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Civil War (2024)
Great Look at Journalists, But No Story or Backstory
If I were teaching a journalism course, this film would be mandatory viewing.
Kirstin Dunst has come a long way from an aspiring TYV reporter in Drop Dead Gorgeous to a somber photo journalist covering an imagined civil war in the USA.
She and her colleagues are willing to put their lives at risk to cover a story. In this regard, Civil War is terrific.
But, as an entertainment and thought provoking commentary for the masses it fails.
Nowhere in the film is there the slightest bit of dialogue explaining what caused the war. All the director had to do was placed a 5 minute prologue explaining the causes for the war.
There was none of this. You get the feeling you walked into the show after it had already started.
3 Body Problem (2024)
Rivetting Start then Sliding Downhill...Then Series 2?
The Game of Thones team has written this sci fi epic with the hope you will be begging for a series 2, 3 and 4...Possibly a hundred years in the future with each series until the space aliens arrive at the earth.
But after the big build up with this series and the let down at the end,I'm curious as to what comes next.
This show is more about the present yet may fortell the future for us on earth with democracies become crypto facist states, where the state knows all about everything you are doing and can prevent you from doing it.
The sci fi aspect id based on a good premise, but degenerates to nonsense in the final episode.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)
A Sad Finale to a Great Film Series
Where do you begin with such a mess...the script was absurd in parts and the direction wasn't any better.
The film doesn't even begin as other IJ films began...there was no rousing John Williams score to kick things off. All there was at the start of this 2.5 hour turkey were Nazis...yes, those horrible people one again figure largely in the plot...
But what plot? It remains vague until a half hour has gone by and when it finally is revealed you wonder what's the big deal?
Now I say this being a year older than Harrison Ford. Seeing an 80-year-old being punched around for some vague artifact left me shocked.
The action scenes are as frantic and cartton like as in John Wick 4...absurd inn their contrivance.
Yet the absurdity became enjoyable near the end with Indy and pals meeting Archimedes in ancient Sicily. Yes,there's time travel in this film, too...And yes,there are nazis there at the end.
The Flash (2023)
A MIND BOGGLING MESS WITH A PLOT HALF WAY THROUGH FILM
If special effects is what you like give The Flash 9.0
Other than that the film is an overly long production that depends on the viewer never having seen a DC super hero movie.
The plot is non existent for half the film, the time being consumed by introducing various characters from the DC universe.
And even when there is a definite story, anyone who has seen other DC universe super hero films would know the plot to be impossible.
Eventually to flush out the thin storyline, the producers thrown in brief guest appearances by most DC superheros.
The time slipping trick is so crude and confusing, I just made it to the end wondering why I spent nearlt three hours on this turkey.
John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023)
ABSURD ACTION SCENES WITH A SELL-OUT FROM CHAPTER 3
John Wick 4 was a total disappointment. There was no follow through from Chap 3.... John, after saving Winston's life in 3 and then is gunned down in a double cross by Winston, doesn't seek revenge against Winston or the vicious adjudicator.
In fact she isn't even in the film menaing there will be no showdown between them which would have been the normal course of events.
Chapter 4 seems like film independent of the other Wick films. The action scenes are so outrageous they turn Wick into a cartoon character.
Then there's the climax...Wick never makes good his pledge to destroy the High Table and ends up dead, We think.
Air (2023)
AIR JORDAN, WITHOUT JORDAN: AN EXPENSIVE NIKE SHOE ADVERT
The film Air is a lot of hot air for Nike shoes and for Amazon., which markets Nike.
It's an an interesting film about the creation of the AirJordan brand of Nike shoes and its stars big names such as Matt Damon and buddy his Ben Affleck.
But, that about as far as you can praise what is a blatant commercial for a shoe firm. It illustrates the drought is decent Hollywood film scripts when major stars such as these have work on films such as this.
The most interesting thing about Air is that basketball legend Michael Jordan, which is a main character in the film, appears briefly only once and has no dialogue at all.
Sure, the film isn't boring but it has to be Damon's least impressive outing since We Bought a Zoo.
Lucky Hank (2023)
LUCKY HANK: WHEN TV SERIES BECOME SOAP OPERAS
Lucky Hank is a well-written and well-acted show of the type that signals a singular lack of writing talent in Hollywood these days. It depicts a professor of a small college campus and his unhappiness the way his career has been stagnating. Meanwhile, his wife, also a professor, is moving ahead in her career and it alarms Hank that his wife is leaving their mediocre life for a better job in New York.
The main trouble with this show is there's no plot of progression. It's the same story from one episode to the next. Nothing really new happens to Hank. This is the type of series where you can see the first,middle and last episode and not miss very much.
1923 (2022)
Great acting ,but not a happy show to watch
1923 has everything, great story, great acting, wonderful scenery but an overabundance of misery...and I find it hard to take for an enjoyable hour per episode.
I mean there is very little happiness among any of the characters...just endless conflict. No one escape unscathed in this epic western, if you can call it that.
Especially brutal is the treatment of native Americans by Catholic priests and local cops. But it proves to be a real eye opener.
Even the heroic big game hunter nephew can't get a break with his whirlwind marriage that evolved into a disaster...no happiness for anyone on the show.
Blonde (2022)
An Excercize in monotonic depression
First, let me say Ana nails Monroe's looks and voice.
But, that's as far as it goes. Her performance goes from one depression to another for 3 hours. There's no change of pace.
You might think for such a long film the films she made would have been gone into in somc depth. But this aspect was missing...all we are given is one trauma after another for this troubled icon.
There was no mention of her trip to London to work with Laurence Olivier or her husband working on the screenplay for her last film before her divorce.
What was shocking was the crude way JFK's relationhship with her was fictionallly depicted.
Where the Crawdads Sing (2022)
High marks for lush cinematography, stand out acting
Only the beautiiful southern US scenes overshadows the stand out acting of young Brit Daisy Edgar Jones. The scenes in the swamps and marshlands seemed so inviting I wanted to be there myself.
But the story of a backwoods girl's life is told from her absurd trial for murder...that left me amazed, that the story opens with the protagonist being jailed and tried for murder without any evidence against her and the fact she had an iron clad alibi. This would normally rule her out before a trial...But then there would be no drama.
The love story was both sweet and bittersweet but not too melodramatic.
The Homesman (2014)
Great acting, Great Photography, But a Flawed Depressing Story
The atmosphere of the Homesman is similar in stark realism to Unforgiven with beautiful cinematography that catches the eye and transports you to the 19th Century Great Plains.
Hillary Swank and Tommy Lee Jones, who also helped write the script, turn in their usual standout high caliber performances. Perhaps writing as well as acting was too much for Jones.
The problem with the story is it betrays itself leaving you mired in depression. Swank, the stalwart old maid heroine is too tough and too dedicated to throw the towel in before she gets her holy job done as a sacred trust.
The final downer comes at the very end of the film when Jones loses the grave stone he was taking back to mark a burial place he seemed honor bound to do. So both protagonists fail in something they feel they must do. I just couldn't buy it. But it was an interesting film.
Boyhood (2014)
Long Interesting Film about Uninteresting Characters
I gave this film a 7 on the merit of Linklater's monumental effort. Doing a time-lapse movie on this scale in unique. Unfortunately, there's nothing much in the plot-less story to keep your interest for nearly 3 hours.
It's merely the growing pains of a rather introverted kid from 6 to 18. Yet, he's so dull most of the time, after a lively start, that the interesting people are his parents, played by Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette, as a mother who seems destined to pick men far below the caliber of ex husband, Hawke. Yet even here, there is no warmth or emotion between the two. They seem to be strangers.
It's important is a film of this sort to have clear transition scenes from one or more years to another. These were missing throughout. You didn't know how old the kids had become most of the time. And the mother's last husband just disappeared without notice.
I have to say Boyhood dramatically doesn't come near Linklater's Before Sunrise trilogy.
Almost Married (2014)
Brainless British Copy of Brainless Yank Comedy Style
The best thing about Almost Married is smoking hot Emily Attack (Atack). Other than her the plot of this film mimics such Vince Vaughan gems of the absurd as the Dilemma....where you have an obvious problem and an equally obvious solution, something that eludes the two buddies who are the main characters...a future bridegroom and his self serving manipulative best man.
They take a serious yet simple problem and morph it into a saga-like road trip in an attempt to find a hooker who may have given the groom the clap only a few weeks before his wedding. Unlike the In-Betweeners, the two guys are adult English working class pals who act so gormless you may understand why some school GCSE scores are so low.
There are few laughs in this film because stupidity is passed off as comedy without any basis or punch-line for humour. By the film's end it had become so tedious I couldn't wait for the credits.
I'm looking for some intelligent comedy being made other than Woody Allen films. The British used to be good at this. This film isn't one of those products.
The Zero Theorem (2013)
Annoying at First, Zero Theorem Engages and Grows on You
From start to finish this is a Gilliam film...one might call it Brazil 2, since it starts and finishes in a similar fashion.
It's all about the meaning of life, without referring to the old Monty Python film. But it begins in a rather chaotic fashion with the protagonist Christoph Waltz enslaved in an IT job he hates, yet has no idea of how to change his life. All he can think of is he's dying, even though he really isn't.
It's left to a corporate call girl to waken him to fun and love. But, he eventually rejects her, feeling betrayed...all the while he's waiting for his reward in this life or the next in the form of a phone call.
And here is the interesting aspect. Matt Damon, as the corporate supremo, lays it out to Waltz in a somewhat anti Christian rant about people wasting their lives on the assumption that this life is a meaningless phase when the next life is where it's at. He castigates Waltz for this view, telling him he should be doing something with his life here and now instead of waiting for a 'call.' This is Jewish philosophy.
I don't think Gilliam is Jewish...and he appeared to be knocking religion in general...but Jews believe God commanded them to make the most of this life and protect the earth for the here and now. The idea of heaven in Judaism is far more metaphysical and less defined than those perceptions of an afterlife in Christianity and Islam.
Divergent (2014)
Another in a Growing List of Hyped Non-Riveting Dystopian World Views
I was expecting much more from Divergent than the lead in to another franchise series. A problem with this film is it spends too much in basic training for young warrior recruits and not enough time developing a decent nail biting plot. But then it may be only the first chapter.
Very little is related about the other groups and how they exist.
Shailene Woodley is a good actress. But this flick wasn't demanding of her dramatic talents. You also get the feeling the GCI people are involved making stars like Kate Winslet look different from Kate Winslet.
In the end, there's nothing compelling about the film and no sense of resolution, as in the much better dystopian adventure yarn, The Book of Eli. It will be left to the next installment when we may find out how people in this loveless society reproduce.
Under the Skin (2013)
Plot less, Pretentious, Boring...SJ Nude Only Redeeming Value
I love these intellectual reviews trying to read so much into what was a low budget, plot less journey through Scotland by an obvious space alien bent on being a Black Widow seducing men for their skins.
But it is never explained why grown men follow her into a terrace house that opens into black dance floor...swimming pool of sorts that swallows up the men while she walks on the water.
The film has so many loose ends and jump cuts you thinks students shot it. The camera work rotated from brilliant to pointless dark long shots.
And through it all there never is a story...with any climax being Scarlett's front of mirror strip-a-thon.
The film's ending it also mind boggling, even though the truth about the being was obvious early In the film,
A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014)
Funniest Aspect of this Dull Film was MacFarlane's Makeup
The only thing that wasn't disappointing about A Million Ways was the spectacular Monument Valley shots. Other than that it was about as funny as first round eliminations on America's Got Talent.
I mean when the biggest joke is Neil Harris crapping in a hat, you knew something was wrong. And that something was MacFarlane who obviously overreached himself with a project in which he wrote, directed and starred.
It just wasn't an overall funny film in any respect without any real plot. And to make matters worse, MacFarlane, a rancher in the desert, has more make-up on and looks more pristine than Chalise Theron and Amanda Seyfried. It's almost hideous.
As for Liam Neeson, what some guys will do for big bucks.