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Gold (2016)
Didn't expect much but really liked how the plot churned
Great acting, done quite well. The scenic imagery was great.
I sort of anticipated a typical movie for Matthew McConaghey and it sort of was. He really only plays himself.
The story was what really made me like it. You kind of assume it's going to go one way and it doesn't. Then the ending is kind of surprising.
I think I really liked it because I did not expect much. Had I thought it would be a good movie, I probably would have liked it less.
I enjoyed all the characters, haven't heard of the actor Edgar Ramirez before and he did a good job. I'd recommend it. I just streamed so I'm 8 year late. But definitely worth a free stream.
The Brothers Bloom (2008)
The ending totally ruined a potentially memorable movie
Everything was perfect for this movie. The characters and acting were amazing. The story line was doing great until...the end.
I get the idea of the movie. It's a moral play on how we live our lives and that life is best unwritten (planned) or we finally are taught, life is always written....or something like that. Frankly I'm not a big fan of morality play in a movie. I feel it's condescending to a degree. Especially if it's spelled out for the audience.
The movie was about 2 con men who try to con a clever beautiful woman. Being a movie about deceit and clever plans, one would expect the ending to have a twist or surprise. Instead, nothing. Maybe that was the point "life is always written"?
Regardless, it was a great setup to have a really good ending and it ruined the whole thing by being a total DUD. Pretty disappointing it takes away from everything else that was good.
Dragged Across Concrete (2018)
Cheesy movie with ridiculous ending but I liked it
First, what is "dragged across concrete" mean? How is that relevant to this movie? No clue.
The movie has the feel of a B movie. The cliche "cop suspended" Dirty Harry angle where the cop does his job too good that it offends the softies. It also has the feel of a Bronson revenge flick.
In other words, don't expect amazing acting nor well-written dialogue.
For the most part it was very intriguing, notably the extreme violence of the villain. And so you hung on to the end to see him get his just desserts.
The end played out pretty well until the very end which I wish had been written differently. I don't want to have a spoiler, but let me just say, when you are living in a ghetto apartment and suddenly you have $100M, it's not that easy to just go buy a mansion with it.
Derailed (2005)
I couldn't suspend disbelief in this movie
The movie wasn't horrible, I watched until the end. But oh my God, the story had so many unbelievable tent poles the thing just collapses on disbelief.
First and foremost, Jennifer Aniston is the WORST actress to portray a seductive, heart-throbbing female counterpart ever. The male lead looks at her with disgust as if in reality she's impossible to deal with on set. There's no chemistry. Forward ahead to The Bounty Hunter where not only was there ZERO chemistry between her and Gerard Butler.
And the whole plot revolves around Aniston being so unbelievably seductive, me just immediately take her to the hotel for sex. It's just not there.
Then the ridiculous foils and plot props that also seem ridiculous. Like a detective, for absolutely no reason, goes after the main character. Why? Oh yeah, to cause drama.
A lot of rolling eyes and shaking my head.
The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)
Not sure if I loved it or hated it
I like the movie Lobster, that was as weird as this one, well weirder.
The monotone reading of the characters in any other movie would make it seem like a really horribly acted movie. But you realize these are quality actors so obviously it's done for effect. I'm hoping.
Then there's really bizarre interactions that also seem like a very poorly written script. Like the boy asking the older boy "do you have arm pit hair? Let me see it", the girl responds "you have a nice body". All in an unemotional tone.
The girl is totally emotionless yet tells the older boy "I really love you". Then tells her brother "when you die, can I have your MP3 player? Please?".
You can only assume this is for effect. Otherwise you would have to conclude these actors are horrible and the script was written by a 12 year old.
In the end I didn't get a whole lot out of this. But I love bizarre movies over cliche predictable movies even if they don't go any where. This was more of an experience than memorable story.
Gimme Shelter (2013)
Very genuine, great acting, felt like an actual documentary
So many movies I've watched lately have horrible acting. Just unbelievable situations, the chemistry is so fake and.unbelievable. This was an amazing bright spot in comparison.
I really didn't expect much. I like Brendon Frazer so I gave it a try. Granted I'm 11 years behind but it just started streaming for me so I watched it.
The story itself isn't terribly complicated, but that's fine because it's more about relationships and the interactions of people. I know the name Vanessa Hudgens but I've never seen her in anything. I was surprised at the end to find out Apple was Hudgens. She does an amazing job in portraying an abused child.
It's kind of a unique film. Definitely worth a watch.
Manhattan Nocturne (2016)
Adrien Body has lost my respect
I loved Brody in The Pianist, what a great movie. I even liked him in Predators. But the last two movies I've seen with him were really low-grade B movies.
Granted I'm late to the party with this movie, just 8 years later. But watching the movie CLEAN was just as disappointing.
It seems like the only reason they cast Yvonne Strahovski was for her great body. There was zero chemistry between her and Brody. Brody looked horrible in this movie and it was hard believing a hot woman like this was interested in him.
The story was goofy. Some things seemed silly. Like, do banks really have an entire vault for a single person? Why was this giant vault filled with video equipment and boxes of memory sticks? And stacks of pens? That was confusing. And apparently no one else uses the vault such that Brody can sit there all day watching videos? Errrr.
I just kept mumbling "this is a dumb movie". A low-effort by Brody, gratuitous nudity because the acting was subpar.
The only exciting part was realizing the creepy Simon guy was once the good looking guy from the movie SINGLES. The rest was very weak.
The Professor (2018)
I get why this saccharine film has people loving it
I remember Mickey Rourke talking about dying in an interview. He said he thought about suicide but his brother with cancer was fighting to stay alive. And it changed his concept of death.
And he realized how Hollywood trivializes death. He said Hollywood makes dying seem trite. They make it seem heroic and important. But he said death is none of these things. Death is horrible. It's hell. It's terrible suffering.
This movie does exactly what Rourke says. Johnny Depp is flip about the idea of dying when most people would be in a horrible state of fear and distress. Johnny is just going to smoke a cigarette on his way out. He's cool about it, no big deal.
This movie makes dying seem cute and funny.
And sorry I just don't buy the message of live your life because you're about to die, because that just didn't seem to develop in this movie.
It was a weird, flaky movie with unbelievable emotions. I get why people love it, because it's a sugary concoction of movie BS. It's not real, but people love nonsense as long as it makes them feel good.
Good Will Hunting (1997)
I'll get destroyed but I had a lot of issues with this movie
This was a well-written movie and obviously well-acted. But a lot of the plot made me shake my head.
Also, in retrospect I've grown weary of Matt Damon as an actor, he really can't act outside of his own personality. So despite originally his acting in this movie was amazing, seeing him in 100s of movies since, not so much now. He's just not a great actor.
My main issues were with the whole concept of a savant who seems to be naturally gifted in understanding everything you can read in a book. It just didn't seem plausible. I know, I need to suspend disbelief. But I just couldn't.
Learning takes repetition and exposure. Most child prodigies turn out to be monsters because instead of learning how to deal with people they learn Mandarin and how to play the piano. It's a zero sum game. We don't have unlimited capacity to learn things. Especially not ranging from economics to math to organic chemistry.
The worst was when he handed in some math assignment and the professor says "I see you used Greene's theorem here" which is a well-known theorem to advanced math. And Damon replies "oh is that what it is?". I just lost it. As if Damon invented the theorem on his own, LOL. The irony is Damon apparently can memorize some obscure economics book down to the page number, but he has no concept of Greene's Theorem as a math genius? Picture him working on a car and someone saying "I see you used a wrench here" and him replying "is that what it is?".
Then he says he knows organic chemistry? Seriously? Org Chem ain't that hard, but neither is remembering all the pages in the NYC yellow pages. It's just a lot of work for no reason. Why would you learn organic chemistry? LOL.
It was just beyond ridiculous and I couldn't get past it. I rolled my eyes a lot.
Nefarious (2023)
Started out great then became really preachy and that ruined it
Overall it was done really well. And the setup through the first half of the movie was great. The question was, how would this plot work itself out.
Then it became really preachy. Commentary on assisted suicide, abortion, then a long eye-rolling diatribe about how society is broken and things are worse now than back in the prehistoric days of man.
And it just felt like suddenly it was just some movie trying to indoctrinate people into Christianity or some specific beliefs. And that totally turned me off.
You can't help compare it to the movie FALLEN regarding demon possession. But in FALLEN, you never felt it was pushing religion. It was more about the supernatural than morality. And FALLEN is one of my favorite movies.
Kind of sad, this could have been a cool movie. Very disappointing.
Lovelace (2013)
The irony of exploitation in a movie condemning exploitation
So I'm late to reviewing this. I saw it on streaming Freevee. I didn't realize it was 10 years old, I sort of remember it coming out.
I love biopics. Actually I prefer documentaries over biopics, they usually have much more information and nothing added that's not reality.
I'm familiar with Lovelace and the movie Deep Throat. I saw the movie in college. I never understood why it was such a big deal. I remember being told about Linda being beat up before I saw the movie and then seeing the bruises on her thighs in the movie.
So this movie was pretty weak on any additional information. It helps to have seen Deep Throat to understand some of this.
Overall, I'd say Amanda Seyfried is really attractive. And I found it ironic that a movie trying to push a moral message that porn is bad had Seyfried nude through out the movie.
She's beautiful naked, but it was a tad gratuitous. And made me chagrin at the ending about Linda fighting pornography....in a movie that was kinda pornographic.
Billions: Tower of London (2023)
Forced, just felt like a poor excuse to continue the series
I don't want to give anything away but basically a bunch of the old gang want to bring back Axe because they fear Prince's presidential run. They think he's Hitler. LMAO.
A totally lame premise but hey, it would just be a total retread of the past 6 seasons if there wasn't SOMETHING DIFFERENT.
I mean they seem to double down on the pop culture references which always annoyed me. Can someone tell, do all the people in the world of Wall Street use pop references? Using a bunch of lame metaphors to pop music, sports and movies/TV? Heck they even use a reference to Marcus Wellby MD in one, and the 50 year old actor says "whoever that is". Uh, you know who he is.
But other than the twist "we need to stop Prince!!" nothing is different. Chuck is back at his job, also to get Prince!!
The Card Counter (2021)
Martin Scorsese and Oscar Isaac are better than this
I didn't hate the movie. I streamed it for free so I can't complain. I feel bad for anyone who paid for it, however.
It's just a very flawed movie. The guy is known as a card counter, which is done in blackjack. But somehow becomes a pro poker player? Why not just call the movie "the poker pro"? Then he randomly meets someone at a convention in the Casino who happens to know all about his sordid past? OK, that made no sense. Then they start driving around together?
It was just poor writing, the plot was weak. The ending was weird and didn't make sense. It's like asking me to write a story that would be produced by Martin Scorses and Oscar Isaac.
Like I said, it had enough weirdness and content to not be totally boring. But it was just not quality work. And watching scenese where Oscar just sat there chomping on food made me lose respect for the guy. Not his best acting job.
And a scene at the end where Oscar and DaFoe go at each other, the camera pans away and you just hear "ouch! Ohhhh! Ewwww!" as if the director was trying to imitate Reservoir Dogs but totally missed.
The only thing I can guess is that Scorsese has connections to Casinos and this was some attempt to market Casinos via a movie.
Ahsoka (2023)
Girl Power!!
Love this series so far. A lot of interesting characters and imagery. Unlike past Star Wars movies that were rather drab on desert planets, the scenes in this series are bursting with color and visual scenery.
Love the characters, notably all the powerful women role models. Ahsoka is a kick butt kinda Jedi. Even the villains are powerful women. Just a great series to embrace women in the Star Wars universe. Women who are strong, bold, individualistic, and fearless.
You have Ahsoka, Morgan Elsbeth,Sabine Wren,Hera Sybdulla, and Shin Hiati. Who needs men when women can run the universe!!
Great series so far! 9 out of 10!
Hijack (2023)
Incredible action
Idris Elba is amazing. He is one of our best, or should I say Britain's best actors.
The intrigue and action of this movie is amazing. The acting is incredible. I just found myself on the edge of my seat the whole time.
Hijack? What happens next? Such an intense thriller. Action on a plane has never been more thrilling. It reminds me a bit of "always bet on black" movie. Just great.
Fantastic editing and angle work. The casting was great, I loved every actor intensely.
I liked Idris in his previous roles but this is his premier role. It will last forever as a great film for him and cinema.
Generation Wealth (2018)
Muddled but Interesting documentary on our society of obsession
It starts off talking about wealth. And not necessarily generational wealth because it includes people with new generation money, i.e. Not generational wealth. Then it meanders to saying it's all about obsessions. Veers into body obsession and anorexia. Along with obsession for money.
The documentary wasn't very coherent. It certainly wasn't only about generational wealth as it talked about porno stars and strip club dancers. Along with a guy who went from fisherman to mega-rich bank broker.
It kind of jumped around with no real point, to be honest. You had a bunch of commentary about how our society makes everything a commodity. Then other commentary that really didn't prove out or just was an obvious truth.
Regardless, the stories were interesting. And that was worth the watch. Some depressing stories which honestly I think had more to do with messed up people than society's influence.
The creator of the documentary tries to mix in her own family which was actually an awkward fit. I couldn't help think "rich people problems". She was the result of divorced parents and they worked too much....and she acted like that was some horrific abnormality. As if most kids could be so lucky. Then her kid writes a poem about how he has too much pressure and basically may commit suicide....and the dad says "that was good". I had to laugh.
Watch it for the stories. You may want to fast forward thru the lecture on how society is ruining people.
The Counselor (2013)
I was lost, but loved the blood, guts and weird sex
For the life of me, I wasn't sure what the role of Fastbender's character was. Maybe I'm just clueless. But he's a lawyer so I just assumed he would be handling drug dealer's legal issues. But no, somehow he was a smuggler. And yet all he did during the movie was talk to 2 people with no real purpose.
I was lost. People kept warning him not to do it. Do what? He seemed clueless to what job he was going to do, just like me.
And then, the climax of the film, he becomes responsible for something and yet I'm not sure why!! It's like having a movie about a homeless guy, who suddenly is responsible for floods in China. It made no sense.
The film does a poor job of explaining how the main character has become embroiled in the whole thing. I didn't get it.
The rest is blood and guts, and weird sex scenes. Which I liked. There was a lot of foreshadowing, like "there is a weird torture device used by the cartel", and you just knew you were going to see it. There were several instances of just waiting to see these things come to fruition.
There was some rambling monologue at the end and other rambling monologues. I guess I should have listened but it sounded like an attempt at some moral play that, well, accompanied by heads being chopped off just seemed kind of silly.
Knock Knock (2015)
Lesson learned - just say no.
I liked this movie, probably because there were so many bad reviews I expected it to be really, really bad.
But you can be disappointed in the plot or ending or what happened, but the movie wasn't cheap or had bad acting. It was a pretty well directed and filmed movie with solid acting.
People say it was predictable. I'd say not so much. People wanted great revenge, and understandably so, but that would have been predictable, right?
I liked it. It's akin to Fatal Attraction, that provides a lesson you can never learn often enough, men. Learn to just say no.
Granted the movie isn't very deep. It's 1.5 hours. So as far as a short movie goes, it was perfectly fine. Not anything slated for a Oscar or Emmy. But certainly not horrible.
Silo (2023)
Loved the intrigue
The whole concept of this series got me hooked. I loved all the actors and scenery.
The lead was charismatic and fun to watch. The support cast just made this an enjoyable series to watch, episode after episode.
All of the familiar cast make it seem familiar. The dystopian aspect keeps you pondering of what could be and what will be next! So many stories that could vet out of this unique world and scenario.
A great series by any stretch. I highly recommend. Especially if you like this kind of movie and genre. These series keep getting better and better on streaming platforms, this is another good one.
Sharper (2023)
Great cinematography, interesting story of grifters
The movie was well filmed. Great views and image perspectives. It had a European feel and it almost felt awkward the people were speaking American English.
Honestly I had added this to my watch list and finally got around to seeing it. And I had forgotten why. I thought it was some independent movie until Juliana Moore and John Lithgow popped up.
I enjoyed watching this. It was visually appealing and the story kept me wondering what was going to happen next.
Now, honestly, it was fairly predictable to me with a few surprises. But that's not necessarily a bad thing. You know what's going to happen on a roller coaster, it doesn't take away the fun of experiencing it.
Great actors. Some interesting music. Definitely worth a view especially compared to the other garbage out there right now.
The Last Thing He Told Me (2023)
1.5 hour movie dragged out - basically an LMN/Hallmark movie
You'll see others mention how slow this series was. And you keep seeing this happen with other series where creators take a 1-2 hour movie and stretch it out so it becomes a series.
Half way thru this series you just feel like nothing new has happened. A lot of dialog that seems to ramble forever with no real added information. The girl just keeps whining about how her dad let her down. It's like "haven't we already covered this?".
The actual quality of the series is pretty weak. It reminded me of some LMN or Hallmark TV movie. The writing was not great. The story was kind of lame. The acting was Hallmark level. And Jamie Lanister tried to hide his British accent by mumbling with a harsh voice. It got so bad that several scenes he just nodded his head so he wouldn't have to talk.
There were a bunch of logic inconsistencies. The angry professor has no time to talk. His day is filled with appointments. Then suddenly he has all day to talk to them and goes into his vault to pull out blue books from 30 years ago. That was kind of ridiculous.
And Gardner is a dry husk of an actor. No emotion, a robot. And she's not a looker any more which doesn't help. There's zero chemistry between her and Jamie Lanister. What's funny is that she's emotionless in one scene and then something bad happens and she makes a facial expression like she's trying to show sadness, but it looks so fake. Like it's hurting her face to make the grimace.
If you have time to kill, watch it. Just use the FF fast forward option with extreme prejudice. Definitely don't pay to see this.
Billions: No Direction Home (2021)
This season did not age well
All the push for ESG and non-binary characters, etc. Etc. Did not age well. And is comical to watch it now.
Maybe in season 7 they can have a reference to the collapse of all the ESG companies (Impact companies) and a cute reference to Mulvaney and Bud Light.
"Be progressive, it's the future, renewables, blah blah" - Doh!! Not so much.
I also love how they have 20 year olds being the sages of the economy as if being a near-child, you see the world more clearer or have a better moral compass.
Truly laughable in retrospect. And it's not even that old, 2 years ago this was the thing. How quickly fads fade.
I see a new swing to extreme patriotism and traditional values. Not because I care either way, but that's just how the pendulum moves.
Billions (2016)
Great series for 3 of 5 seasons, the stupid references are annoying
I just got done re watching the first 5 seasons. The first 2 seasons are wayyy better than I remember. As most good series are, they start off great.
You have to love the dynamics of one party trying to get the other party. Great actors, absorbing scenarios. If you like movies about rich people, like Succession or Wall Street movies, this is up your alley.
But then the 3rd season began the non-stop stupid references and season 4 was even worse. It's like cutaways in Family Guy, but not relevant, interesting, clever nor funny.
And what I mean by stupid references are the constant comparisons to old movies and music to just about anything that happens. "I just went to the bathroom and took a dump, like JJ Walker would say DYNAMITE".
Non-stop.
It would be one thing if it were just one character who had this terrible habit. But it becomes obvious that the show has one writer who writes the dialog for everyone. Because apparently all these Ivy League grads who know advanced mathematics seem to know a whole lot about pop music and movies. And love to show off their pop culture intelligence. I mean, if you spent that much money on an education, wouldn't you rather quote Shakespeare or refer to music by Mozart? Not quote Pretty Woman or Rocky?
The absolute worse was when Chuck Rhoades, a 50+ year old man quotes Billy Ellish. A guy who went to prep school and Yale, and in all reality would be more likely to know Beethoven over the Beatles. But go a step beyond insanity and have him quoting the lyrics of a 16-year old song writer with green hair.
It got so bad, it was every other sentence uttered had some reference to 60s music or 80s pop movies. Horribly annoying.
Season 5 seemed to save the day by pulling this series out of a nose dive. And breathing new life into it with new characters.
Can't wait for Season 6.
Yellowjackets (2021)
Lord of the flies with women/girls
The main thing you take away from Lord of the Flies, is that we're all animals. That young boys create packs and hierarchy, and become barbaric. If you're a boy, you've probably experienced this growing up.
Well...all is fair. Women can be just as brutal.
And so Yellowjackets says "ok, what would women do if stranded on an island with no adults?".
There are some slow parts, but eventually you fall in line and are hooked. What happened in the past? What is going to happen next? Blood and guts. Murder and mayhem. Demons and witchcraft...
If you're into the Black Mirror or twisted horror movies, you'll love this.
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)
Loved all the stories, great movie
All the stories were amazing. Incredible acting, beautiful scenery.
Buster Scruggs was hilarious.
All the stories had surprising endings. There aren't many movies I'll watch again but this is one of them.
Some of these stories will stick with you because they are a bit shocking.
I'm not sure why this is NOT higher rated. With the garbage you sift through these days to find quality movie making, this should be at least a 9.
I mean all that Disney garbage.
I'd definitely recommend this to anyone who loves the Twilight Zone, Black Mirror, etc. Or similar movies with several short stories.
Watch it.