Sean Penn’s performance is baffling. His acting originally made me confused, which evolved into disappointment, and ended with fascination. Penn prevented this captivating story from reaching its full impact, but the film is still worth watching despite his peculiar interpretation of his character. Doing the DiCaprio finger point at the TV meme every time a cameo was made by Ving Rhames, Erik King, John Leguizamo, and Wendell Pierce enhanced my enjoyment of this film.
This is a 4.5 star film if it weren’t for the mask switcheroo quadruple cross scene in the tunnels. I was happily sinking into the Christopher Nolan like direction and tone until I was reminded on how goofy the IMF is in a modern setting. The action scenes and stunts are the gold standard but it’s unfortunate that they are beholden to the tired IMF plot devices.
Even if some of the crumbs left in this plot were less than subtle and the consistent reminder that Sloane always waits to play her “trump card,” the climax of this film was highly satisfying. Very similar to the prison scene in Flight, there is an annoying “did you catch this thing that we already explained through great direction and story telling? Well just in case you didn’t we will spell it out to make sure you really understood” prison scene at the end of this film. Never the less, this is a good watch.
Kiefer Sutherland’s character is everything Jigsaw strived to be in the Saw franchise.
I am always impressed with films that almost entirely take place in one small setting as they have to do everything right (characterization, dialogue, performances, score, direction, etc) to pull it off.
Also, Ben Foster has one of the most incredible cameo’s as Big Q.
Films that make me feel strong emotions are the reason I enjoy watching them so much. Even the films that knock me on my knees and make me feel despair or uncomfortable I enjoy as they created a powerful response within me. Its rare for a film to make me feel such intense emotions like The Bridge as it is an objectively moving documentary, but that does not forgive how unethical it’s footage is.
Minus the final shot of the film where a title card reads “more people have chosen to end their lives at the Golden Gate Bridge than anywhere else in the world,” there is not any other contextualization to why the film was made. Is the goal to bring awareness for the need of taller barriers and safety measures on the Golden Gate Bridge to discourage people from jumping? If so, that was not explained or suggested at all.
I understand that suicide is tragic and seeing the deep sadness in friends and family can help in creating awareness to suicide prevention efforts but filming people committing the act is extreme.
Throughout the film there are many wide angle shots of the Golden Gate Bridge used as transitions between scenes. The films holds on these shots for a while, much longer than a typical scenic shot and some of them end with a visible and audible splash indicating that someone jumped. Every time one of these wide shots lingered on the screen I scanned for a falling spec and waited for a splash, but often there wasn’t one. Using real footage of suicide to build tension in transition shots is grossly exploitative.
The film uses one specific jumper named Gene as a framing device to organize the film around. He receives more back story than the other people filmed and shots of him pacing on the bridge building up the courage to jump are included all throughout the documentary. The final scene of the film is of Gene finally standing on top of the railing and falling backwards with his arms spread out wide as he fell. Audio of Gene’s grandmother speculating on why he chose to jump off the bridge as his method for suicide, “maybe he just wanted to fly one time” was edited in right before he swiftly climbed the rail, stood up straight, and fell backwards. The scene is objectively captivating and emotional but also brutally tasteless.
I do believe the filmmakers had good intentions in developing and creating this project, but it is more of a eloquent snuff film than it is a documentary.
A bad early 2000s Breakfast Club Heist movie that actually has some genuine heart to it.
Nihilism the action comedy film. The tone is a bit off and several of the absurd comedy bits fail to land, but this film made me chuckle and tear up in less than a minute during a scene where two rocks silently communicate with each other. Nothing matters is a complicated and painful ideology to understand and this film is an impressive representation of that.
The deep punch to the gut felt after watching Netflix’s Downfall is also present with Amazon’s Flight/Risk. The tragedy of the situation is well examined through the perspective of a family member of a victim, a Boeing whistleblower, a local journalist, and lawyers representing victims. I have long known that unhinged capitalism is quickly turning people into psychopaths but there is something especially sobering about the Boeing 737 Max scandal.
Remember the Titans is tough to explain because it’s cliché, historically inaccurate, and overly schmaltzy but still manages to achieve its goal of being an inspiring story about a town overcoming racial and political tension through high school football. Carried by the performances of Denzel Washington, Will Patton, and a strong supporting cast, this film defies its ostentatious foundation.
12 one hitters. 12 one hitters.
Nothing diminishes my enjoyment of a film more than being able to feel the algorithm's influence behind it. This documentary feels rushed to avoid missing the tail end of the discourse surrounding a pop culture topic, not to properly analyze and asses a tragic situation with the nuance it deserves. The glaring cynicism of Netflix's algorithm becomes more visible with every original release.
We all now know the answer to the question, “what if there was a mediocre version of It Follows?”
2.5 stars on concept alone. Underwater The Descent. Unfortunately that’s all it had.
This film has a lot of problems, but its vision of being a jovial retelling of the origins of professional American Football managed to infrequently shine through the thick layers of continuity errors, jarring tone shifts, and uneven pacing. Learning Rick Reilly was a script writer post viewing connected a lot of dots as you could feel his perplexing dad humor scattered throughout and recognize his unfounded confidence in being a funny sports writer. Officially I rate this film 1 Kate Upton boob (IYKYK).
This is the left wing equivalent of a Daily Wire produced film. I don’t disagree with its interpretation of historical events, but there are much more subtle and much less preachy ways of portraying them.
Godzilla makes for a compelling and worthy Angel.
An explanation for the cat food spoon lick would go a long way.
This is a smidge too preachy and very much looks like a made for television movie, but it has a loaded cast with convincing performances telling a fascinating (and terrifying) story that was a brightly colored domino in a series of historical events that led to the existential crisis our society faces today.
This didn’t reveal anything insightful that wasn’t already well known, but I can (and have) watch Barry Sanders highlights all day. Jeff Daniels serving as a poetic thesaurus for the word despair to contextualize Lions fandom and some incredible footage including a top down view of Barry breaking tackles in the 91 NFC Championship and reflections of the defense he was dissecting in his face visor make this necessary viewing for football fans.
Expectations have a huge influence on my perception of a film and there is no better example than J. Edgar. I had only heard criticisms of Clint Eastwood’s biopic of the infamous FBI director which led to my surprise on how much I enjoyed it. Yes the color gradient is too grey and the old man make up is jarring, but J. Edgar is a competent period piece that chronicles the modernization of America through the life of a highly flawed man. This film dips into the fascinating post WWII American history which blends well with the performances of Leonardo DiCaprio, Armie Hammer, Naomi Watts, and Judi Dench.
Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy was inspired by the gritty nihilism of The Long Halloween but The Batman fully captured it. The true future home of this film should be in between Thief and Manhunter in the Neo Noir Collection on The Criterion Channel instead of its inevitable dishonest placement in the DC hub on HBO Max next to Wonder Woman and Aquaman.
I scoffed hard at the over the top actions scenes, face swaps, bad acting, dove explosions, and poorly choreographed flip kicks, but by the end of the motorcycle chase scene I was cheering at the anime style stunts. M:I-2 cranks it up to 11 and its hard not to appreciate it for at least that. I changed my rating from 2.5 to 3 stars due to the inclusion of the Limp Bizkit song during the end credits.
Lance Stephenson in 2020 being the big signing for a valuable sports agency worth millions in of dollars is one of the most unbelievable things I have ever seen in a film.
Even with measured expectations it’s surprising how cynical this film is. A studio threw $100 million at a movie only based on the idea that Halle Berry looks hot in leather and a mask. As bad as they are, the acting, screenplay, and CG all are better than the PS2 era loading screen esque score. A truly and objectively terrible film.
The structure and execution of this film overshadow its corny script and lame comedy gags. It has several satisfying set ups and payoffs with very little fat making it a solid real time action story.
The fax machine and random guy at the house are so random. Random things are funny. Hahahah.
Fall is the survival sub genre at its best. This feels like it should be a found footage film but I believe its sprinkled use of the technique was much more effective and practical. This film has a predictable plot and mediocre performances but overshadowing those are its adequate special effects, satisfying set ups and payoffs, a decent plot misdirection, and its genuinely terrifying premise.
This is a film that focuses on the foreground but presented in a way that forces your attention to the background. The visceral details and images of Auschwitz are already imprinted in everyone's mind and compelling the viewer to call upon those on their own instead of recreating them is powerful.
Mine is an intimate survival film that has a plot and concept with a lot of potential. Other films in the genre like All is Lost and Arctic successfully captured the subtle character development and constant suspense that make survival films enjoyable. Instead of using creative direction and storytelling to learn about the main character, Mine chose to utilize dreams/delusions where the character literally punches his inner demons and vulnerabilities in the face. Armie Hammer is a capable actor who has several performances that I enjoy and I think with a few script changes he could have been more of an empathetic character instead of a tired cliche. In a parallel not too far off universe, Mine is a great film.
I have never watched a film that felt like it was built by an algorithm without one free thinking human involved like Jurassic World Dominion.
