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Reviews
The Game (1997)
Do something else
Michael Douglas is awesome as usual. What about the movie? You think you are watching a masterpiece as it proceeds. But what is that end?! How did they know that he will shoot his brother? What if he missed? What if he did not jump off the building? What if he fell from other side of the building? Total bulls..t.
The Kominsky Method (2018)
Everything was perfect until season 3
I immediately sensed that season 3 will get sour, when i saw the opening scene of Arkin's funeral. But 3rd season even got worse than i expected. Arkin's girlfriend, daughter and grand son are portrayed as unlikable characters. His girlfriend spoke like a sexomaniac at the funeral and his daughter & grand son were shown as money grubbers. And as a final word, Kathleen Turner was not enough to replace Alan Arkin. Show should have finished after season 2.
Requiem (2018)
One big flaw plus some minor ones
How does matilda forget that she's been put in the trunk of a car by a stranger and taken to another city? How does she think janice as her real mother after that?
Why does Hal kill or eat sheeps?
Why are these people killed by matilda although she was captured by the ghost or soul?
4 points for some actors and succesful parts of the series.
Marriage Story (2019)
Another overrated movie
We decided to see the film especially upon positive reviews about adam driver's performance. Even some of the critics wrote they are curious about whether driver or phoenix will get the academy award. Yet expactation from a movie which is meant to portray a marriage/divorce is not met at all.
Travelling to Old memories? No. Psychological analysis of the spouses? No. Striking moments between these two? No. Emotional ups and downs of a relationship? No. Performances of johansson and driver are ok. That's it. A dull story on love/marriage/divorce whatsoever
El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (2019)
Waste of friday night
I was very sad to see bb actors have accepted to take role in this 2-hour black hole. Especially bryan cranston! You are supposed to watch this just to see how pinkman gets away. No action, no meth, no exciting stories, no impressive dialogues, absolutely nothing not to mention some meaningless scenes. Ie: pinkman's duello with the man from whom he wants 1800 usd. I think all good things must stay as they are.
The Lighthouse (2019)
Best 2 hours in my life recently
Dafoe delivers his best performance so far and pattinson is not less. You will be captured immediately by the shivery ambience created with black-white setting, annoying noise, ocean waves, storms, remoteness, hostile gulls and the 2 weird men. It would not be irrevelant if dafoe is nominated for the academy awards
Liberté (2019)
I want my 1 star back please!
I gave 1 star just because 0 is not possible. Nothing can evacuate a movie theater faster than this film, including a poisonous gas attack. All we saw throughout 2 hours was a bunch of zombie-like men and women pissing on each other. There is nothing aesthetical, artistic, creative in the movie. Characters are pure psychopaths with empty eyes who lack sexual imagination. They do not arouse any sexual feelings. All they do is make you vomit. It can not be even classified as rough . Total waste of time.
Once Upon a Time in... Hollywood (2019)
Not worth it!
Alright, brad pitt, dicaprio, even al pacino is there. Yes, cinematography is great and we all know that tarantino is not in search of intellectual depths. Still there is nothing memorable in this movie-except changing sharon tate's miserable destiny. Not funny, not exciting, not adventurous, not smart. There are some substories but parts do not get together to make a meaningful film. If you are a tarantino fan in any case or desperately looking to get out of home spend some bucks and 3 hours. Otherwise do something else
Ps: it seems that tarantino dislikes bruce lee
Ying (2018)
Dull replica of Hero
Director's style seems unchanged since Hero, fascinating landscape, enchanting images, fantastic choreography, ancient chinese music and costumes. All characters have distinct traits. Yet, movie is not strong enough to beat Hero with regards to cast, integrity of sub-stories, visual and emotional effects on audience. Hence it looks like a dull and simple version of Hero
Bird Box (2018)
Total bull...t
I gave 2 stars for sake of birds in the movie. I suppose bullock and malkovich had some bills to pay
Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015)
Back to 1977
After all those years, you learn that star wars will be back in 2015, you wait for one more year and guess what? you are back in 1977 instead of 2015!
Solo Han, Leia, Luke are all in the same place after 38 years. No, not played by young actors/actress but old folks. 65 year old grandma-looking princess and solo han with same mad attitude, portrayed as grumpy couple. And a meek Luke Skywalker, as if he has spent those 38 years watching his old movies. So living characters are easily copied in the new movie and what about the dead ones? gollum-faced Snoke replaces the emperor and Kylo Ren replaces Darth Vader. Yet both Snoke and Kylo do not have power to impress the audience. One might say Snoke's voice is striking, which is true but it is true for Kylo Ren only when his mask is on. This is another question that why Kylo wears this mask. Darth Vader needed it but what about Kylo, if he could easily put it off? Actually audience would have preferred him to keep it on his face because a teenager instead of a villain appeared under it. R2D2 is also put to second place after another smart ass droid BB. Producers are so obsessed with the idea that fans are rushing to theaters to see old fellows i.e: Luke, Leia, Solo. Old Luke is turning around in the final scene of the movie as if billions of fans were waiting for it. It is obvious that producers could not dare to put something new in order to avoid criticisms. This is why, not only characters but also what happens is so similar to episode IV-V-VI. Kylo Ren is son of Solo Han (remember Luke-Anakin), villain is trained by a scary master, dark side constructs another structure like Death Star to destroy the republic. Enough for the resemblance with Episode IV. And what about the movie itself? Visual effects are way too realistic compared to the scenes in Episode I-II-III. Also fight scenes are more unpretentious so we didn't see exaggerated light saber scenes similar to which 80 year old Christopher Lee jumps and flips all around. ships, stormtroopers are looking more real.
To conclude, Force Awakens made me feel like i am enough with Star Wars series. Producers may claim that this movie is a huge hit with more than 700 mio USD revenues only in US so far. However they should keep in mind that one may understand how much this movie sucks only after he sees it. so we'd better see the score after 2nd movie.
The Revenant (2015)
Another waste of time
Recipe for a hit movie nowadays:
1) make it long, no shorter than 2.30 hours 2) put some philosophy and self-criticism in it 3) make it so serious that not even a single laughter or joke is heard 4) compose depressive soundtrack
I am giving 5 stars for successfully and realistically shot scenes, that's it. Attack of the bear looks so real as well as the fight scenes.
Plot is so simple and static that what receives your attention most becomes never-ending and boring winter scenes and you literally get cold seeing them on snow for 2,5 hours.
Despite visual success, another pointless movie from the director and leonardo.
Batman (1989)
The Older The Better
Action movies are filled with more exaggerated scenes each day as one might think that he is playing a computer movie. Batman, on the contrary, has so simple scenes so that you may focus more on the cast and the story. Just like light saber scenes in first trilogy of Star Wars is brief without any exaggerated choreography, even the fight between Darth Vader and Obi van Kenobi yet light saber fights are intensely used in 2nd trilogy. This Batman movie is great not because of millions of dollars are spent for complicated stories and high-tech shootings, but because of excellent Michael Keaton, Kim Bassinger, Robert Wuhl and legendary Jack Nicholson. I will keep on watching this movie throughout my life just to remember what a big actor Nicholson is.
Rambo III (1988)
Another cliché movie
Super hero Americans save the world once again and they fight against..guess what?...yes Russians. Brutal, horrifying, uncivilized Russians. One-man-army Rambo defeats all Russian troops including the "elite" commando squad, members of which are actually mooning around like chickens to be picked one by one our hero. Afghans cheer and admire this peace-bringing, skilled American Hercule who destroyed the "villain". ı watched this movie 20 years later for the second time and realized that how we were poisoned by Hollywood when we were child and unaware of the facts. I hope American movie industry produces another movie in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria which glorifies the invaluable contributions of US to world peace.
The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
5 Oscars? are you kidding me?
Here comes another Wall Street cliché. A young, smart, motivated whizzkid is introduced to stock market. He redefines success, makes lot of money, goes deep in the world of drugs and sex. Dreams of getting rich day by day makes him blinder and he joins the gang of criminals. Smartass FBI guys comes after him, both sides attack and finally the material boy gets busted. He loses his money, friends, wife and children and restarts his life. Of course with the same blindness. Another failure for DiCaprio after Gatsby, which was full of showy scenes, "wise (!)" dialogues, expensive decors, image of young, handsome, brilliant character but still lacks some elements of a superb film. I don't need to criticize many ridiculous scenes (Like taking dozens of stacks of money abroad on them, DiCaprio's car driving after he gets paralyzed by drugs, Donnie's drowning, Donnie's and Brad's hassle in the street etc.) because maybe these scenes are supposed to be "comic". The main idea of the movie seems to be catching people's attention with the help of some explicit and exaggerated content. For those, who are to watch a movie about Wall Street for the first time and teenagers who like to see some hot women bodies, this movie is a good choice but for the rest it's a crap. One final note for Jean Dujardin, it's not a wise idea to act such a trivial character for an Oscar-winner actor, just because this is a Hollywood movie which is directed by Scorcese.
Lawless (2012)
Tom Hardy-Guy Pearce
Ordinary story about the fight between the state authority and the outlaw. What makes this movie worth of seeing is absolutely Tom Hardy and Guy Pearce. Those who have seen the latest Batman movie will remember how powerful Tom Hardy's Bane was. He proves to be a perfect match for the character Forrest in this movie and gives Forrest a distinguished personality as much as most actors can not. This holds true for Guy Pearce, transforming an average officer into a charismatic, lunatic, merciless character. Even Gary Oldman lags behind these two guys. To conclude, go and see if you like to see good acting, save your money if you're interested in seeing an original story.
Argo (2012)
distorted but well done
especially the final scene seems to be distorted to impress and excite the spectators mainly for commercial purposes. Though settings,costumes and physical appearance is elaborately worked out and successfully reflects the general ambiance of those years. The movie is also one of the million examples of how the almighty US defeats the uncivilized and horrifying enemy. A cliché and mental obstacle, which for tens of years Hollywood could not overcome and audience is tired of. Ben Affleck i guess did not want to leave the leading role but it would be much more appropriate to feature a Hispanic rescuer instead of Affleck. To conclude, get a ticket if you like to see the labor and witness a small piece of world history.
Looper (2012)
Is it all about logic?
Another Bruce Willis movie, The Sixth Sense has introduced an unexpected stunning final which puzzled the audience. Showing people that what they thought is wrong or the truth is not about what they thought in the final, became a popular method in Hollywood since then, which is launched successfully in some of the films with solid structures, ornamented with smart screenplays which were logical and unpredictable. The Sixth Sense was an unsuccessful example with regards to logical issues, because the main character did not comprehend for a sufficiently long time that he's dead even he interacted with people long enough who did not even see or hear him once. However The Sixth Sense was a huge success not because it's fully rational but its power of evoking astonishment.
Looper is i think another unsuccessful example of films full of illogical events, though it's not promising a puzzling final scene. One might list dozens of unreasonable scenes which we witnessed while watching the movie and flush out.
But how can we say that reason is the only factor for viewers to judge a movie? In nearly all of the action movies, we see the actors jumping, falling, running, fighting like a supernatural creatures. They see,hear, think everything, shoot every enemy at once with precision, they get wounded but never die! Sometimes, they rob a bank or kill on their own tens of guys right in the city center but never get caught or shot. If every scene was designed to be hundred percent true, would they still be amusing?
So, if you leave the obsession of perfect realism, you may enjoy the interesting aspects of this movie.
Taken 2 (2012)
Another Istanbul
As a Turkish citizen i'm tired of seeing Istanbul as an ancient ruined Muslim city in the movies of western directors. While Istanbul is larger than most of many countries and has a population of 15 million, still we're exposed to scenes covering only a few kilometer squares of the city, namely the historical peninsula. It is also the case in Taken 2 as well.
It's still interesting to see how inaccurate people can be even though they're supposed to be professionals and they're shooting the movie in a very small zone. While watching the police cars from 70's i wonder whether the crew did not see any police cars while they're spending many days in Istanbul. More importantly, Istanbul is not the capital so there is no US Embassy in the town but US Consulate instead, which is located far away from the movie set. It's not surprising to see women in black scarf in the Historical Peninsula, however one might see lots of women with mini skirts as well. It's more than surprising and not factual though to see some women wearing scarfs who are staring at a woman driver with criticizing eyes. Mosques and everlasting prayers are exhibited as the main characteristics of the city. While the beauty and geographic importance of Bosphorus is emphasized in the film, still the background seems to be deliberately composed of people and streets of an undeveloped Islamic city. I expect to see the same image when i see the latest Bond movie. I hope European or American movie makers manage to walk a few kilometers away from the Grand Bazaar or Blue Mosque to see the undiscovered % 99 percent of Istanbul one day.