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Reviews
The Walking Dead: After (2014)
Tough episode to watch
-no real spoilers as nothing really happened- This was a hard episode to watch. Micheone's part wasn't too awful, but holy crap, what were the writers thinking with Carl. It was quite painful to watch. Sadly the worst walking dead yet. I like character development, but the writing and direction has to be there. It's hard to blame the young actor, the director should have the sense to realize that the emotional scenes are just not hitting the mark. It's not ringing true. I am not beating up on supposed character development - in fact I think they need fewer zombie special effect nonsense and more psychological content and story telling. I have been watching the walking dead this since the start and have been hoping that the writing and direction will improve. It has had a few moments of brilliance, but sadly most has been just tolerable. This one feels like rock bottom. Depending on how the rest of the season goes, I think I might have to stop buying this content... :/
The Human Centipede (First Sequence) (2009)
So much potential
This movie had so much potential to be mentally scarring cinema! (that's a good thing for horror) The only scars that my brain suffered from watching this was the ridiculous dialogue, a story with more holes than plot, lack of character development.
Oh did this have potential to be scary and disturbing and all hell... The notion of a Nazi surgeon that specializes in human anatomy/physiology as it relates to Siamese twins / conjoined twins and then decides to physically splice unwilling humans together is mentally terrorizing - especially if the surgery is remotely plausible. The planned surgery here is simply asinine... (I couldn't resist using that word in this case)
If TS only decided to make the doctor a little more 'professional' with regards to the planning of an actual procedure that could be plausibly used to link three human's gastrointestinal systems together. I get way more mental frights from this movie thinking what it could have been as opposed to the relatively silly outcome that actually happened. I think Dr Hannibal Lectar would have performed a more satisfactory operation... Although kudos to the actor playing the doctor, pretty good job convincing me he was a wacko.
I still give it a 7 because of the potential, and that it deserves a bit more than 4 on the IMDb. It is supposed to be a horror movie people.
The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence) (2011)
not sure what to think about this
This is a frustrating movie... The premise of the movie is absolute genius (as was part I). This could have been a lot more disturbing if it wasn't quite so over the top. I find movies quite annoying that seem to defy the basic tenants of science - horror movies (to me anyways) are much more 'enjoyable' if they seem even remotely possible/realistic. There's always the thought in the back of your head that this could actually be happening which is the disturbing part - I think the aim of a good horror movie - otherwise we may as well watch the cartoon road runner blow up that old coyote in make believe land. Character development could have also served well to draw the viewer in. TS, don't base the entire movie on outlandishly gory/grotesque scenarios, and then in the next five minutes try to outdo yourself. Sadly, rating it a 6/10 with the thought this could have been a savagely disturbing 10/10 - the kind of movie whereby you're uneasy closing your eyes afterwords... I know that I couldn't put a movie together half as good as this, but oh well... too bad, this was a missed opportunity for TS.
Breaking Bad (2008)
99.44% Brilliance
To say this program has great writing is an understatement. BB has the best writing I have ever had the pleasure of listing & reading (I always leave the captioning on). The acting is top notch by Cranston. It is also very good by Aaron Paul (Pinkman), Dean Norris (Hank), Betsy Brandt (Marie), RJ Mitte (Walt junior). Unfortunately, it feels like Anna Gunn (Skyler) is the weak link. It is hard to know if the Gilligan is trying to make a somewhat awkward and unlikable character, or if it is just not hitting the mark. I prefer to think that the writing is intentionally odd for Skyler for some reason, and that we will get to learn more in the episodes and seasons to come. The dialogue is absolutely brilliant for the most part – it almost always rings true. The episodes are gripping (for the most part). The story is brutal and comedic at the same time. I have to opt for a 10/10 because there is not another program that comes close – even Dexter which I've been enjoying for 5 seasons doesn't have the writing or acting to stand up to BB.
Hatching, Matching, & Dispatching (2005)
Brilliant Newfoundland Comedy
HMD is (was) one of the funniest shows I've had the pleasure of watching. Perhaps my view is a little distorted as I am from Newfoundland. Nevertheless I started watching this show with the expectation that it was going to be terrible as I generally do not enjoy the comedy of Mary Walsh. I was shocked at how outlandishly funny and refreshing the show was. It was clearly a distorted representation of what Newfoundland life is all about – and it is a monster hit in my opinion. This is hands down high tier (albeit low brow) Canadian comedy show compared to classics like Kids in the Hall and This Hour has 22 Minutes.
How can CBC cancel a show like this, but push on with the dribble such as Corner Gas?
Watchmen (2009)
wow... just wow...
just finished watching the watchmen a few hours ago at an imax theater. as a forward, i am not familiar with the graphic novels... at the moment anyways.
This is the best film i've ever seen. There isn't a single thing about the movie that I would have changed. I am usually extremely critical of every movie, and just about every movie that i've ever watched there is something that I would have changed from the godfather, to lord of the rings, to shawshank, to the matrix, to cuckoo's nest, to pulp fiction, to slumdog, to 300. That is a hell of a league of movies. The weakest actor might have been the Adrian Veidt / Ozymandias character... that speaks volumes that all the character parts are superb.
story, cinematography, score, effects, violence... all brilliant Like i said, i haven't read the graphic novels, but in all fairness, when is a movie better than the corresponding book? Comparing it and judging it based on a different format is not a fair comparison. Compare it to any other movie, or even a comic hero type movie. the closest movies i can think of in a similar genre is batman begins which is i would say an 8 or 8.5, and the dark knight about 7 or 7.5 (although i haven't seen iron man)... this movie is a 10 until something better comes out.
House of Wax (2005)
Very good
I don't mean to give this movie a 9... normally i would think that 7-8 is fair, however I feel that the user rating on this one is simply ridiculously low (5.5). I haven't seen the original, however as it stands a good movie with a decent story line for the genre.
I decided to watch this movie because it happened to be on the TV, so I said why not... I seemed to recall seeing the bad rating on the IMDb so I was expecting some real trite garbage.
This movie is quite good for a horror flick. Nice and violent & gory. Could have been a bit more suspenseful when it got going, but good nonetheless.
I must say I despise Paris Hilton in almost every way - and I tend to think her presence is why this movie has such a poor rating. However her performance was tolerable... considering she really wasn't in the movie that much. It's too bad people voted it down just because she was in the movie, because I just don't get how it could get such a bad rating.
As for all the other actors, decent to good. Nothing shockingly bad.
For those who like a movie with good quality gore, this is a definite movie to check out - I would have paid the rent on this when it was new if I knew it was this good.
Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
An honest opinion - Not a bad movie, but seriously flawed
First off, I don't write reviews... Secondly I don't agree in general with 1/10 or 10/10 as either extreme is effectively unattainable in my opinion (what is a "10/10" in the 50's if released in 2k is NOT "10/10" - to be explained later)...
I picked out this movie (extended version)one night from a blockbuster, and seem to have vaguely recalled hearing about it. So I popped it in, started watching it, and was soon thereafter asleep.
So the next day I looked up the reviews on here, and to my surprise this thing (that quickly put me to sleep) was on the top 250!!! I was shocked. People were comparing it to The Godfather and Goodfellas... OMG...
So I sat down a few nights later and decided to re-visit this thing which I thought could not be anywhere near as good as people were saying... To my surprise, things go a lot better after a while... the story just started off too slow.
The story was interesting (once it got going), and ultimately the overall story was good.
Some of the cinematography was quite good, some was painfully awful... it was as though there were different people controlling/editing the shots at different times.
I don't know what was in the original version and the extended cut, however there was too much sex related scenes for my likings. I think sex has its place in movies, it just that this movie had a little too much (or too long), with some scenes on the boarder of turning into a porno. And when I'm watching a gangster/mafia movie, I don't want it to kick into a little porno action, I want to see the stereotypical gangster related things drug trafficking, extortion, gambling, murder blah blah blah... not, common baby, lets see if you can tell which one of us mobsters had their way with you a while ago by a careful assessment of our 'weapons' while we look on grinning stupidly. Just didn't seem appropriate.
I think the acting was top notch - I can't think of a single actor/actress that did a bad job; the flaws are more in the direction the movie was shot/edited.
I think if this movie was released in say 1960, it would have gotten an 8/10 from me... but this was 1984, Nineteen EIGHTY-FOUR... post godfather... I find that movies over time end up raising the bar for other movies, and that sloppy cinematography or acting or direction becomes less tolerated - because movie makers should know by now that everything has to be firing on all cylinders to be a top movie (relatively speaking of course).
It should have been better.
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