Raxing Reviews

Willow (1988)

An Underrated Fantasy Movie.

[10/10 · 3 June 2024]

This movie is not going to come up when people talk about 10/10 movies because people are obsessed with the idea that longer = better. They believe that it must be a trilogy and the movies must be three hours long for it to get that rating. I say they are wrong. This movie entertains from start to finish. The movie is funny, heartfelt, entertaining, and memorable. The cinemetography is done well, the acting is excellent, the sountrack will live rent free in your head forever, the characters are so much fun, and the plot is very well written. This is one of my favorite movies. I have watched in many times and still enjoy it every time I watch it. If you have not watched this movie, watch it.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)

No Redeeming Qualities Whatsoever.

[1/10 · 9 January 2024]

Where do I start? Charlie is a boring and lifeless character. They decided to make him "perfect". He has no sense of mischief or wonder or any human emotions. Willy Wonka's backstory is uninteresting, a waste of time, and it removes any sense of wonder or mystery you may have had about him. Johnny Depp did a horrible job. Instead of creating an original character, he did a bad Michael Jackson impression. The oompa loompas are just one guy copied with CGI multiple times. The music in this movie is awful. You can hardly understand a single word is saying in most of them and they sound terrible. At no point do the children act like real children. The whole movie is a pointless waste of time because you don't end up caring about any of the characters in the slightest.

The Batman (2022)

The Dark Sin City Rises.

[5/10 · 24 May 2022]

I thought about making a very thoughtful review of this movie, but ultimately decided that it would be much better to just make fun of it. When you make an ultra serious and joyless movie about a vigilante in a bat costume you invite people like me to mock it.

Lets chase a guy down the highway in the wrong direction going over 100 mph. The guy is literally driving a normal car and is fine ramming into trucks. After chasing him for miles on end, you end up letting him go because it turns out that you are an idiot who knowingly ignored the rules of basic Spanish. The world's greatest detective figures out it is a website lol. He seriously never thought of Googling it or doing any kind of research whatsoever. Lol.....

It is so annoying to watch characters who are intelligent for most of the movie become total idiots for plot convenience. The Riddler personally sees to it that all of his targets die except for Bruce Wayne. Why? No explanation other than plot armor. Alfred seems like a smart guy for most of the movie, but then inexplicably decides to open up mail sent from the Riddler as if the very presence of it isn't an immediate danger. If I saw the same kind of letter to the Batman that was found at every MURDER scene, I would be running to the bat cave as fast as I could. Alfred instead decides to sit there and open the mail. Why didn't Selena just shoot Carmine? He was standing right there next to a bodyguard with his back turned. Just kill him. I'll tell you why....the plot required it. Carmine wouldn't have died to the Riddler if she had killed him already. Why did the Riddler go have a cup of coffee and turn himself in after shooting Carmine? How did he even get down there when the police surrounded the building? The plot required it. What about Riddler's final plan? He managed to set up explosives in seven locations without anyone noticing, but for some reason he needs to rely on Bane's henchmen for the final location. Why? Well if he blew up the final location, Batman couldn't come in and save everyone.

Doctor Sleep (2019)

Anti Climatic and Nostalgia Driven.

[6/10 · 19 May 2022]

The movie was enjoyable in some ways, but watching it is kind of like watching fan fiction. The movie relies too heavily on nostalgia from the original movie, The Shining, and does not focus enough on making the movie compelling on its own. The movie lacks suspense because they decided to make the girl, Abra, so powerful that I never believed the antagonists were true threats. Watching her take on the villains was like watching Macaulay Culkin take on the burglars in Home Alone. She handles them too easily with a smile on her face and she never seems to be in distress. To make matters worse, the villains are supposed to be quasi immortal people who have lived for centuries, but they get taken out so easily that it is hard to believe they could have survived this long. The movie is long yet somehow the writers failed to give most of them a character arc that helps us understand why they are part of the group instead of being eaten like their victims. Adding to that previous thought, this tribe seems to have difficulty handling even the slightest bit of resistance. How in hundreds of years did they not acquire some tricks for handling people who resist them and what is the point of having a tribe of people with psychic abilities if they can't handle two people with guns?

The movie at one point makes a funny remark about how Netflix may be the cause of less people gaining psychic ability. That of course makes no sense and is almost a joke on the movie itself. This movie is Netflix quality and the idea behind it is Netflix like. Netflix tends to carry movies and TV shows that are loosely based off of original movies. The quality of these unoriginal spin offs is about the same as Doctor Sleep.

The end of the movie is pretty lame tbh. It took about 20 minutes to reach the climax location and the ending was very predictable.

It Follows (2014)

OK. Jokes over. You got me.

[1/10 · 9 November 2021]

I can only assume that the people who rated this movie highly did so in order to trick people into watching this dumb movie so they can laugh about it. Congratulations. You guys got me. I knew that the movie ended up in the theaters so I did not think to check the budget of it (it was only $1.3 million). I guess I should give them credit for making a motion picture that ended up in theaters on such a low budget, but this movie was bad. The acting, the directing, the visuals, the pacing, the plot/storyline...everything was poorly done.

This movie is about a young woman who catches a STG (sexually transmitted ghost) from a random guy she has been dating but doesn't know. As a result she is now being followed by an invisible and invincible sex ghost that changes form for seemingly no reason. The only way to get rid of the curse is for her to have sex with someone else and pass it on to them and then they too can pass it on to someone else in a game of sexy hot potato. Eventually someone is going to fail to have sex on time and get killed by the sex ghost and the ghost will then go back to the last person that person had sex with. The idea wasn't terrible, but the execution was. The characters act as if they have never seen a movie with a ghost in it. Who tries to shoot an invisible ghost? Seriously...

Midnight Mass (2021)

This show is pretty bad. False Advertising.

[4/10 · 5 November 2021]

This is billed as horror, but it contains no horror. Nothing in this show was even remotely scary. It was long, drawn out, boring, predictable, and pretty bad most of the time. On the plus side, the actors played their characters well and the picture was pretty good. On the negative side, everything else is terrible. The idea for the show overall is a C- idea that would have been better suited for a quick hour and a half movie but Flanagan decided to draw it out to over seven hours because he is clearly a self indulgent person who believes everyone wants to hear his every thought on the screen. He attempted to flesh out at least some of the characters to make them seem real, but it ends up going nowhere because the characters end up being conveniently ridiculous and stupid when it is necessary to make the plot move forward. The last episode is a .5/10. This show might have been a 5/10, but that ending dropped it down a whole point. I think 4/10 is actually quite generous.

On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)

A Bad Movie.

[1/10 · 19 December 2020]

Do not believe the revisionists that pretend like everyone missed this "gem" of a movie and that is "underrated". This movie is awful. The movie is two hours and twenty two minutes, but it drags like it is four hours. The action scenes are so poorly shot that more than half the time I couldn't tell what was going on. The characters are boring and suck the life out of every scene. The way the movie is shot makes it look like it is low budget, but the budget was actually the same as Diamonds Are Forever. There is simply a big difference between a good filmmaker and a bad filmmaker that doesn't know what they are doing. The movie starts with no clear sense of direction and meanders that way for what feels like an hour. They start us off with no context and at the end the beginning still makes no sense. They couldn't even get the music right. They started the movie without a decent theme song and failed to use good music during the film. So to wrap it up: bad plot progression, bad characters, bad acting, bad action scenes, make this a very bad movie.

Hush (I) (2016)

Decent Idea Executed In The Worst Possible Way.

[2/10 · 28 October 2020]

Every character is undeveloped, every scene is ridiculous, every character is stupid as hell, and the ending is predictable. The idea of her being deaf and mute may sound like an idea to create a unique horror film, but the way it was executed suggests it was just an excuse to use the same horror cliches that are used over and over again, but to make them seem more "realistic" although they still fail at that. It fails because the writers could not put themselves into the shoes of any of the characters in the film. A deaf and mute character leaves the food she is cooking unattended to go talk to her neighbor outside even though her neighbor could of easily talked with her inside. If she is deaf and mute and has been for years, she knows that she will never hear a timer going off to inform her that the food is done cooking, so that is deaf and mute would NEVER do that. That is how the whole movie is written. Don't bother watching this trash. A 2/10 is generous.

Tank Girl (1995)

Not All Movies Have To Be The Same!

[6/10 · 4 September 2020]

This movie may not be a masterpiece, but it is a testament to an era of movie making in which people still made movies for fun. Not all movies have to be high budget Hollywood movies trying to sell to China. Not all movies have to have serious plots, serious characters, and expensive action scenes. People's hatred of anything different is the reason why so many movies today are so unoriginal and dull. Anytime anyone tries anything outside of the standard formula, people rate it lowly and say it was the worst movie ever.

Dark (2017–2020)

A Different Review

[8/10 · 4 July 2020]

This is an honest review of this series. I am not going to tell you it is masterpiece because it isn't. Many of the negative reviews definitely have valid points. This show is definitely an acquired taste. When I started watching Season 1, I was definitely less than impressed with the show, but I kept going and I started to like it. Season 2 was better than Season 1 and Season 3 is my favorite season. The show uses alot of poetry and scientific concepts in its presentation. It does make the show pretentious at times, but I see this kind of thing in almost every science fiction movie so it didn't bother me. If you are the kind of person that can not enjoy a show because of this presentation or because there are plot holes, you won't enjoy this. I enjoyed the show because I thought it was amusing. I did not get out a piece of paper and try to follow all of the relationships, but I am intelligent enough to know that the writers did not even come close to explaining exactly what happened. That bothers some people, but I don't care. This show was a fun ride.

The Platform (2019)

Fun concept but not a very fun movie.

[5/10 · 26 March 2020]

This could have been a fun C level movie that knew what it was and just sold over the time gore and violence, but instead they tried to infuse some sort of anti capitalist message in it. The message was so ridiculous and nonsensical that it makes me wonder whether the people who made this movie are ridiculously stupid or just highly irrational. The movie does not fit the narrative that they were trying to convey. One of the characters claims there is enough food on the table for everyone, but it is obvious to anyone with a brain that there is not. That table could not feed 666 people or the 500 people she believed were there. The idea that the same people can be placed at different levels after a short period of time and they will immediately embrace elitism is ridiculous. Do they really think someone can be placed at level 100 and then get arbitrarily put on level 38 after a short period of time and immediately believe they are better than someone on the level they were just on two seconds ago? In what way does any of this represent the capitalist society most people live in today? There are no food shortages here. The poorest people in my country are oftentimes the most obese. The capitalist system also does not place people in jobs at random and then bring them down or up at random. Luck may play a role in everything in life, but our system is not completely arbitrary. If it was completely arbitrary, Bill Gates would have been wealthy for a year or two and then be homeless the next year.

Late Night with Seth Meyers (2014– )

The worst of the worst.

[1/10 · 15 March 2020]

Seth Meyers must be one of the most bland and boring people to ever attempt to do comedy. Putting a smile on your face and laughing at your poor excuse for "jokes" does not make you a comedian. He reads cue cards in a monotone voice with a stupid grin on his face as he talks about the major issues of the day expecting people to laugh at nothing. He doesn't know how to tell a joke so it just leaves the viewer thinking "was there supposed to be some sort of joke here?" How many dicks did this talentless hack suck to get this job? All of his segments are terrible because he sucks the life out off everything he touches. He doesn't know how to interview people either. He just stares at them with that stupid grin on his face and asks them mundane questions that lead nowhere. Some people are bothered by him talking about politics, but that is not the reason he sucks. He sucks because he is such a boring and lifeless person that the only thing he can do to try to be funny is rely on other people to do funny things and to tell jokes for him.

Locke & Key (2020–2022)

Good idea but kind of frustrating to watch.

[5/10 · 15 February 2020]

The premise of this show and the fantasy elements behind it are good, but the execution of it is very poor. The characters are not very likable and the writing is not very good. The only smart thing the writers did was to consistently use a cliff hanger at the end of every episode as a promise to the viewer that something interesting is going to happen in this next episode. The problem is that none of the episodes are very good. The series involves a battle between the main protagonists and a shadowy antagonist. As a viewer I was frustrated by what felt like a drag in the series as neither side uses their powers fully. The protagonists have magical keys but they hardly use them and the antagonist has shown that she can mercilessly kill anyone in her path but chooses to dance around the protagonists for most of the series. The battle between them comes off like a very fake pro wrestling match. They are constantly pulling their punches and not taking the advantage. The ending of this series is also very bad. Everyone can appreciate a well executed ending that is clever, but it is hard to appreciate an ending that was clearly not very well thought out.

Spring Breakers (2012)

Intelligent concept, boring execution.

[5/10 · 16 January 2020]

There is no doubt in my mind that the concept behind this movie was very intelligent. The movie is social commentary on the way people leave reality to embrace the fantasy lifestyles that they see on the television. It is about how vapid and overly sexualized pop culture can be and how young people may view it and believe that this culture represents a desirable reality until reality kicks them in the teeth. With that said, this is not a good movie by any means. I was bored for most of the movie. Some "art house" people will say that it was designed that way intentionally and appreciate it as a work of art, but I don't need to watch a boring movie to understand the concept behind it. I wanted to enjoy the movie, not watch a movie that dragged on with repetitive scenes that seemed to drag on forever.

The Witcher (2019– )

Mixed feelings.

[8/10 · 30 December 2019]

This review is for season 1. I want to start this review on a positive note. Henry Cavill is fantastic as Geralt of Rivia. He was an excellent casting choice and his acting is so good that he fades into the character. This show started out very promising with him on screen introducing the audience to the character and the background of the story. As simplistic as it sounds, the show probably would have been more enjoyable if it was just about him hunting monsters for eight episodes than the way the show actually developed.

I wish I could say that the show was able to retain the quality of story telling that it started with, but frankly it did not. The story line bounced between many different characters and between the present and the past so often that I had difficulty trying to figure out exactly how much time was supposed to have elapsed between certain parts of the story line and the present. I also have to say that some of the characters that the show devoted time to develop in order to attempt to make the audience care about them, such as Queen Calanthe, I never cared about no matter how many flashbacks they showed. The writers also failed to develop characters that I can't help but think they REALLY should have devoted some more time to develop such as Fringila. Overall the show was definitely watchable and at times quite enjoyable, but it was also kind of disappointing because the writing was so disjointed and the ending was kind of predictable.

Nightflyers (2018)

Suicide Squad in Space.

[4/10 · 16 December 2019]

This show is a total and utter train wreck. It is hard to look away, but you know it is terrible. I have no idea why any of the people who made this show thought it was good. Why in the hell would you start the show with a random scene like that? It was almost like the creators wanted the show to fail. The characters were just ridiculous from the start until the end. They believe they are on a very important mission and they ignore all protocols and rules from the beginning. Characters know there are problems that could lead to everyone dying from the beginning and they choose to ignore them. Instead of the creators trying to tell the viewer how important this mission is, they should have made it clear that the people on Earth regarded this as a suicide mission and that they had picked the worst of the worst for the job. Anyone who has watched this show will agree that it would make perfect sense. None of the characters are mentally stable people that display competence.

It Comes at Night (2017)

Crap indie movie.

[3/10 · 11 December 2019]

All of the positive reviews come from the kind of people that get off on the fact that it is an indie film that tries to get the viewers to psycho analyze the script, analyze Travis's dreams, and the higher meaning of the film. Nobody decides to watch a horror movie for that purpose. People watch horror films to be entertained. This movie does not do that. It bores the viewer to death and has an extremely predictable ending. A deadly virus is infecting everyone and a family decides to let a family they just met live with them. What do you think is going to happen at the end? Take a guess. I guarantee you will be at least 90% right.

Daybreak (I) (2019– )

A good idea wasted.

[5/10 · 29 October 2019]

I was hoping for a show that is like Zombieland with high school students. The show started out with some goofy characters breaking the fourth wall and a promising story line that could have been fun. The characters are obviously very SJW oriented but I was willing to forgive the political messaging to see where it goes. Unfortunately, the second half of the season doesn't go as well as the first half. In one episode, they let us see the relationship Josh had with Sam and it ruins everything. I personally felt and I imagine many viewers also felt like the writers had tricked us into watching the show. It all goes downhill from there as it approaches its predictable ending.

El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (2019)

Good acting, nostalgia, but quite boring.

[6/10 · 23 October 2019]

I assume that most people watching this movie are fans of the TV show Breaking Bad. There is definitely a little bit of nostalgia that creeps in when you watch a movie about one of the characters in a show you liked and you see characters in flashbacks on the screen. Once you are over the nostalgia aspect though, the movie falls flat. Some of the flashbacks felt like they were just dragging on and didn't add much to the story. The whole movie is very slow moving and you could sum up the entire plot in a sentence or two without losing anything. At least we got an ending for Jesse Pinkman.

Surviving R. Kelly (2019–2023)

It was good, but too long.

[7/10 · 7 October 2019]

The series gives a little bit of background on R. Kelly and outlines some of the stories of abuse. The stories are quite compelling and any reasonable person would conclude that R. Kelly has some serious problems after watching this. R. Kelly gets older but his mentality does not change as he continues to manipulate and abuse women. My only issue with this series was how repetitive it is. At points the same footage is literally used over and over again. I am not stupid. I get it. I don't need the same nails to get hit over and over again. I would have preferred a documentary that focuses on what the allegations against him are and the people make them and R. Kelly's response to them.

Singularity (I) (2017)

An enigma

[3/10 · 18 September 2019]

This movie actually had alot of potential. They could have done something with this idea but they instead decided to make a very generic and nonsensical movie that goes nowhere. They could have at least did a M. Night Shymalan and added a twist or something. It wouldn't have cost them a dime to write a better script but instead they decided to waste their money on getting John Cusack to say some lines after they were already done filming. Overall if you are reading this wondering whether you should watch this movie, I would say you should only watch it if you are planning on making fun of it with friends. The characters are laughably bad and once again the movie goes nowhere.

Dave Chappelle: Sticks & Stones (2019 TV Special)

Dave Chappelle is a master but.....

[8/10 · 3 September 2019]

Dave has been one of the best stand up comedians for a very long time. His jokes never feel rehearsed even though they no doubt are, his timing, his tone, and the very structure of every joke is remarkable. Dave has put out many specials and continues to be funny and memorable every time. The more stand up you watch, the more you appreciate it. I remember his jokes and hear them in my head for days after every special.

With respect to everything I just wrote, this special wasn't as good as some of his previous work. It has a higher rating only because critics down rated it on Rotten Tomatoes so people have responded by rating it higher on IMDB and because he has tapped into a political movement centered around anti PC culture. News programs claim this special "pushes the envelope" or offends many viewers. I think this is odd because this special was if anything not very fresh. Most of his commentary was the same commentary he has given in the past only applied to current events. You could say the rehashed commentary is somewhat like a running gag of his but it just felt a little bit unoriginal. Don't get me wrong. I gave it an 8 because it was funny but the writing for this special wasn't as creative as some of his other specials.

Alita: Battle Angel (2019)

A very mixed bag.

[6/10 · 19 August 2019]

I have been a fan of Battle Angel Alita for a long time. I have read a large portion of the manga and watched the anime. When they announced that this movie was actually going to be made after being on hiatus for over ten years, I was excited but also not excited because I know how poorly made most adaptations of manga material end up being.

This movie was overall better than I expected but it definitely missed the mark. They had to resort to telling you things are true but kind of showing you the opposite. They really did not do alot of characters any justice either. The earth is supposed to be a place where the people on Zalem throw their trash but they portray it in a very romantic light with beautiful scenery, lively people, etc. but then tell the audience that it isn't great. That is a contradiction.

The movie ruined so many characters.The romantic portrayal of the scrap yard made Hugo seem like an idiot that wants to leave it for no reason instead of an ambitious kid that is willing to do anything to change his circumstances, to get out of the scrap yard and up to the utopian society in the sky. Hugo is also said to be hard working but he is hardly ever seen working. He seems to just play games and hang out with friends all day. That does not add up.The movie does not do Hugo justice.

Desty Nova is hardly in this but everything they did in this related to him is not in the manga or anime and is lame asf. Why change a character that was destined to be a fan favorite into a generic bad guy? Desty Nova does not control Motorball, the factory etc. What the heck.They also decided to make Vector into a puppet by having his body get taken over by Nova. WTF? What is wrong with the idea of Vector having his own motivations, desires, etc? That was a terrible decision. OK that was kind of a rant but I think I have written enough.

Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust (2000)

One of the best anime movies I have ever seen.

[9/10 · 20 June 2019]

The character designs are great, the voice acting (I watched English dub) is great, and the story line is good. I may be one of the detractors here but I honestly enjoyed this more than the original Vampire Hunter D. This is the only anime movie I have watched multiple times because this movie has so many memorable and well put together scenes in it that it got me hooked. Even the somewhat cheesy romance in it was endearing. If this movie was this good as a live action film, people would have talked about it for years and given it a 9/10 like I have, but it gets downgraded because it is an anime. I know some people will say I have over hyped this movie, but I strongly disagree.

Would You Rather (2012)

Much better than I thought but still wasted.

[6/10 · 6 June 2019]

I was amazed by the casting in this movie. I have seen every single one of the characters in this movie on TV shows and movies before. Contrary to what some people say, the acting was on point. This movie was well constructed, actually quite logical at most points, but it was also quite predictable. I'm surprised people did not know what was going to happen at the end because I thought it was quite obvious if you pay attention to the dialogue. That is perhaps one of the problems the people who wrote this movie had. They didn't want to make it too long but in the pursuit of that goal, they didn't give us any backstory for most of the characters on the screen. They also didn't decide to pull off any twists in this movie that would throw us off. This movie was like an average meal that leaves you thinking "that was OK but nothing spectacular". Part of the problem is the writers simply refused to commit to a genre and run with it. It isn't a horror movie, a slasher, nor is it a psychological thriller. It isn't scary, it isn't particularly gory, and most of the characters don't get a backstory so it can't be a psychological thriller. It just is a weak combination of them that leaves the fans of each respective genre unsatisfied.