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Ad Astra (2019)
The shadow of 2001
Yes 2001 is technically superior to Ad Astra for its time but let's move on.
Ad Astra is the shadow of 2001. When 2001 is cold, Ad Astra is warm. When 2001 is existential, Ad Astra is human. When 2001 is a trip, Ad Astra is a meditation. When 2001 is aimed at space, Ad Astra is aimed at Earth.
Brad Pitt delivers his monologue well, he's good in this role, it's done well, nothing wrong with it whatsoever. Tommy Lee Jones is perfect as estranged father and a tragic anti-villain. Other roles are minor to be notable.
The effects, the sets, the pacing, the acting are all very solid. The story itself is about the past getting lost in the present, and then projected into the future, with potentially catastrophic results. Sins of the fathers...
Also-space pirates!
Near perfect 9/10.
Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)
Beautiful trash
Editing - very bad, let's hope this will be fixed in final cut. Pacing issues. Irritating teenagers, irritating teenagers, irritating teenagers, irritating teenagers, I think I made my point. Incredibly predictable plot, Avatar 1 is The Godfather in comparison, and they had at least 10 years to write it!
It should've been a smaller in scale movie, with a few characters, Kiri and definitely not Spider. ANd the clifhnager would've been humans coming back, seriously, humans in this film are pure evil, not a single good human.
Beautiful trash, except Kiri, her story had a plot.
And it's too goddamn turquoise.
Daybreakers (2009)
Feels like an okay B movie
Special effects are cheap and over the top. It would be better if there were no special effects but then the movie is sold as "Hey remember Underworld and cool vampires?". You have to do what you have to do when the plot and the script are even less developed than in Event Horizon, a B movie also staring good ol' Sam Neil.
The acting department is cheating, get rid of Hawke and Ethan and there's not much to say about it. The character development is rushed a lot, lots of cliches, the editing is all over the place. About 15 minutes in and the protagonist already running from the law because he has moral, the movie is about moralism. In your face amoralists! Etc.
This is what happens when you tell your producers that you will make a cool vampire movie for 20 million with A list actors.
The Batman (2022)
Batman meets Se7en but the script is a dud.
The first half is strong and promising, up there with Nolan's Dark Knight, but the second half has lost creativity which is what was gripping me in the first half, it became formulaic, predictable. Cheap. And there was a big, big! Ol cliffhangerino... aiming at no less predictable sequel. 7.4 out of 10.
Licorice Pizza (2021)
Good feel movie by a master but not a masterpiece
Well, I enjoyed it, my only gripe that the ending felt edited in. The actress is charming. Not sure what the movie is all about other than nostalgia for youth and old days. I guess the movie was kind of targeted for people with covid depression. The movie feels real and what more do you want, would you rather go and watch yet another masked vigilante movie or a mutant movie with tons of cgi, I think not, c'mon have some self respect. Go see it.
Jeepers Creepers (2001)
Why the low score?
This movie is a gem. A tight 8. One of the best horror films ever made, the build up the tension the effects, the scares, all done with love to the genre.
Tenet (2020)
Inception meets Primer. Christopher Nolan goes full Shane Carruth.
I found the concept intriguing and special effects were exceptional, I'm sure much work was put into it. But although all of it was intriguing, it was delivered in an overconfident and heavy-handed manner. I feel for Chris because I'm not smart enough for his vision.
I understood the main plot maybe nearing the end, so before that I was mostly confused, so, I get it, but... and it is a big but, a big big but. I did not get invested in the characters, I felt very little for them, and the climax of the last 30 minutes was a torture, because frankly, it was boring, not interesting, whatever you call it, I call it boring.
Now the consensus is that we have to see it more than once. Which means renting is a better option, also you will benefit greatly from a pause button. So it makes sense to see it once in the theatre for the eye candy then forget about it till the bluray will come out, yep! Or if you're not a huge fan of big screen eye candy then it's not that important, and you might even want to skip it altogether.
The Alienist (2018)
Spiritual successor to True Detective
If like me you have done yourself a disfavor and fell in love with the True Detective series which raised the bar so so high, 1 season to be exact, and you feel left out now that the series all long over and nothing comes near it in terms of pessimistic philosophy then this is probably the closest hit you'll get. And... it might has something to do with the man behind the series was also the director of the first TD season, hmm the plot thickens.
Well... judge for yourself rather than reading these highly subjective reviews.
It is not bad as you can see the rating is solid.
One word of advice... disregard sometimes wooden acting, think of it as a puppet theater, as that is what it is isn't it? Enjoy yourself.
Children of Dune (2003)
Not worth the watch, unimaginative, nothing to offer, 5 out of 10 for some effort
No sense of direction, it felt like it was directed by someone's grandmother who was too nice to direct. The acting was amateurish, the extras looked clueless as though they were waiting for the tea break, only few main actors had a sense of self awareness about them.
The special effects were super low budget and most of the scenes were green screen ruining the experience for me, better if there were no cgi at all.
It had some moments, the actor who plays Paul is alright, James McAvoy stood out as a the most talented actor, believable, embodying his role to the fullest.
The actress who played Alia looked like a suburbian bimbo.
The costumes were terribly unimaginative. What am I saying... Everything about this production lacked imagination!
Stilgar was too emotional and senile looking, not how I imagined him in the books
Another thing that creeped me out was how almost everyone were so conservative.looking.
The script was alright I guess but the delivery like I said was very cheap.
Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
Time to settle the score. It was decent.
I had no problem with length. I'm a fan of long movies like Stalker, but Satantango which is another movie that I like was really long, 9 hours.
Big fan of the original Blade Runner and the book is my number one favorite.
Why 7. The characters were one-dimensional. Visuals at this time of age and post-Avatar can no longer be the foreground for a film, to me the visuals were too forced, spoon-fed "look how pretty this film is".
Ryan Gosling has no range, he always has the same facial expression throughout the film, he's good at playing psychopaths though.
The first two acts of the film were intriguing but the last third act fell flat, it was empty, just escalation, just confrontation, the "good guy has to win" "we're over budget time to wrap up" trope.
It lacked wildness, the bravery of the original.
So to me this movie is not a masterpiece and I don't believe it will become a cult classic.
It is a decent film however. However I liked Villeneuve's Sicario better, and Arrival again fell flat in the third act. He has the vision but he's not an actor person and not and not as clever as Verhoeven or Cameron, when it comes to dystopian movies.
1917 (2019)
Peculiar aura of nationalism over this one, lopsided, like it was funded by the army itself.
I don't know maybe I have evolved or rather became disillusioned with my patriotic aspirations. I blame the internet, as it showed me that the enemy is within.
The movie is well shot and the music is haunting, the first half of the film is expository with few words in between, truly mesmerising. I would also add that I can't imagine anyone in the role of Schofield other than George MacKay.
But the plot, the script in general, and the ending felt like I was watching a cheap conservative hallmark channel drama on an extremely generous budget.
The cameos meant nothing to me, oh look there's Colin Firth - we will never see him again, oh look there's Benedict Cumberbatch and his scar as you were, then that other guy in the end. Good acting overall but too scripted!
Should you watch it? If anything it is only worth your while on a big screen, actually the movie has a surprising amount of jump scares ha! There's one moment in the film where I guarantee you will make you jump. So yea go watch but don't expect The Thin Red Line.
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
IT MADE NO SENSE. Sorry, it made no sense.
They made it that way on purpose, so that most people would have to say "yes, we think we understand, yea..." so not to look like a bunch of idiots. There's power in the denial!
But go watch it for the laughs, I'm not a type of person to cringe over a cheesy joke, but whoever was responsible for comedy relief this time around has gotten to me! Was it RDJ? He a genuinely funny guy.
I rate this sci-fi fantasy:
6/10
-1 for over the top CGI,
-2 for deus ex machina,
-1 for trying to make me feel for too many characters! Because I can't do lazy writing.
and -1 for shameless AUDI plug but I won't go below 6.
Alita: Battle Angel (2019)
Think Avatar, but less dances with smurfs and more Romeo and Juliet
I loved Avatar, so that's out of the way.
Everything looked real, even the unreal stuff, thanks to Rodriguez' and Cameron's unheathly obsession with detail. Great soundtrack too, almost perfectly placed.
The violence... Not on the same level as manga, no fountains of blood, but, it was cleverly implemented, less gory more psychological if that makes sense. Some memorable scenes were less powerful than they were in manga, like the last scene with Alita and the boy, I expected more drama as per manga, it was a perfect opportunity to show real acting skill or lack thereof.
The emotion, this is not a visceral scifi but emotional one, because... because Alita is essentially a child(who at some point breaks the character hmm they grow so fast), an here's my main criticism, I understand it was intentional to make everybody around equally "animated" to save Alita from the uncanny valley, and by jove she's alive! However, I can't help but feeling cheated in way, my advice is to trust the director and go where the film goes.
Alita is very much into herself and with her warrior archetype kicking in things start to get kicked hard... sorry I was trying to be clever. Don't listen to me, go watch it, then decide for yourself, after all does it really matter what others think? Does it matter to me what you think? Thoughts can hurt you know.
What I did was I let myself go and was on the edge of the seat the whole time, start to finish. The last film that had such a grip on me was probably Whiplash and yes it's been a while.
Total Recall (2012)
Watch original again
Here's how the movie goes:
A guy is and a hot girl running away from bad guys, bullets flashing.
Some actual writing.
A guy is running away from a hot bad girl, does parkour, bullets flashing.
Some actual writing.
A guy is running away bad guys, bullets flashing.
Some minor writing.
A guy finds his hot good girl and is running away with her from the bad guys again, bullets flashing. "She' my wife he says" *Clapping*
And that's how it goes on for another hour and a half and then the end.
I rate it 5 for special effects and quality of production. Minus 1 for dubstep which was a fad c'mon!
The Alienist (2018)
Spiritual successor to True Detective
If like me you have done yourself a disfavor and fell in love with the True Detective series which raised the bar so so high, 1 season to be exact, and you feel left out now that the series all long over and nothing comes near it in terms of pessimistic philosophy then this is probably the closest hit you'll get. And... it might has something to do with the man behind the series was also the director of the first TD season, hmm the plot thickens.
Well... judge for yourself rather than reading these highly subjective reviews.
It is not bad as you can see the rating is solid.
One word of advice... disregard sometimes wooden acting, think of it as a puppet theater, as that is what it is isn't it? Enjoy yourself.
Suburbicon (2017)
Absolutely brilliant black(and bleak) comedy
Don't mind reviews, watch it then decide for yourself, it's one of those.
It's a... critique on how we perceive our environment, what you will see is an idealistic, whitewashed community of people who are really nice to each other, but that's what we perceive, what is the reality then? For example we go to a grocery store and purchase the best looking apples but how we're they grown we don't know don't want to know because ignorance is bliss is it not? Another example would be a spider you found in your room, you hate it and want to get rid of it because you are so different, a creature so unevolved it needs six legs to live, how dare it invade the space you have so painstakingly build for yourself.
Visually it's an eyecandy, charming soundtrack, great performances, tight script no waffle and all true to the era it was set, a sense of mystery but no twists, no there are no twists just a situation that leads up to a big I told you so sign... It's bleak and funny. Recommended for fans of coen bros.
10 Cloverfield Lane (2016)
Old school but works
From the guy who directed playtest in black mirror, if I knew that before I would never hesitated to watch it. Thanks to positive reviews I did. It starts as an annoying old school psychological horror flick, with a mysterious music to boot hitchhock style. At times too old school, like scenes where a character can't find the right key to open the door to escape and so on. Then things get darker and the horror turns into terror as imagination of the viewer starts to run wild. The ending really messes with your expectations but in the end it works as you weren't hyped in the first place. It's not one of those films that was hyped to be great so you can't help but dread the thought that it might not, or worse it turns out to be the opposite. It's one of those films where you go to see it to find out what is it about with no expectations. It's low budget but production value is very good, think Moon.
Game of Thrones: The Broken Man (2016)
Best episode in the season so far
This episode made me realise certain things.
I don't really care about Daenerys, I can't make myself to identify with her, she can't be harmed by fire, has dragons as pets, leader of a massive army, and she's hot, way to go writing the most boring character in the series, no wait that's Sam.
Speaking of which I don't miss Sam and Gilly at all, I hope they'll choke on some evil medieval? artichoke or something, thanks bye!
I miss Tyrion! Was he sleeping? Drinking? I must know!
A good episode does not have to hold a scene of a battle, just some really good writing and acting will do fine, unless they can repeat the quality of Hardhome.
Obligatory death scenes. Getting really annoying though, this episode it was Ian McShane, maybe JRR himself should make a death scene cameo, many people would be pleased.
Some characters are too good to complain that people in GoT are coming back too frequently after they die. Bold but clever.
Castle sieges! Finally we're talking medieval. But this particular was uneventful. As much as I dislike deus ex machina a dragon would fit nicely into a castle siege. Here's hoping.
Not all child leaders are idiots or otherwise cringe-worthy.
I wish I could've expressed myself more eloquently, but all I really wanted to say is that it is the characters, the lore, the "daily stuff", the not so simple stories of the simple folk that make the story come alive. We've witnessed a story of a small group of people who tried to live peacefully out of harm's way, but they failed, because that was the lesson, it is pointless to search for a healthy spot on a diseased body.
This was a great episode because it brought me back to the main plot of the story, back to the real, away from the banal desire to see who will sit on the rusty throne, but to raise a question "How the hell can anyone live in this place?"
Game of Thrones: Home (2016)
So far disappointed
It seems to me only the fans of the books are getting the kick out of the series, or I'm the only one(okay I'm not) who thinks the writing is S**T. Episode 1 Bryene (or what's her name the albino knight) arrives out of nowhere - unexplained - no one bats an eye, let us assume as usual, but in my opinion the lame "deus ex machina" is still lame. Same goes for episode 2 where the wildlings storm the castle gate and save the "traitors", literally in the last second.
But the most disappointing and anti-climatic bit was in the end of the episode, I was expecting some sophisticated blood magic, not some lame mutterings... and of course focusing camera on the wolf gave away everything, even the makeup was different when Jon opened the eyes in the end. He was like "finally I can get s**t done".
Okay I will admit Gordon Ramsay slaughtering his father caught me off guard. It was nasty.
So all in all GoT is like a lottery, series are filled with these little moments of suspense, where there is a feeling that something will go totally wrong. So the next time two guys staring at each other, make your bets.
To summarise, horrible writing.
The Martian (2015)
Cast away in space. Formulaic and sterile. Decent watch.
I haven't read the book nor was the movie made for those who did. Also I know that lots of things were changed, or omitted altogether. So I write this review with no relevance to the original source.
The movie consists of 1 part mars scenes and 2 parts people talking and looking at monitors. But that's okay, the movie had only 100ish mil budget, you got to feed the stars right?
The movie ends like a fairy tale with cheers, hugs and applause... Have a nice dinner afterwards to complete the evening, call your parents and invite them for Christmas or something, because the elation simply won't last.
The movie has a very positive vibe to it, you never feel that the main character is in any real danger, even when he humbly declares that he broke his ribs.
The acting is rehashed from other movies and is not convincing, I assume it is how they got their roles in the first place, with Damon and Chastain coming straight from the Interstellar set, with not much else changed aside from scenery and the plot. I think I got used to Damon's fake tears by now, he does it good, so good that you realize he does it exactly the same every time.
Cue in the visual explanation cliché of a complex plot device, complex for you of course. Yes similar to the one in the Interstellar.
Overall a very smooth, formulaic and sterile space drama with very little memorable scenes, at least not an hour later.
No Sean Bean was harmed in this movie, they even let him to play golf in the end. 7/10
The Twilight Zone: You Drive (1964)
Chrome plated conscience
After a car accident a man successfully commits hit and run, or does he? Watch him enter gloriously into a place they call the Twilight Zone.
Could've been great if given an hour format. The ending could've been more hysterical, and also I think if it was only him seeing and hearing things in his mind it would've been more psychological yet with a supernatural flare. Of course you've guessed by now that I'm being influenced by The Machinist, which will always be a classic in my book. It is kind of lame to use the could've-would've words, but sometimes it just feels as though a show was an inch from greatness.
Tron: Legacy (2010)
Passable
I usually don't make reviews, but the trailer was really misleading for me.
TRON Legacy wasn't completely effortless. It had it's entertainment value. Kids would like it, their parents probably. But in retrospect the movie was passable at best! This of course was no sci-fi with an ambitiously executed plot. This was a sugary chewing gum - it can't and won't get better with time. For example, Avatar was filled with the state of the art cgi, but the story telling and the execution of that cgi was spot on.
Alas, "the spice must flow", the industry must manufacture blockbusters. Good or bad, if a chance of earning some buck is realistic, not one franchise will be spared.
TRON Legacy does not care what it is, it's here and it is in need of your charity. And the next hand outstretched ... Transformers 3.