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Manifest (2018)
An incredibly fun modern fantasy drama series
This show, in my opinion, really captures the concept of "casual enjoyment" because overall, if you really dig into the show, there are definitely plot holes and inconsistencies across the series, but if you just watch every episode casually you are going to have a really good time. The entire mystery is super intriguing, so no matter how wacky some of the individual episodes can be, it will always keep you hooked with the overarching storyline.
The acting is also really good, special props going to Josh Dallas as Ben Stone, and Matt Long as Zeke Landon. They are really the highlights of the series, and it was awesome seeing Josh Dallas outside of Once Upon A Time, since he can get a bit type casted from that series. Also, Jack Messina, who plays Cal Stone, is the youngest actor when the series starts, and while he's just alright as an actor in the first season, you can see his acting getting better and better as the series goes on, as his actor is literally growing up between seasons and improving, which is really cool to see. I'm excited to see Jack in future projects.
I will say, the pacing of this show is really good until the last season, they clearly intended to go longer than four seasons, so the ending is a little bit rushed, but that's necessarily the shows fault, although it can still be kind of annoying to watch. I would say the ending did a good job wrapping everything up despite the constrictions that the showrunners had in the end.
8/10 A super fun watch, but very complicated with a lot of moving parts that can be difficult to keep track of.
The Sound of Music (1965)
Most boring third act in the west
This movie... is very strange. The first half is absolutely iconic, with great songs, a decent concept for a story, and pretty great acting, which is especially impressive when you remember that the majority of the characters are kids. But the second half of the film kind of drops the musical fantasy element, and it suddenly becomes a story about the main character falling in love and then having the escape from being killed by Nazis. This sounds awesome but its actually really boring.
The first half is good, most of the songs are really well performed, and remain classics to this day. Except "16 going on 17" that song is just... weird, and not really entertaining. The second half of the movie features a song from the head nun of Maria's church, and its by far the least memorable song in the film, and that is when you realize that this movie is no longer going to be entertaining.
And then we get to the third act... and dear lord it is weird. Maria marries the Captain, and then the two of them must flee the country with his children in order to escape being killed by Nazis. This comes out of nowhere, and despite how interesting it might sound, it completely goes against the tone that the first half of the film set up, and most people will turn it off once they get to this point because it lacks the entertainment value that the beginning of the movie was able to provide so well.
5/10 Just watch the songs on YouTube.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
What is there even to say?
Yeah... this movie is astonishingly excellent. And it really is surprising that it is so good, since it is a superhero film. I'm not saying superhero movies can't be great, but they rarely can be considered masterpiece films. Before this movie, the highest I had given a superhero film was a 9/10, which I gave to Logan and Avengers: Infinity War. And I didn't think a superhero film could ever get higher, but this movie completely proved me wrong.
The animation is the most obvious indication of quality for this film, it looks absolutely fantastic. The goal was to make it look like a comic book come to life, and it succeeded in that goal beyond anyone's expectations. Everything in the presentation of this movie works, beyond the animation the music, the editing, the cinematography, all of it is working together to make the movie as high quality in its presentation as possible.
The writing is also spectacular, bringing to life several different villains from the Spider-Man universe, and being the first time that a major film put Miles Morales on screen, who is generally considered to be the most powerful version of Spider-Man. I loved seeing so many comic book characters be represented in this movie, and while I am usually apprehensive about sequels, this movie was so well done that I cannot wait for the follow up films.
10/10 The best adaptation of a comic book I have ever seen.
Kung Fu Panda (2008)
An excellent standard for DreamWorks movies
To me, this film represents the high-level quality that DreamWorks animations can create, especially when it comes to creating trilogies. This and the How To Train Your Dragon series are some of the best family animation films out there, than can be enjoyed by everyone, and actually managing to have a captivating storyline while still appealing to a younger audience.
The animation holds up now, and likely always will, because even with CGI constantly improving and upscaling, this movie is incredibly detailed in its models, and managed to create realistic fight scenes, which is extra impressive since all of the characters are cartoon animals, so you wouldn't expect the fight scenes to look smooth and accurate. However, each of the animals are based on an actual fighting style in real life, which the film makers went to great lengths to accurately replicate. The fight scenes are what hold this film together, this is definitely some of the best action I have seen in a film that can appeal to all ages.
The voice acting is also really excellent, while the Furious Five don't really get a lot of in-depth character development outside of Tigress, their voice actors are still really good, and Jack Black absolutely kills it as Po. A lot of comedy actors end up doing voice work for a cartoon character, but with Jack Black it actually feels like he fits the character, with many of Jack Black's mannerisms coming to life in the way Po acts.
This film is a great place to start for the DreamWorks catalogue, and the sequels are also really good, and overall I would consider this to be the only animated series that can rival How To Train Your Dragon, all of the animation and character writing are just extremely solid in this movie, everyone should check this out if they are looking for a fun family action film.
8/10 The definition of a solid animated film.
Forrest Gump (1994)
"You have to do the best with what God gave you."
I adore this film. While I personally find Tom Hanks performance in The Green Mile to be his best, his portrayal of Forrest Gump is a close second to me, and I'm glad that this is considered to be his masterpiece film, because it is absolutely deserving. The character of Forrest Gump is one of my favorite characters in film, everything he says is either tearjerking, heartwarming, or absolutely hilarious. The pacing of this film is very good, since it is all being told by Forrest himself, you learn the events episodically.
The character writing really stands out, even beyond Forrest himself. Jenny is an obvious example, since she is so screwed up from her past, but we never really get to see her perspective fully, only her going in and out of Forrest's life. Bubba is also fantastic for the short time we see him, and his death is probably the saddest scene in the entire film, due to how innocent his friendship with Forrest was, even in the middle of a war.
But in my opinion, outside of Forrest, Lt. Dan absolutely blows you away with what they manage to do with him. Considering Forrest himself does not have a major character arc due to his personality remaining the same throughout the movie, Lt. Dan ends up being the one who experiences the most growth, going from being a brave soldier, to hating Forrest for saving him, to warming up to Forrest due to their partnership, to eventually being lifelong friends. Everything about Lt. Dan is exceptional, and he would easily be my favorite character if the film wasn't about Forrest, who will always be number one, his writing is just on another level.
Everything about this movie is so fantastic, the only thing I didn't like was that it honestly felt like it should have maybe been five or ten minutes longer, giving us more time to see Forrest and Jenny together after he finds out he has a son. But what we did get was amazing, everyone does a exceptional in their roles, even the child actor who plays Forrest does a great job, which is rare to see.
10/10 Easily the best portrayal of someone with a developmental disability by an actor that does not have one.
Megan Is Missing (2011)
Stupid/10
This has got to be the worst of the "found footage" genre by far. Nothing in this movie works or makes any sense. The film isn't even one camera, it's a collection of cameras, all of which have the same level of quality, whether it is supposed to be a news camera or a crappy computer webcam. The editing is awful, the cuts are super obvious, and at one point you can literally hear the director say "action" because THEY FORGOT TO CUT IT OUT. The acting is awful, but most of the actors are teenagers so I do give them a pass, but that doesn't make the movie any easier to watch.
This movie is horribly distasteful in the way it presents disturbing imagery, and it still doesn't manage to be scary. There are "creepy" images of an actress wearing what is supposed to be a BDSM torture device, but the only reason it is "creepy" is that there is an absence of music and complete silence, so you are anticipating something scary, but nothing frightening actually happens.
The last twenty minutes of this film are a teenager being tortured, including a rape scene. But it's kind of hard for the rape scene to be impactful when there aren't any tears and the actress is literally smiling. Apparently the guy who played the rapist would curse at the director when asked to do the scene again, so it's no wonder this scene turned out to be really bad.
And plus, there's plenty of other distasteful crap, at one point Megan talks about being raped as a kid in extremely graphic detail, which apparently was based on a conversation the director had with a friend's kid, which is really disturbing when you think about it. The movie is gross, distasteful, and poorly made on top of that.
1/10 This movie killed the found footage genre for me.
Passengers (2016)
A very solid mix of romance and dramatic science-fiction
It needs to be said, the trailers for this film made it look pretty stupid, so I went into this movie with rather low expectations. But I have to be honest, it really exceeded my expectations. This film is extremely well-rounded, there are only four major actors in this film, all of which absolutely nail their role. Chris Pratt is often thrown into a role just due to his fame, but whether or not that was the intention of the casting agency for this movie, he absolutely killed it as the character of Jim Preston.
The idea of this movie is very captivating on a conceptual level, being trapped in space on a luxury resort spaceship, when you were supposed to be in a hibernation pod, but you have absolutely no one to talk to outside of a bartender robot who can only give you pre-programmed responses, and isn't capable of satisfying human connection. Out of desperation, Jim wakes up Aurora so as to not be alone, and the two eventually fall in love. He struggles with the guilt of trapping her on the ship forever, all the while the ship shows signs of breaking down, which the two end up needing to fix.
The biggest criticism of this film is that Jim trapped Aurora on the ship by waking her, and yet they end up falling in love. But at the end of the film, after the ship is fixed, she has the option to go back to sleep, and she chooses not to. Now I will admit, the fact that they are incapable of going back to sleep even after getting access to the restricted areas of the ship at the end of the film is a bit contrived, and it holds the film back from having a slightly higher rating, but that doesn't make it bad by any means. This film does a great job overall in delivering on its premise.
8/10 Definitely worth checking out for any Sci-Fi lovers.
The Green Mile (1999)
The best adaptation of a novel ever made
This film is contender for my favorite movie of all time, up there with the original Star Wars Trilogy, Django Unchained, and the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. This movie manages to perfectly capture the essence of the novel, which was in my opinion, Stephen King's best work. So this movie already had an amazing piece of writing that it was based off of, but then managed to improve upon it by making small changes and utilizing an exceptional cast to bring the story to life.
Every single cast member of this film is contender for the best in the movie, they all are so clearly engrossed in their role, you feel an emotional draw towards everyone you see on screen. This is my favorite role from Tom Hanks, even more than Forrest Gump. But, if I was forced to choose, Michael Clarke Duncan's performance as John Coffey is something on another entire level. The ending of this movie has stuck with me, to the point that I think about it every single time I go to watch another major motion picture, because I hold it up in my mind as the peak of dramatic storytelling. Nothing has ever come along that topped this film, some has competed with it, but I have never seen a movie that completely outclassed it.
10/10 This is an absolute must-watch movie for anyone who enjoys drama films.
Don't Breathe 2 (2021)
Every problem from the original was made ten times worse
So the original film was pretty good, but its biggest flaw is that The Blind Mad, or Norman Nordstrom, could be easily defeated by using loud noise, and it was not utilized properly by the main characters until the very end. This movie not only has that problem, but also the fact that Norman basically is just able to see in this movie, and his abilities are so overpowered that it makes you yell at the screen on several occasions due to how stupid it is that he isn't dead.
The first fight in the film is easily the best part, because it's the only time in which Norman's abilities are not massively broken, to the point that he actually loses the fight due to his disability. However, this is the last fight in the movie that is an actual fight, ever other showdown Norman has consists of him tricking his opponent in some way and then instantly beating them, even though he can't see, so he shouldn't be able to fight at all outside of a traditional 1v1.
This movie also tries way too hard to make Norman seem like an anti-hero rather than a terrible person. He literally committed rape in the first film, but in this movie he has found a random girl and decided to raise her as his own, only for her biological parents to return and try to take her back, but not because they just want their daughter, because they want to steal her heart so that the mom can live, because the mom needs a heart transplant. Yeah, it's extremely cartoonish. They are trying so hard to make Norman seem not as bad by comparison, when they really shouldn't, he should not be a protagonist in this film after the horrible things he did in the last movie.
The end of the movie has Norman kill an entire gang of drug dealers by playing dead in a pool of water, and then when they see him, they don't immediately shoot him even though he already killed several members of their gang, but instead slowly approach him while holding guns, and step into the water, which alerts him to their locations, and he shoots them all with perfect aim. Then he kills the little girls dad in a stupidly drawn out fight next to a swimming pool, and Norman somehow manages to not fall into the swimming pool despite him being blind and having no way of knowing where to go in this location which is completely foreign to him.
The action scenes, especially the first fight, are the only thing that keeps this film from getting a lower rating, but still, there's really no reason to watch this one. If you liked the first movie, this film just destroys everything that it did well, because in the first movie it was terrifying due to how well Norman knew his own house, so anyone who came inside was in danger, whereas in this movie Norman goes to completely new locations that he never has been in before and yet still finds his way around without any issue. And to top it all off, Norman gets stabbed in the back and presumably dies, but then the post-credits scene implies that he survived.
3/10 Please don't make any more of these.
Don't Breathe (2016)
I liked it, but it could have been so much better
This movie has an incredibly interesting premise, and really sucked me in from the start, I was super excited to see where it went. Overall, it didn't disappoint me in terms of being a thriller, but there were certain frustrating parts the held it back.
Starting off with acting, Stephen Lang absolutely knocked this one out of the park with his performance as The Blind Man, or Norman Nordstrom. Stephen is not blind, but you really think he is when you watch this movie, it's such a good performance that it helps you to overlook some of the weird parts of this film. The other actors are not by any means bad, his performance just stands out as particularly excellent. The crux of this film is that three young adult criminals break into the house of a blind man who locks them inside with him, and begins hunting them throughout the house, with it eventually being revealed that he has a woman captive in his basement who he has forcefully impregnated. That is a pretty disgusting and horrifying concept, and one that definitely instills a lot of fear in the viewer.
So what is the biggest flaw in this movie? Well, the most logical weakness of Norman is that he can be easily overwhelmed by loud noises, as hearing is his primary sense without his eyesight. And that is how he is defeated at the end of the movie, but the characters never attempt to use sound against him until the end, except for one time when one of them turns on a washing machine by accident. Why it never occurs to them to use sound on purpose until the very end of the movie is quite frustrating, and really holds this film back from getting a higher rating. An effective horror movie with an amazing performance from the main villain, but if you really think too hard into the movie there are some issues that can hold it back.
7/10 If you are looking for a casual thriller film that you aren't going to examine under a critical lens, this is for you.
Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
The best that the MCU has to offer
I am not personally a fan of the standard Marvel Film formula, I think the majority of Marvel films end up falling into the 4/10-6/10 range. However, whenever a film branches out from the standard MCU template, such as the X-Men films or Into the Spiderverse, it can be really good. This movie was special in that is was a part of the mainline MCU series, and still managed to do something completely different from what audiences are used to. And not only was this branching out, it also tied together over twenty movies and provided an excellent climax to the overarching plotline of Thanos and the Infinity Stones. While I have mixed feelings about Endgame, which serves as the conclusion to the MCU Infinity Stones Saga, this film is the climax, and is executed in a nearly flawless way.
The film actually manages to massively improve upon the plotline from the comics, as in the comics Thanos was trying to kill half the universe to impress Death, because Death is female in Marvel comics and Thanos wants to be romantically involved with her. This is actually the plot of the comics, and is honestly pretty stupid, so I really like that his motivation was changed for the film.
Only real issue with the movie is that it still has some of the cheesy Marvel "awkward" comedy, but it's a lot more toned down in this film compared to all of the other movies. There is also the fact that some plotlines with certain characters are set up and then not addressed in Endgame, but that's more of an issue with Endgame rather than Infinity War, so it should not be considered a detriment to this movie.
9/10 If you like Superhero films this is a must see.
Brave (2012)
This movie goes downhill so quickly
The beginning of this movie is pretty interesting, we have the set up of Merida as a princess who wants to be an archer, which isn't super complicated, but could certainly make for a great addition to the Disney lineup. It's also definitely nice to see a Disney Princess who is capable of defending herself in some form of combat. So I like the beginning of this movie.
But then... it all goes downhill, in the second act. So the mom destroys Merida's bow after Merida gets involved in an archery contest, causing Merida to run away, and asks a witch to make her a spell which will change her mother. The witch gives her a cake, which when given to the mother, turns her into a bear. The second act is then comprised of the two of them just kind of messing around and bonding while the mother is a bear. A few scenes of this would be fine but it is so long and just... boring.
And then, we are told that long ago there was a group of brothers who were all good, except for one, named Mor'du, who is the evil brother. It's the most juvenile and least interesting portrayal of a villain possible. I'm not saying him being pure evil is the problem, I'm saying having some evil prince that got cursed to be a bear and has no personality means the antagonist has no depth. Other classic Disney villains were pure evil but they still had characterization, Mor'du is just an evil bear that wants to kill the main characters. It is the most bland and uninspired direction that they could possibly take the conflict.
And at the end of the story the mom gets turned back and they make amends and everyone is happy. Great... I just don't know what else to say. The second act is painfully boring and dragged out, the final act has a conflict with what is possibly the worst and blandest Disney villain of all time, and then it ends exactly how you would expect.
3/10 The beginning of the movie is decent but the rest is so bland you will probably turn the film off halfway through.
Hazbin Hotel: Pilot (2019)
I can see why this got picked up to be a full series
So I will be completely honest, I am not particularly a fan of this specific style of storytelling, mainly an animated show in which the tone is constantly shifting from exaggerated comedy to serious drama. It is not the same as black comedy, because the goal at the end of the day is not to make you laugh, the goal is to tell a captivating story, but the entire thing is framed as comedic. I am not saying it is a bad style, I just personally do not like it, and feel as though it is overdone. However, it doesn't mean that it is a bad style just because it's not my favorite. So when I heard that this was getting picked up to be a fully-fledged animated series with an entire team behind it, and was started by a low-budget youtuber, I was definitely intrigued.
Needless to say, I was not personally that drawn in by the pilot because as I said before, I do not like the style. But objectively, it is quite well done. The animation is incredibly interesting, especially on Alastor the Radio Demon, along with the voice acting and music. The entire thing is professionally made, which is especially impressive since it comes from a youtuber, who, while they do have a team working for them, ultimately does not have the same resources as a TV production company. So even though it is not really my taste in storytelling, I definitely think that it deserved to be picked up for a full series.
I'm going to put this at a 6/10 for now due to us only having the pilot, but the rating for the overall series could be much higher, depending on how good it ends up being.
Encanto (2021)
Good use of family issues as a main villain
In recent years, a lot of animated studios have decided to stray away from having more traditional antagonists and had the conflict come from interpersonal drama, and I think Encanto is probably the best example of this that I have seen. During the film, we are led to believe that Bruno is going to be the main villain, since he has disappeared and is shrouded in mystery, but he ultimately is revealed to actually be a good person who loved his family, and was driven into hiding due to everyone fearing his ability to look into the future. This allows the movie to still essentially have a villain song, "We Don't Talk About Bruno" even though Bruno isn't actually a villain, because the villain in this film is family conflict, and that song exemplifies the family's issue with bottling up and not facing their issues, to the point where they have ostracized a member of their family.
The animation, voice acting, and especially the music are exceptional in this film. So what holds it back from getting a higher rating? Well to put it simply, the writing it pretty solid, until the very end of the film. The climax of this movie is basically just Mirabel explaining the message of the movie to her aunt Abuela. Mirabel literally just says "We will never be good enough for you" and then the house collapses. Then we get a flashback of Abuela's backstory, which, while it is a very tragic scene of her losing her husband, after this flashback the entire conflict is solved. I understand that this might be enough for Abuela to realize she has messed up, but then Bruno arrives and everyone just suddenly says "yeah lol we forgive you" and we have a final song which wraps everything out. It is just so badly paced... the movie needed to either be a little bit longer, or just compress some of the early parts in the film to make more room for the climax and emotional payoff of the ending.
7/10 This is a good watch but the ending is very rushed.
El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (2019)
It may not be as amazing as BCS or BB, but this is an excellent conclusion to Jesse's character
I believe this film managed to keep up with the quality of the original Breaking Bad series, with a few minor things that hold it back from being on the same level as Breaking Bad or Better Call Saul. Here's the big criticism people makes against this film: It's not necessary. But there is just one problem with that, Better Call Saul was not necessary either as a prequel to Breaking Bad, but that doesn't mean it was bad in any way, and I even personally liked Better Call Saul more than Breaking Bad. El Camino is a film that exists to wrap up the story of Jesse Pinkman, which I would consider to be absolutely necessary. The last seen of him in Breaking Bad did not show us his ultimate fate, as he would still be wanted and considered at large due to him being a former meth kingpin alongside Walter White. Now that Walter is out of the picture, Jesse would be their main focus, so I would argue that this movie was necessary for us to not assume that Jesse was just going to get arrested.
But if that's not a genuine criticism, what do I think holds this movie back from being just as high quality as the original series? Well to put it simply, the structure of the film is quite odd. Without getting into spoilers, there are a lot of flashbacks in this film, and they continue to appear until about a little over half way through the movie, in my opinion, they really overstay their welcome. They tell us information that we legitimately do not need to know, and take time away from the present day story, which is much more compelling. Some of the flashbacks make sense, such as those which just feature Jesse speaking with another character in one contained scene, but whenever we see multiple flashbacks of Jesse interacting with Todd, yeah it really makes you wonder why we couldn't just see more of the present day events, which are the entire reason we came to watch this film. But again, while the flashbacks are not as compelling scenes as the present day ones, they are still well done, well acted and shot with good cinematography and editing, and overall still have Vince Gilligan's amazing style.
9/10 If you care how Jesse's story ends, this won't disappoint you.
Better Call Saul (2015)
Breaking Bad was my favorite show until I watched this
I used to think that comparing Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul was a weird thing to do, because the shows were so different, but the second half of Better Call Saul has several plotlines that directly lead into Breaking Bad, to the point that several main characters from Breaking Bad such as Mike Ehrmantraut and Gus Fring have way more depth and development in this show. Because of this, I think it is fair to compare the handling of the major characters in the two shows. And in that way, Better Call Saul pretty much indisputably does a better job. A big part of this is that there is way more time in Better Call Saul, and its purpose with a lot of the returning characters is to set up up their role in Breaking Bad, therefore they just get more development. And the absolute most direct example of this is Saul Goodman, or Jimmy McGill.
The thing that really makes me enjoy this show more than Breaking Bad is the difference in the slow corruption between Jimmy and Walter White. I love Walter as a character, but him becoming more villainous is portrayed as a fuse going off in his head upon learning he has cancer, which leads him into wanting to commit crimes. And by the end of his show he admits his motivation was that he "felt alive" when he was making Blue Sky. This is incredibly interesting, but in contrast Jimmy McGill is someone who genuinely tries to straighten out and put behind his shady past, maybe still having a few scams and tricks every now and again, but not hurting anyone, but due to the influences in his life and the poor choices he makes, he slowly turns into Saul Goodman. This slower progression is overall a much more detailed transformation in comparison to the development of Walter White.
Better Call Saul has an analogue for every character from Breaking Bad. As I have just said, I feel as though Jimmy is done better than Walter, but there is also Kim Wexler and Skyler White, Chuck McGill and Walter Jr, Howard Hamlin and Hank Schrader, and finally Nacho Vargo and Jesse Pinkman. I believe that Jimmy, Kim, Chuck, and Howard are all more developed characters due to the format of Better Call Saul. The only exception is Nacho and Jesse, with Jesse probably having the most complex and captivating journey out of any character in the entire franchise. That said, I overall find the cast of Better Call Saul to be more captivating, and just had me more invested in what was going to happen next.
But I have to stress, that even though I enjoy Better Call Saul more, Breaking Bad is still absolutely mind blowing, and this show managing to top it in terms of quality does not take away from Breaking Bad's quality in any way. While I do wish this show went on forever, now that it is over I hope that another series isn't made, because the finale wrapped up everything perfectly, and trying to squeeze more content out of this franchise could lead to it getting dragged out and overdone. Let this go down in history as the best franchise of live-action television that has ever been made.
10/10 This show is 99.1% pure.
Django Unchained (2012)
I think this might be the best movie I've ever seen
Easily the best Tarantino film, but I would argue that the quality of this movie even goes beyond that, and is probably the best movie I have ever watched. I am not saying it is the best movie ever made, there are a lot of highly revered films I have not watched, and I have not yet seen Pulp Fiction, which I have seen referred to as the best Tarantino film. But god damn, it is going to have a hard time beating this.
So acting, a lot of the actors that are in this film has worked with Tarantino previously, most notably Samuel L. Jackson, who humorously is known for appearing in every Tarantino film, even if it is just a cameo role, like in Kill Bill. The two main returning Tarantino actors are Samuel L. Jackson as Stephen and Christoph Waltz as Dr. King Schultz. They are playing completely different characters in this film, and I would even go as far to say that Christoph Waltz does an even better performance here than he had in Inglorious Bastards, although a big part of that is due to him having a lot more screentime in this film due to its more linear nature in comparison to Inglorious, which was more episodic. However the best thing about the acting is the fact that Tarantino brought back two of his most iconic actors, and paired them with two new leads, Jamie Foxx as Django and Leonardo DiCaprio as Calvin Candy. Django is my favorite representation of the "stoic" character, as despite his stoic demeanor never completely breaking, it is completely justified as he is literally an escaped slave rather than just some random guy who is completely stoic without much justification, and he still has small moments of emotion, such as when he says his farewell to King Schultz and his revenge on the slave dog owners for the death of D'Artagnan. But even he pails in comparison to the performance of Leonardo, who absolutely blew his role as Calvin Candy out of the water. Probably the most accurate portrayal of a slave owner in any on-screen piece of media. The fact that he did not win any awards for this role is easily the biggest failure of the academy I am aware of.
The writing is almost beyond describing in how good it is, literally every single line has so much behind it, to the point that any individual interaction can be analyzed to see how it affects the character. I see a lot of over-analysis of media out there where they pretend that everything is dripping in symbolism when it really isn't, but this is a film where it actually is. For example, the scene in which Django talks to a random guy at Calvin Candy's bar and tells him the "D" in his name is silent, and the guy says "I know" which seems random, until you find out that the random guy who is only in that one scene is played by Franco Nero, who portrayed Django in the original 1966 film, which inspired this one. THAT IS INCREDIBLE. And beyond the writing, the soundtrack, the cinematography, the editing, all tied together by Tarantino's signature style of directing. You could even argue he stepped outside of his comfort zone for this film by having it be so linear, since he typically makes films where the events are not in chronological order, which allows this one to feel distinct among his catalogue of movies. An absolute masterpiece.
10/10, my favorite movie that I have seen to date.
RWBY: Of Solitude and Self (2023)
All of the set up and plotlines were completely destroyed!
So Volume 8 was very unpopular, I personally found it to be rather mid, and didn't hate it too much, but I did understand where a lot of the criticism was coming from. So when they announced that Volume 9 would focus on Team RWBY+Jaune and developing their characters, with Neo as the main villain, I was pretty hyped. And this volume set up a few really interesting plotlines, it featured Neo and her backstory, with a new supernatural villain in the form of the Curious Cat.
So you can imagine my earth shattering disappointment when they literally reversed all of the plotlines they were setting up at the very end of the volume. All of it. The only effect this volume had on the overall narrative is that Blake and Yang are now dating, which was way too dragged out to begin with and should have been done all the way back in Volume 7. So... this volume basically has no reason to exist.
Let's talk about Team RWBY, like I said, Blake and Yang get together, they do nothing else, and they should have gotten together way sooner. What does Weiss get in this volume? ...LITERALLY NOTHING. I challenge you, if you think that there was something else, tell me, message me, add me on discord at Merbal Nock#8818 and tell me what Weiss contributed to this volume, because she didn't contribute anything.
What about Ruby? Well she spent the entire volume becoming more and more depressed, and then she "ascended" by drinking the mystical tea leaves of the great tree, which is basically suicide, since it would erase her identity completely. And in the end, she didn't even change. She "chose herself" and just went back to who she used to be. So her character HAS NOT CHANGED. Oh but we learned a little bit about Summer Rose. Ok? Why should we care? We know nothing about her. All we know about Summer is that something happened to her, that's it. We haven't been given a reason to care at all.
Oh but my disdain for what they did with Ruby does not EVEN BEGIN TO COMPARE to what they did with Jaune Arc. Jaune was by far the most interesting character this volume, having to live with the trauma of killing Penny and being stuck in the Ever After for 10-20 years. His breakdown where he cries about being the only one who could make that decision is the best moment this volume. And then... they have his aging get reversed and he just kind of gets over everything that has happened. He's happy go lucky Jaune Arc again.
And then the Cat Dies and Neo ascends, so they are likely gone from the story for good. So that's it. Nothing was added to the overall story, except Jaune now has white strands of hair, but his personality is back to normal. This was filler. Nothing was contributed to the overall narrative, and Blake and Yang's relationship doesn't count since again it should have happened sooner and also romantic relationships do not necessarily count as part of the overall narrative, especially when that is the only thing you do with a character.
1/10 What a waste of time. If volume 10 happens please JUST DO SOMETHING THAT CONTRIBUTES TO THE OVERARCHING STORY.
The Borrowed Christmas (2014)
Probably the worst Christmas movie that you could watch
So for those who do not know, this film is an adaptation of a play called The Rented Christmas. Why in the world they felt the need to change the title is beyond me, but that's by far the least offensive change that was made when creating this movie.
So the director is a Christian, and appears to make Christian films, which I want to make clear is not a problem, you can make religious movies if you want. But the original play isn't about Christianity, it's just not, it doesn't come up at any points. Some small changes in this movie such as having holiday decorations that feature Christ would be absolutely fine, but the film changes dialogue and even the entire message of the movie.
In terms of objective quality, every single high school theater production that has put on a production of the original play is 100% better than this movie. The film is supposed to take place in a rich man's mansion, but instead is clearly just shot inside the director's living room and there is basically zero effort done to try and make the room look fancy. Thing is, if you are on a low budget, don't try to make a film where the setting is extravagant and requires expensive sets if you cannot afford them.
Overall, nothing works in this movie, I cannot even begin to describe how bad the directing is, to the point that every word that comes out of each actor's mouth sounds like it was AI generated, or is just a bastardization of the play's original script. Watching this movie is like if you went on an adult film video site and put in the tags "Christmas" and "Christian" and then scrolled to the bottom. I would give it a 0.5/10 if I could. The only thing keeping it from me wanting to give it a 0/10, is that some of the actors are kids, meaning some of the bad acting can be excused by that small fact.
0.5/10, just go watch A Christmas Story.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)
I am incredibly disappointed
The original Doctor Strange is one of my favorite MCU movies, so I was very excited for this one. And I feel like it let me down completely. Although before I talk about the things I hated I will go into the good parts of the film because not everything is bad.
Music - The music was very good. Danny Elfman's is incredibly talented and while I do kind of think his soundtrack was underutilized at times (mainly during the fight scenes) the scores themselves were all really good.
Animation - Good for the most part, all of the effects from Wanda's powers and the Wizards magic was really good, which doesn't surprise me since the MCU has a pretty good track record in recent years with decent CGI effects. Although the souls of the damned are a little hacky at times but it's not super noticeable so I don't think there is much of an issue.
Cinematography - All of the camera work was done very well, especially when the characters are travelling between universes, where the movie took some really interesting creative liberties. John Mathieson clearly knows what he's doing and I hope he gets brought back in the future since MCU movies are known to have weird or otherwise boring cinematography.
Editing - The editing is consistent and fine for the entire movie until the very end. The ending is incredibly abrupt and cut in a very awkward way, as well as the first end credits scene. But overall, Bob Murawski is a fine editor, not amazing, but aside from the ending he never does anything wrong.
Acting - Most of the actors did a really good job, Benedict Cumberbatch gets to play multiple versions of Doctor Strange so it's nice to see him expand his acting talent in one film, he's absolutely the highlight. Xochitl Gomez is pretty good as America, I didn't find her to be annoying at all and her and Benedict definitely gave off a father-daughter vibe in all of their scenes together. Benedict Wong is great as Wong, I wish he was in the movie more. Chiwetel Ejiofor is a bit cheesy as Mordo but his character is inherently pretty cheesy so I don't have much of an issue with that. Patrick Steward cameos as Professor X and he's great, I wish he was in the movie a lot more. We see Wanda's kids and their... ok for child actors. Rachel McAdams is fine as Christine, and the rest of the supporting cast has no issues. However, Elizabeth Olsen is not doing a very good job at selling Wanda being the Scarlet Witch. It's not completely her fault since the writing on her character is so poor but in general I didn't find her to be intimidating I just felt like her character was bland and uninteresting.
Writing/Story - This is the biggest issue. I hate the fact that I am supposed to have watched WandaVision before watching this movie. I should be able to understand why Wanda has turned evil without having seen it, but you don't. You're just told she was corrupted by a dark magic book that... she just has. Again, I haven't seen WandaVision and shouldn't have to to understand this movie! Also I get that she lost her husband but... why is the movie treating her like she's a tragic villain, the way it's shot and edited makes it seem like we are in fact supposed to feel bad for her but there is no way you could ever feel sympathy for a character who justifies murdering innocent people because she lost some people she cared about. Why does the movie treat her like she is sympathetic at all? Honestly the biggest issue with this movie is just the Scarlet Witch in general is not a very convincing villain, and they beat her by just showing her that she would frighten her children, and then she kills herself. It doesn't even feel like he's about Doctor Strange, he doesn't even defeat Scarlet Witch, he just saves America who then proceeds to beat Scarlet Witch. The most important thing that he does is give a motivational speech, and while Benedict Cumberbatch is a good actor he cannot save incredibly cliché dialogue and make it sound not cliché. The other biggest issue with the film is that they nerfed the wizards hard, and at times you wonder why they don't just re-use their most powerful spells over and over until they win. Like is the mirror dimension power only used once? At one point Doctor Strange uses a spell to freeze a monster, then it manages to free itself and he's like "I can't slow it down!" Just use the ice spell a second time! And once you notice this you realize that the conflict of this movie is incredibly forced.
Again it's not the worst movie of all time and I could nitpick it a lot more than I already have, just... if you like the first movie a lot you will probably enjoy this but if you examine it under a critical eye in any way it will completely fall apart because the main villain and the magic system are both handled very poorly.