Like me on a date, Argylle tries way too hard yet somehow still fails to deliver.
It's an ambitious film that loses its stellar cast and excessive production means in too many forced twists and turns.
Another Bond pastiche from Matthew Vaughn, and once again it’s worse than the last one. Here we have what is basically another Kingsman film, but this time it’s made for the wine moms who had found their new favorite film with The Lost City. The plot is quite bonkers, it's so dense and the amount of schlocky plot twists indicate that Vaughn’s at least somewhat aware of how tasteless it all is. Sometimes you can still find traces of the cleverness you’d expect from him, but generally it favours being loud and cringe. I understand that he’s targeting a different demographic here than with Kingsman, but the end result is so tame and commercial that it feels more like typical streaming filler (Red Notice, Ghosted). Some of the acting is atrocious. Obviously Rockwell puts in the best work, but it doesn’t make up for the stiff performances by Cavill, Howard and Lipa (though she gets a pass for being Dua Lipa). The directing is also noticeably a step down compared to Vaughn’s previous stuff. It doesn’t feel like he put much heart and soul in this, because besides some good stuntwork it looks like shit. There’s just so much plastic sheen (artificial bright lighting, tacky CGI, unnatural compositions and camera movement) that it becomes incredibly ugly to look at. You could pass that off as ‘well it’s meant to be cartoonish’, but I’m not going to make that leap when there’s this little artistry to it. Vaughn needs to stop making these, the whole thing feels predictable and played out.
2.5/10
I was on board for the first two episodes, but this series went way way off the deep end.
What a truly disappointing waste of talent, horribly written female characters, just absolute utter nonsense. Offensively bad.
This show has me missing the writers strike.
The episode is one hour long and only 10 minutes or less are about the actual case...
I don't care about Jodie Foster's daughter, Navarro's sister, Hank's romance scam, the newbie's family problems, the creepy lonely lady.
I feel that I'm watching an Alaskan soap opera.
The frozen scientists premise was impressive at the begining, but now it's kind of lost. And they added the Annie storyline and mixed the 2 cases together. I doubt that we'll find out what happened in either case
Almost all of the characters are miserable. You feel depressed watching them. This episode was excruciatingly slow, I had to take so many breaks in between. I thought it'd pick up its pace but no , it's become slower. I don't like the supernatural aspects they are adding to the show, doesn't fit the genre in my opinion.
I found this to be much better than the ratings/reviews it received. If you liked Zodiac, which is one of my favourite movies, then you’ll enjoy this.
The movie is a good, satisfying, serviceable courtroom drama with a great cast. If you like this genre, you'll have a good time.
What I can't get over is that a white man, who has access to generational wealth and then lost it because he's bad at business, was awarded an unfathomable amount of money because the company that screwed him over screwed over the Black community way worse. I kept waiting for there to be a follow up that they filed a class against Lowen (sp?) on behalf of the impacted communities but no.
Sure the white guy set up a charity that gave a percentage to the Black community, but that's not the same as awarding them directly. This is how generational wealth is kept from certain communities. Really fucked up.
Didn't hold it too much against the movie rating because it's real life and that's what actually happened but the"triumphant" ending fell extremely flat for me that these rich men all just got richer by exploiting the suffering of these communities for their own profit, grotesquely mirroring the actions of the "big bad." There was no comeuppance for the NBC either. The movie could have commented on this angle but obviously chose to make this a feel-good drama about...wealthy men beating other wealthy men in court?
Heavy sigh. Fuck capitalism (and white supremacy) all day every day. I don't feel good, I feel exhausted.
Likeable characters, good acting.
But oh my, the US justice system is a complete joke. Pretty much nothing that they debated at court was about the actual case aka deal/handshake.
The movie just keeps digging out unrelated cases of racism on both sides and the end result is an absurd amount of money, that has nothing to do with the damages caused to the plaintiff.
I wish I could say I liked the last act of the episode as much as everyone else but I thought it dragged for a bit too long. Ole almost became too cartoon-y (especially in the kitchen). Wayne's naivety was frustrating (you let anyone in, huh? And subtly threaten your wife?). I liked the idea of redemption, though.
Like a medicine I'm immune to: I'm sure it's technically well-made but it didn't do anything for me. I'm just happy it worked on everyone else.
Though a very different story, this had the same vibe as Before Sunrise which is another movie everybody else loved but me.
I don't know, it's one of those movies you don't pause when you get up to take a leak because you don't care if you miss much and at least it'll be that much closer to being over when you get back.
But I am glad so many people whose opinion I admire got a lot out of it.
This is so bland and inessential, they might’ve as well put it directly on Disney Plus. Why are we investing 300 million dollars in an action/adventure flick starring an 80 year old grandpa? Look I have a lot of respect for Harrison Ford, but everything that’s wrong with this movie is connected to the larger issue of him and the franchise being way past their expiration date, so this never should’ve been greenlit in the first place. Nothing is offensively bad here, but it’s more a case of wrong decisions piling onto each other.
I understand Lucasfilm’s decision to hire a director who just delivered two crowdpleasers in a row, both of which were acclaimed by normies and snobs alike. Mangold understands what makes the world and character work, but he doesn’t get the soul. Right from the opening scene, the movie looks drab, underlit and generic. There’s almost no imagination to the set pieces, and some of the more impressive stuntwork is undone by poor effects work. Take the Tuctuc chase. Ford’s stunt double puts in the work for the wide shots, but when you cut to a close-up of characters in front of a green screen, you’re not exactly selling the sequence. It’s not going to stick on my brain, it’s too unremarkable. Again, what’s the point of making an Indiana Jones movie if there’s no viscera or imagination to the action?
Then there’s the story, which is also very by the numbers and low on risk. It feels like wheel spinning, which in theory could be fine (the Bond franchise got away with that for decades) but there’s nothing to hold my interest. Some of the new mechanics introduced during the third act I found to be underwhelming, and this is coming from someone who didn’t mind the inclusion of aliens in the last film. All of the new characters are boring and underdeveloped (especially the villain), despite the actors putting in decent performances. It’s quite funny how this suffers from the same problem as Furious 7, where villains will show up on the same location as our heroes despite there being no story reason for it. Occasionally there’s a brief fun interaction, or a fun set, or a good visual idea (like the final shot, for example), but that’s not enough to fill its bloated runtime.
4/10
The dog POV was awful. I hope they never do that again.
No idea what's going on, sue me for being dumb.
Strange finale. Loved the Homelander appearance, and I didn't see that twist coming at the end. But I feel like this season has just been all over the place. Pacing is really strange, character relationships and development is quite rushed which makes certain moments feel very forced and unearned. I've enjoyed the season and I'm excited for season 2, but this is definitely not nearly on the level of The Boys.
Kinda sucks they are gonna have different voices, but Justin roiland seems like he’s a bit of a weirdo, and a fresh feeling to the show might be quite good for it as it’s falling off a little in the recent seasons
a bloodfest as should be expected from the Boys. unfortunately, this first episode of Gen V suffers quite a bit from "millennial writing".
Despite that, I'd like to highlight that none of the topics touched by the author are "SJW" stuff. Mostly it's social issues that were present in the main series and in many other tv serieses. What I critique with the term millennial writing is the way dialogues are written, especially for the protagonist.
This episode went from an 8 to a 6 during that idiotic street standoff
Just bad, what a shame.
Looks like a Sony picture: trying too hard. To be funny, to be cool, to be relatable.
Filling every second, hectic, never slowing pace nor allowing to feel for the characters' struggles or joys, with them. Feels like director/producers/writers/animators just said "welp, it's the 5sec attention span generation , let's put a dance, scream, awkward sitch.. every 5sec". Even the nice message gets not lost but sort of trivialized by all that circus.
It's like when adults talk to children as if they're not capable of understanding: I so much more prefer an Encanto, or Soul, approach - passing important messages in an animated movie without feeling the need to sugarcoat it with all of that stuff.
Sugarcoat feels right: as you mask veggies with shinier stuff to mask the important part.
The mother was just cringe, "overacted" (if one could say that about an animated person), "a constant manipulation of feelings, an absolute surrender to the cliché".
Encanto has a similar backstory and message but it was passed with grace and sensibility, you could immerse in the culture and traditions, as well as Mirabel's journey. I'd have loved to do it here as well, with the cultural richness present.
the final scene in the forest was the only one where the rhythm slowed down and got more insightful - not weirdly the most touching moment in the pic
I get that there are different targets and you can be more high RPM, but I don't usually expect it from Pixar.
This movie works - maybe - just if you're under 15
[8.4/10] Rian Johnson and company were already playing with house money. But if you want me to like your show, casting Mountain Goats frontman John Darnielle in a prominent role is a good way to put a thumb on the scales!
But Johnson and writer Christine Boylan didn’t need to include the frontman for one of my (and Johnson’s) favorite bands to make “Rest in Metal” sing, because it may be the best episode of Poker Face yet, purely on its own merits.
Given that the structure of the show means Poker Face is less a murder mystery series and more of a “Charlie pieces the clues together” series, what matters most is the culprits and victims of the week. Why did they do it? What motivated them to take such drastic action.
What I like about this one is that the motive this week is an outsized version of something understandable. (To be clear, not for murder, but to be upset.) Ruby Riot and her band have one hit, a hit that's haunted them for ages with their inability to replicate it. On a practical level, they need the money. Their drummer wrote the song and gets all the royalties. Ruby’s working at an ersatz home depot. Al is going through a divorce. And Eskie is moving back with his mom and trying to get a legal certification. So when some dope of Craigslist wanders in to drum on their tour and unveils a surefire hit, there’s a pragmatic need for all of them to use it to get paid, which adds up as a motive.
What I like even better, though, is their emotional need. The three of them can feel histry repeating, with a drummer penning their hit and walking away with all of the profits. Ruby wants to avoid that with every fiber of her being. More to the point, as highlighted by director Tiffany Johnson’s creative production choices, Ruby wants to replicate that “seeing the face of God” feeling she got when they did “Staplehead”, they’re one hit. As much as they want the fortune and fame of another ride at the top, they’re also just chasing the high.
In a strange way, “Rest in Metal” plays a bit like Milos Forman’s Amadeus, with Ruby representing the “Queen of Mediocrities” who sees this guileless metalhead idiot creating by accident the salvation that she’s been chasing for decades. The episode takes time before the murder happens to show how sullen and desperate Doxxxocology has become, which makes their choice to murder this poor dope sad and terrible, but also comprehensible, which is what good stories about bad actions are made of.
But this is also a great Charlie episode. I wasn’t sure how they were going to fit her into this one, but I’m continually impressed about how Poker Face is able to do the first act without the show’s protagonist, only to reveal in the second act that she was there all along. I don’t know if it’s sustainable, or if over time it’s going to start to feel contrived or tedious. But for now, it’s a delight each time.
The setup that Charlie was one of the day laborers at the hardware store where Ruby works, wrangled into becoming her roadie, is a nice choice to lay down some plausibility. The fact that Charlie is the titular “Merch Girl” who the band writes a song about in the first act is cute, as is the fact that the staple thrown at them during their hit comes off her very own merch table.
More to the point though, I like her friendship with Gavin, the brain fried drummer-for-hire along for the ride. As my wife pointed out, this isn’t all that different from Charlie taking in the dog in the last episode. Gavin’s a dummy, but he’s completely without malice. Just a good-natured, somewhat messy kid who’s simply happy to be here. These stories wouldn’t work if you didn’t buy Charlie finding a quick bond with the ultimate victims, and the nature of Gavin’s silly but earnest dopery, and Charlie’s empathy toward other lost souls, makes this one click. Hell, we even get a brief moment of depth for him, about how music makes “the bad stuff go away,” that gives the kid a bit of pathos, and makes it extra sad when he becomes Doxxxology’s sacrificial lamb.
Beyond the strong character work, the little touches put this one over the top. There’s poetry to the face that the band uses Gavin’s peculiar amp setup to electrocute him. And again, the show plays fair with the mystery, setting up Gavin’s polaroid camera and footwork videos, not to mention Al’s posture-based gripes, ahead of time to give Charlie the evidence to piece together what really happened. It’s also nice that they setup a camaraderie between Charlie and Deuteronomy, the band’s other (ultimately fired) roadie, so he can explain the peculiarity of the amp situation. This is a sound mystery, which helps a lot.
But there’s a lot of other lovely little touches here that are just clever or fun. For one thing, I got a big kick out of John Hodgman as the pleated khaki drug-seeker who everyone assumes is a narc, but who turns out to be just an unusually white bread metal fan. For another, I appreciate the foreshadowing that the band Doxxxicology is opening for likes to do viral “pranks”, which Charlie gets inadvertently wrapped up in, exposing her to Cliff. (And their ensuing chase scene through the concert is nice.) The little things really enhance this one.
What I love most, though, is the throughline of Gavin being a “magpie”, as Charlie puts it. (Another Mountain Goats reference?) He doesn’t come up with anything wholly original. He simply sews together bits and pieces of what he’s heard and seen. (Which, in fairness, isn’t drastically different than how all artists create.) Charlie identifies that ahead of time. So after his death, it gives her a fantastic Keyser Soze moment when she’s able to use the detritus he left in her cars to trace the lyrics of Ruby’s new hit, and realize he wrote it. It’s such a clockwork little event.
The capper, though, is that it’s ultimately what dooms the band. I should have known better in a Rian Johnson production, but I’d assumed that Gavin annoying the rest of the band by laughing along to Benson in the back of the tour bus was just an amusing bit of texture. The fact that it telegraphs the fact that he stole the riff for “Sucker Punch” from the show’s theme, which scuttles Doxxxicology’s big comeback, is a beautiful bit of poetic comeuppance. And there’s grand irony in the fact that Ruby and company worked so hard to steal something that was already stolen, and it being their downfall.
I also like the variety here that for once, Charlie’s bullshit detection skills aren't really the cinch. When she confronts Ruby, Ruby admits it straight out, but brushes it off as simply doing what was necessary and preventing Charlie from being able to go anywhere with it. This isn’t some baroque conspiracy. Ruby’s upfront and open-eyed about this, which makes her scarier but weirdly more admirable than some of our other murderers this season (relatively speaking, of course). She doesn’t try to deflect or lie. (Which, uh, doesn’t excuse the murder.) It makes her a more interesting, or at least varied culprit, than some we’ve seen so far.
And for a second, I thought they were going to get away with it! Honestly, I hope that at some point, for all Charlie’s guile and intelligence, the practicality of her circumstances mean she’s not able to bring the bad guys to justice. I thought that's what this was, which would be a nicely bittersweet way to end a story like this one. But once more though, the script delivers a nice doozy, with the “Murder Muffin”-style podcaster Charlie ran into at the co-working space becoming the source of public exposure for Ruby and company’s misdeeds. Again, I thought Charlie riffing with a murder-solving podcaster was just a fun, wry bit, but the way it circles back to being plot-relevant is masterful.
Overall, this was an outstanding episode, that showed off one of the show’s more creative and poetic mystery-solving routines, embedded in one of its most interesting character setups so far. And the fact that it includes one of the best singer-songwriters of all time in the mix makes for a wonderful bonus.
It's been a long time since I've seen a film as dull as "Empire of Light." Director Sam Mendes tries to tackle topics like the "magic of cinema", racism, and mental health and fails miserably in every regard. The framework is a love story set in the 1980s. The main setting is a cinema called "Empire Cinema" on the south coast of England. Except for a single scene, Mendes fails to even begin to convey what cinema means to him as a kind of "magical place". The love story, on the other hand, falls flat because Olivia Colman and Micheal Ward, while both excellent in their own right, have little chemistry together. And the racism subplot could not be more clumsy. The only one who really shines is cinematographer Roger Deakins. He at least makes the film look good. If it wasn't so incredibly boring, that might have saved it. But as it is, I can't recommend it.
Am I becoming a harsher critic or are Marvel movies just getting worse? Probably a little bit of both, but this one certainly makes it feel like the latter. I've described much of the recent Marvel content as serviceable; that is to say, not good, but not bad either. I can't be so generous with this film. It was bad. The dialogue. The plot. The special effects. The dialogue. The humor. The setting. The dialogue. But really, the dialogue was bad. So full of clichés. Bland. Derivative. Forced.
Now, I prefer my reviews to have at least some specifics to hold myself accountable and make sure I'm not just throwing out substance-less word vomit, so here are a couple of problems that I still remember one week after watching this mess: (1) Janet keeping all this crap a secret; (2) Janet continuing to keep all this crap a secret when the crap is practically overflowing; (3) Janet making dumb excuses as to why she won't tell everyone about this secret crap. Okay, I'll throw in some non-Janet secret keeping related issues as well. (4) MODOK doesn't work in live action; (5) the quantum realm's rag-tag team of rebels is underdeveloped and I didn't care about them at all; (6) daughter hacking quantum realm AV system was an eye roll moment; and (7) Michael Douglas' final(?) line (something akin to "Sorry I'm late") was groan inducing.
It would be unfair to be so harsh and not also acknowledge the film's positives. It's a short list: (1) Jonathan Majors. He is the only one that sells his lines. Unfortunately he isn't enough to carry the movie.
Ladies and gentlemen, Kieran Culkin, the 2023 Emmy winner.
I too would spend 10 billion dollars just to piss off someone I hate.
This episode literally felt like a PARODY.... That is not a good thing
Excuse me, WTF was that ?
What a performance by Bella Ramsey! She has been amazing from episode one but, this episode she delivered everything!!
Anybody else felt like this episode was a reward for sticking with the show this far?
Not that funny.I kinda nodded along because I agreed with what he was saying. His delivery was a tad dramatic. Was like an extra episode to the patriot act.
I tried…I really did… but I hated every singe second of the 20 minutes I made it through. Terrible music and the comedy was so bad that not even Michael Scott would have been as bad in his worse day.
