Change Your Image
sotp_chris
Reviews
The Bricklayer (2023)
Layed a brick alright. A big smelly one.
Trite, formulaic and inconsistent. Nice set pieces and had some potential but not worth the time. Started playing it at 1.5 speed halfway through just to get through it. Rewatch John Wick or Nobody or Transporter or really any other spy movie/ specialist shoot em up before you bother with this one. All tropes and no ramifications or reality. Some good performers and a decent revenge angle that could have examined loyalty and betrayal and maybe the role America plays and should play in influencing world events but it is literally just lazy writing and annoying levels of predictibilty coupled with a lot of there's no way he survived that and shouldn't he at least be slowed/hobbled by pain? Skip it. You're welcome.
The Rig (2023)
Got in its own way. Just a waste.
The Rig starts off strong with layered characters and good tension and a strong mystery.
Started to go off the rails a little on the heavy handed climate aspect. But was reminiscent of The Abyss in a lot of ways. Could have worked just like that movie did. But they could not seem to decide where to go.
Then it really fell apart in the last episodes with characters making absurd and contradictory choices, ignoring evidence and actions and changing their own course of action back and forth on whims. Ugh.
And the worst part is it seems like the partly unfulfilled ending is going for a sequel.
Well acted. Had potential. Ultimately a big waste.
Right There (2014)
Great short film... definitely worth watching!
"Right There" is a short but satisfying film and in my humble opinion it is well worth watching and sharing. The story of "Right There" is simple and elegant and enjoyable. The film itself is both visually well-done as well as very well acted by the entire ensemble throughout. Ryan Hanley is especially great with a wonderful hybrid mix of Jim Carrey and Charlie Chaplin in his facial expressions and movements. A truly charming performance. The production values are solid and everything is done skillfully with an obvious and apparent love for the cinema. The themes of love and attraction, and the importance of timing and of overcoming our fears are universal and timeless. Definitely a gem of the genre!
Man of the Year (2006)
This COULD have been a great movie
Great cast, good basic premise, lousy film. Sure there were some good laughs here and there but that is all that pushed my vote as high as a "4". You expect a little suspension of disbelief as being needed when the plot involves an Independent candidate whose only claim to political fame is being a popular political comedian winning the Presidency of the United States... but in the filmmakers half-ass-ed attempts to legitimize the possibility and the subsequent complete focus on that the movie goes off the rails and fast with plot holes you could drive a campaign bus through. Going into details would only cause spoilers and me to get heated about it, so suffice it to say that the sub-plot assassinates the movie. Afterwards my girlfriend and I spent considerable time on the "__ made no sense", "they would never allow __", "Why would ___ ever __", and so on.
Worst of all, the movie also "Hudson Hawks" the "Living Daylights"* out of you because they advertise MOTY as a different movie than what they serve up when you get there. Who thought up that bait & switch media campaign concept in the first place and why do so many movies use it? Is there anyone who likes to see a product advertised that is completely different when it is purchased? "Hmm your personal ad said you were a petite blonde lingerie model, but you appear to be 6'2" and have balls..."
Do not pay to see this movie is my advice and be prepared to cut it a lot of slack (or turn off your brain) in order to enjoy it.
*Referring to the way that Hudson Hawk purported to be an adventure/thief film and then was really a total tongue-in-cheek spoof of those very films and/or the way The Living Daylights presented itself as a feel good rock n' roll romp which was actually an amazingly depressing film about dysfunction and cancer... with some short rock n' roll clips. Ugh.