maria_garcia_us Reviews

Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (2019)

I LOVE THIS MOVIE!!!!!!!!!! Watched it twice in one sitting.

[10/10 · 1 March 2024]

Will buy it. And I want more Hobbs & Shaw. "You don't remember me, do you, Hobbs? You will. It's going to be a hell of a reunion." This movie is for pure entertainment; not thinking and pondering. It is completely and totally irrelevant that everything about the plot, the characters, the equipment and the action scenes is impossible. It doesn't matter that the day/night scenes illogically bleed over. The music rocks. The funny one-liners are great.

Seeing Helen Mirren, Ryan Reynolds and Kevin Hart was a special treat.

I also want to be an unmarried 20-something, move to Samoa and marry one of Hobb's brothers. Hey, Joe "Roman Reigns" Anoa'i or Josh Mauga, I was really hot in my time! Not only are they Alpha Male hot, they are gorgeous hot and they have classic, modified muscle cars that we've all come to love in the Fast and Furious franchise. A 1935 Ford Truck RatRod, a 1987 Ford Bronco and a 1966 classic, modified muscle Peterbilt Semi Truck!!! (I wanted to cry when the Peterbilt died.) This list doesn't take into account the cool trucks the Samoan brothers and cousins are driving.

The Exorcist (2016–2018)

Bad Theology Very Entertaining

[6/10 · 10 February 2024]

Not sure why this series was cancelled after only two seasons but then I don't keep up with that kind of stuff.

Great Acting. Bingable season long story lines. The first season had famous actors such as Candice Bergen, Geena Davis and the absolutely wonderful Alan Ruck of Ferris Bueller's Day Off fame! Now it was kind of weird to have Candice as Geena's mom (There's only ten years difference between them in age.) If I'd been the writer, I'd have given Alan Ruck a bigger part but that's just me. Second season had one of my favorite actors John Cho.

If one is looking for good theology, this is NOT the series for you. Do NOT try to do this at home.

Nefarious (2023)

Holy Moley!

[10/10 · 5 February 2024]

When I first clicked on this movie to watch, I didn't remember it being in the 'news' last year. People for and against it. I just wanted to watch a 'thriller'.

Boy, was it thrilling! The acting was absolutely awesome! By the end, just before the execution was to take place, I didn't know whether he should be executed or not. And I'm all for making the punishment fit the crime.

Whether you believe in God/Yahweh and Lucifer the Fallen Angel or not, this movie will keep your eyes glued to the screen! And if you are a believe, it will send literal chills up your spine & make you want to go to confession even if your not a Catholic!

Haven (2010–2015)

Don't bother with Seasons 4 & especially 5

[5/10 · 7 January 2024]

Season 1 - 7 Season 2 - 7 Season 3 - 7 Season 4 - 3 Season 5 - 1 Average Score - 5 I hadn't heard of this series until I found it on TubiTV. The premise is great (even if it's based on a Stephen King novel of which I'd also never heard) and the characters were well fleshed and the acting really, really good.

So there I was binge watching over the Christmas holiday, really enjoying myself when BAM! Season 4. Why did the writers have to go and ruin it? Then Season 5 limped along with dumber & dumber story lines until I was begging the whole thing to just die so I could move on to something else.

8 Seconds (1994)

Pretty darn close to truth

[8/10 · 16 July 2023]

This movie brings back memories including wearing Rocky Mountain jeans. Lol

Watching Stephen Baldwin play Tuff Hedeman just reminded me what a Class A a-hole he was back then. He thought he was being funny; he wasn't. He was just mean and jealous of Lane. Watching Luke Perry play Lane Frost reminded me of what a truly nice guy he always was.

The movie makes it sound like almost everyone in rodeo are jerks but while rodeo had more than it's fair share back in the 80s, whether in college, local rodeos or professional, there were less than the movie makes it seem. It's just that the a-holes make a bigger impression.

Oh the stories I could tell of some of the college rodeo people in eastern NM, TX & OK. This movie brings them back. The bull rider that wouldn't have been able to compete in college if I hadn't been told to tutor him to get his grades up and then to let him cheat off my tests. I've always wondered if he'd have ever placed 3rd in the PBR if I'd hadn't let him cheat off me.

The bull riders that I patched up at the beginning of every week and the parties at this trailer house almost every night (It's a wonder I kept my grades up.) . The times my hands were raw & blistered working the ropings. The Coriente steers and their horns they'd try to get you with.

John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023)

Not as good as the others...too long

[7/10 · 11 June 2023]

I love this series and rewatch them quite often, especially when I need to watch really bad guys get what's coming to them. Yeah, I know that John Wick is also technically a bad guy. Work with me here.

It seemed like Lawrence Fishburn's character popping in & out at odd times was just to say that he was in the movie. And some of the scenes just dragged on longer than they really should have. One had to wonder at some of his opponents because they had no skills (cannon fodder)?

Did anyone else find themselves asking why in the world there aren't more accidents with cars driving around the Arc D'Triomphe?

Gifted (2017)

So much better than I expected! Winner

[9/10 · 11 June 2023]

Looking for a good movie, great characters, family friendly that riles a wide range of emotions? Then this is a movie for your family (WARNING: there ARE cuss words so not for the littles).

The story is believable, relatable, attention keeping. I did wonder what Frank was going to do with the other cats.

Chris Evans (NOT my favorite actor & why I was hesitant to watch) is so good! His chemistry with this niece is perfect. Octavia Spencer is awesome as expected. And Mckenna Grace is terrific. Lindsay Duncan's character is so easy to despise to anyone who has had to deal with rich, entitled snobs, especially academic snobs.

House M.D. (2004–2012)

Higher rating (7) if you watch weekly

[5/10 · 16 May 2023]

Because if you binge watch this, the nastiness, irritability, snideness, condescension, misogyny, impatience, and just general a-holeness by Dr. House gets to be something you can't get past in order to enjoy the story.

And after binge watching for a few weekends or days in a row, you discover that there are a limited number of story-lines. Lots of interesting ways to become sick such that it makes it hard for the doctors to figure out what's wrong, but eventually they run out of new illnesses, poisonings and start just making stuff up. I know because I was so interested I looked stuff up.

As for House's backstory, it is obvious that viewers are supposed to feel sorry for him and use that an excuse for his nastiness, but after a while, you just don't care anymore and just wish that he'd suck it up and move on.

Probably the person one should stop watching the show for is House's best friend who House mistreats. I sure never would have stuck by House if he had pulled 10 percent of that crap on me.

John Wick (2014)

The One That Started the Awesome Franchise!

[9/10 · 16 May 2023]

So far I have watched this three or four time and will probably watch it at least that many more. Why? Because even though John Wick was a 'bad guy' at one point, he left that life for love.

Even after her death, he probably would have stayed out of 'the life' if someone hadn't killed the dog. After they killed the dog, I was just cheering John Wick on and yelling out every time another piece of trash got taken out.

The premise of a secret society of assassins has been around for a long time (look up where the word 'assassin' comes from) this was an approach I had never seen before and it worked.

Probably the worst scene was when a female assassin takes on John Wick as it is just too unbelievable that she take him out. And the scene lasted way too long.

Good Will Hunting (1997)

One of the Best Ever

[10/10 · 16 May 2023]

I've probably watched this movie at least five times over the years including last weekend. And it's just as good as it was the first time.

Matt Damon isn't one of my favorite actors but he's superb here as a troubled, uneducated math prodigy Will Huntin. Stellan Skarsgård, probably best known as Dr. Erik Selvig in the Marvel movies, was so good as the math Professor who discovers a math prodigy (Damon) that he hopes to use to propel himself back in the highest math circles.

But Robin William stole the movie as the therapist, Dr. Sean Maguire, that his college 'friend', Selvid asks to help Will Hunting. The character growth of both Will and Sean as we learn more about their past made me cry the first time I watched this movie.

What Is a Woman? (2022)

Almost a 10...9.5

[9/10 · 6 May 2023]

This documentary would have received a 10 but for all of the editing, which may have been done to keep it from being too long. I would have liked to see more of the exchanges between Matt Walsh and the 'Gender Studies' professor, the pediatrician, and with Scott. And the interview with California Congressman Mark Takano almost made me spit my drink out. I almost felt embarrassed for him. The best interviews were those with the Maasai.

The illogical premise and the fallacies inherent in the whole "trans" gender cultural issue was very well debated with opinions from people from both side of this very important issue. What I noticed is that only one side actually presented hard data while the other only want to talk about their feelings.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023)

Best bits were in the trailers

[3/10 · 6 May 2023]

Updated in order to down grade. Kept watching for another 20 minutes and it just got less interesting.

It's often that advertisements for movies take good bits from the movie and put them in their trailers. Unfortunately, it seems that all of the best bits were put in the advertisements.

Never played Dungeons and Dragons but know people who do, and have talked about it so I'm not completely ignorant. I sure expected more fantastical creatures and fewer humans, more funny punchlines, better character creation, less repetition. I mean how many dead people did they really have to dig up to find the dang helmet?

Honestly, I was thinking more along the lines of Guardians of the Galaxy. So far I've made it through 49 minutes & 42 seconds and am seriously wondering if I want to continue or re-watch the Expendables or Nobody.

The Pope's Exorcist (2023)

Not bad but not necessarily very good

[7/10 · 6 May 2023]

Not scary but not much scares me.

The funniest part is at the end after the priests vanquish the demon to hell. The youngest priest was covered by a bunch of red good when the demon torturing him exploded. Just a few minutes later, he's sitting there with his face covered in red and yet his clothes aren't. I laughed out loud.

I'm not Catholic but am Christian. I do believe in demons and possession but can't see how praying to dead people (Mary the physical mother of Jesus Christ) could possibly do anything. But then again, I don't believe that saying words created by human beings (priests, bishops, cardinals or popes) over and over can do anything either.

The Siege (2023)

30 minutes I'll never get back

[2/10 · 24 April 2023]

Who ever promised that I would laugh throughout the entire runtime is a liar. Maybe if I'd been higher than a kite, hopped up on acid, taking a psychedelic trip, maybe, just maybe, I might have laughed.

There wasn't an original thought, speech or scene in the entire movie. Others have been there and done this soooooo many times. I have no clue as to who the leads are, and honestly, do not care. Their acting was horrible. The could have been given the best script on the plant and still could not have acted their way out of wet paper bags.

They guy with the muscles should have spent less time in a gym and more time with an acting coach. And then maybe he would be able to move his arms normally. As for the chick, she may be ok in something else, but good grief.

The Reading (I) (2023)

Not bad

[6/10 · 24 April 2023]

Not the best psycho / horror movie I've ever seen but not the worst either. Don't recognize any of the actors but they did a decent job of their parts. The chasing down people was very typical as was the hiding in stupid places and waiting too long to take the killer out.

Felt like a first time, low budget movie for everyone involved but there's definite room for growth.

Is it going to be give me nightmares? Nope but then I don't scare easy.

Am I going to look any of these people up online and search for more movies that they are in? Nope. But then again if I should happen to see one of them in a trailer for something else I just might stop and take another look.

The Ritual Killer (2023)

Solid

[8/10 · 23 April 2023]

Good and engaging story. Good acting by everyone except the Police Captain. Nice twist at the end with the professor. Well except for the very last scene which was disgusting and completely unnecessary.

Obviously low budget other than Morgan Freeman who is his usual awesome self. Cole Hauser gives a good performance. And the rest of the cast are pretty much nobodies when it comes to middle America name recognition. The actor who plays the Italian investigator doesn't have enough screen time but his skills are good.

Probably the worst part of the whole movie are the over done flashbacks of Mississippi Detective Boyd. We got it already.

Escape from New York (1981)

Should have been the year 2023 instead of 1988

[8/10 · 6 March 2023]

March 6, 2023. Watching this again, right now. And I must say this movie was prophetic in a lot of ways. Kind of like Orwell's book 1984. This movie should be remade and here's the actors for it.

Chris Pratt - Snake Plissken, Michael Keaton - Commissioner Hauk, Own Wilson -Cabbie, Stanley Tucci - President Harker, Idris Elba - The Duke, Lili Reinhart - Chock Full O Nuts, John Turturro - Brain "Doc" Hellman, Iyana Halley - Maggie, Bill Pullman - Sec State, Adam Driver - Romero and Seth Rogan - cage fighter.

From the antifa / anarchist / 'liberation fronts' that took over Air Force One at the beginning of the movie (Her lines are eerily reminiscent to what we hear / read on twitter now.), to the percent rise in crime all over (400%), to the look of Manhattan (Looks a lot like several cities after the George Floyd riots, CHAZ / CHOP), to the weird hair coloring and styles, modes of dress and attitude of the prison's inhabitants, the graffiti, cage fighting, this all seems like the US today. This movies wasn't supposed to be a How To manual. Now I have to wonder what Kurt Russell thinks of this movie. Especially the mention of the World Trade Center. But hey, if we need to turn the island of Manhattan into a prison, I'm game.

Snake Eyes (2021)

Rewatched it - Still bad

[4/10 · 6 March 2023]

I really liked the first G. I. Joe movie and hoped that the franchise would be as good as Marvel & better than DC. Hopes crushed.

The inconsistencies with the G. I. Joe story were worse this time around because I remembered much from the first watch. What happened to Snake Eyes being taken in by a Master and the animosity that developed between two young boys? I hate it when people remake beginning story lines without telling audiences that it's a parallel universe, or a twin, or something.

Why didn't this movie have any of the same actors? That would have helped a LOT. The action was fine but the plot sucked.

The Alamo (1960)

Another John Wayne Classic

[9/10 · 3 March 2023]

The truly American and uniquely Texan story of the Alamo that most Americans don't know.

While not completely and historically accurate, it hits the high spots. Great actors doing great work.

John Wayne as Davy Crockett does a great job of conveying what the pioneers of Tennessee and Kentucky were like based on my reading. But he looked nothing like the real person.

Richard Widmark as James Bowie was a faithful representation.

Not sure how accurately Lawrence Harvey portrayed Colonel William Barrett Travis but he did look a lot like the actual person.

My favorites were Frankie Avalon as Smitty, Chill Wills as Beekeeper, Jester Hairston as Jethro, and Hank Worden as Parson.

The Shootist (1976)

Preview of how Ron Howard would turn out

[9/10 · 3 March 2023]

Grew up watching John Wayne movies and admit that his characters helped form my worldview of what real men should be. Strong, tough, honest, fair, manly. And while this movie is one of his best, it's probably one of my least favorite. Oh, not because of John Bernard "JB" Boon, but because of how much I detest the characters played by Ron Howard, Harry Morgan and Richard Lenz.

Gillom Rogers (Howard) is a snot nosed brat who foreshadows the person that the actor would become.

Marshal Walter Thibido (Morgan) is a spineless coward who promises to dance (or worse) on Boon's grave. BTW, Harry Morgan was a great actor; he was just cast as a despicable person.

Journalist Dan Dobkins (Lenz) is a soy boy mercenary who doesn't care about his subject except as an item for his little newspaper.

Black Adam (2022)

LOLOLOLOLOL...nope

[3/10 · 19 February 2023]

As someone who does not like DC as much as Marvel (blame my childhood and what I had access to), DC has a difficult row to hoe when it comes to earning my appreciation. Consider me suitably underwhelmed.

Not only is the story-line a mess, the heroes (Hawkman), Atom (Henry Winkler and his nephew???) and Tornado(???) are (cannot think of better word than underwhelming). I mean, when the best superhero is played by the handsome Pierce Brosnan, the movie is a loser.

Hawkman is unrelatable. Atom's schtick falls flat. Tornado's personality never develops. And Pierce Brosnan's character dies? He's the only one I would have kept, if it was me.

Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

Worth buying for your movie library

[9/10 · 19 February 2023]

Or in other words, it is definitely worth watching over and over again.

There's so much going on in this move that every time you watch it, you catch something that you missed previously.

The story is good. The characters are believable and relatable. The dialogue has plenty of lines worth quoting later. And the visuals are fantastic during the flights scenes.

The part I personally liked most, as someone who knows a lot of military, former and current, was that the movie also showed those who support the flyers. It also showed what jerks a lot of pilots can be (personal experience). So parts of the movie were realistic even if it didn't always follow the laws of physics.

Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)

The ONLY reason rated this high is because...

[3/10 · 19 February 2023]

Chris Hemsworth is good looking.

The plot is lame. The characters are weak. The dialogue is pathetic. If it wasn't for the action and CGI, it wouldn't be worth the $3.99 to rent. Not sure it would be worth free streaming for anyone not hard up for something after having watched everything else on offer.

If you turn off the audio, it's a better movie. The visuals are good. But the emasculation on Thor just continues Disney's slide into obscurity.

Other than The Hulk, I really enjoyed the Marvel Universe right up until Captain America Civil War. Then good until Black Panther. Avenger's End Game sucked. With Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Eternals, the franchise is dead.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)

This could have been so good, but nooooo Disney sucks

[5/10 · 19 February 2023]

I really liked Black Panther despite it's racism against white people, the "colonizers". The pot shots got really old not half way through the film. So I worked hard to ignore it so that I could enjoy the story and visuals.

Before I watched Wakanda Forever, I had read a wide range of reviews from all over the political spectrum. So it's not like I wasn't warned.

And I wasn't disappointed; it was a bad as I thought it would be. Not sure how far into the movie (not very far) when the 'colonizer' poo came. Oh and don't get me started on all the 'woman power' poo. It was throughout. And by the way, some women should NOT shave their heads. Ever. And this one didn't have as much humor as the first. And the imperfect, angry protagonist thing fell flat. Mad queen. Mad daughter. Mad warrior women. Just mad.

Nobody (I) (2021)

Can't stop watching

[10/10 · 19 February 2023]

Need a movie to watch when you're down in the dumps about how the bad guys just keep on getting away with stuff? Need a movie where an average Joe kicks butt and takes names? Then this is a movie for you to watch over and over and over. But NOT with the kids. This movie should have a NC-17 rating not for language or sexual content but for violence and gore. But what wonderful violence and gore it is!

At work, when it's one of those days where you really need to strangle that a-hole at work who's just an entitled jerk that seems to keep getting ahead of you, when you work your butt off and they skate, just fire up your personal device and rewatch the car chase or fight scenes and pretend that you are Hutch and those lazy SOBs are the bad guys.