Perhaps the most realistic speculative alien contact film I've ever seen. The first half is a bit drawn out and I could do without the romance, but Ellie's story is solid and her fervor to connect with something/someone outside the scope of our earthly reality is believable.
8/10
The story isn't my thing but I agree with other reviewers that the visual element, the art is amazing.
Quietly enjoyable :wink: 5.5/10
Indeed the best of the Kelvin timeline.
The costumes, set and cinematography are nice... but second time around, trying to enjoy this, and I'm just bored out of my mind, I truly dislike the Kelvin timeline. I'm with Scotty - "I thought we were explorers", I prefer the exploration and discovery to the shallow storytelling and constant action.
4.5/10 for that :vulcan_tone4: iconic Spock/Kirk scene, the Section 31 mention, Noonien Singh synthetics homage, and the Chekhov red shirt death knell foreshadowing.
I totally agree that while this anime is pretty basic, it's still better than season two of the live action, though no fault of Mackie's, the writing and direction were horrendous.
snaps fingers
From start to finish, The Addams Family is enjoyable every time.
I love a good supernatural story with proper structure and clarity. This one has too many cut-aways for effect (though the scenery IS nice), too little information given and too much left to audience's imagination to fill in the gaps, the dialogue is also awful. It's a fail for me, 3/10.
I skipped a few of the older ones to get to this because I thought it might be better, I was wrong. It is so much worse.
A fairly decent "origin story".
Credit to the foundation laid by 1984s Dune and built upon by this modern version.
Where the older miniseries was more sociopolitical, the 2021 film is more action focused (and thankfully condensed) - both are enjoyable films for lovers of heady science fiction.
Beautiful and heartbreaking. I still had tears in my eyes even after the credits had gone.
I watched this movie against my better judgement, with a rice grain of hope, and in a state of suspicious dread considering the norm for mainstream made queer films. I regret the near two hours of anxiety, ambivalence and anguish. In plainspeak - Fuck this heartbreaking shit.
Now I'm going to watch some mindless series and try to purge away the well of sorrow that burrowed itself into me.
Please consider this review a mental health warning if you're also prone to depression, this one stings.
A painfully honest look at the emotional aftermath of school shootings in the USA from a teenager's perspective. It's hard to watch, but worth the time.
This is what we call a prestige picture. Sure, it's very pretty to look at, there's no denying that, it is indeed visual magnificence, but that's about it, nothing more. Nothing can justify the insane and unnecessary length, the story is generic when we aren't gazing at endless CG landscapes and cut-aways, the characters (in both films) are not well developed, the protagonist is an acquired taste, and I'm not even going to address the "white man's burden" and cultural appropriation of it all.
In any case, now I can finally say I saw both movies and I never have to see them again, nor wonder what the hype was about.
5/10 (for the aesthetics)
...but of course JC can do no wrong, amen.
* extra heavy on the sarcasm *
Hereditary is really a complex and heartbreaking film about hereditary mental illness, specifically about psychosis and its intertwining with the "supernatural".
Many of Peter's, as well as Annie's scenes are actually psychotic breaks that we/the audience get to view as lived experiences.
The film is particulary jarring if you have experience with mental illness in your family. Fear of having it yourself and/or passing it on to your children is very real... and that fear made manifest is what makes this film a true psychological horror.
8/10
"We're, all of us, passing for one thing or other." - Irene
I felt so conflicted about this film that it took some time to even be able to write a review.
The film is good, simultaneously intriguing and frustrating. It is subtle and hopeful, and harsh and crushing in necessary places. As a queer, black person, I felt the weight of racial tension whilst watching, as well as the pressure to "pass" for something western society has deemed acceptable.
It's a reminder to some of us that we have to maintain decorum, remain vigilant and make sure there are no cracks... nor that the fragile pot we hold dear doesn't get too close to edge and break the status quo... even if we lie to others (and ourselves) that we didn't actually want the pot anyway... but... rambling... right, yes... the movie is worth the watch. Bittersweet... but worth the watch. Survival of the fittest or something...
I've watched all the other films but I'm still lost. Some of the characters are fun, but this franchise is too niche and too convoluted in my opinion, definitely not for me.
Surprisingly good! This one has aged rather well.
Fourteen minutes of true to the franchise greatness! If only this would have continued as a series. It could have been AMAZING!
At best and on the surface "Meet Joe Black" is a tolerable film for pure entertainment, upon further inspection, a snail paced three hour patriarchal time suck.
I just had two major issues:
1) That Jamaican accent - the accent itself is actually pretty good, it's the context that's problematic. Sure, there is the faintest inference to Baron Samedi, Vodou Loa (spirit) of the dead (Death himself), in the use of Jamaican patois and the reference of "duppy", "spirit" and "obeah"... but that's not widely general knowledge. It wouldn't have come across so unsettlingly infantilizing if the inference were instead a direct reference, something overt so the audience wouldn't be confused by the sudden switch, instead it appears as though he's speaking to a child (he's literally standing above and talking down to her) almost mocking. Death has many names, they could have had the old lady just say it during her address to Joe (Baron Samedi) -simple fix.
2) Relegating the women to mere objects of service (constantly weeping, making things... preparations, food, notes, "love") added a tang of bitterness to this otherwise mostly pointless drama.
As someone else said, at least now I can tick it off my list.
An enjoyable action drama with some smooth fight scenes and an anti-hero we very rarely see in these types of films.
The writing fits the genre with more showing and less telling and the acting is good.
Yup, I'll have more of this, please and thank you.
It's a beautiful film visually, but none of the characters is allowed proper development, not even the main. We never get to truly connect with Joe, as he's just a vehicle, a driving force for the story itself, which gets muddled in the middle, and the remainder of the film suffers as a result. Shame really, it could have been great. 5.5/10
A good movie about understanding loss and deep anguish, and the depths that grief can sometimes take a person. Perhaps the best movie I've seen in 2022 thus far, hilarious that I had to go back to 2007 for it.
It IS visually appealing, but the story is teased in fragments and the filler scenes are trash, with the last 15 minutes relaying everything in a rush. A gentle drama about the Tachikomas might have been more enjoyable.
An unpredictable yet oddly believable ending, considering human nature.
On the surface, "The Manor" is a mediocre fantasy story with mostly bland scenes, but it is the fact behind the fiction that holds all the weight here; that undeniable truth which forces anyone who has elderly loved ones, or anyone over the age of 30 to contemplate the reality of growing old and the inevitability of death, as well as the futile hope to cheat it.
The truth behind this fantasy is solidified by the knowledge that at least one cast member has passed on since the film's release. Rest in Peace Ms. Fran Bennett.
A beautiful and somber film about the importance of human connection, of brotherhood in the midst of desolation.
A promising concept for a revenge horror, and although it starts off well, it loses focus around the middle.
Superhero movies are rinse and repeat these days, and like the rest of them Blue Beetle is not without flaws, but it's nice to see a more obscure hero take center stage. This one is definitely more fun than Black Adam, and in my opinion Uncle Rudy is the true star of the show.
All the potential, especially with that historical subtext, only to be disappointed by poor scene structure which created a pacing headache... ah well, at least the fight scene was fun, they should have ended it there, the final scene just made it all worse.
4/10 - for prosthetics, costume, set and prop design (they did a great job), and for the actors, who did their best with what they were given.
