jonasmarkussen Reviews

Kimi (2022)

Im quite shocked

[5/10 · 14 February 2022]

I mostly write positive reviews for movies I find to be underrated, but Kimi has gotten so many 5 star reviews (out of 6) in my country's biggest media, that I feel almost obligated to write this.

This is by far the most shallow movie I've seen in a long time. It wants to comment on the effects of technology and COVID, on society and on individuals, but these comments have been seen a lot of times already. The pandemic have been here for over two years, and therefore I felt this should have come out last year. Maybe that is why it doesn't seem original at all.

But even if it had premiered a lot earlier, I don't really believe it would have been easier to feel the character(s) journey, because of the level of shallowness in Kimi. You learn almost nothing about the characters or the relationships betrayed in the film. Kimi is just there on the screen and she talks to her mother, her shrink, her kind off boyfriend (i guess), some contractor-guy downstairs (what is up with him), a guy on zoom, who drives the plot forward etc. Etc. A guy is looking at her with goggles from across the street, which is creepy but mostly forgotten later in the film.

And then the biggest problem: It is boring! Because you feel nothing for the character(s) and the relationship, you are not engaged in the plot in any way. There are not even twists and turns or any entertaining features that would have made it an easy no brainer thriller for Saturday night. It really feels like HBO sent out an unfinished film, and it is hard to see that this is from the same man, who made Side Effects (2013).

Kimi just forgets plotlines (what happens to Brad for instance?), which annoyed me to the point where I almost turned off. The acting is horrible, especially from the bad guys, but overall bad. It seemed almost like a Movie school-project in some scenes for me. I hate to be so negative, but this is just a non interesting film...

Things I liked: The cinematography is overall decent and I liked Zoe Kravitz as Angela, but I highly recommend you skip this. If you watch it anyway, try noticing how the relationships are portrayed and how the movie just forgets things along the way. If nothing else this is an interesting case study for how not to do plot.

Unthinkable (2010)

It is not supposed to be pleasant

[7/10 · 5 January 2022]

Just saw this for the first time, and although my own knowledge about movies in the thriller genre is quite good I had never heard of it. Therefore I wanted to know why, and I can understand that many reviewers found it too unpleasant and even offending towards muslims.

I respect that viewpoint, but in my opinion it is a complete misinterpretation of the movie and its message. For me it is all about questioning our own ethic and morality. It's the essence of humanity. Who is the evil one in this piece? Is H a hero? Is he a villain? Would we completely destroy a human being to save millions? How much is one life worth?

"Unthinkable" had me questioning myself and my values and shift constantly between hating Yusuf and feeling sorry for him. And the same thing goes for H. I wanted him to achieve his goals to save millions of people but in some sequences I hated him more than Yusuf. What the movie does so brilliantly is showing H as a loving father and husband in one scene and the next as a monster, so that you have no chance deciding what is right and what is wrong. How can you do that to another human being and still be a "normal" person?

I think "Unthinkable" displays the lack of morality with almost every character, especially in the end, where even the most kind person shows his or hers dark sides. As much as it says anything about muslims. I can understand if one confuses this as an evil movie with the message of how everyone in the end is capable of doing evil things - even with good intentions.

This movie does simply not take part, and therefore is unbelievably hard to watch, because it demands so much of its viewers. I found it very unpleasant, even though Im not faint hearted at all, and that must've been the point. In some way, this movie does a lot of good, because despite of all the evil in it, I wanted to be even more good and kind to other people that day. We all have the ability to do evil, but the most important thing is, that we have the ability to do good as well - and Im not particularly religious.

I thought it was brilliant because of the reflection it encourage you to do. All this aside it's also just a very tense thriller, that will have you on the edge of your seat. The acting is good and especially the three main characters are superb. I admire Samuel L. Jackson and Michael Sheen for their bravery taking on these parts, because they most have known that this movie could cause controversies and divide the audience into two groups.

It's very important to say, that Im not a muslim myself, and therefore can't feel whether or not this is offending to this group, but as described I interpreted the message in this movie in a whole other way. It's so rare coming across movies that make you questioning yourself all the way through but this one does, and if nothing else that's highly interesting.

Succession: This Is Not for Tears (2019) Season 2, Episode 10

HOLY FREAKING SMOKES

[10/10 · 1 December 2021]

This is one of the single best episodes of a series I've ever seen - and I've seen all the Big ones.

One of the outstanding things about this show is that the writing is incredible, almost flawless. It seems orchestrated down to the smallest details. This is not an action filled series. I mean it's a show about some spoiled kids all wanting daddy's company, but still it delivers jaw-dropping nail biters like this. Im speechless. If I could give it 11 stars I would.

Ava (IV) (2020)

Mediocre at best

[5/10 · 24 November 2021]

I saw a review on this one saying that this is was a B-movie even with this cast. I thought it could'nt be true, but I was so wrong.

This movie is the perfect example of when script and editing is so bad, that otherwise fine actors can't save it. Not all actors are good tho. Common and the mother of Ava are absolutely terrible, which Common always is if you ask me. The rest of the cast are doing what they can, but nothing makes sense in the writing. I don't believe in these characters and their motivation for anything they do. Their relation to each other is so thin and you just don't feel anything for any of them.

I would've loved for this to be a punching female action movie, but it was a mess.. It has a few good moments but I really recommend you skip this and watch Peppermint or Atomic Blond if you're in the mood for some female-protagonist-action.

The Nun (2018)

Nun of this made any sense

[2/10 · 16 November 2021]

The nun is one of the worst big budget horror movies I've ever seen. It is so lazy in its writing, acting and effects and therefore I will reward it with a lazy review: It's bad.

Most Dangerous Game (2020–2023)

B-Movie with a big budget

[5/10 · 16 November 2021]

First of all I was surprised to see that this movie is listed here as a series? On my prime I could only see it as a movie. That's weird...

Anyway, this is a funny thing. EVERYTHING about this flick is a TV movie. The editing is dramatic and not very subtle. The constant music in every scene is almost like a soap opera. The acting is very unnaturally and you can feel the actors reading their lines. The characters mostly speak exposition when they are not making stupid decisions. I actually laughed for myself at some of the scenes, that were so unintentionally funny which normally would make me turn off a movie.

BUT somehow this movie made it for me. It was'nt great and Im not sure it was even good, but I watched it because I was in the mood for a nobrainer action flick and in that case it delivered. And I most say, that Christoph Waltz made it watchable. He is taking the role seriously, and you can see why he is the superior actor of the cast. The plot is actually great and I would've loved to see it in a better orchestred movie.

I must say, that if you are in the mood for a thriller like this, that takes itself serious, with great acting and a more unpredictable plot, skip this and watch Finchers The Game instead. If you are hungover on a sunday afternoon and just want to be entertained this will do alright.

Intrusion (II) (2021)

Mark my words: Logan Marshall-Green is going to be A-list!

[7/10 · 22 September 2021]

Yes Netflix finally a well done entertaining thriller from you! After I couldn't sit through Sweet Girl from earlier this year I was happy to see that they kind of redeemed themselves with this production.

I saw it without knowing nothing about it or reading any reviews. Therefore I thought it was a straight up home invasion thriller which I like, but I quickly discovered it was more of a standard thriller. And it's good fun.

There are not a lot of reviews at the current moment, but I've seen two just calling this movie trash, one without presenting any arguments to why he or she found it to be that bad, and the other because it was 'predictable'.. Does that necessarily make a movie bad? Because I don't think so. Yes, it maybe is a little predictable but not AS predictable as some make it out to be. And I really don't think this movie set out to be groundbreaking in the thriller genre. I'd rather see a well produced and well acted thriller, that's not trying to break new grounds in the genre but is just a good and suspenseful ride, that a pretentious thriller that wants to be something that it is not with a complete confusing story line and bad actors. Intrusion maybe does not add anything new to the genre, but that seems to be the case of a lot of movies, and still it is just a fine thriller, and I didn't expect anything else.

This is not a masterpiece, but it is perfect as Sunday night entertainment. Freida Pinto is great as Meera, our protagonist but Logan Marshall-Green steals the show as Henry. It's kind of a cliché but by doing a little he's doing a lot. I really liked him in this one! He is far from a-list material yet, but having delivered so many solid performances in movies like The Invitation and Upgrade and now this one I believe he will get a lot more roles in way bigger productions made for the big screen in a few years!

The rest of the cast unfortunately isn't that great, and especially Detective Morse, portrayed by Robert John Burke is bland and really doesn't add anything to the story. But again the movie really centers mainly around the married couple so I was okay with that. Then there was a really forced scene that was there only to drive the plot forward, where Meera is watching the news at home while hosting a party that I found quite unbelievable. It's a little thing I know, but who turns on the news when they are having a big house party, when there's no particular reason for it? It was to obvious that the writers needed that. At last I didn't find the ending to be as exciting as I hoped for. It's not a big disappointment and there wasn't a lot of ways it could've ended, but it could've been done a little better.

So not a masterpiece but very entertaining and it ranks high amongst the recent Netflix Originals, although that's not saying a lot. If you are in it for a well done thriller to spend an hour and a half, I think you will find it fitting for just that. Either way, I think giving this movie a 1-star rating is just ridiculous..

I use to comment on the bad tendencies among a lot of reviewers here where they give 1 star to ok movies. It's very misleading and I think IMDb should have a bigger filter for taking out reviews that are not presenting any arguments besides "it's trash". When people go to the site for guidance towards good movies and the first they see is for a movie like this are three reviews giving this a 1-star rating without arguments they might miss out and thats a shame.

Intrusion is probably around 6.5 if you ask me. I recommend watching it without seeing the trailer. Enjoy.

Please rate fairly.

Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014)

IMDb reviewers, we need to talk

[7/10 · 20 September 2021]

There's a current problem with a lot of the reviews on this site, that continue to annoy me. There's no discussion, that whether or not you like a movie, art is subjective and you can feel about art what you like. But I can't understand why people rate so extremely, giving okish movies a 1 or a 10 to either drag the rating down or bump it up, for the wrong reasons. I find it more often that reviewers tend to the more hateful 1-star reviews to drag a movie down because there was a little thing they didn't like. For me a 10-star movie is an absolute masterpiece and a 1-star movie is unwatchable garbage and should be considered as one of the worst movies ever made. Again, that is a without a doubt a matter of subjectivity, and you have the right to say whatever you like, always! But in my opinion, the problem is when you are giving a movie a hateful review for all the wrong reasons, which, for me, is the case about Exodus.

Saying this is a 1-star movie which a lot of reviewers does, in my opinion, is like saying that this is one of the worst movies you've ever seen, which I simply don't believe. It should place right down there with The Room (2003), (which is fun to watch in all it's badness, but still a horrible movie in all aspects), Robot Monster (1953), Disaster Movie (2008) or Cats (2019), to name a few movies that are considered some of the worst of all time, and I agree with that consideration. That, for me, is close to being objectively wrong.

So, is Exodus a bonafide masterpiece? No, we can agree on that, and Im not giving this review because it's even close to being my favourite movie, but because I've seen it two times, once in 2015 and again yesterday. This time I read the reviews, and saw a lot of reviewers hating it for reasons I find to be just nonsense. First of all, to all of you who dislike this movie because it's not completely true to the myth and story of ancient Egyptian Ramses and his brother Moses, and the plagues released upon the Egyptians by God to punish them: May I remind you that movies as well as most forms of art and culture depends on creative freedom? Exodus never claims to be an exact replica of the story that have been told so many times before. This is a fictional movie, and not a documentary, which I guess you can find a lot of regarding Moses and ancient Egypt. I don't believe that Ridley Scott didn't knew that, and that he just thought "I don't know anything about this. But I will just do it like this". And without commenting on anyones believes and religion, there are scientifically doubts that Moses ever existed (look it up), so who knows how the story really unfolded. But again, whether or not, it doesn't matter, because this is not a movie that's made to be anything close to religious propaganda made for a specific group of religious people, as I saw one said about Exodus. I don't necessarily believe in different types of religious viewpoints being portrayed in different movies, but that doesn't mean I don't like a given movie. I also like Inglourios Basterds (2009) and Argo (2012), to name a few examples that alters or completely diverges from history. Exodus, for me, is an 'historical' and biblical adventure movie, and should be seen as that.

Next up is the criticism about acting and CGI. All actors are doing fine, without being absolutely brilliant I'll give the critics that. Bale is not giving his best performance as Moses, but he delivers as always. This man could play Meryl Streep in a biopic, if you ask me. The rest of the cast are doing well too. My biggest point of critic is, as many already wrote, that because the fact that this movie is taking place in Egypt, they should've considered casting people that looked Egyptian or is of Egyptian descent. That would be the right thing to do, but that's a longer debate and again, it's acting and Hollywood is moving in the right direction when it comes to representation. I think it was done respectfully and I didn't thought that much about it, which I normally do. Regarding effects and CGI, I must say that the people giving a low rating based on the 'poor' CGI in this movie, I really want to know what movies you normally see as good in their use of CGI, because they truly most be using an insane photoreal technique I haven't seen yet for a movie that's from 2014 or older. The effects and the cinematography is stunning and Scott really knows how to make a movie look insanely expensive. It's simply beautiful and the best part of the movie, no doubt. It has a big budget, but I actually thought it was a little bit bigger.

Exodus is a fine movie, not a masterpiece, and I think most reasonable film loving people can agree on that. Then one might ask why did I write such a long review for a movie being just 'fine'? Well, Im just tired of reviewers using rhetoric leaning towards the hateful that drags a movie down. When people looks to IMDb for reviews before seeing a movie because they want to know whether is good or not it gives a disproportional and wrong picture of the truth, when a fine or even a good movie has received so much hate for reasons that, in my opinion, are close to being plain stupid. I hope IMDb'ers someday will rate and review a bit more fairly so that we all can trust the ratings to a little bit higher degree than at this moment. I bet a lot of people didn't see this when the rating was 5,7 or 6.0 as it is today.

Although Exodus is not the masterpiece it wants to be, it's a good adventure movie, with a big scope. It's very pleasant to look at and the acting is just fine. It moves a bit slow sometimes and could have been a little shorter, for my taste, but it's still very suitable for a rainy day on a big screen with a good sound system. Enjoy

Please rate fairly.

6.9/10.

Beckett (2021)

A nice surprise

[6/10 · 13 August 2021]

Beckett is an unusual Netflix original because it actually has an artistic quality to it. Its set in greece and really uses the greek culture and landscape to a point where you can feel it. The cinematography is so beautiful and so is the Sound design. The plot is gripping and you really will keep guessing how the hell this is happening to an ordinary man. I'd always been having trouble figuring out if Washington is an amazing or just a mediocre actor, but he makes his best performance yet, if you ask me. He is not your typical fit action hero, that knows how to fight bad guys and he is often more lucky than skilled plus he has a more realistic looking body than most of these type of movies.

UNFORTUNATELY this movie has some plot holes and loses momentum at the end, which is a bit of a shame. The mystery that gets unravelled is a bit meh, so I dropped my rating to a 6, but it deserves around 6.9. Anyway its a good suspenseful, beautiful and enjoyable little thriller!

(And as some reviews already said it, the person(s) responsible for the title should find another job, its a bit ridiculous naming this movie beckett)

Game of Thrones: The Long Night (2019) Season 8, Episode 3

People giving this episode 1 should be ashamed

[10/10 · 9 February 2021]

A lot of toxic, so-called "fans" of GOT are out there giving this episode a 1-rating because they didn't like the season 8-ending. This is such toxic fandom and you haters should be ashamed.

I too prefer season 1-6, and Im not a big fan of the ending either. But when you make the biggest show of all time with the biggest audience ever, the finale will disappoint. That's inevitable. Listen, this episode is AMAZING. To all of you who hasn't seen it, don't listen to all the haters. That's the same spoiled people who signed a petition for the creaters to remake season 8 (which by the way is all that's wrong with the world). As a filmmaker, it's clear that there is a lot of HARD work and a lot of thougts behind this episode. It has great acting, great non-predictle storyline (although all the Experts reviewing this episode, claming that they predicted this since season 2, which is just sad. Trust me, they're lying).

My point is, you can be pissed off at the ending, and find yourself hating the whole season, but giving 1-ratings to episodes of Series with such a big scope, all around great acting, amazing visuals and a beautiful score, is just not fair. Please rate fairly, people are giving their all to entertaine you. This season is probably around a 5-6 rating in total, because some mistakes were made, but it happens. This episode is a 10, and up there with battle of the basterds and the red wedding (the title of the fans, it has another name).

Enjoy

Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker (2019)

This was AMAZING!

[9/10 · 16 December 2019]

Saw it last Night at a preview premiere in L.A, and as a lifelong Star Wars fan it did not let me Down. Even though I swear to the Empire strikes back and the Force Awakens I must say: This is the best Star Wars movie ever made. Im going to see it again as soon as it comes up in theatres.