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kieranljones
Reviews
Meet Cute (2022)
Trust me, the low score is skewed by inappropriate expectations (read below)
Firstly, if you haven't realised by now that going into a movie with very specific expectations based on a synopsis or trailer is a bad idea, I just don't know what to tell you. Reviews are hardly any more reliable but I'm going to try anyway....
Now we have that out of the way -
As others have mentioned, this isn't a rom com. It isn't really a comedy in general; there are genuinely humorous moments (think wry grin as opposed to outright laughter) but the film is not trying hard to be funny as its main objective. It's also not a sci-fi. The time machine essentially serves as a McGuffin, it facilitates the telling of the story but is not central to the actual message of the story. Pulp fiction was not about what is inside the briefcase, and this is not a movie about time travel. It's about emotional baggage, mental health, love and the futility of trying to force someone else to change.
This is one of the better movies I've seen in quite a while. The acting, dialogue and cinematography are great. The plot is smart without trying too hard (Christopher Nolan, I'm looking at you) and deftly tackles some moderately dark subject matter in a tasteful and realistic way.
I hope I've convinced you to give it a try. If not, I'll come back tomorrow and perhaps then it'll work...
The Passage (2019)
An under rated gem, gone before its time
I just watched season 1 of "The Passage" in late 2022. Unfortunately by this point it seems relatively unlikely that this project could get picked up and revived by Netflix or another service / network.
Considering the amount of objectively terrible TV content that carries on getting made year after year, it is something of a joke that this show got cancelled after 1 season.
My only complaint is that the "origin story" in the pilot episode is a bit weak and not really well explained. Everything else is very well done.... Casting, dialogue, plot, acting, cinematography, music.
If you enjoy sci-fi/ thrillers / vampire fiction, I would strongly recommend this show, it's just a shame that it was cut short at 10 episodes.
Triangle (2009)
Just watch it! Don't read reviews or spoilers first!
This movie is massively underrated. IMDb has it at a score of 6.9 at the time of me writing this, which frankly is a travesty. I am fully confident that this is a function of people giving a low score because they were frustrated by not understanding the film (because they were not paying enough attention, were unwilling to think about it and rewatch, or perhaps they are just straight up stupid and should have watched transformers 12 instead).
The storyline and it's execution is close to flawless, it is genuinely tense and chilling, there is ZERO unnecessary fat to trim from this movie. Everything that you see is relevant, either it literally explains the plot or it gives you strong metaphorical hints at the underlying reason why it is all happening.
SPOILERS BELOW!!!
We do not see Jess (the protagonist) murder her son in the film, but she does (note, it is 7.15 when Jess starts screaming at / hitting her son, we learn this if you pay close attention to the film). She puts his body in a bag and drags it into the car. She drives away to dispose of the body but crashes her car and dies (just over an hour after the drama with her son started to play out, at 8.17 AM. This is why her watch is stopped at 8.17am when everyone else thinks it's 11.30 - this is when they all died, in the storm out at sea, apart from Heather who they think has died but was in fact the only member to survive the storm). The "driver" who picks her up after the car accident represents Death; he offers to take her somewhere and asks where she wants to go.... This is the crucial moment of free will that could end her purgatory time loop, she could at this point decide to accept her fate, accept that she murdered her son then died in the car crash, and move on to the afterlife. But, as flawed human nature dictates, she repeatedly chooses to go back to the harbour, board the yacht with her friends and repeat the whole loop endlessly, just like the mythological Sisyphus who is mentioned in the film (repeatedly having to push the boulder up the hill as punishment for his sins and for "cheating death". Either she is doing this because she is still hanging on in futility to a hope of saving her son and changing history, or she knows that this is impossible (as Death already told her after the car crash) but decides to repeat the loop anyway just so she can see her son again.
This film is a masterpiece. WATCH IT! WATCH IT AGAIN!!!
Ready Player One (2018)
One of the more enjoyable movies I have seen in the last year
Greatly entertaining, visually stunning geekfest... Loved it. Could have been developed further with a darker undercurrent but it is a movie for everyone (tweens included) and I don't feel this significantly detracted from it... Still sufficient levels of violence with blood replaced by villains bursting into coins etc, quite well done I think.
People who are moaning about it being different from the book..... Who cares? Go review the book. These are reviews for a movie.