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JHeez15
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First Reformed (2017)
Thought Provoking
Every now and then you find a gem of a movie. So often I find myself endlessly scrolling through the countless options on all of the different platforms. It becomes a practice in anxiety induction. Half of the time I don't watch anything. I just scroll.
Very rarely do I find something that I truly connect with.
I connected with this.
Capone (2020)
Not sure why there is so much negativity
If you watched the trailer, you knew going in that this film wasn't going to profile the heyday of Al Capone, but rather his cognitive decline at the end of this life. I am not sure if this is indicative of our times that people can't sit through a movie without all of the bells and whistles, but I thought this was a phenomenal portrayal of what dementia looks like. It just goes to show you that even the wealthy are just human and suffer like anyone else. I recommend this movie to everyone. It is not a gangster film but a portrayal of a violent criminal whose dementia haunts him.
Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
Rian Johnson ruined a potentially phenomenal trilogy. (Trilogy review)
Let me be clear; I was entertained by both The Rise of Skywalker and The Last Jedi. Neither deserve a 1/10. Neither deserve a 10/10 (not even close). As a passive observer I can see how people thought these were "good movies". They may be "good movies", they are not good Star Wars movies.
JJ Abrams set Rian Johnson up with a perfectly teed up ball with The Force Awakens.. You had new interesting characters and enough plot to work with to color in some background for them. Rey, Finn, Snoke...all interesting. Rian decided that he was going to create the next Empire, and totally failed in every way. People called it bold. It wasn't. At every turn when SERIOUS risks could have been taken, they were avoided at all costs (think Finn's hero death, or Rey being asked to join Kylo), all the while ruining aspects of the film just to be able to say "gotcha" to the fandom (Rey's heritage, Snoke's irrelevance). TRS follows all of that up perfectly.
JJ basically had some duct tape and was trying to stick anything to this movie that he could. He was pulling stuff from TFA that were unopened questions that people were interested in (think Rey's heritage or Knights of Ren), but because of the execution of TLJ they fell totally flat and felt extremely forced. He basically included anyone alive from the originals. I am kind of surprised George didn't show up somewhere.
Moment upon moment is cheapened in this movie. Oh, your favorite character dies? No worries; we will either magically heal them or bring them back as ghosts. Talk about stealing moments. I understand Force Ghosts are a thing. But I had no idea anyone's ghost could come back (Hi Han!!!)
This could go on and on. I loved The Force Awakens. I thought JJ played it safe to give to a new generation what the original had provided. TLJ ruined that, and TROS tries to rectify anything that it can. This is not a trilogy. This is not a beginning, middle and end.
Not to mention that Star Wars now is on the front lines of politics. Much like Marvel has now gone "Woke", so has Star Wars. This most likely will be the last movie that I see in this franchise. The Rise of Skywalker, really? It honestly felt more like a funeral.
The Mandalorian: Chapter 1: The Mandalorian (2019)
Underwhelming Pilot but holding out hope
Super underwhelming pilot episode. Too short, not very interesting and the music was incredibly jarring. I wanted to love it because "Star Wars" but I can't go any higher than a 6/10 on this. Solid production but that was it. I am not sure Favreau is the right man for the job here. I love what he did with Marvel, but Star Wars is not Marvel (despite Last Jedi's great attempt at proving otherwise). I am waiting to see how the story develops but I am not going to lie, I thought it was pretty boring. Are all of these episodes only going to be a little over 30 minutes? If that is the case, I definitely will be tempering my expectations.
The OA: Angel of Death (2019)
Left me wanting more
There are some things in life that you cannot explain. One of those things is my deep love and connection to this show. I remember telling my neighbor to watch the OA. When I saw him again he said that he didn't like it and preferred Stranger Things. I thought to myself, "you missed it".
It may have been the time of life I was in when I initially was captivated by the first season of the OA. My wife and I had recently learned that we lost our first child due to a miscarriage. We were broken. This show is full of broken people.
There is so much to consume nowadays. It is rare to find the diamond in the rough, but this show was one of those times for me. I rewatched the first season in anticipation for this season and again was drawn into the deepness of the story telling. The final episode of season 1, especially the ending, is so powerful to me. When they recognize each other in the midst of a horrifying situation, and act out of courage, it truly touches me.
I thought the first episode of this season was dark, mysterious and original. For those disappointed that they didn't see the old familiar place they were expecting, well that is just it isn't it? We are on the other side now, in a way. I think about one of the greatest shows I have ever seen, The Wire, and how the second season "departed" from the first, but the final product was a dazzling masterpiece with a POINT. There was a purpose for why it was put together like that.
I am so happy they took 3 years to write this. This is a story that needs time to develop and not rushed like so much else on Netflix.
This show is special. It truly is. I want to binge the whole thing but I promised my wife I would wait for her. I am looking forward to episode 2 tomorrow night.
Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017)
This could be viewed as the turning point of the franchise
While I am not going to go so far as to say that The Last Jedi was a terrible movie, I do think it failed in basically every way to capitalize on what I thought was an extremely well done "reboot" of the series in the Force Awakens. Yes, JJ Abrams relied heavily on nostalgia and a near retelling of the original movie to bring us back to the universe far, far away, but he did it in a way that you KNEW he was honoring something that needed to be planted correctly after the near abominations that were the prequel movies.
The idea that this was being marketed as the best movie since Empire is laughable. The tension of the Force Awakens is eradicated in mere minutes. The humor is cheap, jarring and unbefitting a saga which gave us the wit of Han Solo. The fantastic characters and their storylines from TFA are cheapened in a way that there were entire subplots that could have been dropped. There were miscasts, reminiscent of Samuel L. Jackson as Mace Windu. The handling of Luke's Grand re-entrance, while there were some savory moments, was at least a partial dud. The biggest flaw of all was the way that they kept playing with a plot twist that never materialized.
This is obviously my own opinion. There are some redeeming qualities to the film such as the cinematography and some epic space battles (and Rey is always phenomenal). I still really appreciate the actors from TFA, even though I felt like they were done a disservice by the director. All-in-all, I am happy that JJ Abrams will be back to helm Episode 9. Star Wars needs him or it risks turning into what the Pirates of the Caribbean turned into; an epic parody of itself.