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Reviews
12 Strong (2018)
A completely unworthy retelling of an incredible true story of bravery and sacrifice
The accomplishments of ODA 595 are one of the greatest in the annals of US military history. The story of those twelve brave men and their actions in the early days following 9/11 deserves the greatest of treatments.
Sadly, this movie falls flat on its face in its attempt to tell that story. Chris Hemsworth is just not a strong or capable enough screen presence to carry this hackneyed chop-job of a story.
The battle scenes are fairly well done, but the rest of the movie is filled with ho-hum overused Hollywood cliches and tropes.
I have heard it said that war is moments of sheer terror punctuated by long periods of boredom. This movie has plenty of the long periods of boredom. I kept checking the time to see when this thing would end.
Jurassic World Dominion (2022)
They want you to pretend it's still 1993
A blatant money grab for the producers. Nothing but a complete rehash of the original movie from 1993.
Going in, I thought that bringing back the old cast members from the 1993 movie would be a nice touch. It turned out that I was so very wrong.
The writers, producers, and director couldn't seem to find an original plot point with both hands.
If the 1993 movie had been buried in a time capsule, and dug up in 2022, this is the result.
There is nothing original about this complete yawner.
Come on, Hollywood, you can do better than this!
Save your hard earned money and wait for the video.
There's a reason that Michael Crichton never wanted to write a sequel to his original book. His book still stands as a piece of masterful writing 40 years later.
Ozark (2017)
3-1/2 Great seasons ruined by a horrible ending
How can a showrunner justify letting the "Teflon Byrds" get away scot-free with all of the awful things they did? Wendy Byrd became this soulless empty thing with a heart black & shriveled. The ONE character who pulled themselves up from nothing, cleaned up their record, and started an honest life is the one who dies in the last episode????? It would've been better if they had Ruth Langmore shoot Wendy Byrd. The message this sent was that as long as you have enough money and the right connections, you can get away with murder and mayhem. At the beginning, I felt sorry for Marty Byrd because he'd accidentally become part of something bad. By the end of the series, he was simply a coward who wouldn't stand up to Wendy, and truly protect those who needed his protection. Especially Ruth Langmore, who did more for him than any other character throughout the series. The final episode reminds me of the ridiculousness of the final episode of Game of Thrones. Both shows had been excellent, but went out like a fish out of water, flopping about on a boat. The writers and directors should be flogged for ruining such great shows.
The Batman (2022)
Absolutely the worst Batman ever made
Not one bit of decent acting throughout this entire 3 hour snooze fest. Was this script written by a 4th grader?
Adam West in the campy 'Batman' TV series of the 1960s made a better Batman than vampire-pretty boy-horrible actor. It was obvious RP was making a feeble attempt at mimicking Christian Bale's raspy Batman voice. He just forgot to stop trying when he was Bruce Wayne.
Congratulations, Robert Pattinson. You've managed to play the ONLY Batman who stumbled and bumbled his way through his action scenes. Did they not train you in proper footwork techniques?
Bill Finger and Bob Kane must be rolling over in their graves with this pathetic attempt to change Batman's origin story. Instead of the REAL origin story where the young Bruce witnesses his parents being killed by a mugger, we have Alfred telling Bruce that his father was dead. REALLY????
Michael Giacchino needs lessons on how to properly score a movie from Hans Zimmer and/or James Newton Howard. Plus, the 90s called and they want their music back Michael.
You know a movie is going to be slooowwww when it starts off with Nirvana's "Something In The Way", which was a song you used to listen to at the end of a long night of partying while you're waiting to sober up.
After 1:20 goes by, we finally see the "Batmobile", and it's just a Stingray Corvette. Even with his jet pack added to the rear, he couldn't even keep up with the Penguin in his little sedan. A REAL Stingray Corvette would leave that sedan in it's dust. Epic fail.
Zoe Kravitz is an epic fail with her portrayal of Selina Kyle. She needs lessons from Ann Hathaway on how to act. This is the second movie I've seen Kravitz in, and she overacted in both roles.
Matt Reeves should've probably decided ahead of time whether he wanted to make a superhero movie, or a social justice issue movie. He tried REALLY hard to shove the social justice issues down the viewer's throats. I believe social justice issues should be addressed, but Reeves should make full disclosure before asking people to sit through more than 3 hours on a terribly BORING movie.
I had to laugh at the amaterish costumes used. Batman's cowl, and the Riddler's mask both look like they were made by the same 3rd grader in art class.
Being the Ricardos (2021)
Overly Long, Slow Misrepresentation of the Truth of the REAL Ricardos
Writer/Director Aaron Sorkin falls flat with his attempts to rewrite history. If you care about accuracy in a biopic, then avoid this one like the plague. I feel like I just wasted 2 hours, 11 minutes of my life that I'll never get back over something that was full of lies and misrepresentations.
The pacing is choppy and lumbering, and the script is completely off base in it's portrayal of the Ricardos. One would think that a movie entitled "Being the Ricardos" would actually be about the Ricardos. Instead, Sorkin grasps at straws in his attempts to blend his version of reality into something that even remotely resembles the real couple. The majority of the movie was about arguments among the writers, producers, and the actors.
The worst of Sorkin's attempts at rewriting history was the alleged phone call live on stage with J Edgar Hoover. Sorkin attempts to use it as a dramatic climax during the time the newspapers were calling Lucille Ball a Communist. The audience is shown giving Lucille Ball a standing ovation over something that never happened.
I take issue with the casting of the characters as well. While Javier Bardem made a good performance as Ricky Ricardo (even singing), he is simply much too old (52) to be playing a man who was supposed to be a 34 year old at the time.
What puzzles me even more is the casting of Nicole Kidman as Lucille Ball. We have a 54 year old actor playing a woman who is supposed to be 40 years old at the time. They tried to use makeup to cover up the age difference, but they failed. All one had to do was look at any closeups that showed her neck. It reminded me of how badly the makeup was done on Leonardio DiCaprio when he was portraying J Edgar Hoover as an older man.
If they were looking for an actress who could play a blue eyed redhead, why did they not cast either Jessica Chastain or Amy Adams as Lucy? Both of them are closer to the age that Lucy was at the time of the movie. Both women are far better actors than Nicole Kidman could ever hope to be. Plus, they don't have to try to cover up an Australian accent.
I thought J. K. Simmons did a great job portraying William Frawley, who was in fact much older than the rest of the cast. Nina Arianda was just adequate in her portrayal of Vivian Vance. At least the actors who played the Mertzes were closer in age to the real Vance and Frawley.
I will say that if you're having insomnia some night, and need help to fall asleep, then this movie will do the job as well as any sleeping pill.
A Quiet Place Part II (2020)
Long periods of boredom interrupted by a few moments of action
I really wanted to like this movie due to all of the great reviews. I came away feeling like the one person in 1,000 who thinks everyone else has gone crazy.
The pacing of the movie was horrible. It reminded me of something I heard a soldier say to describe what it was like being in a war. Long periods of boredom interrupted by moments of sheer terror. The only difference here, was that there really was no terror, because we already knew everything about the aliens.
Cillian Murphy as the 'good-guy turned bad-guy turned good guy was a flat, one dimensional character. If this guy has any acting talent, he showed none of it here.
It's difficult to fully rate Emily Blunt's performance, as she did so little speaking. She was able to be emotive through her facial expressions, but that was about the limit of her contribution to this movie.
The best part was the opening sequence where we saw what happened the day the aliens invaded. Then the story picks up 474 days later watching characters make one stupid decision after another.
The characters made better decisions in the first movie than they did in this one. One would expect the characters to be much more intelligent about their actions after 474 days of aliens roaming the countryside.
If they were planning to make this sequel when they shot the first movie, they shouldn't have killed off Krasinski's character. He was much better than Cillian Murphy.
Emily Blunt may have received top billing for this movie, but it was the actor who played the daughter who outperformed all the other actors.
She was the only one with any intelligence and courage in this movie. Her brother was a complete glob of goo, completely worthless to the story until the very end. After screaming like a small child, or using up the precious oxygen meant for the baby throughout the movie, he suddenly grows a spine and kills one of the aliens.
Emily Blunt's character was far outperformed by her daughter. One must REALLY suspend disbelief to find this lumbering story the least bit entertaining.
I cannot stand it when movies end suddenly with no explanation of anything. This one ended like the editors made a sudden decision to cut the film. It might be a good marketing ploy for a part 3.
The real question that remains to be answered is whether anyone will even care that there will be a part 3? After watching this disaster, I could care less about this franchise.
If you want to spend 97 minutes watching a carbon copy of the first movie, by all means go ahead. My advice is to spend your valuable time on something else.
King Richard (2021)
False Advertising - Movie Not as Described (Only about Richard & Venus)
Per IMDb: "A look at how tennis superstars Venus and Serena Williams became who they are after the coaching from their father Richard Williams."
This was billed as a movie about BOTH Venus and Serena Williams after they were coached by their father. The father was still coaching them the whole time. What about Serena Williams? It was all about Richard and Venus, and Venus was essentially a background character just like her sister Serena. The last segment where Venus was playing in the second round against the #1 seed, Richard spends the whole time in the tunnel? Why was he not out there in the stands to support her?
All I saw was 2-1/2 hours of Will Smith's pathetic attempt at a Southern Accent, playing a character that was completely unlikeable. A man worse than Tiger Woods' father & The Jackson 5's father put together.
He signed agreements, and then changed his mind on a whim multiple times. H neHe was portrayed as if he had a lot of anger issues, and problems with self-control. A very overbearing "father"
The only tennis story was about Venus, with Serena in the background. The movie ends before Serena has even played in any tournaments.
No background given on how or why Richard was so fixated on Tennis to begin with. The story just dumps the views directly into them living in Compton after having been drilled at tennis for who knows how long.
The last few minutes where they showed the actual videos from the Williams family, contradicted the entire movie. They showed clips of BOTH players, with the father out in the stands. In real life, Richard spoke nothing like Will Smith portrayed him.
They could've saved the 2-1/2 hours, and just played the real highlight videos at the end. Those videos actually showed way more than the movie ever did.