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patrick-lafont
Reviews
Rebel Moon - Chapter One: Chalice of Blood (2023)
Seems bad, low budget, seen a thousand times
I watched it because it was advertised as a new Star Wars and stopped watching after 30 minutes because it was just bad.
It started like a low budget pilot for a series or video game, some vague narrative and we watch the life of a small community somewhere on a planet. Then the nazis come (seriously, a nazi outfit in a sci-fi movie? Ed Skrein again in a sadistic character, haven't we seen that a thousand times?) and ask for harvest they can't produce. Free violence that doesn't help the story. Top of that a robot design directly copied from the anime Jujutsu Kaisen (because we wouldn't notice?).
I just couldn't watch it anymore, so many clichés, no storytelling abilities whatsoever. Maybe teenagers should go back to books, if they're interested in SF. Better way of spending time...
House of the Dragon: The Green Council (2022)
What's going on with the ratings?
I still don't get how the ratings can be that high, except for the previous episode.
We have a plot that is very one dimensional, compared to GoT, and while it is entertaining to watch if the story is evolving that slowly it should, in my opinion, include more side stories or characters. Or bring something really new to the table.
It's like tailor made for fans but misses the story telling, something that would make people think "hey I didn't like GoT or didn't get it but this is something I'd like to watch". Instead it's only more of the same.
Why wouldn't they make a side story, an event whose outcome doesn't impact the big story but brings a meaning to the story?
Crimes of the Future (2022)
Not a Marvel movie...
I was curious about this movie since people walked out when it was shown first. It is not that disturbing, actually, there is more horror in the news everyday.
The movie is weird but engaging enough to keep you watching. It is refreshing to have a movie that is not giving everything away and you need to be patient.
I don't think I did get exactly the point like it was intended - it keeps you distracted and thinking you understood and just ends when you think the movie was going to give some answers. You're just left with questions and think you missed something. In that regard it is not worse than 99% of Netflix movies.
The Sinner: Part VIII (2020)
Not as bad as reviews are saying
It is probably the weakest seasons of the three I've seen so far, lots of times I was thinking what point are they trying to make. For one, the main character is exorcising his demons, like in the previous season. So it's not pointless. I like Matt Bomer and in that series he's a bit more interesting than most of his other ones. His character is definitely asking the right questions about the purpose of life, I think it is good that the supernatural mood is taking a back seat.
Would it blasphemous of me to say it reminds me of 'Heat'? In the end the cop has to put away the criminal. He doesn't like it because they're almost friends. They're both alone in the world, except for the one moment when one of them dies and the other hold his hand until the end.
Silent Night (2021)
A movie that makes uncomfortable
This would usually make me think of a low budget movie with few characters in a house with no story telling. AKA your usual Netflix movie...
This time I went past it, and thankfully after a rather boring introduction we arrive to the good stuff. A last party before everyone commit suicide to avoid a horrible death.
I guess the side stories and the characters themselves are not that relevant. Even the idea of a poison cloud... well, it doesn't make any sense but one could replace it with zombies, monsters, nazis, etc...
I think the reaction to the situation is the point of the movie, and I think any parent would feel uncomfortable watching this. What if we had this decision to make? Could we be wrong about it?
It's also very realistic that people would rationalize suicide that way. Plus the government organized solution... of course we could easily compare it to the current situation with Covid or even global warming. But I don't think it goes as far.
The whole movie reminds of that line in Pink Floyd's Time: "Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way"
Dopesick (2021)
The story is almost less interesting than the reactions to it
It's more or less your classic story of a company making millions without morals or ethics. So you have the victims, the people fighting the good fight, and the villains. Great cast, good story. I'm just concerned about some clichés ; we had the one where any 70's or 80's needed to have people smoking in their offices, now it looks like homosexuality was not accepted at all in the 90's, or is it just in America?
Now the most interesting thing here are the reactions. We have comments that almost quote the sales pitch in the movie. It's not the company's fault, addicts are at fault for becoming addicted. This is crazy.
It's like saying, a company that sells expensive smartphones with a new release every year and commercials everywhere is not responsible for consumerism, it's the buyers, who are buying a new phone every year or two.when a phone can last 5 years, who are.
Or banks giving loans to people with no money, or companies selling tobacco. The list is probably long but someone always finds an excuse for those companies making money...
Foundation (2021)
A bit of a stretch
Having re-read the books a few months ago, which I do every decade or so, I think the series is stretching the story so that it is 'watchable' and that there is enough content for more than 3 episodes... I think what people like in the books - and even more in books like Dune - is that it picks the moment of the story the author wants us to look at, while not necessarily explaining everything or connecting all the dots. The series is doing the exact opposite, inventing sub-stories while the big story advances slowly. To me, it's useless, we don't want to share characters breakfasts or how they go about their days. That's what's killing a lot of good sci-fi stories, they need to make them last when a shorter story would keep us on our toes.
Now, having a few gender/race swaps is beyond stupid, sorry. Not that it necessarily harms the story. But what does it actually bring? Do people feel better because they're represented in a story written like 80 years ago? It's not clever. It's like Hollywood has flipped the switch and thinks they need women as main characters everywhere, it looks like marketing.
They did the same in Dune, while completely forgetting that women were actually depicted as most powerful in the story. It will be the same in Foundation, some of the women have central roles in the story, deciding the fate of the galaxy. But people will feel like the production wanted a #metoo storytelling when actually it was always there.
The Walking Dead: For Blood (2021)
Where is this even headed?
I already had enough with the character centered episodes that didn't bring much to the story from earlier this year. It was like "hey, we're done with the whisperers, what should we do now?". They brought back Maggie, introduced the Commonwealth but how did it serve the story? Where is even that story? After this long, I don't think anyone is interested in big zombie battles, Alexandria or whatever gangs they're facing anymore. Zombie have become like Covid now, they're not that scary, it feels like they're manageable. And what kind of villains could they make now, after Negan or even Alpha?
By now I almost prefer Fear the Walking Dead...
Stargirl: Summer School: Chapter Nine (2021)
Boring
It's good to have a little bit of storytelling but this is way too much. There should have been something happening in this episode.
Blood Red Sky (2021)
Better than expected
I watched this without much expectations and while it's not a great movie I was simply entertained. It's maybe kind of too long but in the hand it makes me think of Die Hard in a plane with more German accent.
And the best is the ending, when they uncuff a guy who had his hand cut. I usually don't care much about those things but this one was so obvious, I had to laugh.
Fear Street: 1978 (2021)
Am I the only one enjoying this less than part one?
I didn't watch with my full attention, but then again didn't with part one, but it seemed quite simplistic to me. Like an old school movie. But it just not caught my attention, unlike the part one which wasn't exceptional but at least made me watch the second part.
I think the other thing that lost me is the ressemblance with the American Horror Story - I believe it was the last season - that had the same background story. I was just wondering what else this movie could tell.
The first one made me laugh because many songs were not released in 1994 but this one had not built any 70's ambiance with the music. Only 'The man who sold the world' repeated over and over, maybe a few others, but it looked like they didn't try. Good thing there is no music to look forward to in 1666.
Oxygène (2021)
Stopped watching after 5 minutes
Come on Netflix: give us movies that have more than one main actor and one voice. It's getting old, trying to make money out of budget movies.
I can't comment on the actors performance, I like both of them and am sure they did a great job. I'm just tired of those Sci-Fi movies that are relying on few actors instead of giving us a mind blowing experience.
Signs (2002)
Like a bad low budget Netflix movie
I've "seen" it many years ago and fell asleep. I gave it a try nearly 20 years after and while I stayed awake I didn't watch it until the end.
To me it looks like one of those Netflix movies where you have a handful of characters and some monster that we won't see or only at the very end. They're trying to build some kind of tension around it, some people will get dragged into it, others might not follow.
I liked the acting and Mel Gibson is credible as a father dealing with an extraordinary situation. But it's not enough to save the movie...
Star Trek: The Next Generation: Loud as a Whisper (1989)
Good spirit in this episode
I wanted to write a positive review because I feel like some of the other reviews are done by robots, focusing on things that don't match, and they're missing the point, which is how to achieve communication between people and the confidence to overcome our own issues to take a step towards someone else.
This is one of the many episodes that carry positive values and make us think about how we can do or be better. Even if those episodes are sometimes long and are stretching a single idea over 45 minutes, I'll take it anytime over the drama that we find in most sci-fi series nowadays.
Wayward Pines (2015)
Good idea, disappointing story
Like many Sci-Fi series these days, it starts with a good idea. They even bring a few known actors into it. But then they try to spread too much that story and like always they make the mistake of focusing on how people's stories, like a soap or something. This is exactly where people are losing their interest. Perhaps it seems interesting to teenagers or something, but it doesn't make for the poor storytelling. Yet we want to know more but there is so little that is offered to us. Most of those series just seem hollow these days... I wish we had something of the caliber of Interstellar but we're stuck with Gravity
Jay and Silent Bob Reboot (2019)
So much fun and love here
Usually I go to Imdb to rate all those (Netflix) science fiction movie that have no storytelling or point. This time it's out of love for this movie.
Sure enough, I understand the criticism about nostalgia, feels a little too easy right? well, doesn't matter. It's like spending 1h45 with old friends. And as a dad, I couldn't feel prouder if my kid were in my movie, no matter what anybody says.
The Devil All the Time (2020)
Didn't catch the point of that movie
At some point I was hoping for something like Castle Rock, minus the supernatural, but the movie never took off. It just seems to show us different storylines, some of them connect at some point, but I fail to understand what was the conclusion there.
It's like most movies these days, especially on Netflix. There is a great potential with the cast or story but in the end it's a movie made for the art of cinema, but not really to tell a story.
The Signal (2014)
Could have been a Netflix movie
This is like those Netflix movie where you have like 5 actors and a big mystery, a monster or something that you never see or even if you do, it leaves you with no details where it comes from or what it wants.
This movie sends us everywhere. Did Aliens wipe the earth ? is this an army experiment? is it a virus or something else? that's a very good side of the movie, at least it leaves you guessing and it's well narrated enough to keep you watching.
The main issue is, like most of those movies, they're building the story and then in 10 minutes they're giving everything away. We don't care about how people are feeling in distressing moment, we want to know what's happening. It's like one would make a whole movie about someone who is sure there is something behind a mountain, and the movie stops when they've passed that mountain. It's a whole different story on the other side, a much more interesting one, but a harder one to write...
Hunters: Eilu v' Eilu (2020)
Not quite sure what the message is
When I started watching this show, I just thought, is Hollywood ever going to stop using the Shoah as a background for movies and series, as if it was just a story to tell and not an actual horrible thing that happened in real life.
I kept on watching because of the actors and the storytelling, but not really the story itself. There is one twist we saw coming from a few episodes away and it's like what happens to a soufflé when you open the oven too soon, it takes all the excitement away, like "ok, I'm gonna eat because I don't like to waste food".
I gave it one more star than I'd have expected because the final twist made me laugh. I just hope it's not one of those series where they put everything in the first season (cast, plot) and then try to pull a few more seasons with less budget and ideas...
I Am Mother (2019)
This movie doesn't bring anything new
I find it nice that we get more interest in Science Fiction but for someone who has seen lots of movies or read a lot of stories on those topics, this movie doesn't bring anything new. To me it's like Ex Machina. The atmosphere is great, the acting is great, but at the end you're actually thinking where's the twist I've been waiting for? those two movies could have been short novels or an episode of a series.
Besides another thing they've got in common, they have very few actors, more or less everything happens in one room or two... it feels like they did the best they could with a small budget, but where are those space operas? I get bored when I see yet another movie with less than 10 actors and a thin scenario that is trying to be a masterpiece. I didn't understand why Gravity was so good for some people. Try Interstellar instead, if those movies got you thinking...
Game of Thrones: The Bells (2019)
We did see it coming, but why make it so obvious and so painful to watch
I think it's way too easy to dismiss bad reviews by saying they're made by angry fans. It's not about the story, or how we want it to end. It's about having a great story with lots of characters and mysteries, and abandoning them. It's about making the series about wars and battles only. It's about having only one plot being about Jon Snow's origins, when so many questions are left open. It's about a dragon that gets so easily killed, when another is avoid all spears while destroying a well-guarded city. It's about Tyrion having an intellect well above all the players but being useless and feeling helpless for entire episodes, when he was an asset that could help turning tables. It's about forgetting that the world was ending a few episodes before. It's about the world shrinking to Winterfell and King's Landing.
If people are shocked or amazed by the BBQ madness, good for them. I mean it made sense, really, but with so few episodes, it's not realistic. I mean, it's like any exorcism stories, if the character switches to demon in a few minutes you kill the whole story. You want to see the character behaving in a strange manner, maybe struggling. I'd say where is the line between tough decisions and madness/thirst for blood?
Bird Box (2018)
Clever but kind of predictable
To be honest, I wanted to write a review just because halfway through the movie I thought there was an obvious flaw. The ending was addressing it, although it could have been a different movie if they would have used this idea from the start.
It's very easy to relate to 'A Quiet Place', a story with children, make no noise replaced by do not take your blindfold off. But I guess it's easier to make a movie without sound than without visuals. The blindfold thing is a nice workaround but somehow you might think a blindfold should not be enough to protect you.
Anyway, it's a movie that keeps you on your toes because you can easily guess what can go wrong. I will go straight to what I didn't like or could be improved.
Another story with kids. Anyone who's a parent will think what if I'm in such a situation with my kids, what would I do, how scared would I be to loose them. I don't like that idea, those movies are playing this card too much in my opinion. Grown men, or women, taking on supernatural stuff, zombies or whatever, I don't mind, just don't play with our feelings when it comes to children.
Thinking about 'A Quiet Place' it reminded me of 'the sixth sense', and how ghost stories were suddenly popular again in movies around 1999-2001.
Finally the story is good for a novel, you don't need to explain what happened, but somehow it feels all too easy. It is sometimes good to leave it to imagination, and in the end from the point of view of a character, they have no clue and probably will never know what those being are, why they want people to commit suicide (maybe it's a good way to wipe out a population, but then again what if it is just a virus). I mean telling a story without really telling it might not be enough.
I tried to write some big stories myself and I was often confronted with that idea that I want to focus on the part of the story I really want to tell and thought how can I do without explaining the whole thing, because the supporting story might be weak, I'm not one of those writers who are creating their own world to tell a story. Of course explaining too much might make the story a little less scary, but the question is do you want a great trailer or a great movie?
Don't Go (2018)
Beautiful, but don't try to overthink it...
It's really interesting, I thought it would just be a movie about a couple grieving and the father not accepting his daughter's death, thus imagining a way for her to connect with her.
There's a twist, but yet I fail to see the connection between both parts of the story, in a sense the point of the movie. Do we see a ghost's private hell, because of the guilt he carried about having an affair? why did the daughter die in this story?
To me, it looks like either the original ending was different, and they changed it to have a twist at the end, or the twist was what they were trying to get to, and the storytelling should have been better. Too bad...
The Stand (1994)
Definitely better than most Stephen King based movies
I watched it a second time years after the first, and it is better than I remembered. Sure the pace is fast, even considering the 6 hours in total. In the book you get used to characters, you 'walk' with them, you see them develop. In a movie they often choose to spend more time on some scenes and less time on others, and I wonder if people who haven't read the book understand it the same way as readers.
Anyway I think it is nice to watch some 20 years after having read the book, that way you're not comparing too much and you re-discover the characters and how the story unfolds.
Since people at hollywood are all recycling old movies/series/books, I think this one would be great as trilogy.
Castle Rock: Henry Deaver (2018)
Better the devil you know
This episode is taking us one step farther into the mystery. I'm guess the finale won't answer all questions, they obviously want to keep us going for at least another season, but I hope that if we watch the whole season in a row it is still coherent and even that we can find answers.
When I was watching the episode 'The Queen' I immediately thought she's not all that crazy and she's found a way to cope with her condition. Was she only travelling in her memories or was there any time travel too? then again, I also hoped that Di Caprio wasn't crazy in Shutter Island, so there's a pattern there...