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helanren88
Reviews
7500 (2019)
Realistic hijacking doesn't make for a good movie
I see a lot of praise here about the realism. And yes, there was a lack of over the top Hollywood stuff. There were the old tropes though, like leaving a bad guy after he's down so he can get you again.
Like, I understand it's realistic but it doesn't make for very exciting viewing. I didn't feel anything for any of the characters. The director tried to force an extra angle by having the flight attendant be the mother of his child but it's a pretty cheap shot and since it's only mentioned, never shown, it's harder to form a connection. Show don't tell, you know.
All in all, it was a realistic hijacking packaged in a subpar movie. Some 2,5 hr movies fly by and you want more. This was 90 minutes and I was glad it was over.
Ghosted (2023)
Bog-standard script saved partially by Chris Evans
Chris Evans does a good job in a typical Ryan Reynolds role. He brings enough comedic timing to have a bit of fun in between the rest of the mediocrity.
I'm sorry but Ana de Armas was horribly miscast. I'm not familiar with her other work but in this movie she just can't pull it off. There's also no chemistry between her and Chris.
The story itself is as forgettable as they come. Bad guys, virus to end the world, passcode, nothing that hasn't been done a thousand times before.
As long as the movie kept the storyline in the background and focused on Chris Evans being silly it was entertaining enough. Unfortunately near the latter half the story became a bigger focus and Chris Evans transitioned to cool too quickly.
I'll give it a 4/10 because I'd have preferred to spend my time doing something else, but I wasn't annoyed into lower than 4/10.
Gaet-na-eul cha-cha-cha (2021)
Dreadful
I've watched quite a few Korean shows now that they're hot on Netflix and finding new good ones is harder and harder. I look for IMDb-scores to help me separate bad shows from good ones. Unfortunately there are too many fans of Kdrama who will stan everything and give it 10's. Really good shows like Crash Landing On You and My Love From The Star get similar ratings as this show? You can stan Korean shows as much as you want, but how does that help a wider audience appreciate the good shows out there? They'll see that almost all shows are scored around 8.5 and assume it's all the same quality. If the first show they watch is an actual good one, they'll watch more Korean shows. If the first show they watch is a stinker disguised as an 8.5, they'll never watch a Korean show or movie again.
The Lazarus Project (2008)
1.5 hours but felt like 3 - not in a good way
The concept of the movie is fine, but the execution flawed. There were a few too many meandering shots that Paul Walker just can't carry with his limited range. Slow scenes require an actor/actress who can make the "dull" parts reflective. Paul doesn't have it.
In essence the beginning of the movie was largely irrelevant. It was irrelevant that his brother was involved. It was irrelevant that his brother had a big debt. And because of it, the movie dragged too long in act one.
Act two should have been the confusion. But the flashbacks already revealed what was going to happen. And once again, the plotline with the female psychiatrist was irrelevant and dragged the story. I feel like it's a screen adaptation of the book problem. You have to cut stuff if it isn't integral to the movie flow.
Since it was already revealed through flashbacks, act 3 wasn't that surprising and left a lot to be desired. The snake toy in his daughter's arms was empty symbolism as well. Pointless. Throughout the movie it seemed like the director wanted to be profound without knowing how to convey this.
Neoui Moksoriga Deulryeo (2013)
Absolute letdown
I went into the show with an open mind. The synopsis sounded good and the show has an 8.1 on here at the time of this writing.
Unfortunately due to the current K-Drama rage, the ratings for a lot of shows seem inflated. The two leads are unbelievably wooden and have no chemistry whatsoever. Furthermore, even though apparently it's called "noona romance", the relationship between the two seemed sick considering they met when she was a teenager and he was a little boy. It doesn't help that they cast an actor with a blank boyface.
The show started off okay, when it left the possibility of the two not ending up together. The murder story moved along quite nicely in terms of tempo, and the supporting cast was much better than the two leads. Sure, the courtroom scenes seemed like they were written by a 5-year-old but it also kept things short and breezy. Everything seemed okay and I was excited to watch the next episode. Until the amnesia episode.
The amnesia episode, I think, is the proverbial jumping of the shark. It's extremely lazy writing, and it dragged the show from that point on. Before the amnesia episode there was little rehashing of old footage and the pace was good. But ever since that episode, the audience was treated as if we were the ones who lost our memory of the show we just watched. No director, I would not like to see the scene at the fishing pond for the sixth time!
Granted, pre-Netflix shows tend to be more heavy-handed in helping audiences remember what they watched before, but this was extreme even compared to the first half of the season.
Beyond the show just not being enjoyable to watch, we were also treated to some bad morals. Abuse of the law, stringing along people, and something I would almost consider elitist propaganda against ordinary people. Are Korean shows used to keep ordinary Koreans down and make them accept the corruption inherent in their society?
Red Notice (2021)
Instantly forgettable
You can forget the movie while watching, it's that forgettable. Ryan Reynolds carries like normal, Dwayne and Gal are weak like normal.
Hard to see why this had to cost 200 million.
Coming to America (1988)
Aged like milk
I remember liking it when I was young. On rewatch it's hard to sit through. Pace is slow and the acting of the romantic interest atrocious. It's also more obvious to me than before it's mostly a setup for small skitches by Arsenio and Eddie that loosely tie into the movie.
I onde dager (2021)
Pure entertainment
Movies don't always need to be deep. This was excellent entertainment along the lines of Tucker and Dale, and Shaun of the Dead. It doesn't try to subvert your expectations, and gives you exactly what you want; satisfying revenge gore.
8/10.
Jigeum uri hakgyoneun (2022)
Zombie show that falls apart halfway through
Recently South-Korea seems to be on a zombie streak. This has come with some great hits (Train to Busan and Kingdom) and some terrible misses. Unfortunately this show is more miss than hit.
The first half of the show holds its own, as character deaths are swift and believable. The engine is chugging with proper tension, low on melodramatic scenes.
Unfortunately the second half of the show, especially after the reveal of the halfbies, is rife with melodramatic scenes and long drawn out shots trying desperately to make the viewer sad. Very cheap tactics are used multiple times. (Parents of girl X die, mother of boy Y dies, and father of girl Z dies.)
Another disappointment is the asymptomatic angle. It is never explored further than to find a tactic to lure zombies with high pitch noise. The last we see of the second halfbie is the lab being wiped clean.
Initially I thought the halfbie angle could be interesting but it is never properly explored, except to serve us a recurring 80's Hollywood enemy. In the end I think they should have toned down the halfbie angle and gone with a more interesting approach of how to deal with asymptomatic carriers. It had a lot of potential.
Unfortunately a lot of potential was wasted and there's no coming back from these choices in a potential season 2. I'll be waiting for the next season of Kingdom.
4/10.
Cargo (2017)
Overrated drivel
Entirely forgettable "white people bad" zombie flick. Nothing substantial is added to the genre, except for hammering home that white people are bad and the old ways are the way forward. Overly melodramatic ending as well.
The Silent Sea (2021)
This isn't it...
I want to love this show. It's got some of my favorite actors, and the premise is great. Earth is dying because of a water shortage, and a mysterious new type of water has been discovered on the moon. But the water comes at a cost...
So far that's a good premise and it would have made for a good show. Unfortunately the show quickly devolves into a mediocre 80's Hollywood sci-fi with questionable logic. Low gravity makes you move in slow-motion? Characters take their helmets off for no reason?
The biggest problem is the monster which turns out not to be a monster. You can't have your cake and eat it too, show. First you make it like the Grudge and have it rip people's arms off, and then you have it take candy from a woman. It's daft.
Last but not least another issue is the amount of "just made it" moments. There's too many moments where characters are low on oxygen but make it when it's at 1%. They pull this cheap trick from episode 1 onwards and it's extremely tiring.
Let's hope Kingdom returns soon.
4/10.
Santa Inc. (2021)
So on the nose, it glows
This show embodies everything wrong with society today. And it is so on the nose that I start to believe it's intentional. This group of self-proclaimed "good guys" seems hell-bent on creating a toxic environment that brings the worst out of all of us.
If however their aim for this show is to put up a mirror and show how racist entertainment used to be a 100 years ago, then I guess they succeeded. And it should then make Seth and Sara happy to see an average score close to 1. It shows that society has grown, and won't stand for racist entertainment. Hats off to the great Seth and Sara.
Last Night in Soho (2021)
Good start, derails near the end.
The premise was interesting, the visuals okay. But the movie tried too hard to fit a message in that ultimately didn't fit the movie anymore after they did the twist, and forgets to answer many questions. In the end I was disappointed.
The Guilty (2021)
Weak
Haven't seen the original yet, but this, this was weak. Normally I like Gyllenhaal but even his performance felt off. I bet the story is fairly similar to the original, but the US version just adds lots of banging and shouting, gender neutral toilets and police killing.
I think it really falls apart when the plot twist happens, as what happens next seems incongruous with how Gyllenhaal portrayed the officer before. He just stopped being believable. And when that switch is flipped, it's hard to connect to the movie from that point on.
Ibeon Saengeun Cheoeumira: Because This Is My First Intermission (2017)
I rarely review a single episode...
...but this episode really lacked energy, pace, and has weakened the entire show. The episode is 95% melodramatic dialogue with sad music to tell you how you should feel about it.
This episode simply doesn't work. It's unbalanced.
Ibeon Saengeun Cheoeumira (2017)
Tedious and slow
Start of the show was okay. But somewhere in the last four episodes it really started going downhill. There was no tempo, and several scenes were just plain awkwardly acted and too slow. It also coincided with an end to "events" and each episode started to be 95% melodramatic dialogue. There was no balance, and the characters that were supposed to be comic relief all started to have melodramatic dialogue themselves. This made the last episodes extremely tiring to watch.
One other thing that started to bother me was the overuse of a few songs. It felt like in the last few episodes the writers were trying too hard to push sentimental stuff, and it became annoying instead. Yes, we get it, "stay with meeeeee, aaaa-aaa-aaaa, stay with me."
Early episodes: 8/10
Middle episodes: 7/10
Last episodes 3/10
--
Overall: 5/10.
Ojing-eo geim: Unsu joeun nal (2021)
Karen wants to see the manager
I think the hair color change is to show that Gi-hun is now a Karen who wants to speak to the manager about the game.
It was also very nice of the show writers to retroactively make episode 6, the best episode of the show, less meaningful.
How to ruin a good show in three episodes.
Ojing-eo geim: VIPS (2021)
Abhorrent "acting" by the VIPs
Whoever casted these people should be ashamed. Whoever wrote the dialogue should be ashamed. All of those involved in this absolute trainwreck of an episode should be ashamed. For the love of all that's holy and pure I hope this was a one-time thing, because it was hard work to get through this episode.
Four Christmases (2008)
Waste of time
For the love of all that's holy and pure. Please make me forget this. Terrible casting, terrible writing. Hope it's instantly forgettable.
Sigeuneol (2016)
Mixed feelings
Couldn't finish the show beyond episode 8, and read the synopsis afterwards. I really wanted to like it, so I powered through some absolutely dull episodes, but it was just too slow. Biggest problem is the acting by the main character in the present. He is just a bad actor. Can't make more or less of it, it's painful to watch. The way he talks, the way he moves, it's cringe inducing. It's especially obvious when some of the other actors are putting in good performances.
Ultimately the slow pacing and very obvious plot twists killed it for me. Can't sit through another 8 hours of the same.
Blood Red Sky (2021)
Interesting idea, bad execution
First half of the movie was about a 7 or 8. It all starts to fall apart when the terrorists are introduced. It's laughably bad.
On another note, Germany seems to have been Americanized fully. Given the current political climate I already saw some of the twists coming but it didn't make the dialogue less cringe worthy. White finance guy evil, false flag terrorism blaming Muslims, Muslims saves the day (one by being an aerospace engineer who also happens to know how to fly and the other by being a selfless hero who gets his arm chopped off and then gets patched up easily by female doctor). All checkboxes ticked. It's tiring.
Dalkomhan insaeng (2005)
Overrated
Borrows heavily from Oldboy including the final scene with an interrupted waltz. However, as opposed to Oldboy, the pacing of A Bittersweet Life is much too slow and uneven. The premise is also weak and doesn't carry as much weight as Oldboy.
Ultimately the movie firmly belongs in 2005 and should stay there as a meaningless sidestep in 2000s Korean revenge cinema.
Boring.
4/10.
The Wolf of Snow Hollow (2020)
Quirky but not bad
The flow of the movie is definitely different from your average mystery horror thriller. It's listed as a comedy but the comedy comes mostly from the quirkiness of the small town characters and, like other reviewers have said, feels Fargo-esque.
Normally the flow of the movie would have annoyed me, but combined with the backstory of the main character it makes sense and it does set it apart from other movies in the genre.
It's not all good though. To be perfectly honest I am not a fan of Jim Cummings as an actor. I like the different approach to the movie and see him listed as writer and director, so he's plenty talented. Just get a different lead for the next movie. Going back to Fargo, a perfect lead for a movie like this would've been a Martin Freeman-type who has good deadpan comedy qualities.
Ultimately the storyline and its resolution isn't very interesting and takes a backseat to the form, but the ride itself was still enjoyable. I do hope to see more movies from Jim Cummings, just not with him in a lead role.
Dongbaekkkot pil muryeop (2019)
Few memorable performances in otherwise bland show
The main problem with the show is the premise itself. Gong Hyo-jin was unbearable as the timid single mother, and sometimes even comes off as a green tea b*tch. The premise causes her to behave like this at least once every episode, as if she's some shy, innocent little girl, and not a single mother. It just doesn't work, and it's not an attractive personality trait.
Some storylines on the side were fun to watch, such as Oh Jung-se as wannabe politician No Gyu-tae. His scenes were fun to watch. Yeom Hye-ran also did a good job as his wife. They had good chemistry.
I don't think Son Dam-bi (Hyang-mi) was as bad as others commented, although her storyline was ultimately quite useless and just there to support a different plot point. Her acting was fine.
One of my favorite actresses, Kim Sun-young, only had a small part but her scenes with the rest of ladies from the alley were fun as well. Reminded me a little of her scenes in Crash landing on you.
Another standard good performance from Jeon Bae-soo as well. Fun to watch any scenes he's in.
You'll notice I barely touched on the murder plot. This is because it's fairly trivial, like an after thought and not particularly engaging.
Overall 5/10. Relatively good cast let down by weak story, and one unbearable character.
El bar (2017)
Starts off a 7/10, gradually devolves into a 4/10
Setup is interesting enough, but about half way through it collapses. Acting is serviceable, not great. As the movies goes on you need to look past bigger and bigger potholes and moronic character decisions. When they all get into the sewer the movie has flatlined.