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Best Sellers (2021)
A heartwarming story about a publisher and an author
Michael Caine and Aubrey Plaza star in a tale about an old author (Harris Shaw played by Michael Caine) and a young publisher (Lucy Stanbridge played by Aubrey Plaza), and how their relationship grew towards the end of Shaw's career and life. At first, the relationship was of financial convenience, where Lucy needed to find an author, and Shaw wanted to get paid. However, as the movie progressed, Lucy and Shaw grew closer together, akin two good friends that found each other.
The acting is terrific, as Michael Caine is his usual grouchy self and Aubrey Plaza is her usual serious/funny self. The character development is also great, as we find out more about the backstory of the characters.
Not sure why this movie is rated lower by other users, but it was very enjoyable. Would highly recommend anyone seeing it.
The Peanut Butter Falcon (2019)
What an amazing movie!
The movie is about Zak, a young man with down syndrome, escaping a nursing home, and going on a grand adventure to meet his hero, The Saltwater Redneck. Tyler, a man running from trouble, meets the Zak on his journey. The two become very good friends. Eleanor, a young woman working at the nursing home from which Zak escaped, tracks down Zak and tells him they have to go back to the nursing home. However, it's not too long until she decides to join the two on their journey.
Who knew that Shia LaBeouf and Dakota Johnson could star in one of the best movies made in the past few years! Great acting by everyone, especially Zack Gottsagen. Great story as well.
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (2024)
Supposedly based on a true story? Hmm.
This movie has one thing going for it, and that is good actors like Henry Cavill and Alan Ritchson. It is based on a true story of Churchill sending an elite team of soldiers to take down a large Italian supply ship, Duchessa d'Aosta. This ship supplies the German U-boats with filters and other important supplies.
I have serious doubts that the events happened as they are portrayed in the movie. I doubt a large bowman carrying countless arrows had 100 kills across a couple nights. I doubt that the British military were so focused on getting the US into the war in the early1940s and that the US was their only saving grace, and only because of a bunch of German U-boats, the US did not join the allies in attacking Germany. I doubt that Germany had no contingency plan in case something happened to the Duchessa.
The US got into the European theater very late, in the middle of 1944, well after the events that happened in this movie. The movie shows a giant map of Europe, including Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union being taken over by German. This is blatantly false, because obviously, if the Soviet Union was defeated in 1941, we would all be speaking German. There was zero mention of the Soviet Union, as if it never existed. The vast majority of troops and forces that Germany sent was eastward,, to gobble up Eastern European countries and defeat the biggest obstacle, the Soviet Union. Yes, the Soviet Union's government and leadership was bad. Yes, the socialist utopia was proven to be a complete failure. Yes, Stalin was a monster. All those things can be true, and the fact the Soviet Union was the biggest factor in defeating Hitler and Germany can also be true. The type of blatant revisionist false history in the movie is pretty dangerous.
If you like a high Nazi body count with a lot of violence, where the Nazis are incompetent buffoons, this is the movie for you. If you want a historically accurate portrayal of what happened in WW2, look elsewhere.
Fallout (2024)
When the vault door is openned ... disappointment is found.
I am not a fan of the fallout games, as I have never played them. However, I assume there's plenty of good material, enough to make a good show. Perhaps my expectations were high, but I was not impressed by the story. Sure, some acting was good and the scenery was done well, but the story wasn't good. There is a source of infinite energy that's planted inside Ben Linus's head. There is an ironman suit that apparently anyone can use without much training. There are super zombies called ghouls, that can stay alive for a very long time, and still have all their mental faculties. Some guy living in the middle of nowhere can survive without food or water. Fingers can be attached and function perfectly. And the cherry on the top, in the final episode of season 1. Vault-Tek decided to nuke the planet because of capitalism. Sad times we live in.
Civil War (2024)
Historical Fiction without the History
This movie exceeded my expectations, and yet disappointed me at the same time. The plot is simple and remains consistent throughout the movie. A group of photographers/journalists make their journey from New York to Washington DC amidst a civil war that is happening in the US. It might not be as exciting as Frodo and The Fellowship making their journey to Mordor, but the journalists have a clear objective nonetheless and face numerous dangers along the way. Their objective is to interview the President (and take pictures, lots of pictures, along the way). Throughout their journey, they see an America that is beyond strange. The roads are empty, many places where people congregate are empty, snipers occupy roofs, human life is not valued as Americans get shot for no reason, and a gas station no longer accepts US dollars, but accepts Canadian dollars. The country looked vacant, but not a warzone (except for Washington DC). Most of the movie was their journey to Washington DC, which was good in terms of pacing and showing parts of America in this civil war. After the group gets to DC, the action picks up as they follow soldiers (Western Forces) into the White House, taking lots of pictures along the way. The youngest of the group, Jessie, decides to jump into the line of fire from one secret service agent, and Lee, the living veteran photographer of the group pushes Jessie down and gets shot herself. The interview with the president was a brief "don't look at me", before he got shot and killed.
Let's start with the great things about the movie. 1st this movie is great with cinematography and sound design. The practical effects, the sounds, the tense action scenes (which there weren't many) were 10/10. 2nd, the characters seemed likeable and the acting was good. Sammy was my favorite among the group, and his death was sad. The character development wasn't bad, but it wasn't great.
Now the bad things. The worst thing about this movie is that the events that happen are not believable, as it is taking place in the near future, in the US. Random states team up together to go to war over what ... and take over the White House for what reason besides eliminate the President. A lot of states seem to be neutral and pretend nothing is happening. California and Texas have little in common besides being large and populous. Florida trying to take over the Carolinas will do what ... make Florida larger? Nothing is ever explained in the movie. This isn't a few states fighting a dictatorship federal government, this is a few states randomly attacking other states, and no one knows whose side anyone is on. If someone wants to make a historical fiction civil war movie set in this world, they need to explain how and why this civil war happened, as well as what led up to this point. The other bad thing is the senseless killings and low value of human life. The ending of Jessie jumping into the line of fire from the last secret service agent seemed stupid.
Many people seem to praise the movie for not being political, but it was in its subtle way. It showed journalism as the hero of the movie, yet mentioned nothing about the absolute turd that most journalism has been for a while, with all its biases of a political agent and all the truth telling of a snake oil salesman. People have been getting their news from alternative sources since the internet arrived and there's a good reason for that, they don't trust the mainstream news networks. There's a reason why the main characters (except Jessie) are part of mainstream networks and not freelance journalists/photographers. I would rather have the movie be outward political for the movie to make more sense. Also, disbanding the FBI probably had a reason for a reason to do so. If the FBI served at the behest of one political party to punish people that do not agree with that political party ... well, it is acting similar to the KGB of Soviet Russia.
Overall, it would be a great movie if it explained what is going on, but that's not the case.
Whiplash (2014)
Good Movie With Flaws
I would consider this to be one of the best movies of the previous decade if it wasn't for the flaws of the story that I cannot ignore.
First the good: acting. JK Simmons delivered one of his best performances I have ever seen as Fletcher. Miles Teller does a good job playing Andrew. Paul Reiser and Melissa Benoist do a good job in their supporting roles.
The message of the film hits very well. Fletcher tries to push Andrew (as well as others) to be perfect, and not settle something less. His statement: there are no two words more harmful in the entire English language than "good job" resonates throughout the movie.
Now the bad. There are certain events that are difficult to believe.
Lets start with Andrew breaking up with Nicole. They appeared to have terrific chemistry and out of nowhere, Andrew decided that Nicole is going to stop him from being a great drummer and that she would be a big distraction. I do not believe this. He obviously has feelings for her, and even later in the movie, tries to apologize and wants to get back together. The movie would have been better if Nicole was never seen from again than have this ridiculous breakup over nothing.
Next, the missing folder. This one is tricky because of how ridiculous it is. First, Andrew had a simple job of keeping the folder and never letting it out of his sight. Instead, he puts the folder on the chair, grabs a soda from the vending machine, tries to listen to a conversation that's far away, and when Carl comes back, the folder is gone. Andrew failed a simple task of looking after the folder. Second, there was no one seen come near Andrew or the chair on which the folder was on. The folder may have magically disappeared. This event carried forth the plot of Andrew getting to play drums instead of Carl because Andrew memorized the song and didn't need the folder.
Next, the entire Dunnellen series of events. First, Andrew is late for the show. How is that even possible? A bus somehow blew its tires and Andrew has to get a rental car to barely make it to the show! He then forgets his drum sticks. He drives to get his drum sticks, only to get t-boned by a truck. He luckily survives with some injury and walks away from the major car accident that he caused. Andrew scrambles back to the show, all bloody and a complete mess. How Fletcher ever allowed Andrew on the stage will forever be a mystery. The scene ends with Andrew attacking Fletcher on stage. While this whole series of events provides a good deal of action and to the story, I have an incredibly difficult time believing any of this would happen.
Finally, the entire sequence of events leading to Fletcher getting kicked out of Schaffer and what occurs afterwards. The lawyer told Andrew that Fletcher would never know if Andrew made a statement against Fletcher ... Fletcher isn't stupid, he would have found out and he did find out. Andrew believing Fletcher had no ill will after he was part of Fletcher's dismissal was also difficult to believe. Andrew should have confessed to what he did, but instead he kept quiet believing Fletcher knew nothing.
This is a 10/10 movie if it decided to be more realistic with its story. The ending could have been exactly the same, and it was a great ending.
Legionnaire (1998)
One of JCVD's Best Movies
This is an amazing story about Alain (played by JCVD), a boxer escaping his newly found enemies after he didn't take a dive in a boxing match. In his escape, he joined the Foreign Legion. Over the next following months he befriends 3 others as they all become Legionnaires and go on their remarkable journey into north Africa. Their lives are in constant danger from the harsh environment and the threat of local warriors that want the French gone. The ending is a sad one (or maybe a happy one if you are against the French), as the local warriors kill all the Legionnaires, but let Alain live due to his courage.
The acting in this movie is excellent. JCVD plays JCVD and is amazing as usual. The supporting roles played by Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Nicholas Farrell, and Daniel Caltagirone were terrific. Even Juliot (played by Joe Montana) makes for a great character and redeems himself in the end by coming over to Alain's side and fighting the local warriors.
The music, cinematography, and pace are all terrific. It's a shame movies like this one are very rare nowadays.
The Covenant (2023)
One Of The Best War Movies Of This Century
This is a serious movie about a US soldier being saved by his interpreter and returning the favor by coming back to Afghanistan to save the interpreter and his family. John and his squad were ambushed by the Taliban, as they were trying to find and destroy Taliban explosives. Everyone from John's team, except John and Ahmed (the interpreter), were killed in battle. Ahmed, whose son was killed by the Taliban, rescued himself and John once the Taliban found their location. The first part of the movie was about the mission to find explosives. The 2nd part focused on Ahmed rescuing himself and John (who was very injured). The rest of the movie focused on John's mission to rescue Ahmed and his family.
The acting was terrific, the pacing was great, and the story was one of the best in the recent years. At the end, there's a reminder to what happened when the withdrawal from Afghanistan was badly planned and terribly executed. It lead to a lot of death and misery for many involved and the Taliban taking over Afghanistan. That is the harsh reality that many want to cover up or avoid talking about.
Depp V Heard (2023)
A biased, incomplete documentary
The documentary is about 150 minutes long, split into 3 episodes. While it does mention some of the important moments of the trial, it didn't show all the important evidence that was presented. Instead, it focused on social media response and fans of both Heard and Depp. The documentary tries to make a case that trial is not about facts or what actually happened, but about people's opinions of Depp and Heard. The documentary tells the viewers that Heard has been wronged by Depp's supporters who didn't buy Heard's BS. The documentary implies that these Depp supporters convinced the jury that Heard is lying, not that Heard herself was lying to the jury. The common theme throughout the documentary was that the horde of Depp fans made the case against Heard. In the end, the documentary reiterates its message throughout the 3 episodes: the results of the trial are invalid and Heard was wronged by the court system, the Depp fans, and the internet bots.
Three Thousand Years of Longing (2022)
Very Good Movie
I've never heard of this movie until I saw it on Amazon Prime. Maybe some people that heard of the movie were expecting an action/adventure movie as the trailer indicates, they would be disappointed. It's a slow paced movie with great character development of the two main characters. The story and special effects are all very good. Idris Elba and Tilda Swinton are terrific in this movie. It's a movie that will probably resonate with lonely people more than others, as part of the story is about loneliness and trying to find love. The ending of the movie is terrific and provides closure.
The one thing that should have been left out of the movie are the obese naked women.
Picture a Scientist (2020)
Very Disappointing
I had simple expectations before watching the documentary. I expected to learn that there are policies that discriminated against women. An example of a policy is affirmative action, that discriminated against certain races - and I expected that this documentary to expose such a discrimination policy against women. This did not happen and anecdotal evidence of bullying or being treated like garbage does not count (men get bullied and treated like garbage too). The fact that less girls are interested in science than boys has not been mentioned.
We get statistics on there being less women in some field where there's no 50/50 split between men and women. This is clearly a problem! Might as well go after the plumbers, electricians, construction workers, and any other field where there's not a 50/50 split.
There's a story about one woman parking in the faculty parking lot and someone asking if she worked there. The woman was also mistaken for a janitor.
There's a story about some random dude asking out a bunch of women and kept getting rejected. I am not sure what point they were trying to get across.
There's a story about there being few women engineering students left at the senior year, as compared to many women during the freshman year. I remember my engineering classes. During freshman year, maybe 1 in 20 students was a girl, and no one was telling the girls to leave.
There's a story about guys wanting to have beer with a woman, then another guy assuming her success came from having a beer and sleeping with them.
There's a story about a woman getting little lab space. I am certain this happened to men as well.
The left/right association test was an absolute joke.
The most heartbreaking story is the guy at Antartica bullying a woman and endangering her life and health. She should have sued the guy and the program.
A few great quotes from the documentary:
"A ton of feathers is still a ton."
"If you don't have women, you lost half the best people."
"The higher you go up the ivory tower, the whiter it gets, and the more male, and the more hetero."
Is it sad to hear these stories? Yes. Am I a bad person because I am not convinced that every woman that wants to be a scientist or engineer needs to jump through special hoops and battle all the evil men to do so? No.
Dog (2022)
Much Better Than Expected
This is one of the better movies I've seen recently. I was pleasantly surprised how it was a serious movie with a few comedic scenes instead of a bad comedy. The acting and story were great. Would definitely recommend this to anyone.
National Champions (2021)
One of the Worst Football Movies
If you expected a fun, football movie with football in it, you'll be disappointed. This is a story about a star college quarterback's crusade for turning college student athletes into paid employees. While that idea isn't horrible, this movie is. From the woke non-sense of "college athlete is the same as a slave" to the attacking the coach for no reason, this movie has a lot of bad things. Are college football players, even ones that have no intentions of going to the NFL, going to boycott the biggest college game of the season? No. Is this movie about college football? Not really, there's not much football on display. Brief appearances by Russell Wilson and Malcolm Jenkins in interviews is about all the football you're getting. The movie paints all college athletes, no matter the sport, being oppressed by the NCAA. It briefly mentioned that men's football and basketball pays for the other sports and scholarships, but doesn't go much into that.
The acting was mediocre, but there's no amount of great acting or famous people in sports that can save this movie from the bad story it has.
The Last Duel (2021)
Exceeded all expectations
This was the first movie I've seen in a movie theater in over a year and it was the best movie I've seen in a long time. It's a serious movie that Ridley Scott made incredibly well. All actors and actresses had terrific performances. The story is about a woman in 14th century France that was raped while her husband was on business. It's a simple story that was told by 3 people: the husband, the rapist, and the woman, each segment lasting about 45 minutes. At the conclusion of the movie, a duel between the husband and the rapist takes place.
Looking at some user reviews and critic reviews, it is not a surprise that such great movies like The Last Duel are rare in today's age. The critics call it boring and demand more political messaging that the movie didn't provide.
Don't Look Up (2021)
Very disappointing
If you wanted a serious version of Armageddon, this is not that movie. It starts with a similar premise of an asteroid heading towards Earth and devolves into bad comedy, politics, and weird messaging. The story was beyond unbelievable. Armageddon was at least entertaining and fun to watch. This turdball has some people trying to make the asteroid into whatever metaphor they want. It's an asteroid, just like the asteroid from Armageddon is an asteroid.
Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal (2021)
A Strange Time We Live In
If you expected a documentary of a serious legal nature, describing what crimes were being committed, what laws were broken, and who the victims were, you will be disappointed. There is not a single legal statute or legal code sited. Rick, the evil mastermind behind this "scam", was charged on something about securities fraud, that has nothing to do with anything in this story. He was also spied on by the FBI for no apparent reason, his phones were tapped and his computers were monitored. The documentary skips over any warrants or reasons for criminal activity, and later compares Rick to the DEA goes after drug dealers. The documentary has no problem with the government spying on its citizens for no reason whatsoever.
One of Rick's suggestions to students when applying to colleges was to mark themselves as black or latino on their applications. The documentary deems this as evil (for lying I assume) - but completely ignores the obvious problem: what does your race or skin color have to do with merit? The documentary is all about "front door" college admission, students getting accepted based on merit, but it completely ignores the fact that your race or skin color has nothing to do with merit - and if that is so important in the admissions process, why won't the documentary talk about it? It briefly mentions affirmative action in a positive light.
The documentary takes a strange approach to standardized testing. On the one hand, it claimed that standardized tests are rigged so that rich kids do better. On the other hand, it talked about someone taking tests or editing tests that the students involved in the scandal took. I agree that it's wrong to impersonate someone to take their test for them - but if the rich kids are the ones the tests were designed for, why would they need that help/cheating to do well on the tests? It tried to have it both ways and failed.
Before the end of the documentary, it goes completely woke. "No good would come out of these sentences or out of this scandal. The fines they've been given, meaningless. In terms of hitting them in the pocketbook, what a difference it would would have made if we hit them hard and put that money to work for underpriveleged kids. That would have been amazing." The lady saying this was talking about the parents involved. This documentary literally advocated theft from one group of people.
I gave it 2 stars because it was a well produced documentary, with good acting. It mentioned a "racketeering conspiracy" at the end, but provided no evidence of any such thing. It's just a bunch of rich people paying for their kids to go to prestigious schools.
High Score (2020)
Expected it to be about video games...
In a way it was about video games, but the stories and the way those stories have been told were generally awful and unappealing. They tried to show how diverse video games were with stories featuring minorities/women/LGBT folks and their contribution to video games. While a few stories were interesting, they didn't have a significant impact to video games. Plenty of political messaging (biased against one side of the political aisle) was displayed. Would not recommend this to anyone looking for an interesting history of video games.