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paulbrobertson
Reviews
Terrifier 2 (2022)
The Best Slasher Film in Years
Terrifier 2 is fantastic. I had such a blast watching this film. It's brutal, gory, hilarious, shocking, and genuinely creepy. The acting, cinematography, score, and special effects are wonderful. Horton's performance as Art the Clown is brilliant.
I love horror films, and 2022 has been a wonderful year for them.
Terrifier 2 evokes a real grindhouse, 80s slasher vibe that I really enjoyed.
The gore and murder scenes are insane. This is probably the most violent movie I've ever seen in a theater. It would definitely be NC-17 if the MPAA got ahold of it. No doubt. There is one murder scene in particular that goes on for an incredibly long time and is pretty painful to watch because it's so relentless, sadistic, and violent.
I would skip this if you are squeamish in the slightest.
This movie really pushes the violence hard, but it's a wonderful time at the movies. The characters and performances just really make it all come together in a way I was not expecting.
See it with a large a crowd as you can!
Bros (2022)
Absolutely Embarrassing Film - A Disgrace to LGBTQ+ Community
I'm a gay man, and this film disappointed me in every way possible. I love Billy on the Streets and think Eichner is very talented. This film, however, is an excruciating misfire. And I mean EXCRUCIATING.
Eichner has created one of the worst lead characters ever presented in a film. His character is an annoying shrew when literally does not shut up for the entire movie.
The plot is terrible. The romance is completely unbelievable. The jokes fall flat even as Eichner prattles on.
I'm a huge movie buff, and I cannot remember the last time I saw a movie this awful in a theater. I really can't.
MacFarlane is wooden and cannot act. Not that the script gives him anything to do but say unbelievable things and flex his muscles.
And Eichner thinks that progressive is simply bashing everything that came before this film simply because straight actors were involved. His character just pokes and pulls and picks everything apart, and the movie is obsessed with how "smart" he is. It's unwatchable.
There is no character development. Scenes go on for way too long. The film could have been cut to less than 90 minutes and nothing would have been lost.
Critics are rating this highly because it's progressive. Love, Simon is a million times better. So is Bokeback Mountain and Heartstopper on Netflix.
I hated, hated, hated this movie.
Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)
Absolute Stunner of a Film - Sure to Be 2022's Best
2022 is not even halfway over, but I saw Everything, Everywhere last night, and I simply cannot imagine it not being the best film of 2022.
To say I was stunned is an understatement. I am 37 years old and have been a movie buff since I was a child. Movies are my passion - classic cinema, international cinema, domestic cinema. I see at least 30+ movies in theaters every year from all counties and compile a top 10 list of my favorite films.
I can count on both hands the number of times I have sat in a movie theater slackjawed and stunned, unable to move as credits rolled on a film. I can count on one hand the number of times this has occurred to not only me but the audience with whom I've watched a movie. I have also only seen a few movies where the audience erupted in applause during the credits - rapturous, earnest, sustained cheering.
Last night's screening of Everything, Everywhere falls into the latter category. As credits rolled, no one moved in a sold-out IMAX theater. We all sat and stared at the screen in awe before eventually cheering and clapping.
This is a special movie, a miracle of a film, the type of lightning-in-a-bottle motion picture that comes along once in a blue moon to blow your mind and annihilate your heart with its boundless, bursting soul, energy, spirit, and creativity.
In all my movie-watching years, I have never seen anything like it. The closest comparison I can muster is Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. There are many similarities between both films' unhinged, creative expression as well as their ultimate message of persistence and living life in spite of seemingly insurmountable odds and the inevitably that all things, both good and bad, will eventually come to a crashing end when the curtains on our lives close.
Michelle Yeoh is remarkable and delivers a knockout performance that will surely garner plenty of awards attention. It's hard to imagine many actresses who could have so effortlessly kept step with such a demanding role, but she coasts through drama, comedy, action, and sci-fi with a verve and energy that left me breathless. It's the fiercest performance I've seen from one of the best actresses of our time and one of the best performances I've seen in years.
As for the movie itself, really the less you know going in, the better. I saw the trailer two or three times prior to watching the film, and it did little to spoil the experience. I really do recommend going in blind, though.
I don't rate many movies a 10/10. I also rarely leave theaters feeling the way I felt last night: dizzy on the possibilities of cinema and lost in thought over all I had just experienced. Even as I write this, I cannot wait to see the movie again with new people so they can experience just how special this is.
Everything, Everywhere dazzles with its creative vision, but it marries the bizarre and magical with the mundane and the ordinary to make a statement about human potential and how often we let our daydreams - what could have been, should have been, will or won't be - roadblock who we are. The movie obliterates the veil of ordinary to reveal the extraordinary, but it never loses itself within its relentless, wacky, metaphysical vision.
Quite the contrary, really. When the dust settles by the end of the film, you feel like you have been taken somewhere new - to a place only the best films can take us - and are reminded that even though we might not matter in the grand scheme of the universe, there are kind things we can do - to one another and ourselves - to make the pain and joy of being human mean...something.
And at the end of the day, maybe that's everything.