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masonsteven
Reviews
The Visit (2015)
A concept with phenomenal potential...but just potential.
I kept waiting for this to hit the mark that it completely could have. There is no good acting in this film, but some of is passable. People are hating on the main character, the girl, and she's not such a great actor, but the character I think it's supposed to be a little bit like that. The sibling relationship is portrayed as stilted and unnatural, because siblings don't act this way with one another, especially at that age. There are so many moments in this movie where you think, "why don't you just leave the house? There are neighbors." Speaking of Neighbors, what's up with them showing up, knowing who is in that house, and then just leaving. Particularly the doctor. I mean, there are plot holes the size of planets in this movie, yet I still I found myself feeling a bit scared at times. There are several scenes and several moments that are classically horror type scares. I just can't believe that a concept that could be so good, turned out to be, at best, mediocre. And the ending of their visit, when the girl does what she does is absolutely preposterous. I can forgive a lot of things in horror movies that characters do that a normal person wouldn't, in order to make the narrative be more interesting or work at all, but her actions at the end of this movie are just to ridiculous to even Consider as something that any not brain dead human being would do.
Road House (2024)
It was silly and ridiculous and I loved it
One of the other reviewers here said, "not every movie is Schindler's list". That pretty much says it all, but if you were looking for anything more than what this movie was, then it's your fault. This was not meant to be some serious, captivating epic film. It was meant to be what it was. That said....
Conner McGregor absolutely destroys and hope for this thing being better than it was. He and his character are absurd. I have rarely seen a more campy, stupid performance meant to be real. And I'm not sure it was a performance. That character is not far (nanometers) from my impression of the guy I have seen in real life. Conner is a laughable buffoon in real life and this character was perfect for him. No acting necessary. Jesus, of all the guys they could have cast for this role. Makes you wonder. Tom Hardy was made for this role. Dwayne Johnson could have probably pulled it off. Maaaaybe Mark Wahlberg. Even Jason Statham would have killed this part in comparison. Come to think of it, he would have been perfect.
Anyway, if you're looking for Citizen Cane, maybe don't watch a movie that you KNOW is about some over the top tough guy in over the top ridiculous fight scenes that would never, ever happen in real life, a narrative that is equivalent to any number of Westerns, but made in modern day Florida.
Gettysburg (1993)
Good movie but the multiple dramatic speeches....oh brother
This movie hits well most all of the components of a good movie: good acting, beautiful cinematography, reasonable pacing, etc., but somehow it seems like a bunch of scenes were made and then jammed together without any segues. It's choppy. I can live with that, but ooooohhhh bruuuuuther the numerous speeches. I found them cringey. Nobody talks like that. They are sappy-almost melodramatic, and seemingly pre-written by the characters to deliver to whomever is sitting there. It just kills the realism dead dead dead.
Otherwise, it's a passable, if very very long, civil war flick. Glory was better, even though I thought the main character was miscasted.
Cry Macho (2021)
This is embarrassing
Clint, I'm sorry, but you're too old, buddy. What was going through your mind when, at 91 (NINETY ONE!) years old, you cast yourself in a role written for a "middle aged" man. You are middle aged I guess if you live to be 140 years old. Not likely.
These women fawning over a very old man? Nope. Your age is actually hindering your ability to act. The nuances are gone. The fire is gone. That trademark glint in your eye....it's passed you.
The kid had his moments, but for the most part not so good. That casting was regrettable too.
The second act just totally stalled the little compelling aspects of the story and went on forever.
Skip this one. You will be much better off.
Happy Valley (2014)
Excellent. But season 1 extremely derivative
Season 1 is absolutely brilliant but its Fargo.
Takes place in an unlikely, charming place where everyone has an accent
Police chief is a smart, capable, veteran female
Idiosyncratic failure of a man needs money, cooks up plot to have someone kidnapped for ransom
Contacts two men. One an ex con who is a sociopath.
Kidnappers ask for more money than agreed
Idiosyncratic man wants to call it off but can't
Kidnapper pulled over by cop. Cop killed.
Kidnapped woman tied to chair and gagged.
I'm not saying this isn't a great show. It's clever and well produced with cool characters and great acting. But couldn't they change SOMETHING to set it apart from the movie?
Season 3 is very good too but OMG that moronic kid! Why couldn't someone shake him and scream at him and TELL HIM THE DAMN TRUTH. Driving me crazy.
Elephant (2003)
You're kidding, right? Right?
I wish the review star numbers didn't have to be real numbers, because I would give this disaster minus 5 for the chunk of time it took from me, threw on the ground, and stomped on right in front of me while I watched impotently and whined.
I've been inspired only one other time to write a review, and that was because the movie was exceptionally good. This one is not. But it is exceptional. I'll give it that.
I read some of the banal, pretentious reviews here, and all I can say about that is those folks need to see a movie called Exit Through the Gift Shop about the immense insecurity in people compelling them to extol the virtues of total pretentious dreck, because they think they are supposed to. The contagious drone of the "people in the know" too afraid to say what they're really thinking because this art is important, doncha know?. They believe that, if they hate it, the real movie people will say they're easily put off and don't know what they're talking about. That they just lack the sophistication that we all have in this elite group of quivering blobs of malleable goo masquerading as experts.
These people know too that if they clench their teeth, say they like it and throw in a couple of words like "otherness" they will merely be seen as a person with just a different angle perhaps. Maybe they see something others don't. They're allowed they're opinion, as long as it falls favorably among the REAL people-the people that know way more than you, you confused, daft neophyte. If they say on the other hand that they didn't like this then, well, they just fail to understand the art of serious filmmaking. This isn't a movie, you imbecile, it's a FILM.
This is among the worst movies (movies that were serious, not Troll 2 and the like) I've ever seen. I suddenly don't like Gus Van Sant.
Montford: The Chickasaw Rancher (2021)
Was.........OK. Marginally acceptable.
It's watchable. There's just enough good to slightly outweigh the bad. It's a passable ride
It's a bit melodramatic, the acting is inconsistent,
the direction is not very good, the dialogue is anachronistc, but the story (true) is good, the cinematography is good, and it's an ok way to kill some time. I'm retired. I do that.
The ending is unsatisfying. If you're going to present a character in such a way that you're meant to HATE them, want them to suffer a slow death, etc., then show his comeuppance. There are a couple characters that need killin, but it's only insinuated that they get theirs.
It's not a multiple watch deal. I've seen Shawshank 7 million times. This isn't Ike that.
Joker (2019)
This is as good as acting gets
I've never written here; I've been moved enough by other films, but this one moves me just a bit further.
Joaquin Phoenix is certifiably one of the greatest of all time. I've rarely seen a performance on par with Daniel Day Lewis, but he equals him in this role, and I've never seen ANYONE equal the talent of Lewis, who before I saw this was far and away the greatest in my opinion.
There are lines and parts of scenes in this film that haunt me still, and I saw this a month ago.
"Why would I steal his sign" is one of those, and it is delivered in a way that is indescribably pitiful, and hopeless and simultaneously genuine and pertinent. It haunts me. That character haunts me.
This is definitely one of the greatest performances, if not the greatest performance by an actor in film history.