not in this) and I loved the director's "Neon Demon." Oh well, you can't win them all...
I wanted to like this movie, but I found myself shouting at the screen so many times that, by the time the story wrapped up, I wasn't rooting for anyone. A dark take on the whole "bad seed" theme, Tilda Swinton plays the frustrated mother to a child with so many problems, it's hard to know where to start. And, while most of his aggression is aimed directly at her, I find it hard to believe that NO ONE else in his life (teachers, neighbors, grandparents, the other people in town, the police) noticed his disturbing behavior as a child. His father is clueless, always siding with the child even as he's defiant in front of the parents. "He's a boy...that's what boys do." Um, no. This kid clearly has psychological issues--anyone can see that.
But the filmmakers choose to ignore that and blame nearly everything on the mother. She tries and tries to connect with her son, and he's nothing but snide and manipulative, to the point where the movie drifts from being a twisted family tale into straight-up horror movie land. Whenever she notices him doing something wrong, he always looks up and her and smiles. ALWAYS, even when she's in the kitchen and he's outside and can't possibly know where she is or what she's thinking. It grows laughable near the end when she realizes what he's doing and looks up and he's staring at her and smiling in the creepiest way. You're reminded it's a movie and not real life, taking you out of the drama. It's all over the top guilt aimed squarely at the one person who's actually trying to fix the problem.
By the way, as a parent and member of the community, I find it hard to believe this kid's behavior would be tolerated. It starts at the beginning and just gets worse--but the mother doesn't seem to realize that her child is different. I can't believe she doesn't talk to other parents to get a sense of what kinds of behaviors are normal rebellion and which ones are clearly sociopathic. And after the "incident," I would have moved away. The only reason she would choose to stay in the same town is for the punishment, blaming herself for what happened. She's found her own personal hell, and she thinks what Kevin did was her fault--and she should pay the price. I found it unbelievable, though. All kids are special and different, but a kid like that needs professional help, not a new bow and arrow. Thanks Dad!
The filmmaker chose to skip around in time, showing events and then what led up to those events. It's an interesting choice but takes away most of the tension because the viewer knows what's coming. There is only one "surprise" moment in the film--but it is seriously creepy and comes out of left field to answer several questions. In the end, they don't "talk about Kevin," and that's the primary issue. Maybe if they had, things would have turned out differently. I liked that the filmmaker chose to show less violence than she could have, but I wonder why--the entire film sets up how evil this child is, but then, in the end, the filmmaker protects us from seeing the result of that evil. Again, it feels like an attempt to excuse or cover up his behavior. The film ends up just being a frustrating exercise in bad parenting, bad judgement, and blaming your kids for ruining the fun, tomato-themed life you had before they came along.
Fun, exciting, great animation and a quick little story that makes you care about the characters. Loved the unique farmers vs. aliens story - and love the very end!
The film is an incredible technical achievement--it's one of those films where you spend half the film wondering how they pulled it off. The cinematography, coupled with the seamless editing between "scenes" makes this feel like one long take, with only a few recognizable breaks. If I had to nitpik anything, it would be that the story itself felt thin, but I've read that the producers were going for something simple and timeless. A complicated story would have made production even more of a nightmare--as it was, I can't believe they pulled this off. The pacing never lets up and never lets you catch your breath. I think Sam Mendes is probably a shoe-in for Best Director, even though I liked "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" better. Best Film Editing is also probably a lock--except it didn't get nominated, when films like Joker and Jo Jo Rabbit did. Confused? Me too! And the score was haunting and memorable. Catch this on the big screen if you can!
Beautiful, well-made, harrowing. My second racing movie in as many days ("The Art of Racing in the Rain") delves into Ford's attempts to compete on the international racing circuit by "buying" in and hiring only the best. Of course, in standard corporate fashion, they can't just let the people do their jobs, but must constantly "manage" and meddle to "protect their investment." The film does a great job of depicting the trials and tribulations leading up to the 1966 racing season, and Matt Damon and Christian Bale are in top form here, making a strong film out what could be, with other actors, a standard racing picture. Bale's acting is enhanced by his rail-thin physique. It's truly amazing that he lost over 70 pounds to do this picture, coming off of "Vice," where he gained considerable weight to play Dick Cheney. When asked how he lost the weight, he said he "just stopped eating." You have to admire his commitment. 8 out of 10.
Nope, unwatchable. I got thirty minutes into this frenetic exercise in yelling, shouting, and people being horrible to each other, topped off by a too-loud music track that drowned out half of what Adam Sandler was saying. Maybe with better production values this would have been an okay film, but the dialogue must have been recorded on set and not ADR/looped in after, as is done in most modern films, because characters were talking over each other, making it nearly impossible to hear what the characters were saying. The directors also refused to use establishing shots or any character back-and-forths, so it was impossible to tell who was talking to whom. Things got better when I turned on the closed captions, but the stressful story didn't improve--it was just Sandler yelling at people or texting angrily. That's not a story. Finally I just started skipping ahead in ten-minute segments, hoping the story would improve. Spoiler--it doesn't. Oh, and that zooming in/zooming out of stuff was just gross. It happens at the start and again at the very end. You know what I'm talking about. The most interesting part? The first five minutes at the gem mine. One upside--this will be my new "barometer" movie. I'll use it to warn me off of movie lists--you know the ones--that start with something clever like "Ten Modern Film Masterpieces." When they list crapfests like this movie or "The Shape of Water" and "The Master" and snoozers like "Moonlight" and "Drive," then I'll know to move on. Yikes.
So far it's...fine. A weird clash of tones: one minute they're making silly jokes and the next it's all "whoa, here comes the scary apocalypse!" My wife and I have to keep pausing it to discuss the ins and outs of the plot, which takes interesting turns here and there but can't decide if it's scary or funny. I guess the best way to describe it is a "light-hearted take on the apocalypse." We'll keep watching, hoping it gets better. Random thoughts: I can't figure out why Crowley walks so funny? I guess the "Queen" songs are from the book. I liked the Garden of Eve and hate the Frances McDormand narration. I understand she's God, but everything is a joke to her, which just seems cruel to all the little people on the planet. The bone-dry humor might come through better if it were being read by someone with a more commanding voice, I'm thinking. Crowley says that went over like "a lead balloon" in the Garden of Eden long before lead or balloons have been invented. "Two demons lurk at the edge of the graveyard. They're pacing themselves, and can lurk for the rest of the night, if necessary, with still enough sullen menace left for a final burst of lurking around dawn." Okay, this is a good example. It sounds scary but then has a funny joke at the end. The tonal shift is jarring and unexpected and happens all the time in this show and (presumably) the book as well. So are we laughing or scared or both? Not sure. It's like Seinfeld with an occasional bloody murder. So there are three babies? What happened to the third one? All we know is that he "probably wins prizes for his tropical fish." The President Bush impersonator was dead perfect. I liked the nun suggesting evil names. David Tennant as Mary Poppins was just ick. And wow was that devil dog CGI horrible?
I thought this was great - fun interactions between the robots, who are busy touring a post-apocalyptic human city and run up against another threat. "Watch out, it's getting ready to explode!"
One of the best and most beautiful animated shorts I've ever seen. While Love Death and Robots is more of a mash-up of Twilight Zone and the Animatrix, this tale set in a steam-punk version of Hong Kong was hauntingly told and filled with lush animation.
I was only 38 minutes in and I went to check Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB to see if this movie was a stupid as it seems or if I was just missing something. You know you're in trouble when you're shouting back at the screen "no, that's not how that works." I paused the film and sighed, wondering if I should even finish it. It's too bad--I actually liked his "Iron Man 3" and "The Nice Guys." Maybe Shane Black just can't handle action. Also, using the "F" word in every sentence doesn't make a movie edgy. It's a big dumb movie that makes my brain hurt. And it feels like they wrote the script on set during filming. Few things are foreshadowed, things are set up and never paid off, and it's 1:40 minutes and even that feels padded.
The script feels like a rough first draft before anyone read it and said "um, okay. Nice effort. Now let's have this polished several times." It's all a weird mix of quips and dumb puns combined with relentless CGI action and blood spraying everywhere. It feels like a poor man's Deadpool without the heart or the humor. Buckets of blood combined with dumb jokes does not automatically create a masterpiece.
And the plot is incoherent, coincidences just happen because they're required to advance the plot, and dumb things happen over and over. Characters do things that don't make sense over and over. For example, in the opening spaceship crash, a sniper is observing a hostage situation. For no reason, he shoots one of the kidnappers but runs away before rescuing the hostages or taking out the other kidnappers. He runs into the woods to find the spaceship and yells loudly for his friends. If you're doing covert operations, you're not yelling. He finds some parts of the predator's suit (a helmet and arm thingy) and a friend joins him and he says "give me the backpack" and the guy happens to be carrying a big EMPTY backpack. The predator--who took the time to kill another human and string him up from a tree - don't ask--attacks and the sniper fights back, failing to hurt the predator until the predator's OWN arm thingy fires, hurting him and cutting the hanging human in half. His blood and guts drip all over the fallen predator and the human's intestines are all hanging out. Funny, right? That's just in the first ten minutes. If I were to make a list of all the logic problems in this "movie," I'd be here all day, but here are some of the major script fixes I would have made. SPOILERS.
3:40 - the ship isn't even going to crash near the sniper, so there's no reason for him to get up and run away, fall down a mountain, and find the crashed ship
5:20 - "Comms aren't working" isn't explained
5:25 - "give me the pack" who carries an empty backpack through the forest?
5:30 - "ain't nobody gonna believe this one" and "it's above our pay grade"
5:45 - clandestine military team shouting loudly into their radios
6:10 - predator is already there? The ship crashed in one location and his escape pod ejected WAY far away. He had time to cover all that ground AND kill a human AND string him up just to scare these folks?
7:00 - predator arm weapon hits predator, cuts human in half, dripping blood and entrails. Yummy!
8:25 - character mainlining Nicorette gum. Never mentioned again
8:45 - sniper clears out a bar by showing his gun to ONE old man. Everyone else just gets up and leaves without seeing the gun
9:05 - sniper uses alien marble to turn invisible to impress a Mexican bar owner. If you can turn invisible, why DRINK THE MARBLE in the next scene? Also I don't think you can do that.
8:50 - sniper actually asks the bar owner to mail the helmet and arm thingy TO HIS SON in the US. This is an actual plot point. Okay, so customs?
9:24 - sniper says "mail what's in the pack, not the backpack." Why does that matter? The bar owner's just going to throw it away and the backpack would help cushion the item in transport. Seems like an odd line to make it into the final script when there's no point
10:30 - autistic kid watches others play chess. Doesn't like loud sounds. Bullies come to beat him up, decide not to, knocks over chess pieces. Autistic kid REMEMBERS how the board was set up and puts the pieces back. WHOA. So cliched.
10:47 - bullies converstation: "looky, looky, loo," "I'm hungry for an ass-burger," "sounds delicious" and "A nice big juicy ass-burger." Sorkin-level dialogue this is not.
12:30 - creepy expository conversation about the autistic kid's father with a post office worker. Turns out the sniper is the kid's dad and he's got a package! The kid says "he kills people so you can be a mailman." Get the oscar for best screenplay ready!!
13:07 - Olivia Munn is Dr. Brackett. She's walking her dog when a government dude who looks like a generic version of Willem Defoe recruits her to investigate the alien. "
16:15 - The helmet is really-well packed when it arrives. The kid find it encased in bubble wrap and a dozen ziplock bags full of white rice. Maybe the bar owner should open a shipping store.
19:30 - clunky scene on the bus to introduce all the PTSD group members. Each gets a line and a thumbnail description
21:00 - "Is it just your imagination, or is this haunted room ACTUALLY stretching?" Okay, the first joke of the movie to actually make me laugh out loud. Too bad they got the line from The Haunted Mansion wrong and added in the word "haunted."
21:20 - second pleasant surprise - Jake Busey as a scientist. Funny
22:00 - oh, good, the Predator's alive. Couldn't tell from the earlier scene. Didn't he get shot? Looks fine now. Oh, and I can tell you right now those restraints aren't gonna hold him down.
22:30 - overly-explained back story for how Oliva Munn got recruited. People probably thought that was boring so, at the same time, she's taking off her clothes to be "decontaminated." Jake Busey's ALSO taking his clothes off to be "decontaminated" even though HE WORKS THERE and has presumably been there for weeks. Why is he getting naked too?
23:15 - Traeger, the main doctor, explains why they call it the Predator and Olivia Munn says he sounds more like a game hunter or "bass fisherman." Yup, that's in the script. Traeger replies that "we voted and Predator just sounds cooler." Right.
26:45 - Alien #2 arrives but the autistic kid, who's playing with the alien helmet, apparently has already figured out their language the second ship can turn invisible but the kid figures out how to turn it off. Kid is just doing random things but manages to help the military.
28:30 - Predator #1 breaks free. I told you those restraints wouldn't work. Edited scene happens too fast, no tension as things jump around and we don't see anything except random killing. Here's a thought: SHOW the Predator holding the knife BEFORE he throws it and kills a guy. It's easy. Set-up, pay-off. Guards start to shoot at the Predator, he grabs a woman and holds her up as a human shield. Set-up, pay-off. Take your time. This scene ends up feeling like it took no effort for the Predator to get loose versus him actually using the environment and the people around him to earn his escape. Jake Busey gets shot and we don't see what happens to him. Olivia Munn grabs a gun--she has a military background? Not mentioned beforehand. Stuff just happens, people run around, no tension. She grabs some kind of yellow goo in a test tube that hasn't been mentioned or explained before and runs away. Why did she grab that? What is it? Is it important? Does it matter?
29:15 - everyone else in the room gets killed. To escape, Olivia Munn has to pass through the "decontamination" area and get naked AGAIN. Predator finds her but doesn't kill her.
31:45 - oh, Jake Busey's NOT dead? Okay, good. "Don't let him get away." "Not my space animal," she says.
32:20 - busload of PTSD guys and our sniper see the alien. Good scene as they take control of the bus and chase the alien. Olivia Munn also chases the alien across the rooftop, then jumps on the bus. Sure. Then falls off the bus after SHOOTING HERSELF in the foot with a tranquilizer gun. So the random white gun she grabbed earlier and has been carrying this whole time was a tranq gun? Gotcha.
35:40 - Predator #2 fights human fighter planes. Human ejects from plane before plane is hit
36:20 - Dude sees a group of motorcycles to steal and yells "Get to the choppers!" Get it? It's a call-back to the first movie when Arnold says "get to the chopper." Get it? GET IT??????
37:30 - Predator #1 jumps into the back of a truck and kills everyone. Driver says "everything okay back there?" Predator holds up the severed arm of one soldier and GIVES THE DRIVER A THUMB'S UP with the arm. Driver says "You f-ing guys." SEE IT'S FUNNY RIGHT!! But how does the Predator know that a thumb's up means "Okay everything's fine?"
37:45 - the Predator has dogs! Sweet.
I got 38 minutes in and gave up tracking this by scenes. Here are the remaining highlights:
The wife knows EVERY detail of the sniper's record-wouldn't that all be classified?
The autistic kid wears the Predator stuff as a Halloween costume.
Random RV with a police radio that's a "reverse clown car."
Space dogs have dreadlocks too. Predator #2 is twice as big as Predator #1.
The high school has a sign that reads "Welcome Parents and STDS" - has anyone ever shortened "students" as STDs? A seven-year-old kid says "Sorry I didn't grow up the way you wanted."
Bad guys find good guys with no explanation. Space dog is suddenly friendly. They call the Predators "Thing #1" and "Thing #2."
All the aliens are visiting Earth because of climate change--good one. The Predators using the same "falling letters" screensaver as they do in the Matrix but it's in red.
Predator #2 uses child drawings TWICE to find the kid and a missing spaceship. Space dog rescues woman because the plot requires it.
Hiding from the bad guys when you have an orb that turns you invisible. Random translator machine that never worked before now translates Predator speech into English, who gives them a 7:31 minute head-start before he's going to hunt them all down.
Predator randomly "hacked the vehicles" so everyone has to flee on foot. (I swear to God it's like they made this plot up on set.) "You and me are gonna dance." "I got my shoes all picked out."
They lock the space dog in a van for no reason but he gets out. Bad CGI Predator bites a soldier's head off. Predator gun/vest shoots the head off the guy wearing it with no explanation and he's the MAIN BAD HUMAN. Shooting at the alien spaceship with three of your friends in the way. When he needs to communicate with this father, the kid suddenly has a phone. Force field forms slowly so they have time to avoid it.
Olivia Munn--and the dog--run miles through the forest in five minutes to attack the Predator. Sudden knowledge of how to use tech--and the space dog--lets them defeat Predator #2. Kid gets a job working with the Predator research teams.
Alien space pod was gift to humankind. Guess what it is? A Predator Killer. Oh SNAP! Another even bigger monster? No, it's a suit a human wears--to kill Predators. SEQUEL!!!!
Things I liked: stealing a news helicopter, "is this room stretching," Jake Busey, Keegan-Michael Key, the Greyjoy kid, "Don't look at the dead guy," space dogs with dreadlocks. I guess if you throw enough random crap at the screen, something will pay off, right?
Here’s my “Quick and Dirty Review” of “Avatar: The Way of Water” Back and better than ever, Avatar 2 is a beautiful and worthy follow up to the first film. The story is engaging, and they figured out a clever way to bring back some of the more interesting characters from the first film. As always, the sweeping vistas and breathtaking images pull you back into the world of Avatar. 8 out of 10.
Here’s my “Quick and Dirty Review” of “Triangle of Sadness.”
Nominated for Best Picture, there are so many things in this movie that I wanted to like but just could not. Self-sabotage isn’t a pretty thing to watch, but often, just when this film is about to make a point, the director chooses to HAMMER YOU OVER THE HEAD with his point instead of making it in a subtle fashion.
“Triangle” is not shy when trying to make a point. Hate rich people? Oh, you’re going to love this movies. Hate “influencers” and capitalists and people who take vacations on yachts? Do I have a movie for you! The plot revolves around Carl, a male model, and his girlfriend, Yaya, an “influencer.” I would say it’s about their relationship and making it work, which is a point belabored at length in the first thirty minutes of the film, but I’m not so sure. At times, it just feels like they’re the pretty, easy to look at couple that lets the filmmaker set up the hijinks to come later. “Watch these pretty people—I’m going to put them through hell because they’re rich and white.”
Great, go for it. They go on a vacation on a yacht and things go badly. That’s all I’ll say about the plot, which is very thin and only serves as the barest skeleton for the real meat of this film - social commentary. Step right up, folks, and listen to these zingers!!! “Rich people bad.” “Communism good.” “Capitalism bad.” Fashion lines treat their customers with disdain. There are things to like here but the film is not one of the top 10 films of the year. I liked the skewering of “influencers” and their endless narcissistic need for attention. At one point, a man takes a woman’s jewelry off—you’ll get it when you see it. And the flip at the end with Carl is a fun point to make, but it feels like it takes too long and it’s too on the nose. Somehow this movie has too little to say and takes too long saying it. Also I would be remiss in not mentioning the death of the lead actress, Charlbi Dean, who tragically passed away before the film was released. She was excellent in her role and we have been robbed of an actress with a long career ahead of her. She will be missed.
It meanders and preaches and can’t seem to get to the point. And then, when it does, it subverts it in an interesting way that had me sit up and pay attention. Wait, what? Are they trying to say something in the end about power and how it corrupts everyone, even when a poor person happens to find themselves in an advantageous situation? I understand “rich people bad,” but it also feels like they’re saying “poor people bad,” too? Is that possible? You’ll know what I’m talking about when you see it. And, again, they have one of the endings that is left up to interpretation. It’s supposed to feel mysterious but just feels like a cheat. 4 out of 10, a real disappointment for me.
This was a lot of fun and a great twist on the whole concept of an Airbnb stay gone wrong. Tess (Georgina Campbell) shows up at her Detroit Airbnb late on a rainy night and discovers there’s someone else already there, a creepy dude named Keith (yes that’s Bill Skarsgård from “It”) who supposedly booked it through another service. While they try to make the best of it, things quickly devolve into a surprising and scary tale of . Look out for the fun and crazy tonal shift when AJ (Justin Long), a sitcom actor living his best Riki Tiki Tavi life is suddenly singing and driving down the coast of California before they too get some unsettling news. It’s an abrupt shift and things just get weirder and weirder from there. Go into this a fresh as possible and you’ll be pleasantly surprised. 8 out of 10.
Okay, here's my "film review" for The Banshees of Inisherin: Don't watch this movie. I'm not saying that in a "reverse psychology way" or some clever attempt to get you to watch this. I mean don't watch this movie. It's not one of the TOP 10 MOVIES OF 2022, despite what people are saying. Yes, it's shot beautifully and yes the actors are great and the location is great. No, don't see this movie because it's so freaking depressing, I had to go watch Schindler's List TWICE to cheer me up. Wow.
You know how people say "there's two hours I'll never get back" when they waste time watching a movie with no redeeming value? This is worse. Here's the plot: "In old timey Ireland, mean and depressing people do mean and depressing things to each other before things take a turn into horrible, please-erase-this-from-my-brain land." This movie isn't a waste of time--it's actively depressing, not something we need more of in our time. Things are depressing enough already without ACTIVELY seeking out things that will bring you down. For example, a friend of mine is always trying to get me to watch the Walking Dead series, and I tell him he's fecking crazy: "why would I want to see people being mean to each other on purpose for an endless number of hours without any redemption arc?" I mean, why are we all obsessed with these movies that preach how horrible life is? What am I supposed to take away from these stories? We're all worthless and nothing matters? Life is depressing? I can find that on Tik Tok.
Okay, I'm wrapping up this review with the following: you know how you felt after watching "Irreversible" or "Raw" or "Battlefield: Earth?" Here's what I said: "Wow, I wish I had never seen that because now I have these images in my mind I can't get rid of." That's what this movie is. If you want to ruin someone's day, recommend this movie and gush over the cinematography and the acting and how beautiful the landscapes are. Just don't be surprised if they call you up later and tell you off for recommending this depressing waste of film.
A very good film. Not a great film, not best of the year, not best of the decade. Tells a very small story well, but I kept waiting for things to head in a different direction. While the acting and cinematography were outstanding, this just didn't feel like it was on the same level for me as other 2019 films like "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" or "Joker," which was crammed from beginning to end with excellent acting. I'd say this movie was good, interesting, and the least amount of fun I've had watching a film since "Marriage Story." Still need to watch "1917" to round out my 2019 nominated films--maybe that one will be a real pick-me-up too!!
Easily one of the dumbest movies I've ever seen. All explosions, no down time, no characters to root for, dumb jokes, pointless character decisions that don't make any sense, all grounded in a trite "we messed up the planet and it's our fault" message. MIGHT have been okay if it had been the culmination of a ten-movie arc, where we got to know these characters and monsters before they all show up in a battle royale at the end. As it is, it's impossible to feel anything for any of the monsters or characters. Those important to the story survive ridiculous odds or injuries--at one point, Eleven literally gets hit in the back by a falling concrete pillar and just shakes it off. This movie reminded me of the worst parts of "Justice League" - you can't just throw together a bunch of action sequences and expect people to care. On the upside, the monster sounds were great and the designs were awesome--if only the camera stood still long enough for us to get a good look at the creatures.
Just watched "Mortal Engines" and it's a singularly beautiful movie with some of the clunkiest dialogue I've ever heard on screen. The production design should have won Oscars: the rolling cities, the beautiful floating islands, and the huge tracks carved into the landscape gave it a feeling that's a cross between "Brazil" and "Lord of the Rings" and "Avatar." And while the movie started out with such potential, the acting and dialogue make the viewer laugh out loud--and not in a good way. Every character moment is over-telegraphed, and every line of dialogue feels like a "first draft," without any polish or subtlety. If only they'd taken another $100,000 from the special effects budget and paid a couple of good screenwriters to take two or three more passes through the script to fix the dialogue. But see this movie for the sweeping effects and gorgeous production design--just try to ignore the grating moments of "character development."
An excellent film with a moving, bravura performance from Peter Dinklage as the haunted "Fantasy Island" actor Herve Villechaize. Surprising, heart-wrenching, and moving. The film centers around a journalist's interview of the actor, which grows from a simple bio fluff piece and develops into something much deeper: a confession.
Trippy ending, I'll give them that. Wonder where they'll go from here. It was nice to finally get some answers, and I liked the part about all the construction workers going crazy. But, when all is said and done, the story leaves me feeling sad. No matter what OA does, she'll never be rid of HAP or apparently really get a chance to connect with Homer and her friends. It's not a happy ending or a sad ending, just an ending. She's trapped in an endless cycle of loss and rediscovery, tethered to her tormentor. And even death isn't a release. For everything we've seen, OA calls herself an angel. What if she's really in hell, spending an eternity locked in a hopeless battle with a man she hates?
You know it's bad when half-way through you're saying out loud to yourself "why am I watching this?" I honestly have no idea where this story is going but good GOD it takes its time getting there, doesn't it? Also not realistic at all that this traveling band of kids can just toodle around the United States and no one spots them. AMBER alerts are very effective, yet these folks never get caught. When can we go back to that dream/dimension where Homer was picking out new skin? That was good and creepy, not "oh, look how pretty the ocean is" and "let's run into the water" and whatever else is going on with this meandering, senseless plot. My hope? This is all a dream in the mind of that sentient octopus. Or maybe our world is the dream...
The first season of "The OA" started out interesting and then just kind of dragged from there. Had to force myself to stay engaged, and by episode eight I was "hate" watching to see how it ended. Too many contrived parts, too much sitting around telling stories, and that ending in the cafeteria? I laughed out loud. I think at one point our shouted "I will enchant you with DANCE!" Hoping the second season is better and answers a LOT of questions, but I'm not holding my breath...as a writer, I know it's easy to come up with interesting scenarios. It's much harder to create satisfying endings (see Game of Thrones). And the whole "leaving it open to the viewers interpretation" is a cop-out. And a recent phenomena...
I highly recommend this gritty series of animated shorts exploring the intersection between man, technology and the supernatural. Dark and for adults, it reminded me of the Animatrix shorts, but be warned: some of these are genuinely scary, while others will make you think--or turn your stomach. I'd recommend "Lucky Thirteen," "Three Robots" and "Zima Blue," but my favorite had to be "Good Hunting." Do yourself a favor and check out this series that premiered in March on Netflix.
Really enjoyed this film. As a lifelong fan of Queen and Freddie Mercury, I noticed a few times where they changed things for dramatic tension, but overall it really hit the high and low points of their stories, especially Mercury's struggles with his sexual identity. The performance by Rami Malek is why they invented the "Best Actor" category--if he doesn't win, I'm not sure anyone should.
So many things that are unbelievable about this story, I found myself laughing out loud in places where I was supposed to be taking things seriously. I'll suspend disbelief for a while, but when I start comparing a movie to "The Happening," you know there's trouble. Would have worked better in my opinion if they had shown the creatures--for me, a movie made by a director who "leaves the monster up the imagination of the viewer" as this one does feels like a cop out. If you can't be creative enough to come up with a monster, then you are going to get lumped in with those directors who favor endings-that-aren't-endings where they "leave it up to the audience's interpretation." This, to me, always feels like cheating...and lazy writing.
Fun and holds up. Just watched this with my two daughters and it was as good as I remember, although seeing it through their eyes, the musical numbers did seem to drag on a tad too long. I guess it's because I'm not used to musicals anymore, but some sequences, especially the penguin dance, could have used a little more eiding.
Adorable, and a new one for the Christmas movie rotation. I really wanted to hate Will Ferrell, who I find over-the-top most of the time, but he really sold the manic energy and wide-eyed optimism of someone not used to our society. Lots of fun. And loved Dinklage's turn as an evil children's book writer: "call me an Elf again. Call me an ELF!"
Holds up, though it was hard to imagine Albert Finney as a "hot doctor" that all these bikini models and television actresses were throwing themselves at. Of course, he was rich! Michael Crichton ("Jurassic Park," "Westworld") directed this from his own script, and it still holds up--even today, they're talking about how long it will be before actors are completely replaced with CGI versions of themselves. And I still find that Looker gun--and those creepy leaps forward in time--fascinating. It plays with the standard editing of a film to skip ahead, having us and the characters "miss out" on portions of the film. Great job, and Susan Dey was charming.
Just a wonderful film. Beautifully shot and well acted, this moving story of the German occupation of the small island of Guernsey during World War II focuses on how the occupation affected those who lived there. Lily James is perfect as a curious London writer who comes to the island on a whim and is drawn into the lives of the members of a book club, started on the island during the war. The regular meetings allowed the club members a legal reason to meet and socialize. But the story also explores the dark side of the occupation, including those who worked with the Germans and the painful repercussions. As a writer, I understand the power of books and share the joy that these fictional readers enjoyed in their wartime appreciation of the written word--and the way it can offer escape. An excellent film, recommended for anyone who enjoys a moving story and a well-crafted, beautifully shot film.
I went into this movie expecting to hate it. Based on what I'd heard, I was planning for a clunker with bad effects. I'm happy to say I was pleasantly surprised. The visuals are amazing, and the plot is hopeful and interesting, centered mostly around a negative "self-fulfilling prophecy" playing out in our reality. Without getting into spoilers, there's a good reason for our current obsessions with negativity and dystopia and apocalyptic zombie movies. We're being told the world is going to hell, and we're buying into it.
I can understand some of the negative criticism. There are too many CGI robots, enough to make action scenes feel boring. A weird tonal shift happens early on, amping up the violence and throwing viewers for a loop. And many of the action scenes feel hurried and overworked. The ten-minute house invasion section was so rushed, a dozen nifty inventions are thrown at the viewer so quickly, they can't be appreciated. Plot holes and "wait, what?" moments abound, as they do in most big films nowadays. I hate being asked to not only suspend my disbelief but ignore things like physics. When a huge metal ball explodes over your head, you run away. When the film shows it crashing onto a platform where your character was standing, the viewer thinks: "oh, my, is she dead?" Of course not. She's fine, and it's not explained. People fall in water and are dry in the next moment. Humans are vaporized by mean robots and nobody cares or notices. It feels like a great fourth draft of a script that needed a little more polishing.
Unfortunately, the movie feels 20% too preachy, hitting us over the head with dangers like global warming and obesity and famine. But it takes a hopeful view, assuming that, if we work together, we can solve these problems and others. It's a hopeful message, something akin to the 1950s and 60s when the world was recovering from a devastating world war and anything seemed possible and we were landing people on the moon and making strides on social issues like civil rights and the prevention of global conflicts. Clooney and the other actors are good, although the lead actress seemed a little overwhelmed, and you can't base a huge movie like this on essentially four characters. They needed more people and more character arcs to make it have an impact.
But, in the end, this hopeful film asks us to believe that progress is a good thing, but only if that progress is in the service of good. This movie trades in a different message: hope, and hopefulness, and using our combined smarts to figure out solutions to problems. That's not something you hear a lot any more, and it was refreshing to see, especially in a big Hollywood blockbuster. It harkens back to that old Einstein saying, which is highlighted in once scene: "Imagination is more important than knowledge." And that's not a bad thing.
