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Reviews
Julie & Julia (2009)
Cute film with the wrong measurements
Nora ephron is still a genius there are some sequences that fit the film objectives so perfectly
More.julia and less Julie would have warmed hearts
Juxtaposing a perfect 50s era icon with an nyc type wasn't going to work.
The self absorbed nature of Julie does work well to build struggle but it's over cooked and frivolous
She can't recognise herself in her friends and it becomes annoying how obsessive the inconsequential goal becomes
The mortal sin is how writing success from every direction emerges. All writers know that getting a film made is a miracle, the best of the best are still being tied up in pre production or optioned and going no where. The blog wasn't remarkable the film was marketable.
Great photography and score particularly in the early era flash backs.
Butter (2011)
How to turn a good cast into Peanut Butter
Dry stereotypes abound
A token lesbian scene because why not Harvey
Textbook Hollywood Republican bashing
A non existent plot that revolves around 2 people that become master craftsmen out of thin air
1 in 10 jokes land, it's just too low for the screen
At least this was in an era when studios were still running things and production values and casting was taken seriously. It's nice at least in the beggining to feel like you're in a movie
It would also nice if producers didn't put some much trust in high concept films and just find some well written stories to share. It doesn't always have to be weird and zany, that push is getting tiring
Hard pass.
Once Upon a Time in... Hollywood (2019)
Inglorious
Another self indulgent piece that breaks all the unwritten rules...without a good reason to do so.
An all star cast assembled to perform in a a bunch of set pieces in what appears to be a slow chaotic plot.
+3 for the happy ending and hippies dying.
If others enjoy it, so be it. I never want to understand.
Brooklyn (2015)
GOOD tobesure
An immigration story that doubles as a thoughtful romance.
Such a beautiful formula, why has Hollywood neglected this type of film for so long and fed us cliche sex romps of millennials being as uninhibited as possible.
There is little context to Ailish being so susceptible to the charms of another man, it seems out of character but the film still works.
There is still nothing quite like a happy ending.
Thank You.
The Wedding Singer (1998)
This record deserves a side B
Every romcom cliche is employed and its still good, thats the genius of Adam Sandler.
Add real impromptu laughs from Drew Barrymore and you have star cast that can make any story work.
Very few romcoms have a good transition from interest to love but this works, how much the talented cast is to blame is debatable.
The minor parts and extras are all believable in the vein of Sandlers own later productions and this wins it for me.
I can't believe this was over 20yrs ago and still better than whats on offer today.
Someone Great (2019)
Hipster Gentrification
The type of trendy script that thinks its being diverse by showing lesbians kiss and feminists sermonize but is really just the comfortable plight of the cliché aspirational middle class.
There is a few sequences of witty dialogue which was cute but overall this film just tries way too hard.
+1 for the real emotion and heartbreak
+1 for the overload of non linear romance flashbacks.
Love Hard (2021)
Hard Sell, Soft Love.
Tried really hard to be contemporary and relevant but the acting team couldn't quite sell it. Many cringe moments littered this piece.
No hard feelings, getting any movie made is a miracle but a catfish story with a happy ending is very fanciful as a starting point.
The only great part was the build up of tension in the engagement party scene, besides that the couples had no real time to escalate or de-escalate their love triangle.
Not a comedy and that's ok, it shouldn't have been labelled that to begin. That may be subjective but those around me agreed.
The homage to Love Actually was on the nose in consideration of how easily the co protagonist changed her mind and feelings for her love interest.
The debate about Die Hard feels straight out of Reddit and an old topic of conversation. Just one of many lil additions that made this feel like it was a first time writer.
Might have liked to have seen how the huge emphasis on appearance causes young people to make many mistakes in their life.
The nursing home scene was a great idea but should have been reshot with other material. Having something that reads well often can churn out as a fail.
The family home and basement felt authentic.
Overall seeing two people come together in love is always good, even when its bad, more romcoms should be made. Its a tragedy that there are not more to choose from in the film industry anymore.
Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
Once upon a time in Covid lockdown
Its just super difficult for a modern audience to sit through 4hrs hours unless its brilliant, and this film is not Ben Hur.
The character arcs we were shorter than what we see in TV series instead we got minute upon minute of climbing down ladders and walking down hallways like a student film.
What we did get is perfect period visuals and well cast actors but this does not transform it into an interesting piece.
The non linear script is annoying more than it is clever but I'm sure that Leone fans won't care, they go into it already worshiping him. Big mistake turning down the Godfather before this production, its almost like he was over ambitious to try and redeem himself from the loss.
I really dislike it when imbd over rates and gets me to waste so many hours on Netflix - thank goodness we can watch it at x1.5 speed.
Women will be unhappy about so many rape scenes, you made your point about the culture of the day with the first one.
The gangs transition to success didn't go past a sequence about an innovative import tactic. There was lots of prohibition hostility that should have featured and felt like a missed opportunity.
How not to make an epic.
4/10.
What Is Life Worth (2020)
The opening scene philosophy class....
That would have been a film WORTH staying in.
Much was missing from what could have been an important film......
* Not many have dared tell 911 stories so it was brave but thousands of lives reduced to the simple premise of what life is worth.
* Its a simple moral equation that everyone is important to someone and you can't put a dollar figure on that. This wasn't grappled with as title suggested it would be.
* The filmmakers focused on two cases out of thousands to escalate the tension (a adulterer and a homosexual couple) which in my view diminishes all the other less interesting cases. This is real life, not for entertainment purposes.
* The special master attorney did not get a fair shake of his skills and prior cases to gives us context of his own humanity.
* The link of this story to congressmen that did legwork on it was given no attention.
* The moral victory did not hit home, this almost felt like it would have happened without all the players if it took its own course. This is bad in that you don't have much of a movie within this plot.
* The activist tendencies took so much time away from the central premise of how we value human life. Widows having to pay big mortgages and private school tuition is too privileged a concept to explore. The greater truth is all lives rich and poor matter and their pain is just as great. Justice includes those kids continuing the life trajectory they were on. That's how terrorists truly don't win.
* The political tropes were naïve, likewise the outro and credits. Committees and congressmen flagged to look into compensation issues indefinitely. 911 compensation was not ever going to be a rush.
* The performances were not great in consideration of the raw emotion available for this reality brought to screen. The initial community consultation scene worked well +1
* Boring execution, with no character arcs outside of new information about cases coming forward. The appointed attorney challenged the idea of worth from the opening scenes.
* The NY jew comment in Act 1 was not necessary, it doesn't add anything to the story, there were plenty of other way to portray the victims outrage.
* Kenneth Feinberg's speaking fee is in excess of $30,000. Nobody should be under any illusions of his worth and other vocations that need figures assigned to them. Anecdotes of pay to slay programs by Jihadi's abroad had plenty of opportunity to be mentioned.
* Real B roll and associated images was decided against which could have taken this film into the stratosphere and begging for a ballsy producer on the next attempt.
* This script turned into a story about attorneys instead of victims. If that was intended, fair enough.
* I struggle to sympathize with the passed away cheater in spite of him being a courageous 911 hero. His children's lives would have been broken in a deeper way, if and when they found him out in the land of the living.
* The State is responsible to millions of tax payers. Calculating something outside of what they might have brought home is problematic. Everyone mentioned is rendered as a superficial caricature. The plot is too ambitious. Some novels like the one they borrowed are not adaptable to screen.
Joker (2019)
Joker is NOT an 8+ film, here's why....
A deep scan of reviews has fans that can understand depression become overwhelmed with empathy. There is a reason for everything, and understanding the context of a nostalgic character like the joker is what works.
There was not a faithfulness to the scenes in Batman begins. Police chief introduces him during the outro as someone fairly unknown not a state wide celeb as played out in this film, that break in story continuity ruins it for me.
Likewise the reinterpretation of Mr Wayne as something he never was. This takes away from the moral clarity of the pending superhero Batman.
The greed narrative feels like its something that was force fed without rhyme or reason. While the joker had a substantial arc, the sub plots did not.
Nostalgia is what brings the film to life, there is not many ways to not make money from iconic characters, this film should have been attempted years ago!
Over the years Hollywood actors have been applauded for playing villians which is the easiest character study of them all. Whats hard is being protector of the realm without it feeling preachy or cheesy. These roles get a natural upscaling.
The main plot element of inviting Arthur onto the talk show was not convincing, the stand up performance was not in the genre of 'so bad its good' his first vision from the audience defending his mother was however powerful and well written.
A cameo for Alfred the butler would have been special and really pulled us back into the story.
The ways this film was lauded in its first week was ridiculous, it does drag in many places over the 2hr hour screening.
All the theatrical trailers were an 8 so many of us expected more. To say this is a better production than Batman Begins is shocking.
The difficult reality to bare in this over hyped rating and cultural reality is many people in our age really feel like this and are on the verge of rioting after life takes its toll.
The broken man whose mental instability and illness is the catalyst for what Arthur Fleck eventually becomes is a great story that can be told a million ways, this was not executed well.
The dream sequences worked well but the device was still not as good as Heath Ledgers raw portrayal of a psychopathic megalomaniac and the cinematography of Nolan in related films.
Simple plot failures like the police not being able to catch up with Arthur who was not trying to be careful was disappointing and took me right out of the story.
A good ensemble of actors can't save a bad script, why was this rushed to production? Something as important as Batman origin stories need much more careful work. I believe over time this score must average out and down.
Was this an homage to "Taxi Driver" or "The King of Comedy" apparently not. The opportunity for genuine franchise building was surprisingly tossed away and will be hard to repair.
Critics who use the word 'masterpiece' and
'groundbreaking' need to have a long hard look at themselves, their surroundings and the education that they all seem to share. There is F all diversity in this mob who keep playing us.
The Big Lebowski (1998)
Loved The Dudes Hair
It's meant to be a crime-comedy, some witty dialogue doesn't make me crackle with laughter.
It drags on with the pace of Ben-Hur yet their are no iconic characters to save it.
The subtext is a series of cliques and often an homage to the film noir tastes of the nostalgic writers.
The type cast performances which is what the film relies on get boring quickly, even Turturro.
Random events make young film fans believe they are getting something new and brilliant. Its continues to grow in the enigma that it must be liked, I must watch it again to discover the layers of film making brilliance like others have discovered...
Just like pulp fiction before it, this is a story about nothing. If you watch any ordinary film enough times you can uncover a writers secret sin, their personal stories, their hidden tributes.
There is very little plotting and the musical interludes are just meant to add to the intrigue of being unique and weird. If you find metaphors dropped around within them, congratulations but it's nothing you couldn't experience on YouTube. After all abstract art also has cult followings and million dollar price tags.
Remember that heroic free citizen who didn't salute the national socialist party of Germany - who at the time hadn't done anything demonstrably murderous yet? Be that person.
The one that can flow against the grain and see this series of short films knit together to create a cult following of fanboys and one liners that gives them relief from their miserable lives.
Masters of the Universe: Revelation: Land of the Dead (2021)
I'm not throwing out my OEM dolls over this...
The familiar kiddie lines from Orko are still superb!
Really getting tired of the Teela show, especially in civilian clothes which takes us out of the original feeling of MOTU
Fans have every right to be fussy with something they grew up with and loved....
The most precious component of the original was the 15 second moral message we were left with at the end of each episode, this new incarnation is preachy all the way through.
I'm out.
+1 for Orko's premature sacrifice without much of a character arc.
Masters of the Universe: Revelation: The Most Dangerous Man in Eternia (2021)
Witty puns don't make a story
Oh wow I so miss Orkos failed magic tricks! Was a fantastic theme that continued throughout the original series and this episode wrote in a great example!
Goodies and baddies working together is a nice touch.
Leela as the main protagonist was never the intention of this franchise. Every character was meant to take a lead from episode to episode.
I'm sad the way this reboot is going :(
Masters of the Universe: Revelation: Poisoned Chalice (2021)
Ideological Decline
Just as I was told and suspected to be true....
Modern day execs feel they can muck around with time tested characters and conform them into their own image.
Teela gets an attitude, bulging muscles and an undercut.
There's so much other work you activists can push feminism tropes in DONT do it with an 80s cartoon that all of us want to see reproduced with modern animation techniques.
No glove no love line was clever enough to be hidden from children's ears and mildly funny, please don't make a habit of trying too hard to be funny, that's not what HeMan is.
Masters of the Universe: Revelation: The Power of Grayskull (2021)
Faithful Opening
The generation that grew up worshiping these characters will be somewhat pleased by the faithful reproduction.
The animations were similar enough to create nostalgia, the voice overs likewise took us back to that time.
The writing is great and finds the simple/clever balance.
For those of us that knew He-Man as all powerful might not be happy with his demise right in Episode 1 this is way too crafty and unnecessary for a story that's already so fixed in middle age minds. This might have been saved for a mid season high point. A slower build up perhaps.
Just grateful that nobody mucked around with the original concept too much but I've heard this didn't last long from others, lets see.
Onto episode 2!
You've Got Mail (1998)
Joan of Arc
This philosophical, romantic, political, comical, satisfying in all the right ways.
Romcoms must have the predictability of a FOX chain store, its the way it takes you there that counts.
This should be rated higher because its hard to actually do well.
Edgy romcoms of today try so hard and fail, go back to what works please Hollywood~!
Colossal (2016)
Colossal waste of time
This premise never had a chance, even if EP's had a room full of old studios legends to help.
Even in scifi you need to create a world that makes sense, didn't happen.
Believable characters and tropes ceases after the first scene.
The most messed up question of them all is did Anne Hathaway take this ridiculous script because there were undertones of DV and a strong feminist lead? Well this is the rubbish you get as a result
Slow clap you spaced out activist clowns.
The Bridges of Madison County (1995)
Bridge too Far
From location directions to picking flowers for a stranger within 10mins.
The female lead is bashful and flirting with a grandpa artist within moments of their first meet and has an offer to staying for a drink, then dinner...
A completely unthoughtful beginning to an overated romance.
A deeper look at the academy awards this picture won is a glimpse into an agenda in full flight and the members who are often comforted by their own former family life.
Thank goodness the commercial market is occupied with real people.
On finer matters the philosophical vagabond who captures the attention of the bored housewife is so cliché and predictable. I wanted to stop watching a handful of times except for seeing how much worse it could get.
The dialogue drags on and is tedious.
The juxtaposed story timeline and flashbacking pulls us out and doesn't work well.
Then of course the moral dilemma is not explored in any serious way.
Rubbish.
No Country for Old Men (2007)
Kaos & Meaninglessness...
...will make sense to those of you who feel this has been part of your life. Before you give this over arching theme a thumbs up take inventory of how much longer you've got to live. You are wrong about the merits of what's trying to be achieved in this picture.
The unhappy uber chich ending is starting to get over done, and psychopaths' get a free ride in the intrigue stakes when character driven pieces are performed.
I and many others didn't believe the villainy, where was the opposition after such a series of mass murders? A single federal agent? Where was the visual context for us to consider prior? All we saw was him killing with very little obstacle except one gunfight where he takes some pellets at close range from a hunter, marksman and Vietnam vet.
Killing all 3 protagonists might appear trendy after we slowly begin to root for the lucky joe who found a bag of money but even in the 60s a manhunt would have been on. And don't get me started about a thumb size long range tracking device which was not possible in that era which was a central plot device.
You can praise the long drawn out thriller if you like, but no amount of philosophical nihilism or vignettes of noir to show off to film buffs will change the fact this picture is over rated.
1+ for the way Brolin collected the guns in the opening scene IVE ALWAYS wanted to see an action hero do that, nobody else writes that moment in which annoys *claps*
A nice little character arc is created for Woody but he is killed off very quickly and the opportunity is wasted. You'd think if you were going to crap on the modern conventions of length so hard you'd be able to get these sequences right.
While it achieves its thriller status, there are no real twists, we just wait like force fed netflix consumers for the next shock or gore. It's really an unintelligent model that's emerged in Hollywood.
The unique weapon trope is also borrowed and old.
Many scenes to sell the fact that Anton is a pysco are stand alone and not part of a tapestry of story telling to layer the work. Judging these as mastery of the craft is a failure to see the weaknesses of the script.
Make no mistake its a middle class, middle age audience that rates here and this score of 8+ is not what would happen if a census was forced.
If you're normal save your evening and watch some Disney with the kids.
Click (2006)
CLICK FOR GOOD TIMES
Not very sophisticated but I still cried and cheered!
That's the beauty of good story telling and a script that somehow works.
Sandler is diverse and prolific.
A rare PG13 that the whole family can enjoy and be inspired by.
Yesterday (2019)
The 5th Beatle of 2020
Great concept with a seemingly impossible 3rd act somehow works.
The fact you've paid royalties for track with such epic nostalgia means we are going to be dragged the whole way through.
A love story and a couple of moral tales in the subplot makes this absurd concept really shine.
They missed an opportunity for classics like 'we can work it out' & 'if i feel in love'
Lily James is such a cutie and going to be huge if she sticks to roles that she can shine in and doesn't try to get fresh with diverse roles for the mere sake of not being typecast.
The Kindness of Strangers (2019)
Hang in there
The story of many women, told from a compassionate and well tortured perspective to really pull on the heart strings...
I can despise modern feminism and still love this film. A convergence of injustice, human rights, health care, social marginalization, poverty, violence and the individuals that try and fix what's wrong in society, long before institutions can or would.
Zoe Kazan profiles well for a young mother its a pity that her personal politics is so much more preachy than this script, that subtly takes us to a place of sober introspection and mankind's obligation to love thy neighbor.
It is believable in that all the character arcs had their own agendas but still found a way to bring kindness to their part of the world!
The NYC backdrops and score were delightful.
Some missed opportunities with the ending.
Nice film.
Avatar (2009)
This will be forgotten
WHAT! An 8 is way out of hand. The technological hype has been enough to wow people but if people go into a film for the innovation and overlook the whole then I think its rather juvenile.
Whatever ground breaking effects were praiseworthy are lost on an audience that recognize the ideological inputs that ruin the rest of the picture.
On this occasion it was in the form of ecological fascism that went in the form of humans=evil/greedy & nature=pure/holy.
Without a thorough critique of the rest of the production I would simply ask Hollywood to get back to entertaining and stay out of politics, reputations are developed fast.
There were further no standout individual performances which is what serious critics really thrive on when good cinematography is a given with such enormous budgets.