mtlabfall Reviews

The China Syndrome (1979)

Absolutely Blown Away (no pun intended)

[10/10 · 24 June 2023]

This movie represents a sort of understated filmmaking that has sadly gone out of style. Nowadays most movies fall into two camps: "Bloated cgi action-packed", or "deliberately artsy and slow". The China Syndrome has superb pacing: it's a steady never-boring burn.

I was riveted by the editing, acting, and writing from the first moment of the movie. Jack Lemmon is an infinitely watchable actor, and he does not disappoint in this film. The man was a national treasure. There's a scene early on at the power plant that just would not have "worked" without an actor of his caliber. The storytelling he can convey with no words, just his face, is a privilege to behold. Jane Fonda holds her own and then some. She's a sympathetic character whose plight touches on themes of feminism without hitting you over the head with it. As the film goes on, Fonda shows more and more why her character deserves a shot at better news opportunities, and her performance at the finale of the film had me shedding tears along with her... as well as shaking with rage.

10/10.

Prey (I) (2022)

More female empowerment nonsense..

[1/10 · 7 August 2022]

Tribes of people living off the land, no matter where they were in the world, did not usually have female hunters for a darn good reason. Hunting is dangerous and risky. If a bunch of men die from hunting and war, but they don't lose women, the tribe can survive and persist. If a bunch of women die, the tribe will die. It's simple biology but the woke don't seem to concern themselves too much with reality these days, so now we have small skinny empowered female taking on and defeating an alien 3x her weight with advanced weaponry and combat skills. Sure.

Oh, and let's not forget, WHITE PEOPLE BAD.

Masters of the Universe: Revelation (2021)

Don't expect He-Man

[1/10 · 8 August 2021]

Teela turned into a self-absorbed cry-baby with the meme-ish Antifa haircut. Surprised they didn't dye her hair purple or something. King and Queen just found out their son died and all Teela cares about is "YOU LIED TO ME!" Just terrible. Not only is He-Man barely in the show, they ruined the character of Teela.

Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes (2019)

Well produced but lacking in detail. Skip the podcast at the end

[7/10 · 4 April 2019]

Slick production value. I learned some things I didn't know, but I would have liked more actual audio of the interviews. He had 100 hours of tape but you hear only the tiniest fraction of it in the documentary.

Also, if you watch on Neflix, there's a podcast available of an interview with the author where the interviewer goes off the deep end with some new-age-"woke"-social-justice nonsensical buzzwords. Yes, Ted Bundy benefited by being white, but that's only the beginning. He was white AND clean-cut, intelligent, college educated, careful about how he came across, etc. If Bundy was some grungy long-haired tatooed guy, white or not, he would not have evaded punishment for so long. But if you like hearing words like "identity" , "intersectional", and "whiteness" bandied about as though they have any practical application to the real world, by all means give it a listen.

Captain Marvel (2019)

Practically nothing good about it besides the Kree commando team

[1/10 · 25 March 2019]

This film

• ruins MCU continuity
• fails to inspire a single goosebump
• bores
• exasperates
• is far too glib
• tries too hard to be a feminist PSA (*show*, don't preach plz)
• has a horribly miscast lead hero who is also poorly written
• made me groan when Nick Fury's eye injury was revealed
• shows a ridiculously happy-go-lucky Nick Fury that doesn't mesh with his MCU personality AT ALL
• is possibly the worst MCU film (Ant Man and the Wasp anyone?)
• doesn't deserve a 7 on IMDB (especially if Wonder Woman, a far superior film, is only .4 ahead)
• can and should be criticized without political insinuations (i.e, I want female superhero films, just not crappy ones like this).
• has mediocre at best fight scenes
• has a sidekick character that - given the circumstances - makes an insanely poor decision to "come along"
• has a weak character arc, the hero doesn't struggle enough to discover her powers and then has totally OP powers and THEN doesn't fully use them against a certain person (who won't be named, Spoilers)
• deflated the possibility of having Skrulls as villains for upcoming films
• made me revise my opinion of Brie Larson as a good actress
• is regrettably diminishing my interest in the next Avengers movie
• is regrettably making me wonder if this movie is what we'll look back on and say "Marvel jumped the shark"

Wonder Woman (2017)

Not a perfect 10/10

[10/10 · 25 March 2019]

First, I wouldn't honestly rate this title 10 stars. But I'd be happy to give it 8 or even 9. Why 10 then?

Captain Marvel has a 7.1 on IMDB. Wonder Woman is only .4 ahead of it. That's a crying shame.

Gal Gadot NAILS this character. Her strength, her courage of conviction.. it gives me goosebumps when I think of certain scenes and how righteous and powerful she is. Chris Pine is also great, and the chemistry between him and Gadot is charming, well-done, and so well-written. Some of the CGI is spotty, but there are some beautiful sequences as well (such as when her mother is teaching her their history).

The third act, and the fight with Aries borders on 'meh'. I also thought the cast of misfit soldiers was kind of annoying at times, and also why did they attend that party in that castle? That whole part where they passed high-level German security with bad German accents was very ridiculous.

But overall, the movie is actually a fun experience. It makes you feel things. When WW goes "over the top" of the trenches with her shield, I literally raised my fist in the air and cried 'yes!' (I'm a guy btw).

I have watched WW three times and will gladly watch it again. I saw Captain Marvel recently and will NEVER watch it again. Wonder Woman is an excellent example of a female-led superhero movie done more-than-mostly right, CM is flat, dull, uninspired, and deserves a 3/10, not 7.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)

True to the feeling of Star Wars

[8/10 · 16 January 2018]

Unlike the two films (so far) of the new trilogy, Rogue One really felt like a Star Wars movie. Admittedly in this aspect it has the benefit of close plot continuity with A New Hope.

I'm also a big fan of Donnie Yen, so seeing him in a Star Wars film was fantastic. There are some great land and space battles, the heroine is well-acted and written, and there is a super awesome special treat at the end for lifelong Star Wars fans.

Black Mirror: Metalhead (2017) Season 4, Episode 5

8/10 for Black Mirror, 9/10 for TV as a whole

[8/10 · 16 January 2018]

First of all, I didn't know who Maxine Peake was, but I do now and wow she's a great actress. She carries this episode with aplomb.

You've either seen it or heard about it, so I won't go into plot too much, but I loved the b&w visuals, and the animation of the "dogs". Such innocuous looking devices.. it's creepy.

The segment with her in the tree was brilliant.. I love good writing where a character uses their intelligence to survive and win.

I'd give one more star except for the reveal at the very end which deflates the motivations and actions of the characters. Come on, don't insult us with..

SPOILERS

$&% teddy bears?

Moonlight (I) (2016)

I wanted to like this movie.. BUT

[1/10 · 2 April 2017]

Best Picture? check.

Mahershala Ali? check (big fan of his from House of Cards).

A potentially unique story told from a so-far untold perspective? check

A tepid, slow, meandering, meaningless, sparkless two-hour bore? check.

1. As mentioned, I really like Ali. But this was not within 100 miles of an Oscar-worthy performance. I suppose he looks and acts like a drug dealer, but aside from the superficial, he isn't all that different from "Remy Danton", lip-licking included. I suspect this is an actor "tic", frequently licking his lips, and imo an Oscar-worthy performance needs to be tic-less. Watch Viola Davis in Fences. THAT screams Academy Award.

2. I have no issue watching movies about black characters. Or gay characters. Or Black AND gay characters. But I do have an issue watching a movie in which the protagonist is weak, passive, and way too quiet most of the time. I want to know how he feels. I want to hear his opinion.

3. If you're doing a film in which there is a time-lapse, your protagonist should kinda sorta look like the same person in each time period. The 3 Chirons really couldn't be much more distinct, and it ruins any sense of continuity of emotion (if any) you've built for this character.

Having said that, I thought the middle, teen Chiron was the most interesting and compelling, both in the actor's appearance & performance, and story-wise. I really wish they would have just aged him up. Let's be real, nobody changes THAT much between 16 and their mid-20s. The best part of the film *SPOILER ALERT* was when he was beat up by his friend and instead of ratting out the perpetrators, he marched through the school in a fit of rage and smashed the ringleader with a chair. FINALLY, some raw emotion, anger, venting frustration, action, etc. The film needed more of this, more of Chiron reacting to his environment.

I can only echo other reviewers when I posit that this film's "political" content and characters lent itself very well to the awards season. I've seen a great many Best Picture winners, and so far this is the worst film to have won that award.

Zootopia (2016)

PC cliché, flat story, low on humor

[2/10 · 31 March 2017]

Voice acting and animation quality - great.

Plot? meh.

Humor? I think I laughed twice. Sloths and the Tommy Chong wildebeest perhaps.

Some decent action scenes.

Overall impression was "This needs to be a lot funnier, and a lot less ham-fisted with its cliché social justice message (that actually makes no sense because there are real biological differences between animals)"

The Boss Baby (2017)

Not a masterpiece, but good entertainment with a heart

[10/10 · 31 March 2017]

Boss Baby is not as introspectively original as Inside Out, as deep as Up, or as incisive as Wall-E.. BUT it is funny and heartwarming.

Certainly it has a lot more laughs and is more engaging than Zootopia, which I thought was well-"drawn" and had a decent story, but wasn't funny at all. I have to wonder if some of its high ratings are due to all the virtuous "notes" it hits with our society's current emphasis on social justice issues (not saying it's a bad thing, but I find that people give themes of diversity a lot of subjective credit that is not necessarily earned).

BUT I digress.. Boss Baby has plenty of quality laugh-out-loud moments, and has humor that will appeal to kids and adults alike. There were also some very tender-hearted moments.. especially the boy's bedtime routine, it was so touching. Also the babies are way cuter than real babies (which is probably one reason I liked this film, because I'm not a big fan of actual babies).