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r0cko723
Reviews
Tár (2022)
Not for those for whom life is too short
I'm getting too long in the tooth to put time into watching a film that makes me feel like I'm aging even faster while I'm watching it. The opening credits, which ran about four minutes and required zoom magnification to actually read, almost had me bailing out right there. The opening scene, an interview before a live (not yet dozing) audience, hammers home the fact that this film is a product of very intelligent and cultured minds. Very. So much so that it really does seem as if would be wasted on a cretin like me. Imagine a Woody Allen film scene set at a gala for the cultured class. Now put that dialog on intellectualized steroids, and you get the first ten minutes or so (or was it an hour?) of this movie. I cut my losses at that point.
Yellowstone (2018)
Two stars for very credible/effective actors; not so much for content.
As one reviewer has noted, the bunch in Yellowstone is like a cowpoke mafia. The actors do a great job providing fully dimensional characters, but the characters garner no sympathy or empathy from me. I don't care what happens to them. Their concerns are so far from my own, and so petty, narcissistic, and materialistic in the big picture of things, that I have no curiosity about who they are, what they do, or who they will become. --In real life, I've known a few people like the characters in Yellowstone. I tried to stay away from them as much as possible and was happy when any interactions I might have had with them (e.g., through school or, later, work) became part of my distant past.
Kate (2021)
Copy/paste reassembly of Crank and and like films
Essentially, a repackaging of better/more original action flicks, like Crank, John Wick, Edge of Darkness, La Femme Nikita, even Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Its a pastiche of themes from those flicks with a female lead. The cinematography is very good, but despite all of the stylized gore, it's a bore. Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Woody Harrelson are fine actors, but their best work is in other movies. They make do with what they've got.
Sharknado 4: The 4th Awakens (2016)
Gleefully ridiculous
This self-aware schlock, with the leads all playing their roles straight and earnest, is willing to jump the shark over and over if it's good for a laugh. Often, it succeeds.
The Flight Attendant (2020)
Like fingernails dragged down a chalkboard
About a half hour into this, I was questioning why I was putting myself through this discomfort. The protagonist is a moron, not just an addict. And yet I gutted out the first episode to the end. But no more. I've sworn off the self-flagellation, and it's a relief to be free again.
Reminiscence (2021)
I tried, but couldn't make it through . . .
Initially, the world-building reminded me a bit of Blade Runner--just that noir future feel of a world gone to slop, where people live their lives with greatly reduced expectations. And then the memory tub contraption was a bit reminiscent of Inception, so it made sense to get braced for some trickeration. Not sure what to trust, right? That could be a good thing, actually, could make for a certain suspense. Except, in this film, it doesn't. Good cast members provided a ray of hope, but all sorts of things quickly seemed to make no sense, and there wasn't enough development of character to make it emotionally investable to continue. I reminded myself that I never made it through my first viewing of Inception (then revisited it several times later, as it became one of my favorite films). But that was back when I was still drinking, and literally passed out on the couch. Now, after almost a decade of sobriety, I was dozing off on Reminiscence with nothing stronger than a diet soft drink on the table. In the end, I had to ask myself what it would take to make it through the whole movie, but then I thought better of it. No need for unnecessary suffering, eh? Life is short. No need to waste an hour or more of it.
In a Lonely Place (1950)
Bogart's exceptional portrait of an ass-hat
There is an intensity and leanness about this film that would do justice to the material in any era, including the 2020s. Bogart's Dixon Steele was striking, for me, in the character's complexity and range, combining high intelligence and sensitivity with primal and destructive impulses. I've known a couple guys like Dix in real life; they always seem to have a coterie to make excuses for them. They might leave a trail of exceptional accomplishments, but what's enduring to me is the complete waste of humanity they represent--because of what they could be or become, and the gifts at their disposal, and the despicable way they periodically treat others, they are to me the worst of d-bags; complete ass-hats. Bogart's work here is outstanding; he really really really made me want to kick his ass.
Threads (1984)
Nuke war bad. Movie almost as bad.
The first third of the movie labored a bit, but I thought it was somewhat effective in setting up a scenario showing, from a local level, a buildup to a nuclear holocaust and how people might behave in the days leading up to it. This was already done with the U.S.-made film "The Day After," starring Jason Robards. Then comes the big blowup, and the entire second half of the film is one depressing and dismal scene after another showing the hopelessness of the remnants of society in dissolution and death. These pieced together scenes are hamfisted with a double topping of sledge hammer. And you know what? The dreariness is pretty boring. I kept fast-forwarding through segments, wondering if there would be some recontinuation of an actual dramatic thread, but there was none, really. Just misery, disease, predation, and death. Sorry, my life, like everyone else's, has a limited number of days and hours, and I would not spend another minute of it watching this turkey of a propaganda piece.
Rambo: Last Blood (2019)
Welcome to Chez Rambo!
How would Madame or Monsieur prefer today's serving of violence? Extra spicy? Emphasis on quantity? Oh, yes, I see . . . the All-You-Can-Stomach buffet! But of course. Might I then suggest "Rambo: Last Blood"? The revenge sauce is served quite cold, and yet . . . roasted through and through. You'll need a large bib for the splatters.
As has been noted in at least one other review, this Rambo installment is essential Rambo for Rambo fans. The director has dispensed with ancillary artistic concerns and focused esthetic energy on the properly incited and enraged protagonist, and more essentially, on what he does to those who are morally culpable. This flick Rambos with gusto. Get some!
Bad Boys II (2003)
The Michael Bay Amp is turned up to eleven on this one.
I have to laugh at critics whose delicate sensibilities are offended by the Michael Bay approach to action film making. Bay does this genre the Bay way. It's expensive, loud, visual, and visceral. It doesn't skimp on effects and detonations. There will be collateral damage, usually massive property carnage. There will be no doubt about the status of the villain(s). Same for the good guys. Same for their cause, whatever it might be. Slow-mo will be applied liberally for effect, when extra doses of effect are desired. Explosions? Bullets? Bazookas? Well, it goes without saying. In Bad Boys II, Michael Bay applies his wares to great effect. He Michael-Bayed the daylights out of this movie. He came, he saw, he Michael-Bayed. And it was fun.
Mr. Robot: eXit (2019)
The final season is proceeding as if Sam Esmail is immune to performance angst.
Holy cow, if I had been the director of one of the incredible episodes we've seen this season, I'd be paralyzed by performance anxiety in having to follow it up with a subsequent episode that won't miss the bar and fall flat by comparison. And yet, he keeps doing it--keeps reaching and even raising that bar. This final year of the series is so good it's ridiculous. I feel like Breaking Bad is the best series I've ever seen, but now I'm not so sure--at least, based on the quality of the 4th season of Mr. Robot. Episode 11 (season 4) has me picking up the pieces of my mind yet again. Retrieval is not confined to the living room. I'm having to go into the kitchen and hallway for fragments as well, and also into the bedroom, and under the bed . . . even into the closets and the shower room.
The Day After Tomorrow (2004)
Political message(s) offset by fun adventure story.
Yes, the politics and preaching are doubly horrible, but if one is willing to suspend disbelief and just go with it, this is a fun catastrophe film and adventure story. The leads are likable and easy to root for, on a human level. For those who like camp value, there's that too -- enough ridiculousness to meet those needs. Normally I'm turned off by politically preachy flicks, but with this one, I found it easy to laugh off the obvious and clumsy politics and just enjoy the thrills that come with a good disaster film and ambitious special effects. I'd give it 6.5 out of 10, but the IMDB rating system doesn't provide for fractional/decimal values, so I rounded up to a 7.
Mr. Robot: 408 Request Timeout (2019)
My emotions are probably overriding my critical sense, right now.
Mind you, I don't see this episode as lower than a 9 out of 10 assuming I took a purely technical/objective approach to reviewing it. It's hard to see anything topping the 7th episode of this season in terms of execution, craft, timing, and intensity. And the 5th episode (405) was mindblowing in originality and execution. But I have to say the final scene of episode 8 grabbed me by the heart and is still holding on. If viewed as an allegory, this scene elevates the story beyond the specific to the universal. It's something that I suspect many, many viewers can relate to in their own experience (not necessarily confined to the effects of childhood abuse, but more about the way one can come to idealize or "re-create" a loved one yet knowing their flaws). We find this kind of treatment in the greatest works that ponder and reveal the human condition. I know I'm just commenting here in the first hour after viewing the episode, and maybe I'm getting carried away because I'm feeling so much for Elliot's character, but I don't think I'm falling into hyperbole. This episode is that intense.
Mr. Robot: 405 Method Not Allowed (2019)
Still reassembling the scattered pieces of my mind after watching this.
I am going to watch this episode again as soon as I get myself back together. After the final Breaking Bad episode, I suffered a while from post-Walter-White-is-gone-forever depression, but then along came Mr. Robot, and I became interested again. I think Season 4 is executing at the highest level of the series. These shows hold their own with the best of GOT and Breaking Bad. This episode in particular is a marvel, and a gift.
Undone (2019)
Flawed but compelling characters and exploration of temporal second chances
Like real people, the central figures of this sci-fi/fantasy series have some real imperfections. The protagonist Alma is often annoyingly impulsive, self-centered, and irrational. She is also courageous, tenacious, and . . . at times . . . compassionate. I find myself hoping for time to be kind, or kinder, to these characters on the stage. I'm not necessarily a big fan of the rotoscope animation process, but I can appreciate the hard work that goes into it, and in this case it also allows for interesting scene transitions and action sequences that might be challenging to pull off with conventional special effects. I found myself increasingly engaged by the characters and what happens to them, instead of the other way around. I've watched all the episodes from season 1 and really enjoyed them. Surely, there must be a follow-up season.
The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (2019)
They had to change the original story to make the political allegory play.
The whole production seems to have been set up to advance part of a current political agenda. Just speculating: would this series even exist today if someone from a different party had won the 2016 U.S. presidential election? LOL. Caveat: I was able to watch about 15 minutes of the first episode before becoming too bored to continue. Visually, it's ambitious. In terms of story, dialogue, dramatic tension, etc., it's hollow and as shallow as onion skin.
The Boys (2019)
Familiar political tropes accelerate the staleness; too bad
Interesting premise for this series--I was hooked quickly with episode 1. But the villains/supes are pretty much cardboard characterizations, and there really does appear to be a political agenda pushing it all. I got a ways into the third episode before bailing out. I've seen enough. Yeah, corporate greed is a big meany; haven't heard that before. You know the two-faced politicians are intended to be representative of a particular party and ideology. Haven't heard that before, either. It feels pretty hamfisted--just no longer interested in what's being pushed, here. I watch TV and movies to be entertained, maybe moved . . . but not to be indoctrinated. Bleep that bleep.
Limitless (2011)
Cooper's Eddie is a fun guy! But not so bright, for a super-genius.
A cool plot hook sets up the story, and Bradley Cooper gets the job done both as a burned out writer and as a pill-enhanced super genius. The action is delivered consistently and tension maintained throughout. The cinematography is top-notch, and effective supporting roles are provided by Abbie Cornish and Robert DeNiro.
However, viewers may find their capacity for suspending disbelief strained at times, when it comes to the protagonist's decision-making while on the genius pill. First, after cranking out a sure-fire bestseller novel in four days and getting a brokerage account started as a brilliant day-trader, dude decides it's a good idea to procure a bag of cash from a Russian loan shark who keeps in shape by breaking kneecaps. What's up? Eddie doesn't understand the power of compounding returns? If he can turn a few hundred bucks into a few thousand in a couple days with his newly acquired statistical analytics, why not run with that for a few more weeks and see what happens? Why on earth would he ever want to walk away from that sweet deal to grovel for a job at the firm owned by DeNiro's character, a guy who regularly eats his staff for lunch? And after earning extra millions on that gig, how is it that genius Eddie would forget about the money owed to loanshark guy? And beyond all that, why is it that genius Eddie finally aspires to the crapshoot that is American politics? Because, as we know, the most brilliant geniuses in the world are found in the U.S. House and Senate. Makes you wonder why Bill Gates or Warren Buffett never ran for Prez.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)
Slice of a life
When was the last time you threw your hands up in resignation to the inscrutable forces that shift the unconscious landscape that undercuts our waking lives? When was the last time you ingested, even for a moment, the significance of the one truth that defines what it means to be human -- namely, that you (like all of us) will die? When was the last time that you said to yourself: "God Dagnammit! We're all in the same soup together!"? When was the last time you decided to trash the conventions that were meant to hamstring you and the rest of us into perpetual wimpdom and hypocrisy, and just said: What the #@$%? I don't care. "Fear and Loathing" is a true and entirely realistic account of what it means to be human, conscious, and self-directed in this world. Who, after all, is tending the light at the end of this journey? Hunter Thompson was just another one of us, only he went ahead and balled the jack on experience. His fight, if there was a fight, was with bigger jackasses than the human race could muster. And don't' give me any grief about being dimensionally ripped on jimsonweed and talking to my great grandfather's goat.
Revolutionary Road (2008)
Good (but not original) premise devolves into melodrama
I was with this one through a good third of the film or so -- maybe even half. I'm a sucker for existential stories -- you know, stories in which one or more characters take a time-out from the sequence of events that inform and rule our daily lives and stop to consider the end game. Mendes was gold with "American Beauty." Well, I think he went to the well a few too many times with "Revolutionary Road." Yeah, it's another road. "Road to Perdition" was a road, too. Having gone down the road to perdition, did I need to take a re-run with another unhappy story in another time and setting? Not sure. Maybe. I appreciate Sam's move to bring it home (or at least a little closer) to something the average suburbanite could relate to. But the themes in Revolutionary Road have already been run through the grinder, and much more eloquently and effectively, by a writer named John Cheever. Sure, he worked in a different medium -- fiction on the page vs. cellulose -- but he got it right on the suburban malaise meter. He could have a crazy man come to an Episcopal church to crucify a rebellious teenager for the sins of the father: namely, conformity to prepackaged standards and adherence to values that seem obviously pointless. But still, when I watched the last half hour of " . . . Road," I just wasn't buying it. The flick asks us to buy into the proposition that everyone deep down knows the sick deal we've all been dealt and everyone is really, really torn up about it but almost everyone represses that understanding or whatever -- and that the unfortunate courageous few, very few, who take a look at the parameters of the human condition head-on are bound either to cower down and put on the plastic mask or are doomed to freak the heck out. Sorry, but that's ridiculous. You can take a trip to your local poor part of town (like where I've lived most of my life) and, if you have a few minutes to chat with the locals and don't get your asterisk kicked in the process, you'll find that our world is full of people who understand that the bill of goods we've been sold from day one is a piece of fecal matter. They don't go around freaking out. Newsflash -- existential despair isn't a novelty. Plenty of us have it. We don't go daydreaming about running off to Paris because of it.
Happy-Go-Lucky (2008)
All hail to raging Scott.
"Happy Go Lucky" sounds enough like "Holly Golightly" to suggest that Mike Leigh had the protagonist of "Breakfast at Tiffany's" in mind when he filled Poppy's role with Sally Hawkins. One might then ask whether Poppy is intended as a tribute to or caricature of Holly -- both, neither, or something besides . . . . There's some wiggle room, I think.
I became a Mike Leigh fan a couple years ago after renting a copy of "All or Nothing" from my local video store and promptly being floored by Tim Spall's performance as possibly the most empathetic everyman/underdog in modern cinema. Leigh and his team walk the tightrope of freshly improvised dialog without a safety net, occasionally forging into what might otherwise be uncharted/unscripted waters, undaunted by the threat of poorly mixed metaphor, now and then hitting one out of the ballpark, sometimes swatting high fly balls across the back yard into the neighbor's partially drained swimming pool under overcast skies . . . after a rain shower on a humid, hung-over Sunday . . . while a lone, discarded cigarette butt soaks forlornly in a waterlogged ashtray abandoned on a barstool in need of an extra coat of varnish. Mike Leigh is awesome.
So is Sally Hawkins as Poppy. She is the pin that pricks the balloon of authoritarianism. I can see how her relentlessly sunny character could be perceived by the curmudgeons of the world (including myself) as a pain in the asterisk. She is a student as well as a teacher. As a student, she is a handful -- the class clown, if you will -- every teacher's nightmare.
Her poor driving instructor, Scott (Eddie Marsan), is the perfect foil to her relentless cheer. There is a scene involving road rage that is at once one of the funniest yet most frightening and intense moments I've experienced as a film watcher. No truer rendering of rage, sorrow, and anguish has been set to film.
That said, I just want to hug Poppy.
Interview (2007)
Steve is better than this.
I am a fan of Steve Buscemi. He is the real deal as an actor and as a director. He has done elite work as a performer and as an artist. Everyone fails somewhere, in some endeavor. Not a big deal. We all fail with some regularity in our lives -- at least, those of us who are human. So, this is a somewhat clumsy apology for the failure of "Interview." Here's the thing. It sucked. It sucked so badly I was knocked back on the couch, even if said collapse could be attributed to the four Budweiser American Ales (new brand) and three vodka Collins drinks I downed in order to be able to get through an hour and five minutes of the film. I will admit to being too weak to make my way through the rest. I had to turn it off, out of respect to Steve. I am not even close to being ready to concede that Buscemi has regressed as a director -- say, from "Trees Lounge" in 1996 to "Interview" more than a decade later. "Lounge" was the real deal, believable even if incredible in a few spots. What made it credible? I don't know for sure, but it stayed true to its turf. In "Trees Lounge," Buscemi's character gets to make out with Debi Mazar's hot and inebriated character. "No way!" you say? I say, "Way!" It's all about the setting, environment, and setup. I could very well buy that happening at Trees Lounge. Raise your hands, all who are chronic alcoholics. I see out there . . . not many hands, but a few. I have my hand raised. I am a long-time drunk and failure. I feel this gives me a modicum of "credential" in assessing films that leverage the motifs of drunkenness, addiction, and failure. -- But of course, that is delusional. Just because I am a f*&kup does not mean I have any ability to assess a work about f*&^ups. But forgive me. I digress. What makes "Interview" so bad is the contrived circumstances that are twisted in shape to enable the plot device of having a somewhat geeky journalist get in bed with a paparazzi wet dream diva. There are many bad devices that should have been edited before going full tilt with this one. Look, diva stars don't do B movie schlock. They don't do B horror movies. They do manufactured crap romance pieces. If they aren't pop superstars out of the gate or genuine teen stars that get great coverage with films like, I don't know, "Mean Girls" for instance, then they remain B movie actresses and never achieve celebrity. This movie got the sequence of events wrong in the "celebritization" of the object of the interview. Beyond that, the dialogue was so contrived and artificial as to be painful. I am not sure if the shortcoming should be attributed to the delivery of the actors or to the script, but the banter was not credible. The circumstances were not credible, and the movement toward increased intimacy of the two leads was not credible. Now, maybe it could have been credible. . . . But it wasn't credible as presented. It really failed, really badly. The babe lead would not have gotten into the male lead, given the setup. And even if we allow for the intervening set of circumstances that re-united them, . . . I'm sorry. This thing devolved into really bad meta-melodrama. Hey, if you don't agree, feel free to attribute it to my progressive loss of sensibilities due to advancing age, substance abuse, and life. If you want to see what Steve can do as a director, see "Trees Lounge." Okay. I am still a confirmed Buscemi fan and I love him. Just burn that copy of "Interview." Peace. Out.
Legends of the Fall (1994)
I might have to revisit this one.
I think it has the potential to be quite entertaining, sort of like "Road House," which is so bad it's awesome. I remember having paid money to see this in the theatre when it first came out. Surely it must be in the top ten films of all time in the category of movies that work overtime to evoke weeping. But oh, the melodrama. The extended montage of Brad Pitt circumnavigating the world as a lost, anguished stud . . . just priceless. I mean, freaking hilarious. The relentless hackneyed score ain't bad, either. Cue up the weeper scenes, yes? How Anthony Hopkins was able to play the post stroke scenes without coming apart at the seams laughing is beyond me. In this one, everyone gets to be a ham. I think I'm definitely going to have to take another look. "Roadhouse," move over.
The Visitor (2007)
I felt sadness and was compelled to reflect
on the 90+ minutes of my life lost forever as a result of having hung with this film to the weepy and preachy end. I was really engaged by this one within the first 15 minutes or so -- the acting is excellent, and the initial premise had a good hook. I cared about these characters. But then queasiness set in when it became apparent that this was looking more and more like another propaganda piece for a left-wing platform. I guess I'm not dumbfounded that the overall IMDb rating for this thing is around 8.0. I've seen it with other heavy-handed films of the same ilk. It's too bad, because the director is a talented guy and the actors are very capable. But then the bulk of the movie became one sledgehammer stroke after another on top of my head. It just devolved into a manipulatin' hand-wringing tear-jerker for the anti-anti-illegal-alien plank. It just got ridiculous, after a while. What a waste of potential. This could have been a great, humanistic film. But it rotted rapidly, and in the end it just stank up the joint.
Syriana (2005)
baffled, numbed, fatigued and propagandized out
Too bad this didactic slop was driven by the desire to lecture rather than depict characters in situations that people can relate to. The acting was, by and large, excellent. Camera work was fine. But the script was poorly conceived, and the pretentiousness of the whole thing was off the scale. It's a little bit scary to think how bad "Traffic" might have been had the writer been able to hijack the directing in that one to reduce the entire endeavor to heavy-handed propaganda, which is all that Syriana is. Too bad. What a waste. If Mssrs. Clooney and Damon can just wrench themselves away from their perceived duty to instruct the rest of us in the morals of liberalism and get back to acting in movies that people can relate to on a human level, they would be worth watching. Toodles.